Sunday Music: "Stainless Steel" By Glitterer

This might be the most accessible Glitterer / Ned Russin song yet. No, they didn’t go pop. But, they have officially unlocked that “this feels so familiar but not quite like anything else I can think of” state.

“Stainless Steel” pickups where the last full length left off. Getting into the beginning of middle age is weird. Especially in the modern era. Life starts to feel impossible, and as you recognize you’re still in the game, you start figuring out your adult adaptation toolbox.

So what are those familiar but different touchpoints? What is that California roll magic of Glitterer being something you can casually throw on for rock and indie rock adjacent friends alike?

I told my music critic buddy Kevin Alexander my take. You can see that here. But in more detail - I hear a lot of Weezer.

Huh?

Yeah. Blue album Weezer. But where Weezer took a bunch of pop sensibility and mixed in some Pixies loud-soft-loud influence, Glitterer feels like Weezer with a dose of post-hardcore instead.

Think about “The World has Turned and Left Me Here” for example. That’s also very adult-adaptive (even if it’s fairly defeatist and maladaptive, as we’d soon find out on Pinkerton, but let’s not digress). That song has loud parts and soft parts to help give it a dynamic contrast.

When you play “Stainless Steel” you also get a very sing-alongable melody, with the previously mentioned emotional construct. But what’s really different is that anthemic chorus. The little gasp-break before it kicks in and Russin comes in at a higher register.

That’s some hardcore stuff right there. You’re more likely to find that in Fugazi or Rites of Spring than you are somewhere else.

Which is the last - and probably most favorites - part I want to mention.

The thing about Russin’s hardcore to post-hardcore to bedroom synth pop to this is - the communal aspect arc is finally coming full circle. Which is part of why I think this song is landing so hard.

Glitterer has gone from solo project to a band project. This song feels like a band song, not a solo joint. And the fans at the shows, I’ll report back after I see them in a couple of weeks, but that scene is still there too. Those relationships are in tact. I’ll even overlook the bozos who are still whining about a Title Fight reunion - maybe this will help them with their adult adaptation strategies too (probably not, but I’ll retain some hope).

What Glitterer is doing is rolling up all the styles, influences, and experiments of the last 20 years and extracting the most community oriented cathartic singalong I’ve heard in a long time. The world is cold and yeah, stainless steel is a good mental image. But if we’re doing it together, and sharing emotions like this when we singalong…

That’s a song for a whole scene. Put a new spin on that for me any day of the week. Nothing says the kids are ok like when they figure out how to become adults and that they still need their friends to figure it out with them.

Read more Glitterer posts here. See Kevin Alexander and I talking about the new song and some quotes from Ned here.

And, watch the time Ned Russin met Keith Morris on Just Press Record if you haven’t already - this was one of the coolest things I did all year!