Triple crown for Asheville’s Floating Action

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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My Morning Jacket’s Jim James’ advocacy for local band Floating Action and frontman Seth Kauffman seems to know no bounds. Thanks to James, the band got attention from Rolling Stone, the Grammys, and the New York Times–in less than one week.

James called Kauffman “the most underrated person in music right now,” in Rolling Stone, on Tuesday, January 29.

On Friday, Floating Action appeared in the New York Times in yet another Jim James interview, this one complete with a photo of Kauffman hanging out somewhere that looks local and green:

KauffmanGreen

Seth Kauffman photo by Sandlin Gaither

James discussed his muses and praised the singer yet again:

I want my music to feel like it’s useful. I’m not an unhappy person, because I have a lot of fun, but I’m definitely not a peaceful person, and I feel like that’s what I’m looking for. Or music that’s bizarre that I don’t understand, like that Floating Action song [“Alpine Shadow”]. I don’t know what he’s singing about. When I hear the song, I feel like I see snow. I’m sitting in the Alps with, like, two snow leopards, and I’m resistant to the cold. He sings, “the calm and peace you bring me.” I feel like it’s one of the most beautiful lines I’ve ever heard. I feel like these bands are singing about things that people need to hear. They’re singing about things that people need, like calm and peace.

Jim James New York Times interview here.

Then on Saturday, James asked his 21,000 fans on Twitter to check out Floating Action on the Grammy Amplifier website, calling the band “amazing”:

check out the amazing @floatingaction up on the grammys thing! grm.my/10Kuy6n #theworldislistening

James is a curator on the Grammy-branded site, which seems to be a Grammy promotion site for new bands to share music.

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Jim James photo by Neil Krug

Previously, James has co-released Floating Action’s latest record (Fake Blood) on his own label, Removador Records; personally remixed songs from Fake Blood; and performed with the band onstage at the Forecastle Festival in Louisville, KY, James’ hometown. As well as calling Kauffman the most underrated person in music today, he’s called the band’s prior release, Desert Etiquette, “a relatively unknown masterwork of our times. ”

Hat-tip to James for using his celebrity to turn people on to emerging bands making music on their own terms.

Check out Floating Action here:

Bandcamp

Soundcloud

iTunes

website

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

  • 1

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