glass beach

An inventive indie combo from Los Angeles, Glass Beach play a vivid amalgam of new wave, indie pop, jazz, and emo with heaps of punk energy and an affection for chiptunes. Following a handful of self-released singles, they made their full-length debut with 2019′s The First Glass Beach Album.
Frontperson and multi-instrumentalist J McClendon — a native Texan — previously operated under the solo moniker Casio Dad, creating frenetic pop songs built around shimmering chiptune melodies and played with emo fervor. The project attracted the admiration of a pair of University of Minnesota Morris students, Jonas Newhouse and William White, who soon befriended McClendon and subsequently moved L.A. in 2016 with the intention of starting a band together. With Newhouse on bass and White on drums, the newly minted Glass Beach spent the next few years constructing their unique sound based around McClendon’s demos. A couple of digital singles paved the way for their full-length debut, which was appropriately titled The First Glass Beach Album. Just prior to its 2019 release, guitarist Layne Smith joined as the band’s fourth member. The album’s wild and imaginative sound soon caught the ear of Run for Cover Records, which reissued it in 2020. January 2021 brought the release of “Beach Life in Death,” the group’s first new material for Run for Cover. ~ Timothy Monger