what i'm listening to

All right, it's time for the long awaited 'what I'm listening to right now'. And it's a good one. The band is the morning benders (all lower case), hailing from Berkley, California. They're young, they're hip, and they're awesome.

And look how cute they are!


I discovered them when I saw that they were co-headlining with The Submarines, an on-again off-again bf/gf duo from LA who have been featured on prime time tv shows and iPod commercials. My friend bought me a ticket to their upcoming Toronto show at the Drake Hotel, Toronto’s “passé” scenester hangout, (apparently self-respecting hipsters consider it “so over”. I don’t know, I’m just quoting Now Magazine). Either way, I don’t care. Point is, the Submarines are awesome, and they’re how I found the morning benders.

So I checked out the band’s myspace and was immediately smitten by their cover of the Jungle Book’s “I wanna be like you”. Its simple, driving beat complimented lead singer Chris Chu’s sweet vocals, whose sound is reminiscent of your nerdy high school boyfriend who had no idea how cool he would be when he hit 20. And they would know, I don’t think any one of the band members is over 21 years old. Scroll to the left side of the page and you can stream their cover album (which is available for free from the band, just google “the bedroom covers”), which contains a heartbreakingly beautiful cover of Paul Simon’s “Mother and Child Reunion”. But don’t be fooled, the band's own original music definitely holds its own. “Waiting for a War” starts out thumping on the piano and the chorus gets stuck in your head all day in the most delightful way.

So I headed on over to Sonic Boom, my favourite neighbourhood CD warehouse where I blow all my money on their used CD bins. But to my dismay they’d never even heard of the morning benders, so I had to order their debut album Talking Through Tin Cans. But it arrived in less than a week, and the CD itself was printed and textured to resemble a tiny record, and came with a card congratulating me on my musical trail-blazing and offering me additional bonus tracks and videos. Fun!

Now I can’t stop listening to it. It’s one of those CDs where I just put it in and I like every song, and I don’t care which song is which, and I never have to skip over the filler song that doesn’t quite compare to the singles. “Dammit Anna” and “Boarded Doors” are fun toe-tapping pop tunes, and “Loose Change” has a killer bass line. The album ends with “When We’re Apart”, a quiet acoustic number that makes you want to email the boys and tell them everything will be ok.

I’ll be seeing them this coming Sunday, so I’ll get back to you on their live set abilities. I hope I get to meet them!

e