The Morning After Girls re-emerge, world in focus

Kevin Bronson on
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The Morning After Girls played the Viper Room on Thursday night as if they were hellbent on being the next psych-rock contenders, and they might be. The New York-based quintet fashioned a glowing wall of sound and decorated it with colorful licks and cool harmonies; think Primal Scream, or a harder-edged Verve, or the Dandy Warhols if they hadn’t drunk their own Kool-Aid.

Last seen in L.A. in 2006 in an opening slot for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Morning After Girls have undergone quite a metamorphosis in the past couple of years. Songwriters and co-frontmen Sacha Lucashenko and Martin B. Sleeman [pictured] off-loaded three-fifths of the band, recorded the new album “Alone” in their native Australia, carted the tracks to London for production touches and mixing by the legendary Alan Moulder and then moved to New York City about nine months ago. There, they assembled a lineup that includes E.J. Hagen, Anthony Johnson and Alexander White. The Viper Room show was only their second outing.

“Alone” has yet to be released (plans are not yet firm), and the band has circulated only a three-song sampler, but it’s clear Lucashenko and Sleeman have crafted their music around the hopes that a good album is worth more than 10,000 Facebook friends.

“You get to a certain point where you realize how the world has been and what the world is becoming,” says Sleeman, standing amid well-wishers on Sunset Boulevard after the set. “All these new ways of communicating are supposed to be about instant connections. All this technology gives you a feeling of togetherness, but it’s illusory. We want to make music that’s about meaningful connections.”

The band’s blaring live set might have trampled the songs’ nuances a bit, but there’s no question the material exudes a certain focus and warmth, thanks to the work of Moulder. “A lovely guy – we couldn’t respect him more,” Kleeman says of the 2-plus weeks they spent with the producer. “He has a great gift to perceive music in a very beautiful way.”