Slowcore’s Good Night & Good Morning at Cactus Club

Prepping for their first Milwaukee show in over a decade, the band’s future looks bright yet tentative, with members spread across Austin, Detroit, and Milwaukee.

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There’s no blueprint for building a legacy. Artists offer their art to the world and the rest is largely ancillary. In our world of media saturation, the public directs the narrative. In the dozen years since the release of Good Night & Good Morning’s lone album, Narrowing Type, the band has watched an organic growth in the album’s popularity. “I definitely saw a handful of them in bargain bins in the years following its release,” said drummer Sahan Jayasuriya. “At some point in the last few years, we noticed people paying upwards of $100 for it online.” This slow build culminated with last year’s reunion show and reissue and continues with their Nov. 9 Cactus Club appearance.

Good Night & Good Morning formed in Champaign, IL, in 2007, as the duo of Ryan Brewer and Pat Elifritz. In a haze of ambient slowcore, the band spent their first few years touring and eking out releases. Upon initially witnessing them live, Jayasuriya said, “The spaciousness of the music coupled with the pitch-black room and the projections—it was completely different from anything I had seen at that point.” The band and Jayasuriya struck up a friendship that led to demos being shared and an eventual invitation for Jayasuriya to join.

Daunting Task

Going from “fan” to “band member” can be a daunting task, but sometimes allows for a bit of clarity when approaching band matters. “On the one hand, one of my favorite bands was showing me new music, but on the other hand, I felt a sense of responsibility to not mess things up,” said Jayasuriya. The band spent the better part of a year constructing Narrowing Type. It was released on the Luxembourgian label Own Records while Brewer studied abroad in China. Upon his return from China, Brewer made an ill-fated move to Milwaukee followed by a return to Champaign. With a full-length album and only a handful of shows under their belt, the trio version of Good Night & Good Morning fizzled.

As the cliche goes, “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Years passed and physical copies of Narrowing Type settled deeper into the depths of obscurity. “If our music wasn't up on streaming platforms, I don't know if anyone would have been able to find it,” noted Jayasuriya. In a moment of synchronicity, as the band discussed the logistics of a Narrowing Type reissue, Energy Crow Records reached out and they struck a deal to put the record back in print. In 2023, within months of release, the new pressing sold out and the band regrouped to play Urbana’s Pygmalion Fest.

Prepping for their first Milwaukee show in over a decade, the band’s future looks bright yet tentative, with members spread across Austin, Detroit, and Milwaukee. “It's difficult with the three of us living in three different cities, so we're taking it one thing at a time,” Jayasuriya said. “I'd love to do more stuff for sure, but for now we're just focusing on this show.”

As part of the Music Go Round and Volta Records All Ages Show series, Good Night & Good Morning play Cactus Club on Saturday, Nov. 9 with Haunter and Apollo Vermouth.

Stream or download Narrowing Type at Amazon here.

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