the ugly hug

Written by Ella Hardie | Photo by Linnea Cheng

Joe Glass is a bonafide first-and-last-namer. Two syllables, boom boom. Besides having a hard name to forget, he’s never needed a persona or re-brand for his solo project. His music tells us exactly who he is. Back in January when he announced the release of his first album in four years, Snakewards, he described it as “13 scrap-rock sketches straight from the heart to the gut,” before posing the rhetorical question: “Maybe we can keep rock’n’roll alive for one more day?” I don’t think rock’n’roll is anywhere near kicking the bucket, and Snakewards—which, in 2026, sold out on cassette tape almost immediately—proves that we have nothing to worry about. Snakewards possesses a sense of urgency, spontaneity, and sincerity nonetheless: each track clocks in at three minutes or, more often than not, less. This no-filler, no-frills, (dare I say no-skip?) album is a jubilant reintroduction to Joe’s songwriting skills and good taste. He isn’t trying to bare his soul or convince you of anything, he’s just trying to make music that he would want to listen to. His lack of inhibition and general air of confidence make his “sketches” of situations and characters, like “Oscar’s Midnight Ride” or “The Man Who Lost His Diamond,” feel like they were drawn in pen instead of pencil on scratch paper singed by a Bic lighter. 

In pursuit of “keeping rock’n’roll alive for one more day,” Glass has assembled a live band made up of some of Chicago’s finest, who happen to be his longtime friends, guitarist Joaquin Cervantes (Soaps), bassist Cormick Costello (Intoner, Plug Three), and his younger brother, Warren Glass (Receiver) on drums. I imagine it’s hard to find the right people to help you execute your creative vision as a solo artist—it surely takes a lot of trial, error, and trust—but Joe Glass has definitely struck gold. 

2/26/2026: Joe Glass, Glass-Beagle, and Cash Langdon @ Gman Tavern

With a song or two left in Glass-Beagle’s (kickass) set, Joe and I pull on our coats and head out the back door. We decide to talk on the Racine Avenue side of the venue as opposed to the Clark Street side because it’s 10 p.m. on a Thursday in Wrigleyville and there’s already a line down the block for Jeff Mills at Smartbar. Before the door even closes behind us, we rummage through our respective pockets/purse for our cigarettes. We’re both smoking Marlboro Golds. I start recording and the first 30 seconds of the audio—which I have to cut for time—consist of me rambling about my postgrad-quasi-existential-crisis. (I have no recollection of how we got on this topic. Sorry Joe.)

JOE GLASS: I dunno, a lot of people are doing wayyyy less cool shit.

I sigh. I pivot:

ELLA HARDIE: Well, you’re doing a lot of cool shit…in the scheme of things… Like, you just got back from touring in Europe [with Sharp Pins] a day and a half ago.

(I probably should’ve mentioned this in the intro, but Joe Glass also plays guitar in Sharp Pins, Kai Slater (of Lifeguard)’s solo project. He’s booked and busy!)

JG: Yeah…

EH: I really want to hear about that, but I’ll start with the same question I start every interview with: How would you rate your set tonight out of ten? 

JG: Tonight…? Honestly, tonight’s like an eight and a half, nine? I just felt good about it. It was a thirty minute thing, so… Sometimes when you have to play, like, an hour, you may delve into territory that you’re not, like, super psyched about—even if it’s good or whatever, it’s just not fresh to you—but we only had thirty minutes. We opened with two new songs—like, very new—and then we played some old songs from previous years… Yeah, no, I felt really good tonight. 

EH: Do you like Gman? Have you played here before?

JG: Yeah, I played a Minivan show here once a long time ago—

(I used to see Minivan stickers all over the place—the one I saw most often was one in the Big n’ Little’s (RIP) bathroom on Belmont. The first (and only?) time I saw Minivan play live was at Old Bookclub back in 2023, where they played a cover of “The Man in Me” by Bob Dylan as their encore. I remember approaching the stage after their set and saying: “THAT WAS AWESOME I LOVE BOB DYLAN” and Joe replying with: “He’s a poet.”)

EH: Damn, rest in fuckin’ peace. 

JG: I dunno, I think Gman is an underrated space because hipsters are pretty adverse to going to Wrigleyville to see music, but I think the sound is really good, the room is really good, there’s two bars, it’s, like, a clean place, it’s kinda unpretentious—

EH: Yeah, the Wrigleyville of it all…

JG: Yeah, but it’s next to the Metro and it’s historic and really nice… I had actually just booked my own show here in about a month and then I got put on this bill. I mean, I’m glad to do it! I think the Gman Era is beginning…

EH: Yeah, that’s what I was gonna say, you’re kinda bookending your tour here. Like, you just got back from tour, you just played a show here, and you’re about to go on another tour that ends here… How do you feel about touring?

JG: I mean, I love touring. It’s a total manifestation of my childhood dreams, basically. I think touring—once I started doing it, like, kinda seriously—it’s just like all experiences that you think you’d enjoy, then you get to experience it… It’s not that I don’t enjoy doing it, I really love doing it, it’s just—

Anddddd unfortunately this is as far as I got into transcribing this (insightful and wonderful and 40 MINUTE LONG) interview before it decided to never play ever again. 

3/7/2026 (via Instagram):

@ellahardiee: So I have terrible news

Our interview was pronounced Legally Dead at the Apple Store yesterday

(The audio file got corrupted)

@j0eglass: Wow

That sucks lol

Just have to do another one!

JOE GLASS (BAND) TAKE TWO:

This interview features Joe Glass (guitar/vocals), Warren Glass (drums), Joaquin Cervantes (guitar/vocals), Cormick Costello (bass), my beloved friends Cordia Ritz and Linnea Cheng, and local legend Jason Shapiro (for a second toward the end). It has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

3/21/2026: Jason Shapiro, Alga, Barreleye, & Joe Glass @ Gman Tavern:

The show’s over and Joe’s manning the merch table while I try to rally the rest of the troops. Warren, Joaquin, and Cormick are all smoking outside, inadvertently commingling with the crowd in line for Boots’ 4th Birthday Party at Metro next door. At some point, Joaquin notices their finger bleeding and goes inside to deal with it. In the meantime, I run to grab Joe from the back and we walk out the door onto Racine Ave away from the noise of Clark Street. It’s a remarkably familiar situation: once again, within the first ten seconds of stepping into the warm, false-spring air, we both light up Marlboro Golds. We get halfway through our cigarettes before everyone eventually gathers in a circle on the sidewalk. We’ve finally arrived at a moment of redemption and the stakes feel weirdly high… 

ELLA HARDIE: God willing, this will be normal—

Everybody starts laughing. The stakes no longer feel high.

EH: Hey guys…

JOE GLASS: Hello…

EH: We’re back…

JG: Again…

EH: Indeed… How is everybody feeling? 

Joe, Cormick, Warren, and Joaquin all respond with their own version of: “Good!” “It was a good show!” “It was a good set!”

EH: How would everyone rate it out of 10…? We can go in a circle—

WARREN GLASS: 7, I’d say. 

JOAQUIN CERVANTES: 7, really?

JG: It’s like, an individual thing—

JC: Ohhh—

JG: I felt like we sounded really good—

WG: Ok, maybe 7.5 actually—

JG: Back-pedaling! 

WG: I am back-pedaling! Because I realized I did good today!

JG: Yeah! I think so!

JC: I was gonna give it like a high 8 or something… I just nailed most of my parts…

JG: I would say, like, a 7.86…?

CORMICK COSTELLO: I like whole numbers, so I’m rounding up with the 8.

JC: Me and Corm were off on the left side rockin’ out, it was fun. 

EH: Have you guys had a 10 recently? This is the last stop of your tour, was there a 10 while you were gone? 

EVERYONE: St. Louis—

JC: St. Louis was a 9—

CC: Yeah, St. Louis was the best one—

EH: What was special about St. Louis?

JG: Well… it was, like, a pretty small room, and there weren’t that many people there but they were excited, and it seemed like there were more people because of the size. And it was at a place called CBGB, which is hilarious—

EH: In St. Louis, Missouri?

CC: Don’t worry, even the people in St. Louis are confused about it—

Laughter.

JC: Real friendly, salt of the earth people there too. I talked to so many random people—

JG: Unlimited liquor n’ booze—

WG: “Unlimited liquor and booze…”

JG: Wait, unlimited liquor and beer, so… maybe that was part of the excitement…

EH: How does it feel to be back in Chicago after being on tour? 

JG: Very good! I love Chicago, it definitely still wins out as The Best City in America to me. I really liked Cincinnati though, I could move there someday… but it feels very good to be back! I’m excited for it to be warm enough to swim, that’s kinda where I’m at. 

CC: Yeah, being on tour just really made me appreciate the people here and how into everything they are. Like, we saw some stone-faces at some of these places and I don’t think you really get that in Chicago. 

JG: Yeah, agree.

Joaquin nods. 

JC: It’s definitely the Real America…

JG: …Chicago?

JC: No, the rest of America—

EH: What kind of venues were you playing? Was it house shows, bars, proper clubs?

JG: One house show—to, like, a bunch of fake goth kids at U of I in Urbana—and the rest of them were clubs but, like, maybe more DIY? One of them got canceled because the toilet overflowed—

EH: Is that why…? I saw that on Instagram and I was wondering what happened…

JG: Well, I just said it was because of plumbing, but I’ve been learning recently that a lot of my Instagram stories, people are like… “I don’t know what you meant by that—”

Laughter.

JG: Like, I made a post about this Nashville guitarist that we were watching on my birthday, who’s just a honky-tonk guy that plays seven days a week or something, and he was literally the best guitar player I’ve ever seen. But I posted this one video of him that was just, like… soooo mediocre that people were like “Is this a joke…?” Even my mom was like, “Ok…? How many guitar players have you seen? This guy is not that good.” But I was just like, “This guy is amazing!!!!”

Everyone cracks up. 

JG: And then we paid a guy to do a rap about me for my birthday—

EH: Oh, happy belated! When was your birthday?

JG: March 17th.

EH: St. Patty’s Day! Ok! Twenty…four?

JG: Twenty four… oldhead…

I turn to Cordia.

EH: That’s gonna be you soon…

CR: I don’t know if I can do it… Is it ok? Will I be fine?

Joe shrugs.

JG: I do feel better than when I turned twenty three—

CR: That’s all I can really ask for—

JG: But yeah, we asked this guy for a rap for a dollar—that’s his thing—and then he started the rap and he’s like, “We need a beat!” and he started playing his guitar, and then he came in with the hook, which was “IT’S JOEEE’S BIRTHDAYYY” —

(I wish I could embed the audio for this part:)

JG & JC & WG & CC: “OH YEAH, YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH”

JG: And then he starts freestyling and we’re all like: “This guy is a genius.”

Laughter.

JC: He’s like: “[guitar noise that would be impossible for me to write out]”

JG: Just like, this white guy with a backwards baseball cap—

EH: How old was he…?

JG: He was probably like 29—

Warren, Joaquin, and Cormick all concur. Cordia, Linnea, and I all go:“Ohhhhhhh.”

EH: I thought you were gonna say, like, 56—

JG: So then this other guy comes up, and I’m kinda sitting there like, “Woah, that was so sick.”

CC: We were all jammin’ out—

JG: But this guy comes up, and he’s like, “Hey, let me get next,” and we were like, “Ok, let’s see what he’s got—”

CC: He goes, “My name’s Smoke—”

WG: No, it was just “Smoe!”

“Smoe” gets us good. 

JG: And we’re all like, “Smoe… Okayyyy…” And then he starts playing and he’s like, “IT’S SMOOEE’S BIRTHDAYYY—”

JG & JC & WG & CC (same tune as before): “NANA-NANA-NANA-NANA” 

JG: It was, like, the exact same thing. And then we left. So that made me feel slightly less special… He did the exact same hook for a guy with the same name as me… almost.

Everyone dies laughing.

JC: Smoe…

EH: Alright, how did this band form, as it stands right now?

JG: Well, I’ve been through a lot of iterations… four bassists and three drummers now… Joaquin’s the only other guitarist I’ve had, and for a little bit I had a guy playing piano—

JC: You did?

JG: Yeah, but really for a very small amount of time. ‘Cuz I was trying to sound like Wilco—

Laughter.

JG: I was doing solo stuff for a long time and then my friend Brennan from back home lived above Cole’s Bar, so you could make a lot of noise because they were making so much noise, and that’s where we’d practice. So he was my drummer, and then Tyler from Soaps [and Poolish] became my bassist, but then Tyler moved back to The Valley for the summer and I needed to find a new bassist… And then my friend Kevin actually played bass for one show… and then I just asked Cormick to do it—do you remember when that was?

CC: It was some Attic show—

JG: Yeah, it was kind of a while ago, but I was just like, “Do you wanna do this?” and you said yeah, and then I wanted one of my shows to be really good, so I asked Joaquin to play, and they played, and then the crowd’s reaction to your double-tele-thing made me be like, “Yeah, that should be what it is from now on.”

JC: Yeah, that was punk.

EH: And then your brother, of course—

JG: Oh, sorry—

Laughter.

JG: In my head I’d already said it! But Warren’s just my brother and he’s one of the best musicians I know, so it was kind of natural. I just asked him to play and he said yes. He’s been the best drummer. We have a specific brotherly connection that I think yields to a really good live show. He’s also in Receiver, which is a really good band.

EH: What were some of your favorite bands growing up? I assume you two were raised on the same stuff…? And the same question goes to all of you, honestly—

CC: Why are we answering this? He’s writing the music!

(Cormick makes a good point here: this isn’t a typical “band” interview, seeing as this is Joe’s solo project, but it’s still a group interview…)

EH: I guess that’s true, but I’m still curious! I mean, Joe wants you all here for a reason, you’re all friends and you’re all very compatible musicians, some of that has to come from similar backgrounds and similar tastes, y’know?

CC: Yeah, fair enough.

JG: I dunno, it changes a lot when you’re little… When I was really little, I definitely really liked The Beatles and The White Stripes and Nirvana. And then as I got older, y’know, I got into Television and Buzzcocks and all that stuff… and Wilco…

EH: Are your parents into Wilco? I feel like everyone’s parents are into Wilco around here—

JG: I mean, my dad lived in Chicago for a while so he liked Wilco… He was good at exposing us to stuff that he was just checking out, whether or not he was super into it—

EH: Like, more of a “form your own opinion” kinda thing and less of a “this is the greatest band ever and should be your favorite band ever” kinda thing?

JG: Depends… Some of the bands he was really into I was like… I don’t know if I’m really into this… But also he was a college kid in the ‘80s so he really liked The Replacements, and I love The Replacements. He definitely showed me some really cool stuff.

I turn to Warren, who’s literally wearing a Replacements shirt:

WG: I had an interesting pipeline… My first fixation was Michael Jackson—

CC: That’s awesome.

WG: And then it was, like, Daft Punk. And then like, new-wave to Mac DeMarco, as it goes—

EH: Classic situation…

WG: Then toward the end of high school I started getting a little more into Chicago music specifically, a lot of stuff that everybody here is interested in, and I gave it a chance and I loved it.

The wind picks up and I pass Joaquin my phone so their voice can be decipherable:

JC: The first music I remember listening to was stuff my dad showed me, like Elvis Costello and U2 and The Clash… it was their version of “I Fought the Law,” and the Elvis Costello “Pump It Up” video… I mean everything just comes out of that. And I have to mention U2, I just fuckin’ like it now, who gives a fuck?

Laughter. 

JC: I like hooky guitar parts, and I like punk, and I like—

JG: Country music—

JC: Country music, yeah! It’s more like… you just find what you like in everything. Like, it could be commercials or Katy Perry or Sun Ra. 

JG: Agreed. Definitely. 

JC: And jazz…like, the hooky kind, like Coltrane—

WG: I was into a lot of Japanese-jazz fusion in high school—

CC: Like ‘bop and cool shit, that’s what you were into—

JC: Like ‘80s Chet Baker—

CC: I listened to a lot of jazz in high school as well… but like, rock-music-wise, I got, like, obsessively into Talking Heads and The Smiths. Those are two bands I could probably sing every lyric to any of their songs. Now I’m into the weird pop side-projects of punk bands, like Big Audio Dynamite or The Style Council, which are from The Clash and The Jam, respectively. 

JC: I feel like we have to say, like, all American music, like, the garage bands of the ‘60s—

CC: I just named two British things, but sure…

Laughter.

JC: No, but like, the ‘50s songwriters, everybody that was writing hooks of all kinds and then putting weird production over it. That’s what early country music was like too—

JG: Yeah, because all that music is way more…. it’s formulaic, but at the time was a little bit more mind-boggling than it is now. Because it wasn’t pastiche, y’know? It was traditional, but like, the Burrito Brothers or something, they were doing things that were more subtle maybe than now… Now it’s a lot of two-chord music, so it leads to it seeming more ambiguous because there’s less resolution. Like, the chord progression doesn’t really complete itself a lot of the time—in a traditional way, at least. But back then, a lot of them were better at the classic way of writing something. Y’know what I mean?

CC: Yeah.

JG: I like both though.

CC: I feel like I have a good, formulated idea on, like, your most recent music—

EH: Do tell…

CC: Ok, it sounds silly, but his most recent record, Snakewards—really good, I love playing it—and I feel like what Joe’s going for, to me, it’s like a study in genre, and what can you do with the tried-and-true tropes of all rock music and work it into one… coalition. 

A beat. We all nod. I think we all agree.

I turn to Joe:

EH: Do you feel like you were doing that? Consciously? Subconsciously? 

Everybody starts laughing.

JC: “How much of a Genius are you?”

More laughter.

JG: Umm… Yeah, well, I don’t like to—

(He’s humble.)

CC: In a slacked out way—

JC: Like a tattered flag—

JG: Well… I would agree, sort of—

CC: I’m not saying this in a really scholarly way—

JG: No, but I’d agree, I was definitely trying to make a mixture… Some of the songs I thought I did something that was its own thing, a little bit not done, but I was more trying to rely on my own songwriting voice and trying not to overthink making it so unique.

EH: I actually just noticed this today—maybe I’m totally missing something—but Slither [2022] and Snakewards [2026]… Do you consider them spiritual sisters…? What’s going on with the reptilian imagery? Why is that calling to you? 

JG: Well, my brother, my dad, and I used to go catch a lot of small animals, like geckos when you’re down south, or frogs and turtles and snakes, so I think I just kinda like little animals, I dunno. But I wasn’t thinking about Slither from a snake perspective, I was just like… Well, that was my Emotional Album and I just felt like that word was fitting… it’s kind of an emotional word? And Snakewards was just a lyric I came up with and I didn’t know what to call the album for a while, and I just thought it was cool because it’s not a real word. 

EH: It is now…

JG: Right… But then I realized they were both snakes and I had, like, a panic attack, like: “I do not necessarily want to be The Snake Guy—”

Laughter.

JG: But sometimes you’re just gonna do something and you’re not sure if it’s cringey or not, but it’s cooler to just do it regardless. And if you own it, I think it’s better than if you’re being too calculated about just being as cool as possible. So I just stuck with it—

Joe gets interrupted when Jason Shapiro comes around the corner!

JASON SHAPIRO: You guys were awesome!

Joe, Warren, Cormick, and Joaquin all say “thank you!” and “you too, man!”

JS: Thanks for havin’ me, it was fun—

JG: We’ll do it again soon—

JS: For sure—

JG: That was probably my favorite Jason Shapiro set. That banter tonight? Really, really good, your timing was genius—

JS: Thanks man! I played so many shows this month that I learned some stuff…

JG: You’re dialed—

JS: I’m a little bit dialed in, believe it or not—

JG: I believe it!

He walks away. Everyone says goodbye. 

EH: Ummmm—

JG: We’re comin’ off the snakes question… and that’s all I have to say about that! I don’t know why it happened but it did!

CC: Is he gonna hat-trick it or is he not? 

CR: One more snake!!!

JG: “Diamondback…”

JC: “Bellycrawler!”

CR: “Snake Eyes…”

JG: “Lucifer…”

Laughter. Joe nods.

JG: It is weird to have two as a theme and then like… I don’t know what the next one’s gonna be called—

JC: Just pick another critter, man. 

.

***

EH: Ok, now here’s a classic topic that I’m sure all of you were expecting in some capacity, but let’s talk about the Chicago DIY scene. How did you get into it, how could other people get into it, how have you seen it change over the years?

JG & JC: You just have to go to shows! That’s all!

JG: And just be receptive to other people and what they’re doing—what you think is better than what you’re doing—without losing your ego 100%. Just be willing to recognize that you’re in the third biggest metropolitan area in the U.S. and there’s gonna be people that know what they’re doing more than you. Getting a big head about what you’re doing isn’t any better than just looking around and being like, “Ok, I’m gonna be myself but also acknowledge the correct way to achieve what you want to achieve,” y’know what I mean? It’s hard to be like, “I’m not really good enough yet” in music and beyond…

JC: I think the really interesting part of the question is how we’ve noticed things change, and I think—for me at least—before, it was all DePaul bands and it was friends-based, like, “we’re just all gonna do our own thing together,” and I don’t think people really want to do that as much… I think now we’re at the age where everyone has to get serious about their—OH MY GOD I’m still fucking bleeding everywhere—

We all look at their finger. Yep. It’s still fucking bleeding everywhere.

Overlapping exclamations of concern, disgust, and amusement:

JG: Did you cut it on the string…?

JC: Yeah, I did—

JG: That’s badass.

Jaoquin laughs. We move on:

EH: Obviously I’m looking at this as someone who’s been in the periphery of this for years and not someone really in it, playing shows, like you guys are… But I do feel like bands getting bigger, Bookclub going more Legit—and on the opposite end, other DIY venues like The Attic and The Society not throwing shows anymore—kinda changed the landscape for me, like the places I started going to in the first place are gone now… But a ton of new venues and bands are always popping up? I dunno, I guess I’m just curious how you’ve observed it. 

JG: It’s a hard question—

EH: Sorry, it’s barely a question—

CC: It is a hard question… I think the Bookclub thing just made people think about their future differently, maybe… I mean, we all loved going there—we’ve definitely talked about this before—and maybe it’s literal or maybe it’s metaphorical, but us using that place as some, like, kid college scene, and it becoming something completely different from what we were interested in kinda forces you to grow up a little bit, and forces you to think about what to do with the music scene differently. But I also think we’ve all broadened our scope a little bit in terms of who we play with and what kind of shows… I dunno, I go to way different shows now than I did when I was in college. 

EH: So I guess it’s all just a product of getting older more than anything else… We were ultimately all underage when we started going to shows, so the DIY spots were all we really had…

I sigh.

EH: And now we’re kinda old…

(Mind you, we’re all 20-24.)

JC: I just kinda feel like now people are into a lot of different things, so you can do whatever you want and people will usually show up for you. I’ve had a really simple experience in that way, I think. You go to shows, people are nice and you like all the same stuff, and then you go and make stuff together, y’know? It’s a tale as old as time. It’s beautiful. It’s fuckin’ beautiful.

EH: It is beautiful.

I turn to Warren. 

EH: Well, you’re younger, right?

WG: I’m 20! I just got here! 

EH: So you have a different perspective, for sure—

WG: I do! I mean, I saw my brother go from, like, college-indie-bands to getting involved with Lifeguard and Kai [Slater] and Horsegirl and stuff. I think it’s how it was for everybody, you can’t help but be a little inspired by it and a little intimidated by it. 

EH: Do you feel like the goalpost has shifted at all?

WG: Yeah, a little bit—

CC: Warren, you’re definitely hanging out with a good group of people right now. 

WG: Yeah! I dunno, I started going to shows that Joe would play and that’s how I met my bandmates from Receiver and I’m good friends with the people in Current Union too. There’s different subgroups of people but they’re all part of the same thing. 

***

EH: Alright, we’re pushing 30 minutes…

JG: Yeah, let’s do one or two more, we still have to load out—

EH: Oh shit, you do! We can also wrap it up—

JG: No, no, we’re good—

EH: Ok, if you say so… Be honest, would it be super lame of me to be like, “What’s a question you wish you were asked?” You don’t even have to answer it, I could just put it in my pocket for something down the line…

A beat.

EH: You can say yes, it would be super lame—

JG: I don’t know… it’s not a bad question necessarily—

JC: I think the essence of it is, like, a final word thing—

EH: That’s kinda what I was going for…?

JG: Well, sometimes I feel like music journalism is pretty referential, like, a lot of comparison-based stuff, which makes sense because it’s the quickest way to describe something that already exists—which is totally fair—but I think it’s refreshing to be asked what you personally really like about music and what you take away from it and what inspires you, broader than just other bands… ‘Cuz I like a lot of other bands but I really like my own music, I’m trying to make stuff that I like.

EH: Like, “I wish this already existed so I’m going to make it exist—”

JG: Yeah. And you fall short sometimes, but that’s kinda the whole pursuit. You just keep going and keep trying to find newer sounds, and how you do it is always gonna be different from somebody else, so it’s, like, constantly entertaining. Usually it just starts with guitar, or maybe a lyric, but I’m at the point right now where I’m just trying to write good songs. I think in my next album I’m gonna try more guitar-layering stuff again and use some different production elements… like, get a piano on it—

Laughter. Nice piano callback.

***

EH: Alright, closing notes? Things you’re looking forward to? Bands you want to shout out?

CC: Thanks to Barreleye for hangin’ out with us for a week—

JG: Barreleye’s the best, they’re really great guys and fantastic musicians, put them on. They can’t play that much because Joe, the bass-guitar guy, he lives in London, so it’s hard for them to do shows—

JC: Current Union is great—

JG: Alga… Jason Shapiro… Oh, Sects! They just put out an album that’s really good, it’s, like, mathy-emo… Memory Card’s good too!

JC: Poolish—

JG: Answering Machines…We played with Glass-Beagle here last time, I thought they were really good, they deserve to be put on more—

JC: Opossums in Memphis! They were fuckin’ great!

EH: Thank you guys! This was fun! But I have to pee so badly—

I stop recording. They end up loading out an hour later than they were supposed to.

You can listen to Snakewards everywhere, and you can catch Joe on tour with Sharp Pins (again) this June.