The Extensions Hit with ‘High Charisma’ LP via Mint 400 Records

Swing. With a lowercase, S. Ask a million people what it is, and you’ll get a million different answers. It’s elusive, it hides out. It calls no genre home. Try too hard to get it, and you can kiss it goodbye. The Extensions took indie rock’s best impulses, wove them together with some Prince, and some early 70’s McCartney, and landed right on top of it. And their latest, the High Charisma LP, isn’t even the long-gestating 7th record by a band who finally got it just right. They’ve only put out a handful of singles and EP’s so far, including 2019’s debut Bellicose EP and their last release, the scorching Live at House of Independents EP, which dropped earlier this year.

And that limited catalog is by design – it’s a project born of careful curation. Some bands just know where they want to go, and more importantly, how to get there. The Asbury Park NJ 5-piece is simply one of those bands. They’re also one of those bands who’ve built a reputation of being professional and reliable behind the scenes, and energetic and entertaining on stage. Having swing woven into your DNA is half the battle when it comes to owning the stage you’re on.

They’ve been with Mint 400 Records (Reese Van Riper, The Furies) since Bellicose, and they fit perfectly within the Jersey mainstay’s roster, with their seamless mix of Spoon, Elvis Costello, Modest Mouse, and The New Pornographers. Brian Erickson (vocals and guitar), Lisa LoVell (keys and vocals), Becca Cristino (guitar/ vocals), Will Blakey (bass), and Pete Stern (drums) all seem to know just when to carry the day, and when to relax a little and let someone else drive, whether on the fuzzy stomp of “Scene Famous” or the stadium-ready “Charm Offensive.” And balance fuels everything they do, with deeply personal lyrics that the songwriting allows you to cruise right by, humming all the way, or rewind and get a little heart with your hook. Try this one on from “Casual Day”:

Put on my best face and then I fake sick / Try to write it off, end up a headline / It’s such a sad scene, to see you age out / Try all your best words, attempt to laugh it off.

“A lot of my writing is about the relationships we make and the contradictions behind them,” Erickson says, “We make and sever them; we appreciate them and take them for granted. Not just romance, but everything. This album adds the wrinkles of age, desire, and self-awareness.” All those themes make sense, considering this is, for lack of a better term no one’s coined yet, a lockdown record. And what a record. For The Extensions, that time spent in isolation was time well spent indeed.

Recorded by Derril Sellers from Mint 400 labelmates Lowlight, mixed by Frank Lettieri Jr., and mastered by Elaine Rasnake from Daughterboard Audio, High Charisma is exactly that – high charisma. It draws you in, turns you into a believer, and makes you want to follow it wherever it goes. And these folks go wherever they want – bills with jazz punkers like Joy On Fire, at shows up and down the Garden State with other like-minded souls The Foes of Fern, The Dt’s, Lou Panico and Natalie Farrell, and Rachel Ana Dobken. Erickson doesn’t just credit his bandmates for being the fuel behind the fire of The Extensions: “I think the close-knit communities within the NJ music scene are what inspires us the most. John & Peter’s in New Hope, PA. The Wonder Bar and The Asbury Hotel in Asbury Park. This little art space up north called Prototype. Pet Shop in Jersey City.”

Not bad for a group that was originally a side project for everyone involved – hence the name The Extensions. And it should be noted that High Charisma is only the best of what the band has written and recorded – the follow-up is just about ready to go, once they’ve toured this one and done the impossible job of deciding which songs deserve to be singles. Because it’s an album’s worth of singles, with earworms for days, by a band who’ve made something truly rare and truly their own.

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About the Author

Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.