Okay, this is the final photopost from Summer Tour 2010 because a) the tour is over, b) I'm running out of photos and c) you're probably getting tired of them by now.

If you're looking for posts I and II, you can find them here and here. (For larger views, click on the shot.)

Now, I have space to fill and here's some nice boys and bears to fill it.

Labels: bo koster, carl broemel, denise, jim james, mmj, music, my morning jacket, patrick hallahan, pooch, summertour, tom blankenship

Here's another spate of photox from the good ol' My Morning Jacket Summer Tour. If you're looking for part I, it's here. Part III is here.

We laughed, we cried, we finally got Denise into a permanent dress. Thank God because that nudist thing was not working for me.

Once again, click the pics to see them in a larger state. Steal the pics and they will haunt your dreams.

The lads are in Pittsburgh tonight with my favorite tall person Daniel Martin Moore opening. I am so full of sadness not to be there.

Labels: carl broemel, denise, jim james, mmj, music, my morning jacket, patrick hallahan, pooch, summertour, tom blankenship

I have way too may photos for one blog post so I'm going to spread it out over three... or four. I cut and re-cut and I'm not saying my little picts are the greatest or anything but it was just too hard to keep taking stuff out.

So here you go... ten days on tour in ten shots vol i. If you click on them they get bigger! If you steal them, they get mad.











Okay, I don't want to make any cheesy "Stairway" jokes but I swear Jim is ascending here.

I hope you have enjoyed this offering. More to come tomorrow time.

If you're looking for part II, you can find it here. Part III is here.

Labels: bo koster, carl broemel, jim james, mmj, music, my morning jacket, patrick hallahan, pooch, summertour, tom blankenship

Here's some shots from My Morning Jacket's recent appearance at the most wonderful Sasquatch festival. Well, they aren't all pics of MMJ. I didn't take that many of the show because people kept yelling at me and I gave up.

I hope you enjoy this small offering of photographic evidence.

Labels: denise, jim james, mmj, music, my morning jacket, patrick hallahan, pooch, sasquatch, tom blankenship

This is pretty priceless.

I just got home (and by just I mean Monday morning) from a two day jaunt with My Morning Jacket. Full report coming shortly (and by shortly I mean someday before the end of the year).

In the meantime... they say a picture's worth a thousand words so here's a few...


This is Duke Ellington's Wurlitzer. Really! We took a behind the scenes tour at the Smithsonian on Saturday. You wouldn't believe the things we saw! I can't believe the things we saw.


This is the handsome Bo Koster doing soundcheck things at Merriweather Post Pavilion.


This is Patrick and Little Joe BEING AWESOME!!

This is the end of the show. A melee of sorts. And by melee I mean crazy bananas excellence with MMJ and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band who I am now in love with.

I shot about a kajillion photos between the museum and the shows. It was fun to dust off the ol' camera and make some purty photox. I had such excellent subjects after all.

As I said, more coming. In the meantime you can follow all of us on Twitter: My Morning Jacket, That Tom, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and moi.

Labels: bo koster, jim james, mmj, muppets, music, my morning jacket, patrick hallahan, preservation hall jazz band, smithsonian, tom blankenship

It was September 2008 when we trekked down to Wilshire Blvd after a grand ol' time at Leno so the guys could do their voice overs for Seth MacFarlane and Mike Barker's animated series American Dad.

I couldn't write about it until now because it was a :shhh:.

However, the My Morning Jacket episode finally airs this Sunday on Fox! Set your DVRS, kids!

Titled "My Morning Straitjacket," the show features Stan becoming a full on MMJ groupie. I can understand how that happens and not just because I'm biased and stuff. As Barker said, "The best band in the world appearing on the 59th top-rated show on television? It's a no-brainer."


It was the second time we'd been to the American Dad/Family Guy offices and let me say, it's one of the happiest places on earth. They ply you with candy and good times and everyone is almost eerily nice.


Speaking of Tom (Blankenship, MMJ bassist, all around decent human being), he had this to say about the experience, "What struck me most was Mike Barker and [American Dad writer] Matt Fusfeld's enthusiasm for having us be a part of the show and their love for what they do. That made the whole experience so comfortable. These were dudes just like us and I think we shared the thought, 'Holy sh*t! This is what we do for a living!'"

We all had about a million laughs as the band took turns in the sound booth making the TV magics happen.


I can't wait to see the final result. You guys have only had two weeks of anticipation. I've had over a year!

In honor of this most sure to be excellent episode, Mr. Mike Barker agreed to do my rather silly (read: totally awesome) LP Questionnaire.


Mike Barker is a half-Baptist/half-Jew who grew up in Wichita, Kansas.

He shared this rather sad childhood story with me... My parents divorced when I was 12. My father picked me up from Kos Harris Elementary school one day with the backseat of the 1976 White Mercury Cougar stuffed to the hilt with clothes. Me: "Dad, what... what's going on? Why are all those clothes in the backseat?" Dad: "Son... There's no easy way to... Mike... Look, son, your mother and I haven't been getting along for quite some time now."

The happy ending: Mike never blamed himself for his parents' divorce and is married with two wonderful daughters. His eldest (pictured here with the juggling Mike), five-year old Chloe, constantly shouts at him while he's in the shower to "turn off the water" because he's "hurting the planet." Mike pays good money to Chloe's preschool so they can teach her to yell at her father while he's in the shower, trying to get his head straight for the long day ahead of him.

And without further ado, MB tackles The LP Questionnaire:

Name: Mike Barker
Pro Wrestling name: Bunkhouse Cobra

1. Pretend you're 15 (and tell us what year it is, if you don't mind). Name three songs you'd put on a mix tape for your girlfriend.

The Year, 1983. My face, acne ridden. My heart, bursting. My groin, ignored. My mix-tape remedy:

1. Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue" - Check...
2. Spandau Ballet's "True" - And...
3. Prince's "Little Red Corvette" - Mate!

2. Which evil villain would make the best president? Um, the Mountain Man that sexually assaulted Ned Beatty in Deliverance? At least with that guy in office we couldn't act surprised when he inevitably violated us. By the way, is this a family paper?

3. What was your favorite cartoon as a child? Hong Kong Phooey - the cat is smarter than the dog! Women are smarter than men! Come on, fellas, treat your ladies better!

4. What superpower do you wish you had? Is the ability to remember in good times that bad times will eventually be back but that they too won't last a superpower? It should be.

5. What would the title of your autobiography be? How To Succeed Artistically Without Selling Out: An Autobiography in Five Volumes

Way back when, My Morning Jacket subjected themselves to the LPQ. You can peep their answers here.

Labels: american dad, bo koster, jim james, mike barker, music, my morning jacket, the lp questionnaire, tom blankenship, tv

I talked about this song the other day (or I wrote about it, I guess) and now it turns out there's a video and everything!

I want this song to be a teddy bear that I can hold as I sit out by the trees and watch the sunset. It's just so everything.

This is stupid but I thought Conor wrote this song, but M. sings most of the verses so now I'm not sure. Jim gave me a copy of the record but I don't know what I did with it so I can't look it up.

It doesn't matter really, it's the swoon.

Labels: jim james, monsters of folk, music, song for a day, temazcal

Monsters of Folk, that supergroup band thingy with Jim James, Conor Oberst and M. Ward is on Conan tonight. So you should like watch and stuff.

Also, the record came out today and is available for download on Amazon for $3.99.

Also also, they're playing here on Halloweenie. Good times.

I don't really understand this video except that it ends with a picture of Conor on Jim's lap. I have no explanation.

Labels: jim james, mmj, monsters of folk, music, my morning jacket

To Senate Bill 68 and those who would pass it, I say, "WHAT THE HELL? How does this evolve us?!! Who are we as people that discrimination like this is even an option?!!!" I would probably follow this statement with a lot of swear words and possibly some tears.

I'm glad Jim put it so much more kindly and eloquently. He really blows me away sometimes (a lot of times).

"Hello friends. Sadly, right now in Kentucky they are trying to pass some harmful legislation preventing same sex couples from adopting, etc and we are seeing more and more of this kind of hateful action all over the map... Needless to say it is so very important that we all try to look out for each other's basic human and civil rights... I believe that no human being should ever have to suffer discrimination... a loving person/couple should be allowed to marry whomever they choose to love as well as lovingly raise children that need and deserve to be adopted and taken care of. I think if more of us speak out together about these basic civil rights issues perhaps we can move the world towards a greater understanding of universal love, sweet love and treating others as you would wish to be treated. There cannot ever be enough love in this world... Let's make more and more of it any way we can. Please check out the Fairness Campaign website for more info on what you can do.

Thanks, Jim James"

On a personal note, I was raised by white, Christian heterosexuals, and I've touched briefly on how that did not go so well... So, from experience, I have to opine that no home is perfect but love, and just... consciousness... about raising kids goes a long, long way, right? To those who want to give it a go... LET THEM GO!

The argument that these kids will be stigmatized by being raised by gay parents really irks me, too. If people would stop stigmatizing it they wouldn't have anything to worry about, now would they?!!

Labels: adoption, fairness campaign, gay rights, jerks, jim james, my morning jacket

I know I said I would be back with awesome cool pics and stuff, but I had a run ragged day sprinting around LA in the rain. Did get a chance to go to one of my favorite places in the world, though, so that was nice.

In the meantime, here's a pic of Tom hanging out with what appears to be a mouse playing a horn (does anyone know what this is?) that Jim sent me today.

I hope the boyos are traveling safely and all. I almost feel jet lagged for them.

Apologies for the tiny excitement, but the sleep gets in the way.

(photo by Jim James)

ps. Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica was purty good, purty good. Today's eats also included Martha's in Hermosa Beach, Little Doms in Los Feliz and Lamill Coffee in Silverlake (whose desserts are done by the pastry chef from Providence in Hollywood). I GET AROUND, PEOPLE!! I also weigh about 500 lbs at this point. No cupcakes, though.

pps. It's technically Tom's birthday so Happy Birthday, dude.

Labels: food, forest lawn, japan, jim james, los angeles, my morning jacket, tom blankenship, travel, tt, two tone tommy

My Morning Jacket say sayonara to Japan and hello Los Angeles today (or tomorrow, but it's Saturday over yonder already). Here they be standing in front of an advert for Soft Bank. I hope Tom is bringing that doggie home.

I'm sad to report that they'll be saying hello to a cold and rainy LA. I can't believe this. It's probably going to rain as much in the four days I'm visiting as it did in the eight years I lived here! Boo!


Still... at least there are cupcakes... these being courtesy of Cake in Manhattan Beach. I just ate a carrot cake cupcake for breakfast. I think I'm going to hell.

Don't tell anyone I took this while driving, but here's a random shot of yesterday's sunset over the ocean. I swear I kept my eyes on the road the whole time, thus the results.

I have a busy day ahead trying to find a slightly more acceptable top to wear to the Grammys, lunching with a friend and coffee with some old Viper Room pals. I'll be dining tonight at Rustic Canyon, the restaurant started by the old Spago chef. Sounds yummy. I'll let you know.

I'll be back later with final shots of MMJ overseas, but in the meantime, I think you might like these shots of the puppy/kitten store, Eric Mayers doing his best Shining impersonation at the puppy/kitten store, and interesting pet disposal options.




I hope you've enjoyed these little travelogues, and as always you can catch up with all of them here.

Okay, the sugar is making me funny in the head. Time to look for more reasonable brekkie alternatives. I think they have eggs in California. Why, I'm sure they do!

(photos by Tom Blankenship, Eric Mayers and yours truly)

Labels: bo koster, carl broemel, cupcakes, eric mayers, japan, jim james, music, my morning jacket, patrick hallahan, tom blankenship, travel, tt, two tone tommy