Beat this .....

Jordan Rudess (Dreamtheater)




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A Dream comes true ....

just came back from a R.E.M concert at Berkeley....an awfully long wait but finally got to see them ...

in fact this past month has been great ...Collective Souls, Elbow ...and now REM
and 2 ARR albums ...

what more could I have wished for ...

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A cool composition

A good one ...the second part is really cool ..

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The coming weeks are really muziqqqal.....

They are going to be a blast ..musically ....

Starting off with a 'Elbow' concert on the 8th to the KFOG Kaboom (Collective Souls) on May 10th and then onto next week when two of A R Rahman's soundtracks are releasing (as per latest reports ..13th and the 15th). I can't even remember the last time when two ARR albums came out this close to each other .....

Wow !!!!!!

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Blue and the story of the two 'Elbows'

Blue October now has officially received their stamp of approval from my stable - whether or not they want it is another question ....

I recently retreived yet another album of theirs - goes by the name of 'History for Sale'. Listening to this - what can quite easily be said is that these folks easily make it to my Top 10 of all times. The list which is headed by a certain Mr. ARR (Dil Se playin on my Ipod currently) is a formidable one ....in which probably the top 5 would be just Mr. ARR :-) (a hopelessly biased me) - Floydd, Collective Souls, Led Zep would figure there too. Being in this list is a tough ask ....but these guys probably have managed to enter this list.

Why?

Because ...they rock ...the lead vocals are amazing ..their bass usage rocks ...their use of violin is amazing ....they experiment ..and because ..their lyrics are also equally amazing.
And because I have 3 of their albums and I would give them almost 7 to 8 out of 10 on all of them.

Blue October - welcome to the list

The two Elbows

a) Elbow - a Brit, Manchestor, UK based band is another band I am hooked onto lately. Again, great experimental sounds, awesome bass usage and ofcourse great lyrics. Hearing their new album 'Seldom Seen Kid' and hv been hooked onto it for the past 2 weeks or so.
In fact, I am going to their concert into 2 weeks time (8th May, SFO) .yippieeee

b) My Elbow - has been in a terrible state of affairs lately - thanks much to the Tennis game on 'Wii'. Bought a Wii some weeks back and ever since then I have been non-stop at Tennis. No wonder ...I am having a torrid time with my elbow ...(is this whats called a 'Tennis Elbow' ???)

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The Ticket .....

The ticket to the magical world .......of Rahman

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The demise of Rock' ...Creed' revisited....Rahman and some Pics

Good new music is hard to find ....

And a Good new classy Rock album is an even rarer commodity these days ....An occasional Coldplay (yes yes ..I know that they are not exactly rock) or a LP/RHCP/U2 or newbies like Blacklab etc. display a faint glimmer oh radiance and hope but nah !!!

Its with this thought that when I was scrolling through my iPod list that I stopped to listen to Creed - one of the last few good grunge Rock acts that came through in the 90's - lead by vocalist Scott Stapp , an awesome guitarist Mark Tremonti, Bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Philips. Mind you - they released just 3 albums and a lot of covers but all their albums (from 'My Own Prison' to 'Human Clay' to 'Weathered' ) are sparkling examples of what you can classify as Pure Grunge rock .....everything from their vocals to the bass to the drums echoed the sentiments of any true rock buff ....

Well ...and then it happened as has with many a good groups in the past...the group officially split up in the summer of 2004 and another good ensemble was lost .....ah !!!! to the frustration of many a fans ....

You can read more about this group here: <Creed>

Rock is dying ...and to be honest ...I am better off hearing stuff from the good old days ..the 60's and the 70's and then Floydd ....the stuff that you hear today is so over the board and nonsensical that my head spins when I think about it :-

A R Rahman and Sivaji

And thank god for A R Rahman ....if it hadn't been for his freshness and the depth and variety that he exhibits ..I might have been in a comatose state by now (musically speaking .....)

btw ..heard Sivaji ....and its yet another perfect example of the Rahman effect ...you hear it once and u r bound to dismiss it ...u hear it again ..ah ...u hear some things that u like ...u hear it again ..it starts and u hear it again .....Wow !!!! The verdict changes dramatically and you find yourself drawn into hearing each and every song again and again .....

So much as been written about this man and his music on the net and on print media that anything I write here would seem just a repetion. I guess though that whatever and howmuch so ever is written or said, it still aint enough to capture the true escence of the man and his music ...

In Sivaji - The Boss ....Rahman is the boss of the music and he stamps his authority all over the album ....the man has such an amazing command over his orchestration, percussion and the rhythm - that it gels so perfectly in each n every song.

Pics

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Eureka Eureka.....

In the past 2 weeks or so, I have more or less arrived at some starting conclusions about - when actually I started getting interested in music or should I put it - that I first started to notice music.

No, its not A R Rahman with whom my earliest memories are associated to (though he certainly is the one who influenced me and turned me into an absolute music lover), nor RD Burman or SD Burman. As I think back and reflect on my past, I remember that I had heard, noticed and liked the songs from an old Dilip Kumar movie - 'Madhumati'. I also liked the songs from a Malayalam movie 'Chemeen' , the Hindi movies 'Anand', 'Chotti Si Baat', 'Rajnigandha', 'Half Ticket' ....and some other Malayalam movie songs.

The music was different, the arrangements were great and they had those unpredictable moments here and there in them. That's what probably caught my ears. Most of all, they were original and had a fun feel to them whether it was a slow number or a pacy one.

For anybody who has closely followed the music of this great music composer, I am sure he/she must have guess that I am speaking about none other than 'Salil Chaudhary'. Here was a music director, who like Rahman was much ahead of his times and was different. He dared to be different - he played with a varied number of sounds, instruments, unconventional beginning and ending of songs and choruses and a whole other aspects of music. I haven't heard much of his work to speak more about him like I can about Rahman. But all I can say is that Salil da (as I think he was known to a lot of people) was a great music composer - surely one of the greatest India has had.

So here's to Salil Chaudhary and his music ...A Salute and a Cheers.

You can read more about him and his music at http://www.salilda.com/

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