This was followed by the releases of Brain Thrust Mastery in 2008, Barbara in 2010, TV en Français in 2014, Helter Seltzer in 2016, Megaplex in 2018, Huffy in 2021 and Lobes in 2023.
As well as music, Keith and Chris are known for their comedy, often injecting humour into their interviews, press-releases and off-the-cuff jokes at their live shows.
Keith had just transferred to Pomona and Chris was holding a Dawson's Creek viewing party and quickly bonded over a mutual love of stand-up comedy, film and television.
[7] When it came to songwriting, Keith, Scott and Chris' were particularly influenced by films, comic books, with many of their earliest songs about fighting monsters.
[14] Keith and Chris moved to the Los Angeles area in late 2000, without Scott, recruiting Michael Tapper, whom they'd known during their time at Pomona, and who was in his last year at adjoining Harvey Mudd College.
[7] Michael would take drums over from Keith, who would now be the band's vocalist and guitarist, whilst Cain would continue playing bass.
[9][19] In October after several months of performing in California and New York, amongst other places the band recorded their first EP, available originally only at live shows Bitching!
[24][25] On January 11, 2005, the band began the recording of their first, proper full-length album in Los Angeles with Ariel Rechtshaid and engineering from Rob Brill.
[30][31] In July the band shot a music video for their second single, "The Great Escape", as well as appearing on MTV2 for the first time to plug their upcoming release.
[40] With their ongoing success in the United Kingdom the band embarked on another full 15 date tour, with two nights at Brixton Academy in London due to demand,[41] it was on this tour that the band released Crap Attack, a compilation album of B-sides and covers, as well as a DVD featuring music videos for all of the tracks on With Love and Squalor and live performances.
[42] In January 2007 Murray announced that he had begun working on the band's follow-up to With Love and Squalor in Brooklyn, New York,[43] previewing "Impatience" and "Spoken For" later that month.
Murray stated that the band had to deal with a lot of bureaucracy recording the new album, with EMI unhappy that they were working with producer Ariel Rechtshaid; who at the time was relatively unknown.
In October 2009, Chris Cain and Keith Murray co-created a short television series for MTV, titled Steve Wants His Money.
The series focuses around We Are Scientists playing fictional versions of themselves, owing an American man, Steve, money and consequently running away to England where they attempt to sell off various marketing ideas to musicians, journalists, music DJs and promoters.
[64][65] Having worked with a number of different drummers since Michael Tapper's departure in 2007, the band announced that Andy Burrows would be joining them for recording and touring.
[67] Burrows made his live debut with the band at a surprise NME awards show at Camden Barfly on February 21, 2010.
[71][72] In August 2010, We Are Scientists and Ash notably co-headlined two show in Australia as well as performing at Splendour in the Grass in Woodford, Queensland.
[79] Eventually the band signed to release the finished album with 100% Records, putting out a teaser EP titled Business Casual on October 14, 2013.
[80] The EP includes lead singles "Return the Favor" and "Dumb Luck" along with album off cut "Good Answer", a demo of new track "Courage" and a cover of Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" - which features occasional scientist Max Hart on pedal-steel guitar.
This led to Keith Carne taking over the majority of live commitments, with Burrows stepping in for occasional dates, depending on his availability.
[83] Soon after the announcement the band revealed another new track titled "Make it Easy", which was made available to download to those who pre-ordered the album.
[104] Keith and Chris wrote the majority of the album's tracks in sessions for a songwriting club called 'Song Challenge', with Cain describing it as a collective who compete to each write 10 songs in 8 hours and drink beer.
[112] The anniversary celebrations continued with the release of an acoustic version of the album titled With Love And Squalor Live In Woodstock 1969 on 6 December 2019.
[113][114] In March 2020, as lockdown began for the COVID-19 pandemic, the band started a podcast series centred around dissecting their old material, but often spiralling out into random topics, called the Dumpster Dive.
During the first months of lockdown, the band also put out regular live streams on Instagram, featuring them discussing all manner of topics and performing their tracks.
[119] The announcement also included their new single "Contact High" and detailed their plans to tour the United Kingdom in November through December then and Europe in April 2022.
[132] In May 2024 We Are Scientists announced that they will be embarking on a UK tour in November, where they will perform their second album Brain Thrust Mastery in full.
"[137] The band has noted that tracks on With Love and Squalor were largely written to be performed live, whilst Brain Thrust Mastery was a more specifically studio effort.
[10] Their live and interview "banter" is always off-the-cuff, with Murray insisting that the thought of ever rehearsing or reusing material makes him "cringe".
"[2] "Honorary Scientist" Max Hart performed guitars and keyboards with the band during their Brian Thrust Mastery era, and has sporadically featured at live shows since then as well as producing their albums Helter Seltzer and Megaplex.