I just made a comment over in the "What are you listening to right now" thread about MEC's box set, Sojourner. As I said over there, I'm just barely in, but I'm really enjoying it. Has anyone else listened to it? Or watched the DVD? Shoot are there any other Jason Molina fans at MC?

EDIT: I just noticed it has not been added at Metacritic yet. What gives?

quote:

Originally posted by Maximum Jack:
Shoot are there any other Jason Molina fans at MC?

I know RL is totally gay for Jason Molina. I'm sure he'll make a comment soon enough.

Haven't seen the dvd yet but I loved the rest of the box set. Definitely worth the price and I love the packaging.

Damn, I'm listening to the disc titled Shohola, which is just basically Molina and guitar. It is beautiful but depressing as hell.

Beautiful and depressing? Awesome!

I love everything I've heard of Jason Molina, but I haven't got the cash to buy any of his albums yet. What Sojourner running for?

I really like Shohola, but the rest of the Sojourner Box Set leaves something to be desired. I've heard far better versions of most of the songs on Nashville Moon. He's changed the songs since he started playing them several years ago, and not for the better. The Black Ram is not bad but suffers from a lack of good melodies. I don't thin kmuch of The Sun Studio Sessions at all. Four mediocre songs if you ask me. After reaching a creative peak with Didn't It Rain, Magnolia Electric Co, and Pyramid Electric Co, all written at about the same time, Molina seems to now be in decline. I know a lot of people who love this, so I guess it's just a personal thing with me, but he just sounds like a million other mediocre alt-country bands to me on Nashville Moon, and I hope he doesn't keep playing like that. I wish he'd ditch the permanent band actually. He's always done better when he just asks random musicians to come in and make up their parts on the spot. I don't like this backing band at all.

quote:

Originally posted by Shadrach:
Beautiful and depressing? Awesome!

I love everything I've heard of Jason Molina, but I haven't got the cash to buy any of his albums yet. What Sojourner running for?

Well it was going for under 40 bucks, postage paid via the Secretly Canadian website. But I just checked, they are sold out. I bought it at the record store I used to work for with my ex-employee discount, but they had it for $37.99. You should really jump at this, because they only made 5000 of them. Hopefully they'll put out another version (minus the pine box and fancy postcards and pewter medallion and poster) soon.

I really haven't heard a whole lot of Magnolia stuff, but everything I have I really liked. The live album Trials And Errors from a few years back was really good, I thought. All of the studio work I've heard from them has been good too, but I've never bought any of it. Perhaps I should remedy that with a huge box set, then?

On a related note, has anyone seen them live? Not so much that Magnolia did anything entirely crazy, but his backing band was The Coke Dares, who played about 25 songs in 15 minutes before joining Molina as Magnolia Electric Company. True story.

Jason Molina, Will Oldham, Bill Callahan, and John Darnielle are the greatest and most consistent songwriters of our generation. Hands down.

edit: I saw Magnolia Electric Co. live last year and they were very impressive. Molina was a little grumpy, but the band was tight and all the songs sounded beautiful. Though they refused to play their cover of "Werewolves of London"...

quote:

Originally posted by DrAwesome:
Jason Molina, Will Oldham, Bill Callahan, and John Darnielle are the greatest and most consistent songwriters of our generation. Hands down.

I know Molina, Oldham and Darnielle but not Callahan. Can you tell me more about him?

Callahan is the guy behind Smog. I thought his latest release under his own name sucked, but he made some great albums under the Smog moniker. If I had to rank the Smog albums I've heard, it'd go like this:

1. Knock Knock
2. Red Apple Falls
3. Rain On Lens
4. Wild Love
5. Supper
6. Doctor Came At Dawn
7. Dongs of Sevotion
8. Julius Caesar
9. A River Ain't Too Much to Love

thanx, i'll check it out when i have the time

See I really liked Callahan's latest album, but I think it has to be judged separately from his Smog work. It's much more open and free feeling, which is the antithesis of what most fans of Smog want from a Callahan record, but I really like it. Songs like "The Wheel" and "Diamond Dancer" were among some of the best of last year in my opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
Callahan is the guy behind Smog. I thought his latest release under his own name sucked, but he made some great albums under the Smog moniker. If I had to rank the Smog albums I've heard, it'd go like this:

1. Knock Knock
2. Red Apple Falls
3. Rain On Lens
4. Wild Love
5. Supper
6. Doctor Came At Dawn
7. Dongs of Sevotion
8. Julius Caesar
9. A River Ain't Too Much to Love

thanx to you, when i saw a link for Bill Callahan, i clicked on it and read the article. I'm a have to check him out seriously

RL, I'm surprised you put 'A river ain't too much to love' last. It's his best album period.

My favorite is probably "Supper" but that is mostly for sentimental reasons. I must say that I really love all of Callahan's work he really is a brilliant song-writer.

quote:

Originally posted by The Doctor:
RL, I'm surprised you put 'A river ain't too much to love' last. It's his best album period.

For me the songs on that album just kind of drone on and on, never offering much satisfaction. Starting with Supper, Callahan lost a lot of his uniqueness in my opinion. While I think his songwriting was still pretty good on Supper, he seemed to lose a lot of his peculiarities, which are what I love about him. He's really mellowed out his style recently, and he seems to me to have lost a lot of what made him so special.