Short Bio

The Glass Jars, originally a loose group of friends with similar musical visions, began performing in earnest in late 2008 and by the summer of 2009 had cemented into its current line-up: songwriter and frontman Liam Dailey and multi-instrumentalists David Lee and Luke Henry. In July the band released its debut album, Girl of All Names, which was marked by poetic imagery and the contrast between stark acoustic guitar ballads and raucous teenage rock and roll reminiscent of the Elephant Six Recording Company. The band is currently touring throughout the Northeast with its instrument menagerie and has begun work on a follow-up album that will take the band back to its folk roots.

Long Bio

As soon as he could holler somewhere close to the correct key, Liam began singing folk songs with his father. When he was nine, he began taking banjo lessons and began learning guitar a year later. He now has a very long list of instruments he claims to play, but he's been known to lie a bit to boost his ego. After a stint playing banjo in a band with his brother and brother's friends, Liam met Luke Henry during a theater production. The phrase “mimes in the dark” was used during a rehearsal, and everyone under the age of 16 thought it would make a great band name. However, Liam and Luke were the only ones who took it to heart. Mimes became an embarrassing alt-rock project with Liam playing guitar and sometimes singing and Luke drumming. The band went through numerous line-up changes, and during one these changes, our heroes realized just how embarrassing their alt-rock project was. It was at this very time, during the fall of 2007, that Luke met David Lee. David had a list of instruments just as long as Liam's: the only difference was that he could actually play them all. The three spent a month getting to know each other and then a year arguing, and in late 2008, they began performing together in earnest.

It was at this time that the band became the Glass Jars. Each member had one or two good ideas for band names but couldn't agree on which was the best. Then someone came up with the Glass Jars and because of its brilliant mediocrity, no one put too much work into criticizing it; it soon became obvious that it was the only thing the band would ever be able to agree on, and despite immediate regrets, once they began performing to hordes of screaming teenage girls, the band didn't have the heart to change it. The line up for shows consisted of Liam on guitar and vocals, Luke on drums and David on bass, accordion and singing saw. Liam's songwriting and the band's arrangements were heavily influenced by the legendary fuzz/folk band Neutral Milk Hotel meaning that shows consisted of stark ballads that would suddenly erupt into a wall of noise. The band was also influenced by the ethics of the Elephant Six Recording Company, the group of friends that spawned NMH, and therefore, shows also usually had at least one or two shadowy figures wandering around on stage and occasionally playing instruments. Some of the most notable contributors were Jeff Farrar (tuba, trombone, guitar, tambourine) and Chris Nota (keyboard, trumpet).

In an effort to stem the tide of arguments and imitate their idols, the band formed the Bad Actor Support Group. The idea was that if each songwriter had his own band to control, no one would have anything to complain about. Liam took charge of the Jars, David started Grandfather Clock and Luke started Naïve Deviation with Jeff. The only problem with this arrangement was that Liam was the only one willing to spend time doing things other than playing music. This meant that all the bands besides the Jars were doomed to spend eternity in Luke's basement. Although this is a very harsh statement, no one has proved Liam wrong yet.

Throughout early 2009 the band continued to play shows, building a fan base and developing its own sound. This sound fleshed out the stark acoustic ballads with beautiful instrumentation and toned down the wall of noise to something that could be enjoyed by more than drunk teenagers. The members began hauling instruments such as the banjo, the pump organ, the melodica and the mandolin out of their closets and using them to keep the arrangements diverse. In July of 2009, the band quietly released its debut album, Girl Of All Names. The release of the album was bitter-sweet for the band: everyone was extremely proud of it, but it represented where they had been musically a year ago. The solution to this melancholy was to immediately begin work on a follow-up more representative of the band's current state of mind. While in the studio (otherwise known as Luke's basement), the band is also beginning to publicize Girl Of All Names and tour throughout the Northeast.