Afro-pop Extra Golden at Johnny Brenda's

In the course of reviewing a show by the Cambodian American band Dengue Fever in September 2006, I stumbled across the opening band, Extra Golden. This teaming of members from Kenya's Orchestra Extra Solar Africa and Washington's art punks Golden forged a Benga-like groove that blended hypnotic African high life and swift-swinging rumba with jolts of antsy, angular guitar.

This was inventive, otherworldly music that didn't sound merely appropriated from another culture - and not just because some of the band's membership is Kenyan-born. Extra Golden sounded potent, mesmerizing even, happy yet haunted.

Two and a half years later on a warm Thursday night at Johnny Brenda's, little had changed save for the newfound forcefulness of drummer Onyango Wuod Omari, the dashing interplay between Extra Golden's two guitarists, and the release of the band's zesty new (third) album, Thank You Very Quickly.

Oh, one more thing. Since 2006, indie bands like Vampire Weekend have tried to horn in on a sound similar to that of Extra Golden, aping its lithe guitar, springy rhythms, and jaunty conviviality. Sorry, Vampires - you've got to have talent and heart to do this stuff.

Smiling, sweet-voiced singer Onyango Jagwasi, duck-walking guitarist/bassist Alex Minoff, and the rest of the quintet rolled through Omari's polyrhythmic thrash on "Gimakiny Akia" with a grimy guitar line reminiscent of vintage Ry Cooder. When that tumbling funk settled, they leapt swiftly into a low-rumbling "OK-Oyot System." Though they found the sprightliest of melodies there, its broken bridge had the frenetic prog-rock feel of "Roundabout"-era Yes.

Extra Golden built those bridges throughout its set, filling the lovely, jittery sound of "Fantasies of the Orient" and the spaghetti western-flavored disco of "Ilando Gima Onge" with bracing, complex pivots of rhythm and noise. Though each musician was responsible for crafting a part of the dramatic soundscape, all seemed to hinge (or unhinge) on Omari's groove lines.

Xande Cruz, a Brazilian expatriate and Philadelphia percussionist/vocalist, opened the show for Extra Golden. Cruz and his new band operated with a deeply buzzing and intricate brand of sonorous, jabbering funk that was equal doses Talking Heads and Harry Belafonte, with cowbell to spare.