Cin Weekly

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.cinweekly.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051026/ENT03/510260322/1046

Wednesday, October 26, 2005
My Morning Jacket
Embraced by the Dutch and Cameron Crowe, Louisville band is finally getting some stateside buzz
MATT MULCAHEY | CIN WEEKLY CONTRIBUTOR  

My Morning Jacket's fourth album Z has received universally glowing reviews since its release and has earned the band "about-to-blow-up" status.  

 
JUST THE FACTS
WHAT: My Morning Jacket with Kathleen Edwards

WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26

WHERE: Bogart's, 2621 Vine St., Corryville

PRICE: $15 advance, $17 day of the show

PARKING: On street or lots at Corry and Glendora ($2-$5)

CONTACT: (513) 281-8400, www.bogarts.com or www.mymorningjacket.com  

 
Before rock critics, hipsters or even the residents of the band members' native Louisville came to embrace My Morning Jacket, the band received its first glimmer of acceptance from the most discerning of all musical tastemakers - the Dutch.

Despite having barely a dozen local shows under its belt and an average crowd of two dozen spectators, MMJ inspired such a fervent following in the land of clogs and windmills with its 1999 full-length debut The Tennessee Fire that the group's first Netherlands tour spawned a documentary and a legion of rabid fans.

"It was weird. We went over there for the first time and we had a film crew following us around and 100 people or more at shows we were headlining," says MMJ bassist Two-Tone Tommy. "It's kind of funny to think about how naive we were. We just had no clue what was going on."

It took a while, but the rest ofworld is finally catching up with the sonic chic of the Dutch.

ON THE RISE
Released on Dave Matthew's RCA imprint label ATO, MMJ's fourth record Z has received universally fawning reviews since its Oct. 4 release and earned the band "about-to-blow-up" status.

Not that the low-key musicians would notice their growing media buzz if no one informed them.

"My friends and family are always saying 'You guys are everywhere,' but I really don't even notice it unless they tell me," Two-Tone Tommy says. "I try not to buy into stuff like that."

MMJ's humbleness is understandable considering just two years ago the band's future was rife with uncertainty.

Wearied by the tour schedule in support of MMJ's 2003 breakthrough record It Still Moves, keyboardist Danny Cash and guitarist and co-founder Johnny Quaid left the band. The departures reduced the quintet to a trio and left Two-Tone Tommy and lead singer/songwriter Jim James as the only original members remaining.

Bo Koster took over on keyboards and Carl Broemel replaced Quaid on guitar, but the band's changes were just beginning.

MORE POP, LESS JAM
In place of the Shelbyville, Ky., barn/studio that served as the creative haven for MMJ's first three albums, the band sequestered itself in an isolated studio in New York's Catskill Mountains to record Z. Instead of self-producing the album, MMJ turned to a Brit (John Leckie) with Radiohead and Pink Floyd on his resume.

The collaboration with Leckie helped strip away some of MMJ's jam band excess (at 48 minutes, Z is the band's shortest record) while sprinkling in more pop and soul to the band's reverb-heavy mixture of rockabilly, folk, country, psychedelia and classic rock.

"You always hear all these stories about producers and how they'll change your sound and how they want to be hugely involved in the writing process and whatnot. John wasn't like that at all," Two-Tone Tommy says. "It was like having another member of the band to push us to get the best performances."

ON A SCREEN NEAR YOU
Z's eclectic offerings should put to rest any further mislabeling of MMJ as Southern rockers, but thanks to director Cameron Crowe, MMJ may be in for Skynyrd catcalls ad nauseam on its latest tour.

While researching his bluegrass-set romantic comedy Elizabethtown, Crowe hit up the band for info about its Kentucky experiences and ended up giving MMJ a cameo in the film as a wedding band.

The song MMJ's wedding rockers play during a pivotal Elizabethtown scene? "Free Bird."

"It's the perfect song for that moment in the movie, but it is kind of funny that we play it," Two-Tone Tommy says. "It's just one more excuse for someone to yell out ('Free Bird') at a show."