Keeping up with Jason Molina’s various projects is a full-time job, and thankfully it’s not mine. I’ll leave that to Wikipedia. But while he could very well have a million records complete and ready to release under whatever name he so chooses, what is fact is this – Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go is a vinyl-only release under his own name coming out August 22 and it will be followed very closely on September 12 by Fading Trails, a new proper Magnolia Electric Co album pulled together from a number of different recording sessions in a number of different places. According to this message board thread, it pulls together tracks from some/all of the albums mentioned here. Now what this means for the stated plans to release those albums in their individual entirety, I have no idea.

Where Molina finds the time to record all this material and tour as much as he does is a mystery to me. The Magnolia Electric Co is currently on tour out west (for which MEC guitarist Jason Groth is keeping a tour diary at Marathonpacks) and after taking a breather in August (probably to record), will be back on the road in September through eastern and central North America. The Toronto stop will be at Lee’s Palace on September 12 and feature a very very solid bill including Shearwater and Julie Doiron.

But one of the upsides of his prolificacy is downloads. There’s lots and lots of downloads. Secretly Canadian has select cuts from many of the Molina projects they’ve released available to download, there’s a couple more unreleased bits on their MySpace and the official website has a massive live show archive. And here’s a couple samples of the new forthcoming records.

MP3: Jason Molina – “Get Out Get Out Get Out”
MP3: Magnolia Electric Co – “Lonesome Valley”

And at the polar opposite end of the musical output spectrum is Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse. Five years it’s taken him to follow up It’s A Wonderful Life though I suppose I should be thankful that he has at all. Billboard talked to Linkous about Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain, out September 26, and there’s a new song from the album streaming off the official MySpace.

One of the bands Magnolia Electric Co is touring with right now is Vancouver’s Ladyhawk, whom I saw on their own last weekend. They’ve just made another MP3 from Ladyhawk available, and I gotta say this album is really really growing on me.

MP3: Ladyhawk – “War”

Check out the Golden Smog family tree, in ginormous JPG form. Exclaim! also has an chat with Smogger Kraig Johnson.

And completely unknown to me till yesterday, Land Of Talk will be playing the Drake next Thursday night – August 3 for those of you without a calendar handy. Awesomeness. I may or may not be in town but if I am, I will be there fo’ sho’. The Ghost Is Dancing, whom Chart talked to about their new EP, and Foxfire Forest open. Tickets $8 advance, $10 at the door.

And to file under “wha?”, NOW is saying that Gnarls Barkley have been added to the Sonic Youth/Go! Team show at the Kool Haus on August 8 despite having their OWN show there on the 9th and playing the Virgin Festival on September 9. To say nothing of the fact that Sonic Youth tickets are cheaper than the Gnarls Barkley ones… methinks either someone in the listings department has their wires/dates crossed.

Bradley’s Almanac has the whole of Camera Obscura’s show in Boston back in July 6 available to download. Brad rules the school – whoops, wrong Scottish twee-poppers.

Separated at birth – Bob Dylan’s Modern Times and Luna’s Hedgehog/23 Minutes In Brussells 7″. The joys of stock photography brought to you by the Galaxie 500 mailing list.

And in the me me me department – The New Music was at my apartment yesterday shooting an interview with yours truly. It will be a short segment but if/when it airs (perhaps next month) I will get it up on YouTube, providing I don’t come off too dorky. It was an interesting/different experience, that’s for sure. And the new issue of Wonkavision also has an interview with myself and some other music bloggers in a piece about workable solutions for the situation in the Middle East. It’s riveting stuff.

np – Eric Bachmann / To The Races