Garage band GlassJaw opens up

GlassJaw is a punk-funk-rock band made up of four guys who fake their accents, swear more times than the characters in Pulp Fiction and claim that most bands have their priorities backwards. The band, which hails from Long Island, has been around for a while _ two of its members have been playing together for eighteen years.

The Daily recently chatted with Justin Beck, the guitarist and one of the original two members of the crew, amidst comments from the other band members and, strangely, a siren roaring.



Daily: Why the name GlassJaw?

GlassJaw: (in a fake Albuquerque accent) I was 13 years old when I [and Daryl Palumbo, the vocalist] chose it. All the bands of the time had two-syllable [expletive] names, like Swiss Kick, Mouth Piece, Stand Off. We had a list of 40 something band names that sounded cool.



Daily: So you were 13 when you started this band?

GJ: Yeah, me and Daryl started it together.



Daily: What about the rest of the original band?

GJ: Well, the rest were Hare Krishnas. We had a few drummers that left for India.



Daily: What was your first instrument?

GJ: My mom tried to get me to play piano, like my older sister, but I wanted to play the accordion. I don't even know where it came from. Weird Al Yankovich? I do remember that there was this Yiddish music store, had a wall poster with a whole array of accordions. I thought, 'Holy [expletive], that's sick.'



Daily: So how did you get into hardcore?

GJ: All my friends were into it and I just gravitated towards the scene.



Daily: You say it's a scene. What do you mean by that?

GJ: I don't have any words for it. It was an awareness of issues, like Food Not Bombs. It was more than just some dumb kids yelling and beating each other up.



Daily: Okay, onto the lyrics. How do you make the music fit with the lyrics? Do you help write them?

GJ: The lyrics are just another instrument, another texture, another layer. It's a conglomerate. Daryl writes about his own personal experiences. Whatever [he] is singing about, whether goats or blue cheese, it's music first.



Daily: Where would you like to go next with your music?

GJ: The Chinese violin is [expletive] brilliant. The gamelin, [an Indonesian instrument] which is like a vibraphone, has different half-tones. It's a whole other scale and another language. Where I used to work, one of my old neighbors was this old-school Persian cat. He used to blast that [expletive] through walls. It's the most bad-ass thing. But I wouldn't actually use these instruments. You study other instruments to enhance your own [music].



Daily: What other jobs did you have while you were playing music?

GJ: We didn't. This producer came across our tape, that's how it happened. It was a Saturday morning. We played for 15 seconds, and he signed us on. I said, 'I got finals!' I didn't tell my mom [that I wasn't going back the next semester] for two months. I still had 23 credits [left]."



Daily: How did you get signed on with Warner Brothers?

GJ: We were getting out of another deal and word got out. [Explative] ANR, this producer said he was going to jump in front of a train if we didn't sign.



Daily: So you have reviews on a German e-pinion site and your own Japanese website. How do you feel about that?

GJ: It's good that anyone outside of Long Island knows about us.



Daily: So how do you feel about touring?

GJ: I love NY and I hate leaving it. I hate being on the road because you're not productive. You wait and wait and wait to make new songs. Music is music and that's why we started a band, for the conception of it. Touring is what comes with it. A lot of people have got their ideas about being in a band backwards.



Daily: Ever picked up anyone from an audience?

GJ: If I believe in Jesus may he strike me down. It's horrid and disgusting. I don't pick anyone up.



Daily: Dream locale?

GJ: My dream place to play would be some place in Queens where I could easily eat my Malaysian food or Chinese food, go down the block and play. The kids would just come there. It would be the same place, but with different faces. I could beam kids down like on Star Trek.



Daily: Any last words of advice?

GJ: If you come to our show, don't throw any bottles at our heads. Throw vegetables instead. Those are my words of wisdom for you guys at Tufts.



GlassJaw will be appearing in Boston next month. Check out their website, www.glassjaw.com for information on tour dates.