The Glands - The Glands [CD]

Digiwallet New West Records is humbled and proud to release recordings from Athens, GA luminaries The Glands. The critically acclaimed eponymous middle record, The Glands has also been remastered and features the band’s definitive sequence including five rare songs. Available on CD and LP as well as a career-encompassing 5 LP Box Set with a 52-Page book featuring never-before-seen photos and testimonials from David Cross, James Mercer, Ira Kaplan, Patterson Hood as well as a forward by music critic and writer Stephen Deusner (Pitchfork, Uncut and Stereogum). Read an excerpt below: There is an enormous and curiously shaped hole in the story of the Glands, the on-again/mostly off-again duo or quartet or sometimes quintet but let’s just say band from Athens, Georgia, who released only two albums of weird, irascible, irresistible indie rock before band leader Ross Shapiro died in 2016. He wrote the songs, he sang the songs, he played guitar, and he gathered around him a bunch of close friends to play them. He inspired many people around town, frustrated many others, and generally proved to be a painstaking artist with an ear for catchy melodies, a very grim sense of humor, a taste for reheated Dunkin' Donuts coffee, a supernaturally exhaustive knowledge of Grateful Dead bootlegs, and a creativity that extended beyond music to the strange portraits he painted and the odd shapes he sculpted. Ross’s passing left a hole in Athens, in the community where he had become a fixture and arguably even a celebrity of sorts. And there really is something heroic about his career as an artist, something noble to a life devoted to creativity and creation, even if that mostly means jamming with friends. The Glands first two albums established Ross as an unlikely and maybe even unwilling cult artist; you could argue that not enough people bought Double Thriller and The Glands, but everyone who did became avid fans for life. And even though we only have access to an infinitesimal portion of the music he made, these two albums—and now this third!—add invaluable detail and nuance to our portrait of Ross Shapiro. We can see him reflected back to us in his songs: a guy whose grumpiness hid a big heart and whose reticence could not obscure his talent and vision. - Stephen Deusner TRACKLIST: livin' was easy when i laugh swim - prelude swim mayflower lovetown straight down i can see my house from here fortress work it out soul inspiration ground favorite american breathe out u r the mountain something in the air holiday walk head that's mine doug's hall rag