Veering into the generic, Magnolia Electric Co. lacks power
Magnolia Electric Co/Grand Buffet/Blythe Hollow
 TT the Bear’s, Cambridge, Massachusetts
August 9, 2005
by Marc Hirsh

originally published in The Boston Globe, August 11, 2005

Officially, Magnolia Electric Co formed in 2003, but in many ways it seems older than that. Sharing its name with the title of the final album by frontman Jason Molina’s earlier Songs:Ohia provided a sort of crossfade between the two projects, creating a sense of continuity and history that isn’t otherwise obvious from the band’s lone studio album, this year’s What Comes After The Blues.

The band drew heavily on that lack of a distinct boundary at TT the Bear’s on Tuesday, playing as many songs from Songs:Ohia’s Magnolia Electric Co as from the new album and throwing a number of unreleased songs like “Bowery” into the mix. The most immediate applause was reserved for Songs:Ohia numbers such as “Farewell Transmission” and “Just Be Simple,” the chord progression and guitar riff of which came uncomfortably close to the Wallflowers’ “6th Avenue Heartache.”

On stage, the band’s performance was a noisier affair than their Steve Albini-produced album, the sharp sound of which gave way to a more organic and swirling mix of guitars, lap steel and electric piano. Microphone problems early on appeared to throw Molina for the rest of the evening, but his flat, affectless voice had a hard time carrying through regardless of the cause. Not helping was the absence of singer/guitarist Jennie Benford, whose contributions to What Comes After The Blues served the same function that Nicolette Larson served for Neil Young, providing a counterpoint that softened her partner’s vocal flaws and strengthened his delivery.

That wouldn’t have mattered so much if Molina’s material was strong enough to stand on its own, as Young’s clearly was, but despite a few keepers like the nearly eight-minute long, Son Volt-like opener “The Dark Don’t Hide It,” too many of the songs had the generic sound of an indie band trying its hand at 1970s cosmic cowboy music. Molina joked at one point about telling a U.S./Canada border guard that they were Wilco, but Magnolia Electric Co won’t fool anybody yet.

Beverly band Blythe Hollow opened with a set of rustic roots-pop with a reverby electric guitar standing in for a pedal steel. Pittsburgh rap duo Grand Buffet was a more random fit, coming off like the Barenaked Ladies as electroclash rejects. They seemed to acknowledge and embrace their ridiculousness at the same time, dealing with their own technical problems with good humor and joining Magnolia Electric Co for a cover of Van Halen’s “Running With The Devil.”

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