The main problem with a supergroup, side project or whatever you want to call Monsters of Folk is how serious the musicians are about it. </p><p>Are they really investing a lot of time and energy into the music, or are they just looking for a quick excuse to get away from their regular bandmates for a while? </p><p> Jim James, however, probably doesn&rsquo;t need to further demonstrate his level of commitment to Monsters of Folk. Not after what he endured during the recording of the all-star quartet&rsquo;s debut album earlier this year. </p><p> &ldquo;Man, Omaha in February,&rdquo; the Kentuckian rocker said with a nearly audible shiver. &ldquo;That was brutal. That took real dedication on my part.&rdquo; </p><p> The name is a joke, and the band members have shared a lot of laughs since they first got together five years ago. One thing James made clear is how serious the Monsters of Folk really are. </p><p> Better known as the howling, wolf-faced frontman of My Morning Jacket, James is moonlighting in Monsters alongside Omaha music heroes Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes fame) and Mike Mogis (Oberst&rsquo;s main producer/collaborator), plus Portland, Ore.&rsquo;s indie-rock everywhereman M. Ward (known from his She & Him partnership with actress Zooey Deschanel and his own acclaimed solo albums). </p><p> The group&rsquo;s formation dates to 2004, when the future Monsters all took a rare break from touring with their respective full-time acts to hit the road with each other. Their two tours that year grew from songwriters-in-the-round affairs to more collaborative concerts. </p><p> &ldquo;We had all met at festivals and shows over the years,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;We thought it would be fun to do a tour where we got together beforehand and learned each other&rsquo;s songs and just hung out together more &mdash; as opposed to a normal tour where you&rsquo;re each in your own van, you play your own set and you&rsquo;re done.&rdquo; </p><p> The moniker Monsters of Folk was eventually coined by a roadie (a play off Van Halen&rsquo;s 1988 Monsters of Rock tour). Sloths of Folk, however, might have been more fitting when it came to following through on making an album. </p><p> &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve always wanted to do it, but we&rsquo;ve all been real busy over the last five years,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;We all remembered how much fun we had on those two earlier tours, so we finally decided to make the time to do it again. But we had to do a record first, so it was more like a real band.&rdquo; </p><p> Monsters of Folk sound like a full-fledged band for at least half of their eponymous album, which made a respectable debut at No. 15 in Billboard last month. The single &ldquo;Say Please&rdquo; and the record&rsquo;s most anthemic rocker, &ldquo;Losin&rsquo; Yo Head,&rdquo; feature all three singers trading verses and harmonizing on choruses. Mellower, folkier tracks such as the Ward-led &ldquo;Slow Down Jo&rdquo; and Oberst&rsquo;s &ldquo;Man Named Truth&rdquo; sound more like solo efforts, though, with just a little bit of harmonizing for the group effect. </p><p> Whatever the style of the song, James said, the record was a group effort &mdash; one &ldquo;built on spontaneity&rdquo; &mdash; from start to finish. </p><p> &ldquo;We would all just sit around the kitchen table with an acoustic guitar. Somebody would play a song, and 20 minutes after we first heard the song, we&rsquo;d be in the studio jamming on it.&rdquo; </p><p> Even with the fun and freewheeling recording atmosphere, the songs still carry the heavy weight of the songwriters&rsquo; usual material. It&rsquo;s surprising how well they dig deep together here &mdash; especially in &ldquo;His Master&rsquo;s Voice,&rdquo; &ldquo;Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)&rdquo; and several other songs steeped in spiritual/religious exploration that they all often touch on in their own records, too.