I can't convert my friend

[Ethel Bethel]

I've had her listen to the best songs out there and yet all I get is a "mmm they're good" from her. You can't just say that when you're listening to MMJ. It doesn't happen that way. It's just plain insulting to me to tell me "mmm they're good". Come on now, it hurts my feelings! Any suggestions?

[coupon]

stop trying so hard

[Ethel Bethel]

haha I'm not trying that hard. I always just kind of slip a song in whenever. But still, MMJ was my favorite on the first listen.

[rob]

Some people seem to get disappointed when they find out there's so many different styles of music on each album. They'll get turned onto one mellow song and think the whole album will be similar, and then before you know it Honest Man comes on! There's not a consistency in MMJ's sound, which is great if you're open to variety, not so great if you like all mellow or all rock.

[ManNamedTruth]

Thats one of the things that makes them special to me, not everyone has to like them. If they never get it then fuck 'em, they don't know what they're missing. I've been listening to MMJ for about three years now and have fully converted only one friend. Most other people I play them for tend to like a number of songs- OBH, Off The Record, etc..., but they can't get into the slower stuff.

[ChronicHunger]

Ive had this problem before, i came up with a great solution. I came up with 3 songs(actually four) that will change your life, after these four my friend was hooked

1. Strangulation (okonokos/acoustic chorale)
2. Steam Engine (okonokos)
3. Phone Went West
   Dontante (okonokos)

[Ellis D.]

Drop her like a hot rock!   ;D

[logan5ive]

[DaFunkyPrecedent]

dont try so hard is what I have to say aswell.  Just let it be...don't try to "slip in" a song, dont ask what she thought about that song, just go about your day listening to MMJ you normaly do.  Trust me, the sweet sounds are infectious and soon enough people catch on.  

Or just buy her a ticket to a live show....

[aMillionDreams]

get a new friend.

[easy way]

get a new friend.

nice.  ;D

[Sparkle]

Take her to a live show... she'll be converted in an instant  :)

[AMightyCaporal]

Take her to a live show... she'll be converted in an instant  :)

I am also having trouble converting my fiancee and her brother.  She is coming with me to NYE so I'm fine on that front.  After discussing the situation about her brother to the friend who got me into MMJ we decided the similar thing- live shows really add something- but I don't think he'll be going to a live show anytime soon so when I see him next, i'm handing him a copy of okonokos.

its tough when you know someone would LOVE the jacket-  they just don't know it yet.

[RockNRollJunkie]

I have the same problem with my BFF KENZZZZ. But seriously I got all MMJ music from her internet connection and theyre on her computer but she cant get into them.
She says "Theyre just...boring to me" or then she goes to the other extreme to say "I just cant fall asleep to them."
She tends to go for super catchy high speed music. Not that its a bad thing but that really annoys me at times.
We watched The Okonokos together and she was like "Yeah...theyre...okay but I just cant get into them. Theyre back ground music"
Some people you just cant convert.
I have a strange feeling theyll grow on her though.

[Chico]

On first listen I knew I wanted to hear "at dawn" again.  But I wasn't truly "converted" until I saw them live.  In fact, having not seen them live yet, I skipped out on a 2002/2003 show at stubbs cuz I was feeling lazy.  Once I saw them live at the Mercury, I was converted.  I even left the show with both concert shirts (c'mon, they were $10 each).

[ultravisitor]

Who cares?  If she doesn't like them, she doesn't like them.

[axround3r]

^^ this true to each his own.. but if you are missing out on the jacket ur missin out on some magical shit

anyway you know its funny i never had to be 'converted'

A buddy of mine with similar musical tastes well as far as classic rock n all gave me a copy of Z... i chilled on that for a good month or so and was loving every minute of it from wordless chorus to off the record. Lay Low DONDANTE!! haha. Well than he layed At Dawn on me and it was on ever since  ;D

[tomEisenbraun]

i spent a couple years being a Jacketholic and my friends got sick of them because I was so in love with them. when you've got a connection to a certain band, it doesn't bother yout o want to hear them all the time. but when you're sort of a second hand listener, it can get old. If she's not interested, don't push it. Seriously, she could even gain a contempt for them for havign them pushed on her so much. Not to berate you at all for it, but after I mellowed out, I realized the thing about them is that certain songs have meant so much to me and I've spent so much time in those songs that I've understood that holds them all together. Steam Engine just doesn't work without the rest of ISM, but you can't play the whole album for someone back to back to get them to dig the music.

Remember, you've got a deep connection to these guys. A lot of times music speaks to us, but there are different camps of listeners, and different ways that people listen. I dated a girl who I discovered liked music that had a very driven feel to it. She played me through her music library and would pull out her "mellow" songs, and they all had a driving feel to them, even the softer acoustic ones were still very bouncy feeling. She's not wrong for liking that kind of music, it just means that songs like "Butch Cassidy" won't catch her the same way it will me.

I introduced her to the Jacket with "Golden" from AcousticitsuocA, because lyrics also mean a lot to her, and I wanted to show her one song that meant a lot to me and I thought resonated with where we were. She really appreciated it, but it wasn't the most moving thing she'd ever heard. And that's fair. But she understood why I liked it, and got the resonance. People you care about don't always love the same things you do for the same reasons, but if they can appreciate because they understand you, that's pretty big, too, and nothing to disregard.

The "mmhmm that's good" isn't a bad response at all--she obviously doesn't connect to the sound the same way you do. As for Jess, I have a damn good feeling that if I were to take her to one of their live shows, she'd get it by the end of Run Thru. The energy of the albums is a lot slower, a lot more developmental, and a lot less in your face than seeing them live. Seeing them live, they absolutely tear it down, and even if you don't love them, you have to come out respecting the energy. I took a good friend to a show on this tour and he was blown away by their stamina and the energy that they kept up through the show. They're not his favorite band, but he said it was second best live show experience, and I'm sure he'd jump at the chance to go again because of that. Everyone's got different aspects of music they love, you just have to figure out how they work and introduce it to them for their own good.

Moral here? I type too much. But we've established that already. More than that, no one wants your favorite band pushed on them, especially not the way we all obsess about them. However, if you know the way they listen to music, and understand what they like, or what they're looking for, then go find one song that you think they'll resonate with, ask them if they'd like to hear it, and put it on when the moment's right--like driving somewhere long enough to really get it. Crank it up and let them know that it's just one song and you think they'll dig it and if they don't, no sweat, we'll listen to something else. Just don't force it, like everyone else has said, and there's a chance they'll at least get an aspect of it, and if that's all they ever get, be happy with it and know they have an idea of why you dig the band so much...

[axround3r]

Yeh this is a good point. No one is going to like being force fed something in the first place..

Converting my father? Can it be done?

My father who is now pushing 50 years has a great taste in music at least to me. (He helped shape my tastes i guess.) The thing is he listens to older music such as the Allman brothers, Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, Floyd, Traffic, Camel.. and what not. All bands that have come to be my favorites.

Yet he also respects new artists like Jackie Greene and Ryan Adams. Because his influences are mostly southern rock i figured it would be very hard to attract him to the energy of the jacket. I thought an older man like him just wouldn't understand "Z" (don't get me wrong this album rocks but for some reason i see it as having a new age feel to it, whatever that even is, something an older guy just may not understand, than theirs Dondante...who knows with that one.)

If anything it would have to come from the sweet country styles of Knot Comes Loose, Golden etc...You know how Carl kills that pedal steel.

Somehow someway most likely through myself rambling on about MMJ and reviews he has read, he is now coming with on NYE (Me my Mom and my Dad, yeah what!! haha)

He is actually quite excited for Dondante his personal favorite!!! (due to its extended jammy ways) He would also love to hear Run thru, Golden, Low Down, Lay Low, At Dawn even the Bear!!!

Anyways what im tryna say is "different folks different storkes"

i keep telling him that Steam Engine is the masterpeice of this group. (still sends chills up and down my entire body.)

[Grateful Chabo]

it takes awhile to wrap your brain around a band like mmj.  if you show someone a song from at dawn of ten fire they might question the vocals....ive converted a few friends by just listening to mmj like normal.  i had one friend that didnt really like them when i played mmj until i put in the okonokos dvd.  that sealed the deal