Pitchfork

"It's hard to love a man," goes the title track from Magnolia Electric Co's most recent EP-- but it's hard not to love Magnolia frontman Jason Molina, especially when he moseyed onstage at Chicago's Lakeshore Theater last night in a cowboy hat, jean jacket, and tie-dyed t-shirt (his "indie rock killer," explained Molina). The man's still emoting about moons and roads and devils and darkness against country-fried blues rock, but there are few who pair such an expressive voice with such expressive guitar playing-- and then hammer it home with those expressive arched eyebrows.

The seated, clean-carpeted, climate-controlled confines of the Lakeshore, however, were a bad match for Magnolia Electric Co, whose classic rock swagger more or less demands you sway back and forth on a dingy barroom floor, bottle in hand. Perhaps that's why they denied the crowd's pleas for an encore?

Meanwhile, if anyone was left wondering why opening act Bottomless Pit-- who've neither a record label nor a proper release to their name-- sounded so accomplished and straight out of the fertile 1990s indie rock scene, that's probably because these guys pretty much are. Bottomless Pit comprises the remaining members of indie stalwarts Silkworm, whose drummer Michael Dahlquist died in a tragic car accident back in 2005. The regrouped troupe sounds fairly straightforward and refined against the happy-go-lucky slop of their peers nowadays, but it's hard to resist their knowing use of noise (always in moderation) and the sonorous interplay between the two lead guitars. Expect good things from these guys.

Magnolia play a few more U.S. shows, then whirl around Europe for the next couple months.

MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO










BOTTOMLESS PIT




Hold on, Magnolia:

04-12 Athens, OH - Baker Theatre *
04-20 Louisville, KY - Headliners ^
04-21 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant ^
04-25 Groningen, Netherlands - Vera
04-26 Diksmuide, Belgium - Club 4AD
04-27-29 Somerset, England - Butlins Minehead (All Tomorrow's Parties)
04-30 Bergen, Norway - Bergen Music Festival
05-01 Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
05-02 Stavanger, Norway - Folken
05-03 Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's
05-04 Kilkenny, Ireland - Kilford Hotel (Rhythm & Roots Festival)
05-05 Kilkenny, Ireland - Kilford Hotel (Rhythm & Roots Festival)
05-07 Brussels, Belgium - AB
05-08 Hamburg, Germany - Fabrik
05-09 Dresden, Germany - Star Club
05-10 Berlin, Germany - Magnet
05-11 Frankfurt, Germany - Brotfabrik
05-12 Bielefeld, Germany - Forum
05-13 Haarlem, Netherlands - Patronaat (Roots of Heaven Festival)
06-25 London, England - Scala
06-26 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
06-29 Ebensee, Austria - Kino
06-30 Vienna, Austria - Szene
07-01 Munich, Germany - Rote Sonne
07-02 Stuttgart, Germany - Schocken
07-04 Kristiansand, Norway - Quart Festival
09-01-03 Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot

* with Southeast Engine, Travels, Shipwreck
^ with Son Volt