Charleston Pre-Show Press

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A19927

NOVEMBER 8, 2006
VISITIN ACT | Mop-Topped Mystique
The praise-worthy My Morning Jacket dawn on Charleston

BY SARA MILLER

MMJ: blurring the lines between classic rock, experimental noise, and melody
 
My Morning Jacket
w/ Wax Fang
Thurs. Nov. 9
8 p.m.
$25
Centre Stage at The Plex
2390 W. Aviation Ave.
225-PLEX (7539)
www.theplexonline.com
www.mymorningjacket.com

My Morning Jacket has two things in abundance: ideas and hair. Whether one has an impact on the other is a question perhaps better suited for Eddie Vedder, as the fellows in My Morning Jacket are way too unconcerned about image to care whether it's a good hair day or not.

Actually, maybe the boughs of dirty blonde curls that frame angel-voiced singer Jim James' face are all a part of the shroud of mystery that My Morning Jacket tend to wrap their releases in. Their new double live album, Okonokos, offers the obsessive lyrics-booklet-reader nary a hint of when or where each song on the disc was recorded.

"All the tracks came from a couple different shows in an undisclosed location," says bassist Two-Tone Tommy. "We just wanted it to kinda have a mysterious quality to it, to be some magical thing that took place somewhere that nobody knew about except the people who were there."

The lucky audience members who've caught MMJ in the time since their most recent studio album, Z, came out, are probably nodding their heads right now and remembering the elaborate stage setup, complete with a faux forest with stuffed owls in the trees and a rainbow of lights piercing through lots and lots and lots of fog.

Each night, James would emerge through the fog carrying a lantern onto the darkened stage as the band launched into "Wordless Chorus," the first song on both Z and Okonokos. To the listener, it seemed like there was an invisible thread linking James' ethereal voice and neat guitar work with the elements contributed by the rest of the band: Two-Tone, drummer Patrick Hallahan, guitarist/saxophonist Carl Broemel, and keyboardist Bo Koster.

Festivals of all sorts — from Bonnaroo to High Sierra to Belgium's Pukkelpop — have proven to be a fertile bed for the band to plant their seeds of unclassifiable, reverb-soaked, sometimes-maybe-ok-they-can-be-a-bit-jammy rock 'n' roll. This year was their fourth time playing the massive Bonnaroo festival, but the first time they were granted a coveted evening slot. Little did anyone know that when the band went onstage at midnight, they wouldn't walk off until after 3 a.m., leaving tens of thousands of blissed-out fans basking in the reverb that seemed to hang in the air even longer than all that fog.

"That was the longest show we've ever played," Two-Tone says. "We'd been there all day and it was so cool to take in that whole experience and then, at a time when you'd usually be going to bed or winding down, you're gearing up to play a show. But no audience at any festival is the same ... you get people who have never heard you before or only heard one song, and you also get to see other bands basically for free. That's really cool."

Often pegged by lazy journalists as a "Southern rock" outfit (James takes a clever swipe at the frivolity of trying to label the band in the liner notes of Okonokos), My Morning Jacket did originate in Louisville, Ky., and they did play "Freebird" while disguised as a bar band in Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, but any Lynyrd Skynyrd comparisons should end there.

After releasing their first two albums, 1999's The Tennessee Fire and 2001's At Dawn, on small label Darla, the band made the major-label jump to Dave Matthews' ATO (a division of RCA Records) for 2003's It Still Moves, which was recorded in a silo in Kentucky, and last year's Z.

In 2004, they were dealt a puzzling hand when lifelong friends and MMJ members Johnny Quaid and Danny Cash decided that the touring life was not for them any more and abruptly (but amicably) left the band. Of course, to grow a garden a little rain must fall, and after inviting Koster and Broemel to join up, the quintet headed to the Catskills with producer John Leckie (Radiohead's The Bends) and birthed Z, possibly the group's most instantly accessible album to date.

On Z, songs like the radio-friendly (with a bit of editing magic) "Off the Record" and hard-driving, Madonna-name-checking track "Anytime" rest easy next to epics like the airy requiem "Dondante" and the crunchy riffs that snuggle up next to plaintive keyboards and James' Southern drawl in "Lay Low." Both songs are also stand-out tracks on Okonokos, and, although this reporter has yet to see the accompanying DVD, it'll be tough for it to compete with the actual live show.

Two-Tone reports that the band has no concrete plans for recording of their next studio album, but, "hopefully by spring we'll be in the heat of battle." Longtime fans of the band are in for a treat before then, as the current tour will last through January.

"For this tour, we're gonna pull out some old ones, like Tennessee Fire and At Dawn stuff," Two-Tone says, "songs from the first three records that we don't play anymore. There'll be some songs that people haven't heard in a couple of years and songs that we've never played live at all."

What more enticement does anyone need?

[Mr. T.]

Belgium's Pukkelpop

It was legendary indeed  8)

Overall very nice article. Especially the last part  (Older songs :) things we've never heard live  :o  ) makes me want to see them again real soon.

If I had to chose between seeing them live in spring, or knowing they're recording a new album, I'd have a hard time making a choice...

[dragonboy]

'Experimental Noise'?
What with that reference & the fact that the author mentioned that Carl is a guitarist/saxophonist, some people might dismiss the band as an unlistenable jazz quintet!
(Quintet does mean 5, right?)

[primushead]

."

Often pegged by lazy journalists as a "Southern rock" outfit (James takes a clever swipe at the frivolity of trying to label the band in the liner notes of Okonokos), My Morning Jacket did originate in Louisville, Ky., and they did play "Freebird" while disguised as a bar band in Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, but any Lynyrd Skynyrd comparisons should end there.

Great paragraph.  Damn lazy journalists.

[BH]

"For this tour, we're gonna pull out some old ones, like Tennessee Fire and At Dawn stuff," Two-Tone says, "songs from the first three records that we don't play anymore. There'll be some songs that people haven't heard in a couple of years and songs that we've never played live at all."

;D

[cmccubbin@work]

i can't wait to hear the old stuff!!!

play it all!!!

[BH]

Anyone going to Charleston by the way.  I want an early report on weather or not they are going to bring the "forest" along with them on this tour.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.charleston.net/assets/webpages/departmental/news/Stories.aspx?section=preview&tableId=117767&pubDate=11/9/2006

'Jacket' crosses styles
My Moring Jacket to kick off tour in Charleston

BY MATHEW GOODBY
Special to The Post and Courier

It's a quiet day for My Morning Jacket drummer Patrick Hallahan. The Kentucky native is lounging at his Louisville, Ky., home with his wife, soaking up his last few days of normal life.

In the coming week, Hallahan and his bandmates will embark on yet another national tour. The second of this year. But this time, the group has chosen to kick off its tour in Charleston.

"Well, we heard you guys have good shrimp and grits," Hallahan says with a laugh when asked why the band chose Charleston for its starting point.

"And it's a place we've never played but have heard a lot about. So, we just thought it would be a nice place to start things off."

In the next couple of days, singer/guitarist/songwriter Jim James; bassist "Two-Tone" Tommy; guitarist/pedal steel guitarist/saxophonist/vocalist Carl Broemel; keyboardist Bo Koster; and Hallahan will meet in Nashville to rehearse for three days before hitting the road.

It's a routine the guys have grown accustomed to. After all, it was the group's incessant touring that built My Morning Jacket's grass-roots fan base into one of the largest and most diverse in the country.

"It's scarily easy how we can just jump back into it so quickly and things not even change," says Hallahan of touring.

Change is something Hallahan may not be used to, having lived nearly his whole life in Louisville. In fact, he and James were childhood friends after meeting in the fourth grade.

In junior high, the two started their first band before deciding that being in a band together might be too stressful to their friendship.

James started My Morning Jacket after dropping out of college to pursue music.

Originally, MMJ - the name comes from a jacket James found in the wreckage of his favorite bar - was to be a solo act for James, but the young singer's haunting voice brought musicians banging on his door.

After releasing two indie albums, 1999's "The Tennessee Fire" and 2001's "At Dawn," and the subsequent loss of two drummers, James finally asked his old pal Hallahan to join the band in 2002.

"I was a friend and a fan before I was a member," recalls Hallahan. "So, I kind of watched My Morning Jacket start from its fledgling state. I was just so proud of them because I knew that they were really making amazing things happen; and for doing the world a favor by putting out good art. Then one day (James) called me and asked me to be a part of it. So, I sort of jumped on the train. Two weeks later, we were out touring and we haven't stopped since."

Hallahan isn't kidding. Over the past four years, MMJ has performed nearly every day with a few months of breaks and/or recording time sprinkled in throughout each year.

The touring has led to some memorable experiences.

At 2004's Bonnaroo, the giant annual multiday concert held on a farm in Manchester, Tenn., the group's performance is now simply known as "Return to Thunderdome."

The band performed outdoors before a sea of fans as a mammoth thunderstorm rolled across the Tennessee countryside. A sight and experience that Hallahan remembers as "one of the most religious experiences of my life."

Then, there was the 3 1/2-hour set the band performed to close out Bonnaroo this year and the cameo appearance in Cameron Crowe's 2005 film "Elizabethtown," a film in which MMJ played a cover band performing a note-for-note rendition of "Free Bird."

Not to mention the band's opening slot with Pearl Jam earlier this year.

The touring hasn't interfered with MMJ's ability to create and record its popular blend of country and spaced-out rock, though.

Following the group's two indie releases and 2003's major label debut, "It Still Moves," in a friend's barn, MMJ decided to record its 2005 release, "Z," in the renowned Allaire Studios.

The group also chose to work with a producer for the first time, and joined forces with John Leckie (Radiohead).

Tucked away in New York's Catskill Mountains, Allaire Studios has been used by such artists as David Bowie, Tim McGraw and even Staind.

The studio's 45-foot ceilings offer booming echoes and a fullness to recordings that few others can match.

My Morning Jacket chose the studio for its isolation and inspirational atmosphere. What the group didn't plan on, however, were the terrible blizzards that rolled through the mountains that year.

"It was great because it was like a musical retreat," says Hallahan. "We were snowed in for the most part so we slept at the studio, we ate at the studio and we played at the studio. So, it was kind of like a study in the songs that we had written, because we never left them. Being secluded on a mountain in the winter is both enlightening and maddening. But it does make you focus solely on the project at hand."

Whether it be the Catskills, Leckie, the addition of members Broemel and Koster, or just maturation, there is a definite change in MMJ's sound between the albums "It Still Moves" and "Z."

James reveals a more distinct version of his voice by filtering out some of the reverb. The band also experimented with a more upbeat, rhythmic feel on may of the album's tracks. There is a vast amount of acreage on the album, with multiple effects and a tasteful layering of instrumentation that gives "Z" a fullness unlike any of MMJ's previous recordings. MMJ released its critically acclaimed, double-live album "Okonokos" in October.

As for MMJ's future, Hallahan and company have the next few months of their lives already planned. They will play a host of headlining shows until January, before taking time off to write a new album.

"That's the beautiful thing about writing music with these guys," says Hallahan. "We have ideas of where we want it all to go, but if it goes another way and it sounds like its supposed to sound, then we made it."

If you go
WHO: My Morning Jacket, w/ Wax Fang
WHEN: Tonight, 9.
WHERE: Center Stage at The Plex (2390 West Aviation Ave., North Charleston ) COST: $25
TICKETS: Online at www.etix.com, at The Plex box of­fice, or at the door (depending on availability).
INFO: www.theplexonline.com, or 225-PLEX (7539).

[primushead]

A sight and experience that Hallahan remembers as "one of the most religious experiences of my life."

Hey, me too!