Put art rock, acid jazz, punk, post hardcore in a pipe, and smoke it (figuratively speaking) and you might approximate the jagged shiny, audacious, smiley spectrum of "the CIA" by alternative hybrid lowercase rock band glass beach. The sound somewhere between the Vans Warped Tour and the Newport Jazz Festival feels like the kind of cross pollination of high school jazz kids discovering Television, Pere Ubu, Mars Volta and Porcupine Tree even if I don't know if this is the case with glass beach (smiling).
What I do know is that the sonic universe building of this track never stays still. From the proggy bass and slamming drums anchoring, hunkering down, to the guitar lines that reveal more diversity every time you listen, to the gitchy synth / electronic ambient transmissions AND dreamy vocal countenance that, at times, feel sort of jazz pop-esque.
Can't help but fall into your arms
Blink at every false alarm
There is nothing I can do
To separate myself from you
Yeah, you're my panopticon
With your radar always on
Empty shells in hollow dens
A reflection in your lens
There is nothing I can do
To separate myself from you
Yeah, you're my panopticon
With your radar always on
Empty shells in hollow dens
A reflection in your lens
And let me not forget to mention the fucking shotgun blast outro starting at 3:15 (AMAZING) that truly is a collision of all the aforementioned genres / musical disciplines all at once, including an insane padded room explosion of what feels like anarchistic surf punk metal core expression (the only way I can describe it) and ending on one jazz strewn Bmaj7.
A crazy roller coaster ride, sinewy but beautifully vast too.
From Liner notes (bracketed):
[glass beach was started in 2016 by singer/songwriter J McClendon of casio dad and their then roommates William White and Jonas Newhouse of 8-Bit Johnson. They proceeded to spend the next three years writing, recording, and rerecording several songs which eventually became their debut "the first glass beach album." Shortly after the album's release, Layne Smith of Here Lies the Hero joined originally to play lead guitar for live shows but is now a core member of the band. "the sound of glass beach is a fusion of our diverse range of influences including 1960s jazz, new wave, early synthesizer music, and emo, but all presented with the harshness and irreverence of punk music. we embrace the trend towards genrelessness caused by the democratization of music brought about by the internet and enjoy playing with musical boundaries even to the point of absurdity."]
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gHs8pWsgZpndQZKs6QVRH
https://www.instagram.com/glassbeachband/
glass beach was started in 2016 by singer/songwriter J McClendon of casio dad and their then roommates William White and Jonas Newhouse of 8-Bit Johnson. They proceeded to spend the next three years writing, recording, and rerecording several songs which eventually became their debut "the first glass beach album." Shortly after the album's release, Layne Smith of Here Lies the Hero joined originally to play lead guitar for live shows but is now a core member of the band. "the sound of glass beach is a fusion of our diverse range of influences including 1960s jazz, new wave, early synthesizer music, and emo, but all presented with the harshness and irreverence of punk music. we embrace the trend towards genrelessness caused by the democratization of music brought about by the internet and enjoy playing with musical boundaries even to the point of absurdity."
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