Formed in San Diego, CA in the summer of 2003,The Long and Short of It play a pastiche of aggressive rock forms including punk, prog, metal, and '70s hard rock.


“We wanna be a fierce, in-your-face band,” says singer Ben Johnson, who also plays drums for "Wha?". In 1993, Johnson was in Santa Cruz with his brother Tim "Big Baby" Johnson when the siblings met bassist Brian Barrabee. Ben ended up moving to Oakland for work, but Tim stayed in the Santa Cruz mountains where he remained in touch with Barrabee for most of 1994. The brothers Johnson ended up moving back to San Diego in '94, and Barrabee stayed behind in SC where he was playing with his band, Mung. It wasn't until 1998 when Tim convinced Barrabee to relocate to San Diego where there were more musical opportunities for the bass player. It took another 5 years before Barrabee came to Ben Johnson with the idea to reunite him with his brother in a new project that would soon become a rock quartet, after Barrabee recruited Matt Strachota from Bartenders Bible, and The Long and Short of It was born!!! 


They released The Long and Short of It VS. Mothra in 2005 and toured the west coast that fall. After touring again in 2006, their debut full length  
Flight of the Mallard
was released in 2007 on Black Rabbit Rebellion Records. That spring they toured the west coast again in support of the Mallard record. 


After spending most of 2008 writing new material, they teamed up with Mario Quintero, part owner of Black Box Studios in Golden Hill, San Diego, to record their next full-length, CAW! An Unkindness of Ravens. They released Caw! on vinyl and cd at the CASBAH in San Diego on March 21, 2009, and it was their first sold out show at that venue. They toured the west coast again in support of Ravens, and they received their first radio play in San Francisco before their show at Thee Parkside with Saviours. In September of '09, the CAW record won Best Hard Rock Album at the San Diego Music Awards

In March of 2010, tLaSoI released their first 7 inch entitled, Welcome To Gnarlsberg/The Lancet. They took off for another tour highlighted by a show in Portland with Red Fang, where they made 500 new fans by unleashing a powerhouse, tour tight set, consisting of the best music from CAW and the then new 7 in. release.