\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 »

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 »

Okay, first things first. I really hate the concept of attaching English tails to movie titles. It completely disgusts me. Moving on, this is the music review of Bhram (won’t include the tail anymore). Let’s just skip the intro part, and let’s get down to business- one track at a time. Yeah?

Track 1:-Jaane Kaise - the acoustic guitar, good bass and Shaan- this is trademark Pritam, the Indian rock touch and whoa,the muted clean Electric guitars. I really like this track. The acoustic rhythms accompany the vocals with absolute fluidity. This sounds very much like Dino Morea standing at the backseat of his jeep with the rooftop opened up and singing his lungs out. Its an open spirit song and if this was filmed on perhaps Ranbir Kapoor, this could probably win the Filmfare (C’mon Jab Se Tere Naina can win the Filmfare for Shaan, then this surely can). This actually isn’t rock, but very much Pop, and I can totaly hear the college fests being infected with this, and anyone who can strum his acoustic box is being found busy trying to find the chords. Read the rest of this post »

So Ashutosh Gowariker is back, with the same team of A.R.Rahman and Javed Akhtar who have tasted huge success before with Swades and of course Lagaan. And this being titled ” Jodhaa Akbar” expectations are obviously sky-high. The Hrithik-Ash Jodi, the budget from UTV breaking through the roof, and the stellar visuals shown in the trailer, of course , Gowariker promises all of that including good music. Only this time, it is not as good as it should sound. Jodhaa Akbar, the soundtrack, disappoints and can at best be termed as one of the most mediocre works of the creators- A.R.Rahman and Lyricist- Javed Akhtar. And no, no amount of good picturisation can save the utter drag of the OST. What you expect is of course, music that lives that period and yet has a contemporary appeal , something which Rahman isn’t new to. But forget the period part, it doesn’t appeal either.

Let’s deal with it one by one shall we? The soundtrack opens with a very predictable Opening theme of sorts. The kind you’d actually picturise to feature on a Mughal period movie. Azeem-o-shaan ShahenShah is heavy on percussions, is absolutely ambient and the grandeur comes across in the sound arrangements. The Chanan Chans and the sound of the courtesans at Akbar’s court, and the praise to the Emperor are all summed up in this song, but at almost 6 minutes, this is a never ending praise-tale, and all I can compare it to is an audio History lesson. The swords are clinging and the sounds of celebrations, I can see how Gowariker is going to put this down to celluloid. Read the rest of this post »

Forget the FM channels. The magnetic audio tapes, with the wait time for rewinds are the thing when it comes to music for our buddy Auto-Drivers. And when you ask them why not FM, they say “Fuck the Big Red Mirchi”. That’s actually how you abuse three channels at one go. Of course, it’s not in English that they tell me so, and well, it’s just a figment of my imagination. Anyway, Auto-Rickshaw music is BIG in a country where Himmessh actually sells audio cassettes more than CDs. In a world where digital music (okay CDs you may call it) to us is primarily MP3, music in daily life is predominantly high on the tone equalizer, and resonating from the Big black soundbox in the backseat of an Auto-Rickshaw. And what is the possibility of you being subjected to listen to a Himmessh, (yeah the man’s creation, as in a Picasso, or a Vinci, or a Sujoy, whatever)-probably 99.999%. I shall confirm the numbers very soon. But quality is not at all governed by the sheer number of playtime, is it? So here I am, preparing a whole Top 10 list of the Favorite Songs of the Auto-Rickshaws. The criteria for judgment: my ears, my senses and my reasons, perhaps movie background scores at times, and well a little SPICE.

10. Chalo Bulawa Aaya Hai: (Avtaar) This is one of the sole reasons why Narendra Chanchal is still one of the top grossers at Sanskaar Channel and what actually pays for his monthly post paid bills. One of the original examples of Devotion meets pop culture. Listen to it on a very high tone, and Narendra Chanchal actually sounds like Asha Bhosle, who sang the female version. Money wasted!! Saare Bolo Jai Mata Di. Read the rest of this post »