Member Since: 4/9/2005
Band Website: sholi.com
Band Members: Jonathon Bafus - drums
Payam Bavafa - guitar, vox
Eric Ruud - bass, vox
Influences: the beatles - the flying luttenbachers - googoosh - air - legubitron - four tet - unwound - broken social scene - the bad plus - frank o'hara - the pixies - do make say think - nirvana - blonde redhead - television - leonard cohen - sonic youth - radiohead - mogwai - james mercer - nick drake - hemingway - mohammad reza shajarian - the cure - syd barrett - slowdive - fugazi - broadcast - soundgarden - my bloody valentine - chopin - beck - the walkmen - depeche mode - the dirty three - david byrne - bob ostertag - jesus and mary chain - jeff magnum - kraftwerk - bjork - deerhoof
Sounds Like: "a bit like the Microphones at their existential best...rattles the spirt and the psyche" -PITCHFORK
"Qawwali-influenced melisma... and it's damn impressive"- PORTLAND MERCURY
"Attention-getting musicianship, with a drummer that knows when to hold back and when to unleash a busy, all-encompassing percussive racket, a strong and versatile singer in guitarist Payam Bavafa, and overall, the taste to discern what to do and when...indie rock truisms, a la the Walkmen, and a traditional side to handle the ethnic material like Morricone might have, with a lot of instrumental flash and a noble, heads-up presence." - DUSTED MAGAZINE
"sweet melodies over a chaotic and often dissonant maelstrom of guitars and cacophonous, jazz-inspired drumming...At a time when many percussion-heavy bands are coming out of the Bay Area, it is good to see one that shares that focus with strong, emotive melodies."- PERFORMER MAGAZINE
"Blonde Redhead met the Dirty Three, had a fight, then had a baby with King Crimson contributing ancillary sperm...mathematically ethereal and strangely danceable – the group hides its pop-imp self under a trench coat festooned with knives and chain saws, like that of the woman in the Far Side who told her date she was going to slip into something more comfortable" -SF BAY GUARDIAN
“While Sonic Youth´s Thurston Moore has often been heralded for cross-breeding Indie Rock with Free Jazz, his experiments were more of the No-Wave variety and were not as heavily undertaken in the context of his own group, but moreso in the form of side projects and one-offs. On the other hand, Sholi is incorporating many of the inflections of jazz and good ol´ indie rock, simultaneously - in the eight hands of its four members. We´ll be watching these eight hands very closely.†-THE BAY BRIDGED
Record Label: Holocene Music, KDVS Recordings
Type of Label: Indie