Biography
An experimental rock ensemble based in Los Angeles, glass beach fuses emo, metal, jazz fusion, prog rock, chiptunes, and additional styles into a surprisingly approachable whole. After distributing several independent singles, the group delivered its first full-length statement with the 2019 release the first glass beach album, which foregrounded emo textures. Run for Cover then signed the band in 2020, reissuing that debut and overseeing its successor. For the follow-up, an extended work exceeding sixty minutes titled plastic death and issued in 2024, the members incorporated non-musical touchstones such as the surrealism of Finnegans Wake, Tristan Tzara’s fragmented Dadaism, and Jenny Holzer’s Truisms, yielding material that felt more impulsive and stylistically varied while remaining even more engaging.
Lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist J McClendon, originally from Texas, had previously recorded under the solo name Casio Dad, fashioning high-energy pop pieces anchored by luminous chiptune lines and delivered with emo urgency. That project drew the attention of University of Minnesota Morris students Jonas Newhouse and William White, who became friends with McClendon before relocating to Los Angeles in 2016 to launch a band. With Newhouse handling bass and White on drums, the newly formed glass beach spent the next several years shaping its singular sound around McClendon’s demo material. A pair of digital singles set the stage for the appropriately named debut the first glass beach album; guitarist Layne Smith completed the quartet shortly before the 2019 release. The album’s bold imaginative scope soon attracted Run for Cover Records, which reissued it the following year. Two covers appeared in 2021—“Beach Life in Death” by Car Seat Headrest and “Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance—alongside the remix collection Alchemist Rats Beg Bashful, which featured contributions from Bartees Strange, Skylar Spence, Ska Tune Network, and Dogleg.
True to their eclectic habits, glass beach unveiled the next album through a self-released alternate-reality game on their website. Its opening singles, “The C.I.A.” and “Rare Animal,” surfaced at the close of 2023 and explored the Central Intelligence Agency and the disappearance of notorious fugitive D.B. Cooper, respectively. Mastered by Grammy-winning producer Will Yip (Menzingers, Circa Survive) and spanning more than an hour, plastic death arrived via Run for Cover in January 2024. Dramatic, improvised, and atmospheric, the record presented an even broader stylistic range than the debut while drawing partial inspiration from surrealism, Dadaism, and further strands of subversive art.
Lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist J McClendon, originally from Texas, had previously recorded under the solo name Casio Dad, fashioning high-energy pop pieces anchored by luminous chiptune lines and delivered with emo urgency. That project drew the attention of University of Minnesota Morris students Jonas Newhouse and William White, who became friends with McClendon before relocating to Los Angeles in 2016 to launch a band. With Newhouse handling bass and White on drums, the newly formed glass beach spent the next several years shaping its singular sound around McClendon’s demo material. A pair of digital singles set the stage for the appropriately named debut the first glass beach album; guitarist Layne Smith completed the quartet shortly before the 2019 release. The album’s bold imaginative scope soon attracted Run for Cover Records, which reissued it the following year. Two covers appeared in 2021—“Beach Life in Death” by Car Seat Headrest and “Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance—alongside the remix collection Alchemist Rats Beg Bashful, which featured contributions from Bartees Strange, Skylar Spence, Ska Tune Network, and Dogleg.
True to their eclectic habits, glass beach unveiled the next album through a self-released alternate-reality game on their website. Its opening singles, “The C.I.A.” and “Rare Animal,” surfaced at the close of 2023 and explored the Central Intelligence Agency and the disappearance of notorious fugitive D.B. Cooper, respectively. Mastered by Grammy-winning producer Will Yip (Menzingers, Circa Survive) and spanning more than an hour, plastic death arrived via Run for Cover in January 2024. Dramatic, improvised, and atmospheric, the record presented an even broader stylistic range than the debut while drawing partial inspiration from surrealism, Dadaism, and further strands of subversive art.
Albums
plastic death
2024
alchemist rats beg bashful (remixes)
2021
the first glass beach album
2019
Give It Some
2014
Singles
