Rarely has a debut album sounded so fresh and endearing — without your suspecting the writer copped somebody’s songbook — as the Morning Benders’ “Talking Through Tin Cans.”

The Berkeley-based quartet metes out three-minute dollops of youthful pining as if love songs were something they just sprang on the Internet. “We’re just looking to do something that sounds authentic,” says frontman Chris Chu, an unabashed fan of classic pop who, at 21, appears years away from his first encounter with a razor. “Most of the music I look back on [fondly] has an honest emotion.”

The Benders’ formula of scratchy-but-tasteful guitars, agile melodies and wizened-not-whiny sentiment evolved as if by fate. Chu, a Santa Monica native (in fact, three of the four Benders have SoCal roots), “picked up a friend’s guitar when I was home sick from school one day and started playing,” he says.

Off he went to Cal, where he eventually found Joe Ferrell (guitars, keyboards), Julian Harmon (drums) and, now, Tim Or (who has replaced original bassist David Perales). “After I moved up to Berkeley, I just started writing songs — yeah, I had some girl troubles, but I had some good things happen too,” Chu says. “All the songs are kind of a snapshot of what was going on at the time.”

And to gauge from Chu’s enthusiasm, the album, released this week by fledgling label +1 Records, is just the start. “We love playing music, and so far everything about it is exactly how I wanted it to be,” he says. “We want to make another album already.”

||| Live: The Morning Benders play their album-release show Thursday night at the Echo (free to those who buy the album at Virgin Megastore or at the label’s website). (They will also be back in L.A. on May 19, opening for the Kooks at the Wiltern.)

||| Download: “Boarded Doors.”

||| Watch: The Morning Benders’ new video for “Boarded Doors” is the brainchild of Daniel Stessen, creative director of the L.A. art-film-music collective People Food. Given Chu’s boyish looks, it’s, um, a perfect fit.

Upcoming in L.A.
Speaking of Stessen, he and his People Food cohorts (including the Gray Kid) will perform Saturday night at downtown’s Redwood Bar. … Local psych-poppers the Parson Red Heads celebrate the release of their new EP, “Owl & Timber,” with a show Friday at Spaceland. … And Saturday at Spaceland, Sky Parade marks the release of its new EP,  ”High on Desire,” with a show supporting impressive U.K. newcomers Air Traffic. … The Donnas’ 15th anniversary show Friday at the Viper Room is sold out — as is Saturday’s show at the Troubadour featuring the Duke Spirit, whose new album, “Neptune,” measures up as one of the most solid rock records so far this year. … Electro-poppers Casxio just released a free four-song digital EP (go to their website for the goods) and have a show tonight at UC Riverside (and May 15 at the Continental Room in Fullerton). … With its second EP, “Bloomsbury,” just out, Princeton plays a support slot for Le Switch’s residency on Monday at the Echo. … And it’s a big night in store Monday at Indie 103.1’s weekly shindig at the Viper Room — Everest (its debut “Ghost Notes” just out) and Film School are on the bill.

– Kevin Bronson

Morning Benders photo by Timothy Norris

Those of you hip to colleague Charlie Amter’s blog on the subject already know the big news this week: Shoegaze legend My Bloody Valentine is once again a going concern and coming to the Santa Monica Civic for a two-night stand Oct. 1-2. Tickets go on sale Friday and all I can say is good luck on that one. You may need it.

There’s a bit more news in the not-so-recent reunion pile.

A Tribe Called Quest will headline Rock the Bells at the Glen Helen Pavilion on Aug. 9 along with Nas, De La Soul and the Pharcyde. Tickets for the hip-hop juggernaut go on sale Saturday.

And Cinderella and Warrant will co-headline a show at the Gibson Amphitheatre on July 4 of all days. Frankly I’m not sure that these bands actually broke up, but their longstanding irrelevance is just as good as a hiatus. Tickets for their aerosol metal fest go on sale Friday. Of course, real metalheads may want to hold out for the Metal Masters Tour with Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, Motorhead and Testament, which stops at the Glen Helen Pavilion on Aug. 30, or perhaps even the Scorpions concert with Sammy Hagar & the Wabos at the Pacific Amphitheatre on Aug. 3; Tickets go on sale Saturday for both.

And in more noteworthy nostalgia, Hippiefest — with the awesome Jack Bruce of Cream, Eric Burdon & the Animals, the Turtles and whatever’s left of Badfinger — will be coming to the Greek Theatre on July 16, while the Zombies and Jefferson Starship will be teaming up for a show at the Grove of Anaheim on July 17; get tickets to both of these love fests on Saturday.

In other absolutely non-reunion-related news, a few cool indie rock shows were announced: The Fratellis at Key Club on June 15 (on sale Monday); Chromeo at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theatre on July 30 (tickets Saturday); the Black Keys at House of Blues Anaheim on Aug. 25 (on sale? now?); and Hot Hot Heat at the Roxy on June 27 and the 88 and Ima Robot who will play the Roxy on June 28 (on sale now).

So who’s the winner? I’ve got to give it to the Hollywood Bowl, which just announced a slew of noteworthy shows including: Gilberto Gil and Devendra Banhart on June 29; Feist on July 20; Diana Ross July 25-26; Gnarls Barkley with Youssou N’Dour and Deerhoof on July 27; Donna Summer Aug. 22-23; Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds with Spiritualized on Sept. 17; and Beck with Spoon and MGMT on Sept. 20.

-Liam Gowing

Photo of Spoon’s Britt Daniel by Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

“I’m Not There” hits DVD shelves today and, in keeping with the film’s theme of the “many faces of Bob Dylan,” we offer you one of the more unexpected performances in the prodigious YouTube archive of Zimmy’s stagework: Dylan perfoming “Hava Nagila” with Harry Dean Stanton. Really. We’re not joking.

And is it just us, or does the Spokesman for a Generation look eerily like a brunet Harpo Marx in this clip?

Some “Hava Nagila” trivia: Julie Andrews, Twisted Sister, Anthrax, Dick Dale and Harry Belafonte are some of the unexpected folks who have recorded the song or pinched its melody.

– Geoff Boucher

Photo: AP / DEA

For those of you still upset at Goldenvoice for failing to convince England’s My Bloody Valentine to play Coachella this year, it’s time to get over it. The noise-pop legends will play two dates, Oct. 1-2, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, which has a capacity of around 3,000.

Tickets go on sale Friday Saturday via Ticketmaster; you can buy six maximum. They will likely go very fast, as word is surely out to every scalper in the state. The SoCal engagements are part of a just-announced string of North American teaser shows, including a Sept. 27 date at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom and two nights at Roseland in New York in September.

This summer, the band will employ a similar strategy in Europe, playing sold-out smallish venues in London (including four nights in June at Camden’s Round House) and Glasgow, among other cities, for hardcore fans. In addition, Kevin Shields and company will hit a select festival or two, such as this event in Norway.

MBV is also curating and playing at the American edition of music festival All Tomorrow’s Parties in upstate New York this year, which takes place Sept. 19-21.

But before you start looking into pricey nonstops to Oslo or London, we suggest you start practicing your “refresh page” skills at Ticketmaster, which just posted the October L.A. dates. We’ll say it one more time: These tickets will go right quick.

– Charlie Amter

In another, perhaps more unpredictable universe than ours, Brooklyn-based psych-folk collective Akron/Family has been anointed the heir to the ever-touring hippie-rock throne of Phish, inspiring throngs of well-bearded “Ak-heads” to follow it from show to show around the country.

Settle down, this is by no means intended to lump the bands (or their dreadlocked fanbases) together, which is really like comparing Kellogg’s Grape Nuts to a freshly made organic tabbouleh wrap. But more to say that if Deadheads and jam-worshipping Trey-huggers were truly looking for a band that embodies the thrilling mix of improvisation, crowd interaction and unhinged creative energy that can transform a room’s spirit, Akron/Family would make a far more interesting choice than, say, Dave Matthews.

Through a 45-odd minute “First Friday” set at the Natural History Museum (more on that later), Akron/Family showed it hasn’t missed a step since losing original guitarist Ryan Vanderhoof to, naturally, a Buddhist center. Perpetually manic bassist Miles Seaton has stepped into a sort of frontman role quite smoothly, and he led a delirious crowd through a variety of roof-raising clap-alongs, tribal chants and style shifts as the band burned through its set, most impressively during the feverish psychedelic tent revival “Raise The Sparks.” The show closed with drummer Dana Janssen standing to beat-box through a selection from last year’s “Love Is Simple” and somehow came across far less ridiculous than it sounds.

Therein lies the secret weapon of Akron/Family — as close as its ‘We are one” philosophy and anything-goes songwriting techniques come to utter absurdity (especially on record), its performances never cross to the other side. Because when you can make a crowd gleefully clap in time and shout gibberish choruses, everything has clearly gone mad in the first place — in the best, most joyous way possible.

Before the Akron/Family, San Francisco’s Dodos filled the museum with percussive, hypermelodic tribal jams that borrowed some of the spirit of the headliner but with vocals that carried a dramatic sweep occasionally reminiscent of Morrissey, if that isn’t too brain-smashing a collision to imagine. I’d have more specifics about their set, but unfortunately because of the museum’s apparent policy of over-booking, there was a rope line circling the museum’s main gallery for entry into the performance space that left us trapped outside for much of their show. A maddening policy certainly, but once the initial frustration wore off it was all too easy to give in to exploring the rest of the museum as the Dodos’ sound pulsed against the museum’s massive Tyrannasaur skeleton. There’s more than one way to raise some sparks.

– Photo and post by Chris Barton

Alicia Keys is in town with her As I Am tour and she’s looking for a backup singer. Not for tonight’s show, per se, but tonight’s the deadline to upload a MySpace audition video. According to her pre-recorded introduction, she’s only looking for singers who can “blow the house down” and “tear it up.” She also promises to take the lucky gal to tour stops in Japan, China, Atlanta and Miami.

The criteria are a little strict, though, if you ask me: First, you have to be a woman between the ages of 21 and 30 (so you can get your drink on, I presume). Next, you have to have singing experience, plus record yourself singing an original song (MySpace Records has the deep pockets now to sign more talent). Finally, you have to have a valid passport so you can trot the globe with AK-47.

I don’t think the rules at “American Idol” are that strict.

If you got cut from “Idol” auditions earlier this year, you have until 11:59 p.m. to enter for a chance at background stardom with Keys’ troupe.

For a little background on Alicia, check out this profile written by The Times’ Richard Cromelin a few months ago when she was singing for protesting Hollywood writers, and here is his review of her show last night at the Honda Center (with Jordin Sparks and Ne-Yo on the bill).

And then there’s this interview with Blender that got her in trouble with 50 Cent.

Keys’ tour is planned to run through 2009.

– Camilo Smith

Photo: aliciakeys.com

With no fanfare, Nine Inch Nails posted a free download of their new album, “The Slip,” on the band’s official website early this morning, creating a global stir among fans of Nails auteur Trent Reznor and his dark, industrial soundscapes. The decision to post the album was meant as a gesture of gratitude to fans, Reznor said in a posting: “Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years — this one’s on me.”

More than that, Reznor has jumped to the fore among major artists in the search for the best method to get their music to fans in the unsettled era of digital delivery and plummeting CD sales. “The Slip,” which has 10 tracks, is available at www.nin.com, in a variety of formats (including one billed as a “higher-than-CD quality” 24-bit 96k version), all of them free and delivered with album artwork, lyrics and credits as a PDF file.

Management for the band said it was the first time that an act of the Nails’ stature had released a DRM-free, no-cost digital download of a brand new studio album. Radiohead made headlines in October for a “pay what you want” model, when their album “In Rainbows” was sold on a so-called tip-jar model where fans picked the price, even if it was zero.

“The Slip” will be sold in CD and vinyl format in July. The album has Reznor leading a lineup of Josh Freese, Robin Finck and Alessandro Cortini. The Nails will be touring this summer and fall (including a just-announced L.A. gig at the Forum on Sept. 6), and fans who register at the band’s website will be able to access premium seats through ticket pre-sales.

– Geoff Boucher

Photo of Trent Reznor by Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times

In continuing his longstanding tradition of scheduling utterly incomprehensible tours, actor-musician-wandering eccentric Tom Waits announced a run of U.S. dates this morning via a YouTube “press conference.” Dubbed “The Glitter and Doom Tour” (an expression that could sum up the songwriter’s entire oeuvre), Waits will make stopovers at such seemingly random cities as Tulsa, Okla., Mobile, Ala., Jacksonville, Fla., and — in the tour’s farthest venture West — Phoenix. Seriously, at some point we’re going to start taking your refusal to play L.A. personally, Tom.

But there’s a method to the tour’s madness, which Waits explains in his signature style below. Doubt the power of “PEHDTSCKJMBA” at your peril. And take heart, Waits fans of the West, Phoenix should be lovely in mid-June, and with a little luck, still three to four weeks away from that typical desert heat that makes small animals spontaneously combust. No word from Ticketmaster as to when the tickets will go on sale, but I mean no offense when I say you won’t be hearing such details from me. With the Southwest’s entire contingent of Waits fans preparing to descend upon Phoenix for two increasingly rare shows, you have to take whatever advantage you can.

– Chris Barton

Aaron Kyle sings as if he’s never five minutes from his last whiskey, or five minutes from his next, occasionally lurching into a down-deep growl you wouldn’t think could come from an angular white dude in a collared shirt and old browline spectacles.

But it’s that voice, and the woeful tales it conveys, that have endeared L.A. fans to the distinctly vintage soul-pop of Le Switch. “We’re not the fashion police,” Kyle says. “I think if you write a good song, people are going to respond, no matter whether it’s gonna end up in Vice magazine. Besides, I’d trade soul for cool any day.”

There’s plenty of that on “We Are Le Switch,” the debut album due this month on Autumn Tone Records (a local imprint run by Justin Gage, the man behind the Americana-leaning blog An Aquarium Drunkard).

Le Switch’s sound, which nods to the likes of Leon Russell, Dr. John and Randy Newman, first began to take shape when Kyle fell in with drummer Joe Napolitano in 2005. Maria DeLuca (trumpet, viola, vocals) joined next, and by the time keyboardist Josh Charney and bassist Christopher Harrison had come on board, Kyle was eager to “make the Leon Russell or Harry Nilsson album we wanted to make,” he says. “Everybody in this band listens to a huge assortment of ’60s and ’70s music — there’s not a lot of new music I can drive with.”

||| Live: Le Switch plays every Monday this month at the Echo.

||| Download: “Pristine.”

Photo by Charlie Chu

Five more L.A. residencies you’d do well to see this month

Mezzanine Owls, whose noisy pop suggests the unlikely collision of Jeff Buckley and Ride, play Mondays at Spaceland. Download: “Snow Globe”

Local six-piece Castledoor is honing (and maybe even adding a bit of edge) to its contagious indie pop every Monday at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa.

Party-pop trio Porterville does Mondays at the Silverlake Lounge.

Gran Ronde, the local post-punk quartet whose debut, “Secret Rooms,” came out this spring on Filter, rocks out Tuesdays at Spaceland (and, just to pile up the miles, Thursdays at the Beauty Bar in Las Vegas).

And Camp Freddy — five famous dudes (Billy Morrison, Dave Navarro, Matt Sorum, Donovan Leitch and Chris Chaney) who like to remind you why they’re famous — demonstrate on Thursdays at the Roxy why they might be the best cover band ever. Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath is joining them this month, and last Thursday’s first installment of the residency featured guests such as Lemmy Kilmister, Steve Jones, Paul Cook, Poe and Nuno Bettencourt. That’s some guest list.

– Kevin Bronson

Of all the “American Idol” vets to land on their feet in the upper echelons of the pop charts, Carrie Underwood’s career feels most secure. There’s no weird power struggles with her label, as with Kelly Clarkson; her audience is broader than Clay Aiken’s mom battalions; and she doesn’t have Chris Daughtry’s fixation on adenoidal fourth-wave grunge to ride out.

Instead, Underwood is almost a lab creation designed to perfectly embody modern Nashville values: an earnest, homespun yet media-savvy singer with pop smarts, a reliably giant voice and an eye on potential crossover appeal. She got there through the machinations of reality TV, but at this point “Idol” saturation is so culturally universal that no cowgirl even blinks when CMT made its own knockoff version. 

Underwood does a lot of traditional things right, and it’s no accident that she transcended her “Idol” fame into a much bigger career. Her voice and song selections tread into a vague genre-less anxious adolescent territory where every emotion is heightened to ecstatic extremes, and her first instincts are always more toward pop-star moves than the heavy lineage of country singers before her.

 ”Jesus, Take the Wheel” is an expert bit of Christian pop that gets its emotional heft from the universally harrowing situation of an averted car crash. “Get Out of This Town” is pure teenage escapism, and “Before He Cheats” is a smoldering poison pen letter that nods to Patsy, Loretta and every other scorned woman getting her comeuppance. 

Underwood’s sheer will to be meaningful and accessible ties all this together, and even an awkward cover of “Paradise City” (Carrie, everyone knows you cover only Guns ballads, not their rockers) proved how important the act of crossing over is for her. I wouldn’t suggest it for every aspirant country star, but it’s a  great tactic for getting famous and staying there.

– August Brown 

Photo by Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times