Biography
Wesleyan music graduate Charlie Looker, a deconstructionist on modern guitar, first accumulated experience in experimental outfits including ZS, Ocrilim alongside Mick Barr, and Dirty Projectors. He launched the solo project Extra Life in 2006, channeling his ZS background toward song-based material by issuing a three-song CD-R EP on FNR Show Releases. Local gigs around New York City soon followed, along with a short three-week tour through the East Coast and Southern United States that placed him onstage with Dan Deacon, the Dead Science, Parenthetical Girls, and Nat Baldwin. In early 2008 Looker recruited bassist Tony Gedrich of Archaeopteryx, drummer Ian Antonio from ZS, keyboard and tenor sax player Travis Laplante of Little Women, and violinist Caley Monahon-Ward connected to Nat Baldwin; the group then toured in February and March as Extra Life’s first full band. Debut album Secular Works arrived that May on Planaria Recordings and was succeeded by two Sockets releases: a solo acoustic guitar EP and a split 7" with Nat Baldwin.
Albums
