Music n Mayhem

Resonance Part 2: Listen!

2012-02-16T08:26:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I wonder whether we as a race have undermined music over the years. Music used to be something you relished on its own ages ago, just a person performing in front of an audience and nothing else. Yet when was the last time you listened to music and did only that? Its always accompanied by something, jogging, reading, sleeping, working etc.

All that thought brought me to the act of reading, strangely enough. Reading has remained something you do exclusively, mostly because it requires your complete involvement. You have to look at it to read, concentrate to understand and imagine the words and what they interpret. Sure there is a cursory way to do it, like say the way you browse through a magazine, but true reading is still something you spend time doing.

I’ve written in the past about Resonance on this very blog, and it was under one such occurrence recently that these thoughts struck me. It made me think that we are missing out on a lot of things that music has to offer simply because we don’t LISTEN any more. To put it in a different way we don’t read, we browse.

There are groups who still do listen for music sake, take the classical music concerts for instance. There are no theatrics, its a groups of people looking at a handful of people sit and perform, no weird lasers, no pyrotechnics, nothing. But thats a small percentage of music listeners and an even smaller genre of music overall.

In moments of Resonance, the most innate things about a song strike me. Things that would otherwise go unnoticed, like the faint riff of a guitar in a piano heavy song, like the background vocals and harmony, bass lines etc. Made me think that there are so many layers to music, that in a cursory browse get over looked, all you notice is the striking aspect, the booming vocal or the guitar solo, but you miss the environment, all the other little things going on.

I had written previously that I don’t know what causes this Resonance that I talk of, and I still don’t. But all these thoughts made me think that perhaps I can come close to the feeling if I spend time and just listen to music and do nothing else. Just me my earphones or my giant speakers and a chair. If any of what I said struck a chord with you, maybe you should too.

BFF

2011-07-16T10:57:00.001-07:00

It’s funny how if anything in life is a certainty it is that at any point the one person you’re always going to be around is yourself, yet that seems to be the one person that most people can’t get along with. I took a rather, apparently bold, decision to go on a vacation, a road trip of sorts by myself. Now the reaction to that has been two fold, on one hand, there are the few who thing it’s awesome, then there is the majority who think I’m mad. The primary reason for my madness being the fact that I fail to see that I’ll get bored.

Yet as I sit here enveloped in a forest, with nothing but an ornithologists favorite symphony playing in the background and tiny little yellow butterflies to keep me company, I can call myself a lot of things but bored isn’t one of them.

Now most of you are probably already half way through to tagging me as a loner, but let me be the first person to admit, company is a good thing. We all need to counter our own thoughts and re-assure our decisions. But at times its good to let the voices in your own mind come to its own decisions. I mean independence means a lot of things to a lot of people, but to me true independence is when you’re comfortable with your own company.

The other thing a lot of people don’t realize is, a solo trip isn’t a trip to a deserted island, you’re never really alone. For instance on this trip, I met an aging yet sprightly forest official who asked me if I could drop him on the way, and all through the drive he went on and on about old jungle stories. Of course since my Kannada is not that great I understood only half of it, but he got a kick out of telling them and I was more than willing to play my part of quiet listener. I also met two rather exuberant north Indian couples who were more than willing to give me company, though for the most part I only played the role of silent observer. Then of course there are the people curious enough to go “ But why alone” expecting a popcorn worthy story out of it, but to which I have to simply reply it’s an experience worth having. So with all that to be frank the amount of time you have to yourself is quite little, but immensely precious.

There are but a few things in this world that you can truly call your own, and your thoughts are perhaps the most sacred. Give them a chance to stew and refine in your mind before giving them away with speech. If you still think that’s mad, well someone once said there is a joy to madness that only a mad man knows. So try your own company sometime, he/she might be more fascinating than you know. After all they are your only true BFF.

Perhaps there is hope after all. . .

2011-05-10T10:11:00.001-07:00

In the past I have written endlessly about the demise of music in recent time. Where music is less about people with talent singing to instruments and more about random people feeding their voice into a computer. I thought the glory days of simple straightforward music was done.

Minor anomalies did occur, for instance Cee-Lo Green’s runaway hit “F*** You”. Now I know the name puts of a lot of people, so I suggest listening to the radio edit version called “Forget you”. Expletives aside the song is simply fantastic, it has this old world charm and genuine-ness about it which made me instantly like it. It’s like seeing an old classic car beautifully restored, it just makes you feel good.

The success of that song was a bit surprising to me cause it sounded nothing like the usual hits that do the rounds. So i thought it was a mere coincidence. But then I heard a rather simple sounding fantastic song on the radio by Adele, also please note when I say simple I mean only in terms of the amount of equipment used.

I also heard that the album had achieved a record in the UK for being the highest selling female artist album ever, beating a rather old record held by none other than Madonna herself. That actually made me a bit apprehensive because I figured if that many people liked it, it could mean that not all songs are that raw.

So then I got the album and listened to it and am very glad to report that I was wrong, Adele’s new album 21 is as raw as it can get. On many of the songs all that is present is her fantastic voice and a piano or a guitar. And when I say fantastic voice I MEAN fantastic, she has such a powerful and versatile voice that can sound vulnerable and strong at the same time. That entire album is a must for any fan of good music and more specifically a great voice.

Though is it a fantastic album? perhaps not, but more than anything its a reassuring one. It tells me that perhaps there is still a place in this world for real music after all. Thank you Adele you are a gift.

My recommendations from the album: Turning Tables, Rolling in the Deep, Lovesong

Resolute Rant!

2011-04-07T06:37:00.000-07:00

I hate new years resolutions, they annoy the hell out of me. The most annoying fact about them is that that I forget how annoying they are when December comes, and end up falling into that trap again.

It begins all bright and cheery, you think its a new year I’m going to do this and that and be a new person blahdy blah. January begins with that enthusiasm and you go through with it all, feeling good and happy about yourself. Then February comes and you skip a day, two days, a week, hell February is a small month (well smaller anyway) lets skip that, March I will get back. Cue the annoying WRONG! buzzer here. And we March straight into exactly what we were like last year, all puns intended.

You know what the problem with New Years Resolutions are, the fact that there’s no incentive. I mean anyone who works knows we do new years resolutions at work all the time, except they are called a more formal, “Year end objectives”. We usually finish most of those, get more money and everyones happy.

The problem with New Years Resolutions are that they have no incentives, and I’m sure there are a million of of you going ( ok maybe not a million) but the way you feel at the end of the year blah blah. To which I have to say, “Who the hell cares??”, human beings (well most anyway) are selfish beings, we will trade later happiness for immediate smaller happiness any day. Plus happiness, unlike money isn’t a envisionable entity ( I honestly blanked out on a better way to say that), you can’t count or say how happy you’ll be, and hence no motivations. And hence new years resolutions last only a month while the thrill of the new years stays alive.

You know what we need, we need a really rich dude to start a fund/foundation that gives people money for keeping new years resolutions for the whole year. I mean think about it, more people are happy, healthy, well read, have quit smoking etc etc , I mean thats usually what new years resolutions comprise of right? On top of that people get money, the rich dude is doing his bit for society, its a win win. Hmm this idea should be patented; on that note I’ve done my bit for my resolution of writing more,I’ll be at home waiting for my cheque.

Rantings of a Mindless Brain

2011-04-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

Continuing on in the series of reliving the past, here's another one of my earlier scribbles, one of my favorites actually. Sadly still as relevant today as it was earlier, but then again when are we not confused.

Confusion reigns within,
Not righteous neither sin.
So many ways not all right,
Not all wrong provide no respite.
Each one with its dents its pains;
These are rantings of a mindless brain.

Choice is a word I can do without,
No clue whats wrong or right and no way out.
Answers to questions seem non existent,
Appear so simple, might seem redundant.
Through all this I still seem sane;
These are rantings of a mindless brain.

Mind is a thing that separates us,
But what it is, is a question that plagues us.
Imaginary entity masked with conscience,
But exists or what keeps us righteous.
That brings me back to confusion again,
So these remain the rantings of a mindless brain.

Unsung Hero…

2011-03-05T09:11:00.001-08:00

So here’s the first of the bunch, one of my earlier poems, and one that I think the most people have read. This is one of the few that I have given to more than a couple of people to read.

And before the question comes up let me answer it - No I am not the Unsung Hero, the poem came out of a single image of a man rowing into a sunset, the rest kind of wrote itself.

Oh! Unsung hero where do you go?
Why mournfully into the sunset do you row?
Why look of anger of confusion do I see?
What answers far away do u seek?
Care not do you of your people no more?
Leave will you while their hearts still sore?

Care? care is a word I once knew,
Without that word now I can do.
Your wrongs I've made right, kept you from what might.
I have been your beacon, I have been your light.
So much so I have done,
Why am I still the unsung?

Questions all wrong cloud your head;
Answers to those are in no book, in no sunset.
Of the title which you hold only some are worthy,
Look unto only one word do you, the other dont you see?
A word that overshadows the rest,
A word that you brandish on your chest.

Wise words you speak oh unknown counsel,
Lead to light do you from where I dwell.
Who are you who brings the light?
Protect me from my own demise.
Who is it that knows whats done?
Who is it that sings the songs of the unsung?

I am the light, I am the truth.
I am your conscience, I am you.
So say with me the words you wish,
So this guilt I carry I can rid.

Hear this all living under the sun,
I'll be your hero I'll be your unsung.

Poetry….

2011-03-05T09:00:00.001-08:00

Poetry, I’ve always loved it, it seems to add a sense of artistry to the otherwise ordinary. It always has a way of blending together words and expressions to bring together a thought, or way of seeing things, that otherwise would not have occurred to me.

There was a time, long ago, that sitting in the back of class, staring at a blank piece of paper, I could write something that had some semblance of rhyme with reason to it. Not all good mind you, but it was something. And it always brought about that joy of creation that comes with creating something vaguely artistic (even if the final result might not be). That feeling of I made this and if I didn’t it wouldn’t have existed.

Over the years I’ve sort of fallen out of the habit and I’ve always attributed that to everyone’s favorite scapegoat, Time. But when I really thought about it, I figured out that that’s not really true, there is a lot of time that I sit around doing nothing of any real significance that could really be put to better use. But unfortunately that so called time is never really practically available, it always exists only in theory in our mind.

But then again poetry isn’t something that is really that easy to get back to, well not to me atleast. For me I need to be in that groove of sorts where you recognize a series of thoughts or feelings as something that can be penned down as a poem. It’s like your mind needs to remember what it’s like to think like that again. Either that, or you need to be hit with something profound, which was the case with my most recent endeavor into poetry, my ode to Gokarna.

But I miss those times and I figured now is as good a time as any to get back to it while these thoughts are still afresh in my head. So as a result I have decided to publish some of my older works occasionally, for everyone who reads my blog to see. There aren’t that many just a handful but its something. The hope is that perhaps revisiting some of the older poems can get me back in to the flow of writing poetry again. So for all those who commented on my Gokarna post asking for the older stuff, here you go, hope you don’t regret what you wished for.

Confessions!

2011-01-14T08:01:00.001-08:00

My disdain for Hip-Hop has been rather well documented in the past on this very blog, but I have a confession to make. There are a couple of artists who I do pay attention to, and while one may not surprise anyone to a large extent the other might need some explanation. Though before you drive me out with pitchforks, let me just say I like them simply because they do show semblances of music at times. I’m not saying I’m a die hard fan, all I’m saying is some of their songs have found a place in my iPhone (yes I have to mention that).So who are the chosen few? Lets get down to it, Eminem and Kanye West.

Now while the first might be a little easy to explain I’m afraid explanation on the latter might take a while. So lets get the easy one out of the way, Eminem, you got to give credit to a man whose not afraid to say whatever the hell he wants to say and excel in a genre almost devoid of white folk, I don't mean to be racial but that's the honest truth. On top of that he has a twisted sense of humour that he’s more than willing to use, listen to the start of “When the music stops” (the whole song would work too) to get what I mean, never fails to make me laugh.

Now coming to the tough one, Kanye West, the perpetual bad boy of Hip Hop. The man has an ego the size of the Statue of Liberty, is probably a little more than cuckoo in the head and at times can be a total jackass. But you know what, you can use that line for a lot many musicians, and I’m not talking Hip Hop here. With Kanye somehow there is a mad sense of genius somewhere in that head of his.

The fascination with Kanye began when I first heard Flashing lights while playing one of the Grand Theft Auto games. The use of violins with the synth and the beats was something I hadn’t heard in Hip Hop before, it was musical. Then came Homecoming, Stronger (based on Daft Punk’s song), Welcome to the heartbreak etc., and what fascinated me most, was that most of these songs were produced by Kanye himself, meaning the man has talent!

So when Rolling Stones gave his latest album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 5 stars and named it the album of the year (2010), I had to take a listen. So is it a 5 star album in my book? Well no, I didn’t really expect it to be either. But is it good? Its listenable and saying that for an entire Hip Hop album is saying something! The album is classic Kanye with the crazy cranked up, catchy beats mingled with surprisingly musical bits, using instruments ranging from Cello’s, trumpets and paino’s to guitars. While the album might not have been a 5 star album in my book I did find a song that is.

The song is called All of the lights, and its interlude alone was enough to melt me and its on the back of that song that that entire album tilts to good in my book. The song features a piano and violin riff that is to die for, featuring Elton John on the keys. The song also has a total of 11 guest artists of whome, other than Rihanna, you can’t pick out any of em! They are all layered one over the other to form a vocal texture that is completely unique to the song, who’d have thunk it! That song is brilliant and I have no qualms saying that. And if Kanye is the one who came up with that then I have no qualms in saying he has talent either. I’m not condoning anything he says or does, all I’m saying is when it comes to music the man knows what he’s doing. It’s like Ron Artest, I mean that guy is plain mad (hilariously so), but put him on defence on a basketball court and he can do no wrong.

One of the best lines I came across from last year was from a Hip Hop song and I never thought I’d say that, it went “Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars, I could really use a wish right now”. All I’m saying is in all the madness that is the world of Hip Hop I concede that it is possible that a couple of good artists do exist and manage to slip through the cracks. Is Kanye’s album the best of the year, I don’t know, I haven’t really listened to much of the competition. I’m just saying that considering the way the rest of the music industry is at this point . . . stranger things have happened.

PS: As for the rest of the money hungry talentless mongrels, I still hold my disdain.

PPS: I recommend hearing a better quality version of that track too, you can’t really hear all the layers in this one.

Unplug!

2010-11-11T10:38:00.000-08:00

I'm a bonafide geek, if you don't believe me, and even if you do, you can visit my other blog for proof. So that should mean that I love technology in all its forms, but there is one area where I rather dislike technology and that is in Music. Don't get me wrong I don't mean that I dislike iPods and the like, but rather what those devices end up playing.

Technology essentially is meant to make whatever area they are applied to better and easier. Take medicine or science or aviation or that thing in you pocket for example. But when applied to the areas of art such as music the result can tend to get not so enticing.

Which is sad, cause at its start the result was quite enticing, in my opinion the peak of musical prowess was when both technology and music were used together rather than one overpowering the other. Greats like The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd all introduced technology to music to produce some rather exceptional results. The kind of sounds used in conjunction with their regular music was phenomenal.

And the reason I think, is that there was a balance to things. In a song or even in an album, music never got dominated by technology. The equation always was, so I have this idea, I have these instruments and these toys (i.e. the technology) what can I conjure up. Music always constituted alteast half of the effective volume of the piece.

But being humans the easy tends to overtake the better over time. As music got more commercialized, technology was used to make the music quicker and faster as opposed to better. The equation became, I have this beat and this effect and this tune, what can I do to make it sell. So much so that these days you don't really need a voice to sing, that statement seems so wrong to me. Products like auto tune and pitch and tone correctors will make your voice better for you if need be. This is most true in the "popular" genres like Hip Hop and Rhythm n Blues (RnB). T-Pain is a prime example, I don't really get what he does, more importantly I don't see what possessed anyone to buy an album or even make one for that matter.
The rate of deterioration is quite scary, will we come to a day where human beings won't be involved at all? Is the following really far away?

What you see above is a Japanese concert, by a band whose lead singer is an anime character, (cartoon for the anime uninitiated) Hatsune Miku. She (it?) is quite the sensation in Japan and has performed in sold out concerts as you can obviously see. And its no background singer singing the songs either, its a Yamaha Vocaloid Synthezizer of some sort, so the song is being sung, technically, by a computer and people actually like it. Do I think the people who like this are weird? No, what makes this too different from what most of Hip-Hop does. If scores of people listen to that I’ve no doubt even more will like this.

Being a geek I appreciate technology, but in this case unlike making me feel like a kid with a new toy, tech makes me feel like an old man who wants the old days back. So I for one want no part of it, I’m going to stay in my beloved world filled with a Purple Haze and a sky filled with diamonds.

Bring forth the Mayhem

2010-10-17T19:29:00.001-07:00

You know how some things become such an integral part of what we do that we don’t think about it at all. And in those fleeting moments in which you might accidentally think about it once, everything unravels, and you start to question everything. Like blinking for instance, we do it, but if we actually sit to notice it we start to question it, am i blinking? is it too fast? slow? should i blink now?.. no now.. no now.

I had that kind of moment with language the other day, I was talking and suddenly instead of focusing on the words coming out of my mouth I started focusing on the sounds. And it all seemed... weird. Language to me is a funny thing, driving along it sort of struck me as to what any language actually is. At its root, any language is a bunch of noises put together in a way that makes them coherent. And the only reason it sounds coherent is because we are trained to make sense out of it. The difference between languages? simple; the sounds, and the way those sounds are put together. Its like ages and ages ago people in a region decided this is how we are going to do it and people in that region caught on.

But looking at language through sound and not words or grammar didn’t make me ponder about human languages at all, but rather animals. What’s the difference between what we do and what they do? A dog barks, a cat meows (for lack of a better word), a cow moos these are all the characteristic sounds that they make. We all agree that animals communicate but what makes what they do any different from any other language. In which case why can’t we atleast understand it? Replicating it would be tough I agree, owing to physical limitations that we all have, but shouldn't it be possible to make sense out of it.

One could attribute it to the lack of a translator perhaps, no mode of communicating one form to the other. But then how did people in the ancient times communicate? English is fundamentally different to Chinese and Japanese, sound wise, yet there are people who speak both today. Can we not do that with animals too? I suppose again physical limitations exist which restrict us, maybe we cant exactly replicate a bark no matter how much we try because our vocal chords can’t do it. But then can’t technology do it?

I don't think the day is far where what we saw in the movie Up is actually possible, collars on dogs that translate a bark to human language. Logically this does not seem impossible and I’m sure there are bright minds somewhere in the world working on something like this, I commend them, it seems fun.

So what am I getting to with all this, is possibly a thought running through your head right now? Well nothing really. This blog is called Music n Mayhem and to be honest it was getting too Music and less (nearly no) Mayhem, I just wanted to bring the Mayhem back. So mindless rambling on something that struck me and seemed interesting, was the thing to do.

Distance makes the heart grow fonder!

2010-08-14T00:17:00.001-07:00

To avid readers of this blog and to those of you who know me well, I probably come across as a guy who doesn’t particularly enjoy Indian pop. Well you wouldn’t be too far from the truth, but on an innocent question from a very good friend I dwelled into the world of Indian pop music and lo and behold I actually ended up missing it.

Now before you go ahead and read assuming there is a catch of some sort, there isn’t, I truly miss it. You see Indian pop is, sadly dead. Think about it, when is the last time you saw a song on TV or heard it on radio that wasn’t associated with a movie of some sort. Gone are the days when we saw Shaan, Lucky Ali and the likes belting out rather wonderful songs with actual music videos associated with them. Gone are bands like Strings, Silk Route etc who gave us some lovely music.

That to me feels wrong, I’m of the opinion that the process of creating music should be, for all rights and purposes, free. And that can never TRULY be the case with a song from a movie. You see movie songs are requests, a request for something that can fit into the perspective of the movie, a request that needs to conform to what the director or the producer wants. Something that gets the public interested and that’s it. This is completely different from an artist sitting around with a guitar or a piano humming something and thinking to himself that he might have something on his hands. The artist in that case is free to say what he or she wants to say through that song. These days “music” channels such as MTV and Channel V only play reality shows or some other load of crap most of the time, and half or less, “a teaser”, of a song from a movie the other times.

This in a country with some great Indian pop/rock talent out there, what do those do? They play college competitions, clubs, pubs and the lucky ones get recognised and tour in parts of the world like Swarathma and the Raghu Dixit Project, the rest either move into some music related work or just fade away into obscurity. There is no other way to put it but that is WRONG, and for that I feel bad.

We need a music channel that plays music, and not just the crap the bollywood brigade doles out. We need our bands to be recognised and played all over, signed and touring by recording labels that are not just happy having them playing some clubs but put some money behind them and have them sell concerts and albums. What the hell makes Swarathma and the likes any less good than that doctored bubble factory stuff the US roles out in droves? Heck I feel bad even making that comparison (watch Pyasi and you’ll understand what I mean).

So it was that on one innocent question that i reminisced and this post came to be. What will come from it? Probably nothing but what needs to be said, needs to be said. For now I take solace in the fact that the music existed in the first place. And thank God or Google (hmm same thing?) for Youtube.

Free Trip!

2010-08-04T19:59:00.001-07:00

Someone once said the best things in life are free, but lets face it, the guy who said that was either high or just plain didn’t have the money. In todays world you rarely get to find rare gems for free. Which is why I consider myself quite lucky to have stumbled upon one of the most interesting new bands I’ve heard, or seen in Bangalore, at a free concert.

First and foremost I need to give credit where its due, Alliance Francaise organised a series of concerts over five days for free, for their Fete de la Musique, that I had the pleasure of attending. Among the names where the usual headline acts of Thermal and Quarter and Galeej Gurus etc and a whole load of other bands, many of which I’d never heard about. Among the new bands (well new in my book anyway) were The Bicycle Days, a band claiming to be rock group thats, psychedelic, alternative, electronica, “psychobabble” among other things, now if that’s not a confused bunch I don’t know what is.

But then again the lack of a label gives them the freedom to be, well, anything they want to be, and oh boy do they do that well. The band consists of Shreyas on the drums, Rahul on guitar, Paul on Bass, Karthik Basker on vocals and rhythm guitars and Nikhil on Samples. To the uninitiated to simply put it Nikhil is the guy who does the bulk of the effects for the band, everything from whooping echoes to the haunting vocals are all handled by his trusty mixer and Mac. But a good effect is impossible without good raw product going into it, and I’m glad to say the raw product in itself is worthy of standing on its own.

Shreyas was great on the drums, and with all the madness going on around him, without a good beat to keep everything in the same dimension their songs could’ve easily fallen apart. Rahul on guitar is on some level Tool influenced, those riffs were all too reminiscent of the great Adam Jones. Paul on bass was one of the stand outs of the night for me, his precise, elaborate bass lines had the whole crowd in a daze. Then we come to the front man, Karthik Basker, Karthik was a junior of mine from college, he was a friend of a friend, always seemed a little lost in his own world. To be honest when the show started off I had my doubts about him as a front man for a band. But between his flashy “look-at-me” t-shirt, calling the crowd perverts and downright collapsing on stage he makes a great front man; wacky, unpredictable and at the end of the day downright good. His haunting vocals fit perfectly with the mood of the songs and combined with the dark echoes and effects from Nikhil, created long lasting impressions.

The lighting, which now seems like a forgotten art, was also very well done, they were dark and moody keeping in tone with the kind of music that was being played. But unfortunately the acoustics of the auditorium had some room for improvement, to say the least. And in a band where effects and the likes are so focused on, you need a place with good acoustics. The show at Alliance was good, but to me it merely acted as a taster, like a trailer for good movie. It just made me want to go back and hear what those songs actually sound like in the studio.

To any one whose a fan of music that’s a bit out of left field, like that of Porcupine tree etc, I say try The Bicycle Days. Circles is a personal favorite of mine, and TBD if you ever do end up reading this, I NEED that song in my iPod tell me how I can make it happen.

It is truly refreshing to see a band that’s not just playing just classic rock or metal, these ears were aching to here something different. And The Bicycle Days have more than fulfilled that thirst and given me the hope that there might be more like them out there. I hope they continue to make great music, cause this is a band with immense potential and I’d hate to see that go to waste. Keep up the good work guys.

You can find The Bicycle Days on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/thebicycledays
And you can find their music at http://soundcloud.com/the-bicycle-days

A Little Piece of Paradise called Gokarna

2010-05-25T10:35:00.001-07:00

A tribute to a place, that I am to this day, completely enchanted with, Gokarna. I hope I do it justice...

A silent haze covers me,
Passing sand tickle my feet,
The sea sings me a lullaby,
As my mind roams free.
A silent rain keeps me company,
Along with friends equally carefree.
Our bonds lay severed in the hills behind,
At long last making us free.
I look at this life like never before;
Life it seems is easier lived vicariously.
Memories play out like vivid stories,
The future like an unfinished book
Unsure but expectant.
Paradise I found on a deserted shore,
But have since been left wanting.
Forever yearning that isolation
In a world all to social. . . . .

Now to a majority reading this, poetry might come as a surprise but I used to write a long time ago. And this was as good a reason as any to return to the habit. All comments and critiques are welcome.

Light the Fuse!

2010-04-25T19:59:00.001-07:00

Fusion, the name implies the bringing together of two components to bring forth something entirely new. In music too, for the most part, the word has a similar formulaic meaning, no matter how "innovative" and "improvised" fusion music gets, in its core the formula remains the same. Take a contemporary and popular form of music and mix it with a rather classical and less mainstream form of music. The unfortunate thing is that the reaction to Fusion also has a rather typical formula associated with it, the contemporary fans tend to like it, but not enough to buy an actual album, and the classical folk more often than not tend to dislike it, but keep it in wraps as, at the end of the day, it’s an opportunity for them to reach out to a new audience.

The problem in my book is the lack of identity to the final piece of music that comes out of fusion. The goal for most fusion artists seems to be the actual mixing of the two or more art forms involved rather than the music itself, in doing so, unfortunately the music tends to lose any semblance of form and personality. The thing is, great points exist in both forms of music, but they exist because of they have an identity associated with it. An identity that is defined by the set of rules and quirks that define the form of music and fusion usually tends to break these rules. And while that might be the "cool" thing do the final outcome also suffers from the same short comings, it'll be "cool" to some people for a while, but nothing that will truly last in the memory.

I have heard two truly great fusion albums though, one of which is "Symphony & Metallica" (better known as S&M) by Michael Kaman and Metallica and the other is Electric Ganesha Land by Prasanna (better knows as Guitar Prasanna) and the thing that sets both of these albums apart from nearly everything else out there is their sense of purpose. Both those albums have a clear picture in mind on what they are trying to achieve. And by having this sense of direction both the forms of music are involved, intermingling rather than clashing with each other and the one that dominates is the one that the song demands, rather than the artist associated.

Michael Kaman was one of the all time greatest composers in my book, and not just because he was a part of what I consider as one of the greatest live shows ever conducted. He introduced the element of classical western music to a wide variety of musical genres, working with great artists from the likes of Pink Floyd to Queen. But the live album with Metallica and the San Francisco Orchestra, for me, takes the cake; and it’s also one of my favorite albums of all time. You see Metallica's songs are a lot of things they are loud, they are brash, the are angry, they are full of power and Kaman didn't try to change any of that, he in fact accepted that and sought to seek what he could provide to enhance that. All he was focused on was enhancing the experience, increasing the grandeur of the songs, providing a gorgeous canvas as a base for Metallica's music. And the effect is nothing less than profound, the songs are beyond great, they are truly epic. It's the difference between reading an action packed book to watching an accurate reproduction made by Quentin Tarentino. And it is this sense of vision and purpose that makes this such a great album, Kaman wasn't concerned about combining classical music and metal, all he was concerned with was using the tools he had at his disposal to bring a new element to Metal and Metallica.

The same applies to Guitar Prasanna, I had the pleasure of seeing him perform live with Victor Wooten where he performed many of his songs and it was after that, that I went back and heard some of his works. And I must say that his homage to classical Carnatic music is phenomenal. His form of fusion is different, he isn't trying to blindly combine jazz or blues with Carnatic, but its a case of paying reverence to an art form he loves with the instrument that he knows best. And that in itself brings such a new element to the music, while still keeping it true to the rules of the original art form. He does sometimes combine Carnatic with funky jazz but only when the music beckons it, in the middle of solo's etc. His mastery is at such a level that he actually gives full Carnatic classical concerts armed with his trusty electric. By bringing such a new sound to traditional classical music he introduces the beauty of the six stringed instrument to the classical folk and introduces the wide range and smoothness of Carnatic to the western. Its this kind of music that feels like an exquisite creation from a master chef rather than like a Indian version of Chinese dish.

I really hope that some day Fusion gets its well deserved place in main stream music, because it's a genre that has such supreme potential. It can provide such a new perspective to existing music and provide for such novel experiences. I mean where else can an electric guitar fan hear its tone being used in such an achingly beautiful way (Bowling for peace by Prasanna, highly recommended in this context) and where else can a metal fan be exposed to the sheer power of full scale orchestra on full tilt? Now riddle me that.

Schooled by Tool

2010-03-22T05:39:00.001-07:00

In spite of being a big fan of music in general and also of Metal, I’m usually a bit apprehensive when people suggest Metal bands that I “must” listen to. This apprehension is primarily due to the very thin blurred line between the kind of Metal I like and the kind I don’t. Metallica has long been my staple hallmark in metal, they mixed the aggression and chaos of metal with harmony and melody almost seamlessly, it also helps that most of their songs are usually pure energy. There are other great metal bands out there, but Metallica has held the mantle of the best in my book and nothing anyone suggested so far has come close, not Pantera, not Maiden, not Megadeth. Don’t get me wrong they’re all great bands but I’m just not into 'em. Add to that the fact that most bands coming out of college these days are so obsessed with HEAVY Metal and Death Metal, that they just seem to lose all semblance of music and even the smallest amount of growling in a song drives me up the wall.

So sadly it was with the same disregard that I treated a friends* suggestion of the band Tool that he said I absolutely must listen to. That was until one one rather fateful day that he actually made me listen to the song Lateralus by Tool, I was, to say the least, hooked. It had everything I looked for in music; power, emotion, beautiful bridges and melodies, it was mind blowing. So the next day I went to another friend of mine in office** whose a huge Tool fan asking for Tool’s discography in search of other gems like Lateralus, little did I know what I was in store for.

Tool is one of those bands that comes along only once in a few decades that make music of such exceptional quality that its genuinely hard to appreciate them till you are truly LISTENING to their music, and nothing else. Its a band that is composed of such exceptional talent, that there isn’t a weak link in there. The singer Maynard James Keenan modulates his voice so well to truly express his words, exactly how it should be expressed. Speaking of the words, his lyrics are inspiring, not sad, not morose or angry or anything, it's just what the song needs to be. He has a clear message that he wants to express in his work and that shines through really well (the lyrics of the song Lateralus is something I really recommend reading). The guitarist Adam Jones’ tone is exceptional and the clinical precision of his guitaring in such complex time signatures is truly amazing. Speaking of time signatures, wiki Tool and you will see they also belong to a genre all their own called “Math Rock”, they mix such complex time signatures so well that it blends together seamlessly and doesn’t at all seem enforced, each instrument in some songs play in different time signatures. Which brings me to, for me, the strongest unit in the band – Justin Chancellor on the Bass and Danny Carrey on the Drums, the thing with time signatures is you need great Bass and Drums to hold it all together and my God do they go far beyond just holding it together. Justin on the Bass is so exceptional with the mastery of his instrument and its effects that at times I have a hard time figuring out if its him or Adam Jones I’m hearing. Danny Carrey on the other hand is plain mad; he uses such a wide variety of percussion instruments that his setup in itself is a site to behold. Everything from digital drumpads to Tabla’s are present in his setup and if you listen to just his drumming you would find it hard to imagine that just one man is doing all that.

But the greatest thing about the band is that inspite of consisting of such great talents none of them stick out in a song, it’s the song overall that stands out. All the instruments, including the voice, gels so well with everything revolving around them that they act as one single piece, one unit. And I think if even one of them were to be replaced the whole thing would fall apart.

Then comes my favorite fact about this band, they don’t just make songs they make Albums, and I have long stressed my affections to Albums as a whole. In my opinion art in all its forms are means of expressing a thought or an emotion, and songs have the wonderful ability to do that and capture a persons attention for the entire 3 minutes that they are with that song. Now when you have the chance to do that over the period of over an hour or more, why wouldn’t you make use of that. The structure of the songs, the order of the songs, the build up to the songs are all such important tools in doing that. A song can capture your attention but an over all album can convey meaning and emotion and seem more complete as a package. A song should always remain a piece of the jigsaw that is a part of a bigger picture, a piece that makes sense on its own but feels so much better blended into the overall picture. Tool does this exceptionally well, their albums are fantastically structured and all of them sound unique, you can pick a song at random and almost tell which album it came from. Many other bands also place a signature sound on their albums and songs , but that’s usually just the bands signature sound, Tool takes that a step further and gives the album itself its own signature sound. While you can listen to Tool songs independently they just have so much more effect when heard as part of the complete album. And once you finish that album head to toe buried deep in it, you get that sense of awe and satisfaction, like the one you get when you finish a fantastic book. That sense of how fantastic it was and that it was sad that it had to end, but at the end of the day you know it had to end.

But through all their good points there is one rather minor downside of Tool. While they do make fantastic albums and music, their albums come through only once in a while. A Tool fan has to wait a fair few years before getting a fresh album from Tool. But at the end of the day when the music that comes out of this wait is of such exceptional quality it is easily forgivable. The sad part of truly great things are that they are also scarce.

A friend*** of mine said that Tool is like the Led Zeppelin of this generation where they have that same sense of greatness and mystery and where each member is just so talented. And that comment really struck a chord with me, it was summed up quite well, Led Zepplin is not a band that everyone gets, it’s quite an acquired taste. But the thing with them is they aren’t out to please crowds or anything, they are out to say what they want to say in the best way that they can say it. They needn’t be popular, they are not just brilliant, they are so much more, they are. . . Influential.

Credit where credits due:

* Mahesh for recommending and introducing me to Tool.

** Swarit for giving me the entire discography, it is now a prized possession.

*** Vikas Rao Pejavar for the Led Zep comment, well said my friend.

Acquired Tastes

2010-02-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

Living in a country where "new music" is produced every single week with the release of each new movie, it is more than easy to forget the true music of our beloved country lying hidden behind all this fluff (to put it incredibly lightly). What am I on about? No not the Indian Rock band scene, I'm actually talking about Indian classical music. Now I shall wait a bit while you adjust your jaw back in place as its no doubt fallen to the floor, but yes I do enjoy classical music, more importantly I have tremendous amounts of respect for Indian classical music. I especially enjoy the instrumental music that it has to offer, not that I'm undermining the vocalists in any way but its just the way I'm wired, I always tend to focus on instruments rather than vocals.

I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful concert by the great Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia at NCBS, organised by the very admirable organization that is SPIC MACAY. It was a small affair at the quaint open air theatre at the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and the setting was to put it simply, beautiful. But I'm actually not here to talk about the concert at all (which was great by the way) but rather to talk about Indian Classical music itself.

I have had the great opporunity to learn about the intricacy's of western music thanks to the good folks at Nathaniel School of Music and that I must say has really helped me appreciate Indian classical music much more. You see music albeit an art has its fair share of rules. These rules, as I see it, are primarily meant to make the music more discernible to the average listener. The big jumps in notes, the placement of some notes over the others are all meant to make music more accessible to everybody.

Indian classical music on the other hand actually has a completely different set of rules, which are more focused on making music more grand, complex and intricate. But you see complexity and intricacy are great words but they do make the music harder to appreciate. Because you have to concentrate, pay attention to the minor changes in notes, the little vibrations and the like. And in this age of shorter and shorter attention spans its sad to see Indian classical music suffer. Which is why I appreciate organizations like SPIC MACAY who are trying to instill some of that attention back in us.

But to those of us who do pay attention, such kind of music does present a very rare quality which isn't seen often enough in music today. . . . Potency. The power to emote and move and to force those vibrations through your body is incredible in such music. Only this has the capability to move you to tears or instill awe in someone by the sheer level of complexity involved. In comparison you could say it is like fine wine, it is an acquired taste, it may not be for everyone but for those who get it is quite simply brilliant.

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia was asked by members of the audience what his song was about and he simply replied that it was a prayer. It is a musical submission to God who he said, we might have missed it but, was in the audience. That to me is quite reassuring because in this age of remixes and Hip-Hop, to hear such genius, may be only God is worthy.

Resonance

2010-01-11T02:37:00.000-08:00

Simple everyday pleasures amplified to such an extent that they cease to be mere everyday pleasures and morph into rare experiences that you'd want to hold onto forever. That is what I describe as resonance, not in its scientific sense, but rather, it is a word I've given to this little fantastic thing that happens with music and me sometimes. And before the question creeps into your heads I'll answer it myself, this NOT under the influence of drugs of any sort.

You see in my opinion your body, or mind to be more specific, wants, and I mean really WANTS to hear a specific sound or a specific type of song and if you happen to get that sound it resonates through your entire body and begins a chain reaction where nearly every song that comes along after that sounds great. All the notes are amplified and you can feel each change in note and tone, to the extent that it gives you goosebumps. And you can't help but swoon your head to the music, or head bang or air drum or air guitar frantically in search of an outlet for all that energy coursing through you. And on days like that parting with the earphones becomes the hardest thing you'd do all day. Unfortunately like all great things in life there is a catch, figuring out what that song is that your mind wants to hear is tricky. Contrary to the belief in your head right now, it isn't always your favorite song or that song stuck in your head through the day.

To find the kind of song that sparks off resonance has long been my aim and after a long time I've come to the conclusion that it is a great song that you like, a lot or even a little, maybe even only some parts in the song perhaps, but its that song that you like and you haven't heard in a while. So its kind of like the feeling of seeing a great friend after years purely out of the blue, the feeling of happiness is insurmountable. The same is the case with the mind, once it hears the song that it hasn't heard in a while a feeling of jubilation takes over, as if your mind is remembering all the good parts of the song, just like you remember all the fond memories of the old friend.This too is purely in theory at this point but after lot of speculation, I think thats about as close to the reason as I can get. That being said there usually is a host of songs that you like and haven't listened to in a while so knowing this doesn't necessarily make it any easier to start the process.

Many of you might read this and question as to, what the difference is, between this and just listening to a playlist of songs that you really like? And the answer is quite simple when listening to a bunch of songs you really like often, the process tends to end at the point where you hear it. You hear it, you like it, your brain acknowledges the fact that you like it and thats it. But in the case of resonance thats merely the start, you start to remember the great parts of the song, anticipate it and feel it in a much deeper level. Which is why I love it so much and that feeling is the reason that its always the thing I'm searching for the second I whip out my beloved iPod Touch.

It is at about this point in the blog that I'm sure many of you are thinking to yourself that I am a teensy bit cuckoo in the head (especially for using the phrase "teensy bit cuckoo in the head" :D ), but let me explain as to why I wrote this post in the first place. You see I am quite convinced about this Resonance phenomenon, I have experienced it too many times for me to ignore it. This post then is a mere plea to the many who read this (... ok handful who read this) to ask whether they have ever felt the same. Maybe they have and have given it a different name, or may be reading this you might remember a time where you REALLY enjoyed your music and asked yourself as to, what made that day so special? So this post is essentially me just sharing my experience of this phenomenon, asking people if they've ever felt the same about their music (I should really stop referring to it as a phenomenon, sounds like I've been abducted by aliens or something). At the end of the day it's because this is the ideal place for me to even try to explain this thing cause as the name states, its Music 'n Mayhem.

Music Mechanics

2010-01-03T07:33:00.000-08:00

It's been a while but I'm back, sadly work and other obligations have kept me from attending too many other concerts in the city, I also sadly missed the Dire Straits tribute in Hard Rock and a bunch of little Christmas shows. But I did have the unique opportunity to attend a rather interesting event called the Music Mechanics a while back and I felt its about time I wrote about it. This was an idea thought up the people over at the Nathaniel School of Music to bring all things music together under one roof on one single day for one grand event.

Music Mechanics was a set of workshops that brought together all aspects of music from making it, to playing it live, to selling it all in one big event. To add to it the workshops were conducted by some of the best in the industry. The likes of Bruce Lee Mani, Jason Zachariah, Rajeev Rajgopalan from Thermal and a Quarter, Gaurav Vaz from Raghu Dixit Project, theater personality Anmol Velani, Naveen Thomas of Galeej Gurus and Ryan Colaco of Kryptos fame to name a few all shared their expertise at various workshops at the event.

It was a great to have these guys who you usually only see playing on stage sit in front of you talking about their music and their journeys sharing their little exercises and tips and tricks that helped them to get to where they are today. Most of which were actually really useful. The best of them all in my book was surprisingly enough Music Biz by Gaurav Vaz, the presentation was nice, funny and presented some unique perspectives on the industry and how to sell your music and your band. The other highlights were obviously Bruce Lee Mani's classes, Naveen Thomas also presented some really good guitar exercises and theater maestro Anmol Velani's session on stage and band persona was also really fascinating.

To those of you who are curious the various workshops at the event were

Groovy Kids – Fun music workshop for kids under 5 - 12 years
Speed King – A session on shred guitars with Naveen Thomas
Leave no Tone Untu(r)ned! – Bruce Lee Mani on getting the guitar to sound right
Exercise to Improvise – Improvisation concepts and exercises by Bruce Lee Mani
Blaze in Keys – Jason Zachariah on performance keyboard techniques
Music.biz – All about the business of music by Gaurav Vaz
The DnB Coalition – Prakash and Rajeev demonstrate how to lock and groove
Vox – Techniques to improve your vocal skills with Lillian Zachariah
In the movies – Explore the role of music in movies with Nazarius Manoharan
The Showman – Learn to present yourself with confidence and poise on stage
Digital Music School – Music technology and production in a nutshell with Jason Zachariah
Beat – Roots – Rudiments of drumming with Ryan Colaco
Song Writing – the acoustic way – Get a peek into the mind of the composers.

All in all fun day and one that shouldn't be missed were it ever to return. Kudos to the folks at Nathaniel School of Music for organizing it, hope to have more such events in the future.

Absolut Moods

2009-11-20T02:11:00.000-08:00

"Ah yet another weekend, yet another gig".. longing for the day I can actually pull that one off but for now, it'll have to be, "Yet another weekend and yet another gig to cover". And this past week I was at the Absolut Launch Party at Kyra with the band Mood Logic, who were called upon quite literally to set the mood at this rock themed event.

The concert which was supposed to start at 730 in true Rock fashion started fashionably late at around 10 after the band members had their fill of food and alcohol and after giving their fair share of interviews for the event, ah such is the life of a band. Speaking of band members the band Mood Logic consists of an ever playful Timmy on lead vocals, a wily Naveen Thomas on lead guitar, Britto providing solid rhythm guitar, a very energetic Wilfred Demoz on the drums, Bryan providing the platform with the bass and a person I have already complimented enough Jason on the Keys.

I was there early, or un-fashionably on time, at 730 and had a chance to hear the band sound check and I must be honest I had a few concerns regarding Kyra's acoustics. But once the first note was hit I must say all those premonitions were laid to waste. Yes the acoustics of the theater weren't that great but a great band, sounding really tight, playing high tempo classic rock numbers, will make you over look that and get you dancing or head banging in seconds.

For this night, Mood Logic played classic rock covers that ranged from Pink Floyd to Deep Purple to Maroon 5. The set list included hits like "Rock you like a Hurricane", "This Love", the Beatles classic "Come Together", a very jammy "Roadhouse Blues", Deep Purple's "Burn", "Another Brick in the Wall" etc. Timmy was completely playing to the crowd getting the crowd involved as and when possible, to the extent that during their rendition Pink Floyd's Wall rather than playing to the crowd, he instead played in the crowd getting into the mix to get people more involved. Naveen Thomas dug into his usual bag of tricks and provided some really sweet sounding solo's mixed in with a few tricks and quirks like playing from either side of the neck etc. Britto was also really on the money providing rhythm guitar and really came to the fore in what I consider the bands high point of the night with Burn by Deep Purple. He hit that riff with pin point accuracy and really made the song jump. In a live performance the little things are what make the difference between good and great and in this case it was solid backing vocals from both Bryan on the bass and Jason on the keys. On songs like Burn backing vocals play a major part and can cause a song to fall apart when not done well but that wasn't the case this time and they also filed in during the start when the crowd was only slowly "getting into the mood". Jason showed his prowess on songs like Roadhouse Blues where he performed a solo and in also in some keys centric songs like Final Countdown. It wouldn't be right if I left out the drums with Wilfred in all this, but I'll simply state the fact that a band can never sound great with just an average drummer, and Wilfred was anything but average.

High points sadly can't exist without there being relative lows and that came about when the band went into romance mode for "Bed of Roses" by Bon Jovi. But then again a band must play to its crowd and I'm sure all those with wives, girlfriends or significant others wouldn't consider that too much of a low. But the band from then on steered clear of anything else low tempo and just concentrated on keeping the energy sky high. They ended the night with a special encore request (by the organizers) of surprisingly, Queen's "Crazy little thing called Love". And Jason threw in a little Mario (the game) jingle right at the end just for kicks, to sign things off.

All things considered, its hard to go wrong with a mix of private concert, free Absolut and great music and this night was no different. For a music lover this was another great night in the book, or in this case the Blog. Until next time adios.

Thermal raises the roof off of Hard Rock well over a quarter

2009-11-08T01:20:00.000-08:00

There are but a few near perfect places in Bangalore, and in my opinion the Hard Rock Cafe Bangalore has always been one of them. Nestled in quite literally the heart of the city on St Marks Road, on the MG road intersection it's placed in a quaint yet lavish stone Cottage (formerly the St Marks Barista), with its high wooden roof and smoky feel (just the feel theres no smoking allowed inside) it really is the perfect location for the world famous chain. On top of that, like all Hard Rock Cafe's around the world, it's laden with priceless rock memorabilia including Eric Clapton's guitar, The Doors drum, a great picture of Metal legends Black Sabbath, Dave Grohl's guitar and the list goes on and on, coupled with a playlist of the genres best numbers and the place is almost perfect. Add to that the food and drinks served in humongous quantities in true Americana fashion, and it becomes a must visit to all Bangaloreans or visitors to Bangalore with even a faint inclination towards Rock. It truly is a little piece of Rock heaven in our own Bangalore.

You might have noticed that I mentioned the place was "almost" perfect and there is a good reason for that, you see all Hard Rock Cafe's around the world are known for their live music where local bands have the opportunity to come to the fore in truly legendary surroundings and that was the missing piece of this master piece. For a long while they didn't have live bands playing at Hard Rock and started doing gigs at the place a little while ago. Most of these concerts have always one way or the other eluded me. Until Now.

And so it came to be that with an over expectant heart I went to see Thermal And A Quarter (TAAQ) playing live at Hard Rock. TAAQ to me, from even what little I had heard of them before the concert, has always been in my book one of the best bands ever to be produced by this city and possibly even this country. Their classic rock numbers heavily influenced by supremely contagious blues guitar, with stand out vocals from the bands lead Bruce Lee Mani and the never-a step-out-of-place drumming from Rajeev and the peppy bass lines from the ever smiling Rzhude (Rudy), have always been great catchy funky numbers that never fail to put a wistful smile on your face. And for this concert at HRC they were joined by the uber talented Jason Zachariah on the keys.

The stage at the HRC is another thing that adds to the allure of the place, its placed right on top of the bar, the place is almost made with live music in mind and thats always a good thing. So with these long list of expectation I went to see TAAQ play live and lets get one thing straight right off the bat it was amazing. The vibe at the place was spot on the crowd was amazing, the music was sublime. TAAQ played a bunch of their own compositions and a couple of covers the highlight of which in my book was a funky version of Hey Jude a crowd pleaser like that is always good to have in the set list. Bruce (aka the Guitar Doctor) was inspirational, his bluesy style play and smooth vocals are hard not to love. Rajeev was performing pretty much from the background as behind a huge drum kit and on the back of the stage, on top of the bar you kind of have to crane your neck to see him. But he really was on the money with some great drumming. As far as Rudy goes well if a smile is contagious he probably infected the whole crowd, it never left his face as he kept putting out those beautiful bass lines. TAAQ's songs are rather guitar centric so Jason was just providing support for the most part but when his number was called up he doled out his impeccable signature style keys solo that we've all come to expect of him.During the break the waiters at Hard Rock also surprised us with a sudden performance of the Village People's legendary song YMCA. I'm not that big a fan of the song but when performed (seemingly) impromptu and on a bar top its hard to dislike.

Sadly soon after their little intermission work beckoned me to leave and cut the fabulous night a wee bit shorter than i would've liked. But that was the only small downside to what was a fabulous night which will not soon, if ever, be forgotten. If anyone from TAAQ, or Jason, actually ends up reading this, great show guys, you rule.

P.S: Haven't got the pics of the Gig yet will put em up as soon as I get them.

Eat your veggies!!

2009-11-04T06:56:00.000-08:00

Music is kinda like your veggies, now before you come at me pelting stones and out to break cymbals over my head, let me explain. We were all most likely force fed them as a kid and never took it up and when we grow older we realize they were actually important and now its "too late" to take it up again. Everyone with even a faint interest in music in general has always housed that dream of learning the art well enough to rock the stage. And these hidden desires often show face be it, singing in the shower, drumming at the table or shredding furiously at a guitar only you can see.

So why don't people take the plunge and actually get involved with music and try to live the dream? Everyone seems to have their own little list of the reasons why they can't do something that will actually enrich their lives and chief among the list of usual contenders has always been . . . Time. But now a bunch of upstarts from my own backyard of Bangalore seem to have come up with the answer with what they call "Music Method" (can't you just hear the raspy voiced movie promo guy going Music Method).

In this age of quick solutions ranging from ready to eat food, to crash course studies they claim they can train you in music (in vocal, keyboard, bass, guitar or drums) and in 9 weeks you can be good enough to be put on stage. And thats not just a tag line this time around, that is the actual end result of the course, you and few other students form a band and play at an event. And with this dream of bringing music to the masses was born the Nathaniel school of music (NSM) headed by the mother and son team of Lillian Zachariah and Jason Zachariah. The faculty includes the who's who of the Indian music scene, headed by a Jason himself, a man who is regarded by many (including myself) as one of the best keyboardists in the country today. Add to that bass heavy weight Dwight Patterson (who has played in as big a stage as Wembley no less) and guitar maestro Naveen Thomas and it does have the makings of an all star cast.

Now while I agree most "fast short cut methods" have the tendency of feeling a bit incomplete, what NSM is offering is more of German Drill than a Crash course. Their course spans for 75 hours over 9 weeks with periodic assessments, state of the art equipment and software. And with music, after a point, there is only so much you can do, its like strapping a pair of training wheels and giving you a push on a bike, how far you pedal after that is really your call.

If you haven't figured it out by now I am quite impressed with these guys and what they have to offer, more so after a visit to their site (www.nathanielschool.com) and talking to them about their course and other plans. Visit their site and choose your own method to keep abreast of all the happening at NSM through their Facebook Group or using Twitter or follow this blog (yes I've finally bit the bullet and added the Follow feature to my blogs). Seeing these things really gives me hope that Bangalore is still the music capital of the country and I intend to use this blog to let the world know.

And to further make my point I've actually signed on to join NSM once the courses officially start on Nov 16. If you haven't, then now that Time is out, whats your excuse?

Death of the Anti-cupid

2009-10-16T01:43:00.000-07:00

Of late a certain alarming trend regarding Reality TV shows hit me, I mean apart from the fact that so many of them exist in the first place. Most “couples” that enter reality TV shows or feature as the main focus of the show tend to end up broken up after it. Be it families that have been through hardships or couples that have spent years together, they all end up divorced/broken up. That begged the question from me.. why?

Now one might argue that the whole reason for the break up could well be staged and it’s a part of the show, while I don’t completely agree with this its not a theory that can easily be dismissed. After all, all reality TV shows thrive, and I mean REALLY thrive, on tragedy and controversy. A couple’s breaking up would mean more people tune into the show, saying “Oh, I wonder why that happened?”, when in truth they’re in their head going “Wow I wonder how much they fought or how badly they suffered?”. That means more TRP ratings, it’ll get aired in more countries, each will start their own version of it, and the subsequent tumbling avalanche of money will conquer everyone in its path. But there is an issue with that theory, which prevents me from buying it. If in fact the reason for their breakup was indeed a bunch of conniving “reality TV show producers” (aka Satans Children) telling them to, well, then once the whole thing is over and the dust settles they should in all honesty get back together. Unless they were brought together only for the purpose of the show, which then questions the whole “reality” concept in the first place (Hmm actually hadn’t crossed my mind till now).

Which then brings me to my next reason, reality TV shows, like I mentioned before focus on tragedy, now the normal human life of one and all including the poor souls who go for these shows (aka Satans Puppets), is not filled with problems and issues (well not entirely atleast and I’ll get to that). And these shows being “reality” they can’t be scripted (again debtable I know but for now lets assume the reality part of it is true), so they must be invented. Now when I said human life is not full of problems and issues its not really true, problems are a dime a dozen in all our lives but we are usually content enough to not see them as problems. They can be dismissed from the mind without even a moments thought and that is where the creepy camera men come in (aka insert your own devil reference here). Now what these shows do is focus on the little niggles, replay them (sometimes in slow motion) and worst of all ask you how you feel about them, in a little testament to national television.

This leads to the next problem, in times of undying misery a human being can rarely, if ever, blame themselves, so they blame whoever they are with. One would say why don’t they blame the tv people, well that simple isn’t it, they will simply say “we are only showing you what exist we aren’t the one you are truly mad at”. And thus in an age far beyond fables is born the Anti-Cupid, armed with a camera in the place of a bow.

But all this begs the question of why we need these abominations in the name of entertainment in the first place. Have we reached such a low point in entertainment that fake agony is just not good enough? As the walls of the neighbors grow higher have we found another window to peer into? Stop the madness, please, the world really is a brighter place. Join me and shout for the Death of the Anti-Cupid \m/

If Music be the Food of Life . . .

2009-07-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

The other day I was talking with a friend of mine about the sad state of music today, how artists aren’t really artist anymore and are only bothered with selling what they have to sell and not create something that will live on long after they do. About how no one makes albums anymore. they just make sure they have one or two “hit” songs in an album and your done. Speaking ofwhich, what is a “hit” song exactly? Something that momentarily, say for a period of a week or so, stays relevant to the entertainment world and that’s it. They make their money on that and they’re happy!! It’s like they’ve washed their hands off it. And in that moment as a passing comment I said music today is like fast food: cheap, momentarily satisfactory and almost never good for you.

That got me thinking; is the pattern of food over the ages is vaguely similar to music? And it seemed to make sense as I pondered upon the thought. Food started out pretty basic in its early days made from what was available at the time and the place. Same case with music, it started off quite basic and simple primarily focused on vocals and simple instruments. It was also largely regional, and it remains so to some extent, just like different regions and countries have different cuisines so too does music have traditionally different styles all over the world.

With the advent of technology the food started to get more processed, in the seventies came the advent of frozen foods and cans and processed food, and lo and behold music also underwent a similar change with digital instruments playing a heavy part of 70s and 80s music. Both started to become more available too across the world thus bridging the gap between cultures (for better or for worse is a matter of one’s own opinion). And as time passed music and food both seemed to deteriorate becoming things of momentary pleasure that appealed more to the masses. In the case of food this happened in the late 90’s with the advent of fast food chains, and for music sadly the time is now. The rise of Hip Hop and drum machines and “2 weeks hits” all seem to be rampant these days.

They say when you go looking for similarities in something vague you more often than not tend to find it, primarily because you tend to inject sense into the littlest most non-sense-ical things and I’ll admit it’s very likely that that’s the case here too. But I for one would like to believe this correlation because it might just have a happy ending.

You see if you look back at that description of mine you will see that music has always lagged behind the advent, if you will, of food. And if you look around today the age of fast food is dying (though slowly, you know what they say a heart attack will only kill you eventually), chic eats and eating healthy are the “in” things today. Food for many has started to become more about the whole package, about the dining experience, rather than fulfilling a craving. Translate that to music and it could well mean the age of good music might be returning, albeit in perhaps a different form. Maybe what is to come is a new age of music, with music to soothe the soul and once again be good for you, musicians might give up their drum pads and auto tuners and synthesizers for more traditional maybe even unconventional instruments to create music, like chefs are giving away the oil and the processed food for more natural fresh ingredients. Maybe… maybe…

In any case all I can do is pray that my mad theory is right and the age of "fast food music" is indeed coming to an end. Amen.

Demise of a King . . .

2009-07-10T22:45:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write a post for a while now and a number of ideas had popped into my head as to what to write on. But all those were put aside when I heard of the sudden death of Michael Jackson. I cannot call myself a music buff if I didn't write about it, speak about it and make my peace with it.
I heard the sad news from a friend when I was at work, and its funny how people react to it. First almost is a state of shock that creeps in because its a blow that came out of nowhere. And then you think of his music and a small momentary smile comes on your face and at the same time you feel that pull of sadness to know that the man who made them is gone. But then you start thinking of his life and feel a very different kind of sadness to see what this amazingly talented artist has turned into.
Michael Jackson was a legend, he truly was a king. In all my life I haven't come across a music fan, be it a Death Metal fan, be it a hard core rock enthusiast or a even a hip hop fan who ever denied the fact that the man was great. He was one of those people that was blessed with one incredible talent, his voice, its pitch, its smoothness its aggression (when the need came) was all perfect. Add to that the music that in most cases accompanied that voice in such a beautiful way, thanks to great musical minds like Quincy Jones and you think that there isn't a person on this earth who hasn't heard a song of his and thought (may be secretly) in his head that, “Damn that's a good song”.
I haven't even got to the second thing he was blessed with, dance. I mean he inspired a legion of copy cats and inspired so many choreographers in the world. He had so many signature moves and tricks. And don't even get me started on the Moonwalk cause no one EVER did it like him. It was like he was one ice and gliding backwards.
Add those two things together and you get one hell of a performer, the likes of which I don't think have ever graced a live stage since. It is unfortunate that I have never had the opportunity to see the man perform live but every live gig of his I've seen on TV you see it and you think, it would be demeaning to call his concerts merely a concert. It was a show in its own right, huge theatrics, huge stages the big lights, the dance, the music. I'm not surprised so many people faint in them.
He was also the artist in my mind that was responsible to change the way the world thought of a music video. Till then it was merely an artist singing his song so people buy his album. But Michael Jackson changed what you could do with a music video with Thriller. I mean he made a mini movie, sold his song, sold the dance moves, and even made that red jacket the most popular thing on the planet. People would bunk school quit work so they could catch the “premiere” of his music video. The world of music revolved around Michael Jackson at that time, and its sad to say that the end of that era pretty much marked the end of the man we knew as Michael Jackson.
You know how there are always TV shows or movies where the story goes on to say how a man sold his soul to the devil to have the one thing that he wanted most? In my head MJ fit that description perfectly. It was like he was on this planet to do one thing make music and he sold his soul to the devil so he can be the greatest at that. We all know the tumultuous life he had and for the sake of the fans reading this (including me who is writing this) all I'm going to say is the Michael Jackson we all admired was sadly gone a long time ago.
In my mind, and I don't know if I speak for more fans around the world, this final news of his death was merely an affirmation of the fact that the great man had long since passed and sadly that's the thing that hurt the most. And it sad to say the the best way to sum up his life is in the same to words that make up this blog. . . Music and Mayhem.
The Ride is over, from the highest high to the lowest lows, Rest in Peace Michael Jackson. . .

Stars of Geek World

2009-01-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

I dislike Apple (not the fruit) but its not the usual dislike, it’s not because they’re so unreasonably expensive, so over the top at times and actually contain a lot of flaws that people overlook. My dislike for Apple is more like the fox that didn't get the grapes, I dislike them because they have an indistinguishable uniqueness to them that makes them great and yet I can’t have one. (Expensive)

To me Apple are, and provided they continue the way they do right now, will always be the celebrities of the tech world. They are the incredibly gorgeous, incredibly outrageous and supposedly flawless. Though if there were an entertainment channel where gadgets were the celebs there definitely would be ‘Pain behind the Fame’ episodes on Apple.

They aren’t perfect none of their gadgets are but there is that indelible impression in your head that goes “True but they are SO close”. Far from the truth really, example consider its darling, its super-celeb if you might, the iPhone, that really is the Britney Spears of the gadget world everybody wants to know of it, so many dislike it yet everybody seems to secretly like it or want it. First thing that’s wrong with it and as far as I’m concerned the only thing that need be wrong with something that calls itself a phone is that its not so good at being a phone. Now that’s like going to someone and saying “I’m an engineer, except I’m not so good at the engineering part” well that’s not good is it?

That seems to be the case with most of their products. Case and point the product that though is an Mp3-player became so popular that it made the term Mp3-Player redundant, of course drum rolls please for the iPod. Now ask any music enthusiast or gadget reviewer for that matter and the first thing they will tell you about the iPod is its audio quality is …. average. Now why would something that, being a music player and yet having only average sound quality become so immensely popular? Over that most Apple products are quite expensive compared to its available counterparts yet that’s not a problem for the world!

See what I mean by celebrity, seem perfect, but are flawed, but still seem perfect. We (me included) are willing to overlook those flaws and still accept them. So what has Steve Jobs and his merry bunch at Apple done to capture the world?

According me the first thing (perhaps the most important) thing they did right was, aesthetics. All Apple products top of the line to run in the middle are good looking, gorgeous things. And that’s the first thing they did right and why not? Its your first contact with something, your eyes see it first and that what makes you want to find out more. I’m not saying it has to be sleek and all that, just simple, clean and so magnificently in tune with the times. Like say the first iMac, it may not be much of a looker now but in its time it was phenomenal. So is the new one. Another great example is the Macbook Air, I mean that thing is just Giselle Bundchen in a Victoria Secret Catalogue, I mean she doesn’t act, doesn’t sing or dance she just looks phenomenal, and that’s exactly what the Air is like, its average in all respects, doesn’t have a optical drive, very expensive etc but is just gorgeous, you look at that then turn to its maker and say, “All things aside, job well done.”

The second thing Apple does well is be the jack of all trades. It may not be the best at something but that something is paired with so many other great thing that overall you have to say that that’s a great product. Take the iPod its music may be average, but its scrolling mechanism, its look, its organization all make it great. And all of you going well they’re still the master of none, well Apple is looking at you and laughing all the way to the bank.

The third thing that Apple knows how to do quite well is sell, and that is where they owe Steve Jobs immensely. Listen to one of his keynote speeches where he speaks of his products and you for some reason seems enthralled, completely awed by whatever he’s talking about. He is a great speaker. But its not just that, ad’s also help, they make great ads and if your saying so what. Well again my dear friend that’s your first point of contact with the product in question a great ad creates interest among people excites them and more often than not makes them say, I want that.

I admire Steve Jobs to me he really is one of the pioneers of the gadget world, he is one to whom the beauty of gadgets also mattered, not just its purpose, he is one who understood his customer base and knew those little niggles like touch-screen’s and scroll wheels that they wanted and he is such a great speaker that each time he speaks you seems so sure that he’s so proud of his companies product that it makes you want one.

After all this you might be wondering why I said I dislike Apple? Sadly my friends I am just a fox who can’t have his beloved grapes.

P.S: I know my word won’t get very far but for what its worth, get well soon Mr. Steve Jobs. Take some rest, enjoy your time off. Get well soon the world still needs your wizardry :) .

P.P.S: Thank you for reading and wish you a very Happy new year!!

Music n Metallica

2008-09-21T04:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Thank the Lord!! Rock is here

2008-08-30T08:16:00.000-07:00

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’.

We the Pirates!!

2008-05-08T01:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Tata Motors – Its extreme makeover time

2008-04-08T08:52:00.001-07:00

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.

Is it too much to ask for a little common sense?

2008-03-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

“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?

Dwight "Superman" Howard

2008-02-24T05:46:00.000-08:00

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.

Winehouse wins big and somebody HAD to speak against it

2008-02-12T07:12:00.000-08:00

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.

Hip-Hop Revolution

2008-01-28T09:03:00.000-08:00

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…

Stephen Hawkings should sing

2008-01-27T08:35:00.000-08:00

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….

Bangalore vs IT

2007-12-20T00:36:00.000-08:00

“IT has ruined Bangalore;” “Look at the congestion and the traffic;” “Culture has taken a toss” (and my favorite); “Youngsters earn too much and have no culture anymore” etc etc. These seem to be the quotable quotes from various discussion groups splashed across the newspapers from day to day. The big question: “Is IT bad for Bangalore?” Before I get into the details, let me just get one thing of my chest: if you (whosoever is reading this) actually thinks that IT is bad for the city what in God’s name can you do about it? IT has been here for a long time and is here to stay, period. Accept it.

Now addressing the question at hand: is IT really bad for Bangalore? Well, obvious things aside one must acknowledge the fact that love it or hate it, IT put Bangalore on the World map. Sure it was the Garden City, the city with great climate and great people etc all this did make Bangalore a well known place but that was in India, tops. And ironically those are the main reasons why IT ended up in Bangalore in the first place. But like someone truly said “Any publicity is good publicity” and so slowly with the advent of IT and the outsourcing biz terms like “Bangalored” (someone whose lost his/her job to outsourcing) came up and one by one it became the IT capital of the country and got a spot on the world map. Now you can’t say that’s a bad thing.

But all good things to come at a price. The problem that Bangalore had is plain and simple- it grew too fast for its own good. Companies poured in, job opportunities increased and boom population explosion. Then came the problems that everyone complains about: Traffic: reason is the city grew up so fast and was so obsessed with getting more famous that there wasn’t any time to improve the roads and other infrastructure. Can you blame the government at the time for it? Sure if you are a very cynical man, because sure there might have been stuff the govt could’ve done but things happened too fast and we all know things can go wrong when that happens. The then in charge Krishna govt did do its bit and his regime is still considered a good one by most in the city.

Then the next most common problem that everyone complains about: the congestion and the inflow of “non-Karnataka” people: reason: now like every Hollywood celebrity knows you can’t get famous and not attract the paparazzi, not that I’m comparing the “non-Karnataka” people to paparazzi but basically I’m trying to say that you cant get famous and not attract attention to yourself. Be it person or place that gets famous others are going to want to find out what the big deal is all about. Best example, all the people going to America to study or get a job why is it? Simple really it got famous and that’s where the money is (was) and we want a piece of the pie. Are those saying that “non-Karnataka” people are bad saying that their kids shouldn’t go to America or any other country or state to earn more money? Think about that.

Then of course my favorite the “youngsters are earning too much and losing their culture” excuse. Consider this scenario: I’m an employer I come to a parent and say “I’m not going to pay your son or daughter too much money, I’ll just pay him enough to keep him/her going, or else they’ll lose their culture!!” now if you rightfully say that a parent would agree to that then all is not well with you up there. A parent is always going to want their kids to earn well to do well in their lives and similarly youngsters are going to want to earn a lot of money too, for many reasons. Now if they do something “bad” with their money or “lose their culture” because of the money they have to spend its not really IT’s fault is it? Its up to how the kids were bought up that’ll affect how they use their money, period.

I almost forgot another crowd favorite “crime in the city has gone up”. IT’s fault? Why not? Now you must know we don’t live in a perfect world, Eve did bite the apple and evil and misery does exist in the world today. And a city coming on the world map does attract the wrong kind of attention too. What can you do about it? Beef up security, better safety measures, better police patrolling etc etc. and unless I’m mistaken these things come under the police dept and the government and city council NOT surprise surprise IT.

All things aside IT has helped Bangalore, IT has also brought some problems with it. Now the problem that actually happened was that Bangalore was the first city in India that all this drama happened to at such a large scale. Due to which like it or hate it, it became a sort of guinea pig, (no insult intended) all I’m trying to say is it became the test subject from which other cities looking to be a part of the IT boom learnt from. And it learnt a lot too: what to do, what not to do, how to prepare etc. case and point Hyderabad: improved the infrastructure and roads before the IT boom hit it, provided the infrastructure necessary. How did it learn all this? By watching Bangalore and what happened there.

So before you go answering another newspaper questionnaire or survey asking if “IT is bad for Bangalore?” and before you compare it with Hyderabad etc and before you get all set to point the finger, look around you and to yourself you might see many targets hiding in the bushes so as not to get the finger pointed at them.

PS: Like it?, Hate it?, got an opinion on it?... comment it

Metal and Mayhem

2007-12-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

Everyone has at sometime been so angry that they just wanna break something. When something you've been looking forward to doesn't work out, something else follows up and thats when the chain starts, one thing goes wrong then the next and boom you're so pissed you just wanna punch someone's lights out.

One thing that has always managed to calm me down was pure metal, i mean i hear that distortion guitar on full blast and someone like Hetfield shout out from behind it, ah now that brings bliss sheer bliss. But thats the strange thing isn't it, logically speaking something more calm more soft should generally soothe you back to normal. sure smooth calm music does that too, but not the same way that metal does. Metal gives u a satisfaction like you've actually let all of that pent up anger out. where as smooth music just plains pushes all that anger under the carpet.

I wonder why metal does that though? i mean think about it, you're angry and angry, enraged music calms u down. My theory? well i think its purely because when you're surrounded by that kind of music you're surrounded by that amount of anger so at that instance the amount of anger in you and the amount of anger around you is equal almost. So in your own little world you're normal now, as opposed to the "normal world" where you would be one angry guy. but in your angry world of metal your normal and i think its that thought that calms u down eventually and the anger just flows out of ya and boom you can get back to the real world.