Boston Pops Press

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid14826.aspx

Orch-rock

My Morning Jacket meet the Pops
By: KERRY L. SMITH
6/14/2006 11:24:32 AM

(Click on the screenshot (http://thephoenix.com/x/mmj.html) to watch My Morning Jacket perform with the Boston Pops on Late Night With David Letterman.)

Kentucky quintet My Morning Jacket, no strangers to mixing a spectrum of musical genres (they've been cast as pop, rock, alt-country, and even psychedelic), will push even more buttons on the musical blender when they come off the road opening for Pearl Jam to take the stage with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall this week. It's part of "Pops on the Edge," which also includes Aimee Mann on June 28 and 29. What's more, NEMO is presenting "EdgeFest Showcase" concerts before and after the main event — this week it's Jake Brennan and the Confidence Men and the Unbusted at 7 pm in the Hatch and Cabot-Cahners rooms and the Slip in the Higginson Room at 10:15.

"You think because somebody plays in a rock band they don't like classical music, or because somebody plays classical music they don't like rock music," says MMJ frontguy Jim James from the Pearl Jam tour stop in Chicago. "But I think most musicians have a wide palette." Indeed, MMJ have gone out of their way to mix and match musical styles. On their latest album, Z (ATO), they move between songs that don't have a lot of guitars ("Wordless Chorus") or a lot of words ("Dondante") to, as James puts it, "bigger rocking songs that are meant for bashing skulls on," like "Lay Low."

Forged from a mutual love for the likes of AC/DC and Alice in Chains, MMJ formed in 1998 after James joined forces with first cousin Johnny Quaid (lead guitar) and former church-summer-camp buddy Patrick Hallahan (drums) before recruiting Quaid's friend Two Tone Tommy (bass), and later bringing keyboardist Danny Cash on board. Quaid and Cash have since parted ways with MMJ; the line-up now includes keyboardist Bo Koster and guitarist Carl Broemel.
 
BLENDERS: My Morning Jacket anticipate no trouble moving from the Pearl Jam tour to Symphony Hall.  
Performing with the Pops on stage, says James, won't seem strange. "We all listen to classical," he says, citing Beethoven as his personal favorite. MMJ will join the Pops for a 45-minute montage of music from the band's catalogue during the two-hour program in what he calls "kind of a greatest hits." And he's excited about the prospect of a fuller string section for "Wordless Chorus" and more vocalists to fill out the already plump choruses of "Gideon."

It's a far cry from opening from Pearl Jam, whom he says they played ping-pong with backstage. "I grew up listening to Pearl Jam. It's surreal to see them making good music and find myself on stage with them. I don't think of them as even having been gone, so I don't consider it a comeback. There's times when they've been more out of the eye, but they have a loyal fan base and a strong live show. They've always been a force."

MMJ are hoping to be among the next generation of arena-rock forces. And the collaboration with the Pops is a way for James to experiment with the band's on-stage repertoire. "You use different songs for different reasons. We don't always want to be rock; sometimes we want to be nice and slow or be rhythmic or dancy. They all feed different purposes."

MY MORNING JACKET + BOSTON POPS + JAKE BRENNAN AND THE CONFIDENCE MEN + UNBUSTED + SLIP | Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave, Boston | June 21-22 | 617.266.1492

[pingybrown]

MMJ will join the Pops for a 45-minute montage of music from the band's catalogue during the two-hour program in what he calls "kind of a greatest hits."

damn...I was hoping that they would be playing longer than that. Can CC clarify??

any word on a Boston "secret" club show?

[Mr. T.]

MMJ are hoping to be among the next generation of arena-rock forces.

I always knew this was their secret hope!  ;D

[Shakeykneez]

any word on a Boston "secret" club show?

I heard that Jim may play with the Slip, whom they may be touring with later in the summer, afterwards as part of the post show festivities at Symphony Hall.  

[CC]

damn...I was hoping that they would be playing longer than that. Can CC clarify??

any word on a Boston "secret" club show?

believe it's two 2 hours total, one hour just pops and about one hour mmj with pops.

[BH]

Forged from a mutual love for the likes of AC/DC and Alice in Chains, MMJ formed in 1998 after James joined forces with first cousin Johnny Quaid (lead guitar) and former church-summer-camp buddy Patrick Hallahan (drums)

The journalists just can't seem to get the facts right with the lineup.  Great article though.  CC, can you please tell someone that I would give at least 3 fingers and several toes for a video recording of this thing.

Otherwise I'll be sitting on an Angry Chair 8)

[MyLifeISought]

agreed, do all in your power (you know you want a recording too)--at the  VERY least have 'em run a stealth recording out of the board and have it "accidentally" get loose. THIS NEEDS TO BE HEARD

[rob]

I always knew this was their secret hope!  ;D

Yeah, especially when they play Gideon on national TV every chance they get......I mean, the lyrics are great, but the U2/Coldplay arrangement I definitely would change.

Yeah, someone please find a way to tape the Pops show.........

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/06/18/heating_up/

Thursday 6/22:

It wasn't long ago that My Morning Jacket was a band with a devoted underground following and a fierce indie cred. Now, they've gone pop. The psychedelic Southern rockers take the Symphony Hall stage for a second night of Pops on the Edge with the Boston Pops at 8 p.m. 301 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. Tickets $17-$74. 617-638-9280. T: Green Line E, Symphony.

???  :-/

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/06/18/she_knows_her_brahms_but_also_beck/

She knows her Brahms, but also Beck
By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff  |  June 18, 2006

On a recent morning, Margo Saulnier stood on the Symphony Hall stage alongside the scruffy Southern rockers My Morning Jacket. She was dressed for the occasion in black skirt, matching boots, and a snug shirt that didn't quite cover a Matisse tattoo on her right arm.

Huddled around were about 20 people, from band members to guitar techs, helping prepare for the group's concerts this week at Symphony Hall. They talked of song arrangements and sound monitors, concert attire and drum placement. Saulnier quietly took notes with a pencil. When she finally spoke, it was to offer a suggestion. She thought ``Gideon," a song on the band's most recent album, would work best second in the set list. She read off the other songs.

``Do you like the order?" Saulnier asked.

``Yeah, that's fine," said singer Jim James.

That low-key approach is typical of Saulnier, artistic coordinator for the Pops and a central -- if largely under the radar -- figure in the orchestra's new push to upgrade the Pops' hipster quotient and draw younger people to Symphony Hall.

``Pops on the Edge," a major part of that initiative, launched last year with two sold-out shows featuring Guster that had the band's fans dancing in the aisles. The ``Pops on the Edge" program has grown this year, with My Morning Jacket concerts on Wednesday and Thursday and singer-songwriter Aimee Mann playing June 28-29.

``It was [Saulnier's] impulse to put the marriage together," says Mike Martinovich, who manages My Morning Jacket. ``This is the first project we've worked on with the Boston Pops, and Margot was the conduit."

On paper, Saulnier's duties haven't changed much in the five years she's worked at Symphony Hall. She books hotel rooms and arranges transportation for guest artists. She sends along CDs and sheet music, too. But it is her other, growing task that has made her indispensable, according to the Pops.

Always a rock fan, Saulnier scours local clubs for potential Pops collaborators. At 32, she's much younger than the other members of the Pops programming triumvirate: artistic planning director Dennis Alves, 50, and conductor Keith Lockhart, 46. That, they say, means she understands what people her age want to see and hear in concert.

Saulnier regularly gives Lockhart CDs of potential Pops guests. Some catch his interest (Amos Lee, Fiona Apple), some don't (Jack Johnson).

``I call her our resident funky chick," says Lockhart. ``With Dennis or [Boston Symphony Orchestra artistic administrator Anthony Fogg], I can go and say, `How long is the Brahms first piano concerto?' That's their life blood. But it's a very narrow focus. Now we're looking for people in the business who have a broader sense of what musical entertainment is, and people with experiences and interests that go outside of our narrow band of musical expression."

Actually, Saulnier studied classical music at Boston University, receiving an undergraduate degree in clarinet performance. She added an MFA in performing arts management at CUNY-Brooklyn and, before coming to the Pops, spent four years as a programming coordinator for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. Once, Saulnier says, she dreamed of managing a symphony orchestra. Now she's not so sure. After all, her current job allows her to nurture her love for both classical music and rock.

``I've always felt that good music is good music and it doesn't matter what genre you're in," she says.

In her first week of working for the Pops, back in 2001, Saulnier played Mann's soundtrack to the film ``Magnolia" for Alves. He liked it, she remembers, but the Pops weren't ready to make that sort of jump. Then a couple of years ago, Lockhart, looking to increase his audience, came up with the ``Pops on the Edge" idea.

Suddenly Saulnier became the chief talent scout.

``She's the one with her ear to the ground," says Guster singer Ryan Miller. ``It's not like Keith Lockhart is trolling around blogs and message boards and found My Morning Jacket is a hip band. Margo's sort of the A&R guy for the Pops."

Most nights, Saulnier is either at Symphony Hall for a Pops show or at a club checking out a band. It's a busy life. Last October, over a two-week period, she saw Amos Lee, David Gray, Jason Mraz, Rob Thomas, My Morning Jacket, Death Cab for Cutie, Tracy Chapman, and Matt Nathanson. And her friends have noticed a change since the Guster shows.

``We went to see Death Cab, and I was sort of looking at it as going to a show and listening to the music, but she was asking questions like `How many people are singing along to a song? What's the demographic look like?" says Jamie Riehle, a friend. ``At another show, she said, `There's a pretty good-size crowd, but nobody's singing along. There are only guys here and the band's not super-tight. It won't be a good match for the Pops.' "

Saulnier says she is thrilled to be working with My Morning Jacket. She has spent time with the band in Nashville and backstage in Boston after it recently opened for Pearl Jam. She also expects Mann to be a good match. She's been exchanging e-mails with Mann's arranger/bassist, Paul Bryan, to finalize the set list.

And she's already thinking of the future. How about Morrissey? Beck? The Arcade Fire? The Guster shows were a smash. Miller even praised Saulnier from the stage. But that didn't provide her biggest thrill.

``To me, that concert was about the whole experience of seeing those young people in Symphony Hall," says Saulnier. ``That, to me, was more exciting than hearing Ryan mention my name."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.  

[LaurieBlue]

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musicNews/view.bg?articleid=144363

The maestro speaks
By Christopher Blagg
Monday, June 19, 2006

Herald: This collaboration seems to be what the Boston Pops has been about from the beginning - pushing the envelope.
 
     Keith Lockhart: Thank you. That's what we think. Some people say, "Oh, that's so radical." But this orchestra was founded to make connections with current popular musical culture. Fiedler was in his 70s and 80s transcribing Beatles tunes. Frankly, they weren't the hippest arrangements in the world, but the fact that he was trying made people gasp in horror. It's updating that philosophy for a new age. When we did the Guster concert, the median age was 23. They were blown away by the band, but also what the orchestra did, too. That's a good connection for the future.
 
    What do you think Fiedler would think of My Morning Jacket?
 
     It might be a little too hip for the room for Arthur Fiedler. I think he'd appreciate the concept, but it's so outside his musical universe.
 
     My Morning Jacket has to be your boldest stretch. They've already got such a large sound.
 
     That's one of the challenges. It's an amplified age we live in, but we come from a very unplugged perspective. Before we even said anything to them, these guys told us how they were going to back things off, make adjustments. They really got it. They're smart. They're good musicians.
 
     What kind of music do you listen to outside of classical?
 
     I'm fairly hip, but I'm 46. I'd never heard of My Morning Jacket before this and I'd never heard of Guster last year. The great thing about it is now I have five or six My Morning Jacket albums on my iPod and I really like the stuff. I've discovered a lot of things from all this. I now have a Death Cab for Cutie CD on my iPod.

[LaurieBlue]

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musicNews/view.bg?articleid=144347

Morning breath: Pops get fresher with blast of rock 'n' roll
By Christopher Blagg
Monday, June 19, 2006 - Updated: 09:37 AM EST

Mannerly and hallowed Symphony Hall is about to get a shot of visceral Kentucky muscle this week. Loud rockers My Morning Jacket will collide head-on with the Boston Pops on Wednesday and Thursday as part of the Pops On the Edge series.
 
    Last year's Pops' collaboration with Guster was offbeat, but My Morning Jacket brings a decidedly heavier and denser sound to the table.
 
    We spoke to the leaders of both bands - My Morning Jacket's Jim James and Pops conductor Keith Lockhart - about their musical matchup.
 
    Jim James always wanted a bigger sound. Cranking up the amps only goes so far. How about adding 85 more musicians?
 
    So he didn't hesitate for a moment when My Morning Jacket received its surprising invitation to play with the Boston Pops.
 
    "I was beside myself with excitement when they called us," James said. "Whether people like it or not, there's a lot of stuff going on with our music, and I've always wanted to try something with even more going on. There's so many limitless things you can do when you have 90 musicians playing almost every single instrument ever invented."
 
    My Morning Jacket is widely considered one of the most innovative rock bands in the country. Still, James feels a bit intimidated by the prospect of hooking up with the esteemed Pops.
 
    "I wouldn't say there's no fear," he said. "They've worked with so many great people, are such great players and have such a tradition. Playing Letterman last week with them was a huge confidence builder for us."
 
    My Morning Jacket has appeared with Lockhart and a dozen Pops players on "Late Night with David Letterman." It was the first time the band and the maestro had met.
 
    "Keith Lockhart and Pat Hollenbeck, the Pops arranger, really did a great job of watching what we do normally as a band and making it blossom into this huge thing. It was exactly how I had dreamed it up in my head. I had dreamed it would be effortless. I was willing it to be exactly how we usually play except that there would be 90 people playing along with us."
 
    How they usually play is one of the biggest challenges for both the Pops and the band. My Morning Jacket play thunderous, reverb-drenched guitar rock with shades of Neil Young and Radiohead. Not exactly normal Pops fare.
 
    "We're looking at this differently than anything we've ever done because we don't want to overpower the acoustic instruments," James said. "Normally we turn it up pretty loud and rock pretty hard."
 
    Just don't expect them to bring less energy to Symphony Hall. It's quite clear that James understands that collaborations with legendary orchestras don't come around too often and he plans to make full use of the opportunity.
 
    "It's a once in a lifetime deal," James said, "but hopefully it'll be more than once in a lifetime."
 
christopherblagg@gmail.com My Morning Jacket with the Boston Pops, Wednesday and Thursday at Symphony Hall. Tickets are $17-74. Call 617-266-1492.

[diesel]

any word on a Boston "secret" club show?

I heard that Jim may play with the Slip, whom they may be touring with later in the summer, afterwards as part of the post show festivities at Symphony Hall.  

wow, where did you hear that they might tour together.  that would be a freakin great show!

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article

.....The first taste of this year's Pos on the Edge came when the Pops and My Morning Jacket appeared together June 8 on "The Late Show with David Letterman" to perform the band's "Gideon."

"We were so happy with the performance on 'Letterman.' We were happy with the reaction we got from the people who saw it, and we were especially happy with the compliments David Letterman gave the performance before signing off. His band leader (Paul Shaffer) came over to us afterward and told us what a fantastic arrangement we used. And that's coming from a music person," Alves said.

My Morning Jacket (who was in Boston last month opening concerts for Pearl Jam) is well suited for symphonic treatment as its songs typically boast a big, lush, multilayered sound. It's material ready made for strings and horns.
The first taste of this year's Pos on the Edge came when the Pops and My Morning Jacket appeared together June 8 on "The Late Show with David Letterman" to perform the band's "Gideon."

"We were so happy with the performance on 'Letterman.' We were happy with the reaction we got from the people who saw it, and we were especially happy with the compliments David Letterman gave the performance before signing off. His band leader (Paul Shaffer) came over to us afterward and told us what a fantastic arrangement we used. And that's coming from a music person," Alves said.

My Morning Jacket (who was in Boston last month opening concerts for Pearl Jam) is well suited for symphonic treatment as its songs typically boast a big, lush, multilayered sound. It's material ready made for strings and horns......

[diesel]

not sure if you were replying to me, but i meant about the slip and mmj going on tour.  thanks though  ;D

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2006/06/22/jacket_isnt_a_perfect_fit_for_the_pops/

Jacket isn't a perfect fit for the Pops
By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff  |  June 22, 2006

"I have a feeling there are two groups of people here tonight," mused conductor Keith Lockhart at the start of last night's Pops on the Edge concert featuring the Kentucky band My Morning Jacket. That was an understatement. Up in the first balcony: a cluster of coiffed seniors, the unsuspecting season ticket holders, who politely endured howling and fuzz previously unheard in these hallowed halls. The rest of the place was packed with young fans shouting song titles and declaring love for the wild-haired rockers in tuxedos.

If the task was to lure a new generation to Symphony Hall: mission accomplished. But if measuring the success of the Pops-My Morning Jacket collaboration involves art and aesthetics, the end result was less certain. Moments of real drama were few, and the peaks were thrilling enough to make us wonder why more of them weren't built into a set that often reached for a middle ground rather than embracing juxtapositions. When frontman Jim James dropped to his knees and began to screech while scores of string players carved filigreed patterns -- that was a marvel. It was also the moment that prompted James to declare the night ``a surreal dream."

But much of the show -- which featured such midtempo cuts as ``At Dawn," ``Gideon," ``Golden," and ``Wordless Chorus" -- felt overly muted. It was as if the band reined in its haunted, sprawling sound to make space for the orchestra and the orchestra held back so as not to step on the rock heroes' toes, everyone politely avoiding the very collisions that make such an endeavor interesting.

Patrick Hallahan played an electronic drum kit, and on ``The Way That He Sings," especially, one craved the snap of a snare. (To be fair, I accused the drummer in Guster, last season's maiden Pops on the Edge guests, of eating the flutes alive.) But toward the end of the MMJ song, when the electric guitar and the brass section cranked in a wooly duet, the sound of hands clapping in time was a clue to what was missing.

Ironically, the first half of the program was more provocative and eclectic than the symphonic rock set. Bjork's bittersweet ``Overture," Christopher Rouse's frantic ``Bump," an excerpt from Elvis Costello's buoyant, dark-hearted ``Il Sogno," and Gershwin's ``An American in Paris" made an edgy mash of whimsy and sophistication.

Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com  

[bndo]

From the metro (link is a huge pdf, go to page 15)
http://parex.metro.st/ftp/20060622_Boston.pdf

Morning woodwinds
Boston Pops and My Morning Jacket combine rock and symphony
PAT HEALY
pat.healy@metro.us

Watching the Boston Pops and My Morning Jacket perform together on "Late Show with David Letterman" earlier this month, there was a palpable air of the surreal. It wasn't that the normally ragged-looking Louisville five-piece were wearing tuxedos, and it  wasn't the giant inaudible harp or the rows of refined ladies and gentlemen running bows over cellos, violins and a thing that looked like a birdcage. As the dozens of players reached the climax on "Gideon," one of the most stellar tracks from last year's "Z" and a sonic sibling of U2's "One Tree Hill," the camera panned to Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart for about one second.

His expression was one of restrained excitement, but his movement was manic, almost like a little boy trying not to get caught doing something he knows he's not supposed to be doing. We can't say if this is how he looked throughout their show together at Symphony Hall last night, as we went to press shortly after the show began.

Metro spoke with Lockhart before the performances as he was driving home from a wedding in Vermont. Our most shocking revelation is the music he listens to during downtime. Classical? Death metal? Reggaeton? Classic rock? All of the above?

The answer is none of the above. Lockhart doesn't listen to any music during downtime.

"The best analogy I've ever heard about that is that it's like people on the PGA tour don't play golf on weekends," he says. "I actually find it distracting. ... It's very hard to turn it off and listen to it in the background, and you need time  where you don't hear any music."

So he doesn't listen to anything in the car?

 "Actually, we listened to 'Z' on the way up," he confesses. "It's a great album. It really is."

When asked about the sort of music he enjoys outside of classical, but inside work hours, of course, he name-checks Paul Simon and Aimee Mann, the latter of whom will perform with the Pops next week.

"I tend to like people whose music is lyric-driven, whose songs make sense," he says.

The MMJ/Pops collaboration made complete ense when My Morning Jacket singer Jim James began the second verse of "Gideon."

"Truly, we have become hated and feared for something we don't want/Listen, most of us believe that this is wrong," sang James as the strings swelled around him. The horns, like a military marching band, fit perfectly in a song that both denounces the war in Iraq and compares George W. Bush to Gideon, a biblical warrior who consults God for military strategies.

Is it hard for Lockhart to switch gears from "William Tell Overture" to rock?

"It takes listening to their music, being comfortable with their idiom and kind of 'getting it,' as well as studying the music we're going to do with them, knowing what our part is to play in it and what I've got to get the orchestra to do," Lockhart says.

In that one second of camera time on "Letterman," it's clear that Lockhart "gets" My Morning Jacket.

[LaurieBlue]

Mostly shared for the photo...

http://www.claudepate.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=502

MY MORNING JACKET played "Gideon" with members of the Boston Pops o­n The Late Show with David Letterman earlier this month and it's still o­n YouTube. The Cat Power clip is also still up, so I wonder if Dave has a relaxed attitude about it...

[LaurieBlue]

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musicNews/view.bg?articleid=145037

The Pops wear this Jacket well
By Christopher Blagg
Friday, June 23, 2006

The lifespan of the Boston Pops doubled Wednesday night. In a surprisingly hip and altogether savvy detour, Keith Lockhart and the Pops welcomed Americana indie rockers My Morning Jacket to their home court for a collaboration that exposed the blogging MySpace generation to hallowed Symphony Hall.
 
    While the results may not have been perfect, the union of five Kentucky rockers and a 90-piece orchestra produced several moments of spine-tingling beauty.
 
    The mashing of guitar-soaked roots-rock with the Pops made for an interesting audience. The standard Pops season-ticket holders in their suits and chardonnay contrasted sharply with the more dominant andyounger hipster crowd. Lockhart himself acknowledged the rift during the Pops-only opening set, telling the audience, ''For those of you who are wondering what you got yourselves into . . . I thank you for your courage."
 
    Ambling humbly onto the stage, singer/guitarist Jim James and his band seemed to understand the magnitude of the event. They eased into the collaboration slowly, beginning the set with the breezy acoustic ballad ''At Dawn," the band's weeping pedal steel dancing under swooning strings and James' reverb-soaked tenor.
 
    In fact, despite the enormous orchestra, an incredibly tight rock 'n' roll rhythm section and the charismatic flourishes of Lockhart, it was James' achingly tender voice that proved to be the most striking aspect.
 
    The dynamics between the band and the orchestra did seem a bit tentative early on. It wasn't until the last third of the show that the orchestra made its presence truly felt, highlighted by the aggressive strings and blasting horns in the epic ''Run Thru."
 
    The night ended on a sweet note as the band left James alone to strum the gorgeous ''Bermuda Highway" as the orchestra's strings brought a lush romanticism to the delicate ballad.
 
    My Morning Jacket, with the Boston Pops, conducted by Keith Lockhart, at Symphony Hall, Wednesday night.

christopherblagg@gmail.com

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2006/06/23/going_to_nyc_take_amys_advice/

Metallica exec loves My Morning Jacket
We were surprised to see Metallica's manager, Cliff Burnstein, at Wednesday's My Morning Jacket show at Symphony Hall. The bewhiskered Burnstein, whose clients include the red-hot Red Hot Chili Peppers and Muse, is a huge fan of the Louisville-based band led by Jim James. ``I'm kind of obsessed," he told us. ``I live to fall in love with things, and I've fallen in love with My Morning Jacket." Other notables in the audience included Mark Kates of Fenway Recordings, Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer, former 'BCN jock Oedipus, and director Sam Weisman.