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November 11, 2005

Waking Up To Morningwood

Missed Morningwood at Siren, but thanks to Subterranean I think I'm becoming a fan. "Jetsetter" rocked, and MW have followed up with a clever clip for "Nth Degree."

Watch "Jetsetter"

WIN | REAL | QT

Watch "Nth Degree"

WIN | REAL | QT

Fill me in about this band -- new hottnes or TRL bubblegum?

Posted at 8:22 PM
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62 Comments

Definitly the new hottness. I just reviewed their eponymous LP for KPSU and they really do rock. Balls-to-the-wall, riff shredding, vocally arresting...they are all of this and more (even though lyrically they aren't great). Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lush, and Elastica spring to mind as influences.

Posted by: Patrick Beisell at 11/11/05 8:42 PM | Reply
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yeah, i mean, both of those videos are very fun and entertaining, but the lyrics on Nth Degree are just mind numbing. not even funny.

that lady seems awesome though.

Posted by: Steve Schroeder at 11/11/05 9:17 PM | Reply
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If you have to ask that question...

Posted by: swordfishtrombones at 11/11/05 9:23 PM | Reply
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i saw this band back in Auguest in this small club in San Francisco. Shiny Toy Guns opened for them. The lead singer of Morningwood brought up an audience member and made her get naked on stage. Definatly a band to look forward to in 2006.

Posted by: Richard Kuta at 11/11/05 9:25 PM | Reply
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Totally a great band, with great songs. They have lots of energy live, and they are definetly a band to keep a look out for.

Posted by: Courtney Bee at 11/11/05 10:06 PM | Reply
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This is really great stuff. The singer is like a fat chick version of Kathleen Hanna.

Posted by: Professor Chance Mac Phearson at 11/11/05 10:07 PM | Reply
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I am convinced, that in the second video, 'Positive Pedro' was totally ripped off from here: (although that's not really a bad thing)

http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/badalbumcoverstopten/toptenbadalbumcovers9.htm

Posted by: Peck at 11/11/05 10:24 PM | Reply
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a fat chick version of kathleen hanna? kathleen hanna is not exactly a rail.

Posted by: Sleazy at 11/11/05 11:07 PM | Reply
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Oh wow, Len has a rock record.

Posted by: bethany at 11/11/05 11:14 PM | Reply
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I heard "Nth Degree" a few months back and blew them off. Then when I was about to see Gang of Four, I realized that they were opening for them and they really blew me away.

It's not prefab pop (at least it doesn't sound like it yet) but I think of them as an option for those who can't rock out to the Donnas (ha) and those who heard "Maps" but were ultimately unprepared for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Either way, this Chantal girl is nuts, but worth seeing live.

Posted by: newrocys at 11/11/05 11:22 PM | Reply
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By the way, they're on Jimmy Kimmel tonight if that does anyone any good.

Posted by: newrocys at 11/11/05 11:24 PM | Reply
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I dunno, I heard them on a Spin podcast a couple months ago and I was like, hey this band is cool and rockin' and has an emphasis on boobies, but the more I saw the more suspicious I became. Between the slick expensive website, MTV2 and now TRL rotation, and matching Gibsons, they seem a bit more contrived than they try to suggest. Just my impression, I don't really have anything to back it up, and maybe they'll turn out to be cool and not some stealth big label band.

Posted by: Rip Tatermen at 11/12/05 1:42 AM | Reply
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They are good, real good. Chantal is one amazing human being. Not only that, their guitarist was in Spacehog. Hot dog!

Posted by: Boner at 11/12/05 1:43 AM | Reply
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I didn't know Ricky Lake is in a band!

Posted by: Randy at 11/12/05 1:46 AM | Reply
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Chantal is a fat bitch, end of story. If you like women that look like men, she is just for you.

Posted by: CHANTAL LOVER at 11/12/05 2:09 AM | Reply
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YESSSSSS

totally called this months ago
http://www.livejournal.com/community/the_in_sound/33091.html

Posted by: G3K at 11/12/05 2:48 AM | Reply
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Grow some pubic hair, order a drink for yourself, and grow the fuck up.

Posted by: n at 11/12/05 3:06 AM | Reply
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When I heard "Nth Degree" the first time, I thought it was a too much a rip off or soundalike to U2's overplayed hit "VERTIGO." Anyone else think so?
Hopefully their other stuff is more impressive. I'll give Morningwood a shot (when I have the time, though I never got into Spacehog either).

Posted by: chuck at 11/12/05 5:33 AM | Reply
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They opend for Gang of Four in Atlanta last month. Worst. Opening. Band. Ever. They might be better in a bar in Brooklyn, but on tour their show mostly consisted of herranging the audience for not being "into them" or indulging in tired rock cliches. It was embarrasing.

Posted by: true at 11/12/05 6:35 AM | Reply
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Awful, and desperate.

Posted by: J at 11/12/05 7:41 AM | Reply
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they were... not so good on Jimmy Kimmel. that's where i saw and heard them first, and it was not a good impression. the lead singer was trying to accentuate her already giant chest and it looked boring.

Posted by: scott at 11/12/05 8:44 AM | Reply
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true: as embarrassing as misspelling harangue so horrifically?

Posted by: asshole at 11/12/05 10:24 AM | Reply
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Agreed they sounded shit on kimmel

Posted by: scott at 11/12/05 10:26 AM | Reply
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Reminds me of Cherry Vanilla!

http://www.cherry-vanilla.com

Posted by: O at 11/12/05 10:53 AM | Reply
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I didn't even realize this band was still around. I saw them open almost 2 years ago, for Jet no less (talk about 2 years ago), and I wasn't very impressed at all. Maybe they've developed their music since then, but it doesn't sound like it from those two songs.

Posted by: Philabuster at 11/12/05 12:06 PM | Reply
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Guys! You HAVE to check this out! See the transformation of a average looking chinese girl called Dawn Yang (Technorati's current no. 1 search) into an eurasian looking babe!

http://xialanxue.blogspot.com/2005/11/open-letter-to-dawn-yangyeo.html

Posted by: megan at 11/12/05 12:27 PM | Reply
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admittedly, i have no idea what you are talking about megan.

also, this band is ass. while this chick would bounce too much if she ran, she's not that fat... just tolerably fat. her face just bugs me out. that's the look of hunger.

i'll be sure to catch morningwood on mtv2 4 years ago. or when i wake up tomorrow.

Posted by: mercator's failed airship at 11/12/05 1:32 PM | Reply
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They are trying very hard...and failing. It's like they went to Urban Outfitters and took notes on everything that's "hip," and then threw itinto their "image."

I agree...desperate and awful.

Posted by: Billy K at 11/12/05 1:52 PM | Reply
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I saw them open for Gang of Four. I've never wanted an opening band to go away so much in my entire life. Their singer is just obnoxious and not in a cool Liam Gallagher or interesting/funny Babyshambles way, either. More like someone you really really didn't like in high school who hasn't changed at all since high school even though they've already dropped out of college and had a baby. And the music's soooooooo contrived. It's making me tired just thinking about it.

Posted by: madskrillz at 11/12/05 3:54 PM | Reply
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this band is great.
they aren't contrived at all.
i have seen them since day one in nyc.
i have never met more genuine people in my entire life.
and chantel, the singer, is not fat at all, she just has huge breasts which she claims are "not her fault". that girl has more charisma on stage then anyone i have seen play in the last 10 years at least.

Posted by: boombalattie at 11/12/05 7:35 PM | Reply
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Megan,
What's the story with that Asian worm turned butterfly in that link. She is so amazingly beautiful now. She totally had work done. I just don't know what the big fuss is about. Who the hell is she anyway. She seems to speak Engrish very goo.

Love Always,
Chance

Posted by: Professor Chance MacPhearson at 11/12/05 9:24 PM | Reply
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hey guys, what's orange and fuzzy?

orange fuzz!

what's green and fuzzy?

green fuzz WRONG!
ghonnorreah!

and lastly

what sounds like mrs. moviefone illigitimate granddaughter on helium gas after being dipped into brody dalle's toilet bowl and wrapped in a bubblegum wrapper?

you guessed it

Posted by: Samira at 11/12/05 9:25 PM | Reply
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I'm glad to see fat chicks in bands again. There was a huge (and I mean HUGE) void left in the music world after that Wilson Phillips chick got all the fat sucked out...but anyhoo, this MorningWood blows (pun intended). This is what you get when you mix a slightly less cheeseball Darkness with some teeny bopper cheerleader dance mix...absolutely horrible. I bet a tenner this is Ultragirls new favorite band.

Posted by: Dagger at 11/12/05 10:15 PM | Reply
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"that girl has more charisma on stage then anyone i have seen play in the last 10 years at least."

i don't think doing a dance routine in the middle of a live show, or faking seizures on stage counts as charisma.

Posted by: scott at 11/12/05 11:32 PM | Reply
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I love the video and the song for Jetsetter. I hope they don't become the new TRL "hotness"--they would lose out to whatever crappy Black Eyed Peas/Hilary Duff song that teenaged twits are voting on to the TRL countdown.

Not that I watch TRL--I'm just saying, you know...

Posted by: Penny Woods at 11/12/05 11:38 PM | Reply
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this is one of those bands that you'll back on, and be like "What was I thinking??? Jetsetter music letter??? What the fuck???"

Posted by: erik at 11/13/05 12:09 AM | Reply
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like most people posting, I saw them open for gang of four in la, they could be heard saying "one more song and we'll be off the stage, I know you don't like us." they just were bad - and not at all in a good way.

Posted by: pinkimartini at 11/13/05 3:35 AM | Reply
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All of you saying they're so dang good - in three years you'll be denying you ever liked them. This is the dumbest, basest, most contrived type of band there is. You're suckers.

Posted by: rustyflakes at 11/13/05 3:51 AM | Reply
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I've only heard that "Nth Degree" track on Sirius Left of Center. I dunno, they seem like kind of a novelty band to me.

Posted by: Justin at 11/13/05 8:38 AM | Reply
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wow, do people still sit around with some sort of supposed radar confusing "signed to a major label" with "contrived"? Sure, Morningwood have nice-looking videos-- a major label is putting money behind them to try to sell records. Same as, y'know, the White Stripes or Jet or Paul Wall. But all of those artists, like most major-label artists, started by making their own records on small labels and have been doing basically the same thing from the start. The difference between the four is that most indie kids only heard of one of them before hitting MTV*, the one that took longer to be signed-- the white stripes-- so they're not suspicious of them, and they don't look a bit silly judging WS' music on entirely tangential and/or unrelated things like how much money a video cost. (*although I'd still guess most ppl first learned of the white stripes because of the lego video)

Instead of worrying about what might be contrived, more people should just criticize morningwood's music, because it blows.

Posted by: scottpl at 11/13/05 9:15 AM | Reply
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fuck wondering about whether they're contrived. i go by what my ears and senses immediately say to me, and i can hear and taste the shit sandwich.

seeing those videos made the party in my pants immediately disperse. if ya'll want a good stereogum-suggested album, go buy the new happy bullets. now that's the shit. that is all.

Posted by: mercator's failed airship at 11/13/05 10:52 AM | Reply
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this band rules, in that really desperate kind of way -- it's all a bunch of musicians from now-failed mid-90s alternative rock bands (cibo matto, the wallflowers, spacehog) who came together in 2001 to make themselves popular again!

Posted by: chris at 11/13/05 11:59 AM | Reply
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yeah they kind of make me sad.


poor morningwood.

Posted by: laura at 11/13/05 3:03 PM | Reply
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Oh my god, I was hoping to never hear or see this band again. In fact, their name had been erased from my memory bank until I clicked on the video link and realized it was the same band I saw opening for Kasabian and The Music earlier this year. As someone else said, THE MOST AWFUL OPENING BAND EVER.

That lead singer is so obnoxious, so awful on stage, that I was actually grimacing the whole time they played.

I'm glad the band name has re-entered my memory bank so know I will remember to avoid seeing or hearing them at all costs.

Posted by: sasha at 11/13/05 6:10 PM | Reply
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Gawd I think they are trite and awful.

Posted by: mandy* at 11/14/05 9:33 AM | Reply
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I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE This band.

They are great live. Fun, interactive, shredding, approachable. Im soo happy they got featured on TRL. John Norris handpicked morningwood for a New Music Week spot.

It just happened to be during TRL which i dont think is a bad thing because it means millions of people are hearing their music. GOOD for them.

Posted by: JAX at 11/14/05 2:23 PM | Reply
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She wants to be Iggy Pop [and fails in a sub-J. Lewis fashion], they want to be the Strokes with a contrived "female chauvinist pig" band attitude [they succeed, if that qualifies as "success"], and I haven't seen a more ill-fitting opening act since I saw Jewel open for Peter Murphy ten years ago. Putrid, purile pap.

Posted by: H8 at 11/14/05 5:14 PM | Reply
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Morningwood is like Hole with more sass and more generic songs. That said, they're pretty forgettable and annoying.

Posted by: Jeff at 11/14/05 6:40 PM | Reply
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Gosh, I just finally watched these videos, and she's NOT that FAT! It's kinda nice to see a REAL-looking girl with boobies a-bouncing with a kick ass voice and not a skinny waif as a lead singer.

Entertaining. I like Jetsetter best between the two song-wise. Nth Degree's on the radio and the spelling part of that gets irritating. Fun videos. Pop fun pretty much to me.

Posted by: melina at 11/15/05 12:24 AM | Reply
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Morningwood is the shit & should be recognized as such, the blew Mindless Self Indulgence away back in April. Great music & great people, the nicest group i've ever had the honor of talking to...

also, Chantal is the tits!

Posted by: P.C. at 11/15/05 2:45 AM | Reply
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There's a crappy band named Morningwood in every single town. I hate them just for the name. They would fit on a bill with Limp Bizkit.

Posted by: Krissy at 11/15/05 5:18 PM | Reply
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Totally wretch-tastic.

Posted by: tittypicklins at 11/15/05 6:03 PM | Reply
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the lyrics on Nth Degree are just mind numbing

lighten up, people -- the band is named "morning wood," after all. no, i don't think that they exactly reaching for Faulknerian levels of lryicality, but i if you're bitching about the quality of the lyrics, you're missing the point.

my feelings about the faux-art pretensions of rock aside, Morningwood does balls-to-the-wall over-the-top somewhat-satirical pop-rock better than anyone i've heard in a long time, and i give them credit for it. doesn't surprise me that they opened for Jet. not the sort of music i'll put on to impress my kids with my good taste, but when i'm making that mix CD that makes them want to jump up and down and go crazy and not believe that their dad could come up with something so much goddamn *fun*, "nth degree" will be track 1.

Posted by: seth at 11/16/05 2:06 AM | Reply
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Morningwood is probably the best band out there right now. The performence on kimmel sucked ass though.

Posted by: Jon at 11/16/05 2:26 PM | Reply
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Dude I am here to defend Morningwood too. She is THE sexiest and most awesome chick I have ever danced on stage with. If you are judging HER then come talk to me cause she's gorgeous. And if your judging the album or songs... SHUT THE FUCK UP. You have not even heard the beggining or Morningwood. Wait till January-Feruary. They are gonna be huge, everywhere and then you will feel like a BIG jackass. I have seen them twice and I fall more in love each time. Later suckas. Morningwood rocks at all times of the day!!! xoxoxoxox I love you Chantal!! By the way "Chantal Lover" you can go fuck yourself. And anyone who rips on the songs... Just wait till the album drops. You will get it then!!

Posted by: Whitney at 11/21/05 8:10 PM | Reply
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And Nth degree is NOT track 1

Posted by: Whitney at 11/23/05 2:22 PM | Reply
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He said that if he was making a mix, he would make it track one, not that it was track one on the album. Reading is not rocket science.

Posted by: Sean at 11/29/05 7:55 AM | Reply
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The pretentious "I'm so cool and I think I'll rip on every band" kids rear their ugly heads again...

oh, and whitney, he was saying it would be track 1 on his mix cd for his kids, not the morningwood album.

Posted by: jami at 12/07/05 2:19 AM | Reply
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Uhm..I don't really think there THAT bad. And why are you discriminating her weight! OH C'MON. She's not fat, she's not skinny. She's

HEALTHY

So...do all of you think that 'healthy' is Lindsay Lohan or Hilary Duff skinny?

Well if you think THAT'S attractive then there's definately something wrong with you. Don't bite my head off..I just..explaining what I think.

And they look like they're being themselvse in the video..what's so bad about that?

Posted by: helena at 12/17/05 2:03 PM | Reply
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I agree with Whiteny. All of you will LOVE the band once other people start aggreeing. Most of you hate Morningwood because of one person started a 'hate' chain on this board. If it was

"OMIGAWSH I LOOOVE MORNINGWOOD THEY ROCK"

then all of you would be saying the same thing. It's true, and you know it. You just all wanna be cliche. Pfft..pity.

Posted by: helena at 12/17/05 2:06 PM | Reply
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Whatever, she's still an ugly fat bitch.

Posted by: Chantal Lover at 01/12/06 8:01 PM | Reply
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C'mon this band is so contrived it's not even funny. I mean all you had to say was that there was a member of spacehog in the band and you just know it is going to be cheesy. I just love how the band's major label new media department is posting to this thread trying to defend this piece of shit. what a waste of money, no wonder major labels suck

Posted by: zoorara at 01/14/06 2:27 AM | Reply
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