You might not realize it (or care to admit to it), but indie rock is quite the competitive sport. We may have accepted that our favorite bands may receive some mainstream recognition at some point, but the new focus is on finding bands…earlier than anyone else. And that level of reconnaissance has exploded 100-fold with the Internet. People are scouring indie rock message boards, various record label websites…anything to find out about new bands first.
Finding My Morning Jacket last Fall was hard work but well worth the effort. Even with Darla Records' reputation of being a top indie pop label, there was virtually little publicity to usher in the band's genius sophomore effort, At Dawn. I had to put on my war paint and head over to Amazon.com. After about 2 hours of clicking on bands that sort of sound like Wilco, I stumbled on a review for At Dawn. All of the right name-checking was there: Flaming Lips, Neil Young, Whiskeytown, so I figured it was worth a shot.
Six months later, the band is on the brink of something big. Two EPs have popped up within the past month (Chocolate and Ice and a split with Songs:Ohia on Jade Tree) and the band has landed some high profile opening gigs for Guided by Voices and Eyes Adrift, the ex-Nirvana/Meat Puppets project.
With six tracks and spanning just over 40 minutes, Chocolate and Ice EP is longer than most albums these days. Previous My Morning Jacket tracks clock in around 6 or 7 minutes, ample time for singer/guitarist Jim James to create a scene and smash it straight to hell. For the uninitiated, MMJ's earlier work seemed to have been characterized by a lazy country sound a la Whiskeytown. Their live show, which is balls to the wall rawk, seems to have crept into their recording processes as of late and a harder, rhythmic charge starts off this EP with the opening "Can you see the hard helmet on my head?"
But unfortunately, the flame quickly seems to blow out shortly thereafter. "Sooner" has a nice simple melody that carries the song all the way through but doesn't have the emotional charge or the complex structure that MMJ has perfected on its last full length. Subsequent tracks seem more like demos and outtakes rather than something unique and special, a quality that the listener gets when listening to My Morning Jacket on record or live in concert.
The saving grace on Chocolate and Ice is undoubtedly the 25 minute epic, "Cobra." A loose tribute to a Steve Miller Band song, "Cobra" starts off with a lazy funk groove. Guitar noodling and wah-wahs permeate throughout and surprisingly keep the listener fixed to the stereo. Occasional bursts of guitar jams only hint at the destruction the band is capable of live in concert.
For the new My Morning Jacket fan, Chocolate and Ice is far from a mediocre listen. But for the more familiar fan, this EP offers little in the way of progression and beauty that characterizes what we've come to expect from these Louisville heroes. Give them a break, they're going to be the greatest band in the world one day. You might not realize it (or care to admit to it), but indie rock is quite the competitive sport. We may have accepted that our favorite bands may receive some mainstream recognition at some point, but the new focus is on finding bands...earlier than anyone else. And that level of reconnaissance has exploded 100-fold with the Internet. People are scouring indie rock message boards, various record label websites...anything to find out about new bands first.
Finding My Morning Jacket last Fall was hard work but well worth the effort. Even with Darla Records' reputation of being a top indie pop label, there was virtually little publicity to usher in the band's genius sophomore effort, At Dawn. I had to put on my war paint and head over to Amazon.com. After about 2 hours of clicking on bands that sort of sound like Wilco, I stumbled on a review for At Dawn. All of the right name-checking was there: Flaming Lips, Neil Young, Whiskeytown, so I figured it was worth a shot.
Six months later, the band is on the brink of something big. Two EPs have popped up within the past month (Chocolate and Ice and a split with Songs:Ohia on Jade Tree) and the band has landed some high profile opening gigs for Guided by Voices and Eyes Adrift, the ex-Nirvana/Meat Puppets project.
With six tracks and spanning just over 40 minutes, Chocolate and Ice EP is longer than most albums these days. Previous My Morning Jacket tracks clock in around 6 or 7 minutes, ample time for singer/guitarist Jim James to create a scene and smash it straight to hell. For the uninitiated, MMJ's earlier work seemed to have been characterized by a lazy country sound a la Whiskeytown. Their live show, which is balls to the wall rawk, seems to have crept into their recording processes as of late and a harder, rhythmic charge starts off this EP with the opening "Can you see the hard helmet on my head?"
But unfortunately, the flame quickly seems to blow out shortly thereafter. "Sooner" has a nice simple melody that carries the song all the way through but doesn't have the emotional charge or the complex structure that MMJ has perfected on its last full length. Subsequent tracks seem more like demos and outtakes rather than something unique and special, a quality that the listener gets when listening to My Morning Jacket on record or live in concert.
The saving grace on Chocolate and Ice is undoubtedly the 25 minute epic, "Cobra." A loose tribute to a Steve Miller Band song, "Cobra" starts off with a lazy funk groove. Guitar noodling and wah-wahs permeate throughout and surprisingly keep the listener fixed to the stereo. Occasional bursts of guitar jams only hint at the destruction the band is capable of live in concert.
For the new My Morning Jacket fan, Chocolate and Ice is far from a mediocre listen. But for the more familiar fan, this EP offers little in the way of progression and beauty that characterizes what we've come to expect from these Louisville heroes. Give them a break, they're going to be the greatest band in the world one day.
1. Such Protection From My Bed
2. Sooner
3. It's Been a Great 3 or 4 Years
4. Holy
5. Sweetheart
6. Cobra