EXTRA LIFE

winter

2011-12-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

We're still chipping away at this new record. Definitely in the homestretch. Working out label plans. You'll see... You'll all see.

a show

2011-09-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

Return

2011-08-11T07:58:00.000-07:00

Back from tour. Very solid overall. Parenthetical Girls are better than ever, wonderful new line up. Brother Sam Mickens inspired us night and day. Thanks to everyone who came out. Extra special thanks to younger fans and to anyone from smaller towns who drove a ways to see us. Feels real, feels good.

Parenthetical Girls / Extra Life split 12" single is now available for mail order from Last Things. No cover art, just straight Spartan wax in sleeve. Order now, if you like.

Now we're back home, mostly working on recording what will be the next full-length. It includes the brand new songs we've been playing live. No shows booked until October, although some last minute NY may happen.

the tumbrel wheel creaks,

C

BLOOD OATH TOUR U.S.

2011-06-25T12:01:00.001-07:00

We never learn apparently. Big U.S. tour in July! What's special this time is that for the entire journey we'll be joined by the unreal Sam Mickens, performing his brand new solo music. Sam is the longtime frontman of the Dead Science, the Sam Mickens Ecstatic Showband & Revue, and he also plays in Xiu Xiu. Also, on the west coast we'll be joined by our good friends Parenthetical Girls. Those dates are marked with an * .

Speaking of Parenthetical Girls, we'll have for sale the limited edition P Girls / Extra Life 12" split single. No cover art just straight wax. It includes P Girls' cover of "Head Shrinker" and EL's cover of "I Was the Dancer". It's a split release between Slender Means Society and Last Things.

As for kickstarter prizes: I just have to bind the scores and make the mixes and I can get them out this week!

7/3 Allston, MA @ Great Scott
7/5 Biddeford, ME @ The Oak and the Ax
7/6 Montreal, Quebec @ La Sala Rosa
7/7 Toronto, Ontario @ Double Double Land
7/8 Ypsilanti, MI @ Woodruff's
7/9 Chicago, IL @ Situations (2202 N Milwaukee)
7/10 Minneapolis, MN @ Medusa
7/11 Lincoln, NE @ Bourbon Theatre
7/12 Denver, CO @ Rhinoceropolis
7/15 Seattle, WA @ Cairo Gallery
7/16 Seattle, WA @ Hi Line *
7/17 Portland, OR @ Holocene *
7/19 San Francisco, CA @ Hemlock Tavern *
7/20 Oakland, CA @ Lobot Gallery *
7/21 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo *
7/22 San Diego, CA @ Tin Can Gallery
7/23 Riverside, CA @ Alladin Jr.
7/24 Phoenix, AZ @ Trunk Space
7/25 El Paso, TX @ the Percolator
7/27 St. Louis, MO @ LEMP Arts
7/28 Cincinnati, OH @ Mockbee's
7/29 Cleveland, OH @ Now That's Class
7/30 Brooklyn, NY @ 285 Kent

Last Things update

2011-05-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

To any NY friends, June 11 is the Last Things showcase at Zebulon. It's free, you should all come!

Speaking of Last Things : the remaining Ripped Heart vinyls from our tour are right now in mail to the U.S. and they'll arrive mid-week. So by week's end all the orders will finally be shipped out. Kickstarter donors, your packages will include the prizes, except for the melisma essay :(

I know these ongoing delays are a drag but when I think about it, there's no other way it could be.. Thanks for your patience and support! xo

European tour dates and ripped art

2011-02-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

hi everyone,

This April tour of Europe will be short but very sweet. A nice handful of shows will be with Deerhoof which I'm truly excited about, plus we're revisiting some of the most welcoming places from last tour. Swiss ladies, set your cuckoo clocks...

18.04.2011 Ceske Budejovice (CZ) Ostinato Festival @ Velbloud
19.04.2011 Leipzig (DE) Conne Island w/ Sons of Noel and Adrian
20.04.2011 Belfort (FR) Impetus Festival w/ Deerhoof
21.04.2011 Metz (FR) Les Trinitaires w/ Deerhoof
22.04.2011 Delemont (CH) SAS
23.04.2011 Lausanne (CH) Impetus Festival w/ Deerhoof
24.04.2011 Schorndorf (DE) Manufaktur w/ Deerhoof
25.04.2011 Bielefeld (DE) AJZ w/ Liturgy
26.04.2011 Brussels (BE) Magasin 4 w/ OvO
27.04.2011 Orleans (FR) L’Atelier
28.04.2011 Paris (FR) Point Ephemere w/ Rien
29.04.2011 Cherbourg (FR) Festival La Terra Trema
30.04.2011 Nantes (FR) Les Ateliers de Bitche
01.05.2011 Lyon (FR) Africantape Festival

And here is what Ripped Heart will look like, artwork courtesy of the infinitely awesome Caroline Teagle :

It comes out on April 6 on my own brand-new label LAST THINGS (12" vinyl and U.S. digital) and on April 5 on the lovely LOAF Recordings (EU digital). You can pre-order the vinyl already from Last Things.

See you, I hope!

Charlie

Return of Extra Life

2011-01-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

We're back to performing this Saturday. We get to feel human again. First show as the new trio, with Caley on guitar and myself on synth, Nick "Drums" Podgurski still on the throne. Much of the set is completely new, including some never-performed Ripped Heart EP material and also some even newer unrecorded songs. All three of these other bands on the bill are just fantastic.

Ripped Heart comes out in April digitally on LOAF Recordings. Four new songs. A very limited vinyl edition will be issued on my own nascent label Last Things Records, which doesn't even have a website yet. Along with the vinyl purchase we'll be offering a free download of a remix EP featuring remixes by Xiu Xiu, Former Ghosts w/Sam Mickens, Laurel Halo and Liturgy.

Some kind of touring will happen in April, not sure whether US or EU. Plans are still coming together but we'll definitely be back on the road a good amount in 2011. Fuck a job!

Charlie

kickstarter prizes

2010-11-07T11:37:00.000-08:00

hey everyone,

So we are just about finished recording the Ripped Heart EP. We're excited. It should be out on LOAF Records in March. I just wanted to let everyone know that the prizes for the kickstarter pledges will be sent out around mid-December. I know this is really delayed but things have been too hectic. Thanks again to everyone who helped. We really got to stretch our legs in the studio and layer all kinds of sonic madness without counting the minutes/pennies.

We've also been practicing a bunch as a trio, reworking some old songs and working on some brand new songs which will be on whatever our next full-length album is. We'll be back to performing in Jan or Feb and we'll be doing a lot of NY shows. Possibly some little tours in the spring too? Hope so. We'll talk to our bosses...

xo,

Charlie

general update

2010-09-07T07:26:00.000-07:00

hayyy,

Thought I'd give everyone a little catch-up. First, the Kickstarter campaign exceeded its goal almost immediately. Extra Life fans are amazing. There are still 19 days left for the campaign so if anyone feels like throwing even more money at us, we wouldn't say no. But anyway let me extend immense gratitude to everyone who pledged.

We're on break from shows until the end of the year. This is so we can rehearse brand new material, and also work on recording the Ripped Heart EP. That will come out on LOAF early next year. We will strive to make it worthy of the generosity funding it.

Other news: Tony is no longer in the band. He has obviously been really important to Extra Life since the very beginning. But it's for the best now. We're actually not looking for a new bassist. Instead, the next phase will be a trio with Nick and Caley. I'll be holding down the low end with synth. Caley will still play some violin, but it turns out he's also a sick sick guitarist! So he'll be doing that. Possibly a fourth member of some kind will come along at some point but having rehearsed as a trio, I'm really psyched about just doing that.

While we incubate the new line-up and record, I'll be playing shows in NY with my new project Seaven Teares, finally re-visiting Sculptress, playing with Period, and releasing a split EP of chamber music with Sam Hillmer of Zs.

xo

Charlie

Fund-Raising for next EP

2010-07-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

hi everyone,

We've launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for recording our next EP, tentatively entitled "Ripped Heart". It is to be released around the end of the year by the wonderful people at LOAF.

Donations start at just $10 but the prizes get cooler as you go up the scale. You can get all the info and make a donation here :

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1333907014/ripped-heart-the-next-extra-life-ep

Any and all support will be much appreciated! Much love,

Charlie

T-shirts

2010-06-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

I promise on all that is holy and profane that I will personally mail out ALL outstanding T-shirt orders tomorrow morning! I'm so sorry to everyone who's been waiting forever.

No EL shows for the summer. Yukon is touring in August. And I'm going to premier a new as-yet-unnamed project in August too.

oooh Jimmy Scott..

return

2010-06-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Didn't blog at all on this Euro trip. No pictures or anything. We were all just too caught up in "lived experience" to blog. As it should be! Also, driving stick shift on the wrong side of the road onto ferries was consuming most of our attentions.

Special love to Switzerland, France and Ireland for giving us such special love. XOXO!!!

Won't be touring for a while. Maybe some quick little things in the fall. But mostly we'll be busy recording a short EP of new songs for release at year's end, and also rehearsing even newer material for whatever the next full-length will be.

Look out for Yukon tours in late summer and fall.. New material is so ill.

Oh and New Yorkers, come see our Brooklyn return show on June 23. It's also the record release party for the Splayed Flesh remix EP, which doesn't come out officially until July 27 but come get a copy early.. This will be the last Extra Life show for a couple of months...

Travis, Twitter, T-Shirts

2010-05-04T21:22:00.000-07:00

hayyyy,

The brilliant, inimitable and totally single Travis Laplante won't be joining us on this European tour. It feels weird to say he's officially out of the band, but his commitments with Little Women have made it so that all current plans are without him. Who knows though, life is long. New Little Women record out now on Aum Fidelity btw.

Also I, Charlie, am now on Twitter. If you want to subject yourself to my thoughts, Chinese-Water-Torture-style, please come follow me.

Last week I sent out all the T-Shirts ordered so far. Apologies for the delay. I also grossly underestimated the shipping costs for international orders. The new international shipping price is $7. Enjoy the shirts!

See you Euro friends very soon.

Friday 4/30 "The Ladder" dance piece

2010-04-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow 4/30 at Hunter College, choreographer Mia Kang will be presenting a new piece set to "The Ladder". It's part of an evening entitled Moving Images which includes both dance and short films. The piece should be early in the program. Check it!

Friday April 30
Hunter College, Lang Hall
424 Hunter North
6 pm, free

Remix EP, split 12" and European tour dates

2010-04-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

Several great things happening in May. First, we're so excited to announce that Sockets Records and Planaria Recordings will be jointly releasing "Splayed Flesh", a CD EP featuring four remixes of Extra Life. The remixers are Tyondai Braxton (Battles), Caley Monahon-Ward (Extra Life), JG Thirlwell (a.k.a. Foetus), Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh)... I know! I can't wait for people to hear these. Each of the guys did something totally personal and deep with the material. The CD features an original drawing by Lauren Bahr, the wonderful artist who designed the new T-Shirts.

Also in May, Planaria will be releasing our split 12" single with Larkin Grimm . It will feature a studio recording of our cover of R Kelly's "Your Body's Callin' " and two new exclusive tracks by Larkin. Wonderful cover art by Sophia Dixon :

And third, we're touring Europe in May. Come see us! Tour dates are posted below. XOXO

5.14 Berlin (DE), Westgermany
5.15 Brno (CZ), Fleda
5.16 Krakow (PL), Klub Re
5.17 Zilina (SK), Stanica (acoustic duo)
5.18 Ljubljana (SI), Kino Siska
5.19 Faenza (IT), Clandestino
5.20 Luzerne (CH), Sudpol
5.21 Lausanne (CH), Le Romandie
5.22 Delemont (CH), SAS
5.24 Grenoble (FR), L’Amperage
5.25 Montpellier (FR), Baloard
5.26 Lyon (FR), Le Sonic
5.28 Allonnes (FR), La Péniche Excelsior
5.29 Poitiers (FR), Le Confort Moderne
5.30 Lille (FR), La Malterie
5.31 Stuttgart (DE), Schocken
6.1 Köln (DE), Kulturbunker
6.2 Bielefeld (DE), Bunker Ulmenwall
6.3 Brussels (BE), Les Ateliers Claus
6.4 Cardiff (UK), Cardiff Arts Institute
6.5 Dublin (IRL), Whelan’s
6.6 Belfast (UK), Crescent Arts Centre
6.7 Nottingham (UK), Spanky Van Dyke's
6.8 Newcastle (UK), Star and Shadow
6.9 Hull (UK), The Adelphi
6.10 London (UK), Corsica Studios
6.11 Rotterdam (NL), Poortgebouw

T-Shirts and vinyl

2010-04-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

You can now order Extra Life T-shirts through this blog! There are two different shirts, check them out on the sidebar. Orders might take around three weeks because I hate the post office and I want to let orders build up before I go.. Please add $2 for shipping.

Also, Made Flesh is now officially out on CD on LOAF and on vinyl on AfricanTape .

xo

tour diary 3 with mixtape

2010-03-22T23:09:00.000-07:00

So much so much. Already we're in Pittsburgh and almost home. Crazy. This tour really killed and I'm not just trying to be positive because why would I do that? First of all, here's that mix of van jams :

1. Tones on Tail - "Happiness"
2. Legendary Pink Dots - "The Shock of Contact"
3. Cool Memories - "Into the Blue"
4. Eurhythmics - "The Walk"
5. Sinead O' Connor - "Jerusalem"
6. Julien Cope - "Shot Down"
7. Love and Rockets - "Motorcycle"
8. Christian Death - "Figurative Theater"
9. The Jesus Lizard - "Slave Ship"
10. Agolloch - "Dead Winter Days"
11. Caustic Resin - "People Fall Down"
12. Lungfish "Love is Love"
13. Two Ton Boa - "Bleeding Heart"

DOWNLOAD VAN MIX 1

Also some diary recapping:

LA : Stayed with this deeply sweet guy Eric, his wife Laurin and their baby Mason who jammed with me on the piano.

Eric is a real serious supporter of a certain circle of bands, our friends. His place was a real oasis.

As for the show, Jesus Makes the Shotgun Sound are an awesome band! Really funny soulful guys too. I was supposed to roll with this lady that night but she wound up sticking with her boyfriend so I ended up with the Jesus Makes dudes in their van getting into some more chemical romance instead. We were parked three cars behind the Extra Life van but my bandmates thought I had ditched them so they peeled off and a high speed car chase ensued.

San Diego : We played and hung out with the wonderful Vaginals. They introduced us to several different seafood burritos and to this totally incredible, intense person named Bill Wesley. He's a 50-something instrument inventor who has created this wild arsenal of what he calls Array Instruments. The illest of these was the Nail Violin, pictured below. It sounds somewhat synth like, very beautiful and hard to describe.

Bill is a wild thinker and inspiring speaker. He's something of a local legend in San Diego, and his instruments and ideas are now spreading across the world.

Phoenix and El Paso : Past Lives are so great! The caliber of bands we've played with on this tour is really unusually high.

Tucson: Xiu Xiu dude. Like I really need to post a link! I love this band so much. New songs kill, the new lady Angela kills. You know, it's been really cool to play to these younger crowds, real teenagers. They're actually not more awkward than adults, they just haven't built up a bunch of ridiculous shit to hide their awkwardness yet. The main thing is, they actually need music.

St. Louis : Playing at LEMP is always a very substantive experience. Mark, the guy who runs it, is a serious musician, teacher and person. Lots of community outreach going on there. He hipped me to this counter tenor Phillippe Jarrousky :

I'm not the biggest opera buff myself in general, but it's great to check out who's at the top of the game. I can get into Baroque opera, Monteverdi, etc.

Oh god I also just read the most gorgeous and powerful novel I've read since I can remember: The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to find Mishima. You all may have read this when you were fifteen. This book is the most brutal and elegant articulation of love, loneliness, manhood, death and just the human condition in general. I'm not exaggerating.

Also as a touring musician I related a lot to Mishima's picture of the sailor's condition. Tour is in every way the opposite of normal life. It's just so intense, no matter how many times you do it: Waking up in a different place every morning, driving for hours, eating the worst food, getting on stage, shattering your soul apart and blasting the shards in people's faces, meeting a bunch of new amazing people, sleeping on a couch and then repeating every day for a month... After a month all I want to do is be home and dry, but the second I get back I'll want to go back out again. I don't know if I'll ever have kids.

two-er dairy ketchup 2

2010-03-11T13:26:00.000-08:00

In Sacramento. All is lovely. Here is some recapping...

Detroit : Good warehouse show which turned into a raw techno party, very Detroit-ish. Douche vibes increased as the night went on. Some drunk guy called Tony a "hippie faggot" which has been really sticking in his craw, especially the hippie part which none of us understand.

Chicago : My favorite show so far. Empty Bottle, totally packed, the greatest sound as always. We played with some bands which everyone should check out. One was Cool Memories, very smooth and evil, with Sade and Badalamenti elements. Wonderful people too. I look forward to kicking it with them in the future. The other band was Tirra Lirra, also dark and wonderful. After the show two of us went off with these creepy girls and had a night which we thought was going to be creepy and awesome but turned out to be just creepy and lame.

Minneapolis : Killer. We left immediately after the show to get a headstart on a two-day 29-hour drive to Vancouver. It's fucking crazy but we do it every time. We all spun some really epic driving playlists. I'm going to post a link soon for an Extra Life van jams sampler. We have the best taste, especially Nick! The drives were productive too. I've been writing lyrics, Tony's been working on electronic solo music and Caley's been working on a Head Shrinker remix which is sounding sick.

Vancouver : Not exactly a packed show. Jiminy Cricket and his date left before we even finished The Ladder. But we had lovely hosts! I like the 'couv, whatever our draw may or may not be there.

Seattle : Two shows, both sick. The Northwest for us is the Metal Zone because Nate Carson hooks us up with all these great heavy people. We played with the brutal Trees and stayed with the guys from Lesbian who unfortunately couldn't play but were cool as hell. When I first walked into their house and I immediately saw a Gorecki string quartets CD laying on a workout bench and pornography plastering the walls, I felt truly at home.

Portland : Did I mention we love the Northwest? We ripped God knows how many sick records from Nate. Have you ever heard Two Ton Boa ??? whoooo boy we've been freaking out about them.

SF : People are psyched here! So are we. We rocked with Ora Cogan and Chelsea Wolfe, both killer. Check em.

okok food and coffee now! xo

tour diary catch up

2010-02-27T13:05:00.000-08:00

Tour has been pretty lovely and lively. Here are some highlights so far:

Providence : The fish and chips slayed. Tinsel Teeth spat fake blood all over the place and the singer took her tits out. She had a David Yow vibe but she was a blazing hot girl, which maybe defeats the purpose? Anyway they did bring it. Then we all smoked salvia and space/time became either rays of meat or coral patterns between the bristles of a giant brush, depending on which one of us you asked.

Kittery Maine : The clam shack was closed when we rolled up but we wound up getting seafood for breakfast the next morning. It slayed even more than the Providence fish. We're all about regional cuisine on this tour. The show put me in a fantastic mood mostly because of our friend Al's Morrissey cover band, Morrissey Practice. They had really done their homework with the detailed keyboard parts. They actually focused more on mid period solo Moz and I realized I need to re-buy Kill Uncle NOW!

Montreal : Poutine rules. It's like all they eat up there. It's fries with gravy and cheese curds. Kind of like disco fries but the curds are a little sour and way more interesting. Elfin Saddle are wonderful, check them out.

Toronto : Chinese food is good in Toronto. Turnout wasn't huge at the show but the standard tiny group of awesome kindred spirit freaks were really psyched. We crashed at this loft where they were throwing this huge magazine launch party with all these coked-out ghouls gone wild. We lurked in the corner and got drunk with this guy we met named Tommy Toast, an older ex-bike messenger guy from next door. He kept talking about this cooking show he's starting where he's going to chop everything with a chainsaw. He tried to bring his chainsaw into the party but it got confiscated by this dapper guy who looked way less tough than him. I wish I got a picture!

Ann Arbor : Lost control of the van and drove off the road on the way! No one was hurt and the van is fine. We weren't going very fast at all but this ice is brutal. I'll say, losing control of a vehicle at any speed is the SCARIEST fucking feeling. AAA rules. We made it to the show, a really nice college party vibe. It was the birthday party for our friend Josh of the truly fantastic band Our Brother the Native . I'm happy about some shorter drives the next few days..

"Head Shrinker" video

2010-02-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

We leave for tour tomorrow! So sick! We haven't actually gone out in almost a year! The bootleg dream still lives!

Also here's the video for "Head Shrinker"! It was made with the Peking production team, the greatest dudes. The video may be cut off at the edge here because I don't know how to make the html table thing wider. Whatevz, check this...

Grasping at the Wind

2010-02-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

It has become totally clear that I need something more in my life or I will never feel ok. It's not clear exactly what it is. It's clear that it definitely isn't:

- weed and/or alchohol
- dark sex
- good reviews of the new record / increased myspace profile views
- "Love", as marketed by this stupid depressing holiday today

It's not blogging either so what the fuck. All is vanity. NTBD!

Anyway...

... "that's nothing, you should hear me play pee-a-noh"

2010-02-07T19:01:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention... Travis won't be joining us on this upcoming tour. He's still officially in the band but he won't be playing with us 100% of the time. We're lucky to have him when we can! So what that means is I'll be playing a lot of synth on the this tour, perhaps as much as guitar. Sucks not to roll with Travis but I will enjoy playing keys, my first instrument.

Travis is going deeper and deeper with Little Women. They have a new record coming out in May on Aum Fidelity. Awesome, right? I just saw them completely lay waste to this crust punk house in Bushwick. I've never seen Rudimentary Peni or whatever, but I doubt they're as ill live as Little Women.

Made Flesh isn't even out yet and already we're being called pretentious hipster faggots. I don't get it, what's our "pretension"? We're dorks. I thought we were clear about that.

Speaking of people who often face similar cynical slurs (but maybe for way different reasons) check out the new video from one of my favorite bands around!

tour, record, more

2010-02-03T16:43:00.000-08:00

Ok there are so many things not to be darque about right now... First, Made Flesh comes out on March 30. CD on Loaf and LP on African Tape It looks like this:

I know it's already spi-li-li-lilled all over the internet, but such is the promiscuity of information today. We would be psyched if you would pay for it, and you'll be psyched to get the cover art and lyrics. Plus we can't download food, an apartment or dick cream for free yet so it's only fair!

Secondly, the video for "Head Shrinker" will be done in the next week.

And third, we're touring the states in Feb/March. We are playing with many truly sick bands. Come and see us! Here are the dates:

2/20 NEW YORK, Death By Audio w/ Silk Flowers, Pink Reason and M Lamar
2/22 PROVIDENCE, Machines with Magnets w/ Bellows and Tinsel Teeth
2/23 KITTERY ME , Buoy

2/24 MONTREAL , Green Room w/ Elfin Saddle

2/25 TORONTO , Teranga w/ Brides

2/26 ANN ARBOR , Arbor Vitae w/ Our Brother the Native

2/27 DETROIT, Division Gallery w/ Deastro

2/28 GRAND RAPIDS, Daac

3/1 CHICAGO, Empty Bottle w/ Tirra Lirra

3/2 MINNEAPOLIS, 7th St Entry w/ Vampire Hands, To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie

3/4 VANCOUVER, Honey Lounge

3/5 SEATTLE, Comet Lounge w/ Lesbian and Sean

3/6 SEATTLE, Josephine w/ Trees and Bill Horist

3/7 PORTLAND, Ground Kontrol w/ Trees and Hot Victory

3/9 SAN FRANCISCO, Hemlock Tavern w/ Ora Cogan

3/10 SACRAMENTO, The Hub w/ Appetite and Afternoon Brother

3/11 OAKLAND, 21 Grand w/ Religious Girls

3/12 IRVINE, UC Irvine

3/13 LOS ANGELES, Echo Curio w/ Jesus Makes the Shotgun Sound

3/14 SAN DIEGO, Radio Room w/ Vaginals and Witt

3/16 TUCSON, Solar Culture w/ Xiu Xiu

3/17 PHOENIX, Trunk Space w/ Past Lives

3/18 EL PASO, Dominic's Piano Bar w/ Past Lives

3/20 ST LOUIS, Lemp Arts

3/21 CINCINNATI, CS13

3/22 PITTSBURGH, Garfield Artworks

3/23 CLEVELAND, Now That's Class

3/26 BALTIMORE, Windup Space

3/27 NEW YORK, Silent Barn w/ Skeletons, Nine Eleven Thesaurus and Zs

No sxsw. I think that may just not be our vibe? Anyhoo, we hope to see you in your town.

music is the healing force in the universe

2010-01-22T22:34:00.000-08:00

No deep news. I"m hammered. I was feeling very lonely and depressed earlier today but I listened to a bunch of music and drank like 90 old fashioneds and now I'm feeling "better". Ever heard this band Paper Chase??? I barely just stumbled upon them and I think they are awesome. I'm also feeling Zola Jesus right now. Check her out.

Also fuck around with YUKON! This is the Baltimore band of Nick Podgurski, the Extra Life drummer. They are awesome and different! Fuck around. They'll have a new record in April and are doing a big tour.

Extra Life U.S tour in March will be awesome. Euro tour in May will likewise be deepp..

Music makes people feel better. That's the point. It's really pretty simple. I'm going to sleep, enough is enough... xoxoxo

RE... SPECT.... WALK... (youtalkintame?)

2010-01-18T19:47:00.001-08:00

You know what I'm not down with? A soundguy getting on the PA and telling me I have ten minutes left. That makes sense to do if a band is alread running way over time. It also makes sense if the band is high school kids at a talent show. It doesn't make sense to pull that shit with me.

This happened last week at an Extra Life show at Union Pool (packed btw) and, prompted by these feelings plus the fact that I hadn't gone to sleep the night before, I told the soundman how I felt. He immediately kicked us off the stage and everyone at the show was all ~weirded out~ by the fact that I wasn't more chill about it. I know, God forbid someone has a BAD VIBE, that's like soooo not the chill positive 00's indie vibe brah...

It's a respect issue. If you actually take music seriously you can let the band go literally 2 or 3 minutes over time without trying to pull rank on me. It's like people want to act like these down-to-earth Brooklyn rock scene dudes and work at a club but really they're anal conservative business dicks who are scared of their bosses and don't even respect musicians.

Plus this is the same venue that wouldn't let me add on the bill M Lamar because they found him "hard to listen to".... We'll be sharing the bill with him at Death By Audio on Feb 20. He rules.

my chymical romance

2009-12-19T18:22:00.000-08:00

This girl I was dating was making fun of me for sincerely liking this band. We aren't dating anymore.

I'm dating a seventh-grader now and our tastes mesh way better. Seriously though, no iro, this band rules. Do you think they are actual practitioners of the Great Work?

poison darts

2009-12-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

This Saturday Dec 12, the new music ensemble Yarn/Wire is doing the first performance of "Poison Darts", a percussion duo piece I wrote back in 2006. The percussionists are Ian from Zs and Russell from Hi Red Center and obviously they're going to kill it. I wrote the piece when I was in a very obsessive workaholic phase and it will be vibrant with that refined masochism at the heart of "classical" music. I'm psyched. Oh it's happening at the Stone in NYC, corner of Ave C and 2nd st, 8:00 pm, $10. They'll also be performing some other piece which I'm sure will be great.

About to track more vocals... Warming up my pipes to Morrissey "Your Arsenal". This man never sang a single note I didn't love.

Made Flesh

2009-12-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

dear friends, fans, music scholars, secret Christians, psychicks and people with sex issues,

Now I blog. Boom, it's happening... This blog will be about Extra Life, my other projects, and activities of my friends. Oh-Ten is going to be truly ill. Many many things will be going down.

The big thing now is we're in the middle of making a new album . I don't want to give away too many details just yet but it's called Made Flesh and it's coming out in March on LOaf Records. We just did a bunch of tracking with Colin Marston (the mad metallurgist behind Krallice, also now in the legendary Gorguts) and we're recording the rest of it with Caley. Lots of synth, layered guitar textures, noise and swirling falsehoods.

Oh and we're making a music video for the first single "Head Shrinker". It will feature a saxophone solo by this guy :

You will see what I'm talking about before long!