Recorded only a few months after they had formed, Trials & Errors captures Jason Molina's new band Magnolia Electric Co. on one magical night in Brussels in 2003. It is a scintillating audio document of one of America's most important contemporary liv e acts evolving into something really special and doing what it does best — whipping an audience into a frenzy. This set captures Molina & Co right after Molina had retired the Songs: Ohia machine in favor of this powerful new vision of his. Two years in the planning process, the new project took its name from the last Songs: Ohia full-length album. Composed of a nucleus of four members, this particular show captures the newly christened band on its first tour in its earliest state. Still a four-piece with Pete Schreiner providing the back beat drum pulse, Mike Kapinus on bass and melancholic trumpet, and the two Jason's dueling over guitar solo space: Molina's down-tuned guitar matching his now settled tenor voice, and Groth's Creedence-channeling rhythm guitar and solos filling out the upper register. The songs are as classic as Molina's fans have come to expect over the course of seven Songs: Ohia full-lengths (between ‘96 and ‘03). With his new band, however, fans can finally enjoy a stable & more-than-able rhythm section that just gets tougher and tougher with each performance. On Trials & Errors, the new Magnolia grinds through three old Molina favorites, three songs which will be released on the upcoming Magnolia Electric Co studio album (out Spring 2005) as well as four songs that will only exist on record in their live form as presented here. Fans may recognize that Trials & Errors comes peppered with an homage or two to Neil Young. One could, in fact, argue that the album is an existential response to Tonight's the Night. While from the songwriting perspective Molina is often pegged as the perennial downer, this is not, like Young’s, a record born out of a series of sudden tragedies, but rather out of a whole life of growing up & out in the Midwest, surrounded by a small town mentality in a wide open space. Join Magnolia Electric Co as they play their part in a long-standing tradition of touring musical artists (Lynard Skynard, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Seger) that capture the spirit of their own homes, traditions and principles and communicate those through the chooglin’ rock of ages on stage for rooms full of empassioned audiences 150+ nights a year. This is all about that wandering spirit, and the longing to wrangle it into place every now & again.
