Things I'd Rather Be Doing

7.07.2006

Okonokos... isn't that a Beach Boys song?

My Morning Jacket has announced that its next release will be a two-CD, one-DVD live set called Okonokos. The press release from the folks at Girlie Action is a bit hyperbolic. This isn't just a live album, it's something that will become "their quintessential body of work, gathering"their most dynamic, otherworldly compositions to date."

Silly me, I thought it sounded like something new, as if the band decided to create some sort of two-hour improvisational jam fest and record it. Then I saw the song titles: "Wordless Chorus," "One Big Holiday" and "Mahgeeta." So, it's a double live album. With a to-be-released-later DVD.

Don't get me wrong; few bands deserve a live album more than MMJ -- and I'm excited at hearing "a glacially expansive" "One Big Holiday" -- but that moment of hoping that the band was actually going to do something different left me disappointed with reality.

The DVD does sound a bit left of center: "Inspired by a fairytale-like performance in Tokyo, the band decided to adorn their mysterious set with qualities akin to an old growth forest, capturing the essence of a timeless, nameless, anonymous place. The theme of straddling the line between the surreal and the actual is introduced at the film's prologue when a cast of characters draped in Victorian-era costume, along with one alpaca, are introduced. And so emerges a truly authentic live compendium."

Oh, I get it. So this is their The Song Remains the Same. Gotcha. The CD drops Sept. 26; the DVD on Oct. 31.

PERMALINK Posted by John @ 1:35 PM

Comments:

there is no other band that could possibly release a "song remains the same" at this point in the face of the current rock scene, albeit ocean tribe down the road once they get some albums finally released. so, yes! MMJ deserve this recognition and in the process, they will be regarded as a great testament to what rock and roll was, is, and will be.

the song truly remains the same, but only a few can play them in synchronicity...long live Jim James and his morning jackets!!!

PERMALINK posted by