Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Brendan Benson! If you've been a Brendan fan for a long time, don't be put off by the title. While we were working on the section we learned new things too, and some old things that we had completely forgotten about ;)

If you're new to Brendan, come on in and good luck with your quest to become a fellow Brendan Benson fan! If any of you have any questions or require any further reading, we'll be more than willing to share anything else we might know. Email us at info@brendanbensononline.com

 

 

PART ONE

Where to start? Well a most definite starting point from the Brendan Benson Online team is to visit your local record store, either in your nearest town or online, to pick up your first Brendan Benson CD/vinyl. If you want to really hear Brendan's music, buy a copy, take it home, put the kettle on and admire the artwork and study the track list. Then settle down with your tea and pop your album into your chosen listening device. Hear it in order.
Brendan's back catalogue isn't expensive and we've even provided you with a handy guide of his entire discography, here.

But which album to try first?
We highly recommend that a beginner start with 'Lapalco'. This is 'classic' Brendan and his second release brought out in 2002 by the independent label, Startime.

   Available at Amazon UK from £1.99 (We take no responsibility for purchases from Amazon, we're just trying to be helpful!)

All songs on the album were played and recorded by Brendan himself, using an 8 track recorder, at his home studio in Detroit.

Probably the most well known track from Lapalco, 'Metarie' pops up quite often as it is a track Brendan never feels is quite finished. There are at least seven versions of Metarie appearing on various singles and EPs, as well as twice on the album.
It is believed that the name Lapalco is taken from a street in Louisiana, where Brendan was raised, and Metarie being a mispelling of a not-quite-city in Louisiana, bordering New Orleans.

If you are not convinced of the unexplainable magic of Brendan Benson by listening to 'You're Quiet' ("I'm Brendan. What's your name?"), Good To Me ("I've known some girls in the past, the kinda love they got don't last.") and Tiny Spark ("And it aches in the dark, but it makes a tiny spark.") then I wouldn't go any further.

As I'm assured this won't be the case, ONWARDS. Feel free to take the next step wherever you wish to go, but we recommend the next album you chose to be 'One Mississippi', Brendan's first record. But that's a story for another day.