Sub Pop Records

giantlawnmower sez: I went with my dad to the library to borrow loads of CDs and I grabbed Nirvana just because I... (on A Form of Paying Attention November 2009 )
fuelberth75 sez: I don't even know how to begin. I have read all these great posts and have to admit that each... (on A Form of Paying Attention November 2009 )
joelbnice sez: I was 10 when Nevermind came out and at the time I thought SLTS was a little gimmicky. I didn't... (on A Form of Paying Attention November 2009 )
CousinWalter sez: The year was 1995. I was all of 13 and in the 7th grade. I had just heard "Weird Al"s... (on A Form of Paying Attention November 2009 )
unklekippy sez: Who the fuck is this "Nirvana" everybody keeps talking about? Got any more of those The Legend 7"s? (on A Form of Paying Attention November 2009 )
Pedgalad sez: i came rather late into the grunge underground or whatever you would like to call it. i found this album... (on A Form of Paying Attention November 2009 )

It can be easy, sometimes, to forget where you started. When the goal that you set out to create no longer carries any resemblance to the original plan, and the finished product is as much of a surprise as it is a completion. In a lot of ways that was how Keep in Mind Frankenstein came to be.

Singer-guitarist Mat Brooke had big plans for Grand Archives’ sophomore album. The band had written a slew of new songs, and honed them during sound checks around the world. They were good to go. And when they entered the studio and the tapes started rolling?

“It sounded kind of… Like guys who don’t really play rock music trying to rock out,” confesses Mat.

Their record, it seems, had very different plans for how it wanted to sound. Except for “Dig That Crazy Grave,” a buoyant ditty redolent of Southern California and summer afternoons, all the material originally slated for the album wound up on the cutting room floor. Yet as the earlier songs fell away, new ones were composed to take their place. “And the record took on a new identity,” says Mat, “a little darker than the first album.”

Sometimes the group had barely scanned the lyrics before they stepped into the vocal booth to record harmonies. “As opposed to singing like you’ve practiced the song for a year, we were singing each one like it was the first time… because it really was,” says Mat. Not that he’s complaining. “This sounds a lot more alive.”

The album’s finest moments include several happy accidents; little ideas nurtured with help from producer Ben Kersten (who also recorded The Grand Archives, the band’s 2008 debut…