Mp3s: Grand Archives in Allston, MA
Posted on June 24, 2008 at 9:13 am | No Comments
Seattle-based Sub Pop signees Grand Archives are in the final week of North American tour that took them across the northern U.S. and into Canada before hitting Boston a couple weeks back. The show previous saw them in my hometown of Burlington, Vermont, making the most of a very tiny audience at Higher Ground (such is the risk of weeknight shows in college towns), so I, and they, didn’t know what to expect from a Wednesday night at Allston’s Great Scott. Happily, a plentiful and welcoming crowd filled the place, and infectious openers You Can Be A Wesley even got some of ’em in a dancing mood. I could tell that YCBAW brought lots of friends along, and it speaks loudly of them that they not only all hung around, but appeared to love every minute of the headliners’ set.
I’ll admit that I hadn’t spent much time with Grand Archives self-titled, February-released debut (aside from picking a couple stand-out tracks for my last River Gods DJ set), but if I had, my presence at the show wouldn’t have been in question. To say I’m glad I made it out is an understatement, as their layered, laid back, harmony-fueled set of pop-rock will probably end up on my year-end best-of-shows list. And I’m not alone… I’ve talked to more than a couple people since who say the same, and the smiles and gratitude from the stage makes me think it might end up on the band’s own list as well.
The only real bummer of the evening was the absence of tourmate (and labelmate) Sera Cahoone and her band, who had to cancel when Sera came down with a nasty case of laryngitis the day before. Fortunately for NYC, she rested up after skipping Boston and Philly and was able to play down there a few days later.
For the uninitiated, Sera and Grand Archives frontman Mat Brooke were bandmates in Carissa’s Weird with Ben Bridwell, and all three went on to start Band of Horses (Sera drummed and Mat played guitar on BoH’s debut disc). Sera moved on to her solo project as Mat started up Grand Archives, and the whole fam damily wound up on Sub Pop. Got it? Good.
Here’s the full Grand Archives Great Scott set, shared with Mat Brooke’s blessing, which includes a couple fun covers and new songs, too. Enjoy…
Live at Great Scott
in Allston, MA
on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
01. Miniature Birds
02. Orange Juice
03. Index Moon
04. Crazy Grave (new)
05. Swan Matches
06. A Setting Sun
07. Sleepdriving
08. Torn Blue Foam Couch
09. Liberty Bell (new)
10. Another Saturday Night (Sam Cooke cover)
11. George Kaminski
12. The Crime Window
13. Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot cover)
14. Southern Glass Home
Some Grand Archives links…
Their official site, MySpace page, Wikipedia entry, and Sub Pop label page. Additional Audio: Sub Pop has shared Mp3s for two songs from the GA album:
Mp3: Grand Archives – “Torn Blue Foam Couch“
Mp3: Grand Archives – “Miniature Birds“Photos: My Flickr-hosted shots are here. Prefix has lots of photos from the June 13th Bowery Ballroom show. Check out the full Grand Archives tag search, or the band’s own photo collection on MySpace. Video: The band made a video for the track “Miniature Birds” (.mov / youtube), and performed the song live in 107.7 The End‘s studio. One of the new songs above is “Liberty Bell“, and you can watch a live performance of that here. Their network TV debut came in April on Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show, where they performed “Torn Blue Foam Couch“. For more, try a full Grand Archives YouTube search. Sound Bites was at, and wrote about, the GA Bowery Ballroom show a couple days later. Upcoming tourdates: Just a handful of shows left on this tour, then a couple weeks off before the band plays the big Sub Pop 20th Anniversary Festival in mid-July…
June, 24 2008 @ Santa Fe Brewing Co. in Albuquerque, NM
June, 25 2008 @ Plush in Tuscon, AZ
June, 26 2008 @ Casbah in San Diego, CA
June, 27 2008 @ The Echo in Los Angeles, CA
June, 28 2008 @ Slim’s in San Francisco, CA
July, 13 2008 @ SP20 Anniversary Fest at Marymoor Park, WAListen to any and all ‘Nac-hosted Mp3s at the Hype Machine.
the fine print… If anyone has an issue with these Mp3s being made available, just let me know (my contact info in the ‘nac faq). Live sets recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps Mp3s. Files are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.
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