Quiet Noise

You might be tempted to think twice before standing next to Imaad Wasif, say, in a line for the movies. No, I don't mean because of his Middle Eastern features and the seemingly ubiquitous way we Yanks have been taught to cast wary glances at anyone of a light brown shade. Homeboy just looks kind of weird. His moustache alone probably is enough to scare most kids. Of course, these issues have little bearing on the IA writing staff, other than to provide us with endless hours of amusement in our back-and-forth email chatter.

No, the real question is, can the guy rawk? I'm here to answer with a resounding "yes." Now, I don't mean full-out, balls-to-the-wall rawking here, nor do I mean your standard indie rawking, either. Instead, Wasif appears to have perfected what I'm calling quiet noise rawking. On "Oceanic", he backs his ethereal vocals with a completely fuzzed out guitar, somehow taking seemingly noisy vehicles and packaging them into a calm, controlled ride. Think codeine laced with speed or maybe a panda bear on steroids. Or maybe I should think about working on my metaphors.

Whatever the case, I strongly recommend checking him out when he strolls through our neck of the woods on his upcoming tour to promote his latest, Strange Hexes, with his backing band, Two Part Beast. Just try not to look directly at that 'stashe.

July 12: Baltimore, MD, Talking Head
July 13: Washington, DC, Velvet Lounge
July 16: Philadelphia, PA, Johnny Brenda's

mp3: Oceanic