Tuesday 14 December 2010

Snow Soldiers, Farewell to DJ Illas, Release Update, Live Dates



Hey guys,

First of all we'd like to thank all the wonderful people who braved the cold, ice, and snow to make it to our last couple of gigs! It meant the world to us that so many of you turned up to the Hifi Club, Leeds and Bar 1:22, Huddersfield - and, not only did you turn up, you made both evenings absolutely rocking and a brilliant way to finish off the year!

For those of you who have not checked this vid yet or, are newly tuned to Extra Curricular, here's a little bit of what we've been up to this year:


-----FAREWELL TO DJ ILLAS-----


As we close the year we also bid farewell to one of our members as DJ Illas starts a new life in Australia this coming January. Over the past 15 months he has helped us shape our sound, rocked shows with us all over the country, and is featured on our studio tracks (release details soon to come!). We will miss him greatly, not only as a musician, but as a dear friend - we wish him every success in the future and will be, no doubt, hitting him up for some floor space in the coming years!

Check Illas' awesome series of mixes with long-time collaborator DJ Heritage here:



In case you are worried..... we have a new DJ joining the group - all will be revealed in the new year! :)

-----RELEASE NEWS-----

As well as a new member we will also have some lovely, new, shiny releases for you! We've been working so hard to get these recordings absolutely perfect and we now feel they are ready to be set free into the big bad world! More details to come in the new year but it's all gonna kick off with something FREE so make sure you've got your eyes peeled in January!

For those of you who haven't already grabbed our other FREE Extra Curricular tracks go HERE

-------LIVE DATES-------

January is going to kick off with a couple of ACOUSTIC dates in Harrogate and Huddersfield. Then, a gig we've been getting excited about since summer - Extra Curricular supporting the legendary Craig Charles at the Elbow Rooms on January 29th. Already very excited what the new year will bring for Extra Curricular!


The Blues Cafe (acoustic), Harrogate
9th January 2011, 3AM
The Barking Spider (acoustic), Huddersfield
28th January 2011, 20PM
The Elbow Rooms W/ Craig Charles, Leeds
29th January 2011, 21PM
Contact Theatre, Manchester
3rd February 2011, 20PM
Cardiff Arts Institute, Cardiff
12th February 2011, 20PM
Hoootanany , Brixton, London
19th February 2011, 22PM
Holmfirth Folk Festival, Holmfirth
7th May 2011, 18PM
Cosmic Boogie @ Nation Of Shopkeepers, Leeds
29th May 2011, 22PM
Sunrise Festival, Somerset
2nd June 2011, 16PM

I will probably post again before Christmas but EC hope you're all getting very festive :)

One Love,

JB
EC

Monday 22 November 2010

Acoustic Tracks, French Students Learn 'Rain' at school, The Throwout Volume 6


YES YES!,

Ok, got a bumper edition for you today with some great free music, news, and live show listings!

-----LIVE ACOUSTIC TRACKS-----

As you may or may not have seen we've been playing a couple of exclusive ACOUSTIC shows recently. This has been amazing for us to as we've all had fun reworking tracks, playing in new venues, and hitting new audiences. We recorded a few tracks from our show at Cafe Ollo for you to listen to:

LIVE (acoustic) @ Cafe Ollo by Extra Curricular

Keep your eyes peeled for more exclusive ACOUSTIC shows coming soon! We've also made some special acoustic recordings that will appear as extra tracks bundled with single releases next year :)

-----FRENCH STUDENTS LEARN 'RAIN'-----

We've recently been contacted by a teacher from France who has been using our song 'Rain' to teach students English Language, understanding our climate, and international development. Madame Gilbert used 'Rain' as a set text for pupils studying for the Baccalaureate (equivalent to A-levels) at the Lycee de Beauregard, Montbrison, near Lyon. She said:

I would like to say how much I enjoyed studying this song. The music is fun and varied, the singing is fantastic, and I really hope Extra Curricular enjoy a lot of success with their music.

Madame Gilbert also attached a picture of some of her students posing with umbrellas to signify the rain in the song:


As you can imagine we were totally surprised at the news! We are, however, mad excited about it - especially after she told us that it has caused a buzz in the French education system and may be taken up as a set text by more schools in the future; Extra Curricular by name and virtue :)

To listen to 'Rain' please visit http://www.extracurricularband.com and click 'audio'

-----THE THROWOUT VOLUME 6------

Our own DJ ILLAS and DJ HERITAGE have come through with another amazing FREE mix for y'all to download. It features some big tracks along with some special shouts from legends of the hip hop scene...



------LIVE SHOWS-----


The Hifi Club, Leeds
8th December 2010, 20PM
Bar 1:22, Huddersfield
10th December 2010, 21PM
The Blues Cafe, Harrogate
9th January 2011, 3AM
The Elbow Rooms W/ Craig Charles, Leeds
29th January 2011, 21PM
Contact Theatre, Manchester
3rd February 2011, 20PM
Cardiff Arts Institute, Cardiff
12th February 2011, 20PM
Hoootanany , Brixton, London
19th February 2011, 22PM
Holmfirth Folk Festival, Holmfirth
7th May 2011, 18PM
Cosmic Boogie @ Nation Of Shopkeepers, Leeds
29th May 2011, 22PM
Sunrise Festival, Somerset
2nd June 2011, 16PM

That's it for now, for the most up to date news and listings please visit http://www.extracurricularband.com

One Love,

JB
EC

Monday 25 October 2010

Video Fun, Upcoming Shows, Extra Curricular with Youngblood Brass Band.


Hey people,

Got some wicked shows to announce a bit later in this post but, first, I want to share something very special with you...

We've had an amazing few months as Extra Curricular - over summer we played a massive run of festival shows and also spent some quality time in some great studios doing some recording. We've put together a little video that documents some of this time - ENJOY :)



-------UPCOMING SHOWS--------

We've got some great shows coming up over the next few weeks:

Extra Curricular LIVE @ Marsden Mechanics, October 30th
Halloween special where we are going to do an extended set featuring old favourites and brand new material!

Tickets (and details) available from http://www.mikron.org.uk/tricknbeat.php

FB Event HERE


Extra Curricular LIVE @ The Wardrobe w/Youngblood Brass Band, November 5th
Extra Curricular support the mighty Youngblood Brass Band all the way from the States.

FB Event HERE

After that we've got....


Mr Wolfs, Bristol
12th November 2010, 21PM
The Wardrobe, Leeds
20th November 2010, 22PM
The Hifi Club, Leeds
8th December 2010, 20PM
Bar 1:22, Huddersfield
10th December 2010, 21PM
The Blues Cafe, Harrogate
9th January 2011, 3AM
The Elbow Rooms W/ Craig Charles, Leeds
29th January 2011, 21PM
Hoootanany , Brixton, London
19th February 2011, 22PM
Holmfirth Folk Festival, Holmfirth
7th May 2011, 18PM
Cosmic Boogie @ Nation Of Shopkeepers, Leeds
29th May 2011, 22PM


For up to date live shows and music check out http://www.myspace.com/extracurricularband


One Love,

JB
EC








Monday 11 October 2010

Manchester Academy, Acoustic Set and Session, Halloween Special


Yes y'all,

Ok, gonna get straight down to business this week:

-----EXTRA CURRICULAR AT MANCHESTER ACADEMY-----

First up, we've had a last minute booking to play at Manchester Academy Club Academy this coming Wednesday (13th October). The event is called Biko Live and it looks amazing! Appearing on the bill are Extra Curricular, Homecut, Chris Royal, and many other great artists. In addition to this there will be live dance, art, and DJs - gonna be a proper jam yo! We're ON STAGE at midnight, ENTRY is £4.

-----EXTRA CURRICULAR ACOUSTIC SET AND SESSION-----

We're doing a special, super-intimate acoustic set at The Media Centre, Huddersfield on 20th of October. We're really excited about this event because it gives you the opportunity to hear our songs in a completely different way! We've reworked songs to fit to this intimate setting, so expect to hear your favourite Extra Curricular music like you've never heard it before! Check the facebook event HERE

Media Centre (Cafe Ollo)
Doors 8pm
Entry £2

To celebrate this gig we've uploaded our BBC Introducing Acoustic Session (from Alan Raw's show) to Soundcloud for your listening pleasure:

Extra Curricular - live acoustic session on BBC Leeds by Extra Curricular

If you want a free download of this you can get from HERE along with many other freebies :)

------EXTRA CURRICULAR HALLOWEEN SPECIAL------


We're playing at Marsden Mechanics for Halloween this year! We love playing here because we're given a huge amount of time to play with - this means we can squeeze in those few extra songs :)

Check out the Facebook event HERE

Marsden Mechanics, October 30th
£7adv/£8otd
Doors 7.30pm

For tickets contact:
Marsden Mechanics 01484 844587
info@marsdenmechanics.co.uk

Mikron Box Office 01484 843701
info@mikron.org.uk

-------UPCOMING SHOWS------

Manchester Academy , Manchester
13th October 2010, 23PM
Cafe Ollo, Media Centre (acoustic), Huddersfield
20th October 2010, 20PM
Marsden Mechanics, Marsden
30th October 2010, 20PM
Mr Wolfs, Bristol
12th November 2010, 21PM
The Wardrobe, Leeds
20th November 2010, 22PM
The Hifi Club, Leeds
8th December 2010, 20PM
Bar 1:22, Huddersfield
10th December 2010, 21PM
The Elbow Rooms W/ Craig Charles, Leeds
29th January 2011, 21PM

One Love,

JB
EC







Friday 1 October 2010

Music Heroes, LIVE Rain video, We're Endorsed


Hey hey,

Still reeling from the awesomeness that was 'Melt' at the Doncaster Civic Theatre! Legendary trombone player Dennis Rollins had put together a spectacular bill featuring his own Velocity Trio, Pee Wee Ellis, Clare Teal, and Extra Curricular. It was a wonderful night with the venue being packed to the rafters and some crazy good music going down. For us as Extra Curricular we not only had the honour of sharing the stage with these musical legends, but had some of our genuine musical heroes come up to us and tell us how much they enjoyed the show, loved the band, and offer words of advice and encouragement for the future! WOW!

-------LIVE RAIN VIDEO---------

This has been the number one request from people asking to see live footage of the band and, until now, has been one of the few tracks we haven't had on Youtube. The reason for this is because we've never had footage the we've felt will do the track justice. However, I am pleased to present to you 'Rain' LIVE:



From the same show here is also some cracking footage of 'Running Away' - enjoy!



------WE'RE ENDORSED------

Following our spectacular run of summer festival shows we're very pleased to announce that the lovely folks at Audio Technica have decided to endorse us. They will now be providing us with some of the equipment we need for live shows allowing us to take the Extra Curricular LIVE experience to the next level. We're grateful for their help at the critical stage in the band's development.

--------LIVE SHOWS-------

On the topic of live shows here's a list of our upcoming gigs.


Cafe Ollo, Media Centre (acoustic), Huddersfield
20th October 2010, 20PM
Marsden Mechanics, Marsden
30th October 2010, 20PM
Mr Wolfs, Bristol
12th November 2010, 21PM
The Wardrobe, Leeds
20th November 2010, 22PM
The Hifi Club, Leeds
8th December 2010, 20PM
Bar 1:22, Huddersfield
10th December 2010, 21PM
The Elbow Rooms W/ Craig Charles, Leeds
29th January 2011, 21PM



To keep up to date with us check http://www.extracurricularband.com

One Love,

JB
EC