Jason Molina walked into the local music shop in Lorain, Ohio wearing a Black Sabbath T-shirt and sporting a timely mullet to buy one of his first instruments: a ruby red fender bass. There he would meet the three bandmates that would come to be his ’90s noisy angst-punk band, The Spineriders.
Twenty years later, these high school punks have signed and re-released the old recordings they had worked on as kids — although they’re missing their front man.
Molina, who rose to become an influential Americana rocker in the Ohio music scene, died in March at the age of 39 due to organ failure, but the Ohio musician leaves a legacy that speaks for itself.
Aquabear Legion, an Athens organization dedicated to promoting local artists, partnered with Dayton’s Misra Records to rerelease the high school recordings of Hello Future Tinglies this week. But rather than upgrading from tape, it’s been released in its original cassette format to show a different side of the artists’ musical upbringing.
“It’s something that I kind of dig out every couple of years and reminisce,” said Carl Raponi, drummer for The Spineriders. “I was hoping that people would at least get a kick out of (these recordings) because it’s so opposite of what everyone has heard (from Molina).”
All of the proceeds from the digital and physical sales will go to the Musicians Emergency Medical Association, a national non-profit organization that helps full-time musicians pay off their medical bills because many are unable to afford health care.
Brian Koscho, co-director of Aquabear Legion, said Molina was never able to afford health insurance despite the record deals and money coming in from shows, so it’s a charity that Molina would have supported and that Koscho said the Molina family supports.
Molina fronted bands such as Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co., which garnered high critical acclaim and a small national following.
Raponi said the other members of the band, Todd Jacops, co-director of Aquabear Legion alongside Koscho, and Mike McCartney, all met Molina in that music shop in Lorain 20 years ago and had no idea how influential of an artist he would grow up to be, especially in the Americana folk scene.
“…The kind of music that we listened to and admired (was) Black Sabbath and early Metallica,” Raponi said. “So when he moved on to his next project, I was really surprised.”
Koscho is also from the Lorain area and said he was influenced by Molina’s music, which made Molina’s death so hard on him and everyone else in the community.
“Having that kind of connection to someone who is a working musician and who has received some critical acclaim and you knew as a person was a really tough thing,” Koscho said. “So our immediate thought was to develop a project that could serve as a charity fundraiser.”
Copies of the cassette, which includes a digital download, can be bought at Haffa’s Records, 15 W. Union St. The shop’s owner, Andrew Lampela, said it’s a good thing it includes a digital code — otherwise no one would hear the music.
“I don’t even need hands to tell you how many people own cassette players anymore,” he said. “This release has a lot to do with when it originally came out. … It’s a nice homage to that.”
Raponi added that cassette is a very cheap format to record to, which reduces the overhead costs and allows for more money to go to charity.
But he said this project is primarily about revealing the roots of Molina’s music career.
“I’m still to this day involved in music, but the last band I ever played with was The Spineriders,” Raponi said. “People like Jason, Todd and Mike could just feel where (the music) was going, so for me those guys were my musical experience and I’m just so grateful to have known them.”
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@Wilbur_Hoffman
