Kick Off Your Weekend Right: With My Morning Jacket – Holdin On To Black Metal

What a week! I knew things wouldn’t be quiet for too long. We have soooo much to get us pumped up for the weekend – how can things get any better?

First off, My Morning Jacket announced several new shows this week – including a hometown show at the Louisville Palace Theatre on Circuital’s release date, three Canada shows, and Lollapalooza and Kahbang Festival 2011! Hope everyone can make at least one of MMJ’s summer tour dates. It’s gonna be a wonderful summer.

Also on Monday, MMJ released a second single off Circuital via Facebook: “Holdin On To Black Metal.” If “Circuital” didn’t whet your appetite for Circuital, “Black Metal” sure should do the trick!

It’s a darkness you can’t deny

But it don’t belong in the grown up mind

Suppose you’ll find this place will suffice

Coming into life you needn’t cry

This dark, unruly track certainly brightened up my Monday morning this week. Inspired by the Thai-soul track “E-Saew Tham Punha Huajai” by Kwan Jai & Kwan Jit Sriprajan, “Black Metal” has the lyrical and musical fire to incite a riot – in the best possible way. In Jim James’ words, via Rolling Stone:

"I want it to sound like we're Cuban or Cambodian kids, and we're wearing berets and we're walking through an alley and we stumble upon this band, and it explodes into this crazy sing-along….”

Despite minor disapproval among some Facebook fans, MMJ clearly and respectfully pays homage to and credits “E-Saew” as an inspiration for this track. Additionally, Jim has been citing “Siamese Soul” as an influence for months! It’s unfortunate that some would assume otherwise. It’s fantastic that a band in this industry can draw from such diverse genres and time periods for inspiration. Few, if any, other bands are doing such amazing things. It is to be appreciated, not ridiculed!

Catchin’ waves on Lucifer’s beach

Takin’ shade underneath Lucifer’s tree

Gettin’ sustenance from Lucifer’s peach*

Hope you all enjoy (and have been enjoying!) this badass track and live it up this weekend!

*These lyrics are as accurate as I could get them!*

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Kick Off Your Weekend Right: With My Morning Jacket – Chills

The weekend is finally here! I, for one, am especially elated that it’s finally Friday, as I am nearing the end of another hellish semester. I hope you all have something fun and/or relaxing to look forward to this weekend – be it visiting family for the upcoming holiday, seeing friends, or simply having good times as you would any other weekend. Whatever you’re doing, I hope that you all enjoy it!

It’s been a relatively quiet week this week regarding My Morning Jacket news. We’re all just fidgeting in our seats in anticipation for Circuital. I don’t know about you all, but I am wearing “Circuital” and “Octoplasm” out!

Over at The Countdown, we had a particularly unique and energetic week. Covering the first four tracks of Chocolate and Ice, including the epic, 24-minute gem “Cobra.” Yesterday we honored TV On The Radio in recognition of the tragic loss of their bassist Gerard Smith, celebrating one of their more famous tunes “Wolf Like Me.” We’ll have Smith’s family and friends (including TVotR) in our thoughts.

Still, feel that I'm getting ill.

Oh, chills.

Down on my spine


I do on a window sill.

Still, things that go away.

Today’s track veers slightly from the usual “epic jam” Fridays in that it is more hypnotic than euphoric. Rather than leaving us feeling pumped, “Chills” leaves us relaxed and tranquil as we ease into the weekend. I guess “Cobra” wore me out over the past week!

Still, No one else lives your life.


Except yourself. No one else lives your life.

Except yourself. No one else lives your life.


Still, no one else lives your life.

Hope you all enjoy this wonderful track from 2005’s Off the Record single. It’s truly a soothing track that hopefully brings in your weekend with some positive energy! See you on Monday.

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Kick Off Your Weekend Right: With My Morning Jacket – Circuital

I can’t even believe the degree of excitement and wonder I have been feeling this week! So many amazing and thrilling things have happened over the past few days, it almost seems unreal. Let’s start with the major happenings:

-My Morning Jacket released the first single from Circuital, “Circuital.”

-Circuital is now up for pre-order, with a sweet-ass Limited Deluxe Box edition option available.

-Announcement and registration for the new, official My Morning Jacket fan club, called Roll Call.

-A hint about a forthcoming LIVE BOX SET

And just this morning, as part of my Roll Call membership, I learned that MMJ will announce additional summer tour dates! Am I forgetting anything? Am I dreaming?

What an awesome week this has been indeed! And it’s only going to get better in the coming weeks. Over at The Countdown, we’re still covering the EPs and soon will be covering more demos, covers (at request!), and b-sides. Be on the lookout!

Today, it’s probably most fitting to cover a song that is relatively new to us all: “Circuital.”

Although many of us have been listening to You Ain’t No Picasso’s bootleg, live version of “Circuital” since August (or have been lucky enough to have heard it live already!), the recently released studio version really gives us a feel for how the full-length studio album is going to sound. So far, Jim’s description of “wholesome” seems right on.

Spinning out: gracefully.

Going nowhere: quickly.

I am older: day-by-day.

Still going back to my childhood way.

As I am getting to know this track, I realize its ever-increasingly positive effect on my mood. With its tinges of classic rock styles and older MMJ, “Circuital” simultaneously introduces new concepts and styles to us. This lovely seven-minute groove is entirely optimistic about how life is circular and brings us right back to the gorgeous and haunting melody it started out with. “Circuital” itself is circuital.

Circuital:
Round and round, patiently.

Getting lost, by the guide,

And I'm all worked up over nothing….

Ultimately, I think we should let this track (and MMJ) speak for itself:

I hope you all have been enjoying this track as much as I have (and have had it on repeat for the past four days!), and if this track is any indicator of what Circuital is going to feel like, May 31^st can’t come soon enough. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

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Kick Off Your Weekend Right: With My Morning Jacket – O Is The One That Is Real

Happy Friday to you! Hopefully the workweek totally breezed by. If not, then at least we had some exciting things My Morning Jacket-related to lift us up. Monday gave us our last, free Terminal 5 show download from MMJ. Now we have Circuital’s first single to look forward to! My Morning Jacket will be releasing a special 12” limited addition of the single that will be available solely to you lucky Kentuckians.

This week saw a new chapter for The Countdown: the EPs. We’re covering all the songs that we haven’t yet covered from 2000’s Heartbreakin Man to 2002’s Chocolate and Ice (Sweatbees is essentially a compilation). Hope you enjoy!

Always leave your televisor on.

Always give your answers by the phone.

For this lovely Friday, we’ll go with yet another undemanding track. Let’s keep it relaxed, eh? So let’s look at track number one off 2002’s Split (shared with Jason Molina’s wonderful Songs: Ohia), “O Is The One That Is Real.” I usually try not to read too deeply into the meaning of this one. Jim James might have had some kind of vague message with this song, maybe not, but let's not worry about its meaning today! What the hell is a televisor anyway? (I doubt it refers to what Wikipedia says it is, but I digress.)*

If you’re hurt: he wants to feel it.

If you’ve money: he’s your dealer.

If you’re ready for him: I don’t want to see it. Oh!

O is the one that is real.

Confusion aside, we can appreciate this for being another solid track from MMJ. What else should we expect? I hope you enjoy jamming out to this track, and I hope you enjoy the glorious weekend ahead of us! See ya Monday!

The radio is playing!

*If anyone of you fine people has an explanation for this, I’d love some clarity!

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Kick Off Your Weekend Right: With My Morning Jacket – Highly Suspicious

Sweetpickles! This has been a very, very exciting and wonderful week for all of us My Morning Jacket fans. On Monday, we received the third of five free downloads from the Terminal 5 shows. On Tuesday, MMJ announced new tour dates for this summer, choosing to play in very intimate settings. Lastly, new Circuital track titles were revealed in the most recent issue of Rolling Stone (March 31, 2011, pg. 30). We now can add “The Day Is Coming” and “Slow Slow Tune” to our track lists.

This week at The Countdown, we began our fifth segment: Evil Urges. This weekend, we’ll celebrate I’m Amazed Day and Thank You Too Day. Definitely two of my favorite tracks off the 2008 album.

Today, let’s take a look at one of the more controversial tracks off Evil Urges, “Highly Suspicious.”

Wastin’ time home alone, dotting your “i’s”

Peanut butter pudding surprise!

Ain’t nobody care what’s going on in your mind –

But they got they eye on your prize…

I’m sure of all MMJ songs thus far, Highly Suspicious has likely faced the most resistance. Jim’s falsetto and funk overtones make this tune hard to swallow for some of you folks who appreciate MMJ’s “softer side.” However, few can argue that this is an unmistakably unique and inventive track. Another take on “Evil Urges,” “Highly Suspicious” again suggests that we should question what is right and what is wrong, only this time with regard to the law (whereas “Urges” is more faith-related).

Wasting all your time on drama, could be solving real crime

Waste away your mind too…

I’m highly suspicious of you.

Thought I'd include the VHS or Beta Remix!

Whatever your take is on this track, I implore you to take a new listen to it. If you can’t appreciate the musical stylings, at least indulge in the absurdity and deeper lyrical concepts. Enjoy yourself and have a fantastic weekend!

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Kick Off Your Weekend Right: With My Morning Jacket – Lay Low

What a wonderful week this has been! Music-wise, at the very least, so many exciting things occurred this week. The release of J. Mascis’ first solo record this past Tuesday (I recommend picking it up), and in My Morning Jacket news, we received a second “Circuital Countdown download,” a new tour date, and the SXSW premiere of Danny Clinch’s film, Louisiana Fairytale, in which MMJ appears!

We’ve had a great week over at The Countdown as well, coasting right along into the second half of Z, today being Into the Woods Day (which I discussed in Monday’s post). This weekend we’ll celebrate Anytime Day and Lay Low Day. Check the tweets for delightful links, lyrics, fun facts, and more! Exclusively My Morning Jacket-related, naturally.

Lay low why don’t you now?

Lay back awhile and I’ll show ya –

I got the good that you want.

No need to go and hunt something else.

It’s difficult to discuss tremendously ass-kicking guitar solos and duets without mentioning track number eight off the Z album, Lay Low. From Patrick's opening pulse and the entrance Carl and Jim’s call-and-response guitar thereafter, it’s easy to feel how Lay Low is going to build up to something memorable.

Law low if the feel is right,

I got all that I want here in you tonight,

And we’ll pass out on the bedroom floor,

After goin’ like this so long.

This appealing groove, not to mention sexy lyrics, captivates us and takes us somewhere. You think you like what you’ve been hearing for the first half of the tune? Well, prepare to be completely BLOWN AWAY by the second half. Lay Low changes gears from logical, rhythmic patterns into an overflowing, passionate feast of melodic variety that is truly mesmerizing.

So, “in an open car, or wherever you are,” turn up the volume and enjoy yourself! Have a great weekend, everyone!

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