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ShareMINNEAPOLIS — The main problem with a supergroup, side project or whatever you want to call Monsters of Folk is how serious the musicians are about it. Are they really investing a lot of time and energy into the music, or are they just looking for a quick excuse to get away from their regular bandmates for a while?
Jim James, however, probably doesn’t need to further demonstrate his level of commitment to Monsters of Folk. Not after what he endured during the recording of the all-star quartet’s debut album earlier this year.
“Man, Omaha in February,” the Kentuckian rocker said with a nearly audible shiver.
“I’m sure it gets even rougher there in Minneapolis, but that was brutal. That took real dedication on my part.”
The name is a joke, and the band members have shared a lot of laughs since they first got together five years ago. One thing James made clear in a phone interview two weeks ago from Portland, Ore. — amid rehearsals for the current tour — is how serious the Monsters of Folk really are.
Better known as the howling, wolf-faced frontman of My Morning Jacket, James is moonlighting in Monsters alongside Omaha music heroes Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes fame) and Mike Mogis (Oberst’s main producer/collaborator), plus Portland’s indie-rock everywhereman M. Ward (known from his She & Him partnership with actress Zooey Deschanel and his own acclaimed solo albums).
The group’s formation dates to 2004, when the future Monsters all took a rare break from touring with their respective full-time acts to hit the road with each other. Their two tours that year grew from songwriters-in-the-round affairs to more collaborative concerts.
“We had all met at festivals and shows over the years,” James recalled. “We thought it would be fun to do a tour where we got together beforehand and learned each other’s songs and just hung out together more — as opposed to a normal tour where you’re each in your own van, you play your own set, and you’re done.”
The moniker Monsters of Folk was eventually coined by a roadie (a play off Van Halen’s 1988 Monsters of Rock tour). Sloths of Folk, however, might have been more fitting when it came to following through on making an album.
“We’ve always wanted to do it, but we’ve all been real busy over the last five years,” James explained. “We all remembered how much fun we had on those two earlier tours, so we finally decided to make the time to do it again. But we had to do a record first, so it was more like a real band.”
Monsters of Folk sound like a full-fledged band for at least half of their eponymous album, which made a respectable debut at No. 15 in Billboard last month. The Current-spinning single “Say Please” and the record’s most anthemic rocker, “Losin’ Yo Head,” feature all three singers trading verses and harmonizing on choruses in camaraderie. Mellower, folkier tracks such as the Ward-led “Slow Down Jo” and Oberst’s “Man Named Truth” sound more like solo efforts, though, with just a little bit of harmonizing for the group effect.
Whatever the style of the song, James said the record was a total group effort — one “built on spontaneity” — from start to finish.
“We would all just sit around the kitchen table with an acoustic guitar. Somebody would play a song, and 20 minutes after we first heard the song, we’d be in the studio jamming on it.”
Even with the fun and freewheeling recording atmosphere, the songs still carry the heavy weight of the songwriters’ usual material. It’s surprising how well they dig deep together here — especially in “His Master’s Voice,” “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)” and several other songs steeped in spiritual/religious exploration that they all often touch on in their own records, too.
“I think we’re all just looking for the same answers that most people are,” said James. The MMJ singer also beautifully tackled some of George Harrison’s most spiritual tracks on a tribute EP he issued this summer under the name Yim Yames.
“Like most people I know, I have trouble subscribing to any particular religion or belief, because there’s no proof,” he continued. “Until the sky rips open and orange juice comes pouring out of it or whatever, I don’t think any of us can say we have the answer.”
It probably won’t take something as cosmic as an orange-juice monsoon before Monsters of Folk offer up another album and tour.
“It’s been real easy with us from the get-go because we’re really all fans of each other’s work, and we’re all in very similar places. We’ve all been playing music for roughly the same amount of time, and we’ve all put a lot of work into it and toured a lot. There’s a real deep mutual respect for each other that’s always there whenever we walk in the door. I think the chances are good we’ll do it again.”
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JIM JAMES DISHES ON THE OTHER MONSTERS
What the My Morning Jacket frontman really thinks of his new bandmates:
Conor Oberst: “The thing I think most people don’t know about him is his sense of humor. He’s a really funny guy, and fun to be around. And he’s obviously just a great songwriter. It’s been inspiring to get in the studio with him and see how his mind works, and see the way he looks at a song. It has opened my eyes to all the different ways to explore a song.”
M. Ward: “The same way Conor has gotten me to think about songwriting, M. has gotten me to think differently about approaching the guitar. He has ways of using the guitar that might seem normal at first but are really, really magical, and he has so many different approaches to playing. I tend to get bored with the guitar, but M. over the years has saved me many times from getting too bored with it.”
Mike Mogis: “Mike and I have really bonded. We’re sort of the two gearheads in the band, and we both have our own studios. His sense of humor is really great, too. When Conor and I were talking about the initial idea to tour (in 2004), he said it would just be fun to bring Mike along, plus he’s really valuable as a multi-instrumentalist. The guy really can play anything.”
