Songs: Ohia
Biography
Jason Molina was born in Oberlin, Ohio, on December 30, 1973, and raised in Lorain, an industrial town on Lake Erie about 25 miles west of Cleveland.[7] He took up guitar at ten, played bass in teenage metal bands and studied art history at Oberlin College, graduating in 1996.[7]
Songs: Ohia was his long-running project, first heard on a 1995 to 1996 single and then on a self-titled debut album in 1997 for Secretly Canadian of Bloomington, Indiana.[7] Will Oldham is credited with suggesting the name and releasing the first single.[4] The name nods to both Ohio and the Hawaiian lehua tree.[7]
The band's seventh album, The Magnolia Electric Co. (2003), recorded with Steve Albini, was the last under the Songs: Ohia name, and Molina announced the new band name that spring.[1][7] He released solo work under his own name from 2004 onward.[7]
Molina cancelled a 2009 tour and spent time in rehab and hospitals in the following years.[7] He died in Indianapolis on March 16, 2013, at the age of 39.[7] Tribute releases followed, and his songs have been covered by artists including Kevin Morby and Waxahatchee.[7]
References
- The Magnolia Electric Co. (Wikipedia) — Recording dates, personnel, track listing, release and reception scores
- Great Records Will Find An Audience: Steve Albini On Jason Molina (The Quietus) — Albini on the speed, budget and experimental feel of the sessions
- Songs: Ohia, The Magnolia Electric Co. (PopMatters) — Single-take recording of the song and critical reading of its themes
- The Magnolia Electric Co. Turns 20 (Stereogum) — Recording context, sound and the album's tension between fatalism and hope
- Songs: Ohia, The Magnolia Electric Co. (Treble) — Album genesis, Neil Young homework, interpretation of the song's imagery
- Song of the Day: Songs: Ohia, Farewell Transmission (KEXP) — The song as opener and epitaph after Molina's death
- Jason Molina (Wikipedia) — Biography, band name, health struggles, death and tributes