Extra Action Marching Band

Extra Action Marching Band
2006 East Coast Tour
Background information
Origin	Oakland, CA
Genres	Marching band, Punk rock, Brass Band
Years active	1998-Present
Website	http://extra-action.com

The Extra Action Marching Band is an American musical group loosely based on the American marching band construct. The instrumentation is entirely brass, drums and one modified bullhorn. At performances, provocatively flamboyant cheerleaders with pom-poms and flags engage the audience.

"There's really no need to introduce the Extra Action Marching Band: The Bay Area institution has been crashing parties, invading bars, and blowing minds with its signature "high school marching band on acid" punk-meets-Sousa bombast for years now. The tuba players, flag team, and percussion section take perverse delight in twisting the staid conventions of their respective forms, and it can be downright disorienting to spot a sexy trombone player." - Hiya Swanhuyser – SF Weekly 2005

“… performance at the… Hollywood Bowl… Not bad for a bunch of temperamental weirdos who were once paid in gift certificates to a sex toy shop [payment for playing at the opening of Good Vibrations vibrator store for women]” –SPIN Magazine, Feb 2006

Simon Cheffins of the San Diego–based Crash Worship started Extra Action in 1999 after relocating to Bay Area. Since then, the band has expanded from a loose configuration of under a dozen to approximately 35 members.

Perhaps the band's most ambitious (non musical) project was "La Contessa", a to-scale replica of a wooden Spanish seagoing galleon built around a school bus. The massive ship was burned to the ground in early December 2006 by Mike Stewart, a disgruntled Nevada resident who owned the land that La Contessa was being stored on.

The band's musical styles and influences include the Master Musicians of Joujouka, funk, circus music, New Orleans jazz, Black Sabbath, and gypsy music from Eastern Europe.

The group has often appeared uninvited at corporate events, protests, marches, weddings, and other public occasions. They appeared unexpectedly at a book signing by David Byrne, which impressed Byrne so much that he invited them as an opening act for various performances in California.