Glyders :: Forever
Photo: Derrick Alexander
Like a sonic smoke alarm going off in a haunted house somewhere deep in the concrete jungles of Windy City’s captivating chambers of sound and sidewalk spirituality, Glyders, a psychedelic trio of great proportions, dwells in its melodic memory where they’ve been working hard at their craft for the better part of a decade. Recently signed to Drag City for the band’s second LP, “Forever,” members Joshua Condon, Eliza Weber, and Joe Seger follow up their 2023 debut “Maria's Hunt” with perhaps the group’s most compelling work to date. An electrifying effort that tonally tackles the hardships of being a creative unit in this particular day and age, the Chicago-based outfit recognizes that hard work and the sometimes deranged dedication it takes, while endlessly pouring into the melodic machine. The band has finally found that magical momentum that takes groups to that star-studded space in time, where dreams are made and home runs are celebrated for generations to come. Effortlessly echoing the velocity and volume of the mid-2000s barrage of psychedelic pop and underground universities that brought you Thee O Sees, Black Lips, The 13th Floor Elevators, and JEFF The Brotherhood, to name a few, Glyders celebrate the significance of songwriting and its sudden structure to identify with listeners in a one-two punch sequence. Recorded at Studio “G,” the band’s harmonious headquarters located in Chicago’s Humboldt Park, the album appears in the melodic mist like some poetic phantom that meditates under the moonlight, where cosmic cigar smoke lingers in its galactic glow after a night of celebration and tasteful debauchery. Across the album’s eight tracks lurks this whispering wave of a party-friendly atmosphere, whose tonal theme is to strike now before it’s too late.
Photo: by Shaina Hoffman
Featuring numbers like “Steppin' / Tell Me About The Rabbit,” “New Realm,” and the album’s oscillating opener “Super Glyde,” listeners can anticipate their lava lamps to explode, and their radios to mysteriously turn on by themselves as if a polite poltergeist was lurking around the corner of your atmospheric abode. While carefully holding the almighty appetite of the eager masses at bay, the band released its first single, “Stone Shadow," along with a vibrant VHS visual to further enhance the essence of their cosmic company in a world filled with nonsense and endless existentialism. Pulling from the city’s legendary landscape of critical culture, Glyders separates the mortar from the brick in a feverish fashion that’s symbolic of the greats whose straightforward rock and roll justice pierced the wiry wings of electrifying eagles that soared the sonic skies high and proud. Where rhythm meets ritual, “Forever” takes off like a loose piston ricocheting under the hood of a 1970 AMC Rebel Machine as it cruises the local strip in search of enlightenment just as midnight settles like a black blanket of spells from a time and place spoken only in tall tales, and mystery. While creeping through the famous alleyways where the intimacy of inspiration lies, the band hangs its hat on the harmonious hook in a pirate’s private palace of stolen treasure and well-kept secrets, which is parked parallel to Drag City’s historic headquarters on North Cicero Ave. The album spirals into the aftermath of some of the city’s most iconic groups, such as H.P. Lovecraft, The Mauds, and The Shadows of Knight, while simultaneously embarking on an elemental escapade through the mind’s cloudy eye. Glyders may have single-handedly established the soundtrack of the times without so much as skipping a beat on what it means to have fun with what you do.
