Synthpop Night at The Pinhook (Durham, NC)

Featuring:

D&D Sluggers

Jaguardi

Tide Eyes

Wednesday, June 26

Doors 7pm, Show 8pm

All ages

$9

"Punk is gay as shit, queer as shit, brown as shit, all of these different things,” QADR says.  “It can obviously include white folk, but it’s about having experiences that make you wake up and push back against the normativeness of society.”  That’s the battle cry of Durham-based punk band The Muslims, which QADR sings for, using humor to flood a white-dominated scene with actual radical content and queer anti-establishment sentiment.  On April 1, the band celebrates new album Mayo Supreme (Don’t Panic Records) with a release show at The Pinhook, and we recently sat down with QADR and drummer FaraH BaHbaH to decode the punk pun of the album’s title and discuss the productive friction between anger and humor.  

INDY: Can you talk to me about this title and the overarching concept for the album?

QADR: When we formed as a band, we had all of these kind of fun, suggestive names for future songs.  We still have a running list of funny-ass phrases and words that we’re like, “We could make a song out of this, and it would be really funny.”  Mayo Supreme is a kind of play on “white supremacy.”  [The album] is basically, we’re not going to respectfully put up with the fact that you’ve been committing very intentional ethnic cleansing of people of color worldwide.  I know that when we talk about Second Amendment rights and gun rights, they’re not talking about my black ass.  You’re afraid that there’s this race war that’s coming, and you’re out here shooting up Muslims in New Zealand, using horrible acts of religious, ethnic, and political terrorism, because you think we’re out here to attack you.  All of those things that have happened, all of the racial slurs, all of the very intentional laws put in place — what if we upped the ante and threw that shit right back at you?

Why is it important to y’all to reclaim space and rage through an almost tongue-in-cheek or humorous lens?

FARAH BAHBAH: It’s so much about being black or brown or a Muslim or an immigrant — so much about the experiences that we hold, as individuals and as a band.  I can only speak for myself, but having been afraid of power or what it’s like to wield power for so long, this band is the most beautiful vessel to show up with all of the rage and joy and resentment and things that we’ve always wanted to say but could never say, because it would be wholly discredited in every aspect of our lives.  We can say it as a punk band without ever apologizing.

QADR: I second that one hundred percent, and I think like there is something to be said about being put into this one conventional box, Muslim or black or a woman.  You don’t see nuanced representation of us in movies or on TV.  From a very young age, I experienced white people as being able to be multifaceted.  But if we do something, it’s our whole fucking identity.  [The Muslims] is really about being able to talk about the hard, heavy, violent-ass ways that we are experiencing the world — and being able to be funny!  Because we’re funny people. We’re funny, foolish, sweet, tender people, and it is beautiful to be able to come with that level of rage and be funny.

People seem to finally be talking about structural white supremacy and how it shapes every aspect of our culture.  You deal with these themes head-on in your music.  How do you hope this album contributes to that conversation?

QADR: I hope that people who are not familiar with the idea of white supremacy, or haven’t heard the term POC or anything, but love punk — people who are just not having conversations about how white people move through the world differently — I hope that they hear it and then they have this deep, existential, depressive-ass crisis: “Wow, oh my god, bro, is this true?”  I hope that it starts something for folks because they like the music so much — like, “Damn, this is really tight, I really enjoyed it, but these people are also kind of dragging me from track one to track twelve!  And I’m kind of wrestling with what that means.”  Even in my political work separately, we get stuck kind of just living day to day.  We don’t pay attention to this overarching way that our existence and our societies are structured and how it affects you differently based on your identity.  So, I hope it kicks up some good shit for people.

FARAH BAHBAH: I hope that other black and brown punks hear this music and are like, “Fuck yes, I feel so vindicated.  I feel like this was made for me.”

Your Bandcamp page says, “The Muslims rage for the beginning of a new future and narrative.”  What does the new future and narrative that we should all be working toward look like to you?

QADR: That new future is one where supremacy has been thoroughly eradicated and destroyed, based on so many people taking different types of effort.  It will require organizing, it will require new people in office, it’s going to require people reclaiming land, reclaiming their indigenous or cultural practices.  It’s going to require music and art really helping to contribute to this narrative.  At least for me, it looks like a world where a black child can actually be a child.  Where they can go to a store and not have to worry about somebody profiling them.  Where they can walk home to their dad’s house and not have to worry about some random-ass racist citizen shooting them and killing them because they’re black, and then claiming that they felt threatened, and then that motherfucker gets off.  It looks like a world where white supremacy is actually fucking named, and people are attacking it for being the cultural and societal cancer that it is.  Where Palestinians can actually be fucking free, and Israel is actually named as a country that upholds white supremacy.  That’s what the fuck we’re raging about with the beginning of a new future and narrative.

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We are playing a queer punk show at the Pinhook in Durham on 4/20 with BANGZZ and Choked Up! 

Dolly Parton is an American icon.  For more than fifty years, she’s been a gleaming fixture on the country and pop charts — almost literally, given her  predilection for rhinestone-encrusted everything — as well as a larger-than-life personality.  She’s in on every joke about her; she made up most of them herself.  Behind the big wigs and heavy makeup has always lived a talented songwriter and businesswoman.

Along the way, Parton has maintained her magnificently sharp sense of humor, donated millions to nonprofit causes near to her heart, advocated for the LGBTQIA community, and made herself a wholly inimitable part of pop culture.  On the occasion of her birthday — and a Friday night dance party at The Pinhook to celebrate it — here are some life lessons Parton has imparted over the years.

POUR YOURSELF A CUP OF AMBITION

Parton hasn’t had a half-century career for nothing — take her advice in the first few lines of 9 to 5.  Or, “Find out who you are and do it on purpose,” as she also says.  That “do it on purpose” requires some ambition and bravery, but as Parton has proved over and over again, the rewards for that can be immensely fulfilling.  Do you want to wear outrageous ensembles and tease your hair to the clouds?  Do you want to make it to the top of your chosen field?  Go for it — just make sure to stay kind along the way.

BUT ALSO, CAPITALISM SUCKS

9 to 5 is all about how, despite your hard work and dreaming of making a better life for yourself, your bosses take advantage of you, and all of your toiling goes to fatten the pockets of rich men anyway.  “9 to 5” is an anti-capitalist anthem!  Scream it from the rooftops!  Kidnap and hogtie your bo— actually, maybe don’t do that.

KNOW YOUR WORTH

After Parton released “I Will Always Love You” in 1974, Elvis Presley expressed interest in recording and releasing his own cover of it.  The tradeoff, though, was that Parton would have to sign away half of all of the song’s publishing royalties to Presley.  Parton refused.  It was her song, after all, so why should someone else get half of her publishing in perpetuity?  Though everyone told her she was making a huge mistake, Parton got the last laugh several years later, when Whitney Houston’s cover of it for The Bodyguard became a super-duper-mega-smash-hit.  Both women made a boatload of money.  This is all to say: Trust your gut and don’t let some man take your money for your hard work.

READ MORE BOOKS

Inspired by the comfort books offered her throughout her impoverished childhood, Parton founded her Imagination Library nonprofit.  Through the program, parents can sign up their child to receive a free book every month from birth to age five.  She’s since distributed over a hundred million books in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.  By dedicating more of your leisure time to books, you can take a break from our present reality of unending chaos while appreciating your privilege of literacy.

LOOK OUT FOR YOUR PEOPLE

Beyond her Imagination Library initiative, Parton has maintained a dedication to her home state of Tennessee and the people who live there.  When fires ripped through the Great Smoky Mountains in the fall of 2016, Parton distributed nearly nine million dollars to families whose homes had been destroyed, in monthly installments of a thousand dollars.  Has someone had a significant influence on your growth?  Consider writing them a sweet note to let them know what they mean to you.  And, in general, make an effort to show up for your friends and family when you see they need it most.

BE ADVENTUROUS

In addition to a stunning career as songwriter and performer, Parton’s stardom also includes several big-screen roles (Steel Magnolias!  The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas!), a short-lived variety show, an amusement park, and a generous handful of TV specials and movies.  Not that you have to do all of that, but maybe you could try challenging yourself from time to time with things that seem like they might be impossible.

MY BODY, MY CHOICE

Cosmetic surgery gets a not-entirely-undeserved bad rap, but women who dare to alter their appearance often face outsize criticism for their choices.  But Parton has never been shy about ’fessing up to the work she’s had done, nor does she have any time for those who write off her sparkles-and-sequins wardrobe as “trashy” (“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” she’s said).  Also: Dolly Parton has secret tattoos.  She’s confirmed a couple of them, saying they’re “mostly for her husband,” (spicy!) but there are rumors she has many more.  She looks and dresses however she wants, and that’s great!  Your body is yours alone, and anyone who tries to give you a hard time about your appearance can go pound sand.

BE A DIAMOND

“It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world,” goes one Dollyism that carries a double-dose of wisdom.  Being a diamond means being the real deal, the most genuine version of yourself in a world full of fakes and phonies.  But being yourself and projecting that to the outside world requires consistent, thoughtful introspection, a dose of confidence, and yes, even making yourself vulnerable to others.  That is hard!  But by being your true self, it makes it easier for everyone else to see your shine, too.

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Party Dozen brayed like the house band at that seedy place where lots of sinnin' happens.

This spring, Duke Performances' lunchtime conversation series, Arts & Context — featuring discussions with artists working at the vanguard of contemporary music, theater, and dance — returns to The Pinhook in downtown Durham.

FREE-TO-THE-PUBLIC ARTS & CONTEXT CONVERSATION SERIES AT THE PINHOOK IN DOWNTOWN DURHAM

This spring, Duke Performances’ lunchtime conversation series, Arts & Context — featuring discussions with artists working at the vanguard of contemporary music, theater, and dance — returns to The Pinhook in downtown Durham. All conversations are free and open to the public, with free pizza from Pie Pushers