Glad Rags

Description

Photo credit: Lorielle Sum

Glad Rags is a six-piece art pop group from Chicago featuring synths, three-part harmonies, cello, drums, bass, banjo, and auxiliary percussion. The music collective features LGBTQIA+ and POC members and has been reviewed in BUST Magazine, Bandcamp, Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Reader, along with regional publications since 2016.

Outside of performing a reputable clubs across the country, universities, and music festivals, members are available to host workshops in banjo/guitar/drum building, songwriting and arranging, marketing for artists, and filmmaking/content creation. 

Work Sample

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxtw8i62eAqSnCQiGhiMMew

Music Videos

What's My Body Up 2?, Jan 2022, self-produced quarantine video 

ALAMO, December 2021, live studio video

Tick Tock, November 2018, conceptual video

https://soundcloud.com/glad-rags-band/albums

ALL OF THEM concept album, October 2021 released via Sinkhole Sounds, 49 minutes, reviewed in BUST magazine, Bandcamp, Chicago Reader, Chicago Tribune, Windy City Times

https://www.gladragsmusic.com/guide-one

Listening guide for ALL OF THEM concept album for subscribers across all platforms

ALL OF THEM is a concept album that we worked on over the last three years featuring two of the videos from that release. Following this will be two more genre specific albums - one being electronic/disco influenced and the other being jazzy/soulful. ALL OF THEM was completely self-produced and marked the second critically acclaimed album mixed by Mabel Gladly and released through our label Sinkhole Sounds that represents marginalized artists from Chicago.

We plan on doing a live album performance with a chamber orchestra funded through a DCASE grant of our more orchestral songs at Constellation in Chicago.

Lastly, we have toured regionally since 2018, but 2022 is the first time we will be touring to the East Coast and then out West in February/March of 2023 in support of the album.

History

Formed in 2015 in Chicago's DIY scene, their first two releases came through underground label Grandpa Bay (Water From Your Eyes, Mykele Deville, This Is Lorelei). Their subsequent 2016 EP “Imaginary Friends” weaved in more experimental elements while showcasing the addition of more complex instrumentation.

Over the next two years, the project slowly grew to over ten collaborators, culminating in their second full-length “Wonder Under” released via Midwest Action in 2018. The record was featured on multiple online publications, local magazines and radio outlets.

Behind the production by founding member Mabel Gladly, their new sound fuses art rock, new wave, experimental jazz, disco, funk and soul, thus creating their original blend of psychedelic orchestral synth pop.

Their debut LP 'ALL OF THEM' navigates cancel culture, gendered violence in the art scene, and community responses to healing. It playfully tip-toes along the evolutionary lineage of the analog to digital soundscape - the early ‘80s globalization of disco, lounge pop of the ‘90s, and soulful mid ‘70s ballads are threaded together through delicately woven arrangements. Glad Rags embroiders disparate influences into a cohesive art pop mélange that celebrates the depth of human emotions and the robust potential of community care.

Artistic Vision

We are a queer music collective that writes and arranges collaboratively. We use a consensus based decision making process and function as a cooperative. Themes of self-care, self-awareness, and community love permeate our work, and we aim to inspire LGBTQIA+ youth and adults and attract intergenerational audiences