Turkish Hardcore (Geronimo to the Rescue)

Last night, a friend of mine who works for a local independent record company took me to a little bar named after everyone’s favorite hallucinogen, Peyote. (The continuing European obsession with Native Americans as noble savages extends to Istanbul as well. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just spend some time wandering around the leftist, student quarters of large European cities and you will find shops selling dream catchers and other posters of wolves and Native American inspired smoking pipes. The idealized N.A. also fits into an environmentalist/pre-modern fantasy that is common among some European circles. Now here’s an Orientalism even Asians can enjoy. For the US version, please let me refer you to a Dinosaur Comics from earlier this week.)

Anyway, upstairs at Peyote, I was treated to a show by some really great musicians exploring the harder side of Turkish indie. The band, Nekropsi, struck me as similar to good Pinback recordings, but without the vocals. Their playing was even tighter than Pinback’s, and I wouldn’t doubt it if some of them had been classically trained.

As the effects of Peyote’s elixir set in (for me, this was Gusta beer), I imagined myself adding vocals over the music. In my tipsy mind, it seemed like a good idea. But I often have reveries of singing with a band. However, an hour into the show the music began to seem a little repetitive (b/c my voice was missing?), and the cloud of smoke in the small got increasingly thicker.

Nevertheless, I am glad my friend took me out. As a pre-show treat, she took me to the opening party for ResFest Istanbul, where I got to pre-drink and see some really good digital film with a DJ playing sweet tracks. Ah, the salad days, may they never end!