Monsters of Folk"We just had so much fun on the tour. It was this pipe dream that we were joking about on the tour. It took us four years to finally do it, but every time we’d see each other, we’d be like, “When are we gonna do that record?” A year later, we’d run into each other again and be like, “Let’s do that record, oh yeah!” [Laughter] It was always being talked about."- Yim Yames, talking about how the 2004 tour turned into a record
(Blurt Online interview, September 2009)
Monsters of Folk consists of Jim James (Yim Yames, My Morning Jacket) Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes among others) and Matt Ward (M. Ward and She & Him).
The idea of a band was formed in 2004 when the members were on tour with their respective bands and solo projects. After playing together both on-stage and backstage, they started working together on various material. Due to several reasons, mainly the the members' main projects, Monsters of Folk did not wrap up their first album until 2009, and it was released on September 22 on Rough Trade.
How they met
As stated in an interview with Blurt Online Mike Mogis met Conor Oberst during his freshman year in college and they went on to form Bright Eyes. In the same interview the band explains that Mike Mogis later met M. Ward during a stormy night in Belgium.
I was working on a label project and someone was like, "You wanna go see a show? This guy Matt Ward is playing." I'd never really heard of him at the time, so I went. I was a little homesick at the time, so it was cool to see another American musician. That's the first time I saw Matt. I thought it was so cool ‘cause I'd heard nothing like that before, to be honest. Here was this guy that sounded like he was fifty years old, but he was a peer onstage wearing a baseball cap and playing this music that sounded like it came from a different era.- Mike Mogis, about meeting M. Ward
(Blurt Online interview, September 2009)
Mogis introduced himself to Ward and was also given some records by Wards label to give to Oberst. According to the same interview, Mogis met James at Field Day Festival 2003, after watching James perform with My Morning Jacket.
- Mike Mogis, about meeting Jim James (Yim Yames)
I'd heard the My Morning Jacket records before I'd seen them live, and I remember thinking that they seemed like a cool band. It was obvious they were a deep band, with the melodic, mellow acoustic stuff and the soaring rock thing, but I'd never seen them live until that Field Day Festival show. I remember it rained. There was a lot of hair flying around onstage, and the rain made it seem that much more intense. We sat on the side of the stage and were just blown away. It was such an uplifting experience. The day to that point had been such a drag. Bright Eyes had played earlier, and everything that could have gone wrong did. We were all in kind of low spirits, but when they took the stage, all that shit went away and all that was left was that pure joy you get from being a part of music.
(Blurt Online interview, September 2009)
In the interview Oberst also says that they did a last-minute show at the Bowery Ballroom That same weekend of the Field Day festival, where James played acoustic to open up. Ward then met James through Oberst, when Bright Eyes extended an invitation for Ward to tour with James. Ward says in the Blurt Online interview that he was already a fan of both James 's and Bright Eyes' musics at the time.
I think that's when we really hit it off. That's when we knew it was destiny that we were going to play music together. We talked about it that weekend, in the way you talk about things in bars after shows. You know, the whole "wouldn't it be great" kinda thing. I don't remember exactly how it actually happened. I think we asked Jim if he was really interested in doing it, and when he said yes we suggested that we also invite Matt. So I invited everyone out to our house and I guess they accepted.- Conor Oberst about meeting Jim James
(Blurt Online interview, September 2009)
The name
The subject of how the name came to be has been brought up in several interview, however the answer isn't always the same. In the Blurt Online interview Ward insists that it was Eric D who dubbed the 2004 tour the Monsters of Folk tour, however James states that he think it was a Bill Sullivan who thought of it, while Oberst adds that the issue still needs to be sorted out and that there's a little dispute about it.
Charts
It debuted at 143 on the Billboard Top 200 and peaked at 15. It also reached #3 on Top Independent Albums, #8 on Top Rock Albums, #7 on Top Digital Albums, and #6 on Top Alternative Albums.
"If we were taking this lightly, we could have done it in a weekend. But I feel like anybody that listens to this record, whether they like it or not, would have to say ‘Wow these guys really put a lot of work in it.’ We took that really seriously"- Yim Yames, talking about the Monsters of Folk album
(Spin Magazine interview, October 2009)
- Jim James, when asked if he's been able to take anything from his side projects and apply it to My Morning Jacket
Absolutely. You learn so much about how different people navigate their ships, and that makes a crazy reflection on how you view your own battle plans and schematics. So cool. And it also helps you really value the comfort and familial connection you share with the guys you have played with for a while. The love gets stronger.
(A.V. Club interview, May 2011)
