{"id":114317,"date":"2022-08-31T11:00:34","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T16:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/?p=114317"},"modified":"2022-08-31T08:13:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T13:13:30","slug":"reborn-from-the-flames-how-charlie-looker-brought-new-life-to-extra-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/reborn-from-the-flames-how-charlie-looker-brought-new-life-to-extra-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Reborn From the Flames: How Charlie Looker Brought New Life to Extra Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cLiving in the past is so depressing to me,\u201d\u00a0 says Extra Life<\/strong> vocalist, guitarist and composer Charlie Looker. He\u2019s on a Zoom call from his current home in Los Angeles, where he relocated from his longtime stomping grounds in New York City a few years ago. He\u2019s referring to his misgivings about the returns of bands that played a formative part in his own development as a virtuoso of eclectic musical weirdness, such as Faith No More<\/strong> and Godflesh<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt’s not even that most reunion things suck, because actually some of these reunions might even be good,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut I just don’t check them out even if my friends tell me they’re good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Despite his ambivalence about veteran bands striving to recapture their glory days, Looker found himself in 2022 resurrecting Extra Life, the group he originally formed in 2007 to play compositions that combined eerie chamber pop melodies, metallic grooves, math rock rhythms, liturgical polyphony and caustic lyrics. For <\/span>Secular Works, Part 2<\/span><\/i>, a reunion album explicitly positioned as a sequel to the group\u2019s debut, <\/span>Secular Works<\/span><\/i>, Looker needed to pull together a new lineup that would pick up the mantle.<\/span><\/p>\n The result is an impressive ensemble that features original member Caley Monahon-Ward on violin\/viola, Belgian drummer Gil Chevign\u00e9 of Helium Horse Fly<\/strong> and\u2014most notably for the readers of this Toilet-themed blog\u2014Kayo Dot<\/strong> main man Toby Driver on bass. Trumpeter Nate Wooley and hornist Michael Atkinson also put in appearances to help bring Looker\u2019s pieces to life in all their overwhelming sonic richness and forlorn majesty.<\/span><\/p>\n