Back when I would traverse the trash-littered roads of old Brooklyn, I would often find myself getting lost in one of the borough’s underground music spots: Shea Stadium, 285 Kent, The Silent Barn, Death By Audio, Glasslands, and so on. Now, of course, none of those gorgeous places exist. A forever FOAD to Vice and the previous New York City administrations who allowed rampant gentrification to tear apart a major chunk of the city’s colorful culture.
I mention these dearly departed venues because Extra Space is the kind of band I would have heard when stumbling in on a lark. Their new album New Colors – their second following 2024’s Green Season – especially has the kind of sound that would have grabbed my attention: Humble but energetic, hushed but urgent, restrained but intense. I can imagine myself transfixed on them playing on the small stages of these venues while I clutched my plastic cup of ginger ale in awe. (Note: These were all ages venues and therefore ginger ale was as hard a beverage as one could get.)
New Colors captures that live feeling in its eight tracks, especially the opening song “Never Wanted”, which begins with a count-off and a muted Midwestern emo-tinged riff and ends with a jam on that same riff that would obliterate any room. The recordings on New Colors retain a bit of grit: There is a touch of room noise, some natural reverb, a little fuzz on the mics, and some clipping on the drums. But none of that is to the detriment of the music, as might be the case on most records. The low fidelity brings comfort, like sitting on a well-worn couch and watching the band play in the corner of someone’s basement rather than surviving the chasms of Terminal 5, Irving Plaza, or – shudders – Madison Square Garden.
The band’s performances on New Colors match the production level: Musical, melodic, and technically imperfect. Again, that last characteristic does not bring down the overall quality of the record. Extra Space are not the kind of band dead-set on glossy production, auto-tuned vocals, or masterful instrumentals. Their focus remains on finding a synergy with each other and their listeners through any means necessary. If that means sounding a bit messy but natural instead of run to death through Pro Tools mastering algorithms, then so be it.
It makes sense that the band would choose cohesiveness of style over technical perfection: New Colors continues the growth that began with Green Season. The band says: “On the last record we did a lot of song sharing and contributing to/expanding upon each other’s written songs. But a chemistry was established and capturing that was paramount on this record. “New Colors” feels like the first real fruition of this project.”
In keeping up with that motion, Extra Space has focused the meaning of New Colors on “the perceptions of time and the nuance and “new colors” that give weight and beauty to the most seemingly ordinary moments”. One has to consider the intention of keeping the sound so raw and unrefined, yet so luxurious, like a rustic stew made from humble ingredients that fills your stomach and your soul. Each song sounds like a fleeting moment captured on tape, where the soundwaves sparkled in just the right way during the recorded performances and never again.
There’s a beauty in that: Extra Space welcomes free radicals in the air during the performance (or, as they say in “Babble”, “those small specks of dust you can only make out in the light.) Because of this ethereal aura, Extra Space make even their quietest performances sound large. Perhaps they would play songs from New Colors at a venue like Silent Barn or Market Hotel or Palisades. (Man, RIP to Palisades especially, and again a middle finger to Giuliani and Bloomberg for siccing MARCH on innocent cultural and social centers.) But because of how they’ve formed their chemistry with each other, Extra Space’s songs could fill the Garden and get tens of thousands of fans grooving. But a cozy club’s back room with a fire limit of fifty would feel just as nice. (As far as I know, Pete’s Candy Store is still around. I haven’t lived in Brooklyn for years, because – much like The Silent Barn – I got chased out because of the rent.)
For a gorgeous DIY listening experience, put Extra Space’s New Colors on your playlist. In fact, for a quick taste of these new colors, you can take a listen to “Never Wanted”, the album’s first track, below.
Written by Will Sisskind
