The anatomy of a bona fide buzz cycle: stoking anticipation by securing a solid label and co-producer, releasing one of your album’s more promising tracks, demonstrating you’re a threat in concert at a killer coming-out party, and then (literally) orchestrating a live video with a song, cameo list, and conceit so strong it had no choice but to go viral. You could tell other campaigns to take note, but first they’d need an album worth the fuss, which you can’t calculate, which Big Echo is. I was in from first spin, but also sensed this one had the legs to connect. The “Excuses” live vid did its work to reel in the concert-of-blog-love requisite to make this a morning benders moment, which the band’s stoking here with the song that’s turned everyone to mush in its studio form.
Can’t say just how much of the initial interest in the live “Excuses” had to do with its recognizable cameos, or with the visual of mainbender Chris Chu conducting his small-scale Wall Of Sound, but the success of it is a song is independent of those tics, rests solely on its smart and earnest aurals: “Excuses” opens the record with the dusty crackle and pop of a needle dropping on vinyl, scene-setting for the throwback, ’50s-copping California pop vibes, the doo-wop break, the Etta James string section that color this song’s loping, waltz-time strum, paean of love, and sticky sweet, technicolor melodies. Dig it:
That comes via the morning benders’ site. Now watch this again. Also there’s this one:
Big Echo is out 3/9 via Rough Trade. They’re great live, this is a headlining tour that you should get into:
02/25 – New York, NY @ Housing Works (w/ host Max Silvestri)
02/27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Market Hotel (w/ Surfer Blood)
03/10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Jonny Brenda’s
03/11 – Washington, D.C. @ The Black Cat
03/12 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
03/13 – Atlanta, GA @ The Drunken Unicorn
03/15 – Birmingham, AL @ The Bottletree
03/17-21 Austin, TX (SXSW)
03/23 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Rhythm Room
03/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
03/26 – San Diego CA @ Casbah
03/27 – Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit Bar
03/28 – Santa Barbara @ Muddy Waters
03/30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
04/01 – Portland, OR @ Holocene
04/02 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Café
04/03 – Vancouver, Media Club
04/05 – Provo, UT @ Club Velour
04/07 – Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
04/09 – Des Moines, IA @ The Vaudeville Mews
04/10 – Ames, IA @ The Maintenance Shop
04/11 – Rock Island, IL @ Huckleberry’s Pizza (Presented by Daytrotter)
04/12 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas
04/14 – Toronto, ON @ The Drake Hotel
04/15 – Montreal, QUE @ La Sala Rossa
04/16 – Vermont @ The Monkey House
04/17 – Boston, MA @ TT The Bear’s
04/22 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
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YES! I been waiting for you guys to post this, thanks.
GAME. this song, and let’s be honest, the entire album, is MIND BLOWING.
Left to imagine what those new Panda songs will sound like on the album…
This song completely blew my mind, as did the live version. I need to hear more of these guys. I can’t imagine a more perfect song.
really good album. i hope they become a late addition to some festivals this summer.
loved the live video but BLOWN AWAY by the studio version!
oh, and, love the artwork
got the first two songs on repeat, but the entire album is amazing
YAY morning benders! great song, great video. cannot stop listening to both these songs and i cant wait for the whole album to be released!!!! early contender for best of 2010?
Yeah, I totally love the artwork too. I can’t get over their unique sound and just the whole feel of the album. 3/9 is gonna be epic.
gotta see these dudes live – FANTASTIC – esp. excuses!
ok ok…so the first two songs are amazing…..and the rest of the album a serious step forward…but you gotta admit….a little bit too ‘Grizzly” benders at points?
Jbean –
I see what you’re saying, but I wouldn’t say that’s the case at all. Chris Taylor produced the album and obviously had a direct influence on the final product, but I think the Benders have done very well in maintaining a unique, cohesive sound that quite frankly is one of the most original I’ve heard in quite a while.
i think that association is based more on the fact that chris taylor’s name is all over these blog posts. granted he produced the album, but the songwriting is entirely different, and the arrangements/playing seem to be driving towards something else. this band must like grizzly bear, but to call them “grizzly benders” seems a little much to me.
the morning benders are the best thing to happen to this fair country since george washington discovered it
don’t get me wrong i like the song a lot, but I dont see what is so original or new in their sound; i think it does sound a lot like the beatles
Everything sounds like The Beatles.
Congrats Benders on a beautiful album – and a big leap forward from “Tin Cans”. Just don’t let all this chatter get to you.
love this song so much
‘Grizzly’ Benders seems pretty fair to me. Plus, that’s not a problem.
not my cup of tea. the voice is way too sweet for my taste and we already heard the harmonies in “excuses” a hunderd times before. the second song begins with the typical grizzly riff and that’s about the best part of it. just my 2 escudos.
Fantastic!! I will see them in LA.
Love this track.
we did an interview with Chris from Morning Benders recently, hear it here:
http://sockmonkeysound.com/podcasts/chris-chu-of-the-morning-benders