Crowded around their sage leader, the OFW give off the ease of a family band, though no member remotely resembles another. They’re Dickensian orphans, then, who’ve gathered to put on a minstrel show — and who’ve had to find a sound to fit their strange batch of instruments. The two red-blooded guitars and the drum kit give the songs a sturdy rock core when the band wishes it. But there are also, at points, a Paul McCartney–style toy bass, an accordion, a triangle, a wailing keyboard, and a melodica, which pile into a haunted and seductive sort of antipop, mournful and klezmerish on a track like “Robot on Fire” but boppy, harmonic, and needing a restroom on “Take Your Fluids.”
—SF Bay Guardian

Christopher W.: vocals, keyboards, melodica, maraca, triangle mastery

Heather: bass, keyboards, xylophone, “la la la”, instrument collector

Jake: guitar, uke, guiro, mandolin, back-up vocals, jumping around, voice of reason

Christopher O.: guitars, vocals, microkorg, accordion, excessive scowling

Marie: violin, keyboards, xylophone, crude joke teller

Matt: drums, other percussive oddities, bass clarinet, immaculate facial hair

Kat: the mystery cello