Preview: Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket (Turf Club Show Monday 11/5)

by admin · Published November 4, 2018 · Updated November 4, 2018

For me, there are a couple bands where I feel like I “get” one of the member’s solo works more than I’m moved by the whole band. I dunno, maybe what I mean is that there are times I like George Harrison’s solo stuff more than I want to hear the White Album again. Or how I like Jay Bennett’s “The Palace at 4 AM” more than I really liked Wilco’s “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.”

Carl Broemel’s solo work outside of My Morning Jacket hits me this way. Listen, I dig MMJ as much as the next guy but I’ve been drawn to Broemel’s solo work because it pushes around the edges of what he does as member of the collective vision of the band. Wherever he is, he’ll get his chance to shine as a guitarist, pedal steel player, or saxophonist. But when he’s also fronting the band, and producing and engineering the albums, it’s only natural he’ll be more concentrated. His well-respected solo debut from 2016, 4th of July was lush and gentle and washed over me as an antidote to the stupid times we were living in back then.

Bromel’s latest release, Wished Out stretches a little further – it’s not a heavy rock album by any means, but it drives harder. It has the same soft, fuzzy edges of his previous work, but something at the core is sharper and more angular.

Lyrically, the lines “I feel the punchline but not the joke” and “Now the party is breaking up and my dream is to just wake up” from “Dark Matter” feel like they’re from an anthem for 2018 and a nice kickoff to Tuesday’s voting. “Rain Check” struts like the best rock songs.

Broemel brings his solo outfit to the Turf Club on Monday November 5th. Doors at 7. Tickets are available at the door.

Instrumental openers Steelism are from Nashville – a guitar & pedal steel co-fronted outfit who’s first record, 615 to Fame, played around with surf rock and movie soundtracks. Their latest release, ISM, takes cues from the slinkiest early work of Brian Eno and mixes with Diplomats of Solid Sound style grooves.

— Atom Robinson, @Atomrobinson