Nice one Mos. Can't wait to get over there and join the party and play some shows! Here are some video & photo updates of my recent excursion in the studio with our talented engineer, John D'uva in his Brooklyn apartment, as we work on the new zerobridge record. His cat Muck Muck gave me his feline blessing and the vibe was clear, but Jon gave me quite the workout on the vocal mic. Check out some clips:
Here is a rough vocal take on "How Long"
And taking a break with Muck while Jon makes some tea. Sorry, no coke or hookers here.
I was invited to tag along to see a friends rock band rehearse in a space in Rabat, Morocco. This was not a pretentious band o hipsters looking to get signed with a gimmick. These are just some young Moroccans who love rock and roll and want to make noise. I hope you see tht Arabs are not limited to negative images we see of them in America. They are artists, they are punks, they are young, they are bored, the same as we are. They also introduced me to my first dose of Broken Social Scene. Awesome. Hope you dig. This clip is dedicated to all those hipsters in Brooklyn.
Hanging out w/ friends from the Old Medina, playing Gnawa music. Gnawa music is native Moroccan music combining African, Arab, Islamic elements. Its beautiful.
It was an amazing weekend: back to back, balls to the wall rock n' roll with 3 of the finest bands out there right now. On Saturday night at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I saw Scotland's latest and greatest import, Glasvegas, with Sweedish popstress Ida Marina as the opening act. On Sunday, it was Primal Scream. God save the Scream! They were just awesome. I've never been to a louder show! My ears are still ringing from that shit!
Opening for Glasvegas was Ida Maria. I have never been to a show where the opening band had such a command of the audience with great songs and riveting showmanship. She came on with nothing and everything to prove, forcing the audience to take notice and no sooner having everyone cheering her on and singing lyrics like, "I like you so much better when you're naked, I like me so much better when you're naked!" It was like Bjork fronting the Pretenders. The songs had this jittery energy with strong, quirky melodies, beautiful pop hooks and great tribal rhythms. She's been making waves recently and the whole band was incredibly tight keeping up with the pace of their disheveled and charismatic frontwoman. And she plays a Strat, which is pretty badass! Here's a clip courtesy of our lovely Grace:
Next up was the band I was just dying to see: Glasvegas. They're just so fucking cool! What else can be said? Their sound is borrowed from the past but also unmistakably from the future. They came on like a biker gang from the 50's, all clad in black, with pompadour flare. Lead singer Jim Allen is a dead ringer for Joe Strummer, and his gigantic voice is earnest, passionate, and vulnerable all at once. Their drummer, Caroline McKay, is straight out the Velvet Underground/Jesus And Mary Chain handbook. She plays two drums and two symbols standing up. You would be amazed at how loud and yet so intimate this can be. Lead guitarist and also the lead singer's cousin, Rab Allen, provided incredible fuzzed out melodic atmospherics while losing himself with bassist Paul Donoghue, the skinniest of the bunch, but you just know he is that guy you wouldn't want to mess with cause he would come at you like a bad surprise and kick your head in. The highlights were "Geraldine", "Flowers & Football Tops", "Go Square Go", and of course "Daddy's Gone." This tune was the last of the evening and the band stopped for a second to hear the house chanting in unision "He's gone, He's gone, He's gone, He Go-On, OH-OH-WO-OAHHH!" Just brilliant. Here's a clip of Glasvegas opening with my favorite, "Geraldine," courtesy of Grace once again. Notice the two douchebags in the front fighting. Jim Allen comes out and kicks them apart and motions to the bouncer to yank the long haired hippie who started it. KILL ALL HIPPIES!!!
And that brings me to the weekend closer with a killer set by Primal Scream. Also from Scotland, but these guys don't cross the pond that often because its tough for them to attain a visa, apparently due to their drug-related issues of old. I felt lucky enough to catch them this time around and it was just pure class, pure badass, and man was it loud! I've never been to a louder show! They came on with that Stonesy swagger. Lead singer Bobby Gillespie (who was the standing drummer for the Jesus & Marie Chain back in the day) had that waifish Mick jagger vibe with a Dylanesque snarl, clapping the audience into tribal submission. He cared, but knew he didn't have to and could care less about who thought what, as long as the music was sounding alright, which of course it was. Bassist Mani, originally of that "seminal pop group" from Manchester, England, the Stone Roses, was pumped, constantly going up to the audience and inviting them to join the party. Touring guitarist Barrie Cardigan was just pure Kieth Richards, circa 1970's Rolling Stones during Sticky Fingers or Exile On Mainstreet (Two of my favorite records of all time by the way). But the real beast was guitarist Andrew Innes. I was stage left where he was playing and it was just atrociously loud!!! I was thinking afterward, when I could still hear his fuzzed out tones ringing in my ears, that he probably has to play that loud cause even he must be close to deaf. I wanted to tell the sound man to turn his ass down! But the boy can play. He was just awesome, despite making everyone's ears bleed. Drummer Darren Mooney was tight as hell keeping up with the dance rhythms and samples while keyboardist Martin Duffy was chillin' behind Andrew Innes. All you could see of Martin Duffy was his fedora creepin' out behind the wall of sound that could only be Primal Scream. They played the best songs from another one of my all time favorite records, the politically charged "XTRMNTR." They opened the show with "Kill All Hippies." They did rousing versions of "Shoot Speed, Kill Light," "Accelerator," "Country Girl," "Rocks," and of course "Movin' On Up." Primal MotherF'ing Scream everybody:
Here is some video from last week of a drum workshop I did with the awesome kids at the Dar Lekbira Association. Many of the kids at Dar Lekbira were street children and some are orphans. No matter where you go, be it in India, Brooklyn, or Africa, one thing is for sure, music makes the world go around. Enjoy the vid. More to come from Morocco. My music arts initiative is going well, but the 5 hours of Arabic a day is kicking my ass. I miss NYC too. Miss playing with the band, but I am excited to hear how well our new album is coming along and I am aching to play BAM in June.
To read more about whats going down in Morocco or to see more vids check out my blog: http://dangerville.wordpress.com/ Pics from Morocco here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/talesfrommaroc/
The Indypendent has just featured an article on us last week. Stephen Nessen was the reporter and a very cool guy with a keen interest on South Asia, especially with the Kashmir issue. Mo had been talking with him last fall and invited him out to our show the last time we played at the defunct Club Rehab (sad. very few rock clubs left in Manhattan.). After the show I remember talking with him for a while and I saw him again at the Kashmir panel discussion Mo organized at NYU late last year. The article turned out pretty well but there are of course some corrections and shout outs I have to note:
1) E-C-K-E-L-M-A-N!!!! Greg Eckelman has been and is our esteemed bass player, colleague, and road dog since we started taking the stage in NYC back in '04. We would be in serious trouble without him. Paolo Arao has just joined us on keys. Jay Barclay has lent us his guitar hero virtuosity (and I'm not talking about the video game!) since 2007.
2) Mo's very impressive and emotionally charged photo documentary was done in the Spring of 2003 , a year and a half or so after our trip in December 2001 that inspired many of the songs off our first record. I was working on the album in NYC while our kid was doing his thing in Srinagar.
3)Anayatuallah Bhatt was the name of the Kashmiri musician, son of a local baker, who was shot and killed by Indian Security forces outside his home. He was 26 years old and is survived by his mother, father, younger brother and sister. We were in Kashmir again during the summer of 2006 and protests were going on over Anayatuallah's death. I had read the article and immediately asked that my brother and I visit the family and get their story. To this day there has been no inquiry about the incident or against the Indian army who carried out such a heinous act with impunity. In January of 2007, two weeks after my brother and I got back from Mecca for Hajj, we organized a benefit concert with a bunch of NYC bands that we knew. It was a great success and we played to a packed house. All the proceeds went to the non-profit, CHINAR, in Anayatullah Bhatt's name.
Despite those points, it's a fine article that represents us very well and pretty accurately. We're totally psyched to be in the Indypendent! If you get a second let us know what you think.
Well, not exactly. Turns out someone is auctioning off our 2007 EP, "Havre de Grace" on Ebay. He's a top seller who goes by the name of PSpector. Don't know whether to be flattered or a little annoyed. Bidding starts at $8.99! We were selling it for $5 at our shows before we....uh... started giving them away for free. You can get it for the same price on iTunes. This Pspector character is making more money than us off our own record! Oh well, Whaddaya gonna do? Happy Bidding!
