The Morning Benders are no more. No, wait, that sounds like they've broken up. The classic-sounding Cali-pop bros behind 2010's smooth Big Echo are still together. Are still a band. But they're just no longer a band called The Morning Benders.Vale, the Morning Benders. Hail, Pop Etc.! Their new name —whose "et cetera" is, I dream, a sly reference to Jonatton Yeah? on the ultimate English cult comedy, Nathan Barley— has come into being due to the discovery of unfortunate connotations in their old one.
"It turns out that the word 'bender' in the UK and many parts of Europe is a slang term for 'homosexual,'" wrote songwriter Christopher Chu, in a farewell to the Morning Benders name on their retired website. "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."
Feeling that having an unintentionally-demeaning name had "simply become too distracting" in Europe, Chu has rebranded them as Pop Etc. In celebration, the shiny new Pop Etc. website has a 'mixtape' for free downloading, featuring assorted sketches, demos, covers, etc; effectively a look in at the band making their third LP. Or, I guess, now, their first.
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