music & bands

new album streaming now!

Get it wherever you get music.

The acoustic record the world has been yearning for is here.

That’s right! My wife and kids went away for a couple days and left me with the house to myself, so I promptly set up microphones and recorded acoustic versions of some of my favorite songs (read: ones I could figure out given the chords I know). Some are demos that never went anywhere, and others are stripped down (or up?) versions of classics from some of the bands listed here. There are seven new recordings, as well as three bonus recordings from several years ago. 

But who cares? It’s all free, so why am I even arguing with you? Check out Look at This Hat, and stay tuned for the next in the series sometime in early 2024. 

My Unlikely Hobby

Writing and playing music has been one of the most consistently enjoyable parts of my life for well over two decades now. I started playing the saxophone at age nine, and while I wasn’t especially talented and was never more than slightly above average, playing taught me the basics of music, rhythm, song structures, and arrangements.

When I was about fifteen or sixteen, I started playing music with my friends outside of school, in a terrible, basically fake ska band. When most of our members eventually quit, I decided to stick with the stragglers, learn bass and begin my descent into many years of playing in loud, semi-obnoxious, fun punk rock bands.

Once I started writing (very simple) songs, I was hooked, and the rest is history — I’ve since written & recorded hundreds of songs for bands, work, and the simple entertainment of my wife, and now our kids. I’ve also probably played something like a hundred or so concerts and shows in venues ranging from flooded basements to converted warehouses to clubs, bars, county fairs, retirement parties, and who knows what else.

While I’m far from a professional or even a particularly innovative musician, playing and writing has been a huge part of my life, informed my career, connected me with friends from all walks of life, and with the exception of a couple really bad shows, basically been awesome in almost every way. You can know me without knowing about my history with music, but… not really.

the bands (1998-present)

GLENN'S ARMY

Loud, fast, and liable to go off the tracks at any moment.
(1998-2005)

ELEMENTARY

Nerds making pop-rock and delaying adulthood (2008-2012)

Six Foot Machine

Catchy, double-time, computerized pop-punk (2011-2018?)

STREETS AHEAD

Broke, mismatched, midwestern & awesome.
(2006-2007)

BAD LUCK

Northern VA's favorite 3-chord bar band (2008-2011)

THE DEFENDENTS

Punk rock dads toiling away in a basement (2012-???)

homemade recordings & projects

Recording stuff has been a big part of my musical adventures and education, as a lot of my ideas are pretty half-baked coming out of the gate. Demos and basic multi-tracking, which I started doing late in high school on cassette (and which became my primary form of entertainment in college), has always been how I make those ideas a little better, or realize they’re just not very good and move on. I went digital with everyone else in the mid-2000s, and while I occasionally miss the weird hiss and indie vibe of bad cassettes, in general it opened up a world of possibilities and probably saved me a lot of money. 

Anyways, I’ve included a bunch of stuff here (currently hosted on SoundCloud in chronological order until they inevitably go out of business) that includes my own recordings, things I’ve done with different bands, and a few studio recordings I did a long time ago out of my own, nearly empty pockets. I don’t get to put the same time into music that I used to these days, but I try to finish something new and toss it up here at least every couple of months.