The eccentric painter Salvador Dali, The surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel and the revolutionary poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Three legends of art and literature, three of my infinite sources of inspiration! Finally comes a film which paints the portrait of their youth and friendship. Mainly Dali and Lorca’s love for each other in a crisis-ridden pre-civil war Spain. Their blossoming in a cultural golden era which is destined to dissapear overnight! Having hoped for such a cinematic portrayal my expectations are least-said high! Judging by the trailer of “Little Ashes” I have no reason not to!

The half-a-century old “Studio Bell” in Tehran has reopened for business, after three years of constructional renovation and having gone through a heavy technological upgrade. Mohammad Ali Chavoshi, the studio manager, hopes that his 4 milliard Toman studio of international standard will attract domestic artists to stay home for business instead of booking Dubai-studios for their recordings!

I love UGG boots or other similar sheepskin boots on ladies’ feet. Around here they often appear either before or after winter time, and somehow wake up the caveman within me!lol

Ali Lohrasebi recently announced that his new album is postponed till late spring while it was due out last week! The reason for the delay is the addition of new material (this seems to be the recent standard excuse used!) to the already 11-track album. Mohsen Yeganeh and Reza Sadeghi are among creators of this album. Lohrasebi will soon preform in Rome in association with the Iranian consulate.

The Iranian community of music websites and bloggers have in their second summit hosted by MEHR News Agency decided to hold a festival for those bloggers who blog about music in Iran. Khaaneye Moosighi (House of Music) is involved in this project, date is yet to be announced.

Navid and Omid have released their follow up to the successful debut “Faryaad”. In “Kolli Sefaareshi” the brothers have once again had an elaborate collaboration with Alex Abedi. The album comes with 10 tracks and a very cool artwork! Dont forget to check out Navid and Omid’s latest videos in HD, premiered on Bia2!

www.navidomid.com

I love Woody’s work. He’s a master of exaggeration of characters. He stretches a character to such extent that almost each and every one of us start to recognize things to relate to! His dialogs are genius and his way of mixing genres has been perfected through the years. Much like Almodovar he has rounded off the edges, softened the extremities in favor of a more nuanced narration. As a result I personally find his latest movie “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” impeccable!

The story, the characters, the visuals and basically every component and ingredient falls in its right place. While his previous works have been hodgepodges this one has been refined to a balanced melange based on the dynamics of post-modern relationships spiced with the Latin passion a la Almodovar! Less quirks and more instincts this time around. Topped with a great cast. I simply love this movie! Not just because I happen to relate to Javier Bardem’s character in an almost scary way! hehe. Watch it and most likely you will sooner or later find yourself relating to it as well! …one way or another!

Kayvan Paymani of the PERSIA band has done a cool remix of Obama’s recent Norooz greeting! Check it out:

Recently Iranian press announced a new groundbreaking invention by the Iranian scientists, namely a harp with strings of light! I am not sure if these scientists are aware or not but their so called invention has been already invented by Bernard Szajner and played by Jean Michel Jarre in nearly three decades! Wake up and hear the “Laser Harp” played 20 years ago!!!

The Norwegian Electro POP-PUNK duo Röyksopp are back with their third album “Junior” to follow up their 2005 success-album “The Understanding”. The album features several Swedish guest-artists such as Robyn and Lykke Li. Just like their previous albums even “Junior” will be available in a limited Edition. If you are a fan of acts like DAFT PUNK then make sure to check them out!

Hamid Askari’s Norooz concert in Tehran pleased the crowd to the extent of many of them standing up and moving to the music! Something which could be considered “dancing”, a forbidden act! Hamid Askari reacted immediately and urged people to sit down, not to get him banned from performing! The fans obliged.

You have by now seen the music video of Ebi’s remake of “Khaali”, the good old Ghomayshi-creation, directed by Navid (& Omid) premiered on Bia2 in HD! Based on this some might wonder if the forthcoming album is the remake album which was once promised and according to the singer himself had (a pre-fame) Arash producing it. A collection done (but put on hold) around the same time when Arash’s debut featuring the duet was released. The answer is no, the new album will only feature “Khaali” as a remake while the rest will be consited of brand new material, promises Alex Abedi who is involved in the production.

I have a thing for redheads, not to mention my fascination for strong female characters! So when the red tops one hot amazon warrior my mind immediately responds to the signal! I can’t wait for this hotness to hit the big screens in 2010 (postponed premier).

“Red Sonja”, Conan the Barbarian’s female counterpart has always been one of my favorite comic characters and even though Rose McGowan looks a bit too thin for the role I hope that her attitude, as witnessed in the Grindhouse and displayed in the poster above, will make up for her volume! And I really hope they don’t turn it into a black, white and red adaption a la “Sin City” like they recently did with “The Spirit”!

In a recent interview with HAMSHAHRI (Javan) Mohsen Chavoshi says that he is not really aware of people’s response to the album, at the same time he contradicts himself by saying that he expected “Ye Shaakhe Niloofar” to work better in the market than it proved itself to do. That album also suffered from a bad distribution which affected the sale numbers, he says.  Chavoshi argues that people’s preference changes all the time, so it’s hard to predict how they will respond to the forthcoming follow up. However they, he and his producer Ahari, have tried to make it more appealing to the masses, so that it won’t suffer the slow process of acceptance which “Ye Shaakhe Niloofar” has endured. Even though the company is never honest about such numbers, Chavoshi says. I agree with the critique that this album was too dark and gloomy. I won’t be making “shaad” and happy songs he reminds, however it will be more energetic from now on. His producer Ahari adds that the Iranians are instant music consumers and current climate isn’t really suitable for innovative and experimental music.  People expect the old stuff from me but I would like to evolve, Chavoshi complains. When I repeated myself people said I imitated a certain singer, now that I try new things they say we want the old you! In this album I’ve tried to be myself, he insists. About people missing his old lower voice he says that he hasn’t changed anything, it’s just that now he uses better technical recording equipments which make his voice sound clearer (!).

Ahari concludes that Chavoshi won’t be releasing more than a couple of POP albums in the future, instead he will be aiming at an international market considering the BLUES quality of his voice. Chavoshi explains that he lost faith in POP music long ago and today it has proved itself unpopular. However he still halts Ahari when he is to depart too far from it, since people won’t be handling it. Even though more intellectuals have been drawn to my music thanks to the latest album, he says. “Ye Skaahe Niloofar” was supposed to be much more experimental if I hadn’t halted Ahari, Chavoshi continues. About not giving concerts Chavoshi says that he still feels untrained and unprepared and he needs time to reach his ideal condition for stage performance. At the same time he is also scared that his enemies will be trying to take advantage of his LIVE performances in order to ruin his reputation in a way it would take him years to release another album (?!). Regarding the rumors claiming his inability to sing LIVE Ahari defends by saying that Chavoshi sings acapella for every producer he happens to meet. Chavoshi explains that he has never had a happy memory because he is always sad and that he hates to be a publically recognized and photographed, fans coming up to him in public will ruin his entire day! I work to have peace of mind not to be deprived privacy. I would love to work with the Sothern musical styles (avoiding terms like BANDARI!) however they have become clichés and the rhythm doesn’t suit my style, he argues. Finally Chavoshi announces that he is in the process of getting married!

This edited translation of mine can’t possibly convey the extreme level of pretentiousness that gets uttered in the actual interview! If you have a chance read it in Persian!

Note: thanks to Mansour J.

“We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year … 

How I wish, how I wish you were here.”

Kamran and Hooman’s brand new album is to be released any day now as they are touring Europe at the moment. The album is entitled “Shenaasnaame (identification paper, ID)” and considering last year’s controversy and public questioning of their Iranian identity one can’t help but to wonder if it’s a follow up to the damage-control interview they did on Shabkhiz’s television, explaining that it was a recommended marketing tactic which went wrong and they still feel proud to be Iranians!

In our mission to put a smile on your face we once brought you the best Persian prank-calls on the net! Now we are kicking off our social joke-section! Its a forum for fun loving jokers out there to share their material with you and for you to read, laugh and rate them! Do you have the urge to be the first who shares that latest joke with the rest of us? Well now you have the chance to do that!

The submitted jokes that are featured on this section do not reflect the views of Bia2. This being said it is possible that people of different backgrounds, beliefs and preferences will be offended. This is not our intention, we assure you.

The jokes on this site are meant as jokes and nothing but jokes!

If you find yourself tolerant and self-distant enough to laugh at others and most importantly at yourself, then by all means stay and enjoy the heart and the humor. If not then feel free to leave and enjoy other sections of Bia2. We promise not to get offended!

P.S please keep in mind that this is the BETA version, give it a try, much more is on its way!

Click here to check out Bia2 Jokes

Speaking of self-describing album covers the recent Chris Cornell album features one typical example of how it can turn out to be a true deception! Cornell who had cut his hair Springsteen-short and adopted a softer approach to ROCK in his previous albums, both as AUDIOSLAVE’s singer and solo-artist, “looks like”  returning to his Soundgarden-roots judging by his appearance on the new album’s cover. No matter if you know who Chris Cornell is or not, when you see the cover of the album you almost immediately understand its messages. What it is telling you is loud and clear! The long-haired artist who has jumped high up into the air in order to smash his guitar as hard as possible can’t be anything other than a ROCKER! This imagery is in fact the very symbol for the ROCKER archetype. And the “lazy edges” surrounding, the mere title “Scream” and the gravity-enforcing vertical text all play parts to eliminate any doubt that you might have. This is a ROCK album by a ROCKER!!

But what you don’t realize is that this image is nothing but a deception! Something which you will find out as soon as you put the CD in your player and press play! In his third solo album Cornell has had an elaborate and least-said unlikely collaboration with none other than Timbaland, whose eclectic touch has turned even this album to an Electro/ROCK fusion! This of course will disappoint many, many fans who pick this album on the sole premise of the cover’s promise! It should be mentioned that Timbaland’s involvement in other genres, although appreciated by many open-minded artists and fans (including yours-truly), is a capital sin for the puritans! Duran Duran’s original guitarist Andy Taylor basically left the band when the band hired Timbaland’s services for their latest album “Red Carpet Massacre”!

Mansour’s new album “Janjaali” is out with a horribly designed cover! When this cover started appearing on websites I thought it was a bootleg-job! The design has got a Bollywood vibe going on and so does the album. Its also surprising to see Mansour having moved to a smaller label!

http://musicboxla.com/maja.html

As you know I’m more selective lately when it comes to picking albums for reviewing, due to lack of time. After having listened to this album a couple of times I’ve decided NOT TO REVIEW it, for the same reason I didn’t review Siavash Ghomayshi’s recent album. Neither you nor I would like me to repeat what I’ve written in my last reviews on Mansour’s albums, as this album is yet another chronological installment in the chronic regression which has characterized Mansour’s music in recent years! Thats my review in a nutshell for you! I feel that there are other albums which could need my limited time and attention more.