Asian American Musicians Are Everywhere!
Well, that's certainly been the case with me and this whole Asian American music thing. Not only do I keep finding Asian Americans in really good bands [1] that my friends tell me about -- speaking of my friends, check out my friend Gagan Palrecha's record label [2] -- but there has also been a plethora of amazing music events featuring Asian Americans lately.
Last week I wrote about the 7-year Dhamaal anniversary -- which was awesome, btw -- and this Friday there is a special Cinco de Mayo soul/funk party [3] thrown by musical extraterrestrial Micropixie [4]. This is a cool event because it brings together a bunch of really interesting musicians -- both Asian and not -- especially sound artist Kitundu [5] and scratch guitarist The Genie [6], total Bay Area treasures. But what I'm most interested in is Micropixie (whose music is a mash-up of trip-hop with funk influences) and Feroshus Sizzle [7] (a straight-ahead funk band with a South Asian guitarist).
I guess my interest lies in the way Asian Americans are transforming musical genres in various ways. I think muscicians are a different breed than writers and filmmakers, whose work is influenced in a much more cerebral way. I'll have to ask Sandeep of Feroshus Sizzle whether he thinks there is an intersection with Indian folk music and booty-shaking funk. I imagine there might be.