http://a862.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/124/l_a2827ccb24953c3ba5a3c55ed98d3bed.jpg
I have sort of known Basim, the singer of The Kominas, for awhile now. Do not expect him to sing in Urdu or anything; Basim is a great guy and comes from a purely American death rock-metal-punk background. I wish I could like The Kominas more than I do -- while they have a great concept too often he sounds like he is trying to sing like Glenn Danzig. In English, yes.Still, Basim is a very good guy.
Having said that, The Kominas do have a clever logo -- a take on the Black Flag logo (the four bars), but it's the green Pakistani flag, broken up into 4 Black Flag-esque green bars. Heh.
A great source of Middle Eastern and especially (hey, Yoshie, you listening?) Persian punk is the 1382: Persian New Wave anthology on Tien An Men 89 Records. Wouldn't call 70% of it punk at all, but, hey, it's Iran, they're trying, right? See: http://www.filmcement.org/rummage/archives/000143.html
Of course, I have played stuff from this on Radio Schizo.
-B.
Doug Henwood wrote:
"[from Autonomedia]
3. Taqwatour
You may have read about the fictional Muslim Punk bands that preceded these groups in the pages of Mike Knight’s novel THE TAQWACORES (http://autonomedia.org/taqwacores). Now, the real Muslim Punk movement is on tour, and is playing in the following New York-area venues"
