The Glass Family - Sleep Inside This Wheel
ARTIST.....: The Glass Family
TITLE......: Sleep Inside This Wheel
LABEL......: i eat records
URL........: www.theglassfamily.org
RIP DATE...: Mar-23-2006
STORE DATE.: Jan-00-2006
GENRE......: Indie
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 52,3 MB
Track Listing:
01 - Intro 01:54
02 - Stop Dead In Your Tracks 03:29
03 - Honest Tries 03:38
04 - Bad News 05:08
05 - Swimming In Fiction 04:24
06 - Reprise 00:53
07 - Sleep Inside This Wheel 02:15
08 - This Is Impossible 04:19
09 - Stolen Art 03:42
10 - There's A Red Light Waiting For You 06:13
─────
35:55 min
Release Notes:
The Glass Family's Sleep Inside This Wheel has sweeping,
widescreen view of an album. It begins with an opening theme,
which fades in to set the scene with dramatic, slightly warped
orchestral music that feels both old and new. From there the album
proceeds with a big-picture, textured-rock scope which evokes
Radiohead, as does the overall concentration on the difficulties
of human communication and interaction in modern society. The
Glass Family's sound seems at first huge and somewhat distanced,
but in fact is quite intimate and warm. The music works in layers
and movements, with occasionally Beatles-esque guitars aided by
strings, horns, piano, and more. It can be gentle and sharp, and
rather sensitive in tone even as many of the songs sets up scenes
of pain for its characters, where everyone feels adrift in life,
unsure of where they stand. Nothing here is simple, everything is
complicated. On "Bad News," "eyes that looked for greater good now
see for themselves" - but that sentiment isn't just finger-
pointing. Instead, everyone's trapped in this predicament, and
even more complicated, "we are trapped because we're free." These
philosophical questions about human behavior, and our place in the
universe, are probed in the course of a rock album that often
seems direct and forceful, and often seems space-bound and
unrestrained. The latter is especially true of the album's second
half. After a reprise of the intro theme, the title track takes
the album in a sci-fi, 2001 direction, the music spinning in
tranquility while the lyrics offer psychology. The forceful "This
Is Impossible" takes up free will, regrets, and fate, eventually
exploding like a rocket. The album-ending "There's a Red Light
Waiting for You" is built around the line "this is not my life",
bringing up memories of wrong-man crime stories and amnesia tales,
which wrap together well with the album's attention to destinies
and life paths and feelings of aimlessness and confusion.
Ultimately Sleep Inside This Wheel stands as some sort of sci-fi
rock opera that also feels like a small, personal, very human
story. It's all woven through with grand and glorious melodies
too, melodies that within their molecules contain big ideas and
mysteries. - dave heaton (erasingclouds.com)
The Glass Family began in the winter of 2001 as a two-piece at a
house party. Three years and five line-up changes later, founding
members Tony Daugherty (drums) and Michael Winningham (lead vocals
and guitar) truly found a family of likeminded collaborators in
Frank Alexander (keys), Jeremy Gomez (bass), and Brian Hubbard
(guitar).
Self-described 'regular guys' -- Michael is a carpenter by day,
Tony installs ponds, Brain works at a coffee shop, Jeremy designs
websites and engineers software, and Frank just got his PhD in
neuro-biology -- we wouldn't think to call them 'regular,' but
they are a remarkably down-to-earth group of people.
Without question, their combined effort as The Glass Family is
truely extraodinary, earning them the ardent respect of
Austinites, and supporting shows with artists like Okkervil River,
Earlimart, The Decemberists, Sound Team, Zykos, and I Love You But
I've Chosen Darkness. (ieatrecords.com)