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Sometimes a band kind of sneaks into a scene, with no fanfare, no big write ups preceding their debut, often to smaller than normal audiences, but create a tremor that resonates beyond their own knowledge.
Waker Glass is one of those bands who did just that. It should really come as no surprise really, as their members have been in or had stints in some of Windsor’s most successful and acclaimed bands of the past two decades – such as Elephant, Luxury Christ and Treehouse Beggars – and one is in one of the scene’s other up and coming acts, The Rheostats. But they’re debut in the fall of 2010 – an unassuming show with a relatively unknown act called Alex Carruthers & The Rhythm Brothers (who have also gone on to some big shows since then) and the avant garde band The STiG (currently toiling as The Thrash Brownies). The crowd wasn’t one of the best the FM Lounge has seen, but the people who were there were attentive. And they listened. By the end of the set, the crowd was filling in a little nicer, as people were texting their friends that there was “something pretty cool” going on at the old Fish Market.
Waker Glass followed that up with a spot on last December’s FunnelFest festival, sharing the stage upstairs at The Loop. For only their second performance, they came through like the veterans they were comprised from, commanding the stage and further cementing their status as a band to watch for. Their sound is definitely “atmospheric” (as several people have said) with an honest to goodness method storytelling that comes from bands like Calexico, Wilco and Automatic for the People-era REM, but delivered more in the style of bands like Mazzy Star. A little bit of sugar sprinkled on the melancholy.
Opening the show is a band that I thought had broken up last year, but it looks like are back (at least for periodic reformations). Meters For Miles is pure and simple, a hard driving pop band that delivers hard hitting pop hooks via an almost punk rock delivery, which again is probably derived from the fact that their members were also in some pretty heavy hitting bands from the ’90s, B Plan and Dirty Harry. Singer/guitarist Dan Marshall also struck gold briefly a few years back when his solo EP was picked up by Universal Records based on the award-winning single, “Dandelion”.
This Friday, Waker Glass and company return to the scene of that first fateful show and I’d bet its far better attended (and appreciated) than their debut. These guys are here to stay.
Waker Glass with special guests Meters to Miles, The FM Lounge (156 Chatham St. West, beside Pogo’s), Friday February 18th, 9pm, 19+ - www.windsorzene.wordpress.com
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
Waker Glass is the result of a PA system being purchased at Detroit police auction.
Bass player Jake Dimmick needed something to do with the PA and contacted his old high school friend, Robert Earl Stewart, who had retired from the music scene 16 years earlier, after the dissolution of Elephant. Stewart expressed some interest in reprising his role as a vocalist.
Terry Lusk, one-time frontman of the Treehouse Beggars, responded to an online ad and came on board as the drummer. A brief period of uncertainty followed in which guitar player options were discussed at length.
Mark Gelinas, a fixture in the local music scene, having spent 30 years playing everything from punk to metal, including a stint as the bass player in Luxury Christ, was intrigued enough to bring his array of vintage guitars, lapsteels and amps into the practice space.
The search for a second guitarist led Waker Glass to Sarnia native John Pilat—a student at the University of Windsor, playing around Windsor and London in a band called The Rheostats. Told he was joining a band influenced by Wilco, John showed up with his hollow-body Washburn and later was heard to say “We sound nothing like Wilco, but I like what we’re doing.”
Aside from some of the members of Waker Glass liking Wilco, other influences seem to be Tindersticks, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, The Clash Calexico, 16 Horsepower, Wovenhand, The Walkmen, Sylvian and Blanche.
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