After doing time with experimental music outfits such as
ZS,
Ocrilim (with
Mick Barr), and
Dirty Projectors, Wesleyan music graduate and modern guitar deconstructionist
Charlie Looker struck out on his own in 2006 with his solo project
Extra Life. Taking cues from his past in
ZS into a more song-based direction,
Looker released a three-song CD-R EP on the FNR Show Releases label and quickly started playing out around the New York City area, as well as setting off on a brief three-week tour of the East Coast and the Southern United States, sharing stages with
Dan Deacon,
the Dead Science,
Parenthetical Girls, and
Nat Baldwin along the way. In early 2008,
Looker put together a cast of characters including bassist Tony Gedrich (Archaeopteryx), drummer Ian Antonio (
ZS), keyboard/tenor sax player
Travis Laplante (Little Women), and violinist Caley Monahon-Ward (
Nat Baldwin), and took to the road in February and March of that year on
Extra Life's first tour as a full band. Their debut full-length record, Secular Works, was released that May on Planaria Recordings, and was followed by two releases on Sockets, a solo acoustic guitar EP and a split 7" with
Nat Baldwin. ~ Corey Kahn