The Bollywood Monster

Have always been thinking - How come there are so many good rock bands from Pakistan who come out with videos and albums and so few Indian bands who do that. OK - Euphoria is one of the best bands I have seen - oh no don't judge them by the desi songs they make - I was at their show last year and man they rocked - they played for more than 3 hours without a break ... my feet were screaming to sit - but they were rocking on without looking tired at all ... they matched the first Parikrama show that I saw at IIT - those days when rock shows in Bombay were not shut down at 11pm!!
but then I digress ...
Was reading this interview with Pentagram and Vishal mentioned the problem that Indian rock bands have - they are constantly overshadowed by this huge huge monster of Bollywood - it’s difficult to find a large population who in interested in rock music - along with Hindi fillum music or in lieu of. I know that sounds like an excuse on some level but I think it is true. Its almost like trying to sell grunge or punk-rock in the country states in the US.
Each time I think of Parikrama, I can not help but sigh ... such immense talent and no albums yet ... and then there are bands like "Orange Street" the Delhi band which rocked Mood-I 1996 or 1997 ... and if I am in a memory trip spree then I guess I have to mention Chakravyuh - man that was some band - sadly broke up quickly - tho Dhruv still continues to make some solid jingles type music - then there was Indus Creed - quite a good mix of desi rock - immense talent ... last I heard benegal is in NY singing for Broadways!
Bollywood does take a heavy toll of the Indian alternate music scene - I remember I could not find Shakti albums @Rhythm house - but there was Daler Mehndi all over the place - no disrespect to the DM man - but still ... that was unfair - it was easier to get access to Indian bands' recordings in the US than it was in India!
Roy Venkatraman, Karl Peters, Prasanna, Louis Banks, Ranjit Barot ... all drowned by the Bollywood monster :(
but then - at least until then we have these awesome bands from Pakistan to look forward to :)

Batli Chirandi

I have to talk mention this - my wife claims that they played this game when they were kids - can you believe it - a game called "Batli Chirandi" :P
its true - I just confirmed it with her brother - they actually went around shouting "batli chirandi"!
something with coconuts and circles and hide and seek! what can I say.
amusing? can't imagine 15 kids running towards a circle screaming "batli chirandi" - wouldn't know what to do if such a thing happened - roll over laughing or run away scared and screaming!
had to share this experience - never mind the exams and the late hour of the night.

and oh yes - i said "kopchi chirandi" once by mistake and you should have seen the profound expressions I got for the unsophisticated name I gave the game! make no mistake - its "batli chirandi"!

New Music

Have been listening to some good desi music in the last few weeks. Both bands are pakistani bands. The first one is Fuzon - about which I have spoken before on other forums - if you haven't yet heard them then you really must - their album Saagar is more than worth the investment of a couple of hundred rupees.
The second band is E.P. - a pakistani rock band - they are really really good - am listening to their first album Irtiqa - which was released in 2003!!! unlike Fuzon they are quite hard - and they have very neat site http://www.entityparadigm.com/ep.html
do check it out when you have the time. They are a good mix of hard rock, rock-rap and some pop-rock-grunge! And the website has a video of a live drumming recording by one of their drummers - yes they have two drummers - very neat stuff.

And yes - for those who like fusion music - there's this chembur band called "The Fusion Band" which has an album called OM - very neat. For their first album they definitely impress.
Which reminds me one more thing - Pentagram is releasing their third album sometime this year - should be interesting - am still kicking myself for not having bought the CD for "Up" - their second album - the tape doesn't do too much justice to their new sound.

well - thats all for today - yes I know - its been a looooooooooooooong hiatus
but well - I have been doing so much writing in the past few days ( 4 reports and 2 homeworks due this week) that I thot what the heck ... will post a blog as well :)
had to recover my password to get access to my own blogsite - heh heh
well ...