Archive for the 'Music' Category
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
english chelsea fan, this is your last game; we’re not galatasaray, we’re sparta f.c.
how strange is this?
and what is the legacy of 68? i find it difficult to read accounts of the events of that year around the world, since i’m not sure how much of it is simply nostalgia and romanticism.
Monday, March 17th, 2008
I want you to want me
Good to see a pappu saein has made its debut on youtube – I couldn’t find one earlier.. although, admittedly it does do a grave injustice to pappu saein and the whole bhang-infused pall that hangs over the thousands of mesmerised, perpetrating and incredibly stoned people I saw crammed into the mazaar, lounging under the throbbing overpowering beat of some incredibly primal percussion.
Oh, and how can I forget the searing pain of stepping barefoot on some charsi’s smouldering birdi..
That said, it still was a rather odd, and incredibly theatrical experience – if you ever do head down to
Overload’s atrociously insufferable noisemaking has given pappu a new stamp of legitimacy amongst the yuppies of
Pertinently (and you’ll know why) I guess it brings us, inevitably, to why places like JB do what they do. It seems to me that art for it own sake is just such an appealing, clean and somehow morally attractive proposition, an yet, art really seems to flourish when its motives are far baser – the rich history of court art in the sub-continent for instance.. do you think we should be running a more aggressive PR campaign for JB? Why? Why not?
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
crazy beat.
i remember seeing this video on television during a visit to pakistan, in 2005 i think. it came up during a late-night/early-morning IM session, and led to this performance by pappu saeen at shah jamal’s shrine in lahore.
besides the amazing dhol-playing , it reminds me of this article i read about, what the writer called, ‘all-male sonic gatherings’ in northern pakistan. i have to say it’s a part of pakistani culture that i’ve never experienced, and it seems pretty awesome to be a part of, although slightly scary to watch. almost as scary as this. fortunately, i don’t think shah jamal’s shrine won’t see that anytime soon.
while i’m on the subject of the dhol, do you know what dhamaal is all about?
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
ouch, there’s a paw in my face!
so, after that brief [yet still too long] hiatus, we’re back!
that article on radiohead was challenging, intriguing, and distressing. honestly, i’m not that familiar with radiohead’s music. i find most of it pretty inaccessible. listening to some of their stuff seems too much like work than recreation to me. i guess it makes sense to say that their music defines some aspects of the generation that came of age in the 90s. but i think poulos goes a bit too far, even if we assume he’s just talking about young people in western europe and north america. i mean, i’m guessing most people from that generation would name countless bands, songs, films, paintings, television programmes, etc. that defined the atmosphere of the 90s for them, politically or emotionally. to reduce it to one band is really sort of like me searching for a thesis the night before a deadline for a term paper.
one point from the response that i think is really valid is that the ‘indie’ scene is partially about elitism. it’s as if there’s some sort of honour in being among the first to hear a good band. i guess it’s just an attempt at creating some sense of community, but it’s definitely got an element of exclusion to it as well, and it seems to be the domain of rich kids trying to look like they’re poor. those ipods are a dead giveaway though.
that’s actually something that stands out from a few years of experience living in out here - for all their supposed individualism over the rest of the world, people are really keen to belong in their own cliques. it’s just the family bond is weaker, so people look for others outside the family, leading to a smörgåsbord of sub-cultures - punks, indie kids, hipsters, emo kids, gamers, etc.
i wonder if that partially explains why there are no established sub-cultures to speak of in pakistan.
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Can I borrow your punk?
Interesting point indeed. I suspect the direction of Pakistani pop music, especially in it’s infancy was probably influenced by the tastes of a very small group of individuals; hence the seemingly obvious next move to punk was never quite as inevitable.
As much as this may seem a viable explanation, I would it breach the Hippocratic oath I never took, if I were not to explain that this is a bit of a sophism; because, from what I recall VS (for whom, my retrospective appreciation only grows) were, as individuals big fans of early-punk like Black Sabbath et al. (they are proto-punk, right?) but I think that while early pop had an underpinning of rhythm which sort of fit into the Pakistani oriental sensitivity, punk probably doesn’t quite cut it like that?
What about Junoon’s Talaash though? Wasn’t that the ultimate angry-young-man bohemian rhapsody?
Shame, i was just getting on a roll, but a “silver BMW” is here. I’m off, with only cherry cola tangy candy to keep me company. More later.
Sunday, March 9th, 2008
Punk-d
saw the three videos and rather improbably, the sajjad ali one wasn’t the worst of the lot. (good call on salman ahmad as borat btw). anyways, you raise a very good question on why punk never really took hold in Pakistan.
my guess is that by the time the ‘underground’ music scene became established in pakistan, punk rock had already morphed into pop-punk, which doesn’t really lend itself to protest music. green day’s dookie was released in 1993 - since then with bands like blink 182 the term punk has lost almost all meaning.
my guess is this might have resulted in a lot of people being drawn towards grunge and metal instead of punk.
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This long, long, long, piece on Radiohead is either brilliant or bs or both.
In any case, this rebuttal definitely takes it down a few notches.
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I chanced upon a John Lee Hooker concert on tv a couple of days ago. WOW! - absolutely stunning!!! There was a duet he did with Ry Cooder (who also collaborated with Ali Farka Toure and is an incredible guitarist), which was stunning. Unfortunately youtube has let me down on this occasion, so I’ve posted another video instead.
Saturday, March 8th, 2008
think of the musicians!
in the course of my weekly [okay, daily] youtube browsing [okay, okay, hourly], i came across these three by-products of a decade of corruption, political violence, and general unruliness.
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
hall of mirrors.
well, this is always an interesting thing to think about. personally, i think everyone is influenced by the work of those who came before. sometimes it’s a positive influence - one might think a certain style of music is intriguing and that further experiments in that direction are worthwhile - sometimes a negative one - one might think a certain style of photography is dull and that going further down that road isn’t worthwhile.
if we talk about recycling pieces of art - entire songs, films, books, etc. - then it’s possible for someone to create a replica without adding anything to it. i think the basic fact is that the value of the new piece depends on the creativity and the talent of the artist who finds some inspiration in the original, gives it a personal interpretation, and then recreates it.
i’d agree that there’s more value to be found in old things than in new, but then that’s mainly because there are so many more old things than new ones.
it’s funny how films and plays are different like that. i don’t really know why films usually run in cinemas for just a few months, but plays can run for decades. i mean, dilwale dulhania le jayenge ran [and may still be running, i don't know] for over a decade in mumbai, but that’s an anomaly. it would be an excellent thing if major cinemas did show classics alongside new releases, but i think the industrialisation of cinema [and music, and literature, and more] makes it difficult to see that happening on a large scale.
a word on the johnny cash video - i got into him around a year ago and went through most of his american recordings. tom petty played for cash on a couple of those albums, and, if i’m not mistaken, that’s petty doing backing vocals on the song. i think it’s a good example of someone taking another’s work and giving it something extra.
Monday, February 25th, 2008
the new or the old?
first things first, amanat ali is awesome. coming from someone who doesn’t really listen to hindi film songs, i really, really, like his performances.
on novelty, the bacon quote is very interesting albeit slightly extreme. Al, I’d be interested to know how much you think artists who are influenced by those who come before them add value to that work, if at all.
i have to be careful with my current line of thinking, which is more along the lines of the bacon quote, that we are more likely to find value by delving into the archives and listening/watching classic albums and movies. this is because you can pretty easily reach the conclusion that there’s no point producing new culture as its unlikely to be good as that which has already produced.
of course, i don’t think that that’s true and what i’m probably arguing for is changing the ratio of how we consume new and old information. for instance, i think it would be great if cineplexes showed classics on a couple of their endless number of screens, instead of the crummiest of the new releases.
funnily enough we see this in theatre, which i actually think goes too far the other way by having too much shakespeare. i used to be more strongly against this, but have tempered my position somewhat. shakespeare is obviously a source of great insight into the human condition and has more to say than most contemporary playwrights.
I’ll end by linking to one of my favourite songs right now. “I won’t back down” by Tom Petty, covered by Johnny Cash.
Sunday, February 24th, 2008
return to motown.
digging through motown music from the 60s, it’s amazing how great an influence it’s had on musicians since. take, for instance, “please mister postman”, by the marvelettes, from 1961:
this was, of course, covered by those beatles on with the beatles in 1963, which, i’ll admit, is where i heard it first.