Red Mosquito

Great write-ups, liebzz.

Personally, the Tennessee Fire era is hit or miss for me. It all comes together with At Dawn. ISM & Z are the peak, but I still love what follows those albums. The Waterfall was weird, different. I didn't like it at first, but hearing live versions - whoa. Made me think again, now I love that album.

These guys really shine live - people on this board know how good Pearl Jam concerts are, well, MMJ is one of those bands too. Everything gets taken up a notch. There's good quality shows on youtube, especially from The Waterfall tour. And the two shows they did in Forest Hills, NY, also good quality. I've probably seen them 7-8 times now, and would not miss a show unless I had to.

Rob wrote:Great write-ups, liebzz.

Personally, the Tennessee Fire era is hit or miss for me. It all comes together with At Dawn. ISM & Z are the peak, but I still love what follows those albums. The Waterfall was weird, different. I didn't like it at first, but hearing live versions - whoa. Made me think again, now I love that album.

These guys really shine live - people on this board know how good Pearl Jam concerts are, well, MMJ is one of those bands too. Everything gets taken up a notch. There's good quality shows on youtube, especially from The Waterfall tour. And the two shows they did in Forest Hills, NY, also good quality. I've probably seen them 7-8 times now, and would not miss a show unless I had to.

I was at Forest Hills last summer as well. That was a fun show. One Big Holiday at the end was really loud.

I felt the same about The Tennessee Fire until the 20th Anniversary show, which changed the album for me completely and is one of the 5 or so best shows I have seen from any band.

Acoustic Citsuoca (Live EP) - there are some really nice live versions of a few songs here, especially The Bear, which is not acoustic. Sooner is also a much improved version from Chocolate and Ice EP, and also not acoustic so far as I can tell. The last three are all acoustic and possibly just James without the rest of the band. Each of these songs are strong, though I prefer the more laid back feeling of Golden from the album version. Give it a listen for a quick look into some of their slower tunes live, plus a great performance of The Bear.

Z - the second in probably their greatest statements as a band, this album aims high and pretty much nails every song. I think it is the most straight forward rock sounding album, but there’s not a wasted track to be found. The entire opening of Wordless Chorus May be their strongest to date, or at least in serious competition with At Dawn. The way the song just builds as it progresses is about as good as it gets for a song like that...until Gideon comes along and steals that mantle. It Beats 4 U is a strong rocker that proves you don’t need all that reverb for MMJ to rock out (save for James vocals of course). Gideon is maybe the greatest example of how to build a song from a note to cacophony- which was even more amazing when I saw them at Lollapalooza in ‘07 with a symphony orchestra. Things go a bit lighter with What a Wonderful Man - a rarity up to that point being a quick punchy rocker. The first half finished off with the epic Off the Record, which extends out in a psychedelic jam session that is maybe the only one on the whole album after two albums full of them.

The second half of the album is as strong as the first. The combo of Anytime and Lay Low is one of the best in their whole catalogue and just tears it up on both tracks. Lay Low was a song I spent the longest time obsessed with, with that incredible jam of interchanging guitars. Anytime is point blank a perfect single and punches the perfect MMJ rock out.

Two of the most underrated tracks, both catalogue wise and on the album, are Into the Woods and Knot Cones Loose. On an album largely focused on being trimmed down and rock forward, the country circus swagger and playfulness of Into the Woods is welcome and pulls them into new territory sonically that comes out in greater spades on the next album. Knot Comes Loose is a more folky country ballad that really manages to make you hang on every note and lyric when you listen closely.

All this leads to the epic conclusion in Dondante - attack that quietly brings you along until a massive explosion of guitar and drums that punctuates the insane intensity of James’ vocals. That moment feels like a ton of bricks falling on your chest and neither we nor the band ever recover.

This is another brilliant MMJ record, really the third in a row where you are left in awe of how good they can be. For them, these will all tie together in a nice bow in the form of a live album, Okonokos, which comes next...

(politely waits for liebzz to finish his play-through before shitting mercilessly on evil urges)

ghost wrote:(politely waits for liebzz to finish his play-through before shitting mercilessly on evil urges)

In the midst of Okonokos but Evil Urges comes soon. Full disclosure that despite its crazy departure I love that album, particularly the start and end. There are a few clunkers there though and I promise to try to be honest about that.

Okonokos - rarely do I think that a live album is nearly as important and essential to an artist’s catalogue as this release. It really ties up the end of an era for My Morning Jacket before they make the biggest left turn of their career for which there was no real looking back. This live album that is beloved by fans is sort of the final statement on the first half of their career, such that every release can be thought of as pre and post Okonokos.

The 2 hour recording is focused most on Z, the most recent album, and those songs are largely played by the numbers, though perhaps intensified in the live setting. Wordless Chorus is as perfect an opener for a concert as it gets, building as it goes along. Gideon is pretty amazing as it builds here as well in the live setting. One Big Holiday here is so intense and great that I think still it is one of the best live recordings by any band that I’ve heard. I Will Sing You Songs is the slow burner it should be live.

Off the Record is also great here, with a slow interwoven jam that’s not so dissimilar to the jamming in the middle of Rearviewmirror. Dondante is similarly a monster live and really explosive here.

Run Thru might be the best live song on this album, along with One Big Holiday. It’s stretched out and as I noted on the album version, you hang on James’ stretched out chord. The middle jam here is just epic and while it takes a minute for them to break back into things near the end, the payoff is worth it. O is the One that is Real is awesome here as well. Anytime is a great shot of big energy near the end.

At the danger of going down the rabbit hole with each song, I’ll just note there’s really nothing that doesn’t feel charged up and essential on this release and it is worth taking in as if you are at the live show. The DVD is similarly awesome.

Evil Urges - MMJ probably could have rode the wave of either the stretched out It Still Moves or the more efficient but nearly as powerful Z for another 2 or 3 albums with no complaints, but instead throw themselves in an entirely new and creative direction. Admittedly, the results are mixed, particularly in the middle part of the album. Conversely though, there is a ton here that is really excellent.

So that middle part which is basically Sec Walking (boring), Two Halves (also boring), and Librarian (creepy boring) are where the album drags. It is enough to me that the songs don’t fit on an album like this, but I am also not sure these songs would even hack it on their other albums either.

That said, the really excellent pieces of the album lie everywhere else. Evil Urges and Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1 are both to me essential MMJ and collectively announce the departure towards a more catchy experiment melding in more elements focused on different textures and pushing well beyond the guitars that dominate their other albums. Also gone is the extensive reverb on James’ vocals (it appears in places but even there much more subtle than before).

Highly Suspicious is the most divisive song on the album and for good reason. Blasting into funk rock with questionable lyrical choices (I mean, the most repeated lyric outside of “highly suspicious of you” is “peanut butter pudding surprise”). Yet despite that, it’s got a pretty great jam in the second half that grounds a song that at points is exceptionally silly. I am in the pro-Highly Suspicious camp.

I’m Amazed is a very good straight forward rock song where it’s absolutely needed on the record, then you are more off guard with Thank You, Too!, My Morning sexy time! This is the second shift to through the listener off guard but the song seems to work nonetheless - certainly not in the pantheon of great MMJ songs, but in an album of experiments and no boundaries, it fits.

The second sweet spot on this album comes in the form of MMJ’s loudest and most unapologetically rawk duo in the whole catalogue in Aluminum Park and Remnants. I mean, this is pure fire and ear candy after 4 songs that lull you to sleep. After this, it’s all perfect in Smokin’ From Shootin’, which meshes that slower MMJ sound with the sonic direction of this album, and Touch Me, Pt. 2, which has that infectious groove that slows to a crawl before that wild 4 second scream that both jars you and serves as the ultimate conclusion to a wild experience.

You can argue that all this nonsense is, well nonsense, and I can see fans both hardcore and casual rejecting this album offhand due to its weirdness, it’s levity in lyric choices, and it’s unevenness in sound at points, but I think this is one of those albums that benefits from repeat listens and from choosing your own adventure and skipping around a bit. Not their best album but certainly their most interesting at times.

Celebración De La Ciudad Natal - I believe this was a record store day live release focused for the most part on the Evil Urges songs. Those songs are honesty the least impressive on this set, which from an in store performance in Louisville, KY. The best here worth hanging out with for a bit is Where to Begin, and two epic performances - Phone Went West and a near 15 minute Dondante that is pure fire. Again, this non-album release is for fans looking to dig a little deeper.

Circuital - on the most basic level, this album has flashes of the prior two studio releases, and seems to go far in improving on the sonic textures of the last album. Still without much in the way of boundaries here, MMJ seem wiser and more discreet in their use of these sounds to maximum effect. Songs build and crash again, and songs are more focused here than Evil Urges.

Once again, My Morning Jacket masters the opening tracks. Victory Dance’s presentation builds to a grandiose level and its breakdown melds right into a 7-minute Circuital, which might be my favorite track on the album with a hypnotic feel as it builds and rebuilds the layers of sound going on here. The Day Is Coming is also a great song that keeps the album moving in a nice consistent direction. The only track here really to throw anyone for a huge loop would be Holding On to Black Metal, a brilliant song that is ultimately quite heavy despite its difficult to describe groove. First Light is a nice funky tune to follow, and two together show there’s still some fun and creativity outside the box happening here.

The set closes with two slow songs that maybe could have been sequenced better. Alone, each is a fine song though together in this spot it points to being the only place where the album feels like it’s lagging. Slow Slow Tune May be just what it describes, but even in slow motion, the band finds a band to sound like it’s bashing away, especially as the song builds up.

Overall, I think this album was highly successful and built on what they did with Evil Urges. By steering the energy of the prior album in a way that accentuates their strengths better, this one seems superior of the two, even if it doesn’t jump as far off the cliff. Circuital guides you where Evil Urges seems to lurch from one sound to the next, which makes Circuital the better listening experience.

The Waterfall (deluxe edition) - this is the first MMJ record to play like a concept album with James clearly struggling with the fallout of a relationship. I am sure there’s plenty written on that front, but the album highlights the difficulty of separating intertwined lives. While James notes from the outset the need to allow healing and recovery, he still grapples with truly understanding it’s over and what to make of it, then at end he realizes he can’t erase, undo it, or fully extricate himself from it - but know it exists in memory and experience. To that end, it’s a beautiful record in the vein of a Sea Change or similar break up album. The atmosphere here feels sort of like a dream state, and where competing chords tend to bang up against one another in other albums, here they do a bit more melding to sort of emulate an out of body dream like haze as the setting for these personal struggles.

The songs themselves are pretty strong here. Believe (Nobody Knows) is a great building opener, and sort of melds at its end into Compound Fracture, which is the true table setter in terms of the mood of the album. The other immediate highlights for me here (I guess maybe not immediate since I have probably heard this album at least 2 dozen times) are In Its Infancy (The Waterfall), which I love the imagery happening in the lyrics and the adventure happening in the music’s delivery, Spring (Among the Living), Thin Line, Big Decisions, and Tropics (Erase Traces), which is the most interesting song in the album and has that buildup to the end that’s mostly the exception to the hazy musical delivery, almost like breaking out of the album’s trance before his final thoughts in Only Memories Remain.

The bonus material here is mostly excellent as well. Hillside Song would have fit well in this album, though its sound a bit more clear headed. Compound Fracture (Miami Jungle Version) is stellar without the sort of sanding down of the musical delivery that happens on the album version. And Only Memories Remain as a demo sort of captures a bit more of the ache in James’ voice and mood.

Overall folks, MMJ has such an incredible catalogue. That I can speak so highly on an album I tend to rank at or near the bottom speaks more to the quality and power at the top than how I feel about this stuff. While I had heard every one these albums multiple times before going through this journey, there were many revelations in b-sides and live releases I hadn’t explored - and particularly in finding the reissue of It Still Moves, which I had no expectations for and came away floored by what they had done with it. I hope my words here inspired some to pick these guys up and give a fresh listen or otherwise reignited the flame previously sparked by this music. If you played me The Tennessee Fire 20 years ago and told me this band would dominate my playlist for long stretches of time, I would have laughed at you. But here, seeing these artists grow, take big risks, and come out the other side, it’s a worthy journey indeed.

I think a total of 7 archive shows were released on Nugs this week. There's a pair of shows from '07 on there that I want to check out.

Apparently the 2019 Red Rocks shows are going to be posted this weekend.

They are live streaming it tonight for free!! 8:30 ET

Live streaming...Xmas Curtain!! First big top notch song of the show...Easy Morning Rebel - always really loved this song so much...Slow Slow Tune always sounds so good live, and it’s one I skip over if any on Circuital. Sounds great right now...I’m Amazed was really quite good...here starts The War Begun which was epic in Port Chester. Yup quite epic here too...

I don't know what song it is but at the 63 minute mark it is pretty magical.

surfndestroy wrote:I don't know what song it is but at the 63 minute mark it is pretty magical.

Pretty sure that was I’m Amazed. This song now is going to build into a ball of amazing.

Second half of Dodante got me like...

liebzz wrote:Second half of Dodante got me like...

Damnit. Still can’t get an image on here! Basically the Maxell guy in the chair.

And it’s buffering at the tail end of the song.

Simple Torture wrote:

liebzz wrote:Second half of Dodante got me like...

There it is!