Brendan Benson biography
Brendan Benson (born November 14, 1970, Royal Oak, Michigan) is an American musician and songwriter. He sings and plays guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, and drums. He has released five solo albums and is a member of the band The Raconteurs.
Recording career
One Mississippi
His debut album,
One Mississippi, was released in 1996 on Virgin Records. The album featured several contributions with Jason Falkner and gained many favourable reviews in the music press but failed to sell in sufficient numbers and Benson was dropped by Virgin. Brendan toured the states with the first incarnation of The Well Fed Boys featuring long time friend Woody Saunders on the drums and Topper Rimel (Robots In Disguise, The Origin) on Bass. The group shared a headline spot on their second US tour with Heatmiser, a Portland based group that included Elliott Smith, Tony Lash, Neil Gust and Brandt Peterson. Brendan and The Well Fed Boys also played several shows in Japan and a live performance on television in Paris before disbanding in '97.
Lapalco
In 2002 the follow-up to
One Mississippi was released,
Lapalco. Again the critical plaudits poured in, but this time the record enjoyed a certain degree of commercial success, selling more than three times as many copies than that of
One Mississippi. The song "Good To Me" from this album appeared on the British show
Teachers during series three and was included on the series soundtrack; it was also covered by The White Stripes for the B-side of the single Seven Nation Army. The song "Tiny Spark" featured on an episode from the fourth series and was also played in the movies
Along Came Polly, and "World's Greatest Dad"
While touring this record Benson played the Reading and Leeds Festivals and finished his Leeds set with a performance of the track "Jet Lag" featuring guest appearances from Meg White of The White Stripes along with members of The Datsuns and Soledad Brothers.
In 2003 Benson re-released his debut album along with bonus tracks including the unreleased six-track extended play Wellfed Boy EP, featuring songs from a demo session with Falkner.
Also in 2003, Benson released an EP, Metarie, with his then band The Well Fed Boys. The EP featured a cover of Paul McCartney's "Let Me Roll It" which featured back-up vocals by friend and later fellow member of The Raconteurs; Jack White. This was the first song written completely by another artist to be featured on a Benson release. Another cover, this time "Strong Boy", from Gram Parsons International Submarine Band's 1968 album, Safe at Home, was released as a B-side in 2005.
The Alternative to Love
In 2005, Benson released his third album,
The Alternative to Love, and toured extensively in the US, UK, and Europe with his new touring band, The Stiff Tissues.
"Spit It Out" was the first single and reached the UK Top 75 for the first time (peaking at #75 in April), and also generated some buzz for Brendan.
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