The Record Machine
Madison rock band Little Legend will release their first full-length record, Orphan League Champs, on Jan. 8, and today are premiering a track from the LP, the quick and catchy “Big League Chew” (streaming below).
Taking its name from the bubble gum brand that emulates the texture and packaging of chewing tobacco, Little Legend’s song looks at a young man’s struggle with growing older through the prism of sports. Singer Brandy Tudor croons: “I hate to cut the ballgame short / I realized the players were younger than me / The bigger they are, the harder they fall / But the tender-hearted are quicker to bleed.”
Orphan League Champs is a “lighthearted” album wrought with humor. “We joke around constantly,” says lead guitarist Joe Copeland. “We’re jackasses. We’re not Radiohead.”
Copeland describes the album as the first that “actually has [their] personality in it.” It follows 2013’s “garage-y” No Way to Tell EP and 2012’s self-titled EP. It’s a 12-track record full of personal stories, bright and slinky guitar work and beautiful horn and string orchestration that pleasantly complements the quartet’s clean, indie pop sound.
Written over the course of two years and recorded in the band’s living room, Orphan League Champs shows tremendous strides for the self-described underdog band. Copeland says the album name is a reference to a “punch above [his] weight class” mentality Tudor adopted during an unstable childhood.
Little Legend will play a release show for Orphan League Champs on Jan. 9 at Mickey’s Tavern with Neens and Control.
