Chocolate and Ice (2012)

My Morning Jacket/Songs:Ohia (Jade Tree) -- MMJ leader Jim James is an indie-rock longhair with a choirboy voice torn between reverb-drenched introspection and Southern-rock bronco busting. Two EPs on two labels take two approaches. Chocolate and Ice is the quieter, long on zero-gravity, sweet-harmonizing country rock that connects Neil Young's ''Expecting to Fly'' to the Meat Puppets' ''Up on the Sun'' -- though James throws in a twangy little 24-minute disco-funk-blues space opera just for the heck of it. The Jade Tree EP (which includes a brooding ballad by fellow alt-countrymen Songs:Ohia) salts savory melodies over Crazy Horse-play. A smidgen more songwriting focus and dude will be dangerous indeed. INDIE ROCK DOESN'T ALWAYS SUCK LIVE MMJ rock a stage with machine-gun-miming guitar-slinging and coordinated hair tosses. Why should dumb metal bands have all the fun? Chocolate: B+ Split EP: