Origami Llamas

A Rock Group from Los Angeles

Formed in early 2007, the Origami Llamas feature the enigmatic Rob Hauer on guitar and vocals and the talented and lovely Lara von Haught on drums, keyboards and vocals.

For most of the Spring and early Summer of ’07, the Llamas recorded what would become their debut album Dud in Ms. von Haught’s living room, using free software, fake drums and a toy 1-watt guitar amplifier.

“Our goal with Dud,” says Hauer, “was to use minimal equipment to create something that sounded epic.”

While mixing the album in Los Angeles, the group simultaneously began a six-week low-tech snail-mail marketing campaign consisting of cryptic messages, riddles, and origami sent on a weekly basis to a select group of rock journalists and internet-based music tastemakers. The resulting online buzz, though relatively modest, resulted in enough album downloads on the July 4th release date that the Llamas’ website was temporarily knocked offline.

Within a month, Dud had been downloaded thousands of times by people all over the world.

“We gave it away,” says von Haught. “Everyone knows no one makes any money selling music. We’d rather have people listen to our album for free and pay to see us live.”

In February, 2008 the Dud track “Should Have Enjoyed It While It Lasted” was featured in the season finale of NBC’s Friday Night Lights.

A video for the track “Little Heart Attacks” was completed and put online in January of 2009 and was immediately accepted into competition by the London Independent Film Festival. The Llamas’ first video, for the instrumental “What Can This Be?” has been viewed on YouTube nearly 50,000 times. A video for “Kill Everyone Involved” was released in April 2010.

The group plans to release a new album some time in 2010. Tentatively entitled "Menage a Deux" the release is rumored to be a collection of soft rock songs.

Apr. 2010