The Morning Benders are an indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 band from Berkeley, California

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, now based in Brooklyn, New York.

In 2008, they released their debut album Talking Through Tin Cans on +1 Records. The band has toured in support of Broken Bells

Broken Bells

Broken Bells is an American alternative rock band composed of artist-producer Brian Burton and James Mercer, the lead vocalist and guitarist for the indie rock band The Shins. Broken Bells compose and create as a duo, but are joined by a full band on tour...

 (spring 2010), Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear (band)

Grizzly Bear is a Brooklyn-based indie rock band, composed of Edward Droste , Daniel Rossen , Chris Taylor and Christopher Bear . The band employs traditional and electronic instruments...

 (fall 2009), The Kooks

The Kooks

The Kooks are an English indie rock band formed in Brighton, East Sussex, in 2001. Formed by Luke Pritchard , Hugh Harris , Paul Garred , and Max Rafferty , the lineup of the band remained constant until 2008 and the departure of Rafferty...

 and Death Cab for Cutie

Death Cab for Cutie

Death Cab for Cutie is an American alternative rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band consists of Ben Gibbard , Chris Walla , Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr ....

 (summer 2008), Ra Ra Riot

Ra Ra Riot

Ra Ra Riot is an American indie rock band from Syracuse, New York, consisting of vocalist Wes Miles, bassist Mathieu Santos, guitarist Milo Bonacci, cellist Alexandra Lawn , violinist Rebecca Zeller, and drummer Kenny Bernard.-History:...

 (fall 2008), and has also played with Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo, sometimes abbreviated as YLT, is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew .Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential...

, MGMT

MGMT

MGMT is an American alternative rock band founded by Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden. After the release of their first album, the members of their live band, Matthew Asti, James Richardson and Will Berman, joined the core band in the studio...

, Grand Archives

Grand Archives

Grand Archives is an American indie rock band that formed in Seattle. They were originally called Archives and are led by principal songwriter Mat Brooke, formerly of Carissa's Wierd and Band of Horses.-The Grand Archives:...

, Yeasayer

Yeasayer

-History:The band's three core members, Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder, first came to attention after appearing at the SXSW festival in early 2007. Their first single consisted of a double A-side of the tracks "Sunrise" and "2080"...

, Two Gallants

Two Gallants (band)

Two Gallants is a folk rock duo from San Francisco, California. The name comes from the title of a story by James Joyce in Dubliners.-History:Two Gallants are made up of Adam Stephens on guitar, harmonica and vocals and Tyson Vogel Two Gallants is a folk rock duo from San Francisco, California....

, The Rosebuds

The Rosebuds

The Rosebuds are an indie rock band from Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Its current members are Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp...

, Au Revoir Simone

Au Revoir Simone

Au Revoir Simone is an electronic dream pop band from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, formed in late 2003. The group is composed of Erika Forster , Annie Hart , and Heather D'Angelo...

, We Are Scientists

We Are Scientists

We Are Scientists is a New York-based indie rock band that formed in Berkeley, California in 2000. Originally formed of Keith Murray on drums, Chris Cain playing bass guitar and Scott Lamb providing vocals and guitar, before Michael Tapper became drummer and Keith became vocalist and guitarist...

, and White Rabbits

White Rabbits (band)

White Rabbits is an American six-piece indie rock band based in Brooklyn, NY, originally from Columbia, Missouri. The band released its debut studio album, Fort Nightly, on May 22, 2007. They currently record for TBD Records.-History:...

. They also toured with Broken Bells

Broken Bells

Broken Bells is an American alternative rock band composed of artist-producer Brian Burton and James Mercer, the lead vocalist and guitarist for the indie rock band The Shins. Broken Bells compose and create as a duo, but are joined by a full band on tour...

 and The Black Keys

The Black Keys

The Black Keys are an American rock duo consisting of vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer/producer Patrick Carney. The band was formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. As of October 2011, the band has sold over 2 million albums in the U.S....

 in 2010 .

In December 2008, iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

 deemed Talking Through Tin Cans the best indie/alternative album of 2008. Earlier that year, they also received the honor of "Editor's Pick". In March 2010, the popular music website Pitchfork deemed their 2nd studio album, Big Echo, Best New Music, and gave it an 8.2 rating.

Formation and Early Years (2005-2008)

It all started in 2005 as a solo-project for Chris Chu. During that time, he spent his days studying music at UC Berkeley whilst spending his nights recording songs from a laptop. As time passed, he formed a band with friends who he had met in UC Berkeley.

The band did all they could to spread word about The Morning Benders. Playing in crappy gigs, making lots of friends on MySpace, emailing bloggers and conversing with club promoters. This led to offers from various local independent labels. The morning benders had chosen +1 Records to support them in recording their albums.

The Loose Change EP (September 2006)

First EP of the morning benders which was released in September, 2006. The members at the time included Chris, Van Pierszalowski, Joe Ferrel and Tom Peyton. This EP had been recorded on a laptop.

Boarded Doors EP (2007)

In early 2007, the morning benders released a second EP titled "Boarded Doors." This EP had been recorded in the basement of the band which was where they practiced. During this time, Chris started to work as a studio engineer to help to pay his band's recordings.

Talking Through Tin Cans (2008)

Their debut album "Talking Through Tin Cans" was both produced, engineered and mixed by Chris Chu. It was released on their label +1 records. People had called the style of this album to be "So-Cal 60's Pop". They had toured with various acts including The Kooks and Death Cab For Cutie. In December, ITunes considered this album to be the best indie/alternative album of 2008. The members involved in this album were Chris Chu, Joe Ferrel, David Perales and Julian Harmon.

Bedroom Covers (2008)

The morning benders had released Bedroom Covers EP, on their old blog called "Gigantic." The songs were covers of many bands and artists including Velvet Underground, The Cardigans, Fleetwood Mac and The Smiths just to name a few. The artwork of the cover was done by Kyle Lee.

Tours in 2009

In 2009, The Morning Benders toured with The Submarines

The Submarines

-Band history:Working as solo artists in Boston, the two members of the band, John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard, were introduced through a mutual friend, Joe Klompus. Dragonetti and Hazard became partners and soon toured Europe together as members of the band. The relationship lasted for four...

 around the US. They both covered each of each other's songs with the morning benders doing a cover of "1940's" whilst the Submarines did a cover of "Waiting For A War." During March, They also toured in the SXSW in Austin, Texas.

They performed with their friend John Vanderslice on May 19 at the Rickshaw Stop. On May 20, they did a show at El Rey Theatre with The Walkmen

The Walkmen

The Walkmen are an American indie rock band, with members based in New York City and Philadelphia. The band formed in 2000 with three members from Jonathan Fire*Eater—Paul Maroon , Walter Martin , and Matt Barrick —and two from The Recoys, Peter Bauer and Hamilton Leithauser . All but Bauer...

. The morning benders toured around UK and Europe in early august. In August 28–30, they played for Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco.

During October, they had toured with Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear (band)

Grizzly Bear is a Brooklyn-based indie rock band, composed of Edward Droste , Daniel Rossen , Chris Taylor and Christopher Bear . The band employs traditional and electronic instruments...

 and in December they toured with Girls

Girls (band)

Girls is an indie rock band from San Francisco, California. Made up of two key members, Christopher Owens who is the main writer and Chet "JR" White who plays bass and produces. The band's lead singer, Christopher Owens, is a former member of the Children of God cult...

.

Grain of Salt EP and other releases (2009)

The Grain of Salt EP was released on February 24, 2009 which included songs such as "A Song" and "Your Dark Side." There was also a different version to "Grain of Salt" which is the bonus track for the album. On July 7, 2009 ITunes released a tribute album to Frank Sinatra called "His Way, Our Way", which included the morning benders covering "Strangers in the Night". In December 15, 2009, the morning benders signed onto rough trade records to release their new album that was coming out early 2010.

Big Echo (2010)

"Shouting into a valley big shout: big echo small shout: small echo"

The album was produced in eleven days and was then mixed on the twelfth day in Brooklyn. Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear had helped produce the album. This album was influenced by many contemporary bands and artists, including Phil Spektor who developed the "Wall of Sound" recording technique in the 50's and 60's. "Excuses" which is the first track of the album, was given many positive reviews. The second song on Big Echo is "Promises" and they had made a music video which described children growing up too fast. It was released on March 9, 2010 on Rough Trade records.

In Recent Years (2010-2011)

In 2010, Jon Chu, who is Chris' brother, replaced Joe Ferrell as the guitarist in the band. They had gathered with all their closest friends to play a live performance of "Excuses" on Yours Truly. The band have moved to Brooklyn, New York, USA. In October 2010, They showed their new song "Virgins" in La Blogtheque in France.

They had earlier planned to have a tour in Tokyo but because of the disastrous Japanese earthquake and tsunami, they had to cancel and reschedule their gigs. They released Japan Echo EP earlier in 2011, which will support the people who experience devastation during the Japan floods. The EP included many artists such as Twin Sister, Star Slinger and Wild Nothing. In early August, The band were able to play in Tokyo at Summer Sonic Osaka. They are now working on a new album and promise to release it soon.

EPs

• Loose Change (2006)
• Boarded Doors (2007)
• Waiting for a War (2008)
• The Bedroom Covers (2008)
• Grain of Salt (2009)
• Lipstick (2009)
• Japan Echo (2011)

Compilation Appearances

• His Way, Our Way (Sinatra Tribute)
• STROKED: A Tribute To Is This It

Contribution to other bands/artists

In 2010, Chris had assisted in the production of So Many Wizard's album "Love Songs for When You Leave Me".

In January 2011, Chris Chu had helped and produced Chloe Makes Music's debut "The Pupeteer" in which he performed "The Duel" with Chloe Makes Music.

In popular culture

The advertisement for Sony 3d Television in SEAsia featured the song Excuses from their album Big Echo

Big Echo

Big Echo is The Morning Benders' second studio album, released on Beggars/Rough Trade Records in 2010. It was co-produced by Grizzly Bear bassist Chris Taylor....

.

The advertisement for Reese's peanut butter cups candy in the United States featured the song Excuses from their album Big Echo

Big Echo

Big Echo is The Morning Benders' second studio album, released on Beggars/Rough Trade Records in 2010. It was co-produced by Grizzly Bear bassist Chris Taylor....

.

The song Excuses is also featured in the episode "Chuck vs. Phase Three" on TV series Chuck

Chuck (TV series)

Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...

.

Torey Pudwill's skateboarding part for Transworld's "Hallelujah" featured the song "Excuses" from Big Echo.

Burton's 2009 "The B" snowboard movie features the song "Waiting for a War" from Talking Through Tin Cans.

Top Gear season 17 episode 5 references the band in a discussion about the Aston Martin Cygnet & Colette.

External links

• The Morning Benders