Pass the Mic: Interview with Riz MC

I was first blown away by Riz Ahmed when I saw him perform on Britz. It was only afterwords that I realized that Riz wasn’t just an actor – he’s also known as Riz MC. Straight out of the U.K., his lyrics are dynamic and controversial and his sound dances on the edge of gritty hip hop and electro sci fi. Amardeep’s written about Riz MC’s controversial lyrics in the past. I had the chance to sit down virtually with the infamous Riz. Here’s what he said.

Taz: Though you’ve been MCing for a few years, MICroscope is your debut album. Why did you wait so long to release your first album?

Riz: I guess you could say it was because I was busy filming. But in reality, I also wanted to take the time to find my sound and set out a unique style of music and lyrics – dense lyrical ideas with bold simple electronic or totally acoustic sounds. This album took 18 months to make.

T: On your website you say that “the album is coupled with a groundbreaking live show and a trans-media online experience.” What exactly does that mean?

R: There’s a live show that goes with the album. It’s a gig or concert but it also has a story line in which the audience is involved in moving forward. It’s pretty unique as a concept and in the way it’s performed. There’s a short film that ties in with it too. Both the website for the album and live shows are cutting edge digital interactive. So it’s an album, show, film, and website all set at different points in the same story world. Continue reading

She Just Pulled a Kaavya

Hey Karmacy, I think some girl in India pulled a Kaavya Viswanathan on your lyrics (h/t Deepa).

Evidence 1 (skip to 4:35 to see her “rap”):

The original Karmacy video of Blood Brothers:

If I knew Final Cut Pro, I would have edited the videos next to each others, but I think you get the idea. Okay, fine. I do realize that these American/Indian/Wherever Idols are an elaborate form of karaoke and no one ever sings original material. But, is it just me, or does she claim the lyrics as her own? (And who is this Patel rap referred to by the judges?)

She auditioned with the same Karmacy song. Audition video below the jump. Continue reading

Music Monday for the Mutiny

Mutineers, it’s been a minute since I’ve blogged here – I’ve been traveling and collecting stories from the motherland for a project (which I’ll catch you up on a little later). Since I’ve been back, I’ve been downloading new music with a frenzy and it seems that quite a few musical friends of The Mutiny have been busy while I’ve been gone. Chee Malabar dropped a free EP (The Burning Tire Artisan) and the ENTIRE Das Racist album Shut Up, Dude (including the infamous Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell) is downloadable for free off of their Myspace. Sub Swara remixed a Balkan Beat Box song, also downloadable for free. All songs are in heavy rotation on the ipod. Riz MC is streaming his new album MICroscope in it’s entirety for a limited time and tonight Arthi Meera‘s band Fair and Kind is uStreaming a live show tonight at 6pm PST. Not to mention M.I.A.’s latest XXXO is my greatest jam, no thanks to Lady Gaga.

Since it’s “Music Monday” I thought, I’d share some finds and see what you think.

The above video comes from Koom the Ripper, a new kid outta Southern California with a first album dropping some time this year. I heard of him through the guys of Slant, (who also are the back up dancers in this video) and I gotta admit, the song sounds like it belongs at a college Asian American talent show competition. But I thought the video was cool and Koom has definite potential. You can download his entire LP American Muscle for free here.

I’ve been loving the new Das Racist album Shut Up, Dude – the hooks are catchy and Heems drops lyrical references to V.S. Naipul, Dinesh DeSouza, and John Abraham. Though sometimes the lyrics are coded in subtext atop subtext. I’m completely mesmerized by the above video to Fake Patois. Continue reading

[NSFW] MIA’s new happy upbeat video about a boy and a girl in love

I tweeted yesterday about the new MIA video, a short, happy upbeat bit of bubblegum pop about a boy and a girl in love. It’s uplifting and heart warming, yet light and subtle. She’s clearly leaving politics behind and trying to challenge Taylor / Miley / Gaga / Ke$ha in the hearts of tween kids everywhere. Based on this video, I figure her next move is to team up with Justin Bieber for a saccharine duet, something that will show up on Glee within a month. Or maybe she’ll decide to give Jay Sean a run for his money, with a song called “Up.”

CAUTION: The video really is NSFW because of both violence and nudity. Also, you really don’t want to watch a 9 minute long video with graphic imagery at the office, unless you work at the SEC..

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

Continue reading

Imaad Wasif’s “The Voidist”

In 2006, Siddhartha profiled Imaad Wasif, after the release of his debut album on Kill Rock Stars Records. I had sort of forgotten about the post — and not really remembered Wasif’s music — until I was in a Barnes & Noble the other day. imaadwasif.jpgThere I found, as an actual CD, Wasif’s third CD, The Voidist. (As a side-note, whenever this happens I’m reminded of how much I miss actual record stores. Music browsing on the internet just isn’t the same!) In between 2006 and now, Wasif had released a second album, Strange Hexes, and also worked with Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) on the soundtrack to Where the Wild Things Are.

Here is a music video from the new album, “Fangs”:

I’ve been listening to Wasif’s music all week this week, and this time I’m feeling it. (What do you think?) By comparison to the first CD, The Voidist feels more like 1970s rock ‘n’ roll, with some songs with big power chords. It’s also less confessional in tone (and less dark), and much more of a collaborative (band) effort than a solo performance. All that said, Wasif’s new CD also reflects less of an impact of classical Hindustani ragas, though I do hear some trace of them in “Redeemer” (see the somewhat mysterious official music video on YouTube. Note: Video is slightly NSFW, with artfully out of focus female nudes).

You can download an early MP3 for Wasif’s “Out in the Black”, which has a clear raga/Hindustani influence, here. It’s actually one of my favorite tracks by Wasif. Another recommended track is “Oceanic“. All of his albums can be downloaded from ITunes, including the collaborative work he’s done on films.

Imaad Wasif is touring the U.S. right now; you can see the dates on his website. He’ll be in New York, Washington, and Philadelphia (@North Star Bar) towards the end of April. Continue reading

UPDATED: Listen to Goldspot

goldspot.jpg

Five years ago, Abhi first brought the Mutiny’s attention to Goldspot, the Los-Angeles-based band founded by multi-talented frontman Siddhartha Khosla. Remember their first album, ‘Tally of the Yes Men?’ This past fall, Goldspot released their second full-length album ‘And the Elephant is Dancing,’ which I’ve been playing in heavy rotation on iTunes for the last few months. Their work, often described as ‘Bollywood-inspired’ and ‘Beatles-influenced,’ is getting even more attention this time around. In the past year, Goldspot has gotten play on television shows such as ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ and soundtracks including ‘Today’s Special,’ starring Aasif Mandvi and the Bollywood release ‘The President is Coming.’ Continue reading

Sundance – The Mutinous Round-up

As most of you know, a couple weeks ago I trekked out the snowy mountains of Park City, UT to take part in Sundance mayhem, Taqwacore style. I was there to blog on behalf of The Taqwacores motion picture – and you can read my full experience here. I ended up having one of the best (and most surreal) times of my life, hanging out with The Kominas, getting to interview celebrities (like in the video above of Gurinder Chadha and Sendhil Ramamurthy), and watching a ridiculous amount of movies. It was also a surprisingly mutinous adventure, and by the end of Sundance week I was literally introducing myself to every Desi person at Sundance. So, let me see if I can give you a celebri-Desi mutinous rundown of what happened at Sundance 2010.

The biggest highlight to my week was getting the opportunity to interview Bollywood movie star, Aamir Khan. He was there to promote the movie Peepli Live which was being released out of his production studio. With The Kominas as my hilarious Flip camera crew, we talked to him, first time director Anusha Rizvi and actor Omkar Das Manikpuri. Peepli Live is the first Bollywood movie to make it into competition in Sundance, and I really enjoyed the movie. It was an indie comedy with a Bollywood look, but without the cheesy song and dance numbers. And Aamir Khan was super normal, sweet and nice (as well as his wife Kiran Rao, who started talking to me in Bangla when Basim, Shahj, and Imran were talking to Aamir in Hindi). Check out the first part to the interview and visit MTV Iggy for the full run down.

I was also really excited about meeting Gurinder Chadha, who directed one of my favorite movies, Bend It Like Beckhem. Of course, it should be no surprise to the mutiny how drool-worthy I find Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays the leading man in Chadha’s latest movie, It’s a Wonderful Afterlife. The interview was fascinating as the conversation revolved around the comparison of Brit Desi and American Desi film and cultures and I only lost my composure once – it was when Chadha talked about giving Mr. Ramamurthy a shirtless scene in the movie and all I could respond with was a “Thank you!” Continue reading

Sean Panikkar: He’s an Opera Singer, But Back Then “Nobody Knew I Could Sing”

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Sean_Panikkar_-_Photo_by_Lisa_Kohler.jpgThis past fall, I moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to begin teaching at the University of Michigan. One of the first people I met here was the opera singer Sean Panikkar, a University of Michigan alum who’s singing at the Metropolitan Opera in Ariadne auf Naxos this week.

I’m a bit of an operahead. (For those of you who have never been to the opera, if you want to try it affordably, I recommend my usual method: standing room tickets at the Met, which go on sale at 10 a.m. on the day of the performance. But I’m going to Ariadne courtesy of Sean. Many thanks, Mr. Panikkar!) Sean was the second opera singer I’d heard of who had some Sri Lankan background. And his tenor has gotten great reviews from the likes of The New York Times’ Anthony Tommasini, as well as a host of others. I asked him if he’d be willing to do a bit of Q&A for the Mutiny. Here’s an edited and abridged version of our interview.

Can you share a little bit about your family background?

I was born in Bloomsburg, PA, which is a small town of about 12,000. My parents are from Sri Lanka and came to the United States in 1975. My mother is Tamil and my father is Sinhalese, which is why they left.

When and how did your striking voice first come to attention? What was it about opera specifically that appealed to you? How did your family feel about it?

I had always been involved in music from the time I was little. I played piano, violin, and trombone while also singing in choirs. I never considered myself musical, but it was one of the things my parents wanted us (my brother and I) to do along with sports. My parents often thought I was lip synching during choir concerts. They never knew I could sing.

When I was in middle school a Juilliard-trained soprano named Li Ping Liu moved into our area…. She had nobody to teach because opera isn’t something people in central PA really know much about. I thought it might be interesting to take voice lessons, but I wouldn’t do it unless somebody went with me so for the first few lessons my father and I had lessons back to back. At the time I was into Michael Jackson and Billy Joel so that is what I brought to sing. She made me sing it like an opera singer and I thought it was the worst thing in the world. Just imagine singing high pitched “hee hees” like an opera singer! Needless to say that didn’t last long. Continue reading

How you doin’, Kamaljeet?

Jay Sean, the brown (whom we’ve known about for years) who crooned “Down”, was on The Wendy Williams show two days ago. Behold:

After he performed “Down” and “Do you remember , Williams exclaimed to her guest, “You are, STUNNING!” She followed up with “You’re exotic and spicy, what is your background??”. Mr. Jhooti let her know that his “heritage” was Indian and immediately clarified that he did not, in fact, live in a “wigwam”, i.e. that he wasn’t THAT kind of Indian.

Other scintillating bits from the show included Jay swatting down rumors about Ashley Tisdale, a mention of how the New York Post named him one of NYC’s most eligible bachelors and Sean’s confirmation that he’s already got a bird. So all you single ladies (all the single ladies)…and single men (all the single men), if you were in to him…you’re tatti out of luck. 🙂 Continue reading

Peter Jackson and Patrick Christopher Sing ‘Indian Girl’

Warning: Video = NSFW unless your boss is the kind of person who is okay with explicit lyrics…

Ennis tipped me off to ‘Indian Girl,’ a song by 24-year old Canadian rapper Peter Jackson (no, not the LOTR guy) featuring Patrick Christopher. From what I recall of my childhood trips to Canada, desis had all but taken over certain parts of the communities I visited. When we strolled down the streets of Toronto, I felt like I was more in Pakistan than Canada. So it’s hardly a surprise that a song like this would emerge from Canada. Continue reading