More on 'Traitors': #women #punk #Morocco

Back in March I posted about the film Traitors, which deals with Moroccan women punkers. (And which I have not yet seen. I've since came across a couple more interesting sources.

1. An article about the film's star, Chaimae Ben Acha, in Brownbook.

Chaimae plays Malika, leader of an all-girl punk band in Tangier (she's in white in the photo below).

Ben Acha’s preparation for the role required her to cut her hair like Joan Jett, enrol in singing lessons and wear combat boots while off-set so as to acquire a rebellious strut. She admits that prior to the filming of ‘Traitors’, she had ‘nothing to do’ with rock music. ‘To sing rock ’n’ roll, you have to be hard-edged. It’s not feminine,’ she says.

2. And, another preview. Music sounds great. Can't wait to see it.

TRAITORS - Bande Annonce MAROC [2:19] from Thin Man on Vimeo.

Another Palestinasjal (Swedish for Palestinian Kufiya) in the Sunday New York Times

Actresses Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin and Liv LeMoyne (in kufiya). Credit: Magnolia Pictures

It's the same film as before, Lukas Moodysson's We Are the Best!, about three Swedish girls who start a punk band in the early 80s. I spotted this, along with Marc Spitz's review, in the print edition of the New York Times on Sunday, May 28, 2014. It sounds like a great film.

And I will tell you once again: in Sweden they simply call the kufiya a Palestinasjal or Palestinian scarf. The film is based on a graphic novel by the filmmaker's wife Coco Moodysson's, which recounts her experiences as a young punk in the early 80s. Kufiyas were there, as they were in the US.

Madonna, NYC, early 80s.

drone life cont'd: Jon Langford's 'Drone Operator'

 Thanks to Mike W, who informed of this. Jon Langford of The Mekons and the Waco Brothers and lots of other bands, and formerly of Leeds and now very settled in Chicago, has put out a song called "Drone Operator." He seems to have been performing it since at least 2012, but has recently put it out (by Jon Langford and Skull Orchard) as a single, and on youtube, with a very fine video by Hassan Amejal. 

Amejal also sings a bit in Arabic (haven't had the time to decode it, and maybe I won't be able to. Somebody help.)

If you know anything about Langford's politics you'd know that the song would be critical of the drone war machinery. And it is. Here are some of the lyrics:

I’m not really a soldier
I’m more likely to die
By car wreck or cancer than the eye in the sky
That follows them home, right into their window
And they never know
They never know

and...

It didn't look like a wedding
It wasn't my call
When it all was over
We went to a bar
Drank beer and watched basketball

 It's a sinister, and at the same time, banal evil.

"Drone Operator" is on the album Here Be Monsters, which is about to drop, as they say, on April 1, which is only a few hours away. Enjoy.
 

The film "Traitors": women, punk, Morocco

Traitors (dir. Sean Gullette) has been on the festival circuit for a couple years. It looks, based on the reviews and the available trailers, to be a good one. I was alerted to it by Joobin Bekhrad's review in REORIENT, which also features one of the trailers. The latter features the lead, Malika, and her all-female Moroccan punk band doing a version of The Clash's "I'm So Bored with the USA," in Arabic, but with the chorus, "I'm so bored with Mo-ro-cco" sung in English.

Among other things, Bekhrad writes, "Gullette’s film appears to be one centred around the power and allure of rock music, particularly in a North African context; however, as it progresses, it also comes to provide a powerful social commentary on the current generation of Morocco’s youth and their hopes, aspirations, frustrations, dilemmas, and anxieties, evoking at times a mood similar to that prevalent in earlier films such as Fatih Akin’s Head On..." If it's anything like Head On I it should be worth watching. We can only hope.

(I liked Bekhrad's review but it was marred by a move that everyone writing in English about Middle Eastern pop music seems to make, which is "clever" puns. A couple examples: "stuck between Maroc and a hard place" and "Maroc and roll, baby." Er, enough.)

Here's another clip from the film:

And some more info:

"Features original songs sung by its riveting star Chaimae Ben Acha [who plays Malika, the leader of a Tangier punk band], and new music from much-hyped all-female bands Savages and Talk Normal." (I've not been able to find any of their music, however.)

Here's an interview with the director, published in Variety. Where we learn, among other things, that the film was funded with a grant from the Sharjah Art Foundation.

And, a review in The Hollywood Reporter, quite positive.

Sunny Ali and the Kid - MUSLIM RAGE #drones

they're runnin but there's
drones up ahead
drones in your bed
drones in your home
drone give me head
drone give me dome
preacher preacher
leave them kids alone


More on Sunny Ali and the Kid here.

“Taqwacore is dead. Long live Taqwacore”

Siddharta Mitter, writing for MTV Iggy, brilliantly assesses the history and future (if any) of Taqwacore, frequently mis-identified as "Muslim Punk." (But -- how would you identify it?)

...whether Taqwacore is dead or has simply mutated, the intersection of Islam, among other brown identities, and music will remain busy and vibrant so long as there are youth around to rebel against the boxes that confine them. 


“No one wants to be pigeonholed,” [Omar] Majeed says. “Taqwacore itself was a reaction against being labeled—as Muslim, brown, too religious, not religious enough. Now people are doing new things with the moniker. That’s happening, and that’s good.”

Al-Thawra's "Wine of Power"--in tribute to wave of Arab revolutions

Free and timely download from the doom-crust punk band Al-Thawra, out of Chicago.

Al-Thawra says on their blog: "In celebration of the wave of revolutions spreading rapidly across the Middle East, we're proud to be giving away our song, "Wine of Power" for free download. We hope that song's lyrics of self-empowerment are something that everyone, everywhere can relate to, and hopefully something that everyone can also take inspiration from. In some ways, its anger and passion are a sign of the times..."

Get it here.

And check out their blog here. Al-Thawra is sometimes linked to the taqwacore scene. I really like their music. They are very fond of kufiyas.

Do MIA's gingers stand for Malcolm McLaren?

Is Nabeel right? Do the gingers in MIA's 'Born Free' video really stand for the late (and seriously ginger) Malcolm McLaren? That reading would actually make MIA's vid a little more comprehensible: as both a tribute to the recently departed punkmaster and Situationist, and as a kind of allegory about the threat posed by McLaren style punkers.

Waddya think?

A ginger from MIA's vid:


Mr. McLaren (RIP, ginger):

Not to mention that Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistol fame was (often) a ginger:



Previous post on the MIA vid is here.

"The Taqwacores" to screen at Sundance! Trailer now available on MTV!

Check out this terrific trailer for "The Taqwacores," courtesy MTV. It will screen soon at the Sundance Film Festival. Five chances to view it between January 24 and January 29. The Kominas will be there.

This makes me even more appreciative of Sundance, which screened Slingshot Hip-Hop, Jackie Salloum's film about Palestinian rap, in 2008.

Will Quentin Tarantino show up for an after-party, as he did for Slingshot?

Big congrats and mabrouk to all concerned, and particularly to Michael Muhammad Knight, the author of the novel The Taqwacores. And many other books, which all readers of this blawg should purchase and read. (Confession: I'm one of the inhabitants of Knight's Blue-Eyed Devil: A Road Odyssey Through Islamic America. It's cool to be part of MMK's vision of Islamic USA.

And of course, there are kufiyas, in the film, and in the trailer. This guy is the "West Coast Punk." From the trailer, it appears that he will be a quite interesting and provocative character in the film.


But the Riot Grrrl and the Queer Punk look promising too, eh?

Taqwacores at SXSW

This just in: a Taqwacores concert at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX. Friday, March 20, 2009, 9 P.M. at Club 115, 115 S. Jacinto St.

The lineup is:

The Kominas
Al-Thawra
Omar of Diacritical
Vote Hezbollah
Secret Trial Five

Go here for info on the concert and The Kominas from SXSW, and to download The Kominas' "Sharia Law in the USA."

I am very partial to The Kominas and Al-Thawra; have not yet had much time to familiarize myself with the other groups. (Click on the links above to listen and download.)

I think Mark Levine, author of Heavy Metal Islam, will be sitting in with one or more of the bands on guitar. I don't know whether the godfather of taqwacore, Michael Muhammad Knight, will be there. I'm going to try to get down to Austin for this, if I can figure out how to attend the event without buying one of those super expensive SXSW badges.

The Kominas' "Wild NIghts in Guantanamo Bay"

Very exciting news (Thanks, John!)--the groundbreaking taqwacore ("Islamic punk") band, The Kominas, have finally released their first CD, Wild Nights in Guantanamo Bay. I've not yet heard it (it was only released on March 10), but you can listen to some of the songs that appear on it, like "Suicide Bomb the Gap" and "Sharia Law in the USA," on The Kominas' myspace page. I'm especially partial to the latter. Unfortunately, you can no longer download their material for free. So buy the album here.

More info on The Kominas is available from wikipedia. It states that the group is on "gigging hiatus" because bass player Basim is currently in Pakistan. Don't know whether that is true. I hope not for long.

And don't you just love this cover?

(Earlier Kominas posts here and here.)

Newsweek on Islamic Punk

Glad to see that Islamic punk is getting more coverage and visibility. I've not heard all of the groups discussed here, but highly recommend Kominas (homepage here, myspace page--with mp3s--here). Have only just heard it, but I really like their song, 9000 miles, a ska number with some dhol beats. I read Michael Muhammad Knight's The Taqwacores soon after it came out, loved it, but never imagined (until Mike told me otherwise) that there really was a taqwacore "scene." (Hope I can make it to ISNA for the taqwacores concert!) Check out the Newsweek article itself for more photos and to hear the Kominas' "9000 Miles."

(But never forget the original Muslim punk: Aki Nawaz of Fun'Da'Mental, who started his career as drummer for Southern Death Cult.)

Slam Dancing for Allah
Muslim punk rock—it's not as bizarre as it sounds.
By Matthew Philips
Newsweek, June 11, 2007

It's near midnight in a small Fairfax, Va., bar, and Omar Waqar stands on a makeshift stage, brooding in a black tunic and brown cap. He stops playing his electric guitar long enough to survey the crowd—an odd mix of local punks and collared preps—before screaming into the microphone: "Stop the hate! Stop the hate!" Stopping hate is a fairly easy concept to get behind at a punk-rock show, and the crowd yells and pumps its fists right on cue. But it's safe to say that Waqar and his band, Diacritical, aren't shouting about the same kind of hate as the audience. Waqar wants to stop the kind that made people call him "sand flea" as a kid and throw rocks through the windows of the Islamic bookstore he worked at on 9/11. Waqar, 26, the son of a Pakistani immigrant, is a Muslim—a punk-rock Muslim.

Muslim punk rock certainly sounds like an oxymoron, especially since fundamentalist Muslims condemn all music as haram (forbidden). But Diacritical is one of about a dozen Islamic punk-rock bands throughout the country, bands with names like Vote Hezbollah, the Kominas ("bastards" in Punjabi) and Al-Thawra (Arabic for "the revolution"). The bands vary in sound, polish and success: the Kominas' funk-infused Bollywood songs have been on rotation on the BBC, while sounds of explosions and gunfire punctuate Arabic chanting on the MySpace page of Al-Thawra. But they're alike enough to tour together this summer, ending Labor Day weekend in Chicago at the usually staid Islamic Society of North America's annual conference. Muslim punkers call their brand of music taqwacore—a blend of the Arabic word for piety, taqwa, and "hard-core," the English word for musicians who want to be taken very seriously. "The Prophet Muhammad was all about smashing idols," says Michael Muhammad Knight, a Muslim convert whose 2003 novel "The Taqwacores" is a manifesto for the Muslim punk movement. "And what's more punk rock than that?"

Punk has always been home to the marginalized and angry, led by the Sex Pistols and the Clash in Britain and the Ramones across the pond. But Muslim punk rockers are fighting a two-sided establishment: one side West, the other Middle East. To them, the war on terror is unequivocally a war on Islam, but they're equally infuriated by Islamic fundamentalists and the bloodshed they foment against Westerners as well as other Muslims. "It's not like I'm choosing sides," says Kourosh Poursalehi, 18, who wears a denim vest with a print of Ayatollah Khomeini on the back—for the shock value. "To me they're both wrong. Bush with the war is doing horrible things, but there's not a person in my family who's happy with the Islamic revolution in Iran." These punks are the first generation of American-born Muslims; their parents came to the United States in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. They grew up just like most kids their age—playing videogames and listening to music. But in their midteens and early 20s, they suddenly had to come to terms with their dual identities. "It was 9/11 that first made me conscious of my ethnicity," says Shajahan Khan, 23, the son of Pakistani immigrants who grew up outside Boston. The day after 9/11, a classmate asked him what his people had done. "I was like, 'What people? My people from Cambridge or Boston?'" says Khan, guitarist of the Kominas.

Admittedly, these Muslim punks aren't especially devout, at least in the traditional sense. None goes to Friday prayers regularly, but they all say they're deeply spiritual. To them, Islam begins and ends with one's personal relationship with God. After a recent show at a Manhattan bar, Waqar felt the urge to pray. "I went into the men's room, got down on the nasty floor and started praying," he recalls. Nothing says Muslim punk rock more than searching for Allah on the floor of a nightclub bathroom.

(Photos are of the Kominas, and taken from their official website. Earlier post here. Check out Diacritical's myspace page for the group's reaction to being called Islamic punk--they say, not.)

Kufiyaspotting #10: Delta 5

Delta 5 were a great and important and very left-wing & feminist post-punk band from Leeds. I've read a lot about them but was only familiar with their song "Mind Your Own Business" as covered by Chicks on Speed, on the album Will Save Us All! Kill Rock Stars recently released a compilation with three of their singles, plus some BBC and live sessions, from 1979-1981. Now I can finally hear the great Delta 5 that previously I just read about.

It's drummer Kelvin Knight (far right) who is wearing the kufiya. Knight once spent time as the drummer for Gang of Four, also from Leeds, to whom Delta 5 bear a sonic resemblance. Delta 5 also ran in the same circles as another great Leeds post-punk band, The Mekons. In the liner notes to this compilation, Jon Langford of the Mekons (and Waco Brothers and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts) says that the personnel of the Mekons and Gang of Four and Delta 5 were all originally very loosely related and put together bands with names like Mekon Delta 4. I love this, whether it's true or not: it combines the Mekons and Gang of 4 name with Delta, and is (is this too obvious?) a pun on Mekong Delta.

Kufiyas were a very common accessory in leftwing Brit circles at the time.

Last kufiyaspotting here.

Tags: post-punk

[Note added November 23, 2012: See the comment below, which clarifies that Kelvin Knight, the kufiya wearer in the photo, was from York, not Leeds, and that he played drums on two classics from The Jermz: "Me and My Baby" and "Power Cut." And he also drummed for The Jerks, another Leeds band that pre-dated Delta 5.

Check out The Jerk's "Dole Queue Boy."

For more on Delta 5, check this out.]