[News] The Morning Benders Change Name to POP ETC

In rather unfortunate news, The Morning Benders have recently taken to Twitter and Facebook to announce that “this will be the last post/tweet from The Morning Benders.” The news, while at first seemingly implying the demise of the band, was met with more welcome news. The band will not be breaking up, but instead changing their name to POP ETC.

On their former official website, band member Chris Chu explained that, "[w]hen we started this band in 2005 we had no expectations. From an early age I had a deep love for music and its power to bring people together, but the truth is, in 2005 I had just finished writing my first songs and all I wanted to do was start a band as soon as possible. That same year I had moved to Berkeley to attend college, and of the first 5 people I met, 1 of them happened to be a drummer, and 1 happened to be a guitarist. It was kismet; we started a band. It wasn't long before we got offered our first show on Lower Sproul (Berkeley's school quad). Now all we needed was a band name. We came up with two options: "The Beatles 2" and "The Morning Benders." We went with The Morning Benders."

He goes further to say: "Fast forward to 2010, many a dive bar, school quad, house party, county fair, pizza parlor later. We had just released Big Echo, and for the first time we were preparing for a world tour. We had toured a fair amount leading up to Big Echo, but never overseas, so when it came time to tour the UK and Europe we were quite excited. The touring went well, and we had an amazing time, but also something happened that we hadn't anticipated. As soon as we had landed in London people started asking us about our band name. "What does 'Bender' mean to you?" people would ask. "Are you seriously called 'The Morning Benders' ?" was a common question. For those of you reading from America, you may still be confused. Well, it turns out that the word 'bender' in the UK and many parts of Europe is a slang term for 'homosexual.' We were told our band name was the equivalent of 'The Morning Fags' in America. We had been called The Morning Benders for 5 years, and we were just finding this out now? It was shocking. And quite sad, to say the least. We had spent those years touring night and day, championing our name everywhere we could, only to find out that the name had an alternate meaning- one that made us look hateful, or at best, ignorant."

"At the time we didn't really have many options; we had already booked several tours as The Morning Benders and had just released our new album. We couldn't very well change the name right then and there. We had unwittingly gotten ourselves into a problem with no immediate solution, it was extremely disappointing. But that's all said and done. Now it's 2012. We are at the tail end of making our third album, and we have been given the opportunity to change our band name. We've decided to seize that opportunity, and here's why--

1. We simply cannot go on using a name that is demeaning to the gay community. The reason we are making music is to reach and unite as many different kinds of people as possible, and the idea that our name may be hateful towards anyone makes us sick.
2. In the UK and many parts of Europe the name has simply become too distracting. The MUSIC has always been our number one focus, and we want to present that to people in as pure a way as possible."

In commemoration of their new band name POP ETC, they've released a mixtape featuring 11 songs that can be streamed below via Soundcloud or downloaded for free at their new website.

[News] The Morning Benders, Austra, Peter Bjorn & John Contribute to Stereogum's Strokes Tribute Album

To celebrate the July 30th ten year anniversary of The Strokes' debut album Is This It, Stereogum has gathered their favorite indie artists together to make a tribute album called Stroked: A Tribute to Is This It. The offering, which Stereogum is giving away for free, includes covers by artists such as The Morning Benders, Peter Bjorn & John, Austra, Wise Blood, Real Estate, Das Racist's Heems, Owen Pallett, Frankie Rose, Chelsea Wolfe, Deradoorian, and Computer Magic.

You can download the entire cover album for free here, and check out the albums tracklisting after the jump.

Stroked: A Tribute to Is This It:

01 Peter Bjorn and John: "Is This It"
02 Chelsea Wolfe: "The Modern Age"
03 Frankie Rose: "Soma"
04 Real Estate: "Barely Legal"
05 Wise Blood: "Someday"
06 Austra: "Alone, Together"
07 The Morning Benders: "Last Night"
08 Owen Pallett: "Hard to Explain"
09 Heems: "New York City Cops"
10 Deradoorian: "Trying Your Luck"
11 Computer Magic: "Take It or Leave It"

The Morning Benders offer EP in support of Japan aid relief

The earthquake that recently struck Japan devastated the country, and as a result many artists have already shown their support and aid for the citizens of Japan, including Gwen Stefani, Linkin Park, Sonic Youth, and many others. Now, The Morning Benders are showing their support with their eight-track Japan Echo EP, which includes two original songs as well as remixes by Star Slinger, RAC, Wild Nothing, Twin Sister and Aislyn. Frontman Chris Chu also wrote a very personal statement in regards to the country and the disaster.

“Last week we were scheduled to go to Tokyo to play our first show ever in Japan. It was going to be a very special trip for us, and for me in particular. I had always dreamt of going back to Japan to play music. Not many people know this, but I was actually born in Japan, and although I only lived there for a couple of years, I’ve always had a deep love for the country and its people. I cannot express how sad and helpless I’ve felt reading about everything that is happening there right now, and even though we couldn’t be there, we wanted to do everything we could to help. We love you Japan.”

The band encourages fans to head to their website to donate and download the EP, with all funds raised going towards the Japan Society Earthquake Relief Fund. You can check out the tracklisting for the EP after the jump.

Japan Echo EP Tracklist:
01. Cold War (Star Slinger Remix)
02. Better In Blue
03. Hand Me Downs (Wild Nothing Remix)
04. Excuses (RAC Remix)
05. Mason Jar (Twin Sister Remix)
06. Wet Cement (Aislyn Remix)
07. Little Riot
08. Promises (Star Slinger Remix) 

[Watch] The Morning Benders - "Promises" x "Cold War" Live on Last Call

The Morning Benders dropped by Last Call with Carson Daly to perform a few tracks from their second studio album Big Echo. Up at the top you can see them jamming out "Promises" and then after the jump you'll be able to enjoy "Cold War". As per usual thanks to The Audio Perv for the videos. If you are yet to grab a copy of Big Echo, you can do so over here.

[Download] Ra Ra Riot - "Too Dramatic" (The Morning Benders Remix)

Check out this mellow and chilled remix of Ra Ra Riot's track "Too Dramatic" from The Mornign Benders. Slowing the track down which originally featured on Ra Ra Riot's The Orchard  which we featured in our top 15 albums of 2010. Check out the tracklisting for the single after the jump. The single comes out digitally on the 8th of March via iTunes and below you can download the track for yourself too via Stereogum.

Ra Ra Riot - "Too Dramatic" (The Morning Benders Remix) by Some Kind of Awesome

Too Dramatic single:

1. “Too Dramatic”
2. “Megafauna”
3. “Too Dramatic (Morning Benders Remix)”
4. “Keep It Quiet (GOP)”
5. “Too Dramatic” (Video)