The Ordinaires | en

An indie rock group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania currently signed to Punk Rock Payroll in South Philly, The Extraordinaires are a unique act. Their albums are released as handmade, hand-screened cloth-bound storybooks. Their shows are theatrical and energetic. Their singer's guitar is shaped like a fish. The Extraordinaires have produced three full-length albums to date. Their first, "Ribbons of War," is a brilliant themed CD telling the operatic love tale of the brooding Captain, the fair Annelies, and their forbidden love. Their second full-length - "Short Stories" - is a collection of stand-alones featuring tracks such as "The Arsonist" "Warehouse Song"...

When critics pull out names like Philip Glass, Captain Beefheart, Henry Mancini, Hüsker Dü and Stravinsky to describe the same group, its clear that ordinary is not the operative word. The Ordinaires are a nine-piece band that refuses to keep things neat and tidy for their listeners. Rather than assuming that music audiences need homogenized fodder in order to have fun, The Ordinaires challenge without being pretentious. One is the name of their newest release, their first for the Bar/None label. It marks the first Ordinaires effort to be widely distributed in America and features a cover which is an...