Kishi Bashi: An Especially Squishy Tushy

If we are to take the guy literally, Athens musician Kishi Bashi fears that he’s in danger of being rounded up and thrown into a concentration camp any day now. The violinist, singer and songwriter, whose voice and music tend to be distinctly buoyant and floaty – irritatingly so, like an endless barrage of balloons and kites and kitties and birdies – was inspired to make his new album, Omoiyari, “when I saw white supremacy really starting to show its teeth again in America.” Oh, please. As his press materials promoting the forthcoming album (out May 31 on Joyful Noise Recordings) put it, “Kishi Bashi recognized parallels between the current U.S. administration’s constant talk of walls and bans, and the xenophobic anxieties that led to the forced internment of Japanese-Americans in the months following the attack on Pearl Harbor.” Oh, puh-leeeeeez. “As a minority,” Kishi sez, “I felt very insecure for the first time in my adult life in this country.”

Kishi, grow up and face reality. You’re far more likely to have the living shit kicked out of you strolling down West Washington Street wearing a MAGA hat on a Saturday night when Linqua Franqa’s playing the 40 Watt than you are to encounter a true white supremacist in Bibb County. Unless your definition of white supremacist is anyone who wants borders and immigration laws enforced, that is. But what else would you expect from a guy who played in Of Montreal?

Most shows on Kishi Bashi’s upcoming tour – including a hometown show at the Georgia Theatre on June 8th – are sold out, but don’t let that stop you. If you really wanna see him, demand to be let in anyway, and see if the xenophobic prick allows it.

Photo by Max Ritter.