The Extra Action Marching Band is an American musical group loosely based on the American

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, ...

construct. The instrumentation is entirely

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

and one modified bullhorn. At performances, provocatively flamboyant

cheerleaders Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

with

pom-pom A pom-pom – also spelled pom-pon, pompom or pompon – is a decorative ball or tuft of fibrous material. The term may refer to large tufts used by cheerleaders, or a small, tighter ball attached to the top of a hat, also known as a ...

s and flags engage the audience.

"There's really no need to introduce the Extra Action Marching Band: The Bay Area institution has been crashing parties, invading bars, and blowing minds with its signature "high school marching band on acid" punk-meets-Sousa bombast for years now. The tuba players, flag team, and percussion section take perverse delight in twisting the staid conventions of their respective forms, and it can be downright disorienting to spot a sexy trombone player." - Hiya Swanhuyser –
SF Weekly ''SF Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards ...
2005

History

Simon Cheffins of the San Diego–based

Crash Worship Crash Worship or ADRV (''Adoración de rotura violenta'', Spanish for "crash worship") was a San Diego, California based experimental music and performance art ensemble formed in 1986. They were most renowned for live performances partly inspired ...

started Extra Action in 1999 after relocating to

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Since then, the band has expanded from a loose configuration of under a dozen to approximately 35 members. Perhaps the band's most ambitious (non musical) project was "La Contessa", a to-scale replica of a wooden Spanish seagoing galleon built around a school bus. The massive ship was burned to the ground in early December 2006 by Mike Stewart, a disgruntled Nevada resident who owned the land that La Contessa was being stored on.

Performance highlights

The band's musical styles and influences include the

Master Musicians of Joujouka The Master Musicians of Joujouka are a collective of Jbala Sufi trance musicians, serving as a modern representation of a centuries-old music tradition. The collective was first documented by Western journalists in the early 1950s, and was b ...

, funk, circus music,

New Orleans jazz New Orleans Jazz may refer to: * Dixieland, a style of jazz music (New Orleans Jazz) * * New Orleans Jazz (NBA team), professional basketball team that relocated and became the Utah Jazz *New Orleans Jazz football club New is an adjective referri ...

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped de ...

, and gypsy music from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, wh ...

. The group has often appeared uninvited at corporate events, protests, marches, weddings, and other public occasions. They appeared unexpectedly at a

book signing Book signing is the affixing of a signature to the title page or flyleaf of a book by its author. Book signings are events, usually at a bookstore or library, where an author sits and signs books for a period. Book signing Book signing is pop ...

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

, which impressed Byrne so much that he invited them as an

opening act A opening act, also known as a warm-up act, support act, or supporting act, is an entertainment act (musical, comedic, or otherwise), that performs at a concert before the featured act, or "headliner". Rarely, an opening act may perform again a ...

for various performances in California. Other performance highlights include stopping at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018. The Hollywood Bowl is known for its disti ...

, and later sloshing through three inches of toilet water that covered the entire floor of the San Diego club the Casbah. A tour of the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

re-created

's heavy-metal

debut Debut or début (the first public appearance of a person or thing) may refer to: * Debut (society), the formal introduction of young upper-class women to society * Debut novel, an author's first published novel Film and television * ''The De ...

, with plain ole heavy eXtreme Elvis on vocals. After these performances, Extra Action performed at other large venues such as the

Download Festival Download Festival is a British-created rock festival created by Terrance Gough, held annually at the Donington Park motorsport circuit in Leicestershire, England (since 2003); in Paris, France (since 2016); at Parramatta Park, Sydney (since 2 ...

(U.S. version), where they performed on stage with

Modest Mouse Modest Mouse is an American rock band formed in 1992 in Issaquah, Washington, and currently based in Portland, Oregon. The founding members are lead singer/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. Strongly influenc ...

and

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member ...

, as well as the

Fusion Festival The Fusion Festival is a music and arts festival with a countercultural character. It takes place at a former military airport called Müritz Airpark in Lärz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in northeastern Germany. The festival name is often depicte ...

(Germany) and the

Rock for People Rock for People (RfP) is a large open-air summer rock festival in the Czech Republic. The festival began in 1995 in the town of Český Brod, and in 2007 it was moved to an unused airport in Hradec Králové. Headlining acts have included Muse, ...

festival (Czech Republic) in 2007, and festival I.D.E.A.L. in France (2008), to name a few. However, the band is most at home in small to medium-sized venues where they can get up close and personal with the audience (often spending more time in the audience than on stage). Sex and sensuality play a key role in this group's dynamic and stage (as well as floor) presence. Also of note is the manner in which the band uses "military-style" formations to careen through, corral, and otherwise manipulate its audiences.

Press Quotes

"Witness them perform and they don't as much walk on stage as storm it . . .Their music has been described as a fusion of Balkan brass and New Orleans funk, which references circus themes and Black Sabbath's first album." -

Dazed & Confused (magazine) ''Dazed'' (''Dazed & Confused'' until February 2014) is a bi-monthly British style magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature. Dazed is published by Dazed Media, an independent media group known for producing ...

"When they marched onto the stage at Shoreline Amphitheater to join Arcade Fire (after crashing the women's room) at last year's Download Festival — ragtag horn and drum corps ripping through a few numbers as the flag girls and boy bumped and grinded in blond wigs and glittery G-strings — you realized what was really missing from indie at this performance, at so many performances: sex appeal. Theater. A drunken mastery of performance and the dark arts of showmanship, along with the sense of team spirit linked to so much marching band imagery bandied about in today's pop." - SF BAY GUARDIAN

Tours

West Coast 2015: Portland OR, Eugene OR, Olympia WA, Honk! Fest in Seattle WA East Coast 2014: NYC, Kingston East Coast 2013: NYC, Mermaid Parade, an Abandoned Subway Station Europe 2012: Germany, Switzerland Europe 2007: NYC, the Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Italy East Coast 2006: New York, Asbury Park, Boston, Providence East Coast 2005: Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, some hippy festival somewhere in Connecticut, Providence, New York, Europe 2004: the Netherlands, Germany, Czech, Guča Festival in Serbia, Austria Playing Black Sabbath's first album with Extreme Elvis 2003: New Orleans, Fort Worth, Austin, Phoenix, Las Vegas, LA, San Francisco

Recordings and DVDs

* The Triumph of Fascination (EP) * Live on Stubnitz Recorded Live on the Motorship Stubnitz * The Burning Wigs of Sedition Burning Wigs on IMDB
/ref> * Extra Action in Euroland documentary of Europe tour 2004

References

External links

Official Web Site

Extra Action at Guca Brass Festival
*Glasgow Times "Brass Bells" 4/27/2007
Dazed and Confused "Extra Action Marching Band" 1/01/2007
{dead link, date=November 2017 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
SF Bay Guardian
*Spin Magazine "Blood on the Sousaphone" 2/1/2006 *https://web.archive.org/web/20070927184957/http://www.noisepop.com/2007/artist_profile.php?artist=98 *http://entertainment.signonsandiego.com/profiles/events/278355 American marching bands American brass bands Musical groups established in 1998