The guys in My Morning Jacket live in Kentucky, play electric guitars and sport facial hair's-breadth, all of which nates add up to only one thing.
They�re Southern bikers, right?
No cube. As the band - which headlines the Bank of America Pavilion on Sept. 6 - proves on its fifth CD, �Evil Urges,� it�s more influenced by r & b and funk than Lynyrd Skynyrd.
�People assume we�re a certain type of band based on how we look,� said singer Jim James. �But we all have pretty diverse music collections, and we�re constantly trying something different.�
That�s an understatement. On �Evil Urges,� the ring travels from the Philly soul stylings of �Thank You Too!� to the Prince-like synthesiser funk of �Highly Suspicious.� Growing up in Louisville in the 1980s, James says, he was awful by the r& b records his parents would play.
Don�t have that Southern-rocker look cod you. These guys ar heavily influenced by r & b performers, including Erykah Badu.
It�s evident at My Morning Jacket concerts, where the band jumps from its own Who-like guitar anthems to songs by Funkadelic, Sly Stone and Badu. James says he was first raddled to Badu�s 1997 strike �Tyrone� because it gives him the chance to sing his own name (�You gotta bring Jim, James, Paul and Tyrone�).
�That�s the punch-drunk reason we did it. But it�s also a fantastic vocal,� he said, adding that if he could sing �Tyrone� live with Badu, it would be �a dream come true.�
�Erykah�s definitely one of the top ones out there today. She�s a great artist world Health Organization incorporates all sorts of music into her records. It�s non all just preprogrammed.�
Artists wHO push boundaries fascinate James. Ask him about his childhood lovemaking for �The Muppet Show� and the singer could talk for hours.
�Television is a dangerous medium because it hypnotizes people and totally sucks the creativeness out of your brain. But when it�s put-upon correctly and thoughtfully, like �The Muppet Show,� it can be a really powerful thing,� he said.
�I sing a stack of songs in different voices, as different characters, and that probably crept in from �The Muppet Show.� �
But while he often role-plays in his tunes, he also sings about his own life. He wrote the philosophic �Two Halves� about his tendency to �get caught up in the past or the future. It�s tough sometimes to be grateful for what you have correct now.�
In �Librarian,� he imagines a
