Fans & more

My Morning Jacket at Madison Square Garden 2008, photo by Dylan Pech

"We're not one of those bands that deliberately doesn't want a lot of people to get into us. We welcome anybody of all ages, races, and creeds to get into it."

- Jim James
(JamBase interview, January 2004)

The My Morning Jacket fandom
An attempt to describe the loveliness that is the Jacketeers; the people that never hesitate to take every opportunity to share stories of their first-hand experiences like war veterans comparing faded scars, and haggard fishermen demonstrating with outstretched hands just how big that legendary fish was (MMJ facebook fan club). Contains both the communities own comments, as well as quotes from the band.

Memes and rumors
Can they or can't they read? What is a laser harp? Does an orange construction worker hat make Tom Blankenship fly? If you like silly things or just gossiping in general, look no further than the memes and rumors section.

Links
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The My Morning Jacket fandom

There are only so many words in our vocabulary, and no matter how well woven together they may be, most fans agree that there aren't nearly enough words necessary to describe the potency of this band and it's music. Words only seem to cheapen things - descriptions, however clever, seem hollow and fall short in illustrating what can only be explained as a spiritual experience...

This place is both for the casual fans, new to the scene and still letting one album or another "grow" on them... and for the Jacketeers, the Viking Horde, who have "been there" and take every opportunity to share stories of their first-hand experiences like war veterans comparing faded scars, and haggard fishermen demonstrating with outstretched hands just how big that legendary fish was.

(My Morning Jacket Fan Club, Facebook)

We just want to have fun playing music. We are very appreciative of our fans and realize we can’t do this without them, but at the same time we don’t feel like we “owe” anyone anything other than just knowing that we try as hard as we can with every record and put 100 percent of our blood, sweat, and tears into everything we do. Even then, even our biggest fans don’t like everything we do. Hopefully they know we respect them so much, and we are just trying to follow what feels right to us.

- Jim James
(A.V. Club interview, May 2011)

Memes and rumors

Memes

2011
Flying Tom
Created by: el_chode
Featues: Tom Blankenship
Originally found: here in the My Morning Jacket forum

Rumours
2011
Patrick Hallahan and Jim James were born with beards
Source: Scott Compton
Status: Confirmed by Patrick Hallahan and Jim James

Jim James: I'm Jim and I play guitar and I sing
Patrick Hallahan: I'm Patrick and I play the drums
JJ: And we've known each other since fourth grade, we have the same birthday. I'm four minutes older.
Interviewer: Did you guys have beards back then?
JJ: We did
JJ and PH together: We came out with beards
PH: I think that's what it was that drew us together, that we were the only fourth graders with beards
JJ: Yeah

 ( Boing Boing video interview, October 2011)


2003
Jim James never sings, nor talks without reverb 
Source: Johnny Quaid
Status: Neither confirmed, nor denied

"Jim actually has a chemical imbalance where he cannot survive without reverb, it’s like oxygen to him. He won’t even have a conversation with any of us unless he’s talking through a small amp. He walks around with a small amp on his belt and a mic, and talks to us all the time in reverb. It’s kind of disturbing."

- Johnny Quaid
(PopMatters interview, October 2003)

2002
The band can't read
Source: Jim James
Status: Confirmed by James, later in the same article
Connection: See rumor about wild nights when touring

"We try to go to movies, but we just enjoy the explosive ones. Since none of us can read, books and other forms of printed entertainment are out of the question."

- Jim James
(Pitchfork interview, August 2002)

The band have wild nights when touring
Source: Jim James
Status: Neither confirmed, nor denied
Connection: See rumor about the band being unable to read

Interviewer: Are you regularly wild on the road, or do you just drink bottled water and look out for your cousin [guitarist Johnny] Quaid?
Jim James: We have our wild nights. Rarely does a hotel room escape unscathed from our brutal rampages. They're mostly brought on by us reading books, or brutal TV fights and pillow fights.
Interviewer: Wait, you just said that you guys read in the hotels, and that none of you can read. Which assertion do you want to stick?
Jim James: None of us can read.

- Jim James
(Pitchfork interview, August 2002)