'Alone in North America' (featuring The Morning After Girls) Movie Review

STREAM: the morning after girls - "alone"

Touring has to be grueling for an indie band...there are many stories about the tempers, tensions and breakups that come from the forced 'co-habitation' of band mates for long hours at a time in small touring vans. The documentary "Alone in North America" follows the Australia-to-Brooklyn-to-Australia neo-psychedelic outfit, The Morning After Girls on their U.S. tour in support of their most recent release, alone.

"Alone in North America" premiered earlier this month at the CBGB Music and Film Festival and this short film gives a 'you were there' perspective of life on the road which is combined with concert footage from various tour stops.  Director David Hilbert does an excellent job of capturing the desolate, wide-open spaces of (presumably) middle-America along with footage of the band members interacting in what seems to be a very small touring van as the band drives from gig to gig.  The 'road picture' footage is intermixed with some killer live performance, which include the previously unreleased song, "Corruption".

It is somewhat amusing that The Morning After Girls' bassist EJ Hagan had the following to say about the film: "I was like, 'You made a movie?'...I thought maybe it would be something on a website or something people could view on YouTube. I didn't expect the festival."





One of the pull quotes for the movie stated "To trust someone is to allow them to be everything they are" and the viewer can quickly see the friendship the band members have formed being out on the road together.  The "...departures, arrivals and deportations"  occurred more recently as half the band is back in Australia due to visa issues but the members are currently working on their next disc.

For anyone who isn't familiar with The Morning After Girls' sound, vocalist Sacha Lucashenko clearly summed up his views on the band's sound in a 2012 interview with The Big Takeover:

The Big Takeover: Do you get tired of comparisons to typical psych bands such as Spaceman 3 or Brian Jonestown Massacre, or are you used to it? I myself hear bits of Oasis, The Verve, and Engineers in your vocals, especially in the dynamics of quiet and loud across the record. Can you expound a bit on this?

Sacha: Those psych comparisons are really boring for us – especially when regarding Alone. It almost guarantees the journalist or whoever concerned hasn’t even listened to it. You’re right, I’d draw more comparisons to the ones you’ve mentioned. Also modern classical composers like Arvo Part and Gyorgi Ligeti were major influences. Plus the rock records that were coming out by New Order, Interpol, and Oasis in the early 2000’s. That was a great period for consistent albums coming out from bands. I just think we sound a lot like The Morning After Girls.

Links:
The Morning After Girls

'Alone in North America' (featuring The Morning After Girls) Premiers at the CBGB's Music and Film Festival on Oct. 9th

“to trust someone is to allow them to be everything they are”

Hypnagogia Films has announced the world premiere of "alone in north america" during the forthcoming CBGB’s Music and Film Festival. The documentary is a collaborative effort between award-winning Director, David Hilbert (Ikland) and neo-psychedelic outfit, the morning after girls. Part narrative, part existential road picture, the film follows the U.S. tour of the band in support of their 2011 LP (which is titled Alone).

In the words of Hypnagogia Films: the morning after girls survived break-ups, break-downs, departures, arrivals and deportations. When the smoke cleared, they toured North America - playing music to gather people together. The ensuing miles would be their greatest test. As individuals and as a band, they found themselves on the wrong side of the law, the wrong side of the clock, and the wrong side of the wheel..

In addition to live performance footage taken across the country, the documentary features a previously unreleased song entitled “Corruption.” The official premiere of Alone will commence on Oct 9th at the Anthology Film Archives and advance tickets are $10. Tickets can be purchased here: http://www.cbgbfest.com/aloneinnorthamerica



About the band: the morning after girls was formed in Melbourne, Australia by Sacha Lucashenko (vocals and guitar) and Martin B. Sleeman (vocals and guitar). In 2008, the band relocated to New York City and added Americans Alexander White (keyboards, percussion, backing vocals), EJ Hagen (bass guitar), and Anthony Johnson (drums). As a band, the morning after girls have played shows worldwide with such notables as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Mercury Rev, and many others.

Upon its release in 2011, Alone, the bands second full-length album received album of the year honors from such press outlets as the San Francisco Chronicle, The Big Takeover, Detroit Metro Times and Popshifter Magazine.

About the filmmaker: David Hilbert is a New York based writer and filmmaker. He is the director and editor of the award-winning film Ikland, which documents the rediscovery of the lost Ik tribe, who were famously disparaged as the worst people in the world. The film was honored as the Best Documentary of the Boston International Film Festival and has been critically praised by The New York Times, Variety and Indiewire. He has lectured at Harvard University and been a guest on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show.

Links:
Alone Films
the morning after girls