If this blog were an album then this post would be as close to a title track as there can be. I’m a Metallica fan; and if there is a classical or pop fan reading this (thank your for reading btw) cringing right now please wait and read on. And if you’re reading this and you’re a Metallica fan then read on and feel better about yourself. To me that band is a band that understood its genre better than anybody else in it, may be they accidentally do or may be they actually do.

Let me start by explaining my theory on music. I think everybody knows this on some subconscious level but let me re-iterate. Music, all forms of it, according to me is about emotion, some emotion or the other. And I don’t mean with respect to lyrics or anything like that I mean in general, music and the lyrics and the whole package together reflects and many a times instills, an emotion. Like pop and RnB are about happiness or sadness in most cases coupled with love. Rock is about a varied range of emotion which is one of the main reasons I like the genre so much. Rock ranges and seems to have the freedom to speak about and instill a wide variety of emotions be it anger, sadness, love or rebellion. It’s the same case with Jazz I feel, though in a more hardcore raw way rather than mainstream like rock, its like pure hard liquor in that sense, its hard to take but if you like it then you love it period. Hip hop on the other hand is about no emotion, none it is purely about a hypnotic rhythm that’s it. And any hip hop fan reading this (thanks again) saying “No your wrong hip hop is about lust or physical act of love” or something like that then feel free to comment and I shall be more than happy to reply with a fresh post. But that’s a fight for another day, getting back to the point.

The genre of Metal in music is primarily about rage and anger, sometimes about sadness and sometimes about happiness, though in more of a chaotic sense. And if you’re reading this and going, “My that’s so negative!!” then you’re right. Metal does reflect primarily on negative emotion, and what’s wrong with that, those emotions exist don’t they? Haven’t you ever felt so angry you felt like punching something, haven’t you felt so sad that you wanted to just scream your lungs out. These are very powerful emotions but at the same time there is also a sense of sanctity to these emotions. There is an inner sense of method to the madness, it’s hard to see but it exists.

And that’s this reason why I’m a Metallica fan because when I hear their music I can hear that inner melody in those harsh ear breaking heavy riffs. At the same time they are loud and in your face and you get that supreme sense of power in everything. There’s another thing Metallica are good at and that’s slowing things down in a middle of a song sometimes, which is necessary many a time to kind of catch your breath from all the air drumming and air guitaring you've been doing. Yet slow or fast there I always that sense of power and chaos (those random tempo changes are a prime example of the chaos) while still maintaining that inner melody that sense of purpose in the song. And that to me is about as close as any band can get to understanding their genre according to me. Don’t get me wrong though I don’t think they’re perfect or anything they don’t get that same thing in every song (or every album as I’ll soon get to) but some songs you hear and you go “Yeah that’s what I'm talking bout”. I know some hardcore metal fans and musicians might say they’re not good technically, that they’re songs seem to use the same kind of riffs or they’re lyrics aren’t, in most cases, that good. But why can’t something that is simple be great, that’s where the genius of another sometimes misunderstood band lies, Nirvana.

In their last album Metallica fell of their pedestal, they sucked; they completely seemed to forget what their music was about. They did what every other metal band did; it was just loud worthless noise. At no point could you feel the music in the same way as before. I mean the band HAD to be in some turmoil or smoking something funny when they decided to cage one of their main assets, Kirk Hammet. I hated St. Anger from the bottom of my heart. More so because I knew what this band was capable of. I knew they could easily make a good album. But no matter how much I hated that album in the back of my mind I had faith, a blind faith that they would come back with something good.

And I’m glad to say my faith has proved right, their new album Death Magnetic, despite the corny name, is a Metallica album like the old times. It’s not a revolutionary album it’s not fantastic, it’s good, it could have been great but for a couple of songs in the album. But the important thing is they’re back to their old ways of song writing full of power and chaos intermingling almost poetically with a unique sense of harmony.

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I know I haven’t written for a long time, been busy (aka been lazy) but a recent Bollywood music album has compelled me to shout out again. And I’m pretty sure it’ll come as no surprise to those who read this blog that that movie is ‘Rock on’. I heard small excerpts of the songs on trailers and stuff and then finally got my hands on the whole album and I must say I like it, quite a lot.

I don’t think this is this is the best album ever made in Bollywood (too many of Rehman’s tracks would come back to haunt me if I said that) but it is SUCH a pleasant break from the usual crap that we’ve been hearing in Bollywood for the past decade. Bollywood has been far too obsessed with hip-hop and that God awful Punjabi rap collab’s, and if it’s not that then it’s your plain old run-in-the-middle pop. Which is why it was quite the pleasant surprise to hear such a decent rock album from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy who’ve been such a core part of the Bollywood pop music.

There are other reasons why I like this album too. Here’s a confession bout myself – I am a sucker for the guitar, anything to do with that six stringed gift from God be it a good riff in a song, a good couple of notes in between, a good solo or just a that pleasant ring of an acoustic; I melt, I literally melt for it. She is my muse, my love and I wish my life. She is like a gorgeous girlfriend who’s fabulous but who I unfortunately ignore far too much and take for granted far too easily. I should be flogged in hell for it but hey it’s a fault that I try to correct and it’s a work in progress. But coming back to the point, I’m a sucker for the guitar and am not used to hearing it that much in Hindi music and this had nice little riffs and arpeggios and as soon as I heard them I was hooked.

The second reason I like this album is because they didn’t go with a conventional singer, like your Sonu Nigam or somebody for the vocals. Instead they went for a coarse voiced Farhan Akhtar which is such a magnificent touch, cause rock isn’t about silky smooth vocals, it needs an element of the jagged in there, all rock bands had it. Having a smooth vocals on a rock album is not rock it becomes a smooth edged pebble and that’s about as much rock as the Jonas Brothers are.

The third reason I like this album is ‘cause its Indian. Let me explain, of late for some reason it seems every movie that has a song with even a minute rock element in it is done by a Pakistani rock band, and don’t get me wrong they’re good and all, but why peek into the neighbours for resources when you got them right here in your own kitchen cabinet?

Now the so called “proper rock fan’s” are gonna be saying it’s a “wanna-be” album etc etc, and to those I have this to say - get of your stupid high pedestal and appreciate it for what it is, something out of the ordinary, something not conventional something bold and different and that my friends is very very rock. So let’s all whip out those Zippo lighters and raise it in the air for ‘Rock On’.

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Pirates are strange. I know what you’re thinking; you’re thinking I’m strange for writing something on pirates being strange. But this is one of those philosophical moments when I find something in life corresponding to something as strange as pirates at sea. (AARGH he is a strange one).

I find it strange that pirates sail the seven seas to find something really precious, their “treasure”, only to bury it on some remote island. Now why would you do that? I know what you’re saying “to keep others from getting it you jackass”. But look at the situation here: you’re kind of keeping the treasure away from yourself too!! Wouldn’t it just be better to use some of that loot to buy the worlds best safe and put all the treasure in there? Who I feel worse for is the crew of the ship. Technically a part of the treasure is theirs too yet they can’t get their hands on it because their captain finds it safer to bury it on a remote island.

Those who know me are probably reading this thinking ya this is one of those pointless things that just jump into my head. But no.. there is some point to my madness. Because I feel that many of us in our lives are just like those pirates or their crew. Many of us do hold secrets that are dear to us, that are of utmost importance to us but still feel the need to keep it secret. Things that we want or crave or already posses but are scared to bring it out or use it, for fear of losing the thing that is dear to us, for fear of being ridiculed or many others.

But again the worst thing to happen is still being the crew, possessing something that you can’t lay claim to just yet because you don’t have the power, the leverage etc. But for those who are the crew the question remains once you come to power would the treasure remain in the remote island in the back of your brain?

If it were me I’d dig it up, simple logic: What’s the point of having it if you can't enjoy it? You have it, flaunt it. But for now I still remain a part of the crew, humbly (well may be not so humbly) sailing across the seas of life waiting for my chance to come.

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They are the face of cheap cars in India, and with the advent of the Nano they’ve pretty much become the face of cheap cars all over the world. Well I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, don’t get me wrong the Nano is an achievement; nobody thought that that cheap a car could be made. And the car does look complete, it’s yet to be seen but at least it doesn’t look like parts of it are going to fall off. But after the acquisition of Jaguar and Land rover I think it’s high time the company redid some of its core processes.

Pick up any car magazine and read the review of any car that’s been made by Tata, the Indica, the Indigo etc., almost all of them will say the exact same thing in the for and against column. For: Good Mileage, Reliable, cheap, low maintenance and in the against: looks, build quality. And that’s where I think Tata’s main problem lies it’s not a car that people look to and say it’s a great car so I’ll buy it, it’s the car that everybody seems to settle for, I can’t buy any other car so I’ll buy a Tata.

But now I think it’s high time they changed that image, this is now a company that owns high premium brands like Jaguar and Land Rover. With these acquisitions the company must back itself and take that leap of faith to make expensive high quality cars that everyone knows it’s capable of making.

We are a country that I believe is intellectually one of the best in the world (if not THE best) and shouldn’t an Indian company then challenge automotive boundaries and make some sensational cars. And it’s not something totally new for them either let’s face it the Nano is an engineering marvel, it challenged a boundary and achieved it, now that that’s done its time for new ones. I mean statistically the company is great, it’s like the Indian cricket team was years ago, statistically brilliant but yet they looked domestic and docile, like they shiver at the sight of tall white Australian men. Then came along a bunch of young brats with barely any stats but with loads of attitude and finally some balls and they kicked ass. You are now owners of premium cars brands like Jaguar and Land Rover how many companies can say that, so it’s time to take that leap of faith, make India’s first sports car, make it calm and docile in the city streets and a monster when it reaches an empty stretch, make a premium quality car, a luxury car and please not one that look like the Indica, let’s face it that’s not exactly a good looking car in itself and copies of that with a boot ain't gonna look good either. Face it you’re not Porsche for you to be replicating the same design over and over again (and also note that Porsches are not exactly noted for their design either). Oh that brings me to my most important suggestion: try a new design, radical ones that’ll take your breath away, in the right way.

And I’m glad to say that I see a move in the right direction with the Sumo Grande, it’s a HUGE step up from the older car. Fantastic, but it’s just the starting step we need to see a lot more of these improvements.

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“It’s a sexy new night time drama set in a ski-resort. I just read the script; it’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever read. Ha ha. ITS GONNA BE HUGE!!” – Bobby, from the show Joey (season 1)

This somehow seems to be the story of Bollywood these days, make sure it’s attractive, sexy with a half descent sound track and the rest of it really doesn’t matter. Well I had the unfortunate experience of watching such a movie recently called – RACE.

That movie has that perfect formula or should I say recipe for the “masala movie” (I’ll get to that in a bit) it had the glam quotient, hell it even had 3 heroines to make up for Sharukh Khan. And it had the songs (you have to admit Pehli Nazar Mein by Atif Aslam is a lovely song). And it had twists a lot of them. And I got my money’s worth. Yet you may be wondering why I seem like I didn’t like the movie, let me explain.

First point, “RACE” is a thriller and I got my money’s worth because I was laughing though the movie at the sheer lack of sense in it. Second point, like I said the movie had twists; unfortunate thing though was that it had ONLY twists. I mean the movie was like an f1 track with only turns there was no flow to the story just twist after twist after twist. Then there were some stupid stunts, how kids suddenly show up on scooters on a deserted highway in the middle of a high speed race? I don’t know. How a car after jumping of a ramp and landing blows up? I DO NOT KNOW. Oh by the way it blows up on the spot, that is up and down no forward movement at all, after jumping of a ramp at 100 kmph.

So basically I thought the movie was totally worthless as a thriller. Yet fans of Bollywood, who seemed to like the movie by the way, all tell me the same thing “Why look into it da? It’s a masala movie?” Now I want to ask what kind of a film industry are we running where such mediocrity and stupidity is accepted so easily? It’s like saying “Oh I expect a dumb movie, I just hope there are lot of babes in it”.

If you want a total popcorn movie fine do it, but at least have some common sense in it, some surprise element in it, not the same ridiculous stunts that you can see coming a mile away (if u ever end up seeing the movie you’ll see what I mean). Also, more importantly, don’t keep double standards, don’t applaud movies like this one and see it 4 times and at the same time ridicule Rajnikanth movies, trust me you ain’t far from getting there.

By now if many Bollywood fans are still reading this they probably hate me, but don’t get me wrong Bollywood has talent, serious talent. They can make sensational movies like Jhankar Beats, Dil Chahta Hai, Swadesh, Rang De Basanti (sensational concept), Tare Zameen Par etc etc. And those are just the recent movies if I get into the older ones the list gets a LOT bigger. All I’m asking of all you Bollywood fans is: Should somebody who knows what this industry is capable of just accept stupid, senseless pure glam movies like the ones coming out today? Food for thought?

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Simply had to post this one. The man made some mayhem of his own in the dunk contest and forever rid the misconception that big guys (centers and power forwards 7ft plus) cant dunk well. In the dunk shown above his "superman dunk" he rose from barely a foot inside the free throw line and rose so high that he had to actually chuck the ball into the basket instead of reaching there and dunking it. I mean for flair alone he had to win it. Check out the other dunks if possible, its probably all over youtube by now. And if you're a basketball fan u simply MUST.

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Was just surfing for Grammy news and I came across this article where Natalie Cole, famous singer and daughter of the even more famous Nat King Cole (sensational singer), said that “Winehouse’s wins sends a ‘bad’ message”. I got to be honest I knew there would be someone who says something like this about her wins. And I want to say: GROW UP.

The Grammy’s, of all things, aren’t given on the basis of whose singing, its given on the basis of WHAT they are singing. Be it a drug addict, a cocky rapper or a legend all of them are based (well at least should be based) on their music and music alone. No one can deny the fact that she did make a great album, from what I’ve heard of it it’s different, catchy, more old school, earthy simple tones. Its different and its nice, hell Kanye West, probably the most arrogant guy around, told Mark Ronson (Winehouse’s producer) “You deserve it as much as I do and I deserve it too” now that is as close as anyone is going to get to a compliment from that guy.

Now how is Winehouse’s wins sending ‘bad’ message? Did anybody really think that drugs were the reason she made great music? She’s not Jim Morrison people, she had a good producer and she had talent, pretty simple. As far as her addictions etc goes, she’s paying for her misgivings she’s constantly a tabloid favorite, having shit written about her all over and having people like Ms Cole ruining her perfectly well deserved Grammy’s. Yes, seeing her does send me a message and that is that try my best NOT to be like her, if I must take anything from her it would be how she in spite of having all these things going against her managed to make such great music. And THAT is not a “bad” message. She deserved it so she won it, period.

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Have u ever seen this show on Vh1 called “Then and now”? Nice little show, but I’m not here to talk about the show, I’m here to talk about the thing they play at the start of the show, it’s an interesting little animated opening video of, in their eyes, the evolution of music through the ages. It starts of with a Jimi Hendrix like character playing a little riff then he morphs into a disco character and the tune morphs a bit too, then comes a long haired heavy metal/ hard rock kinda guy who like plays a distorted version of the same tune and then he morphs into a fat blinged out hip hop guy, and that’s the end of the video.

The evolution they’ve portrayed is relevant too – Hendrix and other rock legends ruled in the 60’s then disco took over in the 70’s, then with the death of disco came the rock and heavy metal age with groups like guns n rose, nirvana, metallica etc in the 80’s and 90’s and now, this is the interesting part, has come the “Hip Hope Age”. Well according to them in any case. And I agree with them, I think this is the hip hop revolution, I’m not saying that the other genres are dead or anything. I mean lets face it all through the 60’s 70s and 80’s and 90’s other genres did exist, except that they were less prominent than the controlling genre of that time. And (unfortunately) now is the time of Hip Hop (If you disagree your probably in denial or both deaf and blind).

The question I’m hoping to answer in this post is why? Why is it that people are more in tune these days to hip hop more than anything else? Why is it that more mainstream genre’s are trying to infuse bits of hip hop in them (pop and rnb being HUGE examples)? Somebody said (I think) “the world is going too fast to have time to stop and smell the roses” and I think that’s exactly whats happened to music too.

Think about it, all you have to do in hip hop is remember one tiny little tune, which generally is a small beat, and a main single phrase, generally the name of the song itself. Its true, the music part is plain to hear and as far as lyrics go all that matters is that one phrase (face it no self respecting woman would dance to over half of the hip hop tunes if they cared what they said, its only for hard core fans who are keen to pursue rap or hip hop). Pick any song, 90% chances you’ll see its true.

It’s sad but people don’t have time these days to follow a long elaborate solo or the little picks and bends of a guitar, or the small variances and flows of jazz or the shear dominance of a voice of soul. All I’m hoping now is that genres don’t fade out, like the disco, to being barely followed by a small group of cult fans who people look upon and think “those people are weird”. And just like I hope food wont become a pill someday I hope music wont become any more shorter in the time to come or its just wont seem like music any more…

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Remember the good old days when somebody heard Stephen hawking talk and people went “hey that’s weird.”? But as time went by some hip-hop producer somewhere pressed the wrong button and got a similar robotic voice and somewhere in his tiny brain Paris Hilton went “That’s Hot”. And boom in comes the invasion of weird voices in music (kanye west’s stronger being the best example of the robotic voice).

I think this whole thing started with the Akon featuring Alvin and the chipmunks in “I’m so lonely” ( I know I know it’s an insult to Alvin and the chipmunks but hey it did sound like them). Now akon himself has a weird voice over that with the chipmunk thing I didn’t know if I was listening to a normal song or a song in an animated film. But somehow everybody loved it, then the dude was everywhere, almost everyone featured him sometimes even in stupid things like gwen stefani’s escape where all he did was go “woo hoo hee hoo”. Then comes the real reason why I think Stephen hawking should sing – Tpain (I think Akon’s prodigy). For those of you who are wondering who he is, he’s the guy in kanye wests “Welcome to the good life” song. Now that dude barely sings; he sings something and its digitally mastered to have a huge robotic ting to it, and again people gobbled it up. Now he’s everywhere, his own song bartender, ft akon btw, is a big hit and people are having collaborations with him all over the place.

All this makes me wonder, what the hell do need to have to be in hip hop? DEFENITELY not voice, it was never a big issue in hip hop anyway, face it most of them are there cause the cant sing, even more so now with people digitally adding to the voice. So that’s not it voice doesn’t matter, music is not the issue cause that comes from producers. Lyrics may be? Ha right?! Have u ever actually read those things!! So what is it? Only thing that comes to mind – contacts, period. Well is it just me or is that just plain sad for anything that calls itself a genre of music….

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