Louisville rockers My Morning Jacket have announced their self-titled ninth studio album, out Oct. 22 on ATO Records. The band’s first new music since 2015’s The Waterfall, the sessions for which also produced 2020’s surprise-released The Waterfall II, My Morning Jacket’s opening track “Regularly Scheduled Programming” is out now, with a music video co-directed by MMJ frontman Jim James and George Mays.
“Regularly Scheduled Programming” finds the band fed up with the internet age and the endless, numbing state of distraction it’s foisted upon us all: “Diamonds are growing in the garden / Raindrops are filling up the sea / Excuse me, you know I beg your pardon / For this interruption / Now back to regularly scheduled programming,” sings James, backed by a muted bass pulse around which MMJ gradually build. In the choruses, James simply insists, “Had enough,” over glowing keys and backing vocals, triumphant in his rejection of the “programming to drown out how we feel / Fresh fiction rewriting how we think / Screen time addiction / Replacing real life and love / Erasing forgiveness,” and upholding “mighty and sacred love” as the antidote to our increasingly Black Mirror-esque reality.
“This song really hits home for me after what we’ve gone through with the pandemic,” James says of the band’s new single in a statement. “But even before then, it felt like so many of us were trading real life for social media, trading our own stories for the storylines on TV, trading our consciousness for drugs. We need to help each other wake up to real love before it’s too late.”
Produced and engineered by James over two multi-week sessions at 64 Sound in Los Angeles, My Morning Jacket very nearly never existed, with its recording coming after a hiatus for the band—James, bassist Tom Blankenship, drummer Patrick Hallahan, guitarist Carl Broemel and keyboardist Bo Koster—that almost became permanent. A press release cites “performing four shows in summer 2019—beginning with two mind-blowing nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre” as the fuel that kept MMJ’s fire from going out.
“I hope this album brings people a lot of joy and relief, especially since we’ve all been cooped up for so long,” continues James. “I know that feeling you get from driving around blasting music you love, or even lying in bed and crying to the music you love. The fact that we’re able to be a part of people’s lives in that way is so magical to us, and it feels really good that we’re still around to keep doing that.”
MMJ’s first U.S. headlining tour in six years kicks off on Aug. 27 with a Charlotte, N.C., show alongside Flock of Dimes. 25 more performances—including various festival sets (Bonnaroo foremost among them), and multi-night stands in Queens, Seattle, Chicago and Denver—alongside Brittany Howard, Durand Jones & The Indications and Bedouine keep the band busy through the end of 2021, and they’ll bring back their destination music festival One Big Holiday on March 2-5, 2022, with acts including Lord Huron, Howard, Black Pumas, Sharon Van Etten, Trampled By Turtles, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Steel Pulse playing beachside sets in Riviera Cancún, Mexico.
Watch the “Regularly Scheduled Programming” video below, plus a 2011 MMJ performance from the Paste archives, and find the details of their new album and their tour dates further down. You can preorder it here.
My Morning Jacket Tracklist:
01. Regularly Scheduled Programming
02. Love Love Love
03. In Color
04. Least Expected
05. Never In The Real World
06. The Devil’s In The Details
07. Lucky To Be Alive
08. Complex
09. Out Of Range, Pt. 2
10. Penny For Your Thoughts
11. I Never Could Get Enough
My Morning Jacket Album Art:
My Morning Jacket Tour Dates:
August
27 – Charlotte, NC @ Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre ~
28 – Lexington, KY @ Railbird Festival
September
03 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre ^
04 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
07 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion ^
08 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Mann – TD Pavilion ^
10 – Queens, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium ^
11 – Queens, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium ^
23 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl *
24 – Dana Point, CA @ Ohana Festival
25 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley *
28 – Troutdale, OR @ McMenamins Edgefield Concerts *
29 – Spokane, WA @ Riverfront Park Pavilion *
October
01 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre *
02 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre *
03 – Bend, OR @ Les Schwab Amphitheater *
29 – Birmingham, AL @ Alabama Theatre # SOLD OUT
30 – Live Oak, FL @ Suwannee Hulaween SOLD OUT
31 – New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theatre # SOLD OUT
November
2 – St. Louis, MO @ Stifel Theater #
4 – Chicago, IL @ Auditorium Theatre #
5 – Chicago, IL @ Auditorium Theatre # SOLD OUT
6 – Chicago, IL @ Auditorium Theatre # SOLD OUT
December
29 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
30 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom SOLD OUT
31 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom SOLD OUT
March 2022
2-5 – Riviera Cancún, Mexico @ One Big Holiday
(^ – And Brittany Howard)
(* – Special Guests Durand Jones & The Indications)
(# – Special Guest Bedouine)
(~ – Special Guest Flock of Dimes)
