Magnolia Electric Co: Live! (or dead)

Oh yes, the bus-ferry-bus-show-loitering-bus-ferry-bus 24 hour whirlwind excursion that seems to grab me by the neck and throw me across the water every time certain bands say they're playing Vancouver.

Yesterday, this connect-the-dots public transit commute was in the name of Magnolia Electric Co: the current multi-member manifestation of Jason Molina. Already misled once by an 'unofficial' Vancouver date posted back in March, I was convinced that on this July 30th, the show would be mine.

Unless of course, unless - Richard's started flooding from some sort of mainfloor plumbing issue that caused it to forfeit itself as a venue right after The Silver Sun Pick-Ups opened (may I credit the fucking math of this drummer). That is to say before Ladyhawk, and yes, before: Magnolia Electric Co. Conclusively, in this very off-the-map kind of case, our date was dead.

In my raging discouragement, I passed off attending the Six Organs of Admittance show nearby, and instead went to drink coffee (replay) at Denny's. When the show was 'over', I rendezvoused with a friend back at the beloved venue. We then waded in our shoes all the way to East Van, and I reconciled while we sat on the porch smoking beedies.

Humph.

As the dust settles, I still have the heart to disclose this: Magnolia's guitarist, Jason Groth, has been keeping a most interesting online journal of their tour, fully armed with revitalizing premonitions of touring and travelling in general. It is posted on the blog Marathon Packs, and I suggest starting right in Omaha, all the way until...tomorrow's post on the Vancouver show.

As for my hand in promoting Secretly Canadian:

The new Jason Molina album Let Go, Let Go, Let Go is to be released August 22, and you can stream the first single Get Out, Get Out, Get Out here. If Honey, Watch Your Ass (from 2003's Pyramid Electric Co) glued itself onto your skin in all its accusations, then Jason's tactics of placing an abyss between every sound will take you again. It is worth being mentioned however, that you're never getting out of this black hole.

Also, the new Magnolia Electric Co. album Fading Trails is due out September 12. Judging by the single Lonesome Valley, it has all the scraping heartfelt crutches of the mid-west that were lost in the overproduced What Comes After the Blues (2005). Take your wagon and shove it.

-Tara