He was in Dirty Projectors, the most experimental indie band ever! Oh yes, Dirty Projectors, how they go!
Fuck that though, his own band Extra Life are at last count fifteen million times better, and their Made Flesh album last year was the kickass avant-math-pop record an American band had to make eventually.
Watching him and Toby Driver one-up each other over the next few years is going to be crazily exciting, even if Looker is more about the clean edges and Driver more about the swirly abstract neoclassical.
Spotify link to an adventure that you should all investigate here :)
And for those sans Spotify, here are a few trax (not all from the new one!)
^^^the simplest song on the album. beautiful though, and a nice entry-point
^^^from the previous album, an absolute blockbuster
^^^live version of the best track on Made Flesh
but I urge you to seek the album - it's best listened to in one go :)
― acoleuthic, Friday, 4 February 2011 05:27 (2 years ago) Permalink
Yes, this is an amazing band.
― Prick Squad (Ówen P.), Friday, 4 February 2011 05:43 (2 years ago) Permalink
btw here is their R Kelly cover. yes.
― acoleuthic, Friday, 4 February 2011 05:44 (2 years ago) Permalink
Would it also be cheeky to say that as a highly-accomplished art-pop auteur, with a knack for intricate melody and classical orchestration, and who released a killer record in 2010, Mr Looker is a 'close contemporary' of yours, Mr P? :)
― acoleuthic, Friday, 4 February 2011 05:48 (2 years ago) Permalink
plus he was in Zs, and they sound completely different since he left fwiw
― Dominique, Friday, 4 February 2011 06:01 (2 years ago) Permalink
he's probably better known as having been in Zs
lol xp w/dominique
― sarahel, Friday, 4 February 2011 06:02 (2 years ago) Permalink
Davek told me to listen to Zs earlier tonight - where's a good place to progress with them if I like New Slaves? Was Looker's stuff with them on a level with Extra Life?
― acoleuthic, Friday, 4 February 2011 06:06 (2 years ago) Permalink
i'd say it was better, personally.
― sarahel, Friday, 4 February 2011 06:07 (2 years ago) Permalink
Just listening to the New Slaves title-track now - sounds like the missing link between Zu and Orthrelm :D
need to sleep tho so more of this tomorrow...
― acoleuthic, Friday, 4 February 2011 06:12 (2 years ago) Permalink
eventually you will get around to listening to the Flying Luttenbachers
― sarahel, Friday, 4 February 2011 06:17 (2 years ago) Permalink
I did! They were pretty good. I'll return to them at some point when I don't have about 70 different things to check out at once :P
(In practice I'll probably give Destroy All Music a listen before long)
― acoleuthic, Friday, 4 February 2011 19:30 (2 years ago) Permalink
bump so I can ask DJ Mencap if he was this album's #1 voter in that poll
― acoleuthic, Monday, 7 February 2011 13:56 (2 years ago) Permalink
The new album is incredible. Streaming here: http://puregrainaudio.com/audio/extra-life-dream-seeds-soundcloud-album-stream
It's both less mathy and more mellow than the previous output, but the songwriting is possibly better than ever, and the guitars are still crunching like fuck. A truly itinerant, coherent and emotionally arresting experience. The vocal melodies and keyboards are at their most beautiful and all manner of games are played with the music's momentum; usually the songs build to climaxes, but never via the route you might expect.
And Blinded Beast is up there with Blackmail Blues and The Body Is True in their 'best song' stakes - the build! The harpsichord break! My god!
Gets extra marks because I'm a tutor, and the album is basically a concept piece about a teacher's nightmares
― once a week is ample, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
what's with this dude's voice. you expect a mumbling growlbox and you get a damn choirboy.
― frogbs, Friday, 12 October 2012 00:02 (8 months ago) Permalink
why do you expect that?
― sarahell, Friday, 12 October 2012 00:29 (8 months ago) Permalink
Good thing, too
― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 12 October 2012 00:35 (8 months ago) Permalink
the first song I heard was "Blackmail Blues". don't know if that's their heaviest (it certainly is on the album I have) but given the way it starts you expect some yelling. don't get me wrong. the vocals are the reason why I'm still listening to this over and over again
― frogbs, Friday, 12 October 2012 05:12 (8 months ago) Permalink
i was interviewing Nick Podgurski yesterday about his other projects and he brought up Extra Life, which i'd never even heard of! i guess it was off my radar because they're based in NY and his other bands are all based in Baltimore. pretty cool stuff, apparently they're playing their last show next month though.
― 2 Celloz (some dude), Thursday, 20 December 2012 21:11 (6 months ago) Permalink
alright I'm done with this band. dude sounds like Weird Al!!!
― frogbs, Thursday, 20 December 2012 21:16 (6 months ago) Permalink
looool
― 2 Celloz (some dude), Thursday, 20 December 2012 21:22 (6 months ago) Permalink
at first I thought it was amusing and even kinda cool but the final track on their last album changed my mind
― frogbs, Thursday, 20 December 2012 21:27 (6 months ago) Permalink
haaa that's great and otm.some dude you should go to see them. they are.. very divisive.
― you, your max is on fire (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 20 December 2012 22:54 (6 months ago) Permalink
yeah unfortunately the one last show left is in NYC so i prob won't. Nick is def one of my favorite drummers, though, saw his old band Yukon live a few times.
― 2 Celloz (some dude), Thursday, 20 December 2012 23:29 (6 months ago) Permalink