Bent Denim

Earlier this year, Bent Denim (aka the duo of Nashville's Ben Littlejohn and New Orleans' Dennis Sager) put out their debut EP, Epistolary, which is 7 tracks of downtempo bedroom pop that's gained apt comparisons to Sparklehorse and Youth Lagoon. The duo have now made a video for the EP's closing track, "Cavalcade," which makes its premiere in this post. Check it out, along with a stream of the EP, below.
Bent Denim will also be opening for Young & Sick (who designed their EP's artwork) on his upcoming tour. That tour hits NYC on June 19 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets for that show are still available.
All dates are listed, with the tour flyer, new video, and EP stream, below... - Brooklyn Vegan

Bent Denim is a collaborative product of childhood friendship. Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager hail from Nashville and New Orleans respectively may be far apart in this moment's time, but have managed to utilize e-mail as a platform for music making (and reconciling). The result is one of the avant-garde nature, which also seems to swirl across dream pop/lo-fi territory.

"Periodic Table" is fragmented yet linearly narrative, caressing all listeners with its haunting appeal. This track is the first unveiled from Bent Denim's forthcoming debut release, which reflects over teenage years that have come and gone with ease. Evidently stressing the quality of the minor-key, we can't help but feel sympathy for the lyricist, as he claims, "I'm not, who I thought I'd be at fourteen".

The track is confessional, and leaves a lot up to our imagination as to which direction Bent Denim's first release might take them. In the mean time, we can melt effortlessly in the warmth of this tune. - Earmilk

Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager give proof to the power of making songs via email.

Nope, your eyes haven't deceived you. Up above? That really is an impromptu, slightly hilarious press shot courtesy of Bent Denim. The reason they have such a to-hell-with-it approach towards band photos is because the two members who make up the project are rarely in the same place at once. That's kind of the point.

Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager collaborate from two different locations Stateside. Ben's from Nashville, while Dennis comes from New Orleans. They fire over tracks and half-finished ideas via email until they can check an imaginative box and go 'this is a song'. A completed track is probably confirmed via a happy face smiley, or something to that effect.

Lots of smileys ought to be awarded to 'Periodic Table'. The song essentially documents a couple of guys at the end of their teens, worrying about the future, flicking back through the past. "I'm not, who I thought I'd be at fourteen" runs the confession, on top of a backdrop worthy for the Youth Lagoon intimacy-stakes, with swooshing piano lines and some stirring, minor-key misery lining the seams.

DIY has the premiere. Stream the song below and on the off-chance you're in New Orleans tonight, Bent Denim are in the same room at the same time, playing a gig at the Saturn Bar.
- This Is Fake DIY

Meet Bent Denim, and stop by for a game of bowling, or perhaps a swim, maybe a leisure filled day in the park, an afternoon with the family in the living room around the television, or any other life event assembled from vintage filmed memories featured in the Will Taylor video for "Living Room". Coming at you from Nashville and New Orleans respectively, Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager bend back time's feeble hands and arms to previous eras, music that ruminates around those family trip memories, Betamax players, VCR rentals, trailing through the journal cassette highways of hushed Casio organ and tear dreamt whispers. - Impose Magazine

Meet Bent Denim, and stop by for a game of bowling, or perhaps a swim, maybe a leisure filled day in the park, an afternoon with the family in the living room around the television, or any other life event assembled from vintage filmed memories featured in the Will Taylor video for "Living Room". Coming at you from Nashville and New Orleans respectively, Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager bend back time's feeble hands and arms to previous eras, music that ruminates around those family trip memories, Betamax players, VCR rentals, trailing through the journal cassette highways of hushed Casio organ and tear dreamt whispers. - Impose Magazine

"Living Room" is the first sweet taste of Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager's forthcoming collaboration project as Bent Denim. Despite their distance, these two friends build beautifully fragmented narrative-driven songs by swapping tracks over e-mail between their respective home bases of Nashville and New Orleans.

Judging by the somber mood, lyrics ("living through sitcoms...living in my living room...dreaming of living like the Cosby's...they had it right"), and collage of home video footage, Living Room seems to be a song about loneliness and reflecting on a broken family life. I could be wrong; nevertheless, Bent Denim has a hauntingly attractive sound that I can't wait to hear more of. - Ground Floor Go

"Living Room" is the first sweet taste of Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager's forthcoming collaboration project as Bent Denim. Despite their distance, these two friends build beautifully fragmented narrative-driven songs by swapping tracks over e-mail between their respective home bases of Nashville and New Orleans.

Judging by the somber mood, lyrics ("living through sitcoms...living in my living room...dreaming of living like the Cosby's...they had it right"), and collage of home video footage, Living Room seems to be a song about loneliness and reflecting on a broken family life. I could be wrong; nevertheless, Bent Denim has a hauntingly attractive sound that I can't wait to hear more of. - Ground Floor Go

Nombre: Bent Denim

País: Nashville/New Orleans, USA.

Álbum: Periodic Table (Independiente, 2013)

Suena como: Youth Lagoon, Mercury Rev, Islands, Malajube.

Sonidos: indie rock, indie pop, neo-psychedelia.

Link: http://bentdenim.com/
- Radio Alterno

Nombre: Bent Denim

País: Nashville/New Orleans, USA.

Álbum: Periodic Table (Independiente, 2013)

Suena como: Youth Lagoon, Mercury Rev, Islands, Malajube.

Sonidos: indie rock, indie pop, neo-psychedelia.

Link: http://bentdenim.com/
- Radio Alterno

American trio Bent Denim channel big swathes of melody in their latest single, Periodic Table. Recalling Local Natives at their most introspective it’s a heady dive through billows of languorous reverb and gentle vocals. - Shiny Shiny New

American trio Bent Denim channel big swathes of melody in their latest single, Periodic Table. Recalling Local Natives at their most introspective it’s a heady dive through billows of languorous reverb and gentle vocals. - Shiny Shiny New

Southern mellow moods abound on Bent Denim's "Periodic Table", where Nashville's Ben Littlejohn and New Orleans' Dennis Sager's song constructions takes you through the old picture flip books and memories that jet through the mind like all those old chemistry science classes you skipped out on junior year. - Impose Magazine

Southern mellow moods abound on Bent Denim's "Periodic Table", where Nashville's Ben Littlejohn and New Orleans' Dennis Sager's song constructions takes you through the old picture flip books and memories that jet through the mind like all those old chemistry science classes you skipped out on junior year. - Impose Magazine

I never took the time to learn the periodic table. Maybe I was spending my time listening to music. Maybe it was just boring and seemed irrelevant. Either way, I might have paid more attention if it was as engaging and catchy as duo Bent Denim's latest song.

Bent Double is a project comprised of childhood friends who shared ideas over email from their respective homes of Nashville and New Orleans. Driven by swirling keyboards parts and melancholic Sparklehorse-esque vocals, this particular idea is an wonderful, soothing affair. - The 405

I never took the time to learn the periodic table. Maybe I was spending my time listening to music. Maybe it was just boring and seemed irrelevant. Either way, I might have paid more attention if it was as engaging and catchy as duo Bent Denim's latest song.

Bent Double is a project comprised of childhood friends who shared ideas over email from their respective homes of Nashville and New Orleans. Driven by swirling keyboards parts and melancholic Sparklehorse-esque vocals, this particular idea is an wonderful, soothing affair. - The 405

"I'm not who I thought I'd be at fourteen" is a lyric that probably almost everyone (fourteen and up) can relate to. Bent Denim express the sentiment with something like visceral resignation on their low key new track "Periodic Table" - the first single from a forthcoming full length LP. The duo wrote the song Postal Service style between their homes in New Orleans and Nashville, and the result is a song that sounds surprisingly lived in and natural. Vocals switch from direct and commanding to barely audible and fluttering, as a slow military beat meanders through various states of digital unrest. The passive, heartbroken wisfulness of "Periodic Table" make me think of Bent Denim as a bedroom electronica version of Stars, but you can attach any genre qualifiers you want when you give them a listen below: - No Fear Of Pop

"I'm not who I thought I'd be at fourteen" is a lyric that probably almost everyone (fourteen and up) can relate to. Bent Denim express the sentiment with something like visceral resignation on their low key new track "Periodic Table" - the first single from a forthcoming full length LP. The duo wrote the song Postal Service style between their homes in New Orleans and Nashville, and the result is a song that sounds surprisingly lived in and natural. Vocals switch from direct and commanding to barely audible and fluttering, as a slow military beat meanders through various states of digital unrest. The passive, heartbroken wisfulness of "Periodic Table" make me think of Bent Denim as a bedroom electronica version of Stars, but you can attach any genre qualifiers you want when you give them a listen below: - No Fear Of Pop

Bent Denim is a collaborative product of childhood friendship. Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager hail from Nashville and New Orleans respectively may be far apart in this moment's time, but have managed to utilize e-mail as a platform for music making (and reconciling). The result is one of the avant-garde nature, which also seems to swirl across dream pop/lo-fi territory.

"Periodic Table" is fragmented yet linearly narrative, caressing all listeners with its haunting appeal. This track is the first unveiled from Bent Denim's forthcoming debut release, which reflects over teenage years that have come and gone with ease. Evidently stressing the quality of the minor-key, we can't help but feel sympathy for the lyricist, as he claims, "I'm not, who I thought I'd be at fourteen".

The track is confessional, and leaves a lot up to our imagination as to which direction Bent Denim's first release might take them. In the mean time, we can melt effortlessly in the warmth of this tune. - Earmilk

Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager give proof to the power of making songs via email.

Nope, your eyes haven't deceived you. Up above? That really is an impromptu, slightly hilarious press shot courtesy of Bent Denim. The reason they have such a to-hell-with-it approach towards band photos is because the two members who make up the project are rarely in the same place at once. That's kind of the point.

Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager collaborate from two different locations Stateside. Ben's from Nashville, while Dennis comes from New Orleans. They fire over tracks and half-finished ideas via email until they can check an imaginative box and go 'this is a song'. A completed track is probably confirmed via a happy face smiley, or something to that effect.

Lots of smileys ought to be awarded to 'Periodic Table'. The song essentially documents a couple of guys at the end of their teens, worrying about the future, flicking back through the past. "I'm not, who I thought I'd be at fourteen" runs the confession, on top of a backdrop worthy for the Youth Lagoon intimacy-stakes, with swooshing piano lines and some stirring, minor-key misery lining the seams.

DIY has the premiere. Stream the song below and on the off-chance you're in New Orleans tonight, Bent Denim are in the same room at the same time, playing a gig at the Saturn Bar.
- This Is Fake DIY

It doesn't get more real or honest than the first line: "Caitlin do you like me? / I've stayed up all night typing your name into search engines / Looking at two dimensions…" Ouch. Caitlin are you gonna give this guy a chance and ditch brunch with your babes for some QT with a nerd? Well, ARE YOU?

Honestly this is barely a song, more a stream of (horny) consciousness over plaintive piano chords, but we totally dig it. The Nashville-New Orleans duo describe their music as "nightmare pop" and most recently they released their EP Derivative Works which features tracks from Kitty Pryde, Taylor Swift, and Angel Olsen, to name a few.

The pair's debut LP, Romances You, drops 4.28, but in the meantime, if you're in New Orleans this Saturday, we suggest you see them at Saturn Bar and let them romance you in person. - Noisey

The version of indie-pop Bent Denim presents on Romances You is uniquely modern and entirely their own. It’s a drowsy, depressive sort of music, the sound of a technology-addled imagination anxiously drifting through that space between dreams and waking life. Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager spell out that sentiment from the start — “I’m stuck in daydreams and sex dreams and reality, I can’t keep it straight” — and the music maintains it throughout, casting melodic mumbled sighs against a sonic environment that gorgeously conjures that sense of mixed-up longing. There’s a true synthesis here, combining shades of K Records twee, the ornately rootsy chamber-pop of Wilco and Sparklehorse, Grandaddy’s dystopian prog-pop, Drive soundtrack ’80s noir, and DIY electro-pop into a timely vehicle for timeless quarter-life concerns.

Sometimes the vulnerability verges on creepy; “Caitlin” is a miniature story-song about staying up all night trawling the internet for photos of a woman who may or may not be Bent Denim’s publicist, and “City Of Gardens” involves trying on a would-be lover’s clothes “just so I can know what it feels to be inside you.” Mostly, though, it’s just a bummer, albeit one that will resonate if you’ve ever spent nights in front of a computer, crushing on somebody and wondering what’s going to become of your life — see “If But For You,” with its tagline, “When I grow up I want to be unemployed so I can spend all day playing with your toys,” or “Jesus Called,” which tenderly, humorously, desperately posits, “Jesus called and he said you should let me in,” or closer “16th Ward,” with its visions of “a stable family life, TV dinners and a hot wife.”

Romances You does what its title suggests. In their own awkward way, Bent Denim have grown on me with each listen, luring me into their headspace, turning passing intrigue into deep appreciation. Their album is a pathetic, poetic, majestic piece of work, and you should stream it in full below. - Stereogum

Bent Denim’s backstory reads like a modern update on the Postal Service: Two pals in two cities, making music and swapping it through the mail (email in their case). But the music of this New Orleans-via-Nashville duo, made up of Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager, is less glitchy computer emo and more gauzy after-class notebook poetry, blooming with spaciousness and pockets of pretty melody. “City Of Gardens” — a peak at the band’s forthcoming debut, Romances You — moseys along at its own crimson pace as the pair sonically and lyrically evoke the sweltering title region: “That city of gardens was Savannah / And when I left it was frozen in amber / Like my parents’ friends, I envy them / All the same routines in their brainstem.” A sad piano gallops through a few bars later, revealing the completion to that thought: “All I know is the neon South.” For this brainy pair of lo-fi dorm-room artistes, the aching past easily transmutes into heartbreaking pop. Listen below. - Stereogum

In a set-up that goes back at least to Pavement’s earliest days, Bent Denim (Dennis Sager and Bennett Littlejohn) live in different cities but send tracks back and forth, create swoozy indie rock and call it a band. It’s a fairly standard practice at this point, but what has come out of this duo so far really feels like it organically flows from hanging out together in the flesh. And the fact that they live in two of the most musically active and party-hardy towns—New Orleans and Nashville—it’s equally impressive how genuinely affecting their music is, considering the two can’t look each other in the eyes while making it.

Of course from their gawkish fashion sensibility and damp, synth-trimmed sounds, I’m guessing lifting their heads up and looking directly in anyone’s eyes isn’t a daily habit for them. Nevertheless (or maybe because of that gawkishness?), there’s a subtle, romantic swell to the tunes on their self-released debut LP, Romances You, out tomorrow.

In this premiere for the video for Good Night’s Sleep, the band uses their lonely vibe to perfectly evoke the confusions of young lust, pregnancy and matching hair color with clothes. It’s calmly, strangley romantic, and got us thinking what these two bedroom laptop concoctors think is romantic about their respective cities, once they actually slump out into them, of course. So check out their answers and the video below.

Top 5 Romantic Things About New Orleans – Dennis Sager
1. Booze – When courting a lover via dance or letter or however, the gods of alcohol smooth the transaction. Visit the French Quarter’s Chart Room on Chartres Street for their never-let-you-down $2.50 Miller Lites and Molly’s at the Market on Decatur for the town’s best frozen Irish coffees. In Uptown (The) Delachaise is definitely the sexiest date night environment for some of that “classic” romance, while there will forever be dive bar magic romance at Snake and Jake’s Christmas Club Lounge on Oak St.

2. Comfort Food – We all know the fastest way to a human’s heart is through the stomach. Praline Connection on Frenchmen Street serve the best white beans and rice in town—and don’t forget the cornbread! Creole Italian (with it’s red gravy marinara sauce) is often dwarfed by other Cajun culinary giants, but Liuzza’s and Vincent’s serve classic plates that are literally to die for. Pho (the Vietnamese soup) is also a go-to meal. Nothing screams date night like running mucus from the rush of this spicy gem. Go to Magasin Cafe on Magazine if you are Uptown, but crossing the Mississippi River to the world famous Pho Tau Bay or Pho Hoa in the Westbank is extremely rewarding.

3. Coffee – Unfortunately for the majority of us, sleepiness can be an effective romance killer. Therefore transitively, coffee fulfills the definition of romance. Personally I’m a slave to that corporate monster of Melvillian character, but over the years I’ve learned to love that chicory style New Orleans blend. Cafe Du Monde is probably the most touristy thing I do on a regular basis (along with visiting the Battle of New Orleans Chalmette Battlefield). Dozens of coffee shops have popped up near me in the Lower Garden District and Central Business District that have given New Orleans a foothold into the budding artisan coffee scene. There also exists a resilient and tight-knit sober community that patronizes plenty of quirky late night cafes that basically embody bars for advocates of temperance.

4. Weather – During seasons of oppressive 100% humidity, it often feels like you are vertically swimming forward rather than walking. It makes for a very sexy environment to exist in. Everyone so sweaty and passion-filled doing the most mundane of activities. Summertime showers occur everyday like clockwork, lulling you into a dreamy nap. You learn intimately your friend’s body oder all summer long, while they vainly shower and deodorize.

5. Louisiana – I looked up the definition of romance before starting this here shenanigan, and the state of Louisiana exhibits romance extensively; swamp, ghost and plantation tours, alligator farms, cracklin, praline and boudin shops, things that are awfully Carcosa, small town Mardi Gras celebrations, Yuruba influence, the movie industry, local celebrities, funk, blues, jazz and rock music, multicultural architecture and so many parades that it feels like the fall of the Roman Empire.

Top 5 Romantic Things About Nashville – Bennett Littlejohn
1. Bolton’s Hot Chicken – Everyone talks about hot chicken and “meat and threes” as being the quintessential Nashville food. I stumbled upon Bolton’s my freshman year of college and quickly realized that it was not only BYOB, but there was a convenience store that was lenient on fake IDs and had a great collection of ’40s. Many nights were spent with friends getting woozy eating spicy fried chicken. There’s something special about Bolton’s flavor that is slightly chemical in the most pleasing way. Just don’t order it hot. Even be careful with medium. The mild is hot as hell on its own. Bolton’s forever.

2. Broadway – Broadway is the Bourbon St. of Nashville. It’s a ridiculous place to spend a night drinking $5 Miller Lites and listening to mediocre covers of country music. Musicians who didn’t have things pan out exactly as they thought the would are the main players down here. A favorite place to people watch others on vacation getting wasted and visiting a “big city.”

3. Love Circle – There’s a hill a block away from my house that overlooks all of downtown Nashville. Also, Rich from Big & Rich’s house is set on this hill—it’s a big modern home called “Mt. Richmore” that actually makes the view way less pretty. Love Circle is a great place to go with friends after a night of drinking, or a great place to go in the rain. It’s also a fun place for awkward sexual encounters.

4. West Nashville – What I think is the next “cool” area of Nashville. The blue collar hasn’t gotten as washed out here as it has in East Nashville. There is less craft beer and more family businesses. It also has a lot of dilapidated buildings that are visually pleasing. The movie Gummo was filmed here.

5. My Bedroom – This is arguably the most romantic place in Nashville. Most romantic encounters, whether they are by myself or with someone else, occur in this room. All of Bent Denim’s music starts and ends in this room. Although it seems closed-minded to view my bedroom as one of the top romantic places in Nashville, it is for me. - CMJ