The Extraordinaires are arguably Philadelphia’s most exciting nostalgia-core, acousto-pop Jamboree band. While their year may have been relatively slow in terms of musical output (one 3-song EP The Postcard), the band was anything but quiet. As we have come to expect from The Extraordinaires, if there was a holiday approaching, the boys made sure to stop at nothing to perform outlandish and wholly invested theme shows. This included their Mr. Roger’s-esque Holiday Revue, fully equipped with hung stockings, fake fires and many a special guest. Their Halloween extravaganza with The Deli was no less an affair, with our favorite new DIY venue PhilaMOCA being transformed into a ghoulish, and rather sloppy, spooktacular that obviously included a rousing rendition of both the Ghostbusters Theme song and the A-Team Theme song, which was the costume choice of The Extraordinaires that evening, with not one, but TWO Mr. Ts. The band has been independently and relentlessly touring since 2005, and this year was no different as they set out on multiple jaunts to spread the word of their narrative, jubilant Americana. The gang’s lineup saw a few notable changes this year, as bassist and founding Extraordinaire Matt Gibson got called up to the Bigs to to join and tour with Philly’s most acclaimed freak-pop ensemble Man Man. It was obviously sad to see him go, but everyone is proud of him, and it gave The Extraordinaires an opportunity to tweak it’s lineup a bit by officially adding Koofreh Umoren and welcoming Adam Ravitz as their new bassist. The Postcard EP, released in March of 2011 shows a familiar, if not a bit more refined, sound which makes us even more excited to see what The Extraordinaires have planned for 2012 as they work on new material with Fancy Time Studio’s Kyle “Slick” Johnson. – Adam G.
