Best albums of 2003 - My Morning Jacket's "It Still Moves"

From Philadelphia Inquirer article "Pop's seamy side didn't obscure the creativity" BY TOM MOON on a Year 2003 review:

"While the labels worried about their shrinking market share, new music-delivery models slid from the beta phase into action. Apple Computer's iTunes service instantly showed up the restrictive label-sponsored outposts, such as MusicNet, because it is efficient, easy to use, and actually encourages exploration - something radio has virtually abandoned in the Clear Channel age.

As bleak as all that is, the great leveling power of the Internet has given many hope that music - peddled by fat cats or a lone artist with a Web site - can thrive. The tumult of 2003 hasn't blunted the appetite for artists with vision: Tribes still coalesce around those who make defiantly uncommercial and challenging stuff, be it the White Stripes or England's low-profile post-folkie Thea Gilmore."

And in the rundown of best albums of 2003, one of our favorites - My Morning Jacket's "It Still Moves". Inquirer Music Critic Moon continues:

"A challenge for aspiring rock bands is how to handle their obvious influences without seeming irreverent (see the brash UK hair-metal band the Darkness) or opportunistic (Southern snarlers the Kings of Leon). The band that walked the line most convincingly this year was My Morning Jacket, a hell-raising Kentucky five-piece led by the angelic-sounding Jim James. In MMJ's sprawling songs, it was possible to detect the Band's sawdust shuffles and the dejection Neil Young brought to After the Gold Rush. But on the entrancing It Still Moves, such legends are never merely appropriated: They function as spirit guides, enriching ever so slightly what was already a potent, bracingly original sound."

Another Best of 2003 list for My Morning Jacket from The Salt Lake Tribune By Dan Nailen :

"This Louisville quintet's major-label debut opens with 'Mahgeetah' and the lines, 'Sittin' here with me and mine, all wrapped up in a bottle of wine/little we can do, we gon' see it through somehow/So, now are you ready to go?' You better be, because the journey through this album's 12 songs is one of the most joyful to be had this year, mixing rustic vibes with raunchy guitar rock in a style often compared to Neil Young. That does My Morning Jacket a disservice because Young hasn't produced anything this good in years, and leader Jim James has a voice that's crystal-clear and wise beyond his 24 years. In fact, it's timeless, and so are these songs. "

From largehearted boy, a boy, a girl, and his radio some links for My Morning Jacket mp3's:

"Heartbreakin Man," "The Dark," "One Big Holiday".

The mp3 clip comes with this comment: "This Kentucky group fuses the lonesome moan of Neil Young with walls of guitars and reverb, beards and bare feet." You gotta love it.

More of the best albums and music of 2003.

The death of the album?

From The Christian Science Monitor by Kim Campbell:

"This Christmas, Americans are going to be getting a lot fewer CD players in their stockings. Instead, they'll be unwrapping iPods and other devices able to store thousands of digital songs (if analyst predictions are correct). It's yet another indication that music buying is continuing its shift online. And one of the casualties may be the album, the art form perfected by musicians such as The Beatles and Pink Floyd. "

Well I'm not sure putting out a group of songs will ever be obsolete even if the album format dies. Maybe they'll be short albums or long singles. Probably the format most likely to grow is the full length concert format. As evidenced by Dave Matthews and Pearl Jam's success in selling full length shows, it's likely the trend will continue.

Thanks to Bob @ Ravin Films.

Americana UK's Best of 2003

From Americana UK a fine listing of the Best of 2003. The listing includes "My Morning Jacket “It Still Moves” (RCA 2003):

"The five-piece rock group from Louisville, Kentucky that, amusingly, one review pointed out must have been a town barred from hearing any music past 1974, such is the derivative nature of their specialty - that said, it’s derivative with real inspiration - drawing from a whole range of influences including Crosby, Stills and Nash and Neil Young, My Morning Jacket interpret the sounds of a quarter of decade ago with such vitality and honesty that it’s difficult not to be taken with their obvious enthusiasm and integrity. Consistently excellent and let’s face it, if you were given a choice of derivative, you’d rather have them than the Darkness. "

Also included in the listing is Lucinda Williams “World Without Tears”, Jason McNiff's "Nobody's Son", and The Jayhawks “Rainy Day Music”.

For the full listing, commentary and reader selections, see Americana UK.

Wilco Happens: The New Album

From RollingStone.com News reported by ANDREW DANSBY and COLIN DEVENISH:

"Wilco took a break from recording their fifth album over the Thanksgiving holiday. The group spent two weeks recording in New York City before returning to its native Chicago to put the finishing touches on the record, which is slated for a spring release. Wilco have recorded thirty songs -- including "Wishful Thinking," "At Least That's What You Said," "Kicking Television," "Panthers," "Hell Is Chrome," "Muzzle of Bees," "Theologians" and "Company in My Back" -- that might make the final cut for the album, which has been tagged with a pair of tentative titles including "Wilco Happens" and "dBpm." The latter was also the name put on a set of improvisational songs the group recorded over the span of a week in 2002.

Whatever the name, the group is co-producing the effort with Jim O'Rourke, who engineered Wilco's last release, 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. And in addition to frontman Jeff Tweedy, bassist John Stirratt, drummer Glenn Kotche and keyboardist Leroy Bach, the group has also been recording with keyboardist/laptop twiddler Mikael Jorgensen, who has toured with Wilco, but didn't play on Foxtrot. "We've been recording for so long we're trying to figure out what it's going to be," Stirratt told Rolling Stone. "It has elements of that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot dryness and kraut-rock vibe but [some] sessions have been a lot more of a live organic, live vocal vibe. We're just waiting to see what kind of record pops out."

More on Wilco & Neil Young.

Greendale Stands the Test of Time

A great album functions as a self-contained universe. USATODAY.com's music critic Edna Gundersen salutes 40 albums that stand as cohesive bodies of work - not just fine collections of songs - that will stand the test of time.

The list includes such classics as The Beatles, Revolver (1966), The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds (1966), Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced? (1967), and The Who, The Who Sell Out (1967).

The number 40 selection is Neil Young's Greendale (2003). "The latest in Young's long series of daring concept albums spins a cinematic yarn about a small-town family coping with a murder."

For more, see Greendale Reviews.

And in other Greendale news, it looks like Neil is going to hit the road again in 2004. Check Thrasher's Wheat for Neil Young and Crazy Horse 2004 concert tour dates.

Slobberbone and Bobby Bare Jr.

From Americana UK Reviews of Slobberbone and Bobby Bare Jr. at The Borderline, London by Patrick Wilkins:

"The encore was another cover, Neil Young’s ‘Cinnamon Girl’. This worked much better than ‘Cortez The Killer’ that closed the show last October, the thumping uptempo riff being much more Slobberbone than the dark brooding of ‘Cortez’."

Best of 2003: My Morning Jacket's "It Still Moves"

From Bowdoin Orient by Sean Turley on My Morning Jacket's "It Still Moves" as one of 2003's best albums:

I don't know how, but Jim James actually does a better job capturing Neil Young's forlorn, high pitch purr than Neil Young. It Still Moves plays out like Young's Live Rust if Neil actually grew up in Kentucky, traded in the abrasive Crazy Horse for the Stax Records horn section, and sang in a grain silo. 'One Big Holiday,' the greatest American rock song this year, embodies the best of My Morning Jacket's major label debut. After the guitarists fire off a resilient three-note riff passage, Jim's voice comes soaring in only to break the clouds for a ferocious solo that, inexplicably, gets better with every roaring line. I shit you not: this song inspired my level-headed mother to air guitar. Now if that's not a ringing endorsement for a record, I don't know what is. "

Still Lookin' Good to Me - The Band of Blacky Ranchette

From Louisville Scene on December 6, 2003 by PAUL CURRY on "Still Lookin' Good to Me" by The Band of Blacky Ranchette (Thrill Jockey):

"The Band of Blacky Ranchette is an intermittent side project hosted by Howe Gelb, the man primarily responsible for a band called Giant Sand.

Having taken more than a few cues from Neil Young, the genre-shifting Gelb isn't generally commercial enough to be 'alt-country.' He uses the Band of Blacky Ranchette designation for recordings that are more focused in that direction, and 'Still Lookin' Good to Me' is only the band's third album in two decades.

And, really, it isn't a band. What we have here is a collection of songs with a variety of collaborators. The liner notes reveal something of Gelb's playful attitude toward the creative process; while some of the tracks are culled from studio and live performances with his Giant Sand collaborators, John Convertino and Joey Burns (the duo aka Calexico), others come from field recordings.

Kathleen Edwards: Cross between a young Lucinda Williams and a female Neil Young

From SignOnSanDiego.com article by George Varga on debut albums being more crucial than ever. Regarding Kathleen Edwards debut album 'Failer' (Zoe/Rounder):

"The daughter of Canada's ex-deputy minister of international trade, this 24-year-old singer-songwriter has been described as a cross between a young Lucinda Williams and a female Neil Young. But her debut, which mixes the earthy intimacy of Young's solo albums with the punch of Whiskeytown, is actually stronger than Williams' latest work. Edwards' grasp of irony is made clear by the title of 'One More Song the Radio Won't Like,' while her dark narratives about lives gone wrong (be it through drugs, alcohol, bad relationships or all three) are balanced by her assured vocals and growing command of song-craft. "

Lucky Jim - The Coral meets Teenage Fan Club

A concert review of Lucky Jim at Tmesis Bar Manchester, UK by David Adair in
Americana UK Reviews :

"Lucky Jim impressed from the start showcasing songs from their debut album "Our Troubles End Tonight" on Red Records, think The Coral meets Teenage Fan Club with bits of Nick Cave and Neil Young added for good measure. "

Rocker's political message is cut from Farm Aid special

Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp photo from Rocky Mountain News


John Mellencamp's comments during the Farm Aid broadcast are heavily edited. From Indianapolis Star by David Lindquist:

"After Mellencamp told the crowd in Columbus, Ohio, that billions of dollars requested for Afghanistan and Iraq might be spent more wisely at home, a lot of people booed and a lot of other people cheered.

Catcalls persisted when he sang 'To Washington,' a song that characterizes President Bush as too quick to fight. Mellencamp also inserted Bush into a rendition of Bob Dylan's 'Highway 61 Revisited,' citing a 'Texas gambler' rather than a roving gambler out to start the next world war.

Did Mellencamp resemble a pacifist as he heard boos from an audience for maybe the first time in decades?

Well, no. The 52-year-old became visibly steamed. Between songs, he methodically rolled the sleeves of his white T-shirt above his biceps. Twice, he held his microphone away so he could spit expletives at a heckler more or less in private.

But a national TV audience won't see any of this when PBS broadcasts two hours of Farm Aid highlights tonight.

Instead of vigorous dissent and a stormy give-and-take between artist and audience, PBS will show just three of the nine songs Mellencamp performed.

The segment begins with Robert Johnson's 'Stones in My Passway' and Son House's 'Death Letter,' the two numbers that came before the singer commented on Bush's freshly revised tab for the war on terror -- $87 billion.

It ends with the crowd-appeasing 'Pink Houses,' the only Mellencamp original of the set.
It's disappointing that a national audience didn't see this scene play out as it happened. Cable TV's CMT and the Nashville Network passed on Farm Aid after a lengthy history of live telecasts.

PBS editing also stings Neil Young, who founded the series of benefit concerts with Mellencamp and Willie Nelson in 1985.

Young modified a line of "Rockin' in the Free World" to "We're losing boys every day 'cause we didn't have a plan." But you had to be in Columbus to hear that one."

More on politics and music from RollingStone.com:

"The notion that musicians shouldn't get involved in politics is 'ridiculous,' says Mike Burkett (a.k.a. Fat Mike), lead singer of NOFX and founder of Punkvoter.com. 'Everyone should be involved in politics: cabdrivers, lawyers . . . everyone.'

Mellencamp says that the goal of his open letter and his song 'To Washington' is to turn such apathy into action. 'My whole purpose of being here, to write songs or write a letter like that, is to put the idea forward that some conversation needs to take place here, as opposed to accepting the [government] line,' he says."

From AlterNet "Is Protest Music Dead?" by Jeff Chang, Metro Silicon Valley :

"Artists who were once outspoken peaceniks seem to have lost their certainty, or even switched their position. For years, U2 led crowds in chants of 'No more war!' during their concerts. But during their surrealistic Super Bowl half-time performance this past January, they offered deep ambivalence a stark display of the names of Sept. 11 victims set to 'Beautiful Day.'

Neil Young's Ohio (lyric analysis) memorialized Kent State University's murdered antiwar protesters of 1970; his 'Cortez the Killer' condemned imperialism. Now we find him on his post-Sept. 11 cut, 'Let's Roll,' singing, 'Let's roll for freedom; let's roll for love, going after Satan on the wings of a dove.'

Young wrote the song to honor the heroes of Flight 93, who subdued their hijackers and paid the ultimate price. But if you believe 'Let's Roll' with its Bush-reduced ideas of 'evil' and 'Satan' is a cry for peace, you've probably already cleaned out your bomb shelter and reviewed your duck-and-cover manual.

As Leslie Nuchow, a Brooklyn-based folk singer who has been touring the country, says, 'Speaking on or singing anything that's critical of this country at this time is more difficult than it was a year ago.' "

More on politics and music.