Wednesday's are Weird at The Crosby

Santa Ana's restaurant-bookstore-bar-art gallery-music lounge The Crosby hosts its weekly Wednesdays With the Weird Beard tonight.

DJ Weird Beard, aka J Hall, will be playing music all night long. Everything from old school punk, garage, funk, soul and rock will be played on vinyl.

The restaurant will be open, so be sure to pick up some sweet potato fries and a Red Stripe beer.

Wednesdays with the Weird Beard run from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. The Crosby is located at 400 N. Broadway, Santa Ana.

Spotlight: Fool's Gold

Fool's Gold is a 10-plus member indie, African, tropical fusion band based in Los Angeles.

This indie-African band sounds like a mixture between a funkier Vampire Weekend and the Talking Heads. The supergroup blends styles borrowed from Kenya-based benga music, Nigerian juju, and soukous from the Congo. Despite these African influences, this is not World Music. The band is composed of four percussionists on drums, bongos, djembe and shakers, three guitar players, two saxophonists, one bass player and an organ player.

I saw this band open up for Cat Power at the Avalon, in Hollywood on Feb. 10. They stole the show with the chaotic mob of musicians on stage, each dancing to their own beat. The percussionists would switch instruments mid stride, from banging on the bongos to ringing bells and using shakers. Saxophone players would switch to trumpets and backing vocals, all to produce a constantly changing sea of sound.

Fool's Gold will be playing at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles on March 6 at an event called First Fridays. The event is held on the first Friday's of the month and follows an educational, scientific theme. This upcoming First Friday will include a discussion on inheritance from the DNA of fossils, microbes, worms and fish. The lecture will be given by Neil Shubin. The event includes live bands, DJ's, three bars and dinner concessions.

Video of Fool's Gold performing at the Echo.

Check Fool's Gold on their MySpace.

Wavves

Wavves is the brainchild of Nathan Williams of San Diego. This self-titled lo-fi "beach punk" experimentation of noise has elements of the Beach Boys, 60s garage rock reminiscent of the Breakers and the Entrance Band. I'm hooked on how melodic and yet, unorganized these songs are. These songs are something like the bastard lovechild of "Feel Flows" by the Beach Boys, "Human Fly" by the Cramps with a little "Don't Send Me No Flowers" by the Breakers mixed in.

Wavves' self-titled album is available now.

Visit Wavves at their MySpace.

Download:

Wavves - Wavves

Wavves - Side Yr On