Jason Molina's latest incarnation, Magnolia Electric Co., kicks off a new series of musical projects from the Songs: Ohia figurehead.

"Songs: Ohia is over," says S:O braintrust Jason Molina with more than a hint of finality. "It didn't start out to be a band ever. And as far as I can tell, it never will be an actual band. I'm just going to start using this 'Something Electric Co.' (name)."

The first release in Molina's planned Electric Co. series was ostensibly the seventh full-length Songs: Ohia album, The Magnolia Electric Co., released last spring. Although Magnolia, recorded by Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago, was touted as a Songs: Ohia record by everyone from publicists to booking agents, the band's name was visibly absent anywhere in the packaging, exactly as Molina planned it.

"It sort of makes special this grouping of players," he says in explaining the Electric Co. concept. "Every time I've put together a band for a record, they're never on another record with me. Since I'm the blood and guts thread from record to record, it overstates my importance in the record. It takes away too much from the players' contributions and it somehow focuses the whole record on me. I never wanted it to be about me. The songs are all things I dreamed up but I don't want to be one of those musicians that's a performer. I'm not putting on a show beyond what you get on the record and what you get onstage, which is just a new presentation of the songs.

"I'm sure there will always be a sticker that says what it is, but that was a 10-year experiment doing music that way, and now I'm doing something different."

Molina is just as adamantly averse to Magnolia Electric Co. being measured as a solo record. "It's not a Jason Molina record," he says with a laugh. "I don't even know what that would be, since they have all sort of been that. At least for now, it hasn't jumped out as a necessity. I used to be afraid I'd be lumped into a Folk category, because it wasn't screamingly loud, it wasn't me trying to do a one-man Sonic Youth. I was afraid if it was a little toned down, I would be accused of being Folk. For now, it doesn't matter that it's not my name on the record."

Most of Songs: Ohia's various incarnations have played to Molina's Leonard-Cohen-shoots-pool-with-Neil-Young tendencies with the rotating cast of bandmembers offering a constant sonic diversity that Molina designs into each recording.

"I write the music and do the words, and part and parcel with that is putting together a band," says Molina. "I almost write the music at the same time I'm trying to think of who could best put this onto tape, and that goes right down to the engineer. Maybe it's a cowardly way to work because I don't take all of the burden onto myself, but ego should never be part of the music."

As in years past, 2004 will likely see multiple Molina projects. Later this spring, he'll follow the dense Young-ian Rock majesty of Magnolia Electric Co. with the sparse and largely solo Pyramid Electric Co., (recorded nearly two years ago with Lullaby for the Working Class' Mike Mogis), which Molina will tee up with his current touring situation nicely, as he hits the road on this leg of the circuit completely solo.

"I thought at one time it might be nice to do band arrangements to some of those songs," says Molina of the Pyramid material. "But Pyramid was such a really eerie session. I was passing it around as fancy demos in a really nice studio and basically everyone said, 'Leave it alone.' It's a solo record that's not really typical. It's really kind of dark and brooding, more so than just a strummy acoustic guitar record. It's just me and an electric guitar."

Pyramid will depart from Magnolia in another significant way: Pyramid will be available only in a limited edition vinyl run, a common Molina strategy that has resulted in a number of Songs: Ohia tour-only CDs going for big money on eBay. And Molina recently headed back to Electrical Studio to work with Albini on the second Magnolia Electric Co. album, which could see release later this year.

As Molina fields the compliments paid to him on the release of The Magnolia Electric Co., he responds with an answer which has obviously been forged in the furnace of his numerous albums, singles, EPs and compilation tracks.

"I can do better," he states firmly. "My next one, I'm already sweating it. Since the day I walked out of the studio, I've been working on the next one. I don't feel like this one failed, but I'm still looking for the better one."