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.
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!
Born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5th, 1946 in Zanzibar, Queen front-man and musical-legend: Freddy Mercury is of Persian (Parsi) origin and practiced Zoroastrianism growing up. Parsis are known to “descend from a group of Iranian Zoroastrians who emigrated to Western India over 1,000 years ago.”
Born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5th, 1946 in Zanzibar, Queen front-man and musical-legend: Freddy Mercury is of Persian (Parsi) origin and practiced Zoroastrianism growing up. Parsis are known to “descend from a group of Iranian Zoroastrians who emigrated to Western India over 1,000 years ago.”
