History
Carissa's Wierd was formed in Tucson, Arizona in 1995 by Brooke and Champion when they were teenagers, practicing on rudimentary cheap guitars and amplifiers. Originally sharing bills with hardcore bands in the Tucson scene, Carissa's Wierd made a name for themselves and the pair toured behind Modest Mouse, using fake IDs to gain their ways into clubs and riding in U-Hauls. [4] As the band grew, Brooke and Champion found themselves filling out the band with Sera Cahoone and Ben Bridwell, plus a rotating cast of other musicians. Relocating to the Pacific Northwest, the band's debut album, Ugly But Honest, was released in 1999 on Bridwell's own label, Brown Records. The band was later signed to Sad Robot Records. [5]
The band played their final shows at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle in November 2003. [6]
Following the band's breakup, Jenn Champion and Sera Cahoone started solo projects, Champion's under the name "S." Mat Brooke and Ben Bridwell formed Band of Horses, which Brooke later left to form the band Grand Archives.
In July 2010, Brooke revealed that he and Champion had bought back the rights to Carissa's Wierd's catalogue, which was previously owned by the now defunct label Sad Robot. [7] They then signed to Hardly Art, through which they rereleased their catalogue and released a new "best of" compilation titled They'll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003. The compilation was preceded by a one-off reunion show on July 9, 2010, at Seattle's Showbox at the Market, which featured all bandmates aside from Bridwell. [8]
In July 2011, Mat Brooke told The Air-Raid Podcast, in an episode entitled "History Repeats Itself With Grand Archives," that another reunion show was scheduled at Neumos in Seattle on September 24. Brooke said that the band may play the Ugly But Honest album in its entirety, with the original band line-up. [9] In August 2011, a new single, "Tucson" was released [10] and that was followed, on October 10, by another concert at New York University.
In July 2019, Brooke and Champion announced a string of Ugly But Honest 20th anniversary shows billed under "Mat Brooke and Jenn Champion of Carissa's Wierd." [11] The shows occurred that November, in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. A fourth show, scheduled for New York, was later announced for March 2020; [12] it was subsequently cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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