Offbeats (band)

Offbeats
Background information
Origin	San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Genres	Garage rock
Years active	2001–present
Members	Sean, Colin & Bryan Foster Eric Romasanta
Past members	Mike Griffin

The Offbeats is an American musical band based in the Texas city of San Antonio with a garage rock or garage punk sound. Their music has been compared to The Strokes and The Clash and the group has been getting positive critical attention by music critics writing in San Antonio media. Music critic Jeremy Martin described their overall sound as "early ’60s garage rock through a post-post-punk filter." They recorded several albums, and their recent CD Lights Out in the City was notable for its musical quality as well as its newspaper-themed cover art.

The band started as a collaboration in 2001 between Bryan Foster and Eric Romasanta who were finishing high school in San Antonio. They played various clubs in San Antonio, with musicians entering and leaving during these early years, and finally settling on a five-piece band. From 2002 to 2008, they played regularly at local clubs and honed their music. They released several EPs but the recorded sessions felt short of the group's expectations, according to lead singer Bryan Foster, who said after making recordings that "it was never what we felt like it was when we had that live vibe."

In 2008, their full-length debut CD entitled Standards was released, which reworked many of their previous tunes. It was described by music critic Jeremy Martin as "impressively professional and mature" despite being self-recorded and self-produced. What helped, according to then-lead guitarist Eric Romasanta, was rehearsing in their own space, which gave the group an "unlimited amount of time to spend on the album" including scrapping and reworking arrangements as necessary. He said:

The group improved technically. They continued to play regularly at clubs, including doing benefit concerts with other bands. Songwriter Bryan Foster improved during these years, according to critic Jeremy Martin. He wrote:

After releasing The Standards, the group suffered a major personnel problem when their drummer, Mike Griffin, departed without warning. Singer Bryan Foster said "our first instinct was to regroup." They decided not to replace Griffin with another drummer but instead slimmed to only four members, and the musicians switched instruments (see table.) The changes were described as "drastic" by critic Enrique Lopetegui.

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