The Morning After Girls

The Morning After Girls are an Australian-bred band whose music is part psychedelia, part shoegaze, and part indie pop, fusing elements of these disparate styles to create striking, grand-scale aural landscapes. The Morning After Girls were formed in 2003 by Sacha Lucashenko and Martin B. Sleeman, a pair of vocalists and guitarists who met at a concert in Melbourne and discovered they shared similar musical tastes. After recruiting a friend, Anton Jakovljevic, to play drums, they began writing songs. The three decided that the Sydney music scene was more conducive to their ambitions, so Lucashenko, Sleeman, and Jakovljevic relocated, and the first lineup of the Morning After Girls was completed with the addition of Scott Von Ryper on bass and Aimee Nash on guitar, keyboards, and percussion. After earning enthusiastic press attention for their early gigs, the group recorded an EP in 2004 for the independent Rubber Records label, while two more for the British Best Before imprint followed in 2005. Material from the EPs was compiled into an album, released in Australia as Shadows Evolve and in the United States as The Morning After Girls.

Plenty of touring followed, both in Australia and the United Kingdom, with the band sharing stages with the Brian Jonestown Massacre, the Dandy Warhols, and the Warlocks, and the Morning After Girls made their American debut in 2006 with a slot at the South by Southwest Music Conference. In 2008, Lucashenko and Sleeman broke off from the rest of the group and relocated to New York City, but not before beginning work on their next album. Recorded primarily in Melbourne, 2009's Alone featured the Morning After Girls' new lineup, with Lucashenko and Sleeman joined by E.J. Hagen on bass, Alexander White on keyboards and percussion, and Anthony Johnson on drums and percussion; Alan Moulder produced the session with Lucashenko and Sleeman. The album was released worldwide in 2011 on Xemu Records.