The first time I saw Grand Habit was at Caffe Lena in Saratoga, New York. It was a Wednesday night, they used to have an ‘Emerging Artist Breakout’ series which featured local up-and-comers for cheap (Ohlookatthat!They still do! Aaaahhh, memories). Because of the scale, setup, and overall vibe of the Caffe, most ‘emerging artists’ had to ‘tone it down’ for the space. At this point in time Saratoga was predominantly comprised of Punk bands and Jam bands so the Caffe Lena shows were always an experiment in how much either of these genres could really ‘tone it down’ and to what effect. Despite this, Grand Habit still had an overwhelming ‘chill’ that was unrivaled, even at the Caffe. This caught me off guard, I hadn’t actually been there to check out the show, I was there to drop off promo for an upcoming ‘emerging artists’ night. I ended up sticking around for a bit out of curiosity. This was in the days when you had to pay list price for a MicroKorg – they hadn’t been out for very long – and so the market for budget synthesizers hadn’t yet manifested, therefore making most synths a rare sight at underground shows… or at least the ones I was attending. The two-person band, which I would later find out, was comprised of brothers Josh and John – both of whom would vocalize, and operate various electronics with Josh often playing guitar. I had mixed feelings. On one hand the music was pretty and soothing and they were doing things with synths, vocoders, and drum machines that no one was doing locally. On the other hand, it was boring as all hell to watch. My feelings changed over time – not that they got more exciting to watch, but I grew to appreciate the music and the break that it offered from the onslaught of distorted guitars that often bookended it at shows.

You have probably never heard of Grand Habit. Probably. The Saratoga natives spent a year or two playing shows around upstate to relatively little fanfare. Not to say they didn’t have followers, or positive press, but it was, at best, sparse. This was sometime around 2004, and after getting their footing locally, they made the trek down to the big city to try their luck. After a year or or so I kind of figured that I would never hear from the brothers again. I had actually forgotten about them until a recently relocated acquaintance of mine mentioned to me that he had gone to see them out in Brooklyn and it seemed like they were becoming “kind-of-a-big-deal”. This is my recollection, anyways. To be fair, in 2005-2007 odds were pretty good that I was drunk. But, from what I’ve heard they ended up doing all right down there, even befriending some members of TV on the Radio. Regardless, they ended up off of my radar after that.

Prior to their move, though, I shared a handful of bills with Josh and John who were both very friendly and surprisingly engaged in what my band was doing despite our colossal sonic differences. They were consistently the odd-band-out on a bill, some of which consisted of 7 or 8 other bands who were always exponentially louder and overstated than they were. The only exception I can think of was an 8 band bill at the Saratoga YMCA that also included a looping Matthew Loiacono (before that was a thing), who was closer in sonic proximity only in relation to everyone else. When they went on things would suddenly get quieter, sure, some people would leave, but most would stop what they were doing and sit down. It was my moment of Zen before getting ready to play. You could look around a room where, moments before, kids had just been flailing in a half-hearted circle pit and just see the audience, now lounging around on the floor, soaking in the eight-oh-eighty sounding drums and allowing the synth pads to wash over them. It became an increasingly welcomed change of pace. I listened to their 4 song demo to fall asleep for an entire year.

Spring of 2007 would be the next time I ran into Josh. It was after BEWARE! had gotten off stage at King’s Tavern and he approached me, very friendly, and it took me a few minutes to remember who he was. Grand Habit had broken up, which to this day, I don’t know why – brothers? He moved back up here and had started a new band with an old high school friend. They were called Charlie Everywhere and he wanted to talk about teaming up for some shows. I probably said something like “sure, sounds good”. And then, if memory serves, we ended the night the way most King’s Tavern nights ended – by kicking most everyone out and then drinking, on the house, for several hours. A couple months later I booked their first show, again at King’s Tavern, and we’d go on to share a bunch of bills with them, and then a few more when they changed their name to Phantogram. Phantogram is a band that you have probably heard of.

In retrospect, their album is a glimpse into a band that was kind of making-it-up-as-they-went. It’s not a fully realized sound – there are some standout tracks and some that miss the mark quite a bit. There are noticeable differences in fidelity and song writing, leading me to suspect that the songs were recorded as they were written, over the course of the bands inception. To be honest, I never bought their full-length. They were charging $15 at the time, which was just too much for a hungry college student to cough up. Thankfully my friend, Kamran, has sent it to me for the purposes of this article (what a great guy!). I’m really glad I have this album now. It has some really great, intense moments, mixed in with all the synthy bliss that indie-musicologists may someday classify as pre-chillwave or post-synthpop. But it also serves as a touchstone for the driving musical force behind our areas most successful band. You can see the hints of what would become Phantogram… not yet quite as dark or sultry, but not too far removed either. It’s weird to say, and maybe a little cliche also, but in retrospect, these guys were really ahead of their time. Even if you disagree, try listening to it before going to bed. I guarantee you’ll have sweet dreams.

I was unable to track down any Grand Habit footage… but this struck me as funny.

Grand Habit was:
Josh Carter
John Carter

Download Grand Habit’s S/T Album

Previously on 518 Mixtape…
Foreward/Rewind
Track 1: Rockets and Blue Lights
Track 2: The Pink Hearse Paparazzi Project
Track 3: Kickstand Love
Track 4: Importante

All stories are subject to discrepancies that are inevitable when trying to remember exactly how things went down many years and hundreds of beers ago. If you have details pertaining to any of these articles, or would like to add supplementary media, music, personal accounts, or anything else, please email ferguson@b3nson.net. Also, if you were once in any of the bands mentioned and would like to include anything, edit anything, or omit anything, please let me know. If you are interested in contributing your own article about a favorite Capital Region band, please contact me. I would love to get more stories and insight!