Iran’s Underground

It’s always nice to be reminded that the people being caricatured into enmity by extremists and “leaders” (theirs and ours) include indie music lovers, people lovers, love lovers just like us. Yes, there is an Iranian underground:

From Persionesque, here’s excerpts from an interview with Hypernova, true heart wrenching, hard rocking indie rock from Tehran, Hypernova are touring the US this year and generating much well-deserved love from the more dovish Western Media (MTV, Telegraph, NYT, NPR) longing for a point of connection with the illegal youthful masses of the rogue nation (aren’t we all):

What was your first paid gig?
I think it was at Arlene’s Grocery in NY. The owner came and gave me a little envelope full of cash. I didn’t even know we could get paid.

Is your music sold in Iran?
I don’t think so.

Who has influenced your sound the most?
The Strokes, The Arctic Monkeys, Interpol, Queens of the Stone Age, Kasabian…

If you could tour with any other modern Iranian bands, who would you choose?

The Yellow Dogs.

Best audience ever?
All the kids back home in the undergrounds of Iran.

The Yellow Dogs - another Iranian treasure - check ‘em out! Singing a song called Sex Machine in a country where you can get lashes for uncovering your hair is heroically ballsy, and I suspect it gives a hometown crowd in some dark quasi legal Tehran venue a flash of freewheeling riotous human joy the likes of which we can’t quite imagine in our anything-goes Montreal scene… a scene which I am deeply deepy thankful for, don’t get me wrong.