Grand Archives "The Grand Archives"
Label: Sub-Pop
Genre: Slowcore, Indie-Roots (hints of country, folk, etc)
For fans of: The Elected, Elliott Smith, The Shins
I've been hyping this album alot so most of you are probably slightly familiar with this but I'll repeat it anyway. Grand Archives was founded and is basically centered around singer/songwriter Mat Brooke formerly the guitarist for Band of Horses and also the founding member of fellow hyped-all-the-time-by-ethan mellow rockers Carissa's Wierd. They've also toured with Modest Mouse where I got to see them for the first time last year. They're phenomenal live, I've seen them two other times since then.
Their sound is actually kind of similar to A Weather, they're both "slowcore (or sadcore)" I feel kind of pretentious using that term because I really hate dislike introducing brand new genres but on different ends of the stick. Grand Archives is a lot less rough and it's obvious Mat Brooke is no stranger to recording or the studio or songwriting, he shows to be well experienced and comfortable on this album. There's more instruments here, while A Weather was a bedroom type thing Grand Archives is very much an in-the-studio band but that's not an insult by any means. Their sound is characterized by harmonized vocals and often very hypnotic songs and like Carissa's Wierd very melancholic song, though that's more of a mood and less of a sound thing because they're more upbeat.
I was at this show =] oh I also want to note so far this is my favorite album of 2008.
MySpace.com - GRAND ARCHIVES - SEATTLE - Rock - www.myspace.com/grandarchives