My Morning Jacket, Centro-matic

Back before My Morning Jacket was gracing network beer commercials, the band put out a second album, At Dusk, that was a dreamier take on the Neil Young/Dinosaur Jr. shenanigans it's built a nice young career on. It included a second disc of spare demos that stripped the bourbon off the bone, leaving only front man/hairball Jim James' dreamy croon and guitar. Which brings us to Centro-matic, whose Will Johnson is equally capable of gorgeous, nakedly bittersweet paeans (see the review of his solo album Vultures Awaiton page 72). But, like James, hell if he and his band don't rock so hard onstage they combust in a big ball of fire, seen equally well from MMJ's Kentucky Appalachians and Johnson's Texas Hill Country. This dichotomy is the true legacy of Mr. Young, and here's a shot to feel that same magic.