“Understated gorgeousness … a droning take on indie rock in the lineage of Galaxie 500, Low, and fellow Georgians Deerhunter … all somnambulant beauty and shimmering, scraping white noise.”
— Stereogum
Forming in early 2014, Grand Vapids spent the course of a year recording its debut album Guarantees with producer and engineer Drew Vandenberg (of Montreal, Deerhunter, Kishi Bashi) at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA. On the album the sonic palette is wide. With guitars that are laboriously crafted, a driving rhythm section, and synths that are densely layered and structured. The songs are at once intimate and expansive, exploring a fevered state of fear and wonder. The album was mastered by Joe Lambert (Wye Oak, Sharon Van Etten, Wild Nothing) in NYC.
While Grand Vapids’ music could easily satiate the space between Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth, there is a depth of feeling to these songs that moves beyond nostalgia and pushes the listener toward a state of mind where memory and wonderment intersect. It is a delicate and dense balance on a debut record that finds the band carving out its own musical identity.
Grand Vapids is McKendrick Bearden, Austin Harris, Paul Stevens, and Chris Goggans.
Their debut album Guarantees was released on January 20th, 2015.
