Goddamn these angelic songsmiths. With the release of Circuital a month away, what we have here is what is easily the band's best ballad since "Golden" from It Still Moves. Throughout the album, Cap'n Goodies leads his magical fantastical band of twilight surfers through a dim haze, guided only by the lights of fireflies and the sparse moonlight creeping through the canopy. Enjoy.
It's a nice Tuesday treat to hear that the oft-beloved MMJ have returned to form with the title track from their upcoming record "Circuital". A nice classic rock country tinged groove with the driving acoustic guitar rhythms and Jim James' angelic voice returning to soothe the jaded indie rock listeners. Howl away sweet man, howl away.
#9 - My Morning Jacket - At Dawn Darla Records 2001
Matt On At Dawn:
One would think that the connector album between The Tennessee Fire and It Still moves would be awkward, but in true My Morning Jacket fashion it's an ethereal twilight trip through an Ozark-like countryside—and the one that put them on the map.
What a way to spend the weekend. Here is a preview from My Morning Jacket's upcoming "Evil Urges" coming this June. Us at the Team are stoked, despite the atrocious album cover. See you next week, here is what the band had to say:
"hello all you fine and wonderful people out there that are interested in what we do. we now live in the 90's - the era of the interweb and instant gratification. these are confusing times for all humankind, but especially for those of us in the music world as you well know... a week or so ago we played some of our new songs for the first time at a show in houston tx! about an hour later all of those songs were available on the interweb- talk about speed!!! since those and other non-album audiovisual recordings are available to people on the interweb, we wanted to make at least one "real" song version available (if one was interested in what the "real actual studio album" might sound like) to those of you who have supported us most and have seemed most excited about what we are doing over the years.
so here is the song "evil urges". we sure hope you are to enjoy it! we would put the whole thing out there on the interweb, but gosh darn-it, we're still a little old fashioned in that way of wanting the listener to be able to get the actual music when it is supposed to be released, when we say it is finished- not when someone else puts it on the interweb.... but it is the 90's now, we understand that. its a new decade and we want to be part of this decade, but whilst still maintaining a link to the past - where one can't necessarily get everything they want immediately when they want it, but rather when they are told they can have it - by their real life keeper or their digital daddy! we will play both roles here. we all personally relish waiting to unwrap that shrink wrap and smelling that fresh vinyl or compact disc plastic, mmm...that fresh cardboard and paper. or if we buy it off the interweb we all love holding our computers up to our noses and smelling those brand new digital downloads...mmm...fresh! gall durn it- we're just old fashioned that way. sometimes... gentle reader, in this age of instant gratification, waiting can be so rewarding, it can teach us a valuable lesson about the triumph of the human spirit... but sometimes, like our old friend tom petty said- waiting is the hardest part. thank you all for being so supportive of us, and unending in your love... from the bottom of our cold dead hearts!
"Goin' to Acapulco" is a song I never paid attention to that much. Sure, "The Basement Tapes" from Bob Dylan and the Band is an enjoyable affair, but it's not exactly a stand out track by any means.
So why have Will Oldham and Jim James, some of my favourite songwriters and two of the greatest living American artists currently recording and performing, covered this song? Perhaps it is the general challenge behind it: it is not short and the instrumentation chosen to illustrate it are only semi-conventional. It must be the lyrics. After all, who cannot relate to wanting to escape somewhere far to a sweet woman's home, who puts it to you "as plain as day" and gives it to you "for a song"?
Taking a song away from it's lp is and making it create a completely different mini concept is hard, and backing that song's single with 2 songs you didn't write is damn near impossible. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy did just that when he released his single for "Lay and Love" earlier this year, adding 2 Bob Dylan covers to follow the title track, and (along with the artwork) created a 3 track ep of love. I believe Will Oldham covered "Goin' to Acapulco" because of the song's character "Rose Marie", keeping the song sparse other than a commanding trumpet and a rhythm section, slowing down to make sure all the feelings and emotions conveyed have their time to be taken in fully.
Jim James' contribution to the soundtrack of the upcoming "I'm Not There" Dylan biopic finds himself being backed by the mighty Calexico (who does multiple duties all over the album), almost leading the song with strong horns and wonderful drums but as we all know, it's impossible to trump the stellar vocals of James. The wonderful thing about these mp3s are that they're all led by unique and fantastic vocalists, and if anything what makes this special is completely all Jim James. As a whole it works, but without him, it is just any other cover, destined to get lost in the shuffle of obscure Dylan covers.
So while I passed over "Goin' to Acapulco" initially, hearing these 2 great interpretations from the people I trust made me want to go back and take the song in fully. I don't know if I understand it any better, but the covers help make the song a lot more fulfilling.
MP3:My Morning Jacket - Dondante (live) Today's entry has a song from the new live My Morning Jacket record. It's a big file so be patient, but holy fucking fuck is it great. They just made an amazing song just so much more. I was a little bummed that "The Bear" isn't on the 2-disc set but oh well. It's plenty fantastic.
