Grand Archives

The Grand Archives frontman Mat Brooke first stumbled into the national spotlight as half the brains behind Band of Horses, a Seattle indie band founded by Brooke and Ben Birdwell that went from blog darlings to Letterman guests in a harmony-drenched heartbeat. Brooke never made the late-night circuit, though; he left Band of Horses as their popularity was peaking in the summer of 2006 to found his own project later that year, first called Archives and, after some time, the Grand Archives. Surrounding himself with other likeminded Seattle musicians including multi-instrumentalist and former Jogger Ron Lewis and co-vocalist Jeff Montano, Brooke and the band went to work on recordings that appeared first on their MySpace page in March 2007. Online indie rock tastemakers at Pitchfork gave it a thumbs up, lauding the Grand Archives' singles and demos and announcing the band's label deal with SubPop in March 2007. Early in 2008, their self-titled debut appeared on SubPop.