Charlie Plyter

“The Taqwacores” is a fantastic, rollicking read, highly recommended, though also very much a first book, raw and silly. I agree with Amardeep and Basim that the memoirs are particularly strong; “Blue Eyed Devil” is my favorite, though “Impossible Man” will tell you the most about where Knight’s own interests and obsessions come from. Later this year his new memoir comes out, in which he talks about his return to Pakistan, his growing interest in Sufi thought, and also his pilgrimage to Mecca.

It would be badass to collab with more kids.

Rab Rakha.

Also outside the Gurdwara in Lahore I met a Sikh in a ride the lightning tshirt. He had his own name tattooed on his forearm “Jaxminder” and kept telling me he knew the RDB brothers personally And Billy, you sound like a bigot. No offense though.

I’m friends with MC Riz, he’s Muslim and breaking through the music scene in the UK. I saw him at the Fabric, it was a huge show. You shouldn’t omit the names of your brothers, every post of yours becomes a genocide.

?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!

Good taste in music?!?!?!?

That’s a high grade you’re smokin’ there, Suki.

Fuerza Dulce you are 100% right about the whole “desify” thing. I wonder what would happen if we had punjabi Jack White, Thom Yorke or Chris Cornell who was a major star but his music had no desi influence or sound, how he would be accepted by the community.

But for the sikh punk rock thing, last night I want to the Megadeth/Slayer concert in Vancouver and I saw a young amritdhari sikh male at concert wearing a Slayer T-shirt. I thought that was it cool to see some people in our community with good taste in music.

Mumzy, who has worked with Rishi Rich

Brit-Asian musicians from Muslim backgrounds

Joi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joi_(band)

TJ Rehmi

Asian Dub Foundation (Deedar Zaman)

State of Bengal (Saifullah Zaman)

Aki Nawaz (yes he’s nuts, but he started out as a musician)

In the UK, there are virtually no Punjabi Muslim musicians of any note. Being a musician seems frowned upon in that community, and religiousity is quite high.

Amongst Sikhs, it is a badge of pride to be into music. Even religious Sikh dudes are into music. Also, relations between Sikhs and Punjabi Muslims in the UK are not really very amicable at times.

So whilst all of that would be nice, I think people of all races, religions and backgrounds need to collaborate more in music and culture…..hey, maybe you are more of a hippy than a punk, Basim.

Basim, Sikh youth in the UK and USA are too busy creating mad brilliant music in as wide a varity of forms from hip-hop bhangra to reggae versions to R n B to rock and everything in between. Whether its Cornershop, Talvin Singh, Panjabi MC or Jay Sean, they just get down with it, make music, have fun, and make a space for themselves. Punk rock is nothing special.

I, though a big Punjabi-music nerd and a hip-hop head, also enjoy and appreciate punk. I also have a few friends that are relatively super-Sikh and fluently speak Punjabi that love punk, and don’t listen to Punjabi music. One of my younger cousins is into death metal and has a rock band, in which he’s the drummer.

I do think that there’s a space for Punjabis/Sikh-Punjabis in punk music (both performing and listening). I feel that there’s just not much exposure/access to “the good stuff”. I grew up primarily going to school with white kids and seeing desis on the weekends. I heard all kinds of music, but I also had my own interest in seeking out different kinds of music. If you’ve never heard punk or metal or ska or anything different, how do you know if you like it or not? More so, there’s the subtle pressure from the Punjabi community that to be a substantive part of the community, you have to love Punjabi music, hate Hindi music and otherwise listen to hip-hop, and that’s if your parents aren’t around. My cousin that I mentioned – when my Mom heard his band, her first suggestion was that it would be “cool” if they played some Punjabi songs, so that more people from the community would want to hear his band. I told her it doesn’t matter if they want to listen to it or not. If it’s good, they’ll want to hear it. (Though they do play a nice instrumental rendition of “Mundiyaan tho backe raheen” – it sounds hot on the electric guitar.) He speaks/reads/writes Punjabi, knows Punjabi history and music, but loves rock/metal/punk. I don’t think his band has to play Punjabi music, or any other desi music, for him to maintain his “connection” to the community, or for other desis to appreciate the music they play. But often, the community’s first instinct when they encounter someone desi doing something novel/different/new is to figure out a way to “desify” it. They don’t want you being interested in something completely non-brown – they feel like it’s a rejection of them and their interests or something like that.

Don’t know if it made sense, but those are my couple of cents.

P.S. – Go Kominas!