Extra Life

In 2007, I was surfing myspace.com and noticed Charlie Looker had a new band. Charlie had been in Zs, an outstanding experimental chamber rock group that also featured a few friends and classmates of mine. The first song I listened to was "I Don't See it That Way" from the Secular Works record. I was blown away, yes; but it would be more precise to say that what was most striking was, oh my god, this is exactly what I've been wanting to hear, only I didn't even know it. How did he know?  Somehow, I learned something about myself. Suffice it to say that from the very start, I was enthralled and enraptured.

I used to summarize their sound as "Medieval, math rock, Morrissey," which I felt captured the compositional style, humor/melodrama, and personal nature of the music. Today I would probably add to that the intense ritualistic repetitions of Swans. There is no doubt more one could say about all this. Power, I recall, was an important topic for Extra Life, which is bound up with the religious authority of Medieval liturgical music. One can also feel powerless when confronted with the immense sound of Swans at one of their concerts.

Over the years I went to as many Extra Life shows as I could and through that, found the opportunity to meet a lot of new and interesting people, check out new venues, and get to know what I considered to be some other pretty extraordinary music. I also enjoyed the low cover charges, cheap beer, and indoor smoking. You could say it became a bit of a lifestyle. It was certainly a very enjoyable way to get to know New York City and myself.

Today, I think the lasting feeling is actually one of gratitude. I just feel fortunate to have encountered music that I was so drawn to and to have had the opportunity to hear it performed regularly for very little money. Every performance felt like exactly the place I was supposed to be.

Somewhere around this time, I also started to feel old. I can clearly recall that Extra Life was one of the only things in my life at that time that brought about an unmistakable childlike feeling of excitement. Being excited about Extra Life felt like kind of automatic excitement I had when I was younger, and I began to realize that that doesn't just happen anymore. Extra Life was enchanting at a time in my life when I was becoming aware that that type of feeling was much, much harder to come by. So, yeah, at the end of the day, I'm just thankful!

Listening to and contemplating music is a personal matter and this is obviously no exception. When it comes to Charlie's music, your mileage may vary; I absolutely ate this shit up. All of Charlie's music exhibits a characteristic rigor I consider to be pretty credible and refreshing.

Here is a short analysis I wrote of a song called "Black Hoodie" for the October 2011 issue of Ear to Mind. It's a little cringy for me to look at now, but manages to avoid sucking utterly.

March, 2018