The Secret History (band)
The Secret History was a New York-based indie pop and art rock band formed in 2006 by Michael Grace Jr., with Gilbert Abad, Todd Karasik, Darren Amadio, and Kurt Brondo, plus Lisa Ronson (Mick Ronson’s daughter) on vocals. They released the Desolation Town EP in 2008 on Le Grand Magistery.
Their debut album, The World That Never Was (2010), was widely praised, appearing on best-of lists from AllMusic, Spectrum Culture, and KEXP, and it reached the CMJ Top 200. Kip Berman of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart called it one of the year’s best records in NME. A video for Johnny Anorak, directed by Ben Hughes, featured Jed Smith of My Teenage Stride.
For their second album, Americans Singing in the Dark, Jaime Allison Babic joined the group, and it was self-released in June 2013. In 2014, Grace reassembled My Favorite with Abad, Babic and Brondo, putting the Secret History on hiatus. Drummer Todd Karasik also played with Bell Hollow and appeared on their 2007 album Foxgloves.
Later in 2014, Abad and Karasik formed The Chandler Estate with Andrea Vaughn and others, and released the four-song EP Infrastructure in 2015, followed by a NYC Popfest performance.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 12:22 (CET).