Karen Bliss of JAM! Music reports: Vice co-founder Suroosh Alvi, whose record label is home to BLOC PARTY, CHROMEO, THE STREETS, THE BLACK LIPS, and PANTHERS, plans to get Iraqi metal band ACRASSICAUDA into a state-of-the-art recording studio, then onto Ozzfest 2008 — but first he has to help get them out of danger and to a safe country.
"If we can get in trouble for this, then so be it," says Alvi, who has followed his convictions since starting the edgy counter-culture magazine, Vice, in 1996 out of Montreal.
ACRASSICAUDA — dubbed "Iraq's only heavy metal band" because it is the only one known to have performed on a stage — is the subject of Vice Films' moving documentary "Heavy Metal In Baghdad", co-directed by Alvi and fellow Torontonian Eddy Moretti, and executive produced by Academy Award-winning director Spike Jonze ("Adaptation", "Being John Malkovich"). Right now, the band members are living in Damascus, Syria, where the government has refused to renew their visas.
"They're going to start kicking Iraqis back and their visas are expiring in the middle of October," says Alvi, who is based in New York, but traveled to Iraq and Syria.
Vice had covered their story — from surreptitiously rockin' out in Baghdad to attempting to start over in Damascus — through a series of filmed segments on VBS.tv, Vice's Internet television channel whose creative director is Jonze. The full-length documentary recently screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, but things have taken a turn for the worse for ACRASSICAUDA and Alvi and Moretti have started a fundraising campaign to help out these guys they now consider friends.
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COMMENT | more bullshit- fuck iraq metal posted by : oldgoat 9/28/2007 6:07:14 PM
the music sounds terrible the filmmaker seems annoying. this movie is probally just another excuse to try and bash america.
COMMENT | good luck posted by : kvt316 9/28/2007 6:21:26 PM
to those guys....im sure the drunk rednecks at the ozzfest will embrace them as equals...
COMMENT | ill support american bands like Down posted by : oldgoat 9/28/2007 6:29:45 PM
let the filmakers peddle there propaganda on some uniformed sucker!
COMMENT | wait a minute............. posted by : eatyourwords 9/28/2007 6:49:18 PM
The Iraqi people are our enemies, right??????????
No. They actually didn't do a thing to the US. But, we invaded thier country anyway. Oops. Sorry.
Nap time.
COMMENT | if your going to insult me at least learn how to spell stereotypical posted by : oldgoat 9/28/2007 7:01:11 PM
douchbag im sure your so so fucking smart and openminded much smarter then everyone else on blabbermouth
COMMENT | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ posted by : jesusmcduck 9/28/2007 7:36:39 PM
Hilarious!!!
COMMENT | music ladies and gentlemen!!! posted by : newbreed99 9/28/2007 8:10:48 PM
did anyone actually listen to them? They arn't half bad! I'm kind of suprised a lable doesn't get them a visa or something and bring them to another country, like Germany or U.S. . The marketing for this band would be awesome! They would deffinatly kick the shit out of SOAD's legititimacy in terms of coming from th emiddle east and complaining about it. If I had the money, I'd bring them here and put them on tour with some bigger act.
COMMENT | Support Iraqi metal! posted by : semyaza 9/28/2007 8:13:13 PM
Hey....we need to support metal in iraq. Western music and western values will help battle those Islamic nutjobs. The more iraqis dig metal, the more they will resist the religious radicals. Instead of bombing them, we needs to spread metal, Levis & Pepsi.
Oh...vote for Ron Paul!
COMMENT | this band are cool posted by : handofsutekh 9/28/2007 8:50:42 PM
i spoke to the bassist a couple of times, he's a cool guy.
COMMENT | very cool posted by : cirkis 9/28/2007 8:51:13 PM
I will be interested to see this.
COMMENT | posted by : wajahat_k 9/28/2007 9:05:58 PM
Right on semyaza!!!
Oldgoat, go back to feeding your cows, and wearing your everalls, and watching fox news!!!
Metal shall liberate us all!!!!!
WE'RE WARRIORS!!! WARRIORS OF THE WORLD!!!!
COMMENT | posted by : wajahat_k 9/28/2007 9:06:46 PM
Sorry ^ I meant overalls hehe
COMMENT | wajhat is a moron posted by : oldgoat 9/28/2007 9:15:25 PM
you dont know were i stand politically douchbag. I live in a city and probally have a better education than your dumbass. I just know whats propaganda is, you dont because you are a thoughtless moron.
COMMENT | yeah posted by : larz613 9/28/2007 9:18:06 PM
just pay sharon 150 grand and im sure she'll put em on the tour! if theyre jewish, im sure itll be a bonus.....
COMMENT | I'm with semyaza... posted by : epac 9/28/2007 9:19:01 PM
...support metal, no matter where it's from.
I love how meatheaded rednecks above automatically think that a film based in Iraq will be US-bashing. Like, how dare they write / film about how their houses / friends / loved ones have been blown up.
COMMENT | Hope posted by : StrangeHuman 9/28/2007 9:35:05 PM
this guy can help them get out of the country & it would be so awesome if they played next years Ozzfest. It doesn't matter if the band ends up being only a rotating band playing 20 minutes sets on Ozzfest, I am sure these guys would rather do that then be back in Iraq.
COMMENT | I second the Ron paul posted by : Firewind 9/28/2007 10:34:43 PM
Endorsement. How come if you disagree with Bush you're seen as a Hillary supporter? Uh, duh, I think that's definitely a logical fallacy.
C'Mon we already hafta deal with System Of the down, who the hell would wanna bring any more of those wackjob USA hatin assholes over here!
COMMENT | posted by : The Space Lord 9/28/2007 11:03:09 PM
I take it Acrassicauda eventually got their visas from the Canadian embassy in Baghdad then?
And musically these guys can't be any worse than most of the crap already on Vice Records, can they?
Wow...Bloc Party are totally overhyped.
COMMENT | Fuck the red neck shit let them play!!!!!!! posted by : Double J 9/29/2007 1:31:49 AM
Iam from texas, live in minnesota now, but if a group of guys from bhagdad want to play metal, in the environment they are in, they have the most inspiration for bad ass metal lyrics.Comming from a war torn country, and jamming shows in building that have been bomed already. that is fucking metal. dont judge them for their nationality or color of their skin, or religion, for all we know they might be like us, read the necronomicon, smoked weeed in candle light listening to king diamond or Mayhem. IMO these guys aint posers, they are privilaged to be able to play their music due to Politricks and red tape and Jihad.think of this, if you lived in a hut made of desert sand mud, and has no clue what a ipod is and your country is under war, and famine, and you actually have acess to metal and instriment, these guys are true metal warriors, I bet their music will have political shit, but I bet it will have true metal spirit, and lyrics about thw things metal lyrics should be about, quit compairing them to SOAD.Iam very interested in checking it out, say you met these guys at the next ozz fest and your wearing a dying fetus shirt, and they ask what is that? you give em a dying fetus cdr and they are hooked, or any other cd for that matter, these guys were not allowed to be exposed to metal and they broke laws to be like you and me, be like our idols,.. Open Your Fucking Minds!!!!!
COMMENT | oldgoat posted by : spaztekmofo 9/29/2007 2:31:00 AM
You're a fucking douche - watch the movie, and then judge them. They actually seem like pretty cool guys.
Perhaps supporting stuff like this would make it easier to win the war.
COMMENT | ACRASSICAUDA posted by : Das Schuetzenfest 9/29/2007 9:06:27 AM
It would be a great symbol for the international rock and metal community to bring Acrassicauda to our stages in the west - introduced by the filmmakers of "Heavy Metal In Bagdad", one of the most interesting and striking documentaries I've seen in a long time.
COMMENT | posted by : vader4202001 9/29/2007 10:42:23 AM
bring them to the u.s fuck them rednecks im from texas its the music and fans
and fuck u oldgoat
COMMENT | LOL posted by : defecation 9/29/2007 10:53:50 AM
I didn't read all the comments, so maybe someone already said this, or maybe it's old news, but on their myspace you can see that their drummer is named Marwan.
COMMENT | You are ALL idiots. posted by : AcexOfxBasexRules 9/29/2007 11:35:36 AM
There are literally THOUSANDS of American bands that are much better than these guys.
They only reason they are getting ANY attention is because they are from Iraq.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... I have nothing against these guys and I support what they're doing, but they DO NOT deserve a record deal or a slot on Ozzfest.
I know junior high school bands that are better than this.
COMMENT | MRBIGTIME posted by : wajahat_k 9/29/2007 9:04:32 PM
in other words.......
Blahblahblahblah, and oh and lets not forget more BLAHBLAH
The IQ of Blabbermouth just went up ten points with Freddy the spammer king being banned.
It's not like he was convincing anybody with an IQ above room temperature, including the cut/pastes from his favorite Hillary, looney left backed websites.
I guess there is a God, afterall.
COMMENT | What goes down as 'objective journalism' in Germany. Oh my! posted by : TimeForYourSmackdown 9/30/2007 2:17:33 AM
Seymour Hersh - Radical Left Wing Journalist, aka-liar for life
*In 1968 worked as Press Secretary for anti-Vietnam War Democratic presidential candidate Senator Eugene McCarthy
*Nicknamed "my little commie" by Executive Editor of The New York Times when he worked there
*Protégé and friend of radical journalist I.F. Stone
*Typically bases his reporting, which tends to be highly critical of the United States, on unnamed sources that are difficult for others to verify
how did this article become a fucking political bullshit fight?
That's not what it's about!
COMMENT | MRBIGTIME posted by : Das Schuetzenfest 9/30/2007 7:26:11 AM
"I HAPPEN TO BELIEVE, A WAR WITH IRAN IS A BAD MOVE. IT COULD UNITE THE IRANIAN PEOPLE AROUND A GOVERNMENT THEY CAN'T WAIT TO GET RID OF. (...)"
I agree. And you have to take into consideration the demographic factor in Iran. Many young people and especially well-educated women will change the system as time goes by. It's common knowledge that the level of education of women is a key factor for the modernization of societies.
But if the mullah regime will get their hands on weapons-usable nuclear material in the nearer future and establish an atomic weapons program, precision air strikes on selected nuclear key installations could be necessary, unfortunately.
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