The Extra Glenns are John Darnielle and Franklin Bruno. The pair have been friends since their youthful college days in the Inland Empire of California and their bands (Darnielle is the Mountain Goats and Bruno fronted Nothing Painted Blue) have played together many times. Both had done early work for mutual friend Dennis Calacci’s Shrimper Records including several 7″s, but had never recorded an album. A 2001 living room show at the invitation of Absolutely Kosher owner Cory Brown during the Noise Pop festival was so triumphant, the pair agreed to collaborate for a full length for AKR. Only a handful of Extra Glenns live dates have been played since the 2002 release of Martial Arts Weekend, though Bruno frequently appears as part of the Mountain Goats’ live lineup and on their records.
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.