Glutenhead is a project initially born out of Toronto-born Benjamin Shapiro's genre- dancing experiments but has quickly expanded to become a collaborative project showcasing the eccentricities and sensibilities of both his artistic community in Toronto's West End and his talented live band. Interlacing an eclectic array of influences including folk, country, indie rock, disco, krautrock, 60's pop, and 90's emo - Glutenhead is known for memorable melodies, visceral eruptions, nonchalant philosophizing, and infectious personality. Glutenhead built up an impressive local reputation previous to COVID, known for bizarre and wild live shows with their 6-piece band, filing fabled Toronto venues like the Horseshoe Tavern and Sneaky Dees. 2020 brought with it a new era for the band - their self- titled EP, signaling the epoch with a sound more nuanced, grounded, and raw, drawing comparisons to Pavement, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Smog, Leonard Cohen, and Silver Jews.

Teaming up with storied Toronto producer Alex Gamble (Broken Social Scene, Alvvays, Fucked Up, PUP), Glutenhead's self-titled EP (released on July 3, 2020) was the beginning of a new epoch for the project and their first release as a full band. From the existential passion of Folding and Naked in Toronto to the nonchalant philosophizing of Blue Day, 2020’s Glutenhead eschews the abstract lo-fi textures of the project’s past in favour of a sound more down-to-earth, accessible, universal, and expressive. Drenched in reference and reinterpretation, the EP has vocalist Benjamin Shapiro channeling folk-rock poets of the past - Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, and Lou Reed - through the lens of modern production. Glutenhead places conventional rock instrumentation in conversation with modern synthetic sounds; it oscillates between classic pop arrangements and exhilarating structural subversions. In collaboration with Toronto artists Andrew Lang, Emma Cohen, Bradley Golding, and Sonja Katanic, the band released a companion zine, combining illustration, photography, collage, poetry, prose, and music. In the late summer of 2020, fulfilling a promise to the fans made earlier that year, Glutenhead released a wild and brazenly unique cover of the classic Beatles cut Something.

Glutenhead released two singles ahead of the EP, which quickly began to buzz around Toronto. As one critic put it when reviewing single Naked in Toronto: "When [Shapiro] and his six-piece band roar into the hook with soft harmonies beneath his sharp-toothed shout, all repeating, “I hate my life”, you’re seized with just how special this is, and it isn’t even half over." In the face of all of the bleakness of our world, Glutenhead has become one of the most exciting bands coming out of the extraordinary rock scene in Toronto by "embodying today's spirit of desperation, but also, unyielding hope." Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.