Agam The Band

Yeah, I got a wonderful chance to listen to this band. In my company they arrange such events for free…entertaining the employees. So as far as I know..the band is a group of 6-8 boys..regular IT guys..with the knowledge of traditional classical Carnatic music. Carnatic music is the traditional music from South India…very old…and very complicated with ragas! 

These guys are mixing the traditional music with new age rock music! They are a Carnatic Rock band…with the record of being chosen as the best band in South India by none other than Oscar winning Mozart from Madras…. A.R Rehman.

I missed the first two songs, but after that I got to hear the remaining 7-8 songs. The singer Harish is really really good at Carnatic singing! The next best guy is the drummer Ganesh….wow! He is just so so good! Their songs were more about rock music with mix of folk carnatic singing….but really a great band.

I have downloaded their logo…it’s quite an interesting logo. It looks quite scary at first look..but they are a band that will go onto succeed.

I went and enquired about any CD release…and they are on their way to launch their CDs. J Some of their songs were Malhar Jam, Rudra. They also played couple of Rehman’s song…in their rock style…Dilse and Hamma Hamma.

Sharing one of their videos I found.

I saw GOD!

Yeah, I did! Today I did see him up close..like a hand distance away.  I saw AR REHMAN today that close. OH MY GOD! We had our annual excellence awards ceremony and guess who was the chief guest – ARR!! Around lunch time we got to know that he is in the nearby building, taking a tour of the company. When we reached at the bulding..there was a huge crowd waiting for Rehman to descend down from the top floor. Anxious crowd waiting desperately to take a close look of Rehman…….this close…once in a lifetime! After almost waiting for 15 mins, he  finally did come out..and the crowd roared cheering him.

As he was escorted out with guards and police…he walked past me…so close….it was all so quick..the face of the Mozart of Madras, that went past me..so swiftly. I caught a glimpse of him. His expression was so down to earth. The man of few words, who generally is very shy, had a blushing smile as the crowd cheered and woohooo-ed.

I have never felt this amazing crowd experience, to be jolted and pushed and thrown around. But it was so much fun! So much worth it…so many Indians dream to see ARR.

At the award function couple of men actually got the award handed by ARR…the couple who hosted the entire function shared the stage up close with ARR..in my head I couldn’t figure out what had they done to get so lucky…!!!! To stand next to ARR..or for the presenter to ask him questions on behalf of the employees!!!  WOW! That is some luck! It was an amazing evening with ARR not performing but his students did. He does produce world class musicians! On extreme crowd demand he did sing a line of his recent release Rockstar – Nadaan Parindey ghar aaya ja!!! A day to remember J

RIP Amy!

What a sad start of the weekend! I was totally shocked to see the news of the death of Singer Amy Winehouse. I knew of her drug abuse and drinking addiction...but to know she actually died of all that, what a shame! All that money can't buy some peace of mind and satisfaction. And neither could her family help her? Very sad to such a talent go to waste! Above all, a life lost to addictions! Rest In Peace Amy!

Twinkle Twinkle...Made in India

It sounds hilarious..but this woman is really good at classical Indian singing! Loved the video! I wonder which show this video belongs to...my personal favorite one is Kerala "Twingle Twingle" J

Jai Ho FM

I had fun watching some of my friends performing the JAI HO flash mob in Seattle. I wish I was there when they performed this...or that they did this a few months ago! I remember my Micheal Jackson Thriller performances on the streets of Seattle. Nevertheless, still support and love them!

2 CELLOS - AWESOME TALENT!

I LOVE these guys! I wish MJ was there to listen to them! IS it just me getting that sudden rush in the nerves, when these two play? And I love the way they talk..cute accent! (Watch them on Ellen)

Lady Gaga - Weird Al Yankovic

I have heard and always loved Weird Al Yankovic's songs...They give such a hearty laugh..one of my favorite one's is the Eat it version of MJ's Beat it! Cracks me up everytime! I just thought of hearing to some of his songs and I found this latest Lady Gaga song...and needless to say, it rocks!  Enjoy my friends!

Rahmania!!!

I don’t know where to start from! It was a magical night! Music is the best thing in the world! And I’ve always thought how lucky are those, who can CREATE music! When we reached the place, the parking space was over-flowing with bikes and cars! And the crowd gave the old feeling from the air show – like the whole Indian population was right there at the moment…mostly all youngsters! Youngistan!!!

Remo rocking Humma Humma

As per Indian standards the 7pm show started around 7.35pm. The show started with each musician playing a piece of famous music piece & their introduction and the list of movies they worked on, were displayed in the background. Oh, this show was first of its kind with 3D projection and it was really good effect; I am not a fan of 3D after watching Avatar for 3 hours with a major headache & aching eye-brow bone! This was like one-on-one with AR J

Asian Violinist

The 3D projector had not yet started and people around us were getting angry already with “Paisa wapas karo” (give us our money back). All I hoped for patiently was for that damn projector to start! And in minutes before Rahman appeared on the stage the projector started and it was like everyone had seen their god! A collective loud cheer! Rahman made an entry with his first classic piece of film Roja!

Arziyaan and Khwaja Mere Khwaja

 

Subsequent songs played were Chikubuku Chikubuku raile, Rang de Basanti, Daud and Muqabala by Remo, Tanha Tanha, Rangeela, Masakali, Chanda suraj lakho tare of Nusrat Fateh Ali khan, Dil se, Taal western, Yuva – Khuda Hafis. Rahman then sat on his piano to play a piece Meherban from Ada. His sufi music display was just splendid with sitting down on the cushions and wearing the traditional muslim cap with green mosque images and urdu writing in the digital screen in the back ground; they sang Arziyaan and Khwaja mere Khwaja. No words to describe how amazing they were.

The latest classics like Songs from Guru, Ravaan, Jai Ho- Slumdog were just mesmerising! His troupe had non-indian musicians too. An asian violinist played amazing single pieces in between the show. An American looking singer sang the melodious ‘jaane kahan woh duniya haina’ from Jane tu ya Jane na, amazing fusion of Indian & western!

Sivamani is the best..very innovative in his music that he creates with just about anything. He created music with a big metal/wooden plank and 2 big bamboo sticks..just AMAZING!

Robot Song

The patriotic number from Swades, Yeh Jo des hai mera sung by Rahman spread silence around the crowd. Amazing piece that makes you emotional each time. Same goes for Lukka Chuppi from Rang De Basanti, which Rahman sang with a virtual Lata Mangeshkar makes my eyes wet every time; classic song of a mother and child and reminds you of your mother instantly! The seriousness on Rahman face is the proof of how deeply he is involved in his music.

The show ended with Remo singing his hit Humma Humma and then Rahman singing Rubaroo with a note to stop corruption.

The whole crowd sang loudly in unison for Vande Mataram and Rubaroo. It was the best show of my life; I loved singing along every song except for some of the unknown south Indian songs. How often do I get to sing out my heart loudly in the open! Great night that ended with fireworks!

Not to mention that the original singers like Hariharan, Sukhwinder Singh, Chitra, Lata Mageshkar, Asha Bhosale, Shreeya Ghoshal, SP Bala, etc were missed.

PS: Sorry for the bad quality of pictures, they are snaphots of the 3D screen.

Jai Ho

Well, I am super excited for this coming weekend. It is my wedding anniversary and more importantly we are going to the AR Rahman Concert here in Bangalore - 29th May 2011. It is my first time to his concert albeit I have watched his concert videos. I am already getting goose bumps thinking of what a thrilling event it will be. Growing up, my brother used to be ardent fan of AR Rahman; so much that he would order and buy Rahman’s Tamil original cassettes; original as in, his music is used in Hindi movies too..generally remake movies. But not all movies get to be remade in Hindi. Of the top my head, I can think of ‘Kandukondein Kandukondein’ movie of which I know only the original Tamil songs, they never got used in Hindi songs.

Frankly Rahman’s music is not bound by language, so any Indian can enjoy his Hindi, Tamil music. So I really hope he plays his old hit songs like chikubuku chikubuku, Urvashi, Konjum mainnakkle etc in the original Tamil version. I am really really so excited. Imagine listening to Jiya se Jiya & Ek mohabbat live! Oh! And I forgot I will get to see Sivamani too! WOOHOO! It’s my only second concert in life. The first I remember I went to was Strings! They rocked too! Big time!

The only spoiler I am afraid of is the Bangalore rains, which have become a routine every evening nowL. Oh God! How I wish it doesn’t rain at all!!! I wish the rains sit back and enjoy some soulful Rahman music! And I wish he’d play ALL his songs!!!! OMG moment! Time for Indian-western fusion! Cheers to Rahmania!!!! YAAAAAY!

Tickets here.

It’s going to be stellar night and an anniversary to remember!

Enjoy his hypnotizing music!

For Euphoria Lovers

Beautiful song as always from Euphoria; no idea what album it belongs to. Enjoy!

Dedicated to Obama

I love this song but today when I listened to it, it gave me a uplifted feeling, like a free bird flying the free blue sky. Enjoy!

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
in the wind of change!

Magic Number - Take Me Or Leave Me Alone

I already mentioned this band Magic Numbers, couple of days ago. Every song I listen to, its so fresh and new. This is a sad one, but the singer's voice & emotions are just beautiful. For those who enjoy some melancholy mood sometimes....I can't get over this song :)

Magic Numbers - 'The Pulse'

Today I stumbled upon this band named Magic Numbers and I totally fell in love with their songs and music. Here is a song to share :)

Music for all

One time when we lived in Spokane, we were driving and listening to music when I turned to my husband and said “Music makes your mind so happy and relaxes your very core. If everyone could enjoy music & relax their minds, we would never have to fight over land & religion & language. Why don’t all the extremists enjoy & get lost into the beautiful world of music?” My loving husband had to say, “Only YOU can come up with such a beautiful thought”, and he has this most happy proud smile on his faceJ. But my question is still valid even today!

I am a very short-tempered person, sadly. But music, of any kind relaxes my mind instantly. Also, I am not like those people who know exactly what kind of music or singer they like. To me, any music that makes my shoulders move, jerk my neck in Jim Carrey’s Body love style and move my crossed feet in the air, is good music. To enjoy my music, I have to sing it, loudly! And language is no barrier either. I can very well sing Konjum Mainakkale –tamil song from Kandukondein Kandukondein, Songs from the telegu hit movie Bommarillu or my recent craze in 2009 of learning the famous Romanian song Ozone-Dragostea Din Tei. So I have a variety of songs I like & listen to from old Indian classic movies to new ones to old English classic songs to hard metal rock music to regular country music. ANYTHING! I remember in my school days, I had said to someone that the lyrics of the songs decide whether I like it or not. So those were the days of Lucky Ali and Strings, which has romantic lyrics touching our teenage hearts. But hey, now I like Lady Gaga’s Just Dance! Or Jamie Foxx’s Blame it on the AH ah ah  alcohol! So I surely know my heart is not a teenager anymore! J

I wonder how many of you notice that each song is related to a place, a situation. Like when we were in the US, for more than a year we had only Jhoom Barabar CD & that’s the only album we listened to. So now if I ever hear any of the songs from that album, I can see Mt. Spokane & my mind sees myself driving through it. Colbie Caillat’s Bubbly songs make me do to the quick-quick-slow steps from the west coast dance lessons that we took. When I listen to Pink’s So what, I am taken to my drive back home from my first Microsoft Interview! And when I hear Bon Jovi’s Welcome To Wherever You Are – I see myself walking to work in my Microsoft office, breathing in the crisp chilly air of Redmond. We all live to be happy & music is the one thing that never fails to deliver to me! I really wish if everyone could enjoy it as much as I do, the world would, no doubt be a much happier place to live.

So next time while travelling, if you see a girl silently mouthing words, with headphones on and rocking her shoulders or head or feet, it could be me! I know I might look silly to you, well, as long as hands free mobile users look silly enough talking away, I don’t mind looking silly because, I am LOVING it! 

B4U for old Hindi Music fans

One of these days, I accidentally put on the B4UMusic channel at around 7am and found the old melodies that we would hear in Rangoli program on DD1 on sunday mornings. Now I check this channel every morning and its a beautiful melodious morning each day :)

Rehman :: Ace of Base: Copy or Inspiration?

Every time I hear the song All she wants - Ace of base, I cannot miss recollecting the song Telephone Dhun me from movie Hindustani!!!

A few years ago, I would have not believed if someone told me AR Rehman copied music from around the world. My brother used to be a hardcore Rehman FAN!!!  He would swear by his music. But it’s too obvious that our Oscar winning music director IMPROVISED the original song. Ace of Base fan eh? No wonder, I love both the songs. Rehman’s version with the Indian instruments & his music style is still catchy and of course suits our taste of Indian music. As a teenager, I remember loving this song only for doll-like costumes of the actress!! J

As I searched more for Rehman, I ran into this blog booing Mr. Rehman. The comments come from extreme Rehman Fans!

 All she wants - Ace of base -

Telephone Dhun - Hindustani  - 

Bryan Adams Concert in Pune

Just now while I was listening to the songs on my iPod and Bryan Adam’s song “I’ll always be right there” started to play. It struck to me then that he’s is performing in India, my hometown Pune. Yaay!!! As much as I would love to watch him perform, I realized that the crowd will be HUGEEEE!!! People will be standing in lines 7-8 hours ahead of the show. I know BA was like GOD during my grad days; we rocked “Summer of 69” for every occasion! Now, I know it would be once in a lifetime opportunity for me to see BA in a concert in India, but all that realization above…too much L sorry Bryan!!! I would really love to watch you live, but I’ll pass and watch your videos.

Those who still want to be more loyal than me get your tickets soon; the Pune ticket link is still not up. Sorry! If I find one soon, I’ll update my blog.