Serj Tankian in Yerevan: Dorians, the audience, messages, and the most bizarre 'weapon of mass destruction'

Yerevan Diaries

Bottle cap as a 'weapon of mass destruction'

The weirdest thing happened before the concert started. Security or stewards demanded bottle caps to be separated from plastic bottles and thrown away before one can enter the concert area. I & friends could not get it: why bottle caps? Someone suggested that they could be thrown at others during the concert, but plastic bottles could be used for the similar purposes too, if one had such a desire. Whose 'genius' idea this was, I wonder?

Dorians - more than an opening act

Absolutely loved Dorians. Always liked them via their YouTube clips, but now that I managed to enjoy their performance live, I am 'officially' their fan. Top class rock performance, in line with best young rock groups elsewhere.

Serj Tankian

Despite criticism re not powerful enough sound and choice of music, Serj Tankian was good too. I expected higher energetics, but he didn't disappoint me. And I loved the stage design, very tasteful, and organic with the outside environment. And symphonic orchestra from the Yerevan Opera House was pretty good too.

Messages & the audience

The audience was very mixed. Not in a good way mixed. Quite a few young people didn't REALLY know why they were there. They probably came in for a free concert and/or to say 'we were at Tankian's concert'. They were minority, perhaps, but a sizeable minority. This group typically had no clue what Tankian was singing about, and was funny to observe how they followed others' to start clapping etc. :)

There were some powerful messages from Serj Tankian about ridiculousness of borders - between people, countries and nations. He made it loud and very clear that "all walls are f*cking empty". But it seemed to me, that for a sizeable proportion of people present at the concert, the only message they got from Tankian was one with the G-word.

Calls for universal recognition of the Armenian Genocide, expectedly, followed by huge applause. But immediately after, Serj Tankian mentioned that we should pay attention to problems within Armenia too, without specifying them. Much weaker applause followed.

(just one of those problems) Environmentalists managed to make their point known during the concert by waving a huge poster "Mining is killing".

And the least applause of the night goes to... Armenia president Serj Sargsyan

People were shouting Serj (meaning Serj Tankian), accompanied by the huge applause for his performance. Then he mentioned that there is another Serj present at the concert - Serj Sargsyan, the president of Armenia, that is. No shouting of his name, and only very weak, hardly noticeable applause followed. This was yet another message of last night, but this time from the audience...

A message from Serj: New solo album by Serj Tankian - "Imperfect Harmonies" - to be released 21 September

Serj Tankian announced today that his new solo album - "Imperfect Harmonies" - will be released tomorrow, 21 September. Interestingly, with a nice coincidence (I am not sure if Serj chose this date intentionally), on 21 September Armenia celebrates its Independence Day which is one of my favourite holidays.

Below are two music videos from the upcoming album and a message from Serj.

Borders Are



Left Of Centre



A message from Serj:

Ahoy Friends, Fiends and Friars :

I am extremely excited to announce the release of my new solo record, "Imperfect Harmonies" on Tues Sept 21st.

It represents a whole new sound, one that is a result of my musical experiences starting from System, to my 1st solo record Elect the Dead, to the orchestral Elect the Dead Symphony, to the present. It is an adventurous departure, some may say, from what I'm known for. Maybe it is.

But if there are any whom I consider as adventurous musical fiends as I, it is you, the friends and fans of System Of A Down.

After all, when System released our self-titled debut in 1997, it is you who understood us, not radio, not MTV, and certainly not the music industry.

Check out the link below to listen to some music and watch a couple of videos from 'Imperfect Harmonies':

http://www.serjtankian.com/nowavailable/?cmpid=091610/serj/nowavail/soad

If you like what you hear, come join me later today at 7PM PST at http://www.ustream.tv/serjtankian where we'll be doing a live video/audio stream of the whole 'Imperfect Harmonies' album from the studio where the live orchestra was recorded. I'll be doing a live video chat after the album playback is finished and answer some questions from all of you.

Thanks for listening.

Peace,
Serj

*picture - via Serj Tankian's blog

Serj Tankian and... my Gay Armenia blog

Thank you so much to iddewes!! I am very touched, indeed... You know, I am a big fan of Serj, and happy to hear that he seems nice in real life too… :)

Via iddewes (+ videos):

...I did manage to get in to see Screamers at the Amnesty International centre. I was a bit worried because I'd heard that Serj Tankian would be there and I thought there would be loads and loads of SOAD fans there, and they always overbook there. [...]

Well the film was very good, anyway, yes it was quite a bit about SOAD but also about the genocide [...] and then there was the Q and A with Serj, the filmmaker Carla Garapedian and two people from Amnesty; quite interesting to listen to them too of course. And then I finally did get to meet Serj at the end. I'd been texting Artmika that he was there but I'd been too shy to speak to him or take a photo - Artmika texted back 'forget about shyness, you have to get a photo!!' - ok so in the end my excuse for going up to him was not to say I admired him or anything like that but to tell him about Artmika's Gay Armenia blog! So yeah Artmika he knows about it now! He was very nice and did actually seem quite interested to hear about it and asked if Artmika lived in Armenia, etc.

So that was good too...I'd have been disappointed if he'd turned out to be an arrogant jerk, but he really wasn't like that at all. :) [...]

Full details: Unzipped Gay Armenia

*photo - via Independentmusic

Serj Tankian and others urge president Obama to stand by his pledge and recognise Armenian Genocide

*I will post my personal reflections on the issue - Obama, Turkey and I - in couple of days. I will explain why I kept 'silence' during the last few days over Obama's visit to Turkey and related developments.

**Serj Tankian, Tom Morello and others talk about Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide and urge President Obama to stand by his pledge for recognition.

Scars On Broadway music video premier

Scars On Broadway, a new collaboration (band and album) between System Of A Down guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan, is due out July 29. Their debut video They Say was premiered in Y! Music Video on 27 June.

To be honest, I am not convinced with their debut performance. It did not really touch me much. Personally, I prefer Serj Tankian’s solo songs. They have more meaning and closer to me, and I associate them more with the SOAD (may be that’s the problem!) but, hey, Scars just started their way, although I do not think this will be “scarring Europe”, as they put it on their blog.

Serj Tankian - Feed Us

Director: Sevag Vrej

This is the 4th single and music video from "Elect the Dead" solo album of Serj.

1st single and music video "The Unthinking Majority" - here
2nd single and music video "Empty Walls" - here
3rd single and music video "Saving Us" - here

Serj Tankian doing Beatles in London Astoria

I could not make it but here are impressions of tablaqueen who was lucky to be there:

"[...] They put all the lights and fog on when he came on so you couldn't really see - everyone hollered when a figure in a top hat appeared... only then we noticed that the whole band was wearing them - which looked pretty cool, but they lost them later - and then finally Serj appeared himself. Wearing a cream top hat and cream coat, white shirt and black trousers.

He actually did look quite like a ringleader and the way he behaved onstage was a bit ring-leaderish too. He had the odd mental moment but mostly he was fairly calm, just making pronouncements in sort of typical Serj fashion every so often. Anyway. He didn't play that long really, but then he hasn't got loads of solo material yet, and i gather he refuses to play any System stuff.

He did a fantastic cover of Holiday in Cambodia, which was a bit lost on the young ones in the crowd, but us old farts were dancing around to it ;), and then he said -Hey, we're in London so i have to do a Beatles song!' er, did no one ever tell Serj the Beatles were from Liverpool? i was a bit doubtful about the Beatles song but he actually did it really well - partly Beatles ish and partly mental metal style, finishing off with that howler monkey noise that death metal singers do.

So that was pretty cool. Unfortunately, i don't know the name of the song - unless there is a song called Girl? it was one i recognise but don't know that well.

i noticed on the quieter songs mostly no one waves lighters about anymore - now it's thousands of camera phones instead... i'm quite pleased about that as the lighter waving always makes me think of Bryan Adams. One or two did have them - if i'd been near them i would have blown the darn things out. One doesn't wish to be reminded of Bryan Adams at a Serj concert after all.

i did wish i had had the presence of mind to bring an Armenian flag along to wave about at him - i don't have one, but i could perhaps have made one - some others in the bottom crowd did have one and were flapping it about - i was quite jealous! [...]"

SOAD’s “Screamers” at front-line of Armenian Genocide recognition campaign

Carla Garapedian, the granddaughter of [genocide] survivors and a Los Angeles native, is scheduled to travel to Washington next week to screen her new documentary about the genocide, "Screamers," for members of Congress. Earlier this year she was summoned for a private screening of the film, which features Armenian Los Angeles rockers System of a Down, with David and Victoria Beckham in Beverly Hills.

via LA Times

***
Genocide: Why It Matters

CBS News reported Wednesday on a documentary called Screamers which follows the Grammy-award winning band System of a Down in its campaign to raise awareness of the Armenian Genocide.

Serj Tankian, lead singer of System of a Down told CBS about how his grandfather's father and uncles were taken away to labor camps and never seen again. "We're all lucky to be here," he said of the band. "We all know the truth of what it means to feel genocide on your skin. ... It makes it easier for us to empathize with other injustice around the world."

A video from CBS's Early Show with Serj Tankian, broadcast on October 10, 2007, is available here

via The Raw Story

***
According to the European Armenian Federation , the film “Screamers”, co-produced by BBC, is to be screened also in European Parliament. This event will be a tribute to Hrant Drink, Armenian journalist in Turkey, who in January 2007 was assassinated in Istanbul because he advocated for his country’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

The European Armenian Federation announced that 29 countries will be represented in the Second Convention of European Armenians to be held in European Parliament, Brussels, 15-16 October 2007.

Serj Tankian - Saving Us

Director: Kevin Estrada

This is the 3rd single and music video from "Elect the Dead" solo album of Serj which will be released 23 October.

1st single and music video "The Unthinking Majority" - here

2nd single and music video "Empty Walls" - here

Serj Tankian - Empty Walls

Director: Tony Petrossian

This is the 2nd single and music video from "Elect the Dead" solo album of Serj which will be released 23 October.

1st single and music video "The Unthinking Majority" - here

Serj Tankian interviews Serj Tankian

Serj Tankian has asked a collection of video and film directors, painters, and digital artists to each create a video for one of the 12 tracks on his forthcoming solo debut album, "Elect the Dead", which will be released on Serjical Strike/Reprise Records on October 23, 2007.

Videos will be posted periodically over the next few months on Tankian's web site, http://www.serjtankian.com/, and other outlets to be determined. The first video, an animated clip for the song "The Unthinking Majority" directed by filmmaker/video director Tawd Dorenfeld, is currently available. [I posted it here, love it, a powerful human rights message and excellent music video]

The directors involved in the project include a prestigious array of artists whom Tankian has befriended over the last decade. They include music video director Tony Petrossian (Taking Back Sunday, Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold), who shot the video for "Empty Walls", the first single from "Elect The Dead", photographer/video director Greg Watermann (Mudvayne, Lamb Of God, Howie Day), Oscar-nominated Puerto Rican playwright and screenwriter Jose Rivera ("The Motorcycle Diaries"), French film director Diran Noubar ("Armenia: A Country Under Blockade"), digital artist Roger Kupelian ("The Lord of the Rings"; "Flags of Our Fathers"), documentary director Sevag Vrej (System Of A Down, Fair To Midland), and Beirut-born filmmaker Gariné Torossian (Sparklehorse), among others.

"I asked each of the directors for their visual interpretation of my work," Tankian explains. "They were asked not to write treatments and that they could make whatever they liked. The results have been overwhelmingly amazing!"

A complete list of videos and directors is below:

01. "Empty Walls" - Director: Tony Petrossian
02. "The Unthinking Majority" - Director: Tawd Dorrnfeld
03. "Money" - Director: Ara Soudjian
04. "Feed Us" - Director: Sevag Vrej
05. "Saving Us" - Director: Kevin Estrada
06. "Sky is Over" - Director: José Rivera
07. "Baby" - Director: Diran Noubar
08. "Honking Antelope" - Director: Roger Kupelian
09. "Lie, Lie, Lie" - Director: Martha Colburn
10. "Praise The Lord and Pass The Ammo" - Director: Greg Watermann
11. "Beethoven's C***" - Director: Adam Egypt Mortimer
12. "Elect The Dead" - Director: Gariné Torossian


*source: Metalrage

Is this the final split up for System Of A Down?

*picture via myspace.com/soad (left to right): John Dolmayan (drums); Daron Malakian (guitar); Serj Tankian (vocals) and Shavo Odadjian (bass)

OK, they do not like using words "splitting up" or "breaking up", instead preferring "hiatus". But in reality, they all gone their separate ways:

Serj is working on his solo album Elect the Dead (due 23 October) and managing his record label.

Shavo is working with a band Achozen which has not yet released any songs.

John is managing his comics business and, as announced on Thursday, partnered up with Daron on his new project.

Daron is working on his new project - Scars on Broadway ... and yesterday posted the following update on his myspace page:

"Hey everyone. I just wanted to give you all an update on what's goin' on with my new band Scars On Broadway. I have partnered up with John Dolmayan who is playing drums, and I'm on vocals and guitar, etc. Accompanied by some great musicians, we are preparing to go into the studio really soon to record our debut album. John and I are really excited about this new project and can't wait to get on stage and perform live for you guys. Till then, keep a close eye on the Scars on Broadway myspace page http://www.myspace.com/scarsonbroadway, and official website http://www.scarsonbroadway.com, for the latest news, and music......and prepare to be SCARRED FOR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daron Malakian"

*picture via Wikipedia

This announcement by Daron, in practice, formalised their break-up. Well, in future, they may do re-union tours, like other bands do, but...

Is this the end of era for SOAD? I wish I could be proved wrong, but I am afraid the answer is Yes...

Serj Tankian - The Unthinking Majority

Just released. Powerful stuff from Serj Tankian (System Of A Down). Love it. Well done, Serj!



From Serj Tankian's statement:

The "Unthinking Majority" is a song that I needed to release now, before my record or single comes out, to make a statement about the current catastrophe of our failing democracy. It is unlike any other song on my solo record [Elect the Dead] and meant to inspire collective action...

“Screamers” Serj Tankian and Carla Garapedian Denounce Cancellation of UN Genocide Exhibition Mentioning Armenians

April 10, 2007 LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE) Following the UN Secretary General’s request to remove a sentence referring to a million Armenians being murdered during the Ottoman Empire from the Aegis Trust exhibition “Lessons from Rwanda,” and the exhibition’s subsequent cancellation, Serj Tankian and Carla Garapedian have issued the following statement:

“We are very shocked by this decision by the Secretary General to remove mention of a historical event which is well-documented by thousands of official records of the United States and nations around the world, including Turkey’s wartime allies, Germany, Austria and Hungary; by Ottoman court martial records; and by eyewitness accounts of missionaries, diplomats and survivors; as well as decades of historical scholarship. In the U.S., President Bush has called the events the ‘forced exile and annihilation of approximately 1.5 million Armenians.’

“Elie Wiesel says denial is the last stage of genocide – this act of censorship by the Secretary General is effectively an act of appeasement to the very forces in Turkey that led to the recent death of Hrant Dink and the prosecution of Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk. Other writers and artists in Turkey are facing prison sentences today under Article 301 for wanting to speak openly about this issue. What message does this send to them? The reason why genocides have continued in the last century – from the Armenian genocide, to the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda, to the genocide going on now in Darfur – is because the international community has not intervened to stop them. Sadly, the Secretary General’s decision to stop any mention of the antecedents to the Rwanda genocide is a blow to those who want to stop genocide now.”

Serj Tankian, songwriter, singer, poet, activist and lead singer of System of a Down, appears in the film “Screamers,” which traces the history of genocide in the last century, from the Armenian genocide, to the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. He was invited by the Aegis Trust to meet the Secretary General on Monday, along with “Screamers” director, Carla Garapedian. Aegis is co-sponsoring a screening of “Screamers” in the British Parliament, following its theatrical run in the U.S. and screening in the U.S. Library of Congress.

James Smith, Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust, wrote to Tankian and Garapedian explaining why Aegis wouldn’t submit to the Secretary General’s request, which followed a protest from the Turkish government. The sentence in dispute: “Following World War 1, during which one million Armenians were murdered in Turkey, Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin urged the League of Nations to recognize crimes of barbarity as international crimes.”

“Had we been asked to remove reference of atrocities to Jews because Germany objected, we would have been equally resistant,” said Smith. “We can’t apply one rule to some and not to others because the political wind in the UN is blowing against the Armenians,” he said. Removing the sentence would amount to a “denial of elementary facts.”

Garapedian added, “Perhaps the Secretary General should visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, where another sentence is engraved on the wall – ‘Who remembers the Armenians?’ That was Hitler’s answer to why he could get away with murdering the Jews. Hitler used the Armenian genocide as a blueprint for the Holocaust. The Secretary General should also visit the Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda, which has become the focal point for national remembrance and education about the 1994 genocide. There, too, the Armenian genocide is commemorated. No one there is trying to bury the truth.”

System Of A Down's Serj Tankian Hopes To Elect The Dead Later This Year

Thursday April 05, 2007 @ 06:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
System Of A Down are on hiatus, but fans can expect to hear Serj Tankian's voice soon.
System's lead singer hopes to release a solo album — probably under his own name — titled Elect The Dead in the summer or fall.
"It's a rock record that I've written, performed and produced," Tankian said in a fan Q&A on System Of A Down's MySpace page. "And yes, I will be touring extensively for it."
It's not known if the album will be released through Tankian's own Serjical Strike Records label.
Tankian contributed the song "Terminal Beauty" to Rita Mitsouko's Variety album, which will arrive in stores this month. He'll also appear on the soundtrack to the upcoming film Bug, starring Ashley Judd. Chris Cornell and Scott Weiland also contributed to the album.
System Of A Down released their last studio album, Mesmerize, in 2005. They spent most of last summer on the Ozzfest tour and then started their "very long break." The group were nominated for a Grammy Award this year in the best hard rock performance category for "Lonely Day."
The band also contributed songs to the Screamers documentary that premiered last November. The film revolves around Tankian's grandfather, Stepan Haytayan, and deals with the history of modern-day genocide dating back to Armenia in 1915.
—Jason MacNeil

*Serj Tankian (photo by Joe Fuda)