Welcome Home, Magnolia Electric Co.
by Ryan Williams
Next Show: Mar 24 @ Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Listen: The Dark Don't Hide It (mp3)
Whether you know the brainchild of Jason Molina’s work under the Songs: Ohia name or the newest moniker of Magnolia Electric Company, his band’s music has been earning critical raves for years. Molina and his band has toured around the world and made several acclaimed recordings, both here in the States and a live album recorded in Europe. Their latest release What Comes After The Blues (on Bloomington-based Secretly Canadian) was recorded in Chicago and is due out in April. The band, which includes Molina on guitars and vocals, Jason Groth on guitar, Pete Schreiner on bass, Mark Rice on drums, and Mike Kapinus on keyboards and trumpet. Both Groth and Schreiner shared words on Magnolia Electric Company’s upcoming shows and albums.
Groth (who also shares time amongst the Coke Dares and Impossible Shapes) says “The band is always recording a new album, in theory. But right now we're more focused on touring. We have some recording dates coming up after South By Southwest. At the moment we're working on the new stuff live, primarily. For What Comes After the Blues we toured for about two months as practice for recording. It made making the record such an easy and enjoyable task. It was a matter of capturing our best show moments on two-inch tape, and I think it worked well.” Samples of the album are available at http://www.secretlycanadian.com.
The band’s previous release Trials And Errors was born out of a European club date. Schreiner says “We were just there for a show and they said they would give us a recording of the concert. The club had a very nice professional recording rig in-house so it sounded pretty good and was an accurate version of the stuff we were playing at the time - some songs were only performed on that particular tour - so it was decided that it would be released as an album.”
The band’s moody mix of indie rock and alt-country has been well-received around the world, but Groth says it’s a little different at home. “A band's hometown is proud of them when they do well elsewhere, but because the hometown has sort of grown up with them, the ‘celebrity’ of the whole thing is kind of taken for granted, which is nice. Not that it's not nice to be recognized, but people just know you, and know what you're up to, and don't feel the need necessarily to ask you about it outside of the realm of normal conversation -- in other words, it's sort of our job - and if you talk to people about work, it's bound to come up. But at home it remains ‘work’ and people respect you for working, versus being critically acclaimed or whatever.”
While the band’s shows at home are an infrequent event, Magnolia Electric Company will return to Bloomington on March 24th with fellow locals Murder By Death and The Coke Dares. Groth says “Hometown shows can be depressing sometimes, even when you hardly play there, because you start to worry about whether or not people actually like you or like your music or both. These are petty worries but, for some reason, they come to the surface at hometown shows. On the other hand, it's very comfortable and comforting to play at home with friends. It's more like a party then anything else.”
Magnolia Electric Company takes the stage at Bloomington’s Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Thursday, March 24th with The Coke Dares, Murder By Death and Aphonic. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door.
