Thursday Night Allstars

This band is one of the most original bands I have seen in a while. - NYC Sound Person

This show was a total funk fest. This band was totally different from any I have seen in the past. It was like they were a jam band from the middle east. - Fan

SEPT 24
By Michael O’Leary
Thursday Night All-Stars’ brand of “too
soon”political incorrectness is already in full swing by the time a frustrated God bellows “No 20 virgins for you, dipshit!”to the eponymous suicide bomber in the band’s “Mahmoud.”It’s
going to be a wonderful night of bad taste when the group plays Sullivan Hallon Friday,Aug. 22.

The seven-piece comedy rock jam band takes on awesomely offensive alter egos for their performances, like Iranian-American lead singer Piruz Partow’s Fancy Ayatollah.TNA’s
doctrine says of their frontman, “Ayatollah Fancy is our messenger, leader and guide. A man who has not lived a selfish life, although he has surely tried.”The group draws from both the Old World and New for their sound, playing jazz, funk, rock and everything in between behind their pompous and often rhyming vocals.
Their hilarious tales of quirky Islamic extremists (the NSA has tapped my phone for putting those words together) are complemented by
parody pieces, like their faux-love ballad “Being With You,”in which Fancy Ayatollah sings “Being
with you is like a warm summer’s day/Being with you makes me glad I’m not gay.”Americans everywhere remain confounded by Iran’s ban
of western music.
Sullivan Hall is located at 214 Sullivan St.
in New York City.The show is at 7:30 p.m.
and tickets are $10.For more information
visit myspace.com/thursdaynightallstars or
sullivanhallnyc.com
- The Aquarian

link to view original:
http://penseyeview.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/todays-feature-august-19-20-thursday-night-all-stars/

I could hit you with the “A Pontiff, a Rabbi, a nun, a Persian Ayatollah, a Friar, a Sheik and a Monk walk into a bar” joke… but I’m sure you’ve already heard it. I can tell you what’s no laughing matter though… the talent behind the Thursday Night All Stars!… well, actually, it’s sort of a joke. In a good way of course. This band of religious leaders from around the world have come together to represent the “sounds and perspectives from East and West, with music, singing, and laughter.” Led by Ayatollah Fancy (Piruz Partow) on the Persian Tar and lead vocals, TNA parodies a world of religion as a “light-hearted way of symbolizing a sense of harmony among all creeds, cultures, and sects under the fictitious ideology they call Selfishtology.”

While the music described as “Iranian jazz-rock that blends world music, jam rock, jazz, and pop” generally aims for your funny bone, it also satires some serious issues from suicide bombers to corruption in our schools. As you might imagine, the live show is pretty insane. The Rabbi of the Beat, Josh Lindy says, “We’re kind of like Spinal Tap meets Flight of the Conchords in the Middle East, or maybe even a religious Village People!” You must get to a show if you can… but if you can’t, you can find Thursday Night All Stars webisodes on both YouTube and MySpace. Get into the XXQ’s to learn more about how TNA “has done a good job of offending no one by offending everyone!”

XXQs: Thursday Night All Stars.

Interview with: Ayatollah Fancy (Piruz Partow) � Persian Tar and lead vocals Rabbi of the Beat (Josh Lindy) � electric bass

PensEyeView.com (PEV): With such a large cast of characters, tell us about how you first jumped into becoming musicians and forming The Thursday Night All Stars.

Ayatollah: Been working in NYC as a side musician and wanted to do something completely unique and also incorporate the Persian Tar. It has been an arduous, but fun process molding the bands aural identity. It seems that we really have made change a constant.

PEV: With such a large variety of personalities there has to be a varied taste in music - what kind of music where you listening to growing up?

Ayatollah: Growing up - Michael Jackson, U2, Smiths, Cure, Dead, Phish, Zepplin, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Claude Debussy.

Rabbi: Guns N’ Roses, Talking Heads, Rush.

PEV: Tell us about your creative process as a band. What kind of environment do you have to be in to write music?

Ayatollah: A dark basement with no natural sun light….where we rehearse in Brooklyn.

PEV: You are described as an “Iranian jazz-rock band with a revolving line-up that blends world music, jam rock, jazz, and pop music all in one entertaining show, complete with comedy, costumes and a bit of satire thrown in.” What can fans expect from a live The Thursday Night All Stars performance?

Ayatollah: A creative musical endeavor intended to entertain, and shake rear-ends with some occasional amp feedback.

PEV: Tell us about your first performance as a band. How have you changed since that first show to where you are now?

Ayatollah: The first real gig was at Mo’ Pitkins House of Satisfaction in the East Village of NYC. Our shows are never the same. Each show has had variety and has always been different every time since our first gig; not always by design as we seem to be a band plagued with drama.

PEV: What can fans expect from your latest release?

Ayatollah: Since we are much more of a live performance-oriented band, one can expect studio versions of our live music.

PEV: How is this album different from your past projects?

Ayatolla: This is our first recording effort on which I played all instruments except drums (played by drummer/engineer Scott Veenstra.)

PEV: Why The Thursday Night All Stars? No weekends?

Ayatollah: My original intention was to create a Muslim rock band, but in the end I couldn’t reconcile with some of the values and discipline of practicing Islam. I liked the more real view of peace-loving Muslims around the world getting down on a Thursday night, but in the end it wasn’t me. So I thought it would be honest, easier, entertaining and more fun to have a band that’s starting their own religion that pays tribute to the world’s religions, and at the same time I could practice and sing about my own more convenient set of values such as partying and having a good time.

I like how I once heard that Sayed’s (or descendants of Mohammad) reach a higher enlightenment when praying on Thursday night. I don’t know why I thought it was cool enough to keep, but our band motto is “When we play, Every night is Thursday Night!” meaning that we would like to reach a higher self-enlightenment every night we play music�including weekends!

PEV: What’s one thing we’d be surprised to hear about the members of The Thursday Night All Stars?

The Fancy Ayatollah was the Rabbi of the Beat’s R.A. (Resident Advisor) in college.

PEV: Was there a certain point in your life when you knew that music was going to be a career for you?

Ayatollah: Taking a summer science class and escaping out of the back door of the lab one day to go to the adjacent music building. I sat in on a class discussing the Bill Evans trio. It floored me to think of the possibility of dealing with such subject matters in great depth and on a daily basis.

PEV: What one word best describes The Thursday Night All Stars?

Ayatollah: Selfish

PEV: How is life on the road for you? Best and worst parts?

Ayatollah: I would have to say that the best part of life on the road is meeting the fans after the shows. It has been so great to hear people say: “I’ve never seen anything like you guys and I definitely enjoyed it.”

The worst part of life on the road is having to lug heavy gear up flights of stairs and not having a proper mirror to adjust my turban.

PEV: In all your travels, which has been your favorite city to play (US or International)?

Ayatollah: I would have to say that New York is my favorite city to play in. You get a mixture of the best people from around the world. They are all psyched and ready to play along with our act.

PEV: How have all your friends and family reacted to your success?

Ayatollah: Shhhh! My mother still doesn’t know about the Fancy Ayatollah.

PEV: What can the members of The Thursday Night All Stars doing in your spare time, aside from playing/writing music?

Ayatollah: I am String Department Chair at the Brooklyn School of Music and like to watch football. Go Eagles. The Monk of Funk is starting college this fall and the Rabbi of the Beat is an Attorney. The Pontiff of the Piano is a working magician!

PEV: Which artist would be your dream collaboration?

Ayatollah: Persian Tar player Farhang Sharif would be huge. Would love to see someone like him play the tar with a rhythm section like ours. I would love to play with fellow Philadelphia area bassist Christian McBride. His playing has been a huge influence on me.

PEV: Is there an up and coming band or artist you think we should all be looking out for?

Ayatolla: French guitarist Stephane Wrebml, Iranian-American vocalist named Haale, jam band called Turbine from NYC.

PEV: Poking fun at politics and social norms, have you ever had any harsh feedback in public? Mainly for the people that “don’t get it”.

Ayatolla: I think we have done a good job of offending no one by offending everyone!

PEV: Ten years down the road, where will The Thursday Night All Stars be?

Ayatolla: In our respective heavens.

PEV: So, what is next for The Thursday Night All Stars?

Ayatolla: Stay tuned for all new TNA webisodes on YouTube and Myspace!

For more information on The Thursday Night All Stars, check out www.ThursdayNightAllstars.com. - PensEyeView.com

The Thursday Night All-Stars have been playing around town for about a year and the band just released its first EP, Ayatollah Fancy and the Thursday Night All-Stars. The band combines middle-eastern flavored jazz/world music with humor, political commentary and satire that ends up in an amalgamation that is part Frank Zappa and part Sic F*ucks.
The band's new 5-song EP serves as a good indoctrination into "Doctrine of the Thursday Night All-Star". All of the tracks prominently feature the electric Persian Tar (played by front man Piruz Partow) which is accompanied by drums, saxophone, keyboards, electric guitar, bass guitar and an upright bass. It is a very Zappa-ish mix of instruments and sounds. Lyrically, the band ranges from a mix of serious subjects (condemnation of middle-eastern and home-grown suicide bombers on "Mahmoud" and the lack of relevance of the current educational system on "I Hate Homework") to a tongue-in-cheek 70's-style love ballad (on "Being With You"). "Jihad Jam" and "Zionist Breakdown" are both instrumental jams that showcase the band's musical abilities.
- brooklynrocks.com

If you see a red-wigged nun, a turbaned Ayatollah, a forelock-dangling rabbi, a pope, and a monk tearing it up onstage with a mixture of jam-band rock, R&B, jazz, and world music, you haven't stumbled into the punchline of some pan-ethnic joke, you're just witnessing the Thursday Night All-Stars in action. The satirical New York City band is the ultimate musical/cultural melting pot, parodying every religion they can find the outfits for, and delivering lyrics that expose worldwide religious and political hypocrisy without ever losing their sense of fun and feel for funk.

Fronted by the “Fancy Ayatollah” (Iranian-American Piruz Partow) on vocals and electrified tar (an ancient stringed instrument) and convent escapee “Sister” Maxine Alves, the band shifts seamlessly from blaxploitation-flick funk riffs to jazz-fusion grooves to Latin montugno piano patterns without breaking a sweat. Backed by a simmering rhythm section that includes two bassists (“Monk of Funk” J. Betz and “Rabbi of the Beat” Josh Lindy), the amiable Ayatollah delivers everything from a funk-popping celebration of sexuality to an Eastern-tinged anti-terrorist anthem, all the while extolling the virtues of “disorganized religion” and reminding understandably awestruck audiences that “God wants you to drink heavily.”
- Music Critic for Rolling Stone.com, vh1.com etc.

http://blog.pennlive.com/afterdark/2009/02/quirky_quartet_consumes_quarte.html#more

Quick quiz. Could one quest out a quirkier collection than the quartet congregating at the Quarter Friday? Absolutely not.

I have no qualms with my qualifiers and they surely won't conjure a quibble or quarrel from the sure-to-be queuing Quarter crowd. Quote me.

The first act, Thursday Night All Stars, takes the stage at 9. Could their consummate quirkiness quarantine them? Quite conceivably.

The Brooklyn-based conglomerate consists of six performers clad in religious costume kicking out satirical jam band-y music.

Their captain, the Fancy Ayatollah, plays the Persian tar in company with the Monk of Funk, the Rabbi of the Beat, the Pontiff of the Piano, the Prophet of the Pulse and the Nun of Fun. It's a veritable Coexist bumper sticker.

Their songs -- which include "Mahmoud," "I Hate Homework," and "Jihad Jam" -- sound exactly like you would imagine. - Pennlive.com