The My Morning Jacket Press Conference - Can You See The Hard Helmet On My Head

Well, that happened.

That's Tom Blankenship (aka husband type person or, to you, MMJ bassist type person) showing off his supercute hardhat that they gave the boyos so they could tour the future KFC Yum! Center.

Tom says, "The new arena is gigantic and fancy, like pro-team fancy."

I did not go on this tour because I do not don bright red plastic headwear.

So, this whole brouhaha was for the upcoming My Morning Jacket show at Louisville's very own aforementioned brand new arena. The venue is hosting a series of opening concerts featuring The Eagles, MMJ and (haha) Justin Bieber.

Tickets for the October 29 MMJ show are $45 and go on sale August 14 at Ticketmaster. Local awesome saucies Wax Fang open. A special general admission cash-only sale will take place on August 12 at Ear X-tacy's new location at 2226 Bardstown Road. Ear X-tacy moves on July 30.

I don't actually remember much of the presser as I was too busy trying to live tweet it. Which I did... poorly. Oops.

Jim talked about the vitalosity of local business, artists and such and representatives of the Louisville Youth Orchestra, who will be performing with the band, were on hand to talk about how psyched they are that MMJ is donating $1 from each ticket to their scholarship fund. The fund raises money for at risk youth to be able to attend school. The head orchestra honcho said that they should double their fund with this influx of bucks. So that is most excellent.

Umm, here's the rest in pictures...


Jim talks about things and answers the question, "New record?" with "We're working on it."


Happy Patrick! Happy Tom! Happy John from Ear X-tacy! Dude with camera! I'm pretty sure that's Jeffrey Lee Puckett's arm.


I'm having this banner turned into bedsheets. Not really.


I finally met this guy. This photo is old - from the Evil Urges release in-store thingy back in 2008. His name is Benny and he is very nice. He used to play in a band called Elliott. I never saw them but heard they were quite good. Kevin from Wax Fang was in that group, as well.


And finally, here's a closeup of the hardhat because I just know you really wanted to see it from another angle. An angle that is not atop Tom's head.

Alrighty then... now back to regularly scheduled programming. Regularly scheduled programming looking something like this:

My Morning Jacket at Ear X-Tacy: Pooch Gets In On the Action

Okay, I know that show was, what, two days ago? Feels like forever as I've been whiling away the time in Nashville while the band rehearses.

However, I wanted to share a couple shots from the show with you.

It's always nice to catch Jim in a smile. Also, this was one of the only shots I took that didn't look like merde.

I'm so glad to find that Pooch bought a copy of the new record (see above). He is good supporter of band! Good Pooch!

When Tom got back to the bus, he found this note on the windshield from their six biggest fans. It was pretty cute but I was too lazy to take a decent pic of it so now you get Tom looking grim while holding it in a bar at the Sheraton in Nashville.

I'm reporting to you now from the wilds of Manchester, TN. Tomorrow night the lads take the stage at midnight for their Bonnaroo blowout... a show of stupendous proportions.

Maybe I'll see some other bands so I appear more well rounded, as if writing about MMJ isn't the only thing occupying my time. But it is Evil Urges week after all! In my mind only, perhaps, but still.

Toods,
Ms. P

ps. Thanks to stalwart MMJ guitar tech Rick Sanger for capturing Pooch in action.