Artist: Two Door Cinema Club
Song: ‘I Can Talk’ (click to download)
Why: The other indie dance bands are way too serial.
Sounds like: The Rapture and Hot Chip in a washing machine, spin dry
More: On MySpace

Artist: Caribou
Song: ‘Odessa’ (click to download)
Why: It’s a long wait till the next LCD Soundsystem album.
Sounds like: Filmi disco
More: On MySpace

Artist: Kate Miller-Heidke
Song: ‘Politics In Space’ (click to download)
Why: She’s not only about the Facebook song okay.
Sounds like: Drunken country folk
More: On MySpace

Artist: Local Natives
Song: ‘Sun Hands’ (click to download)
Why: You’re not hipster if you don’t name-drop this band in 2010.
Sounds like: This suicide cult is going places
More: On MySpace

Artist: Broken Social Scene
Song: ‘World Sick’ (click to download)
Why: This is the new Broken Social Scene song.
Sounds like: The new Broken Social Scene song
More: On MySpace

More Take 5

Enter Kixmet Blue Blood.

There’s a lot of kvlt here. Here’s a list

1. The YouTube tags for this video include “best band”, “best song”, “award winning video”, “concept video” and “best ballad”.
2. The video features the band, and a cocaine snorting model (who just got out of a cold shower, throughout the video) who her boyfriend deals with by drinking Pepsi.
3. The girlfriend does not like the boyfriend much, a fact proved when we catch her sleeping with the overweight, balding building watchman with a water pistol.
4. 1984 called, wants big hair and tight fitting vest back.
5. OMG, the size of the dude’s watch at 1:50.
6. Gary Lawyer would be proud.

Kaching.

Props to P-Man for the tip.

Dates

5th March – nUDElhi, Q’BA, New Delhi
6th March – The Jazz Lounge at Ai, New Delhi (S/T only gig)
7th March – The Palms, Gurgaon
20th March – Blue Frog, Mumbai
21st March – Stone Water Grill, Pune

Check out Suhrid Manchanda’s review of one of the early Medicine shows at the Royal Mirage in New Delhi. Sridhar/Thayil recently played an Art of Noise gig in Mumbai, sharing the stage with members of Emperor Minge.

The century-old bandstand culture is unique to Mumbai.

Among the bands that played regularly from the 1850s were those of the Marine Battalion, 9th Regiment, the Mumbai Volunteer Rifle, the 113th Infantry, the GIP Railway Volunteers, BB&CI Railway and the Governor’s Band. The services of regimental and private bands were engaged and the dates and venue were advertised in daily newspapers.

On the bill for the next few weeks are

Mar 06 – Pia Sukanya + Noush Like Sploosh (pictured)
Mar 13 – Rahul Pandey
Mar 20 – EOL Trio
Mar 27 – Radio Mirchi night

All the gigs are free and begin around 5.30pm. More info on the Facebook group. Check out the gig poster

The term “music festival” is much overused in India these days. Anything from a garden party with a couple of DJs to a Backstreet Boys gig gets assigned this title. And while the ambiguity of its definition is cause for some concern, we’re pretty sure its essence stems from more than just the music. Of all the charlatans claiming to be festivals, Fireflies perhaps comes closest. Everything from the banyan tree at the Fireflies ashram amphitheatre under which artists perform, to the sickly sweet smell of marijuana wafting through the air, to the passed out Bengalurus who periodically woke up to prepare said marijuana for smoking, reeked a community spirit missing from many imposters.

On the bill were a bunch of acts, local and otherwise, including homeboys (now w/girl) Lounge Piranha. While their set was pretty loose, it was largely enjoyable thanks to an interpretive dancer who accompanied the more drone-y Piranha material, and a particularly kvlt cover of Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’.

The remainder of the music we caught was pretty pedestrian, fusion-y jazz-rock. But the vibe of the night, coupled with the fact that though booze and assorted intoxicants were involved, no one misbehaved (tough ask pulling this off in Delhi though, okay Rocktoberfest wasn’t a bad start), more than made up for the shaky programming. We’re certainly coming back next year.