Iranian band Hypernova celebrates release of debut album and film with three shows in their new hometown, New York City
Saturday, April 10, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston St. between Ludlow & Essex Sts., $10, 7:30
Friday, April 16, 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St. at Canal St., $10, 9:30
Saturday, May 1, Studio at Webster Hall,125 East Eleventh St. between Second & Third Aves., ,8:00
www.myspace.com/hypernovamusic
www.mercuryloungenyc.com
www.92y.org
www.websterhall.com
Iranian indie band Hypernova might have first made news because it took a letter from Sen. Charles Schumer to get the group visas for their 2008-2009 tour of the United States, but what’s more important is that their music is just so damn good. Fans of Interpol, Depeche Mode, Joy Division, and Arctic Monkeys (and just about anyone else) should have a field day listening to their just-released debut album, THROUGH THE CHAOS (Narnack, April 2010), which is filled with killer hooks that will rattle your brains and shake your bones. “This world is not for the faint of heart,” deep-voiced Raam sings on the bonus track “Somewhere Far Away,” and neither is THROUGH THE CHAOS (which is currently streaming for free here). Pop music is banned in Iran, so lead vocalist/guitarist Raam, bassist Jam, guitarist Kodi, and drummer Kami, who are now based in New York City, risked their freedom to spread their music, so when they declare on “Viva La Resistance,” “So dance like you’ve never danced / and scream like you’ve never screamed / ’cause this one might be your last,” they really mean it. (On the same song, they also display their fierce determination by proclaiming, “Your theocratic neo-Fascist ideology / is only getting in the way of my biology / Your book says no! / But my body wants more!”) From the propulsive “Universal” and “Monster in Me” to the slower “Empty Times” and “Here and Now” (the latter featuring a sweet guitar outro), Hypernova lives and breathes their music, sharing their fairytale story, although their prospects are brighter than depicted in “Fairytales That Don’t Have Happy Endings.”
Hypernova will be at Mercury Lounge on April 10 and at the Studio at Webster Hall on May 1, but we’re most excited about their appearance at 92YTribeca on April 16, participating in the official after-party celebrating the release of Bahman Ghobadi’s NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS, a compelling fictional account of the underground indie music scene in Tehran. (Look for our review next week.) Also on the bill are the Yellow Dogs, who appear in the film, along with DJ Loveletters.
Kihachi Okamoto’s goofy, fun Eastern Spaghetti Western, with lots of references to other samurai flicks, is based on the novel PEACEFUL DAYS by Shugoro Yamamoto, which was also turned into Akira Kurosawa’s 1962 Asian oater SANJURO. But this time around, it’s played more for laughs. Tatsuya Nakadai, one of the main villains in both SANJURO and YOJIMBO, stars as former samurai Genta, a laid-back dude who gets caught up in the middle of an inner struggle of a split clan (one group of which contains seven rogue samurai). He meets up with former peasant farmer Hanjiro (Etsushi Takahashi), who dreams of becoming a brave samurai and involves himself in the same battle, though on an opposing side. As the plot grows more impossible to follow, with lots of betrayals, double crosses, would-be yakuza, and romantic jealousy, so does the riotous relationship between Genta and Hanjiro. Masaru Sato’s score is fab as well. This special screening at 92YTribeca, part of the Closely Watched Films series, will be hosted by Elliot Kalan with comic book artist Evan Dorkin.
Short-story writer and children’s book author Etgar Keret and playwright and kids’ book writer Shira Geffen, who are life partners, teamed up in 2007 for their feature-film directorial debut, JELLYFISH (MEDUZOT), a small, charming Israeli film that won the Camera D’Or at Cannes. Written by Geffen, the story follows three women dealing with family problems that threaten to leave them lost and lonely. After her boyfriend dumps her, Batya (Sarah Adler) heads off to her job working for a wedding caterer, where she is surrounded by happy people celebrating a marriage while she contemplates her own bleak future. But her life changes when she is sitting on the beach and a silent young girl (Nikol Leidman) comes walking out of the ocean and approaches her. When a policeman says that no one has reported the girl missing or is looking for her, Batya decides to take care of the child herself, perhaps as a reaction to the offhanded way in which her own wealthy, successful mother treats her. Meanwhile, Keren (Noa Knoller), who broke her leg at her wedding reception after being trapped in the bathroom, has to spend her honeymoon in a local seaside hotel instead of jetting off to the Caribbean; her unhappiness is soon magnified when she suspects her husband (Gera Sandler) might have eyes for an older woman who is staying alone in the deluxe penthouse suite. And Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre) is a Filipino guest worker who has come to Israel to make money to send back to her son in the Philippines, but because she cannot speak Hebrew, it is difficult for her to communicate with anyone, especially one old woman (Zharira Charifai) she has been hired to care for. Like the multiple-character drama BABEL, Keret and Geffen’s film focuses on complex family relationship and the challenges of interpersonal communication, with water — whether it’s the leak in Batya’s ceiling, the ocean rumbling outside Keren’s hotel room, the sea the young girl mysteriously emerges from, or the large expanse that separates Joy from her family — serving as a metaphor for both life and death, joy and sorrow. This sweet, painful, and somewhat surreal examination of four generations of women might be set in Tel Aviv, but its themes are universal.