My Morning Jacket has always been a friend to HeadCount. In 2008 we registered voters at dozens of their shows. Front man Jim James did a Public Service Announcement supporting voter registration. They gave us the original demo to the song "Gideon" for streaming on our download page (it's still there), and each band member autographed a guitar that we later auctioned. As with all good friends, we like to keep an eye on what they're up to.
As announced by The Insider, My Morning Jacket has "come up with a thank you for its die-hard and new fans." They are releasing a brand new EP on April 18 with all live tracks called Celebracion De La Ciudad Natal. The EP will only be sold at independent record shops, in support of local music businesses.
About the release on the special day of April 18, National Record Store Day, My Morning Jacket released this statement:
"We are excited to make this a special release that you can only get at your favorite local independent record store, as now more than ever we all need to take the time to celebrate what our favorite local record stores and businesses mean to us – the value of community/human-to-human, non-internet related physical and spiritual contact, and supporting the hardworking people in your community who strive everyday to keep it unique and keep it local. We are fortunate in our travels to get to see many wonderful things, but one of the most distressing things is the increasing "normalization" of the world and how all these places are starting to look the same – everywhere you look more and more towns are starting to be filled with the same gigantic corporations, and while some of these huge companies undoubtedly provide valuable services, it is so important that we realize that it is our local businesses and people (and natural landscapes, but that’s a different letter) that are what make different towns worth coming to... things you can only get in one place, made and sold by people who believe in what they are doing... people who are trying to keep good weirdness alive in this crazy dome. "