NUDGE, EXTRA GOLDEN, COPACRESCENT, DJ ANJALI, THE INCREDIBLE KID, DJ E3
(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison) Extra Golden were born from a three-hour international jam session in Nairobi between native musicians Otieno Jagwasi and Onyango Wuod Omari and American indie rockers Ian Eagleson—in Kenya to research a doctoral thesis on the country’s popular benga music—and Alex Minoff, both of the DC band Golden (Minoff also played in the Make-Up, Weird War, and Six Finger Satellite). The group released the results of that jam, Ok-Oyot System, shortly after Jagwasi’s death. The band recruited new members for live performances and to record follow-up album Hera Ma Nono but had difficulty getting the Kenyan musicians into the US (a difficulty that was ultimately resolved with an assist from Barack Obama, leading to perhaps the first non-embarrassing song bearing the presidential candidate’s name, Hera Ma Nono’s “Obama”). More than just a corrective to all the critical hand-wringing about Vampire Weekend’s alleged musical colonialism, Extra Golden are benga translated with little more interference than some English-language lyrics and the arrangement of visas. ERIC GRANDY

MP3:
Extra Golden - Obama