965 Crew – Kuwait Dubstep Team from Timothy Carr on Vimeo.
The 965 Crew are another group of guys from Kuwait who are also heading out to the Arabs Have Talent competition in Lebanon later this month. They’re pretty good.
Category: Music
They’re called One Soul Crew and they’re heading out to Lebanon soon to star on the TV show Arabs Got Talent. [YouTube]
Last night I went to the Foo Fighters concert here in New York and it kicked ass! I was worried they would only play their new stuff which I am not too familiar with but lucky for me they played for 3 hours and included all my favorite songs from their first and second album. The stadium was packed with around 20,000 fans since it was a sold out concert and you could watch the video I shot above that kinda shows how packed it was. Song kicks in at around 4 minutes. [YouTube]
Zahed Sultan just released his 3rd music video called “Walkin Away” from his “Hi Fear, Lo Love” album. You can watch it above or on [YouTube]
Back in April I posted about the popular Japanese thrash metal band UNITED that features Kuwaiti Faisal Al-Salem as their lead singer. Well Faisal just emailed me telling me they just finished playing at the Loud Park 11 event which also featured Limp Bizkit and White Snake. He sent me the video above of his band playing and I think it looks pretty fracking crazy. [YouTube]
I’m a big fan of the Hotel Costes music compilation and I found out yesterday that Kuwaiti musician Zahed Sultan has one of his tracks featured on the new Hotel Costes 15 which I think is a very cool accomplishment. The track is called “I Want Her But I Don’t Want Her” and you can watch it [Here]
[YouTube]
Last Friday the finals for the Red Bull Breaking competition took place in Jordan. This is the biggest break dancing event in the region and two b-boys from Kuwait took part, b-boy Hush and b-boy Shady. They didn’t end up winning but you can still watch an edit of the finals in the video above or you could watch the qualification process that took place in Kuwait below. For more information on Red Bull Breaking you could visit their website [Here]
Helle Wallah is a rap song by local group W.A.S.T.A. The song is in English and this is their first release. [YouTube]
Categories
Nawaf Al Gheraibah
Nawaf al Gheraibah, is a half Kuwaiti, half Indian/Portuguese musician with a pretty weird music style like nothing I’ve heard locally. It’s not mainstream stuff so not sure how many people here will like his music but even if it’s not your style it’s still worth appreciating. My biggest criticism though is the fact that I think his music lacks a local identity. When I listen to the music it sounds like a lot of different things but none of which sound like the songs originated from Kuwait by a Kuwaiti.
Anyway his songs are all available for free to download on his [Website] and Facebook page. I found it a lot easier to listen to the songs on the Facebook page so check it out [Here]
Last month I signed up to the Spotify music service and since then I’ve been using it non-stop. Imagine iTunes with an unlimited supply of music and you have Spotify. Just search for whatever artist or album you want and you can start listening to it right away and it’s free. If you don’t want to sign up to any of their paid subscriptions you can listen to music but every now and then you get interrupted by ads. If you do subscribe to a package then there are many advantages including the ability to use their iPhone app.
If you sign up to the Premium Spotify account you will automatically be granted access to their iPhone app which is a downsized version of their desktop software yet with all the same capabilities. If you’re lucky like me and have a car stereo that allows you to stream music to it using bluetooth then you’re in for a nice surprise because Spotify works flawlessly with 3G. So far in the two days I’ve been using it I haven’t had any streaming problems. In fact, it’s been very responsive and fast when searching for artists and playing or forwarding songs. You really forget the fact that the music is actually being streamed and even the sound quality is pretty darn good. Spotify in the car is just incredible.
So if you haven’t signed up to Spotify you can do so by visiting their website [Here]
Kuwaiti artist Fatima Al Qadiri got a lot of hate here the last time I posted about her, and now she’s featured as the new band of the day in the Guardian. Even though it doesn’t mean much being in the Guardian, at least she’s being appreciated instead of being attacked. [Link]
Categories
Ayshay by Fatima Al Qadiri
Multi-talented Kuwaiti artist and musician Fatima Al Qadiri is the producer and vocalist behind Ayshay. I just heard her latest track called WARN-U and although I didn’t like it I do like the remix of it which you can hear at the bottom of the post. From what I heard her music has been gaining a lot of recognition lately in the underground scene in New York but haven’t really heard anything about her locally.
Fuelled by her fascination with the sacred songs of Islam ‘WARN-U’ is a homage and reinterpretation of the sounds that have haunted Al Qadiri since she was a child. Constructed entirely out of her own vocals, which she filtered and layered upon one another ‘WARN-U’ is Al Qadiri’s attempt to reconfigure the concept of ‘sacred’ music as inspiring divine love and divine fear.
She’s always been pretty weird (in a good way) so it’s no surprise really she would come up with something like this. For more information on her upcoming album click [Here]
Ayshay – WARN-U (Nguzunguzu Remix) by TriAngleRecords
Update: You can check out the music video below, looks like it was shot in Kuwait. (Note: turns out it was shot in Qatar)
[YouTube]
The Hoppin’ John String Band, a Bluegrass group, will be in Kuwait as part of a U.S. Embassy sponsored visit and they’ll be conducting public performances in several locations. All public performances will open to the public and free of charge. No tickets or seat reservations will be required. Here are the details:
The U.S. Embassy Kuwait In cooperation with the National Council for Culture, Arts & Letters presents: The Hoppin’ John String Band
Date: June 15, 2011
Time: 7:15pm to 8:30pm
Location: National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters’ Al-Dasma Theatre Mishref Theater (next to the Mishref Cooperative)
Date: June 16, 2011
Time: 9:00am to 10:00am
Location: Live on Sabah Al-Watan (Al-Watan Television)
Date: June 16, 2011
Time: 8:30pm to 9:30pm
Location: The Higher Institute for Musical Arts
Date: June 18, 2011
Time: 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Location: Live on Raykum Shabab (Al-Rai Television)
Date: June 19, 2011
Time: 7:15pm to 8:30pm
Location: The Al-Babtain Central Library for Arabic Poetry
Here is a link to the U.S. Embassy Kuwait Facebook page [Link]
Update: June 15th location was changed
The Mojolaters Blues Band have two upcoming gigs. The first is going to be held at Cafe Supreme in Salmiya this Wednesday while the second is going to be held next Thursday at Al Manshar Rotana. Check below for more information:
Cafe Supreme
Date: May 18th, 2011
Time: 7:30pm to 9:00pm
Location: Cafe Supreme, Salmiya Hawalli (opposite Sultan Center)
Ticket Price: It’s free – No tickets
Al Manshar Rotana
Date: May 26th, 2011
Time: 9:00pm
Location: Al Manshar Rotana, Fahaheel (Al Kout Ballroom)
Ticket Price: KD12 +15% and includes and open buffet
Reservation Number: 23931000
For more information visit their website [Here]
Update: The Cafe Supreme gig got canceled because they weren’t able to get a license sadly