Glass Rock

Bio:

Glass Rock – Tall Firs Meet Soft Location LP: Set to begin work on their third record, downbeat troubadours Tall Firs woke up in bed with another band. During an impromptu DJ set following a performance on seminal independent radio station WFMU, the Firs spun a track from Detroit’s Soft Location. Lamenting the band’s demise, someone offhandedly remarked that the Tall Firs would gladly collaborate if Kathy Leisen (Soft Location lead vocalist) would come out of retirement. Kathy’s neighbor was listening online two doors down from her in the Motor City. A few phone calls later; Kathy’s languid croon (and the moody grooves of former Soft Location bassman Matt Kantor) had a second home in New York City. The core elements of the Glass Rock sound are Leisen’s penetrating voice and boneyard guitar combined with Kantor’s slo-mo jet fuel bass jamminating. Then add Tall Firs: Ryan Sawyer’s could-blow-your-pants-off-but-prefer-to-slowly-work-them-over-your-hips drumming and Dave Mies and Aaron Mullan’s loosely woven two-man guitar stagger. The band actively refuses to discuss influences even amongst themselves, but folks who love songs heartrending, handmade, reckless, and brave should gamble a listen. Advance praise for Glass Rock's TFMSL: 9/10. Effortlessly bleeds cool, without any pre-meditations of doing so... This is the sound of a dying decade; smooth, bleak but with an unerring beauty...one of the most compelling collaborations of the decade. -Drowned in Sound /// A record that leaks vulnerable love songs and is emotionally stacked like a house of cards....A beautiful effort. – Bearded Magazine /// Think Chan Marshall, Van Morrison, think just setting up and doing it without a worry or a fuss, think soul, think warmth, think slightly psych-edged pop and Patti Smith and simple blends that don’t really sound like anything or anyone... Rich things, fine fine -Organ /// A masterful piece of work....understated and iconic. – Artrocker /// Beautiful people have great-looking children, right? So when New York folk-rockers Tall Firs and Detroit psychedelic popsters Soft Location got together for a weeklong musical shag-fest, the results were never in doubt...A seriously slinky piece of lounge rock, with Kathy Leisen’s languorous vocal hinting at all sorts of guiltless pleasures – AU /// Music For Late Nights and bad behaviour. - Clash

Member Since:

July 30, 2009

Members:

Matt Kantor, Kathy Leisen, Dave Mies, Aaron Mullan, Ryan Sawyer

Influences:

Arthur Russell, Isaac Hayes, the northern lights (yeah, the ones in the sky, in Canada)

Sounds Like:

Rusty metal dipped in honey.

Record Label:

Ecstatic Peace