The Travelling Band

It was last week, around this time, that I received the Parisian newsletter, the most informative newsletter of the  events, specially music gigs, in Paris for each day of the week. The recommendations so far were good.

While tackling with the codes I was writing, I gave myself a few minutes break to check out the events. The first event was "The Travelling Band" from Manchester. I clicked on the link to listen to their music on their myspace page. Boy it was awesome. I listened to the songs there, and when it came to "sweet city", I played it a few times in a row. I went back to check when they were performing in Paris. It was the same night!

My friend and I arrived at the venue at the supposed starting time but the show started an hour later. I am not a music critic so I don't intend to write a review or report.  I can only tell, that their music, although not old, but brings a sense of nostalgia and evokes a feeling of lightness, the kind that makes you so carefree, that you want it not to end.

The ebb and flow in "hindsight" and "screaming is something",  made me feel somewhere in the clouds. The melancholic tune of "Lanes of names", adds to the mystique aura of this song which turned into a chirpy tune after a few minutes.

Another feature of their music which I found quite appealing was unpredictability. Just at the moment, when the listeners were mesmerized by the mellow sounds, the band, deftly brought them out of their spellbound reverie. This was vivid in the performance of "Jess come over" followed by "only waiting" 

The zestful keyboard play by Jo,  Nick's vim and vigor on drums, Adam's virtuosic guitar play, accompanied by scintillating harmonies made their performance unforgettable. 

Perhaps the most memorable song for me from that night was "on the rails". The words still echo in my mind: "If I don't see you on that train, see you on the other side"

Radio Tehran

My friend told me in February, that they're gonna have a gig in London. I booked my train ticket the next day. Both as a friend and a fan, I was excited to be present at their gig, knowing they had put much effort into getting it done. I wrote this report for their official website few days after the gig, but for some reason the site is not up yet. So I asked Ali if I could publish it on my blog and he was positive.

After 5 months, this cannot really be called a report! But I thought it was a way I could appreciate their effort for the album which I took pleasure in listening to.

So here is the report. The photos are taken by my friend Dominique Bader.

Chaarshanbe-suri was a good excuse to gather young Iranians in London, though not for traditional fireworks. Attendees enjoyed a blend of artistic events culminating in a special musical debut by Radio Tehran, featuring Ali Azimi, lead vocalist, and Pedram Afshin, lead guitarist. The band's drummer Payam Hashemi and bass player Hesam Garshasbi unfortunately couldn’t leave Iran in time to make it to the gig. They were very much missed.

The band put a couple of their songs on their myspace page just ten days before the gig. Around 3000 internet fans visited that week- time enough for some fans to learn the lyrics by heart and sing along during the band's performance.

They began with “Gelayeh” (Complaints). The starting guitar melody fills the aura of this song by haze and may be it wasn’t the expected opening choice. However, the rich sound of Maral's cello carried this piece with its elegant ornamentation.

Spring evokes in us a feeling of sheer delight with anticipation and we’re thrilled to hear the song “Bahar” (Spring). This song starts lively but a mysterious tone soon follows which is the prelude to Ali’s yearning for spring. He is not just waiting for Bahar as an excuse to forget the years passed. Ali fears his season is over and he hasn’t accomplished anything. He is looking for a change; “my season is colorful and this song is a prelude to it”, and thus “Bahar” is outpourings of longings, worries and hopes. The lush piano soundscape, which embellished the second verse of the song in their album version, was missing in their live performance. Still, this song was either, if not the best of the show, certainly second best , next to Eshtabah.

Then there was “Change”, the only English song in their gig, which brought smiles to the faces of some non-Iranians in the audience, curious to know about Iranian alternative music.

A mellow arpeggio played dexterously by Pedram, commences “Eshtebah” (Mistake), a magnetic song with touching lyrics. “Eshtebah” enthralled everyone, even more so when Ali started singing into a megaphone. I was reminded of Tom Waits’ “Chocolate Jesus”, not that there is any similarity between these songs but the sheer use of the megaphone was an attraction by itself, magnified by people singing the verses along with him. It was as if the microphone alone wasn’t loud enough to convey his message to the crowd. He used the megaphone to emphasize his news; he is broken hearted! “If love is a lantern, you won’t even see as much as the blinds ”. The song then advances with a brimming hook, accompanied both by the back vocals and the crowd.

“To Nemiduni” (You Don’t Know) was perhaps the catchiest song of the night, and it added some dance grooves to their performance. The exuberant crowd frolicked to the jaunty tunes. Ali’s frisky turning back to Kambiz Shaygan, the drummer, while playing with verve caused the crowd to cheer joyously.

They closed with perhaps their most rebellious song, “Tatilat” (Vacation). It starts with a mystifying timbre, gearing us up to hear the words. Ali uses a beautiful metaphor for his life, “the green apple of my life fell into the stream of water”. The mellifluous guitar melody gives way to Ali’s belting out the rest of the song starting with “forget about tomorrow, your colleagues are all insane”.

A cheer from the crowd after “Tatilat”, asked for an encore. Some asked for Bahar and some for “Payiz” (Fall). It seemed I was not the only one engrossed by Payiz. But Ali chose neither. Instead he played “Aghaye Past” (Mr Mean), with keyboard accompanied by cello. This simple composition is reminiscent of the Beatles “Mean Mr. Mustard”. Perhaps after “Khabnama” (Insomnia), which had the most Beatlish tone color, this was the only other song of this character. In spite of this resemblance, Radio Tehran has quite an original sound. Its music comes from the heart and its words are lucidly delicate. The most remarkable feature of their music is how elegantly they incorporate the simple and meaningful Persian lyrics into rock music, something which most Iranian rock bands have failed to achieve.

After buying their album, I realized that “Change” and “Aghaye Past” are not included. I am wondering how many more songs the band has in the can for their future album. Is their next album hovering on the heels of 88?

Dengue Fever

Lately I have been so fascinated with an American Cambodian psychedelic rock band named "Dengue Fever".  I realized that since 4 months ago that I got to know them, whenever I started listening to them, the player went through the songs over and over without making me tired of the music.

Not understanding a single Cambodian word, I was surprised how profound music itself can be. The penetrating voice of Chhom Nimol, although not merry but joyfully takes us to the mysterious Khmer world through songs like "New year's Eve". This song is most probably a cover of a song originally by "Ros Sereysothea" which knocked "Ethan Hotlzman" (the band keyboard player) sideways when he heard it on a pick up truck while hitchhiking in Cambodia.

Chhom's voice has a strong diversity and can make you sleepwalking when listening to "Flowers" or "Genjer Genjer". When I read what happened to people including musicians during Pol Pot's regime, when any form of creativity was viewed as decadence, and nearly 2 million people got killed, I understood why in these two songs, Chhom's voice is so infused with pain.

Lastly, I realized why the song  "One thousand tears of a Tarantula" is so turbulently psychedelic. It was written about one of the singers who was allegedly executed by the Khmer Rouge after being forced to strip naked and walk in circles, singing for her captors.

Don't miss their music on the following direct links: Myspace Dengue Fever, Ilike Dengue Fever, Dengue Fever youtube channel, Dengue Fever in allmusic.There is also a trailer of "sleepwalking through the Mekong" which is interesting.

For more about Cambodian musical renaissance, you can read "A voice from the killing fields" by Nik Cohn at Guardian.

immoral, unorthox or simply natural?

When I was a kid, there was a TV series I used to watch. In one episode, a man who was in jail, was released and his family was waiting for him outside the blocked walls. When he came out, I expected him to go to his wife and kiss her, just as my dad did when he came back from a trip. To my great surprise, the man stood in front of her, said hi, looked at her and started talking to her. I couldn't keep silent and shouted: "Hey why don't you kiss your wife? You haven't kissed for a year! ". My dad said, while a bit in a temper: "how mindless they are! If you don't want to show an inevitable intimate scene, just turn the darn camera to the other man who only has his brother waiting for him to come out of jail, or just change the damn scenario"

Later, I noticed at airport, couples who met after separation, or were about to part,  didn't kiss on lips the way they should. If a kiss lasted a bit long, people's head turned towards them.

Is this act immoral? No, I thought, but it surely was unorthodox. Later, when I went to Lebanon, I realized that people do not French kiss in public but are way more relax than in Iran. I didn't know what I could relate this to; was it due to being a Muslim country or to its being underdeveloped, as it's called.

So I kept my eyes open when I went to Ghana, a relatively poor and underdeveloped country compared to the former 2. I was amazed how relaxed people's intimate interaction was. I told myself, so it definitely has to do with being a Muslim country.

In Europe though, these interactions are way more relaxed and you see people kissing each other in public, on a daily basis and no one goggles at them.

Last weak, while I was walking on the banks of Seine with a friend, I saw this couple and I stopped to shoot them.  Suddenly, the girl realized and I immediately went to her  and while showing her and her boyfriend the photo, told them that if they didn't like it, I could delete it but they were ok.

Actually this made me realize they were Arabs and most likely Muslims. I put on my thinking cap and I told myself: these people are in Paris where kissing in public doesn't make them nonconformist, yet they still do it covertly. Could there be other reasons than thinking of it as a very private act which would seem immoral if done in public?

Where is Home?

Home is a notion which has occupied my mind for  a while. Where do we call home? Where do we feel home? Is home the place you are born or the place you've lived most of your life?

Still I haven't found a unique  answer to these questions.

I met people who were born in a country like Lebanon, Iran, Australia and since at least one of their parents were from that country, they're originally from there. They then moved to another country like France, UK, the states or … when young or still a kid, and lived the rest of their lives in the immigrated country. Yet, when they want to visit the country where they were born, they say: “I'm going home” and when they finished their visit in the Home country, they say: “I'm going back to US” or any country for that matter.

I've seen the opposite as well, but the first scenario is more common.

Talking to a friend who had left Iran when he was a kid, he said that since he traveled a lot, he always took his teapot with him, to have a piece of Home wherever he went. “Then I realized that I can find different elements in each place which can convey the notion of Home for me, like the smell of some local fruits and flowers; and so I find my Home in different places.”, he said.

As for me, since one of my self-indulgence is food, cooking myself an Iranian food or drinks, is one habitual hankering for Home; but when I read Persian literature or poems, watch an Iranian movie or listen to some Iranian songs, the notion of Home intensifies and deepens.

There is definitely a physical notion to Home. There is a tramp who has been living in front of the building I live since 10 months ago. He sometimes leaves in day and comes back at night to sleep on the ventilation grill he's been occupying ever since. So this man finds a sense of Home in this particular place that brings him back there every night.

While I was lost in my thoughts, I saw this man in the street and took a shot. What is in this cardboard that defines Home? I couldn't help but wonder

Frames of life

While I was thinking of a name for my blog, I was contemplating uniqueness of experiences we have in life. Are the incidents we have in life, exclusive to us? I think not. I think people encapsulate life in frames and that made me think of the name " frames of life " for my blog. Surprisingly enough, I found out that this blog already existed. I was pissed since I thought this combination was unique to me. This made me ponder on the conjecture I had made.

I still believe that the experiences are unique to individuals but the words they find to manifest this can be the same. How accidentally? I don't know.