to quote my friend aaron, "never trust a person with two first names." typically i live by that rule, but in the case of multi-talented jim james, lead vocalist and guitarist of the band my morning jacket, i will make an exception.  the americana/funk/alt-country band takes it's ironic name from a coat embroidered with the letters "mmj" that jim found inside his favorite bar after it had burned down.

in 1998, jim formed the band in lousiville, kentucky with original members "two tone" tommy on bass, johnny quaid (jim's cousin) on guitar and j glenn on drums, the two latter members left in 2004.  their early work was reverb heavy both instrumentally and vocally.  in fact, jim recorded the vocal track for 2001's at dawn inside of a grain silo.  2005's highly acclaimed, experimental masterpiece, z saw a departure from this technique and became a more experimentally styled outfit.  with evil urges, their fifth l.p released june 10, 2008, we find a continued evolution of their experimental sound.

click here for a october 10, 2005 performance at d.c.'s 9:30 club recorded by npr's all songs considered.  click here for a solo performance recorded at st. david's episcopal church as part of austin, texas' epic festival south by southwest (sxsw).  click here to watch an in-studio set/interview recorded by wxpn's world café from november 10, 2005.  click here for an in-studio set recorded by kcrw for morning becomes eclectic.  if you need more, pick up the live cd/dvd okonokos, released at the end of 2006.

my morning jacket is touring in support of their album, click here to find out if he will be performing near you.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.