Otis biography
"Here's to the unpaved open road instead of the asphalt parking lot".
Otis consists of 5 guys who have been in bands like Stockholm Syndrome and Against Time together for years.
The band was founded at the end of 2005 and played its first show in 2006. So far they did shows all over Holland, Belgium, France and Spain together with bands such as Coalesce, Nomeansno, Torche, NRA, Rise And Fall, Jello Biafra, Coliseum, Restless Youth, Born From Pain and Baroness.
In 2006 they released a split 10" with Daily Fire and in 2007 their debut album Good Cop Bad Mood saw the light of day. This record was well received by the press, comparing Otis to Helmet, Snapcase, At The Drive-In, Refused, Fugazi, Hot Water Music, The Melvins and Black Flag.
In June 2009 a limited split tape with The Unborn was released, followed by their second album Storm Is Coming a month later. This album is the first installment in a trilogy of albums based on poems by Arthur Rimbaud. The leitmotiv in this part is his poem Le Bateau Ivre from 1871.
Again, the press was very positive: next to the comparisons drawn when Good Cop Bad Mood came out, this time they also spoke of Unsane, Botch, Drive Like Jehu, Minutemen, Dag Nasty en Breach. The 11 minute closing piece reminisced of acts like Zu, The Ex, John Zorn and Sonic Youth.
Storm Is Coming was released during a 4 show weekend supporting the legendary Nomeansno. One month later Otis opened for Jello Biafra in Holland's main venue, the Amsterdam Paradiso.
They have recently played a bunch of shows with a second drummer and are hoping to record new material in January 2010.
"Otis plays like their music sounds, really loud, convincing, and just plain good. The crowd goed wild, and a few fans sing along to every song. I wouldn't be surprised if next time the entire audience would sing along." - VPRO 3voor12
"If the once so influencial indie-hardcorelabel SST hadn't been reduced to an unimportant jazz- and reissue liabel, they would have forced this band to sign and hyped them as the new Black Flag with the new Jello Biafra on vocals." - Lords Of Metal
"I can’t believe this album hasn’t been picked up by a label, on the other hand maybe Otis also don’t need it according to the bills they were on and are going to play on." - AsIce
"Talented band. Right angle. Cool name." - OOR