As far as bandwagons go, My Morning Jacket's is soft, comfortable and ridiculously easy to jump on.

The quintet of young longhairs from Louisville, Kentucky -- the latest buzz band to emerge from the American heartland -- play hauntingly beautiful, delicate melodies that sound all echoey and reverbed, like Sparklehorse fronted by Neil Young. That is, when they're not playing loud southern rock 'n' roll, like Crazy Horse.

I'm not sure why the reference points are equine, unless it's because My Morning Jacket record their music in a barn. But you can bet singer-songwriter Jim James has not formulated the band's sound with earthly success in mind.

"We don't want to be listed as alt-country or punk or indie rock -- just as a rock 'n' roll band," he says. "I want that vibe that makes me feel like a kid watching a great movie like Fantasia or an old episode of The Muppet Show -- something that has no boundaries or limits, like a big explosion of wonderful life force."

James believes in a mystical approach to making music as well. "I don't really understand how it works," he says of his songwriting. "I've got to be shut off by myself, in a magical place -- somewhere that sounds great. That could be a parking garage or a barn, a stairwell or a shower. I enter the magical space and start playing, and it just kind of happens in a big blur."

James says the spooky quality of the songs comes from the natural ambience in the band's barn/studio as well as from the layers of reverb they slather on.

"I think we're obsessed with it," he says. "We record it that way on purpose, and then we add more. I'm a big fan of old records, and I love the way spooky records sound. There's no way to describe it, really, it's just a feeling you get."

Although My Morning Jacket's CDs -- which include full-length albums The Tennessee Fire and At Dawn plus several EPs and an upcoming major label debut -- tend toward the soft and fragile, the live show is a different story. Swinging their long hair like old-time Kyuss, they rock out on guitar-heavy numbers.

"We try to walk a line between making a record and doing a show," says James. "We have softer stuff on the record and make it the way we want to sound forever, 'cause whether we stay together for two months or 10 years, it'll last. But when we play live, we just want to have fun. We're ready to convey how excited we are to be there and all the energy that's been pent up from riding around in the van all day. We like to come in, have a good time and turn it up a few notches."

My Morning Jacket play the Horseshoe tonight with Burning Brides and the Detachment Kit.