The fact that My Morning Jacket has a new album in the works should come as a surprise to no one. With their appearance at Sasquatch and an upcoming one at Outside Lands, along with a compact national tour, we had a feeling that something was a brewin’. But with the promise of new MMJ tunes comes the fear that singer Jim James, like fellow Monsters of Folk Conor Oberst and M.Ward, have all lost some of the gas that seemed so propulsive five or so years ago. It may sound harsh, but you have to admit that the period of time that saw My Morning Jacket releasing Z, Bright Eyes releasing the two records at once, and M.Ward dropping Post-War seems like a long, long time ago (it was 2005 and 2006). Of the three, James seems to still be writing the strongest material, and there is a good chance that a new My Morning Jacket album will be terrific, hopefully more in the “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream pt.2”.
Rolling Stone recently caught up with James and got a state of the union of sorts, with James commenting on the new record: ”I’m really excited. It’s all live, so the vibe is really, really good, really wholesome. There’s something about it. We’ve done stuff mostly live but then you do some overdubs, some vocals, or whatever. But we’re trying to do everything other than maybe strings live. There’s just something old and dirty about it.”
James said the band already has 5 songs in the can and will pull another month in the studio. “It’ll probably be out mid-next year — probably May.” That seems awfully far away for a record that needs one more month to record (gamblers, take the under in Phil’s pick of the week), unless they are gonna hold out for next year’s festival season. They sure do seem to like festivals.
The record is being recorded in Louisville (in a church, no less) with producer Tucker Martine (The Crane Wife, The Hazards Of Love), but the immediate future will see the band touring the country, which may be the cause the exorbitantly long delay that the new album looks to be put on. Check them out, as they are one of the best live bands in existence.
My Morning Jacket 2010 Tour Dates:
08/11 – San Diego, CA @ SDSU Outdoor Theatre #
08/12 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre #
08/14 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Festival
08/15 – Denver, CO @ Mile High Music Festival
08/17 – Chicago, IL @ Charter One Pavilion
08/19 – Boston, MA @ Comcast Center *
08/20 – Burlington, VT @ Champlain Valley Lawn
08/21 – Boston, MA @ Comcast Center *
08/24 – Newark, NJ @ IZOD Center *
08/25 – Holyoke, MA @ Mountain Park
08/27 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Station Square Amphitheater
08/28 – Rochester, NY @ CMAC
08/29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Great Plaza
10/18 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 – Performing The Tennessee Fire
10/19 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 – Performing At Dawn
10/21 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 – Performing It Still Moves
10/22 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 – Performing Z
10/23 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 – Performing Evil Urges, and beyond!
10/29 – Louisville, KY @ KFC Yum! Center $
10/30-31 – New Orleans, LA @ The Voodoo Experience
# = w/ Avi Buffalo
* = w/ Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
$ = w/ The Louisville Youth Orchestra and Wax Fang
