Pitchfork: Magnolia Electric Co. Announce Short EP, Long Tour

Magnolia Electric Co. Announce Short EP, Long Tour

The race is on. The contestants? Two solo-minded independent musicians who ditched well-known names to try to establish new identities: Magnolia Electric Co. (f/k/a Songs: Ohia) and Mount Eerie (f/k/a the Microphones). A quick look at the leader board, and...oh, shit! Jason Molina is cleaning Phil Elverum's proverbial clock! Magnolia Electric Co.'s frontman Molina can already count a live album and a proper full-length to his newly minted band name, and now the Ohio-based group will very shortly be hitting the road for a crammed month and a half in anticipation of a new EP on Secretly Canadian; according to Secretly Canadian, MEC's next release, titled Hard to Love a Man, will definitely be available on October 11. Tracks:

01 Hard to Love a Man
02 Bowery
03 Doing Something Wrong
04 31 Seasons in the Minor Leagues
05 Werewolves in London

And yet, there's more work to be done. Magnolia Electric Co. will be heading into the Electrical Audio studio on July 13-15 to record with that studio's owner, Steve Albini. The next day they'll show up for Intonation, and then two weeks later launch into a long, hard tour. For the first part of the trip, Pittsburgh's fun-lovin' hip-hop act Grand Buffet will provide the tour support; Scottish folkmeister Alasdair Roberts will open for the late-September portion of the trip. As of right now, MEC is currently finishing up a festival excursion in Europe, and they really haven't stopped touring all year, so it all adds up to Mount Eerie: 0, Magnolia Electric Co.: Well, we lost count somewhere around Akron. See for yourself:

07-07 Stockholm, Sweden - Accelerator Festival
07-08 Kristiansand, Norway - Quart Festival
07-09 Egersund, Norway - Egersund Folk Festival
07-11 Kolding, Denmark - Pitstop
07-16 Chicago, IL - Intonation Music Festival
08-01 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick *
08-02 London, Ontario - Call the Office *
08-03 Waterloo, Ontario - Starlight *
08-04 Hamilton, Ontario - The Underground *
08-05 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Place *
08-06 Ottawa, Ontario - Barrymore's Music Hall *
08-07 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rosa *
08-08 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground *
08-09 Cambridge, MA - TT the Bear's Place *
08-10 Portland, ME - Space Gallery *
08-11 Providence, RI - AS 220 *
08-13 Northampton, MA - Iron House *
08-14 New Haven, CT - Sundazed at BAR *
08-15 Washington, DC - The Black Cat *
08-16 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar *
08-17 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church *
08-18 Brooklyn, NY - Southpaw *
08-19 New York, NY - Knitting Factory *
08-20 Pittsburgh, PA - 31st Street Pub
08-21 Akron, OH - Lime Spider *
09-13 Nashville, TN - The End
09-14 Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone
09-15 Little Rock, AR - Sticky Fingerz Rock & Roll Chicken Shack
09-16 Denton, TX - Hailey's
09-17 Austin, TX - Emo's
09-18 Lubbock, TX - Jake's
09-19 Odessa, TX - Earl's II
09-20 Marfa, TX - Ballroom Marfa
09-22 McAllen, TX - VFW Hall, James Nikki Rowe Post 2369
09-23 Corpus Christi, TX - TBA
09-24 Houston, TX - Rudyard's Pub %
09-25 New Orleans, LA - Twiropa %
09-26 Tallahassee, FL - Club Downunder %
09-30 Atlanta, GA - EARL %
10-01 Athens, GA - 40 Watt %