Onetime member of the Yellow Dogs reportedly gunned downed ex-mates early Monday morning
A former member of the Brooklyn-based dance-punk group the Yellow Dogs reportedly killed three of the group’s musicians early Monday morning. The man, whom the New York Post identified as Raefe Ahkbar, used a semi-automatic rifle to shoot the men, wound another and kill himself. He carried out the massacre at an apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where some of the band members were believed to have lived. The band had emigrated to the U.S. from Tehran, Iran, in 2011.
SXSW 2010: 27 Tweet-Length Reports, Including the Yellow Dogs
The band reportedly ousted Ahkbar after he stole money and equipment, according to the Post. An anonymous source told the paper that prior to the shooting, “He said something like ‘Why did you bring me over here [from Iran] and then throw me out?’” In retaliation, he allegedly killed 27-year-old guitarist Soroush Farazmand in a second-floor bedroom, then ascended to the third floor, where he shot 35-year-old vocalist Ali Eskandarian and drummer Arash Farazmand, whose age is unknown. He also wounded Sasan Sadeghpourosko, who was outside the building and is not believed to be a member of the band. The Yellow Dogs’ guitarist Siavash Karampour and bassist Koory Mirz were not injured. A neighbor said he heard 45 gunshots.
“You always see them coming in and out of their house with their musical instruments in cases. They seemed like great kids, never bothered anybody,” neighbor Martin Greenman, 63, told the Post. “They resembled each other with the curly black hair and the tight jeans. They looked like typical hipsters.”
The group appeared in the 2009 movie No One Knows About Persian Cats, which won a prize at Cannes. The band’s song “New Century” appeared on its soundtrack. The group was also featured in a CNN piece on artists in the Middle East. “They think I’m an anarchist,” guitarist Karampour told the interviewer. Later he said, “They’re like my brothers. They’re more close than my brothers.” The report said that musicians who play rock music, which is deemed “un-Islamic” in the country, could be jailed and beaten.
The group moved to New York City permanently in 2010. In a Tweet-length review of the band’s gig at SXSW that year, Rolling Stone wrote, ” Iranian post-punkers ride spidery bass lines, galloping hi-hats & garage-fucked guitar. Small crowd, great sound.”
The Yellow Dogs’ video for “This City,” a track they released last year, is below.
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