The Old In Out are do-it-yourself incarnate. Original drummer Chris Carroll (Shapes of Future Frames) designed the Blue Note-y cover of their record Dance Loud, and singer Mike Turi hand-pasted the labels to 300 black 12-inch sleeves. Turi drew the artwork stamped on the vinyl, the second release from the group’s label, Jersey Fresh.
The band captures the straight-ahead garage sound of a time between the Kinks’ heyday and late-’70s CBGB, best conveyed by their cover of the Unusuals’ “I’m Walkin’ Babe.” The album, recorded on two-inch tape at Earthlink Studio in El Cajon with Mike Kamoo (Lights On), hits fast and loud, full of reverb and distortion and Turi hollering about girls, money, cigarettes, and cities.
“It’s just simple song[s] about the good parts of relationships, the bad things, the wanting, the getting, and the awfulness that comes from getting what you want or not getting what you want,” says Turi, who cites the Penetrators (New York’s, not California’s) as a top influence.
The band started in a garage in Ocean Beach after Turi recuperated from a debilitating spinal disease that floored him for the better part of a year.
“Once I got back on my feet I was, like, all right, I don’t know how much longer I’m even going to be able to do a project like this, so I went for it,” says Turi, whose near-constant back pain doesn’t seem to affect his extroverted stage presence.
Turi once even landed a black and bloody eye from Ryan Bohan’s guitar during an early Sight and Sound show, leading one reviewer to describe their showmanship as “borderline ridiculous.”
“None of us grew up here, but we’ve got a huge amount of support,” says Bohan, who as of 2010 runs a La Jolla coffee shop and fashions jewelry from rare coins. The band gets regular airplay on Tim Pyles’s radio show, inhabits three jukeboxes around town (Small Bar, Hamilton’s, Toronado), and have a song in a Billabong surf video. Older incarnations of the band have also included Brian Rathjen on bass and Rory Truesdale on lead guitar.
In 2010, the band released Dance Loud. That same year, Turi and Bohan formed a side band called Trap Gold, along with Kelly Sullivan and synth-bassist Chase Elliott (the Kabbs). Guitarist Rory Truesdale launched a solo projects like Sleeping Ghost and Electric Crush.
The Brittle Bones EP was released in September 2011, featuring new drummer Marco Piro (Vinyl Film). An Autumn tour was due to hit CA, WA, and OR, with new bassist Ryan White. However, in October 2011, the band announced it was going on hiatus.
Former members Mike Turi, Marco Piro, and latterday bassist Ryan White formed a band called Wild Wild Wets. In 2014, drummer Chris Carroll joined the Homeless Sexuals. Mike Turi teamed up with another former member, Rory Truesdale, to form COMMANDc in 2018.