The Waterfall, My Morning Jacket’s First Album In Four Years, Set For May 5 Release on ATO Records/Capitol Records
March 4, 2015
Lead Single “Big Decisions” Available Now
Pre-Order Live with Instant Download of Track
World Tour Announced
Band Will Headline Governors Ball and Bonnaroo
On May 5th, 2015 My Morning Jacket are set to return with their seventh full-length album, The Waterfall via ATO Records/Capitol Records. This release will mark the band’s first on Capitol Records. Recorded in Stinson Beach CA, The Waterfall is the follow-up to the GRAMMY®-nominated Circuital, which was ranked among 2011’s best albums by publications such as Rolling Stone, Paste, MOJO, and Uncut.
Today, the Louisville quintet reveal the new album’s cover art, full track list, and the triumphant lead single, “Big Decisions”, as well as launch a pre-order for the new album via its official website, iTunes and Amazon. Fans who preorder The Waterfall will receive an instant download of “Big Decisions,” which is available for streaming today via VEVO, Spotify, and all other digital services.
My Morning Jacket also announce an extensive United States tour in support of the new album, which will see them headline Governors Ball and Bonnaroo before embarking on a nationwide headlining tour in mid-May, followed by dates in Europe. Fan club pre-sale will be going live on March 9 and the tickets will be available for general sale on March 13. (See full list of tour dates below).
My Morning Jacket arrived at Northern California’s Stinson Beach, former home of Steve Miller and Jerry Garcia amongst others, in late 2013 thinking only about making an album. The band was not prepared to be seduced. But within a couple of days, Jim James, Tom Blankenship, Patrick Hallahan, Carl Broemel and Bo Koster were in love with Panoramic House, a studio perched on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The natural beauty of the surrounding landscape, located only about a half hour north of the Golden Gate Bridge, combined with the almost mystical serenity flooded them with a charged sense of possibilities.
“For me, every record has the spirit of where we made it,” explains singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter Jim James. “Stinson Beach was so psychedelic and focused. It was almost like we lived on our own little moon out there. It feels like you’re up in the sky.”
On the new release there are moments that reach back to early albums such as 2001’s At Dawn and 2003’s It Still Moves, the record that gave the band a much broader audience. But the experimentation that marked 2004’s Z, 2008’s Evil Urges and James’ 2013 solo album, Regions of Light and Sound of God is clearly in effect.
The Waterfall sounds like history and decades colliding, like a record made by fervent music fans in search of that tingle up the spine. Inveterate music geeks will hear echoes of vintage rock and pop as MMJ continues to honor its influences without aping any of them; The Waterfall sounds like nothing else but also warmly familiar.
“That’s kind of the sound of this record, and my life, the sound of the page turning and not being sure what’s coming next,” said James.
“The freedom we went into this record with took a lot of the pressure off, as far as what to do and how to do it,” Hallahan added. “The mantra was anything goes, no stone unturned, it’ll be done when it’s done.”
The band recorded The Waterfall over the course of eighteen months, teaming up again with producer/engineer Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Modest Mouse, Neko Case), who also worked with My Morning Jacket on Circuital. In addition to the Stinson Beach sessions, they recorded at Martine’s Seattle home studio and at Ratterman’s La La Land studio in Louisville.
But in the end, it all circled back to Stinson Beach.
“Out of all the places we’ve recorded, I think that place might have informed the record on a spiritual level more than any other,” adds Koster. “If you listen to ‘Like A River,’ it just sounds like Stinson Beach.”
The Waterfall is the latest in a career-spanning string of success beginning with the band’s 1999 debut album The Tennessee Fire and including 2008’s Evil Urges and 2011’s Circuital which each received GRAMMY ® nominations – the latter debuting at #5 on the Billboard 200 chart. Over the course of the past few years the band has also enjoyed renewed prominence thanks to Jim James’ work on The New Basement Tapes.
The Waterfall -Track Listing
Believe (Nobody Knows)
Compound Fracture
Like A River
In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)
Get The Point
Spring (Among the Living)
Thin Line
Big Decisions
Tropics (Erase Traces)
Only Memories Remain
My Morning Jacket Tour Dates
May 15 at Georgia Theater in Athens, GA
May 16 at Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, TN
May 17 at Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, AL
May 23 at Boston Calling Festival in Boston, MA
June 3 at State Theatre in Cleveland, OH
June 4 at Stage AE in Pittsburgh, PA
June 5 at Governors Ball Music Festivalin New York, NY
June 7 at Field Trip Fesyival in Toronto, ON
June 9 at Chicago Theatre in Chicago, IL
June 10 at Chicago Theatre in Chicago, IL
June 11 at Chicago Theatre in Chicago, IL
June 12 at Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN
June 13 at Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN
June 14 at Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN
June 16 at Fillmore, State Theatre in Detroit, MI
June 17 at Fillmore, State Theatre in Detroit, MI
June 19 at Gentlemen of the Road Stopover in Waverly, IA
June 20 at Riverside Theatre in Milwaukee, WI
June 23 at Palace Theatre in Columbus, OH
June 24 at Palace Theatre in Columbus, OH
June 26 at Northrup Auditorium in Minneapolis, MN
June 27 at Northrup Auditorium in Minneapolis, MN
July 17 at Forecastle Festival in Louisville, KY
July 18 at Forecastle Festival in Louisville, KY
July 19 at Forecastle Festival in Louisville, KY
July 21 at nTelos Pavilion in Charlottesville, VA
July 22 at Arts Park Series in Lewiston, NY
July 26 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD
July 28 at Red Hat Amphitheatre in Raleigh, NC
July 29 at Uptown Amphitheatre in Charlotte, NC
July 31 at Champions Square in New Orleans, LA
August 1 at Amphitheatre in St. Augustine, FL
August 3 at The Fillmore, Jackie Gleason in Miami, FL
August 4 at Hard Rock Live in Orlando, FL
August 6 at West Riverfront Amphitheater in Nashville, TN
August 7 at Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA
August 8 at Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA
August 10 at BJCC Concert Hall in Birmingham, AL
August 12 at The Peabody Opera House in St. Louis, MO
August 13 at Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, MO
August 14 at Red Rocks in Denver, CO
September 1 at Rivierenhof Amphitheatre in Antwerp, BEL
September 4 at Electric Picnic Festival in Dublin, IRE
September 5 at End of the Road Festival in Larmer Tree, UK
September 6 at The Ritz in Manchester, UK
September 8 at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London, UK
September 10 at Pardiso in Amsterdam, HOL
September 12 at Take Root Festival in Groningen, HOL
September 13 at Lollapalooza in Berlin, GER
August 30 at Rock en Seine in Paris, FR
September 2 at Gloria in Koln, GER
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