Glass Beach (band)
American rock band From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Glass Beach (stylized as glass beach) is an American indie rock band from Los Angeles, currently based in Seattle.[1] Their music has been described as "heavy indie rock", blending influences including punk rock, math rock, and mid-century jazz. They cite some of their musical influences as Jeff Rosenstock, They Might Be Giants, and the Brave Little Abacus.[2][3][4]
Glass Beach | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Los Angeles, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 2016–present |
| Labels | Run for Cover |
| Members |
|
| Website | glassbeach |
The band's formation and music is closely tied to internet communities, and according to The Washington Post has "developed a cultish online following".[5] In early 2020, the Los Angeles Times predicted that the band "likely won't be playing cozy venues like All Star Lanes for much longer."[6]
In 2015, lead singer J McClendon made the move to Los Angeles, California, from her hometown of Burleson, Texas,[7] where she couch-surfed and worked on her solo project, Casio Dad.[8] During this time she released an EP titled He's Not With Us Anymore.[9] Shortly after, while attending the University of Minnesota Morris, close friends Jonas Newhouse and William White heard a song from J's new EP on their school's radio station, and immediately found interest in the musician.[8] The trio quickly became friends, and soon Newhouse and White joined J in Los Angeles to live together and form Glass Beach.[10] For the next three years, the group worked diligently on their first album, The First Glass Beach Album, which debuted on May 18, 2019, under Run for Cover Records.[8]
Before the album's release, musician and artist Layne Smith joined the group [10] as the band's guitarist after bonding over Dungeons & Dragons,[11] and immediately got to work developing the band's live sound and became a key member of the group.[12]
The band released several singles and a remix album following The First Glass Beach Album, for many of them initially on Bandcamp. These included "running", originally written for Bill & Ted Face the Music before it was cut from the film, and released in 2020.[13] The band released an alternate version of "classic j dies and goes to hell", a song on their first album, in celebration of the song achieving 1 million streams on Spotify.[14] They covered Car Seat Headrest's "Beach Life-In-Death" in January 2021,[15] as well as "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance in July of the same year, for Pride Month.[16] The remix album, featuring Bartees Strange, Skylar Spence, Ska Tune Network, and Dogleg, was also released in 2021.[17]
On September 27, 2023, Glass Beach released an alternate reality game hosted on their website which culminated in the reveal of the name and tracklist of their second album Plastic Death.[citation needed] On October 11, 2023 the band released the album's first single, "the CIA", featuring themes of fear and surveillance by the Central Intelligence Agency, with a music video directed by White.[18] On November 6 the band released the second single, "rare animal", about the disappearance of D. B. Cooper.[19] Plastic Death, produced by Will Yip,[20] was released on January 19, 2024.[19]
Studio albums
- The First Glass Beach Album (2019)[25]
- Plastic Death (2024)[20]
Remix albums
- Alchemist Rats Beg Bashful (Remixes) (2021)[26]
Singles
- "Neon Glow" (2018) [27]
- "Running" (2020)[28]
- "Classic J Dies and Gets a Million Streams on Spotify" (2020)[29]
- "1015" (2020)[30]
- "Beach Life in Death" (2021)[31]
- "Welcome to the Black Parade" (2021)[32]
- "The CIA" (2023)[33]
- "Rare Animal" (2023)[19]
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