'One Mississippi' and counting

Charles C. LaBenz Arizona Daily Wildcat The underexposed Brendan Benson at Gibsons on Monday night.

"One Mississippi" is one of the best albums released last year, full of pure, catchy, pop-driven rock. Almost every song is a quick, hook-laden musical gem, reminiscent at times of the best of Brit-rock, although Benson himself is American. I asked him ab out this when we had a chance to speak after the show.

"That's not intentional," said Benson. "I don't know why that is - I mean, my all-time favorites are British. I love Bowie, the Stones, the Kinks, the Beatles, stuff like that. But I think maybe that when people hear something that's kind of melodic, with a harmony, then it's 'British.' Maybe that's true. Maybe that's fair to say. But I'm not part of any kind of movement."

Nor should anyone ever accuse him of such a thing. Benson has been writing songs for about 11 years now, since he was 15, and some of the tracks on his album date back as far as five or six years ago, before there even was a Brit-rock movement. While livi ng in Los Angeles a few years back he put out a 12-inch record with six songs on it, five of which made it to the album. He handed the record out to friends and the buzz began to spread. That's just how it is with his music - once you hear it, you just ha ve to get other people to listen to it too.

The flipside of Benson's music is that as poppy as the songs are, the lyrics are often quite dark. Listening to "One Mississippi," it's actually quite striking that someone can sing a line like "My baby's tied to a chair/don't she look pretty just sitting there" to such a lively tune. It gives a further depth to the songs and insures that you listen more closely to what you're hearing. "Insects Rule," a song about bugs taking over the world, is perhaps the most fun song on the album. "I was trying to writ e a song about an old roommate that I had sort of lost touch with," Benson said. Obviously it became something a bit different.

The band that Benson is touring with now has only been with him for a few weeks, but are likely to stay on to record the next album. "These guys are insane," said Benson. "They're so great." And their camaraderie showed while they were on stage. Plagued b y failing monitors, sound and lighting difficulties and an empty club, many bands would have just stormed off the stage. But instead they just laughed about the problems and played a set that sounded surprisingly good, considering they couldn't even hear themselves half of the time.

The question of lack of involvement and publicity for the show on the part of the record label naturally came up. "I'm frustrated because they say they're in this state of upheaval, and it seems like that's always what they say. And I need them now ... I' m trying to be realistic, but they're sort of like non-existent."

However, with a little perseverance even that shouldn't be a problem for him. Brendan Benson isn't concerned with stardom or appearance, or any of the other pitfalls of the industry. He's just concerned with music. And while overnight success is always a nice thing, Benson's music is the kind that endures. His time will come, and if word of mouth is what it takes for him to finally get noticed, then let the word start here - pick up "One Missisippi" today.