MP3: Imaad Wasif – “The Priestess”
In another life, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Imaad Wasif might have been a poet or a priest. He draws inspiration from beyond the veil, seeking connections and cosmic patters in the hopes of expressing the simplest but most profound message to his listeners: We are not alone. The urgency of that communication, and his need to convey it, give both his delicate guitar ballads and his fervent rock songs a ferocity and focus that resonates with every note.
Wasif goes far beyond the here and now in his music, but he is very much of this time. He is a rock musician who came of age in the Coachella Valley of the 1990s. Early on he played live and in the studio with Lou Barlow’s Folk Implosion. In 2006, Kill Rock Stars released Wasif’s self-titled solo debut, an acoustic psych gem. Around the same time, he was enlisted as a touring guitarist and opening act for Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Sophomore album Strange Hexes revealed Wasif’s varied influences. The album was recorded with his band Two Part Beast (Bobb Bruno and Adam Garcia) and self-released in March 2008. That album was the first to hint at the distinctive sound Wasif has ultimately crafted for himself; a blast of post-modern psychedelic rock that is at once potent and refined. The album will be re-released by Tee Pee Records in 2010.
Having gained a reputation for his intense live shows while opening for RTX, The Raconteurs, Neko Case, Arthur Lee’s Love and Sebadoh, Wasif has plans for an extensive tour in the fall of 2009. He can also be found playing guitar on “Little Shadow” from the YYY’s latest album, It’s Blitz! and Lou Barlow’s forthcoming solo album, Goodnight Unknown. His collaboration with Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, and “Little” Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs and Dead Weather on the score for the Spike Jonze-directed film adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are hits theaters in October.
The theme of love in its many guises, both as redemption and call to arms, is one that Wasif returns to again and again in his songs. Its mythical quality becomes a springboard from which he explores the mysteries of life and the universe on his third album, The Voidist. Recorded with Two Part Beast, plus guests Dale Crover (Melvins) and Greg Burns (Red Sparowes), by Chad Bamford (Weezer) with additional recordings by Mathias Schneeberger (The Obsessed, Gutter Twins), the release is due from Tee Pee Records in October 2009.
IMAAD WASIF
No shows currently scheduled, but if you’re in LA, catch Imaad as part of this event on Sunday:
Occult USA:
The Process Church of the Final Judgment
AUG. 23
@ SILENT MOVIE THEATER
Was The Process Church truly “one of the most dangerous Satanic cults in
America”? Or were they an intensely creative apocalyptic shadow side to the
flower-powered ’60s and New Age ’70s? Scores of black-cloaked devotees swept
the streets of New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, and other cities
selling magazines with titles like “Sex”, “Fear”, “Love” and “Death”, and a
theology proposing the reconciliation of Christ and Satan through love.
Marianne Faithfull, George Clinton and Mick Jagger participated in Process
publications, and Funkadelic reproduced Process material in two of their
albums. The inside story of this controversial group has at last emerged
with Feral House’s LOVE SEX FEAR DEATH by Timothy Wyllie and other former
members. Tonight, Feral House and Process Books present a re-creation of an
actual Process Church “Sabbath Assembly” ritual. Author Wyllie (Father
Micah) will follow to discuss the cult and his time within it in a
multimedia presentation. The Sabbath Assembly band, comprised of Jex Thoth
(Profound Lore Records), Imaad Wasif (Tee Pee Records), Kevin Rutmanis
(Cows, Melvins, Tomahawk)and David Christian (of No-Neck Blues Band) will
perform Process hymns and songs throughout.
$15 at the door
Imaad Wasif
The Voidist
(Tee Pee)
Street Date: Oct. 13, 2009
1. Redeemer
2. Priestess
3. Fangs
4. Widow Wing
5. Our Skulls
6. Return to You
7. The Hand of the Imposter
8. Daughter of Fire
9. Her Sorcery
10. Another
11. Razorlike
IMAAD WASIF LINKS:
Myspace: www.myspace.com/imaadw
Label Page: www.teepeerecords.com