Stereogum » The Morning Benders

Stereogum Presents… STROKED: A Tribute To Is This It

Stereogum — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:30:10 +0000

The Strokes‘ debut album Is This It was first released on 7/30/01. To help us celebrate this 10th Anniversary, we asked some of our favorite indie bands to cover each track. The resulting collection, STROKED: A Tribute To Is This It, is in the spirit of our previous free tribute albums for Radiohead’s OK Computer, R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People, and Bjork’s Post.

How Independent Rockers Celebrated #IndependenceDay

Scott — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 05:07:50 +0000

How did you celebrate July 4th? On a rooftop BBQ listening to our summer mix? Maybe you stayed in and watched old episodes of Hoarders on Roku? Maybe I stayed in and did that. There is no way to know. But all across this great country we do know there were fireworks to be seen and Beyonce to be heard singing “God Bless America” live on TV.

Via the magic of Twitter we also know some of our favorite musicians spent the day overeating, overdrinking, watching Independence Day, and in two cases, recklessly planking. I’ve posted the best tweets below chronologically, and collected any attached photos in a gallery above. Click through for pics of Bethany Cosentino’s boob coozie, the National and Beirut sharing a meal, Mrs. Wayne Coyne topless with Cheetos, and a photo of outdoor fireworks from Ducktails intended to rub it in to those of us you who spent the night inside watching Hoarders. Whoever they may be.

Oh, and FlyLo dropped a free 2hr24min MP3 mix of his favorite songs for summer, so don’t miss the DL link in his tweet.

the morning benders – “Oh Annie”

amrit — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:57:03 +0000

It’s not the first time the morning benders have sang for an Ann, though this is not the same one they damned five years ago. “Oh Annie” is a newly unveiled b-side to the band’s Big Echo sessions, with lead morning bender @ChrisChu tweeting “My only regret with Big Echo is that this wasn’t on it. I wrote it after watching Annie hall for the 100th time.” Which is the proper number of times to have watched Annie Hall, and which also gives some sweet rendering to the lovely, loping waltz-time lament’s hook: “Annie oh Annie, how can you go? / I taught you everything you know, you know.” (Chances are she left for someone who handles their drugs a little better, though that’s just statistically speaking.) Hear, here:

Alex Winston – “Sister Wife (Star Slinger Remix)” (Stereogum Premiere)

amrit — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:04:10 +0000

Sister Wife is pop chanteuse Alex Winston’s 2011 mini-LP, out now on HeavyRoc. It’s a tight, track-for-track showcase for the young Detroit native, fusing a feel for her hometown’s girl-group era with a distinctive post-Kate Bush soprano style and sticky-sweet, memorable choruses. “Sister Wife” the song is a more modern-backbeat affair, with a big, breezy hook and deceptively hefty lyrics fusing female roles a la Cass McCombs. UK producer Star Slinger (whose Soundcloud page is a fun wormhole for later) hones in on the song’s distinctive element and pulls it, swapping that backbeat for snares that pop like Bangladesh’s did on “A Milli,” adding keyboards that chill out in back, and arpeggiate rapidly in between, Alex’s sugary vocals. You can download both of them below for comparison and contrasting and general ear pleasure:

the morning benders – “Better In Blue”

amrit — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:36:34 +0000

Early on March 23rd, main morning bender Chris Chu tweeted “you look better in blue.” It took a day, but those words got some context when the band released Japan Echo, the eight-song EP full of remixes (by Star Slinger, Twin Sister, Wild Nothing, Aislyn, RAC) and a pair of originals that was offered up to the internet with 100% proceeds going to Japan’s earthquake relief fund; one of those originals is called “Better In Blue.” It’s got some unexpected electronics at its core and to its drums, harmonies far afield from those Spector-era sounds on Big Echo, and the sort of skittering guitar and weirdly congealed schizo stuffs that Dave Longstreth was playing with on his New Attitude EP. Hear it at the benders’ Tumblr page, buy and donate at their website.

the morning benders – Japan Echo EP

amrit — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:26:51 +0000

“Last week we were scheduled to go to Tokyo to play our first show ever in Japan,” begins the note Chris Chu posted to the morning benders’ homepage. In addition to it being their first group trek to that country, it was also the first show the benders’ frontman was going to play in the country of his birth. In other words, the sadness we all feel for the devastation that’s befallen that region is no less real for the benders, and they’re doing what they can to help with the new charity-only Japan Echo eight-track EP. The collection features two new originals (“Better In Blue” and “Little Riot”) and six Big Echo remixes (by Star Slinger, Twin Sister, Aislyn, and Wild Nothing’s first). In return, they’ve set up donation allotments ranging from $5 to $100, with “100% of these proceeds given to the Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund.”

Download and donate at themorningbenders.com.

Here’s the tracklist:

Remixtape: Vol. 2

Scott — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 16:50:04 +0000

A few weeks back James Blake told SPIN, “Remixing is like musical prostitution.” Ha — relax, James Blake. This is the column in which we beg to differ. Much in the spirit of our inaugural Remixtape this month’s collection features reworkings from both in-demand prostitutes and adept indie rock knob twiddlers. Honorable mention to Tyler, The Creator’s Lykke Li mix, which I like but didn’t the vibe here. Speaking of which Vol II gets more chill toward the end so maybe consider it as a soundtrack to your commute or if you’re having Thom Yorke over for tea.

Alex Chilton Remembered, One Year After His Death

jessica — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:02:23 +0000

Alex Chilton passed away one year ago today. Big Star was scheduled to play SXSW in 2010, instead the show became a tribute, with friends and fans playing Chilton’s music and remembering his work. We posted a short obituary at the time, but I thought that a year later we could take a closer look at Chilton’s best songs, and, in many fans’ eyes, his greatest songwriting achievement, Big Star’s Third (also known as Sister Lovers).

I talked to several musicians who loved Big Star. And I wanted to make sure they represented the variety of musicians who admired Chilton, whether they were contemporaries and friends of Chilton’s, or young songwriters who weren’t alive when Sister Lovers hit shelves in 1978. Talking to these musicians and gathering their statements about Chilton, two common themes emerged: no matter what age they were, they discovered Sister Lovers (in what now seems like) the old fashioned way: through a friend or fellow musician or fellow record nerd passing them a copy. As Big Star drummer Jody Stephens told me, the band only sold about 4,000 copies of the album at the time. There are so many other ways to discover Big Star (Elliot Smith’s cover of “Thirteen,” The Replacements’ excellent tribute song “Alex Chilton” (now available on Rock Band), or Cheap Trick’s cover of “In The Street,” which was used as the theme song to That Seventies Show). It’s perhaps a testament to the strange beauty of Sister Lovers that it invites one-on-one discovery and understanding.

Ra Ra Riot – “Too Dramatic (The Morning Benders Remix)” (Stereogum Premiere)

brandon — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:41:35 +0000

The Morning Benders remixed Ra Ra Riot’s “Too Dramatic” for a single of the same name. They mellowed out the The Orchard track, slowed it down, made it echo “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Which is what they do. This is what it sounds like:

the morning benders & Twin Sister’s Andrea Estella Cover Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” @ Webster Hall, NYC 11/18/10

amrit — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:19:42 +0000

the morning benders’ well documented love for Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” took on added dimension last night at Webster Hall when Andrea Estella, whose Twin Sister opened the show, joined the band onstage during their cover to channel her inner Stevie Nicks about half way through. I shot this video with my phone, and so of course it is sufficiently shaky and shitty. This isn’t the first time the benders have done this cover, but I filmed it because I had a hunch Andrea would come out last night for reasons I’ll explain in a moment. If the video’s quality makes it difficult to identify who’s whom, let me help by saying Chris Chu is the one dressed like Ian Curtis and Andrea’s the one wearing a wig like a peroxided ?uestlove. (For a minute there she had stopped wearing those things onstage, but I’m told she’s had a rotating cast of three during this last tour with the benders and the night’s early openers, Cults. Fair dose of Stereogum40 on that marquee last night, incidentally.)

It’s all a bit slapdash, you can see Andrea give Chris the finger as she walks up to the mic, but it was the last night of their tour and a nice and well discussed moment for those who made it out. So, the morning benders + Twin Sister + Fleetwood Mac = this: