Monday, September 28, 2015

Earth and Sky




This is Lisa Dupuy. She is one of Sudhir's friends, classmates and overall awesome human being. During a very intense one year in London, they bonded over good writing, issues relating to journalists and politics (lots of politics). However, one of Sudhir's biggest regrets is that they did not talk about music tastes more. This letter is Lisa's way of solving that problem. Thanks for writing in, Lis.





Dear Sudhir,

I am currently experiencing a somewhat sleep-deprived delirium the likes of which I have not seen since our panic-stricken thesis-writing days ... You’re well aware, of course, that telling people to only recommend two songs is impossible. But I see that’s part of the fun. You see, I listen to music in the form of albums. When I like a song, I usually don’t just appreciate its music or lyrics, but also like if it sits comfortably amongst its fellow tunes, or if it does a one-eighty and kicks the rest of the musical entities in their rhythmic, three-minute butts. 

The other thing I do is associate songs or artists with one another, sometimes in ways that seem random. I suppose everyone does that: music can transport you to places or moments you’ve been at. For example:  Me feeling in a pickle about this blog post brought me back to my nervous 17-year-old self on the day  I was going in for my university admissions interview. My dad had driven me to the appointment and as I sat in the car with a semi-case of hyperventilation he played me a song called ‘Bodies’. It’s a Sex Pistols tune. It’s about a girl who is getting an abortion. It’s about as horrible as you’d expect. “It’s to get the jitters out”, my dad said. And it did, so that my song for nervous occasions is still this embodiment of refinery. I figured that this would make an original pick for Mephobia. But then I realized, If I pick this abortion song, I have to pick my other abortion song – which I know sounds weird. 

The other song is called ‘Oasis’ and it’s a song by one of my heroines, Amanda Palmer. She wrote a painfully personal but funny and poppy song. But the thing is: I’m not sure that ‘Oasis’ is my favourite Amanda Palmer song. And as much as I would love to feature her stuff here (she’s a label-breaking, tweeting, Neil Gaiman-marrying, punk cabaret machine), I’m afraid that once I get started with her, my association skills will be bouncing off the walls, ratcheting into dusty black holes of ever-expanding CD stacks. And you did just inform me in our whatsapp conversation that one or two introductory lines should suffice. 

I guess the best thing to do here, is forget about the namedropping above. After much deliberation I decided to let serendipity do the choosing, mostly because I’ve always wanted to use the word, ‘serendipity’. The selection turned out to be cool brothers crooning out soulful heartfelt songs. There’s some politics in both, as well. 


The Rolling Stones : Salt of the Earth

Just last weekend my beloved brother played a horribly overproduced R ‘n’ B cover version. Big mistake. There’s no for a reimagination of this tune. It features my favourite ‘change’ in music of all time: the opening lead is being sung by Keith Richards in the first verse. at about 30 seconds in, Mick Jagger takes over. It gives me goosebumps everytime. Throw in some societal statements and I’m raising my hands in praise.

 



Paolo Nutini : Iron Sky

The entire Caustic Love get a regular repeat at my house, but in my opinion ‘Iron Sky’ takes the cake. I like a raspy voice and in this track Nutini is bringing his voice, for sure. Also – despair, dystopia: perfect musical building blocks, even politics works here. It’s something stirring in this song. And the Charlie Chaplin Dictator speech in there is a great trick, too.




Monday, September 21, 2015

Men and Brothers

Tanisha's Pick

Who remembers the days of Grooveshark? The days before 8tracks and Soundcloud. This group was once a feature on the Grooveshark home page with their track Fear and Fallacy and I was immediately hooked. I sang the lyrics all through my college thesis "I know my time is coming..."

The song I am sharing is one of my favourites of theirs because of the lyrics and because I love the music transition at 1:48s from a slow paced to a faster foot-tapping beat. I'm reading through the lyrics wondering what excerpt to share, but the whole song is awesome, so pay attention to all the lyrics.





Sudhir's Pick

Needtobreathe is Christian rock band out of the same genre as legends such as Casting Crowns and Switchfoot. I picked this song of theirs for a two reasons - 1) It's new and awesome and 2) It has Gavin Degraw right beside them singing. The title seems appropriate for Bo and Bear Rinehart, brothers who are also lead singer and lead guitarist for the band.This song exemplifies the phenomenal range of the singer and the contemporary edge this song has. Sheer brilliance!





Monday, September 14, 2015

Contemplative Mondays


Sudhir's Pick

One of my favourite things to do is to sit on the balcony in the evening when it's completely quiet but for the sound of the rustling leaves. This song now accompanies me - it induces reflection, and promises resolve. The last minute is magical as the oath of protection echoes accompanied by a wonderful harmony of the piano and violin.


Try it sometime.






Tanisha's Pick

This track featured on my playlist a few days ago. Gungor, a husband-wife duo has been known to produce unconventional contemporary Christian music- intricately crafted arrangements and meaningful themes. 

This track is no different. A folk-inspired track with close harmonies talking about the futility of man's strife for greatness. 





Sunday, September 6, 2015

Musical Interlude: September Edition

This months musical interlude has been contributed by Saahas Patil. Saahas has been singing professionally for a band called Allegro Fudge for the last 4 years. They released one album, 'Maximum City' in 2012, and have a bunch of songs written for the next. He is also writing and playing his own music, and hopes to have an album out next year. Saahas also work as a social worker with an NGO called U&I. Check out his Facebook page- www.facebook.com/saahas 




A Face to Call Home : John Mayer

This song is from John Mayer's fifth album 'Born and Raised'. He wrote this album right after his very public fall from grace with the playboy interview. What that resulted in, is such a great album. I love it when an album reflects the artists life, and this is such an accurate description of his at the time - wounded, chastised, hopeful and very introspective. As with any John Mayer song, he manages to go a lot deeper than most with his lyrics and he does exactly that with this song about love and companionship. The riff and backing vocals during the bridge is just something else. 




The Spirit Carries On : Dream Theatre

The album that this song is from, " Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory" really is a complete masterpiece. It is about past life regression, where a man re-visits his past life and finds out he was murdered. It is a concept album, and all the songs follow a story and gracefully intertwine with each other, to result in this final song, which to me has stood out as one of the band's best. The lyrics are deep, every note in the song is brimming with so much emotion. Perfect ending to an epic album.