glass beach Announce New Album Plastic Death, Share Origins of “rare animal”: Exclusive
The post glass beach Announce New Album Plastic Death, Share Origins of “rare animal”: Exclusive appeared first on Consequence.
Consequence’s Origins series provides artists with a space to run fans through everything that went into their latest release. Today, glass beach take us through their new track, “rare animal.”
Fifth-wave emo trailblazers glass beach have announced their latest album, plastic death, set for release on Friday, January 19th. Following the release of their first single “the CIA,” the band has unveiled a brand new track, “rare animal,” out now via Run For Cover Records.
Drawing inspiration from midwestern emo and early 2000s indie folk, the band finds themselves mixing in their wide breadth of influences with their personal brand of emotional indie rock. Kicking off with a beautiful, mellow verse, the song quickly leads into a cathartic breakdown of a chorus. Complete with sparkling, dueling guitar lines and driving, wildly inventive drums, the tune expands upon their already sprawling sonic universe.
“We knew pretty much right away what [‘rare animal’] was supposed to be,” frontperson J McClendon tells Consequence. “The gang vocals were done by everyone in the band plus our secret fifth member Daxe. I love the gang vocals for how, rather than chanting some big hook or something, it feels like a greek chorus arguing with me. ‘Don’t get lost in a metaphor.'”
While you may not get lost in the metaphor, it is easy to get lost in the beauty of glass beach’s newest offering. A stunning song about not being able to get someone out of your head, “rare animal” turns the emotion and the volume up to 11, building excitement and anticipation for the rest of plastic death.
Check out the lyric video for glass beach’s “rare animal” below, followed by J McClendon’s breakdown of the song’s Origins.
Pre-orders for plastic death are ongoing. glass beach have mapped out a Spring 2024 tour in support of the album. See the schedule below, and tickets go on sale Friday, November 10 at 10:00 a.m. local time here.
plastic death Artwork:
plastic death Tracklist:
01. coelacanth
02. motions
03. slip under the door
04. guitar song
05. rare animal
06. cul de sac
07. whalefall
08. puppy
09. the killer
10. the CIA
11. 200
12. commatose
13. abyss angel
glass beach 2024 Tour Dates:
03/21 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
03/22 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
03/26 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre
03/28 – Burnsville, MN @ The Garage
03/30 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme
03/31 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
04/02 – Lakewood, OH @ Mahalls
04/03 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit Hall
04/05 – Boston, MA @ Crystal Ballroom
04/06 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre
04/07 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
04/09 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
04/10 – Richmond, VA @ Canal Club
04/12 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
04/13 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Hell)
04/15 – Dallas, TX @ Ferris Wheelers
04/16 – Austin, TX @ Far Out
04/18 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
04/19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
04/21 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
The Microphones’s The Glow, Pt. 2:
Though aesthetically, in its final form, “rare animal” doesn’t feel very Microphones, this album was an enormous influence on this song (and by extension the entirety of plastic death) in its earliest stages and I still feel its DNA in there somewhere. Phil Elverum’s approach to chords — often very low, three-note voicings [that are] one note removed from typical major or minor triads — is all over the guitar work here, and the loud climax right before the song wraps up was taken straight from the borderline black metal of songs like “Samurai Sword.” In a more general sense, the Microphones’ shy, introspective vocals, the constant studio experimentation, and capital-R Romantic sensibility of portraying emotion through nature had imprinted heavily upon me and become key aspects of this album as well.
Cap’n Jazz:
There’s something about Cap’n Jazz’s music that’s resonated with me more than most midwest emo. Though I’ve spent a lot of time myself working with the super direct lyric writing approach that’s more typical for the genre, I’ve always had a special appreciation for Cap’n Jazz’s ability to truly capture the hazy, impressionistic way that childhood exists in the adult mind. “rare animal” is definitely a half-remembered story from a child’s perspective, of being led through strange routines and situations to deal with problems not even those in charge understand.
This song probably has the most overt nods in the direction of emo out of any track on the album, with its layered telecaster arpeggios and gang vocals. But rather than shooting straight down the middle of the genre, we approached it with our best attempt at the disjointed harmony and surreal lyricism that makes Cap’n Jazz unique. The disappearance of D.B. Cooper — one of the unsolved mysteries of all time. A man threatens to bomb a plane if they don’t pay him a ransom. After receiving the cash he parachutes out of the plane and likely dies somewhere deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. No one has any actual leads on who he was or what his motivation was, and neither his body nor the money have been discovered. It’s a tenuous stream-of-consciousness connection to the rest of the song. Everything I write is just born from Wikipedia deep dives.
Nautilus Live:
A livestream from a remote-controlled submarine exploring the depths of the Pacific Ocean with some pretty entertaining live commentary from researchers. The deep sea became the perfect visual for the album. Even its seemingly endless abyss is rich with all kinds of rare animals. I’m terrified of the ocean, so it’s the only thing any of our songs are about. “rare animal” definitely lives near the hydrothermic vents that might be the origin point of all life on earth.
The Brave Little Abacus:
I love how many of this band’s songs end with these beautiful chord vamps that just go on and on; I love this constant restlessness and sense of adventure in their arrangements. We’re always making self-imposed rules when we write to not be completely paralyzed with possibility and one of the big ones with this album was to always have some kind of big switchup around two or three minutes into a song, the point where pop songs usually end. At a show once, our sound guy told me after that our songs are all about the bridges and I had to agree. Every verse and chorus I ever wrote was an excuse to get to the bridge. This bridge was built on some nice jazz chords and a rhythm section groove William said draws heavily from some Latin jazz standard they learned in college, though none of us can figure out what it was called or it would definitely be mentioned in this write up. Oh well! The Brave Little Abacus has some pretty cool bridges, check it out!
glass beach Announce New Album Plastic Death, Share Origins of “rare animal”: Exclusive
Aidan Sharp-Moses
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