Of Mice & Men- the band

After the departure of lead man Austin Carlile from the band Attack Attack! because of personal conflicts with band mates , he formed the metalcore band Of Mice & Men. Austin and Jaxin Hall, an import from Auckland, New Zealand recorded their demo "Seven thousand miles for what?". For about a month Austin searched for the remaining members for the band. He stumbled across Valentino Arteaga, drummer of Lower Definition, Jon Kintz of Odd Project, and Phil Manansala, a touring guitarist for A Static Lullaby. He then packed up with Jaxin and moved to Southern California to be with the rest of the band.

They started to record right away and releasing covers of pop songs on their myspace like "poker face" by Lady Gaga after hitting 1,00,000 plays of their other songs. Their first full-lenght debut album was released on February 23, 2010. They also made videos for the songs  "Those in Glass Houses" and "Second & Sebring". During 2010 they were set to play on The Emptiness Tourtouring but lead man Austin Carlile was forced to leave the band due to orders from his doctor  as a result to his heart surgery in the near future and with conflicts with the other memebers of the band as well. So they recruited Jerry Roush the former lead man for Sky Eats Airplane. He toured with the band for all of the 2010 dates. Seeing that Roush was with the band for 9 months already it seemed that he was going to the permanent replacement for Carlile but on Janurary 3, 2011 the band offcially announced that Austin would return to front the band once again. Besides Calile having to leave the band in 2010 bassist Jaxin Hall also annouced he was leaving the band on August 23, 2010 to work on his clothing line and concentrate on his personal life. In his place Dane Poppin from A Static Lullaby  and would play for the remaining tour dates of 2010 but would then return to A Static Lullaby.

As Austins return finally came they decided to move Shayley Bourget from rhythm guitar to bass guitar and he still would be the clean vocals man. They then put new member Alan Ashby into the rhythm guitar spot. The band was finally ready to go back into touring and started working on their new album which is still in the making.

On April 8, 2011 Of Mice & Men came to Peabodys in downtown Cleveland, which i attended that concert. To say the least it was an amazing concert. Along with OF&M was Woe is Me, Sleeping for Sirens, I set my friends on fire and the Ammity Affliction, which all put on an excellent show. OF&M was amazing that night, and seeing that lead man Austin Carlile is from Columbus, Ohio made the show even better. He was able to connect with the crowd on a whole different level then any other places he's played. Everyone was extremely excited when they came on. People were screaming and yelling, jumping around and moshing. People were crowd surfing and some lucky few were actually able to sing with Austin. I personally did not get to sing with him, but i got up on stage and got a picture with him afterthe concert, my buddy Zach Shema however was able to sing with him for a short moment and we both got a picture with him.

OF&M is a great band, they have a very mature sound for such a young group of guys and have great potential in the future. Well thats all go check them out, its definantly worth your time! www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSeiG6qMhaI