But, one band...

Taking cue from a facebook post by film maker Jaideep Varma, I watched his 4th full length documentary “Par Ek Din” today. With a foot note specifying that it was shot in about 4 days under a budget of 1 lakh rupees, and about a band that has not released any music so far – you pretty much know what to expect.  But having watched all his previous films, I couldn’t wait any longer.

15 minutes into the film, I felt the same enthusiasm as watching a “Classic albums” documentary, which had a more generous production backing. I had watched a couple of these, and the documentary on Steely Dan’s Aja is exceptionally filmed. But then, a realisation struck me – the making of music that I had watched on Classic albums series were of albums that I had listened to at least a thousand times before I watched the documentary, which made that watching extremely engrossing. However, Par Ek Din was about a band I had not even heard before, and the music was all new to me. Still, I was hooked till the final cut!

Par Ek Din covers the story and music of the band CityHaze based in Mumbai, members with an average age of 25. From the first song featured, you know that you are in for a different sound, and utterly fresh and beautiful, but rather “gloomy”, lyrics. I wouldn’t say that the sound of the band is completely original or fresh. While I was debating this in my mind, my wife who heard one of the songs asked me whether they were covering Wilco, which pretty much made me conclude that they did not have a very original sound, but then again I was thinking about the definition of originality. You could see a lot of influences, especially that of Lucky Ali which is mentioned in the movie, and through a poster in their bed room – but the way the whole thing came together, there was magic! I felt better when I remembered something that I had read in the liner notes of an Amit Chaudhuri album, written by Prof Anand Lal:

To tell the truth, all music is fusion. No musical form remains untouched by acculturation, though classical pundits still turn up their noses at the perjury committed by colleagues who jam with jazzmen. To pin those purists down on hybridization, just ask them how their ragas Kafi or Miyan ki Malhar got their names, or how violin found such a hallowed place in south India.

Hence, I find it absurd to classify a particular artist into a specific genre, or to judge the originality of the sound – it is just the working of various things that goes into music making that defines what it really is.

One key element that stands out in the film is the band’s honesty. I was very impressed by their view points, and seriously doubt whether I had that much of worldview when I was 25! Speaking of honesty, they were not shy to tell you about their shared interest in watching WWF wrestling! I remembered with a smile what Frederick, a serious painter from Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters, said:"Can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling?" 

It was really heartening to see these five individuals striking a path to their calling, than be forced to comply with the society’s rules – perhaps a message that this film delivers apart from the sheer joy of watching music making.

Watch Par Ek Din here:

Holiday Reading

I haven't referred to any lists for my holiday reading this time around. I have started with Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Not a pleasant start. The movie itself was so terrifying. I don't really chase and watch any of those "horror movies", but The Road disturbed me more than any movie I had seen. Perhaps, as Sherlock Holmes said, you feel horror when a situation kindles your imagination. In A Study in Scarlet, when Watson was upset by one murder, he who has seen so many in the battlefields, Holmes says:

 “I can understand. There is a mystery about this which stimulates the imagination; where there is no imagination there is no horror.”

I wonder how I would have felt reading The Road, if I had not seen the movie. McCarthy is a brilliant writer. I was tempted to read McCarthy because of the late Roger Ebert. In many of his reviews and blog posts he talked about McCarthy which made me curious. Read his post Perform a concert in words where he talks about how McCarthy's Suttree influenced him. Perhaps this blog post of his might turn out to be my holiday reading list!

I have also started reading Neil Young's autobiography (or let's say, journal) Waging Heavy Peace, which is the reason for posting this. In fact, I am also listening to his latest album Psychedelic Pill side by side. The album works well as a companion CD to the book. In the book, Young writes a lot about his passions which have turned into entrepreneurial initiatives, like the studio quality music player Pono and his hybrid car engines.  In the album opener "Driftin' back" which runs for 27 minutes, he expresses the same sentiments ("I don't want my mp3"). Young is not trying to be a great literary writer with this book, he has written the passages very casually - you can find the word "cool" every now and then -  which is interesting, as he is an amazing song writer (But me I'm not stopping there/Got my own row left to hoe/Just another line in the field of time - from Thrasher).

Neil Young's father was a writer. When he was a child, his father told him "Just write every day, and you will be surprised what comes out". I am following that advice too. Hence this post.

H/T: E's flat blog for the Holmes anecdote.

ON AIR

In 127 hours, there is a brilliant scene in which James Franco enacts a radio show, including a phone-in. It’s done exceptionally well by Franco and is my favourite scene in the movie. But, thinking about it, it would have been easy for Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle to write that scene (in case it is not from the book the script is adapted from); because you have heard it many times on the radio, and that is the format all radio stations across the globe follow. Very few radio stations try to be different, at least in the music they play. BBC 6 Music, which plays non-mainstream music, is one such station, and much debate has happened on its planned closure (at least put on hold, as of now) - give it a listen on the BBC iplayer.


Reason for posting this – I just finished reading stand-up comedian and Radio DJ Phill Jupitus’s excellent book “Good Morning Nantwich: Adventures in breakfast radio”, an account of his days at 6 Music, hosting the breakfast show. This is perhaps the first book I have come across which celebrates the love for radio (Woody Allen’s Radio Days is an attempt in film). If you are a radio- junkie and loves music, get hold of this book! It narrates what happens in a radio studio and ultimately tells you why Phil quit 6 Music, when the station management wanted him to stick to the station playlist (of course, he must quit in such a situation, what else you can expect from the maverick DJ of an indie music station!) The book also contains a section on how to start your own radio show on the internet. The book could have been edited to make it tighter, even so it was a pleasure reading it.

Since I mentioned the movie 127 hours, it was great listening to Bill Withers’s fabulous song Lovely Day, in the movie. It was something like what radio does - surprise you with a song that you loved, but have forgotten.

Too young to be Grammy material

I was not aware of this "trivia" - it was Neil Young's first Grammy (for music), last Sunday. Not that I care much about the Grammys. But this is really laughable. Have read that Dylan also received one pretty late... for Modern Times? Not sure, and no - I’m not reaching for the Google button.

Bruce Springsteen - The Collection

This is simply the best thing money can buy at the moment! First 7 studio albums of Bruce Springsteen in a box set for less than Rs. 1000. Just placed an order, though I already have 3 of these albums (Nebraska on CD, Born to Run and Darkness on tapes.)

I often dislike the fact that many of our rock idols mature as they progress in their career, and seek out something more rewarding for them, musically, than create the same music which made them popular; many drift towards jazz or world music – like Sting, Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell.

While listening to Springsteen’s 2009 release Working on a Dream, I was struck by the realization that Springsteen is doing just the reverse. Compare his first two albums and the last two, and you’ll know why. His debut Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ and the next one The Wild, the Innocent, and the E street shuffle are more mature, jazzy and elaborate than his latest two releases, Magic and Working on a Dream which, in Springsteen’s words itself, is “pop sound”. Interesting. But I don’t mind, as long as he continues to recreate Magic.

The curious case of critics

The other day, film critic Rajeev Masand tweeted that there is no God if James Franco was not nominated in the Best actor category at the Oscars. In the review that followed, he raves about the movie and there is not a single negative point he has cited. And he gives it 4 out of 5 stars.
He writes:

The extraordinary cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak, and AR Rahman’s haunting score complement Boyle’s rich and imaginative storytelling style. And James Franco who appears in more or less every scene delivers a performance nothing short of spellbinding.

Question: Can someone please enlighten me on why he refrained from giving it 5 out of 5 if, in his opinion, the movie scores full marks in all aspects?

I have watched some reality shows on Indian television where one of the judges marks a performance 21 out of 25, while the other one marks it 23/25, without any explanation on how this score was arrived at!

The wonderful guys at the fabulous Sound Opinions, rates a record as buy it, burn it, or trash it. When I heard it the first time, I didn’t get what “burn it” meant, and on reading up:

Burn it! ...There are a few good tracks here, but not worth the full price....try a downloading service, or (cough), another method.

This is kind of, I would say, innovative and "adapting to the times".

Maybe, someday, all critics would follow a thumb rule, like Siskel and Ebert did – Up or Down? Which is it?

Gene Siskel boiled it down: "What's the first thing people ask you? Should I see this movie? They don't want a speech on the director's career. Thumbs up--yes. Thumbs down--no."

PS: I attended a session by Rajeev Masand in Bangalore in 2010 and found him to be genuine. When my brother asked him what he thinks about The Big Lebowski, he more or less admitted that he didn’t get it the first time and that he is planning to watch it again. That was an honest response!

études

BBC had aired Leonard Cohen's Live in London concert (2008-09) some weeks back and I had a great time watching him perform – especially the fantastic opening song "Lover Lover Lover" (video from the Bratislava concert of the same tour here). Some time before this, I had picked up his book, Death of a lady's man, a collection of poetry and prose. But I just couldn't read beyond 7-8 pieces. I don't think his poems as such will work for me as much as they do when set to music. For the record, I don't listen to Cohen just for the words. I love the tunes and of course, his singing.

While on the topic of words, prose, poetry etc., I must mention that I absolutely enjoyed reading Aseem Kaul's études, a collection of (very) short fiction, much like the author's blog posts. I am not sure whether the contents of the book were previously published on his blog, though the formats of some stories are strikingly similar. There are some cheesy pieces here and there, but by and large it is full of imaginative, metaphorical, stunning poetic gems. In fact, this book worked for me better than Cohen's.
Read the Mint review here.

A Boy named "Sue"

I wonder why a male singer would cover a song which has a female protagonist in first person, and vice versa. In some cases they adjust the lyrics to take care of the gender references – like changing “I’m your lady” to “you’re my lady” (Power of love, not sure which one is the original) etc.

Two brilliant covers I heard recently that doesn't take the pain (well, it’s not possible in these cases) to do a "gender flip":

Rosanne Cash – Long black veil (a live version here)

The White stripes– Jolene (Jack White sings Jolene Jolene.. pls don’t take my man, heh! Heard it on Sound Opinions)

The same old tune

“Genius borrows nobly. Art is theft. Good poets borrow; great poets steal. James Joyce said, “I am quite content to go down to posterity as a scissors-and-paste man.” Who owns the words? We all do, though not all of us know it yet. Art is not a patent office. It’s a conversation between and among artists.”

That was David Shields, in the introduction to his post on NYT’s Living with music blog series. I don’t agree with him on this, as you know there is so much art out there which is absolutely original... like...er, I don’t know. His playlist, however, is very interesting – a list of recyled/sampled music.

RJ clichés

Often heard on the radio after a song: that was so and so “..belting out..”, “..keeping you company…”, “with his version of..” etc.
Meghna of Radio Indigo, Bangalore, actually said this after a Chris Rea song while I was driving to work: “That was Chris Rea keeping you company with [on] the Road to Hell”.

Note: This was in 2008 or 2009 and Meghna is no longer with Radio Indigo.

Year-end list '09: Music

Thanks to the longer drive from home to work last year, I listened to a lot of new music in 2009, both new and old releases. I can’t really recollect all of them while writing this, but thanks to Pearl Jam, U2, Springsteen and DMB for their 2009 releases and keeping pop music alive. Apart from the rock veterans, I loved the new artists too – yeah, Lady Gaga. I think 2009 was a great year in music!

But my most loved album of 2009 is Rosanne Cash’s The List. Johnny Cash’s daughter sings from the country standards’ list her dad gave her while she was young. My pick from this album is the amazing version of “Long black veil" with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco on guitars. As someone said in a review, hope she records the remaining songs from the list, maybe one album per year!

Year-end list '09: Indian rock

Namaste by Karnatriix – They are like one of those bands you have seen at Freedom Jam, relatively unknown, mixes rock and raga, and delivers a high quality performance. Namaste is their debut album, truly an exceptional one with the awesome, awesome performance of the carnatic classical staple “Entharo”.

Raghu Dixit Project does what Euphoria and Rabbi has done before, but it is heartening to see more quality music being produced in the Indian folk-rock genre. My favorite track “gudu gudiya” (in Kannada) is more or less similar to Rabbi’s “Bulla ki Jaana”, in concept (unearthed ancient poem) and perhaps in tune also. But, I like this one too.

Year-end list '09: Cover Art

Favourite cover "art" of 2009:
Pearl Jam's Backspacer

The artwork for the album was handled by editorial cartoonist Dan Perkins, who goes by the pen name Tom Tomorrow. Perkins spent six months working on the artwork. In 2009, Village Voice Media, publishers of 16 alternative weeklies, suspended all syndicated cartoons across their entire chain. Perkins lost twelve client papers in cities including Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City and Seattle, prompting his friend Vedder to post an open letter on the Pearl Jam website in support of the cartoonist. Perkins referred to the artwork as "dreams and memories," while Gossard referred to the artwork as a "bizarro otherworldy dreamscape." (Wiki)

Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King

"Matthews, who drew the richly detailed artwork for thisr record, knew a different [LeRoi] Moore. On the cover of Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, DMB's seventh studio album, Matthews portrays Moore as a giant laughing head on a Mardi Gras float, leading the delirium on a French Quarter street." (RS)

American Beauty

For many reasons, Bonnie "Prince" Billy's album Lie down in the light reminds me of Grateful Dead's American Beauty.. the sound, the words, the simplicity... and above all, the wonderful Garcia-like vocals...

I like the places where the night does not mean an end

Where smiles break free and surprise is your friend

And dancing goes on in the kitchen until dawn

To my favourite song that has no end..

Get Lucky

Mark Knopfler's new album is out and the pipes are back... and loving it! - something I didnt like much on Golden Heart as a Dire Straits fan.

Read up on the lyrics of Border Reiver while listening to the song, if you are not familiar with what Mark is singing about.. the context would give a whole new dimension to the song!

Music and Lyrics

Sting writes in the introduction to his book, Lyrics:

The two, lyrics and music, have always been mutually dependent, in much the same way as a mannequin and a set of clothes are dependent on each other; separate them, and what remains is a naked dummy and a pile of cloth.

Though I am a fan of Sting’s songwriting, I might not want to buy this hardbound book in which all his lyrics are published, with a brief intro for some of them, much like liner notes.

I glanced through these notes in a book store - apparently, the beautiful “Mad about you” is based on the story of David and Bathsheba, and what a great love song it is!

And I have never in my life
Felt more alone than I do now
Although I claim dominations over all I see
It means nothing to me
There are no victories
In all our histories, without love.

"...and the punishment comes in Chapter 12".

Kinsmen, Amit Chaudhuri, Miles from India

I enjoyed listening to Rudresh Mahanthappa on NPR’s Fresh Air last week, though I didn’t quite catch the math-y details discussed in the conversation. I had written to Rudresh, in February, asking him where I can get a copy of Kinsmen, his work with Kadri Gopalnath, in India and I got an email reply from him saying that it’s not available in India yet. I had liked what I had heard on the NPR site, though I am not a great fan of “fusion" as such. Just before that I had listened to a song sample of the high profile east-west-fusion jazz band Miles from India, Miles’ “All blues” (my favorite Kind of Blue track) interpretation, which I didn’t like much. I found it to be, to use a cliché, “more of confusion than fusion”.


In 2007, I learned about Amit Chaudhuri’s “This is not fusion" album from Amitava Kumar’s blog and bought the album from a record store here in Bangalore. It is a fantastic album, the catchiest tracks on the album are surely Chaudhuri’s interpretation of “Layla” in raag Todi and his version of Gershwin’s “Summertime”. Even though I haven’t heard much of Hindustani music, the tracks of improvisations of Hindustani ragas with accompaniment of western instruments were really interesting. Though the title of the album says “This is not fusion”, it is essentially a fusion album! As Ananda Lal, Professor of English at Jadavpur Universtity, Kolkata, writes in the liner notes of the album:

To tell the truth, all music is fusion. No musical form remains untouched by acculturation, though classical pundits still turn up their noses at the perjury committed by colleagues who jam with jazzmen. To pin those purists down on hybridization, just ask them how their ragas Kafi or Miyan ki Malhar got their names, or how violin found such a hallowed place in south India.

The only explanation for the title of Amit’s album is that it is not a fusion album in a traditional sense, where a eastern celebrity musician works with a western celebrity musician to produce a “fusion” album.

I guess, as long as it is not fusion for fusion’s sake, it would sound as good as any other genre in music.

Two Men With The Blues

Two super-heroes of our times, one at 78 and the other at 75:



Roger Ebert writes in his review of Gran Torino:

I would like to grow up to be like Clint Eastwood. Eastwood the director, Eastwood the actor, Eastwood the invincible, Eastwood the old man. What other figure in the history of the cinema has been an actor for 53 years, a director for 37, won two Oscars for direction, two more for best picture, plus the Thalberg Award, and at 78 can direct himself in his own film and look meaner than hell? None, that's how many.

AV Club writes in the review of Willie Nelson's collaboration album with Wynton Marsalis, released in 2008.

Willie Nelson records so frequently (2008 releases included Two Men With The Blues, the solo Moment Of Forever, and the career-spanning box One Hell Of A Ride) that it takes some stamina to keep up. Not bad for a guy who recently turned 75.

Note: I haven't watched Eastwood's movie, but listened to Nelson's Two men with blues, which is a fantastic album.

Rock Journalism, Kaufman etc.

Though Web 2.0 is feeding us with more reviews and star ratings of arts and entertainment than ever before, you have to look in the right places to find a good piece of journalism. Well, Journalism- as I heard in a movie last night- is literature in a hurry!

For music reviews, I have now narrowed down to just three sources: AV Club, Pitchfork and All Music Guide.

The AV Club review of Synecdoche, New York, drawing parallels between the protagonist of the movie and the life of Axl making the Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy album, is perhaps one of the best reviews/appreciation I've read in recent times.

Not to mention the comments section which has some gems like these:

Kaufmann can write a script about you writing an article about watching his movie and listening to an analogous hard rock album. Add some crazy time-bending thing with Axl writing the album based on a movie he thinks is going to be made in 2008...

If you think there is great music and great reviews to look forward to, read this sattire-at-its-best piece by The Onion: Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8.

"Music used to be great, but let's be honest, it's a 6.8 now at best," said Los Angeles resident Lowell Radler, 23, who admitted that he just looked at the rating rather than reading the whole review. "I seriously might never listen to music again."

Related: Roger Ebert on giving out too many stars.

Best Band intro during a live performance

I think no one can beat Springsteen when it comes to introducing the band during a live performance. He usually does this on the song Tenth Avenue Freeze-out, which apparently is a song about the E-Street band itself. I heard this on the Live in NYC concert CD and here is the youtube clip.
Love the Clarence Clemons part:

"When the change was made uptown
And the Big Man joined the band"