The Morning After Girls
with The Hounds Below, and Black Box Revelation
October 18th at Small's Bar in Hamtramck
FREE, doors at 8, all ages
“in the world today there are so many distractions that there are no chances to be alone, truly alone. Not in a lonely place but to experience things purely without a filter. This is the headspace we were in when we wrote the record” says vocalist/guitarist Sacha Lucashenko of the morning after girls. alone is the band’s new full-length for xemu records (Dead Meadow, Spindrift) and their first official output since 2005’s self titled album. recorded in a church in the outback of australia and mixed by alan moulder (my bloody valentine, interpol, jesus and mary chain) in london and in part inspired by their time living in new york, alone seems like an album out of time and space. taken as a whole work their sound is connected with beautiful melodies, sublime harmonies, shimmering guitars and a cavernous reverb that touches everything. elements of twee psychedelia,communal bliss shoegaze, sharp acoustic passages and even the ominous mood of 80’s goth permeate the album.
martin b sleeman co founding member and vocalist/guitarist says “people have a tendency to say something is irrelevant if it’s been experienced before, like a style of music, or the human experience itself, once the popular eye has moved on from it. we feel very passionate about focusing on the human experience with the story of this album. we feel that this album is a story from the past and the present, as it’s initial beauty is there and can be admired in whatever time you sit with it. it’s like ‘feel this album with us and experience what we are experiencing alone’.”
originally hailing from melborne, australia, the morning after girls was formed in 2001 after lucashenko and sleeman met through a mutual friend. in 2005 a collection of their initial eps were collected in a self titled album on rainbow quartz records in the u.s. critics took to the music with tastemaker sites like prefixmag.com writing that “the morning after girls have managed to create music that blurs the line between the familiar and something quite special you haven’t heard before.” the band toured across their homeland, the u.s., and europe with artists including black rebel motorcycle club, the church, the black keys, dandy warhols, and the brian jonestown massacre.
in the midst of their move to new york, lucashenko and sleeman recorded alone. sleeman recalls “It was in a refurbished church that our friends made into a studio. they kept the basic internal design, the main drum room is in the highest part of the chuch which got this huge echo. there was two ambient room mics hanging from the highest beam of the church which captured this natural cavernous effect. we used them on everything, there’s no digital effects on the album at all.” luchensko says “i’m not a religious man but there was a spirit to that place that left a stamp on these songs.”
