The Columbia-educated Persian rocker’s recent appearance on Saturday Night Live (click here to watch the full episode) with host Zach Galifianakis–along with his Vampire Weekend band-mates–is concretely the launching of innumerable and increased industry recognition as well as appearances, ahead of him.
Featured in the January 2010 issue of Vogue Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine’s Will Dana wrote of Vampire Weekend’s 2008 debut: “The music had a bracing smartness, as overdetermined and detailed as a Wes Anderson movie, almost perfect for what it was, but you wondered how they’d handle the real world.”
Their new album Contra, is: “brainy, confident, and generally awesome.” Dana opines. “The drums are bigger, the guitars are faster, and the songs are outfitted with synth beats and hip-hop, reggae and electro accents.”
Watch The Malloys-directed music video for ”Giving Up The Gun,”–a track off the Contra album–which includes cameos from Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, Lil’ Jon, RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, and Mr. Prince of Persia himself: Jake Gyllenhaal, below.
We’ve got some fantastic news for all you dance/trance/house/electro-music fans!
One of the world’s number one DJ/Producers, the über-gifted Namito(pronounced na-mee-tow), also known as the mastermind behind the sexy Kling Klong-released track that has been keeping us energized and feeling homesick for some major Tehran-style partying, Train to Tehran, will be performing at this year’s Winter Music Conference in Miami on March 24th, 2010 at Tangia Lounge in South Beach. (And at the 15-year Yoshitoshi anniversary event nonetheless.)
“I am really excited to play at the Yoshitoshi birthday party,” The Berlin-based Iranian producer tells Persianesque Magazine exclusively. “I believe it’s going to be jam packed and filled with international guests.”
How does he feel about being a part of the mega-label that houses Deep Dish and many more chart-toppers?
“I was thinking about this a few days ago…[Being represented by Yoshitoshi Records] was a dream a few years ago, that has come true. It is a good sign that with hard work, you can achieve everything you want.”
Namito’s latest single, V, debuted on Sharam’s Radio1 Essential Mix and is now available for purchase on Beatport.
Click here to buy your ticket(s) now before they’re sold out!
The line-up includes: Audiojack, John Acquaviva, Spektre, Koen Groeneveld, Namito, Nicole Moudaber, Jaxson, Helmut Dubnitzky, KaiserSouzai, Pierce, and Visuals by Happy DVJ’s (Well Done).
U2’s efforts to be heard in Iran and by Iranians as a supportive outside voice during their concerts this year, we feel, secures their place as the official front runner, as far as musicians who have supported Iranians and their plight, in the aftermath of the Iranian election.
Jay-Z’s decision to join the cause, and support the Iranian people’s fight for freedom and their basic human rights, can only be deemed as: dignified, compassionate, and hella’ hovafied!
However, his appearance on the stage with U2 performing Sunday Bloody Sunday in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany on November, 5th, 2009 at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2009, was not the first time Jay-Z has gone “Green” in support of Iranians. Read the full story
No One Knows About Persian Cats, By Bahman Ghobadi
I hate Iranian music.
Or so I thought. Last night, somewhere between the mandatory, polite applause that pre-empted the screening of “No One Knows About Persian Cats” and the enthusiastic, deserved standing ovation that followed it, all of that changed.
It wasn’t so much the first half of the sentence that became obsolete but the second, as director Bahman Ghobadi clawed and chiseled through the veneered surface of misconception to reveal what music from Iran really is; a cultural core that is emanating from the underground and breeding against all odds with pure will as its only sustenance.
Bahman Panahi, "Without you! Never" - Poetry of Rumi Ink on Paper, 2008
The Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC celebrates the opening of “Falnama: The Book of Omens” with a recital by Bahman Panahi, a Paris-based virtuoso of Persian classical music.
A trained calligrapher as well as musician, Panahi has appeared in concerts and workshops throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.
In front of a massive crowd with a green glow, Persian poetry, Iranian artist Shirin Neshat’s artwork, and images of the brutal attacks many Iranians suffered for protesting the 2009 Iranian election’s results carouseled the overhead jumbo-screen on Sunday October 25th, 2009, while mega-band U2, in their true philanthro-artistic virtue reached out to Iranians and all people who “love freedom” before performing a pertinent song from their album War: Sunday Bloody Sunday.
“What is going on in the world?” Bono started his Iran-tribute out with.
“I’m going crazy.”
“Can u hear us? Iran… Radio Tehran. This is the United States calling.”
“We’re speaking to you.” He compassionately added. ”Can you hear us?”
Watch the rebroadcast of the full live streaming performance from the Rose Bowl, and skip to the 1:26:00 mark to hear Bono deliver his shout-out.
In addition to singing with Freedom Glory Project–a band he co-founded with members of the Iranian band, Hypernova–Johnny B. sings and writes for his own band, Electric Black.
I caught Electric Black live at the launch party for their new CD, on the Lower East Side at Rockwood Music Hall in Manhattan. Seeing Johnny B. perform onstage together with the female accordion player, female guest singer, male guitarist, male harmonica player, male upright bassist, male trumpet player, and male drummer–before a mixed audience, in a public venue serving alcohol–was a reminder I was not in Iran!
Created by Producer, Director, and Director of Photography Richard Patterson, the Iranian band that we officially dubbed as “Iran’s rock prodigies”: HYPERNOVA has released a new video for their rock song, “Sinners”.
The video is described as “a fluid stop-motion video” that is “composed of 16,000 individual photographs.”
Forget about that booze-cruise your friends were bugging you about, because it looks like you’re invited to a “groove-cruise” with Deep Dish DJ: Sharam!
The Grammy Award-winning Iranian DJ/producer, Sharam will be spinning at The Groove Cruise’s much-anticipated all-day party on Saturday, October 3rd, at Nikki Beach Club in Cabo San Lucas. With Sharam taking a respite from his widely-successful “Get Wild” album tour, Sharam’s signature brand of dancefloor magic is sure to make the crowds at Nikki Beach, get wild.
Check out Metallica’s song Nothing Else Matters in accoustic guitar and tar. Tar (pronounced taar), a Persian instrument and the precursor to the “guitar”, means “string” in Persian. In fact, the word guitar derives from the Persian word: sitar.
Watch famed Iranian musician, Faramarz Aslani sing one of his classic songs in New York amongst Iranian-Americans who gathered at U.N. Headquarters for a hunger strike in solidarity with Iranians in Iran. According to CBS News, “[Five-hundred] protesters gathered.”
