Grand Archives finds new way to succeed: Wait

Some bands have been slugging it out around Seattle — playing rinky-dink joints, sinking money into self-produced CDs, desperately trying to get noticed by any half-decent label — for years. Years!

So how did Grand Archives get signed by local heavyweight Sub Pop Records after one show?

Repeat: After one show.

Answer: The band wanted to wait.

Seriously. Mat Brooke's new crew so blew away Sub Pop with its demo, the Seattle label was ready to ink Grand Archives even before its March 21 debut at Neumos. The band was then known as simply Archives, and Brooke wanted to wait until the show was over to do any serious talking with Sub Pop.

Megan Jasper, general manager of Sub Pop, said that first show at Neumos confirmed the general feeling at her label that this band was going places.

Why the hurry to sign Brooke, Jeff Montano (the New Mexicans), Curtis Hall (the Jeunes), Ron Lewis (Ghost Stories) and Thomas Wright (the Can't See)?

"We felt like if we dragged our heels," Jasper said, "someone else is going to sign them."

Keep one thing in mind: Brooke is no newbie. He is one of the most respected musicians and songwriters around Seattle, first with the long-running Carissa's Wierd, then helping Ben Bridwell launch Band of Horses.

He left Band of Horses just as Bridwell's band was heating up, opened a bar called the Redwood, then set about launching his own project. The idea was to reflect vocal rock bands from the '70s, like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Bread, the Moody Blues. ...

With Brooke and Montano trading lead vocals, and Hall and Lewis cooing backups, this achingly sincere band was easy for Sub Pop to "get," with Brooke's background. The whispery Carissa's Wierd (Brooke and Jenn Ghetto traded lead vocals) was perhaps the antithesis of Sub Pop aggressive grungers like Nirvana and Mudhoney. Even so, they had a huge following at Jonathan Poneman's label.

"I love Carissa's Wierd — I was a huge fan," said Jasper, Poneman's second-in-command. "We talked to them about signing to the label, but it didn't work out at the time.

"It would've been an honor to put out a Carissa's Wierd album," Jasper continued. "But what do you do? You go for their next bands. ...

In addition to the Bridwell-led Band of Horses — which has sold an eye-popping 75,000 copies of its debut CD — and Grand Archives, Sub Pop has also signed Sera Cahoone, the former Carissa's Wierd drummer with a promising career as an alt-country singer.

For now, the Sub Poppers are pretty pumped up about Grand Archives. Jasper and company wanted to talk contract with Brooke even before the first show, but he was focused on getting prepared for the Neumos concert. Two days later Sub Pop took Brooke to lunch at a Thai restaurant downtown, and soon after, the entire band met with Sub Pop and signed a deal.

(Signing a band after only one show sounds premature, right? Believe it or not, Sub Pop has twice before signed bands that had never performed live: Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello's Postal Service and Sam Beam's Iron & Wine. Both worked out pretty well.)

Meanwhile, Isaac Brock — who keeps his ear to the ground of Seattle music, years after moving away — heard the Archives demo and invited Brooke's band to open on the Modest Mouse tour. That meant Grand Archives' second show was at the Paramount.

Only a few hundred of the sellout crowd made it early enough to catch Grand Archives. The early birds saw a strikingly polished, boldly unique band — the four core members all sing, with lots of oooo's and la-la-la's. It may read as goofy, but it sounded wonderful, as this band has a solid grip on Beach Boys-esque harmonies.

Grand Archives even did a cover of "Never My Love," the '60s pop hit by the Association. No cheesy irony, here, just utter sincerity, with every ba-ba-ba-ba included. (To hear the band's originals, like "Sleepdriving" and "Southern Glass Home," head online: www.myspace.com/grandarchives.)

Grand Archives returns from the Modest Mouse tour to play its first Seattle headlining gig, at 10 tonight at the Crocodile ($8).

• The bill features another talented Seattle band: Welcome. The garage-psychedelic band plays from "Sirs," newly released by FatCat Records (www.myspace.com/yrwelcome).

Tom Scanlon: tscanlon@seattletimes.com