The Xtra Mile

Win With Xtra Cover - Help Name Our First Original

noreply@blogger.com (Xtra Cover) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 18:40:00 +0000

Xtra Cover is performing it's first original this coming Saturday at a private performance in St. John's and here's how you can help make it more special and also win while you're at it.

Help Xtra Cover come up with a name for their first original!

Here are 3 easy steps how you can do that:

1. Like the 'Xtra Cover' page on Facebook here
2. Listen to the unnamed original posted on the page
3. Suggest a name for the song in the comments under the post. You can suggest more than one names too. Please post each name as a new comment and not all in the same comment.

The best and most innovative name wins a prize from Xtra Cover.

Contest closes on Friday, the 9th of September at 11:59 PM.

So head over to the Xtra Cover page on FB and be a part of Xtra Cover's foray into originals. See you there!

Xtra Cover's First Original Composition - Lyrics

noreply@blogger.com (Xtra Cover) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 18:35:00 +0000

Lyrics to Xtra Cover's first original composition:

Do you care for your minutes?
Will you carry everyone else..
around you?

Tired of thinking, you continue
Ain't got no reason, you brood

Stand up, their shoulders are open
Get off, that chair, it's frozen
You don't need to burn yourself

Yourself Yourself Yourself hey yey
Yourself Yourself Yourself hey yey

You got your path in front of you
You see your future, I do too

Once it sinks in, will you continue?
They have their reasons, for your own good

Stand up, their shoulders are open
Get off, that chair, it's frozen
You don't need to waste yourself

Yourself Yourself Yourself hey yey
Yourself Yourself Yourself hey yey

You have grown in their eyes
They made you what you are
She sees you every night
Hoping you will get it right for

Yourself Yourself Yourself hey yey
Yourself Yourself Yourself hey yey

©Vikram Parthan

Xtra Cover Live At 64 Bistro: Sneak Peek Of The Set List

noreply@blogger.com (Xtra Cover) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 08:13:00 +0000

Here's a sneak peek of the set list for today's gig...

1. Immigrant Song

2. Cocaine

3. Woman

4. Hard As A Rock

5. While My Guitar Gently Weeps

And this is not even a third of the songs we've lined up for you! So come to 64 tonight to hear the whole set list and enjoy some good old rock...gig begins at 8:30...see you there!

Meet The Band: Paneendra Suresh

noreply@blogger.com (Xtra Cover) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:22:00 +0000

The 64 gig's tomorrow and in our Meet The Band series, last but not the least is our own Mr. Bass, Paneendra Suresh.

Name:

Paneendra

The instrument you play:

Bass Guitar

The first time you picked up the instrument:

2 years ago

What prompted you to pick up the instrument?

Listening to Junkyard Groove and hearing Craig Thomas play

Are you professionally trained?

Who are your primary influences?

Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chilli Peppers

With respect to your instrument, the one song that you think is brilliant:

Ramble On by Led Zeppelin

Given a chance, which national/international band would you have loved to be part of?

Led Zeppelin

What can one find you doing when not indulging in music?

Reading maybe

Your profession:

Student

One totally ‘useless trivia’ kind of fact about you:

I once was trying to sketch the Mona Lisa at 3 am.

Also I don’t respond in time. That’s also why my profile is going up last : )

Come meet Paneendra and the other members tomorrow while listening to your favourite rock songs being 'Xtra Cover'ed at 64 Bistro in Koramangala Bangalore. Watch out for a sneak peek of the set list!

Meet The Band: Vikram Parthan

noreply@blogger.com (Xtra Cover) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:33:00 +0000

Our vocalist is up next to be introduced to you guys. We should probably mention that he can also play the guitars. But that’s not the point. Presenting to you, Vikram Parthan!

Name:

Vikram

The first time you tried vocals on stage:

5th std? 6th std? Hai Apna Dil to Awara (Hemant Kumar, Solwa Saal) 2nd place first up! Woohoo!

What prompted you to start on vocals:

Just a natural interest in music!

Are you professionally trained?

1 year of Carnatic Classical vocals, my Guru didn’t visit me after that year, and 3 months of western classical on the guitar, I stopped going. Life balances itself out!

Who are your primary influences?

Jon Bon Jovi, Brian Johnson, Bryan Adams, Eddie Vedder and lately, Myles Kennedy

With respect to vocals, the one song that you think is brilliant:

Skid Row – 18 and Life, will never be able to sing it.

Given a chance, which national/international band would you have loved to be part of?

I have even had dreams (actual dreams!) of playing the guitar with Bon Jovi on stage. I would love to strum the guitar and sing along with Bon Jovi, AC DC, Bryan Adams

What can one find you doing when not indulging in music:

Sleeping and studying (this for the next 2.5 years, and no more after that. Hopefully). Watching Cricket too and following Manchester United!

Your profession:

Program Manager in a Fortune 5 company. Yeah, I am like this super duper all-rounder guy.

One totally ‘useless trivia’ kind of fact about you:

I type at 89WPM. Beat that!

Vikram will be crooning some old and some new songs (you've got to hear him sing AC/DC to believe it) this Saturday at 64.

Meet The Band: Sushyanth Krishnan

noreply@blogger.com (Xtra Cover) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:38:00 +0000

Alright folks, now that you know a bit about our rhythm guitarist, we’ll take you to meet the lead guitarist of Xtra Cover. Please put your hands together for Sushyanth Krishnan!

Name:

Sushyanth

The instrument you play:

Guitar

The first time you picked up the instrument:

In college

Are you professionally trained?:

Nope

Who are your primary influences?:

Jimmy page, Jimmy Hendrix

With respect to your instrument, the one song that you think is brilliant:

There are many – Little wing Jimmy Hendrix figures on top – clean guitar

Given a chance, which national/international band would you have loved to be part of?

Led Zeppelin

What can one find you doing when not indulging in music:

Working takes up a substantial part of that time, besides, hanging out with friends.

One totally ‘useless trivia’ kind of fact about you:

When I was a kid – like 8-9 years old, visited a friend’s farm house. I was the only one there in that age group, which got me pretty bored and restless. I decided to get out and for some reason started running around the place. There was a well behind the house, which I crossed a couple of times. It did cross my mind that I was capable to jumping over the well – like a long jump. And I did try it on one of my rounds and that happened to be my last round – I fell right in. Not sure how I got out. I remember clearly that when I tried the long jump, it seemed like I was in air for a while, and I knew all the time that I was going right inside the well.

Well, what can we say...with that small 'well' story, that's Sushyanth for you and he'll be taking the stage on Saturday at 64.

Meet The Band: Vinay Kashyap

noreply@blogger.com (Xtra Cover) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:56:00 +0000

Folks today you get to meet our rhythm guitarist Vinay Kashyap. The sweetest Scorpio you can meet, we figure…or he keeps his traits under severe restraint. Let’s hear it for Vinay!

The lab coat in this picture is his own touch and we assure you he is not going to be wearing that at the gigs. We thinks it's kinda cool though :)

Name:

Vinay

The instrument you play:

Guitar

What prompted you to pick up the instrument?

A long long answer : )... For those who want a one line answer jump to the underlined section at the end of this paragraph... !

The reason I “Picked up” a guitar comes after a string of different things I tried with music. It all began in the 5th standard, when I was impressed by my landlord who played the Flute. So it started with me learning Flute from him for a while and after a good gap of around 4 years I happened to try my hands at Keyboards at a friend’s place and then started taking some serious classical Piano lessons while in parallel picking up other day to day hindi/kannada movie music that one gets to hear. Around this time I was introduced to rock music when I happened to see/hear some rock music while channel surfing. Almost instantly rock music became my primary genre of interest and I started trying to play some those riffs/licks on keyboard but always felt something was missing and when I started listening to my greatest rock music inspiration Iron Maiden, I really felt I had to try playing their music on Guitars. I started trying to do that by trying to learn Guitar off and on from some friends. This then lead me to start taking Guitar lessons from a guitar teacher (even though I didn’t take lessons long enough to do formal grades).

So the one line answer : Seeing Iron Maiden play live made me pick up a Guitar.

Are you professionally trained?

A brief stint at a Guitar school, yes. But nothing more formal than that.

Who are your primary influences?

As a band, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin. In terms of individual Guitarists: Joe Satriani, Jimmy Page.

With respect to your instrument, the one song that you think is brilliant:

I’ll have to pick 2 : Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin and Hallowed be thy name by Iron Maiden.

Given a chance, which national/international band would you have loved to be part of?

Iron Maiden.

What can one find you doing when not indulging in music?

Catching up on cricket and football, Collecting and watching movies.

Your profession:

Software Engineering.

One totally ‘useless trivia’ kind of fact about you:

I am scared of spiders.

Vinay will be weaving his magic on the guitars on Saturday at 64 Bistro!

Meet The Band: Yash Dave

noreply@blogger.com (Xtra Cover) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:28:00 +0000

So it’s 5 days to the 64 Bistro gig, the event invite for which is here. We thought we’d take the time to introduce you all to the band members this week so you can walk up to us straight and say hi on Saturday : )

Today we present to you our drummer, Yash Dave (drumroll (duh!))

Name:

Yash

The instrument you play:

Wooden shells with polymer films aka Drums

The first time you picked up the instrument:

Call me crazy, but I have actually never managed to pick up an entire drum kit by myself even though I have been playing the drums for 15 years now. Usually I solicit the help of my sedentary band mates to help pick up and move my drum kit, especially Mr.Bass who normally turns up in a zombie state of mind for gigs and jam sessions.

What prompted you to pick up the instrument:

As I said earlier, I have never picked up a drum kit. I think this and the above question is a conspiracy by guitar players to justify their delusional physical superiority over other band members.

On a side note, I developed an interest in playing the drums after watching a video of Lars Ulrich from Metallica play Seek and Destroy.

Are you professionally trained?:

Trained no, but I was taught by some of the best drummers in Poona at the time.

Who are your primary influences?:

Neil Peart, Mike Portnoy, Gavin Harrison, Mike Johnston, John Bonham, Lars Ulrich, Ian Paice, Pick Withers

With respect to your instrument, the one song that you think is brilliant:

La Villa Strangiato by Rush

Given a chance, which national/international band would you have loved to be part of?:

Dire Straits

What can one find you doing when not indulging in music:

Tennis, Running, Reading up technology blogs focusing on medical devices and consumer electronics.

Your profession:

Engineering, Music

One piece of useless trivia about you:

I have no funny photos of myself.

Watch Yash beat the wooden shells at 64 on Saturday. And come back to meet another band member tomorrow!

Oh Look! It's Our New Look!

noreply@blogger.com (Xtra Cover) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:02:00 +0000

So we thought we’d tinker a little with our look and the process of ideation has been on for a while. This is what we came up with, our new logo.

The logo uses the Phoenix as the ‘X’ and symbolizes our zest to breathe new life into our favourite songs, infuse Xtra Cover’s energy into them. The colour palette also picks up from the Phoenix and the colours of fire. It also symbolizes our energy as a band. We’d like to believe the colours signify warmth and vibrance!

Final Design Credit: Dinesh Pasupathyrajan

So this is it…Xtra Cover’s new look. We’d love to know what you guys think about it. Do let us know! And as Neil Young would say - Keep on rockin' in the free world!

We’re Going The Xtra Mile

noreply@blogger.com (Xtra Cover) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:07:00 +0000

When we started, we didn't care about gettin on the radio and we didn't care what people said about us...

We just went out and played rock music.

-Angus Young, AC/DC

Sound advice for all times we’d say! Just go out there and play rock music : ) Those of you who know us know that we love AC/DC. As also Alice In Chains, Led Zeppelin and a host of other artists. But now we’d like to hear from you too, who are your favourite artists, what would you like us to play for you, which songs have made a difference to your lives? And somewhere along the way, we’ll tell you more about ourselves too…

So let’s start a conversation! We tell you about the days of our lives and you tell us about yours. This is backstage extended : ) We’re going The Xtra Mile for you. Join the conversation!