My Morning Jacket may have made the leap from an under-the-radar indie outfit to virtually the only jam band with hipster cred, but as far as they have grown from their roots, MMJ haven't forgotten where they came from. Case in point: To support and celebrate this past Record Store Day, My Morning Jacket released Celebración de la Ciudad Natal, a double live 10" exclusive recorded in both Louisville's indie record shop ear X-tacy as well as during a three-hour set at the city's Waterfront Park. Even the title tips its hat to the group's Kentucky stomping grounds, translating to "celebrating the city of my birth."
The music itself showcases the group in fine form, which is to be expected. Even those who grumble at their perceived fumbles will concede that My Morning Jacket remain a force to be reckoned with on stage. From the (more or less) straight Southern rock of "Evil Urges" to the dubious Cameo nod "Highly Suspicious" and the folk-country of "Librarian", songs from last year's Evil Urges benefit from the extra breathing space provided by a live airing. "Gideon" gets to drop some atmospherics and gain in sharpness, while fellow Z track "Dondante" is doubled in length to over 14 minutes, demonstrating the qualities that make the group such a live draw. The band also revisits "Phone Went West" (from At Dawn) and performs "Where to Begin", its contribution to the Elizabethtown soundtrack (all 10 people who caught the Cameron Crowe flop may recall it was set in Kentucky).
Yet Celebración de la Ciudad Natal is less valuable for the music than for the message it sends. "I've been buying records at ear X-tacy since I was a tadpole," says Jim James on the release. "I think the thing that people forget about is the community and the memories that are created when you come to an independent and locally owned record store that you can only get in that town." It used to be that release day was also often the first chance you had to hear a band's new material, and divisive albums like My Morning Jacket's Evil Urges (released the day of the June 2008 ear X-tacy appearance) still had the power to shock and/or surprise you.
Sadly, for many the record store is now an afterthought, the end point after days, weeks, or even months of circulated leaks that leech each new release of its dramatic impact. It's debatable how much else has actually been lost along with those once-formative listening experiences, but certainly the sense of community James toasts has at least changed. Would My Morning Jacket have graduated to their current level without that initial surge of grassroots word-of-mouth indie support? Maybe. But one imagines the way they got there would have been quite different, and perhaps less forgiving of an upstart act finding its way forward. Consider, then, Celebración de la Ciudad Natal as a sort of testament to the intangible, a reminder of the long gone thrill when Record Store Day came every week.
