MMJ Demo Packages

[vespachick]

Either this 1-1/2 year old  :o has aged quite nicely, or this album's second half rules!!

[red]

Shit, I keep forgetting to order this.   :o

[cmccubbin@work]

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/42429/my-morning-jacket-at-dawn-and-tennessee-fire-demos-package/

My Morning Jacket
At Dawn and Tennessee Fire Demos Package
(Darla)
US release date: 12 June 2007
UK release date: Available as import
by Matthew Fiander
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Ah, demos.  The audiophile's fix.  The completist's dream.  Along with the popularity of file-sharing over the years, demos have gained a new place for music fans.  Whether found on the Internet like Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot demos, or tacked onto a re-release like Randy Newman's Good Old Boys, demos can be fascinating and enlightening gems offering insight into the process for many classic albums.  The recent rash of more immediate demo releases, included with pre-orders or made into vinyl-only releases produce less consistent results, but still acknowledge a place in the market for demos and alternate takes.

Like many demos, most of the stuff on My Morning Jacket's At Dawn and Tennessee Fire Demos Package were originally offered on a bonus disc to the first 2,500 buyers of At Dawn.  That they are now being given wide release does call into question not necessarily how "good" these songs are, but what they might reveal about a great band that even the most devoted fan might not have considered before.

Thankfully, the folks at Darla Records know what they're doing, and this collection is plenty worthy of release.  My Morning Jacket has built their career on a blistering live show and brilliant classic guitar work, but little is said of them, and singer Jim James in particular, as songwriters.  These demos, however, seek to do just that.  Stripped of the loud rock band around him, these songs put Jim James on display, and he stands up to the scrutiny well.  "It's just the way that he sings, not the words that he says," James croons on opener "The Way that He Sings" and he could easily be talking about himself.  While much is said of his reverb-soaked, sweetly rolling vocals, very little is said about what the man is singing about.  But without the guitar solos and thumping drums, the demos force the listener to hear Jim out.

And James comes across like a folk singer here, a man clearly in touch with many traditions: folk, country, classic rock, even R&B.  "I Needed It Most" could almost be a hymn, with each word painfully drawn out over faint harmonies.  When James sings "You only gotta dance with me" at the end of "Lowdown", you realize that James' writing is just as heartfelt and bittersweet as his singing is.  This group of songs—the first 10 included here are demos intended for At Dawn—come together not totally as an early version of another album, but almost as their own country-folk collection.  The songs are stocked with subtle guitar lines and group harmonies and harmonicas, and most of the songs sound like you could be hearing them down at the town watering hole, blowing saw dust out of your beer while James and company tap into the high lonesome sound.

Of course, these are demos, so not everything works as well as it could.  A few samples thrown in, of things like automated telephone operators, come off as too cosmetic for songs so organic.  And, of course, there's the sound quality.  While demos can't be expected to sound crystal clear, and these sound great on the whole, a couple of these—the title track in particular—are just grainy enough to put the listener off.  In comparison with the At Dawn stuff, the Tennessee Fire demos included here (and there are only a few) feel tacked on and unnecessary.  Songs like "The Bear" and "Heartbreakin' Man" are great My Morning Jacket staples, but here they sound like rough cuts of the album tracks, offering little in the way of insight into the band's artistic process.

Towards the end of the collection, My Morning Jacket reminds us they haven't forgotten what made them famous: their live show.  The three live tracks here—including setlist favorite "Lil' Billy"—show that this band has always been good live, and has always put a ton of energy into their shows.  The energy even turns a little scary when James starts screaming at the end of "Twilight".  Still, though, these tracks, in particular the version of "War Begun", provide more evidence (if the double live album Okonokos wasn't enough) that My Morning Jacket might be the best live act going.  Still, one can't help but hope that these demos will serve to give James the credit he deserves as a songwriter.  He's been palling around with M. Ward and Conor Oberst for years, and they seem to be getting the credit they deserve.  Is it now finally time to show this songwritin' man some love?

[.Walt]

I love the pics in the booklet.  

yeah, the pictures are awesome. i love the group huddle. also tommy with the money was funny. but i like the profit pie chart the best. heroin and cocaine get around 6% of the profits  ;D

[bo dereks tits]

can you buy this in stores?  or is it only a order from Darla thing?  

I went into my local store today, Bart's in Boulder, CO to buy this and they had no idea what i was talking about  :(

If anyone would have it, they would.  

[ManNamedTruth]

can you buy this in stores?  or is it only a order from Darla thing?  

I went into my local store today, Bart's in Boulder, CO to buy this and they had no idea what i was talking about  :(

If anyone would have it, they would.  

best buy didn't have it, and they do have ch. 1 surprisingly enough. borders may have it, haven't really looked for it i ordered my copy.

[BH]

You can buy it online at amazon, best buy, darla, etc.   If you account for shipping it's cheapest at darla.

[Jellyfish]

Nice to finally have this......it was promised for so long....hope they are not starting to take up Neil Young's habits on that,lol.

I ordered mine from the Homegrown music link posted in another thread on this forum
and got it yesterday,along with a catalog and a nice company logo bumper sticker.

[sweatboard]

anyone know if this is going to be shipped out to CIMS (Coalition Of Independent Music Stores)?  It would be nice.

[Kory]

anyone know if this is going to be shipped out to CIMS (Coalition Of Independent Music Stores)?  It would be nice.

I was in ear x-tacy (our local CIMS store) a couple weeks ago buying a second copy of Acoustic CitsoucA on vinyl and the girl there told me about it coming out and they should be getting it soon. I let her know I already had it and the preorder shipped very early. Long story short, I was in there yesterday and they still didn't have it... Darla may just be taking their time shipping.

[sweatboard]

Right On, Thank You.

[Deez]

Big shout out to Grimey's in Nashville for always having what I want!

[aMD]

picked mine up at ear xtacy this week.

i love these versions of war begun, lil billy, and twilight.  i've said numerous times that they need to relase a live version of war begun and i've also said that that was my favorite version of War Begun many times.  coincidence... yeah, probably.  :-X

way to go george. what a great contribution to the mmj universe!

i like the alternate version of Picture of You, sounds like a blend of the recorded and live versions.

i've had the at dawn demos since they came out so no surprises there but it was fun to give them another couple listens.  i don't know why honest man was left off.  that song gets no respect. and the demo version is very different from the released one unlike at dawn or i needed it most.  small gripe.  great disc!

[BH]

I love how on most of the At Dawn stuff Jim is doing all of the background vocals.  Sometimes as many as three overlaid tracks of Jim!  

Jim vocals + Jim vocals + Jim vocals =  :)

[odatat]

Hey everybody,Theres a real interesting review of the Demo Packages and Month of Sundays cd's at Pitchfork.com

[Angry Ewok]

Hey everybody,Theres a real interesting review of the Demo Packages and Month of Sundays cd's at Pitchfork.com

Umm... No.

[Angry Ewok]

[size=16]Pitch Fork Media[/size]
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com

One can only imagine Mr. and Mrs. James' reaction when Baby Jim spoke his first word in that God-given reverb-drenched voice of his. It seems more like a congenital trait than a byproduct of the band's recording environment, and James heightens the effect by drawing his Kentucky accent into a unique phrasing pattern. With My Morning Jacket, as well as with his previous Louisville outfit Month of Sundays, that reverb became as recognizable as Michael Stipe's introverted mumbling and Thom Yorke's strangled screech-- a means of distinguishing himself sonically from other bands, but more crucially, a means of communicating mystery in a way that no other sound or instrument could.

So it's fitting that Darla Records' long-delayed Tennessee Fire and At Dawn Demos, which collects rough cuts and live takes of songs from the late 1990s and early 2000s, begins with a version of "The Way That He Sings", which James didn't write about himself but which many fans might write about him. Aside from an acoustic guitar, it's all vocals-- two tracks layered simply over one another to form both primary and backing vocals. Most of the songs here-- especially those from Tennessee Fire-- are similarly minimal, with little or no input from other band members. The music feels private and personal, as if these songs are creating their own weird spaces where they can play out unmolested by listener or artist intentions.

The demos for My Morning Jacket's 2001 breakthrough At Dawn feature more of the band, but without sacrificing that same sense of space. "The Bear" and especially "Heartbreakin' Man" sound like inspired practice sessions, informal but spirited, while "War Begun" and "Twilight"-- both recorded live at local station WFPK 91.9 FM-- lose only a little of their effect for sounding so clean.

Like a painter's early pencil sketches or a writer's margin notes, demos are generally noteworthy only for revealing new facets of the finished, familiar works. In a sense, the Tennessee Fire demos might seem redundant because the studio tracks sound something like demos themselves, but these versions also track James' creative process of turning lyrical and melodic ideas into finished songs. "Lowdown" emphasizes his backing vocals more than his lead: Maybe he's singing those ba-ba-ba's as a guide for another instrument, but they become the focus of the song, its primary hook on the demo as well as on the album version. On the other hand, the early version of "At Dawn" is still a wisp of a song in search of a full band who can turn it into the heraldic opener that gives the group's second album its title.

Delving even further back into My Morning Jacket lore, Removador Recordings and Solutions is releasing the only album by James' previous band, Month of Sundays. They formed in 1992 and recorded their first and only release in 1998, the same year My Morning Jacket formed. Saturated in the same reverb, these songs have seen only the most limited release until now. (They're available under the name Mont de Sundua, ostensibly so as not to conflict with any of the Months of Sundays that have sprouted and withered during the last nine years.) While the songs sound a little unformed and raw, Mont de Sundua is hardly a skeleton in James' closet, and those looking for a Y Kant Tori Read embarrassment or some sort of sordid ska past will be sorely disappointed.

Instead, these songs reveal young men just discovering the power of drums and guitars, as well as the possibilities of unusual recording environments. It's often juvenile and unguided, given to meandering passages and noise for its own sake. There's a definite local feeling to the record, too, as if these songs could have been written and performed by any number of skatepunks hanging around outside the public library. But the band play their spacey jams with metal intensity, grinding their riffs into a fine powder on the massive opener "Space Beast" and "One Salty Kiss". And tracks like "Wanna See My Bruise Again?" and the sax-heavy "Boots Bar" show James' early range as a singer and songwriter, the group's dark atmosphere and confident quiet/loud dynamics pointing ahead to their career-making Darla output. Both of these releases are best heard alongside the two Darla full-lengths, which remain My Morning Jacket essentials. Instead of shrinking by comparison, these demos actually benefit from proximity to the official versions, offering an engaging and generous career recap and, more importantly, showing how James' songs live and breathe in different forms.

-Stephen M. Deusner, June 27, 2007

[red]

Finally picked my copy up.  I love being able to put another album on my MMJ shelf.  

[ManNamedTruth]

Hey everybody,Theres a real interesting review of the Demo Packages and Month of Sundays cd's at Pitchfork.com

Umm... No.

What do you mean no? I didn't think it was a bad article.

[red]

What do you mean no? I didn't think it was a bad article.

I love that first paragraph.