These are excerpts from some of the posts I did on the Freedom Jam forum (called as JamUnity) on Septemeber 2006 Sunday Jam held in Bangalore every month.Good Singist Wanted
One of my observations is that most of the Bangalore bands possess good guitarist, drummer, bassy and few occasional decent ’singist’ (as in Adamji’s words).
But still Bangalore scene needs a good vocalist, i have seen some pretty good singers as well not to say that there arent any.
Still we need more better ones, not a Dave Mustaine clone or Tom Araya wannabe. I see few bands that have Priest, Maiden, Megadeth or Kreator stamped all over their music.
And on the other hand we have a few bands who play effortless classic Rock and they are good at it. I enjoyed many of the recent classic Rock performances, good original compositions and all. Keep up the good work, guys. And that goes to all the extreme metal bands who play originals and keep it going even with only a minority of supporters. Way to go...
Loosey Goosey, baby
Where is the image?
Ultimately if you need your music to make an impact, there’s an element of theatrics that is required to add more visual impact on the audience’s minds. Unfortunately, this is the missing ingredient coz i have seen many performers are too deadpan or stiff on stage, they are good players and play well they do. But....
As Jack Black in School of Rock says you need to be "Loosey Goosey, baby"...
I am not just saying it as an outsider, i know what it takes to go up on stage and deliver a performance. This is just a personal observation and a suggestion for all the ones who take their music seriously to make it reach a wider audience and are willing to make a difference. Its a process and it is definitely not impossible.
I am sure the band members can make an effort to add that extra punch to their music and overall performance. Lately there have been few acts who have made a difference by the way they perform and stage their image as an entity or an individual. That’s a good sign, i mean.
Last time Lounge Piranha performed, the singer came on stage with a crazy goatee and a ’nice’ pair of jammies!
Doesnt take away anything from the music but the image stays on the audience’s psyche. Just a thought.
Does it look too weird?
Hell, this world is a weird place, nothing’s shocking (like ol’ Alice Cooper said).
I spell Rock with big R, by the way.
I listen to metal first thing in the morning before making my coffee. But rarely a single day goes without Hendrix.
At work i’ll have to put up with sub-standard music DJ’d by my colleagues. Its not the kind of music you’d like to be associated with within a dozen miles of that vicinity.
Apart from that I listen to most of my music at work on my cel with earphones, Jimi Hendrix followed by Death, Rudra, Atheist, Carcass, Opeth, Napalm Death, Venom, At the Gates and all (this is the current playlist) just my way of escaping the terrible music i’d be subjected to hear otherwise.
Metalheads do listen to classic Rock as far as i know, may be it is those numetallers who listen to ’that’ kind of crap all day and they are also closet hip hop listeners.
I really would appreciate a representation of all forms of Rock and even world music. Numetal? no thank you.
Rock music and metal has an abundance of sub-genres that can never be seen in any other genre of music. It is so huge but it hardly gets the recognition it deserves as an art form even with a massive dedicated following across the globe.
Good to see ol’ Dylan topping the charts with his new album.
Just some random thoughts or may be its just a series of nonsense i’m typing for being born on the right side of the Pacific!
Headbangalore like no other?
those ’special’ Rock shows with big set of corporate sponsorships are usually suckfests, as far as my previous experiences go.
it is better to have one good show than have 10 average / below average shows.
average bands have a mass following, talented bands will have a dedicated following, albeit small because mass doesnt understand talent much.
Of late a good Rock / Metal number is just judged by headbangability. Its not just the audience who demand that also the bands who plainly concentrate on delivering only that factor.
Number Matters
If i can remember the number, i can remember the band that performed it. This doesnt happen to me with the local talent, most of the time. How many times have you related a band to a particular song they had played?
Hardly a handful of them...
Most of the time i cant relate to the lyrics that the bands play on stage, by their shouts i could pretty much make out that they are putting up one of those Dave Mustaine persona on stage or some anger being spit out at something. And the names of the songs and lyrical content are truly forgettable and laughable at times.
Good Song
A good song, many times, not necessarily has great avant garde lyrics (with the exception of Led Zep and Blue Oyster Cult), i might add.
Hell, Deep Purple were writing songs about space truckin’ or speed monsters on the highway but that didnt stop them from gaining the place in Rock history they posssess now (although, I agree that they could have been a legendary band if they had disbanded after Machine Head album)!
What happened to the Rock n roll excesses? Hendrix may be turning in his grave had he seen the numetallers screaming nonsense with the white trash guitar noise. Cant imagine a huge following for many international numetal bands comprising of a bunch of nitwits! I can not relate to the ’black man-trapped-in-a-white man’s-body’ numetal lyrics. If i say ’f**k the system’ 20 times in a song, it obviously sounds like desperate angst or funny depending from which side you look at it. Period.
Any of you can easily remember Chicken Song by Sinddhartha’s Seedy / Baja has funny lyrics but that factor also makes the song memorable along with the musical sensibilities of that number.
I’d hope Siddhartha plays that number in the upcoming Freedom Jam event again. Once more!
Capital Rock
Bangalore being called as Rock capital may be because of the amount of Rock listeners this city has (or had) not because of the bands or music created here, as far as i know.
That was then...
This is now... and it aint pretty Dorothy!
Meanwhile, Yo, like, dudes, f*** that s***, any Limp Biscoot fans in da house? Come forward towards the stage if you wanna have some f***ing good time... heheh...
Labels: maxMusic
