My Morning Jacket

A regular guide to new bands heading your way

So, who the hell are they?
Louisville, Kentucky residents Jim James (lead vocals, guitar), Johnny Quaid (guitar), Tommy Blankenship (bass), Danny Cash (keyboards), and Patrick Hallahan (drums). Their awesome, semi-acoustic, reverb-heavy dreaminess is inspired by a vision of combining rock'n'roll with the Muppet Show and Disney.

Appearance:
Scruffy young hipcats who have had those jackets on for a lot longer than a morning.

Disney? The Muppets?
Tut tut. Think back to your childhood. Remember those songs that used to accompany films like The Jungle Book and Bambi? So does Jim James. He grew up in awe of the eerie, instantly memorable numbers. Same went for the Muppets. "There were these fucked-up puppets everywhere," he says, "but they were singing these beautiful songs." His masterstroke is to combine that nursery magic with plangent, ringing, grown-up, slightly Neil Young-y rock.

Intriguing. Has he always been this way?
James has been making music most of his life, much of it with Johnny Quaid, his cousin. MMJ formed in 1998, rehearsing on Quaid's grandparents' farm. There they created their emotional, experimental sound and developed some unusual influences (Roy Orbison, Nina Simone, Etta James) and a fondness for unlikely covers (everything from Rod Stewart's Hot Legs to Bill Monroe's Blue Moon of Kentucky).

What wacky chaps. So then what?
Bizarrely enough, it all took off in the Netherlands. A Dutch journalist got hold of their Darla Records debut, Tennessee Fire, and wrote a huge article. Suddenly, MMJ made all the Dutch critics' top 10 lists. Interest spread back home, and now everybody from the New York Times to Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Doves are fans.

Buy if:
You remember that supernatural, emotional tug you got gazing up at Disney films on screens much bigger than you.

Don't buy if:
You're too busy telling your own kids to turn off that slasher movie and stop listening to Eminem.

So where can I hear this stuff?
My Morning Jacket's Sweatbees EP is released by Wichita on November 25.

Contributor

Dave Simpson

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

My Morning Jacket, The Forum, London

3 stars The Forum, London

Jude Rogers

18, Jul, 2008 @11:24 PM

Article image
My Morning Jacket – review
Every song built to an elemental psych-country crescendo, but My Morning Jacket boast the melodic ballast to anchor them from a drift too far into pretension, writes Mark Beaumont

Mark Beaumont

08, Nov, 2011 @6:50 PM

Article image
CD: My Morning Jacket, Z

(RCA)

David Peschek

21, Oct, 2005 @12:55 AM

My Morning Jacket, Astoria, London

Astoria, London

Tom Hughes

28, Sep, 2006 @11:12 PM

Article image
My Morning Jacket, Garage, London

Garage, London

Carrie O'Grady

12, Feb, 2003 @12:36 PM

My Morning Jacket: Circuital – review
The Louisville natives get back on track with hazy, sometimes utterly resplendent melodies, writes Dave Simpson

Dave Simpson

02, Jun, 2011 @9:50 PM

Article image
Sonic Animation

Australia's most successful dance act, Robert Keiller and Adrian Cartwright, who are bravely biting the hand that feeds them by fingering the world of DJ culture. "I'm a DJ, my head is up my ass!" yells their cheeky new single. Ouch!

Dave Simpson

06, Sep, 2002 @12:59 AM

Article image
Panjabi MC

Rajinder Rai, 27-year old bhangra DJ, whose brilliant pop-rap-bhangra crossover tune Mundian To Bach Ke is causing a mighty stir. Already a smash hit in Germany, where it reportedly sold 100,000 copies in two days, the track mixes Indian breakbeats and chants with a subtle snatch of the title melody from 1980s cult TV programme Knight Rider. You may never look at David Hasselhoff in the same way again.

Dave Simpson

17, Jan, 2003 @1:59 AM

Article image
The Faint

Newer Romantics Todd Baechie (synths, vocals), Clark Baechie, Jacob Thiele (synths), Joel Petersen (bass) and the not inappropriately named Dapose (guitars). Lock up your eyeliner and hide those hair-crimpers...everything you most feared about the 1980s is back!

Dave Simpson

22, Feb, 2002 @1:59 AM

Article image
The Ones

New York transvestite trio Jo Jo Americo (production, vocals), Paul E Alexander (production, vocals) and Nashom (production/electronics). Infamous in the Big Apple as nightlife and fashion leaders, the Ones are making a splash in Europe with their 1980s, Kraftwerk-influenced New York house.

Dave Simpson

14, Feb, 2003 @1:02 PM