Owen and Hobbs both grew up in the village of Wendover in Buckinghamshire. They met when they were still in school and started writing songs together. They began writing and recording songs for The Boy Least Likely To in the summer of 2002. The group created the independent label Too Young to Die as a means to release their music. Their first release was the 7" single "Paper Cuts" in 2003. They released three singles and completed the recording of their debut album before they played any live shows. Their debut album The Best Party Ever was released in the UK in February of 2005. The album was released in the United States in late Spring 2006.
The Best Party Ever was included in the Pitchfork top 50 albums of 2005 and was number 8 in the Rough Trade Shop top 100 albums of the same year.
They are known for the colourful characters that they use in their artwork, which are drawn by Jof Owen's brother, Tim. The artwork for their second album features 3D versions of the drawings that have been knitted.
The band describe their own sound as "Country Disco". They were included in the top ten bands of 2006 in Rolling Stone magazine, and described as sounding like what would happen "if all your childhood stuffed animals got together and started a band."
In October 2006 they toured the United Kingdom with Razorlight.
The touring band commonly included: Alistair Hamer - drums/bvs, Adam Chetwood - guitar/banjo, Anthony Bishop - electric bass/bvs, Amanda Applewood - keys/bvs/cakes, Boris - Violin.
In September 2006 they began work on their second album.
In February 2008, the band posted two new songs from their upcoming album on their MySpace page. They also released "I Box Up All The Butterflies" as a free download single. The new album, previously delayed by label troubles, is entitled Law of the Playground and was released in April 2009. The album is available as both CD and LP, the LP is sold exclusively at Insound.
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