Ryan Sambol and Matt Hammer began The Strange Boys as a duo in 2003. Ryan's brother, Philip, was added on bass in 2004. Greg Enlow joined in 2006, first on percussion and organ before moving to guitar, his instrument of choice. 2008 saw the first Strange Boys release, the Nothing 7, on Milwaukee's Dusty Medical Records. This was followed by their debut LP on In The Red Records. ITR chief, Larry Hardy, intended his newest signings to record their debut with Jay Reatard, who had initially brought TSBs to his attention. After a week of recording in Jays Memphis home neither he nor the band were very happy with the results. Subsequently, TSBs spent a week recording in Denton with Orville Neeley, who had recorded the Nothing 7î. The result of that session was And Girls Club. The next twelve months saw increased touring in the US and their first trip to Europe. Having caught the eye and ear of Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis, TSBs prepared their second record to be released jointly by ITR in North America and RT in Europe. Before going into Mike McHugh's Distillery studio for the session that would become Be Brave, Matt Hammer left the group and was replaced by drummer Seth Densham. Singer/saxophonist Jenna Thornhill-DeWitt and White Fence's Tim Presley also contributed to the Be Brave session. Jenna ended up joining the group temporarily until her departure in March of 2011. Seth left at the end of 2009 and was replaced on the drums by Mike La Franchi who can be heard on the upcoming Rough Trade LP, Live Music, recorded in April 2011 at the Austin home studio of Spoon's Jim Eno. The Strange Boys continue to tour and live music wherever they happen to be.
