Biography
A patent-medicine man, an accidental time traveler, a gentleman explorer, and his mad inventor brother are the characters of The Extraordinary Contraptions, in the thick of forging a steampunk rock movement, employing neoclassic rock chops and a Victorian aesthetic to tell the stories of their otherworldly alter-egos.
Keeping the trains chugging in Terminus Station (currently known as Atlanta, GA) the steampunk-themed and attired Extraordinary Contraptions blend motown-funk bass grooves with a driving guitar, chaotic drums, engagingly playful keys and accordion, and three part vocal harmonies to create their unstuck-in-space-time, steam-powered, danceable sound. Their 2009 self-produced debut album, Inappropriate on Purpose, touches on universal themes before careening into pieces about malevolent alien invasions and failed mathematical romances. A 2010 full-length release, Scratch the Aether, delves deeper into the characters' backstory and that of their nemesis, the scurrilous Captain Thorngauge, with bombastic explorations of betrayal, defiant organs. The Contraptions toured the Midwest to support this Scratch The Aether in 2010, and toured the East Coast with Frenchy and the Punk in summer 2011.
As the steampunk movement grows, The Extraordinary Contraptions offer their quirky, guitar-driven vision of this alternate reality to people who enjoy the concepts of genre-transcendence and aggressive waltzes. Fans agree as 2012 will see the release of their 3rd album, The Time Traveler's Constant, a project whose launch was aided by the support of steam-loving supporters through Kickstarter. The Time Traveler's Constant will feature percussion by both the original drummer Corbin Able Welsh, who left the band in September 2011, and new-to-the-project Teodore Bouchard.
The Extraordinary Contraptions have performed electric and acoustic shows at many SF/F conventions, including Dragon*Con (Atlanta, GA), MomoCon (Atlanta, GA), Tsubasacon (Huntington, WV), AnachroCon (Atlanta, GA), World Steam Expo (Dearborn, MI), Marcon (Columbus, OH) and Steampunk World's Fair (Piscataway, NJ).
The band continues to be loosely affiliated, and enjoys sharing the stage with a number of the fine artists involved with the worldwide steampunk musical collective Gilded Age Records, founded by Vernian Process.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
