Evening Glass

Everything today just needs to drift and drift, my brain’s on the horizon, and that’s where we find Evening Glass. They’re crafting slowed guitar pop, akin to Galaxie 500, though with the influence of a bit of Americana/modern indie rock. The haphazard strum of the guitar is simply intoxicating, and when the solo comes in, textured with some background fuzz, I swooned; this is the sort of tune that haunts my dreams, allows me to leave my body and just drift off into the world. If you’re with me, and need some escapism guitar pop, then be sure to check out the other tune on this new single; - Austin Town Hall

Best Indie: Evening Glass - Bohemian

#4 Evening Glass – Steady Motion - Jangle Pop Hub

Just like it never gets boring to watch the rippling sea at sunset, you can also put on the 6-track EP Steady Motion by Californian four-piece Evening Glass at any time. Zachary Carroll (vocals, guitar), Thomas whose last name is unknown (bass, backing vocals), Chris Miller (guitar) and PJ Hakimi (drums) build on the sound of the Paisley Underground, but their playlist of influences just as easily refers to old pioneers as The Velvet Underground, Tom Waits and Richard Hell as well as to contemporary artists such as Good Morning, Hand Habits and The Umbrellas.

Anyway, this is fine indie pop with pleasant vocals and wonderful melodies by jangly guitars. Float along for 20 minutes. - Add To Wantlist

You need to give Steady Motion time to ferment. In fact you have no choice really. For it simply will not be rushed into become 2022’s ‘ultimate grower’.

Persuaded to eradiate, courtesy of slight shifts around various subtleties of languid, the very best of the release benefits from flirtations with mid-tempo in the superlative stand out of Stomping Through The Cosmos, the Lewsberg inflected semi-spoken word of Admiration, Envy and Love and See It To Believe It.

The jangliest of the offering, these above tracks take The Clean / The Chills jangle of early 90s Kiwiana and splice it with the flat stringed dulcet of fellow countrymen, The Bats. This is then augmented by a slacker-pop that everyone has tried, but only really the Americans and especially Californians really make believable. to make it an aesthetic that is very much ‘theirs’.

The slacker vibe becomes even more prominent in On The Ocean, Row Back and Down, Down Down. All casual, almost resigned sentiment, caressed around gentile jangled riffs, the ‘like A dream half forgotten’ lyric in On The Ocean just seems to summate an atmosphere of gorgeous hazy sunshine.

Devote enough time to this and eventually it becomes perfection. - Jangle Pop Hub

Steady Motion is the debut EP from Sonoma, California’s Evening Glass (and their second release total, following 2020’s “Lifelong Dream” single); like a good deal of new bands hailing from the Bay Area, the four-piece make themselves at home in the world of jangly, blissful guitar pop music. Evening Glass commit themselves to the quieter, subtler side of jangle pop throughout Steady Motion’s six tracks—lead singer and guitarist Zachary Carroll’s gentle vocals guide these songs through peaceful, pastoral instrumentals inspired both musically and lyrically by the vast, rolling ocean.

Opening track “Stomping Through the Cosmos” is not exactly a “stomp” per se, but the upbeat instrumental features prominent guitar leads and is one of the more outwardly propulsive tracks on Steady Motion. Evening Glass hone their languidity with the transfixing, rippling “On the Ocean” one song later, as well as with the dreamy ballad “Row Back” (which Carroll and Chris Miller nevertheless shade with some animated guitar play). “Admiration, Envy, & Love” has a mid-tempo, sticky guitar hook that, combined with Carroll’s sung-spoken words that strive to tackle universality in humanity in the form of a brief pop song, feels especially Flying Nun-esque. It’s true to say that a six-song jangle pop EP isn’t going to change the world, but what this particular one can do is make one take in and observe the world as it already is that much more keenly. - Rosy Overdrive

The Steady Motion EP is an eclectic mix of all that is good about the more dulcet end of the jangle-pop spectrum.

This Stomping the Cosmos track sees the Sonoma, California, based foursome move towards the twanging, uncluttered simplicity of the Flying Nun type sound, to wonderful effect. - Jangle Pop Hub

With the lo-fi bounce of a Parker Longbough type act, Evening Glass, led by Zachary Carroll, have the sort of dynamism that unexpectedly buries itself deep within the coolest recesses of the ear-worm territories of your mind. - Jangle Pop Hub

The home of West Coast rock has always been the ocean.

From the Beach Boys to Pearl Jam to the Mermen, the lapping of waves on endless sand form a rhythmic template for generations of noisy melodic groups. Sonoma’s local variant is Evening Glass.

Zachary Carroll’s dreamy vocals ride the peaks of ultra-clean guitar and dips of flange-y noise to tell tales of love and surfing. And love of surfing.

The 2022 EP, Steady Motion, is suffused with imagery which exhibits that intimacy with the natural world that surfers have let sink deep into their skin from years of crashing into breakers at the break of dawn.

Sometimes that imagery is specific (“west of the 405,” “to Half Moon Bay”), and at other times Carroll paints a picture of the cycles of love and loss, or the flow of life, that resonates with the movement of the Pacific (“I hope you row back … cause I’m in too deep,” “at the bottom of the sea”).

The sound of the four-piece band is captured effortlessly in the record, so obviously recorded as a live group. A point of pride for the band.

In the midst of the pandemic, “We did a DIY recording of six songs all live [and] overdubbed the vocals,” said Carroll. “Then I mixed it with [drummer] PJ [Hakimi] and we put it out.”

The simple act of creation, such a globally shared story of the pandemic days, revitalized the band.

“I want to do some more recordings,” noted Carroll. “We have an hour and a half set and only recorded 10 of those songs. [The plan is] to keep recording and put out something else.”

No wonder that the EP was voted #4 best EP of the year by Janglepophub. It is more than a high pitched jangle record though. The band works hard to craft their sound, which carves along the edge of surf and noise, all at the pace of the sun setting slowly off the edge of the continent until the rush of the horizon accelerates to meet it.

“Well, I do play a little bit of flanger pedal,” said Carroll. “On that EP, every song that had a little bridge, I hit the flanger. The ’90s influence, like Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Lemonheads, all that kind of like alternative sound, you know, that’s my root.”

In fact, the band has members rooted in four decades. While Carroll is in his mid-40s, drummer PJ Hakimi is in his 50s and guitar player Chris Miller is in his 60s, bassist Thomas (yes, just “Thomas”) is only in his 20s.

“It’s kind of funny to share influences and like turn him on to music that we may have heard, you know, 20, 30 years ago, [knowing] that he wasn’t even born yet,” laughed Carroll.

It all makes for a formula that has brought the group increasing recognition, including this year’s North Bay Music Award for Best Indie Band.

The indie scene in Sonoma is rich enough to draw comparisons between Evening Glass and other bands like The Flyover States from Santa Rosa and The Bumble and Bones in Sonoma.

In discussing contemporary influences, Carroll names too many bands to mention here (Sub Pop darlings Fruit Bats sticks in the mind). The unifying factor is the desire to hit a guitar like the face of a perfect swell and let it ring.

“All these like modern bands that I’m heavily influenced by [have that] full band sound,” said Carroll.

It’s all about two guitars and a rhythm section grooving along the coast in the fading light.

Evening Glass’ EP, ‘Steady Motion,’ is available on streaming platforms now. - Bohemian