Glassjaw

Glassjaw


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Daryl Palumbo - Vocals
Beck - Guitar
Todd N. Weinstock - Guitar
Manuel Carrero - Bass
Larry Gorman - Drums

Naked and truthful. Pure and brutally direct. Glassjaw work stray chords, a Radiohead-ish swirl of guitar and a barrage of bared emotions into a frenzy that's singular and uncompromising. Glassjaw's IAM/Roadrunner debut, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence is as riveting and personal a record as you could ask for. One where beauty turns to disgust where melodies turn molten.

From the start, the members of Glassjaw didn't know or care about anything other than playing together. Vocalist Daryl Palumbo and guitarist Justin Beck may have been 14 or 15 at the time they started making this glorious racket in their Long Island parents' basements. "We've always kind of done whatever we want." says Beck, now 20.. "We always knew that we'd go get a lot further doing something on our terms rather than what everyone else was doing around us," Palumbo, also 20, chimes in. "We were always too dorky looking to be metal kids...and we looked like skaters. Nobody knew what to think of us!" At that point, who played what instrument wasn't even the issue, Beck serving as the band's occasional bassist and on-and-off drummer. What was important was making music without confine. To Glassjaw, sticking out like a sore thumb made more sense than blending into the pack.

One person whose ear Glassjaw managed to catch was producer Ross Robinson who calls the band "The new post-millennial destroyers of Adidas rock, R.I.P." Known for his work with Korn and Limp Bizkit, as well as his IAM label imprint through Roadrunner (already home to the likes of Slipknot), Robinson heard a mere few seconds of the band at first on a crudely recorded demo a few days later at rehearsal and the IAM/Roadrunner deal was sealed. "Ross showed up at a practice," Beck recounts. "We start a song 5-4-3-2-1. Ross stands up, waving his hands and he's like, 'It's over, it's done. I want to do this, you've got a deal!' he told us. It was chills from the start. We couldn't believe it...and actually didn't believe it for weeks."

The ensuing two months of recording at Indigo Ranch in Malibu, CA were focused and intense. "The first day of preproduction, we had no idea what to expect," says Beck. "We start the first song and Ross is yelling 'Stop! Stop! He says to Daryl, 'What's this song about?' Daryl starts telling him and we start giggling a bit. He stopped us dead in our tracks and basically let us know that this wasn't a joke at all. It was dead serious. It put us all in check. He made Daryl spell out exactly what the song was about which was extremely personal. He taught us that the more you hold back, the more you cheat yourself and the more you cheat everyone else."

That honesty is core to Glassjaw. From the gnashing guitars of "Pretty Lush" the plunging bass-lines of "One Eight Becomes Two Zeros" the gnarled pop of "Ry Ry's Song" straight to the musical and emotional meltdown of "Motel of the White Locust", Glassjaw's debut speaks volumes. It's as delicate and sensitive as it is venomous. Palumbo's lyrical point of view is one of utter brutality and a keen intelligence "Punk times fifty!" he exclaims cribbing bits and pieces from sources as diverse as Elvis Costello, the Bad Brains, Squeeze and Japanese Anime and monster flicks. "Collage is the art form of the 20th century!" he states emphatically. For instance: "Godzilla is a metaphor for life," he states with a smile. "Every song I write is originally named after something relating to a Godzilla movie. Don't laugh! Godzilla movies singlehandedly taught me about growing up taught me about relationships, respect. If you get f**ked, you have to level Tokyo!"

Expect moments as gnarled and powerful as the title track, a cascade of pure sound and emotion that culminates in Palumbo screaming "THIS IS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE ALONE!!!!!" A wired howl from a frontman who's spent the past few years dealing with the intestinal disorder, Crohn's Disease. "I'm not exactly the most positive person in the world, but it's important for me to share this experience with people," the frontman believes. "I know what I wish I could have heard when I was diagnosed with this incredibly serious disease. I know what it feels like to be alone in a hospital room. I'm just a f**kin' 20 year old dork, but if I can make people feel less alone, that's important."

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence isn't necessarily an easy listen it is, however, as truthful as a 20 year old can be. "This record is basically a modern take on love," the frontman explains. "You can write a record that's an anti-relationship record or a broken heart record or a revenge record. Fact is, I'm in plain English saying what's on my mind as bluntly as possible. Sorry, real life isn't politically correct. This is how I feel in my heart and my guts. If you say you can't relate to this, then you haven't had your heart broken."


Glassjaw: naked and painful. Beautiful and honest. Do NOT file under easy listening.

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