The Kominas
Photo Credit: Kim Badawi
The Kominas (Urdu: کمینہ ) (In Urdu and Punjabi, Kamina is a jocular term for person of low birth) are a Punjabi Taqwacore band from the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. Their music and lyrical imagery draws from anti-colonial and Moghul art, Moorish Science, Five Percenters (“9,000 Miles” is based on a line from the English Lesson C-1 in W.D. Fard‘s Supreme Wisdom Lessons, the studied text of the Nation of Islam), Bhangra, Punjabi folklore, Sufi saints from Punjab (Bulleh Shah), Islam, Hinduism and Bollywood (“Dishoom, Baby!” was a tribute to the film Sholay).
The Kominas’ debut album, Wild Nights in Guantanamo Bay, was released in March of 2008, is available online from iTunes and CD Baby was cited by Boston Globe reviewer Siddhartha Mitter as on of the top ten CD’s of 2008.
Sample Lyrics:
“Lying in a ditch I hung my eyes off the crescent, I rubbed the bristles on my chin, where do I begin? Mere moments away from doomsday, I see the tipping of the scale, you knew how I would fare. So why did you test me if all you really wanted was to singe me?” from ’9000 Miles’
“La ilaha I took the shahada, I tried to plead my case to the top of Wal Qaeda. but they wouldn’t have any of my leftist kick, the Afghan’s fought off from invading their shit” from ‘Suicide Bomb the Gap’
“I don’t want assimilation, I just want to blow shit up” from ‘Blow Shit Up’
