What was the first song from MMJ that made you understand that they were a band of a different breed?
Mine was 'Mahgeetah' that was on an American Eagle cd after buying som clothes. From the moment I heard the background vocals and chorus I knew I was being introduced to something very special.
My Morning Jacket restored faith in me that good music still exists while producing a sound that reaches the soul not simply the ear.....words cannot begin to explain
The first time I played At Dawn...
I read an article in Mojo magazine that intrigued me & I went ahead & ordered AD & TF from Amazon without having heard any of the tracks; before the days of internet music I used to do this all the time.
By the time I got to Lowdown & then The Way That He Sings I knew that MMJ were something very, very special :)
the way he sings...at first i couldnt understand a fucking thing jim was saying, but i was mesmerized by the song nonetheless
being only a recent convert - i'd read some really great reviews of Z, then i bought a copy of filter mag - and was intrigued by ideas of silos, magic, muppets.... i was hooked by the end of wordless chorus when i finally bought Z, but what really got me was the tingling on the back of my neck at jim's vocals at the end of the track. you know you find something really special when that happens - no going back now....
:)
Dancefloors.
A buddy of mine played it in his car one night after pickin' me up from work, and I was taken.
A good buddy of mine from Jackson, TN (the guy who started this thread) introduced me. I got hooked on the commercialized tune "one big holiday"
Quotei was hooked by the end of wordless chorus when i finally bought Z, but what really got me was the tingling on the back of my neck at jim's vocals at the end of the track. you know you find something really special when that happens - no going back now....
:)
right on ali
Mahgeetah!
CDUniverse kept recommending ISM to me so i bought it at my other store and the first time i listened to it, it was bedtime and i drifted off to sleep and woke up when "golden" played then i had that on repeat for about 40 turns...
it reminded me of kissing my husband (then a long-distance boyfriend) for the first time, i just thought, oh yeah, that's the stuff... *swoooooon*
Lowdown
I knew about them for a while but after I heard Wordless Chorus I started touching myself in naughty places.
Tonight I Want to Celebrate With You.
And then, waaaaay later, It Still Moves in my brother's truck. I had to play it twice (it was a long drive, luckily). I will never forget how excited I felt. :)
I read a review of the band that sounded like it would be something I would like, so I downloaded some songs. I don't know if it was the FIRST song I heard but, I remember palying The Bear and just being STUNNED, motionless and enthralled. Jim's voice struck a place deep in my soul. The way the song builds and the emotion that is just so evident, the lyrics........Oh Lord, The Bear captivated me and I knew at that moment that it I had stumbled upon something very special that effected me in a way that no other music has. It was like finding something you believed in your mind existed but had never really touched. I was just SHOCKED at the connection It made with me.
i heard jim sing "the bear" live solo when he toured with bright eyes.
it was awe-inspiring, to saythe least.
i became obsessed with findinfg that song afterward.
and when i met him this fall in boston, i rambled about hearing the bear..and felt embarassed.
but it's still one of my favorite songs ever.
Come Closer...I had never heard reverb like that. Blew my mind.
Though I'm from Louisville, I never made the effort to see the band in the early days. I was even at an MMJ show, and saw their openers, Cloverleaf and HElgeson story, but I left before they went on, because I was turned off by the fact that they were all wearing cowboy hats. :P
But a few days later, I heard Heartbreakin' Man on the radio, and I was like 'shit! I should've stayed.
Then I bought the disc, and heard 'War Begun,' and it was like the church scene in 'Blues Brothers.' Or maybe the church scene in 'Hustle & Flow.'
I had It Still Moves for long enough to be on the verge, but it wasn't until one afternoon on vacation in the smokey mountains on the back deck of my cabin and heavily under the influence of red wine and (....well we could be here all day) that I realized that this was more than just music. I am pretty sure for just a moment during golden as the afternoon sun burned across the mountain peaks, I actually levitated a few inches off the deck.
Seriously.
And that tingly feeling that you get in the back of your neck. That used to only happen to me during a few Floyd songs and maybe a couple others. But now it overcomes my body everytime I hear MMJ. And here I am one year, and 9 studio and countless live CD's later, beggin for more!
But you know, talk is often cheap and filled with air, so fire it up, close your eyes and tingle.
Quoteit wasn't until one afternoon on vacation in the smokey mountains on the back deck of my cabin and heavily under the influence of red wine and (....well we could be here all day) that I realized that this was more than just music. I am pretty sure for just a moment during golden as the afternoon sun burned across the mountain peaks, I actually levitated a few inches off the deck.
Wow. That sounds pretty damn perfect. :)
Mine was At Dawn, first song of the first cd I had. Goodness, what an introduction.
If I remember well, Bermuda Highway, or Hopefully.
Anyway, it's a long time ago.
What de-flowered me wasn't a song but the "at dawn" cover.
Beauty beyond words...
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005IBZT.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Anyhow, the song:
Bermuda Highway
my intro was hte 9:30 club recording, streaming from this site. the laylow, dondonte run thru stretch floored me. only with 'at dawn' though were my eyes truly opened. strangulation, honest man, if it smashes down......unique and so goddamn beautiful. listening to Z on my headphones as loud as they go, walking the streets at 2 am with a joint freshly burned, several beers injested. i had the biggest smile.
"One Big Holiday" on Conan. I bought ISM the next day.
Golden from Acoustic Citsuoco. I got that and It Still Moves around the same time. I wasn't real familiar with it from ISM but AC and me got real close, real fast and the rest just fell into place.
One Big Holiday.
Of course.
It didn't even take a second. I was flipping channels and went straight by what looked to be a lion shaking his mane to the rebirth of Led Zeppelin, and immediately switched back and watched the second verse to the end of that song in sheer amazement and glee. That pretty much sold me.
Quotea lion shaking his mane to the rebirth of Led Zeppelin
Very nice Tom, I like that a lot ! :)
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Very nice Tom, I like that a lot ! :)
The best analogy of all time. Good one Tom.
Thankye, I sure do try. :)
Quotethe way he sings...at first i couldnt understand a fucking thing jim was saying, but i was mesmerized by the song nonetheless
Ditto...Morning Becomes Eclectic...2003(?) I think it was. I hunted down the song and found the Sweatbees EP online..got it....emailed Jim James...he kindly responded...saw them that summer at Charlotte's CityFest..got to meet Jim there..and...the rest..as they say...is history...still in the making :-)
I was in the hospital the night when MMJ was on Conan for the first time. I was rockin' out so hard to One Big Holiday. The next day, my buddy called me and telling me about this awesome band he saw on Conan the previous night. The very next day, we drove around for an hour trying to find somplace that had It Still Moves.
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Mine was 'Mahgeetah' that was on an American Eagle cd after buying som clothes. From the moment I heard the background vocals and chorus I knew I was being introduced to something very special.
hey i have that cd too. except i never listened to it fully.
so anyways i got Z first and because Into the Woods comes before Dondante I was in awe of Into the Woods first- because of the lyrics and everything but also because of the singing-saw sounds. I've tried to play a saw but it hasnt worked out yet.
Someone on the boards here used the phrase going into a coma when they heard something. That's just about what happened when I heard Dondante- even though i didn't know what Jim was singing about. I also listen to this song sitting in hallways at university waiting for class. I usually have a huge smile on my face and sometimes get asked if I`m okay/high. ;)
Mahgeetah - absolutely blew me away the first time I heard it ...from then on I was hooked
I was getting ready for work one morning in early 2004. I think I was actually ironing something. Anyhow, I always listen to this one radio station as I'm running around tryint to get out the door...so I'm not really paying attention and this song starts...and I actually stopped ironing and just kind of stared at the radio for I don't know how long. It was Golden. I heard that voice and I was seriously thinking HOLY SHIT!
It was one of those rare moments when something brand new literally picks you up and moves you to a new dimension of beauty in music. I was hooked from the second I heard that lonesome picking....as everyone else has said....the rest is history! GAWD, I LOVE THIS BAND!!! ;D
QuoteI
It was one of those rare moments when something brand new literally picks you up and moves you to a new dimension of beauty in music. ;D
Couldn't have put it better JacketGirl!
Well, One Big Holiday. Long story though. I went to seee Beth Orton a few years back in Chicago, and missed the opening band except for the last song. It was MMJ and they were doing One Big Holiday. Only I didnt know who they were or what the song was until much later. I just remember thing "holy fuck!", how did these guys end up opening for Beth Orton (if you know her music, i guess MMJ fits with her on thier albums, but not live). I remember a massive amount of hair swirling, and just serious rockin. fast forward to the release of It Still Moves...
I started seeing MMJ in mags when it still moves was about to come out, and they seemed familiar. I must have remembered their name from seeing it at the beth orton show. I checked into it and saw they were for sure that i saw open for her. I work at a music store, and bought It Still Moves shortly after it was released. Took me some time to get into them, at first I only liked the harder tracks and didnt care for the production much. I ended up getting At Dawn later, and it took me FOREVER to get into that one. But once i got into it, i started getting into the mellower tracks on It Still Moves. Its sort of a toss up over which album i like better now. Z is my least favorite, but tracks like Lowdown are just KILLER.
On a side note, we played Z overhead in our store for quite some time. A woman who works thier got really into it. She thinks its the greatest thing since sliced bread. She started playing it for her grandson (yes GRANDSON who is about 3), and now he doesnt like to go in the car unless they play Z! Frikin crazy.
Now, that's good GRANDparenting. Great Story. We love you. Welcome HOME!!!!!
I remember driving to work one morning a few years back and my fave radio station (XRT Chicago) played Golden. I was so moved by this song that by the point the lyric 'and on heaven's golden shore, we'd lay our head' i was openly weeping in my car. probably sounds weak but it just touched me on such an emtional level that i couldn't control it. really the only band since radiohead to hit me that hard (in a GOOD way!) needless to say i went out and bought TF, AD and ISM that evening...god i love these guys...
Same as Tom, One Big Holiday on Conan. I saw all this hair and really heavy guitar stuff, and then when JJ stepped up to the microphone I was hooked immediately! Tom-were you at Bonnaroo last year in front row writing setlist on front of your T-shirt as they performed the songs?
I was record shopping, and picked up ISM on a whim after a friend of mine said their live performance was stellar. As soon as the stylus hit the vinyl, and i heard the first bits of mahgeetah it was like someone had pulled the earth from beneath me.
QuoteSame as Tom, One Big Holiday on Conan. I saw all this hair and really heavy guitar stuff, and then when JJ stepped up to the microphone I was hooked immediately! Tom-were you at Bonnaroo last year in front row writing setlist on front of your T-shirt as they performed the songs?
That's awesome! That
was me! Were you the guy right next to me?
OMFG! I was to your immediate left! Small world. And you did a great job for writing upside down and backward. Let's go for a little bit more toward the middle this year!
Hahaha, for sure.
How in the world did you guess that I was that guy?
I had seen your picture on another thread here, thought you looked familiar, put 2 and 2 together, and got 4.
I heard Run Thru with a good buddy and decided to pick up the album, It Still Moves. Then I heard songs like Mageetah and Steam Engine and couldn't take the record out of the CD player. Ever since I have been obsessed.
At Dawn! I remember a few years back seeing a brief bio on MTV one morning and got to downloading. It's been amazing ever since!