Saw these guys randomly at Union Square subway station in NY and decided to grab a clip. Outstanding musicians.
I hope they get discovered!! :)
Get Ready to Marathon ‘The Twilight Saga’ on YouTube, Loca
36 minutes ago
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Friday, February 22, 2008
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Thank you for the Music!!
There are many universal truths. One of them is that everyone has songs that remind them of a certain someone, a certain occasion, a certain time of life... you can tell the story of your life in songs. With my iPod on and my uber cool sound eliminating Sennheiser headphones cutting me off from my otherwise silent and super cold (thanks to the air con servicemen) study, I was thinking about mine - in songs... this is an excerpt of what I came up with... (warning - embarassing confessions ahead) -
The Early Years...
Two very memorable tunes come to mind - "Rage in the Cage" by the J.Geils Band (1981). My aunt (mum's younger sis) would play this and I'd do one of those crazy uncontrolled and uninhibited jigs that only kids can pull off (when you're a kid is about the only time you can heed the advice - dance like no one's watching). And "D.I.S.C.O"... not the remixed one. The original one - I don't even remember who did it - and it's kinda hard to google it. You can imagine how one might get side-tracked with a search for "DISCO". My uncle (Bob - he prefers being called cousin and does frequent this site) would play this on vinyl back in the day (Sad fact is that I'd be lucky if a lot of people I work with have ever seen a fucking audio cassette!) and I'd get the spelling wrong (I wasn't a very bright kid).
My First "own" music
My brother and I would get a bunch of Sony CF90 blank tapes and record a whole lot of crap on them - over and over again. Including our voices (it's weird how your voice always sounds so bad when played back!... or maybe it's just mine!!). Some of the more memorable tapes had tracks like "The Final Countdown" by Swedish band Eurpoe (1986) and "Axel F", the instrumental piece from Beverly Hills Cop (1984). Briefly, there was also an African Music phase with stuff like "Mori Kante" and "Yeke Yeke" thrown in. But that was more my brother than me!
Puberty Blues Stage
And then the tough years... fur for facial hair, pimples, a cracking voice and other things that generally tend to conincide with puberty! This is when I bought my first 3 pre-recorded tapes, all in 1987 - the La Bamba soundtrack, the Bad album (Michael Jackson) and the Faith album (George Michael). Yes I'm cringing now. At that time, I thought Father Figure was a very raunchy song (won't elaborate on why). Also got into Madonna (Papa don't preach, Back into the Groove etc) and there was a very hot video there that I can't remember (It wasn't the banned Justify My Love - that came later).
The First CDs
We got our first CD player around 1991-92 (I remember we went to Lamington Road in Mumbai paid Rs 15,000 for a Sony 500W PMPO system with a double tape deck and CD player in it). Our first CDs were Snap - World Power, Enigma, Paula Abdul (CRINGE!!!!!!)
Outta School, Into College - the Love Song Phase!
After a brief hiatus where no major musical highlights come to mind, next came college. Just a quick clarification here - in Mumbai, we go to college at 16! I wronged my first real crush (now married, a very dear friend and has the lovliest daughter) in a big way. I kept playing "Please Forgive Me" by Brian Adams... to myself! Then my first girlfriend (think she's getting married soon or just got married). Our song was "Annie's song" by John Denver. Whenever we had a fight (which was wayyyyyyy too often), I'd play this over the phone and we'd be fine... for the next 10 minutes. When I broke up with her, I thought I was going to die. I played "All Outta Love" by Air Supply over and over and over. In hindsight, death might have been easier on me.
Coming into my own....
All this while, in the background I had been exposed to "better" music. My mum is a Beatles fan, my uncles played Abba, BeeGees and other 80s classics (there's no proof better than this that "better" is a relative term indeed!!). Got into the Beatles in a big way. Then into some classic rock - Floyd, Led Zep etc during my years in Calcutta. Comfortably Numb and Creep and Smoke on the Water are 2 songs that will always remind me of the Calcutta daze! Might give you a clue about what went on there!
If you're STILL reading this, take a minute and leave a comment with a song and a memory. The more incriminating, the better! :)
The Early Years...
Two very memorable tunes come to mind - "Rage in the Cage" by the J.Geils Band (1981). My aunt (mum's younger sis) would play this and I'd do one of those crazy uncontrolled and uninhibited jigs that only kids can pull off (when you're a kid is about the only time you can heed the advice - dance like no one's watching). And "D.I.S.C.O"... not the remixed one. The original one - I don't even remember who did it - and it's kinda hard to google it. You can imagine how one might get side-tracked with a search for "DISCO". My uncle (Bob - he prefers being called cousin and does frequent this site) would play this on vinyl back in the day (Sad fact is that I'd be lucky if a lot of people I work with have ever seen a fucking audio cassette!) and I'd get the spelling wrong (I wasn't a very bright kid).
My First "own" music
My brother and I would get a bunch of Sony CF90 blank tapes and record a whole lot of crap on them - over and over again. Including our voices (it's weird how your voice always sounds so bad when played back!... or maybe it's just mine!!). Some of the more memorable tapes had tracks like "The Final Countdown" by Swedish band Eurpoe (1986) and "Axel F", the instrumental piece from Beverly Hills Cop (1984). Briefly, there was also an African Music phase with stuff like "Mori Kante" and "Yeke Yeke" thrown in. But that was more my brother than me!
Puberty Blues Stage
And then the tough years... fur for facial hair, pimples, a cracking voice and other things that generally tend to conincide with puberty! This is when I bought my first 3 pre-recorded tapes, all in 1987 - the La Bamba soundtrack, the Bad album (Michael Jackson) and the Faith album (George Michael). Yes I'm cringing now. At that time, I thought Father Figure was a very raunchy song (won't elaborate on why). Also got into Madonna (Papa don't preach, Back into the Groove etc) and there was a very hot video there that I can't remember (It wasn't the banned Justify My Love - that came later).
The First CDs
We got our first CD player around 1991-92 (I remember we went to Lamington Road in Mumbai paid Rs 15,000 for a Sony 500W PMPO system with a double tape deck and CD player in it). Our first CDs were Snap - World Power, Enigma, Paula Abdul (CRINGE!!!!!!)
Outta School, Into College - the Love Song Phase!
After a brief hiatus where no major musical highlights come to mind, next came college. Just a quick clarification here - in Mumbai, we go to college at 16! I wronged my first real crush (now married, a very dear friend and has the lovliest daughter) in a big way. I kept playing "Please Forgive Me" by Brian Adams... to myself! Then my first girlfriend (think she's getting married soon or just got married). Our song was "Annie's song" by John Denver. Whenever we had a fight (which was wayyyyyyy too often), I'd play this over the phone and we'd be fine... for the next 10 minutes. When I broke up with her, I thought I was going to die. I played "All Outta Love" by Air Supply over and over and over. In hindsight, death might have been easier on me.
Coming into my own....
All this while, in the background I had been exposed to "better" music. My mum is a Beatles fan, my uncles played Abba, BeeGees and other 80s classics (there's no proof better than this that "better" is a relative term indeed!!). Got into the Beatles in a big way. Then into some classic rock - Floyd, Led Zep etc during my years in Calcutta. Comfortably Numb and Creep and Smoke on the Water are 2 songs that will always remind me of the Calcutta daze! Might give you a clue about what went on there!
If you're STILL reading this, take a minute and leave a comment with a song and a memory. The more incriminating, the better! :)
Monday, March 5, 2007
Steely Buns - La Bamba/Twist & Shout Medley Video
Yep - Full phone video of the La Bamba / Twist & Shout medley is up on YouTube. Still waiting for the official video...
For the non-believers... let this be proof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdmOU83KK3g
For the non-believers... let this be proof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdmOU83KK3g
Monday, February 12, 2007
The Steely Buns ROCKED da house!
Thursday was show night! And yes, we changed over from "Buns of Navarone" to "Steely Buns". We liked the whole Steely Dan reference but didn't want to lose the behind.
So - we rehearsed hard in an air-con-less ball room at the Shang all afternoon. It was hot and bloody stuffy! And I stuffed up my Twist and Shout lines again. Jim Lafferty very sportingly agreed to get on stage with us and do back up vocals. Except, I had got the lyrics/timing wrong EVERYTIME we tried this song since the first time we did it.
SHOWTIME and I got it right.... some highlights apart from me finally getting my song right...
- Vidya R kicked off the show in style with Zombie. Couple of levelling glitches from the sound guys but after the first 30seconds, she rocked the house!
- I followed with my high-pitched La-Bamba and gruff T&S (which I finally got right)
- BJ closed the first set with Hotel Cal and Nissim's solo was out of this world. BJ also got real slim shady with his lyrics. He handed over the mic to the audience whenever he forgot the lyrics! Quite the rockstar!
- Came back for the second set post the Filipino band. And we really rocked the house
Overall ABBA night rocked! The non-sit down dinner format sat down really well with everyone without exception! The fact that there was no big after-party just proved that ABBA's itself was the massive party!
And the Steely Buns were the rockstars at the party.
I have one short snippet of me doing T&S taken from Sriram's phone... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE9lbDsA4XE
More videos / photos to follow.
So - we rehearsed hard in an air-con-less ball room at the Shang all afternoon. It was hot and bloody stuffy! And I stuffed up my Twist and Shout lines again. Jim Lafferty very sportingly agreed to get on stage with us and do back up vocals. Except, I had got the lyrics/timing wrong EVERYTIME we tried this song since the first time we did it.
SHOWTIME and I got it right.... some highlights apart from me finally getting my song right...
- Vidya R kicked off the show in style with Zombie. Couple of levelling glitches from the sound guys but after the first 30seconds, she rocked the house!
- I followed with my high-pitched La-Bamba and gruff T&S (which I finally got right)
- BJ closed the first set with Hotel Cal and Nissim's solo was out of this world. BJ also got real slim shady with his lyrics. He handed over the mic to the audience whenever he forgot the lyrics! Quite the rockstar!
- Came back for the second set post the Filipino band. And we really rocked the house
Overall ABBA night rocked! The non-sit down dinner format sat down really well with everyone without exception! The fact that there was no big after-party just proved that ABBA's itself was the massive party!
And the Steely Buns were the rockstars at the party.
I have one short snippet of me doing T&S taken from Sriram's phone... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE9lbDsA4XE
More videos / photos to follow.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
The Buns of Navarone
Yep... that's the (provisional) name of the band we're putting up at this years ABBA's (a P&G regional marketing awards night). Let's just say we'll leave the etymology of that name out of this. If it's upto Rahul - this name will change!! :)I'm kinda nervous about my 4 songs... my scale can be a bit iffy. My timing can be a worry. And there are about 300 ppl watching the show. Might resort to Nissim's EOQ of 2 beers before the performance.
Our line up is quite a bunch - Mallu (celebrity drummer), Saurabh (multitasker... bass and vocals), Nissim (2beers and lead), Sexy Paolo (last minute saviour and keyboard), BJ (fill in drummer, vocals and resident papa), D'tripper Vidya (desperately wannabe drummer and vocals), Zombie Vidya (resident flunk and vocals) et moi (wannabe rockstar and attempting vocals).
CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE PHOTOS
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