\m/.Bollywood Rock has Arrived. And it is FULL ON.\m/

So we have it. The first Indian Rock Bollywood soundtrack. Ugh! I so hate to call it that. It is a Bollywood movie soundtrack-Yes! And it IS ROCK. How Indian? I can see no Indianization in it (except for the Hindi lyrics) and it is an all out-full throttle Rock soundtrack with no holds barred. No cliche’ sitar addition or an Indian classical solo on a distorted electric guitar in the arrangement of which Indian Rock soundtracks in Bollywood are known to be. Nothing wrong about them as well. But Rock On’s soundtrack is what it is-ROCK ON. It is somehow an Indian tribute to the many Legends of Rock that we have grown up listening to -AC/DC, Megadeth,The Who et al. And I know it for sure that Farhan Akhtar saw way too many concert DVDs before sitting down to sing for the soundtrack. The attitude, the grunge and the punch in the vocals comes through easily, and yes, get ready to be hit by the Vocals. And well, it might not be a totaly new sound for us Rock fans, who pretty much listen to it all the time, it is a big welcome change for Bollywood Music. And quite frankly, it seems funny (in a good way) to hear Hindi lyrics on a Rock Song. As always, I am gonna go the reverse way -Last track first.

But well, there is now a twist to it. The Last track is a Live version of the second track in the album. SO let’s go for it together. Track 2 and 8: Pichle Saat Dinon Mein - Farhan Akhtar on the vocals. I know it is Ehsaan on the guitars belting out the riff. . The lyrics is as silly as it could be , but well you don’t expect a very metaphorical referencing rhyme in a Rock Song-not this one. It is about what stuff the guy lost in the last seven days. And it contains things as trivial as a Laundry Bill, a lady’s phone number, a king of hearts from the deck of cards, and a silver ring. Pretty meaningless and irrelevant, unless we hear the organ sound in the background, the riff, and the chorus going Na Na Na Na Na!! And hold on it does contain the Lines- Maryjane ka ek packet, Meri Denim ka ek Jacket. And who did we say wrote the lyrics. Read the rest of this post »

Ladies n Gents, Boyz n Gals, make room for the Rock to hit you, coz here they are: Wagon Rags to knock your socks off with their rock and well make Bollywood remixed bitches eat dust. But well, Mr.Lead Singer, Jh**ga (though he specifically mentioned his displeasure over being referred by this name and that Jh**ga is not derived from Abhishek JHA but from his affinity to prawn dishes) would put it otherwise. (I asterisked the name coz my chicken platter is at stake) He says, Wagon Rags aren’t here to compete or battle against any form of music. Wagon Rags are just here to belt out their music and sweep the crowd off their feet. Ok, I know Wordsworth said “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”. And well, “A little of Self Promotion is SuJOY forever *wink*”. First, lemme introduce the band before I go into the intricate details of the seven hours in Sound Ideaz Studios of Pune where we witnessed a nine month old tune take its shape, riff by riff, solo to solo and beat to beat.
Drum Rolls: Dheessh!!!!!!
Dean on the Bass.
Gyan on the Drums
Vatsal on the Guitars
Parag on the Lead Guitars
Abhishek on the Vocals.
The Band: Wagon Rags . First Single: Devil’s Ride
In a way, it makes sense that the bands Rhythm guitarist:  Vatsal Raicha is a Mechanical Engineer from NIT Surathkal. But then, he has lost all of his mechanical gyan of IC engines, and that now all he knows is screw up the nuts of his project teammates (he is a project lead in an respectable IT Firm ). And well, to say that Wagon Rags has anything to do with Mr.Raicha would just be cool for the sake of it. That is so not how it happened. Wagon Rags emerged as the winner over such great ones nominated as “Marcoly’s Punch”, ” Pure silver Brutal Farce” and well the one suggested by me - ” Paanch Badan Ek Jaan” (5 bodies, one soul). Clearly Wagon Rags seemed logical to them, but well I still think Paanch Badan to be a clear winner.

BAND PROMOTION PICS FROM RECORDING ROOM AFTER THE JUMP

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Yeah, the red jacket and the ghost gang dancing turned 25 this year. The album is being revamped and the Silver Jubilee edition is in stores now. But what actually reminded me of Thriller and made me listen to it (and yes, I even did the famous arm-swinging routine as well) throughout the week, was this- Signature performing the Bhangra mashed up with Thriller in Britain’s Got Talent’s first Semi Finals winning performance. If you haven’t seen it, you’ve been living in a cave.

Having said that, the magnitude of success of Thriller as an album to hold the Guiness Record of the most selling album worldwide does raise a lot of questions. Is it pop culture blown out of proportion? Is it showmanship winning over melody? Or is it just plain and simple-Jackson at its best. Sadly though, 25 years later after, the success story of Thriller still continues whereas Jackson has transformed into one of those zombie dancers (both physically and mentally) back and forth (Any one keeping count of the transformations, from Black to White to Nose to just Oh-I-donno-what’s that ?). Read the rest of this post »

Yes, it is the season finale. And we have had some disappointments to have finally arrived at this stage where we witness the showdown of the Davids. The second finale to have two males, the only one with both finalists sharing the same first name, and yes, the race seems to be pretty tight. And looking back at the

season, it seems like these two are the only ones who have consistently tried to better every performance and in a way were actually in here to win unlike the others. So enough said, it’s the NOKIA theatre. How many times have to listen that from Randy? I miss the Kodak. Ryan is in make up. Check out his glowing skin and yeah, he plucked his eyebrows. And he welcomes the 7000 members of the crowd, the three judges, and the final Two- Archuleta and Cook. What was so lame about the finale today was the Boxing Metaphor. Oh, that was so much in bad taste, but then, it wouldn’t be Idol otherwise.

So here we go. Round one: Clive Davis: CEO, Sony BMG chooses.
David Cook begins: “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” - U2
Very good song choice. Loved his performance and he seemed quite confident on this one. Now this is what I’m talking about. Cook is much better of a performer , may be Archuleta is the better singer. But then, I can already say Cook is ready to sell records. He is what actually Idol is all about. And yes he winds up with “rock out” stretching vocals. Yeah!!!.

Archuleta goes in next: “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” - Elton John
Umm hmm. Sir Elton is a brilliant vocalist. To sing this song live is really something. And Archuleta does it. Very smooth and very very Archie. Bravo Clive Davis for the song choice. To me, Cook takes round 1, but then, I knew that Randy is going to love this one more. Paula remains the diplomatic one that she is. And Simon calls this one the best of Archuleta, and also declares round 1 to him. WTF! Read the rest of this post »

I remember Strings to be one of the most exported band from across the border. Their music has been reminiscent with my college years, with my friend strumming the chords to the tune of “Anjaane Kyu” (which remains till date my favorite of the lot). It has been 4 years since Dhaani was out. Hard to believe. Feels like yesterday when we used to hum “Mil Gaya Woh, Jo Churake…“, but then, it has indeed been 4 years since. And the duo of Bilaal and Faisal have been busy doing Indian soundtracks (Zinda for example which is included in this album). So the big question is-Does Koi Aane Wala Hai make it up for the 4 years that these guys took to write these songs? The answer is a big NO. And what does it lack in? Originality for starts, a good sound for second and thirdly, melody. It is so pathetic that it sounds a wannabe album, even for the industry veterans that Strings represent. And yes, I shall deal with the tracks -one by one. But I shall stay mum about Zinda- coz that actually doesn’t belong to this album. And I can fight even the duo for that. C’mon, this is a recycled OST of a movie, (which itself is a recycled dump of a hippo) released two years back. So, argument won. Next is the order in which I have heard the CD. Last track first. Why? Because that is where you find the laziness of the creator. That is where mediocrity creeps in and that IS the first place to find compromise and may be sometimes what they call INSPIRATION.

Track: 12-Akhri Alvida. Sounds like a sequel of KK’s alvida- just the name. Play this one and you will realise, well Faisal and Bilaal have tried to fool us with this one. You know what, we do listen to Coldplay and we do know the song-Clocks. So what, this is just an inspiration you see. The piano intro, and the cello slides, and then Faisal in his signature vocals begins- Dhadkane Khamosh Hai Kuch Kehtee Nahi..and by the time we reach the chorus line- Ye Akhri Alvida Naa Ho- it takes shape of the famous guitar line portion from Fix You when Chris Martin starts running and enters the stadium. Get it. As graphically copied to the details as mentioned and 0 % exaggeration. Track 12- Yawn, lousy lyrics, bad copy. If we wanted to hear a Coldplay song we would. Don’t package it as Akhri Alvida Read the rest of this post »

The Top 5 have been revealed. And am I happy with it? There has been one major setback/upset which I shall be talking about at length in a while. But first, the Top 5. It comprises of the frontrunners- The Davids -Cook and Archuleta, and the rest- Syesha Mercado, Jason Castro and Brooke White. For one, I do believe that Jason and Brooke just don’t have it in them to be winners and even eventually go ahead and sell records.Firstly Jason, who is just banking on his “blue eyes” and the cute guy smile to woo all those American teen chicks to vote for him. He is just a very repetitive singer, and throughout the competition his performances have all been acoustic.Nothing wrong about that. He even gave some good ones - Hallelujah and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. But the rest of them are just as repetitive. Brooke on the other hand looks like a very weak performer.She messed up onstage twice, has a very vulnerable quality to her vocals, which means her vocals break down too often and they have gone off-pitch at many instances. Add to that I can’t remember a single performance of hers which was remarkable. So I just do not bother if she leaves the competition next week, or even if Jason left. I’d also not be yupset if it was Syesha to leave next week, unless she belts out a killer Neil Diamond song. Read the rest of this post »

MySpace India launch party brought together 4 musical acts. Great or not, I’ll decide that a bit later in this post. The acts for the evening:- Them Clones from Delhi, Swarathma from Bangalore and The Raghu Dixit Project- also from Bangalore. The gig was organised as a launch party of MySpace India- yet another Social Networking website. And as I reached the venue (Soul, Koregaon Park, Pune), I realised that we were very late for the show. Them Clones had already started their set, and were almost nearing the end of their playlist. I had plans of slurping my favorite Chicken Classic Soup, but I couldn’t find any waiters. All I could see around me were people with their heads directed towards the stage. The crowd had some familiar faces- Bobby, bassist of Zero, P-Man, bassist of PDV and well, the other performing artistes. I came in late hoping Swarathma would open and well, Them Clones would be the second act, if not the closing act. But then it didn’t happen so.

Them Clones:- They were in the middle of their song (which I hadn’t heard before, and so couldn’t recognise). Surprisingly, they were doing an Unplugged-ish acoustic set, with the candles lit in the mini-glass chimneys et al. I had seen them before in the very first LaunchPad concert of Channel V, and for that matter I only one song of theirs- Bomb Song. Don’t know if they performed it or not. And so, I had this notion that these guys would be hard hitting rock. But it was a welcome change from the usual stuff we get to listen. Prithwish on the vocals and the Keyboards belted out one song after the other , which would remind you of a British romantic soundtrack. And I could definitely picture Julia Roberts running in her white bridal wear. :). That means it wasn’t bad. It was good. The song arrangements was perfect and the song felt complete. The two tracks on the Keyboard gave me a Coldplay-Goo Goo Dolls vibe bordering on the lines of (previously mentioned) Brit pop-rock arrangement which I love. It certainly made me feel happy. The next two tracks were very upbeat, catchy and Prithwish had left the Keyboards and had joined the Jumping League. I can only remember their final track- Syndrome -coz he made the audience remember the chorus lines. Joseph on the lead guitars gave an acoustic guitar solo. All I could want more on their tracks was prominent harmonies. Apart from that, the show-stealer was Nitin on the sound console. Perfect sound! Them Clones definitely nailed the four originals and had set the perfect tone for the night.

Up Next: Swarathma

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This is with reference to all that is irrelevant and all that can be totally disassociated from a wall of speakers of a thousand watt each. A wall, as in “Humpty Dumpty sat on a WALL”. Oh I forgot to mention it, it’s not just any speakers. These are loud speakers with proper mixers and amplifiers, and yes, there’s a sound engineer cum DJ at the console. One thing though: either they have bass notes hitting so hard as bullets leaving the barrel of a Kalashnikov, or tones so deep that you really wonder if that made the Opera’s Phantom. And what’s the occasion? The list is pretty long. Be it Ugadi,Eid or Saraswati Pooja, Navratri or even Ambedkar Diwas. And if you were to ask me the essential playlist here, I’d like to reveal them one by one. Firstly, I will promise that I will not repeat the songs in my previous playlist post. Secondly, we shall not do any form of publicity (be it positive or negative) for Mr.Himess. He already has his fair share (But the man has been mum for quite some time. Guess he’s busy shooting for Karzzz -the remake). Third rule of the list- This is gonna be fun. So no Bhajans (For those who expected that I would include Bhajans of Anup Jalota, Narendra Chanchal and the like, I should say, you guys have come to the wrong page). So here we go(not put in any particular order, but that)!!

1. Hard Kaur & Glassy Family : Ek Glassy Do Glassy

Innovative lyrics, inventive rhythm and the Bhangra rap just couldn’t have been better. Especially when the dhol beats on the hip-hop rhythmcan literally scratch the back of your head from the inside. For best results, try standing within a metre’s range from the wall (of the speakers). Conditions apply.

2. Sean Paul- Temperature.

Okay, this might not hold true for any pandal in the US or Canada. But it does for any damn pandal in Pune, remote parts of Telengana, Vidharbha, Chota Nagpur Plateau and also some parts of the Deccan. You see, Sean Paul actually starts rhyming in Marathi proving yet again that he is in fact, a Marathi Manoos, not the Jamaican reggae guy that he poses to be. Sean Paul also received an honorary doctorate from the Pune Mahanagar Palika for the maximum looped playtime of Temperature. The award ceremony was also graced by aunties of Kondhwa Griha Mahila Udyog shaking their booty to the track.

3. Sukhbir - Ishq

There has always been an increasing demand of encore requests for this track. I am sure Sukhbir’s “aatma” cries from Nairobi to see the heartfelt appreciation that this song still receives. For best results, watch Neighbour Dhobi Kushal go frenzy after getting diluted (By that I mean, once he drinks his first drop of water after his stock of 2 khamba). Sukhbir’s Ishq remains an eternal favorite of the 2 year old who lives downstairs. She can hardly recognise between her dad and her mom, but can definitely sing “Ho Ho Ho Ho!!”. An insider news source reports that parts of Toronto and Southall,UK have experienced Santa Claus singing his trademark sound to the tunes of Sukhbir “Ho Ho Ho Hoooo”.

4. Vengaboys - Boom Boom

Not even any other Vengaboys track can come close to this. And mind you, this is actually a Saraswati Puja favorite, irrespective of latitude, longitude or solitude. Maa Saraswati has always remained quite pleased and has always blessed me with the best of marks at the final exams. Why shouldn’t she? Read the rest of this post »

Guest Author: Prakash Rajgopal ( the guy in the Gulshan Grover beard).

BENGALURU, Bangalore or just same ol’ BANGY. Oh how fortunate art thee to have been the soil which played host to Rock in India. How golden is thy spirit to have seen history in the making!The biggest International Rock Festival India has ever seen! Nine bands! Two headlining acts! The chance to get 8 hours of thrash/hard rock drilled into metal heads! What a mouth-watering prospect! Which genuine rock enthusiast would miss such a historic event? One of the top four metal acts in the world, Megadeth was playing in India. Yes, MEGADETH!! It was the last leg of their United Abominations Tour Of Duty. March 14, 2008. Palace Grounds, Bangalore. After a month of eager anticipation since booking the tickets, the day had finally arrived! We all HAD to be there to witness it. And we did!

We (my friend Harshal and I) reached the venue well ahead of time, at 1 pm. As we arrived at the venue and were waiting for the gates to open, we could hear some sound checks going on inside. There were already some people loitering around, most of them wearing black tees. I could see lots of Maiden’s, some Slipknot’s, Children Of Bodom’s, Nirvana’s around along with the usual Megadeth ones. We also saw a girl and a guy walking in, with the girl wearing a Megadeth tee, and the guy wearing a… hold your breath… 50 Cents!! Yo mama, he was right in da club!!! I also saw a guy wearing a Master Of Puppets tee. I wonder what became of him. Soon, Sujoy arrived with his gang just in time for the gates to open, and we headed inside. There were two stages on the venue. A smaller stage that was meant for the Indian bands, and a bigger one up front, obviously for Megadeth and Machine Head .

Here’s a run-up of all the bands in the order of their appearances:

1. Casino Blues: The band from Guwahati formed by Joshua, the lead singer of the Independence Rock winner band-Faith. They might’ve rued the fact that their’s was the first act of the day. With the scorching sun was beating down everybody’s necks, most of the people preferred taking shelter in the shady corners of the ground to avoid being burnt. The band had some catchy numbers. But they didn’t catch enough attention. Enough said.
Verdict: Mediocre.
Sujoy’s Verdict: Joshua has got strong vocals, but it got sunburnt.

2. Prestorika:

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Let me begin with OMFG. The Top 12 are finally performing in front of a huge stage, an enthusiastic mosh pit, the three judges - Simon, Paula and Randy, and of course not only America, but viewers from across the world - thanks to syndicated Television. And what can be bigger than that, it’s Beatles special tonite. The Idol Top 12 performed to the tunes of McCartney and Lennon one after another and blew me away. Some of them not quite there, some of them I hated, but I loved most of them. At this point of them, I am still quite confused to pick my favorite. Talk about last season - I had none. LOL. So, after Ryan Seacrest unveils the Top 12, we get to see a montage on the works of Paul and John, and yes, I love it.The performances:- Syesha goes in first with “Got to Get You into my Life“. What an entry and what an intro to the Top 12 of this season. I am already feeling that this Top 12 rocks more than any previous season. She deserves all the praise she got from the judges and she definitely is one of the strongest voices. Next in-Chikezie with “She’s a Woman”. He nailed it. Randy loved the intro with the Southern groove and what he did with the rock arrangement. “Chikezie smashed it”. Yeah! Ramiele didn’t go very strong with her performance of “In My Life”. Simon and Randy thought it was boring and so did I. C’mon we are talking about Top 12 where you gotta go out there and sing your heart out and bring the house down. Following Chikezie was a mess, especially with that song choice. She might be in danger tomorrow. Read the rest of this post »