(Band history:) Andy and Paul began collaborating musically in 1997, sharing the lead vocal and songwriting duties in a band called One Trick Mule. Pulled in too many stylistic directions, the band dissolved, though Andy and Paul continued to work together in the studio. At the same time, each pursued other projects: Andy experimented with eletronic music and lent his skills as a bass player to several rock outfits, while Paul took up the upright bass and began gigging with the jazz group Max Fine and a salsa band called Tropico, (both still extant in different forms in Athens). In the Fall of 2000, Andy, now behind the drum kit, and Paul, now playing the double bass and handling all of the lead vocal and songwriting responsibilities, recruited long-time friend and reclusive guitarist/bassist Dusty Kent and formed Neat Stripes, again based on stylistic flexibility, but placing even more emphasis on songs over solos-of which there are very few-and using only the bare essential instrumentation. An accordionist and guitarist named Karl Bolz was later added to round out the sound, but after a successful out-of-town debut in Atlanta at Smith's Olde Bar, the trio was reestablished, with all members now taking on more instrumental and vocal responsibilities in more adventurous arrangements. In this form Neat Stripes has begun work on their first album, finding time between Andy's bass-playing gig with the Routine Felonies (which also features Bentley Rhodes of Bloodkin), Paul's recording with Calvin Don't Jump, of the Elephant 6 Collective, and Dusty's distracting ambitions in professional surfing.

And then there were two. Andy had his own muse to follow in the form of the Stand-Ins, a great rock trio co-fronted by Andy and Mark Lawrence (formerly - and currently again?) of the Eskimos, with the thunderous Taylor Sproull on the drums (One Trick Mule, The Little Country Giants, et. al.). Paul and Dusty played for about a year as a duo, when they decided that they were in a rut and gave up playing out.

And then there was Paul. Quixotically soldiering on with the odd acoustic show, but mostly in the form of endless home recording, Paul released ONANON in 2006, working largely alone. The album lays to rest some old never-recorded chestnuts along with some new material, and there is apparently another on the horizon, tentatively titled "Smoke and Mirrors." Stay tuned ...

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"The Neat Stripes are true hopeless romantics to music. Their eclectic tastes give them a sound strangely familiar to everything else you've ever listened to, yet they are able to mix each genre with a little southern hospitality ..." -Lost At Sea, 9/5/03
Read the complete review

"...eclectic and engaging..." -Flagpole Magazine, 4/11/01

" Working from an acoustic base that features double bass and an accordion, this local quartet plays They Might Be Giants-influenced pop with strong Tom Waits leanings, particularly Young Tom's smokey, besotted atmosphere. Lots of buzz on these kids, and the demo they dropped off to us is pretty damn neat." -Flagpole Magazine, 5/22/01

Check out some comments from the shows

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Click on a song to view the lyrics:

The End of That (coming soon!)

ONANON

My Baby Is A Dinosaur
How Good Am I
One More Time (Who the Hell Is Simone?)
Extra, Extra (A Train Wreck Of Love)
Obliviosity
Rain On My Roof
The Last Thing I Want To Do
Ain't Good Enough
Job's Garden
On Calvinism, or Call Me Lucky
JAFJAW
The Side Of the Road

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