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SONGS: OHIA

Songs: Ohia

Impala - 2025 Reissue

    'Impala', the fabled second Songs: Ohia full-length, originally released in 1998 and long out-of-print, is finally back in print. This release includes the addition of a remastered demo of ‘Tess’ originally captured during recording sessions for Impala. “Lorain, Ohio; it's a tough place to grow up. You either escape or you don't. Given the industry that exists (or existed) there — the steel mill, Ford plant, and shipyard — the mix of people is like none other. One thing is for sure though, it's blue collar through and through. What's this have to do with a new release from Songs: Ohia? Well, Jason — main Songs man, like myself, grew up in this god-forsaken hole of a city and as much as you can leave the city, it never leaves you. Impala offers further testament to the songwriting talents of Jason Molina. The tracks contained herein offer a glimpse into the soul of a man burdened with trying to exorcise the demons of life, loss, and subsistence. This isn't something one can fake. It comes from growing up with the knowledge that the factories your parents worked in are not an option for you and that your only real option is to try and get out (easier said than done). Pared down to only Jason and Geof Comings for this release, the tracks on 'Impala' are simultaneously the sparsest and most textured yet to be released by the band. Consider this to be the one of the most honest and strongest releases from Songs: Ohia. Our suggestion: Head to the local Knights of Columbus, grab a seat at the bar, order a Genesee, and drink away your paycheck to this one. That's what they're doing in Lorain.”

    TRACK LISTING

    1. An Ace Unable To Change
    2. Easts Heart Divided
    3. This Time Anything Finite At All
    4. Hearts Newly Arrived
    5. Till Morning Reputations
    6. One Of Those Uncertain Hands
    7. A Humble Cause Again
    8. The Rules Of Absence
    9. Just What Can Last
    10. Program: The Mask
    11. Structuring: Necessity
    12. Separations: Reminder
    13. Program And Disjunction
    14. Tess (Impala Session Bonus Track)

    Songs: Ohia

    Protection Spells - 2024 Reissue

      Secretly Canadian are reissuing a limited run of Songs: Ohia’s 'Protection Spells', a collection of some of the most precious time capsules in the greater Molina Vaults. 'Protection Spells' has a spotty release history, with long periods out of print and limited formats. It returns to print now for the first time in over a decade (possibly two) and for the first time on vinyl.

      Of 'Protection Spells', Molina had this to say: “The 'Protection Spells' is a collection of songs recorded over a period of several Songs: Ohia tours. Presented here are nine entirely improvised pieces. The approach to these songs involved no rehearsals, no second takes, no additions and no going back. What you have here are songs that just happened in real time. The many musicians on these recordings were friends, bandmates, and, at times, total strangers. I have long hoped to offer the listener a chance to have some of these great accidents on record. It is a direct look at my songwriting process, only a little more risky, and nobody has any idea what direction we are going until we all start working on it together. I think that the years of improvised music I played in the past helped to strengthen the risk-taking with these songs. Here the goal was to still have basic songs without falling into long freak-out noise experiments, saving that kind of exploration for live settings. You will notice the appearances and disappearances of ideas that could never be recreated, not that they are all brilliant, but they are certainly not forced. The seemingly arbitrary moments of strange repetition the lyrics, the clear lack of a preconceived system of established song parts, all are the marks of improvised songwriting. Since even the singing had no idea what the floorplan of the song was to be, there were some unanticipated troubles and some shy steps taken, but I have preserved these mappings of the dangerous musical byroads that Songs: Ohia has always depended on. I hope you enjoy this.” — Jason Molina, July 10, 2000

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Trouble Will Find You
      2. The Moon Undoes It All
      3. Darkness That Strong
      4. Keep Only One Of Us Free
      5. The World At The End Of The World
      6. Fire On The Shore
      7. Mighty Like Love, Mighty Like Sorrow
      8. The One Red Star
      9. Whenever I Have Done A Thing In Flames

      Songs: Ohia

      Axxess & Ace - National Album Day 2023 Edition

        Axxess and Ace stood to be Songs: Ohia's third album release in 1999, Jason Molina is assisted by Geof Comings (Party Girls), Michael Krassner (The Lofty Pillars, Boxhead Ensemble, Edith Frost Band), Joe Ferguson (Pinetop Seven), Dave Pavkovic (Boxhead Ensemble), Julie Liu (Rex) and Edith Frost. This album was recorded by Krassner at his Truckstop Studios in Chicago. 'Axxess and Ace' flickers between Liu's aching violin and Molina's intensely personal lyrics quilting the worries and anxieties of the idea of imperfections. It is direct, in the way that love songs can be, recorded almost entirely live and first take. The finished product is full of spontaneity and surprise for the listener to enjoy time and time again. Repressed on colour for the first time in ages!

        Songs: Ohia

        Songs: Ohia - National Album Day 2023 Edition

          In a 1997 debut album release, singer/ guitarist Jason Molina unfolds the beginning chapter of the influential and essential discography of Songs: Ohia. The self-titled album sometimes referred to as 'The Black Album', was recorded on an 8-track over the span of one afternoon, was the start of Molina's ideal "first draft" sound that opened the fourth wall into the haunted world-building the album creates for the listener. The sound flickers between undiscovered folk tradition, circular lyrical patterns, and love seesawing between the emotional weight of fear and exhilaration. Repressed on colour for the first time in ages!

          Songs: Ohia

          Love & Work: The Lioness Sessions

            The Lioness is the first Jason Molina project to fully turn away from the battlefield folk and deconstructed Americana of earlier Songs: Ohia recordings. At the dawn of the 21st century, the album felt modern. It aligned Molina with a new set of peers — Low, Gastr del Sol, Red House Painters and, most importantly, the influential Scottish band Arab Strap, whose producer and members were crucial in the creation of The Lioness. The avantgarde tones and arrangements of Arab Strap are absorbed here into Molina’s songwriting to create what would become, for many acolytes, the archetypal Songs: Ohia sound. Love & Work: The Lioness Sessions, the box set reissue, will serve as the seminal log of the era, complete with lost songs, photos, drawings, and essays from those who knew Molina best.

            We know Molina was diligent in both love and work. He treated songcraft like a job at the mill, and his approach to romance was not so different. We know that when he fell in love with his wife, he was dutiful in his adoration. There were strings of love letters and poetic gesture. Included in this edition are replicated examples of this relentless love — an envelope with a letter from Molina, a photograph of Molina and his to-be wife, a postcard, a Two of Hearts playing card, and a personal check for one million kisses. Some of these items were gifts he would send to his new love from the road; others, like the 2 of Hearts, were totems he’d carry with him around this time as a symbol for his burgeoning love.

            And so, the head-over-heels album that is The Lioness has its workman counterpart. Nearly another album’s worth of material was recorded in Scotland during the album sessions. While similar in tone and structure, the songs seem to deal in the grit and dirt of being. These are songs for aching muscles getting soothed in the third-shift pub. But they’re also examples of Molina’s diligence as he constructs what would be the essential elements of The Lioness. In addition to these outtakes, we also have a 4-track session made weeks earlier in London with friend James Tugwell. Comprised of primarily guitar, hand drums and voice, these songs are raw experiments that mostly serve to illustrate Molina’s well of words and ideas. But then, there is the devastating Sacred Harp hymn “Wondrous Love.” While he may have had his new love in mind, one can’t help but think of Molina’s legacy as he softly warbles “Into eternity I will sing/Into eternity I will sing.” You don’t have to try too hard to mythologize Molina. He did all the work for you.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. The Black Crow
            2. Tigress
            3. Nervous Bride
            4. Being In Love
            5. Lioness
            6. Coxcomb Red
            7. Back On Top
            8. Baby Take A Look
            9. Just A Spark
            10. On My Way Home (Lioness Sessions Outtake)
            11. Never Fake It (Lioness Sessions Outtake)
            12. From The Heart (Lioness Sessions Outtake)
            13. It Gets Harder Over Time (Lioness Sessions Outtake)
            14. I Promise Not To Quit (Lioness Sessions Outtake)
            15. Neighbors Of Our Age (Lioness Sessions Outtake)
            16. Pyrate II (Even Now) (Lioness Sessions Outtake)
            17. Velvet Marching Band (Lissy’s Sessions)
            18. Raw (Lissy’s Sessions)
            19. Already Through (Lissy’s Sessions)
            20. Wondrous Love (Lissy’s Sessions)

            Songs: Ohia

            Didn't It Rain - Deluxe Edition

              The release features the original album - an ode to the Midwest Rust Belt under which Molina was born and Molina’s (at the time) newfound Chicago home - as well as an additional disc of never-before-released demos.

              The first demo shared was the haunting ‘Ring The Bell, Working Title: The Depression No. 42’, replete with gentle room noises, highlighting the intimacy of all the demos found on this deluxe edition.

              Stereogum premiered the gorgeous ‘Blue Chicago Moon’, a song that reminds us all that this was an artist trying to discover himself and confront all his strengths and weaknesses within the context of his new hometown. The demo features what can only be described as an affirmation in refrain: “you are not helpless.” It’s through these seminal records of Jason’s and these newly released demos that we are able to feel more close to an artist who touched so many with his music by revealing and coming to terms with his own demons.

              ‘Didn’t It Rain’ is Jason Molina’s first perfect record. Recorded live in a single room, with no overdubs and musicians creating their parts on the fly, the overall approach to the recording was nothing new for Molina. The execution of ‘Didn’t It Rain’ clearly sets it apart from his existing body of work. His albums had always been full of space but never had Molina sculpted the space as masterfully as he does on ‘Didn’t It Rain’.

              This expanded reissue presents Molina’s home demos of the record, eight previously unreleased tracks, complete with a distant playground full of children chiming in the background for a few songs. The glorious juxtaposition of Molina’s songs’ desolation and the blissful playing of children is about as haunting as it gets.

              Songs: Ohia

              Hecla & Griper - 15th Anniversary Edition

                This vinyl reissue contains two previously unreleased Songs: Ohia tracks ("Debts" and "Pilot & Friend") and alternative versions of two songs that would later appear on Songs: Ohia's Impala ("Hearts Newly Arrived (Hecla Session)" and "One of Those Uncertain Hands (Hecla Session).”

                Songs: Ohia

                Ghost Tropic

                  The sound movement on GHOST TROPIC will seem sudden to some; without warning. To others, it’ll seem a very logical step in a very foreign direction. On its fifth proper full-length, Songs: Ohia has stepped outside the box and has delivered its most subtle record of fantastic depth to date. Indeed this is the most cohesive and “album-like” Songs: Ohia has ever been. The eight songs on the record sprawl out into one another, telling one long sonic tale, allowing very little room for chapter breaks or piss stops. In this regard, Lou Reed’s moody classic BERLIN comes to mind as a worthy fore-bearer. But it’s the strange ethnic flavor in which GHOST TROPIC is steeped that makes it stand apart from its predecessors, albums which were all received as crossing guards for the Great American lost highway. Surely this album will leave those expecting such fare scratching their heads. Blending the electro-acoustic minimalism of the David Bowie and Brian Eno Trilogy with the percussive worldliness of Tom Waits’ SWORDFISHTROMBONES, the group seems to hop the globe from a British Isles folk rock influence to an Ennio Morricone-like Spaghetti Western feel to the faintest echoes of the Chinese Classical ringing like a death murmur in the distance. And the songs, they build in a slow, unconscious manner, pulsing with an intensity, but never betraying their most simple core with too much instrumentation or calculated progression. Yea! GHOST TROPIC is the first album which reveals Songs: Ohia’s own Tropicalia Blues in full bloom.

                  But what has brought Songs: Ohia to this critical juncture? Perhaps it is purely circumstance — that four men were brought together to play as bedfellows for a week on the great plains of Nebraska. Acted out and recorded at the Dead Space Recording Studio in the state’s capital of Lincoln, GHOST TROPIC was performed by principle Songs: Ohia songwriter, singer and guitarist Jason Molina; Appendix Out principle and Ohia alumnus (having played on THE LIONESS) Alasdair Roberts of Glasgow, Scotland; Lullaby For The Working Class drummer and new Ohia recruit Shane Aspegren; and engineer Mike Mogis of Lullaby For The Working Class and Bright Eyes.


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