Okonokos Reviews

[BH]

Ha Dondero!  It keeps evolving.  It's like that game you play when your a kid, whispering something in a circle and seeing what comes out the other end.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.interference.com/stories/id168280.html

Review: My Morning Jacket, 'Okonokos' Live DVD and Double CD*
 
By Andy Smith
2006.11

After all the hope and hype that's been heaped upon My Morning Jacket, it's amazing that the band can remain so humble. But somehow, being laid-back about their own fame and fabulousness is part of the group's fascinating appeal, an unpretentious and unassuming allure.

Allow me to summarize the superlative critical chorus: The Louisville, Kentucky quintet known as My Morning Jacket are, among many other extraordinary things, a magical musical combination of apparent opposites, a holy hybrid between roots and reverb, hippie and hipster, rural and urban, southern and northern, Grateful Dead and Radiohead.

To this amazing litany of literary license and juicy juxtapositions, I'd like to add that they're a rock version of visionary mythic creatures, worthy of JRR Tolkien novels, Jim Henson creations, and George Lucas films. That is, lead singer Jim James is a funkified Frodo, a post-punk Muppet, a jam-band Jedi.

A fan-friendly and earnestly ambitious operation, My Morning Jacket have honored this autumn by releasing a live CD in late September, hitting us on Halloween with a live DVD, and culminating the season with a 23-date tour beginning in the southeast in November and concluding on New Year's Eve in San Francisco, at the Fillmore where this concert film and live disc were recorded.

At a time when many other early-to-mid-career peers are teasing their fans with short 60-to-90 minute live sets (made even less palatable by high ticket prices), My Morning Jacket seem to only perform 20-song, two-hour testimonials to the love of their craft and their fanbase. In fact, My Morning Jacket have apparently decided to be a great rock band by any standards, in a manner that defies assumptions and unites categories, that gives fans what they want, what they need, what they paid for.

"Okonokos" as a name bears a striking resemblance to a tiny town in West Virginia, but apparently, is a phrase that came to James while sleeping, and he remains open to its actual meaning or interpretation. The film is sandwiched by a surreal subtext conceived by James, situating the show in a magical forest. But essentially, it's a straightforward concert film, almost like a symphony in its musical integrity.

And James refrains from the between-song banter preferred by so many frontmen, his voice a mere instrument among many. This quality reminds us of early REM when Michael Stipe's pipes soared without precise articulation. And today, this is the approach taken by Tool, where Maynard James Keenan's wails decisively woo and wander within the mix rather dominate it.

For a band to sustain our intoxicated attention for an entire studio album—much less a two-disc live set or lengthy DVD—is no small accomplishment in the iPod age. But some listeners want more than three-minute morsels to add to the mixtape. My Morning Jacket blends classic rock perspiration with modern rock aspiration as though this were what they were born to do. Just a brief visit to the band's online forums, and we feel the fondness found among Deadheads and other hard-core fan communities that subsist without commercialism. Some fans crave the sustained intelligence, ingenuity, and inspiration invoked by only a handful of artists. While a live album could be a kind of joke for some artists, My Morning Jacket are so defined by their shows that such a record was anticipated and appreciated, inevitable and inspirational.

My Morning Jacket deserves this devotion. And while "Okonokos" could serve as a greatest hits introduction, featuring as it does the best songs from studio albums "Z," "It Still Moves, At Dawn," and "The Tennessee Fire," most listeners will prefer to treat this rousing set as its own religiously relevant combination, a sacred synthesis more than a mere compilation. Indeed, My Morning Jacket's sound infects people and inspires us to be serious fans more than casual listeners, people who will feel compelled to own the whole collection, not just the latest release, as amazing as that release might be.

For more information on My Morning Jacket, please visit the official website and MySpace page. "Okonokos" was released on ATO Records in September, and "Okonokos: The Concert" was released October 31st.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061111/SCENE04/61111008

Album Review
MMJ should be seen and and heard
DVD captures live MMJ experience
By Jeffrey Lee Puckett
jpuckett@courier-journal.com
Courier-Journal Critic
By Jeffrey Lee Puckett
jpuckett@courier-journal.com
Courier-Journal Critic

This is the best time to be a My Morning Jacket fan since the days when you could head over to Barretones and catch them for $5 on a Saturday night.


Less than a month ago the band released "Okonokos: Double Live Album," a 21-track gem that nearly crackles with energy. It also does the nearly impossible by capturing the supernatural spirit of a My Morning Jacket show without benefit of the band's well-known visuals: hair and sweat flying, singer Jim James always on the verge of levitation, Patrick Hallahan punishing his drums with a gleeful fury.

Now we have all of that, plus a bloodthirsty bear.

"Okonokos: Live Concert Film" is primarily footage from the same two-night stand at San Francisco's Fillmore West, and the show's visual excitement overwhelms the already electric CD. This is the MMJ that fans have come to love: an unadulterated rock 'n' roll band in what amounts to a state of ecstasy.

The film is beautifully shot, and the stage, an imaginary forest that may or may not represent a place called Okonokos, is gorgeous. It's kind of like watching a campfire performance straight out of "Where the Wild Things Are" (James apparently dreamed it all, but you can never tell with that guy; he's tricky).

Additional scenes — involving period costumes, an alpaca and a killer bear — were shot in Louisville at the Peterson-Dumesnil House, Headliners Music Hall and Joe Creason Park. There isn't exactly a plot, but you're likely to spot a few friends wandering around in bowler hats or being dismembered.

Three songs on the CD were omitted from the DVD, so fans of "I Think I'm Going to Hell," "At Dawn" and "Dancefloors" may have a beef, plus there are no extras. Then again, just watch "Run Thru" a couple of times at concert-level volume and any complaints will disappear.


Jeffrey Lee Puckett is SCENE's pop music editor.

Online: Find past album and concert reviews, or ask Jeffrey Lee a question, at www.courier-journal.com/music

[LaurieBlue]

http://mog.com/Dean_Browell/blog_post/24389

[mcarroll]

I agree with reviewer Hal Horowitz.  "Dondero" and 2001's "It Still Moves" are both great songs.  In "Dondero," of course, Jim James' tells the inspiring tale of the inventor of the Mexican Hat Dance.

[LaurieBlue]

http://music.riverfronttimes.com/Issues/2006-11-15/music/critics5.html?src=music_rss

[BH]

The RFT is my local free entertainment rag.  Not sure what I think about that review. :-/

[Mr. T.]

The all-important (in belgium that is) magazine HUMO just gave OKONOKOS a blistering review and a 4star maximum.

It made me glow...



(I know we're behind, I know  :) )

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.spin.com/reviews/2006/11/0611_mmj/

My Morning Jacket
Okonokos
(ATO/RCA)
November 22, 2006

Blaze up and sit back -- it's rock at its space-jammiest.
 
MMJ in Okonokos
My Morning Jacket effectively channel both Southern rock riff logic and the off-planet Pink Floyd – no surprise they played a three-hour set at Bonnaroo this year. Naturally, a double live CD recorded at San Francisco's Fillmore was a historical inevitability. Okonokos finds them in full into-the-stargate mode, blowing out songs and jamming till dawn. An aesthetic-and-career-defining set, it's the album they were destined to make. JOE GROSS

[Ghosts_on_TV]

http://www.interference.com/stories/id168280.html

Review: My Morning Jacket, 'Okonokos' Live DVD and Double CD*

By Andy Smith
2006.11

After all the hope and hype that's been heaped upon My Morning Jacket, it's amazing that the band can remain so humble. But somehow, being laid-back about their own fame and fabulousness is part of the group's fascinating appeal, an unpretentious and unassuming allure.

Allow me to summarize the superlative critical chorus: The Louisville, Kentucky quintet known as My Morning Jacket are, among many other extraordinary things, a magical musical combination of apparent opposites, a holy hybrid between roots and reverb, hippie and hipster, rural and urban, southern and northern, Grateful Dead and Radiohead.

To this amazing litany of literary license and juicy juxtapositions, I'd like to add that they're a rock version of visionary mythic creatures, worthy of JRR Tolkien novels, Jim Henson creations, and George Lucas films. That is, lead singer Jim James is a funkified Frodo, a post-punk Muppet, a jam-band Jedi.

A fan-friendly and earnestly ambitious operation, My Morning Jacket have honored this autumn by releasing a live CD in late September, hitting us on Halloween with a live DVD, and culminating the season with a 23-date tour beginning in the southeast in November and concluding on New Year's Eve in San Francisco, at the Fillmore where this concert film and live disc were recorded.

At a time when many other early-to-mid-career peers are teasing their fans with short 60-to-90 minute live sets (made even less palatable by high ticket prices), My Morning Jacket seem to only perform 20-song, two-hour testimonials to the love of their craft and their fanbase. In fact, My Morning Jacket have apparently decided to be a great rock band by any standards, in a manner that defies assumptions and unites categories, that gives fans what they want, what they need, what they paid for.

"Okonokos" as a name bears a striking resemblance to a tiny town in West Virginia, but apparently, is a phrase that came to James while sleeping, and he remains open to its actual meaning or interpretation. The film is sandwiched by a surreal subtext conceived by James, situating the show in a magical forest. But essentially, it's a straightforward concert film, almost like a symphony in its musical integrity.

And James refrains from the between-song banter preferred by so many frontmen, his voice a mere instrument among many. This quality reminds us of early REM when Michael Stipe's pipes soared without precise articulation. And today, this is the approach taken by Tool, where Maynard James Keenan's wails decisively woo and wander within the mix rather dominate it.

For a band to sustain our intoxicated attention for an entire studio album—much less a two-disc live set or lengthy DVD—is no small accomplishment in the iPod age. But some listeners want more than three-minute morsels to add to the mixtape. My Morning Jacket blends classic rock perspiration with modern rock aspiration as though this were what they were born to do. Just a brief visit to the band's online forums, and we feel the fondness found among Deadheads and other hard-core fan communities that subsist without commercialism. Some fans crave the sustained intelligence, ingenuity, and inspiration invoked by only a handful of artists. While a live album could be a kind of joke for some artists, My Morning Jacket are so defined by their shows that such a record was anticipated and appreciated, inevitable and inspirational.

My Morning Jacket deserves this devotion. And while "Okonokos" could serve as a greatest hits introduction, featuring as it does the best songs from studio albums "Z," "It Still Moves, At Dawn," and "The Tennessee Fire," most listeners will prefer to treat this rousing set as its own religiously relevant combination, a sacred synthesis more than a mere compilation. Indeed, My Morning Jacket's sound infects people and inspires us to be serious fans more than casual listeners, people who will feel compelled to own the whole collection, not just the latest release, as amazing as that release might be.

For more information on My Morning Jacket, please visit the official website and MySpace page. "Okonokos" was released on ATO Records in September, and "Okonokos: The Concert" was released October 31st.

I kinda like this one the best. ;D

[LaurieBlue]

http://winnipegsun.com/Entertainment/Music/2006/11/24/2473870-sun.html

My Morning Jacket

Okonokos

ATO-RCA | Sony BMG

When you see southern psychedelic-jam-prog-art rockers My Morning Jacket live, two thoughts come to mind: 1) Damn, these dudes sound incredible; and 2) Damn, these dudes have a lot of hair. See for yourself in this hirsute Louisville outfit's live DVD Okonokos. A visually striking performance staged at the Fillmore, the superb-sounding set features 18 cuts from their four eclectic and ambitious studio albums, performed with every bit of the power and momentum you'd expect from a bunch of long-haired boys -- but also with a lot more skill, subtlety and grace than you probably anticipated.

[Jaimoe]

I kinda know the dude who wrote this positive Okonokos review:

http://www.jambands.ca/sanctuary/showtopic.php?tid/235335/

[BH]

Nice work Jaimoe!

I kinda know the dude who wrote this positive Okonokos review:

http://www.jambands.ca/sanctuary/showtopic.php?tid/235335/

[CC]

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/11/25/142603.php

Music DVD Review: My Morning Jacket - Okonokos - The Concert

Written by Glen Boyd
Published November 25, 2006

Oh my God, this is great stuff.

And I have to thank the friend that pulled my ass out of a sling earlier this week by scoring us tickets to My Morning Jacket's show here next January. Based on this incredible live DVD, I have absolutely no doubt we are in for something special.

I seriously doubt that My Morning Jacket is a band that has a hit single anywhere in their immediate future, although I have to admit that songs like "What A Wonderful Man" and the riff-heavy "Off The Record" have a certain hookiness about them — at least in the case of "Off The Record" anyway, before it drifts off into a sort of Pink Floyd "Echoes" never-never land.

My Morning Jacket's reputation as a formidable live band — if there was ever any doubt — was pretty much cemented with a career-making three-hour set at last year's Bonnaroo Festival where they pretty much blew everyone from Tom Petty to Radiohead (playing new material nonetheless) away.

Of My Morning Jacket's reputation as a live band — based on what is captured here — all I will say is this: For anyone who has ever missed being carried away to another place by music, get ready to be welcomed home.

For most of the tracks here, things begin with singer-songwriter Jim James' soaring falsetto vocals building into a cascading crecendo of layer upon layer of the most gloriously clashing guitars, bass, and drums you have heard in what seems like forever.

Honest to God, you could get lost in this stuff. I swear, these guys are this good.

The DVD is also visually striking. It begins with a guest being taken out of a posh champagne party into a forest and to the concert by a llama, of all things. My Morning Jacket's stage setup basically is a dizzying set of lights set within the forest.

If I am somewhat short on details in this review, I apologize. Needless to say, this is a great DVD where My Morning Jacket's incredible music just took me off to another place altogether. If I could sum up, I would simply do so by saying their reputation as an incredible live band is absolutely justified. Think of the places that something like Ummagumma-era Pink Floyd took you, and you'd start to get the idea. Yet, you'd be nowhere close.

All I know is I can't wait to see them.

This is great stuff. Just watch out for the bear attack at the end.

[ju1es]

So happy I bought the live album,  ;D. Rarely does the live match up the the studio but I suppose when you've got vocals like Jim you could sing in a bucket and you'd still sound amazing.  Just makes me want to go to a gig all the more only problem I'm in Scotland...don't suppose anyone could talk the boys into doing a Scottish tour...worth a try!

[primushead]

http://www.cokemachineglow.com/reviews/mmj_okonokos2006.html

Okonokos is the first live record by The Greatest Fucking Live Band On The Planet, but it's a solid ten points shy of last year's first live record by a just-pretty-good live band. Both Okonokos and Wilco's Kicking Television feature set lists culled from their respective band's two most recent releases, and both feature clean, robust production (arguably appropriate for a live recording) and dynamic pacing (of paramount importance for a live recording). Both go on for a little too long, in a good way. Both prominently feature the stunned roar of an audience. Both have big guitar solos. Both reinterpret the respective band's catalogue, either through rearrangement ("Xmas Curtain") or recontextualization.


I'm just posting a snippet, but I love that first line sooooo much 8)

[LaurieBlue]

PASTE Magazine

[LaurieBlue]

No Depression

[LaurieBlue]

No Depression

[Mr. T.]

No Depression

Thanks for posting Laurie, but this is, by all means a stupid review

  >:(