Anybody ever listen to My Morning Jacket???

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (49 of them)
"I Will Be There When You Die" is on the first MMJ record, The Tennessee Fire. It's their best song (on their best record), IMO.

cdwill, Monday, 8 August 2005 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link

I saw them recently play with Wilco and it was a miserable experience. They were always pushing that line with but now they've become a full fledged jam band. The hippies and Phish fans at the show (who now seem to compose about 2/3d's of Wilco's audience) seemed to dig it. I'll still listen to their first two albums though. I love them both.

Jacobo Rock (jacobo rock), Monday, 8 August 2005 17:10 (eighteen years ago) link

two years pass...

Anyone have the live album, Okonokos? It turned up today on eMusic. I'm sure I'll download it, but any thoughts on the disc are appreciated.

I saw them live, BTW, at last year's Langerado festival. Amazing show.

Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 29 April 2008 14:10 (sixteen years ago) link

Don't have that album, but this show from SXSW is fantastic.

willem, Tuesday, 29 April 2008 14:57 (sixteen years ago) link

two years pass...

http://atorecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Carl-Album-282x298.jpg

There was a time early last decade, before embarking on a fantastic stylistic lark that that has at times suggested a meld of Sigur Rós and the Allman Brothers, when My Morning Jacket was still a country band. A loosely defined one perhaps, leaning more toward reverb-soaked strangeness than tears-in-your-beer orthodoxy, but one still significantly informed by the example and standards of the genre. The band has since grown out of most of these traits, ranging out into far more inimitable territory, but at times there’s nothing wrong with yearning for simpler things.

Enter Carl Broemel, the band’s guitarist, whose earthy but sweet new album seems to exist just for this purpose. All Birds Say, his second foray into solo territory, is as attached to traditional country precepts as the band’s early work, meaning that its inflected by these principles without fully embracing them. This sense of distance, apparent on the breezy “In the Garden,” its straight-laced drum hobble seared by an ethereal slide guitar, often has magnificent effects.

Other songs, like the equally languid “Questions,” seem entirely divorced from country influence, but the soul of that influence still maintains a guiding hand over the album’s progress. Broemel’s songs with My Morning Jacket work by expanding the customary scope of country songs, transposing the familiar sounds gleaned from a Kentucky upbringing over broad, breathy passages. The ones here do almost the opposite, drawing out small, recognizable bits—a twang here, a shuffle here—and stretching them out. These songs never race and ramble; they stroll lazily across the lawn and plop down into a chair. It’s a reinterpretation of the genre that feels completely in line with its core principles.

Unfortunately, this kind of languidness takes a toll. All Birds Say is worn down by its sluggishness and suffers overall from a surfeit of ineffectual good humor. A key offender is “Different People,” a lame ballad that aims for wisdom via inclusiveness but ends up sounding like a drugged, defanged Randy Newman track. All this homey positivity is not out of step with the sunny atmosphere established by the music, but it smears a thick layer of schmaltziness over an otherwise sterling effort.

Written by: TishTash (Magic For Your Ears (so called site) on August 29, 2010.

1. All Birds Say
2. Life Leftover
3. In the Garden
4. Carried Away
5. Enough
6. Heaven Knows
7. Questions
8. Different People
9. Sunday Drivers
10. On the Case
11. Retired

Bee OK, Wednesday, 1 September 2010 04:03 (thirteen years ago) link

This band really threw it all away. Everything through It Still Moves is pretty killer and then they fell of a cliff stylistically. Their live show went downhill too. Quite a strange progression from doing a split with Songs: Ohia where they compared favorably but were undoubtedly the under card to doing one of those "we play a different album every night of the week" things at Terminal 5 that's completely sold out as far as I know.

FRESH MEAT (MFB), Wednesday, 1 September 2010 04:30 (thirteen years ago) link

a meld of Sigur Rós and the Allman Brothers

is this a real thing? because it sounds horrible in ways i can't even describe.

a dystopian society awaits if we continue on this path. (contenderizer), Wednesday, 1 September 2010 04:36 (thirteen years ago) link

two years pass...

man these fuckin guys.

i think At Dawn has snuck up and become my favorite record of the last decade.

i have not paid much attention since It still Moves, though. kind of sort of on purpose...

Still S.M.D.H. ft. (will), Thursday, 31 January 2013 03:39 (eleven years ago) link

two years pass...

New album has some jams, some epics, some freakouts and "get the point," which is a gorgeous little folk song. The title track is a monster.

thom yorke state of mind (voodoo chili), Monday, 27 April 2015 03:20 (nine years ago) link

four years pass...

okonokos is still monstrous. is there a single song on it that doesn’t improve immensely on the studio version? it’s nearly impossible to go back to z after hearing the okonokos versions of the singles—it beats 4 u and what a wonderful man are kinda nothing songs in the studio, but they both kick all sorts of ass on this record.

mott the hoopleheads (voodoo chili), Sunday, 30 June 2019 19:35 (four years ago) link

It Still Moves was such a pivotal record for me back in college. I never could quite get into the subsequent releases as much, save for a few songs here and there. I should check out okonokos as it was released in the time frame from when I cared about them.

Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Sunday, 30 June 2019 21:09 (four years ago) link

Yeah definitely check it out, it’s basically a best-of of their current career, except every song is a bit more muscular

mott the hoopleheads (voodoo chili), Monday, 1 July 2019 13:04 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

New album out today.

incapacitant hairdresser society (rizzx), Friday, 10 July 2020 06:21 (three years ago) link

sounding really nice, first track is an instant mmj classic

ACABincalifornia (voodoo chili), Friday, 10 July 2020 18:14 (three years ago) link

Sounds nice yes, but I keep missing the raw energy of earlier albums. It Still Moves still moves me more

incapacitant hairdresser society (rizzx), Friday, 10 July 2020 18:58 (three years ago) link

yeah i don't begrudge them for mellowing out a bit, as long as there are still some moments where the earth shakes

ACABincalifornia (voodoo chili), Friday, 10 July 2020 19:05 (three years ago) link

These guys were pretty unstoppable through their first four albums, in my opinion. Then they got a little shaky on Evil Urges and Circuital, although both of those albums contain absolute stunners alongside some more questionable stuff. I have almost no memory of The Waterfall. Can't recall if I liked it or not - I guess I need to try it again. Listening to The Waterfall II right now and it's just kinda there so far. But I need to give it a more honest listen.

sctttnnnt (pgwp), Friday, 10 July 2020 20:53 (three years ago) link

i was really really really into mmj when i was mostly listening to that mojo magazine stuff. i think it was partly a midwest thing, partly a hometown connection thing. i know they got a lot of shit because of their being jam-band-adjacent and indie-adjacent both, which doesn't sound like a winning combo on paper, but i don't know, i still liked them, just like i still like wilco. the heartland is dead, i hope never to go back, but i have good memories of listening to their music, they killed when i saw them live in '11.

they haven't grabbed me since then. says more about me than it says about them, i think. i got friends i like and respect who still stan them. what my morning jacket are doing has nothing to do with my life, has little to do with the world today as far as i can tell, but i'm glad they still exist and people still listen to them.

Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, 11 July 2020 00:00 (three years ago) link

one year passes...

Okonokos fucking rips. Such a great live album, with a band at its absolute peak.

Mule, Friday, 4 February 2022 15:13 (two years ago) link

One of my favorite live bands, and the one I've seen the most. I've seen them on multiple nights in a row and they've played consecutive sets with no repeats.

The new album is kind of forgettable. Jim's lyrics are never all that, but he's kind of phoned this one in. Some of it is "moon-spoon-June" level.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 4 February 2022 15:46 (two years ago) link

I actually thought the new one was better than the last few, but I've long ago quit paying attention to his lyrics really. The first two songs were awful, but I thought the rest was decent and a few of the tracks reminded me of what I love about them, especially some of the longer burning songs.

a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 4 February 2022 21:54 (two years ago) link

I don't know, maybe the problem is that the lyrics are more comprehensible on this one than they have been on the last few.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 4 February 2022 21:58 (two years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.