KHACHAAK

CD Review: Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier

2010-08-16T14:13:00.003+04:00

Iron Maiden
The Final Frontier
4/5
EMI

For a band to have been around for 35 years is impressive enough. And for a band to come up with consistently fantastic music that many years later is rather rare. Iron Maiden - one of the pioneering bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement in the late Seventies – show they are on top of their game with the release of their fifteenth studio album last month. The Final Frontier, clocking in at 76:34 is the longest album from the band – with only one song below the 5-minute mark – and easily among their more adventurous ones.

The album kicks off with ‘Satellite 15… The Final Frontier,’ which is actually two separate songs joined together. Of all the songs on this album, ‘Satellite 15…’ is the only one I didn’t know what to make of, thanks to a distorted and rumbling bassline, squealing guitars, crunchy powerchords and tribal drums. It just seems like an extended – and perhaps unnecessary – intro. But soon enough, vintage Maiden kicks in with ‘The Final Frontier.’ Vocalist Bruce “Air Raid Siren” Dickinson navigates the high registers effortlessly, the guitarist trio of Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers lay down the Iron Maiden sound, as do the galloping rhythm section of bassist Steve Harris and drummer Nicko McBrain. ‘The Final Frontier,’ alongwith ‘Coming Home’ and ‘The Alchemist’ are the three songs on the new album that are in the Eighties Maiden vein.

The band continues its magic on ‘Coming Home,’ and on the first single, ‘El Dorado,’ perhaps the strongest song on the new album – and the one destined to be a classic a few years hence. In fact, I stick my neck out when I say this, but a decade or two from now, The Final Frontier will definitely find space right next to Iron Maiden’s classic Eighties albums. Songs like ‘Isle of Avalon,’ ‘The Talisman’ and the 11-minute long ‘Where the Wild Wind Blows’ are all unmistakably Maiden, yet their uncharacteristic lengths allow for a slightly more experimentative sound. While some reviewers have called this sound “prog,” I wouldn’t. This is just Iron Maiden in 2010. Be patient enough and The Final Frontier will suck you in.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone, 2010

CD Review: Ankur - Jannat

2010-03-20T14:05:00.003+04:00

Ankur
Jannat
4/5
HOM Records

Naysayers who claim that there is no “scene” as far as Indian rock is concerned, would do well to listen to this one. Jannat – the debut from singer-songwriter Ankur Tewari – is easily one of the best Indian albums so far this year. Tewari wears many hats besides the one he is usually spotted in – he’s a scriptwriter, director, actor, among other things – and this album, similarly, explores a lot of different sounds. So there’s the title track, which alternates hushed verses with a soaring chorus. And then, there is the album-opening ‘Chand Chahiye’ which starts off with muted arpeggios before Tewari’s warm vocals and sparkling guitars enter the mix, to be followed soon by a bouncy reggae beat. ‘Bekhabar,’ on the other hand, is a flamenco-flavoured lovelorn ballad (some great guitaring on this one, by Xain). ‘Shehar Mein’ is a bright and upbeat track, and ‘Tujhe Jaane Bina’ is a lullaby-ish love song.

While it would be easy to look at Jannat as only another uncomplicated pleasant-sounding album, that would be being grossly unfair – to yourself. For, then, you would be missing out on its sheer brilliance. Listen carefully and you will discover beautifully-written songs meeting a meticulously-produced sound. Jannat is right up there with Swarathma and the Raghu Dixit Project’s self titled albums, which are amongst my favourite Indian albums of recent years.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2010

CD Review: Creed - Full Circle

2009-10-27T14:00:00.002+04:00

Creed
Full Circle
3/5
Wind-Up Records/EMI

Very strangely (or perhaps not), Creed have been the favourite whipping boys of rock critics everywhere ever since they burst on to the scene in the late Nineties. This, despite the fact that they have had three multi-platinum records in My Own Prison (1997), Human Clay (1999) and Weathered (2001). A lot of criticism came their way because of the apparently derivative quality of their music – “They sound too much like Pearl Jam,” it was said. And frontman Scott Stapp’s Vedder-esque vocals and posturing didn’t help things. Creed broke up in 2004 much to the disappointment of their legion of fans, Scott Stapp cut a solo album and the rest of the band formed Alter Bridge and came out with two albums.

Now, the band is back together, with Full Circle. And, perhaps not surprisingly, they stick to what they did best. The album is full of songs with some great guitar hooks. ‘Overcome’ opens the album with a very catchy nu-metally riff, but it’s hardly guitarist Mark Tremonti’s finest moment. ‘Suddenly’ is built on the back of a nice chugging riff. Ditto with ‘Bread of Shame.’ Where the guitarist really shines is on the more ballad-y numbers like ‘A Thousand Faces’ and ‘Away in Silence.’ And that is perhaps the gist of it all: If you are a fan, you’ll love Full Circle; if you are a hater, Tremonti’s guitaring might only help soften the assault.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone, 2009

CD Review: CAB - Theatre de Marionnettes

2009-09-15T13:18:00.003+04:00

CAB
Theatre de Marionnettes
3.5/5
Columbia

CAB, for the uninitiated, is two of the biggest names in modern jazz-fusion/rock – bassist Bunny Brunel who’s played with names like Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, and guitarist/keyboardist Tony MacAlpine who’s shared stage with Steve Vai and Derek Sherinian amongst others. On Theatre de Marionnettes, their fifth album, CAB also features drummer Virgil Donati. (But two of the most interesting names – both from Mumbai - lie within the album credits: composer and musician Sandeep Chowta gets writing credits on two tracks, and sound engineer Tyrone Fernandes (ex-Bombay Black) gets mastering credits.) And along with a few other biggies – pianist Chick Corea, keyboardists Brian Auger and Patrice Rushen, guitarist Freddie Fox – CAB proves that they are indeed the “Justice League of music” as they have claimed. What else could explain the superhuman abilities of each musician, as is evident on each track on Theatre?

When ‘The Prankster’ (co-penned by Chowta and Brunel) kicks off proceedings, do not expect polite easing-into: The boys dive straight into unabashed displays of individual virtuousity, but never for a moment do they cross the line into bombastic territory. You can picture Brunel’s fingers flying all over his bass, rivalled only by MacAlpine’s fretboard runs, and Donati thumping out funky polyrhythms. This is the same kind of high-energy madness you hear sprinkled across Theatre. The other Chowta track, ‘The Sultan of Brunel’ has Brunel himself explore the highs and lows of his signature Carvin BB bass. ‘Purple Mars’ sees MacAlpine coax a sinuous hook from his guitar and keyboards. ‘Just Do It’ – be it inspired by the Nike slogan or not – is a bouncy number that would work well for your morning run. But slowing things down are a bit are the extremely lush ‘Rain’ – with some very graceful keyboards courtesy MacAlpine – and the airy ‘The Ventriloquist.’ But fast or slow, Theatre de Marionnettes is not a record you can play as background music for your activities: this one demands your attention, and it will grab it too. Put this in and play it loud.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2009

CD Review: Mark Knopfler - Get Lucky

2009-09-14T13:54:00.002+04:00

Mark Knopfler
Get Lucky
4/5
Universal

It’s not his fault. When you come with a history so pronounced as one in Dire Straits, whatever you do is bound to spark comparisons with the past. But Mark Knopfler couldn’t be less bothered. He soldiers on in a direction away from the axe-slinging days of yore. His new album, Get Lucky, is yet another example of his brilliant songwriting and singing, where it’s not his string-bending abilities that hog the arclights. Instead, Knopfler paints brilliantly vivid stories with words – as he’s been doing on his last few albums.

The album-opening ‘Border Reiver,’ is a truck driver’s trundling account of a journey – “We’re whistling down the hillsides/And tearing up the climbs/I’m just a thiever stealing time/In the Border Reiver.” Drenched in Celtic strings, flutes and accordions, this is testament to Knopfler’s inimitable ability to romanticise the most mundane of situations. ‘Monteleone,’ which kicks off with strings straight from some Hollywood musical, is Knopfler’s personal ode to luthier John Monteleone and the tradition of handcrafting guitars – “Too quick or too careless/It all could unravel/It so easily could.” Then there is ‘Before Gas & TV,’ a nostalgic trip down memory lane and life back then – “Before gas and TV/Before people had cars/We’d sit round the fires/Pass around a guitar/Remembering songs.” Get Lucky takes many such regular moments and sprinkles a bit of stardust on them, in a way only Mark Knopfler can.

CD Review: Megadeth - Endgame

2009-09-09T13:47:00.000+04:00

Megadeth
Endgame
4/5
Roadrunner Records

Experience tells me that when bands spare no effort in extolling the virtues of their next album, more often than not, the actual record fails to live up to the amplified expectations. So when I read about Dave Mustaine mentioning that the new Megadeth album, Endgame, is the “best record of [his] career,” I took it with more than just a pinch of salt. Now that the band’s 12th studio album is here, I can very happily confirm that my scepticism was uncalled for. The best Megadeth album ever, this might not be. (1990’s Rust in Peace will forever remain a tough act to match.) But Endgame is definitely meant for a spot high up on the band’s catalogue.

While Mustaine’s snarling vocals and buzzsaw riffing instantly stamp the trademark Megadeth sound on this one, what’s most interesting on the album is his evident discovery of a fantastic sparring partner in Chris Broderick. Not to disrespect all the guitarists who came in after Marty Friedman, but Endgame displays guitar duels of the kind last seen during the Friedman era, starting with the absolutely brilliant ‘Dialectic Chaos.’ Twenty seconds into this two-and-a-half minute instrumental album-opener, realisation strikes that these are no ordinary guitarists at work here, and this is no ordinary album.

‘Dialectic Chaos’ segues - on the back of a single sustained note – into an angry riff and an even angrier Mustaine singing about vanquishing the enemy on ‘This Day We Fight!’ That aggression is carried through on most of the tracks, both musically and thematically. ‘44 Minutes’ is about a gunbattle at a bank heist: “Baptised in a firefight/Hot blood running cold as ice/44 minutes of target practice/All hell's breaking loose.” ‘1,320’’ is about drag-racing (1,320 being the length of the typical track in feet) and features some revved-up solos from Broderick and Mustaine. The only exception is ‘The Hardest Part of Letting Go… Sealed With a Kiss,’ the closest Mustaine and Co get to a ballad on this album, and very reminiscent of ‘A Tout le Monde.’ Proceedings get right back on the heavy track with ‘Head Crusher,’ a monster that stays true to its name. But they save the best for the very last. ‘Right to Go Insane’ starts off with a rumbling bass riff and then becomes this claustrophobic room built of chugging guitar riffs. This single track does enough to assure you that Megadeth is still very much in business, and nowhere near the end of their game.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2009

Motherjane: An Indian Tale

2009-07-20T14:38:00.000+04:00

Motherjane: An Indian Tale

How one band from the South, injected the East into the West, and then took it places

By Bobin James

I am a sucker for stories. And Motherjane (they prefer spelling it with a lower-case ‘m’) sure has a lot of them. There’s the one about guitarist Deepu Sasidharan walking – and occasionally running – the fifteen-odd kilometres back home everyday past midnight from the Kochi, Kerala, hotel he used to play at. Only so that he could save up the money to buy his first guitar unit. “The last bus would be at 9:30, and autos would be too expensive,” says Sasidharan. “And at night, the street dogs get really wild, chasing bikes and people. So I would collect small stones in my pocket to fling at them, and mark out spots on the road which had stones I could pick up the next day,” he says. “A true rock musician,” laughs vocalist Suraj Mani. Then there is the story about how lead guitarist, Baiju Dharmajan, used to keep his homemade guitar pedal from falling apart using cellotape. “Good equipment was not easy to come by in those days,” says the soft-spoken guitarist. And then there is the story of a young John Thomas seeing a drum kit for the first time in his life. “Pop used to take me The International Hotel [in Kochi] and 13AD [forerunners in the Eighties rock scene in Kerala] were playing. I was like 5-6, and when I saw this kit, I was awestruck,” says Thomas who started really playing the drums only years later in college.

The story of Motherjane itself begins back in 1996 when Thomas formed the band in 1996 alongwith bassist Clyde Rozario to stand in for another band that had backed out. “I was the cultural secretary at St Albert’s [college] in Ernakulam and had booked a professional act for a festival. At the last moment, they backed out because there was no cash for a performance – we had only enough to provide them good sound. So I had no other choice but to form a band and play,” reminisces Thomas. This hastily-put-together band lived on beyond the college festival and continued playing covers for the next four odd years, with a revolving door of members, which included at various times names like Deepak Dev, now a music director of some repute in the Malayalam film industry, and vocalist Biju Peter, who went on to join Dreadlocks, a Calicut progressive metal band that rose to prominence in the Nineties. It was when the latter moved out that the band – now a four-piece with Thomas, Rozario, and guitarists Baiju D and Mithun R - was left without a vocalist and started playing instrumentals at the Ancient Mariner, a restaurant on Kochi’s Marine Drive.

And the Ancient Mariner is where one of the most important chapters of Motherjane’s story began. Sometime in August 2000, an engineer running an airconditioning dealership in Kochi, stepped in for a cup of tea and to watch this bunch belt out instrumental covers. This engineer, Suraj Mani, had sung occasionally with bands in Bengaluru (from where he had moved in 1997), and in Kochi (where he had met some of the guys from Motherjane earlier). “Then one of my friends said, this guy sings. So I also got in,” as Mani puts it. After about a week, Thomas invited Mani to sing with Motherjane fulltime, which he did for about a month. (At around the same time, guitarist Rex Vijayan also joined the band.) But it wasn’t quite what Mani wanted to do – learning the lyrics to Metallica, Iron Maiden and Dream Theater songs and doing covers, while juggling a new marriage at home and growing pressures at work. “We had a band meeting and I remember saying, ‘There’s really no point in what we are doing because ten years from now, another bunch of young kids will sing Iron Maiden with more energy than we can. What will be our relevance at that time?’,” says Mani. “I said, ‘At least, if we are making our own music, then we are not replaceable.’ I was saying that as an exit line.” Little did he expect the band to take up the challenge: Baiju said, “Okay, let’s make a song.” And that’s how Motherjane sat down to craft their first original.

I have a dream that consumes me

I bring along a simple question

Can your perception be my reality

And mine become an intrusion?

- ‘Disillusioned’ (Insane Biography, 2002)

“The title came first. I had never written before and I was sitting there, when John comes and says, ‘Why don’t you write a song called ‘Disillusioned’? You look disillusioned, you know…’ ” says Suraj Mani of his personal introduction to the world of writing lyrics. And he believes ‘Disillusioned’ came from the personal dreams of each band member, of making music, in the most immediate context. “We realised that we were all singing about the same thing. When I am saying ‘sing,’ I am also talking about playing. So I sang ‘Disillusioned’ the way I felt it, John played the way he felt it, Clyde and Rex, the way they did.” And everyone brought in their personal influences: Thomas his death metal, Mani his classic rock, Baiju his progressive and Rozario his country music. “It didn’t matter what the style was. We met thematically. And that provided a good framework [of working] for us,” says Mani, the spokesperson for the band. The guys would come up with a general theme for a song and then jam about on it. “It’s almost like a conversation between friends. Sometimes one guy will talk a lot. Sometimes another guy won’t say much, but when he does want to say something, he will say something very forceful. Other times, another guy goes off on a tangent that is very valid and very relevant. It’s very liberating to make music like that,” he continues.

Work on the originals continued in the same manner for about six months. Then things took a detour: Suraj Mani had to move back to Bengaluru. But this didn’t stop the flow of music, it only changed the style of working a bit. “We had made five songs while I was in Kochi. Then I wrote four more songs and then we would meet at some gig and jam on ideas,” says Mani. “There were instances when I would be driving and an idea would strike me. I would call up Baiju and sing the entire thing to him over the phone because otherwise I would forget it.” This arrangement meant that Mani had the freedom to write lyrics independently. “I have written the third and fourth album already. So maybe, one day, we will do a double album or something,” Mani laughs.

*****

Insane Biography dropped in on the then-underground Indian originals scene in 2002 to receive great acclaim. It wasn’t everyday that Indian rock delivered such a well-produced album of originals. I remember getting introduced to this album by an excited friend in the university town of Vadodara, Gujarat, more than 1,700 kilometres away from Kochi, where this music was created. Suddenly, everyone around in the rock-listening fraternity there seemed to be speaking about one band – Motherjane. Nobody knew much about the band, only that it was from “down South.” Copies were made on cassette tapes and compact discs, and circulated. What perhaps struck a chord with these new-found fans was the fact that this was not just another band trying to ape a million other classic rock bands from the West. If you listened carefully enough, behind those walls of distortion and thundering drums, and ensconced among the progressive rock/metal guitarlines, you would hear little flourishes hinting at the direction that the band would be taking soon enough. “Among the last few songs we composed were ‘Maya’ and ‘Soul Corporations,’ and you will see the beginning of the Indian elements in those songs. I think that happened because we started getting more comfortable with what we were doing. When you first start composing, you are not really sure what is allowed and what is not allowed. But as we went on, we were more comfortable,” explains Mani. But it was not only in tiny university towns in India that Insane Biography was getting attention: ‘Soul Corporations,’ from the album, managed to make it onto Geki-Teki Metal, a compilation CD released in Japan in 2004.

The first album, was, in Suraj Mani’s words, “a lot about life.” “You know they say that when an author is writing something, the first one is easy, because he writes about his life till then. But what does he do for the second one?” he laughs. The nine tracks brought in a sound unheard from Indian bands, until then, backed by mature songwriting, too.

Mature songwriting as is evident in these lines of inspiration in ‘Walk On’: “I’ll trade all my footsteps for a shot at tomorrow/Tattoo my intentions across these streets of time/And fight till the future is once again mine.”

And the lines of observation in ‘Maya’: “Sold into a brothel/Girlchild is just fifteen/Maya the name suits her well/This little life has never been.”

And the meditative lines of ‘Questions’: “Will I ever burn these bridges/I’ve built so strong and so sure/Or bound by my need for them/Will I linger by these shores?”

*****

Motherjane began gigging extensively on the back of Insane Biography. But very soon, guitarist Rex Vijayan exited the line-up. “After the first album, Rex left because he wanted to pursue a different kind of music,” says Mani. But the success of the first album also meant that the band started gigging a lot. “We spent a few years with stand-in guitarists but didn’t have a permanent guy.” Until Deepu Sasidharan stepped into the picture. A guitarist who was playing with 13AD in Dubai, he had just got a job in Bengaluru and come back to India. “I was ready to leave music and all,” says Sasidharan. “So I went to John and said I wanted to sell my guitar and processors. But he held me back. He said, ‘Deepu, you’ve been playing for so long. Don’t leave music now,’ ” he continues. Further egged on by Baiju, Sasidharan decided to join Motherjane.

“Deepu came and did four-five gigs with us, and then we started feeling the vibe again, and started composing the second album,” recalls Mani. “Sometimes when a new person comes into the room, the vibe changes. A tough part of being in a band is opening yourself up and being vulnerable in front of four other people. You find opening up difficult in a marriage – imagine opening up in front of four others. Anyway, when that happened, the music started coming differently… and we liked it. So we just went on that trip,” he says. This second album turned out to be Maktub, which incidentally turned out tops on Rolling Stone India’s list of Best Indian Albums of 2008, and also saw Motherjane being nominated in virtually every possible category – seven in all - in the 4^th Annual Jack Daniel’s Indian Rock Awards, earlier this year.

Guitarist Baiju Dharmajan (who incidentally had won the Best Guitarist trophy at 3^rd Indian Rock Awards for ‘Broken’), had in a 2008 interview, told me that Insane Biography was the “white man’s music” and how this time around, they were trying to get the Indian sound into their music. And the band nailed it, most audibly courtesy his Carnatic guitarlines. Suraj Mani insists though that Maktub’s unique sound is “actually the five of us sounding like that.” Drummer Thomas plays the chenda, a South Indian drum, on the record, adding to the “Eastern sound.” Mani says, “I think what has happened to us is that we are becoming a progressive Carnatic rock band. The element of rock is very much there. Then there are these progressive bits of from rock. And there are definitely variations from the normal Carnatic style. All of it is brought together into a very rock format, so it works well.”

“We are all influenced to various degrees by Indian music. What’s important is how naturally it comes to us. If it happens by default, we keep it there,” says Mani. “The honesty is important. If you start using it unnecessarily, you will start hearing that it’s not coming from the inside,” he continues. “There are no blank moves happening here – there’s a lot of synchronicity happening on the record,” says Thomas.

While only Thomas and Suraj Mani eventually got their 2009 JD Rock Awards nominations traded in for wins, one thing was crystal clear – with Maktub, Motherjane’s time had come. Any college festival worth its salt had to have a headlining performance by this five-piece progressive rock/metal band. Over the course of the last couple of years, the band had gathered some very impressive feathers in their hat: An opening slot at the inaugural Rock in India concert in 2008 which was headlined by Megadeth and Machine Head. Then a couple of concerts opening for Opeth (one of Motherjane’s biggest idols) and Ensiferum at IIT-Madras and IIT-Bombay, respectively. The big one was when they got the Best International Rock Act of 2009 title at Malaysia’s Asian Voice Independent Music Awards (AVIMA) in March this year. “We were not expecting it, but everyone who we told were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we were expecting it,’ ” says Mani. “It’s nice to be able to say that Motherjane is the best band in Asia,” he laughs.

*****

When I meet the band at their hotel the day after the MySpace Secret Show gig in Mumbai, in May, the guys are all lounging together in one room. It’s a Saturday and they have lots of time to kill before they head off to the airport to catch their respective flights - Suraj Mani to Bengaluru and the rest of the band to Kochi. They let me on the new chapters in Motherjane’s story. First up, there is their very own jam room that’s being built in Kochi. “This is a completely air-conditioned, acoustically treated jam room; a place where we can make music and probably do shoots,” says Mani. The band has also signed a five-year contract with their label, Aum-I Artistes, wherein they get a monthly salary (a rarity even today in the Indian rock scene) so that they can concentrate on producing the five albums they are committed to releasing in as many years. The first of these, due for release in 2010, is going to be called Grafitti Without Walls. “About 17 songs are lyrically ready. What we do is sit together and interpret it; so we are at that stage now,” Mani informs us. So, are they going to stick to their “Carnatic style?” “Well, let the songs decide that,” he smiles.

The band is looking relaxed but certainly high on the reception accorded to them the previous evening. When it comes to Mumbai rock audiences, there are two ways of looking at it – that they are too closeminded about the bands they like or that they are very finicky about their tastes. Either way, they are not particularly known for being very welcoming of bands from outside the city. Usually. But this gig – the first of MySpace India’s Secret Shows, also featuring local bands Black and Scribe – was perhaps the most packed that the Bandra Amphitheatre has ever been. Unverified reports put the attendance at 1,500. Amongst the audience were three winners of a contest run on the partnering radio station, who got a chance to meet the band and take home an autographed poster. One of these winners was a person who had never heard of Motherjane before and he was candid enough about that when he met the band for the signing, before the concert. Once the concert got over, though, the same person rushed backstage and told them that now, the signed poster was something he would treasure forever. Slipping into sensei mode, Suraj Mani explains this thus, “As a band we have noticed that it’s not about how many people will embrace you; it’s about how many people you embrace.”

CD Review: Kartick & Gotam - Business Class Refugees

2009-07-05T13:32:00.001+04:00

Kartick & Gotam
Business Class Refugees
3.5/5
EarthSync

Most people stuck in an airport terminal would do little but crib. But when music producer Kartick (Patrick Sebag) and sound designer Gotam (Yotam Agam) found themselves unable to exit the business class lounge at Singapore airport enroute to Indonesia, they decided to make music on their laptops. They dug into the collection of indigenous music that they had been busy recording throughout Asia, married them with loops and grooves and lo behold, Business Class Refugees was born. What could very easily have been chaotic mishmash instead blooms into a glorious smorgasbord of sounds ranging from folk to funk to electronica. Business Class Refugees is an outstanding album of electronic world music (if there’s such a thing) with tracks like ‘Heer’ with its haunting vocals, ‘Supreme Chaos’ with its funky bassline, and ‘Rututu’ with its blaring horns. Kartick & Gotam – who incidentally have worked on the previous gem from EarthSync, Nagore Sessions, too – very effectively meld cultures and flavours in this must-have.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2009

Soulmate

2009-07-03T12:49:00.000+04:00

Yim Yames' tribute to George Harrison

2009-07-03T09:46:00.000+04:00

Jim James of My Morning Jacket has recorded a tribute to the late George Harrison, in the form of a 6-song EP named Tribute To. James is releasing this EP under the pseudonym Yim Yames.

John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme in the studio

2009-07-03T09:23:00.000+04:00

News is that John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) are currently recording together in Los Angeles.

Michael Jackson: 1958 - 2009

2009-06-26T08:58:00.000+04:00

"Gone Too Soon"
Michael Jackson

Like a comet
Blazing 'cross the evening sky
Gone too soon

Like a rainbow
Fading in the twinkling of an eye
Gone too soon

Shiny and sparkly
And splendidly bright
Here one day
Gone one night

Like the loss of sunlight
On a cloudy afternoon
Gone too soon

Like a castle
Built upon a sandy beach
Gone too soon

Like a perfect flower
That is just beyond your reach
Gone too soon

Born to amuse, to inspire, to delight
Here one day
Gone one night

Like a sunset
Dying with the rising of the moon
Gone too soon

Gone too soon

Phish working on comeback album

2009-06-25T09:07:00.000+04:00

Recently-reunited jam band, Phish, is working on a new album, Joy, due for release on July 28. The album - their first in five years - will be produced by Steve Lillywhite. The announcement and tracklisting for the album can be found here.

Tipriti: Two faces

2009-06-23T16:04:00.000+04:00

Tipriti Kharbangar of Soulmate, a blues band from Shillong.

CD Review: Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings

2009-06-23T13:08:00.002+04:00

Dream Theater
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
3/5
Roadrunner Records

An album review, for me, is a lengthy process which involves listening to different parts that make up the whole. So I usually start off concentrating only on the music and the sound of the album, and then move on to the lyrics. And this, here, would be the first instance where I have actually yanked off a star, after listening to the lyrics. Musically, Black Clouds & Silver Linings is right up there with the best of Dream Theater albums. It takes the band’s trademark odd-time signatures, sudden pace changes, frenetic drumming, monster riffs and wailing vocals, mixes ‘em all up and then cranks up the H.E.A.V.Y. factor on it. Tracks like the album-opener, ‘A Nightmare to Remember,’ and the first single, ‘A Rite of Passage,’ are vintage Dream Theater. Nice and heavy with great riffs, and a few more headbanging opportunities thrown in. Then there are the regulation DT ballads, ‘Wither’ and ‘The Best of Times,’ the latter Portnoy’s tribute to his late father – it’s brilliant musicianship all around. Unfortunately, when it comes to the lyrics part of it, Black Clouds is just that. Sample this: “It's a miracle he lived/It's a blessing no one died/By the grace of God above/Everyone survived” from ‘A Nightmare to Remember,’ reportedly a song guitarist John Petrucci penned about a car crash he was involved in as a child. Or “Let me introduce my brother/I've been a gentleman/Historian/Sucking on his pipe/Distinguished accent/You're making me uptight/No accident,” as sung on the otherwise epic-sounding ‘The Count of Tuscany.’ It’s almost as if the band got so involved in coming up with great music that they forgot they needed words too, until the night before the recording.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2009

Tips: Singing the Blues

2009-06-19T12:37:00.002+04:00

Singing the Blues
Tipriti Kharbangar - singer with Soulmate, arguably India’s best-known blues band – tells us about her chosen genre of music, her influences and her band’s new album, 'Moving On'.
By Bobin James
Photograph by Bobin James

Softspoken. Demure. Shy. These are all adjectives that usually apply to Tipriti “Tips” Kharbangar. That is, until the Shillong-based songstress takes stage with her band, Soulmate. Then, she transforms into this blueswoman, wailing sometimes, whispering other times, and baring her soul all the time, her voice the perfect foil to co-founder of the band, Rudy Wallang’s guitar licks. In between gigs promoting Soulmate’s new album,Moving On, Tips takes out time to speak to Marie Claire.

What made you pick the blues, as a musician, out of all the genres?
Wow, that’s an interesting question. Like I always say, the blues is the purest form of expression. When you sing the blues, you can’t fake it, you have to be very real. Why I chose the blues is because I started singing gospel, and singing gospel is also singing from your soul. And singing from your soul is singing the blues.

What is your new album, Moving On, all about?
This album to me is simply very refreshing. There are people who just put on the music and let it play – for those kind of people, it’s refreshing. But for those who actually listen to the lyrics and all, it’s got something more. It’s about moving on, as human beings, as musicians, as a band. It’s a very happy album.

Funny you should say that, because there’s that one track, “Smile At Me,” where I can actually see you smile when you are singing it…
Yeah, it is a very beautiful tune. And yes, I was actually smiling at the recording session [laughs] Because the song itself is so happy. It’s so simple yet so effective. When the song comes on, it just brings a smile to whoever is listening to it, man. The lyrics are so simple and they are not difficult to understand.

Yes, even “Cup of Tea” for that matter…
Oh yeah, I love “Cup of Tea”. I love the arrangement on that one, the musical arrangement.

Any other favourite tracks you can pick from the new album?
I like “Come ’Round My House” - it’s a very happy song too. You know, the album is a very happy one. Then there is “Your Sweet Loving”, that’s a pretty sweet sweet song. [Sings: “Your sweet loving is all I need/Your sweet loving, just give it to me”]. So yeah, those are the songs that are not too difficult to understand. But there is a deeper side to the album, too. There is this song called “She Is”, sung by Rudy [Wallang].

Tips, I have seen a lot of Janis Joplin in you, when you are performing live. And I mean that as a compliment. So, is she a big influence?
Yes, yes, Janis has always been an influence. But besides her, there are other blues mamas [laughs] who came before. Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Koko Taylor… Those people have also played a major role in my singing. But the best part is that I get inspired all these blues mamas, but I do not try to sound like any of them. Because I believe there is only one Janis, there is only one Koko and there is only one Ella. And there will only be one Tips. I am pretty honoured to be compared to Janis but I would definitely love to be me, because every singer, every musician, every performer has their own expression. Where I come from, my background, all that plays a major role on my performance. I was not born in America like Janis during the hippie days, and I can’t be like her. Though I may sound like her, but I can’t be like her.

© Bobin James for Marie Claire India, 2009

Weird Al Yankovic - "Craigslist"

2009-06-18T20:17:00.000+04:00

Dream Theater: "Rite of Passage"

2009-06-18T20:12:00.000+04:00

Dream Theater's official video for their first single from the new album, Black Clouds & Silver Linings, "Rite of Passage."

New Sting album in October: If On a Winter's Night

2009-06-18T20:03:00.000+04:00

Sting has confirmed that he will be releasing a new album, If On a Winter's Night, late October. According to his website, this "new album [will be] dedicated to his favorite season - Winter - a season which has inspired countless songwriters over the centuries and produced a wealth of music exploring all of its many guises." The album will feature Sting interpreting traditional music from the British Isles - songs, carols and lullabies. And it will have two of Sting's original compositions too.

Megadeth's new album name: Endgame

2009-06-18T19:50:00.000+04:00

Megadeth's next studio album, due out this September, is going to be called Endgame. According to this report on Blabbermouth, song titles include 'Headcrusher,' '1,320,' 'How the Story Ends' and 'This Day We Fight.' A preview of 'Headcrusher' can be heard in the video clip below.

Gig Alert: Handshake Concert, June 21, Mumbai

2009-06-18T19:45:00.000+04:00

Joe Satriani: Playing Chicken

2009-06-16T12:01:00.002+04:00

Playing Chicken
When four of the biggest rock musicians come together in one band, it’s an experiment destined for either superstardom or a bloody crash. Chances are that the hardrocking Chickenfoot are headed the former way. Guitarist Joe Satriani speaks about the newest supergroup to hit us.
By Bobin James
Photograph by LeAnn Mueller

Fantastic set of musicians? Check. Great in-your-face energy? Check. Raucous singalong songs? Check.

Chickenfoot have been getting a whole lot of attention since sometime early last year when news first filtered out about this new supergroup. After all, it’s not everyday that you get Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony (both ex-Van Halen), Joe Satriani and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) jamming together. The quirkily-named quartet has just released its self-titled debut – a collection of 11 hardrocking tunes (12, if you have the limited edition vinyl) that magically manage to hark back to the Nineties, while simultaneously keeping their boots firmly planted in the present. Guitarist Joe Satriani spoke to us long-distance from Los Angeles, in between Chickenfoot’s North American and European tours.

***

Hi, this is Joe, how are you?
Hey Joe, how’s it going?
I am very good, thank you.

Okay, Joe, I believe Chickenfoot has just wrapped up a North American tour?
Yeah, that’s right. What we actually did was a “road test” tour. We just played some small clubs, to get things going. We will be returning to do a North American tour in about a month and a half. August and September will see us all throughout North America.

So how was the road test? How has the response been?
It was so much fun to be able to play really small clubs, just a few inches away from the fans and to play songs they have never heard before and just work really hard at winning over the crowd. It was just a great experience.

You wouldn’t have had played really small clubs in a long while, right?
Yeah, but it’s always fun. I mean, I do a lot of it privately, but you don’t really hear much about it. So it was a great experience all the way around.

Just to get back to the beginning. How did Chickenfoot come about? I believe the other three were already jamming, and then someone made a call. Who made that first call to you? And what was your reaction?
Well, it was Sammy actually who gave me a call in February of 2008 and asked me, just invited me to come to jam at the end of one or two shows that he was doing in Las Vegas. And it just seemed like a really fun thing to do and it just so happened that Mike and Chad were gonna be there as well. It was just one of those jams that turned out so good that we wanted to continue in some way. So we said let’s see if we can write some material and see what it sounds like when we are not in front of 5000 screaming people, and see what it sounds like in a small room. And every time we got together, it just got better and better, so we kept pursuing it.

You’ve always been more of a solo instrumentalist, except for that short stint with Deep Purple. Two questions: One, what is it that kept you from joining a band until now? And two, what was it about Chickenfoot that actually made you join it?
Well, you know, I think that the experiences with Chickenfoot were always so much fun and creative that it really didn’t take that much thought to convince me that it was a good idea. It felt good, it sounded good. So I think that is a good enough reason right there.

I think in the past, my experiences playing with Mick Jagger and Deep Purple were pretty good and they kinda spoiled me for playing with other bands, you know. And plus I really enjoyed my solo records and my solo tours - they really are a special and unique thing that the fans have allowed me to do. So you know, I have been very busy most of the time doing that.

There’s Sammy, there’s Chad, there’s Michael and there’s you. That’s a whole lot of big names with a whole lot of incredible work behind each. How do you put all of that behind you and say that this is something absolutely new that we are starting?
Well, it is new because we’ve never really played together before. I mean, there’s no way to separate each of us from the decades of music that we have published and all the shows we’ve done and entertaining around the world. But just as artists, when we get together, it’s natural for us to kinda surrender to the moment. It really isn’t that unusual to do. It takes more effort to try to insert your solo act into another unit, because obviously it goes somewhat against the grain. It’s more natural just to be creative and be in the moment and try to be with the band when with them. So the whole process has been very natural.

Personally for you, how’s the experience of playing with somebody like Sammy Hagar, Chad Smith or Michael Anthony? I mean, how is it being up there on stage and seeing those guys playing with you and making music with you? What sort of an experience is that?
It’s really exhilarating, you know. The other night we were playing on the Conan O’Brien Show in Los Angeles, and I remember looking across and I am looking at Mike Anthony and I am thinking, ‘I can’t believe I am playing with Mike Anthony on national television!’ [laughs] And yeah, every once in a while, I gotta check myself and go ‘Wow, this is really so unexpected and so amazing; it’s so great.’

A lot of people have tagged Chickenfoot a supergroup, because of where you guys come from individually. Is that a whole lot of expectations to live up to?
Yeah, that’s natural. If you add up all the millions of records we sold together as a group, it’s something staggering - it’s probably over 200 million. So you gotta figure there’s going to be some kind of expectation. But as entertainers, we know that. Every day we step on stage there’s expectations. So it’s not an unusual thing for us to feel. It’s something we deal with everyday of our professional lives. Believe it or not, we really put that stuff out of our consciousness and we just concentrate on writing and playing the best that we can every time that we play. I think that’s the only sane way to go about it.

Coming to the album, Joe, what’s the songwriting process on this record been? Did you come up lyrics first, did you come up with music first, how did it work?
On ninety per cent of the material, I would write the music first and I would send the music around to the rest of the guys and they would come up with melody and lyrics. And then we would get together and as a band we would arrange the material. On maybe two or three songs there were some inputs from Mike and Chad. Then there is one song where we wrote all together in the studio. So that’s pretty much how it happened… and it was spread out over a 12-month period.

Any particular tracks you can pick out as favourites?
I like all of them, to tell you the truth [laughs]. They’re all so different from each other and they are unusual. What really made me like the record so much was that it really didn’t sound “Van-Chili-Peppers-Satchi-whatever you wanna call it.” It really did have its own sound and each song was different. It wasn’t like we picked one style to hit people over the head with. The difference between ‘Avenida Revolucion’ and ‘Sexy Little Thing’ and ‘Down the Drain’ and ‘Bitten By the Wolf’… they are all so different. I think it’s a great introduction to a band that’s got a lot of records behind it.

So this is not going to be just a project; it’s a band that’s here to stay?
I think so. I think we have a future ahead of us.

Coming back to the style, I personally felt that your guitar playing sounded a lot more raw. Do you think you had to modify your style for Chickenfoot?
‘Modify’ wouldn’t really be the right word. I am really playing what I think is appropriate for the music that we wrote. If I take a song like ‘Flying in a Blue Dream’ [Flying in a Blue Dream, 1989], it is a very unusual piece that would not lend itself to a rock band playing it. So playing that style of guitar over it wouldn’t work. Same with, something like ‘Professor Satchafunkilus’ [Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock, 2008]. That approach stylistically and arrangement-wise doesn’t leave any room for somebody to sing. So of course I am sounding different. But it’s not really different for me, I think it’s just different for the audience, because they haven’t heard me do that in a while. But for me, it seems like I am always doing that everyday, just that I do it privately.

When I heard the music, one of my first reactions was that the music didn’t sound laboured over at all. I mean, it sounded very spontaneous. It sounds like you guys are having a complete blast. So was it, for you personally, a very spontaneous creation of music?
Yeah… I mean, every chance we got to play with each other was very precious, because we had such conflicting schedules. So the record is really made up of live performances with some added tracks here and there to fill out the recordings. But I think that’s that - at the heart of it, the recordings of everybody being very spontaneous. That’s why it sounds the way it does.

Coming to your live performances, Joe. You guys are playing the entire album, that’s 11 or 12 tracks, plus another 3 or 4 covers. That still makes it about 14-15 tracks. That’s pretty much a short set, isn’t it?
Well, the way we play though, we want to be up on stage for two hours. So we stretch them out and we improvise…

So a lot more solos happening than on the record?
I think so… and a lot more interaction between the band members.

You move on to Europe this weekend. Any plans of coming to India at all?
You know, I am working on convincing the other three guys that they have to go to India. They haven’t been there before and I keep telling them what a great time I had a few years ago when I was there. I am doing my best trying to convince them. That would be great, it would be fantastic, yeah.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2009

CD Review: Chickenfoot - Chickenfoot

2009-06-05T13:01:00.000+04:00

Chickenfoot
Chickenfoot
4/5
Redline Entertainment

When half your bandmembers are from Van Halen, comparisons with Guitarslinger Eddie’s band are inevitable. So it is with Chickenfoot. Fronted by onetime VH vocalist Sammy Hagar and with VH founding member Michael Anthony on bass, this supergroup with a funny name is rounded off by guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. But at no time are they attempting to be another Van Halen. What the self-titled debut of this quartet manages to do is take their individual strengths and personalities, and deliver it in a neat little album that’s hard to not like. So you have Anthony’s vastly-underrated bass guitar and Smith’s funky drums underneath Hagar’s flamboyant vocals and Satriani’s rough-and-ready guitars. This is Satriani’s second outing with a band, almost 15 years after the short-lived live stint with Deep Purple. And is he having a blast! His sound is more raw than usual, and huger. (Check out the sledgehammer riff kicking off ‘Get It Up’ and the pounding rhythm of ‘Avenida Revolucion.’) In fact, that’s what makes Chickenfoot such a pleasure to listen to: this is a fine example of good ol’ guitar-based rock, delivered from the heart. Especially when Hagar’s raucous vocals and Anthony’s backing vocals (usually underrated again) complete the package. Remember all those classic “driving” songs you would scream your guts out singing along to? Well, this is an album full of that same energy, an album you are likely to slip into your car’s CD player, crank the volume up to 11 and go vroooom with. On Chickenfoot, the boys are having fun, and it shows.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2009

Killswitch Engage release new single

2009-06-05T09:39:00.000+04:00

American metallers Killswitch Engage release their self-titled fifth album this month, and in the build-up to this, the band put up a single, "Reckoning" for free download. But only for 24 hours. You can still listen to it, though. Here.

CD Review: Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King

2009-06-02T12:55:00.002+04:00

Dave Matthews Band
Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King
4/5
EMI

Dave Matthews Band lost its founding member and saxophonist, LeRoi Moore in August last year, after the band had started work on what was to become Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, their seventh studio album. But while Moore’s death came much before the final tracks were put in place, his presence is as strong as ever on this album. The remaining bandmembers’ tributes are hard to escape, starting from the album name (“GrooGrux” is a word that drummer Carter Beauford and Moore regularly used to describe the wild rhythms and sounds they came up with during jams), to the intricate artwork hand-drawn by singer/guitarist Dave Matthews (yes, that Moore’s face right there on the album front). Sonically, Big Whiskey is very different from what the band has done in the past, and yet it has the unmistakable DMB sound to it. This is a much heavier album, courtesy the electric guitar riffs. Guitarist Tim Reynolds returns for the first time since 1998’s Before These Crowded Streets and Matthews himself straps on the electric. The consequences are heard best on ‘Shake Me Like a Monkey,’ a glorious yet strangely uncharacteristic love song that leaves you breathless. The joyful romp continues right through tracks like ‘Why I Am’ (perhaps the most direct remembrance of Moore on this album – “Still here dancing with the GrooGrux King”) and ‘Alligator Pie’ (Matthews’ way of acceding to his daughter Stella’s wish – “Stella said, daddy when you gonna put me in a song?”). If there is sadness on Big Whiskey, it’s not readily evident. But then, on ‘Funny the Way It Is,’ Matthews sings, “Funny the way it is/Not right or wrong/Somebody’s heart is broken/And it becomes your favourite song.” This is an outstanding album by any standards (not just DMB’s) – more so because of the circumstances leading to the release.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2009

Ozzy suing Iommi

2009-05-30T21:12:00.000+04:00

According to this news report in New York Times, Ozzy Osbourne is suing founder-guitarist of the Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi. "With regret." This is because Ozzy feels Tony is being unfair in claiming sole ownership for the name Black Sabbath (nevermind the fact that Tony is the only one who has been a constant in the band throughout).

Metallica shooting for DVD

2009-05-28T14:28:00.000+04:00

Metallica has confirmed on its website that they are shooting for a potential DVD. They say, "There's been a little chatter here and there about us filming a few shows this summer for potential release on DVD and among the countless Internet rumors, these ones are actually true! We thought it would be cool to document a few shows that are unique and sure to be extra memorable for us, and hopefully for you too..." Woohoo!

In the meanwhile, watch this video for "Broken, Beat & Scarred".

BB King and Gary Moore - The Thrill is Gone

2009-05-28T14:23:00.000+04:00

Just stumbled upon this video on YouTube of two great masters jamming. Especially watch out for the part after about 4:30, where they get into this jugalbandi/trade-off/call-and-response. Absolutely brilliant stuff.

Junkyard Groove release "It's OK" video

2009-05-27T12:54:00.000+04:00

Junkyard Groove, one of the best young bands in India today, had released their debut album, 11:11 [Bootleg] last month. And now they have released this video for one of their singles.

Chris Cornell rocks up 'Long Gone'

2009-05-05T11:11:00.000+04:00

Chris Cornell, who has been getting a whole lot of brickbats (unfairly so, in my opinion) for his new album, Scream, has come up with a rock remix of 'Long Gone.' Now, it sounds like a rock ballad that would have found place on Euphoria Morning.

Them Clones release 'My Life' video

2009-05-05T10:59:00.000+04:00

Delhi band Them Clones are launching their debut album, Love.Hate.Heroes. in a big way. And innovatively too. On May 1, the band put up 17 tracks for streaming on their website and are asking fans to vote for the ten songs that make it to the finished album. Also up online is this very cool video for their first single, 'My Life.'

And now Cat Stevens accuses Coldplay

2009-05-05T10:45:00.000+04:00

Coldplay's been in the news after being accused by guitarist Joe Satriani of stealing a tune, for their Grammy-winning 'Viva La Vida.' In case you missed out on the news, go here and here and here.

The latest salvo comes from singer Cat Stevens, who is now known as Yusuf Islam. The Sun reports that the singer has said that 'Viva La Vida' has been ripped from his tune, 'Foreigner Suite.'

When searching for this on YouTube (I knew you would), look specifically for 'Foreigner Suite, Part II' and then go to about 5.15. The similarity's there if you look hard enough for it, let's put it that way.

Street Sweeper update

2009-04-29T10:08:00.000+04:00

Since the last time we spoke about Tom Morello's other supergroup, there have been a few developments. The name, for one, is now Street Sweeper Social Club. Their self-titled debut will be released on June 16. To see the track-listing and, more importantly, to listen to four kickass tracks from the album, head to the band's MySpace page.

Megadeth and Slayer to tour together

2009-04-28T12:34:00.000+04:00

Thrash titans Megadeth and Slayer will co-headline four shows on the Canadian Carnage tour in late June, according to this press release. This will be the first such instance in over 15 years, where these two bands share stage. The supporting bands are Machine Head and Suicide Silence.

New album from Alice in Chains

2009-04-28T09:48:00.000+04:00

Alice in Chains have signed on to Virgin/EMI and their new record - the first without late singer Layne Staley and the first since 1995's Alice in Chains - will be released this September, according to this report.

Creed reunite

2009-04-28T09:29:00.000+04:00

Nineties post-grunge band Creed (remember "With Arms Wide Open"?) have announced that the original lineup of vocalist Scott Stapp, guitarist Mark Tremonti, drummer Scott Phillips, and bassist Brian Marshall is coming back together for a summer tour and a new studio album. The band, which had won a Grammy for "With Arms Wide Open" in 2001, had disbanded in 2004 with promises of never getting back together. Singer Stapp went on to record a solo record The Great Divide in 2005, and the other three formed Alter Bridge, with singer Myles Kennedy.

Pink Floyd sue label

2009-04-20T16:35:00.000+04:00

Classic rockers Pink Floyd have sued their record label EMI over royalty payments. The band, which signed on to EMI in 1967, has reportedly claimed that royalties on their back catalogue have been miscalculated.

Frusciante out of RHCP?

2009-04-20T08:45:00.000+04:00

There is speculation that guitarist John Frusciante might have bowed out from Red Hot Chili Peppers. The guitarist who recently released his 10th solo album The Empyrean, in an interview to French magazine Guitarist & Bass, has reportedly said, "I'm not interested in being in a band anymore; because during the last 10 years, I've spent more than 4 years and a half touring with a band. The Chili Peppers had to perform a huge number of concerts. To me, it represents a very long period of time time when we can barely be creative. I'll have a show within 2 months, but it won't be rock. I can't say anymore about that now, because we still have to define things."

The translation of the complete interview can be read here.

Pearl Jam making film

2009-04-15T21:17:00.000+04:00

Spin reports that Pearl Jam are working on a film with director Cameron Crowe. In other PJ news, their new album should be out before the end of the year.

MJ Auction cancelled

2009-04-15T21:09:00.000+04:00

According to this report from the Wall Street Journal, the auction of property belonging to Michael Jackson has been cancelled. The auction, which was supposed to take place next week, would have seen over 2000 items - including his sequined gloves and jackets - from his Neverland Ranch go under the hammer.

DMB release new single

2009-04-15T09:48:00.000+04:00

Dave Matthews Band have just put up a new single, "Funny the Way It Is," up for free download on their website. This song is from the band's new album Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, due out June 2.

Head here for the download.

Hall of Fame 2009 All-Star Jam

2009-04-06T22:03:00.000+04:00

Check this out! This year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony - which had Metallica and Jeff Beck, among others being inducted - saw an All-Star Jam to beat all All-Star Jams. Imagine James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo, Jason Newsted (yes, both Metallica bassists) onstage with Jeff Beck, Joe Perry, Ron Wood, Jimmy Page and Flea!

And Soundgarden play without Chris Cornell...

2009-03-27T23:49:00.000+04:00

Members of Soundgarden - minus Chris Cornell - reunited for a short surprise set during Tom Morello's Justice Tour gig at Seattle on March 24. Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd took stage, with Tad Doyle on vocals, to perform "Nothing to Say," "Spoonman" and "Hunted Down."

Longer accounts here and here, and pictures here.

Jason to play with Metallica

2009-03-27T13:49:00.000+04:00

Metallica's ex-bassist will play with the band, when they are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, next month, according to this report on NME. Guitarist Kirk Hammett reportedly said, "Jason Newsted will be there, and he will be playing with us at one point."

Chris Cornell: The Rolling Stone Interview

2009-03-27T12:57:00.000+04:00

Chris Cornell: The Rolling Stone Interview

Grunge icon and incorrigible experimentator on his latest collaboration

By Bobin James

Chris Cornell and his band Soundgarden, alongside Pearl Jam and Nirvana, pioneered the Seattle grunge movement in the mid-Eighties. He later went on to front Audioslave, a supergroup of sorts that emerged from the ashes of Rage Against the Machine. Timbaland has - since he began in the mid-Nineties - become one of the most wanted (and consequently, one of the highest paid) producers in rap/hip-hop/R&B, having produced for everyone from Nelly Furtado to Madonna to Justin Timberlake. (His collaborations with the latter won Grammys for Best Dance Recordings in 2007 and 2008.)

So, many an eyebrow was raised, and many snooks cocked last year, when the Rock Singer announced his intention of collaborating with the Super Producer on his next solo album, Scream (releasing March 9). The idea of these two dissimilar – in terms of their respective genres – musicians coming together struck many as indigestible and incomprehensible. “Sellout!” cried many. But then, Cornell’s been no stranger to that cry. 1989: Soundgarden sign on to a major label. Sellout! 1999: Cornell releases first solo album, Euphoria Morning, with a stripped-down sound. Sellout! 2001: He joins hands with the remaining members of Rage Against the Machine and forms Audioslave. You guessed it, sellout!

But what these critics failed to see was that Cornell was simply doing exactly what he wanted. He - being not one to hang on to his past legacy - made music that represented where he was at that point in time. (Now, if he were to continue in the Soundgarden vein, only to appease his legion of fans, that would have been a sellout.) And that’s what came across on that (very) early morning phone-call from Los Angeles: Chris Cornell had his boots firmly dug into the present and he was thoroughly enjoying the creative freedom that Scream offered him.

***

Chris, just how did this collaboration with Timbaland come about? It seems very unlikely, with you coming from the space that you do.

It was just an idea that started off with the thought of having a remix done for a song and then talking about doing a couple of original songs. Instead, then that grew into an entire album of those songs, which really, I thought, would be something that would be kind of a challenging and interesting thing to do.

Were you familiar with Timbaland’s music before this entire project started?

Yes, I had caught a bit from different artists over a period of different years. Some things that I didn’t know he did necessarily when I first heard them, but I was somewhat aware.

When I first heard the first track off the new album – ‘Part of Me’ – I will admit, I was shocked. I wasn’t quite expecting that kind of sound. But after a few listens, it’s grown on me and it now happens to be one of my favourite tracks on the album. When getting into this collaboration, did you walk in with the understanding that yes, there might be a lot of fans who would be put off by the fact that I am collaborating with Timbaland?

Oh yeah, I mean, that is kind of obvious, isn’t it. From the conception of even doing this - we’d only done one song - it was obvious that people would go on and make a decision about it. Even if they heard it, they wouldn’t necessarily be into some of the sounds on the album: The way the album is made, that’s kinda pretty obvious.

You have said in another earlier interview that you were very jealous when you heard a Missy Elliott track produced by Timbaland. You said, “Hip-hop is so trippy; why can’t rock be so trippy?”

Oh yeah. I was referring to an element of freedom in terms of what was inside the track - what was allowed to be part of the song. In a band environment, there’s really only that much you can do. You end up being confined to the basic instruments that everybody in the band plays and work with that. And you can kind of step outside of that, but depending on the band you’re in, it’s not always that easy to do. In the world of hip-hop, it’s emotion that matters first. While the worse that it could get would be kind of taking the hook from a song that was already a pop hit and rapping over that: To me that’s not freedom, that’s taking someone else’s song and giving it new life I suppose, but it’s not being creative. But there is an aspect of hip hop that is very creative, like making something new out of any sound or any loop or anything. And making songs out of anything that could generate a tone.

Yeah, and there’s a whole lot of that on this album. Chris, in your opinion, what makes for a good song? What makes for good music?

What makes any music good, you mean?

Yes, for you personally as a listener, or as a musician who’s making his music, what is it that you look for?

I don’t know if it’s something that can be described as necessarily tangible. I think… it’s something that hits me in the gut or makes me feel a particular way or something… I am not sure you can put words to that. That’s sort of, I suppose, the way one might describe genres. You know, like I like music that’s aggressive, or I like music that isn’t, or is melodic. With me, personally, I like all sorts of music. So I don’t know… it just has to somehow appeal to me, I think, on some gut level.

What was the process of songwriting for this album? Did you come in with lyrics, did Timbaland come in with sounds in mind? How did it work?

We really kind of just wrote it one song at a time. We wrote everything from scratch after the album started. So we didn’t really come in with [anything]. Tim didn’t come in with a bunch of beats and I didn’t come in with a lot of lyrics or riffs or anything like that. We just started from the first song which was basically a beat and then sort of created a song out of it. Then we would continue on and we ended up doing that over the course of the album – this sort of taking one song at a time, there [being] no conception from the beginning about what we would do, about making the album sound a particular way.

Would this be one of your fastest albums ever?

Maybe, in some ways. There were parts that we put together very quickly. But in terms of turning it into what it became - which is an hour of continuous music and the mixing and all that - that actually took quite a while. I think the writing of the basic songs was fairly quick, but overall it wasn’t one of my fastest albums.

You guys came out with some 20 songs or so in 4 or 5 weeks…

Yeah, I think in about 5 weeks, 6 weeks I think, we had about 20 songs.

Coming to the songs, ‘Ground Zero’ seems to be one of my favourites so far, especially the segue from ‘Get Up.’ You also seem to be having a blast on ‘Ground Zero.’ Would that be right?

Yeah, that song actually was… the lyrics were written and all of the vocals recorded to pretty much to nothing but a drum beat. There was nothing else there yet. So it ended up being a song that kind of took shape long after it was designed. But that was one of my early favourites: The tempo of that, the feeling of that which is very reminiscent to me of kind of R&B from the mid-Seventies, which was the music that I was really into.

Another couple of favourites for me would be ‘Long Gone’ and ‘Climbing Up the Walls’ – I really love the chorus in the latter. How did you come up with ‘Climbing Up the Walls?’

Well, it was a really pretty simple beat, and I just was kind of coming up with an idea of what the music may be if I were to go with some sort of lyrics. Which is pretty much how I came up with ideas for everything on this album. And usually if I don’t come up with an idea lyric, where I am looking for music for something, well, the feeling of the music will inspire the lyric idea. So this was something that had to be really fast, I started writing down ideas and it became the song as you hear it pretty quickly.

On ‘Watch Out,’ you’ve got this great guitar riff going, which could have been from an Audioslave song. I hear the guitar prominently in a couple of other tracks. So was that a conscious effort on your part to say, ‘Let me put in the guitar to acknowledge my rock history’?

No, I didn’t think about that on any of the songs. You know, each song was created as an individual song that should really sound good with whatever should sound good or whatever would be the best thing for the song, and I didn’t think about instrumentation too much. Obviously, we weren’t trying to do anything more than what the song seemed to require, what the song wanted. There were songs where [afterwards] I actually added instruments to or took away. There were a lot of instruments that I took away in mixing - I made choices. The song sounded better sometimes, more lush sometimes. Sometimes it sounded better with less - bare minimal - depending on the song…

You seemed to have worked with a lot of writers on this record, including Justine Timberlake and John Mayer. How different was it from your earlier experiences of one, with bands, and two, when you were doing solo albums like Carry On and Euphoria Morning?

Oh, I mean, it was different. It was more similar to working with someone in a band. But there really aren’t that many comparisons that I think I can make, because the recording of the album was so different. The recording happened simultaneously as the writing of the album, so there’s nothing I can compare it to. Usually, whether I was making a solo album, or it’s a band, I would be writing songs and demo-ing them first and then rehearsing them with a band… and then recording them after the fact that it’s been rehearsed and performed and I suppose arranged to refinement. In this particular way of recording albums, a lot of lyrics were written and the vocals were recorded before the song was even arranged. So it was very different that way. A lot of parts were added afterwards. The challenge of that I suppose is that it’s like a painting: When you are finished, somebody has to make decisions as to when the song is finished and what should be included on it and… On most of the songs, the arrangements are pretty obvious. But some of them – like the song ‘Long Gone’ – they weren’t defined until it got to mixing. When I realised that nobody had really thought it through the way that I thought it should go… and there was a lot of arranging happening at the last minute. And obviously you don’t do that in a band, where the arrangement happens even before you start recording…

Do you think you can pick three favourite songs of yours from this album?

I really wouldn’t… One – and I suppose I might be partial to this because it’s not one that people bring up - I really like ‘Time’ a lot. And ‘Never Far Away’ - I also think it’s very special. I think the moment of going into ‘Never Far Away’ is probably one of my favourite moments on the album. When I say that, I am speaking of it in terms of that the mood is going from one song to the next. And that which takes you out of ‘Ground Zero’ and into ‘Never Far Away’ is really a magical moment for me on the album. But also the album as a whole is something you should give yourself up to from beginning to end. Whether I am performing it or listening to it, it’s something that needs to be heard from beginning to end.

Chris, anybody else you would love to work with? Do you have a wish list of people you would like to work with in the future? Where do we see Chris Cornell going from here?

I mean, I don’t know… I’m sort of still in the middle of working on this project. And now I want to go out on tour and perform it. I have other things building up in my head, a lot of ideas about what I could do next, but I haven’t really thought about it so seriously.

(January 27, 2009)

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2009

AR Rahman interview

2009-03-27T12:54:00.000+04:00

AR Rahman
The soft-spoken composer of Slumdog Millionaire’s soundtrack on the movie, the Golden Globes and the Oscars
By Bobin James

Congratulations! First the Golden Globe win, and now the Oscar nominations. When you first did the music, did you think it would be appreciated so much?
When I did the movie, I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was just concentrating on the work at hand.

Had you heard of Danny Boyle, seen his work, at that time?
I had heard the name, yes. I knew about Trainspotting, but hadn’t actually watched it. But when I met him, he came across as a really nice person, who respected the place, Mumbai. And who respected my music.

You’ve got two out of the three nominations in the Best Original Song category at the Oscars. Are you expecting to win?
I don’t know… [laughs]

What prompted you to take this project up, when it came to you?
I was very excited. I was excited by the story… and the collaborators like Gulzar and MIA…

I read somewhere that you finished the score in under four weeks. Would that make it one of your fastest projects ever?
I would say, the fastest. I did it in 2-3 weeks. It helped that Danny gave me very specific cues [individual pieces of music on the soundtrack] to score. So unlike working on say a hundred cues, I could work on those specific ones… I could focus.

Do you think these wins and all the attention will help other Indian artists break into the Western markets?
Big time! All of us have always felt that we make good music but there’s nobody out there who wants to listen to it. With this, I think I have broken those clichés… And there is also a certain respectability that’s been achieved…

What, about the movie and the music, do you think has suddenly captured the imagination of people across the world?
The important thing is that the intention is right - the intention of the movie, the intention of the music. The movie talks about optimism, the fact that life is worth living. All of us go through these phases of negativity, but what this tells us is to be optimistic. It’s about the victory of truth. It’s like our national motto, “Satyamev Jayate.” And we built in this subtle reference to that too, by making ‘Jai Ho.’

What’s your take on Slumdog Millionaire, the movie, purely as a viewer? If you were to disconnect yourself from being part of it.
I always see myself as a viewer… I only take up projects that appeal to me [at that level]. And I think that’s how I have established myself as a brand over the last 18 years. I would not take up anything that I am not convinced with.

What’s next on the anvil? Any more international projects?
As of right now, it’s only travelling and promotions [for Slumdog Millionaire]. Once things settle down, I will get back to work.

(January 27, 2009)
© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2009

Nick Mason: Little Drummer Boy

2009-03-27T12:44:00.000+04:00

Little Drummer Boy
Pink Floyd drummer speaks about everything from his Ferrari GTO, to the lasting relevance of The Dark Side of the Moon to the possibility of a Floyd reunion, in this exclusive Rolling Stone India interview
By Bobin James

The first weekend of November saw Nick Mason, of Pink Floyd, pay a visit to Mumbai. The drummer, who is also an avowed car enthusiast was here as one of the judges at Cartier’s International Concours d’Elegance, an exhibition of magnificent vintage automobiles. Mason took time off from his judging duties to sit down with Rolling Stone for a freewheeling chat on cars, superstars and music, of course.

***

Mr Mason, is this your first trip to India?
No, I was here last year, for a wedding...

And what brings you here, this time around?
This time, it’s an invitation from Cartier for the Concours d’Elegance. My great passion in life besides music is cars. So when they called, I readily agreed.

How did your love affair with cars begin?
My father was a film director. He made films about motor racing, about cars, motorsports, and he used to race a very old, vintage Bentley. So from when I was a kid, I was taken for motor racing.

And when did you first start to drive?
When I was seventeen. But I started to drive with an Austin 7 1927, so I was totally brought up with old cars.

You collect cars… How many cars do you have at last count?
About thirty-five [laughs]…

Any favourites?
Well, it’s always the GTO. The ultimate car is always the Ferrari GTO, mainly because you can do so many different things with it. You can race it, you can rally it, you can take the kids to school. It’s such a great allrounder, and it looks wonderful. And everyone thinks I’m incredibly clever because I bought one thirty years ago [laughs].

What are your preferred set of wheels now?
An Audi RS4.

That’s for your regular city driving?
Yeah, I mean, actually I ride a bike most of the times. I love bikes…

What bike do you have?
I’ve got a BMW 800… but, the great thing with the Audi RS4 is that you get sports car performance, yet you can put a drumkit in it.

Which brings me to the music part… are you still playing?
Am I still playing? Yeah, we are not touring… very bad. But I am still working. I play with Roger [Waters] occasionally. I play with David [Gilmour] occasionally.

Can we expect to hear something from you sometime soon?
Not until David and Roger want to work together, and I don’t think… I mean, I know Roger’s coming here in December for a Live Earth concert. But I don’t think I will play with him on that occasion.

But nothing outside of Pink Floyd? You never really felt the need to go out and do a solo project?
No, no. I mean, I like working with other people, and I’ve doing it with the Hollywood Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp, and I do production with other people. But I don’t particularly want to do a solo… I mean, I am not a solo performer.

When you all started Pink Floyd so many years back, what was it that you set out to do? I mean, did you actually tell yourselves that we are gonna be the biggest rock & roll band in the world?
Absolutely not. When we started, the Beatles were fairly recent as well. No one had any sort of concept of rock & roll being grown up. It was only by the time that we were doing our first album that the Beatles were doing Sgt Pepper’s. You know, Sgt Pepper’s was the first album where the album outsold the single. That was the beginning of the transformation and rock & roll being more grown up and…

There being superstars?
Not really so much the superstars, as having a longevity and being taken more seriously. I mean, Elvis was a superstar in 1950-whatever, and he continued to be so for a long time. It was more to do with the music being taken more seriously.

What was it like being in a band like Pink Floyd at the height of it all?
I think the trouble with being in a band is you take a lot of it for granted. You don’t think, “This is fantastic.” I mean, you tend to remember the shows that you were pleased with... the Dark Side shows in ’73… the Wall shows in ’79-’80… The thing is that people say “What was it like having a record like Dark Side.” Well, Dark Side [of the Moon] was a hit record long after we’d made it. So actually, the reality of it all was so spread across, it didn’t really… register.

Did you realise when you came out with Dark Side that it’s going to be a huge hit and it’s going to be on the charts for so many years?
No, because that was unheard of at that time. So it’s one of those rather odd things where… nothing like that had ever happened.

Looking back on it, how do you feel about it now? When you see that Dark Side is still bought by kids who were not even born when it first came out?
I think it’s interesting and obviously it’s something I am very pleased with. But I think the thing I realise about Dark Side now [is that] it’s actually less to do with 19-year-olds than it’s to do with the fact that the lyric content of the piece is as relevant to a 50-year-old as it’s to a 20-year-old. You know, when we made that record, we were in our early 20s… But actually a song like… well, a number of songs [on it] were related to growing old and money problems which is as relevant to a 50-year-old as it is to a 23-year-old. And I think that’s why it’s had a long run, because it has relevance to a number of different age groups.

Mr Mason, if we can go back all the way to the beginning. How did music first happen to you? Was yours particularly a musical family?
My mother was quite musical… but it was not a very important part. I think I was just turned on to rock & roll when I was a kid, as was most of the rest of the band.

Do you remember what you were listening to?
‘Rockin’ to Dreamland’ which was the one programme - once a week - on Radio Luxembourg. I’m hearing Elvis Presley for the first time… and Chuck Berry, Fats Domino. This black rock & roll, as well as Elvis Presley, and Bill Haley stuff… It was something we’d never heard before… it struck some chord…

And how did that interest graduate to a level where you actually said that I want to start playing?
I think at the time it didn’t happen. It sort of just got me interested in playing… and then…

So you started off on the drums?
Well, I actually began the guitar, but drums was where I suddenly got excited… but then I dropped it for three years. Then I was a student and I was earning when I was a student. And then I met Roger and Richard [Wright]… all of us were going to study architecture. And it was there that someone said, “Oh, I need a band to do something.” And I went, “Oh well, I just play the drums.” Roger said, “Oh well, I play the bass guitar…” And so that was the sort of start. But I don’t think any of us at that point were thinking it’s a career… you know, it was sort of quiet, gradual…

Mr Mason, who were you earliest idols? Anyone you looked up to?
Well, initially, lots of bebop drummers: Art Blakey, Kenny Clarke, people like that… But then when rock & roll really happened for us, it was Ginger Baker with Cream, Mitch Mitchell with Hendrix, people like Spencer Davis and ELP and Keith Moon… these were the people who were making a career when we were just students watching…

Why do you think Pink Floyd became such a huge phenomenon worldwide? What do you think it is that really made it so endearing?
The answer is I don’t really know but I suspect the answer is that it’s not just one thing. It’s a mixture of things that make up the brood. I think Roger’s lyrics, a lot of people relate to them… I think there is an element of romanticism to the music that triggers the imagination. There’s quite a lot of music that doesn’t even have lyrics, so people can actually allow their minds to wander, and they paint the pictures that are entirely different for everyone. But I think that’s what it is… inevitably, in our case, we perhaps have a bigger fanbase that’s male than female. And I think a lot of males who listen to music would like to do the same, would like to emulate, would like to play. And I think we are sort of an influence on some people who want to play music. They don’t necessarily want to play exactly like us, but I think what they like is the idea that there is an audience out there who don’t demand sex idols and who don’t demand just pounding rhythms. So the music can be a little bit more sophisticated…

Mr Mason, were you in touch with Richard Wright?
Yeah, yeah… he was ill for about 9 months, something like that… and he just didn’t want people to know about it…

So would it be safe to say that we won’t really be seeing a Pink Floyd reunion now?
Who knows… I mean, I think, because David and Rick have been working together, now David thinks without Rick, he really can’t see himself and Roger working together. But having said that, I have no idea. I would have thought that if there were the right occasion, a bit like Live 8, everyone would say, “Well, this is good reason to, even without Rick, to do something together…” But I can’t judge whether that will happen.

(November 1, 2008)
© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

Rob Halford: The Metal God Speaketh

2009-03-27T12:34:00.000+04:00

The Metal God Speaketh
Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford speaks about incessant touring, the secret to his voice and his inspirations
By Bobin James

Think heavy metal and one of the first names that comes slamming into your head is that of Judas Priest. This is one band that has, for close to four decades, kept the studded flag of heavy metal fluttering high, earning themselves the crown of ‘Metal Gods.’ Rob Halford, the lead singer of Judas Priest (yes, him of the three-and-a-half octave range) spoke to Rolling Stone India long distance from Osaka, Japan, where the band was on the Nostradamus tour.

***

Hello Rob! You are in Osaka today?
Yes, we started our Japanese tour a couple of days ago… in Nagoya. We are in Osaka right now, and then we go on to Yokohama and Tokyo. After Japan, we move on to South America. Then we take a small break before we go back around the world. Typically a Judas Priest tour takes two to two-and-a-half years to really go around the world.

I was going through your tour calendar. In August, you have played some 21 dates! How do you manage that?
We never think about it. We just get on the bus, on the plane, on the train – as we are doing in Japan – and go out there. We never think about the journeys and the thousands of miles. It’s only later when we see the number of dates that we have performed that it seems unbelievable…

But it’s fantastic. It’s a solid signal that heavy metal and Judas Priest have a great following across the world.

Nostradamus – it’s a monster of an album… How did it come about?
You might already know the story of how our manager Bill Curbishley suggested the idea first. We had just finished the Angel of Retribution tour, and Bill knew that we always had the desire to make a concept album. But we never did have the time. For something like Nostradamus, we needed time and energy.

It was a great concept and I saw parallels with heavy metal music.

My favourites from Nostradamus are ‘Prophecy’ and ‘Revelations.’ Do you have any favourite tracks?
I listen to it every other day, and now I am able to let go and listen to it without analysing it as a musician. My personal favourites would be ‘Pestilence and Plague’ where I sing in a bit of Italian… Then there is ‘Banished in Exile’ which has beautiful feel and emotion…

There are very few bands - Judas Priest, Iron Maiden - which manage to transcend generations and countries. What do you think makes a great band? Separates it from any other band?
I really don’t know the answer to that question… I wish I did. We played a show in Seoul recently, and the crowd was mainly teenagers. And they knew all the lyrics to all the songs, including the older ones. So I am constantly amazed. Why this is, I don’t know… but we are thrilled and delighted that our music is able to reach all these people. And I think, all the good stuff in music eventually floats to the top where everyone finds them… through the internet, through friends.

About Judas Priest, we have been there from the very beginning. So I think there is that interest, kind of like you are going to see the inventors… like seeing Picasso or Michelangelo paint. Except in our case, you are seeing us live…

You’ve been singing for over 35 years now! How have you managed to keep your voice as soaring as ever?
I am just blessed, I guess. All singers have their own individual styles and techniques. My good mate Ronnie Dio is a good example… or Robert Plant - a good friend…

With a guitar, you can change strings. With your voice, though, you just have to get plenty of rest and relaxation. And I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs… I guess that helps. I turned 57 in August, so I can’t do all that I did earlier, but I can still deliver passion and power…

Going back, what is the kind of music that you listened to growing up?
I have great memories of the Midlands, Birmingham where I grew up… You don’t really think of music as a kid. It’s only when you are 12-13 that you start to think about it… when you really start to deal with emotions, that’s when music becomes your friend…

In the Sixties, the Beatles were an important group. There were the American groups coming from across the Atlantic – the Doors, Jimi Hendrix… and then a mixture of Brit bands… early Led Zep, the Who…

And then when you started singing, who were your inspirations?
Bessie Smith, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters… these musicians sang from the soul. Janis Joplin… they all had a great impact on me as singers.

When can we see Judas Priest here in India?
We have been speaking to friends in India for the last couple of years now. We do know there is a massive following there for heavy metal and for Judas Priest. So we are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping something works out… I urge all promoters to get in touch with our manager. Next year, when we continue the Nostradamus tour, we intend to go to a lot of places we haven’t to before and India is at the top of that list.

Coming to your other band, Halford. I believe you are working on the fourth album now? Is that right?
Right now Judas Priest is my number one priority, so Halford is in the background. But yes, at some point, I am looking forward to the next Halford album.

(September 24, 2008)
© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

Nuno Bettencourt interview

2009-03-27T12:23:00.000+04:00

Extreme Attack
Virtuoso guitarist Nuno Bettencourt speaks about new album and gigging in India
By Bobin James

Extreme revolutionised rock in the late-Eighties and early-Nineties with their unique brand of funk metal. Last month, they released their fifth studio album, 13 years after 1995’s Waiting for the Punchline. The new record, Saudades de Rock (pronounced “sow-dodge”) stands testament to their status of one of the most innovative bands around, built on the strengths of vocalist Gary Cherone, guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, bassist Pat Badger and new drummer Kevin Figueiredo. Bettencourt speaks about the new record (“I really think this is the best record we’ve ever done”) and the lack of good rock & roll (“While there are great bands out there, from Muse to the Raconteurs, we felt there was a void as far as straight-up rock & roll goes.”)

***

What happened 13 years ago? Why did Extreme break up? And what brought you guys back together now?
Basically, breaking up wasn’t much of a surprise. We were together for 11 years, we were touring constantly. We hadn’t taken a break. If we had taken a break in between touring and recordings, then perhaps we would not have taken a 13 year break.

As for getting back together, we didn’t want to do it for the wrong reasons… for money or for nostalgic reasons. The couple of times that we performed recently, there was a sort of a depression, since there was no new music that we were playing. So we figured we would just sit down and write new songs…

You have said that there is a “massive shortage of rock & roll on this planet.”
Yes, there are big changes in the music business. As far as the basic guitar-driven rock goes, there is a void… Look at any top ten list - if you are not working with Timbaland or Timberlake, you are not even there. So when Gary and I got back together, we knew we had something relevant to offer.

So what’s the concept behind Saudades de Rock?
There are no concepts. It’s many different stories - some are fun, some are lighthearted, some are based on relationships.

How do you usually approach the composing process, Nuno?
We never ever sit down to write a song; it’s usually very spontaneous. Most of the time though, it’s usually the music or the melody that comes in first.

But this time around, was it scary? The fact that there were going to be all these expectations after 13 years?
Not really. When you are gone that long, then there really are no expectations from you. And we have always been selfish in creating records in our own world… not worrying about what people think.

Any chances of Extreme visiting India on this tour?
I hope so… I always wanted to. We are trying to reach a lot of places that we haven’t gone to earlier, including some places in Asia. We were, in fact, supposed to come along to India years ago, along with Bryan Adams. But then for some reason, it go shelved… But yes, we are hoping something works out.

(September 5, 2008)
© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

Tony MacAlpine interview

2009-03-27T11:52:00.000+04:00

Tony MacAlpine interview
By Bobin James

First of all, what brings you to India right now…
We are in town for the Columbia party… Columbia India… And CAB has just released a new record called Theatre de Marrionettes.

Is it already out?
It’s just about to be released. It’s coming out. It’s coming out on Columbia.

Is this your second trip to India?
It’s my first.

Because the December 2007 trip got scrapped. They came here without me… I was on a tour with Steve Vai… Virgil and Bunny and Frank Gambale came here.

You’ve worked with a whole lot of different musicians – like you just mentioned Steve Vai. You’ve done a whole lot of different projects. How different is it – if it is different at all – playing with each of these different acts? Do your sensibilities change the moment you step into, say, a Planet X role, as opposed to solo…
No, not to me… I just have my own sound and I just bring whatever I’m bringing.. Like an actor speaking his lines, you know… I’ve gone away from just starting to have a certain sound for each certain thing that I do… A lot of really depends on the mood and the chemistry and how much you’re playing.. with some bands that make you inherently have a certain sound… CAB, we haven’t played together in a long time… so you know, it’s a little just like meeting up with the guys on stage and get together and play something… Obviously there is different styles of different genres that you can adhere to, when you…

Is there any you particularly enjoy?
Yeah, making music. All styles.. there’s never been, for me, one over the other, y’know… I enjoy everything.. I enjoy the whole process of making music, being involved, in that aspect of it…

Speaking about CAB, you said you’ve not been playing together for a while now.. So would that mean a lot of stuff that happened on stage that night were improvised?
Well, the solos are all improvised, yeah… They always are.. But we know the songs. We recorded the songs in the studio but we recorded them in our separate studios.. and yeah, it’s the first time we played together in a while..

So how’ve you been busy? You’ve been busy with solo tours…
Yeah, Virgil and I, and Billy Sheehan.. We’re in another band called Devil’s Slingshot and we just came back from a long European tour. So I was involved in that.. and the physical making of the actual record – the Theatre de Marionettes record – is something we’ve been involved with for quite some time.

How do you describe this record?
Oh this record is just like doing a picture. It’s got some wonderful compositions that everybody’s gonna love.. It has a great composition by Sandeep Chowta - Sultan of Brunel. It’s really a departure from some of the more formulated typical CAB styles that you heard on the first couple of records. It’s truly an interesting record. It’s got Chick Corea playing keyboards on it. [There is] Patrice Rushen. And there is a guitar player by the name of Freddie Fox. Another guitar player Bernard Torelli. So you got some interesting things on it.

Going way back, Tony, when did you actually realise that hey man, I want to be a musician? How did it all begin for you?
Well, I was five years old when I first started playing music and I knew that’s what I wanted to do. My parents got me started on piano lessons at that age. And you know, I was always involved with the piano and the guitar at the same time and so I knew it was gonna be one or the other. And sometimes it’s both, like the other night at the keyboard like that. So ya, I knew at a pretty early age that that’s what I wanted to do. Motorcycles, girls and music [laughs].

What kind of bikes are you into?
I’ve got a really cherished 1999 classic Suzuki GSXR Hayabusa. That’s my main ride of choice now.

So you’re into sports bikes? Not cruisers.
I got some cruisers but living in LA but driving a lot between Las Vegas and LA, you kinda need something that can get you there really fast

I’m sure it’s a clichéd question.. but what would your advice be for guitarists?
Ya, it is… I can never fancy myself being a teacher.. I am really not, at all.. I always avoid that whole arena.. I mean, I was afforded the best teachers when I was growing up… And it truly is an art to get inside somebody’s mind to be able to teach and that’s really something. I just had my own inner weirdness and determination to do what I needed to do, in the music business. I am just not a teacher.

But for the most part and in a roundabout answer to your question would be this:
Music is your calling… You just have to have a true desire and be willing to ride the wave… ‘Cause it’s always a wave… It’s a wave of ups and downs and you just have to be willing to stay with that… And if you can stay with it for like two or three waves, and you can that they always come back up, then I think you should stick it out if it’s your true love… Those that get out of it at the first downfall just maybe are not meant for it… It’s a tough life. It can be rewarding, monetarily, things could be fine, but it’s a very tough life being away from your family and being a professional musician, travelling… In respect to that the most important thing would be just having the belief as a young musician that this is what you want to do. But you know, if you look at the genre, these things change so much. The musicians and the style of music is so varied. It’s so much different from when I first got into it. I like working with lots of many young players and young musicians myself. And it’s fun. It’s fun in that respect, yeah, to pass things on to them. But I really don’t give them any grandfatherly advice.

So nothing formal?
Naah, I’m not a mentor [laughs].

Growing up, who were your major influences? Not just guitarists, but musicians in general.
Well, obviously the classics. I started with the piano, played that for eighteen years. Lizst, Mozart, Beethoven… that was my first exposure to appreciate music. But then my styles broadened at the same time because I was listening to jazz. And my dad would listen to a lot of Sinatra… It was a pretty musical house.. everybody played an instrument as a kid… it was never really a As I got more into the guitar later in my teen years, I could listen to Van Halen.. it didn’t really matter.. Each song had something of substance to me. And I don’t really listen to primarily the guitar player or any one thing… It’s more like a whole musical spectrum… But I would probably say that for the most part I listened to George Benson… I typically like Raymond Gomez, a player that I don’t think a lot of people really know these days… Jeff Beck.. So there are a lot of different players I like…

How was it touring with Steve Vai? How was it, both as a guitarist and a music fan?
It was a lot of fun, because we’ve been friends for so long…And the collection of people in the band, I’ve played with them in different bands.. There’s Billy Sheehan, and Virgil and Dave Weiner… It wasn’t really a foreign atmosphere.. Everybody really knew each other… We all got together for the cause of Steve’s music.. And the guys that got together are very good at being able to be soldiers to the cause… So ya, it’s a lot of fun… We had a great four years together.. And now it’s time to get back to the grindstone, get back to your own cause…

So what’s your own cause right now? What’s up next?
Well, we just finished the Devil’s Slingshot record that just went out and we toured that… With Billy Sheehan and Virgil…

Any chance of that coming here, to India?
You never know, you never know. I hate to say, yeah, and then you never know… And then I’m finishing my instrumental record.. I haven’t done an instrumental record in close to ten years… And then this new record with CAB – Theatre of the Marionettes. So that’s about it.

That’s a whole lot of things…
Well, yes, a lot less than what I keep doing but just wanted to concentrate and spend more time on each of these things…

Are you a workaholic?
A workaholic? Noooo… My girlfriend is a workaholic [laughs], I am not a workaholic… I work when I feel like I am really creative… Am at a point in my life when I have to do it that way. I can’t just really sit down and do a million different things. After so many records, to be able to really come up with things you feel are exponents of your heart and what you really feel, it’s more testing. It becomes more of a test.. Because you’ve done it, you’ve done a lot of… I’ve done fifteen, sixteen, seventeen records…

How does it feel looking back? It’s been what, twenty five years now?
Noooo.. It’s more like just five years [laughs]… It’s a long time, it’s been ages. Time flies like that you know. It’s been a pretty remarkable journey. I remember being in a car with my then girlfriend in Massachusetts driving to California. And that was like yesterday. And here we are.. It’s been an incredible journey.

(June 4, 2008)
© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

Daniel Gildenlöw: The Future of Prog Metal

2009-03-26T14:52:00.000+04:00

The future of prog-metal
Pain of Salvation frontman speaks about his discomfort with tags and his comfort with different roles
By Bobin James

Beginning life as Reality, in 1984, Swedish progressive metal band Pain of Salvation got their current name in 1991 and has since gone on achieve a cult admiration worldwide, even sharing stage with top prog-metallers, Dream Theater. While Pain of Salvation CDs are not yet officially available in India, they have still managed to whip together a dedicated underground following across the country. Prodigious founder-member Daniel Gildenlöw speaks to Rolling Stone India from Eskilstuna, Sweden in this exclusive interview.

***

Dan, you don’t seem very comfortable with Pain of Salvation’s music being tagged as “progressive metal.”
I would have been more comfortable if “progressive” meant something more than what it is right now. Yes, I would like music to be progressive… explore new places. But right now, when you say “progressive,” there is a specific pattern, a specific formula – high-pitched vibrato vocals…. I just can’t stand it… I want music to express something. It should be a tool for reaching emotions in you, be it the listener or the musician. It’s a way of connecting…

So how then would you tag your music?
I would put something stupid just to be provocative… like “Kitchen Utensils” or something… [laughs]

In an earlier interview, you have said that when you are writing, you “always revolve around humanistic values and the way every action will make a difference on a surprisingly large scale.” Does music have the power to change?
Every art form has the power to change. Actually every human being has the power to change - if I were to walk into a supermarket and take one brand of milk over another, I might be part of a big collective change… For me, music should relate to emotions and be intellectual enough to deal with issues.

At what point in time did you realise that you were going to be a musician?
I know I was eight years old when I was focussing a lot on the music scene, and on drawing and writing. So from as far as I can remember, I knew I was going to be in the creative parts of life…

You are a singer, a songwriter, a guitarist, Dan. Which of these roles are you most comfortable in?
It would not be right if I say I was most comfortable in it – because I am comfortable in all of these roles – but I really love the composing part of music. I think I combine my advantages to the best when I am composing.

Are there any specific methods you employ while practising parts which have you playing the guitar and singing?
There are no specific methods - it’s just parallel processing, multitasking… pretty much like juggling.

It’s best not to think too much about it. Yes, think it through before you actually start playing, but when you are playing, don’t think about it. I guess for me it comes from a long life of practising.

What are your inspirations when you sit down to write?
You don’t need much more inspiration than regular life. What is important, first and foremost is letting life get to you and then using those emotions…

What about inspirations in terms of artists?
There’s the latter day Beatles, Electric Light Orchestra. As a kid, when I was allowed to use the vinyl player - or actually before I was allowed - I would find my favourite songs and play them over and over again. Like there was an LP of Radio Hits from the Sixties – I would I would play it over and over again…

One of my favourite songs was Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Boxer.’ I remember when I was in kindergarten… as a six year old… when we would be going to kindergarten in my dad’s car, he had this cassette tape, a transparent cassette – that was so cool – which had ‘The Boxer’ on it. I would rewind or forward the tape till I found ‘The Boxer.’ And if the song had not come on by the time we reached the school, I would sit outside and listen to it first, before going in.

You have spoken elsewhere about how you go for songs rather than albums or artists.
Yes, some of my favourite songs are from artists and albums that are not on my top list… For instance, ‘Life on Mars’ by David Bowie. I just have a Greatest Hits compilation of his.

So isn’t it ironic that Pain of Salvation makes concept albums?
I am annoyed by albums that have one or two good tracks and the rest is crap. If I can see that a particular album is put together with care, then I can easier forgive some weak songs… as long they’re still speaking the same language…

Any concept albums you really loved?
The first one I remember is Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds… My aunt, who was 12 years younger than my mother - which was very cool in my world - she had found a vinyl version of War of the Worlds somewhere in England… and I thought it was so cool. I brought it to kindergarten when I was seven or eight… I would play it to my friends and explain the concept as best as I could. Then we would build these tripods with Lego, the building blocks…

Then there is Jesus Christ Superstar, Operation Mindcrime…

What currently playing on your iPod?
I was on a year-long trip of the Beatles, so it still has a large mix of that and a whole lot of other names from the Sixties.

What are you working on now? Is there a new album in the works?
Yes, I have tonnes of material. Now, I am in the process of narrowing it down, trying to distinguish what can be the new album. We are going to get into making rough demos now.
The idea is to record it in the rehearsal room… more live. It’s also more challenging technically… I am addicted to truth and honesty in the music…

What do you prefer – recording or playing live?
I find parts of both processes a bit tedious. Like nowadays, I feel bored playing old material on stage, when I have all this new material in my head.

In recording, you miss the direct feedback of playing live - you end up spending hours and hours in front of the computer, and then you think, I wanted to play music, not tweak computers. I wish both processes could be more direct and you get instant feedback.. instant gratification.

Any plans of coming to India?
I would love that, but we don’t have any offers yet. Sometimes fans might think we are not coming to their city because we don’t want to play there, but it’s only because we don’t have any offers…

(August 6, 2008)
© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

Take No Prisoners

2009-03-26T14:37:00.000+04:00

Take No Prisoners
Why Dave Mustaine thinks Chris Broderick is the proverbial golden goose, and Radiohead is dumb
By Bobin James

As thousands of sweaty black t-shirted people trooped out of Bengaluru’s Palace Grounds on the night of March 14, most of them would not have noticed this one guy handing out pamphlets at the gate. They had other things to tend to – like aching feet and sore neck muscles from standing and headbanging for close to eight hours. The pamphlets – reportedly given out at the end of most rock and metal concerts there – sought to warn the young impressionable minds about the ill-effects ‘such kind of music’ (read: dark, evil, Satanic blah blah) can have on one’s soul. Pity this concerned individual wasn’t present backstage a few hours earlier, where Rolling Stone India was chatting with Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, the headlining act of Rock in India.

Mustaine is known to not take too kindly to discussions about religion. Usually. In this candid freewheeling interview, however, he brings it up on his own accord. “People associate Megadeth with being Satanic. But when I became a Christian, I made it pretty clear that I have nothing to do with Satanism,” Mustaine says. For the record, in 2005, he had offered to pull out from a tour in Greece because he didn’t want Megadeth to share the bill with Satanic metal band Rotting Christ. “That’s had backlashes because people think that I judge other people. I don’t. If you want to be a Satanist, that’s fine,” Mustaine continues in his typical nasal twang. “That’s like jerking off to rape or something…” This pretty much sets the tone for the interview – blunt, no holds barred.

***

Dave, it’s been 25 years since you set up Megadeth. How has the trip been for you?
It’s funny, because you know they say most people crash within a mile of their own home, when they are driving home, right? And I’m at that place right now where I feel like I made it home safely. I crashed but I crawled with my broken bloody body back and I’m sitting at home where I want to be. It’s a great feeling when I look around on stage. I mean, we all have our ups and downs and personal stuff that affects us, and affects us on stage. The emotions of being away from our loved ones… crew guys that are temporary come in and screw the moment… we had a sound man that we had to let go of and another sound man quit because we let him go and a temporary guy came in and left one of the drums off. So Shawn [Drover, Megadeth drummer] wanted to kill him. And I figured that rather than us playing in prison like the other M band [laughs], we would well get Shawn out of a potential murder case. So we got rid of the sound man and another guy came in. And it’s like at some point you look at all this stuff and it’s like, it doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter because it’s us and you – the fans. And it’s like tonight, someone said something earlier, what do you expect from the audience? I don’t expect nothing from the audience. I expect me and the boys to deliver to you. You are here to be entertained. If we need you to make us play better, we shouldn’t be here. If we’re expecting for the audience to entertain us, we are on the wrong side of the stage.

Have you been listening to the bands that have been playing so far – the Indian bands?
Yeah, some of them are good, some of them suck. I mean, that’s how life is. I heard one instrument a half hour, maybe an hour ago, that sounded like the flute. So it’s an indigenous instrument to Asian culture and stuff. You know like the AC/DC song ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll’ - they had a bagpipe in there. Now, who would have a bagpipe in metal? Well, we did. We did it on the last record [2004’s The System Has Failed]. Because I loved how it sounded so much, I put it in a song called ‘Shadow of Deth.’

I don’t know if [the others in Megadeth] have heard anything themselves but I know that with Chris [Broderick]’s guitar playing stuff – he’s got all kinds of degrees and stuff like that – so he’s probably heard stuff these guys have done. He can tell you what instrument, what mode, which guy was doing the wrong note on stage. And we’re gonna go on to the studios as soon as we get finished with this tour and take some time off and start writing. And get ready for the next record which is exciting for us. And Chris being such a learned guitar player, for us it is exciting. Instead of going into the studio and saying why don’t we come up with something, there’s a wealth of knowledge there that we haven’t tapped yet.

How did Chris come along? Was he the absolute first choice?
You know what - he was hired within 24 hours of us finding out that Glen [Drover] had put in his resignation. We had heard that, Glen told our management what was going on and we accepted that. And Shawn had recommended Chris in an e-mail to me. And he says, “All Chris does is he plays guitar and works out all day along. He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t get loaded.” And I thought, jeez, that’s like having somebody drop a goose that lays golden eggs right into your lap. You know what I mean. We always know what he’s at, he’s not a troublemaker. He has a lot to learn still, obviously, because he’s only been in the band two months. But he is a very smart guy and I know that he knows that Megadeth is major league and that everything he’s done before that, that’s been in the minors.

I read somewhere about you mentioning that his sound is pretty similar to Marty Friedman’s.
Well, no. He says that. I believe that, but I didn’t say that. All I’m saying is what he’s saying; I’m repeating it. His influences are Marty Friedman. And what I said was, “I bet you never thought all those hours of masturbating to Marty Friedman solos would’ve paid off.” [Laughs] And you know, he sounds more like Marty than Glen did. Because Glen was influenced by Chris Poland. Now, since we play more music from the era that Marty was in the band, that’s the reason he would sound better – he is influenced by the guy we play more music by.

It’s been a fantastic year for India as far as metal is concerned. Iron Maiden’s been here twice in less than twelve months. Now you guys are here, Machine Head is here.
Well, we wanted to come here for a while but it’s just so far away from anything that we were doing. I mean, in order to come here from the West, we would have had to play Israel and then connected. And in order to come from the East, we would have had to be playing Australia, Japan or Korea. This last tour, we were able to break down a lot of borders, and get into places that were still pending. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia…

What did you have in mind when coming here to India?
No, I didn’t have any ideas about what to expect here other than what you see in these Bollywood commercials. And then of course you see stuff on the Simpsons which is terribly degrading, I think, for Indian nationals.

We’re staying at the Taj and it was amazing. There are 110 or so rooms there, and 600 people on the staff. We walked in there and there are girls everywhere waiting with flowers and they put the stuff on our foreheads, gave us some juice and there’s this dude saluting us – all this kind of shit and we are like, “Hey, this is okay.” Of course, we know this is not reality in this country. That the normal salt of the earth, the Indian people here don’t live like that. All that does for me is continue to reaffirm for me how important it is for Megadeth to come here and bring our music, to bring freedom and our message of freedom, whether it’s personal or political, to the metal audience. Whether it’s metal or even rock & roll because we appeal to rock people. We even appeal to some pop fans – they know that we are not a real ugly looking band. So there are a lot of people who tend to say, “I can’t believe these guys don’t all look like Lemmy!”

Countdown to Extinction that you wrote all those years back is probably still relevant…
Ya, it is… Totally is…

What’s your take on that?
Peace Sells But Who’s Buying is still relevant…

So did you set out to make music that’s timeless?
I’ve always just followed this itchy feeling inside of me that I get sometimes that I’ve got to say something. A lot of times people won’t say stuff because they are afraid to say it. I think political correctness is for pussies. Or maybe I should say political correctness is for vaginas.

You had a pretty bad nerve injury, and you temporarily disbanded the band. Did you ever think you would be coming back and delivering all these kickass records after that?
Deep down inside, I know that I am not a quitter. It’s like we had somebody leave and he sent us an email and he said – and he wasn’t a musician, he was a staff guy – he said, ‘I hope you understand why I quit’ and I don’t understand why he quit. He was a quitter. I don’t have a quitter bone in my body. So why would I understand what a fucking pathetic quitter is? You know, I can’t even quit drugs.

Going forward, you look at this stretch of success we had, coming here and how long it’s been. There’s not a lot of bands that could withstand the pressures of the music business. A lot of them break up over money, a lot of them break up over women, they break up over drugs. Or they break up because the record companies have destroyed bands.

Lately, bands are being picked off left and right because their revenue streams have been narrowed due to downloading of files. I’m not a guy that would go up to Capitol Hill and demand e-mail addresses myself. But I do think that there’s a difference between downloading some samples or downloading some songs or downloading some pictures or even downloading a small movie from our fan club versus purposely downloading the entire fucking record for free. You can’t tell me that the kids are that stupid that they download an entire record for free – they think that’s how the world is right now. No, they are not stupid. Kids nowadays are brilliant. That’s why they understand computers. But they realise that there’s nothing anybody can do about it.

So until they have some kind of way of regulating that, it depends on the hearts of the fans. If they really love Megadeth [enough] to look within themselves and say, “Just look at everything we do for you guys, look at everything we celebrate with you.” If you wanna download from our website, it’s totally there for you - we’re going way out of our way. But think about some of the other bands that can’t afford to have you download their whole record. Now think about all the other bands that would never be able to come to India because they can’t afford it.

A lot of artists are shifting from a record label format to, say, a Wal-Mart or a Starbucks. What do you think about that?
The Wal-Mart idea was great. The Starbucks idea was I think poor. I don’t necessarily think that Starbucks distributing music is a bad idea because they are everywhere. But I think it was a poor choice by Starbucks because Sir Paul’s record was a dud. The Eagles record going into Wal-Mart, you know the Eagles are a guarantee, you can’t lose. Now what we intend on doing when our contract’s up, we’re going to be looking at our options like that because we are with the same management as the Eagles. And [we will] consider placing records in a situation like that or making them available through digital download, something like an iTunes.

Like Radiohead’s In Rainbows?
No, that was dumb. And you know it backfired on them. I’m not gonna purposely… intentionally put my record up someplace for someone to download for free. What I said was to sell the record through downloads. That’s what a lot of people are doing right now. They’re leaving the record labels because the record labels are imploding. Their greed and the corporate insanity has destroyed the music industry. You know, we talk about this all the time – music business is two words right now. When we started it was one word, it was ‘music business.’ Now it’s two words – we are the music and they are the business. They don’t give a fuck about us. They don’t care about us at all. All they care about is moving units, and shifting sales and when they get to their break-even point, then they start to turn the thumb screws and reduce the marketing money and expect more out of the bands. I don’t like that. I don’t like being treated like luggage. This is a legendary band, I’m a legend. And you know what, I’ve been in this business longer than half the people I’ve met in some of the record labels we’ve been with.

Gigantour – any chance of it coming to these regions?
Gigantour is basically a festival that is meant to be more than one show. Coming here, I think, it would hurt our promoter unless we did it as a team. And out of respect for him and the Indian metal audience, we want to be supportive here, not divisive. And I think that if I brought Gigantour here, I would want to do it with the promoter’s blessings and also take into consideration what the fans really wanna hear. That’s how basically we pick the bands. Listening to what the fans suggest and I’ll see names and stuff and I’ll listen to somebody and see if I like them. Some of the bands that aren’t there, I like them. Some of them, they aren’t… they’re good… I respect them but it’s not necessarily something that I would listen to while having sex.

Is there a dream band for you at Gigantour?
No. It’s very fair. It’s very democratic. Megadeth and Gigantour are not connected. It’s not Davefest. The beautiful thing about this is that we can step off Gigantour and it can go on, we can rest and be with our loved ones. Because we are going home for a month and we are going back after two months. James has a daughter, I have children. He’s got a wife, I’m divorced. We’ve got family at home. Shawn is married with two children and Chris has a girlfriend and you know, there’s loved ones at home… we can’t be away forever. I think the guys that tour and don’t go home are hiding something or they’re hiding from somebody.

Something a lot of Indian fans would want to know. When are you guys coming back?
Well, honestly, when we go home tomorrow, there’s this month off… we end this tour… June 11 is the last date.. we’re gonna go down to South America on the 11th of June, and 12th we’ll be going home. They’ll be going to their houses and I’ll be going to the hospital… [laughs] and we’re gonna be going into the studio to wrap up some projects that we have. Little things that need to be fixed like bonus material for the last record, some stuff for the Gigantour DVD from last year, stuff that’ll kinda keep us busy and occupied while the ideas start rolling. We got a recording studio that travels with us, basically a porta-studio - that’s what you call it - and once we got Chris up to speed on everything, we started on putting stuff into the porta-studio.

This is new material?
Yes. Right now, the stuff that we have – that James [Lomenzo, Megadeth bassist] and I have been working on – is transferring the stuff that we have at my house in all of the drives into one particular place where we can see what the next record is gonna consist of. With my stuff and as that gets laid out, James is gonna get a chance to listen to it and see if he has anything compatible with it or how we do the old stone suit where everyone joins in and adds something. Same thing for Chris. As we work together - since Chris is right down a freeway from us… actually north a couple of hours - he’s gonna be at an advantage to be able to hear those pieces. Because Shawn’s already heard them all - we listened to them last time while we started the last record. And we got to the studio and they said we want you to do two more records. Two more songs is what a record is called you know… basically in a contract. I said no, the contract is for eleven and they ended up getting us to agree to twelve and they ask for two more and it’s like their guts… It’s not cool… So we had to go back in and add two more records and during that process we learnt a lot about ourselves.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

John McLaughlin: The Rolling Stone Interview

2009-03-26T13:51:00.000+04:00

John McLaughlin: The Rolling Stone Interview
By Bobin James

Ustad Zakir Hussain calls guitarist John McLaughlin “one of the greatest and most important musicians of our times.” Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew album features a track named after him. He has made music with everyone from Jan Hammer to Jean-Luc Ponty to Billy Cobham. He was in Mumbai for the release of his new album, Floating Point, and Rolling Stone caught up with him.

How did it all start for you, John, this journey in music?
Well, I had the good fortune to be born in a semi-musical household. My mother was a violinist – amateur violinst, not professional – but generally speaking amateur musician parents are very passionate about what they are doing. She loved music so there was always music in the house. But invariably it was classical music.

When you are a kid, a baby growing up, music is music, you don’t know what different music is. You only know later in life. I remember I had a very strong musical experience. I must have been about five and she was playing the ‘9th Symphony’ of Beethoven and at the very end, there’s a vocal quartet singing and I will never forget because my hair went like this… [indicating goosebumps] It was something I didn’t understand but it was a great feeling. And I realised this is music.

Music has the capacity to change people. It certainly changed me. Shortly after that, I asked my mother if I could take piano lessons because we had an old piano in the house. So, I took piano lessons. At the very beginning of the 1950s there was what they called the blues boom in the UK. My eldest brother was studying in college and he was coming back with these blues recordings - Mississippi blues, Chicago blues, everything that was blues… I was exposed to this music when I was about eleven. At about the same time, the rest of us brothers and one sister, we all contributed to buy a guitar for the eldest brother, since he was a student and he was into the music. It was a three dollar guitar really. I didn’t really pay attention. I was playing piano and I was taking my lessons. And then once my eldest brother became bored with the guitar, he gave it to the second brother and then because the third brother wasn’t interested, it came to me. At the same time, this music [blues] came into the house. So it was a very big confluence of cultures. The very first moment I had the guitar in my arms, I fell in love with it. In fact I went to bed with the guitar that night [laughs].

So did you start off playing the blues on the guitar?
Yeah, I was trying to. But you know, I had been doing Mozart and Haydn and Beethoven on the piano and it was different. This music was radical to me. Really radical. And there was not much pop music in those days. That would be 1953. By 1955, Elvis was already around. Bill Haley and the Comets. Jerry Lee Lewis. The whole rock thing that began in America. So that in itself was a big influence.

Then at what point in time did you realise that ‘Hey, this is what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life?’
From this point. When I was eleven years old. And I discovered the guitar. There was no other option for me.

Then you started doing sessions.
Oh no, this came later. I was very lucky because I was terrible at school. Except that the music class had a very enlightened teacher. We had two groups at school – two different jazz groups – and every time he’d say, ‘That’s great, you have to come up and play for the class,’ which by itself is worth a hundred rehearsals, when you have to play for people. So by the time I was sixteen, I had been hired by a group and I was touring. I quit school. I didn’t even go to college or anything. I was on the road at sixteen. And I’ve been on the road ever since. Actually, no, I had a lot of different jobs. I was living in a town north of England, just south of Scotland and by the time I arrived in London, I must have been seventeen and it was very difficult to survive. So I had many different kind of jobs over the next few years… I was a truck driver, I was a salesman, I was an instrument repairer…

You were a salesman for?
What did I sell? Caviar [grins]. But then, I was repairing instruments, selling instruments. I was involved in working in different musical environments. At least, it was nice to be amongst instruments.

Then how did the move to the US happen?
By 1965, I had come out one of the most difficult bands in the world, called the Ray Ellington Quartet. It was a great little band. The guitar book – the music was all written – was one of the most difficult in the world, and I held this job down for about 18 months. And then I left. But by that time, I could basically read anything on guitar. And if you can do that well, then you get hired very quickly for sessions. So I became a sessions man and for the first time in my life, I had more than five dollars in my pocket. But I couldn’t take it. I did it for 18 months. And did a lot of recordings. But most of it was rubbish. You know, ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon,’ Engelbert Humperdinck, Sandie Shaw… And we used to get French artists in. But occasionally, we used to get the American artists in, like Burt Bacharach. In the Sixties, he wrote some great songs. He came to see me, when I did the premiere of ‘Mediterranean Concerto,’ which was commissioned by the LA Philharmonic because he was living next to Miles [Davis] in Malibu. So they both came to the concert.

So is that how you met Miles the first time?
Oh no, I met Miles before that. Anyway, I left the studio work because I felt I was gonna die. Musically and physically. So I became poor as a pauper, but happy because I was playing my music again. And I was playing with a lot of different people on the London scene and playing with a number of American musicians who would visit Europe. And finally I did a jam session with Jack DeJohnette, the drummer who was playing with Bill Evans, the pianist. This would be in the summer of ’68. He recorded the jam session but I didn’t know that. And he went back to the US and was talking to Tony Williams, the drummer who was playing with Miles. And Tony just mentioned that he was looking for a guitar player to make a trio with, because he was leaving Miles. And Jack said, ‘Well, listen to this tape. I just played with this guy in London.’ So Tony heard the tape and I got called. So I didn’t go over to New York to play with Miles Davis – I went there to play with Tony Williams, with Lifetime which was a great band.

So anyway, I ended up in New York and the same day I met Miles. And I met him also the day after. He had never heard me play but he knew that I was there to play with Tony because Tony had to finish the week’s work in a club in Harlem. In those days, Miles would be playing mainly clubs in America. He was a superstar in Europe but in America, he was still playing clubs. So anyway, he knew who I was. And he just said right out of the blue, ‘Well, tomorrow, we’re in the studio. So bring your guitar and we will play.’ And that was In A Silent Way. So I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Very lucky.

Shakti was completely different from what you were doing so far in that you had this Indian sound that was intrinsic to the music. So how did that connect with India happen?
It began again in the Sixties. Because I am a longhaired hippie freak. At least I was. [Laughs] Like everybody coming out of the acid days, we were all asking ourselves these existential questions, like, ‘Who are we? And what are we? And what is God if God exists?’ The minute you start asking these questions, you want to do something about it and you want to find out which people have asked these kind of questions. In the West, they haven’t really asked the questions like they have for thousands of years in the East, in India, in China, in Japan. By the end of the Sixties, I was trying to alter my state of consciousness by yoga and by meditation and was trying to figure out what is going on, what the universe is and what I’m doing here, etc. So you quickly become aware of India if you started to ask this kind of questions, because India has been addressing these questions for a long time and it’s been coming up with wonderful solutions to these questions. So I became very much attracted to the Indian culture, which was inevitable.

By 1967, I was aware of people like Ramana Maharishi, following and trying to understand his way and trying to adapt it to my lifestyle. So to discover the music was really just a question of time. Because Indian music is totally inclusive, in the sense that it incorporates every aspect of human dimension as opposed to the Western world where for example, the only spiritual aspect of music for a long time, for hundreds of years, were the masses that were written by the composers. And it took someone like John Coltrane to bring in this spiritual aspect of the human being in the West into music. To integrate it, to make it a music inclusive of this aspect of the human soul, heart, psyche, whatever you want to call it. Whereas in India, the music has been inclusive for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

The second aspect was that you have some fantastic players here. And they play in a way that’s not like jazz, but nevertheless, we share a great deal of common ground because we employ rhythm to a very strong extent. Which is what jazz is about too. Jazz is really rhythm and blues. You can’t take the rhythm and blues out of jazz. The difference between us, is that we employ our Western traditions of harmony – this is really the essential difference. But by 1969, I’d taken a teacher at New York, and he was trying to teach me North Indian Hindustani flute. What I really wanted to learn was the music. I’m not a flute player, so it didn’t last long. But I began to learn about the traditions. And then in 1971, I became a student of Dr Ramanathan at the Wesleyan University in Connecticut as a student of the South Indian veena. I began to study seriously, again, more the theory. Because it became apparent to me quickly that I couldn’t really play guitar and veena. I am not that gifted. I continued with the theory.

By 1973, I had already played with Zakir [Hussain], independently of Shakti – Shakti wasn’t formed yet. And L Shankar. It was from jamming with these two guys independently – Zakir in California, and Shankar on the East Coast – that I had the idea for Shakti. So finally I got Zakir and SHankar together and I took N Raghavan, who was the mridangam player for my teacher, Dr Ramanathan, and there we had the first Shakti group. So we started to do concerts in 1973-74, parallel to Mahavishnu Orchestra concerts. So I was basically running two careers at the same time – not two careers, but two forms. Over time, by the summer of ’75, I wanted to end Mahavishnu Orchestra and play exclusively with Shakti, which is what we did. And I came to India end of ’75, because Raghavan was not able to be part of Shakti permanently and this is where I found TH Vikku Vinayakram, and he replaced Raghavan as the second percussionist with Zakir.

You have produced one track on Miles From India. How was that experience, considering you have played with Miles?
Miles From India - this came from Yusuf Gandhi who was the producer of this recording. Yusuf, I have known for over twenty years. He’s a very fine person and a very strong supporter of real music. When he had the idea for Miles From India, I was already in India, in Chennai last year. And he called me up one day and he said, ‘I am doing this recording. I’ve heard about your recording, Floating Point, and I don’t want to barge in on your project, but I would be really really thrilled if you could do one piece, the title track piece.’ So I said, ‘Whoa, I would be delighted to. But I don’t know; you’ve already done a lot of Miles tunes on the recording.’ He said, ‘No, I want you to write a piece that should be called ‘Miles From India.’ ’ I said, ‘Okay Yusuf, you are a friend, I’ll do it.’ He said, ‘Not only that, I would like you to use Louiz Banks and U Shrinivas.’ I said, ‘Well, is there any other restrictions you want to put on me?’ He said, ‘No, other than that, you can do what you want.’ [Laughs] Very kind of you. [Laughs] So finally, I got an idea for a piece. Quite a haunting piece, there was no percussion involved. And then a friend of mine brought me a recording of a young singer called Sikkil Gurucharan, that he did with a pianist, Anil Srinivasan. I was really moved by Gurucharan’s voice and I said to Yusuf, ‘I want to bring Gurucharan in on this recording.’ And he said, ‘You do what you want.’ Anyway, I am going to do what I want [laughs], but I have to let you know. So that’s how we did it, in Shrinivas’s studio, in Chennai.

About your new album, Floating Point, you’ve said it’s probably the most powerful record that you have done…
Well, probably every artist thinks his last work is the best work he ever did. I am really happy with it. For me, this is the culmination of these 35 years of association with India and with Indian music and Indian musicians. I don’t think this could have been made 20 years ago, or maybe even 15 years ago. For the first time, I was able to make a recording of my music which is not me coming over to the Shakti way, the Indian way – which I loved, don’t misunderstand me. Whether it’s North or South, I am an eternal fan of Indian music and Indian musicians – but they were able to come over to my world in their way. And this was more difficult for them because I made them play with drums and keyboards in a jazz fusion way, but using their instruments. With [drummer] Ranjit [Barot] and [keyboardist] Louiz Banks, it is very easy. But with someone like [flautists] Shashank Subramanium or Naveen Kumar or [sitarist] Niladri Kumar, they are less accustomed to this way of playing. I really put them on the spot. But they rose to the occasion. They saw it as a challenge and they rose to it. The music is very special, it’s from an atmosphere that is at the same time really Western - it’s really kind of jazz - but it’s got this wonderful integrated atmosphere of India because of the Indian musicians. But it’s not like phoney fusion… you know when you hear something like that. I heard it in the hotel this morning - you got a drummer, you have a sitar playing and he’s trying to play the blues and it’s just silly. [Real] music is very deep and you can listen to it and listen to it again and get true human feelings from different cultures but really together.

(Mumbai, June 21, 2008)

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: Chris Cornell - Scream

2009-03-26T13:38:00.001+04:00

Chris Cornell
Scream
3/5
Universal

Yes, a Chris Cornell album this sure is. No, a rock album it is not. At least not for the most part of it. When one of the original grunge pioneers – Cornell used to front Soundgarden – announced last year that his next album was going to be produced by Grammy-winning producer and rapper Timbaland, most fans expressed emotions ranging from despair to disgust. And if you are one of those rock fans who absolutely detest the idea of music being made with drum machines and samplers, I will save you the trouble of going through the entire review: You are only going to hate Scream. On the other hand, if you are even slightly open to the idea of a mashup of electronica, dance and rock, then Cornell’s 15th studio album (and his 3rd solo record) might appeal to you.

The album opener, ‘Part of Me,’ starts off with what could pass off as a news channel theme, sitar loops and android voices, but very soon morphs into a heavy-duty dance track – shocking the wits out of you, if you were expecting a regular Chris Cornell number. While the lyrics are not his best work by far – sample these lines: “I love the girl/I’m loving the dress she wears,” “No, that bitch ain’t a part of me” – the voice is still vintage Cornell, except laid over completely different rhythms than what longtime fans would be used to. And that’s pretty much what you can look forward to on the following 13 tracks.

Cornell, in an interview to Rolling Stone India maintained that this album “is something that needs to be heard from beginning to end” and that he would ideally have released it as a single track hour-long album. And you understand the validity of his statement once you actually sit through one complete listen. Song after song, Timbaland lays down head-bobbing grooves for Cornell to sing over, with each track transitioning into the next with music rather than with the typical silence. ‘Ground Zero’ is a thumper of a track with Cornell’s vocals sounding like they could have been from his Soundgarden/Audioslave days. Ditto with the vocals on ‘Long Gone’ and ‘Climbing Up the Walls,’ both of which could make for fine rock songs – if it weren’t for the drum machines. Which is not to say that these are not fine songs otherwise. In fact, Timbaland shows us why he is one of the most sought-after and highest paid producers in the music industry today: He brings a vibrancy and danceability to the entire album.

What Cornell has managed to do with Scream, is introduce me to a kind of music I would not have checked out otherwise in all likelihood. And hopefully, Timbaland will manage to do the same with his fans – introduce them to Chris Cornell.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2009

CD Review: Chris Cornell - Scream

2009-03-26T13:38:00.000+04:00

CD Review: Swarathma - Swarathma

2009-03-26T13:33:00.000+04:00

Swarathma
Swarathma
4/5
EMI/Virgin

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s official now. No longer is it considered uncool for an Indian rock band to sing songs in Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam and other assorted regional languages. Last year saw a couple of fantastic albums in that vein: Avial blew everyone away with what they call “Malayali alternative rock”. Then there was Raghu Dixit who won hearts within the country and beyond its borders with his debut album of songs in Hindi, English and Kannada. 2009 started off with another great release – the debut album by Swarathma, which is fronted by Raghu Dixit’s younger brother, Vasu.

The Bengaluru-based sextet (with Dixit on vocals and rhythm guitars, Pavan Kumar on percussions and backing vocals, Jishnu Dasgupta on bass and backing vocals, Varun on guitars and backing vocals, Montry Manuel on drums and Sanjeev Nayak on violins) had, earlier in 2008, won Radio City Live, a competition for Hindi-singing rock bands in the country. And it was this very win that got them a record deal with music major EMI/Virgin. The result is Swarathma, a collection of eight tracks that will have you moving in no time at all. Produced by Indian Ocean drummer Amit Kilam, this has to be one of the best albums by any Indian band. (Swarathma, as a band, look up to Indian Ocean, almost to the point of worship. “Whoaaa! Indian Ocean!! They’re out there; they’re our gods,” says Dasgupta.)

The album-opener, “Jaana Kahan Hai Mujhe”, kicks off with an acoustic guitar strumming a crisp rhythm that will have you tapping your foot. Then suddenly Vasu Dixit’s earthy voice comes in, followed by a bottom-heavy bassline. And you are hooked! While it’s a difficult proposition, if I had to pick one song that would be the essential Swarathma song, it would have to be “Jaana Kahan Hai Mujhe”, with each of the six guys really shining through on their duties, both individual and collective. Incidentally, this song has just won them a Best Song nomination at the annual Jack Daniel’s Indian Rock Awards.

From there on, it’s one sparkling song after another in quick succession. “Pyaar Ke Rang”, is a faux-Bhojpuri track that features Nayak doing ektara lines on his electric violin and one that morphs into a swaying reggae jam intermittently. It also happens to be the track that, during live performances, sees Dixit coming onto stage wearing one of those colourful horses often seen in traditional stageshows.

The rest of the album is peppered with gems like “Patte Saare” (with guitarist Varun displaying his rock/metal influences), “Sur Mera” (with the chorus seeing all vocalists coming together for some great harmonising), and “Bolo Kya Hai” (a out-and-out rocker).

Swarathma is solid proof that Indian rock is truly coming of age, with bands not shying away from showcasing their roots, in a template that will appeal globally. When the year kicks off with an album of such quality, it can only be a happy new year.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2009

CD Review: Bruce Springsteen - Working on a Dream

2009-03-26T13:28:00.000+04:00

Bruce Springsteen
Working on a Dream
4/5
Sony BMG

There are two singer-songwriters active on the music scene today, who have very successfully managed to transcend eras – from the classic to the contemporary – and who are every bit as popular today as they were then. One is the British frontman of the now-defunct Dire Straits: Mark Knopfler. The second comes from across the Atlantic: the Boss aka Bruce Springsteen. And both Knopfler and Springsteen are masters in the art of storytelling – they paint vivid pictures using the most simple words and sometimes using nothing more than a guitar to accompany their gravelly vocals.

It is this very simplistic beauty that shines across on every single track on Springsteen’s latest (and his 16th) studio album, Working on a Dream, the title track for which was first performed for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Sample, for instance, the album-opening portrait of “Outlaw Pete” – “He was born a little baby on the Appalachian Trail/At six months old he'd done three months in jail/He robbed a bank in his diapers and his little bare baby feet/All he said was ‘Folks, my name is Outlaw Pete’.” Or look at the album closer, another portrait, this time of “The Wrestler” (which got Springsteen the Golden Globe for Best Original Song in a Movie) – “I come and stand at every door/I always leave with less than I had before/Bet I can make you smile when the blood it hits the floor/Tell me friend can you ask for anything more.”

And packed in between these two majestic bookends are 11 other songs that span as many different sounds. “My Lucky Day” is your classic Springsteen cut – perfect for blasting on your car stereo. The title track, “Working on a Dream,” is classic Springsteen too – full of the optimism that made him a working class hero when he started off some 35 years ago. Then there is “Surprise, Surprise” with a super-hooky chorus that sneaks into your head and lodges itself there. “Good Eye” is the Boss’ growling take on the blues and “The Last Carnival” is his elegant tribute to close friend and longtime bandmate, Danny Federici, who passed away last year.

Springsteen began writing Working on a Dream soon after he finished 2007’s Magic, and started recording it in between breaks in the Magic tour. But do not take these as outtakes or rejects from that album: each song on Working on a Dream is a robust entity by itself. Especially if you are willing to give them the fair chance. Because if you give these songs the chance, all of the characters and places that Springsteen introduces us to, will become your friends. Perhaps, it’s too early to call this a classic album, but Working on a Dream is certainly one of Springsteen’s finest records.

© Bobin James, 2009

CD Review: Sivamani - Mahaleela

2009-03-26T13:24:00.000+04:00

Sivamani
Mahaleela – My Journey Through Life
3.5/5
KKVM Record

Percussionist A. Sivamani has been a familiar face onstage at most jazz-fusion concerts in the country, and his lively drumming has been heard in a lot many fusion albums and movie soundtracks, since he first commanded his massive assortment of drums some 35 years ago. He has, since then, become a first-call drummer for names as illustrious as Ustad Zakir Hussain, A. R. Rahman, Illayaraja, Shankar Mahadevan. And along the way, Sivamani also shared stage, across the world, with other biggies like Terry Bozzio, Billy Cobham, L. Subramanium and Trilok Gurtu. Perhaps, this busy schedule explains why it took this flamboyant musician three-and-a-half decades to come up with Mahaleela, his first solo album.

When it comes to solo albums by virtuosos, the danger of self-obsessed playing is very real. But we have to report that Mahaleela steers clear of that. While his drums remain a very vital ingredient of all 12 compositions on this album, nowhere does Sivamani attempt to make this a “showcase of self”. (Let’s be honest, an hour - 64 minutes to be precise - of listening to only percussion can turn out to be an exercise in patience.) He, instead, gets the who’s who of Indian fusion together: Zakir Hussain, Viku Vinayakram, Louiz Banks, Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, Neeladri Kumar, amongst others, have all contributed to Mahaleela. And how!

The vocal chants kicking off the “Dancing on the Moon,” and the album, do sound a bit odd with that weird accent (Bosnian singer Alma is attempting Sanskrit here). But move beyond the first minute or so, and the track morphs into an electro-dance-percussive monster threatening to blow out your speakers. “Kriya” slows proceedings down to an almost meditative pace, thanks to a slithering sitar track from Neeladri Kumar, who also makes an appearance later on “Aadhaar,” another composition which can best be described as ethereal. One of our favourites on the album is “Abbaji,” Sivamani’s tribute to the late Ustad Alla Rakha, one of the best tabla masters the world has seen, and father to Ustad Zakir Hussain. A frenetic jam of bols, tablas, bass guitar and assorted percussion, “Abbaji” will have you tapping out rhythms on the nearest surface. Equally captivating is “Santushti” which starts off with Sivamani splish-splashing rhythms in a bathtub (no, seriously!) and then moves on to a meld of various hand drums (not unlike the panchvadyam of South India) before being met head-on by wild vocal bols. Also don’t miss “Jam Packed,” a beautiful song led by outstanding vocals (courtesy Hariharan) and a throbbing bassline.

One complaint is that the inlay card is woefully lacking in information about the artists, but Sivamani tries to make up for it with the album-closer, “Thank You,” which is virtually a call-out list of all people involved in the making of this great album. If world music – especially the kinds based in percussion - is your thing, Mahaleela should be a definite addition to your CD rack.

© Bobin James, 2008

CD Review: Megadeth - Anthology: Set the World Afire

2009-03-26T13:13:00.000+04:00

Megadeth
Anthology: Set the World Afire
3/5
Capitol/EMI

Megadeth seems to be the hen that lays the golden eggs for Capitol Records – except, of course, the bird has already flown the coop. But that is not stopping Capitol from releasing yet another compilation featuring the eggs they already own. Anthology: Set the World Afire is a 2CD set chockfull of hits and non-album releases by one of the strongest thrash bands around. Though, this being a Capitol release, the timeline ends at 1999 and Risk, the last album released on the label.

So what you have here is an almost chronological line-up of cuts all the way from Megadeth’s 1985 debut, Killing is My Business… And Business is Good (‘Mechanix’ and ‘Rattlehead’) to 1999’s Risk (‘Insomnia’ and ‘Prince of Darkness’). Tracks from the band’s last three albums – The World Needs a Hero (2001), The System Has Failed (2004) and United Abominations (2007) – are excluded. The only exception being ‘Dread and the Fugitive Mind,’ which first appeared on 2000’s Capitol Punishment compilation as a then-unreleased track and later found its way onto The World Needs a Hero.

There are only two reasons why anyone should pick up Anthology. The first is the convenience factor – you can get the best of Megadeth (well, most of it, anyway), without having to go through more than two CDs. The second is that you are looking to get introduced to this pioneering band. If you are a droogie, then you don’t need this.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

Download Festival 2009

2009-03-22T21:50:00.000+04:00

The line-up for this year's Download Festival!

The headlining acts on the poster here, are:

Faith No More
Slipknot
Def Leppard
Korn
Marilyn Manson
Whitesnake
Limp Bizkit
Pendulum
ZZ Top
Motley Crue
The Prodigy
Trivium

But personally, I would love to catch the other acts on the bill:

Dream Theater (!!!!!)
Chris Cornell (!!!)
Killswitch Engage (!!)

Complete list here.

NIN|JA 2009

2009-03-22T14:56:00.000+04:00

Remember Street Sweeper?

Well, here's your chance to hear two more tracks from them. And from Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction. And all six tracks previously unreleased.

Click through to NIN|JA 2009.

CD Review: Motherjane - Maktub

2009-03-20T16:59:00.000+04:00

Motherjane
Maktub
4/5
Aum-I Artistes

When ‘Chasing the Sun’ begins with its “ta-ka-ta-ki-ta…” thalams and the mimicking guitar, you find yourselves in a situation where you desperately want to keep the beat with your foot but are unable to do so. Welcome to the odd-time signatures of Maktub, the second album by one of the tightest progressive acts in the country today. The Kochi-based Motherjane released their debut album Insane Biography in 2001 to much acclaim. And with Maktub, the band takes proceedings to another planet altogether.

In an interview to Rolling Stone India earlier this year, lead guitarist Baiju MD had spoken about how so far they had been playing the “white man’s music” and how Maktub was a huge step towards achieving an Indian sound. The band fulfils its promise, and how. The opening thalams are not one-off attempts – each vocal inflection and every guitar lead on this album is infused with a distinctive Carnatic sound. And, this while keeping all the energy of rock intact.

The first couple of tracks, ‘Chasing the Sun’ and ‘Fields of Sound’ – with their insistent riffs – had me reaching for the rewind button over and over again. As do the other gems like ‘Broken’ (Baiju won the Best Guitarist award for this one at last year’s Indian Rock Awards) and the beautifully written ‘Maktub’ (“I say to you/It is written/And by your hands it is rewritten/In those sacred moments/When the creator walks through the creation”). This is an album that scores high on all counts – brilliant vocals, great songwriting, fantastic guitars and a very impressive rhythm section.

At the risk of sounding all gushy, I have to say that this is a sound that I have not really come across too often earlier. I would consider us to be extremely fortunate if another Indian band manages to come up with an album that betters Maktub this year.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: MyndSnare - Conditioned: Human

2009-03-20T16:54:00.000+04:00

MyndSnare
Conditioned: Human
3.5/5
Demonstealer Records

In the eight thrashing years that they’ve been around, Bengaluru band MyndSnare have evolved to be one of the best technical metal groups in the country. And Conditioned: Human, their debut full-length album – they have released two demo EPs in the past – stands as solid proof of that. Between the three of them, vocalist/guitarist Kadangode Padmanabhan Krishnamoorthy alias KP, drummer Yasmin Claire and bassist Sandesh Nagaraj whip up a formidable storm of angry vocals, maniacal skinbashing and abrasive riffs. The way the trio fill out the sound is incredible – at no point during the 40-odd minutes of Conditioned: Human does one really miss a fourth member. And all ye cynics, yes, the band is equally skilled during live performances. Speaking of which, while the production on this album is crisp, it never loses out on the “live” sound. Stand-out tracks on an album that’s chock-a-block with odd time signatures and “turn-of-a-dime” pace changes, include ‘Temporal Movements,’ ‘Altar-Ego’ and ‘Mirror of Nothingness.’ Conditioned: Human is going to be the bar that a lot of metal acts in India will be measured by.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: Queen + Paul Rodgers - The Cosmos Rocks

2009-03-20T16:48:00.000+04:00

Queen + Paul Rodgers
The Cosmos Rocks
3/5
EMI

First things first. If you are just a Queen fan aching to go on a Freddie Mercury nostalgia trip, then this album is not for you. Let’s face it already – it’s almost seventeen years since Freddie died, and we really are not going to hear anything else from him. Or like him, for that matter.

What we do hear on The Cosmos Rocks is some good ol’ classic rock, courtesy Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen (bassist John Deacon retired in 1997), and Paul Rodgers (of Bad Company and Free fame). The opening flanged riffs on the first track, ‘Cosmos Rockin’,’ are unmistakably from Brian May’s handmade Red Special. Then Paul Rodgers’ gritty voice joins in, and very soon it all turns into a boogie.

While none of the tracks really jump out and grab your attention at first listen, give it some time, and some tracks start to grow on you – especially the rockarollin’ ‘Cosmos Rockin’,’ the military marching ‘Warboys’ and the harmonised ‘Call Me.’ The underrated genius of May shines through on each single track: he unleashes his magic with intricately layered parts and ethereal leads and fills. Check out the bluesy ‘Voodoo’ for examples of the latter. And Rodgers delivers some stunning performances in the Freddy tribute ‘Some Things That Glitter’ and the trio’s first single ‘Say It’s Not True.’

Is this is a good classic rock album? Yes. Will it be a ‘classic’ album, though? Doubtful.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: Metallica - Death Magnetic

2009-03-20T16:38:00.000+04:00

Metallica
Death Magnetic
4.5/5
Universal

In the world of metal, it would be really hard to find another band that is respected so much and reviled equally, as Metallica. One the one hand, there is the metal (rowwwr!!) brigade that believes the band “sold out” starting with 1991’s Black Album. The Napster incident and the tinny snare-drum on 2003’s St Anger didn’t help one bit in boosting the band’s popularity. On the other hand, there are the millions of fans and musicians who acknowledge Metallica as one of the most important metal bands of our times – if not the most important. While they are part of the Big Four of thrash (alongside Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax), Metallica were arguably the ones to really create this genre of music, back in the early Eighties – and then deliver it with unrestrained aggression in their ear-aching, neck-snapping debut, Kill ‘Em All in 1983.

Now, a quarter-century later, they have dropped an H-bomb of an album in Death Magnetic. Expectations have been running high on this album; expectations furthered by all the teasers the band has been putting out online, in the form of shorts riffs, and later, entire tracks. This was, in more ways than one, Metallica’s last chance at regaining the crown. And do they do it? Oooooh yeaaaaah! Death Magnetic, as the band promised, is a back-to-the-roots record.

When you first pop in the CD, the opening heartbeats of ‘That Was Just Your Life’ pretty much mirror your own, as you wonder if this album is worth all the hype. Then some slow riffing – instantly recognisable as Metallica’s – builds up the anticipation further. Until at 1.28, you are thrown straight into the path of a hurtling monster truck of a riff layered over some maniacal skinbashing by Lars Ulrich and spitting-it-out vocals by James Hetfield. This is a track that would have easily found place on that killer of an album, Master of Puppets (1986). Except, of course, this is more polished. In fact, Death Magnetic marks a return to all the power of the band’s Eighties glory years – yet, super-producer Rick Rubin (best known for his outstanding work on albums by Slayer, Audioslave, RHCP) brings in a degree of polish unheard before on Metallica albums.

The merciless sonic assault continues with ‘The End of the Line’ and ‘Broken, Beat & Scarred,’ two longish numbers, both also giving Kirk Hammett a chance to showcase his no-nonsense guitaring. Let’s face it – Kirk might not be the greatest guitarist on earth, as isn’t Lars the best drummer. But between them, they get the work done, and how.

The band slows it down next with ‘The Day That Never Comes,’ a song in the vein of ‘One’ (from their 1988 masterpiece …And Justice For All), complete with a “machine-gun-riff-say-hello-to-double-bass-kick” section transforming the ballad into a monstrous thrasher. This is also the first song where we get to really hear the bass guitar, very ably slung at knee-height by ex-Ozzy bassist Robert Trujillo. The ruthless take-no-prisoners pursuit continues with ‘All Nightmare Long’ (“‘Cause we hunt you down without mercy/Hunt you down all nightmare long”) and what could easily be the best track on Death Magnetic - ‘Cyanide.’ The unimaginatively-named ‘The Unforgiven III’ relaxes proceedings a wee bit before turning the corner into ‘The Judas Kiss,’ a bass-heavy mass of metal attempting to bash your skull in. The band then tips a hat to the past again, with an instrumental ‘Suicide & Redemption,’ which, clocking in at close to ten minutes, is the first instrumental since ‘Orion’ (from 1986’s Master of Puppets) or Justice’s ‘To Live Is To Die’ (if you ignore the spoken part.) And then by the time Death Magnetic – easily one of the best Metallica albums ever - ends with the frantic ‘My Apocalypse,’ you are ready to collapse to the ground, from 75 minutes of headbanging. There’s only one cure to that exhaustion – and an instant one at that: start all over again!

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: Mudcrutch - Mudcrutch

2009-03-20T16:31:00.000+04:00

Mudcrutch

Mudcrutch

4/5

Virgin Records

The jangly notes tripping out of the speakers when you pop this CD in, not just announce the first track – the 18th century traditional ‘Shady Grove’ – but set the tone for the rest of this fantabulous album. But surprise, surprise, those guitar notes are not tweaked out by Tom Petty, who instead chooses to take on bass duties in a band that was banded and disbanded more than three decades ago. A laidback country-rock album, Mudcrutch features the twin guitar magic of Mike Campbell and Tom Leadon, Benmont Tench’s piano and organ, Randall Marsh’s drums and Petty himself on lead vocals and bass.

The first thing that strikes you when you listen to this album is that these guys are having fun out there. And that sense of fun permeates every track on this album – be it boogie-happiness of ‘June Apple’ (another traditional song), the guitar rock of ‘Lover of the Bayou’ (listen out for the leads on this one, especially) or oodles of organ on ‘Crystal River’ (at 9:29, the longest of the 14 tracks). ‘Scare Easy’ carries the trademark Tom Petty sound while the twangy guitars on ‘The Wrong Thing To Do’ are an instant hook. This is one album that might not spring any surprises on it and you will be glad for it. This is good ol’ rock & roll, recorded live and spontaneous. As a note on the CD inlay says “…Recorded live, vocals, harmony, everything. Arrangements done on studio floor. Made in 10 days, no headphones. …A lot of love. Enjoy.” Enjoy we sure will, thank you.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: Sceptre/Now or Never

2009-03-20T16:27:00.000+04:00

Sceptre
Now or Never
3/5
Counter Culture Records

Sceptre is a Mumbai thrash metal outfit that has, in the ten years since inception, built a formidable reputation as a band that largely delivers tights and precise Metallica/Sepultura/Pantera covers. Which is why this debut full-length album has been long overdue. On the remarkably well-produced Now or Never, the quartet of Teemeer Chimulkar (vocals and guitars), Aniket Waghmode (drums), Gilroy Fernandes (rhythm guitars) and Janus Sayal (bass) put together an impressive collection of thrash tracks.

The lyrics are of the standard-issue metal variety and really nothing to write home about: “A revolution’s what we’ll bring/Armed with our metal strings” on the otherwise bonecrushing ‘Revolution,’ or “They want us to follow/They want us to bend/We’re scared of nothing/We’ll fight till the end” on ‘Now or Never.’ But when you pick up a thrash record, it’s rarely for the lyrical quality; you pick it up because you want to headbang. And Now or Never more than delivers on that front. It’s easily one of the more noteworthy debuts by any Indian band that I can think of. The ten years of playing to crazy moshpits certainly shows through – the band is tight as could be.

Standouts on Now or Never include the title track with that insistent riff, the insanely heavy ‘Enemy’ and the chugging ‘Revolution.’ The acoustic ‘Circles of Silence’ is nice and pretty and all that, but at 3:24, it gets a wee bit lengthy for an instrumental on a thrash record. But then again, perhaps, that’s good – our whiplashed necks will get some relief.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD review: The Offspring/Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

2009-03-20T16:23:00.000+04:00

The Offspring
Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace
3/5
Sony BMG

The Offspring might forever be remembered as the band who sang ‘Pretty Fly (For A White Guy),’ which is rather unfortunate, because these California punksters have been releasing some brilliant stuff before and after ‘Pretty Fly.’ And consistently so. Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, is yet another example of this. The new album is filled with hi-energy energetic numbers. Well, most of it anyway.

While there are tracks like ‘Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?’ and ‘Fix You’ that are uncharacteristically lo-energy, they aren’t the ones that will grab your aural attention. ‘Trust In You’ is a typical Offspring song, complete with catchy harmonised choruses and biting guitar riffs. Ditto with ‘You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid.’ In fact, the latter could well be the next video single – except for the “Dance fucker, dance” chorus that might make it slightly unsuitable for MTV. Then there is ‘Stuff is Messed Up’ – as cheesy as the “la-la-la-la-la” singalong chorus might sound, there’s no denying that it’s infectious.

Rise and Fall… might not be the best album The Offspring has sprung on us – earlier recordings like 1994’s Smash or even 2000’s Conspiracy of One might vie for that title. But it’s a very good album, no doubt. Hardcore fans might find the sound a bit too refined for their tastes (please address complaints to producer Bob Rock); but us, we are just fine with it, thank you.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: Judas Priest/Nostradamus

2009-03-20T16:11:00.000+04:00

Judas Priest
Nostradamus
4/5
Sony BMG

When singer Rob Halford screamed his way back into the classic Judas Priest line-up with 2005’s Angel of Retribution, the results were good. Not awesome, not astounding, only good. But one listen to the new Priest double CD set, Nostradamus, and you will be trawling the thesaurus looking for words to describe the experience. This is the British metalheads back in prime form; and the classic line-up helps, of course.

Nostradamus is what is commonly referred to as a concept album – loosely translated it means that there some particular theme running through all the songs (think Tommy, think Dark Side of the Moon.) And that common thread on this one is the life of Nostradamus, the early-16th Century seer who, supporters say, predicted stuff like the Great Fire of London to the rise of Adolf Hitler to the fall of the Twin Towers. And one must admit, this ‘concept’ does make for interesting lyrics, complemented with the regulation chugging rhythm section – thundering drums and killer riffs – and the not-so-regulation keyboards and synth string sections. Glen Tipton and KK Downing’s twin guitar attack is at its ferocious best here. Listen to ‘Prophecy’ or ‘Revelations’ and you will understand where Judas Priest get their heavenly moniker – they are called “Metal Gods” – from. Heavy guitars, bludgeoning drums and Rob Halford’s searing vocals, of course. Ah, that’s what you were waiting for, eh? Well, worry not: Halford’s vocal cords are evidently in very good shape. ‘Conquest’ and ‘Alone’ – with him going from a whisper to operatic banshee scream - can be two great master-classes for any aspiring vocalist.

A word of warning, though. This is classic heavy metal. Even though some songs here nudge the 8- or 9-minute mark, they are pretty much structured. So if you pop this CD in expecting to hear ‘2008 metal,’ you are most likely in for disappointment. But look forward to some fantastic metal, and you will easily slot this as one of the best releases of the year so far.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: Al Green/Lay It Down

2009-03-20T16:03:00.000+04:00

Al Green
Lay It Down
4/5

Elders doing collaborative projects with younger artists is not an entirely unheard-of phenomenon in the world of music. But what does make Al Green’s Lay It Down different from, say a Santana’s Supernatural, is the fact that Reverend Al’s vocals remain centre-stage on this, as it very well should. So while the album features some very impressive neo-soul voices – Anthony Hamilton, John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae – none of them ever attempt to over-shadow Green. (Not that it would be an easy task to accomplish if they tried to.) Al Green’s voice is in prime form, belying his two-and-sixty years. Tracks like ‘Just For Me’ and ‘All I Need’ showcase his trademark falsetto vocals, still going strong after all these years and over 30 albums.

‘You’ve Got the Love I Need,’ ‘Standing in the Rain’ and ‘I’m Wile About You’ are three soul shakers which will have you tapping your foot and moving along from the word go – album co-producer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson’s super-funky drums go a long way in helping achieve that. As does the late Chalmers “Spanky” Alford’s beautiful guitarwork. In the end, it’s probably this great marriage of young and old talent – talent being the keyword there – that makes Lay It Down such a great album. It is not a stuck-in-the-past nostalgia trip, nor is it badly modernised soul music. This is the real deal.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: Joe Satriani/Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock

2009-03-20T15:57:00.000+04:00

Joe Satriani
Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock
3.5/5
Sony BMG

In 1987, Joe Satriani’s sophomore effort, Surfing With The Alien broke into the Billboard Top 40, a place no instrumental album had gone so boldly before. Now, over twenty years later - and after having made instrumental guitar albums a lot less niche in the meanwhile – Satch has released his 12th studio album. Professor Satchfunkilus and the Musterion of Rock might be quite a mouthful when it comes to the name, but it’s an album that’s quite accessible to most fans of this genre of music. And that’s where the ‘problem’ might lie – many of the tracks on Professor Satchfunkilus… might sound like stuff you have heard on his earlier albums; which is not necessarily a bad thing. Just that one has come to expect the unexpected from Satch.

So ‘Musterion,’ and ‘Overdriver’ - both out and out rockers and brilliant ones at that - sound like tracks that could have found place on 1989’s Flying in a Blue Dream or 1992’s The Extremist. ‘I Just Wanna Rock’ is the quintessential stadium rocker, designed for the crowd to chant along with. But hey Joe, you already used that device in the rather unimaginatively-titled ‘Crowd Chant’ from 2006’s Super Colossal.

But give this CD a few spins and you will discover some absolute beauties on the album that will justify your putting hard-earned cash on the table. ‘Professor Satchafunkilus’ that kicks off with a fluttering saxophone part by Satriani’s son ZZ, has a nice and funky groove to it. ‘Diddle-Y-A-Doo-Dat’ is a quirky number that instantly reminds you of Satch’s once-student and now-friend, Steve Vai. Then there is the regulation ballad, ‘Come On Baby’, a paean of love for his wife Rubina. Despite the cheesy name, this is one helluva melody. As is ‘Out of the Sunrise’ with its soaring guitarlines. The best one of the lot, though, would have to be ‘Andalusia.’ It starts off with an acoustic six-string and hand claps. But as you go on to discover soon enough, the deceptive acoustic passage is tantalisingly short – just after the timer hits 2 minutes, Satch slips into a barrage of electric notes on his Ibanez. ‘Andalusia’ – one of the two tracks dedicated to Turkish saz player, Asik Veysel – is unique in that it’s not very often that Satriani picks up an acoustic guitar. In fact, I don’t remember the last time he did that on an album.

So what’s the verdict on the album? There should be no question about whether you really need to pick it up. You should. But lower your expectations just that wee bit. For just this once, hopefully.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: TAAQ/This is It

2009-03-20T15:49:00.000+04:00

Thermal and a Quarter
This is It
4/5
TAAQ Music

Thermal and a Quarter have, in 11-plus years, built up a formidable reputation of being a fantastic live band. So it’s slightly unnerving when the title track – and the first song – on This is It, hints at goodbyes to live shows (“Look into those front row eyes/Make your little goodbyes”). But that doesn’t stop the entire album from sounding all nice and happy, TAAQ-style. The intricately-layered sound, while not radically different from their past albums - especially 2004’s Plan B – captures the energy of their live shows very well. The troika of Bruce Lee Mani, Rzhude David and Rajeev Rajagopal keeps the proceedings very tight. Highlights of the album are the groovy “Holy Jose” (the bouncy bassline will have you moving in no time); “How Can I Get Your Groove” (with a superb lead constructed of notes rolling off the fretboard) and “This is It”. Don’t let the monstrous roach on the front stop you from reaching out for this great album.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: Michael Jackson/Thriller 25th Anniversary Edition

2009-03-20T15:40:00.000+04:00

Michael Jackson
Thriller 25th Anniversary Edition
Original disc 5/5
Bonus tracks 1.5/5
Sony BMG

A long long time ago, a pop singer named Michael Jackson brought out a music album called Thriller. Little would he have imagined that it would turn out to be the landmark disc that it became. Hundreds of thousands of young kids and not-so-young adults all over the world would put on their white socks, turn up their trouser cuffs and try out the ‘moonwalk’ from his Motown performance of “Billie Jean.” (Yes, you did, too. Admit it.) The dance moves from the “Thriller” video would go on to ripped off and then ripped to pieces by everyone from Mithun (in a B-grade movie, the name of which escapes recall, thankfully) to Madhuri (in her 2007 comeback, Aaja Nachle). The album would waltz off with a record-breaking seven Grammy Awards in 1984. (Jackson himself got eight trophies that night, including one for the E.T. Storybook).

This 25th anniversary edition of Thriller underlines why it went on to become the best-selling album of all time. And it shows why it should not be messed with: the package includes newer versions of five tracks, as interpreted by some current artists. The original “Beat It,” - despite its slightly cheesy synthesised drumlines and assorted ‘uunhs’ and ‘trrrrrs’ – had pocketed a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance in 1984. The Van Halen solo helped, perhaps. Unfortunately, in the 2008 version, singer Fergie in her earnest attempt to get some of that original street-gang aggression ends up sounding, well, constipated. “The Girl is Mine 2008” knocks out Paul McCartney and brings in Will.i.am instead. While the original was slightly laidback, Will.i.am turns up the r.p.m. and adds some funky beats and drum loops, basically make it a bit more danceable. But his experiment with “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” falls flat. Jackson had laid down an extremely groovy rhythm, one that was guaranteed to make you move. Will.i.am on the other hand morphs it into something eminently forgettable, bearing little resemblance to the original other than the occasional vocal snatches. Akon is one of the current crop who actually does something good with his mandate, on “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ 2008.” He does this by starting off the song as a nice, piano ballad that revs up into full ‘will-have-you-moving’ mode with that original bassline thumping down below. And he hasn’t forgotten the ‘mama-se, mama-sa’ loop. (Trivia time: Jackson was sued by African musician Manu Dibango for flicking that very loop from his 1972 single “Soul Makossa.” They settled out of court later.) This leaves us with “Billie Jean 2008,” rapper Kanye West’s attempt to recreate the original magic. Boo! Go south, West! All those drums and ‘unh-hunhs’ seem unnecessary and pointless – what exactly is he trying here?

So why should you buy this album? More than a few reasons. One, there is the imaginative Thriller, in all its original glory. Clichéd and hagiographic as this next sentence might appear, this is seriously one album that is timeless. This is ‘classic pop,’ ‘classic disco,’ ‘classic call-it-what-you-may.’ From the foot-tapping, hand-clapping groove of “Baby Be Mine” and “P.Y.T.” to the lilting vocals on “Human Nature” and “The Lady in My Life,” each of the original nine tracks is a splendid treat. In fact, seven of these nine would go on to feature in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100.

Reason two is the accompanying DVD. The stripped down live video for “Billie Jean,” – a Motown anniversary performance – while it looks lip-synced to, has Jackson at his dancing best. He requires no more than a single spotlight – no flashing lights, no pyrotechnics, nothing – to deliver a scintillating performance. And the DVD’s got the videos for “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and “Thriller”. Yes, the same ones you used to wait for endlessly when music television had just arrived in the country.

Is it worth your money? Yes, actually. You get the videos and for completionists who wish to round off their Jackson collection, there is also “For All Time,” a ballad that was left over from the Thriller sessions, but was rather wisely left out from the album. Thankfully, the new versions which you are advised to avoid are all bunched up together at the end of the first disc. So the moment Vincent Price’s maniacal laughter track ends, just go back to the very beginning.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: Skinny Alley - Songs from the Moony Boom

2009-03-20T15:35:00.000+04:00

Skinny Alley
Songs from the Moony Boom
*** and a half
Counter Culture Records

Four years after the debut album, Escape the Roar, Kolkata-based Skinny Alley have released this second offering. At first listen, Songs from the Moony Boom might not have the kind of instant connect the first album did – perhaps because of the breathlessly frantic rhythm section in most of the songs. But give it a fair listen, and rest assured it will grow on you. The band’s collective jazz and funk influences show through clearly in this album – be it the extended jam in “Swunk,” or the chiming rhythm guitar in “Go Figure.” The latter has gentle funk morphing into dirty riffing and back, effortlessly. On “Shape Your Life,” Amyt Datta shows us why he is on our list of best Indian guitarists.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD Review: Avial - Avial

2009-03-20T15:26:00.000+04:00

Avial
Avial
****
Phat Phish

Music transcends language, they say. And concrete evidence for this aphorism lies in Avial’s self-titled debut. For those not in the know, Avial is a five-piece band from Kerala that takes Malayalam folk songs and literary pieces and puts it to music. They first burst onto the scene in 2006 with a video for “Nada Nada” (the first song on this album) that quickly got circulated extensively online thanks to YouTube – at last count, the super-slick video had 56,000+ views. It didn’t seem to matter that singer Anand Raj Benjamin Paul was rendering his raw vocals in chaste Malayalam. What really mattered was the sheer energy of “Nada Nada,” delivered very ably by Rex Vijayan (ex-Motherjane) on guitars, Mithun Puthanveetil on drums, Tony John on turntables and synth and Naresh Kamath (ex-Bombay Black, Kailasa) on bass.

And it is this very energy that pervades the entire album. Despite the ‘alternative rock’ tag the band chooses for its music, this is good ol’ rock – complete with searing vocals and crunchy guitars. Hear, for instance, the guitars in “Njan Aara”: gentle arpeggios alternated with wickedly heavy distortion. Or the stadium rock chants in the chorus of “Aranda”. Of the eight tracks on this album, you would be hard-pressed to come up with a single weak one. Avial is very easily one of the best rock albums to come out from an Indian band lately.

© Bobin James/Rolling Stone India, 2008

CD reviews

2009-03-20T15:22:00.000+04:00

Okay, I am going to be putting up my music reviews, too, on this blog now. So for now, it might be whole bunch of slightly dated ones - just to take care of the backlog. But I promise to try and be more regular.