STRUMMING PEOPLE

Just another TV moment where I discover another awesome band

2014-07-25T04:07:00.000+05:30

Here's the thing about Mad Men. To me, it's the most intelligent show on TV. That's not always a good thing though. Which explains why shows like Breaking Bad and True Detective, which are very in-your-face intelligent and engaging, have managed to gather so many fans so fast. With the more subtle Mad Men, you need to ~~wait~~ watch out for brilliant moments. But when one finally comes along, the show nails it.

This is easily my favourite Mad Men moment. Draper's dark day at office. Glen's existentialist crisis. And they both come together at the end and turn a very depressing episode into something a little less gloomy.

This also introduced me to The Lovin' Spoonful. If you haven't heard of them, imagine them as a slightly more obscure version of The Grateful Dead.

And here's the full song, which is now one of my most cherished tracks EVER.

Empty - Ray Lamontagne

2012-02-29T06:58:00.000+05:30

I just watched a movie by Tony Kaye, called Detachment. Good movie. This song played somewhere in the middle of the movie. The voice sounded very familiar. But only when the credits rolled, did I realize that the voice was that of Ray Lamontagne. I remember going through a Lamontagne phase a couple of years ago. It's a shame I couldn't pick up his voice. This only means that I need to listen to a lot more of him. He sounds like he's got a lot of good songs. If you are reading this, can you suggest some other nice songs by him?

Slip Away - Clarence Carter

2012-02-18T07:43:00.001+05:30

Watched the Director's cut version of Almost Famous .....again.
I have lost count, seriously.

Enjoy the song and think of the places and times
you could have been to if you had a time machine.

Adam and the Fish Eyed Poets

2012-01-24T01:30:00.002+05:30

I've been asked a few times about why I know so little about Indian bands. The conversation has oscillated between "Raj, you're such a pseudo-hipster" to "Raj, Soulmate and Indian Ocean are not the only Indian bands". The point is, they might actually be right. But you can't force someone to like a band just cause it's Indian, can you? The aam junta/pro-Anna type of marketing doesn't work on me, sorry.

I realized that I was following certain Indian songs and not the artists, for a while. Pralay's "You" was one song that got me liking that band. Unfortunately, nothing better came out that stable after that. I had even Facebook "liked" their page to see if something was on the line. Similar things happened with Cognac's "Through your eyes".

Recently, as I was going through some blogs, I came across this band called Adam and the Fish Eyed Poets from Chennai. The cool thing about their profile was that their bandcamp page had all the albums up for free download, which is always one way to seduce someone like me. I took that leap of faith where I copied both albums into my iPod. I'd recommend both the albums if you're looking for something along the lines of REM/Matchbox Twenty/Manic Street Preachers.... I named these three bands because I think this is the closest I can get to for introducing Adam and the Fish Eyed Poets. You might disagree.

What really got me into them was a song called "Little monkeys".
here's the grooveshark link - http://grooveshark.com/s/Little+Monkeys/3mELmx?src=5

and here's the live video clip - (the grooveshark link has perfect audio; the Youtube clip is a bit dodgy)

I don't know if this counts as "following" an Indian band but I have recommended this band to friends, "liked" their page on Facebook and also include three/four songs from their albums in my ever changing lists of playlists..

The funny thing is, even if they hadn't been Indian, I would have still done all of that.

St. John, The Gambler.

2011-12-02T04:41:00.000+05:30

Midnight. Sabina and Srin had returned to their hostel and I had just plugged in my iPod. Srin gave me a cigarette before she left. I wanted to smoke it after I had completed my work assignments for the day. Shuffle mode is quite freaky. Out of nowhere, and for the first time ever, it started playing Townes Van Zandt's

St. John the Gambler, from the In Bruges OST.

Please listen to it.
You'll know why I had to pause, find a place to sit and finish my last cigarette while it played.
It's THAT good. Seriously.

Alex Turner delivers in Submarine OST

2011-04-28T15:15:00.000+05:30

I never got a chance to be a big fan of the Arctic Monkeys, although Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is supposed to be the fastest selling debut album by any band in the UK. Going off on a totally different tangent, I AM a fan of most of Ben Stillers work, especially when he plays a larger role behind the cam, say in directing or producing something. Very few of us know that Reality Bites, one of the best movies in the 90's with an awesome soundtrack, is actually directed by Stiller. The poster for Submarine says 'Presented by Ben Stiller', which really means here's a big star lending his name to a not-so-mainstream movie so that it sells, and there's nothing wrong with it. At least that's how I got to know this movie existed.
Coming back to the Monkeys, Alex Turner, the lead singer and guitarist from the band, contributes six tracks to what becomes the soundtrack for this movie. it's pretty good stuff. The songs remind me of Badly Drawn Boy's work on another Brit gem, About A Boy. Here's my pick of the lot - a song called It's Hard To Get Around The Wind. The movie seems promising; I'll be waiting for the DVD release.

Here's the entire playlist.

I like the Beatles, but...

2011-01-06T02:37:00.001+05:30

.. but then I discovered some obscure bands from the same era. One of these bands was Small Faces. won't make it a long posting about their bio or where they originated. They're Brit. That's enough. Listen to this song and tell me they're not cool. I dare you!

it's called Itchycoo Park. watch it here.

(Any other similar bands, people? I'm sure there are many, but I love recommendations.)

Small Faces

2010-12-26T20:27:00.000+05:30

there have been a few bands who were very important to me as I was aging from my teens to early twenties. Sadly, by the time I turned 23, I wasn't following them anymore due to reasons ranging from laziness to mediocre music to the death of the audio cassette. Coldplay is one such band. I think their first two albums were great, the third was ok...and then... I don't know.

However, somewhere between those albums they released The Blue Room EP which has one of my favorite Coldplay songs ever. It's called See You Soon. It has the simplicity that I saw in Parachutes, and could never find again. Check it out here, it's not in any album.

2010-10-06T07:46:00.000+05:30

the reason I'm not in some Engineering College is because I didn't study when I was supposed to. Watched a lot of TV, and was crazy about shows on Star World/Zee English which had good background music. Discovered bands like Travis, Dandy Warhols, Coldplay, Radiohead, Doves during that phase. Pori was listening to Fever Dog by Stillwater (Almost Famous OST) while chatting with me last night. One of my favorite songs ever from my favourite movie. See it if you haven't, here's the song - scene playing Fever Dog.

Discovered another nice band last night while watching the 6th season of How I Met Your Mother - it's called Real Estate. the song in the third episode is Beach Comber - Real Estate.

please suggest some good music.

2010-05-17T00:18:00.001+05:30

it rained the other night. and I had deadlines to meet. But the radio was playing You had time by Ani DiFranco. Deadlines can wait. I was busy enjoying the corny moment, where all I could think of were those blurry collection of random happy minutes. Of people who left, who were far, who stayed behind, and even those whose images grew smaller and smaller as I moved on.

....and i thank the RJ who played it.

Pigs On The Wing

2009-12-31T01:54:00.000+05:30

Never actually studied anything in the engineering coaching classes, but met some rare gems who lived beyond the PCM syllabus. one of them introduced me to Pink Floyd. not just the hits, we traveled beyond. Along this journey, I stumbled upon a track, which I think is one of best "love" songs ever. Finally a song which said - i'm fucked, you are fucked. we might be bigger fucks together, but let's stick around for company. a line in the song goes -

" ....we would zig-zag away, through the boredom and pain, occasionally glancing up through the rain..."

The blogger wishes to thank,
- Sanju, for being there in the coaching class. and bringing me to Floyd.
- Bonita, for letting me have the album Animals which was meant for Sanju. (he was a fan, he already had his own copy.)

The blogger wishes to ignore,
- Anyone who thinks David Gilmour is a better songwriter than Roger Waters.

five years later, someone covered it.

A Question

2009-12-25T03:01:00.000+05:30

So we say we've evolved. We've judged people on the music they listen to. we've rolled our eyes when a car playing loud thumping remixes zoomed past us. nodded our heads when the actual fans discussed Radiohead catalogs. got free food by playing covers of pink floyd songs. smoked up weed with groovy "world" music in the background. reached a high when people just talked about sufi music. Chose Rabbi Shergill over Sonu Nigam. wore loose flannel shirts and talked about how cool it'd be to be in Seattle in the early 90's while listening to the Vedders, Cobains and Cornells. wished we were born in the 50's America so as to enjoy the entropic 60's it produced. Sipped chai and munched on jalebis while discussing the arty-ness of the Velvet Underground.debated on whether it was David Bowie or Lou Reed. longed to have troubled childhoods like those of the people Smashing Pumpkins talk about in their songs. Admitted that Joan Baez is hotter than Marilyn Monroe.

Why is it, that after all of this, we still scream the loudest and dance the funkiest at Bryan Adams' Summer of '69 and Sukhwinder's Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan ?

The Invisible Band

2009-12-24T05:05:00.000+05:30

Travis' third album, and their first album that I bought. It was Bihu in Assam and the year was 2002. Ma gave me money to buy sweets for guests. I wasn't fond of guests. No sweets. went to this tiny cassette shop, Melody in Ganeshguri. hadn't heard any reviews about the new Travis album, or for that matter any of their earlier albums. But our otherwise cruel cable operator, let us have Mtv2 for a couple of months, and I remembered a band in a dining hall fiasco video which had something to do with an octopus being flung across the room in slow motion.

A week later, I was in love with Travis. Still am.

Open Source Opinions...

2009-12-24T02:34:00.000+05:30

Discovered a brown carton on returning home this winter. My Cassettes. I almost... no, I didn't cry. but you can probably guess how it must have felt. from compilations to obscure albums, each cassette was the result of some kind of forgettable sacrifice... or kleptomania. from shriveled inlay covers to torn ones, from scratch-less ones to mark-your-territory-by-writing-your-name-in-weird-fonts ones, this treasure, if laid out in a particular order, told the story my growing years, the story of the evolution of prices and choices.

the sad part is, I don't have a cassette player anymore.

So, I've decided to start a blog where everyone can talk about music they like, they hate, they play....
Yes, it's open for all. just mail me your posts at beyalora@gmail.com and I'll upload them as soon as possible.