Good blood, Bad blood

The truth about Indie music is that it hardly is what it seems. Though termed Independent Music, it has now become a symbol of hopeless bravado. Dickheads in dirty haircuts.
Only bands that can truly set themselves apart with their unique brand of thinking can call themselves an Indie band. Like the Arcade Fire, who despite all that's written and said about them, are excellent musicians not only because of their style but because of their skill at playing a variety of instruments.

People like the Kooks, the Klaxons, the Vines etc.etc. are just their for the free ride. The free press NME so generously and unecessarily bestows upon them. NME has made demi-gods of mediocre mods who want a slice of the pie. Their reviews disgust me, their style of writing celebrates everything, regardless how unimportant. The hype generated chokes you and you have no way out except listening to the bands they are talking about. Gone are the days where music is a personal discovery. Now it is forced down your throat with great vigour. Listen to THIS BAND, you haven't heard THIS BAND? Go tell your mom what to listen to you assholes.

No wonder the Arctic monkeys, when accepting some award said "Thanks to you guys. Not YOU guys who hyped us up, but YOU guys who voted". No wonder I like them.

Spare me your Chemical Romances and your Views. I'll judge for myself. And cut your damn hair.

And what's with all the "I am cool. Hence I listen to Indie. I am smart. Hence I listen to Indie." phenomenon? When does the music to listen to define you. People like Vikram Seth write articles for Stephens publications about how intelligent he was because he could identify some classical music piece played in Rukun Advani's room. Such isoteric hurrah is typical of our college. And all said and done, I am sorry, but they are real losers.

"What you eat don't make me shit" - JayZ

So here goes.

JayZ with DJ Dangermouse from the famous grey album. Its what certian yuppies would call a "killer track". It is a masterpiece in sampling, with the Beatles providing the riffs to JayZ's, arguably, most famous song. He performed it with Linkin Park too and that will remain one of the best concerts, musically, ever.

The Chemical Brothers track is voted the hottest piece of music on the planet right now, by none other than 6music. They are right.

Snoop Dogg asks a simple question.

JayZ with DJ Dangermouse - 99 problems [mp3]

Chemical Brothers - Galvanise [mp3]

Snoop Dogg - What's my name [mp3]

Kings of Carrot Flowers

When was the last time a band made you take a large swiss knife, cut out alphabets from an important document (like a printout of an airline ticket), arrange them on a silk souveneir brought from Sikkim and decorate them with your eight year old cousin's art?

When was the last time you felt like expressing music physically in a crude expression of pure joy?

For me it was when I heard Elephant and feverishly pasted Jack and Meg on the dirty plaster of my room. And now.

Neutral Milk Hotel. I don't know anything about them. I don't know where they are from, I don't know what they look like. All Tommy said was "They are this sort of cult band that influenced Franz Ferdinand and the likes". This was before he told me reproachfully "You never like any music I give you".

They are bloody brilliant. It music to stop and listen and jump and wave your arms to invisible orchestras and feel and fall and follow and free and fog and find and frown and frump and fox and fababadabadurticate to.

Nice to be back, Yohan, O brother where art thou.

Ok Go! won a grammy for best short video for Here it goes Again. Yippee. Yohan was the first person in whole wide world and all to find them and post them on Zonuts, you can find them here. Yes, I learnt how to hyperlink.

This is what Ok Go! looked like at the Grammy function.

Have to run to work now, but the Indie scene is back. God save the Bean.





Neutral Milk Hotel - King of Carrot Flowers [mp3]

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea [mp3]



Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland, 1945 [mp3]

I Know Kung Fu!

[While I collect the mp3s for the Punk Rock History post, here's are some oddities.]



Let's talk Shitdisco!

No, I'm not insulting Disco, or Salil's music taste. I'm talking about a band. They are part of what NME called the New Rave Scene. My dislike for Rave parties goes back to the Wency/Tommy con-job of 2002 that forced me to go for one. But this music is NOT trance. I'm not sure these 2 songs are for everyone, but I know I'd love to hear them at a party. Preferably after a few beers.


Shitdisco - I Know Kung Fu [mp3]
Shitdisco - Disco Blood [mp3]



Speaking of New Rave, check out this Simian Mobile Disco video. It's pretty hot.




Hmmm. What else? I haven't posted anything by Girls Aloud! They were such a pleasant surprise for me. A manufactured pop group that gives us what it promises: fun, silly, catchy songs (and reasonably hot women singing them, if you must). Listen without prejudice:


Girls Aloud! - Biology - [mp3]
Girls Aloud! - Love Machine - [mp3]

You think I could muster up a little soft, shoop devil sway

Man, can't wait for the 500 Kbps plan to kick in. This one is ultra-slow.

Nothing much to write about, from the next post onwards (which will be here faster than you think) I am going to start posting on bands instead of this damn assorted list I put up everyrtime. Maybe I should have started this time with the Scissor sisters, but have already started uploading the songs, so its too late.

A week after Yohan posted Funky Town, we had a new disco number one in the UK after twenty years, and here it is. I Don't Feel like Dancing has most poeple jumping up and down and feeling all sexy in tight rexin clothes from the moment it is played. All we need are women with strange hair and some funky lights. The glory days are back again. Their new album is as brilliant as their eponymous debut (I love that phrase). I think eponymous debut is a great name for a band.

"My heart could take a chance But my two feet can’t find a way,
You think that I could muster up a little soft, shoop devil sway
But I don’t feel like dancin’
No sir, no dancin’ today. "

Then there is ol' Allison Goldfrapp again, posted for both Navin and Yohan, this isn't as rocking as Ride a White horse but is trippier, if I may say so.

The last one is a great song I got from Dhruv. Son's gonna rise has a sound I have never heard before. One thing that interests me greatly is what the future of music will be like. After some years there is definitely going to be a fading away of some styles and the rise of some others. When I hear Jay-Z or Outkast I think that is certainly one way of taking music forward. The amalgamation of rap/ hip-hop with rock riffs and a bit of isoteric instrumentals thrown in. What I like about this song is how tight and crisp it is. Also about how the simple lyrics convey hope and a strong determination. When I see all the shit that goes on when a bunch of high flying artists collaborate to make a song for some global cause (AIDS is a hot favourite), I feel that songs like this one may mean a lot more to people. Plus the fact that most of these damn songs for a cause are all renditions of Stevie Wonder on meths.

Peace brothers.

I Don't Feel Like Dancing - Scissor Sisters [mp3]

Goldfrapp - Fly Me Away [mp3]

Citizen Cope - Son's Gonna Rise [mp3]

The Good Old Days

[Tired of waiting for Salil to post, so here goes.]



No, this is not the post about the glorious 60s and 70s. Nor is it the one about the era into which I made my arrival - the 80s. Those will come later.

This is about now. (Or at least, 2004-ish.)





This is about the Libertines.

The Libertines played no small part in the evolution of the modern rock scene in Britain. They were critical to the reestablishment of Cool Brittania. They were young and hedonistic and genuinely exciting. They rocked.

The story of Pete and Carl is fairly well-known in England, but, unfortunately, outside British Isles the name Pete Doherty is more associated with cocaine and Kate Moss than with angular, upbeat guitar rock. The Libertines' tale has all the makings of rock legend. The drugs, the supermodel(s?), and most importantly, the brilliant songwriting.

They made one cracker of an album, then Pete lost control, even breaking into Carl's house to steal a guitar to sell for cocaine. They managed to make a second album, which vaguely chronicled the band's hopes, and how they were destroyed.

And that was it. A handfull of recorded material and some unflattering tabloid photographs. But they managed to inspire a new generation of rockers, like the Kaiser Chiefs and Arctic Monkeys. Franz Ferdinand too, maybe. Hats off to them for that. Pete and Carl formed separate bands. They're not too bad, but the spark is missing. History repeats itself.


I'm told their lyrics are good, mixing Dickensian imagery with street poetry. I couldn't really make out much - the Beatles/Berry guitars mixed with punk chaos keep me happy. But one song really stood out, because it had a lesson for me and for anyone who believes in the myth that The Good Old Days actually existed.


If you've lost your faith in love and music
Oh the end won't be long
Because if it's gone for you then I too may lose it
And that would be wrong

I've tried so hard to keep myself from falling
Back into my bad old ways
And it chars my heart to always hear you calling
Calling for the good old days
Because there were no good old days
These are the good old days.


I don't talk much about the Libertines. But they are way up there in my pantheon (the one I never finished in my room in Muk West)! I think Pete and Carl belong to the select group of people who understood the "roll" in "rock n roll". These include Chuck Berry, John Lennon, David Gilmour, and Noel Gallagher (there are more, of course).


First up is I get along. The quintessential anarchic-yet-melodic Libertines song. Then comes Don't look back into the sun, which is one of my all-time faves. Then there's What Katy Did. Lastly, there's Can't stand me now and What became of the likely lads? - the songs about breaking up, forgiveness, and the dreams they had. Beautiful stuff.


The Libertines - I get along [mp3]

The Libertines - Don't look back into the sun [wma]

The Libertines - What Katy Did [mp3]

The Libertines - Can't stand me now [mp3]

The Libertines - What became of the likely lads? [mp3]

After Me Comes The Flood

[In case no one noticed, the titles of my posts are from lyrics to songs uploaded here.]


First up, Regina Spektor. A Russian Jew who moved to America in the 80's. She used to listen to the Beatles in Russia, and not understand a word. She said that Rubber Soul changed her life. (I may well be in love with this woman).
I think Regina captures the eclectic yet childlike spirit of the Beatles, without sounding much like them at all. She gets compared to Tori Amos and Fiona Apple, but I think she is far, far more loony. For proof listen to Apres Moi, in which she sings "Apres moi le deluge, after me comes the flood", and even belts out some Russian poetry by Boris Pasternak. If Apres Moi is too out-there, there's Better - which is as 'normal' as she can get, but it's a beautiful song too. I highly recommend her new album, which could possibly be on my top 20 by now. I think my top 20 has more than 20 albums...

Regina Spektor - Apres Moi - [mp3]
Regina Spektor - Better - [mp3]



Next up is The Rapture, a New York band very much in the business of making rock kids dance - a difficult trick to pull off. One of my favourite lines is from the end of Woo! Alright Yeah ... Uh-huh. It goes "People don’t dance no more/ They just stand there like this/ They cross their arms and stare you down and drink and moan and piss." Wait for it! The other song I've posted is Get Myself Into It, which has quickly moved onto my list of party-perfect numbers (which includes LCD Soundsystem's Daft Punk is Playing at My House, and Goldfrapp's Ride a White Horse - Thanks to Salil for that last one].

The Rapture - Woo! Alright Yeah ... Uh-huh - [mp3]
The Rapture - Get Myself into It - [mp3]



Last and probably least, is Muse - an atrocious band that I just happen to love. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because they are overblown, geeky, theatrical, and sci-fi-metallic. Perhaps because the lead singer sounds like Thom Yorke on speed. The video for their track Knights of Cydonia on their latest album, is a space cowboy kung fu mishmash. Check it out on youtube. I'm posting a different song, with less Ennio Moriccone...

Muse - Starlight [mp3]

When I look into your eyes

Conjucntivitis.

When you can finally wear fancy shades no matter how much they clash with your personality.

So I was forced to not go to office (I go even on Sundays, for no reason at all). And thus I can post.

Nine Inch Nails. The ones they nailed Jesus up with. You can't help but shudder at the thought. But once you look past this morbidity, there is some intricate, solid music to be found. I once listened to a BBC 6 music show where Trent Reznor was airing his favourite music and the man has taste. It shows clearly in this song, everything is so tight, its alt rock perfection. I first heard this song with Rahul Joseph, Roopa's brother, the day I was leaving Delhi after Stephens. When I reached the station, the keyboard chords were stuck in my head. As I stood on the platform, sweaty and light-headed, in my head I could feel everyone around me moving with the music. What a scene.

When I went to Delhi this time, I went to Blues in the evening. And boy it rocked. In college we always went there for an afternoon beer, succumbing to lure of happy hours. Few tables would be occupied, we would always be the largest group, the waiters were relaxed.

But this time I was there at 9 pm. There were people dancing all over the place, the waiters were scampering around, a European couple were killing the dance floor with one of those straight backed ballroom dance thingies, it was joy. I wished they played the Sounds there, but all we got was Superstar.

I have started falling in love with a band called the Magic Numbers. Yohan doesn't like them. They are fat siblings who are what you would call crooners. But I like them. The music is plain and honest, the sort of thing I would listen to on an aimless winter afternoon. They are very mellow and just the right temperature.

There is much to do and celebrate.

Nine Inch Nails - The Hand that Feeds [mp3]

The Sounds - Dance With Me [mp3]

The Magic Numbers - Love's a game [mp3]