Jim James To Release One Album With M. Ward & Conor Oberst, Another As "An Asian Country Star"

Bless that guy. This info comes via the new Rolling Stone, which is great for fans of huge Obama faceshots (see: the cover, complete with flag-pinned lapel), not so great for its headscratching Bonnaroo coverage. Kanye's set "revitalized the crowd" and was a "powerhouse 90-minute set"? No, and no. But Austin Scaggs makes up for that airball with his assessment of MMJ's four-hour marathon set in the rain, calling it "career-defining" (agreed), and talking about it with the band, getting Jim James to divulge some interesting bits along the way. You saw the post title, right?

All this comes in the read-worthy profile's concluding graph, which offers that JJ is working with frequent collaborator M. Ward and HuffPo pinup boy Conor Oberst on a new record. Recent streamings suggest Conor's back in top form, while M.'s in high stride having impressed most everyone with his AM gold-en touch on She & Him, so that will be one to look out for. Details on that as we get them. More curiously:

[Jim]'s dead serious about making music as an alter ego he describes as an Asian country star named Sec Walkin (after the Evil Urges tune about walking). "It's such a great country name, like Trace Adkins," he says. "Look for us at the top of the charts."

No it's not a tune about walking. It's a tune about sec walkin. RECOGNIZE. So while that project is about as mystifying as not realizing Kanye's set was an utter debacle, after "Highly Suspicious" I don't think I have any right to be surprised by anything Jimmy James does. Anyway I'm in full support of that stagename. (Brandon and I actually put together a "Sec Walkin" dance at Coachella, which comprised of sec walking over to see My Morning Jacket at Coachella.) You can keep your eyes peeled for Sec Walkin at the top of the charts, but you'll probably sooner see him in this hat...

...singing about the issues facing Asian farmers and the blues-beating majesty of Japanese pickup trucks. Obviously. We'll leave you with this bit of a towel-headed JJ talking about time travel and performing a sweet "Golden" at Glastonbury.

Posted at 3:03 PM by amrit
Tags: Conor Oberst | Glastonbury | M. Ward | My Morning Jacket | Sec Walkin

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19 Comments

a few things:

-Austin Scaggs was clearly at a different stage at Bonnaroo from the hours of 2:45-5 am on Saturday night- wait, make that Sunday morning. for srsly.

-Jim James can and should do whatever he wants, however he wants. He has more than proven himself as a bonafide genius.

-Hopefully he will mic hog, leaving COberst with minimal vocal duties.

have i left anything out?

Posted by: grace6697 at 07/01/08 3:17 PM | Reply
Score = 3

yeah, he should definitely mic hog, I'd prefer not to hear M. Ward's shitty voice either

Posted by: meemoo in reply to grace6697's comment at 07/01/08 3:30 PM | Reply
Score = -4

i'll tolerate m. ward. but Conor is a no-no.

Posted by: grace6697  in reply to meemoo's comment at 07/01/08 3:41 PM | Reply
Score = -1

amrit, show me your sec' walkin dance and ill show you mine. and the one for steam engine too. bring it!

Posted by: sasstastic at 07/01/08 3:34 PM | Reply
Score = 0

careful, sassy. i'm seriously considering investing in a pair of jim james moon boots for halloween.

Posted by: amrit  in reply to sasstastic's comment at 07/01/08 4:04 PM | Reply
Score = 2

Wow, no love for M. Ward
I'm not the biggest Bright Eyes fan, but those 3 guys together , come on now. their going to have to try and make it bad.

Posted by: Mario at 07/01/08 3:38 PM | Reply
Score = 4

For the love of god... could someone please put the video of Bonnaroo One Big Holiday that was a broadcast on Fuse. I can't believe someone hasn't posted it online yet.

Posted by: wordabop at 07/01/08 3:42 PM | Reply
Score = 0

Doesn't anyone remeber when these 3 guys toured together? It was awesome or does everyone that read this blog start liking these guys after that? Zing!

Posted by: blah at 07/01/08 3:55 PM | Reply
Score = 2

Didn't they do ACL on that tour?

Posted by: steve  in reply to blah's comment at 07/01/08 4:10 PM | Reply
Score = 0

OMG That's amazing!!!!
I'm so excited for this

Posted by: Katherine at 07/01/08 4:01 PM | Reply
Score = 0

who are these guys? sounds like they suck.

Posted by: Carl at 07/01/08 4:21 PM | Reply
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yeah there was an austin city limits broadcast and they took turns doing each others songs. Conor played bass on golden while sitting on the floor indian style. He's almost as bad at bass as he is the guitar.

Posted by: buns at 07/01/08 8:11 PM | Reply
Score = 1

great video. golden's my favourite mmj song.

Posted by: seth at 07/01/08 11:41 PM | Reply
Score = 0

Well I'd prefer to hear Conor singing lead more than the other two. What d'ya think of that?

Posted by: jljames at 07/02/08 3:34 AM | Reply
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don't be so humble, jimmy james.

Posted by: grace6697  in reply to jljames's comment at 07/02/08 7:41 AM | Reply
Score = 0

i concur with this

Posted by: MuffinsQ  in reply to jljames's comment at 07/02/08 11:55 AM | Reply
Score = 0

Does someone want to tell me what the hell "Sec Walkin" actually is? Killer song, but I don't get it.

Posted by: Sean Jean at 07/02/08 12:54 PM | Reply
Score = 0

so "peanut butter pudding surprise" makes sense to you vis a vis highly suspicious but sec walkin is confusing?

*scratches head*

Posted by: grace6697  in reply to Sean Jean's comment at 07/02/08 1:34 PM | Reply
Score = 0

Conor > James > Ward

Sorry, but thats the right order.

Posted by: james at 07/07/08 10:58 AM | Reply
Score = 0