thelesbianlifestyle.com

Hi! I’m happy to introduce to you a band that is so synonymous with the Baltimore Queer scene that they are commonly referred to as “Eat Girl Out” by drunken lesbians and their dyke-tykes alike. Odd Girl Out has been doing it for years in the B-more/DC area. They played everything from the song I dropped my beer to while dancing, to the song that was playing when I tried to get that girls number at the bar. Don’t get me wrong now. This is NOT that smooth acoustic music I sing in the shower before I go out to dinner. This is half of that mixtape I sent my ex with “F*&K OFF” scrawled in sharpie marker on the front. I can attest to losing at least half my drink while trying to coordinate fist-pumping and staying upright at the same time. That was all total hyperbole, (except for the eat girl out thing) but you get the point.

C.C. Hi, I’d like to thank you guys for your time and for checking out our blog.

Your band name is definitely fitting in terms of being a lesbian band, as I’m sure all our readers could attest to feeling like the odd girl out at times, but does the name hold any other significance as far as your musical personality? Where did it come from?

OGO Our original drummer Bethany came up with the name shortly after a few of the original members left a pretty crappy band to form what would become Odd Girl Out. It definitely goes along with who we were then and who we are now. Being a female musician in Baltimore is rare let alone an entire band full of them. Most shows we play are with bands full of guys so the name is very suiting not to mention that all of us at one time or another have felt like the Odd Girl Out in life.

C.C. What’s your current band line-up and what does each member bring to the band?

OGO Currently we are in the process of auditioning drummers so it’s just us three musketeers. Tawni is the lead vocalist as well as the stand up comic, drill sergeant and Mother Hen. Eva is the bassist/back up vocalist, activist and crazy outfit wearing mini diva. And Selena is the lead guitarist/shredder/back up vocalist who can make and fix just about anything.

C.C. You guys have been at it for quite awhile, and you have played some pretty big shows. Is there any gig, in particular, that is especially memorable for you?

OGO To be honest most of them are pretty memorable. We seem to have this hilarious case of bad luck so there’s always something that happens at a show that we can laugh our asses off about the next day or years down the road. If we had to narrow it down to one we think it’d have to be when we played the 9:30 club in DC last summer. We got to share the stage with Bitch, BETTTY and Melissa Ferrick. Pretty badass line up and so many of our favorite national acts and icons have graced that stage! We’d also like to say our that favorite post show event was putting about 65 plastic spoons in Eva’s hair when she passed out early in WV. We thought she looked so pretty.

C.C. Odd Girl Out is one of the few remaining successful bands in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. How do you think that your association with the queer community and the Greater Baltimore area, in general, has shaped your band’s identity?

OGO We’ve remained successful for many reasons we think. We pretty much refuse to give up and we refuse to let people forget about us. We do our job…we practice, we make good music and we entertain. The queer community has been so supportive and stuck by us all these years so we definitely thank them for that! The majority of our fan base is definitely the queer community but it’s also awesome to know that we appeal to so many types of people who may or not be queer. Because we have support from all sides of the spectrum is why we’re able to still do what we do.

C.C. You have changed your lineup on several occasions. How has that affected the band’s creative process?

OGO Our debut album is named Hurry Up and Wait for a reason LOL. We’ve had soooooo many road blocks due to the line up changes. There for awhile it really seemed like every time we were ahead something happened and we had to wait to fill a position, train the girl and then try to play catch up. Creatively it wasn’t too much of an issue because the creative forces stayed in the band. Bethany, our original drummer, was a huge creative force so when she decided to call it quits we were bummed. Although we miss her like crazy its making the rest of us step up and start being more involved in what we do, what we play and where we are headed.

C.C. Any new projects in the works, upcoming shows, or touring schedules?

OGO Well as you know it’s almost PRIDE season so you can find us at both Baltimore and DC Pride festivals in June. While we are auditioning drummers we are using a sub so we don’t lose momentum. We’re also playing some acoustic shows which we’ve never done before so look out for those. We are definitely trying to get back into the studio soon as well. Since the release of songs at shows. We really love them and everyone is asking us when we’re recording again so it’s definitely about time!

C.C. “My Space” is a pretty awesome song, and unfortunately, most of us probably know someone like the one you describe (and an even more unfortunate few of us have dated someone like them.) How did this song develop?

OGO I think it went something like this “Once upon a time there were some douches”…. hahaha. Bethany wrote that song so we’re not gonna speak for her. It really could be about anyone’s ex though because we’ve all had one or two of “those”.

C.C.What musicians would you cite as your major influences?

Tawni Freddy Mercury and Queen as a whole, Madonna, Pat Benetar and Heart

Eva Courtney Love, Kim Gordon, Rancid and Sleater Kinney

Selena Toni Lommi of Black Sabbath, Metallica, The Distillers and At the Drive-In

Hard to believe we’re in the same band right? We guess opposites do attract!

C.C. Are there any songs that are autobiographical on “Hurry up and Wait”? What are your favorites to perform? What are the crowd’s favorites?

OGO Well let’s see…. that album has songs about jerky exes, love triangles, new love, and annoying drunk people so it’s pretty much autobiographical for everyone we know lol. We still perform a few of those songs because they are crowd favorites and because we still love doing them. Everyone has an ex that they hate so they wanna hear MySpace and people, we think because of their addiction to Sesame Street as a child, love songs with counting in them so 5 Years is always a hit!

C.C. Is there anything else that you would like for our readers to know?

OGO If you’ve never heard of us please come check us out LIVE! We promise you’ll find something you like…even if it’s just a hot chick in the audience that came to see us. We’ve got something for everyone! And to those of us who do know us…. if you love us THANK YOU if you hate us try us out again =)

Catch Odd Girl Out at Baltimore and D.C. Prides. You can download their album Hurry Up and Wait from their website and Myspace page.

www.oddgirlout.net

www.myspace.com/oddgiroutband