Cleveland Press

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.freetimes.com/story/4452

Interview with Bo :-)

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2006-11-29/music/music4.html

Interview with Two-Tone Tommy :-)

[ChiefOKONO]

Thank you!! you are Goood!!

[dragonboy]

Great to hear from Bo & Tommy, thanks Laurie!  :)

[BH]

We can all get on board with this thread, can't we! :) :) :) :)

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.vindy.com/content/entertainment/325740150193645.php

More Bo :-)

Ohio native fits band perfectly
Thursday, November 30, 2006
The band doesn't like to put labels on its music.

By JOHN BENSON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

Whatever image you may have in your mind about the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, My Morning Jacket keyboardist and Northeast Ohio native Bo Koster is about to blow your mind.

A recent call to his cell phone finds the professional musician in, of all places, a Dallas Macy's department store.

"We're not buying anything," Koster stressed. "We're just walking through and turning up our nose at everything. I got street cred."

A moment later he admits that he's actually looking for some shoes, which conjures up images and thoughts of the US Weekly tabloid "Just Like Us" section. That is, rock stars have to shop? And for shoes? And at Macy's?

"Yeah," said Koster, trying to save face. "But we did get a ride here, though."

For My Morning Jacket, that ride presumably began in the late '90s under the vision of singer-songwriter Jim James. The band has been drawing more attention in recent years with the release of one critically acclaimed album after another. This includes 2003's "It Still Moves" and its 2005 follow-up "Z," with the band recently releasing its double-disc concert effort "Okonokos." There's also been Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza appearances, and an opening gig for Pearl Jam last spring.

"It's kind of been a gradual growth," said Koster, who graduated from Ohio University in 1997. "So now, it's even bigger than it was the last time we toured. We've almost doubled in size in some places in terms of attendance. There have definitely been a few shows on this tour where I felt like The Beatles, where the crowds have been really rabid and standing up screaming the whole show. But we feel kind of normal, like everyday people."

Opportunity

An everyday person is what Lakewood native Koster was not too long ago. Prior to joining the band in 2003, he was a struggling musician living in Los Angeles. He worked television production jobs to make ends meet. It was on a recommendation from a friend of his that the My Morning Jacket opportunity came about.

Considering Koster's musical tastes were all over the board, he proved a perfect fit for James' eclectic My Morning Jacket, which it should be pointed out is somewhat of an anomaly. While indie rock kids enjoy the band's grooves and unique soundscapes, jam band fans are equally enthralled with the group's improvisational feel.

Take for instance "Z" album track "Off the Record," which opens with a hip-hop feel, blossoms into a breezy reggae jaunt and somehow metamorphoses into a Pink Floyd mind-bender. There's also "It Still Moves" fan favorite "One Big Holiday," which ends with a big Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar jam.

"There is no limit or label we put on anything we do," Koster said. "We play something, and if we like it, whatever. If it's a good song, we don't care where it fits."

Obscure songs

On the band's current tour, which pulls into Cleveland for a Monday date at the House of Blues, Koster said the set list includes a few obscure gems from My Morning Jacket's 1999 debut effort "The Tennessee Fire."

"'They Ran' is kind of a quirky little song that sounds like an old soul tune, but we kind of reworked it, and it's now hard to describe." Koster said. "It's like this James Brown loungey kind of thing. We've been ending the first set with that song, which is weird to end the first set with an obscure track we never played before. But it's cool. I'm glad to do stuff like that."

My Morning Jacket is already looking ahead to its next album, which it hopes to begin recording in early 2007. As for where the band is headed stylistically, Koster laughed, "I'm sure it'll be somewhere we've never been."

[vagasbaby]

Thanks, Laurie! I see you got that from the Youngstown Vindy. Any chance you're from Youngstown? I'm a native, living in Cleveland.

[LaurieBlue]

Thanks, Laurie! I see you got that from the Youngstown Vindy. Any chance you're from Youngstown? I'm a native, living in Cleveland.

Not a native of Youngstown, no, but I am living in Charlotte NC right now :-).

You're all welcome, by the way :-)