Meantime, also on the WFMU blog, is a little history on the American fascination for this particular Asha Parekh – Manoj Kumar partnership.

Back in the 1980′s when WFMU had its public access TV show that Mark Rudolph put together, one of my favorite bits was the dance number clip from the 1966 Indian film Gumnaam. Masked dancers bug out and go completely apeshit to a totally high-energy, mutated surf number “Jan Pehechan-Ho” [sic] performed by Bollywood music legend Mohammed Rafi (though, as Michael Cudahy once pointed out to me, the band’s drumkit in the film wields the name “Ted Lyons and His Cubs”). Eventually Terry Zwigoff used this song in his film Ghost World, where his counter-culture-immersed heroine Enid kicks off the flick by mirroring the film’s dancers while watching the clip on TV. [link]

Well, buggy and apeshit they may be, but these phirangs know jack about Hindi movies. If we’re talking sixties Bollywood, I always preferred Shammi‘s moves to anything else. Watch him go “apeshit” in this classic Rafi-Asha collaboration (with Asha Parekh again, and Helen), one of my all time favorites:

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

I heard on NPR yesterday, that an Italian DJ named Gaudi (a namesake of the original, obviously) has remixed some of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s early work to a reggae beat. He got some forty-year-old reel-to-reel of tapes of unreleased sessions from Khan’s record label and spent two years wading through all of it, isolating the vocals and then layering it on dub reggae beats. He spent a lot of the time listening to the music, even hiring a translator, before he came to a realization that inspired him to mix the music and create an album.

“Because the message of that music and the message of reggae is exactly the same,” Gaudi says. “It’s peace, love, and spirituality. So that was my common denominator for me, just to try and unify the two elements.” [link]

Although I haven’t heard the entire album, I heard some clips on the radio during the show yesterday, and there are two songs that are available for streaming on the NPR story page. I have to say the music reminds me of Bally Sagoo‘s old Bollywood mixes, but Khan’s music is infinitely superior. ‘Ena Akhiyan Noo’ has a nice, melancholy groove to it, but the other song, ‘Bethe Bethe Kese Kese‘ opens with a Gandhi quote (spoken by Gandhi himself) which was somewhat disenchanting. If you can get over that, then it’s worth a listen.

The album is on Amazon already (has been for about a week, actually), and is on its way to be shipped to me.

Ever since I have known him, Shirzad has been involved in some kind of musical activity. From threatening blows to defend the Beatles’ early years in the fifth or sixth grade, to singing Herman’s Hermits’ ‘Leaning on a Lamp Post’ in the eighth-grade talent contest, to conducting his school-house choir singing Billy Joel’s ‘For the Longest Time’ soon after his twelfth grade. His love of music ranges from classical to pop, from jazz-rock fusion to Indo-jazz fusion. And I should also mention that he has an opinion on everything in between. If by chance, you tap your plate with your fork while eating dinner, there’s a good chance that he’ll tell you it was slightly off, and proceed to demonstrate the correct note.

Almost a decade ago, he focused his musical energies and took up to playing the bass guitar seriously. Taking lessons from a professional musician, I saw him practice diligently for more than a few hours a day. This might not seem like a big deal, but Shirzad has a full time job as a consultant. Ultimately, his diligence paid off when he met Michael Rennie and Nick Turner, two South African musicians, and founders of Mikanic. They asked him to join as bassist for the band.

Mike and Nick, respectively, a violinist and an acoustic guitarist (both are also vocalists), formed Mikanic in 2003, and were fairly well-known on the South African music circuit. In fact, “well-known” might be an under-statement, since they founded Sons of Trout and with that act, headlined every major music festival in the country as well as releasing four albums and opening for various international acts. They released their first album as Mikanic, Swimming with the Women, to critical acclaim and it served to help them hop over to this side of the Atlantic, to New York City.

Mikanic’s music is difficult to box using conventional labels, and is hard to describe with words. But I consider this to be a Good Thing. Their sound is without boundaries, and dances around from reggae to rock to African to bossa to jazz. In fact, probably the only word that gets close to describing their style is ‘upbeat’. Their website says, their “universal appeal lies in the sincerity and positive energy of their music.” You better believe it.

The line-up is like their music – boundary-free – with Mike and Nick from South Africa, Shirzad Khusrokhan from India, Yasuhito Sasaki from Japan on lead guitar, and Alex Beckmann from the USA on drums. Certainly, the international flavor seeps right into their music and enhances the universality. Their cultural differences serve to enrich their music by giving it a wonderful sense of humor. One could say that the music almost has a twinkle in its metaphorical eye. Their tunes help you to relax and take it easy, but at the same time make you want to groove to the beat. If that doesn’t make any sense, go ahead and take a listen (some more songs at the bottom of the post). Or better yet, see them live.

Watch Mike and Nick talk about the band, along with some neat concert clips.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Mikanic plays at the Leonard Minoy Thalia at Symphony Space (Broadway and 95th, in Manhattan) on August 9th at 8pm. Get more event info, or visit the Mikanic website.

Listen To The Music
Listen to ‘If You See Me Walking > President’
[audio http://www.mikanic.com/MP3/20060413aceofclubs_walking_president.mp3] (April 13, 2006 – Ace of Clubs, New York, NY)

Listen to ‘Naked Man’
[audio http://www.mikanic.com/MP3/20070212bassline_naked_man.mp3] (Feb 12, 2007 – Bassline, Johannesburg, South Africa)

More free downloads.

Sometime in the 1980s (or thereabouts), I heard ‘De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da’ for the first time. It was on my father’s Sony stereo system, which was covered with a custom-made plastic case and occupied an exalted position on his bedroom shelf. I had just been given “stereo privileges” which meant that my father considered me old enough to use it, and was confident I wouldn’t set it on fire. No fires were caused in listening to the song, but the upbeat mood and catchy tune hooked me. From that point on I considered myself a Police (and Sting) fan.

When I heard they were going to be touring again after a twenty-four year hiatus, it was a no-brainer. I had to go. So I awoke one morning in late February (when they went on sale), logged into Ticketmaster and bought tickets to their show at the McAfee Coliseum in Oakland on June 13th. The show sold out in a less than two hours.

The Opening Band

We got to the venue na?vely at 6:30pm, like it said on the ticket. Now, we weren’t aware of the existence of warm-up acts. After hanging around for about an hour, we were inundated for another hour with something that sounded like a dial-up modem logging on to a network, except a few thousand decibels louder . As it turned out, this was the opening band – Fiction Plane – led by Sting, Jr. a.k.a. Joe Sumner. Clearly, something went awry with the genetics there. When they stopped playing, one guy in the audience clapped. He narrowly escaped for his life as fellow concert-goers attacked him with their soft drinks and hot dogs. I exaggerate, of course, but it suffices to say that there were no long lines to buy their CD.

Wrapped Around Your Finger

At around 9pm, the Police (finally!) got off to a rocking start with ‘Message in a Bottle’. A good, strong opening which was jazzed up with a stronger beat from its album version. In fact, several of the songs were literally “jazzed up” from their original versions- probably an influence of Summers technical brilliance and Sting’s foray into jazz since the split. For instance, ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger’ had an extended percussion intro which really brought on the mood. I should mention that Copeland was making full use of his extended percussion kit throughout the show. In ‘Walking on the Moon’ (a personal favorite), Sting did a pan-flute solo. It wasn’t great, but it worked. ‘De Do Do Do…’ was funky as always and hit the spot. On the other hand, ‘Every Breath You Take’ – which had its last breath taken away from it several years ago, from being overplayed and over-covered by other musicians, fell flat.

All songs were longer than the album versions from the eighties – and this was not necessarily bad. Also, while normally the three have a backing band which plays the horns and additional guitars, on this tour all backing parts were written out – it was only the three of them performing on stage.

Invisible Sun

Ultimately, the concert was too short. They left after less than an hour of playing, and had to be drawn out thrice. Call me cheap, but paying over a hundred dollars for the ticket should be enough to have the band play two sets lasting forty-five minutes each (at least) plus one encore, if things are going well. The total playing time for this concert was under an hour and fifteen minutes, and that included all the time spent clapping to get them back on stage.

Also, from a practical perspective, the stadium was not well-equipped to handle a concert like this. First off, there were only three screens – two on each side of the stage, positioned for best viewing by only the audience facing the stage, and one behind the band. Since we were at an angle, we could see only one screen, and that too, barely. Secondly, the acoustics were suboptimal, with there being quite a bit of echo (and therefore, distortion) in the stadium seats. A better venue for this sort of thing is the Shoreline Amphitheatre.

Overall, although it was great to see them perform live, the concert was a tad disappointing. There was a fair amount of experimentation and deviation from the original recordings. And like with all experimentation it was high-risk. Which means that when it worked, it really rocked. But when it didn’t work, it really stank. The bad songs, the short performance and the issues with the venue definitely were a downer. That said though, it was the Police after all, and they did rock, even if it was only for some of the time.

Picture source

Good Night (no, really!)

Setlist
Message in a Bottle*
Synchronicity II*
Don?t Stand So Close to Me*
Voices in My Head / When the World Is Running Down
Spirits in the Material World*
Driven to Tears
Walking on the Moon*
Truth Hits Everybody
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic*
Wrapped Around Your Finger*
The Bed?s Too Big Without You
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da*
Invisible Sun*
Walking in Your Footsteps
Can?t Stand Losing You*

Encore 1
Roxanne*
King of Pain*

Encore 2
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take

Encore 3
Next to You

*These songs really rocked. The rest ran the spectrum from Could you hurry this up, please? to Hm…it’s ok.

As promised, for people in the Bay Area – The Police will be playing at the McAfee Coliseum in Oakland, CA on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 6.30pm. Tickets went on sale at 10am on Sunday (2/25) on Ticketmaster. Did you get yours yet?

Shoreline Amphiteatre,
Mountain View, CA.
October 10th, 2006.

As we walked into a packed, sold-out stadium, you could almost smell the excitement in the air. Judging from the miles-long line of cars extending on to the freeway and the throng entering the venue, this was clearly no ordinary night. For some, it was the event of a lifetime. Roger Waters, founder-member and bassist of Pink Floyd, was going to perform their groundbreaking classic album, The Dark Side of the Moon in sequence, in its entirety.

Floydian Screen: The Opening
On stage, you see the now-familiar Floydian screen. On it, there’s an amazingly sharp picture of a fifties-style radio with a model airplane on it, a bottle of scotch with a glass, and an ash tray with a cigarette. Filled with so many shades of brown and amber, it might even be sepia-toned. Almost imperceptibly, the picture comes to life as smoke begins to swirl up from the cigarette and a hand pours some scotch into the glass and replaces it half empty. Then it picks up the cigarette and takes a drag as smoke machines fill in for the absent smoke exhalation. The hand turns the large dial on the radio. The first song we hear is a scratchy, static-filled ‘We’ll Meet Again’, by Vera Lynn, recognizable from The Wall. Next, we hear Elvis’ ‘Hound-Dog’, followed by Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’ which is quickly cut short as the radio is retuned to ‘My Funny Valentine’ which is played to its finish. Then, for a few milliseconds, which feel like hours, there’s dead silence. This is utterly shattered as the Emperor of Floyd walks on to the stage accompanied by the adrenaline-charged, distortion-laden slide guitar and drums from the opening of ‘In The Flesh’. The screen displays marching hammers. Fireworks erupt on stage. And the crowd erupts into wild and ecstatic cheers.

After his performance with the rest of Pink Floyd at Live 8, Waters expressed an interest in revisiting the classic Pink Floyd album, The Dark Side of the Moon. Performed in Europe and North America, The Dark Side of the Moon tour consists of Waters playing a spectrum of songs from early Floyd up to his more recent solo work in Set One, followed by a performance of the entire The Dark Side of the Moon album in Set Two.

In the 1960s, Pink Floyd used to project surreal images from a slide projector on to a regal Syd Barrett performing on a giant pillow in the middle of a resplendent stage. In the 1980s, they used to construct an entire wall brick-by-brick between themselves and the audience as they performed The Wall. Throughout their careers, Pink Floyd and Waters have been pioneers in immersing their audience into a complete audiovisual environment during their live shows. This show was no exception.

Set One

In addition to the powerful guitar riff, another reason for opening with ‘In The Flesh’ was to highlight the fact that Pink wasn’t well, he stayed back at the hotel and sent Waters along with his surrogate band. Rumor has it that although Waters would like to perform with the rest of Floyd, it is Dave Gilmour who opposes it.

‘In The Flesh’ was followed by a fifties-style radio announcement having to do with Soviets in Cuba. This was followed by a subdued ‘Mother’ whose solo acoustic guitar parts were played by Waters. Gilmour’s vocals were performed on this number (and several others) by Dave Kilminster. After the classic line,

Mother, should I trust the government?

Waters couldn’t resist mouthing,

No fucking way!

‘Mother’ was followed by ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’ from Floyd’s second (1968) studio album A Saucerful of Secrets, which included a few Syd Barrett songs. Barrett, who passed away last summer, was one of the founding members of the band. He left shortly after the band’s inception, before their rise to fame, owing to mental problems stemming from his excessive psychedelic drug use. At points the screen showed what I thought were black-and-white snippets of Syd running and jumping in some fields. With a fantastic drum solo by Graham Broad and an excellent guitar-sax jam between Ian Ritchie and Dave Kilminster, ‘Set the Controls’ was followed by ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond.’ It was a condensed version of Parts 1-5. This is a well-known tribute to Syd, and the screen displayed his picture throughout the tune, with a close-up of his eyes during the line,

Now there’s a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky

It continued on with ‘Have a Cigar’ with a “bright lights, big city” kind of montage on the screen. Like the lyrics, the visuals displayed the effects of a small-town artist enveloped by fat cat big-city producers, who smoke cigars. The act of the producers offering a cigar to the innocent artist makes them feel he is somewhat complicit in their greed. Also like the album, the song abruptly morphs into radio, and the screen shows the original still life with the vintage radio which, after some tuning by the hand, plays a tinny version of ‘Wish You Were Here’ exactly as it sounds on the album of the same name, going into the actual version. What was notably different from the original however, was the background vocalists performing a bluesy version of the chorus that acts as a bridge in the middle of the song. This song was also written for Syd, and during the guitar solo, the screen showed candles in his memory.

The next few songs were numbers from Waters’ solo albums and although I am not a big fan of this part of his career, it was entertaining nonetheless. These included ‘Southampton Dock’ and ‘Fletcher Memorial Home’ from The Final Cut. Technically, I know this was a Pink Floyd album, but it was principally a Waters project, and the style of music and lyrics is largely echoed in his solo albums. During ‘Fletcher Memorial Home’ an inflated astronaut was sent floating around the stage. He also sang a new 2005 track ‘Leaving Beirut’, about his experience as a teenager in Lebanon. The song’s lyrics are interspersed with spoken word commentary reflecting Waters’ strong stance against the Iraq war. For the show, the spoken word parts were displayed on the screen somewhat like a graphic novel.

Leaning Left
In addition to ‘Leaving Beirut’, there was certainly a left-leaning political coloring to the entire show, which was reflected in occasional anti-war propaganda on the screen, alternating with the surreal imagery. His performing songs from The Final Cut, which has a strong anti-World War II slant, reinforced this. Waters lost his father in the Second World War and since The Wall, his anti-war views show up every once in a while in his songs. In some concerts, I heard that there was concerted booing, especially during ‘Leaving Beirut’. But in this bluest of blue states and in a significantly left-leaning city, there were rampant and united cheers every time Waters made some kind of anti-war statement, musical or otherwise.

A Floating Pig

The last song in the first set was ‘Sheep’ from Animals, and following a classic Pink Floyd tradition, an inflatable pig was released into the air. Left from the stage, it floated from the rafters out on to the lawn and then went hundreds of feet into the air. The graffiti was interesting and included ‘Impeach Bush Now’ scrawled across its backside. A magnificent spectacle, it was a grand ending to the set.

Set Two

The second set consisted of Dark Side played in its entirety. Starting with the familiar heartbeat, onto which all of the album’s songs are superimposed, the entire performance was fantastic and words fail to describe the perfection with which the album was replicated on stage.

Backing Waters was an excellent line-up, especially the band’s three guitarists, including The Who and Clapton accompanist, Andy Fairweather-Low, ex-Thin Lizzy member and a regular with Pink Floyd since 1977, Snowy White and Dave Kilminster who, along with keyboardist Jon Carin, did an excellent job of filling in for Dave Gilmour’s vocals throughout the show. The drummer Graham Board shone in an extended drum solo in ‘Time’, and Jon Carin’s virtuosity was revealed in ‘Us and Them’. Of course, the significance of the song in this time of war was not missed by either Waters or the audience. Carol Kenyon blew everyone away with her rendition of ‘Great Gig in the Sky’. With those lungs, I’m surprised she didn’t literally blow everyone away! Waters did not perform much on this set, except of course, with his bass guitar and by walking around on the edges of the stage almost interacting with the audience.

The quadraphonic sounds enveloped the audience and the alarm clocks in ‘Time’, the cash registers in ‘Money’ and the constant maniacal laughter almost floated out towards you. The visuals of course, were fantastic, with the set beginning and ending with a close-up of the moon.

The Encore
After some wild applause, the group came back to perform, ‘The Happiest Days of Our Lives’ and ‘Another Brick in the Wall II’, along with ‘Vera’, followed by ‘Bring the Boys Back Home’. The blue-leaning audience did not let Waters down, and cheered loudly for that one. The band ended with a magnificent extended version of ‘Comfortably Numb’ during which everyone held up their lighters. It was amazing as everyone in the audience sang along with Waters, word for word. Caught up in the moment, I was no exception.

For someone who has been listening to Floyd since the age of twelve, on old cassette recordings, this was an epic moment in my life. And Waters, to say the least, did not disappoint. After last year’s Pink Floyd reunion on Live 8 last year, everyone was hoping for a reunion tour. Unfortunately, that did not happen. This certainly comes in at a close second. Waters left all of us comfortably numb.

Set List
Set One
1.In the Flesh
2.Mother
3.Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
4.Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I – V) (abridged)
5.Have a Cigar
6.Wish You Were Here
7.Southampton Dock
8.The Fletcher Memorial Home
9.Perfect Sense, Parts 1 and 2
10.Leaving Beirut
11.Sheep

Set Two (The Dark Side of the Moon)
1.Speak to Me
2.Breathe
3.On the Run
4.Time
5.Breathe (Reprise)
6.The Great Gig in the Sky
7.Money
8.Us and Them
9.Any Colour You Like
10.Brain Damage
11.Eclipse

Encore
1.The Happiest Days of Our Lives
2.Another Brick in the Wall, Part II
3.Vera
4.Bring the Boys Back Home
5.Comfortably Numb

The Band
Roger Waters – Vocals, bass guitar and acoustic guitar
Andy Fairweather-Low – Guitar, bass and backing vocals
Snowy White – Guitar
Dave Kilminster – Guitar, vocals and additional bass
Jon Carin – Synthesizer, guitar, lap steel guitar and vocals
Harry Waters – Hammond organ and synthesizer
Ian Ritchie – Saxophone, EWI and additional bass
Graham Broad – Drums and percussion
Katie Kissoon, P. P. Arnold, Carol Kenyon – Backing vocals

Pictures from Wikipedia. Click on the image for source information.

We were greeted at our entrance into the park with a common sight.

Then we walked by the banjo twanging and rhythmic fiddling of Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. The only appropriate response to these guys is this one.

But we didn’t stick around there for too long. We were headed to see Hot Tuna – one of the biggest acts of the festival. They’ve been around for ever.

Their co-founder and bassist Jack Casady (according to his Wikipedia entry) is “considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era.” He, along with acoustic guitarist, Jorma Kaukonen, spun off from Jefferson Airplane to form their group. Here they are, along with Barry Mitterhoff.

They had the entire audience entranced. Even the animals.

Then it was time to move on to see the best-known non-bluegrass name of the festival – Elvis Costello. He was playing with T-Bone Burnett (a pretty big name himself) under the monicker of ‘The Coward Brothers’.

On the way, we walked by the snack stands. I saw five different countries’ cuisines there!

The foodstuffs, incidentally, were in the Marx Meadow. Which I thought was quite ironic.

The place was packed to see the two legends. But we, the locals, knew all the secret spots. We sneaked into a restricted area in front of the stage.

Until we were kicked out of there by Security, that is! But no worries, we still managed to get up close and personal with the two.

And, as if by magic, the two became three. They were joined by Emmylou Harris who is a country legend in her own right. That hair is unmistakably recognizable.

They were followed by Richard Thompson – one of the top 20 guitarists of all time, according to Rolling Stone in a 2003 list.

Well, all good things must come to an end. And soon it was time to go. On the way out, we ran into one of the numerous ultra-left-wing-types that seem so common to this blue state.

A pleasant sight to end the weekend with (note: sarcasm)…

Best of all, it was free! So, of course we had to go. We got home, showered, ate, took a nap, woke up, had some tea… Oh -er- the festival. Right. Ok, here we go.

Getting in, we saw all kinds of people:

Little ones.

And big ones.

A man with his best friend.

Here’s a closer look at his dog…

…who bears an eerie resemblance to this guy.

So we started the afternoon at the Porch Stage featuring Kemo Sabe. They have a kind of punk-bluegrass fusion sort of sound. Well, at least that’s the best I can do to describe it.

We then walked by Gillian Welch at the Banjo Stage.

She sang some pretty touching songs. See their effect for yourself.

Next, it was on to the Marx Meadow, where the Rooster Stage was and the crowd had gathered to hear Billy Bragg (as had we).

Here he is, the man himself.

An interesting guy. Quite left-leaning, he recently even wrote a book. He spoke more than he sang, mostly about politics, Bush, etc. It was fun. He had this couple in rapture.

Then it was on to the Banjo Stage again, to see Steve Earle and the Bluegrass Dukes.

Here’s all five of them (Steve Earle’s the guy in black facing away from the camera).

And then, it was time to go. We turned around to see the Park one last time at dusk. A pretty sight.

We even saw some more furry creatures at the tail-end of the day’s festivities…

Continues on to Day 2 here.

It doesn’t look like this the first time Amit has tried to combine music with visualization. He also created this tool, which he calls the “Hammond Flower” and creates sounds using a visual interface.