ACL Spotlight: The Morning Benders
Ah yes, can you really believe it’s that time of year again? I swear I feel like I’m still recovering from a summer long hangover… Austin City Limits Festival is now only a short month away and we here at ATH are just as excited as we were our very first time. So as usual we want to begin spotlighting some of our favorite artists playing this year’s massive festival in October. We’ll try to touch on some of the smaller/mid-range acts that you may not know much about. Those big name guys will hopefully give us an interview… So our first spotlight of the ACL season (if you’re not counting the features on Ted Leo and The National we did for C3) goes to The Morning Benders. I wanted to bring this group up in feature town because I feel like a lot of people, including myself, sort of forgot about the surprising sophomore effort Big Echo that Morning Benders dropped earlier this year. I’m listening to it while writing this piece, and am already finding myself deeming it’s poppy and breezy tunes worthy of mention amongst the year’s best. Of course gaining some popularity gets a bit easier when Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear produces… So I’d recommend picking that one up if you already haven’t and also give a listen to solid debut LP Talking Through Tin Cans while you’re at it. The guys are currently on tour away from their Berkley home with a planned stop in Austin on Sunday afternoon. Make sure you see them live at 3:00pm on the Lady Bird Lake stage.
Download: Morning Benders – Excuses [MP3]
very nice