Subject: Chris Alfaro

• Introducing pepperandbutter dot com

  Chris Alfaro, putting on airs. Santa Ana musician/DJ/entrepreneur Free the Robots (Chris Alfaro) alerts us that his soon-coming club/restaurant The Crosby now has a video blog (wittily titled Kenny Bloggins) that will provide several entertaining hours of “mindless escapism.” It includes the first episode of Free the Robots Cribs: Essential viewing. And it's not like you have anything better to do, slacker.

  August 31, 2007

• Free the Robots' Live OC Debut

  Alfaro (far left) and Nisco (second from right) will be soundbombing Detroit Bar tonight. Recent OC Weekly cover boys Chris Alfaro (aka Free the Robots) and Phil Nisco (Black Lung Pop) will be joining forces tonight for their first live performance in an Orange County venue. The Santa Ana musicians are taking a break from getting their restaurant/club The Crosby ready in order to drop some scintillating sonic science for homie Dan Sena's Busywork night at Detroit Bar. With Free the Robots'

  September 26, 2007

• Free the Robots, Detroit Bar (Busywork), September 26, 2007

  Click the photo for more snaps from the show. I had absurdly high expectations for Free the Robots' OC live debut—and, knock me over with a feather, those expectations were exceeded. That experience is so rare, I'd almost forgotten what it feels like. Seeing Free the Robots (SanTana impresario/musicians Chris Alfaro and Phil Nisco, who are also readying the potentially awesome Crosby restaurant/club) walk off the stage at Detroit Bar after their riveting, teasingly brief set, I was overwhelme

  September 27, 2007

• Free the Robots on Dublab Today

  Free the Robots, about to drop some next ish. From noon till 2 p.m. Pacific Time, Santa Ana's Free the Robots/DJ Urthworm (Chris Alfaro) “will be DJing, possibly doing some live shit, and leaking some new cuts” on the LA-based Dublab, one of the webwide world's finest sources of beat-centric music. Alfaro is also one-third owner of The Crosby, which will be opening any day/week now... just don't ask him exactly when. (The anticipation is killing us, though.)

  November 8, 2007

• The Far-out Sounds of Saturn

  Saturn: Currently shopping demos to several labels. With a sound that's been honed over billions of years, the planet Saturn has developed quite a beguiling musical signature. It's doubtful that many Earthlings will hum along to it, but I think it may be my favorite strain of music of the spheres. With enough promotional savvy, Saturn could be huge. Tip: Chris Alfaro

  November 26, 2007

• Sneak Peek of The Crosby

  Phil Nisco and Chris Alfaro of Free the Robots/The Crosby. Please. Open. Via this video of a Free the Robots practice session for their NYC show. Plus, you get some Big Apple footage. Progress definitely has been made at The Crosby, the venue that, we predicted back in September, would revolutionize Santa Ana nightlife. So, when will it will open? Um, your guess is as good as ours. All prognostications so far have proved wrong, but it can't happen soon enough. The suspense is wounding us.

  February 4, 2008

• Last Night: DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist, Kid Koala at House of Blues

  The Hard Sell Tour with DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist, Kid Koala House of Blues (Anaheim) February 14, 2008 Better Than: Damn near every DJ set you’ve ever witnessed. Download: Excerpts from the Hard Sell set. I missed opening DJ Kid Koala’s set by five minutes, but Free the Robots' Chris Alfaro said it was amazing, and I trust his word. DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist’s 105-minute performance on eight decks began with an instructional video explaining what the hell these wax hounds would be doing a

  February 15, 2008

• Spit Monthly Debuts at The Crosby Tonight

  LA DJs Gaslamp Killer and Kutmah kick off their monthly event Spit (happening on first Thursdays at 9 p.m.), bringing the rhythmic fire tonight at the newly opened Crosby club in Santa Ana (we missed the "soft opening" April 1 because we were out of town, damn it). Want to hear hip-hop being molded into futuristic, psychedelic new shapes? Then it behooves you to get your hoodie- and backpack-wearing ass to the Crosby. We've waited at least seven months for the Crosby to get up and running,

  April 3, 2008

• The Crosby's "Official" Grand Opening Party

  Better late than never? Sure! Weekly cover boys Phil Nisco, Chris Alfaro and Mark Yamaoka turned a weekend long extravaganza into The Crosby’s Official Grand Opening Party. So what if they opened two months ago? According to Nisco, the lineup of events this weekend just seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally put the “official” in somewhere. Friday night dangled the promise of Obey’s mastermind Shepard Fairey taking to the turntables under the name DJ Diabetic. Not only spinning

  May 25, 2008

• The Crosby Still Not Ready for Prime Time

  We like the Crosby, we really do. We cheered their fight against the idiot SanTana bureaucrats. We like co-owners Chris Alfaro, Phil Nisco and Marc Yamaoka 'cause they always sport a smile and some weird-ass T-shirt (one of their workers was wearing one with Steve Urkel's mugshot--I remember that episode!). Their lair's vibe is happening, the music ever-eclectic, the ambitions lofty. But in the matter in which I'm concerned with professionally for the purposes of this post--great food in OC--th

  October 7, 2008

• Question: What Does a Crosby Owner Have Against Downtown Santa Ana Mexican Restaurants?

  Answer: It gives him the runs.At least that's what can be surmised from the latest issue of Giant Robot, the excellent magazine of all things Asian and Asian-American co-created by OC native Martin Wong. In it, he interviews Chris Alfaro, one of the three guys behind The Crosby, the downtown SanTana hipster hangout whose food is hit-and-miss but whose drunk gals are legion. They talk about Alfaro's love of Del Taco, itself a sin but one that I have no right casting stones at because I think Jack

  January 28, 2009

• Dennis Lluy of Koo's Cafe Brings a Bunch of Bands to Santa Ana With the SoundDowntown Festival

  November 13, 2008

• [Sprawl of Sound] OC Weekly's Music Editor Bids Farewell, Bittersweetly

  August 7, 2008

• [Sprawl of Sound] The Crosby's Grand Opening, Nigerian Music Not by Fela Kuti

  May 22, 2008

• [Sprawl of Sound] Getting Wowed by Autechre's Live Show, Gaslamp Killer at the Now-Open Crosby

  April 10, 2008

• [Sprawl of Sound] Black Ghosts In the Booth, Gaslamp Killer On Disc, and the Crosby (Finally) Opens

  March 27, 2008

• Sprawl of Sound

  Rewind, Selectah! The best releases and shows of 2007

  December 20, 2007

• Wax-scratch Fever

  FEEDBACK: The analog-digital wars rage on as OC DJs debate their weapons of choice

  November 15, 2007

• Sprawl of Sound

  Punk, Funk and Ganked: The Clinic Shrugs Off Barbs, Orgone’s Funk Proves Reich’s Theory Wasn’t Bunk, Crosby’s Ill Fortunes

  October 18, 2007

• Three the Hard Way

  September 13, 2007

• Aural Reports

  He Is the Robots: Free the Robots twists music into weird new shapes

  July 19, 2007

• The Crosby to Offer Scorpions for Dinner?

  The latest issue of Giant Robot checks in with Chris Alfaro, he of musical outfit Free the Robots and one of the trio who runs SanTana hipster heaven/emerging restaurant the Crosby. I don't have the copy on me, and GR's website is impossible to navigate, but I do remember this: Alfaro ate scorpions while on a recent trip to China, and told the magazine he wants to find a distributor and serve them here! That would be COOL and lead to moments like this:

  July 20, 2009

• Free the Robots Featured in Giant Robot Magazine

  Chris Alfaro--DJ, Free the Robots whiz, co-owner of the Crosby in downtown Santa Ana and former OC Weekly co-cover subject--is featured in a Q&A in the latest edition of Giant Robot magazine, seen here with this nifty cover by Oakland-based artist Deth P. Sun. In it, Alfaro talks about his May trip to China, and shares some photos. Always good to see Orange County get national recognition, especially in such a rad publication. It's the 15th anniversary issue of the Asian pop culture magazine

  July 13, 2009