Caught in the Carousel

The Morning Benders

By Christine Fort

The Morning Benders

An East Bay, California band with a lot of British flavor, The Morning Benders are chock-full of other pleasant conundrums. They're plaintive but playful, youthful but deliberate, and feisty but melodic.

The Morning Benders

The quartet—comprising Chris Chu on vocals and guitar, Joe Ferrell on guitar, Julian Harmon on drums, and Tim Or on bass—are tight on the rhythm and vox and open-minded/open-ended/experimental where other instrumentation is concerned. Some of the songs on their debut album Talking Through Tin Cans seem to hearken back to early Beatles: "Damnit Anna," "Loose Change," and "Crosseyed" contain the kind of catchy, percussion-happy arrangement, loud vocals, and rhythm guitar characteristic of, say, Please Please Me. But The Morning Benders also use their guitar stylings to blend sounds from different generations of rock: "Boarded Doors," for example, sounds like a cross between The Beatles' "Love Me Do" and something by The Fixx; "Wasted Time" contains elements of the psychedelic (the intro pretty much begs to be added to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack) and, curiously, moments reminiscent of The Police. By "Chasing A Ghost," the album's penultimate track, the Benders delve into shoegaze-influenced guitar riffs and then drift back into the psychedelic again. They also slip into a few quieter moments throughout the album; for example, on the final track, "When We're Apart," the acoustic guitars come out and Chris Chu's voice dims down to a whisper reminiscent of Elliott Smith's.

The Morning Benders

Where lyrics are concerned, the band focuses primarily on relationships—but they keep that age-old topic interesting by exploring some of its less exhausted vantage points. Sure, they write about breakups, but they also reveal that they have smarts and a bit of an authority fetish. "Patient Patient," a drawn-out, pun-filled ballad about a patient's desire to... uh... violate doctor-patient privilege, is endearing in spite of itself; the kicky "Waiting for a War" and the slower "Heavy Hearts" explore the trepidation of waiting for the other shoe to drop. By giving specificity to the general themes of hope and despair, the Morning Benders carve themselves a solid lyric niche.

Allow us to introduce you to the boys from Berkeley…

The Morning Benders

FULL NAME: The Morning Benders

NICKNAME: The Benders, Dosa

BAND MEMBERS: Chris, Joe, Julian, Daryl

HOMETOWN: Berkeley, California

WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/themorningbenders

RECORD LABEL: +1

DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND IN ONE SENTENCE: A euphoric sensual beast of sound.

PROUDEST PROFESSIONAL MOMENT: Learning to walk.

STRANGEST PROFESSIONAL MOMENT: Getting paid to play music.

THE SONG YOU WISH THAT YOU'D WRITTEN: "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac.

THE SONG YOU'RE PROUD AS HELL THAT YOU DID WRITE: "Yesterday"
by The Beatles.

FIVE BEST BANDS TO EVER ROAM THE EARTH:
Right now we are convinced they are:
Grizzly Bear
Radiohead
Fleetwood Mac
The Radio Dept
Deerhunter

WHAT WERE YOU LIKE AS A KID?: All grown up.

LIFE CHANGING MOMENT: Learning the shortcut on Wario Stadium.

MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: Having to sing "Under the Bridge" to
a high school math class.

BEST ALBUM TO PLAY AFTER A BREAK-UP AND YOU'RE HOLDING A BOTTLE OF VODKA AND SOMETHING SHARP: Bob Marley--Exodus

INDULGENCE YOU REFUSE TO GIVE UP: Oreos.

PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY: Sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes
the bar eats you.

Internet: www.themorningbenders.com
www.myspace.com/themorningbenders
www.plusonemusic.net

Talking Through Tin Cans is out now on +1.