Stream new song "Righteous Seed" from Extra
Life here!
"Extra Life is a New York Band To Watch whose frontman, Charlie Looker, is an elementary school teacher with connections to Dirty Projectors, ZS, Mick Barr, Glenn Branca, and all sorts of other experimental-music heavyweights. They’ll soon release Dream Seeds, their third album, and it’s a fucked-up art-rock record that explores themes of dreams and children - territory that Looker seems uniquely qualified to map out." - Stereogum
In support of their upcoming new album "Dream Seeds" out April 10th on Northern Spy Records, New York avant-garde / post-industrial pop trio Extra Life are announcing a series of Record Release shows taking place this Spring around the Northeast (including a New York Record Release show May 4th at Brooklyn's St. Vitus Bar), followed by a full European tour in May and June.
Guests for the upcoming run of dates include Nat Baldwin, Feast of the Epiphany, Liturgy, Castevet, High Places and others, and serve as a prelude to the band's upcoming full Summer US tour to be announced shortly. Extra Life will also be premiering their new video for "Dream Seeds" single "First Song," also coming soon.
Extra Life Live:
USA
03/25/12 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Side Chapel *
04/06/12 Pawtucket, RI Machines with Magnets ^%
04/07/12 Allston, MA Gay Gardens ^
04/08/12 Amherst, MA Hampshire College
04/13/12 Baltimore, MD Windup Space ^
05/04/12 Brooklyn, NY St. Vitus Bar &
Europe
05/18/12 Leipzig Ut Connewitz Germany ~
05/19/12 Berlin Germany
05/20/12 Aalborg 1000 FRYD Denmark
05/21/12 Gothenburg Koloni Sweden
05/22/12 Oslo Klubbscenen, Chateau Neuf Norway
05/23/12 Stockholm Mother at DFB (Debaser Slussen) Sweden
05/24/12 Copenhagen KB18 Denmark
05/25/12 Bielefeld AJZ Germany
05/26/12 Frankfurt IVI Germany
05/27/12 Dresden Discorporate Germany
05/28/12 Wuerzburg Kellerperle Germany
05/30/12 London Old Blue Last United Kingdom
05/31/12 Brussels les Atelier Claus Belgium
06/01/12 Roubaix L’Ara / Alcatraz France
06/03/12 Lyon Sonic Lyon France
06/04/12 Montpellier Le Rockstore France
06/05/12 Geneva L’Usine Switzerland
06/06/12 Esslingen am Neckar Villa Merkel Germany
* = w/ Nat Baldwin
^ = w/ Feast of Epiphany
^% = w/ Feast of the Epiphany, Callers and Whorepaint
& = w/ Liturgy, Castevet and Mario Diaz de Leon
~ = w/ High Places, Shokei, Andy Dixon/Secret Mommy, and mOck. + a showing of “Wild Combination - A Portrait of Arthur Russell”
About Extra Life's "Dream Seeds"
“...scarily focused and ruthlessly complex in a postprog sort of way, [Extra Life] also flirts with a dark, sumptuous art-pop vibe. The end product is relentless, enveloping and frequently gorgeous.” -Time Out New York
"Looker presents a personal vision as bewildering as his resume... Everything here grates, and admirably so." - The Wire
“One might ask why we need art like this, art that produces dread and foreboding, art that violently pulls the audience out of themselves. In that very formulation, though, is the answer. Without this tension, without artworks that inspire it, we never leave ourselves. We are constantly stuck inside all the time. It’s only with the feeling that Made Flesh evokes that we can actually get a better view of ourselves and why we think like we do.” - Dusted Magazine
“Extra Life exudes an exuberant and visceral sound missing from many of the band’s artier peers, yet maintains a musical complexity and intelligence in every song... experimental groups should now be less concerned with big numbers than measuring up to what Extra Life has made.” - Washington City Paper
Northern Spy Records is proud to announce a multi record deal with crooner/multi-instrumentalist Charlie Looker, kicking off with the latest record from his prog-experimental outfit Extra Life.Charlie has been wowing fans worldwide with his guitar and vocal stylings for a decade now and the new record Dream Seeds, out April 10th, is no exception. Dark, twisted, intricate and rocking at the same time, the music presented here is top notch. The band will christen the new album with a record release show at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn on May 4th, a tour of Europe for the rest of May and into June and a jaunt across North America in July. Keep an eye for more projects from Charlie on NSPY soon.
Dream Seeds is the third full-length album from Brooklyn-based Art Rock provocateurs Extra Life, and the band’s first record for Northern Spy. With a pedigree including Zs, Dirty Projectors andDax Riggs, Extra Life have been dividing audiences since 2007 with their dark, unclassifiable fusion of Experimental, Pop, Industrial, Prog, Classical and even Medieval aesthetics. On several different levels, it marks a distinctly new direction in the band’s still-young yet prolific career.
This is Extra Life’s most clearly-defined concept album : seven songs on the twin themes of dreams and children. According to songwriter and elementary school teacher Charlie Looker, the lyrics began with a series of harrowing yet transformative nightmares, all involving little kids. These songs look to the subconscious and to the young, in search of innocence, morality and even prophecy.
Extra Life’s unique marriage of technical complexity and uncomfortable emotional catharsis is on full display throughout Dream Seeds. Fragile acoustic ballads find Looker’s falsetto quivering over plain acoustic guitar and sparse piano chords with subtle synth and string arrangements by guitarist/violinist Caley Monahon-Ward. Other tracks explode with grinding synth-bass, queasy guitar drones, feverish bellowing and Nick Podgurski’s labyrinthine drum assaults, like early Dead Can Dance covering Bartok. The LP’s entire second side is comprised of two mammoth compositions, where contemplative chant-like vocal melodies build to punishing Metal-doomed climaxes and shatter into hellish noise collage.
As with every Extra Life record, the journey traversed on Dream Seeds is meant to be difficult. Despite its borderline-Pop hooks and lyrical intimacy, Extra Life’s unapologetically ambitious, noise-torn melodic art makes zero concessions to the Indie-latte set, and remains firmly rooted in the experimental nether-regions of its origins.
For fans of: Scott Walker, Xiu Xiu, Kayo Dot, Zs, Mike Patton, Current 93
Extra Life is:
Charlie Looker : vocals, synth, acoustic guitar
Caley Monahon-Ward : electric guitar, synth, electronics, violin, backing vocals
Nick Podgurski : drums, synth, electronics, backing vocals
"Dream Seeds" Track List:
No Dreams Tonight
Righteous Seed
Discipline for Edwin
Little One
First Song
Blinded Beast
Ten Year Teardrop
For more information, visit:
extralifetheband.blogspot.com
www.northern-spy.com
"Extra Life is a New York Band To Watch whose frontman, Charlie Looker, is an elementary school teacher with connections to Dirty Projectors, ZS, Mick Barr, Glenn Branca, and all sorts of other experimental-music heavyweights. They’ll soon release Dream Seeds, their third album, and it’s a fucked-up art-rock record that explores themes of dreams and children - territory that Looker seems uniquely qualified to map out." - Stereogum
In support of their upcoming new album "Dream Seeds" out April 10th on Northern Spy Records, New York avant-garde / post-industrial pop trio Extra Life are announcing a series of Record Release shows taking place this Spring around the Northeast (including a New York Record Release show May 4th at Brooklyn's St. Vitus Bar), followed by a full European tour in May and June.
Guests for the upcoming run of dates include Nat Baldwin, Feast of the Epiphany, Liturgy, Castevet, High Places and others, and serve as a prelude to the band's upcoming full Summer US tour to be announced shortly. Extra Life will also be premiering their new video for "Dream Seeds" single "First Song," also coming soon.
Extra Life Live:
USA
03/25/12 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Side Chapel *
04/06/12 Pawtucket, RI Machines with Magnets ^%
04/07/12 Allston, MA Gay Gardens ^
04/08/12 Amherst, MA Hampshire College
04/13/12 Baltimore, MD Windup Space ^
05/04/12 Brooklyn, NY St. Vitus Bar &
Europe
05/18/12 Leipzig Ut Connewitz Germany ~
05/19/12 Berlin Germany
05/20/12 Aalborg 1000 FRYD Denmark
05/21/12 Gothenburg Koloni Sweden
05/22/12 Oslo Klubbscenen, Chateau Neuf Norway
05/23/12 Stockholm Mother at DFB (Debaser Slussen) Sweden
05/24/12 Copenhagen KB18 Denmark
05/25/12 Bielefeld AJZ Germany
05/26/12 Frankfurt IVI Germany
05/27/12 Dresden Discorporate Germany
05/28/12 Wuerzburg Kellerperle Germany
05/30/12 London Old Blue Last United Kingdom
05/31/12 Brussels les Atelier Claus Belgium
06/01/12 Roubaix L’Ara / Alcatraz France
06/03/12 Lyon Sonic Lyon France
06/04/12 Montpellier Le Rockstore France
06/05/12 Geneva L’Usine Switzerland
06/06/12 Esslingen am Neckar Villa Merkel Germany
* = w/ Nat Baldwin
^ = w/ Feast of Epiphany
^% = w/ Feast of the Epiphany, Callers and Whorepaint
& = w/ Liturgy, Castevet and Mario Diaz de Leon
~ = w/ High Places, Shokei, Andy Dixon/Secret Mommy, and mOck. + a showing of “Wild Combination - A Portrait of Arthur Russell”
About Extra Life's "Dream Seeds"
“...scarily focused and ruthlessly complex in a postprog sort of way, [Extra Life] also flirts with a dark, sumptuous art-pop vibe. The end product is relentless, enveloping and frequently gorgeous.” -Time Out New York
"Looker presents a personal vision as bewildering as his resume... Everything here grates, and admirably so." - The Wire
“One might ask why we need art like this, art that produces dread and foreboding, art that violently pulls the audience out of themselves. In that very formulation, though, is the answer. Without this tension, without artworks that inspire it, we never leave ourselves. We are constantly stuck inside all the time. It’s only with the feeling that Made Flesh evokes that we can actually get a better view of ourselves and why we think like we do.” - Dusted Magazine
“Extra Life exudes an exuberant and visceral sound missing from many of the band’s artier peers, yet maintains a musical complexity and intelligence in every song... experimental groups should now be less concerned with big numbers than measuring up to what Extra Life has made.” - Washington City Paper
Northern Spy Records is proud to announce a multi record deal with crooner/multi-instrumentalist Charlie Looker, kicking off with the latest record from his prog-experimental outfit Extra Life.Charlie has been wowing fans worldwide with his guitar and vocal stylings for a decade now and the new record Dream Seeds, out April 10th, is no exception. Dark, twisted, intricate and rocking at the same time, the music presented here is top notch. The band will christen the new album with a record release show at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn on May 4th, a tour of Europe for the rest of May and into June and a jaunt across North America in July. Keep an eye for more projects from Charlie on NSPY soon.
Dream Seeds is the third full-length album from Brooklyn-based Art Rock provocateurs Extra Life, and the band’s first record for Northern Spy. With a pedigree including Zs, Dirty Projectors andDax Riggs, Extra Life have been dividing audiences since 2007 with their dark, unclassifiable fusion of Experimental, Pop, Industrial, Prog, Classical and even Medieval aesthetics. On several different levels, it marks a distinctly new direction in the band’s still-young yet prolific career.
This is Extra Life’s most clearly-defined concept album : seven songs on the twin themes of dreams and children. According to songwriter and elementary school teacher Charlie Looker, the lyrics began with a series of harrowing yet transformative nightmares, all involving little kids. These songs look to the subconscious and to the young, in search of innocence, morality and even prophecy.
Extra Life’s unique marriage of technical complexity and uncomfortable emotional catharsis is on full display throughout Dream Seeds. Fragile acoustic ballads find Looker’s falsetto quivering over plain acoustic guitar and sparse piano chords with subtle synth and string arrangements by guitarist/violinist Caley Monahon-Ward. Other tracks explode with grinding synth-bass, queasy guitar drones, feverish bellowing and Nick Podgurski’s labyrinthine drum assaults, like early Dead Can Dance covering Bartok. The LP’s entire second side is comprised of two mammoth compositions, where contemplative chant-like vocal melodies build to punishing Metal-doomed climaxes and shatter into hellish noise collage.
As with every Extra Life record, the journey traversed on Dream Seeds is meant to be difficult. Despite its borderline-Pop hooks and lyrical intimacy, Extra Life’s unapologetically ambitious, noise-torn melodic art makes zero concessions to the Indie-latte set, and remains firmly rooted in the experimental nether-regions of its origins.
For fans of: Scott Walker, Xiu Xiu, Kayo Dot, Zs, Mike Patton, Current 93
Extra Life is:
Charlie Looker : vocals, synth, acoustic guitar
Caley Monahon-Ward : electric guitar, synth, electronics, violin, backing vocals
Nick Podgurski : drums, synth, electronics, backing vocals
"Dream Seeds" Track List:
No Dreams Tonight
Righteous Seed
Discipline for Edwin
Little One
First Song
Blinded Beast
Ten Year Teardrop
For more information, visit:
extralifetheband.blogspot.com
www.northern-spy.com
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