Good Morning

Keeping the spirit of lo-fi experimental bedroom pop of the 1990s alive, Good Morning show the influence of pioneers like Smog and Sebadoh and add in the closer-to-home indie pop sounds of Flying Nun to sweeten the deal. Their early singles shifted from scruffy noise pop to more sophisticated ballads, but by the time of 2018′s Prize // Reward, they had settled into a homecooked, barely together approach. The two records the band issued in 2019 showed off their sparkling indie rock bona fides (The Option) and their downcast stoner side (Basketball Breakdowns.) After signing with the Polyvinyl label, the band issued the Barnyard LP in October 2021.
The Melbourne, Australia duo of Stefan Blair and Liam Parsons started fooling around with songwriting and recording when they were in high school. Shawcross, Good Morning’s 2014 cassette debut, brought them some attention and the two singles they released in 2015 (“A Vessel”/“Radiovoice” and “On the Street”/“You”) quickly sold out.
Their second short album, the resolutely lo-fi Glory, came out in January of 2016, and the duo put together a live band that toured Australia during the rest of the year. They also issued a single (“Step Aside”/“Oppsie”) before 2016 was out. Brisbane label Bedroom Suck was impressed enough by Good Morning’s output to sign them up and make their early recordings available on one LP, releasing Glory/Shawcross in July of 2017. By this point, Blair and Parsons had already begun working on another album, recording it at various houses over the course of a couple years. The slightly more mid-fi recordings showed some sonic growth by the duo and featured sax by Glenn Blair on many tracks. Prize // Reward was mastered by Mikey Young and released by Bedroom Suck and Remote Control Records in May of 2018. Soon after the album came out, a development occurred that no doubt helped the band pay the rent for a while. A$AP Rocky sampled their 2014 song “Don’t Come Home Today” for his psychedelic trap track “Kids Turned Out Fine.”
The band self-released two short albums in 2019. The Option came out in April and featured live members bassist John Considine and drummer James MacLeod contributing to recordings for the first time. The very laid-back Basketball Breakdowns was issued in October and featured songs recorded by the band over a four-day span while the band was on tour in Japan. With the April 2021 release of the double-A Side single “Mollyduker” b/w “Keep It,” Good Morning christened not only their new studio space, but a label deal with American indie Polyvinyl. The full-length Barnyard LP appeared six months later. ~ Tim Sendra