The Kominas

The Kominas are a punk rock band formed in 2005 by two Pakistani-Americans from Worcester, Massachusetts. In over ten years, the band has experienced a number of line-up changes and self-released albums.

Their dance-oriented sound characteristically blends 1977 punk stylings, with influences from psychedelic rock from around the world (like Turkey and Iran), Punjabi folk music, surf rock, reggae, disco, and dub. Their songs are often self-referential and situational, often challenging listeners to re-evaluate their assumptions of what it means to be American, or Muslim, or punk.

In 2005, with the release of just two songs on the internet website MySpace, The Kominas, which is Urdu for "scoundrel" found themselves subjects of national news pieces and film and radio documentaries. Initially self-labeled as Bollywood Punk, and "post-colonial-punk" the band adopted the label "Taqwacore", in reference to a book called The Taqwacores by American novelist Michael Muhammad Knight, which imagines what a would-be American Muslim Punk scene would look like. This connection quickly fascinated American and International Media, which led to much being written about this unique example of life-imitating-art, and many international tours with the author. Many fans of this phenomenon felt that this was a necessary complicating counter-narrative to a simplistic and largely Islamophobic post-9/11 American media landscape.

Vocalist and bassist Basim Usmani and guitarist Shahjehan Khan first met at the Wayland Mosque in Boston, and then, again at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Usmani and Khan connected with guitarist Sunny Ali (who was in two previous bands PoPo and Sunny Ali and The Kid) and drummer Karna Ray. The band released its first album Wild Nights at Guantanamo Bay in 2008.

They came to be renown in South Asia from songs they released in Punjabi, Urdu, and Hindi. Their filmed BBC session where the band covered Bollywood classic "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai" especially got the band much positive attention from the Southern Asian and Punjabi peoples, both native and abroad.

In the 2010 NBC News story titled: Muslim-Hindu punk rock bands push buttons the Kominas are profiled as a band ruffling feathers of more traditional followers of Islam where music is seen as "Haram" or forbidden. In addition, some of the subjects the music of the Kominas touches on including women's rights and homosexuality also challenge conservative Islamic tradition and law. In a piece also written in 2010 for MetroWest Daily News, Imam Talal Eid, the executive director of the Islamic Institute of Boston, was quoted as saying that some traditional Muslims may object to such music [in reference to the Kominas] because they focus on its sexual attraction rather than its use for spiritual enjoyment.

One of their biggest hits is the song "Tunnnnnn", which is a re-interpretation of a classic reggae song (also covered by the punk band The Clash); Willie Williams' "Armagideon Time". The lyrics of "Tunnnnnn" are a mashup of English, Urdu, and Punjabi. Its lyrics proclaim (in Urdu): "We will only drink what they drink in Iraq! We will only drink what they drink in Karbala!", touching upon the subject of the horrific reality of warfare and the bombs which were dropped on those places. "Tunnnnnn" was an instant hit with both Kominas fans and newcomers alike.

With the self-titled release "Kominas" in 2012, the band has adopted the more Americana rock elements grunge and garage rock in their style and moved away from writing about Muslim-centric issues. From 2009–2012 the band toured extensively around America, Canada, and Europe. However, since 2012, the band's output has only been mostly daily missives on their Facebook page, which is more often than not, a commentary on the daily politics of race and religion.