Z album title

[Jackets N Pones]

Does anyone have any insight on why the band chose the title "Z" for their fourth studio album? I have always wondered why. Thanks!

[DaFunkyPrecedent]

26th letter and Jim was 26 when he wrote those songs...is that right?

[SaraBananaBear]

Right on, or at least that's what he said...  :)

"Just one letter not connected to any other letters or vowels at all. I like the shape of it. You can bend it to make a triangle. You can lop off one end to make a 7. I feel like it had a lot going for it. It's also the last letter, the 26th letter in the alphabet, and I wrote all the songs when I was 26."

- Jim James
(The Marquee Magazine October 2005)

And Mr. Blankenship adds:

"Whenever I was talking about the title people would think it was going to be our last record. I thought that was funny. Or someone said we were going to start going backwards. After Z we'd do Y and just keep going that way"

- Tom Blankenship
(Pitchfork interview, April 2006)

[youreveningcoat]

Haha it seems like Jim just randomly thought the letter Z was cool from the quote SaraBananaBear shared

[SaraBananaBear]

Haha it seems like Jim just randomly thought the letter Z was cool from the quote SaraBananaBear shared

It might be random, it might not be random, I think that just like any other mysterious MMJ stuff, they just like to keep it private, which is fine by me, I enjoy the creative answers 

[wakebord]

well, in a way, it was their last album of what a lot of people on this forum would probably call, for lack of a better term, "classic MMJ."  Since Z there has not been a long, epic song like Dondante or Steam Engine.  I know Touch Me Pt. 2 was long, but it isn't the burner that Steam or Dondante is.  Since Z, the band has clearly embraced different influences, while prior to Z and for the most part, on Z, they stuck to their guns, save Wordless Chorus and Off the Record. 

[Jahmazed]

Speaking of random I think its funny that Canadians call this album "zed"   

[youreveningcoat]

That is true, and personally I don't mind EU and Circuital being different from their roots, I have faith that whatever MMJ's influences are at the moment they will lead us to a whole lot of god damn awesome music. :)

P.S I'm from New Zealand and we say zed too but this album I call zee. Same as I don't say zed zed top

[vespachick]

Speaking of random I think its funny that Canadians call this album "zed"   

I presume that British folk do the same. 

[Billo]

It's Zee Zee Top because everything is easier in America.
To this Canadian it's Zed because greatness is never easy. 

[Jaimoe]

Speaking of random I think its funny that Canadians call this album "zed"   

I presume that British folk do the same.

I believe you Yanks are in the minority in the world (if not alone) by calling z(ed), z(ee). But I will not refer to tomatoes as "tomottos".

[youreveningcoat]

Speaking of random I think its funny that Canadians call this album "zed"   

I presume that British folk do the same.

I believe you Yanks are in the minority in the world (if not alone) by calling z(ed), z(ee). But I will not refer to tomatoes as "tomottos".

hahaha yeah neither, zed zed top sounds kinda weird though..

[Indifference Maker]

I heard that "Z" is a shot at Coldplay and their "X & Y" record.

"We Are The Innovators. They Are The Imitators."

[youreveningcoat]

I heard that "Z" is a shot at Coldplay and their "X & Y" record.

"they are the imitators, we the innovators"

Wouldn't that mean that MMJ are the imitators? Because they copied coldplay.... stupid coldplay