Rest in Peace: Jason Molina, 1973-2013

So Jason Molina died about a year or so ago (give or take 2 days) today. My guess would be that he'll be forgotten within 5 years, re-discovered in 20, forgotten in 22, and then lionized as a "long-forgotten" member of the canon of great American folk singers 40 or so years down the line.

I don't really give a shit if that prediction comes true or not. The point was that Molina's work was brilliant, it made sense, because so few people were interested in it. That's not to say that great art is only great because the few cognoscenti appreciate it or understand it (they don't, especially when they say they do). Rather, most people who are willing to look into the abyss of failure, misery, frustration and the inability to communicate that makes up about 75% (if not 85% and upward) of human existence will, simply, never be embraced by the rest of the human community.

Just watch the video of "Back on the Top" that I posted. While the whole production may seem a bit stilted-I won't argue with you there; fundamentally, these were just Midwestern dudes forced to make a music video-the lack of pretension is marvellous. Molina and his co-conspirators never did anything they didn't believe in. That sets them apart from about 95% of the competition. It also earned them reams of shit from the jackals who read and write for pissant rags catering to people too stupid to listen to music they love, instead of music that will get them plaudits at their university's Theater Department parties. I still remember listening to kids, back when I was a young'un, lambasting Songs:Ohia albums as somehow boring, overly melodramatic and soforth.

Looking back on those years, as an adult with real problems, all I can say is that, if anything, that was a mark of Songs:Ohia's enduring value as musicians, and Jason Molina's enduring brilliance as a lyricist. This was a band (in its many permutations) that simply made music you wanted to listen to (or didn't), and sang of problems most of us who stay alive long enough will experience. Completely and utterly humdrum, yes. Boring? Never.

Blahlbha, none of this has done anything to explain to you, the reader, why Jason Molina's memory should remain evergreen in yr youthful(?) mind. He wasn't a pathfinder, he wasn't audacious, he simply was what he was*: a depressed, even despondent, lonely, and very, very gifted guy from the Midwest of the USA in a time that did not value intelligence or earnestness, especially if it came from somewhere west of the Appalachians and east of the Sierra Nevadas.

In any case, here's one of Songs:Ohia's eternal classics, "Captain Badass." The song goes on long enough that I can imagine it accompanying most any human activity besides writing a thorough-going demolition of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. For the most part, though, it's simply a beautiful, spartan bit of Americana sung in the darkness.

Love him and the bands he led or not, I, for one, will miss Jason Molina and would like to bid him a fond farewell transmission on this, the first anniversary of his death.

*Of course, I never met the guy. People who in fact knew Molina are welcome to tell me I'm full of shit. I'm simply extrapolating based on lyrics, interviews, and what I've seen of the Songs: Ohia/Magnolia Electric Co. live footage.

Pyschedelic Horseshit-Who Let the Dogs Out? EP (2007)

"in this world of mine nothing lasts/it's got to/BLOW UP"-The Avengers, 1979
"All the blended days and photocopied mornings..."-P.H., 2007

Well, I guess this as a good an introduction to the Midwestern misery embodied in Psychedelic Horseshit as any other of their legion of one-off-who-gives-a-fuck-about-quantity releases. Undoubtedly one of the best bands to emerge from that weird coulda-been-a-movement we call "shitgaze" (I think 'cause one of the jamokes in this band invented the term), back in the mid-'00s, PH is an on-again-off-again crew of garage-born deadshits from Colombo Ohaioh.

Scratchy acoustic guitar, talk-singing, hollering, pitterpatter drumming, and I think there's a bass guitar in there somewhere (sometimes): Yeah I think that's Psychedelic Horseshit in a nutshell. Yeah there's a bit of clamor and hectic yammering and yowling but mostly this is whatcha play on a rainy weekday when there ain't shit going and all you wanna do is stare out of the window mindlessly waiting for rain that never comes.

it's like that, and that's the way it is. I'm pretty sure that this thing is out of print, but try throwing Matt or Rich an email and they might be using an old copy as a beer cosy or cup coaster. Now that I'm done writing this shite review I'm gonna drink boxwine by the river and yell at tourists.

Meat Thump-Box of Wine/Feel Good 7" (2012)

It's hard to listen to this EP without taking it as an epitaph for Brendon Annesley, the much-missed dood behind Negative Guest List, and Meat Thump's guitarist and vocalist. If his name means nothing to you, then good: you can listen to this record on its own terms, instead of imposing mourning on it.

Granted, these two offerings of downed-out, fucked up sloprock are delivered from the far end of a seven-day bender. But, as with the best downer blues in the Peter Laughner tradition, there's a laugh drifting up from underneath the wine, lice, and decay: On "Box of Wine," Annesley drawls out a tale of booze-driven infidelity that is downright funny (My favorite lines are: "Gonna tell my woman/dontcha weep, no dontcha whine" and "Don't know why I'm oh so sorry/for my cheating ways/it was my double box and dick to blame"). Amdist the murky clatter and patter, there are stray guitar riffs of genius, and the tambourine even evinces signs of life.
"Feels Good" opens with a guitar riff that Meat Thump probably lifted wholesale from a Laughner or Rocket from the Tombs outtake. Over a band that had already perfected the art of sounding like it's falling apart while never missing a note, Annesley asks himself the question I contemplate every time the alarm clock goes off: "It doesn't feel good...why do I do it?" Annesley was a great writer, as anyone who's read the NGL 'zine knows; he also had a compelling singing voice.

I won't insult Annesley or any of the people associated with Meat Thump/NGL by saying I understand this record, but I will say that it's a great slab of rock 'n' roll, played just how it was meant to be played: drunk, clever, and with a heaping dose of humor. I only wish Annesley had stuck around long enough to build on its great promise.

Listen to Meat Thump, and buy the record, here. Hurry up, only 500 were pressed. It'll be on my Best of 2012 list, for sure.

Kent State/Airlooms split CS (2012)

This is the second installment in the Kent State split tape trilogy. KS delivers three more of their trademark wasted dreampop. If MBV's "Loveless" had a cinematic quality to it, KS' stuff on these tapes is episodic: I find that it accompanies wasted nights spent aborting bottles of cheap red wine and downing painkillers quite well. I really dug the howling guitar denouement of "Interest Position."
 Kent, Ohio's Airlooms smashes out two tracks of churning alt-rock ca. 1993-94. I really can't make up my mind on them. The lazy guitar riffs and shambolic rhythm section are endearing, but sometimes the singer seriously overdoes the Kurt Cobain affectations. The vocals sound a lot better on "No One" than "Cheyanne." Best in small doses, especially if you listen to a lot of Nirvana. They're a lot closer to KS' sound than the other bands in the split series, Doleful Lions and At the heart of the World, so it's a natural transition.

You can download, and then buy, the tape over at Kent State's bandpage.