Magnolia Electric Co.

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world, heaven, and human hearts that sounds like self-justification from Satan himself: "I had a job to do but people like you/Been doing it for me to one another/At least I don't hide it."

Magnolia Electric Co. plays the Blind Pig on Monday, September 11, and the band's second solo album, Fading Trails, debuts in stores the next day. Compiled from several recording sessions — one at Sun Studios, others produced by famed alt-rock studio man Steve Albini and by David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker — this album shows Molina's skill at quiet, introspective songwriting. Yet there's enough variety to make it accessible: up-tempo numbers, laid-back blues, haunted yet assured ballads sometimes reminiscent of Chris Isaak ("Talk to Me, Devil, Again").

Though prolific, Molina returns obsessively to certain themes and symbols: legendary cities, snakes, the devil, the blues, the dark, the moon, the North Star. On Trials & Errors he sings, "I heard the North Star saying, 'Kid, you're so lost even I can't bring you home.'"