Tom Blankenship at the Greek Theatre 2008, photo by Anne Marie Schuler for The Daily Californian
Keywords: Band chronology
On My Morning Jacket's first three albums, the reverb-drenched Southern rockers combined country-rock, earthy boogie and billowy psychedelia for a hearty, Neil Young-meets-Flaming Lips sound. The band, which is known for delivering epic live performances, garnered a rabid following, which it took in a new direction on the 2005 masterpiece "Z." On that album, the group expanded its sound and treated its fans to a roller-coaster ride through hook-strewn pop, dramatic '70s-style rock and various experimental excursions.
My Morning Jacket's recent follow-up, "Evil Urges," continues to explore new territory—from the disco-funk rave "Highly Suspicious" to the fluttering, oceanic yacht rock of "Thank You Too!"—while reviving the group's penchant for country-folk ("Librarian," "Look at You") and fiery throwdowns ("Aluminum Park," "Remnants"). As a result, the Louisville, Ky., quintet has outgrown the underground and moved into the mainstream. Metromix recently spoke with founding bassist "Two-Tone" Tommy Blankenship about the group's latest sonic explorations and rampant success.
What are your emotions as you court greater exposure?
I'm here at home right now and it's not something I'm ever really aware of until one of my parents calls and says, "I saw you on a magazine, or a commercial on TV, or read about the show in Louisville."
It's a little outside yourself?
Yeah. It's funny. It's been organic. For as long as I've been doing it, it's seemed like a natural progression. We've slowly climbed up the hill career-wise. But it's still like, I can't believe this is all happening. It's been that way for several years. I guess in a way I should get used to expecting the unexpected.
Tell me about "Z" and how it set the stage for the new album.
The big thing, the big change there, was having Carl [Broemel, guitarist] and Bo [Koster, keyboards] in the band. I think it was that and recording outside our comfort zone, which was the farm that we'd always recorded on. Plus it was the first time we worked with a producer, and actually let somebody into our world. I mean, we had [engineer] Danny Kadar with us on ["Z" predecessor] "It Still Moves," but it was still done at the farm and kind of the height of what can be done in that scenario. It's the first time we really trusted somebody to like, "OK, give us your input, and mold these sounds." To not have one of us in the control room at all times.
What were the circumstances of them joining the band, and what did they bring?
Right before Thanksgiving of '03, John [Quaid, guitarist] and Danny [Cash, keyboards] left the band, actually while we were on tour in Europe. We'd sat down to have a meeting about the future, talking about all the touring we were going to be doing in the next year, and they were both like, "There's no way I can even talk about this when I'm sick of doing it right now." Really, you can't blame them. We'd been touring solid for all of '02 before that. I don't think we'd taken a few months off in a long time. Carl and Bo joined the band that following January. It's just one of those things about having new guys in the band and for the other three of us, have it be something different in a sense, giving it a new life.
You recorded in New York, and I read producer Joe Chiccarelli said it sounded like an urban album.
The songs being as concise as they are—even in demo form, like the fat was trimmed off, even if there wasn't any to begin with—in that sense, it's like the city itself, straight and to the point.
I understand Jim had a different attitude going into the recording of "Evil Urges?"
It was probably last spring, we got the demos for this record and the first thing I noticed is that they were definitely more upbeat than the last record. The last record there was definitely some mourning in there, and this is, like, sunny times compared to that last record. You could definitely hear that. It's all speculation, but I'm sure part of it was him having a relationship he was happy with at the time, and just being in a different head space.
Drummer Patrick Hallahan suggested in an interview that Jim was more confident vocally.
You can hear it all over the record. It sounds like different characters, which I think is kind of a testament to him being comfortable with his voice. He always tells us that the first time he sang through an amp with reverb, [he] just loved the way it sounded because it masks the nakedness of his voice. It felt like on this one he could use the reverb as more of a tool instead of something that was just kind of covering up.
Did you consider how people were going to experience those first few songs, with their '70s feel?
I had a feeling people would find the middle of the record kind of familiar territory, with more "At Dawn" than we've done since "At Dawn," with "Sec Walking," "Librarian" and "Look at You." But I definitely found the first three songs and the last two or three songs [to be] the most out-there of anything we've ever done. Or if you took just those songs, like five or six songs, it's like a Ween record in a sense—a different genre every time. But a genre that I don't even know exists.
