My Morning Jacket - Z(RCA)
Louisville, Kentucky quartet MMJ have insisted on defying cateogroization since their inception. At times invoking the spirit of Neil Young and Crazy Horse and at other times going for a strangle rustic ambient quality, they have always made somewhat mesmerizing music. This time around they all but ditch the Young stylings in favor for a more wistful serenity.
http://music.ign.com/articles/655/655404p1.html
Tune In Tuesday
My Morning Jacket spells buzz with 'Z'
By Jeffrey Lee Puckett
jpuckett@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
No record has gotten more buzz this fall than My Morning Jacket's "Z," the Louisville band's fourth full-length effort. Every music rag on the stands has featured our boys in some capacity, including a rave review in Mojo, one of the world's top rock 'n' roll magazines.
The anticipation ends today with the release of the playful, gorgeous and mold-shattering album. The barefoot hillbilly Southern rock comments are about to end.
Trivia time. Jacket singer Jimmy James, who dislikes 90 percent of known music, recently admitted in a national magazine that one of his all-time favorite songs is a treacly ballad by an artist with a vague Kentucky connection. Name it and win a CD of your choice -- unless it's one I'd rather keep for myself.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051004/SCENE04/510040320/1011/SCENE
'Z, the brand new CD by MY MORNING JACKET (out 10/4), is without a doubt their most accomplished recording in their young career. Years from now, we will all look back at this record, and see Z as one of the most defining releases of their career, as well as one of those records that will mess up kids and get them excited to pick up a guitar and start their own band. Yes, it's THAT good.'
http://www.recordandtapetraders.com/
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one of those records that will mess up kids and get them excited to pick up a guitar and start their own band. Yes, it's THAT good.'
http://www.recordandtapetraders.com/
How complimentary is THAT?! Kind of reminds me of the Led Zeppelin topic we were covering before.
from Rhapsody:
Album Mini-Review:
MMJ's fourth LP finds them working with wizard producer John Leckie (Stone Roses, George Harrison, Radiohead, Pink Floyd). They transcend Americana and aim toward the stratosphere. Songs shimmer and glide as Jim James's falsetto stretches heavenward. Let this album work its warm magic on you. Listen repeatedly.
- Eric Shea
Rolling Stone
"And watch My Morning Jacket's latest, Z, give the Louisville, Kentucky, indie band their highest chart debut ever."
QuoteRolling Stone
"And watch My Morning Jacket's latest, Z, give the Louisville, Kentucky, indie band their highest chart debut ever."
Oooh, exciting - are they on a chart?
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'Z, the brand new CD by MY MORNING JACKET (out 10/4), is without a doubt their most accomplished recording in their young career. Years from now, we will all look back at this record, and see Z as one of the most defining releases of their career, as well as one of those records that will mess up kids and get them excited to pick up a guitar and start their own band. Yes, it's THAT good.'
http://www.recordandtapetraders.com/
that reminds me of the quote from brian eno(?) about only 20,000 or so people buying vu & nico when it came out, but everyone of them went to start a band after hearing it. [smiley=guitar.gif]
http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Arts/Our_Critics_Picks/2005/10/06/Our_Critics_Picks/index.shtml
Our Critics Picks
Saturday, 8th
MY MORNING JACKET Kind of like a mullet, many of MMJ's songs are business in the front, party in the rear. Take "Off the Record" from their new album Z. It starts with a Peter Gunn-style riff, then quickly becomes a bouncy, tight pop song that's likely to stick in your craw for days, like "Louie, Louie" on Red Bull. Then, just as an El Camino transitions abruptly from sedan to pickup, the song becomes an airy instrumental piece, with a funky organ and bass encouraging everyone to tune in, drop out—or just stand there, if you're one of the many otherwise snobby indie kids who happen to like MMJ but generally disdain their jammy forebears. Though incongruous hybrids aren't always successful, My Morning Jacket have carved out quite a niche as an enjoyable oddity of a band. City Hall —STEVE HARUCH
http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section=48&screen=newsprint&news_id=44937
Go, See, Do (ya think? ;D)
October 06, 2005
My Morning Jacket plays headbanging, reverb-soaked Southern rock that calls to mind swimming in a deep underwater cave. They play a Kentucky-friend show at 8 p.m. Saturday in City Hall, 405 12th Ave. S. Tickets: 255-9600. $20
STUFF Magazine
My Morning Jacket, Z
8/10
You won't be disappointed
The skinny:
These bountifully hirsute roots-rockers jump off their Crazy Horse and traverse some unlikely sonic territory on Z. The spiritual gush of "Gideon" recalls The Unforgettable Fire–era U2, and most of the new stunts work well, thanks to Jim James' cavernous croon.
You'll like this album if you like:
Neil Young, Will Oldham, The Flaming Lips, letting your hair down...all the way down to the floor
Standout tracks:
"Off The Record," "Lay Low," "Dondante"
NY Mag has a strange way of saying they love the new album ;D
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My Morning Jacket
By Faran Alexis Krentcil
Posted October 4, 2005
Picture this sweet Swinger Jacket over a white tank, with a pair of great jeans and heels. Its retro 60's cut blithely defies this season's goth girl trend, but who cares? The sweet bell sleeves, cropped fit, and creamy ivy embroidery make it adorable and sexy all at once. It's versatile enough to go from day to night, works well with a pencil or circle skirt for the office, and right now, it's under $50 ( originally $88 ). Are you swooning yet?
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http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/shopping/columns/bestbets/daily/tuesday/14666/
Boston Herald
``Z''
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
My Morning Jacket is more than the reconciliation of Neil Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd. On ``Z,'' Jim James leads his band far beyond classic and Southern rock into a playful wonderland of inspired sounds, where Beach Boys harmonies, off-kilter reggae rhythms, outer-space bass blobs and spaghetti-western guitar happily and tunefully collide as James' high voice wails soulfully above. I admit I have almost no idea what he's singing about, but when it all sounds this good, who cares? Download: ``Wordless Chorus.''
Larry Katz
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/discReviews/view.bg?articleid=105424
Dallas Observer
My Morning Jacket
Z (ATO/RCA)
By Noah W. Bailey
Published: Thursday, October 6, 2005
If 2003's It Still Moves was the album that showed why My Morning Jacket was ready to play stadiums, Z is the one that proves they deserve lasers and smoke machines. While the band's music has always walked a fine line between twang and space-rock, Z sees them stretching out their arrangements further into the cosmos than ever before, with Jim James' voice aiming upward like a rocket ship. While none of the songs here are as classic-sounding as "Golden" or as rocking as "One Big Holiday," every one of the 10 is impeccably crafted, resulting in the band's most cohesive (and succinct) album. "Wordless Chorus" opens the record with a low, lurching keyboard part, contrasting perfectly with James' reverb-laden croon, while " Into the Woods" is MMJ at its weirdest, featuring James sweetly singing "A kitten on fire/A baby in a blender" over a creepy circus organ before morphing into a one-man Russian military choir. Single "Off the Record" is the best slab of reggae-rock recorded since the Clash, taking a riff from Hawaii Five-0 and marrying it with one of James' catchiest melodies, but "Knot Comes Loose" proves James can still write a classically styled acoustic stunner, slowing down the ship and breaking out the bongos for a campfire-style jam on the rings of Saturn.
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2005-10-06/music/hearthere3.html?src=default_rss
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Trivia time. Jacket singer Jimmy James, who dislikes 90 percent of known music, recently admitted in a national magazine that one of his all-time favorite songs is a treacly ballad by an artist with a vague Kentucky connection. Name it and win a CD of your choice -- unless it's one I'd rather keep for myself.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051004/SCENE04/510040320/1011/SCENE
Lucky Me.I e-mailed the trivia answer the morning of this review and won a free disc.Yahoo!
it's Al Green, right?
Quoteit's Al Green, right?
No it was Dan Fogelberg's song "The Leader Of The Band" and the vague KY connection is his song "Run For The Roses" which is played quite a bit during Derby time in our state
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No it was Dan Fogelberg's song "The Leader Of The Band" and the vague KY connection is his song "Run For The Roses" which is played quite a bit during Derby time in our state
What cd did you pick? Congratulations!!
...but his blood runs through my instrument, and his song is in my souuuuuuuuuuuuuuuullllllllllllllll.... ;)
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What cd did you pick? Congratulations!!
I asked for the new disc by The Magic Numbers.I had read a couple of nice reviews.
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I asked for the new disc by The Magic Numbers.I had read a couple of nice reviews.
Oh! Tell me what you think. I've been reading all about them everywhere, too.
A brother and sister band. Nice. :)
The Korea Herald
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/10/08/200510080016.asp
[Album Review] My Morning Jacket "Z" (ATO/RCA)
The Louisville band's fourth album is a mass of a million brilliant details, a shimmering mosaic with its feet in Americana mud and its head in the stars. The group has been hanging around the vital center of American indie rock for a few years now, particularly singer and songwriter Jim James, who collaborates with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and who represented the kids at last year's Gram Parsons tribute concerts.
There's still some of Parsons' "cosmic American music" ideal coursing through My Morning Jacket, but "Z" moves away from the more overt Band and "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" references, closer to a convergence of Who-like playfulness and drive with R.E.M. mystery.
With new members Carl Broemel and Bo Koster on guitar and keyboards, respectively, and with Englishman John Leckie co-producing with James, every sound on "Z" is bell-clear and perfectly placed.
Soulshine (Canada)
http://www.soulshine.ca/news/newsarticle.php?nid=2625
My Morning Jacket Release New Album, Tour North America
Published: 2005-10-07
Kentucky rockers My Morning Jacket are back with their fourth full-length record, the curiously named Z, and they're hitting the road to prove it. Theirs will be a six-week trek across the continent, half of which will feature Canadian songstress Kathleen Edwards as the opening act (though unfortunately she will not be appearing with the band in her home and native land).
The band, featuring original members singer/guitarist Jim James, bassist Two-Tone Tommy and drummer Patrick Hallahan along with new additions Bo Koster and Carl Broemel, recorded Z in the isolated environs of upstate New York with noted UK producer John Leckie (Stone Roses).
"We wanted to make a record that grooved and swung," says James in the band's bio, "but wasn't trying to imitate classic soul. We wanted to keep an aspect of what we'd always done, but also make something you could dance to or listen to while driving home. Hip-hop and soul music are unifying people right now. I wanted to incorporate that into our music; to make this really sad, mysterious kind of dance music, something that really got into your butt, but also really got into your head and made you think."
My Morning Jacket will be making people think while they dance and dance while they think throughout October and November, including two Canadian stops. Z is in stores this week.
MMJ Canadian tour dates:
October 19, Toronto, ON – The Guvernment
November 3, Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom (w/Saul Williams)
Writer: Neil McDonald
I apologize on behalf of Canada for the use of the old picture. It is amazing to me that the new lineup is mentioned, and yet the old picture is used. Neil will NOT be partaking in any Canadian love dances for the next two weeks.
Beaver County Times
http://www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15356602&BRD=2305&PAG=461&dept_id=478564&rfi=6
I've used this comparison since 2003, but it still fits and bears repeating: Imagine mid-1970s era Neil Young, backed by a few of the Allman Brothers, improvising songs after spending an entire week listening to Radiohead.
That's the riveting effect of My Morning Jacket, the Kentucky rock band that follows up 2003's outstanding "It Still Moves" disc with a brilliant new CD, "Z."
Like Radiohead, there's freshness yet a faraway-ness, a wow-there's-something-extraordinary-going-on-here feeling to My Morning Jacket.
But while Radiohead singer Thom Yorke can seem paranoid and cynical, My Morning Jacket singer-lyricist Jim James offers a dreamier world view befitting his band's gently psychedelic, faintly country-folkish flavor of Southern rock.
If you crave adventurous but alluring new music, pick up "Z" now.
Maxim
http://www.maximonline.com/entertainment/reviews/review_music_10719.html
My Morning Jacket, Z
( ATO/RCA )
Release Date: October 4, 2005
4 Stars
Their influences lean toward classic rock (Neil Young, Stones, Allmans) and they look like the sort of barefoot heshers who hawk grilled cheese outside Phish shows, but make no mistake: My Morning Jacket are every hipster's favorite hippies. From behind a towering wall of reverb, these Kentucky longhairs do more barefoot grooving than boot stomping on their fourth album. They must've rocked their own socks off.
QuoteThey must've rocked their own socks off.
That is actually really funny despite it's wrongness.
Jesus. Talk about using every stupid cliche for this band that you possibly could cram into such a small space.
My local paper better have a huge front page cover story and a three page review of Z on Thursday. Just to make up for the lack of Z review that exists. grr.
http://www.praguemonitor.com/past/121005.html
Not a review..but the Prague Daily Monitor is advertising the NPR concert on their site..
"My Morning Jacket and Kathleen Edwards, in concert [NPR]"
Buchtelite.com
http://www.buchtelite.com/2005/1013/arts_01.shtml
My Morning Jacket, Z
Release date: Out now
Why you should buy it: Southern rock hasn't sounded this good since before Lynyrd Skynyrd became a joke of itself. Singer Jim James has one of rock music's grandest voices that forces the listener on a sing-along through the hills of MMJ's Kentucky home.
(w/photo)
Billings Gazette
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/10/14/build/enjoybillings/32-cd-gd.inc
CD guide: My Morning Jacket opts for trippy over twangy on 'Z'
Chris Jorgensen
CD GUIDE
My Morning Jacket
"Z"
ATO
Seems like no one quite knows what to make of My Morning Jacket, especially them.
After two highly-praised but rarely bought albums, the band shook off its tight little cult following with 2003's major label, reverb-soaked Skynyrdfest "It Still Moves."
Now comes "Z" and yet another reinvention of the shaggy Louisville quintet.
Led by Jim James and his otherworldly falsetto, and produced by John Leckie of Pink Floyd and Radiohead fame, the band has turned down the twang and emerged as a trippy, ballad-heavy, band of God-seekers. "Religion should appeal to the hearts of the young," James sings in the giddy "Gideon."
And all this the band manages without surrendering any of its loose-limbed soul vibe.
"Wordless Chorus" opens the set with a slow drum and bass grove under James' crooning lines like "Forget about culture/ It's not what pays." "Beats for You" is more orchestral and gauzy. Then comes a hint of the Morning Jacket of old with the boogie piano rock of "Lay Low" and the ebullient "What a Wonderful Man." And "Anytime" is unapologetic pop with jangling guitars and James singing himself dizzy.
Here's one from Canada's Chartattack ( a good online music site IMO ):
MY MORNING JACKET Z(RCA/Sony BMG)
Once an obscure alt.country band, My Morning Jacket's fourth effort is a nearly perfect classiv rock album. Although the music is less twangy and more melodic, it doesn't lose the band's traditional bluesy/folk style. Everything — including the album artwork — signals that My Morning Jacket have matured. From opening track "Wordless Chorus," Jim James' angelic falsetto continues to play a vial part in the band's atmospheric happy/sad ambiance that made It Still Moves an underrated classic. Not all songs rely on melancholy though. "Anytime" and "What A Wonderful Man" trades in the tears for blazing guitars and more crafted radio-friendly choruses. The closing "Dondante" is an eight-minute Jeff Buckley-esque ballad that builds from a whisper into a blazing rockout. Z deserves an A. Mike Armitage
http://www.chartattack.com/
ChartAttack is a great music site. I visit it quite often.
Not so mini, but great review:
http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/global_user_elements/printpage.cfm?storyid=1016539
The Daily Utah Chronicle - A & E
Issue: 10/11/05
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Mapping out a new geography of sound: My Morning Jacket plays aural cartographer on the impeccable Z
By Eryn Green
My Morning Jacket
Z
ATO Records
Five out of five stars
If the whole rock 'n' roll thing doesn't pan out for the members of My Morning Jacket, natives of Louisville, Ky., they can always fall back on careers as aural cartographers.
However, if My Morning Jacket's newest release, Z, is any indicator, front man Jim James and Co. ought not to have any worry about their current day job faltering any time soon-this is one of the finest records released in the past five years.
Still, mapmaking (of sorts) is an option for My Morning Jacket. It's something that great rock 'n' roll artists have been doing for ages: Using music to explore uncharted, or previously unknown, territory, both literally and figuratively.
With The Beatles, you hear London and its surrounding industrial grit in even the softest songs (e.g., "Hey Jude's" desire for redemption is nothing if not reminiscent of the Fab Four's latent desire to escape and redeem in the face of a confining factory youth). With Lynyrd Skynyrd, every discordant note calls to mind the convoluted, proud and rebellious history of the South. Similarly, Bob Dylan-in his New York days-struck every guitar string with lovesick, subterranean Soho blues, revisiting his surroundings in his music time and time again.
As did the greats before them, My Morning Jacket, in Z, has a way of inventing a sound that is at once innovative and dynamic, but which also harkens back to its maker's past. In this way, My Morning Jacket shows how music can be a means of exploring geography-an exercise in the sonic naming of a place.
The band started as a neo-hippy bluegrass outfit, morphed into indie-prog jam conglomerate (complete with nine-minute songs) and has now, on Z, honed its skills and morphed into a kind of accessible, flickering Southern experimental group with real pop sensibilities.
For fans who have never been to Louisville, My Morning Jacket's new record acts as a roadmap to a state (and a state of mind), painting a striking picture of the band's roots by way of a mercurial, ever-changing landscape of stark industrial expanses and intimate moments of self-righteous glory.
Z maintains its internal logic by exploring all the formative nooks and crannies that made My Morning Jacket the band it has become. There are throwbacks to the band's previous incarnations (including the excellent '70s rock opus "Lay Low," a piece of harmonic mastery), and in this way, Z works as a compass for listeners keen enough to care about a locale, sound and band they may not have previously found compelling.
Z is the closest thing to a genre-busting, sensibility-hopping Radiohead-caliber record that America has had in years. The album leaps and bounds across boundaries of form and tone. On the album's opener, James' falsetto howl sounds like a mix of Thom York and vintage Michael Jackson, while on the album closer, "Dondante," he sounds like a whiskey-soaked bar rag and a pack of cigarettes.
As Z shifts, it leaves in its wake the rubble of all kinds of accepted standards in music. Z moves from synth-heavy opera on its early cuts to substantial, twangy Southern-fried pseudo-psych exploration on its latter.
The album's title, Z, works as an accurate indicator of the record's project: The last letter of the alphabet, 'Z' implies a long and storied lineage of predecessors, while at the same time pointing out that the album exists at the end of a chain in new, groundbreaking territory.
The record appeals to the storied narrative of performers who helped make My Morning Jacket the important musical outfit it is: There is some Skynyrd, some Neil Young and some Rolling Stones-particularly on blues-ier cuts, such as the album's penultimate track, "Knot Comes Loose," intermingled with a decidedly contemporary tone. Bands such as Radiohead and Bright Eyes have had a heavy influence on the experimental and ambitious nature of Z just as much as any classical musician has.
Particular innovation can be found on the album's opening song (and statement of purpose), "Wordless Chorus."
On the opening track James sings, "So much going on these days/ Forget about instinct, that's not what pays/ Pleasure up and down my smile/...Tell me spirit/ What's not been done?/ I'll rush out and do it/ Or are we doing it now."
Is My Morning Jacket doing it now? Absolutely.
e.green@chronicle.utah.edu
Reuters/Billboard
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051014/review_nm/review_music_albums_dc_1
ALBUM: ELIZABETHTOWN
With the curatorial efforts of director Cameron Crowe, the soundtrack to "Elizabethtown" kicks up a Southern rock feel for the romantic comedy set in Kentucky. Beyond tender contributions from Ryan Adams, Patty Griffin and Wheat, the album sports the Tom Petty oldie "It'll All Work Out" as well as the new "Square One." Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham turns in "Shut Us Down," a breathy and surprisingly modern effort, while My Morning Jacket (which also appears in the film as the fictional band Ruckus) donates the awesomely lackadaisical "Where to Begin." Elsewhere, Elton John's "My Father's Gun" underscores the father/son bond that fortifies the storyline. While the soundtrack loses gas by the end of its run, each song is a great success.
Philadelphia Inquirer/Akron Beacon Journal
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/living/12909952.htm
My Morning Jacket plainly euphoric
Z
My Morning Jacket
ATO
As they refined and distilled their reverb-drenched brand of cosmic country ballads and dueling-guitar rock over the course of their first three albums, My Morning Jacket became the indie-rock band of choice for the jam band crowd and the jam band endorsed by indie rockers.
Z, the Louisville, Ky., quintet's fourth full-length album, will come as a surprise to both camps: it's a joyful set that ventures into slinky soul backbeats, densely layered vocal harmonies, and terse, immediately catchy melodies.
Like Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin and Wilco's Summerteeth, MMJ's Z is a pop record made on the band's own terms. Even at its most compact -- the 2:26 What A Wonderful Man, which rivals the Polyphonic Spree for giddy euphoria -- Z makes room for bursts of heavy guitars, and Jim James' soaring, echoing vocals link the warped blue-eyed soul of the aptly named Wordless Chorus to the spacey guitar jam of Dondante.
-- Steve Klinge
Philadelphia Inquirer
Good review in Kerrang, which is where I first read about the band all those years ago.
Would love to contribute myself to the debate, but living in England we become so dependant on the charity of others.
Feel the angst.
wordawg
CMJ.com
MY MORNING JACKET
Z
We're not in Kentucky anymore. On their fourth album, My Morning Jacket have largely abandoned their trademark reverb-heavy hickster sound for straightforward indie rock, and the results astound. Frontman Jim James leads his group into new, minimalist territory with the addition of keyboardist Bo Koster and guitarist Carl Broemel. Building tracks like "Into the Woods" slowly and thoughtfully, My Morning Jacket emerge as the love children of Neil Young and Steve Reich, placing epic guitar solos atop carefully layered bass and keyboard passages. While James's vocals remain awash in reverb, Z lets the singer play with more complex lyrical passages, trying his hand at lush, surf-rock harmonies in "Wordless Chorus." My Morning Jacket also visit the beach on Z's catchiest number, "Off the Record," a hook-laden pop song built around the theme from Hawaii 5-0's chirpy guitar solo. It's a group barn-burner that proves, years later, that a full band still stands behind James' reverb-driven vision.
-- MIKE GREENHAUS
http://www.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,16373,1596547,00.html
How is he hearing a completely different Album than 99% of the other people who have reviewed this CD? I don't get it.
My Morning Jacket, Z
3 stars (RCA)
David Peschek
Friday October 21, 2005
Guardian
Kentucky's My Morning Jacket specialise in a reverb-drenched Neil Youngish melancholia - intensely lovely, but essentially conservative. Z, however - well, most of it - presents a huge leap forward. Its opening trio of songs recalls both the Flaming Lips' fusion of Americana and electronics and also that point in the early 1990s when the sound of bands like Primal Scream and the Boo Radleys moved suddenly into Technicolor: amazing, unexpected, star-gazing music, full of wonder.
Unfortunately, four of the 10 tracks are deeply pedestrian, heartland rock, of which Off the Record is the nadir: a horrible, cod-reggae lurch that appropriates the opening six notes of the Hawaii 5-0 theme. Worse, presumably - like Charlotte Church - tired of having the voice of an angel, several songs find Jim James singing with the voice of a brickie. This from a man capable of the intoxicating, exquisitely riven falsetto on show in Dondante. Why bother being average?
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0544/051102_music_notable.php
My Morning Jacket
Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, Jim James and co. served as music consultants to Cameron Crowe during the making of Elizabethtown, which they also cameo in playing—what else? Skynyrd. But they've practically become a new band on their just-out Z (ATO), shedding the trash-rock steez for a more laid-back rock vibe. Saul Williams opens. Showbox, 8 p.m. $18 adv./$20