Musings Of A Manic Manipuri Metalhead

THE PIT v.5 - RISING FISTS

2011-05-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

Kolkata, the City Of Joy. A city that takes pride in being a major cultural hub of India. A city known for it’s great writers, poets, artists, musicians and film personalities – people like Rabindranath Tagore. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Satyajit Ray. Yonsample. Chronic Xorn. Evil Conscience. What?????

Yes, as hard as it may seem Kolkata isn’t just about award-winning literature and art-house films and about jazz and classic rock. Heavy metal has slowly but surely made an entry into the local music scene as well, and by the look of things, has every intention of staying. And why not? In these last 2 years the number of heavy metal listeners and metal converts has increased by leaps and bounds – the number of gigs held by out-station bands (from other parts of the country) has doubled – in fact, most band competitions in Kolkata these days are being swept by promising new local metal acts. A sign of the times.

Of course all of the above would not have been possible if it weren’t for the popularity and awareness drive started by THE PIT, a group of local metal bands and metal music lovers who have, for the past few years, been working their socks off to make Kolkata a better place for heavy metal. The journey is still nowhere near it’s final destination, but the fruits of their hard-work is there for all to see – more bands trying their hand at this genre and a steady increase in the metal-listening masses. The previous 4 PITs held in the last 2 years have been instrumental in allowing both young and experienced bands to showcase their music to the metal-loving community of the city. And this string of metal music fests also helped to bring the metal community under one roof – kind of like a metal-heads get-together party.

The last PIT had been held on the 20^th of October, 2010, with a turnout of 850 crazy metalheads. But this time the PIT committee was aiming for an even larger audience, something in the region of 1000-1200. And rightly so since tickets were selling like hotcakes the moment the date for the “PIT v.5 – Rising Fists” was announced. The PIT working committee had even managed to get hold of sponsors for the event – LIZARD SKIN TATTOOS and VIBRATIONS: THE MUSIC STORE – a 1^st for any sort of heavy metal event in the city. There was a huge buzz around town and this even spread to other neighboring regions in West Bengal and other parts of the country.

The PIT v.5 – THE RISING FISTS. The theme for this PIT, “Rising Fists” emphasized on how us local metal-heads would not bow down and be controlled by the rest of the city’s music circuit just because our musical genre of choice was not on top of the popularity charts. In fact “Rising Fists” was a call to all metal-heads to protest and fight for their rights to listen to metal, and to stand together as one with raised fists. Did we sound like revolutionaries? You bet we did! But it was also very obvious that this protest would only be a success if the city’s metal brethren responded to our call to arms – to come and be a part of THE PIT v.5 – RISING FISTS.

And on the 19^th of April 2011, we were not disappointed. The metal community of Kolkata heard our call to arms and they responded in droves! The scheduled start time for the PIT v.5 was 12 noon, but by 10 AM the venue, Tapan Theatre, was surrounded by excited, expectant and enthusiastic metal-heads. And a quiet neighbourhood in the Chetla area of South Kolkata had turned into a massive sea of black-tee wearing metal maniacs!

A word about the bands – this PIT had 8 bands on the roster and the line-up was a combination of both young and experienced. 2 bands, DARK RITUALZ and BURNOUT SYNDROME, had been selected through a rigorous audition round, while 2 Kolkata veterans, SINFUL OATH and NOYZE AKADEMI, were making come-backs @ the PIT with new line-ups. Also in the list of performers was WHAT ESCAPES ME, the young pretenders to the Kolkata metal throne. And to top it off were the current 3 heavyweights of the city’s metal scene: EVIL CONSCIENCE, CHRONIC XORN and YONSAMPLE. The crowd certainly had a lot to look forward to.

So when the gates were finally opened (after an hour’s delay – the inevitable last minute goof-ups!), the crowd swarmed in like flies.

DARK RITUALZ was the opening band for PIT v.5. The crowd was still settling down when they went up on stage but this did not deter the young band, as they belted out a set-list which comprised of 4 originals and 2 Lamb Of God covers. For most people in the crowd, this was their 1st taste of DARK RITUALZ’ brand of music, and they certainly were not disappointed.

The comeback kids NOYZE AKADEMI were the next band on stage. This band was one of the founding members of the PIT committee and they had had a short but successful stint before their initial break-up, their RSJ pub-rock performance 3 years back being a definitive highlight. This new avatar of the band had only one original member left, plus there were rumours about the band experimenting with a new death-core sound. Well all questions were answered and emphatically so. NOYZE AKADEMI blew the crowd away with their short power-packed stint on stage – 4 OCs and 1 cover (Impending Doom) – the crowd did not know what had hit them! The moshing had truly started by now and even an impromptu wall-of-death followed suit. And so was time for the 3rd band to perform…

BURNOUT SYNDROME! This band, although fairly new, were playing their 2nd PIT (having also featured at PIT v.4) – the crowd knew them and so they had no problem warming up to the band, especially after the performance of their set-list which included a mix of originals and covers by bands like Threat Signal and Veil Of Maya. The performance of their OC “Tormented Psychopath” was the stand-out in their set-list. It was also interesting to see that the OCs of BURNOUT SYNDROME had a distinct djent texture to them, and it looks like they are gradually making a shift from their metal-core roots, an interesting approach indeed!

The day’s second band on the comeback trail, SINFUL OATH, was the PIT’s 4th band on stage. Although being regulars at each PIT version, SINFUL OATH had been inactive in the Kolkata metal circuit for a very long time. A string of line-up changes had led to the band introducing a practically new and unknown line-up apart from 2 previous members. And although their set-list was short (comprising of 4 covers and 1 instrumental), a bout of nerves did take a toll on the newer members. But they did manage to recover their poise and delivered a solid performance, much to appreciation of the audience.

Half of the bands on the list had played their part for the PIT – but the 2nd half had much more to offer because it was time for the city’s heavyweights to get into action. And even now the crowd was still pouring in, with a steady stream of school/college/office goers arriving at the venue after a long day of drudgery.

EVIL CONSCIENCE was band number #5 and they rammed the crowd into a brutal submission with their set-list of originals and metal covers. The band played a total of 7 songs – 4 originals and 3 covers, and the brutality of their musical assault left the crowd feeling like they had been smashed with a sledgehammer. Especially so, when they played their popular original “Your God Is Burning”. The moshpit by this time had become a war-zone, which suited the band just fine. EVIL CONSCIENCE’s performance left the crowd drained and drenched in sweat and blood and but the audience had absolutely no time for respite! Because following this deadly assault were…

CHRONIC XORN! After the very successful release of their EP “Death.Destruction.Sermon”, the popularity of this Kolkata band had increased by leaps and bounds, which was evident from the amount of cheering and sing-a-longs to their songs. The metal-heads in the front row were now indulging themselves in a hefty bout of stage diving and crowd-surfing, and the band loved it! Each song performed by CHRONIC XORN was met by a huge round of applause and their vocalist literally had the crowd eating out of his hands! For the record, CHRONIC XORN performed all the songs from their EP as well as a new single “Bleeding” and a re-worked version of an older single “Valentine Of Nightmares”. And as always, the band ended their set with a Lamb Of God cover (on public demand!) – “Black Label”, which got the crowd wild!!!

PIT v.5 was fast approaching it’s end – but not before YONSAMPLE got their chance to blast the crowd! The current darlings of the Indian metal scene, YONSAMPLE has been getting rave reviews for their newly released debut EP “Paraphernalia”. The band kept it simple by performing their entire EP for the head-banging audience, which did not disappoint them at all! And when Yonsample performed their crowd favourite “Breaking Through”, 1000+ voices broke into song, singing each and every line of chorus, much to the amazement and also to the immense satisfaction of the band. It was a breath-taking moment indeed and one of the highlights of the entire PIT v.5.

Closing out PIT v.5 was WHAT ESCAPES ME, a young band which had been sweeping, left and right, 1st prize at most college band competitions this season in the eastern region of the country, including top honours at the IIT Kharagpur fest. Unfortunately due to time constraints and due to the un-cooperative venue management, their set-list had to be cut short to just 3 songs – 2 originals and a cover – which was extremely disappointing for both band and metal-head alike. But for all those who were witnessing WHAT ESCAPES ME for the first time, they did get a taste of their sound and also a listen to their most popular OC, “Section 66 Part 5” – a song which has already become a metal anthem in the Kolkata circuit in these last few months.

And so the curtains fell on another PIT - another glorious day of metal in the City Of Joy had come to an end, leaving everyone in attendance totally wasted, completely exhausted BUT extremely happy. Rightly so too, because the crowd response was beyond belief – and what a response it was! At last count there were approximately 1500 metal-lovers in attendance, not only from Kolkata, but from other parts of West Bengal. In fact metal-heads as far off as Chennai and Sri Lanka had come down to be a part of the PIT. Totally unprecedented in the short history of Kolkata metal!

I guess this is a positive sign and proof that the Kolkata metal scene is alive and kicking, and that the metal-heads of the city are willing to stand up and be heard. The future of metal in Kolkata indeed seems to be bright, all thanks to the success of the PIT. But there is a lot more to be done and scope for improvement is always there. So people, look out for THE PIT v.6 – and for an even better and more brutal show of hands from the Kolkata metal community!

What Is Wrong With The Kolkata Rock Music Circuit? Chapter:2 - The Way We Were

2010-09-30T05:51:00.000-07:00

Lets go back some years... no not 1 or 2 years. Not even 5.
How about when I was still a school student? Like way back in the 1980s. When rock music was something only the "elite" few ever listened to. When only a handful of students from English medium schools and colleges would get initiated to. When English music was all about the melody and less about the genre. Unlike today.

Rock music. No not metal. Not punk. Not blues. Just "rock" - music that encompassed any type of popular English music form. Pink Floyd, Bob Dyan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, Dire Straits... classic rock to the core. But back in those days THIS just wasn't classic rock. It was the ONLY form of rock music available.
Back then you couldn't just do a search for a particular torrent and download the latest album of some obscure artist. Things were different back then. Hell, there wasn't even anything called a torrent back in those days. Downloading? In the 80s that would have almost sounded like something being done in a sci-fi flick.
So ok, maybe you could just walk into the nearest Planet M or Music World shop and get wowed by the collection of CDs on display... wait wait wait. Walk into "PLANET M"??? Walk into "MUSIC WORLD"??? Latest ALBUM??? CDs??? What the hell am I talking about!!!
Back then we didn't have CDs!!! We only had dinky cassettes and we listened to music on dinky cassette players. No CD players, no MP3 players and most certainly no I-PODS!!! Yes kid, you probably wouldn't have survived back then in the good 'ol 80s without these goodies that you obviously take for granted in the 21st century.
And nope we didn't have mp3s or the INTERNET. The latest albums were not available @ music stores because there WERE NO MUSIC STORES! Liberalization was still a distant dream. An album that was, say for example, released in 1981 in the USA would only reach our shores 2-3 years later. And these would be available only through HMV. On cassettes.
Back then there weren't any other recording companies around that were willing to deal with English popular music so this was as good as it got.
Yes, you might not like him, but you me and everyone around town have a lot of thanking to do to Dr. Manmohan Singh. He brought in liberalization to this country when he was the finance minister in the cabinet of then Congress Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. Yes, the guy involved in the Bofors scandal. And the Babri Masjid scandal. A scandalous dude no doubt - but at least he got Manmohan Singh to change the direction this country was taking.

So anyway, whatever we see now - the good stuff, that is, is post liberalization INDIA. I was born and brought up in the era just before that. In the 1970 and the 1980s. When rock music and pop music were things that you listened to if you were a part of the "in" crowd. Almost like a mini caste system - whether you were a fan of this music or not allowed you to be classified as "English-cultured" or mainstream desi. Funny no? Nowadays everyone is exposed to English music in some form or the other. Hell, yesterday I saw an auto rickshaw driver wearing a "BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE" tee :D metalcore fan is he? Sorry I didn't ask I was too busy laughing.
Anyway as I mentioned above, the latest music was hardly available back then - not at shops, not on the TV, not on the radio, not anywhere. We didn't have cable TV or TATA SKY or whatever. No Channel [V] or VH1 - MTV had just been given birth to in the USA anyway, so it was a long long way away from our shores.
If you had an aunt living in England or a brother working somewhere in the USA, maybe, just maybe she or he might bring you the latest blah blah blah played by blah blah blah. A big maybe. And not all of us were so lucky. You did get pirated cassettes galore here and there. And they'd probably play for a week before falling into ashes
No FM Radio in India back then. MW radio was just All India Radio in a nutshell - and they would have the odd English popular music program with the same old songs played again and again and again, week after week after week. The same old songs listened to by us music lovers from all walks of life and from varying age groups. There was nothing else available anyway so what could you do?

Which brings me to the topic of bands. In order to have a live music scene you need bands to perform "live". No?
And there were bands certainly. College bands. Established bands (Shiva was one of the noteworthy ones). Trincas was no more a viable music venue - The days of the swinging sixties (and prior maybe) where Usha Uthup and Carlton Kitto and Lou Majaw and all those stalwarts would be gigging @ Trincas were long long gone. Someplace Else? Hahahaha! Non-existent for at least another 10-15 more years.
Basically there were 2 categories of bands - the English music playing bands which would only play classic rock because the musicians here were ONLY familiar with such artistes. And nothing strange with that - that was the only kind of music they had been listening to. Also, the people who came in to listen to them play ONLY listened to that stuff as well. Classic rock and pop. That was the music you played if you were in an English band.
Category 2 was if you were in a Bangla band - something new and trendy in the college circuit. A different story altogether. The concept of Bangla bands was a growing one, and it later blew up into a totally new sub-culture in Kolkata (and other parts of West Bengal). But we shall leave this topic for later. But suffice to say, if you were a musician and interested in rock music then you (a) followed the majority and played in a band that performed classic rock covers and popular contemporary English mainstream songs. OR (b) you rebelled and joined a bangla band which would play folk, folk rock or classic rock - whatever took your fancy.

Such bands would play the odd gig @ college fests or @ college band competitions but that was about it - you would most likely see them playing @ your college canteen in all honesty. A few bands at the top did go on to record albums... but all this later later later :D

So yes, back to the classic rock bands. Bands like Shiva - they would play the odd gig @ The Open Air Theatre (now called Nazrul Manch), sometimes be the headliners @ college fests like Xavotsav... but more than likely you would see them playing @ the clubs. The hang-out for the "elite" - the "English-cultured" of our society. Shiva, Fifth Dimension, Rila 'O Brien (nee Banerjee, and yet to marry Sumeeth Ramachandran - you know the story. If not ask an old-timer.). They'd wow the crowd with a "Hey You" or a "Comfortably Numb" or a "Jumping Jack Flash" or a "Sultans Of The Swing". And they crowd would go wild. A few would dance. Most would sing along to the chorus. And the band would be in 7th heaven.
So the next time they were up on stage the same old routine - play the tried and tested covers. And watch the crowd go wild.
As easy as pie. And you got instant fame as well. Plus the girl too. (Yes sexist I know, but the scene was and still is kind of male-centric even today).
Bands turned into live jukeboxes. Yes, they probably did play some of the covers really well, but at the end of the day, they were just that, covers. And so bands were just that, live jukeboxes.
New bands that came into the scene didn't have any role-models BUT these jukebox heroes. And so all new bands wanting to play in English did nothing BUT covers. And thus did get born the culture of the Calcutta cover band. This culture had it's hey days in the 1990s and was still going strong even as recent as 2000 - 2005.Young bands thought aping was the next big thing. Never did they even try to break the trend - and hey, why would they? Because playing covers WAS the trend.
And this, while the rest of the major music hubs in India were already well into the concept of playing their "OWN" music. Original music. Such a culture shock even within the same country.

Kolkata was well and truly in a 70s and 80s time-warp post-2000. And no one even thought this was a strange thing.
No wonder we are lagging behind the other cities. Someone once wrote, "What India thinks tomorrow, Bengal thinks today"... or something like that.
Well this certainly wasn't applicable for rock music.

Luckily things have started to change. A kid fresh out of school and into the music scene TODAY would be really surprised how much the scene has changed in just a couple of years.

What Is Wrong With The Kolkata Rock Music Circuit? Chapter:1 - The Intro

2010-09-09T04:45:00.000-07:00

That is the question...
I've thought about it long and hard. I've had long discussions with musicians about it. I've spoken to music lovers in the city.

Everyone seems to know what the answer is. Or conversely, no one seems to know what the problem is. Most kids don't even realise that there is a problem. Which is such an irony - because it is these very issues and problems that result in their bands breaking up a year or 2 after getting formed. Sometimes they don't even last 2 months. And things remain the same, until a new set of kids come along and follow in the foot-steps of their predecessors. Sort of like the blind leading the blind.

I have a theory. Or theories actually. And I'd like to share them here. Yes, probably no one is going to read what I have to vomit out anyway, which is a good thing actually, because my intention here is to be direct and caustic. I am probably gonna step on a few toes here and there, and diss a few bands and musicians in the process - something which I am not very excited about, but I want to be as brutally honest as possible. I don't really hate anyone in the scene, contrary to popular belief. I mean, in order to hate someone you need to know that person... and I hardly know anyone from the circuit in the truest sense.

Another thing which I hope people understand is that my point of view is totally an unbiased one... yes baby, you better believe it! I am not a musician after all. I'm a listener. A music fan. I am a part of the audience who is standing in front of the stage while the performers do their thing. I am the person who is there attending YOUR show. I am the guy who is at the music store buying YOUR album. And as much as I need YOUR music to keep me sane and happy, YOU need me to come to YOUR gigs to cheer after every song YOU perform just to boost YOUR ego. YOU need ME to go to the store to buy YOUR album, YOUR band tee-shirt, YOUR band poster, etc etc etc. We have a 100% symbiotic relationship going on here - so please remember that. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. It's the way the world is.

So this is me the listener, standing in the audience, listening to some band... its just me and the music. Nothing else. It's not about the drummer who I hang out with once a week at the local pub. It's not about the sexy hot babe standing in front of me who's phone number I managed to get in exchange for promising to introduce her to the vocalist. It's not about the guitarist who nicked my chemistry notes before exam time during our college days.
It's not about that at all.
It's just about the music. Only the music.

Sometimes musicians are so deep into their ego-trip that they lose a sense of reality. I find this very funny. Silly actually. I hate this pseudo ego attitude thing that musicians seem to go through. And I haven't met a single musician that wasn't affected in some way and to some degree. Sickening really. Take pride in your body of work, but don't make it turn you into a bloated carcass.

Similarly, there is this section of society who need to pass a comment on everything that moves, sings, dances and farts. They can't get a good night's sleep if they do otherwise. You can't miss these parasites, gigs seem to attract them like light-bulbs do to a moth - the guy/gal who knows everything about music inside out. The moron who will analyze to death each chord/beat he/she hears. That member of the audience who feels he/she needs to be heard even more than the vocalist singing on stage.
A poison in the circuit. Every city has a few. So does Kolkata.

I never understood how their brains work - if you don't like a particular band then you don't - it's cool. Who said you have to like every damn musician in this city? But why do you have to be at their show then? Does your being present provide the performer divine strength? Does the band's ratings improve with you in attendance? I mean, what is it???

Whoo!

Before I begin the serious stuff, I'd like to reiterate a few things here.

As the title of this blog states, I'm here to toss around a few theories - some good, some bad, some ugly. I am not here to sing the praises of certain venues like Someplace Else or to list down the achievements (in chronological order) of Cassini's Division. This here blog is not an attempt to convert everyone into becoming a metalhead like me either.
Also, I am not going to rant and rave about the negatives of classic rock and why singing covers are so uncool.

No. None of the above.

I have been attending gigs and checking out bands of different genres in Kolkata for more than 10 years now. Times have changed certainly, bands have come and gone. Some have done pretty well for themselves while others have just vanished like your shit being flushed down the toilet. Musical styles have changed. Times have changed.
And yet, despite all the changes that have taken place it is very apparent that me, the listener and you, the musician have remained stuck in some kind of weird limbo. And like I mentioned at the start, sometimes it's like we don't even realise that we are in a motionless maze. You've seen the Matrix Trilogy? You've seen Inception? Yes? Well that is exactly what we all are in - in this dream-world where apparently things look perfect. And yet we are just one second away from waking up and seeing that everything around us is just a dream and that life is total crap. And yes we haven't even moved a single inch from where we had started.

I'm sure that if you were as jobless as I was, you'd come to the same logical conclusions that I am about to propagate. You'd have to. It's all about fitting together all the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle... the pieces are all there right in front of us. You just need the patience and the time. Ya, being jobless like me does help as well, to be honest.

Some of the pieces for us to look at:
** The live music scene in Kolkata pre 2000 AD

** Classic rock and it's popularity
** The emergence of a parallel Bangla rock scene
** The young generation and the Indian education system
** Indian society vs. the "School Of Rock"
** Why do we fear Heavy Metal?
** Torrents, downloads, Planet M and Music World
** The internet
** Bollywood is not the enemy

... there are probably a few more pieces I will be listing but right now this is what shall get me started. If anyone is reading all this, well I hope you stick around. Feel free to agree/disagree with me as you please.

Why Do We Blog Anyway?

2010-09-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

Been a long time since I blogged. More than a year.

And a lot has happened since my last piece on Aila and Sector-V.

Apart from the proverbial "I'm a year older" (which is a given), quite a few things have occurred this past year and they have been rather interesting "things". Well most of them at least... and most of these "most of them" have been positive "things". Of course there have been the few negatives as well. And there are the few unsettled-still-not-done-and-dusted issues that have merrily rolled over from the previous year to the current one.

No, I'm not here to compile a list of my achievements and failures since my last blog-time. I'm not that kind of a person actually. What's mine is mine and not for everyone to know. My list would probably bore the death out of the casual reader anyway.

But it is funny how some people I know have converted their blogs into a daily diary of sorts. And they have no qualms about vomiting out in detail stuff regarding their love life and even their sex life. It makes for interesting reading to be honest, and hey, it's not my duty to say what's right and what's wrong to them. It's their choice - freedom of expression using whatever medium they so desire.

There is this one blog which has left me totally totally fixated, almost to the point of obsession. A young woman who's name is Radha - she's an air-hostess flying with Singapore Airlines. And yes, she's Manipuri, just like me.
I don't know her personally. She most likely graduated from Bangalore - and we had exchanged scraps a few times on Orkut during her stay there. She had this really interesting profile, this apparently excellent taste in music (rock obviously), and she was hot and very attractive. So being the weirdo male that I am, I scrapped her. And she scrapped back... we exchanged the odd scrap for 2-3 weeks. Then she probably got bored of me.
And that was that :)

Well, I thought so at least...

For some reason (call it the Curious George syndrome), I happened to re-visit her profile. I guess to check out her photos again (ya ya I know!), but my luck, she'd deleted all of them from her Orkut album.
But she did have this link to her blog. And I decided to check it out, since, as you all are well aware of, I am a blogger too (otherwise you wouldn't be reading this shit).

And what I read from her blog was nothing short of edgy, gripping and gut-wrenching. Not to sound over-dramatic, but it has left me a changed person.

For most of you who aren't aware, Manipur is a small teeny weeny state situated in the North-East of India. It's kind've locked between Myanmar and other hilly states like Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram. The capital city of Imphal is predominantly a Hindu belt. And when I say Hindu belt, I mean hard-core Hinduistic! Liberal, open-minded house-holds (to my knowledge) are few and far between. Especially so since most families are of the Hindu Undivided Joint Family type - so that would mean 2-3 families (maybe more) living together with a typical patriarchical figure-head acting as moral/local guardian for everyone residing under the same roof. The young generation doing their "thing" is looked down upon by the elders of society. And the young generation, in my opinion, reach a point where, when they do manage to leave Imphal and break the shackles of society, automatically get afflicted by this "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" syndrome - and this leaves them undergoing a sudden transformation in lifestyle and beliefs. Principles and values and other moral lessons that had been shoved into their brains seem to get lost or they undergo a complete re-working after their so-called-freedom is attained.

Am I rambling?

No I am not. But let me elucidate some more...

For me, having been born in the USA and then having spent most of my "educated" life in this big bad city Kolkata, the rules and regulations of life in Manipur were never an issue for me. I've lived my life colorfully, the way any city-bred guy would live. I've done things which I would never blog about, I have gone to extremes on many an occasion, and there are certain incidents in my past that I certainly do not look back upon with pride. I obviously cannot run away from my past or my present. So hiding is no solution. But learning from my past is. And this I try to do, sometimes with success, sometimes not so successfully - but yes, I try. Of course each day brings about a new challenge. And we do new things, meet new people, have new experiences - so all I've seen, all I've done, all I've experienced, all I've learnt has hopefully made me a more mature and wiser person. And liberal too. Modern, open-minded and liberal.
You see a kid doping on the side-walk. You see a woman puking out her lungs after a drink too many. You see a young teenage girl smoking like there's no tomorrow. You see an old man making out with a college kid... you know, stuff which society frowns down upon. My folks would have a fit if they saw some of the things that I'd seen. Most of my relatives in Manipur would have passed out from shock for sure. Hell, getting a tattoo is like a big deal to them.

And that is normal, ain't it? Because these people haven't come across such scenes in their lives. And they do not know how to handle incidents like these - the normal reaction would probably be to look the other way and ignore, pretend you hadn't seen anything. And of course you also start to dig deep inside your mind, looking for past references to lessons that would give you direction and help allow you to handle such scenes. Chances are though (if you are in their shoes) you won't find any such references. So you start to invent labels. Labels for each person involved in each act that you find is a violation of your principles and values.
Values are important. If you don't have any, you couldn't classify yourself as a human being. We all have them, as do rapists, murderers, dictators, anarchists, everyone (even though their value system pretty much has no resemblance to ours, you can bet on that). Values are what guide you through your daily life till the day you die.

So yes, I've seen stuff, done stuff, blah blah blah. I've had the opportunity to edit and modify my "value" system on a few occasions. So when I see a kid doping or a young woman smoking or whatever, I don't freak out. I do have the sensibility and intelligence to understand what is going on around me. And I don't need labels to make things easier for me. What is happening around me doesn't always need to be black or white, because there is enough gray in this society of ours to provide me with suitable explanations to all the things that we get to see and experience in our society.
Does that make me an open-minded, mature, liberal person?
You betcha it does.

But sometimes you come across people, or in this case, a person (and a virtual person at that!) who's life experiences and life-style totally baffle you. Blows your mind away. Hits you like a sledgehammer. And then you start to understand why the older generation freaks out when they see things that they don't relate too. Yes you suddenly find yourself in their shoes as well. You start frantically searching for references inside your brain and you find nothing. Suddenly simple equations which you thought you knew blind-folded don't seem to make sense anymore. And you then start to question the liberal open-mindedness that you seemed to be so proud of.

I do not know Radha. Scrapping a person a few times does not amount to "knowing" a person. I have never met Radha. And I probably never will. She is a complete zero in my life. And yet everytime I read her blog I can't help but feel for her. It's like I want to look her straight in the eye and tell her to get a grip on her life! To push her off this self-destructive road that she seems to be treading. To just shout, "WAKE UP WOMAN!!!"

I spoke of young adults breathing a fresh air of life once they leave their home Imphal behind - and how they change into something that they were so not what they were - well, this young woman takes the proverbial piece of cake. Probably nothing in her wildest dreams would have allowed her to know how her life path would take the course that it is currently on.

I think myself to be open-minded, liberal... and yet what this Manipuri "leishabi" has experienced and done, I'd probably need a ladder to reach her level. And the worst part? Reading her blogs you can feel her pain, her awareness that what she is doing is wrong and totally "NOT" what she would have been doing if she was back home in Imphal. And it's like she's trapped in this vicious cycle - not knowing how to break free from it... and sadly, it doesn't seem like she wants to break free from it either.

My whole point in writing all this probably got drowned somewhere after the 1st few paragraphs. But let me go back a bit before I end my long "come-back"
Like I was saying, many things have happened in this period since my last blog. And as I said, I am not the kind of person to list them all down here in my blog site. But there are people who consider a blogspot to be just that... a place where they can vent their feelings and emotions, for lack of any other mechanism to do so... a place where things can be safely said, since such things cannot be expressed publicly or explicitly for fear of repercussions... or just a place where the blogger sends out a silent cry for help - silent, since he or she knows that no one is going to respond to their cry.

But whatever, I am back. I like to blog and hopefully I shall continue to do so at regular intervals.

And I shall also continue to follow Radha's blog and feel her pain from a distance. A pain that is sure to increase with each passing day in her life.
I hope she proves me wrong and I wish her the best

Her blogspot, if you are interested:
http://fierycrotch.blogspot.com
Wreck Of The Day

Cyclone AILA and Sector-V

2009-06-10T07:24:00.000-07:00

A very boring title for my blog - I suppose it could have been a lot more grandiose to give you an idea just how bad the devastation caused by AILA was. But I guess you can read all about the destruction and havoc that occurred on the 25th of May 2009 almost anywhere on the net (complete with statistics and 1st hand eye witness reports etc. etc.)

Me, I just wanna show you what it all looked like in Sector-V (or at least in my section of Sector-V - the Block EP and GP area) AFTER Aila was so gracious enough to leave us for the northern parts of West Bengal (via Howrah et al).
It's so funny, the 24th (The previous day) was a Sunday and it was like raining the entire day - and here I was thinking "OK, the Monsoon's here - and now it's gonna be hell getting to work, what with the flooding and all). I had even gone out to watch Monsters Vs. Aliens in the afternoon with my cousin bro Bumba and sis-in-law Debina in the rain, not even realising that the next day was going to be Kaos in Kolkata :)

I woke up on Monday (after spending most of Sunday night watching the final day of this season's English Premier League) - late as usual I might add... I didn't read the papers - I didn't watch the news - I basically had NO idea what was just about to hit us.

Big mistake. Big big mistake.

It wasn't even very cloudy going to work. Very windy yes, but no rain - just a drizzle while on the bus (if I remember correctly). And I'm inside office early as usual. 9:25 AM.

Cut to 11:00 AM - raining like hell outside and AILA has broken loose.

By 11:30 AM gossip/news from everyone everywhere (tough filtering and sifting through the facts when they all hit you in the face at the same time) and I am hearing about this cyclone and how there's been a city-wide warning about how people should be inside their homes and should not be venturing out.

12 noon - the entire office knows about AILA now. People have basically stopped working and everyone is surfing weather reports on the net or listening to FM radio for details. It's actually very funny seeing everyone like this. And the drama king that I am, I can't help but NOT make jokes about how we have to build ships to reach home or how we should ration our lunches because we probably WILL NOT be reaching home at all :)

Anyway, 1:00 PM and it is pouring and the wind is howling. Every so often I open the window and boy, is that wind blowing! And I can see people flying, I mean it - literally being dragged by the wind outside. Poor souls. Lotsa pretty women too running after their umbrellas. Brollies are no use in this weather at all.

Phone home a few times - Mom is worred. Phone Baba, he's at work but thank god he's aware of the situation. He wants to send the car to pick me up - and I refuse, because I can see that the usual stretch in front of the Omega Building + Megatherm + Infinity Building + RDB Boulevard is already flooded big time.

At 2:00 PM during the roughest part of the storm, I convince Shrewam to take out his car and to brave the journey. We reach as far as the underground parking area of the RDB Boulevard, but Samit and the parking attendant discourage him from venturing out. And it is pretty bad (although Bina and Anup did just leave 15 minutes prior) - the road in front of the Systron Building and the RDB Boulevard looks like a war-zone - trees uprooted, and an electric pole lying in the middle of the road. Things looks very very bad.

Anyway, am back at office but not for long.

3:00 PM - the rain has stopped finally (for how long, I have no idea!) and I have finally convinced a few of the Venturi idiots to leave with me.

3:30 PM - most people have decided to make a dash for home now, because the MET office says that this is just the lull before the storm. Unfortunately it doesn't look like there's gonna be any space in any of the cars. So me Arindam, Manasi and Sanjay decide to leg it 'till we get a taxi. In the rain (yes it's started to rain again). No other option.

We walk 'till Nicco Park - I graciously refuse a lift from Debayan/Debdipto. Manasi has to take off her heels and walk barefoot after a point in time. And it's totally madness now in Sector-V - like the exodus of the Jews... or maybe like during the partition when people were shifting sides to India/Pakistan/Bangladesh. (was that excessive)
There are people walking EVERYWHERE. Hardly any buses (which are packed like sardines anyway). No TAXIS. All private cars are full to the brim. Uprooted trees on the road (well 2 to be precise) and a portion of the Nicco Park wall broken down. And people. Everywhere. Just walking. Actually, this reminds me of the video of the REM song "Everybody Hurts" - see it to know what I mean.

Plan A - walk till Nicco Park and we'd be sure to get a cab.
Plan A - zilch.

Plan B - walk till Chingrighata and we'd be sure to get a cab there.

We dumped Plan B. And opted for Plan C instead.

When we reached Nicco Park, not only did we see NO taxis, we saw another ocean of humanity standing in the middle of the road! And there was this funny scene we saw where this female stops a Skypak courier van and makes the driver give her a lift... and suddenly a whole bunch of desperate software nerds jump on to the van and whoosh! Taxi service for the desperate!

So going down to Chingrighata would have actually ended up being a disaster and thank god we didn't do so. Arindam and me then decide on Plan C which is to get inside the heart of Salt Lake (via Ishita Dasgupta's bridge - well it's not HER bridge, but I like to say so just to make things more identifiable for everyone concerned).
This of course means more walking. In the rain. It's past 4 PM already.

We walk and we get wet. And we generally enjoy the wind et al. And we walk some more.
Until we are finally on the Beleghata connector at the EZCC bus-stand.

So now more decisions -
Plan D: do we stay here and try and haul a cab.
OR
Plan E: do we walk down to the AMRI hospital (you always get cabs from hospital areas!)
OR
Plan F: do we walk down to Hotel Hyatt (you always get cabs from 5-star deluxe hotel areas!)
Decisions decisions.

Anyway, we finally opt for Plan D - and we literally hijack a passing cab and force the cab-driver to take us down South (that is South Kolkata). And on the way (once we are on the EM Bypass) we are witness to the carnage that has taken place prior to our departure from Sector-V.

The EM Bypass is a mess - trees uprooted everywhere, people walking and walking and walking, signboards torn to shreds (and in some cases blown away), adjacent neighbourhoods under water. People walking and walking. Oh btw did I mention the people? :)) Some guys were actually standing in the middle of the road trying to forcefuly stop cars to get a free ride. It was pretty brutal where-ever I looked. And all this in the rain too.

Anyway I reached home @ approx. 5 PM. No power. But we were the lucky ones. The power failure which had started in the afternoon was back to normal before 6 PM. For most parts of Kolkata however, things were very very different. Unfortunately. I won't go into the gory details. But I will say this - if Kolkata is hit by a bigger cyclone than AILA in the future then we are so so screwed. The Disaster Management of our city failed BIG TIME. In fact I seriously doubt we even have a working Disaster Management team for our city. The chaos caused by AIULA should never have happened and the mess should have been cleaned up within hours. Sadly things are still screwed up in some parts of the city almost 3 weeks after this disaster.

The 26th of May 2009. Tuesday.
I am back to work @ Sector-V. And from the snaps posted all around you can get an idea of what I saw all around me that day (and the next day as well).
For the record - it took whoever was in charge 2 freaking DAYS to clear up the 2 uprooted electric poles. The general mess was cleaned up in approx. 24 hours - but even that is too long considering that Kolkata's Sector-V is supposed to be the HUB of West Bengal's INFORMATION and TECHNOLOGY industry.
Anyway enjoy the snaps that have been pasted randomly (courtesy monsieurs Shantanu K. Roy and Arindam Banerjee - and moi). These were snapped on the 26th and 27th of May.

Scientists think I am highly depressed, am contemplating suicide, drink and drive AND indulge in unprotected sex !!!

2009-04-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

I have this habit of saving/collecting articles I find on the internet, that I "might" find interesting OR which I might possibly think have a "Collector's Value", if you know what I mean.

The funny thing is, most of the time these saved html files remain lying on my PC for months and months (sometimes years!) - and I eventually end up clearing everything out when I want to free up hard-disk space.

Anyway, the above cycle... was busy deleting old old files when I came across this beauty, and boy, I just had to post it here in my blog!!!

And yup - for those of you who don't know (and I find that extremely WEIRD) , although I listen to most forms of music, the genre that I love the most is HEAVY METAL!

Alright - enough yapping, you may proceed to the reading room :)

Kids' choice of music may reveal suicidal tendencies

Tue, Aug 5 2008
Doctors can determine whether a teenager is at the risk of developing a mental illness or committing suicide just by asking him or her what type of music they prefer, according to a new study.
Published in Australasian Psychiatry journal, the study showed that teens who listen to pop music are more likely to be struggling with their sexuality, while those who prefer rap or heavy metal could be having unprotected sex and drink-driving.
Teens who favour jazz are usually misfits and loners.
The authors of the study say that these observations go to suggest that teens' musical tastes may serve as a diagnostic indicator in mental health assessments.
"There is no evidence to suggest that the type of music you listen to will cause you to commit suicide, but those who are vulnerable and at risk of committing suicide may be listening to certain types of music," smh.com.au quoted the author of the study, Felicity Baker, as saying.
She said that an Australian study of year 10 students had shown significant associations between heavy metal music and suicide ideation, depression, delinquency and drug-taking, while an American study had also shown that young adults who regularly listened to heavy metal had a higher preoccupation with suicide and higher levels of depression than their peers.
She further said that deliberate self-harm and attempted suicide was also linked with children who listened to trance, techno, heavy metal, and medieval music as part of the goth subculture.
Teens who attended dance parties were much more likely than their peers to be taking drugs, she added.
Dr. Baker also revealed that some genres of rap music, like French rap, were linked to more deviant behaviours including theft, violence and drug use, while teens listening to hip-hop were usually less troublesome.

THE PIT v.2.0 - 18th April 2009

2009-04-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

And so to the biggest event of April 2009 – bigger than the National Assembly Elections… THE PIT v.2!
I doubt whether any review would do justice to the actual event. It is far easier to review band competitions or one-off gigs, because you can actually get away with being critical of a particular band or a musician.

But events like The Pit are far bigger than just one musician or a single band – to me, this is more than just about the music. This is more than just about a horde of metal-heads congregating at some metal shrine and headbanging like lunatics… No, The Pit is a concept, a message from the heavy metal loving fraternity of Kolkata to the rest of the metal loving maniacs of our country. So to insult (or to be overtly critical) of any musician performing @ The Pit would be an insult to The Pit itself.

Anyway, for all those who were NOT present, The Pit v.2 was not just a success, it was a MAMMOTH SUCCESS! This entire metal slug-fest was so well organized that it left me totally flabbergasted.
Me being the perennial pessimist, I was expecting pit-falls and goof-ups at every corner – but no, apart from the 1 hour delayed start, I was left totally disappointed!
I couldn’t lay my finger on anything.
The concept – A+

The venue – A
Granted, it is definitely not the classiest theatre in town. And ok, the toilets stank and the dearth of ACs (April 18th – 40.8° centigrade – one of the hottest days in 10 years!) was a killer – but regardless, the compactness of Tapan Theatre just felt so right that I couldn’t think of any better venue to hold such an event! (an outdoor gig in this weather would have led to all of us dying of sun-stroke anyways!). Plus, this joint being in South Kolkata… what more could I ask for? Heh! I hope all such events are held in South Kolkata! Heh!

The sound – A
Again, no complaints. The sound was very clear to even a deaf person like me. No boom, no feedback, no reverb and all that trash which makes listening to music torture. What more could one ask for?

The music – A++
Like I said, it would be totally unfair to criticize any of the bands – it wasn’t just about the music after all, The Pit was around to make a bold statement.
In any case (and this is the good thing) none of the bands did anything for me to be critical about. Am I being diplomatic? No absolutely not. I enjoyed the performance of all the bands. Maybe I was too caught up in the entire wave of metal enthusiasm to be too bothered to listen to every note and line of the songs being played as intently as I might at any other concert. Who know! But whatever, I loved the music dished out by all 8 bands that day. And this, despite my having some reservations initially before the event started.

Amongst the 8 bands, one band I had never ever heard before (live or online) – and there were at least 3 bands who were playing for the 1st time with new members (and supposedly very little practice as well!) – yes, you know which bands I am talking about.
So yup, I wasn’t very sure how good the music would be – but looking back I have to honestly say that all the bands (new line-ups, old line-ups) all gave solid performances.

The crowd – A+
A Saturday was always a great date for such an event, especially for an office-goer like me. (I still regret having to miss the 1st edition of The Pit). Anyway, I expected a pretty decent crowd on the 18th.
But what I saw that day was far beyond my expectations – this was like the biggest assembly of metal freaks ever. And there was this particular time, just after the Flash Flood gig, when the entire crowd seemed to pour out of Tapan Theatre… the neighbourhood then looked like a sea of black tees. It was really an awesome sight! I’m sure the “para” folk were scared stiff seeing so many menacing freakos in their area.
Yes, I know – a major chunk of the crowd consisted of wannabes and pseudos. Girl-friends of metal-heads, friends and relatives of musicians, curious “para” folk… all these sections of the society contributed to the numbers – still, the response to The Pit v.2 was absolutely heartening and bodes well for the future IF such events can attract such huge numbers. (Hey stuck-up event management people, wake up! Even metal shows draw great crowds in Kolkata!)

Being a DEATH tribute band is no easy task and so my hats off to the 4 members of In Human. For a 1st time listener I can only say that they were brilliant and I kick myself for not having heard them before in the past. They did a splendid job getting the event started.

The same goes for DIOT B. I had only ever seen them play half a set (@ Bethune College!) which is a crying shame. Anyway, here they were and they just let rip. 30 minutes of deadly music. The crowd was fully utilizing the space available for moshing activities.

A special mention goes out to Flash Flood. I don’t want to rank any band, but if you had to give out prizes then they were probably the winners of PIT 2. And Leeyong is such an insane muthafucka – he is the living embodiment of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a classic case of a person having 2 sides, a 2 Face - who could imagine such a docile well-mannered kid going so bloody crazy when you give him a guitar and put him on stage?
Flash Flood was brilliant – maybe instead of leaving, Diwash and Leeyong should stick around. I know I am trying to be politically correct and I shouldn’t be saying such stuff, but ya, that’s what I feel right now.

Chronic Xorn? What can I say – another great gig and more bad luck as usual! Playing to a crowd that had just survived Flash Flood’s assault was tough enough… but the massive power failure during their set was the icing of the cake. Anyway it was good to see Anindya playing with the gang.

Sinful Oath is another crazy band that I just love to watch. Maybe the thinnest band around too – from what I saw after seeing their topless performance. The most improved band in the circuit.

To me, this was my best gig I have seen Cicatrixx play. They performed far beyond my expectations. Regardless of the bassist change I found this to be their most mature gig to date, even better than what I saw @ the Karunamoyee Kings Of Rock competition. Good going.

Crystal And The Witches with a new guitarist. And the young chap did a great job. So that obviously helped the band to put up a good show. No hiccups, loads of energy, great choice of covers, and Leeyong going crazy as ever. Plus Diwash is a great front-man, no doubt about that.
I’m not very happy that Arthur is missing and I sincerely hope things can be patched up and that CATW return to being what they were + the new guitarist. No problem in being a 5 member band after all. Anyway, their band dynamics are not for me to handle. I will always support this band regardless of them being a 4 member band or a 5 member band.

Lastly, Noyze Akademi – also with a new bassist, but a talented one at that. This was just my 2nd NA gig and yup, I enjoyed this one far more than my 1st one (@ the Scholastic Beats final). I think removing the DJ was a good idea. Nothing against him, he’s a nice chap – but the sound of NA is far more solid because of this line-up change. There aren’t too many hard-core nu-metal acts in India so Noyze Akademi has loads of space to make a name in this genre.

So that was that, The Pit v.2 done and dusted. Special mention must be made about the massive power cut which lasted for what, 2-3 hours? It almost killed the event. And the heat, well that was even worse.
But nothing seemed daunting enough to the Pit organizing committee. And so the show went on and we all had a great time… and now everyone is dying for the next Pit to happen. And I am sure the rest of India are sitting up and taking notice of our “little” community here as well – I can guarantee that those “big daddies” from Mumbai and Delhi will be dying to be a part of The Pit v.3 whenever it happens next. Managing team, be prepared for a flood of requests from these bands!

\m/

A musical diary - non-stop gigging at my age!

2009-01-22T08:40:00.000-08:00

Haven't blogged in ages - laziness is one of the main reasons why. Anyway, I thought I'd re-blog again and what better a topic than music - and it's been a very very busy week-end in January:

15th of January
The 1st Crystal & The Witches gig that I missed in Kolkata - blame my office commitments! (I was to follow up this miss with another one – on the 21st of January to be precise... midnight gigs during a week-day are NOW a strict no-no for me!)

But whatever, from the reports I got, it was a wild night @ Princeton and the show had to end after just an hour after the inevitable moshing led to the speakers falling on top of Diwash’s processor (or some shit like that – don’t remember the exact details actually, the info being all 2nd hand!)

16th of January (day)
A total drain-out for me.

I have been helping out Safire for the last couple of months (not as a manager, more as a “big-brother” advisor), and I promised to bunk half a day at work to help them out at their prelims @ Campus Rock Idols 2009. But it turned out to be more than just half a day!

The prelims were to start at 8 AM, but as always me and the band didn’t reach the Ultadanga venue before 10 AM (the delay being mainly due to procuring of valid documents like birth certificates and college IDs and college permissions etc. etc. – a huge pain in the ass if you ask me). Anyway, the prelims were excellent fun and the number of bands participating was staggering. Only 8 were to be selected.

Cutting to the chase – WEAPON SHOP and GRAVY THEORY were brilliant. 2 of the best young bands in Kolkata for sure. The goth metallers DREAM DIABOLIC were out of this world, and metal at this level has rarely been heard in Kolkata, especially at the college level. A band to look out for in the future.

SAFIRE with a new drummer were silky smooth, which took me by surprise because I had apprehensions about how they would fare. But they nailed the prelims.

SINFUL OATH was very good too, though loose in patches. Deeptaroop on drums did a very good job. A melodic death metal band, they have been very consistent throughout the college competition circuit this year. A band to check out, if they can stick it together.

As were GLASS ONION, always a pleasure to listen to them. Not many young bands play the kind of music they do, which definitely makes them a unique act.

And THE CYNICAL RECESS – with possibly one of the best vocalists in the entire Kolkata rock circuit, Abhishek Gurung. Most people say they get goose-bumps when they hear him sing – and while that certainly does not happen to me, I will concede that vocal-wise he would give even most established singers a good run for their money.

I would be happy to say that out of the 8, I kind of managed to predict 7 correctly (the ones above). The 8th band however was a complete surprise – ALBATROSS. I didn’t quite like them very much, no disrespect to any of the band members. I think they are a talented bunch of musicians, and their vocalist was impressive indeed (reminded me of Dani Filth!) but I thought there were better bands on the day.

Bands which were very good but did not qualify – PENNY DROPS BANDS, KREMATORY and CHRONIC XORN deserve a special mention. PENNY DROPS being a punk/emo band, they had a very fresh sound and I thought that would work in their favour – unfortunately it didn’t. I could not understand the judges take on this, and I would love to know why THE PENNY DROPS BAND missed out.

Being predominantly a metal lover, it was appalling to see the judges putting their fingers in their ears when any of the metal bands play. I wonder how they were allowed to be judges if their musical tolerance level was so low.

CHRONIC XORN in my opinion was probably one of the tightest bands that performed @ the prelims. Unfortunately, being a brutal death metal band, the judges could NOT tolerate anything that they dished out. Very sad, since this band was a Zonal finalist @ CRI 2008 – and their NOT making the final 8 was indeed a big surprise. You might not like their music but no one can say they are a bad band – and a very tight one too. Their drummer Tamaghna (along with Deeptaroop and DIOT B’s Niloy) form a triumvirate of Metal Bashers. It’s good fun watching them play.

16th of January (night)
The action wasn’t over – one of Kolkata’s most talented young bands was performing @ La Dolce Vita – HOOF HOOEY.

Performers at the Calcutta Rock Festival (2007) and bagging a 3rd place at last year’s Time Youth festival (their high points) - this band has broken up and reunited and gone on a break so many times that I have lost count. But it finally looks like they are getting their act together. And I was looking forward to their 1st full-length gig, albeit a pub gig.

And they did not disappoint.

In one word the HOOF was awesome. Playing their punk and emo driven originals (and a few covers thrown in for good measure), HOOF HOOEY systematically decimated the small gathering that had turned up. And the best part was listening to them deconstruct 2 major pop super-hits and have them played in “HOOF HOOEY” style: SHANIA TWAIN’s “You’re The One I Want” and CELINE DION’s “My Heart Will Go On” – the band totally massacred these 2 songs and churned them out brand new. It was awesome to hear them do that!

If you want to check out some good clean music, then HOOF HOOEY is a band to look out for. I believe they will be playing off and on @ LDV, so watch out for their shows.

17th of January
The CRI Regional finals followed by the CRI Eastern Zonal Finals – and in between performances by SKINNY ALLEY and F.L.I.

Lets go straight to the CRI Regionals 1st.

GLASS ONION were the 1st band up – and being the 1st band up is always a disadvantage, trying to get the sound balanced properly et al. I am no musician but common-sense tells me that all the subsequent bands get to learn from the goof-ups of the 1st band and that helps them to smooth out any rough edges during their slots. So GLASS ONION was the sacrificial lamb here – despite a pretty good 15 minutes, and vocalist Piu did a great job.

GRAVY THEORY faced sound problems too – but I found them to be very tight and thoroughly enjoyed their performance. In fact I was predicting them as one of the top 3 finalists. Their original “Wait and Watch” was superb – btw these guys were playing with a temp bassist: Rohit from the band PSEUDONYM, and he had just 3 rehearsals, or so I believe, to pick up the Gravy songs.

ALBATROSS were nice but I wasn’t expecting them to go very far because the competition was tough.

SINFUL OATH totally mucked up their slot with an average performance. But being metal, they got the crowd going full-on. They could have done a lot better though. Anyway, sometimes you have a bad day.

WEAPON SHOP nailed it with their originals – "Burnout" is a very good song, a very CREED-like composition. Their guitarist Adil, bassist Sowmya and vocalist Ishan had a very good day.

SAFIRE blew me away – my kids were awesome on stage despite their pre-show hiccups. I kind of knew they would be up there if not within the top 3 itself. Their original “Song For You” sounded excellent that day.

DREAM DIABOLIC got the crowd going the moment their set started – and they had the best stage act as well.

THE CYNICAL RECESS was good – but there too many glitches with the sound towards the initial phase of their slot, which didn’t help the band at all.

Anyway, the results were not very surprising – DREAM DIABOLIC, WEAPON SHOP and SAFIRE in that order.

Many felt THE CYNICAL RECESS and/or GRAVY THEORY were the unlucky ones, and yes I would think so too – but the level of competition was so tight this time that it was probably a fair result all around. Anyway, people will have their opinions.

In between there was a massively entertaining gig by SKINNY ALLEY and I must say, this was probably the best SKINNY ALLEY show I have attended – well the one I have enjoyed the most, at least. Their rendition of Welcome To The Machine (Pink Floyd) in their own SKINNY style was absolutely brilliant – and hardly what a Pink Floyd purist would have enjoyed listening to - but who gives a damn!

The Zonal Finals were a lukewarm affair – more metal this time around (the 3 Shillong finalists were all heavy bands): DIGITAL SUICIDE, NATIVE RULZ and MELODRAMA.

The Kolkata bands actually did very bad INCLUDING SAFIRE. It was probably the worst I have seen them perform - but with a new drummer, they would have managed to have only gone so far. Getting to the Zonals was an achievement in itself. Anyway, they were no good in the Zonals, but this is nothing to get disheartened about. These kids do know they can do better so I look forward to seeing them with a bit more polish and flair next time.

WEAPON SHOP and DREAM DIABOLIC all looked tired on stage – as did SAFIRE. Playing on Friday and twice on Saturday must have taken a toll on them because they looked anything BUT fresh. I think DREAM DIABOLIC was pretty good in the Zonals, but it did look like they were going through the motions – there wasn’t much feel in their stage act. And the same could be said of WEAPON SHOP, although the band did seem happy with their performance.

Of the North-Eastern bands, NATIVE RULZ would have probably won the best hair-style prize (drummer and vocalist looked like they were sporting Mohawks) but they played very monotonous thrash metal. Not very interesting.

DIGITAL SUICIDE did well – I can’t however remember anything of their slot. They played tight and their tunes sounded nice, but that’s about it. Anyway, to make a long story short they came in 2nd from the East Zone. I would believe that they pipped DREAM DIABOLIC to the 2nd slot – I was rooting for the latter, and I thought they’d be amongst the rank-holders, which was eventually not to be.

The best band (no questions asked) was MELODRAMA – they were excellent. Tight metal-core originals and a good stage act. And they played one cover: ARCH ENEMY’s “Dead Eyes See No Future” – it was a total earth shatterer, that one. Great young band, good potential – hope they manage to strike it big @ the CRI finals in Hyderabad.

The last guest performance was by FIVE LITTLE INDIANS (F.L.I.) with their new bassist Panku (LAKKHICHHARA/URBAN REFLECTIONS... but you knew that already!)

By the time the band got up on stage most of the crowd had left – it was late by the standard of most youngsters. They unfortunately missed a pretty good show.

This was my 2nd FLI gig – the 1st one @ Someplace Else during the Pubrock Fest was memorable more for non-musical reasons – most people (me included) were attending out of the curiosity factor – getting to see 5 well-known musicians from the Kolkata circuit isn’t an everyday affair after all.

But on Saturday it was all about the music – freed of the obvious “pub” restrictions, the FLI went ahead and churned out a tight and excellent performance. At SPE the original I liked the most was ”Go”, but after listening to them this time around I’d have to do a toss-up between “Survive” and “Screaming At The Sun”. “Prodigy” was another excellent original. The contrasting vocal styles of Neel and Sayok on their songs worked for me – it was fun listening to them singing in tandem.

FLI don’t play very often – and they obviously prefer outdoor venues to pubs, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them @ Princeton or even LDV (or SPE, but not @ midnight please!) – cheers to the band.

So that was the 17th of January! Whew! What a long day.

18th of January
Still not over yet.

Sunday 6 PM @ Someplace Else – GRAVY THEORY: one of my favourite young bands from the city.

It was probably their 1st proper gig ever ('till date it’s just been 10-15 minute college competition slots and 1 half-an-hour slot @ LDV during the memorable Halloween party)

These kids didn’t disappoint. This Sunday evening was like Diwali re-visited, an explosive performance.

Keeping their CRI disappointment on the back-burner, the Gravy guys went ahead and dished out original after cracking original – and by the time the show ended most of us were sweating! Special mention must be made of the following compositions: “One Man Dead”, “Wait And Watch”, “Read Me My Rights” and my all all-time favourite Gravy tune: “This Is My Disaster, Not Your’s” – wonderful song that!

And amongst the covers, well how could I NOT mention their kick-ass ZERO cover – PSP anyone?

Add to that their signature Popeye theme tune and a mish-mosh of GNR’s “Sweet Child Of Mine and BLINK 182’s “All The Small Things”… and there you have it – Gravy served fresh and hot!

ZERO from Mumbai, THEM CLONES from Delhi… it won’t be very long before GRAVY THEORY from Kolkata are put in the same bracket as these great bands. They have the potential – I just hope they have the luck and drive to sustain them on their journey, because, ladies and gentlemen, GRAVY THEORY is a very good band.

So that's done – my musical diary from the 15th to the 18th of January - anymore gigs to attend and I'd turn into a zombie. Music listening can be pretty tiring!

The Many Faces of Cassini's Division

2007-12-13T02:34:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd write a review of some CD shows today, since its been a task long overdue. I mean, I haven't actually written a show review for the band ever since they left Someplace Else - and there have been some really dynamite shows in these past 6 months:

A> Their 2nd ever show @ Princeton (and their 1st one after the SPE exodus)
B> The show @ the Carmel High School fest which was something new for the band - playing in front of a mammoth crowd of school kids and some stern nuns/sisters/teachers.
C> The show @ Princeton where they made their HMV announcement.
D> The show @ the Statesman "VIBES" fest at Nazrul Manch.
E> The jugal-bandi with Lou Majaw for the opening show of the Sharktooth Music festival.

... Hmmm! I'm clearly lagging behind in terms of reviews and I don't think I'd be able to do justice to all these great gigs by just compiling one khichdi of a blog. And it wouldn't be fair for either the band or the fans. And it definitely would not do justice to any of the shows, each one being stand-out kick-ass gigs in their own respect.
Each gig had their own unique flavour and environment and for those of us lucky enough to attend them it was a cool experience seeing CD at their finest outside the confines of Someplace Else - a venue where most of us hard-core fans had gotten so used to seeing Cassini's perform. Almost so it was like CD had become a piece of Sunday furniture @ the Park.

The last show @ SPE was indeed a mile-stone and a turning point for not just the band but also for its fans, including your's truly... Sundays had become more than just about Cassini's Division. Sundays @ SPE had become (for the last 3 years) a week-end full-scale adda session for the regulars. A day when groupies and friends and lovers would all get together and enjoy a fun-filled 2-3 hours of booze, chit-chat, make-out sessions and music.

And unfortunately if we all take an honest look back at the those good 'ol days, Sundays had become less about music and more about fun.

Music is fun without a doubt - but when I look back I kinda realise that the band needed a change - needed new challenges. The music was and still is primarily the same, and the old-school CD fans like me never seemed to get tired of hearing the same songs being played day-in and day-out: "Stay", "Drown", "Only For A While", "Rumble", "Higher", "Caesar", "Voivoid", "Satyr9, "Glowworm", "Urban Phenomenon".
We'd occasionally hear a new song or an "OLD" song which had not been played for centuries. But the crowd never seemed to get tired of listening to the usual list of Sunday originals and covers.
Sometimes I think back and wonder - were most of the kids really listening? Or was CD just something in the back-ground for them while they were busy guzzling beer and eyeing the pretty females/ hunky males? I don't know.

Anyway, things came to an end at this venue - for the good. Playing the same stuff to the same faces at the same place is nothing short of killing.

Princeton came along - as did other shows. New venues, new faces, and newer music.

And during this phase the number of new songs that have been churned out by the band has been pretty phenomenal. And its good to see the crowd enjoying them as well... though for quite a few of the old school the change in sound has been quite a new experience. I would believe that most of them are used to seeing and experiencing a certain kind of CD sound and suddenly seeing a change in direction has knocked their socks off. More so because its not like they're seeing a CD show every Sunday anymore... it's almost like once in 1 month for them. For some its like once in 2 months... maybe longer. I guess its like coming home after being away for months and months, and then seeing that your favourite chair has been given away to your maid-servant. Something like that.

But the wonderful thing about all this change is the fact that CD is living up to it's name. And they are doing precisely what they have set out to do. Think about it.

For the past 5-6 years Cassini's Division has always tried to stand out amongst the mundane cover bands that this city has been churning out like a noodle factory. When they initially started out they were playing covers by bands like R.E.M., Nirvana and other prominent alternative/modern rock bands of the day. And NO Pink Floyd or The Doors.

And just when the city crowd started getting a hang of them, the band starts pouring out a string of originals. Something unprecedented at that time.
(Well ok, We had Skinny Alley doing it prior to them - but they are established musicians - the CD gang back then were a bunch of brash ciggie puffing tough talking dreamers still yet to make a huge name for themselves in the circuit).

It was around about this time that I made my entrance in the CD army. And this change in "scenery" totally bowled me over. Forget the fact that I am a metal-headed freak - the fact that I was getting to experience something so new in the city made me want to dance with joy. And hey I do love alternative/modern rock too for your kind information :))

Well ok - that done. So what next? A trip to JRO Chennai and it seems that another change was in the offing. I can't pinpoint the exact date or time, but suddenly I find the CD sound becoming more heavier and gothic and boy did I love it. Fine tuning your existing body of work is always important, and this was doubly so in the case of the CDs originals. In a scene devoid of bands that played anything remotely heavy, CD were like an oasis in the desert for me. And there was this one particular show (I remember it like yesterday) - their old 9 PM Sunday slot... where I was fortunate to be amongst the crowd for the debut of their only SYSTEM OF A DOWN cover "AERIALS"

True, nowadays heavy metal has made a revival in the city with bands such as Atmahatya, Crystal and The Witches and The Hobos in the forefront. And true even bands like Insomnia play a pretty darn heavy set during their normal gigs.
But back in those days it was so much different.
There were no bands playing heavy music, much less alternative or heavy metal. There were only classic rock cover bands. Everywhere you looked. And then some more.

So I loved it, the new sound. Someplace Else hated it. So did the hoity toity SPE regulars as well. And it was during this time that the battle between the fans of CD and the fans of the cover bands (almost seemed like us VERSUS the rest of the world) raged at its heaviest. Those were electric days. Every day seemed to bring up a new fight and a controversy.

And it was during this time where I managed to differentiate between the posers, the sycophants and the real CD soldiers.
Don't misunderstand me - everyone, even Osama Bin Laden is welcome to a CD show and we want everyone to enjoy the band's music - the more the merrier. But during those days it was plain to see who the back-stabbers were and who the music lovers were. Addendum: I don't see those assholes at the CD shows anymore. A blessing in disguise.

Time went by in a flash. And then came the day when CD bid adieu to Someplace Else. Things had unfortunately staled a bit for a certain period. New songs were written but they have apparently been kept on the back-burner for the time being. The band did appear to make attempts to integrate some new sound and style to their repertoire - but when you're playing week-after-week at the same venue to the same old faces I guess implementing that change is a tad difficult.
And so we see songs like "The Forest", "The End Of The World", "The Mind's Eye", "View From A Window", (and a song about Hollywood/Bollywood too? I don't quite remember the song name), blah blah blah, being played for some gigs - but I guess they slowly were phased out because amidst all these experiments the band came up with something which blew the crowd away:

"The Story Of My Life"

And yes, rap and rock have been fused together by CD in the past but somehow it was this song that got everything in place at one shot!

Anyway, the current chapter in CD's life has shown us that the band is back again to its changing ways. New songs that reflect the current direction in which the band would like to go. A sound that has gone down tremendously well with a load of new listeners, most of whom are "middle of the road" - NOT very genre conscious or genre loyal. And its fun seeing this evolution happen.
Funny though, one of my favourites amongst the newer originals is "Falling" - sigh, I guess some people don't change that easily! :))

Well like I said - change has always been a constant for Cassini's Division - and for me its like seeing a new face of the band at regular intervals. A real treat, since you never know what to expect, especially with their huge hoard of new originals. But no one in their right mind can also say that Cassini's has discarded their old sound. Its still there for all of us to sample. A mix of the new and old - new faces in the crowd and the good 'ol soldiers from the SPE days. Its like this very surreal ambience at their gigs. An absolute delight.

If you really want to know what I mean, then check out the crowd at their next show... well, lets hope there is a show soon. Thats the one piss-off for me. I don't get to see the guys perform on a more regular basis! But if that isn't change, then I don't know what is! :)

The Chronicles Of Cassini's - The Oriya Complex

2007-11-17T01:10:00.000-08:00

The date: 4th November, 2007
The venue: Xaviers Institute Of Management (XIM), Bhubaneshwar
The players: Cassini's Division, PJ, Amit Goel, your's truly - PJ and Amit are rookies on this tour, for me this would be my 3rd trip.
The event: XPRESSIONS 2007

THE XIM TOUR DIARY

6:30 AM
I hear my Mom screaming in my ear - having a human alarm clock around is by far the most convenient device to get you out of bed.
The previous day has been a tiring one: Cassini's Division live @ Nazrul Manch for the "STATESMAN VIBES" fest. So I'm still kind've pooped even though I had an early beddy-bye last night.

6:35 AM
I give a wake-up call to both Ludo and the Goel. And I'm off to the loo to do some, umm, stuff!

7:15 AM
In a taxi - off to pick up Ludo from his place.

7:30 AM
In Ludo's complex. Help him load his drum stuff and we're off again... this time to Abhudaya (no not to pick up John) - to get some medicine for Ludo from his aunt. The big guy has been having fever for the past few days. He even played last evening's gig after a heavy dose of medicine. And today morning he doesnt look pretty good either.
Anyway we take a round past Ruby, much to Amit Goel's amazement whom we dont pick up on the way!

7:50 AM
We finally leave Abhudaya and reach the bus-stop. We pick up a groggy eyed ciggie puffing Amit Goel - who looks suspiciously at us for "NOT" having picked him up the 1st time.

8:15 AM
Somewhere near Ultadanga... Ludo is yelling at the taxi-driver for driving his vehicle like a, like a, like a... well you couldn't even describe this as driving. Our luck - this guy must be the slowest driver in the world!

8:40 AM
We finally reach the airport. We spot John, Sookie, Rahul and PJ sitting outside with a pile of luggage stacked on a couple of trolleys. A fast smoke and we enter the terminus for departure.

8:45 AM
The usual formalities - get your luggage ex-rayed, get your boarding passes, blah blah blah. We spot a few Deccan off-duty air-hostesses. Hmm, maybe they're gonna be on our flight? :) heh heh! Well ya right, if wishes were horses!

8:55 AM
In we go for the security check - our flight is supposed to take-off at 9:15 AM. But hey, did I mention it's a Deccan Airlines flight???
Anyway, we all finish off with the frisking and man-handling. Sookie gets held up because the security think his guitar gadget is some kind of mysterious device - no doubt to be used to kill all the passengers on board. Anyway, with some friendly explanations and persuasion Sookie and John get that part cleared up.

9:10 AM
We meet Chandan (an old SPE hand and a CD fan as well) and his friend Mou at the airport... coincidentally he is going to Bhubaneshwar too on work, and he promises to make it to XIM for the show tonight.

9:15 AM
Time of departure... but just our luck - no one seems to be announcing for boarding. So the inevitable delay. We wait for the call. And wait. And wait.

9:45 AM
We're still waiting.

10:00 AM
Yup - we're still waiting.

10:05 AM
We decide to have coffee... and just as we're sipping - the boarding call is announced!

10:15 AM
We're up on the plane - and the gruesome sevensome that we are, we've been allocated last row seats just near the loo! So its Rahul, PJ and me at one end. And Ludo, Sookie and John on the other. Amit Goel sits in front of me and he promptly falls asleep.

10:35 AM
We take off.
I hate travelling - so I'm busy listening to music on my I-Pod. And I feel kinda nauseous as usual. Flights always make me feel nasuseous. Anyway!!!

11:00 AM
Almost there I reckon - John suddenly asks if I wanna go to Konarak after the show. I can't make out if he's joking or serious. So I take the middle path and smile at him geekily.
PJ sitting beside me is busy listening to music as well, and he's having a ball headbanging and playing the air-guitar.
Sookie borrows my I-Pod and listens to some of my shit.
John is looking at the view outside - and so is Rahul too at the other end (in between flipping through the flight magazine).
Ludo is half asleep and staring blankly at the ceiling.
Amit is still sleeping.
I stare at the air-hostess for a bit (Kumud, ya that was her name!)

11:20 AM
We land at Bhuibaneshwar. Thank god! I hate flights.

11:40 AM
We get our stuff and stack them up on a few trolleys - and out we stroll into the Bhubaneshwar sunshine!
Nice little airport and not very crowded as well... we start looking for our pick-up but don't see anything remotely resembling one. Ludo, John and Sookie start to make the calls. We sit and puff outside.

12:00 NOON
Amit decides its time to be a camera man. So he promptly starts snapping away - I kinda get all inspired and take out my camera too. We click for a bit and then we get tired of clicking! :))
We're still waiting for conveyance btw!

12:10 PM
Me and Sookie go to the nearby airport canteen and buy smokes and some snacks. Everyone seems to be hungry here. John, Rahul, PJ and Ludo join us while Amit is left to guard the luggage. After a while I go and relieve him of his guard duty. And he's off for some grub.

12:15 PM
The car finally arrives - its just one car. So we need another vehicle. The guy in charge calls up a taxi and we start piling in our stuff. John is in charge of this and its kind've almost an art deciding which stuff goes in first and what gets stacked on top of what!

12:20 PM
Me and Goel and Sookie are in one car with our XIM guide. We drive through Bhubaneshwar and its a pretty sight! A planned city with lots of greenery. A very nice drive indeed. In between we stop at an SBI ATM for Sookie. Anyway in no time we're at the XIM campus and the sight is awesome! Huge and green and with banners all around. A cool, clean environment.

12:25 PM
We're at the XIM guest house now. And by God, by golly! What a cool guest house - a typical international standard type guest house you would find at most top Management institutes (we stayed at a similar one when we had gone to the XLRI show). All of us are very impressed and happy too. The fest co-ordinator top honcho Avishek comes to meet us on his bike and apologises profusely for the car pick-up fuck-up. But it's cool - he isn't to blame for flight delays anyway!

12:30 PM
We're in one of the 2 guest rooms allocated to us. But since we are 7 people in our entourage Avishek promises to get us 2 more rooms. :)

1:10 PM
Avishek comes back with a big box full of Bisleri water bottles, Pepsi bottles and kingfisher beer!!! Amazing!!! And also an assorted set of cigarette packs which PJ and John and Amit distribute amongst themselves. I don't drink beer so he promises me a bottle of whiskey... whoo hoo - where am I? Is this heaven? Better service than a 5-star hotel!
Avishek takes our leave for the time being but informs us that he will provide us with anything (I mean just anything) we need! And that lunch would be available for us at the mess room down the hall.
We plan out for a 4:30 PM sound-check for the drums - the guys wish to do the remaining sound check just before the show.

Just FYI - the itinerary for the evening: a fashion show from 7 PM to 9 PM. And the band gets up on stage and blasts away after the fashion hungama till 11 PM approx. All is cool - and everything looks to be extremely well organised. So no chaap. We relax and enjoy our AC rooms and the drinks!

1:50 PM
Lunch time down at the mess hall. A buffet with chicken and roti and veggies shit. Damn good food. After my "maggi dinner" experience at the XLRI show, I intentionally eat a bit too much so that I dont feel hungry at night.
Amit pretends to be the CD manager/spokesperson and hooks up with Avishek and the JAL manager (JAL were the guest band the previous evening). I leave him and occupy our room.

Another FYI:
room I: Sukanti and Rahul
room II: Jboi and PJ
room III: A feverish Ludo (his fever seems to go up and down like a yo-yo)
room IV: Me and the ever increasing crazy Goel. Oh, btw its his birthday as well today so he's in an absolute "surreal-freaked-out-this-is-my-last-day-on-planet-earth" mood! :) Lord help us!

2:20 PM
Whew! I'm all fresh and chilled out after a quick shower and change of clothes. The AC is on, the TV is on and me and the Goel are busy watching... "BHAGAM BHAAG" :)) - and the Goel also flips channel to the occasional Punjabi bhangra song. He's getting all excited now. Lordy lord!

4:30 PM
We get up and check out the others. Seems like they are getting ready to go to the show area and start with the drum sound-check. They also decide to take their other stuff as well - maybe jam a bit after the sound check is done. We get ready too. The proceedings for this evening are about to begin!

4:50 PM
Ok so we all take some of the kit/apparatus in hand and walk over to the stage which is in this HUGE field. And the stage looks pretty good too - very wide and there's a "T" shape ramp in front, no doubt meant for the cat-walkers. But that's ok - Rahul and Sookie can walk down the "T" and kick-ass with the crowd.
Umm, one problem though - no drum around! So we wait and the guys make the usual bout of phones. Ludo is pissed off. And his pissiness makes him feel all hot too, as he promptly takes off his jacket.

5:20 PM
Me and Jboi and Sookie and Rahul are fed up waiting so we go to the campus cheap shop canteen (whatever its called) for some coffee and some egg-bhujia (for Rahul). There's a Madhuri Dixit film going on and I spend some time staring at her jhatka-matka routine. Anyway. The weather is really cool here. Announcements are blazing all over the place about events being held and sundry. Its total fest time going on over here.

5:45 PM
We're back at the stage area. The drum is finally there and being set up with Ludo's help. Amit is again busy mingling with students curious about the band. PJ is getting himself acquainted with the sound knobs. I take out my camera and start clicking... it's my turn to be camera man.

6:30 PM
The band and the sound unit spend a considerable time getting everything all ready - the drum sound-check has just begun and its taking some time to get it right. But one thing for sure - the acoustics are excellent. Crystal clear at most points considering the fact that its an open area.

7:00 PM
Drums are done - Sookie and PJ are trying to get things right here and doing pretty well. The local sound guy is taking a back seat becoz the 2 of them seem to be handling things between themselves pretty smoothly.
In the background there are loads of announcements going on for the fashion show and stuff. And the emcees of that event are actually tearing their hair out becoz of the delay in our sound-check wrap-up... no fault of ours - the drum should have been on stage @ 4:45 PM!!!

7:15 PM
We're done with Ludo and Rahul's guitars and Jboi's bass is almost done. Amit is around trying to pacify a visibly nervous Avishek who is getting apprehensive about tonite's CD show. He's not very sure if we're gonna be able to pull it off and that the crowd won't ejoy themselves... plus he's getting worried about the long time being taken for the sound-check. Which is quite funny - because it actually hasn't taken too long, everything has been handled with clockwork precision.
Oh, now Jboi's check is done - and now it's Sookie's turn!

7:25 PM
We're done with Sookie and PJ is now taking care of Rahul's vocals and the over-all sound. The guys try out a few songs - Satyr9, The Story Of My Life, Fallen et al.

7:40 PM
It's a wrap! The band are visibly pleased - the sound sounds really good, and we have no complaints with the equipment and acoustics. The lights - well, I can see a sea of bugs near all the lights everywhere and I expect the band to be swallowing a few creepies during the show.
We walk back and I'm pleasantly suprised when one of the organisers catches up with me and gives me a bottle of whiskey. :)

8:00 PM
Back inside John and PJ's room. Me and Amit pour ourselves a drink. John makes PJ pull his finger for some SPIELBERG style sound-effects - (Yeeeuuugggh!) and the bugger goes into the loo for a quick shower.
Ludo phones us after a bit asking me if I've seen his jacket. Nyet from my end, and from Amit's end as well... the 1st casualty of war! Jacket overboard!

8:20 PM
We're still in Jboi's room chilling out and I'm TOPLESS when along comes a pretty woman asking for Ludo. No time for me to cover up my indecent exposure...
An excerpt from the weird conversation between the 2 of us:

WOMAN: May I come? [the door is wide open and she's actually already inside]

ME: Yes please do come in but only after you let me wear my tee-shirt [I'm standing TOPLESS with my paunch sticking out like the Indian peninsula, with a glass of whiskey in my left hand, and a cig in my right!]

WOMAN: Umm, ok - umm, I'm looking for Ludo. [she stares at me and looks all embarrassed and actually takes a few steps backwards out of the room!]

ME: oh ya sure, Ludo's in the next room I think - sleeping or in the loo!!! [and I'm waving my tee-shirt like a flag indicating "which" direction she should go!]

WOMAN: Thank you! [Takes another look at me which makes me think I'm diseased and in the nude... and runs away!]

8:40 PM
We go back to our room and get ready for tonight. Amit gleefully takes out his SLAYER tee. And I take out my standard MEGADETH tee. We go back to the other rooms. John and Rahul and PJ are busy applying gel to their hair... Amit joins in on the gel fun. Ludo I notice is in the mess hall having a quick snack. He really looks down and out.

9:00 PM
John, Sookster and Rahul quickly convene in "room I" to chalk up a set-list, and I join them while sipping a final peg of whiskey. Everyone is happy with the song list that Jboi jots down.

9:10 PM
One of the organiser's come down to inform us that it's almost show time. Me and Amit walk down the few metres to the venue. And the rest take the car with the gear stacked behind.

9:20 PM
We're still waiting near the stage - the fashion show cum dance hungama is going on still with some local singer singing BEEDI JALAI LEH and other stuff. The crowd seems to love it though. I have a head-ache already. Chandan and his pal Mou finally arrive and they have a gift for us - a bottle of TEACHERS! Shit! What is wrong with the world??? Everyone is being so nice to me today :)

9:40 PM
I'm standing behind PJ at the sound console. Amit, Chandan and Mou are there too. The band is on stage finally and are tuning up.

Its time to rock 'n roll.

9:45 PM
Show begins - the lights flash on Rahul and he starts singing "Drown". The crowd are genuinely excited to see a proper rock band playing in Bhubaneshwar. Anyway, the set-list is attacked by CD with vigour - "Imitation Of Life", "The Sky Is Falling", "Only For A While", "Vindicated"... and then the gut-crunching "Stay"!
The crowd don't know much about Cassini's Division so the usual yell for METALLICA and IRON MAIDEN and PANTERA and LINKIN PARK go around. Someone asks for MARILYN MANSON and Rahul is glad to oblige him with "Sweet Dreams".
The show is more or less going according to their set-list and it's all cool.
One hitch - Sookie's guitar feedback. But taken care of. Ludo seems to be ok as of now.

10:30 PM
The crowd suddenly vanishes after an announcement about the campus gates shutting... Chandan and Mou reluctantly leave. The crowd also minimises by half. And its a sorry sight. But Amit Goel takes the role of one-man cheer leader and gets the remaining genuine rock lovers channelised. And what better way to do this than with the help of "The Story Of My Life".
By now I'm on stage trying to do what the Red Bantoo would normally do for the guys, i.e. snap around from various angles. And I kind of plant myself on stage like a prop!

10:40 PM
The party is getting a whole lot heavier with "Ceasar", "Voivoid", "SATYR9" and "Kryptonite" being churned out.
In the meantime Ludo's getting all uncomfy with the lights around him - and John has to make an emergency announcement: "Please turn off the lights behind Ludo becoz his butt is on fire"

11:10 PM
CD show no signs of stopping - and the crowd magically re-appears. Maybe some of the students had come back after dinner. Anyway, the band dishes out one song after the other - "Lithium", "Fallen", "Smooth Criminal", "Rumble", "Higher", "Glowworm"...
I'm loving it on stage and the crowd are too. Amit is screaming like a maniac from up front and PJ is doing a great job twiddling away with the knobs.

11:30 PM
Time to close the party - Rahul does a dramatic entry for "Like It Like This" and then proceeds to sing "Urban Phenomenon". The band also gives in to the requests for RADIOHEAD by playing "Creep". And the final encore is "The Story Of My Life" once again by popular demand.
The band is totally wasted now. John is lying flat on the stage sweating buckets. And Ludo walks up sheepishly to the crowd saying sorry, but he has a fever. But in a nutshell - even after more than 2 hours the crowd wanted more and needed to soak in CD... an amazing show. Almost near perfect for the band and I see Avishek grinning from ear-to-ear now.

12:10 AM
We're back at the guest house with a few students who have fallen in love with the band. We bring out the beers and smokes and whiskey and take it easy. Everyone is a happy chappy.

12:30 AM
Time for a late dinner - me, Sookie, Amit and PJ march off to the mess hall. And it's great to be able to sample some good food here.

12:50 AM
Back in John's room - we chat with the XIM guys and they tell us to join them at the whole night party that has just commenced. They all seem to look forward to it becoz its the final event after a 3 day long fest and it's just for them - in fact the event is aptly named "Just Like That" or JLT. Most of us politely decline (we have an 8 AM flight to catch anyway) but Amit seems interested.

2:30 AM
Most of the guys seem pooped and Ludo is already in bed. The beers are out and I'm not in the mood for anymore whiskey. Neither is Amit it seems - in fact he tells me he'd prefer a drink with ice instead!
Sookie proposes a one final cup of coffee - so we all march out of the guest house.
The JLT party is in full swing now. And we walk past it eyeing the crowd. And the crowd eyes us as well. Amit starts to do a few steps on the way.

2:40 AM
Avishek and Amit take a bike ride to get some cig packs for the guys and we sit on the benches enjoying our coffee. After a while the 2 "A"s are back and we decide to head back to the guest house. The 2 cars to take us to the airport are gonna be in by 6:15 AM and we plan to push off by 6:30 AM.

2:55 AM
We walk past the JLT venue and the party seems to be in full swing - and right on cue the DJ starts playing a bhangra number. Amit looks all hypnotized now and is definitely in some voodoo trance. I ask the him whether he wants to stay back and party or go with us to the guest house. He opts for the former and Rahul decides to give him company for 15 minutes (the time it would take to finish a small drink) - before we depart Amit says that he'll be back within an hour and makes me promise that I won't lock the door.

3:15 AM
I turn on the TV and watch some football... but its late and I'm tired - plus I have to be at work as well. So I decide to take a snooze.

4:00 AM
I wake up - the bed beside me is empty.

5:00 AM
I wake up again - and the bed beside me is still empty.

6:00 AM
Final wake up call. The bed beside me is still empty.
I decide to get up and take a shower. Might as well feel fresh before work... and suddenly I hear 2 voices singing in the distance - one of them is distinctly Amit Goel's!

6:05 AM
In walks Amit in a dishevelled and umm, non-normal state shall we say? And there is a young management student with him (I learn that his name is Imon). Amit is smiling at me like a toothpaste model and he looks in no shape to travel. He's talking at the top of his voice and he informs he that he's never had so much fun in his life - and that he's never met so many Punjabis outside of Punjab at one single place!!! I'm annoyed and I leave him with his singing partner and enter the bathroom.

6:15 AM
I'm trying to crap (yes crap - shit - whatever), but nothing is coming out because Amit and his pal are singing at the top of their voices like loonies. The sound is enough to knock the stuffings out of a rogue elephant. I hear John's voice calling me... but hell, how can you hear what he's saying when you have Bianca Castafiore and Daler Mehendi singing like there's no tomorrow in our room?

6:30 AM
I'm ready and packed. Amit isn't however. He's lying on his bed and it looks like he's down for the count. I tell the guys and they all seem worried. The logical thing to do is to leave him behind - but then again, we can't do it without his consent.

6:40 AM
We manage to get Amit out of his bed and bring him to the parking lot. John and Sookie have finished stacking their gear on the 2 vehicles reserved for us. A groggy-eyed Avishek is here to see us off. I make a smelly Amit change his tee-shirt. And we're ready to leave!
But suddenly Amit gets off the car and says he can't make this trip! I get down too and tell the guys in the other car.
In hind-sight a wise decision since I doubt Amit would have been allowed to board the plane anyway.

So we leave XIM sans a member short - a quirky way to end a glorious trip! The rest of the trip is uneventful - the Deccan flight was on time. Chandan and Mou are heading back home to Kolkata on the same flight as us. Sookie is as usual stopped at the security check. I feel sick on the flight as usual and listen to my ipod as usual to keep me from feeling pukey. And checking out the air-hostess "Anupama" helps me feel less pukey as well...

And we all reach home in one piece feeling absolutely on top of the world - the band for conquering the hearts of everyone @ XIM, and me for enjoying the best tour ever with CD. Looking forward to the next one... and I'm sure Amit is too :)

EPILOGUE:
Amit arrived back in Kolkata by the Kingfisher evening flight! :)

NIGHTMARE ABBEY - umm ermm aaaahhh :|

2007-11-17T00:36:00.000-08:00

The date: 27th July 2007
The venue: The Princeton Club

Uh, are any of the band members of Nightmare Abbey or their fans going to kill me if I say that I wasnt too impressed with their performance?

Let me be very honest here - coming down from sector-V after work to Princeton just to catch a new band isnt something I do everyday. I think you'd agree with me that its waaaay too energy sapping to do that on a regular basis.

But I did that for Nightmare Abbey - and all on the assumption that they would be what they said they would be - A.K.A. - a gothic rock band. Gothic... that is the key word here.

So to sum up everything in one sentence - Nightmare Abbey were "NOT" gothic rock by a long shot. And although musically the band were really nice to listen to, well I kinda felt cheated. Becoz this wasnt the music I had expected them to play.

Yes yes yes, I know the usual arguments - NA are a young band, they were playing maybe their 1st gig in front of a big crowd at a spacious venue (unlike the Planet M shows which must have been cramped, especially the one @ City Centre). And yes, when you are a young band starting off initially you want to win the crowd over and play them stuff that they know and can sing along to. Its very natural for a band to play its "safe" when they are new.

And I am sure there are a 100 other reasons that the band were "anything" but "GOTHIC" - well I've heard them all... been there done that.

Actually it wasnt just me NOT BEING IMPRESSED - i was very very sad as well. Here is a band that is obviously very talented. And who looked like rockers to the core... and what do they do? Play us stuff which any other band in this city plays - so where is the difference between Nightmare Abbey, and say a Hip Pocket or any of the host of other "classic rock" bands that play @ Princeton? Or the college/school bands that play a similar type of set-list @ the fests? Ya, some band play the Doors better than other bands and some play Floyd and so on and so forth - but at the end of the day, they are all bands catering to the same genre of music.

I mean what makes Nightmare Abbey different from all these other bands? Apart from hair length that is...
Nothing much is my final assumption. And that is very very sad.

I know most of the crowd their Rolling Stones and Joan Baez and Janis Joplin covers etc etc etc, but what I liked the most was their original - the "Eclipse" (umm forgot the name) - ya I was the guy who yelled out asking what the song name was... and I will also say that the Nightwish cover was done excellently. Evanescence sounded good too.
When these guys actually played the gothic stuff they did sound pretty good.

In my final analysis I will say this - all the band members - drums, bass, keyboards, guitar and vocals - all of them are super talented. And while they lacked a bit of togetherness when playing (and didnt seem to gel in bits and pieces during some of the songs performed), yet as a whole I would say that Nightmare Abbey have the makings of a decent band.

BUT IT WOULD DEFINITELY HELP IF:
1. NA tries to find a formula that makes them stand out amongst the crowd. Enhance their uniqueness or else there are good chances of them drowning in the sea of bands that seem to crop up on a daily basis.

2. Stick to being more of a gothic rock band and less of a classic rock band - becoz from whatever little "goth" they played yday, the band sounded good. But if they arent going to go the goth rock way, then maybe a change in their line of PR would be required - and that would also require a change in their band name too. I mean, with a name like Nightmare Abbey its very obvious that most people would think the genre of music being played was on the heavier side - and not Janis Joplinesque!

3. Add in more originals if possible. It is a MYTH that the crowd nowadays only like listening to covers and not originals. They definitely shouldn't be afraid to belt the crowd with their own "sound".

Anyway, this HUGE write-up of mine isnt by any means an attempt to offend Nightmare Abbey.

Far from it.

I had heard good stuff about these guys and that is why I came down to check them out. I'm just a lover of good music and I was hoping that Nightmare Abbey would provide me with the same.

YES, the music was fairly decent - no doubt about that, but NO it wasnt what I had come to Princeton for.

So overall, a pleasant evening spent listening to a talented young band - but, unfortunately I went home with not a single stand-out moment etched in my memory.

I do look forward to something more special at their next gig and I do hope to see more of their GOTH element - all the best to Nightmare Abbey for the future.

The best young band in Kolkata

2007-11-15T12:22:00.000-08:00

After seeing this band for 3 whole shows...
After checking out most (if not all) of the young rock bands in the city - some of whom left me absolutely flabbergasted (why do these kids bother to play anyway?)...

The last man standing. Without a doubt - CRYSTAL AND THE WITCHES.
They are the real McCoy.

A short intro - this is a young band with roots in the North East. The vocalist/lead guitarist Diwash Rai, and the bass guitarist Tenzing Louden Bhutia are from Sikkim. The drummer Shubhro Ganguly is originally from Assam. And I dont know where their keyboard Arthur Gomes is originally from
They play metal (more of the old school stuff) - they are heavy, they are very good musicians and extremely tight, they have excellent stage presence and they can certainly get the crowd going. This band hasn't been on the scene for too long but their fan following is enormous (as per Kolkata standards) - most of their shows consist of a huge number of rock/metal lovers from St. Xaviers (since I believe 2 of the band members are currently students there) and also a gigantic number of young ppl from the North East... a conglomeration of mongoloid music lovers (that wud include me as well I guess) who would headbang any metal lover to shame. The energy both on and off stage is absolutely intense... and if you are a genuine lover of music attending their show is an absolute treat. Granted, you may not be a fan of the heavy metal genre, but just watching these young men perform on stage is an awesome fun-filled experience. Try them out - I recommend this band 1000%.

The lead singer/guitarist Diwash was a former member of the top Sikkim band STILL WATERS (if you know anything about the current Indian rock scene then you must have heard of them) - and his experience with that band certainly shines through during the gig. Clean vocals, screeching, growling - he does it all. And also an excellent impersonation of Dave Mustaine (MEGADETH) as well, as was evident in the Megadeth cover that they play - SWEATING BULLETS

The keyboardist Arthur does an excellent job of providing rhythm and balance to the metal sound that this band performs. And he gets the crowd all charged up when the guys start out with their opening track - a NIGHTWISH cover (Crimson Tide)... yes Nightwish, you read right - now when have you ever heard Nightwish being played @ SPE???

Tenzing on the bass is fantastic - a very talented bassist. And its not just about his playing. You can see that he's having fun on stage especially when he's dancing around with his guitar. With the kinda space constraints on stage @ SPE, its a miracle he doesnt trip while doing so Awesome young musician.

Subhro - an absolute monster on the drummer. The most unassuming drummer you would ever find. And the most improved as well I must say. The 1st time I saw him perform I wasnt very impressed. But not anymore. Kolkata has its fair share of good drummers in the circuit... and pretty soon he's going to be joining that club.

Are this band all about covers btw?? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
Hell, I wouldnt be raving about them if they were just a cover band. Crystal And The Witches have an excellent repertoire of originals - originals that have won them accolades in quite a few rock contestants in the college circuit. And they are also the current East Zone "Campus Rock Idols" champions, just to let you know.

Holes, Resurrection, Black Roses, M.I.U. are some of their compositions (I might have some of these names wrong btw) amongst many others. Originals that are mainly heavy (old school thrash oriented) - but which also consist of power ballads. Megadeth is a major influence as is evident from some of their compositions... the resemblance is sometimes a bit too uncanny - but hey, no complaints, they are good quality originals I give you that. In fact I believe they have enough compositions to fill up an entire show. And some songs like M.I.U. are major crowd pullers.

And oh ya, Crystal & The Witches play a fair share of covers as well:

Megadeth (Sweating Bullets), Metallica (For Whom The Bell Tolls), Iron Maiden (Dream Of Mirrors), Nightwish (Crimson Tide), AC/DC (TNT), Deep Purple (Perfect Strangers), etc. etc.

Does anyone see a nice pattern here? No?
Well, so you wanna listen to Metallica eh? But they dont play "Enter Sandman" - its old school Metallica for you. You want Deep Purple? Well thank god they dont play "Highway Star" or the tremendously over-played "Smoke On The Water"!
And how many people would expect an Iron Maiden cover from one of their lesser known albums "Brave New World"?

If anything else their covers set-list shows how intelligent this band is. The songs they cover arent your run-of-the-mill, a million-times-over-played songs, which is extremely refreshing to say the least. And they also dont always do a cover note-for-note - they add a little extra to make the song a bit more interesting.

For example - take their cover of Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" - during the middle of the song Diwash suddenly does a little guitar solo of the popular Bollywood tune "Tujheh Dekhah Toh" from the film "Dilwaleh Dulhania Leh Jayengeh" - the innovation is positively brilliant. And total fun.

Another interesting cover is Leo Sawyer's "Love You More Than I Can Say" - a sudden break in the tempo in their gig from the ferocious headbangers that constitutes 90% of their set-list.

During the show one of the many headbanging amigos out there happened to mention to me, that after CASSINI's DIVISION, Crystal & The Witches were the only band that had managed to get the crowd @ SPE going.

And despite my well-known bias and preferences I am inclined to agree with him.
Not too many bands have managed to do that in recent times.

Hate them or love them - you would be a moron to ignore Crystal & The Witches.
Yes you might hate heavy metal but if you are broad-minded then please check out their live gigs - you will not leave disappointed.

Camouflage revisited

2007-11-15T12:16:00.000-08:00

The 1st time I saw these kids perform (sometime last year) I was moved to write a blog on them and my experience.

After much water has flown under the Ganges (read: after seeing them perform hither and tither AND after losing their band leader/keyboardist to the yuppie-corporate world) Camouflage finally get their lucky break and are invited to play @ Someplace Else.

The 9th of September, 2007

The band has improved a lot since when I last saw them perform @ Princeton. The quality of their originals are above average - "Recycled", "Hysterical Blindness" and "Slide" sounded really tight and I enjoyed listening to them. "Revolution", "Hang On" and the other new song (Imposition? or was it Disposition?) sounded nice but the songs mentioned before them are what should take them to greater heights.

As mentioned previously, I could see "U2" written all over their songs - this band seems to be a major influence to Camouflage - as are Coldplay, Oasis and other Brit-pop alternative bands. And that isnt necessarily a bad thing, btw, just an observation.

I do think Avik's keyboards add a lot more depth to the band's sound, so its a pity he hasnt been around to perform @ SPE. But the other band-members have improved a helluva lot and overall the Camouflage sound is a lot more tighter - guitars/bass/drums.

Negatives:
1> The vocals still dont do much for me - and that is the band's weak point. The vocalist does sing with a lot of passion and emotion, but he lacks the killer punch in his delivery.

2> It was very obvious that the band was a bundle of nerves - understandable becoz it is after all SPE. But they need to project more confidence on stage. Sunday evenings (post CASSINI's DIVISION) arent what they used to be @ SPE and its generally not so crowded. I would think that is a blessing in disguise for the band - being this nervous and playing in front of a prime time SPE crowd (@ 9:30 PM) would have been the death for the them.
So a band which has played @ the CRI finals and @ Princeton shouldnt be that nervous. They are a good band after all and have the experience of playing in front of big crowds.

3> The covers sounded cool, but as I've said before, Camouflage sound a lot more convincing when they play originals. Bands like Hip Pocket/Krosswindz have made it big by only doing covers and I certainly hope Camouflage DOES NOT take that route. This band's future lies in their creativity

Boomerang @ SPE boomeranged us all

2007-11-15T12:13:00.001-08:00

The Date: The 5th of September, 2007
The Venue: Someplace Else (oh no, not again!!!)

India vs. England, 6th One Day international... everyone was glued to their TV screens on the 5th of September that evening... everyone. Including 80% of the clientele @ SPE as well.

Losers!!!

It isnt very often that we get to see good out-station bands performing @ Kolkata. Last month was an exception becoz of the RSJ sponsored Pub Rock fest - but as a whole, its pretty much dry out here in this city... the same old classic rock blues based bands. The same old shitty college bands playing covers that their grandpa wud sing to their grandma in college. Blah blah blah.

So along comes a young band from Mizoram - Boomerang - they featured on this year's GIR compilation and have been gigging heavily in Delhi (opening for Them Clones and the like)... and you'd expect at least some semblence of a crowd @ SPE to catch them.

But why am I cribbing? I should have known better - the crowd was practically non-existent... maybe becoz of the cricket match, but I primarily I would believe, becoz the quality of music listeners and music lovers has started going down the drain in this city. People arent as open to new sounds or new bands as they used to be say 5-10 years back.

Music to them is all abt being part of the in-crowd... abt showing off their latest jhatka when "Megadeth" is playing in the back-ground... abt screaming for DJ Austin to play "BRYAN ADAMS and SUMMER OF '69"... of getting all orgasmic when Hip Pocket plays "WHERE WERE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU". This is what music is to most ppl in this city these days.

I think Boomerang got a good taste of that - dont know if they'd wanna perform here anymore, which is a pity - because they are a very talented band and if they stick it around and polish up their act, then they will go places.

So what did they play?
It was a set comprising of both originals and covers - a 50-50 divide. They started off with the original "Kingdom Of Pain" and followed it up with "Rhythm Of Revolution". Other originals they played were "Circle", "Ash", "Who Do You Wanna Be" and "Home"... hmm. A few others too whose names I dont remember.

Yup they played covers as well - heavy versions of "Get Back" and "Come Together", and loads and loads of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. In fact it was almost like they were on a mission to promote RATM @ SPE... RATM's very own PR guys from Mizoram!

But who's complaining? Killing In The Name, Wake Up (the vocalist forgot the lines to the song and I had to sing them for him), Bulls On Parade, Bomb Track, Guerilla Radio, Take The Power Back, etc etc etc... man the RATM covers just kept on coming!

So after all that - how were they as a band?
Boomerang are a pretty young band and they'd whip ass of most college bands and junior bands in the Kolkata SPE/PRINCETON circuit - english/bangla both. They were that good and tight.

They have a good vocalist who can actually sing and with passion too. The rhythm section wasnt outstanding but they did their job pretty well. Hopefully they'll get a lot more tighter thru the years. The guitarist was good - but I saw him mess up quite a few of the RATM covers. Especially "Killing In The Name"... Kolkata's INSOMNIA do a far better job on this song than they did - but yup, the guitarist gets a thumbs up from me inspite of all that.

Their originals. A band which is heavily influenced by RATM wud obviously sound a lot like them. One of their songs sounded almost a ditto copy of "Bulls On Parade". But songs like "Circle", "Ash", Rhythm Of A Revolution" and "Kingdom Of Pain" were just mind-blowingly awesome. A+ quality originals. "Home" on the other hand didnt do anything for me since it flitted in and out too much between heavy and rock and blues... "Who Do You Wanna Be" which featured on this year's GIR compilation was one of their few non-heavy originals.

So a good young band which is capable of composing quality originals and also playing some decent covers... hopefully these guys will make it big in the future. They certainly have mass appeal - something that most of the junior bands in this city lack.

The only problem they might have is that they dont seem to have decided on what exactly their sound might be - altho it does seem pretty likely that the rap-core style of RATM is what they are going to be adopting as their key sound. Still, a band that is comfortable playing both a heavy sound as well as a bluesy one does have some planning to do.

Very unfortunate abt the crowd - consisted mainly of us north-easterners and the band members from "Cassini's Division", "Crystal And The Witches" and "Hoof Hooey". As mentioned earlier most everyone else was busy watching India narrowily beat England - and it was a downright shame becoz ppl did miss a very good band... I hate SPE on such days - you could hardly call it the mecca of music in East India on days like these.

Anyway, I sincerely hope that BOOMERANG boomerangs back to Kolkata in the near future - most of you "ROCK" lovers have no idea what you missed.

Half Step Down - Pub Rock Fest 2007 (SPE)

2007-11-15T12:09:00.000-08:00

The Date: The 10th of August, 2007
The Venue: Someplace Else (yawn!!!)

I really liked Half Step Down. They had a sound which isn't something you get to hear very regularly in Kolkata. So it was interesting going through their set-list.

HSD has been labelled by many as a blues rock band... but I'm not too sure of that definition. In fact the stuff they played was so varied last night, that I would actually have some difficultly in labeling them one. Some people would call this being versatile - others wud call it being too "middle of the road" or "putting ur hand in too many baskets".... and it was maybe becoz of the latter that at least 60 % of the crowd that turned up @ last Friday did NOT enjoy HSD's brand of music. Unfotunately most of the crowd were either expecting something vey blues/classic oriented OR something that was downright loud and heavy AKA the Them Clones. And it was obvious from the comments after the show that most of the attendees had still not gotten over their THEM CLONES hang-over. "They arent as good Them Clones"... was something which I heard throughout the evening. And it sounded kinda lame, the fact being that TC and HSD play completely different genres of rock.

The sound was horrible as well - for a show as big as this, it should have been one of the 1st things that the organisers should have handled. But the moment I saw the guy behind the console "Sidhu", I knew the band weren't gonna sound right. This guy is supposedly one of the most "in-demand" sound guys in the delhi rock scene, and he took care of sound @ most of the shows at last year's Pub Rock Fest in delhi... I had attended last year's inaugural show @ the Fashion Bar, "Climax" - Cassini's Division were playing with Them Clones that night. And this gentleman royally screwed up the sound for both bands... it's extremely depressing when you come to see 2 of your favourite bands and you cant hear a friggin' sound from the guitars or the vocals. Both Rahul and Prithwish for the respective bands sounded like they were whispering at times.

But anyway, back to the music that night - despite the average sound and a barrage from a very hostile section of the crowd, the band coolly went about with business.

They opened up with an original, "Girl Not Guitar" (which can be found on the "Stupiditties" compilation of the top non-metal bands of India in 2006-2007) - a very decent composition indeed.

The show was interspersed with nice fluid originals and some up-tempo covers as well. Led Zeppelin "No Quarter", Red Hot Chilli Peppers "Torture Me", Pink Floyd
"Have A Cigar" and Stone Temple Pilots "Plush" were some of the notable songs that were covered.

The highlight was the performance of their original "Overture To Outer Space" which featured on this year's GIR compilation. A very haunting and melodic original with large dollops of the keyboard in it. I got a great kick hearing this song live.

Special mention must be made of the keyboardist and the drummer - they both added a zippiness to the sound which sometimes kind of faltered at places.

Overall a very decent debut for Half Step Down. They played their stuff well, the covers were well performed and their originals didnt put me to sleep - and "Overture To Outer Space" was a stand-out.

But maybe that was the problem - for the average listener there werent too many standout songs in the set-list they played... nothing which maybe struck them as "all right, that was a cool song"... a tune that irritatingly persists inside your head and does not go away and which leaves you humming the whole day... moments and songs like these were few and far between that night. AND crowd involvement was also at a minimum during the show as well. So I guess it was this that kind've alienated the general population.

But personally I would think that Half Step Down are a band that grows on to you (like the way some films or albums do)... you might not like them @ one sitting, but maybe after a few shows that irritating feeling just might grab you and nip you hard on yur ass. Maybe. It worked for me!

The end? Not quite...

2007-11-15T11:43:00.000-08:00

I was one of the few people who knew about Cassini's Division and Someplace Else getting divorced before the official announcement, so I had time to let all of this sink in.

That I am disappointed is an under-statement.

I have been an SPE regular for many a year and I have seen all the bands here perform. I have also seen the crowds SPE has been drawing over the years. And I guess some things wont ever change.

SPE - Kolkata will always be a classic rock and blues hub, where people celebrate the technical excellence of musicians covering songs. Where people will have a few pegs and keep on asking a band to play The Doors or the Beatles or "WHERE WERE YOU" by Floyd... sheesh. They cant even get the name of songs right.

It was a very brave thing for SPE and Gautam Singh to get a band like Cassini's Division to play regularly in such an evironment - CD had just managed to get a foot hold in the industry then, and asking them to play @ SPE was almost like throwing them to a pack of hungry wolves.

But history will have recorded the fact that they were more than succesful there after a few initial hiccups. They managed to shock the puritans @ SPE and gave all the established bands a good run for their money - and actually outshining most of them.

Listening to them - personally it opened my eyes to the trials and tribulations of being in a rock band, and trying to do something new. It made me believe that Kolkata finally had a bunch of musicians to be proud about, who were willing to show to the rest of the city that you could play your own songs and NOT cover FLOYD and still be able to produce good quality music. And draw huge crowds as well.

I guess its no secret that I am CD freak to the core - i am proud to be one. And I'm also glad that i am not the only one here. The Sunday ALTER JAMS brought in scores of us freaks and we moshed and headbanged for 2 hours and had the times of our lives. I'm glad no one from the Friday crowd ever came in, we'd have probably mass murdered them all and strung up their body parts in front of the stage.

But anyway this current SPE chapter is over for CD and I am sure the PARK management must be heaving a HUGE sigh of relief:

- no more headbanging or moshing or jumping down from the speakers
- no more breaking of beer bottles during crazy headbanging frenzies
- no more screaming and behaving aggressively with ppl inside SPE during the shows
- no more crowding outside in the lobby of Park Hotel after shows and having huge addas
... gosh its no wonder the ppl there are heaving a huge sigh of relief.

Well, the Alter Jams were started for a reason, and it did work out splendidly - i wud know, i missed only 5 shows on sunday evening in these last 2-3 years. But I guess SPE is going to have to close down this concept... i dont see any band even being able to garner 5 % of the crowd that CD did... they set a standard which is going to be hard to beat. Even Hip Pocket wudnt be successful - so exit CD virtually means the exit of 400 odd fans from the scene there. The numbers might not be huge in terms of paying clientele i guess, so no wonder SPE cares whether CD stay or leave. Well that's my impression anyway.

Anyway, the bottom line is this: CD were the best thing to have happened to SPE in recent times. It was a rocky alliance no doubt but i am sure something cud have been done to salvage this marriage... and its disappointing to see the end come like this.

SPE will always be the place to be as far as music goes in Kolkata, of that there is no doubt - and I will always be there for good or for worse... but I know for sure that my evenings there wont be the same again.

And SPE hasnt managed to address or acknowledge the fact that music is much more than classic rock, bidding adieu to CD kinda added fuel to my theory. Ah well - rejoice Hip Pocket fans and lovers of classic rock - SPE is exclusively yours again... and its back to my i-pod for me with my collection of metal and alternative...

And now for the show - the final ALTER JAM show @ SPE:

The Date: The 22nd of July
The Venue: Someplace Else (where else?)

Awesome show, maybe their best show ever @ SPE - and fuck all of you who think otherwise.

I will spare you my running commentary on the incident filled gig that occured this evening... if you missed their last official show @ SPE then you are a big loser. A big big LOSER.

And its not about being a CD freak or having a love for heavy music... if you are a lover of good quality original music then you should have been here. Yes you were a big loser - no doubt about that!

Dare I say (at the cost of sounding repetitive) that this is SPE's loss, big time - the kinda crowd that came in today for the show... well I'll be suprised if the Pub Rock gigs @ SPE even manage to get in that many ppl...

Ah well. Post here if you want to share your thought on today's gig. I'm at a loss for words right now (even tho I have been rambling above )... new songs, head banging galore, violent moshing, fights with bouncers, fans getting injured, me jumping off the speaker for one last time, the crowd singing so loudly that rahul stood and looked at all of us like a happy father would do when his child does well at an exam, screaming and shouting and mass hysteria... we had it all and much more.

Sad? You bet - its an end of an era @ SPE - but happy too, for the band... and happy that I got to see one of the best ever shows that SPE has hosted. And I would know... I've seen them all.

Last but not the least - a small tribute to the crowd - die-hard CD fans and music lovers every last one of them. A dedicated group of people who will never let CD walk alone...

Them Clones galore...

2007-11-15T11:23:00.000-08:00

I'm currently sifting through a backlog of music reviews that I should have published on my blog ages ago...

Anyway, some stuff I wrote after 2 Them Clones gigs -

The Date: The 16th of April, 2007
The Venue: Someplace Else

Well truth be told Them Clones were disappointed with the turn-out - and most of the ppl who turned up I guess werent expecting such an assault on their ears. Uninformed people I should add. People who had probably come strolling in for their staple diet of pink floyd!

They should have been fore-warned - 2 years back when THEM CLONES last played @ SPE, they decimated the place... it was a full bodied full frontal assault. And I still consider that performance to be the best ever show I've seen @ SOMEPLACE ELSE. It was mind-fucking brilliant.

But anyway yday most of the crowd were busy being wussies behind. Good for them - if they had come up front we'd have crushed them during the final fucking mosh during LIMP BIZKIT's "TAKE A LOOK AROUND" - ya we had a mosh pit yday and it felt freaking awesome. I even roughed up some stupid asshole who kept on shouting for Judas Priest... scared the shit outta him, pushing him square across the room.

Yday's show was good but it was the most tame and mellow Them Clones set I've ever heard - they played too many non-noize songs, but with the kinda crowd that turned up I guess there wasnt anythng else for them to do.

They did play stuff from their usual set list like "Sindrome", "My Life", "Zephyretta", "Ignite And Walk Away", "The Bomb Song" (my favourite TC song) - and the usual list of covers like U2's "Vertigo" and "(Pride) In The Name Of Love", Coldplay's "Yellow", RATM's "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" and "Killing In The Name Of" (which sparked off a headbanging frenzy)... and other originals too like "Awaken", "Find My Way", "In The Name Of God"...
oh and how could I forget the Disturbed cover "Stupify"? That was excellent fun headbanging to.

Anyway, great gig, I headbanged like mad and jumped like crazy - and me and Abhishek "The Snake" Majumdar and the Hoof gang moshed around (no I didnt break my glasses this time) - the moshing was pretty violent, but we took full advantage of the free entry - no security situation @ SPE ... so much so that you could see lines of worry and concern on the faces of the SPE staff

sorry Gautam :))
_____________________________________________________________________________________

The Date: The 4th of August 2007
The Venue: Someplace Else
The Event: Pub Rock Fest 2007 - Day 2
The Bands: THE SUPERSONICS and THEM CLONES

1. The Supersonics kicked big ass last night. My love for this band increases 100 fold after each show of there's I watch. Their originals are some of the best in the rock circuit. Ya i know - lotsa ppl dont like them becoz they play a genre which is neither CLASSIC ROCK nor out-right HEAVY... bu they still manage to carry their stuff off with aplomb despite this fact. Very commendable - I have nothing but total respect for these guys doing what they do in Kolkata's sick music environment.

2. Mumshi as usual tore a string - which is something very normal during a Supersonics show. In fact he tore 2 strings - one each on both his usual and back-up guitar! Thats a record for him for sure.

3. But where Mumshi goes, Rohan is sure to follow... and so he kept him company by tearing 2 strings as well!

4. The crowd had however mainly come for Them Clones - it was packed to the brim. And for once I wish there could have been entry charges. The crowd was 50% @ SPE for the music and 50% were fuckin posers. Had to pick a few fights just to keep hold of our positions (front row)

5. Them Clones - what can I say? I love this band. I have never missed a show of their's in Kolkata. And I wasnt abt to miss this one. The show? It was a loud, pumped-up, full of energy show and the crowd went wild. Luckily there wasnt any moshing for once, but the headbanging was non-stop. It was a pre-dominantly originals set-list with songs like "Ignite And Walk Away", "Find My Way", "Zephyretta", "Sindrome", "My Life", "Follow The Prophet", "Awaken", "In The Name Of God", "Push", "Round", "Zoopertrip", "Wait For Me" and the ever excellent "THE BOMB SONG".

6. Ya they played a few covers too - U2, Coldplay, Rage Against The Machine and Pearl Jam.

7. This was maybe their best show in Kolkata out of the 5 they've played here. And if u missed it my condolences - more than likely u missed it becoz u cudnt enter due to the 100s of shitty ass-hole pseudo music lovers who were taking up unnecessary space inside.

Great night!

How I broke my glasses @ SPE (at a Cassini's show)

2007-11-15T11:19:00.001-08:00

15th April 2007,
Someplace Else
A Cassini's Division show (which other show do you get so much action?)

It was an awesome show - just A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

We had it all - excellent originals, cool renditions of covers, and moments of sheer headbanging madness...

And I also managed to get Nepo up on the speakers with me and we did some serious jumping shit - it almost feels like bunjee jumping.

The best moment of the show - the part where we picked up Nepo and made him BODY-SURF during GLOWWORM - a 1st @ SPE... and this shit only happens @ a Cassini's Division show (good going Aveek, Ayan, Micky and some guy who's name I dont know who pitched a hand during the body-surfing incident - and good going ME ... did I leave anyone's name out here?)

And that is where I broke my glasses - got kicked in the face and pop, they fell on the floor and cracked. Anyway, luckily I cud reach home safely with one eye like a one-eyed samurai jack!

Oh and the screaming was major - courtesy Shaapla - she let loose a sonic boom in my ear as well, I almost went deaf for a second.

And birthday dedications galore - to Nobby, Mumshi (of the supersonics) and mister salsa Hitesh who's back in town... Kryptonite for him!

The crowd went wild - the momentum picked up slowly but surely here... its days like these that make me proud to be a hard-core Cassini's Division fan... no other band in Kolkata can turn a crowd of music lovers into a crazy bunch of maniacs!

Happiness... I am drenched in happiness

2007-06-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

June 2007

A month I will never ever forget 'till the day I turn blue in the face and stop breathing.

The 18th of June
The birth of Emil Siddhartha Lehene, the latest addition to our family (well not to my clan, but WHATEVER!!!) - my little sister's and my karate kid chomping brother-in-law's son. Damn is he cute, can't wait for the day I get to teach him headbanging :)

The 29th of June
A day which tops even the birth-date of my own nephew. And I doubt there are too many incidents out there which could top that... but this one did - by a mile almost.

A day when my father and mother finally freed themselves from a box full of shackles and mental torment.
A day when crazy samurai me for a moment stopped being crazy, to soak in all the happiness pouring out of my soul.

...After 4 years of sheer hell and agony, after 4 years of struggle and running from post to pillar, after 4 years of seeing my father fighting a lone battle against corrupt, cynical and sarcastic government officials (inefficient clerks, sick police officers and haughty IAS officers in high places in our beauracratic circle) - I/we finally got what we had deserved by right.

On the 29th of June 2007, I (Prasanna Singh) was handed over a certificate by the Ministry Of Home Affairs, the Government Of India - a certificate that will forever change my life... a green piece of paper certifying that I was a CITIZEN of INDIA and that the afore-mentioned fact had been registered as well (from the 4th of June 2007 to be precise).

Back-track to the past:
** I was born in Dallas, Texas, The United States Of America

** I WAS an American citizen and I WAS a US passport holder - something even more precious than a "GREEN CARD"... something which a lot of morons out there are dying to get hold of. Morons all of you, whoever you are.

** If I was still living in the USA then things might have been different. But I've been living in India since Decemeber 1981 (which was when my family and I re-located to this country) - from class III onwards... and I've never felt anything BUT an Indian, inpsite of my past history.

** I am not the epitome of the perfect Hindu son, which you get to read about in the Ramayana (aka Rama) or in the Mahabharata (aka the Pandavas) - but I care for my folks a helluva lot, and somehow I dont have it in my system to relocate to so called "greener pastures", be it the U.S.A. or even to other Indian cities. My folks need me as much as I needed them when I was young. So I had always planned to stay back for them. Hence the decision to opt for Indian citizenship. Maybe if I was a more ambitious soul I might have flown the coop, but I'm not - and I dont give a shit either. This is me, and I am happy this way - I like myself the way I am. Some women might call this "the mommy's boy syndrome". I call it being there for your folks both mentally and physically, the way they did when you used to pee in your diapers when you were a kid.

** Some things never change - getting through this shit was one of the most difficult battles my family had to fight. We didnt know an iota about the laws regarding Indian nationality and we were given bad advice and led down the wrong path for almost a year. And it took us nearly another year just to get things back on the right track. We were lucky to get out of this beauracratic red-tape maze... some people never manage to and die trying.

** This would never-ever have worked out if it werent for my father. He's turning 71 in July and he's not getting any younger obviously... in these last 4 years he's fought a battle against arthritis (mild, thank god), losing one of his kidneys totally, not being able to walk due to artery blockages in both his thighs, and a by-pass surgery (his 2nd after almost 30 years)... he's not the witty happy soul that he once was and he's become slow in the head too. Plus his eyesight is failing him.
And yet he plowed on - he fought single-handedly against the shit that was thrown to him by the West Bengal and Indian governments. He persevered. For me.

If you havent spoken to your parents - I mean, had a meaningful conversation - with them in a long time, then do it. Now.
If you think of leaving your folks to fend for themselves when they start turning old and grey, then think twice.
There is no one, but no one, on this planet who will love you more than your parents - not your best friend, not your boy-friend or girl-friend, not your husband or wife, not your dog, not the broad you banged and whom you think loves you... None of them.
Its your folks that do - no one else. Remember that.

After 4 years of struggle and uncertainty we finally won. Truth be told, I kind of feel numb, like in a dream - I guess it hasnt sunk in yet. But I look at my parents and I see them smiling and their eyes shining brightly... and I cant but feel ecstatic - not for me, but more for them. I know both of them will be sleeping peacefully tonight after a very very long time.

I am happy - a new chapter is being written in my life now... and it is a chapter that shall be drenched in happiness.

How I found myself @ Princeton and ended up getting inspired to write another BLOG!!!

2006-11-03T05:08:00.000-08:00

Its funny, I never expected to be going to Princeton on Friday (the 27th of October) - I kinda dont like socialising much anymore. And going to places like Princeton means you get to meet a whole shit-load of people whom you don't really like or just about know (amongst many many others fucktards over there) - and u have this plastic grin on your face... god, hurts my cheeks so much!!

Anyway, I'd gone to attend the recording session of Cassini's Division after a long hard day @ office. But my luck being what it generally is - they had already finished that day's load. I had no intention of going home - so instead I suggested to the band members, "Why dont we go over to Princeton and check out this up and coming band CAMOFLAUGE?"

So I find myself @ Princeton with John, Rahul and Sookie. Thought it would be a nice evening with the guys... of course initially it kind've started off badly with the management not letting Sookie in becoz he was wearing sandals and John, becoz he was wearing a whatchamacallit... a 3 quarters!!

The guys had supposedly heard CAMOFLAUGE before (I thinked they had judged them @ a rock competition... not too sure about the details)

Not me however - the 1st time I had even heard of this band was when they had posted a snippet in orkut about them playing @ Princeton. And I of course didn't know any of the band members at all. Hell I didnt even know they were a 5 piece band or the kind've music they played.

Anyway, enuff banter - long intro, sorry. The show. Ya... well in a nutshell, CAMOFLAUGE that night were interesting. I wont say they were excellent. I wont say they were horrible. They were interesting. And that is the truth.

In today's rock music scene there are waaaay too many bands that play covers. I dont like cover bands... no wait, let me rephrase that - I HATE COVER BANDS. A rock band in my opinion has no future if they keep on trying to please the crowd with covers. And the worst part of the music scene here is that rock bands are too busy being worried abt the HERE and the NOW, instead of worrying abt how they should develop themsleves musically. And in the process most rock bands end up becoming cover bands... and they also end up playing the same covers again and again. You go to Someplace Else - covers. You go to a rock fest, a different band, but they're playing the same covers too. And you come down to Princeton - the band on stage again dish out the same old stuff.

But I was glad to see that CAMOFLAUGE did NOT fall under that category. If they did I probably would have left after 2 or 3 songs. Thank god for that.

I'll start off with what I liked about them. Their originals. They were very very well composed. Especially "Recycled". And I liked "Slime" as well. They actually rocked far more than the covers they played. Some of the covers really sucked - but the moment they played their originals you could see the glow on their faces. And their instruments actually seemed like they were putty in their hands. If anything else, I believe this band has a future as an original band - I dont know exactly how to categorise their genre - its kind of British alternative (Coldplay Radiohead U2 which I think is their sound. I dont know what the band think personally however - maybe they want to play some other genre of music, who knows! But from what I heard of their originals, the British alternative sound really suited them a lot. I pray that they dont get frustrated and start trying to please the crowd with covers. That would be very sad.

The covers. Hmm. I will be honest here. In today's music scene there are certain classic bands whose songs get played by every Tom, Dick and Harry. I wont mention any names - and unfortunately I did not enjoy my evening when CAMOFLAUGE played those songs. I mean I know that playing a cover note for note is extremely difficult especially if it is a classic rock song. And I laud the efforts of our up and coming bands who try to do so. But frankly, for a purist like me - if u cant emulate the artist whose song you're covering, then what is the point in covering that song at all. It kind of makes it a dumb effort by my standards. And please dont get fooled by the crowd reaction - most of them are para pals and relatives and old school mates anyway. They'd clap if u farted. I'm a neutral here - and I am being as unbiased as possible.

But then again (after all my incessant rambling above) some of the covers were pretty nice as well. Especially U2's Vertigo. CAMOFLAUGE as a band is more fun when they play covers which are by nature lively. I dont think slow ballads are their forte.

Anyway - I couldnt stay for the whole show which was unfortunate, becoz I really wanted to stay back and find what else they had in their repertoire. Well maybe next time. And maybe they'll have more originals to play. That would be awesome.

About the band - well I wont be too harsh after seeing just one show, that wouldnt be fair at all. The drums and keyboards were cool. And the guitars and bass as well actually. The band members are still young so they have loads of time on their hand to polish up their act. The vocals too - not bad, but the vocalist must realise which songs he can and cannot sing. I'd be lying if I said that he was good in all the songs...

Anyway, the bottom line is that CAMOFLAUGE are a good band and they have promise. I dont have any right to dictate the kind of music they play or dictate their approach as a band towards music in general. It definitely would not be fair on them - and anyway, I do confess its more easier to talk the shop than actually getting up on stage and performing.

So all I'd like to say is that it would be wonderful if Camoflauge as a band slowly starts to concentrate on their original act. On more well composed original songs like "Recycled". And on concentrating on one particular genre or 2 and not trying to be a jack of all genres and a master of none. Becoz I saw something in their performance that Friday night which made me feel that this band weren't a pack of jokers trying to kill time in a part-time band or impress the ladies. These guys were here to play music. Period. And I have a feeling they can achieve success with a little bit of luck and application.

I wish the band success in their future endeavours. And I stand by what I say - these guys will surely make it.

Insomnia - PROLOY'er SOMOY'e... and what do I think about their album?

2006-10-08T03:26:00.000-07:00

I don’t enjoy listening to bangla rock as a rule.

Maybe its becoz I aint a Bengali. Maybe its becoz I like listening to rock in its purest form – A.K.A., when it’s sung in English.

Having said that, I have heard most of the popular Bengali bands around. Some of them sing the odd song that I enjoy listening to, but on the whole – well, I really can’t stand them. Barring LOKKHICHHARA and the old original KROSSWINDZ line up that is.

So when INSOMNIA came out with their album I wasn’t peeing my pants wet with excitement. Their 1st album was in English and I was really hoping that this one would have been composed in English as well.
But yes, I was extremely happy for them though, becoz I know a few of the band members and I wanted to lend them my support by buying their album – its Rs. 99/- bucks after all. Very cheap (cheaper than the stuff I drink @ SOMEPLACE ELSE generally!!!)
They could have sung their album in Bhojpuri for all I care, and I would have still bought the album!

Souvik had sent me a sample of Adharm’er Shaar some months back, yes it wasn't like I had nothing to look forward too - the song was very alternative and nu-metalish, almost a RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE clone. Which was a surprise becoz having seen INSOMNIA and CRYSTAL GRASS (the INSOMNIA off-shoot @ SPE) perform live here and there, I kinda had the impression that their influences were mainly PINK FLOYD and classic and prog rock, with sprinklings of modern rock here and there.

So to the album PROLOY’er SOMOY’e

Question: Did I like it?
Answer: You bet I did! Liked it would be an under-statement – I loved it!

From whatever little comments I’ve read about this album from the fans online, INSOMNIA’s new baby is supposed to revolutionized the modern Bengali rock music sound... well, I don’t know about that, since as I mentioned before, I ain’t no expert in this genre.

But personally any album that has managed to stay put in my CD player over a week is a good album by my standards. And that has been the case with PROLOY’er SOMOY’e! For the 1st time in my existence on this planet i have not only listened to a bengali rock album not ionce, not twice - but non-stop for the past 1 week. And I still see no signs of getting tired of it.

The songs. Okay. Well for fans of nu-metal, modern rock and alternative music, this album has something for you. All of the songs on this album have elements of these genres. And it’s worthwhile to note that these songs provide a variety which kind of keeps the pace of the album very even. None of the songs sound the same - so for the fickle-minded music listener, I doubt that you’ll get bogged down after listening to a few songs.

The songs can easily be divided into 2 categories – the heavy and the not-so-heavy.
The Heavy: Proloy’er Somoy’e, Aartonaad, Poth'e Ghaat'e Nekreh Kaateh, Odhorm’er Shaar.
The Not-So-Heavy: Shunyo, Nishhaash, Haat Dhoreh, Akaash Chowaa, Opekhha.

The Heavy – The funny thing is that I could actually pin-point specifically the influences for most of the songs. For instance:

Proloy’er Somoy’e: The opening bars were so P.O.D. – in fact the guitar intro had Youth Of The Nation written all over it. A really good song, becoz once the initial P.O.D. phase gets over the band ups the ante and takes the song into overdrive. An excellent track to kick off the album with. And my 2nd best favourite amongst the 9.

Aartonaad: In this case it was AUDIOSLAVE’s “Cochise” and a bit of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, which is not suprising since AUDIOSLAVE after all is an off-shoot of RATM. A good heavy feel to this song as well. The AUDIOSLAVE sound kind of persisted a bit too long for my liking but once again the heaviness of the song made for really good listening. The layers on this song – very structured indeed I must say. And it was an absolute delight to hear BODHI’s guitar-playing here.

Odhorm’er Shaar: Okay, it took me some time to identify the main influence for this song, but I am positive it is RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE’s Born Of A Broken Man. Actually this song had the most nu-metal influences amongst all the heavy tracks. It was almost like I was listening to RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE in Bengali (without the rapping part though).
And not suprising since INSOMNIA after all do mention in their album that it is a tribute to RATM.
The last song of the album and an awesome way to close it. Very raw and heavy feel. Nice guitar solo in the middle of the song as well.

Poth’e Ghat’e Nekreh Kaateh: I’m stumped – can’t actually say what specifically influenced this song. But whatever, another very loud bone-crunching ditty – and that’s all I really care about here. Supposedly about call centers. Ah well, one listen to this is sure to induce insomnia amongst all those call center employees who have to stay up the entire night working. Rocking song.
But if I may say so – it was probably the most mainstream amongst the 4 heavy songs in this album. Which is my way of saying that it is a good song but the other 3 (mentioned above) had that extra element of heaviness which made them so much more interesting. But regardless, a good song nevertheless.

I have to mention that NINNAI did a very good job with the vocals. He definitely has the vocal range to carry off a heavy song, and it was a pleasure to hear him growling and screeching as would do any good metal singer. If INSOMNIA do wish to compose an entirely heavy album in the future, then they have a vocalist to deliver them the goods for sure.

The Not-So-Heavy – Well the rest of the songs weren’t bone-crunching heavy, and as I mentioned previously, the remaining 5 tunes were a mix of modern rock, power ballads and a bit of British alternative. A mixed bag if you will.
The 1st time I heard the album I was surprised that there were any slow songs at all, becoz I initially was under the impression that the entire album would be of the ear-shattering variety. But after a few listens, no complaints. I actually like the feel of the album better this way.

Shunyo: I could be mistaken, but I did feel a bit of the COLDPLAY influence here. And a bit of BETTER THAN EZRA (an American alternative group – if you’ve heard their song Closer then you’ll know what I’m talking about!) The song’s opening was very cool. I liked it. Nothing very flashy or anything but it had a nice earthy feel to it. A nice ballad – should go down very well with the romantically inclined. On the whole, a very neat and uncomplicated song.

Nishhaash: Oh man, off the top of my head – COLLECTIVE SOUL? The intro was classic COLLECTIVE SOUL. Again, another nice ballsy ballad type of song, but as do most of the songs on this album, a very different feel altogether.

Haat Dhoreh: I never really thought SOUVIK’s vocals would do a good job with the slow songs. Both here and in Shunyo, the feeling he provides to these song over-all were just amazing to listen to. Again, as I mentioned above – another slow song, and the music and vocals blend together beautifully to lend it this very emotional feel – the ladies should love this song for sure.

Akaash Chowaa: AUDIOSLAVE again? Maybe I’m wrong – but the intro did sound so. Very touching song – the entire mood had this depressing feel about it which was really cool. In fact at times I thought I could hear a bit of NIRVANA’s Lithium swimming through my head. I mean, not the tune, the feel of the song... There, I said it – this song is the parallel of Lithium in this style of music. What? You don’t agree? Well listen to it a few more times and tell me what you feel then.

Opekhha: I wonder. I never expected this song to be my favourite amongst all the songs on this album. Under normal circumstances it should have been one of the 4 heavy songs. But no, Opekhha wins the crown after hours of continuous listening. COLDPLAY influence? You bet my ass yes. The closing section of the song has similarities to Yellow.
The song overall? Awesome. Absolutely brilliant. You could actually feel DODO’s angst while the song flowed. The angst and passion and frustration. All rolled into one and out it came like a river. The only song in the album where I personally feel that the vocals actually overshadowed the other instruments – and that is saying a lot, becoz in the remaining 8 songs the symbiotic nature between vocals and instrumentation took the album through a nice smooth road.
So my hats off to DODO here – the vocals bowled me over.

Whew! That was long.
So at the end of it all I have to say that Proloy’er Somoy’e is an above average album without a doubt. A new sound you said? Well however new it might be to the general bangla rock loving masses, to me it was very mainstream and accessible. If INSOMNIA succeed in popularizing this new sound then that makes it worth waiting (for your’s truly) for their next album.

But here is where I ask my 1st question to the band: With the myriad influences that are so evident on this album, what direction does INSMONIA take in the future? Although it was fun listening to a mix-and-match of heavy and not-so-heavy songs, it would be nice to see the band sticking to one specific genre and a few influences. Sounding like RATM in one song and then like COLDPLAY in the next may not be a very wise thing to do for future projects, esepcially when you want to establish your band as a front-runner in a particular genre of rock. Of course so much of this will be determined by album sales and fan reactions. SO I guess its too early to maybe decide about that.

Anyway, instead of rambling away I’ll just say that the band members have done themselves proud – the sound overall was extremely pleasing – the drums, keyboards, guitars, vocals all round were very tight and slick. Even the album production quality was a notch above what I’ve generally seen around for Indian bands. Seriously – I have the HELGA's FUN CASTLE album with me… but Proloy’er Somoy’e was way above the former's album production standard.

Ratings: 8 (out of 10)

I Dont Dope You Dope

2006-09-20T04:30:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid in college people my age did grass and hash and so on and so forth. Kids back then needed to do that shit becoz:
It supposedly made them cool.
It was the in-thing to do before coming to a rock-show.
It was - to them - the ultimate way to appreciate music.

Ya. Right.

Its 2006. I'm 32 years old. I'm single. I'm a full-time yuppie going thru my everyday 9-to5 grind - my parents arent getting any younger, so I juggle my free-time between them, my friends, rock shows and the odd date. (yuss I love women - just for the record) . Life is pretty good for me. No, I'll re-phrase that - life is great!

Rock show. Yes, I still enjoy attending rock shows. I love music. I dont seem to have mellowed with age as far as music is concerned - I kinda have gone into more extreme, more aggressive forms of music. Most of my friends who were into rock music have shifted to classical music or jazz. One pal has even started listening (and appreciating) Cliff Richards these days... ho hum!

Anyway, whatever. The kids these days though have no qualms listening to death metal bands or nu-metal bands or punk bands. Which is why I seem to be interacting these days with college kids (more than 10 years my junior).
But am I complaining tho? HELL NO. What has age got to do with music? If you like it you listen - plain and simple. And if you want to headbang with the 18 year old 1st year student from St. Xaviers, well cool. Go ahead. Whats the big deal? Provided of course your body allows you - I ain't as supple and fit as I was 10 years back, no denying that.

And its all good fun... times have changed but its great to see the music flowing.
Sigh.

And with changing times, you would think that kids nowadays would be more innovative in the things they do... and you would certainly hope that do NOT end up aping the stuff kids were doing during my college days.
But no - no change there - you go to a rock show and you see these kids all high on dope. THey come all doped up before the show. Then they leave in between the show to roll up a quick joint or 2. And of course after the show they are nowhere around - they are busy again somewhere getting busy with their "G".
Its so stupid. And if you ask them why they do it - well the answers havent changed much actually from my college days:
It supposedly made them cool.
It was the in-thing to do before coming to a rock-show.
It was - to them - the ultimate way to appreciate music.

I have never smoked a joint in my life. Never. Never Ever. I dont need aritficial stimulants to get me high during a show - the music is good enough to get me orgasmic, thank you very much. And that includes booze, nicotine, sexy women and of course dope. Whether I booze or like women is a different issue altogether. The fact is I do not have to indulge in them to mke me appreciate a song, or to (as most kids tell me) "FEEL" the music. Its all assinine bull to me. If you really like music you dont need these to get you into some kinda orgasmic stupor.

And some of them are really really good kids - I love them a lot. And they respect me too - I dont know, my age doesnt really bother them. I guess I'm like some kinda older brother to them whom they can both talk to and headbang with.
So obviously it pains me when I see them getting into these mindless head trips. "Oh grass is harmless and Oh grass isnt really a drug"... bull-shit. If it werent a drug then why would you be sent to jail if you lit up publicly? Why would you have to hide in dark corners to roll a joint? Hypocrisy in your face!!

I dont know what this blog is about - am I angry about kids that I like and care about doing dope these days? Maybe.
Or maybe what I am trying to say is that, ahem, I am this real cool dude - and I dont have to roll up joints to increase my manliness or my cool factor. Maybe thass what I'm trying to say here.

Anyway - just enjoy the music is my message. And you dont need to be a cow to do that.

THE CHRONICLES OF CASSINI's - The Delhi and Dhanaulti chapter: 4th and 5th June, 2006

2006-06-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

June 4th, 2006
The early hours of Monday. The band and I have freshened up after our long road trip and have had dinner and yapped a bit with the ladies of the house. We are all tired but the band decides to have a meeting. I stay awake despite my deadly drowsiness. It is one of the most important meetings Cassini’s has ever held and I am honoured to be attending it.
It’s about 2 AM when things wind-up. We have a long day ahead and need to sleep.

**************************************

Morning. RSJ has been phoning the band non-stop – tonight’s gig at CLIMAX looks like to be a major one indeed. Everyone is excited – and we have also been reading reports in the Delhi newspapers about the band – some are favourable and some extremely ambiguous, but in general we all seem pleased and excited that the band is getting some positive coverage.
Nikhil Alva, a reporter from RSJ is supposed to be our liaison agent for the day. He comes over to meet us at around about noon. The plan is to shift the band to a guesthouse close to the venue, so we pack our stuff and follow our escort Mr. Alva.
Our 1st stop is in a field (which actually reminds me of a garbage dump) – this field is supposedly adjacent to the RSJ office premises. We are left standing in the heat and totally at our wits end, while Nikhil goes hunting for an official RSJ vehicle that would take us to the guesthouse. After a long wait he finally returns and we all bundle into another deluxe vehicle and head off to our next destination: Chittaranjan Park.

Chittaranjan Park. I’ve heard tons about this place, but have never been here before. It is supposedly a “little Kolkata” in the heart of sprawling Delhi… and the moment we enter this locality I fall in love with it, as do the rest of the band members. All around us we see houses with Bengali names on their address plates. And signboards in Bengali as well. It seems like we’re driving through Salt Lake, and we feel totally at home.
Of course, like I mentioned – Chittaranjan Park being almost a carbon copy of Salt Lake, we take ages to locate our guesthouse (For those of you who have ever visited Salt Lake, you’ll know what I mean). We end up driving in circles for the next 10-15 minutes desperately seeking the guesthouse. The driver and Nikhil are as lost as we are. Anyway after a loooooong search we finally locate the place. Nice cozy room it is too. Nikhil takes his leave but before doing so he informs us that the car would be picking us up at 4 PM, becoz our sound-check is at around 5ish.

We order lunch and watch a bit of TV. Towards the evening a friend of Sookie drops by – Amartya. I’ve met him at Someplace Else before, so it’s cool to see a familiar face in big bad Delhi. He loses no time in asking me what appears to have become a customary question, “Are you Sukanti’s younger brother?” – I believe I’ve been asked this question so many times this trip that maybe it would be a good idea to actually become his blood brother. Officially. In a court of law thingie.
Anyway. We spend some time listening to his weird quirky yarns. It helps to kill the time at least, becoz as usual, our transportation to Climax is nowhere in sight. Phone calls are made to Nikhil and Shivani (RSJ Assistant Manager - Events & Promotions) and they re-assure us that the car would be arriving soon to pick us up.

The band starts their usual pre-gig preparations – the theme tonight seems to be “all black”. So everyone decides to wear black tees. John borrows my “Shadows Fall” tee and it looks kinda cool on him, even if I say so myself! They also decide to play an all-original set – another move I find sensible.
The car finally does arrive. We say bye to Amartya who promises to be at Climax by 7 PM (that he didn’t turn up at all is a different story altogether!) – and head off to rock Delhi!!

Climax. My 1st impression of the place is like “WOH MAMMA”!!!
Speaking strictly in a Kolkata context, Climax reminds me of a cross between ROXY, B.E.D. and SHISHA (all happening night-clubs back home). It’s truly a swanky joint and extremely upper class. But holding a rock gig here??? Pardon me, but I am pretty skeptical – especially when I notice that the stage is outdoors.

We take our equipment inside and pile them up in front of the stage. The RSJ staff comes up to greet the band, and we meet the lovely Shivani as well. I’m smiling inside, becoz I’m sure the RSJ staff are thinking, “Who the hell is this guy with the Queensryche tee? And why is he with the band??”
Them Clones is on stage doing their sound check – and we get a taste of tonight’s sound system – pretty much what we had expected, state of the art gadgets and crystal clear sound all around. The band looks happy, and frankly, so am I.

About tonight’s gig – Cassini’s are the opening act, followed by Them Clones and Mumbai rockers Vayu. I personally am excited about Them Clones, becoz I admire them a lot and I love their sound. Of Vayu, I have absolutely zero idea about them, but they seem like seasoned performers, and any band which can make it from metal crazy Mumbai must be good!

We roam around Climax (looking for the bathroom) waiting for our sound-check turn. In between I get to meet the grand old man of Indian rock, Amit Saigal. I exchange a handshake and a pleasant hello with the dude and I get the same bewildered look from him as well… “who is this guy with the band anyway???” But I am positively chuffed.

The guys finally go up on stage for their sound-check. Pretty elaborate it is too, I should add. But everyone seems pleased with the way things are going till now.

And now, the long wait. The gig is supposed to start at 8 PM, but this being India, nothing really ever does start on time. So we wait. And we wait. The crowd slowly starts to trickle in. We go to the gates becoz we have a few passes for friends and acquaintances. And we find out that this night-club has a dress code as well – no jeans or sneakers or sandals!! Eeegad!!! Bloody murder!!! Luckily this rule has been relaxed otherwise hardly anyone would be allowed entry!
Outside we meet Lena and Rose and Abhishek Tiwari – another Delhi-based fan of the band. Also outside is Ludo’s pal Mainak and Tukan.

Inside its pretty crowded now. And it’s a pretty hep crowd – totally unlike what I am used to seeing at my favourite pub Someplace Else back home. I’m not sure whether these people are here to listen to the music or to just socialize the night away. But I keep calm anyway – no point in getting agitated even before the show has begun.
My pal Abhishek Majumdar finally arrives as promised, and I am delighted to see him – and as promised, he brings along a few of his pals as well. I also am happy to see Hemu Adhikari, an orkut pal of mine. Tall guy he is, and a nice “Cannibal Corpse” tee he is wearing too (or is it “Cradle Of Filth” – my memory!!!).

Amit Saigal and the band finally get up on stage. Mister Saigal says a few words and formally declares the start of the PUB ROCK festival in Delhi (lucky city, I’m already jealous!!). He introduces Cassini’s Division to the crowd and lets the festivities begin!!And begin they do – the band dish out “Drown” to the crowd. And it’s an excellent rendition as well, I might add. “Drown” is followed by the usual suspects: “Only For A While”, “Higher”, and “Animals”.
However, something doesn’t really seem right here. The crowd isn’t really getting involved or anything. They’re sitting on the ground and applauding after each song. And there are a few shouts of appreciation from behind as well. But not a single indication that there might be any headbanging or moshing happening tonight. I feel pretty disappointed.
Anyway, the show goes on – the band play “Stay” – and that perks up the Delhi crowd! I can see some of them bobbing their head now.
“Satyr9”. Awesome start to the song, and the crowd seem to like it a lot – the excitement on their faces is pretty visible.

I’m looking around however and I still see no signs that any moshing might take place. But at least the crowd behind the bar is jumping up and down with excitement. Unfortunately the crowd in front of the stage seems to be hard-core heavy-metal fanatics (I have read a lot about this underground group – they only listen to metal, the heavier the better!) and though they seem to be enjoying the music, they don’t show any signs of getting up.

And then… disaster! Rahul’s mic suddenly starts to fade out during the rendition of “Fake”. I don’t know whether he or the other band mates even realize this, but it’s definitely sounding bad, almost as if he’s whispering on stage. Lena frantically rushes off to the sound guy who raises his hands helplessly. After the song I shout out a few swear words about the sound. And a few guys in the crowd do so as well. Thank God. Coincidentally the AAJTAK camera-man starts to focus his gadget on me after my swearathon, which is a wee bit embarrassing – and I also get stared at by the pretty AAJTAK TV reporter. Stare, mind you, NOT ogled at!! I decide to mind my language for the time being – looks like Delhi can’t handle my weird Manipuri act.

Anyway, what to do, CD continue their Delhi onslaught with “Void Void” which goes down exceptionally well with the crowd. As is expected. And then follows the crowd puller “Caesar”.

Unfortunately, another guffaw enfolds here as well.

For some weird alienistic reason, one of the RSJ guys (a pony-tailed dude in an Arsenal tee) decides that this is the right time to tighten up a screw of one of Ludo’s cymbals… yes, during the midst of the song. So Ludo is rendered playless for a few minutes, which is absolute madness. And the guy also manages to disconnect Sookie’s guitar as well. So there you have it – for the 1st time ever, a semi-nude version of “Caesar”! I’m boiling mad by now.

The rest of show goes on without anymore sound or equipment hitches – “Glow Worm” and “The Urban Phenomena” are appreciated with a good amount of clapping and cheers. But no calls for an encore, unfortunately – this crowd either did not enjoy the show or they happen to be the most decent crowd ever to have been present at a Cassini’s gig. I am absolutely bewildered!! But anyway, I guess I can’t complain – it was definitely a sizable crowd, and there was no hint of the intimidation factor that I had heard so much about. Delhi rock lovers are considered to be the toughest people to play to in the country, so in hind-sight I would have to say this was a pretty good gig by Cassini’s – but it didn’t rise to their Sunday “Someplace Else” heights, thatz for sure.

The band seem to be disappointed with their performance though and they vanish from Climax with Chintan Kalra and Dilip Ramachandran (both of PARIKRAMA fame) – I guess they need time to reflect on tonight’s performance and over-all crowd reaction. So I let them be.
I stick around and check out Them Clones who are now on stage are busy wowing the crowd with an all original set. I like this band a lot and it feels good to see them playing live after almost a year.

I spend the rest of the evening hob-nobbing with Lena and Rose and the rest of Cassini’s support line. And with the crowd of Delhi socialites – they are an interesting bunch of people, the likes of whom you don’t really get to see in Kolkata. The crowd has magically decided to stand up now and all those scary metal-heads who were initially sitting are now head-banging with gay abandon to each Them Clones song! Well duh, Them Clones are a Delhi band after all, so I guess it’s very natural that the Climax crowd loves them so much. Sniff. Reminds me of the Sundays back home at Someplace Else when Cassini’s Division play to a full house. Sniff.

After Them Clones, it’s now the turn of Vayu to get up on stage. The Cassini’s gang co-incidentally decides to make their re-appearance at Climax again with Dilip and Chintan. We stick around to watch Vayu who are a classic rock covers band. And they give a really tight performance with loads of classic rock crowd-pullers. Their front-man 2Blue is quite the showman. He even tears his tee off and offers to give it to the woman (or was it a hetero-sexual offer this? Don’t really remember!!) who screams the loudest during their show. I wonder if he really did give his tee away. I didn’t stick around for that scene, thank god.
Anyway, personally I feel Kolkata’s very own Hip Pocket is a much better classic rock covers band than Vayu – but Vayu certainly does put up a very impressive show, they seemed to go down with the Climax crowd extremely well.

SO, the 1st Pub Rock show ends and it looks like it’s been a major success. As in Dhanaulti, here too members of the audience come over and pat me on the back and shake my hand and tell me how much they loved Cassini’s sound. One bloke even comes up to me and says that he has my number and would be calling me up to book Cassini’s for another Delhi show in October. Ya right! Like I believe that bullshit… a taste of Delhi for you!

It’s past midnight now. All I wanna do is eat dinner and go to sleep. I have a flight to catch at 9 AM in the morning and I am in no mood to party whole night. Unfortunately the night is still young – and no one really is concerned that it’s already a new day, Monday –
5th June, 2006

We have a quick pasta dinner and I manage to get the band to pose for a few snaps with the Them Clones guys who are sitting at the table adjacent to us. Dilip from Parikrama is also around and he wants to take the gang to his pad to hear an uninterrupted acoustic version of “Caesar”. And Chintan is coming along too. So that means I have to tag along! Oh dear! I’m more worried than sleepy now becoz it looks like it’s going to be a looooong night.

We follow Dilip back to his flat in South Delhi and I must say it’s an extremely well furnished place. Chintan and a few of their friends join up as well. So after the customary jokes, the band get down to business – Rahul plays and sings them “Caesar” and a few other tunes like “Simba”, “Rumble” and “Mister Mishra”. Our hosts are absolutely delighted with their mini performance. Chintan and Dilip dish out a lot of words of encouragement for the band, and it really is wonderful to see such established musicians speak so highly about this “controversial” Kolkata quartet. They even call them the “FUTURE OF INDIAN ROCK” – now that my friends, is the mother of all praises!

Unfortunately I ain’t in much of a sociable mood – so I sit quietly in a corner sipping away at my peg of Absolut Vodka feeling sleepy and worried drunk. Worried that I ain’t gonna get any sleep and that I’m gonna miss my morning flight. Anyway. It’s a pleasant party notwithstanding and I do enjoy myself even though I generally keep mum. If either Dilip or Chintan is reading this then I apologise for my weird behaviour. I’m generally not that bad a bum or party-pooper. Well most of the time at least.

At approx. 4 AM we decide to call it a night (or should I say morning??). We say our thank yous and byes to our hosts and head back to CR PARK. The trip doesn’t take too long – the roads are empty after all!

**************************************

And that my friends ends my part in this journey of mad-cap mystery. I guess I’ll just add that I did manage to catch my Kingfisher flight after just 1 hour of sleep back at CR Park. My last memory of the band is:
- Ludo snoring away to Kingdom Come.
- John snoring away to Kingdom Come as well.
- Rahul underneath his blanket.
- Sookie downloading in the bathroom.

The CD guys leave for home in the evening by train. I hope none of them strangle anyone on their way back or is force fed poison.

A week with the band – one of the best experiences I have ever had – I got to hang out with not only 4 talented musicians, but also 4 really good friends. It was one of my best vacations ever, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for taking such good care of me and also for letting me be a part of their world – the nutty, crazy, totally blow-your-mind-out world of CASSINI’s DIVISION.

THE CHRONICLES OF CASSINI's - The Delhi and Dhanaulti chapter: 3rd June, 2006

2006-06-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

3rd June, 2006
We stick around for a jam session between Advaita and a few other professional musicians, but hunger strikes us real bad and we leave after a few songs. It’s way past midnight too, and we had been promised a car by Ajay Romola to take us back to Delhi as soon as our show got over. Unfortunately there is no car and we aren’t sure what to do. Shampa, a friend of Vivek, suggests we stay back and hitch a ride to Delhi in the morning. And ultimately after much discussion with Ajay we decide to do just that. We need the sleep anyway – the bus journey the previous night still has us pretty much K.O.ed.
We go back to our room and chat a bit with Vivek who is absolutely bowled over by Cassini’s performance. We get to talking about music and good ‘ol Kolkata for some time, until Vivek goes back to his room. John on the other hand has gone A.W.L. – and everyone is worried about his whereabouts. Rahul and Ludo even plan a search party for the lost member, but Sookie is snug between his sheets and is in no mood to budge. What to do… me and Ludo take a few more swigs from the hip-flask. And wait.

Finally John arrives, and it’s past 3 AM!!! He tells us that he’s been to the potato farm looking for leopards… I don’t know whether to turn into a leopard myself and eat him up like a potato!!!! Anyway, we go to sleep becoz we all want to be fresh tomorrow for our long journey back to Delhi.

**************************************

We’re all up and raring to go back after a good night’s sleep. We enquire about our car back for Dehra Dun, and are told that all arrangements have been finalized – the plan is to go to Dehra Dun and from there we board an A/C vehicle back to the capital.

Me and Ludo decide to go skulking around the back-roads of Dhanaulti before we leave – it’s really an awesome hill station and I sincerely wish we could have stayed longer. I guess maybe at the next Dhanaulti show. After a cuppa tea we head back to the hotel to get our stuff and along the way we meet the Delhi band Manthan. Nice chaps they be. Anyway, we say bye to Andy and Ajay and Vivek and Shampa and get into our vehicle. And off to Dehra Dun we are!
Within 15 minutes of our journey I start to feel woozy – it can only mean my body is succumbing to motion sickness!! I promptly decide to spend the rest of the journey with my eyes closed and listening to my mp3 player. So I miss most of the bullshit that takes place during the ride back. But I do have the good presence of mind to open my eyes occasionally to take in the beautiful scenery around us. Uttaranchal is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful states of India. The sight of mountains all around is awesome!
We drive through Mussorie and reach Dehra Dun after a few hours. Another change of vehicle – this time a Mahindra Scorpio is at our beck and call… boy, the band sure knows how to travel in style!

We continue our journey – near abouts Meerut Rahul starts jumping up and down in the car – he’s spotted a forest full of “weed” growing on both sides of the road – a proper cultivation in the truest sense of the word. We stop for one of our customary tea breaks and Rahul wastes no time in getting a leaf sample, which he presses between the pages of John’s notebook.

And the journey continues. The weather is unexpectedly pleasant – it’s been raining throughout the state. We pray that it is raining in Delhi too.

Lunch, somewhere near the borders of UP and Uttaranchal. And boy, can these guys eat! Barring Rahul, the rest of the band members have appetites that would rival Bhima’s or Kumbhakarna’s. And this has rubbed off on me as well. We all gorge on a repast that would surely have fed a minimum of 10 people. I feel kinda sick after our late lunch – I never seem to learn that gluttony is a cardinal sin, but I still pray to God that I don’t end up puking in the car on our final leg of the journey.

Anyway, we are off once again – and apart from the customary tea break in the evening we seem to be making good ground. The guys spend their time listening to a lot of music – hindi as well as hip hop. (yes yes yes , not alternative or metal!!)We finally reach Delhi. It’s past 10 PM. I am absolutely pooped. Thank god the weather is cool. And it’s great to be back at Lena and Rose’s apartment where the toilet is clean!

THE CHRONICLES OF CASSINI's - The Delhi and Dhanaulti chapter: 2nd June, 2006

2006-06-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

2nd June, 2006
It’s way past midnight and yet none of us can sleep – mister bus driver is driving as if he’s being pursued by a T-Rex. The bus swerves dangerously from one lane to the other, barely avoiding lorries and other buses approaching from the opposite lane. We also notice the guy nodding off at the wheel!
Everyone is holding on to the edge of their seats now – I keep on remind myself that this ain’t no scene from Keanu Reeves’ “SPEED”!!
Anyway, after much hollering and swearing we wake up the driver’s assistant who has been ‘till now, sleeping like a baby! Asshole!! And we also force the driver to take an impromptu tea-break. In fact we all need a tea-break as well, after that hair-raising experience!

The rest of the journey goes on peacefully – Ludo wakes me up at around 3:30 AM when we are passing through Hardwar. I personally am not a fan of places of pilgrimage, but in this case it is absolutely awesome viewing this holy town in the early hours. The air is getting slightly nippy too, a sure-shot sign that the mountains are close by.

We arrive at Dehra Dun at the break of dawn. I love the look of this town – reminds me a lot of Shillong, one of my favouritest places on this planet.

Anyway, the first part of our trip ends at Dehra Dun. We are asked to board another (much smaller) bus for the 2nd and final leg of our journey. And this we do… up and up we go – the air starts getting cooler with every passing minute. And I am mesmerized by the view of the mountains and green around me – it’s great to be up in the hills again!
Most of the passengers are either sleeping or staring groggily at the mountains like zombies. Actually, so am I!!
There is a huge box full of milk packets on the bus as well, and a few of these packs suddenly decide to make this sleepy journey more exciting by leaking all over the front of the bus. In no time we have milk all over the floor and the bus starts to smell like a diary product. Anyway this hiccup, we finally reach Dhanaulti – as the bus parks in front of Andyji’s “Evolving Cafetaria” I get my 1st glimpse of our host Andy Baines – a tall gentleman with a huge mop of “dreadlocked” hair and an extremely warm smile. Ajay Romola, his assistant shows us our rooms – I decide to bunk in with Rahul and John for the time being.

After a quick wash-up and potty session we all decide to go have brunch – it is almost 11 AM, and the band is supposed to be playing in the evening. After a hearty helping of aloo parathas and double omlettes we all head back to our rooms, where the others decide to catch up on their sleep. I decide to take a warm bath instead but am horrified to see that none of the locks on the bathroom door work!! And ditto in the other room as well. To soak or not to soak?? Well I choose the former with much trepidation!

By the time evening approaches the gang is as fresh as daisies. I’m pretty much amazed that anybody got any sleep though – the sound system has been blaring non-stop since noon and it’s been driving me bonkers.
Anyway, we hop over to Andy’s joint, where Ajay hands out our entry cards for the show. The venue, by the way, is in the back-yard of Andy’s restaurant – a nice comfy area which seems capable of hosting 100-150 odd people – but not more. The previous edition of “Dhanaulti Rocks” was held on a more grander scale, but none of the bands seem disappointed with this year’s venue as a whole. We stand around and check out the guys from Vishnu who are going through the motions of their sound check.

The sound… hmm. 1st impression – not too good. Me and the band have a quick cuppa tea and head back for a pre-show meeting in our room. Strategies are chalked out and a rough song-list for the show is assembled. Everyone is pretty relaxed, and the general consensus is that if the band can play good at a pub the size of Someplace Else back home in Kolkata, then the sound over at Andy’s shouldn’t be much of a deterrent for a good show. And I have to agree with them.
We soon hear Bobby Cash dishing out his country songs to the Dhanaulti crowd from our hotel room. Rahul decides to go check him out and we all follow him down to the venue as well.
Bobby Cash! Wow! I never really liked him much but after watching his performance tonight I have to admit that he’s one helluva artiste and an extremely talented guitarist as well. It was a fascinating show. At one point during his performance the power goes away, but he’s totally nonchalant and continues playing despite.

Vishnu is up next. And they don’t waste any time in churning out their collection of Guns ‘n Roses covers, with a few Iron Maiden ones in between. Pretty cool show they put up.
We take a quick rain-check before their show ends – the guys go back to their rooms for a final round of preparation – and it’s a pretty funny sight watching them get dolled up before their show!!!
- John takes out his “FAMOUS” Mclaren jacket from his bag. And despite the constant leg-pulling from Sookie and Ludo, he decides to wear it on stage anyway. And he also busies himself with painting his finger-nails black and applying kaajol on his face. His objective seems to be to look as gothic as possible during the show.
- Rahul can’t decide whether to wear a sweater on stage, or his “99.9% Evil” tee-shirt over his sweater. In the end he chooses neither and puts on his “Wasted” full-sleeve jumper.
- Sookie takes a quick rush to the loo and comes out grinning like a Cheshire cat after a few minutes. I presume he’s been downloading.
- Ludo takes a few more swigs from my hip flask – and cracks a couple of “Chewing-Doing” jokes which irritates everyone no end.

Finally we are all ready – the band that is. We carry the equipment down to the venue and wait for Vishnu’s cover of IronMaiden’s “Invaders” to get over.

I help the guys put their toys on stage and select a strategical point for myself so that I can shoot pictures of the band in peace. The crowd has kinda thinned after the Vishnu show – I see a few excited (and possibly drunk) American tourists jumping up and down in front of the stage. Vivek Mattoo, a fan of Cassini’s Division joins me as well. This guy is a true member of the CD underground army – he’s from Simla but works in Noida, and he’s bunked a day’s work just to see the band play live. I tell him about the band’s new sound and he’s absolutely on tenterhooks, waiting for the show to start.

And then the music begins!!!

The band initially plan to dish out a few covers (as an unofficial sound-check) becoz they aren’t too sure about the quality of sound. So they start off with Dashboard Confessional’s “VINDICATED” but I cannot hear Sookie’s lead AT ALL! And the backing vocals sound like someone is singing in Paris and not in Dhanaulti. But the song goes down well with the sparse crowd.
R.E.M.’s “IMITATION OF LIFE” is up next – the band sounds a bit better now (after Andy has done some knob-twiddling no doubt) – so plan-B comes into picture – a full-fledged assault of Cassini’s originals for the crowd!!
Drown, Only For A While, Higher, Stay… they all come in quick succession. By the time they play “Stay”, the crowd has increased considerably. I smile smugly and yell back to the band “Kheye gachhe, crowd kheye gachhe” (loosely translated from Bengali to English: the crowd has fallen for your stuff hook, line and sinker!)

And then the highlight of the show – the 1st ever rendition of “Satyr9” at Dhanaulti. The crowd are thunderstruck and don’t know what has hit them – and then the moshing starts!!
I have already decided that I won’t be indulging in any head-bobbing activities – so I hide behind a pillar and busy myself by snapping away merrily.

The band complete their white noize assault with “Fake”, “Void Void”, “Caesar”, “Glow Worm” and “The Urban Phenomena”. The crowd up front goes completely berserk!! I see the members from Vishnu and Advaita and Orange Street starring intensely at Rahul and the gang from the back rows. Awe? Admiration?? Jealousy??? …I really can’t say.

But the bottom-line – Cassini’s Division bring down the house on Dhanaulti Day #1. The crowd don’t let them get off stage until they play an encore – so they go into another round of “Satyr9”, which turns out to be the night’s biggest hit.

The crowd cheers as the boys come off stage – and I get a few pats on the back too from the crowd (they obviously think I’m their manager or roadie or groupie or WHATVER!!!!)
It’s been a highly successful show despite the patchy sound. The band has won over the Dhanaulti crowd with their unique sound and undoubtedly added a whole bunch of people to their fan list.

THE CHRONICLES OF CASSINI's - The Delhi and Dhanaulti chapter: 1st June, 2006

2006-06-16T07:04:00.000-07:00

1st June, 2006
The bus to Dhanaulti is in the evening, so we have a lot of time to kill. Unfortunately the oppressive heat discourages us from going out for a city stroll. So we spend the day inside – and Rahul plays his new conceived tunes for the other band members. Needless to say, they sound awesome. He also jots down some real cool lyrics for these tunes in the wink of an eye – and voila, A new Cassini’s song!!
The band gets into the thick of things now, and come up with some other cool tunes for possible new songs. They also discuss strategies for their new album. It feels really nice to be a part of these discussions – especially when they ask me for my, AHEM, opinion!

We also spend a bit of time listening to the songs on my mp3 player – the guys like the new BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and DISTURBED song on it. We talk about LACUNA COIL and LINKIN PARK. And also about one of Sukanti’s favourite bands, SLIPKNOT.
Meanwhile John is walking around the house in his socks the whole day, something we cannot understand for the life of. I assume that it’s some kinda fetish thingie… can’t be anything else.

We go out in the evening for some provision hunting – namely mineral water and medicine (avomin for me) and cigarettes too. I also need some whiskey and John needs black-nail polish. So me and Ludo and John go hunting for those as well. After much rickshaw hopping and “astronauting” we find our stuff. And by the end of our little outing Ludo has labeled all the shop keepers of Patparganj as “astronauts” … poor Delhites!

John and Sookie make a few phone calls and find out that our bus is to depart at 8:30 PM and not 6:30, as we had been initially informed. We also get a few calls from RSJ who are delighted that the band has arrived in tip-top shape for the Sunday gig at CLIMAX – part of RSJ’s much publicized month-long “Pub Rock” festival happening in Delhi.

Anyway, the time for “Destination Dhanaulti” approaches. We set off for the bus start-zone. It’s a nice bus and besides us there are members and friends of the bands Advaita and Vishnu… a few others too, whose band names I don’t remember. We manage to get front seats – Sookie and Ludo initially sit in the cabin beside the driver. After a quick roll-call the driver revs up the engine – and we are OFF to Dhanaulti.

I spend the initial part of the journey sleeping and occasionally swigging whiskey from my hip flask. Ludo swigs away with me as well. Everyone seems pretty excited – old pals meeting up and swapping manly jokes in the rear section of the bus, others are busy smoking the night away. We stop at a nice dhaba for dinner in between the journey – and after dinner the bus driver (who is pretty much drunk) decides to make our journey more exciting. For some weird reason he decides to start the journey without half the passengers who are still at the dhaba having their meal! After much shouting and cussing he drives back to pick up the rest of guys. And then after another restart he has to stop again – this time John has left his cell-phone behind at the dhaba!

THE CHRONICLES OF CASSINI's - The Delhi and Dhanaulti chapter: 31st May, 2006

2006-06-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

May 31st, 2006
Morning. The train is running late by a bit. Ludo is still sleeping. The others are up however. Well actually, it seems like Rahul, Sookie and John couldn’t sleep a wink, so they were technically up the whole night. Rahul is also worried that his guitar might have faced irreparable damage after spending a night under John and Sookie’s hard guitar cases. They debate about that for the next 10 minutes till morning tea is served.
After tea I pass on my METAL HAMMER magazine to Rahul, the pages of which he starts flipping through gleefully. Sookie busies himself by brewing another killer cup of coffee. After a nice breakfast I suddenly experience one of those weird Manipuri mood-swings and start yelling and swearing in Bengali, much to the embarrassment of John.
After an hour or so of my torture we finally reach New Delhi.

Delhi! Whew!! What can I tell you – man, it’s burning HOT in our capital city. And hello??? NO humidity you say? Woh! My 1st 10 minutes here tell me that it’s almost as bad as Kolkata.
Anyway, we all bundle into a cab and head for Patparganj (located on the other side of the Yamuna river) – the residence of Rose and Lena (John’s sister). On the way we ask the cabbie to take us to the nearest booze shop. But the guy can’t seem to stop grinning as he informs us that liquor shops in Delhi DO NOT OPEN BEFORE 1 PM!!!!!
WHAT???? What kinda weird debauched system is this???? We are so stunned (well me and Ludo at least… Rahul keeps on saying “I told you so, I told you so”) that we don’t utter a single word during the journey. I am already starting to miss good ‘ol Kolkata – at least things are a lot more NORMAL back home!
We finally reach our destination – we are tired, and sweaty, and hungry. And our stomachs don’t feel good either (courtesy: last night’s chicken curry dinner). Anyway it’s great to be inside the comfort of a well-furnished apartment. Lena and Rosamma are both at work, but they have left a load of instructions on a piece of paper for us – food in the kitchen, eggs in the fridge, don’t use the 2nd tap on the left, turn on the A/C, yadda yadda yadda.
They both make their appearances after an hour or so – and Lena brings along some beer and wine and a bottle of whiskey for me. God bless her. I am introduced to the 2 ladies as “the fan from Kolkata” – and I don’t know whether I should be proud of that intro, or whether I should behave like a dancing bear and show them some stunts! Anyway!

After some much needed rest we all feel re-energised. Ludo and Sukanti go out to meet a friend of theirs (Mainak). Rahul seems to be in a major artistic mood and he spends the entire evening strumming Rose’s guitar and making notes in his diary. I finally get over my initial shyness and start behaving like the crazy Manipuri that I am, much to the delight of Lena and Rose. John doesn’t know whether he should shut my mouth with scotch tape or run away. The whiskey is definitely not making things any better.

We end the day with some more astounding Delhi facts – courtesy Ludo and Sookie… it seems that cigarette shops in this city all shut-down by 11 PM. But not so the ice-cream wallahs – they roam the streets at night selling their wares to the ice-cream starved citizens of our capital city, and people actually seem to buy these icicles even at the ungodly hour of 1 AM!!!

Boy what a weird city this is.

THE CHRONICLES OF CASSINI's - The Delhi and Dhanaulti chapter: 30th May, 2006

2006-06-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

May 30th, 2006
It’s a hot and humid Tuesday afternoon - John, Ludo and I meet up at Ruby and hitch a cab ride to the Sealdah station. Taxi-rides are pretty uneventful in Kolkata, but not when you are traveling with 2 crazy members from CASSINI’s DIVISION who spend their time bugging each other. I get my first taste of Ludo’s “Astronaut – Ass” mantra, and it leaves me totally perplexed! But what leaves me more dumb-found is when Ludo gets down somewhere near Moulali to buy cigarettes from a shop that sells car batteries!!! (An honest mistake, I know!)
The journey hasn’t even begun and yet the signs are ominous – this is going to be one helluva mad-cap journey!

Rahul and Sookie are already at the station by the time we reach. The Rajdhani is on time and we find our compartment. Unfortunately our seats seem to be scattered all over, so after stuffing our luggage on board, we spend the initial part of the journey keeping to ourselves.
- I spend my time reading the manual of my digital camera, but I don’t make much headway since the instructions are all Greek to me.
- Sookie busies himself by making himself mammoth cup after mammoth cup of coffee.
- John gets down to stringing his bass guitar.
- Ludo chats with a few co-passengers who are excited to be traveling on the same train as a pony-tailed rock musician.
- Rahul? Oh he’s busy reading. He finishes 2 magazines before dinner-time, and then promptly starts reading a collection of fantasy short-stories, absolutely oblivious to the leg-pulling going on between the other 3.

And in between all the above we do a lot of munching and crunching – the stewards on the Rajdhani spend a whole lot of time feeding us. We burp our way through the initial part of the train ride.
We also get together in between the munching and crunching to discuss the current rock scene in Kolkata and also about Someplace Else. This is never a cheery topic, and despite the recent success of Cassini’s (** touchwood **), Rahul reminds the other band-members that it will always be a struggle for bands in Kolkata, regardless of them being “THE HOBOS or LOS LOBOS”!
And so the journey continue…

Dinner is soon served – and it’ s chicken curry. However my advice to all of you would be to
avoid it all costs the next time you travel by Rajdhani. Not unless you wish to spend a night of stomach clutching and loo running!! Seriously – by the next day 4 of us are feeling quite miserable and we blame the chicken for our plight. But that is another story.

There isn’t much to do after dinner, so I decide to go to sleep despite it being only 10 PM. The others spend their time in more productive ways no doubt. My last memory before I conk off is that of John praying on his bunk and Ludo swigging away at a peg of rum concealed in a bottle of Thums Up.

CASSINI's DIVISION - A Year Gone By

2006-05-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

I am not a musician, as many of you know. Neither have I ever pretended to be a walking-talking musical encyclopedia. And I am certainly not a musical messiah out to educate the masses.
But I do think I know a little about music. And I would like to think that I have an ear for good music, be it of any genre. And it delights me to see music flourishing in our city of Joy, especially in the genre of rock.

The music scene for rock bands has never been better in Kolkata. Apart from the good 'ol bangla bands there are many some up-and-coming rock bands in our city doing excellent music - Crystal Grass, The Hobos, Jackrabbits etc. etc. etc. And Cassini's Division. How could I forget them??? :)

Cassini's Division - a group of hard-working musicians, who believe in hard-work and struggling to keep their dreams alive in a music industry which don't know balls about music.

Something seems to draw me towards CASSINI's DIVISION - its hard to define why. I 1st heard this band last year at their old 9:30 PM Sunday slot at SOMEPLACE ELSE (@ the Park Hotel). I had no idea who they were and I didnt even know their band name - in fact I initially thought they were called CASSANDRA's DIVISION. :))

But the fact is, I still liked their sound enough to want to come again to see them play. And again. And again.
I also started spreading the good word around about them on the internet and in my office area (Sector-V, Salt Lake)... I didnt know these guys - they werent my old school-mates or my para'r thek'er group or married to my 3rd cousin from Chandan-nagar. And yet, I felt good when I listened to their music. I felt a part of myself feeling complete in heart and soul when I untied my pony-tail and head-banged like a maniac, as if no one was watching me. I felt good all around.
And doing a little PR for them was kinda my way of saying "Thank You for the music".

For the uninitiated - Cassini's Division are a 4-member band comprising of:
Guitarist and lead-screecher supreme and the growling grunterismo - RAHUL GUHA ROY aka Yoda
Lead Axeman 'abt to explode - SUKANTI ROY aka Quietus
Bass Man - JOHN BOSE aka Johnny B. Goode
Drum Monster - RITOBAN DAS aka Ludo

These 4 guys played awesome original alternative music and the odd decent cover as well. I liked their sound - maybe becoz it was slightly heavier than the other bands that played @ Someplace Else... I guess most of you know, I prefer heavy metal to the Doors or Pink Floyd (although I do love these 2 bands)
A year back their sound was truly R.E.M'esque or CRASH TEST DUMMIES like - not really heavy or anything. But they had a tight sound. And the covers they played also reflected the kinda music they were influenced by in those days - it was a treat to watch them play melodic alternative songs like STAIND's "Outside", RADIOHEAD's "Creep", R.E.M.s "Imitations Of Life", THE CALLING's "Wherever You May Go".

They would occasionally get heckled by the stupid, rigid-minded SPE crowd wanting their regular dose of classic rock - and I guess reluctantly Cassini's had to perform their alternative versions of various classic rock songs - great fun, but was it really what they wanted to play?? I dont honestly know, since I have never asked them 'till date. At least these few songs kept the crowd quiet.
And slowly but surely the SPE audience started appreciating the quality of their originals.

Originals. Appreciating originals is always gonna be the problem of the Kolkata live rock audience - you listen to COMFORTABLY NUMB whole day on your mp3 player and yet, you still want the live band to play that song for you when you come to Someplace Else to when you atend some other rock gig - it may be fun for you, but I have realised through the years that playing covers is the biggest way to kill the artistic individuality of a band. We criticize Bappi Lahiri and our other Bollywood music stars when they lift or copy a western tune. We get scandalised that they dont manage to play original stuff... and yet we come to SPE, mecca for rock music in sunny Kolkata - and we get exasperated when a band wont play covers of their favourite bands!!!
What kinda fucking hypocritical attitude is that???

Thank God I have managed to come out of this mind-block about Kolkata bands not being good enough to do their own music. When I met the manager of Someplace Else, Gautam Singh last year at the Joe Satriani concert, he 1st told me about Cassini's Division... about this new band which played alternative and grunge and had a heavy sound... and lordy lord - they played originals too!!
And like the typical rock-music loving Kolkatan, I too was bloody sceptical. Bands had done their originals in bangla very successfully - but in English?? Naa, I didnt think Cassini's would be able to pull it off, especially at a place like Someplace Else, where classic rock ruled supreme.

Doubting Thomas that I am - I am glad that I was so wrong and I gladly eat my words.
Because not only have they succeeded in pulling off the impossible in our city, they have also managed to start a revolution - so nowadays people actually expect a band on stage to play originals and not just the typical crummy cover.

If any of you reading this blog have ever heard Cassini's a year back (circa 2005) - and have heard them a year later (post March-April 2006) you will realise how far a band can go just on the basis of well-composed songs and sheer hard-work. No covers, no gimmicks, nothing - just good quality originals and a conviction to succeed in a city that is 2 steps behind the music scene in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Pune.
People in Kolkata call them loud and noisy and heavy. And I am sure these people get ear-aches when they hear Rahul screeching in "URBAN PHENOMENON"... me? I think the heavier they get the better, its the biggest high for me.
But yes, truth be told, they were never this heavy last year. I guess exposure to the music scene in and around the rest of the country has opened their eyes to the fact that success in Kolkata is not what its about. And the hard truth is that even the mellower rock bands in the rest of country were at one point even heavier than the old Cassini's avatar...

And so as the months have progressed Cassini's has steadily but surely increased the "heavy" element in their music. But its not that just making their originals more heavier is all that they've done. Their songs have also gone through a helluva lotta fine-tuning as well. They sound more tighter, they sound musically richer and last but not the least - they have added the element of "hey we want you, the audience to sing along with us" as well. And looking at the crowd reaction @ their weekly Sunday slot @ SOMEPLACE ELSE, you do actually see a helluva lot more crowd involvement - people you have never seen at their shows are also singing along to the chorus. And like most bands - the more the crowd gets involved, the better the band seem to perform... its like they are feeding off the positive energy being emitted from the audience.

For a guy who has been following their music so intensely for the last year, these changes in their music warms the cockles of my heart no end. When I close my eyes, I can't even make out that this band isnt from grunge land Seattle or from some other city in the USA. Hell, this band is from good 'ol Kolkata, City Of Joy - and they make it look and sound so easy! :)

I dont know how the music industry in India works. And barring the odd musician, I dont know too many people belonging to this industry. I'm just a common joe who likes listening to good music and I will be listening to music longer than most of these up-and-coming bands survive in this dog-eat-dog industry. Tough luck to them, but if they suck I aint gonna buy their music.

But not so with Cassini's Division - and I say that from the bottom of my heart.
And hey, these guys havent paid me to say all these nice things about them. And Like I said - i aint related to their kakas or kakis or mamas or mamis. I just like this band. Period.

SO all I am gonna say to Cassini's is thank you for accepting me into your fold, thank you for tolerating my crazy head-banging antics (when I had my pony-tail back then), and thank you for appreciating any kinda criticism I have dumped upon you in your one year @ Someplace Else.
You've completed a year at Kolkata's mecca of rock. And you've passed the test. And fuck any CACTUS member who thinks otherwise. Stick to your ideologies and beliefs... and next year same time, same place, I'll be writing another post about Cassini's Division - Year II.

God bless. :))

URBAN REFLECTIONS - a reflection of different musical genres @ SPE

2006-04-11T03:13:00.000-07:00

A lot of people in orkut know I am a total metal-head - so I dont know if I am the proper person to write a review of a show for a band which was anything BUT metal/alternative. But, I'm not a narrow-minded git, and I do try and listen to other musical genres as well. I dont claim to understand them all. And I definitely dont like listening to them all the time. But music is an art form with no boundaries - and its good to experience something different at times.

SO here I am @ SOMEPLACE ELSE (the mecca for all things rock-related in Kolkata), still suprised that I managed to garner the enthu to come for something non-metallic/alternative. The crowd is pretty different as well - not too many people who I would term as regulars. Anyway, the band start off with an interesting sound-check. Cool. And the bass guitarist Sanket (of Lakkichhara) caught my eye - I liked the way he was bassing up the sound.The 1st song they started off with was a classic 80's Brit Pop song - "TEARS FOR FEARS" and "Break It Down Again" - man, what a good cover that was. So now I'm all wide-eyed looking forward to a real rocking evening. And all of a sudden - the next song... BARRY MANILOW!!!! - nothing against him, he's a superb vocalist. But I dont really like that type of music. Yuck!
In fact, that I feel was the pattern of the entire evening - excellent covers and excellent jam sessions all round - but in between, there would be a few songs which they played that suddenly changed the entire mood, and I really couldnt digest them.Their original compositions (sans the Bangla lyrics) were truly breathtaking however. You could just close your eyes and let the music take you away to another place, another time. If that is what an amalgamation of jazz/funk/blues sounds like, then boy, I sure as hell would like to listen to some more!!!

Another thing I noticed was the band played covers for many artists not very well-known or comercially successful. Yes, the crowd was knowledgable no doubt - but I dont think they had heard of most of these artists. Like LIVING COLOR... What an awesome band - and their cover "Cult Of Personality" was superb. It rocked the house!And I was suprised that not many people had heard of Me'shell Ndegyocello (judging from the crowd reaction). She is a monster bass guitarist (u might have heard her in the song WILD NIGHTS with John Mellen Camp). Anyway. Panku was awesome in that cover, a delight to watch. In fact, I at times just shut out the other instruments from my mind and solely concentrated on his bass playing: BA DA BA DA BA DA... wow! He was good!
Other artists whose covers they played were Rainbow, Steely Dan, Bob Marley (that got the crowd jumping up and down - seemd to me the biggest crowd-puller that night)... and a group called the AQUARIUM RESCUE UNIT!! - I must confess my ignorance - I have never heard of this group!

The worst moments? Manilow babu apart - I could NOT digest the Dr. Hook "Sexy Eyes" cover (I hate that group too) - and I DID NOT enjoy Debu's rendition of "Michelle" by "THE BEATLES" - no insults, but I just didnt like the way he sang it. Anyway.

At the end of it all, I have to say that Urban Reflections are an excellent band - I couldnt find a single weak unit in the line-up - drums, vox, bass, lead (awesome), keyboards (awesome again). So its a pity that these guys arent full-time with this group. They had excellent musical chemistry which was a delight to watch.In a nutshell, Urban Reflections were a treat to watch, but maybe next time they could stick to playing the blues-jazz stuff more and leave out the GOLDEN OLDIES bit.

HELGA's FUN CASTLE - 100% Pure Fun!

2006-04-07T23:40:00.000-07:00

This gig wasnt just fun... it was sheer fucking madness

Helga's, as many of yo know, are a jam band who have this knack of composing their songs impromptu on stage. That, my friends, is a tough thing to do - but for their lead vocalist Sidd Coutto it was as easy as eating pie... or peeing in the loo... whatever... I guess u get my point.
And yet they have still managed to bring out a pretty interesting album called "THANK YOU. COME AGAIN" - the material that they play is a mixture of alternative (lotsa nu-metal undertones) and reggae and god-knows what!! Lets keep it simple here - these guys have been influenced by a million bands, but the stuff they play is undefinable genre-wise.

So to the gig itself. Good crowd btw. A few members of Crystal Grass and Cassini's Division were there. As were quite a few head-bangers.
1st song: ALIEN ANT FARM - great start. I actually didnt realise that they had started playing, the intro sounded so much like the original.

Other covers they played: "Roxanne" by THE POLICE and "Nice To Know You" by INCUBUS... I loved the latter. Really head-banged to that one!!
This band aint that high on the covers section however. And their idea of fun is to slash away at songs just for the heck-of it. For example, they played their version of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE's "Bulls On Parade", but instead called it "COWARDS ON PARADE". Didnt sound too bad either.
Another time, they asked for a topic they could jam on. I yelled out "SEX!!"... and they then and there composed a song called "GET LAID" based upon an AUDIOSLAVE song! - and that my friends is the kinda band they are!

Suprisingly, for a band that composes songs at the drop of hat on stage, they actually had the time to pen down stuff to create an album.

And they gave us a full blast of their originals last night. Some of the songs were really good - "For Luke", "Mr. Fancypants" and "Little Bit Of This" got me and a sizable section to head-bang.
The "Marching Song" was a very good song too and Sid, the vox actually started marching on the stage... well there obviously wasnt much place to do any serious marching - and he ended up looking like a duck waddling around.

Biggest crowd-puller of their's was "SSG - Smoked Some Ganja"... nice reggae beat. That song got the non-rock lovers jumping up and down.
I personally liked the songs "Sometimes" and "All Is Lost" the best. The former, a good rock-reggae song, not too hard but just abt enuff to allow u to swing ur head around like a dummy.
And "All Is Lost" is actually a very well-composed power ballad. That was indeed a nice suprise.

Their vocalist Siddarth, is BTW the original drummer for ZERO. And he has a superb voice. Wonder why he stuck around so long behind the drum-sets. Anyway, he's crazy too, and just abt the most talkative front-man for any Indian rock band that I've seen. Man, he talks more than Nitin (Parikrama's lead vox)... but he's a fun guy.
The most funniest part of the gig? When Sid suddenly climbed up and stood upon the bar and started singing!!
Bassist Johan and guitarist Meghashyam (another ZERO guitarist - he with the yellow jester hat @ the ZERO gig last month, for those of you who were there) were tight and impressive.
And Gino - no words to describe the way he played. This guy was awesome. It wasnt just the drum solos that were so catching, he got me with the little bits and pieces he drummed during each song. He is a monster drummer.

Complaints? Well, at times the impromptu jams did start to sound the same after a few songs. They need to work on that.

But having said that, Helga's Fun Castle lived up to their name - 100% unadulterated fun!

ZERO @ SPE - and I'm head-banging as usual!!

2006-04-07T23:27:00.000-07:00

Great show by a great band - ZERO, supposedly India's best live act. And I have no reasons to doubt that fact after the sweat-dripping-energy-sapping show they played at SOMEPLACE ELSE, the mecca for rock music in Kolkata.

And what added to the fun at this gig was that I got to share the head-banging limelight with great pals and A-class guitarists, Sukanti Roy and John Bose (belonging to Kolkata's top-notch alternative band CASSINI's DIVISION)... so basicaly I spent my evening head-banging and MOSHING (well sorta) with them right up there at the 1st row!! Awesome! No better place at a hard rock gig than the front row!!

Abt the performance - well ZERO were definately a treat to watch! And unlike the last time (circa 2004), this show they played most of their originals - nice change that!

I have to be honest here. I hadnt heard much of their original stuff before this show (barring PSP - which is undoubtedly the best headbanger on the Indian rock circuit) - and I didnt find them very interesting, apart from a few here and there. But I bought their CD (was available at the SPE counter) - and now that I am back home listening to it, I can truthfully say that they really do have a pretty good set of songs. Folks look out for
"MARIACHI" and "OLD MAN SITTING ON THE BACK PORCH" and the real heavy "HATE IN EM" and some song which I think was called "LUCILLE" (not sure) - the last one isnt on their album.

Their covers were extremely well performed as well. Special mention: "The Banana Song" originally sung by Harry Belafonte!! Also provided with a hard-rock tinge were covers like "Come Together" by the Beatles song (or Aerosmith - since they sang that too) - their version of "La Bamba" rocked as well - and last but not the least, the crowd pleaser "Roxanne" by the POLICE. Anyway, so much for covers!

Special mention for their guest drummer Geno Banks, who was filling in for regular thumper Siddharth Couto. My God! He was a monster on the drum-set. Absolutely mind-boggling performance by him. Bobby on the bass and Rajeev on vox were cool too.

I have a sore back and stiff neck. Too much headbanging @ my AGE is injurious to my health! AND a new one - I think I somehow miraculously managed to pull a hamstring down there near my thigh during the show... wonder how I managed to do that
Anyway - GREAT show. Zero has evolved tremendously from when I last saw them play at SPE. And that is good.

THEM CLONES... the night SPE crumbled to dust

2006-04-06T00:44:00.000-07:00

SOMEPLACE ELSE - the mecca of rock music in Kolkata... the only place where u can chill out with a cool drink and listen to quality music at the same time.

SOMEPLACE ELSE - the only place where the best and most intense live performances take place in the city.

And that my friends, was the reason why SPE decided to host THEM CLONES, the new icons of the alternative scene in India. Their music knocked me out cold, and their intensity pounded me to smithereens. This was no live performance for the weak-hearted.

Anyway, I'll just go straight to what they played - an alternate/heavy metal lovers delight:
1. PEARL JAM - Animal, Alive, Jeremy
2. SCORPIONS - Rock You Like A Hurricane
3. U2 - Vertigo, (Pride) In The Name Of Love
4. COLDPLAY - Yellow
5. A few originals - In The Name Of God, Wait For Me, Zephyretta (a few others I cant remember)
6. DISTURBED - Stupify
7. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - Bulls On Parade, Killing In The Name, Wake Up

And yes, I guess there were a few more I cant remember. For me the highlights were definitely the RATM, Pearl Jam and Disturbed covers - ESPECIALLY THE RATM covers - I screamed my voice hoarse and sang the loudest during each of these songs. And man, DID I head bang!! Thank God for Prithwish, the lead vocalist of THEM CLONES - he poured a bottle of water on us people to cool us down

Excellent show - but there were a few hick-ups, most notably the fuses giving out, not once - but twice - during their performance. And the 2nd one was during the RATM cover of "Wake Up" - unfortunately they didnt finish the song after normalcy was restored - and that also unfortunately was their last song.

I was amazed by the turn out - I thought alternative/heavy metal was dead in Kolkata - seems not, which is a great thing. There was a very knowledgable crowd out there. Its always a pleasure to head-bang with people who know their music, and not with fucking pseudos who head-bang just for the sake of head-banging!!

Anyway - I am happy, and I am grinning like a Cheshire Cat, despite all my body aches and aching eardrums and hoarse throat. THEM CLONES are a brilliant band!! Top-notch gig - hope they come to Kolkata (and SOMEPLACE ELSE) more often.

Study for my FRENCH exam or pubbing at "SOMEPLACE ELSE" - the last temptation of PRASANNA

2005-06-12T22:53:00.000-07:00

I have a French exam this Thursday - I'm even taking 2 days leave from work (Wednesday for studies, Thursday for failing the stupid exam)

Someplace Else - the best pub in Kolkata. The only pub in this huge congested city where the DJ wil play you LINKIN PARK, METALLICA, NIRVANA, 70's rock, PINK FLOYD, etc. A rock pub, if there ever was one. The only pub in the city where there are live performances by the city's top rock bands every day of the week. A pub where the country's top bands come over to play live as well. Situated on Kolkata's posh Park Street area. In the premises of the posh Park Hotel. A pub which I love. A pub which has successfully turned me into a blob of alchoholic junk!!!

Saturday. Thought I'd study in the evening. Then my pals Diya and Aniruddh Sur call me up. Tell me they're going to SPE (short for SOMEPLACE ELSE), and do I wanna come along? And I wouldn't have to pay! Well I'm only human right? What could I do... I gave in to temptation!

So I joined them, and I was expecting a normal Saturday night with the booze and the babes and the blues, courtesy the SATURDAY NIGHT BLUES BAND (yup generally Saturday is a blues night at SPE)... but HOW WRONG I WAS!!!!!

We reach SPE and find out that it's a special night - the group SPAN are gonna be playing a set of alternative and modern rock tracks... SPE has named this the NIGHT FOR THE NEW FACE OF ROCK!!!

For those of you who don't know, SPAN comprises of Neel Adhikari (ex-Krosswindz and currently in the Saturday Night Blues Band), Stuart Munro (current bass guitarist of the Saturday Night Blues Band), Chirodip Lahiri (currently the drummer of Krosswindz), keyboardist Raja Deb, and super-talented lead guitarist Tajdar Junaid.

So what did they play and why am I so ga-ga after last Saturdays performance? Man, they played grunge, they played alternative, they played modern rock - they played just about anything that a person NEVER gets to hear at SPE. And for someone like me who prefers heavy metal/alternative more than the blues/60's-70's rock, it was like finding an oasis in a desert!! I was also struck by the sheer volume of the crowd that poured in - this was a mega successful night for SPE. And it also proved to me that Calcuttans love the alternative/modern rock stuff just as much as they love the Doors/Pink Floyd/the Rolling Stones, etc.

SPAN... I've been pubbing at SPE for god knows how many years - and I honestly never even bothered to come on the nights that SPAN played. But going by their performance this Saturday, well, maybe I was wrong! They used to play on Mondays, but now their slot's been changed to Thursdays, so I think I'll sample them on Thursday nights. Unfortunately they supposedly don't play the same modern rock set that they dished out on Saturday - but what the heck, I am a big fan of SPAN now!!

They started off with OASIS and Wonderwall, then followed it up by R.E.M. and Losing My Religion. Great guiatring and drumming... the music was slowly getting me high. Then they played Clocks by COLDPLAY (they actually played 4 songs by COLDPLAY, they love this band), and GREENDAY with When I Come Around... by now I was screaming my head off from the back of the pub - it was waaaay too crowded in front of the stage though, as usual, so I didn't try getting freaky with the crowd. Actually I never do - I'm alwayz at the back shouting like I've got a microphone attached to my voice box. Helps that I have a booming voice! Heh!

Anyway, then they played MAROON 5 and She Will Be Loved followed by RADIOHEAD's Creep... I love that song! With the intro of Creep I sorta lost my power to think straight. Shit, and it's only now I realise that 2 gorgeous women were standing right beside me, knocking my elbows while I was screaming out loud "I Wish I Was Special, So FUCKING Special"... I was so engrossed and high with the music that I just ignored them (Sorry ladies wherever you are, I hope you understand... I'll flirt with you 2 some other time! )

The opening bars of HOOBASTANK's The Reason - and I totally went bonkers. I left my unfinished drink and shoved myself all the way to the front of the stage, much to the astonishment of my pals whom I left behind!
Shoving your way to the front of the crowd during a rock show is an art which I am yet to master, and I stepped on the delicate toes of quite a few pretty dames on the way. My God, if eyes could throw daggers I would have been stabbed multiple times within that 30 second "SHOVING" time-frame... gosh I'm never ever gonna get a date now!!

So there I was, somehow managing to slither myself to the front row despite my portly shape (I guess people get intimidated by pony-tailed guyz and just move away!), singing my voice hoarse and even head-banging (The only one in the entire crowd who was head-banging actually, much to the utter amazement of the lead guitarist who I was standing in front of!!). But can you blame me? I loved the music they played. So after the excellent HOOBASTANK rendition, came THE RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS with Californication, PEARL JAM covers of the Last Kiss and Even Flow (the latter being the last song of the night - but I'm mentioning now anyway). COLLECTIVE SOUL - Gel and December, FASTBALL's Outta My Head, JAMIRAQUOI (yuck!! they coulda skipped this artist), EAGLE EYE CHERRY's Are You Still Having Fun, COLDPLAY galore like I previously mentioned - Yellow, In My Place and Trouble, a souped up modern rock version of TOM PETTY's Free Falling, and finally, the song which I hoped they would play, and which made me head-bang so much I have a dislocated neck bone now... NIRVANA and Smells Like Teen Spirit. Whew - what a night!

About SPAN and the set they played. I believe in most parts of the country rock bands get to play similar sets, and on a pretty frequent basis too. Places like Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Delhi obviously have more pubs and more indigenous rock groups. Plus at mopst colege fests u will the bands playing these songs. But the fact is, the scene is a lot different in Kolkata - bands hardly do this stuff over here - and at SPE, this was a 1st. So SPAN - u guys did a realy commendable job. Hats off to you folks.

I know a lot of you reading this are thinking "Big Deal" - well let me tell you, it is a big deal. I am seeing the face of modern rock/metal/alternative finally coming into the open in Kolkata. Before my very eyes. And I am absolutely thrilled - it's like a dream come true for me.

The new manager of SPE, Gautam Singh, is doing a good thing by trying to change the music scene at SPE. Change is inevitable, and changes such as these I warmly welcome with open arms.

Shit, I forgot... French... I wasted an entire evening screaming my guts out and head-banging, and I forgot all about my up-coming exam!! I am DOOMED!! :(

For Mz. Poodle Lahiri!!

2005-06-08T00:25:00.000-07:00

Well, as promised - a silly poem for a special woman!! Hope she likes it....

There is this cute woman, as sweet as a poodle,
Chirpy and pretty, and who loves to doodle.
So sit back you all and read her grand story
Of how she has struggled to gain fortune and glory.

She was born in the hills of the north and the east,
Where lived the magical joogoogoojoo beast.
Now, this beast fell in love with our pretty lass
But his heart of stone broke into fragments of glass,
The day she left home and went to the South
And started to stuff idlis into her mouth!

For years did she study 'till she got her degree
For years did she live on just idlis and ghee
For years did she long to be wild and free
But all that went boom when she became a YUPPIE!!

So now our dear poodle is a workaholic
And sketching and shoes are her only tonic!
Sometimes she splurges on hand-bags and clothes
And dreams to go PUNK, and get a ring on her nose!!
She works and she works and goes home late at night,
Too tired to be cooking or to fly a kite.
Too tired to meet friends or handsome young guys,
Too tired to eat pizza or crunchy french fries!
Too tired to go pubbing or even to SNOG!!
She just seems to work or occasionally BLOG!

But along comes the eccentric beast of the hills...
Once high on the booze and the fags and the pills -
He's changing his ways - no time for cheap thrills,
He's working his ass off to pay all his bills!!

From afar (i.e. Kolkata) he sees the girl of his dream,
And he's thinking to woo her with some crazy, cool scheme.
He logs into orkut and starts driving her silly,
Our very own poodle, Miss Ritu Lahiri!!

Who knows what will happen to the joogoogoojoo beast!
Will he find success with his scheme from the east?
Or maybe he'll fly over and live down in the south,
And stuff his fat gut with idlis into his mouth...

Well whatever he does, he is on a mission
To save a sweet poodle from her current position.
He's gonna make sure she don't work off her ass.
He's gonna try hard to save this cute lass.

So this, my friends, is the saga of Ritu
And how she's been tormented by the beast joogoogoojoo
Who knows what will happen at the end of this story...
Will she keep on working for her fortune and glory?
Or will the beast from the east have his own way?
Corrupt and brain-wash her... well, we'll find out SOME DAY!!

10 Reasons Why I Love The Star Wars Saga...

2005-05-25T00:29:00.000-07:00

1. It makes me feel young again - 100% an unadulaterated fun-filled sci-fi-fantasy saga - all stories should be like this.

2. Han Solo - wish I could be as cool as him (I still have some miles to go!)

3. Light-sabres - the coolest weapons around - wish I had one - even though my Rebaca colleagues think they look like tube-lights.

4. Jedi knights - always had a thing for knights, be they Arthurian ones - or the ones on the chess board. Plus their power to control and manipulate the "FORCE"... awesome!

5. John Williams - and his theme for the film - in fact the theme for all the Star Wars films - I have no words to describe the beauty of these pieces.

6. Yoda - and wasn't he just awesome in the battle sequence in "Attack Of The Clones"?? - plus, he showed how speak English we must - cool Jedi Master he being!

7. Darth Maul - he had by far the best light-saber of them all - and for a villain/Sith Lord who hardky spoke, well lemme just say - he gave Darth Vader a good run for his money in the evil quotient.

8. Darth Vader - how could I leave him out? The best villain in the history of cinema - and what a voice! (courtesy James Earl Jones)

9. Chewbacca - YAWAAAHHWYAAHHAAA - don't ask me to translate that from Wookie speak to English!

10. The satisfaction of seeing everything fall into place - I can't say how absolutely marvellous I found the various plot loop-holes getting tied up in "The Revenge Of The Sith". Now I know why Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. Now I know why Padme Amidala died at child-birth. Now I know why Senator Bail Organa adopted Leia and why Luke lived with his uncle and aunt. And why Obi Wan shifted base to Tatooine. And why C-3PO/R2-D2 do not remember a friggin incident about the past. And why there were no more jedis... blah blah blah!

I could list another 100 more points - but this will have to do till now...

ARSENAL - "2005-2006: A New Beginning".... You Think???

2005-04-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

OK, so lazy bum and coach potato intellect supreme that I am (on top of being a self-proclaimed football guru - although my shape resembles that of a football these days!) - I have decided to dissect/criticize/put forward my highly opinionated views on my favourite soccer team - "ARSENAL".

After Arsenal's majorly mucked up season this time around, son't you think there is a huge scope for improvement for the Gunners? Well I do... so here are my views on what Arsene Wenger and his team of trusty helpers should and should not do for the forth-coming season:

1. OK, so task #1 - lets take a look at the current 1st team that they have:

Goalkeepers Strikers
Jens Lehmann Jose Antonio Reyes
Stuart Taylor Dennis Bergkamp
Manuel Almunia Robin van Persie
Chris Wright Thierry Henry
Jeremie Aliadiere
Adam Birchall
Arturo Lupoli
Quincy Owusu Abeyie

Defenders Midfielders
Ashley Cole Patrick Vieira
Lauren Robert Pires
Pascal Cygan Fredrik Ljungberg
Philippe Senderos Francesc Fabregas
Gael Clichy Mathieu Flamini
Sol Campbell Edu
Kolo Toure Gilberto Silva
Emmanuel Eboue Sebastian Larsson
Justin Hoyte Olafur-Ingi Skulason
Sebastian Svard Ryan Smith
Ryan Garry Jermaine Pennant
Daniel Karbassiyoon David Bentley
Johan Djourou

Heh - I even included David Bentley and Jermaine Pennant in the list, even though they're on loan to Norwich Town and Birmingham City respectively.

OK, so goalkeepers 1st: Lehmann and Almunia both seem to be making the same types of mistakes while on the field - they are both susceptible to the high ball - and what's worse, they both lack a basic sense of positioning for set-pieces (read corners and free-kicks). SO what Wenger needs to do is sell Almunia - no questions asked. Lehmann is at least an old-warhouse with European club championship experience (if memory serves me right, he did pretty well for Borussia Dortmund), as well as having represented Germany at the World Cup and at the Euro Championships. Plus, he is desperate to perform well so that Klinsmann selects him for next year's World Cup in his home country. So my gut feeling says - forgive and forget his current mediocre season - next season he's gonna be a monster (desperation has always been a great adrenaline charger for most players!)
I always liked Stuart Taylor, and he had an excellent season when Seamen was injured a few years ago - but he needs more opportunities from Wenger - at least they should play him in the Coca Cola matches. That should be a good morale booster for him. Chris Wright?? Who's he? If he's one of those young 'uns, then okay - warm the bench and get the big match feel. For another season at least.

My Verdict: Sell Almunia. Fast-track Taylor. Give him more responsibilities. Buy a new goalkeeper to provide competition to Taylor. Also ensure that the new guy is a more than capable back-up for Lehmann if there is an injury down the line. Suggestions anyone?? Howz about Mart Poom?
Of course, ideally I would love it if Arsenal bought Carlo Cudicini - that would worry the pants off Lehmann!

And off to our defenders we shall go: And yes, this is where we got screwed big-time this season - we scored tons (as usual), and as usual we conceded tons as well. But this time it was open season at the Arsenal defensive line - like, "Score one, get another goal FREE!".
Sol Campbell is old - there is no running away from that. And Pascal Cygan is NOT his best replacement. Toure is a good intelligent footballer. But every so often his "midfielder" instinct goes to his head. And he forgets the basics of central defending. Just look how he screwed up against Bayern Munich. Anyway, this is what, his 2nd year as a hard-core central defender? He'll improve - but please, when you're a defender, at least play like one - no fancy foot-work ala Lucio!
Campbell needs to get his England career out of his system and concentrate fully on his Arsenal career, becoz slowly but surely he is going to lose his sharpness. And anyway, he's fast turning into Arsenal's sick-note. (I beg your pardon Monsieur Darren Anderton!)
Ashley Cole MUST NOT be allowed to leave Arsenal at any cost. Gael Clichy and Senderos both have an excellent future over here as well. Lauren must stay but we definitely need a youngster to come up fast as his rival/back-up - if a player as good as Silvinho could be ousted by Ashley Cole, then surely we should be trying to get some one in such a similar situation on the right-flank of the Arsenal defensive line. Hoyte, Svard and Eboue (reminds me of Cristiano Ronaldo once in a while with his fancy dribbling) still need to be nurtured further - next season is still too early for them. Similarly it goes for the other young defenders as well. (I can't even pronounce the name of one of them!)

My Verdict: Get rid of Cygan - buy a real central defender!! An Italian preferably. (I can dream can't I?) Send a few kids out on loan (Hoyte, Eboue, Svard). To me, selling both Moritz Volz and Matthew Upson were big big mistakes. Especially Upson. They could have done it on the Arsenal stage as well - they just needed time to get it straight.
Anyway, we need a central defender, and that is final. And a good one too. Alessandro Nesta is my choice (someone pinch me, I'm dreaming!)

The midfielders now: Vieira, Edu, Gilberto Silva, Flamini, Fabregas … notice a pattern here? Aren’t all of these central midfield players? At least the 1st 4 are – and Fabregas started the season in that role too. So my question here is, where are the creative midfielders a.k.a. the goal-scoring midfield maestros?
Pires is a magnificent player – but he’s growing older and injury susceptible too. Ljungberg is another outstanding servant of Arsenal, who similarly spends quite a bit on his medical bills. Pennant and Bentley are 2 extremely talented and creative players – and Wenger both loaned them out. I would have thought a season at Leeds (where he was absolutely amazing, by the way!) would have been enough to go by for Arsene Wenger. In fact, half a season would more than have made a man out of young Pennant. He definitely should have been given more chances this season. I seriously fear the same thing might happen to Bentley as well, i.e. he isn't going to be getting many opportunities to play in the Arsenal 1st team. Wenger should have more faith on his English-bred youngsters. They definitely can do the job.
So now the big question – our midfield is solid in the middle – Vieira and Gilberto are quality supreme. Edu should be made to stay back because he’s versatile player, and can even slot in on the flanks. Flamini… hmm. Was he really necessary? Yes, he has had a few good games, but he’s a player who doesn’t add any new dimension to an already heavy-duty Arsenal midfield. We need a solid classy midfielder. David Beckham. He’s suddenly regained his old form and has been instrumental in driving Real Madrid forward. Where’s an Overmars when you need one!

My Verdict: It’s great that we have so many quality and up-and-coming central mid-fielders – but maybe we have too many. Time for the AXE! And I vote for Flamini to go.
Bring back Bentley and play him next season for Chrissake! Pennant looks like a lost soul for Arsenal – another creative player down the drain! So okay, buy one! Beckham, Robben, Duff – or someone who has similar skills. Sheesh, there must be someone out there good enough to score and create goals. And who has a good intelligent footballing brain as well. Joe Cole? Owen Hargreaves? (well maybe not thaaat creative, is he?)… oh I know, how about Shaun Wright-Phillips?

And finally, the strikers: You know, how can I complain about the forwards? They score soooo many goals. And Henry on his own is like a Godzilla for goal-scoring! But what happens when he’s out injured? What then? Well lets look at our options:
Bergkamp is like GOD to me. But I think this just might be his final season. He managed to roll back the years last season, but this time he’s been a peripheral figure on the field, most of the time not being able to keep pace with the flow. I would be very surprised if he was here for another season. At the most, he could play the role of a back-up striker – launch him at the opponent team in the last 15 minutes or so. Roger Milla style.
Persie? Wow! Yes, he has a future. He just needs to take it slow. He’s not gonna be playing each and every match next season too. But he is 100% the next Arsenal star in the making – provided he doesn’t get too many red cards.
Reyes? Aw, I am totally disappointed with him. He started off like a rocket this season – and suddenly, phhhft! The lights have gone out! I hate to say this – but maybe he needs to be shown the door. Either that, or he needs a good shrink. Because it’s not his skills that are letting him down – it’s his attitude. His mind isn’t into the Arsenal mold of things. He needs to ask himself a few hard questions, like, why is he at Arsenal? Anyone who moves to a foreign country and who doesn’t speak the language is gonna take time to adjust. But what’s the point of making that an issue. Be mature boyo – try and adjust faster. Your career is at stake here!

My Verdict: As long as Henry lives, so Arsenal shall continue breathing oxygen. Bergkamp? Ok, sentimental favorite, give him one more year – but play him in a Roger Milla type role. Persie and Aliadiere need to stick around – they are the future. Reyes? If he’s gonna act like a dodo, well, then sell him! To Real Madrid if necessary! And yes, buy someone new for sure – another established forward wouldn’t be a bad idea over here. Suggestions? Ho hum – that’s a toughie – Shevchenko is a wee bit over-the-top money-wise I guess. Then, what about that Argentinean chap Javier Saviola? He’s sorta lost direction in recent times, but under the able guidance of Wenger he might be able to strike the right chord here. Can't think of anyone else actually. And for some reason Dean Ashton's name is floating in my head! Now that would be the suprise of the century.

Final Verdict: We need new players – a new central defender, a few flair mid-fielders, a striker… even a goalie. We need to chuck out a few useless players with redundant playing styles. And finally – with so many excellent youngsters around, Wenger needs to re-vamp his team selection policy and give them a chance. Make them feel wanted. Make them feel a part of Arsenal.

EYEZ????

2005-04-14T02:32:00.000-07:00

When I grow old (oops!! I already am!),
And can't tell the difference between jelly and jam,
I'll be thinking of geetika and the poem she wrote,
About my sweet eyes - and I'll make a small note -
That whenever I meet her I'll give her a smile,
I'll hold her right hand, and we'll flirt for a while,
And then I'll sit down and take out my ink pen -
I'll fill up a form and smile once again!
Oh aren't I sweet and a swell sorta guy...
Hey Geets, I filled up a form to donate you my eye!!
Left eye or right eye - you take your pick!!
Whatever you choose, it just gives me a kick,
That a pretty lass like you could write me a sonnet,
Oh lord in heaven - there's a bee in my bonnet!!!!

I wrote this nonsensical poem for a lovely and charming friend of mine - Geetika, currently living Baltimore, Maryland (in the big bad country we all know so well!). I kinda returned a favour to her becoz she wrote me this:

in your eyes I have beheld:
the mischief of youth,
the cynicism of age,
held in balance by their humorous light.

in your eyes I have seen:
a subtle fire
a curious kindness
unexpected reflections
of your enigmatic heart.

Thank you Geetika - your the first person to have ever written a poem about/for me!

7 Months - and change

2005-04-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

7 months.

I feel empty. I feel like I've lost direction. I feel unhappy. I feel like the whole world is ganging up on me. I feel like I'm a whole new person - a stranger.

I don't recognise myself anymore.

Can 7 months really make so much difference to a person? Can a person change so much in 7 months? Introspection. Like that helps!

7 months back:
1. I was the office clown.
2. I made a decision to stick to a certain company despite the pay being lousy and despite the fact that the work was even lousier.
3. I signed up to learn French.
4. I had trouble tying my hair in a pony-tail!
5. I stopped my Sunday morning football outings - my only source of wholesome sweaty physical exertion.
6. I became a privileged member of SOMEPLACE ELSE - more booze on the house!
7. I was just getting over the migration of my best pal and his wife and kid to hip 'n sunny California.
8. I was listening to HOOBASTANK, LINKIN PARK, EVANESCENCE, SLIPKNOT and other similar nu-metal/alternative bands.
9. I was partying at least twice a week (in Kolkata "twice a week" is majorly frequent!!).
10. I was merrily planning ahead for the Puja festivities - still a month-and-a-half away.
11. I was more vulgar and uncouth than a pimp from Dharavi.
12. I was vibrant and fun to be with.
13. I looked forward to spending time with friends, families and colleagues. I enjoyed socialising. I enjoyed dating.
14. I looked forward to each day with enthusiasm.
15. I was still searching for "THE ONE".
16. I was different.

7 months down the line:
1. I have stopped cracking jokes at office - I am not in the mood for clowning around these days.
2. I sometimes feel that my decision to stick to a certain company was wrong, despite the work now being interesting and my pay being a helluva lot better than what it was back then.
3. I still can't speak a friggin' fluent French sentence despite having gone through 3 semesters of elementary French these past 7 months. And I am about to start my 4th and final semester any day now!
4. I have hair so long that people mistake me for a woman when they see my pony-tail from behind.
5. I have grown so fat that even my underwear feels tight and if I walk too fast my bones ache all over. My engine is all fucked up.
6. I have cut down on booze and cigarettes - and SOMEPLACE ELSE too.
7. I have stopped missing my friends, because they don't miss me. Apparently.
8. I listen to KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, IN FLAMES, LACUNA COIL, CRADLE OF FILTH, DIMMU BORGIR, CHILDREN OF BODOM and other such death/black/goth/grind-core bands these days (and the other stuff I listened to as well, 7 months back) ... and I'm enjoying these extreme musical genres immensely.
9. I go out so infrequently these days that I've forgotten what the inside of a discotheque or a lounge bar looks like.
10. I have stopped making plans anymore - they never turn out properly anyway.
11. I hardly talk much these days - so in a way I have stopped being vulgar and uncouth - some improvement that!
12. I have stopped being a fun person to be with. Period.
13. I feel like taking a sword and decapitating a few people around. I feel like my colleagues either don't like me or don't take me seriously. I feel pissed off with everyone around me.
14. I don't look forward to the new day anymore - I think... nay, I know, I am stagnating. I want change.
15. I have stopped searching for "THE ONE".... she doesn't exist in my life-time.
16. I am different.

I'm a morose nut-case with violent tendencies.
I'm a wordly-wise individual frustrated with the system and his surroundings.
I'm an old foggie who can't keep pace with this mucked-up world.
I'm looking around for brighter days, for better times.
I'm searching for my old self. Please help me find him. Whoever you are. Please.

The Times They Are A' Changing....

2005-04-12T03:38:00.000-07:00

I haven't written in quite a while, and my fingers were itching today to be CREATIVE! So here I am. Again. And no, I am not gonna bad-mouth the IT sector in this blog. Passe it has become.

I think my last post was in August - that was like a millenium ago! And it feels extremely weird trying to chain up a few words into coherent and interesting sentences. And worst of all, I don't even know what I'm typing about here. I'm rambling. Like an old man.

I think I've changed - well my attitude has at least. Maybe more. 7 months it's been.

My life on the bench...... OR, lazy is as lazy does

2004-08-20T04:43:00.000-07:00

I've been working for what, 5-6 years? Yup, for a lazy bum like me that's a pretty long time to be working in a cut-throat, nerdy, geeky, MUNDANE industry!! Anyway, so I guess I've kind of seen and experienced all the ups and downs that one can in the IT industry - from lay-offs and pay-cuts - to promotions and huge pay hikes..... the attrition is probably is the highest in this Industry - so I've had he opportunity of meeting new people and making new friends - and also seen good friends leave for "GREENER" pastures. Yup, I've seen it all - been there, done that.

Or so I thought.

For the last 1-1/2 years I had been involved in this Quality Assurance project for a client in cowboy-land Texas. But all projects have an end date, and so too mine came to a conclusion a couple of days back.

So now I find myself in a new situation, i.e., I currently don't have any work!! I'm on the bench - as they so call us non-workers in this industry!

No work?? Eeeks!!! No work?? Oh my God.... well that's what my team-members are saying every other minute. I kind of understand why - no one actually looks favourably upon someone who is sitting idle in this fast-growing industry. And when you are sitting idle - well, as they say, "An Idle Mind Is The Devil's Workshop".... and so the chain of thought starts:

1. I HAVE NO WORK - so I have to sit idle at office whole day.
2. If I sit idle, then I can't make a worth-while contribution to the company.
3. Sitting idle for a long period means I get paid without doing anything.
4. Me getting paid for nothing = waste of money to the company.
5. The longer this situation prevails, the more chance of me getting laid-off due to redundancy reasons.
6. So in my free time I might as well start looking for a new job.... i.e. find a new job before I get shown the pink slip.

Pathetic isn't it? And yet, can you blame the folks who think on these lines? Human nature after all.

But I am digressing - I was actually writing about myself, and not about the general population.

So here I am sitting doing "nothing" worth-while - or so the management might think... surfing whole day, writing mails - catching up with old friends, catching up with family members, making new friends at orkut.com, reading a scrabble dictionary, trying to learn how to tie my long hair properly from my colleague in the adjacent cubicle....
And what about the things I need to do? Well, I was planning on learning French, learning Romanian (my brother-in-law is Romanian, so that's why), do some serious blogging (as you can obviously see), learn new technologies, blah blah blah....

My God, with a list like that, how can anyone say I was sitting "IDLE"!!!!!!!???? The lists above are, like, stuff which almost anyone would want to do on a normal day - unfortunately people are too busy updating their resumes and applying to all the head-hunters around the country to do the above.

They'll tell you, "Oh we didn't have time", or "I was busy doing you-know-what..." - well dorks YOU'RE NOT BUSY NOW!!!!

Maybe I'm different from the average Joe - maybe I think all this job-career nonsense is like a mirage - waiting to vanish the moment we try and get too close to it. So I guess I will never understand this fear that people suffer from when they're on the bench. Hell, I think this was the best thing that ever happenned to me!!

I know I'm not gonna get laid-off, so that means I actually get paid for doing "NOTHING" at the month-end. Of coure, like I said, the "NOTHING" that I've been doing is actually a helluva lot more important than the lousy stuff I did these last 1-1/2 years. Honestly.

For instance, I finally got the opportunity to write a long mail to this friend of mine in South Korea. For instance, I finally have the opportunity to read all those books lying around my house. For instance, for instance, for instance - the list is endless.

And all the morons who suffer from bench-phobia don't even understand the basic meaning of life - shit man, life isn't just about work and developing your skills or waiting for the next lousy project in the pipeline. It's about learning new things, enriching yourself - at least that's what life means to me.

Nope - I guess the impression I'm creating of myself is that of some lazy freako who has no motivation in life.... well, there are 2 sides to a coin, or so the saying goes.

So let me end this looooong blog with the 1st 2 lines from one of my favourite poems - 'Lesiure' by W.H. Davies:
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?

Do the above lines make sense to you? Well, they do to me - and I have been following them to the T. And if I have to die a "DARK, DASTARDLY DEATH" by doing "NOTHING" - then so be it. But please, I am not gonna shit my pants yellow just because sitting on the bench is taboo to the industry hot-shots. I have a life - and I'm proud of it.

Bench-sitting ZINDABAD!!!

The aimless life of an IT pro....

2004-07-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

I am sitting on my chair and staring at my screen,
I see lines and lines of C++ - what a horrible scene!!
I try to make sense of these lines we call code -
But actually, it's easier to talk to a toad!!
A toad or some code - what a difficult choice...
But at least a toad has nice croaking voice!
A toad may be slimy and ugly and yuck!!
But at least it has life - not like some SQL muck!
With code u just write and build and debug,
But if ur succesful, can the code give u a hug???
It really does not matter what u do in IT
Life's all the same - be u a he or a she...
U can write code that equates 3=7
Or be a great Tester 'till u go to heaven
Or fix all the PCs like a good sys admin
And earn a fat salary - and drink wine and gin!
But the fact of the matter - and my point being this
Life in IT - please give it a miss!!
Becoz if ur in IT - u won't have a life...
Although there are guys I see having a wife.
Anyways - like I said - u can think that ur cool,
That u are in IT - but ur an actual fool!
The reason ur here is just for the cash
U will not become Bill Gates and cause a huge splash
All these creative juices - oh please what bullshit!!
One look at code and I have a huge fit.
I'm writing a query - am I being creative?
No not really - what I need is a sedative!!!

It's all for the money and labels and tags
That we IT guys work like old hags.
Marketing, finance are just but a few,
Careers that any body with zing should pursue
At least u'll come home at the end of the day,
Not looking like a zombie with nothing to say
'Cause if ur in IT, u'll just debug and u'll code
It's like walking down a never-ending red road!!
This IT life - so mundane and so gross....
Hell I think that it's time I just gave it a toss!!
I wanna be creative - and not code like a dog,
So here's what I'll do - let me write a new BLOG!!

Curse Of The IT Industry In India Part-I

2004-07-02T02:51:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of people disagree with me - but is writing a program really considered to be creative work? Coding using some weird syntax, pounding away furiously on your keyboard trying to define some kind of logic which would make 3=99...... call me computer illiterate, but this to me is not creativity. And people who manage to sit in front of their PC 24X7 totally groggy-eyed, trying to write a line of code which automates my toaster... Whew, well that indeed boggles the mind!

I'm sitting in my cozy cubicle - and I'm looking around. At my surroundings, I mean (not at the pretty girl who also seems to be more interested in her monitor rather than my latest hairstyle). Anyway, it's a typical IT office - and I mean typical - the only thing u can see are heads - heads with black hair, heads with brown hair.. a few bald heads too. And these heads are all staring at one thing - their PCs. A closer look reveals that each of these PCs has got some weird Hebrew on their screen. So in a nutshell, 50 odd employees are trying to be creative. Kinda a scary to lok at if u think about it - reminds me everyday how we're turning more into robots and forgetting that we have a human side. (I wonder if these guys even bother to go to the bathroom if there is an emergency - they seem so engrossed! Oh well, that's another story)

Now, we all talk about burn-out and depression due to work.... blah blah blah. Well, what is the single best remedy for this? Yup - do something creative, spend time doing something which freshens up ur grey cells. Well bully me, but if we IT guys are soo busy being creative (and getting paid wads and wads of dough for it) and trying to make this world a better place to live in, then why these problems in the first place?? I leave that as an open-ended question - becoz obviously I am not a prophet with all the answers. Hell, I'm a nerd as well - but I am trying, oh so trying to change!

Well this is nothing but an on-the-spot insane post by me - so before I lose my train of thought - let me invite all u nerds busy writing lines of code, to BLOG a few lines instead. Because, believe me, I don't require my toothbrush to be programmed to regenerate it's bristles. I'd rather go out and buy a new toothbrush instead. And I think u'll feel a lot better doing something really creative!!!