an open letter to our beloved bands

Dear Music Artists,

As you may/may not know, the recession has hit those of us who do not have "touring" in our job description rather heavily.
The plus side is that all of your lovely VK ladies have since returned to graduate school and/or gotten recession-resistant jobs.
The bad news is that grad school + these jobs suck up almost all our time, and we're still broke.

It's a delight when you tour through town, but the exquisite dearth of disposable income has made it difficult to invest in new music or go to shows. (Spoon, with your $30+ tickets for crappy seats at the Moore Theatre in Seattle, I'm talking to you.)

Suggestion: instead of trying to impress the hipsters with vinyl 7" releases or putting on elaborate shows that are out of the average working woman's price range, do what everyone else is doing and scale back a bit.

The Dimes (@The Tractor Tavern) and The Morning Benders (@The Crocodile) both put on great shows for <$12 in the past fortnight. Maybe the rest of you should look into that sort of thing.

Sincerely,
the struggling music fans who are your bread & butter.

Great band, great cause

Looking to get rid of your crappy old albums (not that any of our readers own crappy albums, no, of course not) and get something less-crappy in return? Oh and want to see some awesome bands AND help combat AIDS and homelessness? Well I sure do. Therefore this Thursday I be at Housing Works Bookstore.

I will plunk down my five bucks, a donation to the aforementioned causes of course, and a bushel of old CDs and pick one that is hopefully a lot better than those crappy promos I've accumulated over the past three years. (All albums that aren't claimed will be donated to the non-profit shop.) And I will see the Morning Benders!

ALL THE DETAILS ARE HERE

OH and did I mention I WILL SEE THE MORNING BENDERS! Their upcoming album Big Echo, out in March is pretty damn awesome and has lots of sha-la-las and ooh-ooh-ahhs and other monosyllabic sounds of delight. (It's also produced by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor and you can definitely hear a smidge of the Grizz in the moody atmospheric production.) This is a long rambly way of saying its occupying all of my ears' time lately. Take a listen:

Excuses - The Morning Benders

SO GO GO GO! All the cool kids will be there!

SO many La, La, Las

Here's a beautiful way to start your weekend. In honor of a pre-murderous Phil Spector, The Morning Benders perform their song "Excuses" with choir of their friends. It's just that their friends all happen to be a who's who of the San Fran music scene. We got the Nicest Guy in Indie Rock (TM), John Vanderslice, plus the guy from last years breakout band of choice, Chris Owens' of GIRLS and the Mumlers. Together they call themselves the Big Echo Orchestra. Basically your ears will be in heaven for the next six minutes. Enjoy!

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders "Excuses" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Free + Covers = Awesome

I love cover albums. I also love free stuff. So combine the two and I'm ultra happy. Needless to say, indie-poppers the Morning Benders have really made my weekend as their Bedroom Covers album is available for free download. It's complete with reinterpretations of classics by the Smiths, Velvet Underground, Roy Orbison and more.

Here's my fave track:

I Won't Share You - The Morning Benders (The Smiths cover)