Rumors were a second waterfall album was going to be released late 2015/early 2016. Damn, 5 years is a while for this to sit if they intended to release it all along. Hope it's good and not just true b-sides.
Listen to the album on their Facebook and YouTube channels on Thursday at 9pm est
8/28/98- Camden, NJ
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Tres Mts.- 3/23/11- Philly. PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
Part of a triple album? So, is there another one on hold? I know Jim has mentioned (on top of the giant Waterfall catalog) that they also have a live album pretty much ready to go.
I assume that II is going to be at least somewhat similar to The Waterfall. It's not an album that I revisit all that often. But I do like some of the songs that were in the live rotation when they were touring it.
And now looking at the track listing, I actually like most of them. This is a nice surprise. Looking forward to Thursday night!
Great news. I missed the clinch photo. Went with the deluxe vinyl, orange/green splash.
I listened to Waterfall a good amount when it came out.
I get the impression this wasn’t likely going to see the light of day but due to pandemic and things slowing down, it was revisited. Even if it’s true B sides, MMJ b-sides are better than a lot of music out there.
I seen some speculation that the recent sessions were for totally new music and this is meant as a bit of an archival type release to hype another album sooner than later.
I seen some speculation that the recent sessions were for totally new music and this is meant as a bit of an archival type release to hype another album sooner than later.
yes, new album was recorded in march.
This show, another show, a show here and a show there.
Back in 2014, the members of My Morning Jacket
spent time up in Stinson Beach, a tiny Northern California town set
right on the ocean and near the majestic Muir Woods. Massively inspired
by their idyllic surroundings—and a sense of charmed isolation that
frontman Jim James likened to “living on our own little moon”—the
Kentucky-bred five-piece ended up creating over two dozen songs at the
mountaintop studio known as Panoramic House. Though they flirted with
the idea of putting out what would have been a triple album, the band
ultimately decided that less would be more at the time and divided the
project into two halves, releasing the first segment as The Waterfall: a
2015 full-length that earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best
Alternative Music Album. My Morning Jacket are now set to share the
second half of the project as The Waterfall II, an unforeseen and timely
continuation of a psychic and sonic journey begun long ago.
As
James reveals, the decision to unearth The Waterfall II was sparked
from a bit of serendipity in the early days of self-quarantine. While
out on a walk, he placed his music library on shuffle and soon stumbled
upon “Spinning My Wheels,” a tender rumination on the struggle for
presence, its lyrics confessing to feeling “hypnotized from doing the
same old thing.” Struck by the song’s enduring relevance, James
revisited the other tracks reserved from the Panoramic House sessions
and found that they invited a welcome moment of self-reflection—an
outcome perhaps even more perfectly suited to the chaos of the current
day than the circumstances of their recording.
Like
its predecessor, The Waterfall II mines its mood of dreamy
contemplation from certain heartbreak James had recently experienced,
including the demise of a monumental relationship. Unfolding in a
loosely threaded narrative of loss and recovery, the album conjures an
indelible pain but never drifts into despair, gracefully conveying
James’s message that “there is hope beyond the pain and loss, if you
learn to flow with life like water.”
Opening
with the profound reverie of “Spinning My Wheels,” The Waterfall II
endlessly illuminates My Morning Jacket’s eclectic sensibilities,
encompassing everything from lilting sunshine-pop to fantastically
ramshackle rock and roll. While the album slips into heavenly
psychedelia on tracks like “Feel You” (a mesmerizing epic James
developed deep in the Muir Woods), a more ominous tone permeates “Magic
Bullet” and its rattled response to gun violence. An intimate
documenting of keeping an open heart in the face of devastation, The
Waterfall II embodies a wistful longing on “Run It” (a song about “the
desire to disappear and turn back into water,” according to James) and
later gives way to overwhelming gratitude on “Welcome Home” (a portrait
of “coming home from tour feeling so sad and defeated and lonely, but
realizing how much love I was lucky to have in my friends and family”).
And on “The First Time,” My Morning Jacket close out the album with a
sweetly rambling meditation on the possibility of finding love again,
channeling both ineffable sorrow and wide-eyed hope to incredibly
glorious effect.
Even in its most
heavy-hearted moments, The Waterfall II radiates an undeniable sense of
wonder, a testament to the wild-mindedness that’s long imbued the music
of My Morning Jacket.
With their
unabashed curiosity infinitely stirred by their time at Stinson Beach,
the band hopes that the album might lead others to look beyond what’s
human-made in the search for solace and renewal. “As so many of us feel
out of tune and long for the world to be a better place, we have to look
to nature and the animals and learn from them: learn to love, accept,
move on, and respect each other,” says James. “We gotta work for it and
change our ways before it’s too late, and get in harmony with love and
equality for all of humanity and for nature too.”
Looks like they extended the run on the deluxe splash vinyl beyond the initial 1,000 copies. Ordered mine a few minutes after it was first announced/posted so hopefully getting the signed Clinch photo.
8/28/98- Camden, NJ
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Tres Mts.- 3/23/11- Philly. PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
This is a review from a poster on the MMJ board who has heard it.
Among the MANY highlights:
Still Thinkin' - Some of the most 60s-sounding pop MMJ has ever recorded. Sounds like a catchy reworking of "Exploding", until it breaks into a classic Jacket ending with Jim rippin' huge licks, Bo layin' down the vibes and Carl wailing on sax.
Climbing The Ladder - MMJ's most rockin' honky tonk ripper on anything since It Still Moves. This track is a straight barroom dancefloor burner, with an awesome multi-guitar attack -- some slippin' and slidin', some chicken pickin' and some fuzz rippin' and roarin'. I am fuckin' PUMPED to dance to this live. Feel You - This was the song teased the other day. And for DAMN GOOD REASON, as this is the next Jacket epic. Feel You is Lay Low's more mellow brother, with huge, soaring Jim vocals and all the guitar weaving magic that MMJ fans crave. And somehow in 2014, Bo had already brought the Floyd fairy dust to the mix?! This song is a stunner.
Beautiful Love - A pleasant soul chugger that is hugely elevated by a sick fuzz solo.
Magic Bullet - We've all heard this before, but it somehow sounds fresher here? I suspect this is a new, supremely spacious mix, filtered through a Funkadelic plugin. #wildtones #crazyhorns
Run It - An awesome Bill Withers-esque 70s singer-songwriter jam. Tommy makes this one pop with a sick Muscle Shoals groove, and Bo continues to elevate every song he's heavily featured on.
Wasted - Starts off sounding like Dan Auerbach run of the mill riffin' until it grows into the next Run Thru, crazy breakdown and all! There is a HUGE instrumental section which features incredible solos by Bo, Carl AND Jim! Not to mention BIG horns. This will be a live staple for years to come.
First Time - Wonderfully saccharine and supremely jammin', like the much happier cousin of Only Memories Remain. A perfect closer to the Waterfall saga.
Also this link says they will be on the Jimmy Fallon show next week (July 15)
ALPINE VALLEY MUSIC THEATRE 1992 SUMMERFEST MILWAUKEE 1995 ALPINE VALLEY MUSIC THEATRE 1998 UNITED CENTER CHICAGO1998 THOMPSON-BOLING ARENA KNOXVILLE 1998 ALPINE VALLEY MUSIC THEATRE 2000 ALLSTATE ARENA ROSEMONT 2000 ALPINE VALLEY MUSIC THEATRE 2003 HERSHEYPARK STADIUM 2003 TOLEDO SPORTS ARENA 2004 AIR CANADA CENTRE TORONTO 2005 UNITED CENTER CHICAGO 2006 UNITED CENTER CHICAGO 2006 VERIZON CENTER DC 2008 UNITED CENTER CHICAGO 2009 NATIONWIDE ARENA COLUMBUS 2010 PJ20 NIGHT 1 Alpine Valley Music Theatre 2011 PJ20 NIGHT 2 Alpine Valley Music Theatre 2011 1ST MARINER ARENA BALTIMORE 2013 IWIRELESS CENTER MOLINE 2014 XCEL ENERGY CENTER ST. PAUL 2014 CHICAGO 1 Wrigley Field 2016 CHICAGO 2 Wrigley Field 2016 CHICAGO 1 Wrigley Field 2018 CHICAGO 2 Wrigley Field 2018 BOSTON 2 Fenway Park 2018 ENTERPRISE CENTER SAINT LOUIS 2022 Eddie Vedder Auditorium Theatre CHICAGO 2008
I can see a few songs slotting in but overall I think Waterfall has the bulk of the better material from the sessions. I’m sure I’ll grow to appreciate it more.
Spinning My Wheels "I go on walks with my phone on shuffle, and it played 'Spinning My Wheels.' I listened to it and I was like, 'Whoa, we've got this whole other album that, to me, feels very reflective.' It's funny because we're working on another new record--a new My Morning Jacket record--but with the pandemic and everything, it'll be a little while before we finish that and get all that stuff done."
Still Thinkin "I feel like there's always this period--at least for me--when I'm going through a relationship falling apart, that I keep thinking that I can make it work. I think we've all experienced that. If there's something that can't be fixed, but you haven't accepted that yet and you keep trying to fix it. You're trying everything because you don't want to lose it. But you kind of have to lose it, because that's what will be best for both of you--but you don't realize it. 'Still Thinkin' was caught up in that emotion and caught up in the fog of that. Ultimately, once it was gone and I was looking back on it and writing that song, it's like that feeling of being a lone soul hanging off the edge of the world. I feel like so many nights during this pandemic--and I know I'm not alone--but you feel so alone because you're kept at home. And you're like, all right, I'm at home again for the 800th night in a row. What do I do tonight? And I think a thing that's difficult that a lot of people have said that I really appreciate is trying to not be hard on ourselves, trying to remember we don't have to write the next great American novel. We don't have to paint an amazing painting every night. Some nights we're just going to be sad and that's okay, because it's a difficult time."
Climbing the Ladder "One thing that I've gotten sometimes when I talk to people about my sadnesses or my failures in love or personal life, people won't validate them or they'll say back to me, 'Oh, but your career's going so good.' And it's not like I'm not happy about those times, because we have so many levels in our life. We have so many different ways we are. There's the us that focuses on our career. There's the us that focuses on our family. There's the us that focuses on our hobbies, whatever. So that song I just kind of wrote about how I'm climbing the ladder and I'm paying my dues in this career way. But really at the end of the day--not that I don't value that or appreciate that--what I really want is sustainable love in my life and to create a sustainable relationship and a family and that kind of stuff, which I haven't been able to do."
Feel You "That song was so weird, because I wrote the main riff in Kentucky before we went to Stinson Beach, but there weren't all of the instrumental parts and there weren't all of the other parts that happened. We went to Muir Woods several times while we were in Stinson Beach, and Muir Woods really gave me that song. I feel like being in those woods, the parts would come, because that's something that happens for me a lot. I walk and it generates music, but I feel like where I am contributes to that music. That song--a lot of the instrumentation and a lot of the ending and a lot of the space in the song--I feel like really was downloaded from the trees."
Beautiful Love (Wasn't Enough "I wanted the song to have kind of a lighter vibe--not goofy, but just more of a resonant vibe that wasn't necessarily sad even though the song is kind of sad. I'm just really trying to look at myself and figure out why things didn't work out. I've had these moments where I'm like, 'If I wrote down everything I wanted on paper, it was all there in this relationship. But for some intangible reason that I couldn't figure out, it just didn't work.' And I was wondering about that in the song. Why wasn't it enough? Everything was there, but for some reason that I still don't understand, it wasn't enough. And I'm trying to figure that out for myself. What is it in me?"
Magic Bullet "God, I don't even know where to start. I mean, it's so sad to me that as I sit here and try to remember which shooting it was that inspired me to write that song and I can't even remember. There's been so many of them. The whole gun thing just makes me so sad, because guns disgust me and guns are made to kill people and that is so profoundly messed up. The whole right to bear arms and the right to carry guns and stuff: It's like, when the Constitution was written, they had muskets. So if you want to get literal about the Constitution, then give everybody a musket or give everybody a single-shooter rifle or whatever, and be like, 'Okay. Here's your guns. You got them.'"
Run It "It's Stinson Beach. I kept thinking about just wanting to get back to water. And I feel like most humans, we all love going to the water. We love going to the lake or to the beach, whatever it is, the swimming pool, we all have this desire. We're made of water. At times, I feel so overwhelmed by life and I feel like I don't fit in to the human experience that I just want to turn back into water and go back into the ocean and start again. Maybe wash back up on shore, go through the whole thing again, because I don't know, sometimes it just doesn't make sense to me. That's where that song came from."
Wasted "I feel like there's two ways to waste time. In 'Feel You' I reference what I consider to be the good way to waste time: to just take time, to do nothing basically, to experience the forest or experience the ocean, because I feel like we're all constantly trying to do things and trying to fill our time with activities and keep it moving. But I think we forget to just take time to just not do anything, but then there's the other kind of wasting time where I feel like if you start to do too much and you get stagnant and you get complacent and you don't realize what you have, you can waste a lot of time. You can waste a lot of opportunities, and 'Wasted' was just me thinking about that for myself and other people I know. When I feel like, 'Oh god, I've been sitting here in this stagnant place,' whatever it is, whether it's my misery or various injuries I've had that I've had to recover from, that require you to be in this time-wasting place, try and create that motion again. 'Wasted' was the instrumental nature of it, the whole middle section, and I was just trying to create that momentum, and that was all one of our favorite tracks, such a fun track to record and play. I feel like the first part of the song is we're trying to break up the energy, and then the instrumental part sends it out, shooting it out, once you've broken it up."
Welcome Home "This was a rumination on family, and I have such a wonderful family--not only a blood family, but my friends that have become family--and sometimes I get so lost in the end of a romance or the failure of a romantic relationship that I can spin out and almost forget there's anybody else on earth. When I wrote 'Welcome Home,' it was a time after I came home to Kentucky and just had some beautiful hangs with my family and with my friends. It's just a reminder to myself that there are these people that love me, that do welcome me home, no matter what my personal or relationship life may be going through, and to not forget them in those times of need, but remember them and call on them, because they've always been there for me."
The First Time "Another one I wrote walking down the beach. That's a thing I think about a lot, that I struggle with. I almost feel like sometimes I haven't unlocked the key yet. Some people have, but I feel like we get almost penalized in relationships, that everybody always says there's the magic there at the beginning and everything is so amazing, and then slowly the magic fades away. You can keep creating that beginner's mind--that freshness that brought you together in the first place--but still grow. Can we make this feel as special as it did back when we met and things were electric and things were on fire and we were everything to each other? I haven't been able to sustain that. Somehow that always fades away, and I wish it was engineered the other way, where you got more and more rewarded for staying in the relationship--it just got hotter and hotter and more and more amazing. I know some people do make that happen, but I think it takes a lot of work, obviously, doing the work for yourself and have your partner do the work."
This show, another show, a show here and a show there.
I can see a few songs slotting in but overall I think Waterfall has the bulk of the better material from the sessions. I’m sure I’ll grow to appreciate it more.
so it's kinda like a b side of Waterfall? Like what ReLoad was to load for Metallica? Well still can;t wait to hear it, another half hour to go
8/28/98- Camden, NJ
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Tres Mts.- 3/23/11- Philly. PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
Climbing the Ladder, Feel You, and Run It seemed to stand out at first listen. I think Waterfall I is probably the better album, but this wasn't all that bad. Definitely will be some live staples.
And agree with ComeToTX, Bo is great on this album.
Comments
2010: Newark 5/18 MSG 5/20-21 2011: PJ20 9/3-4 2012: Made In America 9/2
2013: Brooklyn 10/18-19 Philly 10/21-22 Hartford 10/25 2014: ACL10/12
2015: NYC 9/23 2016: Tampa 4/11 Philly 4/28-29 MSG 5/1-2 Fenway 8/5+8/7
2017: RRHoF 4/7 2018: Fenway 9/2+9/4 2021: Sea Hear Now 9/18
2022: MSG 9/11 2024: MSG 9/3-4 Philly 9/7+9/9 Fenway 9/15+9/17
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
I assume that II is going to be at least somewhat similar to The Waterfall. It's not an album that I revisit all that often. But I do like some of the songs that were in the live rotation when they were touring it.
And now looking at the track listing, I actually like most of them. This is a nice surprise. Looking forward to Thursday night!
Thanks, @redraw for the lead!
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
TRACKLISTING
SIDE A
1. Spinning My Wheels
2. Still Thinkin
3. Climbing The Ladder
4. Feel You
5. Beautiful Love (Wasn’t Enough)
SIDE B
1. Magic Bullet
2. Run It
3. Wasted
4. Welcome Home
5. The First Time
DC 2003
DC 2004 (VFC)
DC 2006
Pittsburgh 2006
Bonnaroo 2008
Virginia Beach 2008
DC 2008
Philly (Spectrum) 10/31/2009
DC 2010 (Jiffy Lube Live)
PJ 20 night 1
PJ 20 night 2
Phoenix 2013
LA 1 2013
Memphis 2014
Jacksonville 2016
Greenville 2016
Hampton 2016
Columbia 2016
Fenway 1 2016
Fenway 2 2016
Wrigley 1 2018
Wrigley 2 2018
Fenway 1 2018
Fenway 2 2018
Sea Hear Now 2021
Nashville 2022
Louisville 2022
Among the MANY highlights:
Still Thinkin' - Some of the most 60s-sounding pop MMJ has ever recorded. Sounds like a catchy reworking of "Exploding", until it breaks into a classic Jacket ending with Jim rippin' huge licks, Bo layin' down the vibes and Carl wailing on sax.
Climbing The Ladder - MMJ's most rockin' honky tonk ripper on anything since It Still Moves. This track is a straight barroom dancefloor burner, with an awesome multi-guitar attack -- some slippin' and slidin', some chicken pickin' and some fuzz rippin' and roarin'. I am fuckin' PUMPED to dance to this live.
Feel You - This was the song teased the other day. And for DAMN GOOD REASON, as this is the next Jacket epic. Feel You is Lay Low's more mellow brother, with huge, soaring Jim vocals and all the guitar weaving magic that MMJ fans crave. And somehow in 2014, Bo had already brought the Floyd fairy dust to the mix?! This song is a stunner.
Beautiful Love - A pleasant soul chugger that is hugely elevated by a sick fuzz solo.
Magic Bullet - We've all heard this before, but it somehow sounds fresher here? I suspect this is a new, supremely spacious mix, filtered through a Funkadelic plugin. #wildtones #crazyhorns
Run It - An awesome Bill Withers-esque 70s singer-songwriter jam. Tommy makes this one pop with a sick Muscle Shoals groove, and Bo continues to elevate every song he's heavily featured on.
Wasted - Starts off sounding like Dan Auerbach run of the mill riffin' until it grows into the next Run Thru, crazy breakdown and all! There is a HUGE instrumental section which features incredible solos by Bo, Carl AND Jim! Not to mention BIG horns. This will be a live staple for years to come.
First Time - Wonderfully saccharine and supremely jammin', like the much happier cousin of Only Memories Remain. A perfect closer to the Waterfall saga.
Also this link says they will be on the Jimmy Fallon show next week (July 15)
www.cluthelee.com
www.cluthe.com
SUMMERFEST MILWAUKEE 1995
ALPINE VALLEY MUSIC THEATRE 1998
UNITED CENTER CHICAGO1998
THOMPSON-BOLING ARENA KNOXVILLE 1998
ALPINE VALLEY MUSIC THEATRE 2000
ALLSTATE ARENA ROSEMONT 2000
ALPINE VALLEY MUSIC THEATRE 2003
HERSHEYPARK STADIUM 2003
TOLEDO SPORTS ARENA 2004
AIR CANADA CENTRE TORONTO 2005
UNITED CENTER CHICAGO 2006
UNITED CENTER CHICAGO 2006
VERIZON CENTER DC 2008
UNITED CENTER CHICAGO 2009
NATIONWIDE ARENA COLUMBUS 2010
PJ20 NIGHT 1 Alpine Valley Music Theatre 2011
PJ20 NIGHT 2 Alpine Valley Music Theatre 2011
1ST MARINER ARENA BALTIMORE 2013
IWIRELESS CENTER MOLINE 2014
XCEL ENERGY CENTER ST. PAUL 2014
CHICAGO 1 Wrigley Field 2016
CHICAGO 2 Wrigley Field 2016
CHICAGO 1 Wrigley Field 2018
CHICAGO 2 Wrigley Field 2018
BOSTON 2 Fenway Park 2018
ENTERPRISE CENTER SAINT LOUIS 2022
Eddie Vedder Auditorium Theatre CHICAGO 2008
Spinning My Wheels
"I go on walks with my phone on shuffle, and it played 'Spinning My Wheels.' I listened to it and I was like, 'Whoa, we've got this whole other album that, to me, feels very reflective.' It's funny because we're working on another new record--a new My Morning Jacket record--but with the pandemic and everything, it'll be a little while before we finish that and get all that stuff done."
Still Thinkin
"I feel like there's always this period--at least for me--when I'm going through a relationship falling apart, that I keep thinking that I can make it work. I think we've all experienced that. If there's something that can't be fixed, but you haven't accepted that yet and you keep trying to fix it. You're trying everything because you don't want to lose it. But you kind of have to lose it, because that's what will be best for both of you--but you don't realize it. 'Still Thinkin' was caught up in that emotion and caught up in the fog of that. Ultimately, once it was gone and I was looking back on it and writing that song, it's like that feeling of being a lone soul hanging off the edge of the world. I feel like so many nights during this pandemic--and I know I'm not alone--but you feel so alone because you're kept at home. And you're like, all right, I'm at home again for the 800th night in a row. What do I do tonight? And I think a thing that's difficult that a lot of people have said that I really appreciate is trying to not be hard on ourselves, trying to remember we don't have to write the next great American novel. We don't have to paint an amazing painting every night. Some nights we're just going to be sad and that's okay, because it's a difficult time."
Climbing the Ladder
"One thing that I've gotten sometimes when I talk to people about my sadnesses or my failures in love or personal life, people won't validate them or they'll say back to me, 'Oh, but your career's going so good.' And it's not like I'm not happy about those times, because we have so many levels in our life. We have so many different ways we are. There's the us that focuses on our career. There's the us that focuses on our family. There's the us that focuses on our hobbies, whatever. So that song I just kind of wrote about how I'm climbing the ladder and I'm paying my dues in this career way. But really at the end of the day--not that I don't value that or appreciate that--what I really want is sustainable love in my life and to create a sustainable relationship and a family and that kind of stuff, which I haven't been able to do."
Feel You
"That song was so weird, because I wrote the main riff in Kentucky before we went to Stinson Beach, but there weren't all of the instrumental parts and there weren't all of the other parts that happened. We went to Muir Woods several times while we were in Stinson Beach, and Muir Woods really gave me that song. I feel like being in those woods, the parts would come, because that's something that happens for me a lot. I walk and it generates music, but I feel like where I am contributes to that music. That song--a lot of the instrumentation and a lot of the ending and a lot of the space in the song--I feel like really was downloaded from the trees."
Beautiful Love (Wasn't Enough
"I wanted the song to have kind of a lighter vibe--not goofy, but just more of a resonant vibe that wasn't necessarily sad even though the song is kind of sad. I'm just really trying to look at myself and figure out why things didn't work out. I've had these moments where I'm like, 'If I wrote down everything I wanted on paper, it was all there in this relationship. But for some intangible reason that I couldn't figure out, it just didn't work.' And I was wondering about that in the song. Why wasn't it enough? Everything was there, but for some reason that I still don't understand, it wasn't enough. And I'm trying to figure that out for myself. What is it in me?"
Magic Bullet
"God, I don't even know where to start. I mean, it's so sad to me that as I sit here and try to remember which shooting it was that inspired me to write that song and I can't even remember. There's been so many of them. The whole gun thing just makes me so sad, because guns disgust me and guns are made to kill people and that is so profoundly messed up. The whole right to bear arms and the right to carry guns and stuff: It's like, when the Constitution was written, they had muskets. So if you want to get literal about the Constitution, then give everybody a musket or give everybody a single-shooter rifle or whatever, and be like, 'Okay. Here's your guns. You got them.'"
Run It
"It's Stinson Beach. I kept thinking about just wanting to get back to water. And I feel like most humans, we all love going to the water. We love going to the lake or to the beach, whatever it is, the swimming pool, we all have this desire. We're made of water. At times, I feel so overwhelmed by life and I feel like I don't fit in to the human experience that I just want to turn back into water and go back into the ocean and start again. Maybe wash back up on shore, go through the whole thing again, because I don't know, sometimes it just doesn't make sense to me. That's where that song came from."
Wasted
"I feel like there's two ways to waste time. In 'Feel You' I reference what I consider to be the good way to waste time: to just take time, to do nothing basically, to experience the forest or experience the ocean, because I feel like we're all constantly trying to do things and trying to fill our time with activities and keep it moving. But I think we forget to just take time to just not do anything, but then there's the other kind of wasting time where I feel like if you start to do too much and you get stagnant and you get complacent and you don't realize what you have, you can waste a lot of time. You can waste a lot of opportunities, and 'Wasted' was just me thinking about that for myself and other people I know. When I feel like, 'Oh god, I've been sitting here in this stagnant place,' whatever it is, whether it's my misery or various injuries I've had that I've had to recover from, that require you to be in this time-wasting place, try and create that motion again. 'Wasted' was the instrumental nature of it, the whole middle section, and I was just trying to create that momentum, and that was all one of our favorite tracks, such a fun track to record and play. I feel like the first part of the song is we're trying to break up the energy, and then the instrumental part sends it out, shooting it out, once you've broken it up."
Welcome Home
"This was a rumination on family, and I have such a wonderful family--not only a blood family, but my friends that have become family--and sometimes I get so lost in the end of a romance or the failure of a romantic relationship that I can spin out and almost forget there's anybody else on earth. When I wrote 'Welcome Home,' it was a time after I came home to Kentucky and just had some beautiful hangs with my family and with my friends. It's just a reminder to myself that there are these people that love me, that do welcome me home, no matter what my personal or relationship life may be going through, and to not forget them in those times of need, but remember them and call on them, because they've always been there for me."
The First Time
"Another one I wrote walking down the beach. That's a thing I think about a lot, that I struggle with. I almost feel like sometimes I haven't unlocked the key yet. Some people have, but I feel like we get almost penalized in relationships, that everybody always says there's the magic there at the beginning and everything is so amazing, and then slowly the magic fades away. You can keep creating that beginner's mind--that freshness that brought you together in the first place--but still grow. Can we make this feel as special as it did back when we met and things were electric and things were on fire and we were everything to each other? I haven't been able to sustain that. Somehow that always fades away, and I wish it was engineered the other way, where you got more and more rewarded for staying in the relationship--it just got hotter and hotter and more and more amazing. I know some people do make that happen, but I think it takes a lot of work, obviously, doing the work for yourself and have your partner do the work."
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
And agree with ComeToTX, Bo is great on this album.