The Morning Benders

In a work of PR mastery, we just received an mp3 for “Excuses” by The Morning Benders shortly after seeing the video posted by Yours Truly.  It deserves a follow up post to our previous music orgy post. I love this song and it can be downloaded via their website also.

If you are a band that would like to get featured twice in one week, contact Plus One Music.

The Morning Benders – Excuses

The Morning Benders recently released a video of “Excuses,” a track from the forthcoming Big Echo album. Lead singer Chris Chu starts off explaining why he packs so many humans in such a small space and then magic is captured on video.

The band invited other San Francisco musicians to help out, including Chris from Girls, John Vanderslice and his band, The Mumlers, Gram from Port O’Brien and Rogue Wave and some singers from a local a cappella group. I’m particularly impressed with the three drummers drumming and the “dum dum dum dum” parts.

It looks like no one was injured during the taping. Light chaffing was reported.

Big Echo will be released on March 9th via Rough Trade Records.

The Morning Benders – Excuses

We’re knee deep into the top 25 albums of 2008 and this batch features two bands from Alive Records – Left Lane Cruiser and Hacienda. The Rural Alberta Advantage was arguably our biggest surprise of the year, building buzz with nothing more than their music – no label, no publicist.   The Morning Benders and Sam Champion were both in our live session studio, so make sure to check out those tracks if you have a few extra seconds.

21. The Morning Benders – Talking Through Tin Cans (our review)

The Bay Area quartet have hints of The Beatles, a dash of Pet Sounds sound, and a little Zombies tossed in for good measure. Thankfully they don’t come off as cheap imitators and instead put forth an excellent effort. A good shot of melodic California pop.

The Morning Benders – Damnit Anna (Hear Ya Live Session version)

The Morning Benders – Waiting on a War (Hear Ya Live Session version)

Hear more from our live session with The Morning Benders.

22. Left Lane Cruiser – Bring Yo’ Ass To The Table (our review)

Its filthy, but underneath the bluesy grime are two extraordinarily talented musicians.

Left Lane Cruiser – Wash It

23. Okkervil River – The Stand Ins

A step down from The Stage Names, but that was to be expected. You’ll find a few gems – just not the transcendent album that its predecessor was. Okkervil’s b-sides are still good enough to land in the top 25.

Okkervil River – Lost Coastlines

24. Hacienda – Loud Is The Night (our review)

Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys produced this album and is preparing his solo tour with Hacienda as his backing band. Dr. Dog performs backing vocals on the album. It’s safe to say that they have the seal of approval from some of music’s finest.

Hacienda – She’s Got A Hold On Me

25. The Rural Alberta Advantage – Hometowns (our review)

Imagine Neutral Milk Hotel with the drummer from The National. Yes, its that good.

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Don’t Haunt This Place

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Frank AB

26. Silver Jews – Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea

David Berman continues to put wry, smart, and often humorous lyrics into his most musically ambitious and tightest effort to date.

Silver Jews – Strange Victory, Strange Defeat

27. Black Crowes – War Paint

The Robinson boys deliver their best album since Amorica. Maxim can fuck themselves.

Video: The Black Crowes – “Wounded Bird” on Letterman

28. Sam Champion – Heavenly Bender (our review)

Rolling Stone described Sam Champion’s sound like Ryan Adams covering Pavement’s Wowee Zowee. Need I say more?

Sam Champion – Be Mine Everyone

Hear more tracks at our live session with Sam Champion.

29. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Self Titled (our review)

MBAR was homeless and strung out on drugs before cleaning up and focusing on music. The result is folk album with his signature lazy, organic vocal delivery.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Buriedfed

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – The Debtor

30. Black Mountain – In The Future (our review)

Best appreciated in a live setting, Black Mountain perform amazingly good psychedelic rock songs that either punch you in the face or get you in a slow groove.

Black Mountain – Tyrants

As many of you know, I headed out to The Treasure Island Music Festival on Sunday afternoon with my trusty point and shoot camera in my holster. As you also may know, my pictures are always horrendous but I like to share them anyway.

Port O’Brien and Dr. Dog tied for my favorite performance of the day. Van Pierszalowski played with his usual intensity and while most people talk Port O’Brien’s anthem, “I Woke Up Today,” I found a new favorite. “The Rooftop Song” may be a song that you overlook on their album, but seeing them perform it live is quite an experience.

This is Tokyo Police Club.

This was my first time seeing The Morning Benders and I was really impressed. They played a tight set that included a new track that I can’t recall the name of. I think Chris Chu and the gang will continue to put out great pop music.

It’s hard to take a worse picture than this, until you see my picture of Dr. Dog.  That one is really shitty. I now know what Woody was slurring to me at South By Southwest when he said “the Fleet Foxes sound like angels singing.” Their vocals are stunning.

Okkervil River took the stage and had some technical difficulties starting off. Will Sheff got a little testy and asked for “a real guitar chord” and took a cheap shot at the festival. A few of the people around me that weren’t familiar with Okkervil River were real turned off. Seemed out of character for Sheff, but my man crush remains in tact. There’s a lesson to learn from this, however. If you are a band playing at a festival, don’t assume that everyone in the crowd is there to see you. It’s your opportunity to win new fans, so smile and don’t take yourself too seriously.

Yeah, see what I mean? Those shadow puppets are really Dr. Dog, playing at sunset. You can see San Francisco in the background across the bay and this band was the perfect choice to close the day and start the night. “The Ark” was a crowd favorite.

I don’t know what the hell this is, but it walked by me twice and really freaked me out. It’s mouth is right at wang level, so it made every guy around a wee bit nervous.

I had to leave after Dr. Dog’s set, so I missed The Kills and The Raconteurs, but I walked away from the festival one happy camper.  Other than a great lineup, here are five more reasons why you shouldn’t miss this festival next year…

1. Before boarding the shuttles from San Francisco to Treasure Island, some hippie chicks were selling pot brownies like it was a lemonade stand. I did not partake, but I’m pretty sure San Francisco is one of the only cities that has no issues with this.
2. No beer lines. Do I need to continue with the list?
3. No bathroom lines. The human to port-o-potty ratio was 5 to 1. I was expecting to use Drinking Buddy’s “Peeing at a Rock Show” handbook, volume 1 and volume 2, but it was unnecessary.
4. Super comfy shuttles.  It was expecting school buses, but they put us up in tour buses.
5. The setting is about as good as it gets, isolated on a small island across the bay from San Francisco.