On Tuesday, March 30th, Bay Area band the Morning Benders will play their first San Francisco show since jetting off to New York at the beginning of the year. The Berkeley band, made up of Christopher and Jonathan Chu, Timothy Or, and Julian Harmon, gained some recognition for their 2008 debut album Talking Through Tin Cans, but now they've entered a whole new league.

Throughout the vast universe of the blogosphere, everywhere you look, the Morning Benders are there, garnering an impressive amount of attention for their highly-anticipated sophomore album Big Echo, released March 9th. Co-produced by lead singer Christopher Chu and Chris Taylor (who has lent his production skills not only his own band Grizzly Bear and offshoot Department of Eagles, but indie favorites like the Dirty Projectors and TV on the Radio), and released by Rough Trade Records, the new album has been picking up unstoppable momentum for months.

Their single "Excuses" rocketed to popularity after the pre-album release of a music video shot by local Bay Area filmmakers and music blog wavemakers, Yours Truly. On Feb 18th, three weeks before Big Echo's slated release, the Morning Benders found themselves ranked at #1 on both the Hype Machine and Elbows, two MP3 and music blog aggregator sites that track the popularity of artists by how much they're being blogged about, which in the case of the Morning Benders, is a lot. I caught up with frontman Christopher Chu to ask how the dizzying cyber-buzz surrounding their new album and music video has been instrumental in growing the band's audience.

"I'm not sure how it translates," Chu said. "The internet is very mysterious in that way. Some bands that have a million plays on Myspace don't sell any records, and vice-versa. In the end I'm just happy that people are responding to the record. I don't care if it's a blog writer or some kid at a show. If people are being moved by the songs, that's what's important." Of course it helps that Pitchfork, one of the most authoritative and influential music review sites, named Big Echo "Best New Music" just last week. "It's hard to tell what effect people writing about music will have on people listening to music," Chu continued. "I just hope that more people are hearing the record because of all this stuff." Indeed, they are, and clearly it's not just bloggers jumping on the Benders bandwagon. In 72 short (and hectic) hours, the Morning Benders played six shows at last week's SXSW festival, each audience singing along to the already memorized tunes from Big Echo. On Tuesday, you'll have a chance to join in the chorus. The Benders will be headlining the Independent, sharing the stage with Bay Area sweethearts the Mumlers and Brooklyn's Miniature Tigers, whose forthcoming album was recently produced by Chu.

If you haven't yet, join in the collective consciousness and watch the "Excuses" video—everyone else is doing it! Inspired by Phil Spector's "wall of sound" recording technique, "Excuses" is a soaring homage to the Spector-era girl groups like the Ronettes and the Crystals. But the echo chamber approach is anything but old-fashioned. The catchy ballad is simultaneously timeless and timely, and after you watch the video you'll have a hard time getting it out of your head for weeks to come. Though if something must be swirling around in there, it might as well be the Morning Benders' sweet layered harmonies, which everyone is clambering to be a part of. Pay close attention and you'll notice that the video reads like a veritable who's who of Bay Area indie bigwigs (can you spot John Vanderslice, Rogue Wave alum/Port O'Brien member Gram LeBron, Christopher Owens of Girls, and members of the Mumlers, Conspiracy of Venus, and Magik*Magik Orchestra?).