Kabul's First Rock Band

Cool story yesterday from the BBC about "Kabul Dreams", who bill themselves as Afghanistan's first rock-and-roll band. The three members of Kabul Dreams are pairing Western-style indie rock music with traditional Afghan rhythms and say that the are tapping into a new-found love of rock music among young Afghanis in the post-Taliban period. Whether or not Kabul Dreams is the future of Afghanistan's music scene is yet to be seen, but they are a hopeful sign of Afghanistan's future for another reason - the multi-ethnic makeup of the band. While Afghanistan often organizes along tribal/ethnic lines, Kabul Dreams is made up of a Pashtun, a Tajik and an Uzbek.

"The reason we formed this band was to give a message to the Afghan youth, a message that they can live together," bassist Siddique Ahmad told the BBC, adding that he felt after decades of civil war, younger Afghanis were looking to put tribal identities behind them. "One Afghan, that's it," he said.