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My Morning Jacket traverses the musical alphabet on 'Z'

Although bearded and from Kentucky, My Morning Jacket defy the 'Southern rock' tag on their expansive new album, Z.
 
 
By James Simons
Nov 03 2005

It's hard to imagine Bo Koster in a state of agitation. The musician's relaxed, slightly Southern drawl makes your grandmother's sluggish speech patterns sound like Twista. But what else would you expect from My Morning Jacket's keyboardist? The band isn't exactly known for attacking people with razors. No, they're peaceful, laid-back Kentucky folk who, judging by their unkempt appearance, probably don't even own razors. Of course, if Koster - who has been a member of the Jacket outfit since 2004 - is capable of a Hulk-ian outburst, he's probably turning green right now.
"Everything you read mentions our long hair or that we're from Kentucky and play Southern-fried rock. It's aggravating," says Koster, speaking from a Wisconsin hotel room. "If a band's from Chicago, you don't hear, 'Oh, what's it like in Chicago? Oh, you're Chicago - it's all in your music.' But there's this stigma behind Kentucky being the bluegrass state. It's like white people who've never been to the ghetto and think everyone's a gang member."

So what should a My Morning Jacket piece focus on?
"The perfect article would just be the album playing and no words at all. You open the page, the album plays and you listen to it front to back. But people talk about the hair and where we're from because it's hard to talk about music since it's just these sounds that make us feel a certain way."
While it is hard to talk about music, some of us have a paycheck riding on it. So, here goes: My Morning Jacket's fourth album, Z (RCA/SonyBMG), is less a "Southern-fried" dish than an eclectic yet cohesive musical buffet. The propulsive power-pop of "Anytime" suggests that reverb-loving singer Jim James might be a good successor to Minneapolis-bred vocalist Paul Westerberg. The riotous, reggae-tinged "Off the Record," on the other hand, sports a musical accent that could easily hail from Kingston, Jamaica, via London, England. And then there's "Into the Woods," a haunted Mercury Rev-like circus waltz that sounds like it originated in, well, the depths of hell.

"We sort of just let the album go wherever it wanted," Koster says. "We didn't say, 'We're going to make a record like this to prove we aren't Lynyrd Skynyrd.'"

Indeed, people have made this mistake in the past, and with the band's recent cinematic role as Ruckus, a "Freebird"-covering Southern rock group in Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, others are bound to follow suit. But then, some people also ask George Clooney to deliver their babies because they saw him do it on an E.R. rerun. Those tuned into reality know that My Morning Jacket is far more unique and versatile than the "Southern" stamp suggests.
On Z, the group's musical journey away from Sweet Home Kentucky is a spontaneous, stimulating adventure, facilitated in part by the band's fresh lineup. In 2004, Koster and guitarist Carl Broemel replaced Danny Cash and Johnny Quaid, respectively, who had tired of constant touring. (As Quaid posted on the band's website, "My country ass is now ready to go the fuck home.")

Koster says his subsequent entry into the group was both sudden and seamless: some "strong Kentucky bourbon," a few days of rehearsal, and he was on the road. "I felt like a member of the band immediately," he says. "We're all pretty laid-back. We all believe in space in our lives and in our music."

Z's songs are both structurally tighter and sonically spacier than the group's earlier work. Hell, you could park a Cadillac between the bubbling bass and watery vocals on the summery opening track, "Wordless Chorus." According to Koster, this light, layered sound required a certain measure of restraint. "We try not to throw our egos all over it," he says. "If a song doesn't need keyboards, I'll gladly sit out."
Veteran British producer John Leckie, who co-produced Z with singer Jim James, also contributed to its atmospheric elements. "John was great as a separate entity who could evaluate the music without any emotional attachment," Koster says. "I think you can attribute the clear separation of instruments to him."

For those who don't read albums' fine print, Leckie's name tends to show up on classic albums like an annoying barcode sticker. "He worked on All Things Must Pass by George Harrison, stuff by John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Radiohead's The Bends," says Koster. "They're all artists and albums that we love, so it was great to have his quality control."

But My Morning Jacket's tastes aren't as rockist as this list of influences suggests. In fact, on "Anytime," Jim James namechecks the Material Girl herself: "The words Madonna said really helped / She said, 'Boy, you better learn to express yourself.'"

This seems to be the group's motto. As Koster says: "I just play what I feel and hope it's right. I hope I'm letting the music be what it wants to be." ¼

[EC]

:)

I think it's pretty funny how if they're not talking about the band being a southern-long-haired-band, then they're talking about how they're not talking about the band being a southern-long-haired-band.  And that usually takes up about a quarter to half of every article.