House find home in ‘Glass Cockpit’
October 2, 1997
With every rash of plane crashes in the world comes a host of new theories as to why modern aircraft continue to fail.
One of these in particular caught the attention of House of Large Sizes frontman Dave Deibler.
“The glass cockpit is basically the theory that a pilot depends too much on his gauges and can’t look out the window to see if something is fucked up,” Deibler explained from his home in Cedar Falls.
When Deibler first fell upon the theory, he was intrigued by how well it related to his life.
“It’s easy to look at the gauges instead of what’s really going on in your life — it’s the whole ‘Men are from Venus, Women are from Mars’ thing,” he said. “But life doesn’t need to be that complicated.”
Deibler has grown wise in his old age — a mild 34. His band has been playing together for over 11 years and has been through all of the struggles expected of a punk band from urban Iowa.
House, as the band is commonly referred to, has released three full- length records, a five-song E.P. and numerous singles, which served as much of the motivation for Deibler to strive for perfection on the band’s latest release, cleverly titled “Glass Cockpit.”
“We have been doing this long enough that there is no point in rushing [the recording process],” Deibler said. “We went into [“Glass Cockpit”] with the attitude if it’s not right, it’s not right. And if we run out of money for studio time, then we’ll wait ’till we have enough money to come back.”
It has been over three years since the release of the last House record, “My Ass-Kicking Life,” the longest the band had gone without releasing material.
Part of the three-year layover was due to the band’s problems with record labels. The band was picked up by a division of Columbia records just before the release of “My Ass-Kicking Life” and was dropped a year and a half later.
“It was fun while it lasted,” Deibler said. “It was fun going to the Columbia office in L.A. and have valet parking clean the windows in your car.
“It was all very surreal,” he added. “I’m glad it’s over.”
House signed with the Colorado- based indie label What Are Records? earlier this year and has since rereleased all of its past material and”Glass Cockpit.” A rarities disc called “Little HOLS on the Prairie” is due out later this month.
Until then, the band is playing a handful of dates dubbed as CD release parties for “Glass Cockpit.”
The disc, Deibler said, was the most-produced disc the band has recorded.
“We didn’t want to duplicate sounds,” he said. “So once we had one song recorded, we tore everything down and started over from scratch.”
The disc was recorded in three different studios, using three different producers and is loaded with vocal effects.
“We didn’t give a shit if it sounded overproduced,” Deibler said. “We did the effects enough that you can tell.”
“Glass Cockpit” was released September 16th and has already been added to a number of major radio stations, including KRNA in Cedar Rapids.
House of Large Sizes will be playing a 6:30 p.m. all-ages show and a 10 p.m. 21 and over show at People’s Bar and Grill on Saturday.
Tickets are $6 in advance.