Last Friday, I made a plan to go out to Club Underground at The Echo for my birthday, and I had all my friends meet me there. On a total stroke of luck, I realized a band I had discovered a month or so before was also playing that night before Club Underground started. So I told everyone to get there at 9 if they wanted to see a good band first.

The Morning Benders are from The Bay Area, and boy, do they look young (I'm just sayin'), but their live show is seriously a lot of fun. They have a nice 60s sound with a slight edge - the best description is a little Shins, a little Kinks, a little Arctic Monkeys. Singer Chris Chu has a great, flexible voice (and is kinda easy on the eyes), and the whole band exudes a quiet confidence that belies their youthful appearance. The first show I saw them at was at The Viper Room, where Chu quipped, "False alarm. This has never happened before - I'm so embarrassed," when a song didn't start up right away, to which the whole crowd laughed. They were also pretty successful with getting the crowd to sing 'Yeah Yeah Yeah' at both the Viper Room show and The Echo.

My friends who aren't even rock fans were bopping around up front, so the night was definitely a success. Someone apparently told the band to say Happy Birthday to me and the guys forgot, so they gave me a free cd! I already had the Boarded Doors EP, which defies slightly rough production with very good songs (the vocals get lost in a bit too much reverb), and now I have their first EP as well, Loose Change, but haven't listened to it yet.

My favorite songs on Boarded Doors are the title track, "Damnit Anna" and "Last Today". The band is actually playing with The Deadly Syndrome at The Viper Room on January 7th, and it's free if you shoot them an email. Here's the myspace for more info!

Photo by Bryan Derballa