The Extra Lens

The Extra Glenns were an underground legend for almost ten years before their album saw the light of day. A collaboration between Nothing Painted Blue's Franklin Bruno and the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle, the duo recorded several singles and compilation tracks in the early '90s, then disappeared entirely while concentrating on their other projects. As their individual popularity grew, the two continued to work together when given the chance, and the songs that would eventually appear on Martial Arts Weekend began to take shape. The intention was not to continue the project, but when the two played a secret show at the 2000 San Francisco Noise Pop Festival, a crowd of 200 arrived. With people coming in from as far as New York City specifically to see the Extra Glenns, they knew that they should continue their efforts. The two started to record after that point, getting together in San Francisco until January of 2002, when the album was finally released. In 2010, the duo inked a deal with Merge, changed its name to the Extra Lens, and released a new collection of original material called Undercard.