Although the reaction among their fans to the news that The Morning Benders had changed their name to Pop Etc was mixed, it did come with a positive sub-story that promised a new album from the guys very soon. They have not dragged their feet about revealing the full details of it either, and today in speaking with Pitchfork, Pop Etc has spilled the beans.
The album comes out in just over two months on June 12th through Rough Trade and will be self-titled (Pop Etc, not The Morning Benders, remember). The album was mainly produced by the band, but big name producers Danger Mouse and Andrew Dawson did offer some assistance.
Anybody who listened to Pop Etc’s mixtape that came along with the name change can tell you that they’ve changed their sound to something much more synthesized and pop-oriented, doing away with the baroque-folk sound of Big Echo.
The band has recently lost their bassist Tim Or, leaving Pop Etc as a trio. This trio also now works out of Brooklyn rather than San Francisco. But, neither of these things are the main reason for the change in sound, as singer Chris Chu explains to Pitchfork, it largely came about through the re-discovery of some of his favourite pop records from his childhood: “There’s this whole slew of stuff that went over my head when I was a kid. At the time, I liked it because it made me happy and it sounded cool. Now, I think it’s really amazingly well-crafted music.”
Finally, Pitchfork reports that two of the songs from the mixtape that was given away free, “Halfway To Heaven” and “Everything Is Gone,” will appear on Pop Etc. You can stream those two songs below, or download the whole mixtape here.
Read the full interview with Chris Chu over at Pitchfork.
