Ravi Shavi

Ravi Shavi

Wild Rock Dove

Almost Ready

***RAVI SHAVI trade in the post-punk skronk from last year's limited vinyl release Erase America for the skronk post-funk of Wild Rock Dove. There’s long been a thread of Eno running through Ravi Shavi’s work, and if tracks like opener “Peace of Mind” conjure Roxy Music, the chaser “Fresh Hell” could have been ripped from the No New York comp. Longtime guitarist Nick Politelli scatters Will Sargeant-style licks across the album like Necco Wafers drenched in reverb. He finds a foil in Chuck Perry, who has fleshed out the band’s live sets for years and brings his slinky, shapeshifting tone to the forefront of several tracks, including title cut “Wild Rock Doves”.The band's sixth release on Almost Ready Records marks six years sober for frontman and songwriter Rafay Rashid. Firmly in control of this art-damaged chaos, Rashid turns his gaze from white liberal hypocrisy in “New Brown Neighbors” to his own sordid past on “Misbehave”. Rashid’s songs are rooted in his experience as a naturalized citizen, specifically as a Pakistani-American and uniquely as a trickster- fuckup that never fully earns White America’s praise as a model immigrant or scorn as a hatta-clad terrorist.In this distinct space he has a co-conspirator with songwriter and guitar-player Shahjehan Khan–formerly of The Kominas and most recently flexing his acting chops in cult streaming hit Deli Boys. The two offer the band’s first song in Urdu, the album-closer, “Halaat”. Loosely translated to “circumstances” and finding a sonic bridge from South Asia to West Africa, the...

Ravi Shavi

Erase America

Almost Ready

***Opening with the distorted chant “Erase America!” over angle-grinder guitar, Ravi Shavi dispense with any subtlety and deliver their most caustic and combative work yet, their fifth release on arbiter of outsider punk Almost Ready Records. Frontman and brainchild Rafay Rashid has long possessed an ability to channel the canonical saints of underground rock; if past releases found him scaling a Punk Rushmore of Ziggy, Iggy, and Lou, Erase America burns a votive candle for the profane soul of Mark E. Smith. Songs like “Intifada”, “US Rat”, and “Miracle Bombs” fuse the paranoid catharsis of post-punk and no wave with the avant-noise nihilism of the band’s Providence, R.I. home base. The resulting speedball might be the first record to fully look the fetid corpse of post-empire America eye to eye. “The motherland of killing another man” indeed.

Ravi Shavi

Blackout Deluxe

Almost Ready

***RAVI SHAVI is the sound of garage pop: a concoction of classic punk, modern indie, and new wave, with a shot of rock n' roll. After gaining momentum in the United States through DIY touring and supporting larger indie acts the past few years, Ravi Shavi is releasing its latest opus, Blackout Deluxe, on Brooklyn label Almost Ready Records. Produced by JESSE MCFADDEN, who also produced the band’s self-titled album, and featuring a dozen tracks, the record expands upon that garage-pop, at turns being both catchy as hell and virolently raucous. With Blackout Deluxe, the band has continued to make strides and carve out a scene for brown people making music in post 9/11 America.