The Glass Family's SXSW experience was featured on KUT's Texas Music Matters, which you can hear here. (March 2006)
The Glass Family appeared on News 8 Austin, performing one of their newest, as-yet-unreleased, songs "Waking Sleep" on a rooftop. You can see it here. (March 2006)
"Since the punk era, rock music has been mostly attitude. But attitudes have shifted, the ambient electronics of DJ culture have seeped in, and the music now seems just as much about mood. Austin newcomers The Glass Family are a prime example. Sleep Inside This Wheel reaches for the prog-like keyboard-heavy edginess of Radiohead's "Kid A" or, to go back even further, Pink Floyd. But the band skirts both pretension (unless you count the Salinger reference) and gimmickry, sounding, if not wholly modern, at least fresh. Employing a nonlinear pop sophistication probably weaned from Shins CDs, the band puts substance and surprise behind its sound, and vocalist Michael Winningham, hanging at the top end of his register, commands a sense of menace that makes the band's debut seem even more compelling."
- Jeff McCord, Texas Monthly (March 2006)
"The Glass Family could just be consider some variant of contemporary Brit pop rock, but Winningham’s vocals help take the band to the next level. The combination of the vocals, spacey guitars, and keyboards on such songs as “Honest Tries“ suggests the Glass Family could make a name quickly...It is unlikely that the Glass Family will ever be polished enough (and dead enough) to become another major label commercial casualty, which is fine for us fans of indie music."
- Brian Fogarty, Exoduster (March 2006)
"Op Sleep Inside This Wheel maakt de familie popmuziek zoals REM en Wilco dat doen, alleen dan op zijn Engels (denk richting een band als Ocean Colour Scene). Door de belangrijke rol van Alexander’s piano klinken de liedjes vaak statig, soms zelfs een beetje symfonisch. Lichte bombast die, bij de zeer knappe nummers, wat van het no-nonsense gevoel wegneemt. De melodieën blijven hangen, meer dan dat zelfs. Indie Pop/Rock/Roots. Plak er maar een etiket op, eentje waar met koeienletters Prachtig op staat." (Dutch)
-Patrick Donders, Hanx(Feb. 2006)
In addition to enjoying their fourth week on the CMJ chart, The Glass Family's Sleep Inside This Wheel was honored with the #28 spot on Dusted Magazine's college charts. (Feb. 2006)
The Glass Family is now featured on KUT 90.5 Austin's critically acclaimed Live Music Podcast Radio Without Borders from Austin Texas hosted by Teresa Ferguson (Jan. 2006).
"The Glass Family has the offbeat, quirky and stand-offish appeal that's been made famous by the likes of unassuming bands like Radiohead and The Shins. While they embrace this mode of expression, they smartly establish their own sound and spirit and avoid any direct copycat comparisons....The album is flawless from beginning to end, as there's not a bad song in the bunch. And, after a while the songs grow on you like an old friend. Highly recommended." READ MORE
- Mish Mash (Jan. 2006)
"Bittersweet and epic in the best sense of the word, the graceful ease of the playing is more befitting of a band three or four albums into their career...The Glass Family create a platform of densely interlocking instrumentation and let the soaring melodies do the rest." READ MORE
-Jon Higton, AngryApe (Jan. 2006)
"Although based in Texas, the Glass Family have a decidedly British pop sound reminiscent of innumerable bands from Supertramp to Oasis, and many points en route..." READ MORE
-John Hinshelwood, Americana-UK (Jan. 2006)
The Glass Family's debut LP is a throwback to the days when indie rock wasn't so complicated... With ‘Sleep Inside This Wheel’, they have achieved total evolution.
- Darcie Stevens, The Austin Chronicle RECOMMENDED SHOW (Nov. 2005)
"There's nothing 'special'? about the Glass Family. None of them are related. They don't wear matching outfits on stage. None of the members have been in previous highly successful bands. They don't use instruments with names no one can pronounce. And maybe that's what makes them so special after all. The Glass Family has taken indie rock, which suffers every time the next big thing comes along and regurgitates an album that all the kids dance to for a few weeks before moving on to the next mass marketed power pop college radio single, and made it fresh." READ MORE
- Bryan Parker, Urban Pollution (Nov. 2005)
With (one) of this fall’s best local albums, The Glass Family’s ‘Sleep Inside This Wheel’…, I Eat Records is easily the label of the hour. READ MORE - Christopher Gray, The Austin Chronicle (Nov. 2005)
"The Glass Family sets the stage right with less-anxious melodies of love and forgiveness underneath lullaby harmonies."
- Darcie Stevens, The Austin Chronicle RECOMMENDED SHOW (Sept. 2005)
"The Glass Family in "Stop Dead in Your Tracks" perform with an astral resonance that all but amplifies the song's melancholic lyrics - 'it's just minds and hearts / that won't communicate / they just run / in circles / falling short of breath.'"
- Allen Y Chen, Austinist.com (Aug. 2005)
"I Eat Records celebrates the release of their debut compilation Monday night with the Glass Family's luscious, climatic pop headlining."
- Darcie Stevens, The Austin Chronicle (Aug. 2005)
"The inestimable Glass Family pays homage to Nineties rock & roll. The Family meshes more with each appearance."
- Darcie Stevens, The Austin Chronicle TOP TEN OF 99 AUSTIN BANDS (July 2005) READ MORE
"Austin's Glass Family are masters at layering subtle, thickening tracks over rocking rhythms, and this show away from the strip will be no less dreamy. Previewing the band's heavily anticipated full-length, Michael Winningham's vox flutters on par with Tweedy/Stipe."
- Darcie Stevens, The Austin Chronicle (May 2005) RECOMMENDED SHOW
"Austin's best songwriting rock group also happens to be its best kept secret... they weave distinct and generally simple beats, riffs and hooks into a layered, sonic tapestry that's almost orchestral in nature. The music definitely requires patience, so those seeking immediate gratification will probably move on quickly. Those who appreciate a good Yankee Hotel texas platterFoxtrot or OK Computer, however, will find rich rewards in devoting some time to the Glass Family."
- Dave Dierkson, PopMatters (March 2005)
"Friday night's great find is Austin's the Glass Family...A standout among SXSW's bands without a record, the group puts across a moody vibe with singable choruses. [Their demos] suggest great things."
- Andrew Dansby, The Houston Chronicle (March 2005)
"...nothing short of amazing..."
- David DeVoe, Hybrid Magazine (March 2005)
"Austin fourpiece the Glass Family is a relative newcomer, but you'd never know it from their marriage of R.E.M., Wilco, and Elliott Smith. Michael Winningham's coaxing vocals meld with keys, triumphant guitars, and steady drums, eventually exploding into a carefully melodic orchestration." - Darcie Stevens, The Austin Chronicle (March 2005) RECOMMENDED SHOW
"Another band that deserves your immediate attention is the Glass Family... It's like listening to a great record from start to finish without skipping to hear the singles."
- Dave Dierkson, Rank and Revue (Nov. 2004)
"All that studying Centro-matic and My Morning Jacket pays dividends in the woozy dynamics and fragile melodies of the Glass Family's debut EP. They may be stumbling all the way to their demise, but it's a fun ride." - Christopher Gray, The Austin Chronicle (June 2004)
updated 3/26/06