Biography
Courting, an indie rock outfit originating from Liverpool, fuse melodious and vigorous tunes with configurations that feature abrasive guitar tones alongside uneven electronic layers, yielding a manner at once buoyant and ingeniously disordered. Their 2022 debut full-length Guitar Music offered a collection of incisive numbers whose deadpan satirical words complemented material evoking a gleeful self-destructive impulse, cloaking the most immediately appealing facets of their approach beneath an inventive and absorbing veneer of sonic distortion. New Last Name, issued in 2024, extended their established approach while intensifying the pop hooks within the material, even as the songs remained anchored in abrasive guitar attack.
The quartet formed in 2018, with Sean Murphy-O’Neill handling guitar and vocals, Michael Downes on guitar, Sam Brennan on bass, and Sean Thomas on drums and vocals. At inception all four members remained teenagers, Murphy-O’Neill having turned only 16, and their earliest reference points encompassed IDLES, Parquet Courts, Pavement, and LCD Soundsystem together with Brit-pop standard-bearers Blur and Pulp. Murphy-O’Neill had commenced songwriting at age 14 as a dubstep enthusiast, after which Courting began rehearsals and he started developing fresh material alongside his bandmates. In June 2019 the group unveiled their inaugural track, "Not Yr Man," followed by "Football" in January 2020. They garnered favorable notices for May 2020's "David Byrne's Badside," a reflection on confronting one's racist acquaintances; the number later appeared on a vinyl single paired with "Football." Their subsequent release, "Popshop!," a pointed reflection on the interplay between art and commerce, surfaced in late 2020. Courting put out "Grand National" as a standalone track in March 2021 before issuing it within a four-song EP bearing the same title the following month. By then the band had begun building a reputation for live performance, yet the COVID-19 pandemic removed them from the road; aside from several virtual appearances they concentrated on composing and outlining plans for their first album. April 2022 brought the new track "Tennis," which previewed their eight-song debut LP Guitar Music, released via Nice Swan Recordings in September 2022. At that juncture Michael Downes and Sam Brennan had departed, with guitarist Joshua Cope and bassist Conor McCann joining the lineup.
Guitar Music received strong notices in the British press, prompting extensive United Kingdom touring in support. Further road work followed in 2023, encompassing a series of dates opening for Circa Waves along with additional performances at which the group tested new songs slated for their second album. "Flex" emerged in July 2023 ahead of the sophomore LP. Titled New Last Name, the nine-track set was first described by the band as having been conceived in the form of a play, though they subsequently clarified that only a loose narrative linked the pieces and that selection had been determined by which tracks represented their strongest work; the album appeared in January 2024.
The quartet formed in 2018, with Sean Murphy-O’Neill handling guitar and vocals, Michael Downes on guitar, Sam Brennan on bass, and Sean Thomas on drums and vocals. At inception all four members remained teenagers, Murphy-O’Neill having turned only 16, and their earliest reference points encompassed IDLES, Parquet Courts, Pavement, and LCD Soundsystem together with Brit-pop standard-bearers Blur and Pulp. Murphy-O’Neill had commenced songwriting at age 14 as a dubstep enthusiast, after which Courting began rehearsals and he started developing fresh material alongside his bandmates. In June 2019 the group unveiled their inaugural track, "Not Yr Man," followed by "Football" in January 2020. They garnered favorable notices for May 2020's "David Byrne's Badside," a reflection on confronting one's racist acquaintances; the number later appeared on a vinyl single paired with "Football." Their subsequent release, "Popshop!," a pointed reflection on the interplay between art and commerce, surfaced in late 2020. Courting put out "Grand National" as a standalone track in March 2021 before issuing it within a four-song EP bearing the same title the following month. By then the band had begun building a reputation for live performance, yet the COVID-19 pandemic removed them from the road; aside from several virtual appearances they concentrated on composing and outlining plans for their first album. April 2022 brought the new track "Tennis," which previewed their eight-song debut LP Guitar Music, released via Nice Swan Recordings in September 2022. At that juncture Michael Downes and Sam Brennan had departed, with guitarist Joshua Cope and bassist Conor McCann joining the lineup.
Guitar Music received strong notices in the British press, prompting extensive United Kingdom touring in support. Further road work followed in 2023, encompassing a series of dates opening for Circa Waves along with additional performances at which the group tested new songs slated for their second album. "Flex" emerged in July 2023 ahead of the sophomore LP. Titled New Last Name, the nine-track set was first described by the band as having been conceived in the form of a play, though they subsequently clarified that only a loose narrative linked the pieces and that selection had been determined by which tracks represented their strongest work; the album appeared in January 2024.
Albums
How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story, Or: 'Lust for Life'
2025
Lust for Life, Or: 'How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story'
2025
New Last Name
2024
Singles
