Picks for SXSW

We got picked in a few places as one of the best bands playing at South by Southwest.

First was in the Austin Chronicle, we were one of the 8 Brit unmissables.


indierockcafe.com picked us as one of the top 35 bands playing the festival :

http://www.indierockcafe.com/2009/03/sxsw-band-sampler-playlist-of-artists_18.html

We also got picked here :

http://minorprogression.com/2009/01/25/interests-list-south-by-southwest-line-up/

OFA do USA 6

The last day of SXSW is mainly unofficial showcases and free parties. All the mayhem of 6th Street is over by Saturday night. We ended up playing an outside show next to the Austin Art Garage, a small art gallery for local artists full of great work!

http://www.austinartgarage.com/

All the free beers, sunshine and music outdoors made this a great finish to the week! We just chilled out all day because we were playing last. Not only was there great music but some of the artists were painting in front of the stage. I'll leave you with a load of photos from the show :

There's some more pictures here : http://www.austin360.com/alist/mediahub/media/slideshow/index.jsp?tId=150416

OFA do USA 5

My voice had started to go by now, I blame the air conditioning and too much drinking and talking. :( Our gig was at 1am back at the Hole In The Wall so it gave me enough time to recover. We had a pretty chilled day, watching more bands. All I really remember is being completely fucking knackered, enough so that once we got to the Hole In The Wall I just fell asleep in the car till we played.

After we finished playing there was nowhere open to eat so we drove around and found a Taco Cabana, the idea of Mexican food being just what we were up for eating. That's until we got inside and found it to be the most fucking filthy restaurant we'd ever seen! We saw a cook use a dirty, hard brush to scrape all the grease off the grill then put it bristle-down onto the filthy floor! Also there was a constant horrible high-pitched squealing sound from one of the machines in the kitchen. Basically it was the horror-movie equivalent of a fast food 'restaurant' (if you can call it that). Not surprisingly our food was fucking disgusting, we ended up putting our last taco on the hood of our car and watched it shoot off as we drove away.

Just as we'd finished eating the theme from The Omen came on the car radio, it all seemed very fitting. Watch the video :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwB4S3xJEJg

- Andy xo

OFA do USA 4

We had a day off on the Friday so used it as an excuse to properly check out the festival. As always we started the day with free beers at the convention centre. This was also the day where we actually got to check out some bands. We saw a lot, including lots of random stuff and some great local bands; some highlights were Good Old War playing with sore throats, Maps and Atlases [we missed their first show because we went to the wrong art gallery which meant we had to miss Cage instead to watch their later show :( ], Beans on Toast, DJ Shadow and the Gallows in a tiny venue with only about 100 people in it, playing right in the middle of the crowd! They can't play shows like that any more in the UK and I was stood right next to Frank for the entire show.

On the way back trying to find a taxi at the quieter end of 6th street Paul and I followed a group of musicians playing the Cantina theme from Star Wars. Then a guy playing a guitar with another guy playing a double bass ran over and shouted 'When The Saints Go Marching In'! They started playing and a guy playing banjo came and joined in as well as some other buskers playing percussion. Then everyone passing by started to join in.

You can watch the whole thing here as an example of pure SXSW madness!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFNu_vNupp4

- Andy xo

OFA do USA 3

Thursday was the first day we actually got to check out the festival properly! Our official showcase wasn't until 10pm that night so after spending the morning downing free beers from the convention center and stocking up on free fags for Tom and Paul (although don't call them 'fags' over here...) we headed out onto the streets and into the sunshine! One of the best things so far is the amount of free food and drinks we've been getting; and cigarettes, the 'other food' according to Bill Hicks. The amount of free cancer sticks we've got now is ridiculous.

Now I know it's been said that there's music EVERYWHERE at SXSW but you really can't understand what that really means until you're here. The streets are constantly filled with loud drums and the chaotic, intermingling of different sounds from each side of every street and all the street corners are filled with musicians. The best thing though is the intimacy, every band, signed or unsigned is treated the same and you'll end up seeing the big bands played to the same size audiences as the smaller ones in the tiniest venues!

The best bands we saw on the Thursday was Death by Stereo and then we got to see Frank Turner before heading over to Wave. We ended up playing on a small as fuck stage but the venue was rammed! Anyway, the smaller the stage the more excuse we have to get off it and get in people's faces.

After the show Paul downed a five-hour energy drink and and Pirate-Paul was unleashed to the world then later at Wendys we saw an argument between a guy and other guy in bearsuit. I'll put the video on soon ha ha ha

- Andy xo

OFA do USA 2

Wednesday was our first day to play a show and the breakfast was infinitely better in at the Austin hotel! It was the first proper day of the festival so things were just starting to get going. We played our first warm up show at The Side Bar on 7th street during the afternoon which we officially title "our first show in America"!

After spending some time checking out the festival a bit we headed out to The Hole In The Wall where we were playing our evening show. It was great, it's what you'd expect from a real American bar and the beers were all free... Everyone went sick once we started playing. I think our accents are a novelty too! ha ha They liked us so much that we were invited back Saturday night to play again to a packed local crowd!

- Andy xo

OFA do USA 1

We've been in Texas for a couple of days now and so far we haven't played any gigs but we've been busy. This is our first time in Texas let alone South by Southwest, Sean and I have been to America before (although I've only been to Florida and I don't know if that counts) but Paul and Tom have never even been the US before. Sitting next to Tom on a 10 hour while the boy desperately needs a fag and the guy in front tries his hardest to lean as far back as possible certainly kept me entertained.

I'll write Monday off as entire day of traveling because once we'd actually got a chance to stop we were too tired to do anything else. Tom and I tried to go for a midnight swim but they'd just treated it that morning and neither of us were up for the albino look...

Tuesday morning was the worst breakfast we've ever had. Paul and I put $14 on the table for Tom to finish our eggs and sausage but even he couldn't get it down. After we went to go pick up the amps we're hiring and then ended up in the best practice room ever. All the black lights and neon paint made it feel like we were going to play a  game of Quasar! 

It was a four drive from Dallas to Austin, (stopping of course at a diner in the middle of fucking nowhere for massive burgers and pancakes, bacon and eggs!). Last night we went to a bar next to the hotel where we drank far too expensive cocktails and they let Paul smoke inside (his highlight of the trip so far ha ha). I'm writing this at the moment just before we actually go into Austin for the first time and play our first of two shows today! I'll get back on here tomorrow morning when I can write about us playing some music instead of just eating and drinking! ha ha

- Andy xo

Listen to new demos!

We've been recording a load of demos in my bedroom recently. I've put two online here :

http://www.myspace.com/ofademos

These two are both quite different from our other stuff cause we've been trying new stuff out for shits and giggles. They've both got Tom Hyndman on as well (new boy ahoy).

The first one is about being stuck in Chester while all my friends keep fucking off,

the second one is about Skeletons... and that's all I can really say (it's what happens when you write lyrics at 4 in the morning).

they're both rough as fuck and a bit of experimenting but let us know what you think.

Andy xo

Strangeglue interview - we're a pick to go see at SXSW

We've done an interview for strangeglue.com

We're one of their pre-sxsw picks to go see this year.

Read the interview here :

http://www.strangeglue.com/interviews/sxsw-2009-preview-out-from-animals/10003850

Chris and Rich do Sheffield

Two friends of ours have made an online sitcom. The first episode features two of our songs!

Check it out here : www.myspace.com/chrisandrichdosheffield


It's hilarious so everyone go watch it now!

Two of us (Tom and I) are going to be in a later episode along with some members of Rolo Tomasi so keep checking back for the new episodes.

Andy xo