My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket is an American rock band from Louisville, Kentucky. The band consists of Jim James (singer-songwriter, guitarist), Tom 'Two-Tone Tommy' Blankenship (bassist), Patrick Hallahan (drummer), Carl Broemel (guitarist, pedal steel guitarist, saxophonist, vocalist), and Bo Koster (keyboardist, percussionist, vocalist).^[1]

History

Jim James of My Morning Jacket performing in San Diego during their 2008 U.S. tour.

My Morning Jacket was formed in 1998 in Louisville, Kentucky by singer, songwriter and guitarist Jim James (real name: James Olliges Jr). The original line-up also included three members of the Shelbyville emo-punk band Winter Death Club; namely John McQuade (later known as Johnny Quaid - guitar and vocals), Tom Blankenship (later known as Two Tone Tommy - bass) and J. Roberts (later known as J. Glenn - drums). Winter Death Club were signed to Charleston indie label Street Records in 1997 by Tas Taiganides after he booked them and Jim James (performing as "Month of Sundays") for a "Punk Rock Matinees" show at the Horse & Cart Cafe. Winter Death Club released a 7" split single with Eurogression on Street Records. Jim James was also offered a record deal, but he declined the offer, disbanded Month of Sundays and formed a new band with Quaid, Blankenship and Glenn. The band was named My Morning Jacket and subsequently signed to Darla Records.

The band's debut album, The Tennessee Fire, was released in May 1999. The following year, keyboardist Danny Cash was added to the line up. A second album, At Dawn, followed. It again featured drummer J. Glenn, but he had already left the band by the time it was released in 2001. Glenn was replaced by Chris 'KC' Guetig, although he was replaced by James' childhood friend Patrick Hallahan in May 2002.

My Morning Jacket signed with ATO Records in 2002. In 2003, they released It Still Moves, their major-label debut. This was followed by a live EP Acoustic Citsuoca, which was notable for the absence of reverb on Jim James' vocals and thus sounded very different from their earlier works.

In January 2004, Quaid and Cash left the band and were replaced by Carl Broemel and Bo Koster respectively. In November 2004, the band released two collections of early work, which included demos, live recordings, and cover versions. These discs are entitled Early Recordings Chapter 1 – The Sandworm Cometh and Early Recordings Chapter 2 – Learning.

October 2005 saw the release of the critically acclaimed album Z, released by Sony BMG. The band was featured (under the name Ruckus) in the 2005 film Elizabethtown. They contributed an original song "Where to Begin" and "Same In Any Language" written by Nancy Wilson of Heart.

In 2006, My Morning Jacket were musical guests on the Late Show with David Letterman, performing with members of the Boston Pops, with whom they played two shows at Boston Symphony Hall later in the month. In 2006 the band also released a live double album and DVD entitled Okonokos.

In 2007, the band opened for Pearl Jam at Lollapalooza in August, and recorded their album Evil Urges, which was released on June 10, 2008. Prior to its release, they performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April, and at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in June. It was followed by a June 20 show at Radio City Music Hall.

My Morning Jacket during their four-hour set at Bonnaroo 2008 on June 14

Their 2008 Bonnaroo set lasted almost four hours, starting at midnight on Friday; it featured guest appearances by Kirk Hammett of Metallica, comedian Zach Galifianakis and the Nashville-Louisville horns. Unfazed by a torrential downpour for much of its first half, the band's set went on to feature thirty five songs, including all but two tracks from Evil Urges and several covers, such as Erykah Badu's "Tyrone", Kool and the Gang's "Get Down on It", Sly and the Family Stone's "Hot Fun in the Summertime", James Brown's "Cold Sweat", Bobby Womack's "Across 110th Street", Funkadelic's "Hit It and Quit It", Velvet Underground's "Oh! Sweet Nuthin" and Mötley Crüe's "Home Sweet Home".

On May 10, 2008, they were the musical guest on Saturday Night Live and played "Evil Urges" and "I'm Amazed". In August 2008, an animated music video for the song "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part 2" was released. The video was created by the graphics design team Hornet's Mixtape Club. The Autumn 2008 European Tour had to be canceled after Jim James was injured in a fall from the stage in Iowa City, Iowa. Evil Urges was nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative rock Album

The band was featured on CNN's 2009 New Year's Eve show with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin, performing from Madison Square Garden. The band supported Neil Young on his Australian tour and played the Big Day Out festival. Celebración de la Ciudad Natal, released on Record Store Day, April 18, 2009, is an eight song EP taken from two live recordings, notably the band's Summer 2008 Waterfront Park concert in their hometown of Louisville, KY. In May 2009 Open Salon rock critic MJ Wycha called My Morning Jacket "the best thing to happen to rock music in years."^[2]

The entire band appeared as themselves in the American Dad episode, "My Morning Straitjacket", which aired on November 22, 2009. The episode featured the single Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Part 2 in a psychedelic music video experienced by Stan Smith. Stan then enjoys I'm Amazed and changes his doorbell to an excerpt of Phone Went West. Remnants plays as Francine gets Stan backstage to meet Jim James in person. The episode ends with a live performance of Wordless Chorus.

At one point, there were plans for My Morning Jacket to tour as The Electric Mayhem, the fictional band from the puppet series The Muppet Show. The band would have performed live backstage, while animatronic versions of the puppet characters appeared on stage. However, The Walt Disney Company, who own the rights to The Muppets, abandoned this project.^[3]

In 2010, My Morning Jacket took up residency at New York's Terminal 5 on October 18, 19, 21, 22 and 23, performing one of their five studio releases each night along with additional material from the relevant period.^[4] According to the September 16, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone, My Morning Jacket has started working on their next LP. "We've got five songs done," says front man Jim James. "It'll probably be out next spring." James is co-producing the record with The Decemberists collaborator Tucker Martine in an old church in My Morning Jacket's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. "We're trying to do everything but the strings live," says James. "There's something old and dirty-sounding about it." Their sixth album Circuital was released on May 31, 2011. On October 12, 2010, My Morning Jacket performed on Late Show with David Letterman. The performance was webcast live on CBS.com. The band also played Late Night with Jimmy Fallon along with The Roots on October 13, 2010. They also appeared on VH1's Storytellers on June 3, 2011.

In 2013 it was announced that the band would be hosting and performing at their own One Big Holiday all-inclusive music festival at the Hard Rock Hotel Rivera Maya in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico. Along with the band, The Flaming Lips, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Miriachi El Bronx would round out the four night event that took place January 26–30, 2014. In 2015 the second One Big Holiday festival took place at the same resort between January 31-February 4. The second festival featured Band of Horses, Dr. Dog, The War on Drugs, Dawes, Sylvan Esso and Biz Markie.

In early 2015, it was announced that the band would headline the Boston Calling Music Festival in May 2015. ^[5] On March 3, 2015 the band's seventh album The Waterfall was announced, with a release date set for May 5, 2015. The first song available from this release is called Big Decisions.

Jim James performing at the Langerado Music Festival, 2007

Band members

Current members

• Jim James – vocals, lead and rhythm guitars (1998–present)
• Tom Blankenship – bass (1998–present)
• Patrick Hallahan – drums, percussion (2002–present)
• Bo Koster – keyboards, percussion, backing vocals (2004–present)
• Carl Broemel – guitar, pedal steel, saxophone, backing vocals (2004–present)

Former members

• Johnny Quaid – guitar, backing vocals (1998–2004)
• Danny Cash – keyboards (2000–2004)
• J. Glenn – drums (1998–2000)
• Chris "KC" Guetig – drums (2000–2002)

Timeline

Side projects and guest appearances

Side projects

• Carl Broemel has released two solo albums, Lose What's Left in 2004 and All Birds Say in 2010.

• James released the EP "Tribute to" as Yim Yames on August 4, 2009. It features versions of six George Harrison songs recorded live in 2001.

• James, along with Mike Mogis, Conor Oberst and M.Ward, formed the group Monsters of Folk, who released a self-titled album on September 22, 2009.

• Jim James released his debut solo album, Regions of Light and Sound of God on ATO Records on February 5, 2013.

• Patrick Hallahan is a member of the group Spanish Gold who will be releasing their debut album South of Nowhere on May 27, 2014.^[6]

• Johnny Quaid has released 2 albums with his project The Ravenna Colt. Slight Spell was released in 2010 and Terminal Current in 2015 on Removador Recordings & Solutions and Karate Body Records.

Guest appearances

• James performs on the track "At the Bottom of Everything" on Bright Eyes 2005 album I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.
• James performs on two tracks on M. Ward's 2005 album Transistor Radio and on his 2006 album Post-War.
• James sings on "Independent Thief" on Kathleen Edwards' 2005 album Back to Me.
• James provides background vocals on "I'm Not Sorry" and handclaps on "Flower" on Follow The Train's 2006 album A Breath of Sigh.
• James performs on "Chinese Translation" and "Magic Trick" (the latter of which he produced) on M. Ward's 2006 album "Post-War".
• James and Hallahan perform on a cover version of their track "Golden" on America's 2007 comeback album, Here & Now.
• James, Koster and Broemel perform on fellow Louisville band VHS or Beta's 2007 album Bring On the Comets.
• James appears in the 2007 Bob Dylan film, I'm Not There, performing "Goin' To Acapulco" with the band Calexico.
• Hallahan joined San Antonio-based band Hacienda, who backed Dan Auerbach on the tour to for his 2009 solo album, Keep It Hid.
• James sings "St. James Infirmary" and "Louisiana Fairytale" on the Preservation Hall Jazz Band's 2010 album, "Preservation: An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall and the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program."
• James performs backing vocals on Tift Merritt's song "Feel of the World" on her 2010 album See You On The Moon.
• Koster performs on several tracks on Everest's 2010 album On Approach.^[7]
• Koster performs on several tracks on Young the Giant's debut album.^[8]
• James performs backing vocals on the title track of Dr. Dog's 2010 album, Shame, Shame.^[9]
• Broemel performs on Wanda Jackson's 2011 album The Party Ain't Over.^[10]
• Broemel performs on Abigail Washburn's 2011 album City of Refuge^[11]
• James and the Del McCoury Band were guest performers at the Preservation Hall Jazz Band concert on March 17, 2011 at the SXSW festival. The performance was filmed for the Austin City Limits show.^[12]
• James sings backing vocals on Laura Veirs' 2010 album "July Flame".
• James performs lead vocals on the track "Progress" on Booker T. Jones 2011 album The Road from Memphis.
• James performs backing vocals for Nicole Atkins' song "War Is Hell" on her 2011 album Mondo Amore.
• Blankenship, Hallahan and James wrote articles for the July 2012 issue of Louisville Magazine.^[13][14][15]
• My Morning Jacket perform on "Long As I Can See The Light" on John Fogerty's 2013 album Wrote a Song For Everyone.^[16]
• My Morning Jacket covers the Songs: Ohia track "Farewell Transmission" and Jim James performs with Bro Stephen on a cover of "Almost Was Good Enough" on the Jason Molina tribute album Farewell Transmission, released on April 22, 2014.

Discography

Studio albums

• The Tennessee Fire (1999)
• At Dawn (2001)
• It Still Moves (2003)
• Z (2005)
• Evil Urges (2008)
• Circuital (2011)
• The Waterfall (2015)
• TBA^[17] (2016)

Film, TV and compilation appearances

Film

• The Lookout - "One Big Holiday"^[18]
• Elizabethtown - "Same in Any Language" and "Where To Begin"^[19]
• I'm Not There - "Goin' to Acapulco" (Performed by Jim James and Calexico)^[20]
• Stick It - "One Big Holiday"^[21]
• Before the Music Dies^[22]
• He's Just Not That Into You - "I'm Amazed"^[23]
• Winter Passing - "Old September Blue"^[24]
• Love for Levon - "Ophelia", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" with Roger Waters^[25]

TV

• Beautiful Noise, season 3, performing "Off the Record" and "Highly Suspicious"
• Saturday Night Live, aired on 5/10/08, performing "I'm Amazed" and "Evil Urges"
• Austin City Limits, aired on 11/5/06 and 11/1/08
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien, aired on 9/13/03, performing "One Big Holiday" and on 6/19/08 performing "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream, Pt. 2"
• The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, aired on 9/22/08, performing "I'm Amazed"
• Late Show with David Letterman, aired on 6/8/06 performing "Gideon" with the Boston Pops, and on 10/12/10 performing "The Way That He Sings"
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, aired on 11/9/05
• American Dad! episode My Morning Straitjacket, aired on 11/22/09
• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, aired on 10/13/10, performing "Wordless Chorus" with The Roots
• How I Met Your Mother, episode "Game Night" (Season 1, Episode 15), performing "Off The Record."
• How I Met Your Mother, episode "False Positive" (Season 6, Episode 12), performing "Xmas Time Is Here Again."^[26]
• How I Met Your Mother, episode "Karma" (Season 7, Episode 18), performing "Look At You."
• VH1 Storytellers, filmed 2/24/11, airing Spring 2011^[27]
• House, episode "After Hours" (Season 7, Episode 22), performing "Victory Dance"^[28]
• The Vampire Diaries, episode "Homecoming" (Season 3, Episode 9).
• Gossip Girl, episode "The Jewel of Denial" (Season 5, Episode 3). performing "Movin' Away".
• Wilfred (U.S. TV series), episode "Progress" season 2, episode 1
• Fringe, episode "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones" (season 1, episode 7) aired on 11/11/08, performing "Thank You Too!"

Compilation appearances

• Little Darla Has a Treat for You Vol. 14: "Mother" (2000)
• Louisville Is for Lovers Vol. 1: "Take My Breath Away" (February 2001)
• 2 Meter Sessies Volume 10: "Old September Blues" (September 2001)
• Louisville Is for Lovers Vol. 2: "Sweatheart" (February 2002)
• KVRX 91.7 FM presents local live v.6 unlimited bandwidth: "Bermuda Highway" & "The Bear" (June 2002)
• ATO Records 53: "The Way That He Sings" (October 2002)
• A Gift from a Garden to a Flower: A Tribute to Donovan: "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" (November 2002)
• Oxford American 2003 Southern Music CD No. 6: "Evelyn Is Not Real" (2003)
• The Mother Lodge: A Tribute to the Rudyard Kipling, Volume 1: "Behind that Locked Door" (March 2003)
• Live from Bonnaroo 2003: "Dancefloors" (October 2003)
• X-Ray CD No. 10: "One Big Holiday" (October 2003)
• 270 Miles from Graceland - Bonnaroo 2003(DVD): "Lowdown" (November 2003)
• ATO Records 54: "Steam Engine" (December 2003)
• Live @ The World Café Volume 18: I'll Take You There: "Golden" (September 2004)
• KCRW Sounds Eclectic 3: "One Big Holiday" (October 2004)
• SPUNK Days of Future Past: "The Way That He Sings" (October 2004)
• KEXP presents Music That Matters Vol. 1: "Golden (live)" (November 2004)
• KFOG Live from the Archives 11: "Golden" (November 2004)
• The Wired CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share.: "One Big Holiday" (November 2004)
• Louisville Is for Lovers Vol. 5: "Blue Moon" (February 2005)
• Return to Sin City - A Tribute to Gram Parsons (DVD) (March 2005)
• Bonnaroo Music Festival 2004: "One Big Holiday" (April 2005)
• Live From Bonnaroo 2004 (DVD): "One Big Holiday" (May 2005)
• Live at KEXP Volume One: "The Way That He Sings" (June 2005)
• Elizabethtown - songs from the brown hotel (EP): "I Will Be There When You Die" (August 2005)
• Austin City Limits Music Festival - Live From Austin, Texas 2004: "The Way That He Sings" (August 2005)
• Austin City Limits Music Festival - Live From Austin, Texas 2004 (DVD): "The Way That He Sings" (August 2005)
• Elizabethtown (soundtrack): "Where to Begin " (September 2005)
• For a Decade of Sin: 11 Years of Bloodshot Records: "Behind that Locked Door" (October 2005)
• MOJO: Born in the USA Volume 2: The New American Songbook: "Sooner (live)" (December 2005)
• Louisville Is for Lovers Vol. 6: "Epichord" (February 2006)
• On XRT: Live from the Archives, Volume 9: "Off the Record (live)" (October 2006)
• Endless Highway: The Music of The Band: "It Makes No Difference" (January 2007)
• Temptation: Music From The Showtime Series Californication: "Rocket Man" (June 2008)
• Paste Magazine - New Music Sampler - Issue 44: "I'm Amazed" (July 2008)
• Dark Was The Night: "El Caporal" (February 2009)
• Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine: "All the Best" (July 2010)
• Dear New Orleans: "Carnival Time" (August 2010)
• Rave On Buddy Holly: "True Love Ways" (June 2011)
• Muppets•The Green Album: "Our World" (August 2011)
• The Music Is You: A Tribute to John Denver : "Leaving on a Jet Plane" (April 2013)
• "Farewell Transmission: The Music Of Jason Molina" : "Farewell Transmission" & "Almost Was Good Enough" (April 2014)

References

External links

• Official website
• My Morning Jacket Storytellers on VH1