Kitchen Weapons by Rafay Rashid

Kitchen Weapons is the debut solo album from Rafay Rashid.

These eight spacious, lushly-rendered songs turn a lens to the spiritual and personal costs of a life spent in pursuit of artistic glory. Unsparing, unrelenting, with a voice by turns anguished, haunted or pleading, Rashid pokes deep into existential dread, processing the ashes of a decade-long relationship and standing on the cusp of his thirties facing mental and physical ruin. Written on a piano in the basement of a decrepit triple-decker during a “moment before the moment of clarity,” the album follows Rashid as he wrestles with ego, questions of identity and autonomy, and the purpose of art itself.

Kitchen Weapons marks a creative turn for Rashid from his work as the kinetic frontman of the cult Providence, RI-based band Ravi Shavi. Working with producer and drummer Dennis Ryan, who deftly balances virtuosic takes from his bandmates in Deer Tick, Rashid has assembled a host of stellar contributors, reflecting his time in any number of one-offs, side-projects, and supporting roles across the Providence underground music scene.

On the devastating opener “Landline,” Rashid makes a comic fetish of that artifact of analogue-era love affairs, pleading into the static as Florence Wallis’s violin lands with the satisfaction of a handset crashing to its cradle. Over a haunted waltz, “Monogamy” considers the irony of putting oneself back on the market to find all interest has shriveled and died. Robbie Crowell’s sci-fi synth swallows the whole affair like a galaxy folding into itself, before switching to saxophone to embellish the figments of addiction-fueled mania on “Lizards and Iguanas.”

“Pain Palace” stands as the emotional and gravitational center of the album, an ode to the basement hovel where it was written, and Rashid’s own commitment to colossal failure regardless of the stakes. “City of Love” sees Rashid chasing his love through the alleys of Paris, with John McCauley’s accordion and Liz Isenberg’s vocals conjuring a 70’s Lollywood romance. Rashid climbs into a falsetto on “You From Me,” his most earnest attempt at a love song, his voice then dissolving into a digital ghost on “Alt-White,” delivering a sly meditation on tokenism, identity politics, and the white savior complex. Rashid and Ryan have crafted an exquisite balancing act on Kitchen Weapons, walking a light path between pop convention and progressive exploration. The result is an album that offers vulnerability without sacrificing its sense of humor, one that eschews the bombast and twee artificiality of most contemporary indie rock for a nuanced look at the age-old conceit of heartbreak.

- Almost Ready Records 2023

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. Known for their frenetic live show, RAVI SHAVI performances have been characterized by press as "relentless" and "inspiring dance floor seizures" Ravi Shavi is Rafay Rashid, Nick Politelli, Shahjehan Khan, Chuck Perry, and John Faroane.