The Halo Benders


The anticipation for the release of the new Built to Spill album, You In Reverse, has me dusting off all things Doug Martsch lately. That means a few spins for the Halo Benders’ The Rebels Not In.

The Halo Benders was a side project – though three albums seems like more of a commitment than a side project – for Martsch and K Records owner/artist Calvin Johnson. I can almost guarantee, with 99.98887 percent certainty, that you will never hear more disparate vocal pitches than the pairing of these two, and, yet, it works.

Martsch’s high whine is matched in its extremity on the opposite spectrum by Johnson’s beyond-baritone talky style. It’s not quite anything like Built to Spill, which forced me to concentrate a little bit more when listening.

Speaking of Built to Spill, You In Reverse will be released April 11, but my inside sources (OK, I’m on the BtS mailing list) tell me it will be available digitally Feb. 7. That’s, like, next week. Meanwhile, we continue to wait for an update – for about five years now – to BuilttoSpill.com.

The Halo Benders | Lonesome Sundown
The Halo Benders | Love Travels Faster

6 thoughts on “The Halo Benders”

  1. I read that the Halo Benders were working on a new album but that was about a year ago and I haven’t seen anything about it since. Has any one else out there seen any info?

  2. Halo Benders is still to this day one of my absolutely favorite band names. I named my first ever blog/journal “Halobender”. I also named my Halo player Halobender. I love their album Don’t Tell Me Now which has one of the best protest songs ever, “Bomb Shelter, Pt. 2”

  3. Are you a fan of ‘God don’t make no junk’? It’s almost a masterpiece, and I still have trouble understanding why no one seems to know about it.

  4. Hola!

    …excuse me,Do you mind if I put some of your mp3 links to an open forum ? Of course I´ll credit you…

    THANK YOU.

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