The Launch Box featuring Jim James
If you like: Andrew Bird, M. Ward, My Morning Jacket
Birth name: James Olliges
Occasional pseudonym: “Yim Yames”
From: Louisville, Kentucky
You may know Jim James as the vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band My Morning Jacket… He also has made some amazing solo albums under the alias “Yim Yames”, and contributions to the indie rock scene during the early 2000s – appearing on albums by several artists like Bright Eyes, M. Ward, America, and Bobby Bare, Jr.
In 2009, he released his first solo EP under the name Yim Yames called Tribute To, which had 6 George Harrison covers recorded shortly after the guitarist’s death in 2001.
In 2008, James fell off the stage and was seriously injured, during a My Morning Jacket tour, which resulted in the band to cancelling the rest of the tour. While he was recuperating, he began reading quite a bit, and doing some self-reflection. In 2010, he began writing and recording, playing all the instruments, and singing all vocals for a new album. The album Regions of Light and Sound of God was released in February 2013. James plays every instrument and engineered the album himself, and was inspired primarily by Lynd Ward’s 1929 graphic novel God’s Man. Check out the video below for “State Of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.)”
He contributed to the New Basement Tapes, a group of studio collaborators who issued a compilation of unfinished, unreleased songs by Bob Dylan titled Lost on the River. James rejoined My Morning Jacket for The Waterfall in 2015, and toured in support.
In September of 2016, he announced the release of his second solo album, Eternally Even, which featuring great songs like “Here in Spirit” and “Same Old Lie” in November of 2016, just before election day. Check out the videos for them below!
This is my personal favorite – here is the official video for “Same Old Lie” – **This is NOT the edited radio version; contains mild profanity: NSFW**