After meeting at summer camp Daryl Palumbo and Justin Beck played their first show as Glassjaw in 1994. The band was strongly Influenced by their membership in other bands, including Beck’s Jewish straight-edged metalcore band Sons of Abraham, and Palumbo’s straight-edged XbustedX. Whilst playing the local hardcore scene, Glassjaw’s line-up changed frequently. Earlier releases included the EP “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” in 1997, and 2000’s debut album “”Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence”.
The album showed off Glassjaw’s powerful and aggressive guttural vocals - dealing with uncomfortable topics such as Palumbo’s Crohn’s disease - and has often been cited as a milestone in post-hardcore. Its follow-up “Worship and Tribute” released by Warner Bros. Records in 2002 was engineered and mixed by Mike Fraser and was a more mature album, with influences as far reaching as Anthrax and The Cure.
With Palumbo experiencing a relapse with his Crohn’s disease as well as performing with his new group Head Automatica, Glassjaw went on a indeterminable hiatus, in which time band members Todd Weinstock, Dave Allen and Larry Gorman were all fired from the band. A couple of years later in 2005 with Manuel Carrero returning on bass after five years, and Durijah Lang filling in on guitar, Glassjaw played three shows at Farmingdale, New York’s The Downtown.
In 2007 the band played a one-off show at the Carling Academy Brixton, in London, England and a warm-up show at the Camden Barfly a day earlier, proving Glassjaw still has life in them. Following headline shows in Southern California, U.S. and a bunch of headline slots at festivals including Saints & Sinners, the band began releasing snippets of their new material.
After a series of teasing single releases including “(You Think You’re) John F*cking Lennon” and “All Good Junkies Go To Heaven” Glassjaw announced the upmcoming release of an EP and LP. The singles were later revealed to feature on the EP “One Color Green (The Singles)” released on 1/11/11. “One Color Green (The Singles)” has been followed up by the “Coloring Book” EP and Glassjaw continue to tour extensively.
What can be said about Glassjaw that hasn’t been said already? One of the most influential hardcore bands for their role in innovating and perfecting the post-hardcore sound that began to hit its stride in the early 2000’s.
The band is spot on live, ripping through their music note for note as effortlessly as anything I’ve seen. Daryl Palumbo, one of two founding members that remain in Glassjaw, is as good a live singer as there is in the post-hardcore world. From his soaring high pitched vocals, to his eccentric dance moves during the band’s extended instrumental sections, Palumbo is an absolute joy to watch on stage.
I most recently saw Glassjaw at Reading in 2011, and I initially had a fear that perhaps the stage, and the moment, might be too big for them to handle but that initial fear was put to rest very quickly as soon as their trademark sound started bursting through those speakers. I don’t know if the other audience members shared my same fear, but if they did, their fears were certainly destroyed as well. In a crowd of tens of thousands, you would be hard pressed to find a single member of that audience that wasn’t in absolute awe of Glassjaw’s combined musicianship and showmanship.
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