Thursday, December 1st 2011
News: Tinariwen
Stephen Colbert Gives Tinariwen Their Due
Note: You may need to scroll down and stop these from autoplaying. Our apologies.
There have only been few instances when Stephen Colbert’s genius, fanatical-right-winger persona has been completely subdued by the presence of a notable guest. Last night’s episode of The Colbert Report proved to be one of these occasions as the comedic master sat down with the ever-inspiring Tuareg blues band Tinariwen.
The ensemble, joined on stage by a translator named Lala and TV on the Radio frontmen Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone (who also contributed to the band’s excellent new album Tassili), spoke to Colbert about their humble beginnings in Mali, their curious time training under Muammar Gaddafi as rebels in the 1980s, their subsequent acquaintance with TV on the Radio, and of course, whether they are fans of Justin Bieber or not. Naturally, Colbert couldn’t restrain himself from joking around, hilariously pleading with the ethnically-dressed members not to wear their attire when passing through airport security. “You don’t have to translate that one,” he then told Lala, but judging by the smile on bassist Eyadou Ag Leche’s face, I’m sure the band didn’t need a translator for that one.
The very enjoyable interview was then followed by magnificent performances of Tenere Taqqim Tossam (featuring Malone and Adebimpe) and Imidiwan Ma Tenam. You can watch the interview and the performances below:
Tenere Taqqim Tossam:
Imidiwan Ma Tenam:
Well that autoplay sure is annoying as fuck
none of these autoplay in chrome or firefox for me. what browsers are they autoplaying in? maybe i could hack the embeds to not do that… but need to see the problem first.