Citing a wide range of influences from Tom Petty to Elliott Smith, the Films quickly made a name for themselves on the local music scene, and began spreading the word through frequent touring in the South and West. The group's debut recording, a self-titled EP, was released by the independent Filter label in 2005, and they made their major-label bow a year later with a four-song EP Being Bored, issued by Reprise in the fall of 2006. Their relationship with Reprise proved to be short-lived, and the Films' first full-length album, Don't Dance Rattlesnake, came out on the European 7Hz label.

After moving from Charleston to Denver, the band pulled up stakes again, this time relocating to New York. They self-released their second album, Oh, Scorpio, in the summer of 2009 through a number of digital retailers. Meanwhile, singer Trent kept himself busy with a number of additional projects, including a self-titled acoustic solo album, a side project with Cary Ann Hearst named Shovels & Rope, and a series of collaborative songwriting sessions with Butch Walker, several songs from which wound up on Walker's 2010 album I Liked It Better when You Had No Heart. ~ Mark Deming