Extra Life - Pearls of a Crab
Pearls of a Crab is the sixth studio album from Extra Life, the main vehicle for New York City composer/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Charlie Looker. Formed in 2007, Extra Life plays a fusion of intense math rock, dark dramatic pop, modern classical composition, and early music, bridging the worlds of abstract art music and DIY post-punk musical culture. Looker was a founding member of NYC noise-chamber outfit Zs, frontman of industrial metal band Psalm Zero, a composer of chamber music, and a prolific collaborator with credits including Xiu Xiu, Dirty Projectors, Lingua Ignota, Tyondai Braxton, Darius Jones, the SEM Ensemble, M Lamar, John Zorn and many more.
Pearls of a Crab is an elegy for a dear friend of the band who tragically died in 2023. The seven songs span joyful celebrations of friendship, perversely goofy inside jokes, tender nostalgia, crushing regret, and horrifying meditations on time, violence, and absence. The lyrics are some of Looker's most direct, less intellectual or literary than much of his previous work. Sonically, the record includes some of the band's most concise rock/pop forms, alongside two highly challenging, long-form compositions rooted more in Contemporary Music. The collaborative string arrangements with violinist Timba Harris (of Secret Chiefs 3 and Kayo Dot) make this album the band's most wide-screen and lush. Extra Life's Pearls of a Crab is an idiosyncratic and eclectic, yet very direct processing of the two most universal human experiences, love and death.
Listen to the unmastered album here: https://bit.ly/extra-life-LP6-unmastered
Credits:
Charlie Looker: vocals, electric guitar, piano
Timba Harris: violin, viola, whistling
Toby Driver: electric bass
Cameron Wisch: drums
Additional players:
Rebecca McDaniel, Russell Greenberg: percussion
Hannah Al-Kharusy, TJ Borden, Kirin McElwain: cello
Greg Chudzik: contrabass
Izzy Thorn: whistling
Sarah Johnson, Stephanie Brooks, Linda Sherman: cheerleader vocals
Recorded and mixed Seth Engel at Ohmstead Studios
piano recorded by Marc Urselli at Eastside Sound
Mastered by ____
String arrangements written and recorded by Timba Harris
All music by Charlie Looker and Extra Life
All lyrics by Charlie Looker
Vibe Abyss Music ASCAP
