Friday, August 1, 2025

Extra Limb

ORIGINS: Strathfield, NSW
GENRE: Punk
YEARS ACTIVE: 1999-2006
 
MEMBERS:
  • Alex Sepansky - Vocals,  Bass
  • Darren Kennerly - Guitar
  • Nathan Kippax - Drums (1999-2001)
  • Ben McAtamney - Drums (2001-2005)
  • Sean Rodger - Drums (2005-2006)
RELEASES:
  • Demo (2001)
  • Demo (2002)
    • 1. Late Night TV
    • 2. Spilt Milk
    • 3. Guy in the Hawaiian Shirt
    • 4. Message to the STA
    • 5. Every Day
    • 6. Just Because
    • 7. Stands Alone
    • 8. Point of View
    • 9. In the Park
    • 10. A Girl Like You
    • 11. Black X
    • 12. Clear Path
  • Self-Titled (2003) - Download Here.
    • 1. Spilt Milk
    • 2. Message to the STA
    • 3. Spit'n'Blood
    • 4. Guy in the Hawaiian Shirt
    • 5. Out of My Head
  • We Stay Crispy in Milk (2006) - Download Here.
    • 1. The Laughing Stock
    • 2. Nothing
    • 3. Disappointed
    • 4. Just Because
    • 5. Message to the STA
    • 6. Everything's OK
    • 7. Spilt Milk
    • 8. Apathetic Nation
    • 9. Outta My Head
    • 10. The Guy in the Hawaiian Shirt
    • 11. Compromise
    • 12. Late Night TV
    • 13. Point of View
    • 14. Spit 'n' Blood
SUMMARY: Starting in 1999 as a stoner/alternative rock band under the name 'Smashed Up Monkey Brains', Extra Limb morphed into the more familiar pop-punk version after picking up a new drummer in 2001. The band predominantly played shows in Sydney and released some demos before drummer Ben McAtamney moved to Ireland. Long term friend Sean Rodger joined on drums for the final stretch of the band's life and played on their album We Stay Crispy on Milk. Various combinations of the band's members went on to play in the shortlived punk bands The Crunch and The Notebooks.
 
SHOWS: 

ORAL HISTORY:
ALEX: I started playing piano around age 5. I got given a bass for my birthday in Year 7 and have been playing ever since. I asked for the bass. My family on both sides are refugees - they didn't have time for fun things like music. My mum played a bit of piano when she was small in Sri Lanka but the Hungarian side of my family were not very musical. My dad had an acoustic guitar but I think I only saw him play it twice. I think I went with bass because I thought I could learn it quicker without having to strum chords. I liked all the sneaky trills and octaves that Mike Dirnt did. I always wanted to play in a band but never met the right people for a few years. Apart from seeing the ad for Green Day's Dookie on TV where Helen Razor said loudly, "Green Day, get it or get lost!" (which made me go out and buy the cassette), I got into punk music when my best friend's older brother Ben's band (Frenzal Rhomb) released their first full length album, Coughing Up a Storm. I thought it was amazing. My friend Kathleen and I started really get into these bands that her brother Ben showed us like Screeching Weasel, The Queers, Propagandhi, SNFU, NoFX, Avail, etc. Stuff that you'd never hear on Triple J. Then came the Fat, Epitaph, and Lookout samplers - after that I was hooked I guess.
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DARREN: The band first formed in Concord West. I met Alex at a bus stop just down the road from where I was living at the time. I had just finished insulating a home studio and invited him to come and have a jam. Funnily enough we met our drummer Nathan soon after - he lived five houses down the street. After some jamming sessions we formed a three piece band literally within the space of ten houses, which was pretty convenient. At that time I was listening to Frenzal Rhomb, NOFX, The Living End, The Celibate Rifles, and Nirvana.
Darren Kennerley (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: I was around 16 when I joined Extra Limb. I met the guitar player at the bus stop near my house in Strathfield while I was on my way to school. He saw my bass case with all the band names I'd scrawled all over it and he asked if I wanted to jam with him and this other guy. They were both older, like 20 - I don't know why I said yes because nowadays that would be seen as super creepy, haha, but at the time I didn't really know anyone who wanted to start a band. I'm not sure how long they'd been jamming but they had a whole bunch of riffs and we made them into songs. It started off as a weird stoner-rock instrumental band, these songs would go between five and ten minutes (imagine different variations of 'Suck Swallow' by The Hard Ons), and then it became an excuse to smoke weed. Everyone's influences were very different. Nathan was all about Tool, Faith No More, Infectious Grooves type stuff. Darren was really into the Seattle sound bands but very much mainly Nirvana. I was allowed to sing three songs - Nathan was very forceful in expressing that he didn't like my vocal style and that we should get someone with a deeper, more Mike Patton-esque voice. We only played one gig with that lineup - my 18th birthday party at my grandparents' place in Homebush.
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

SEAN: I went to an Extra Limb rehearsal in '98 or '99 with Nathan on drums. They had a break, probably for cones, and I jumped on his drumkit. He was not happy. Five years alter, I finally took his throne. 
Sean Rodger (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: After what was possibly a drug-induced rehearsal in 1999, which we taped for fun, we were copying said tape so that we could all have one. The tempo we were playing at prompted one of our friends to say we sounded like we lived in the Chernobyl and that we had all grown extra limbs in order to play so fast. He was so fucked up that he didn't realise that it was copying at the high-speed dubbing rate. So that's the mystery of the 'Extra Limb' name. Before that we were called Smashed Up Monkey Brains.
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), CTW Issue 12, December 2005

DARREN: We'd started jamming together in a garage for fun for some time before we actually started writing and recording tracks. We didn't really have any any serious thoughts or plans on playing shows at that stage. Overtime we eventually developed a style or sound together and we started to receive encouraging compliments from family and friends. From there our desire started to grow as did a passion and love for punk rock, and we started writing and recording tracks. We first played to an audience at a party in a backyard. We then entered a band comp and got to the semi-final (I think). Our first proper show was in Petersham... well, if you can call playing to six people a show, haha. 
Darren Kennerley (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: Eventually we decided to start playing the pop punk songs I'd been writing so we kicked out the drummer and got Ben McAtamney, who I went to school with. An amazing drummer. The best I've ever played with. We both studied jazz together at uni. We wrote a whole new set, maybe kept two songs and totally rearranged them. Within a month or so we sounded like the band people knew us as. Ben was a big Bad Religion and Face to Face fan and listened to all different kinds of music as well so he really had a lot to bring to the table. 
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: The first punk band that influenced me to start writing songs was Screeching Weasel. I also really like The Queers and early Green Day. Avail is another influence but I dunno if you can pick it up in our music... but I can... so there. Lately I've started listening to the Bouncing Souls and have gotten back into Fifteen and SNFU as well. Our newer stuff is a lot faster but still catchy like a lot of these bands. 
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), CTW Issue 12, December 2005

BEN: Me and Alex had played in the Newtown High rock band together when we were at school. Before that I lived in Logan City, just south of Brisbane. My mum was a primary school music teacher and my dad was a huge fan of Jamaican music so we grew up in a house full of music and I played piano as a young kid. At about ten years old I saw Funky Monks (the Red Hot Chili Peppers doco) and got obsessed with the drums. I played in some crappy punk/hardcore bands with school friends and later met Alex when I started at Newtown High in '99. He had an AVAIL shirt and could play the bass solo from Rancid's 'Maxwell Murder', so we were instant buds, hahaha. Still tight to this day, amazingly. I joined Extra Limb in about '01 I think - they had another drummer who was more of a stoner rock-type dude and they wanted someone that could more punk/hardcore styled rums. I cut my teeth on bands like Bad Religion, Face to Face, etc., so it was a good fit.
Ben McAtamney (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: The first show with Ben was equal parts awesome and terrifying. We were finally playing punk rock with other punk bands in front of people. I was very full-on about practise and insisted we do it at least once a week. We were pretty clueless at first - that first show was a band comp at a small bar in Star City Casino. It wasn't my choice and I didn't like it at all. Soon after, a friend of Darren's got us a gig at the Cat & Fiddle. They had a few punk bands playing and we started to meet more people and bands. They weren't always super well-attended shows but it was good practice. We played a show with Crucified Venus one time and Bibs (who was playing with Crank at the time) was there and wanted us to open for Crank at the Vic on the Park.   
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

BEN: I imagine the first show would've been Vic on the Park or Lansdowne maybe. I remember we did a show at the Vic on the Park where the lineup was us, Stereo City, Crank, and H-Block 101. Great show. 
Ben McAtamney (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DARREN: One show that stands out most in my memory was at the Vic on the Park. It was packed to the rafters with people and headlined by Crank. They saw us play at a previous show and loved us and we were asked by them to be a support for them at their show. We were so excited and I remember the whole night was amazing and a big thrill for us. We all ended upstairs at the Townie afterwards with several other bands, drinking. Was a great night.
Darren Kennerley (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DARREN: We didn't really get outside of Sydney. A tour, or interstate trip, was talked about but it didn't eventuate. 
Darren Kennerley (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: There was this one time where we were playing at Vic on the Park and I was really drunk and I saw this girl in the audience that looked really bored so I kinda singled her out and told her to fuck off 'cause she was boring. I later found out that she was from Drum Media and was doing a review of the show... boy did I feel stupid. She didn't write anything as it turned out.
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), CTW Issue 12, December 2005

Show at the Metro - punk bands and burlesque. Year and month unknown.

ALEX: We did a demo of 12 songs for someone's audio engineering assessment. We just tried to record everything. A lot of these songs later went onto our album but these are slightly different versions. 
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: I went to see Me First & the Gimme Gimmes and was hanging out flyers afterwards for a gig we were playing at the Green Square. I gave one to some 17 year-old punk who assured me he'd be there - it was Luke Holmes. He came to the show and it wasn't before long that we started playing shows with The New Justice Team, Steppin Razor, Stereo City, The Optionals, Creeping Jesus, Kampei, The Breakout, Ebolagoldfish, etc. It changed from playing once every couple of months to having a show almost every second weekend. It was a cool scene, I made some awesome friends and ended up playing in some shape or form with members of almost all of those bands over the last 20 years. 
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

BEN: Extra Limb was my first band after moving to Sydney and Alex and I are close to this day so the band will always be really special and important tome. I also got to watch another friend takeover the drum duties once I quit and he absolutely killed it too, which made me super happy.
Ben McAtamney (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: We recorded an EP with Ben at the studio at UNSW, where we were both studying music. We wanted to have something with him on it because he was going to Ireland for an extended time and he was going to be replaced with Sean. We gave our a bunch of these EPs at a show at the Harp in Tempe. 
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

SEAN: Me and Alex use to book time in the music room after school. Sometimes before school too. We would jam on Blink 182, Foo Fighters, Primus, Nirvana. I'd started playing drums in 1996, doing drum lessons at school, but I hadn't seen Alex since 1999, when high school finished. From memory, he gave me a call sometime late 2004, just to hang out at his place in Strathfield. I think it was a party night or some shit. He mentioned that Extra Limb's drummer Ben was heading to Ireland for a while and they would need sometime to play in the interim. I had to audition - Ben was there for it to see how it went. It was at Goose Studios in Leichhardt. It went okay but not great. I played a few things wrong because I misheard them on the recording I'd been given. They auditioned someone else and then gave me a second chance
Sean Rodger (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: At some stage Ben moved to Ireland for a bit and I asked Sean if he'd play drums. He, unassumingly, turned out to be one of the most creative drummers I've ever played with. Impeccable timing too. Never slowed down ever. 
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

WEBSITE: Our drummer Ben went to hunt leprechauns and surf the mad waves in Ireland so now Sean is playing the drums... He is quite good and we hope you accept him into your lives and hearts (but not into your veins or digestive system).
Website News, Extra Limb Website, 2006

ALEX: The funny thing is that Sean really liked our band before he even knew that he was going to join us so he knew a lot of the older songs already. We've now written like three new songs in the few months he's been with us. It helps that we all live together as we can practice whenever we want to.
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), CTW Issue 12, December 2005


SEAN: My first show was at the Cat & Fiddle in 2005. It went great... I felt really comfortable. I remember loving the fact that people seemed to actually want to see us play. It was a Sunday afternoon set - my dad was there, my sister too, and a few friends from work. I was really happy. Most shows were great - we would cover 'Hey Suburbia' by Screeching Weasel and 'Haillie Sellasse, Up Your Ass' by Propagandhi. 
Sean Rodger (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: We recorded our album with Tim Walter at his studio in Seven Hills. I liked how it was kitted out like the diner in Happy Days. We didn't spend a lot of time on it and I wish there were more vocals harmonies and a different mix with the drums because the kicks are supper clicky but that's more our fault for being cheapskates. We also probably should've found somewhere closer to home seeing that we all lived together in Strathfield. Sean and I decided to go back there when we recorded our later band The Crunch because we really liked working with Tim.
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DARREN: We recorded the whole album pretty much in one session. Most or all tracks or parts were laid down in one take. We were on a budget, haha, but we knew the material pretty well. Tim Walter helped with a few great ideas that we added. It was pretty fun actually and we all surprised ourselves, I think, at how quickly we did it.
Darren Kennerley (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

SEAN: We recorded the album over two days at Tim Walter's studio in Seven Hills. Tim's place had a cool '50s diner vibe. I liked that, and he was really kind to us. We recorded drums the first day, guitars and bass at the same time, and then vocals the next day and some re-recording of guitar parts. 
Sean Rodger (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: We pressed a hundred or so copies of the Extra Limb CD but didn't get rid of many as the band started falling apart pretty soon afterwards and I had joined The Colytons by then as well. 
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

Show at the Empire Hotel in 2005

SEAN: I'm pretty sure I only ever played about twelve live shows with Extra Limb... the shows weren't as regular as they were before I joined. It started getting a little scarce. I think the landscape had changed. Alex had been in the band for so long that I think he got a little tired of it. I also ended up in Callan park in 2006 due to mental issues, which caused me to miss our show at the Sandringham. We never came back after that - we were supposed to play with Steppin' Razor that night - but I was fucked. And that was it. 
Sean Rodger (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DARREN: The band finished for a couple of reasons. I actually started a new career at the timer as a croupier at The Star Casino, and that made it pretty difficult for me to continue my commitment to playing regular gigs due to rotating shifts and being rostered on most weekends. We could have continued in a much more limited way but I figured it wouldn't be fair on Alex and Sean so, sadly, I decided to call it quits. 
Darren Kennerley (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ALEX: It's really interesting listening back to stuff with Ben on it. While Ben and Sean are both amazing drummers, I really admired the differences in their playing. Sean came from more of a metal background, so he had this meticulous precision in everything he did. He tried super hard to replicate certain phrasings Ben played but always with his own little touches. He put in a crazy amount of work and even wanted Ben to sit in on his first jam with us. The guy just genuinely cared about what we were doing. I thought and still think what he did was amazing. We were always on the same wavelength and I'm so glad we later did The Crunch together because that was pretty much where Extra Limb was going anyway. Sean was the best thing about being in Extra Limb, post-Ben's era.
Alex Sepansky (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

SEAN: I wish I'd been in Extra Limb in the earlier years when there was a little more response and love. I love how awesome Ben was on drums before me. Fucking magnificent player, and friend. I couldn't play things the way he did but I love that I was able to at least emulate him. I was terrified at every show due to nervousness so I didn't talk to many people. I loved playing with Bagster, Kampei, Steppin' Razor, The New Justice Team, but I was never able to really talk to them. I feel, or hope, that I fixed that up in later years. 
Sean Rodger (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

RELATED BANDS: Alphabetics, Colytons, The Notebooks, The Crunch, Murder of Crow, Everything I Own is Broken, Alex Party Cat, Safe Word, Love Maul, Offensive Behemoth, Maggot Cave, Bass Traitor, Carnal Viscera, Shijima's Claw, Betamacs, Bernie Griffen and the Thin Men, Masco Sound System, The Ramblin' Roses, Mairead Hurley, Oscar Lush, Jimmy Parbuckle

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