Tag: Reggae

[Read] THE KOMINAS: Stereotype (Part 2)

Vagabonds.

Image may contain: one or more people, text that says 'THE KOMINAS'

 

OK, now the music

Being a (very) small Desi girl born in America at the tuft-ended tail of the 90s, and despite all those things, a hard rock fan, I’ve grown quite accustomed to the psychological acrobatics necessary to find myself in the music of very old white men. Usually it’s that unfortunate offshoot of hyper-masculinity that sometimes crosses a line for me – namely, the anti-femininity (looking at you, Axl Rose). The other exclusivities of the genre, those of race and sexuality, forever lived in the shadows of these most heinous offenses to my gender. In other words, finding a South Asian-American band like the Kominas was a faraway dream. I never even thought to look.

This is the first time that I’ve found a band that’s so close to home, for me, not just in ethnicity, but in sound. I’ve listened to some Bangalore-produced heavy metal before. It’s good, but not something I’d listen to every day. The Kominas just hit the right spot. Maybe it’s because they’re hyphenated-Americans too, like me. Maybe it’s because they’re punk rockers and that just really seems to jive with me right now.

Whoops I lied, NOW I talk about the music

The overall impression is very surf-rock, but with rigid, rapid guitar rhythms that keep the mood persistently heavy. The Bollywood aspect really isn’t too noticeable in this album (though a cursory look into their back catalog revealed songs entirely in Urdu/Hindi and even Bollywood song covers), but appears in subtle forms. Maybe in their modes. Maybe in their penchant for repeating lines over and over, with slight variation. Maybe I’m imagining it entirely.

Honestly though, what I like even better than this unique blend of genres and relaxing oohs and catchy motifs is their lyrics. They’re serious, and they’re heavy (regardless of what music videos seem to suggest), but delivered with upbeat rhythms and melodies – the aural equivalent of a smile.

Some of my favorites from this ‘un:

“Again and Again” – hearing is not believing/ you’re here but we all know you’re leaving

“Banana” – I’m a believer, in my own way, rip my T-shirt, give my heart away

“4 White Guys” – ‘cause y’all been messin’ with my mojo/ y’all been messin’ with my mind

“Freedom” – dirty scab fox-hunting wankers – Just sounds like a stereotypical Anglo-Indian (Anglo-Pakistani? Is that a thing? I don’t know!) dad going off on some guy he doesn’t like.

“Pigs are Haram” – The whole song. All of it. Pls listen.

 

Here’s their Bandcamp again.

 

I’m gonna go back to working on not going Bananas.

-Mans

[Read] THE KOMINAS: Stereotype (Part 1)

Rapscallions.

 

 

Let’s talk about the Stereotype.

By which I mean, of course, the 2015 album by Desi-American rock band The Kominas. If I had to describe it, I’d call it reggae-infused Bollywood-punk, but they call it taqwacore, so we’re going with that I guess.

There’s a lot I have to say about the album’s music, but I’ll take a while to get to that, so I should say up front that I’ve been listening to nothing else this past week and my ears very much enjoy the pleasant beachy bounciness of these lil’ tunes, especially since there’s little beach or bounce to be found anywhere in lil’ ole Manhattan at any time ever, and it certainly doesn’t help that the lil’ ole Hudson’s frozen the fuck over and fully within my view for eight hours of the day.

Great album.

 

Unnecessary intro that’s just about my misconceptions prior to actually listening to the album

I wasn’t expecting much when I stumbled upon this album. In fact, I found the name pretty predictable, coming from a predominantly Pakistani-Muslim but technically also featuring Hindus (hyphen) American band. I probably wouldn’t have given it a second look if the cover art didn’t LITERALLY snatch my eyes out of their sockets.

OK, figuratively. How can one not be expected to double- or triple-take at a line-drawing of a balding Desi uncle in women’s underwear with his hands tied behind his back being fed laddoo by a sari-and-very-toothy-smile-sporting auntie?

But don’t let that “edgy AF” album cover fool ya. The Stereotype is every bit what you’d expect, fittingly, and the album cover seems to be nothing more than a non-sequitur. A red herring. A flibbertigibbet, a will-o’-the-wisp, a clown.

So it’s about being Muslim in America. And being suspect in the eyes of every white American around you, even when you’re doing “just Desi things” like eating kaati rolls on the subway and transporting one of those stackable steel tiffin boxes in a seat of its own on the subway or reading “The Urdu Times” on the subway.

That’s pretty much what happens in their video for “See Something, Say Something”. But in case having a camera follow around a paranoid white man as he repeatedly shifts seats in attempts to avoid Brownness-turned-up-to-eleven was too subtle for you, there’s a totally unambiguous alien in the video too! An alien that dogs the footsteps of this paranoid white man that switches between its tentacular form and the form of four different Pakistani dudes. Because THEY’RE ALIENS.

Oh oh oh oh and then, there’s a twist. At the end of the video, the alien traps Mr. White Man, and he finally confronts it and knocks it down and takes the mask off and Oh My God it’s HIM in the shitty alien costume, Mr. White Man himself, because do you get it yet we’re all the same.

 

I’m not trying to criticize them for being over the top. I like hamfistedness in my satire. It’s humorous, usually. It’s entertaining. And I honestly like the lyrics to the songs too, I think they explore the nuance of being proud of your heritage and a believer in your faith in the face of miscast stereotypes that are indeed very real in post-9/11/post-Afghanistan war/post-ISIS terror/post-Trump’s election America, like:

“Just because of his beliefs, they call him a liar and a thief” – Again & Again

“Now I’m invincible/Feel the vibe/It’s so nice to lead/A foreign life/That’s just for white guys” – Four White Guys

 

BUT

Where the hell did they get that tiffin box?? Did they get one of their moms to send it to them or something? I literally have never seen one of those outside of India, and seeing it on a subway just felt surreal.

But the real BUT is that it’s all a little too nonchalant. The white guy in the video gets off a little too easily, just seeing himself in the alien costume. His behavior a little too passive. As much as they decided to ham up the metaphors and the anti-Islam, anti-brown behavior, it comes off like a joke and nothing more, because none of the true horrors of being treated as “the Other” are even showcased as horrors. They’re comical distortions, I understand, and they definitely succeeded in being comical (“Urdu Times”), but the videos seemed to undermine the more cutting critique that the band clearly intended to convey, by the sound of their lyrics. They make me feel stupid for even taking the lyrics seriously.

 

OK, I’m done nitpicking.

 

 

 

Here’s their whole album, free to listen, on their Bandcamp:

 

 

 

And that one music video I couldn’t shut up about, from their YouTube:

 

More to come on the actual, like “music” part.

 

– Mans