Gladie – Car Alarm
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Get Better Records
The thing about running a weekly column is that you start to pick up on your own peculiarities pretty quickly. I’ve started to become abundantly aware of my own patter and phrasing, more conscious than ever of the ideas that I return to in order to make my self-imposed quota each week. Often, this manifests as something of a “crash course” in a band, because, while I’m usually talking about a group’s most recent release as the thing that’s fresh and new and exciting, I feel like I tend to ground this caring in my previous fandom.
Case in point: Gladie, the Philadelphia-based indie rock group that would probably be classified as a supergroup if it weren’t for the modest scale. The most obvious entry point for the group is lead singer and guitarist Augusta Koch, who first made her raspy, charismatic voice known as one-third of Tumblr-fave punk band Cayetana. Also in the mix is guitarist Matt Schimelfenig (whose side project memorytown made one of the coolest under-the-radar releases of 2023), drummer Miles Ziskind, and bassist Evan Demianczyk. This lineup, give or take a member of Tigers Jaw and Spirit of the Beehive, assembled to create Don't Know What You're In Until You're Out, Gladie’s debut and formal unveiling to the world.
At first, the appeal of Don't Know What You're In Until You're Out feels subdued; a nice collection of indie rock tunes that returned a familiar voice in a refreshed package. After a few listens, the grip of a song like “Born Yesterday” pulls at you like tire treads gritting against the pavement. Tracks like “Mud” and “Hit The Ground Running” are packed with beautifully compelling turns of phrase as the group bangs out peppy power chord rock punctuated by the occasional guitar solo or thoughtful ballad. After a handful of ventures into this world, you, like me, might come to believe that “Nothing” is one of the best-crafted rock songs of the decade as you repeat along, “What would it feel like to want nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing?”
One year after their debut, Gladie released a standalone single, “Chaos Reigns,” followed by Purple Year, a collection of four songs off the LP rendered in thoughtful acoustic trappings that help make the tender-hearted feeling of Augusta Koch’s pen even more apparent. This collectively acted as a de facto “Deluxe Edition” of the album, solidifying this body of work into one concrete thing that the band took on the road to perform with everyone from Jeff Rosenstock to Bernie Sanders.
After a brief spell away from the hustle and bustle of new music, today the group has released “Car Alarm,” a fresh punch in the face that finds Gladie grappling with the frustration of it all. “Complaining about the traffic when I’m a part of it,” Koch snarls self-awarely over snappy drums and a bending guitar. Masked by deceptively upbeat guitars, the group crawls, writhes, collapses, and screams, desperate for a change despite waking up the same every day.
Of the song, Augusta Koch explained, “I remember writing the lyrics for Car Alarm when I was overwhelmed, depressed, and pissed off about the state of our world. Feeling a deep grief that we have to actually live in the reality envisioned and created by people who lack any sense of humanity. Sometimes, when your inner world matches the outer world and both are bad, it can be a horrible combination. I hope what comes along with the song is that even with the bad there are still glimmers of hope in there. I’m an optimistic depressed person, what can I say?”
With a new label at their back, production courtesy of Jeff Rosenstock, and mastering by Jack Shirley, it seems like we’ll have a fresh helping of Gladie again soon. In the meantime, I suppose the three minutes here on “Car Alarm” will help soundtrack all of us looking for the problem when we’re part of it.
