Buffalo says MMJ is The Future Rock

[thebigbang]

The next big thing

My Morning Jacket is the answer to the question

By JEFF MIERS
News Pop Music Critic
9/12/2003
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030912/1049996.asp
  
My Morning Jacket has released an absolute masterwork in the form of "It Still Moves," a record that doesn't so much capture the zeitgeist as suggest that there is a whole other one we've been missing.

 
SOUND/QUOTE
One of the coolest things about what I do for a living is meeting people almost every day who share an enthusiasm for music. At concerts, in clubs . . . even when I take my son to Chuck E. Cheese, eager music fans will introduce themselves and wax poetic about some artist, some album, some show that changed their lives, one that "you've absolutely gotta check out!"
Invariably, after sharing their current passion, these folks will ask me what I've been listening to, what's caught my ear, "Who's the band I should be watching right now, and what records must I buy immediately?"

I take these questions extremely seriously - more seriously, perhaps, than would a normal, adjusted member of society, who might quite reasonably file all of this stuff under the "for entertainment only" heading and get on with the business at hand (paying the bills, watching the game, playing golf, etc.). For those of us for whom music is so much more than that, so much closer to the weightiest element in the very ether that surrounds us, this information is as serious as politics and infinitely more entertaining.

So I always feel a bit uneasy, as if I'm letting people down, when I tell them I'm studying the finer points of Roy Orbison's vocal on "It's Over," trying to figure out how the heck they got that drum sound on the Band's "Music from Big Pink," that punchy, compressed guitar tone on Big Star's "#1 Record" or that elegantly doomed bass guitar resonance on Dylan's "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." I see the disappointment in their faces, as they say, "Well, yeah, those are some of the best records ever made. But what's happening today?"

The past few years have seen commercial rock recordings drop to an abysmal level, for the most part. Finding an artist who's making records as meaningful as the above-mentioned works is a tough row to hoe, for various reasons, not the least of which is the fact that we live in a postrock era.

I've looked high and low, and I can count the records I would describe as "fantastic" over the past 12 months on the digits of one hand. Many of these have been released on independent labels, and the majority aren't getting played on the radio in this country. Ah, but it is with great joy that I look forward to my next random meeting with a music-loving stranger, for I have finally found the answer to that most nagging of questions - "What's happening now?" Yes, I have seen the future of rock 'n' roll, and its name is My Morning Jacket.

The band - songwriter-guitarist-vocalist-producer Jim James, guitarist Johnny Quaid, bassist Two-Tone Tommy, drummer Patrick Hallahan and keyboardist Danny Cash - has released an absolute masterwork in the form of "It Still Moves," a record that doesn't so much capture the zeitgeist as suggest that there is a whole other one we've been missing.

One listen and you are aware that you're in the presence of something mysterious, something rooted in the dusty backroads of tradition and at once capable of hinting at a multihued future. It's timeless stuff.

"I'm glad you used that word, because it's something that means a lot to us," says James, speaking by phone following two sold-out shows in New York's Bowery Ballroom earlier this week. (The band rolls into the Showplace for a 7 p.m. gig Sunday.)

"All the records I've loved the most have an aspect of that "timelessness.' I don't suggest that our records do - only listeners can decide that, and time itself will dictate if what we're doing meets that criteria," James continued.

"My tendency is to listen to older music. That's not to say I dislike modern music, but I get way more, as a writer, as a record-maker, as a person, out of the older stuff. Its roots run much deeper."

Pressed further on the topic, James cites a few records from the past decade that he thinks will not be considered timeless, principally because their production values will forever tie them to a specific period.

"Take Weezer's "Blue Album,' for example," he says. "I think the songwriting is great, and they are obviously a really good band. But I don't think that record will sound great in, say, 20 years. It has that grating, super-distorted guitar sound that I loved in high school but has not grown with me, if you know what I mean.

"Now, if Weezer had produced that album differently - maybe with an eye on the whole history of rock music or something, instead of just that particular moment - I think we'd have an album we'd all still be listening to for a long time. The songs are there."

My Morning Jacket has avoided this trap, for "It Still Moves" will likely still be moving a few decades hence.

James, for one, seems intent on protecting his vision, though he's too humble to let on that he has such a grand one. Despite inking a deal with a major label after two full-lengths and a handful of independent EPs - with the Dave Matthews-helmed ATO, distributed through RCA/BMG - My Morning Jacket is sticking to its gorgeously esoteric guns.

"It Still Moves" is, if anything, even less commercial than 1999's "The Tennessee Fire" and 2001's exquisite "At Dawn." Creative control, says James, is where it's at for the band.

"We are going to record what we want, where we want and when we want," he says. "We don't need any input from a label. We're the ones who are on this journey of discovering what we can do with our music, and because of that, we know best. We want this thing to live and breathe, and we intend to be around for a good long while."

Amen to that.

 

[marktwain]

Good article, but I don't agree with this:

It Still Moves" is, if anything, even less commercial than 1999's "The Tennessee Fire" and 2001's exquisite "At Dawn."

I think there are songs on each album that can be considered "commercial" and songs on each that are far from commercial.

[jordan]

I was at the Buffalo gig at the Showplace.  It's an old movie theater with the seats ripped out.  It was a school night and I was getting pretty tired by the time they came out.  When they started playing it was just amazing.  I felt so into the music and it was the first time I heard any of the songs.  Everyone I was with loved it and the band looked like the were really enjoying the show.  Jim came out for a few acoustic songs after an already long set, and then the rest of the band came out again after that.  If anyone has a setlist for that show I'd love to see it.  And if any of the band members ever read this, thanks.

Jordan