Author Archives: Howard Pereira
An old joke I heard about these guys when they first hit the scene, was that they are the Gujarati version of Blakc, hence the name Blek! The band actually takes its name from the French graffiti artist Blek le Rat – commonly referred to as the father of stencil – and not from any of the more entertaining ones devised by fans. They’ve been around for a little more than a year now and they certainly seem to have moved in the right direction. They aren’t a new and distinctive-sounding band as such, but they are in a space by themselves in the blossoming Indian punk scene, managing to cramp a lot of the aggression, normally…
I remember having a conversation with Nihar Manwatkar of anECHO back in 2003, about bands that we thought had great potential to be big. And by big we didn’t mean bands that would click on just the national platform, but the ones that would be able to connect on a global stage if given a push in the right direction. We both agreed that Split was one of those selected few. They were marked out by us as a band to follow. Unfortunately for most musicians, life gets in the way, and even many years later, Split hadn’t yet broken through that mid-card level band status and had yet to release an album or an…
I wouldn’t say their reputation preceded them when I first heard of The Colour Compound a few months ago. I had heard Rohan Mazumdar singing just once before when he was helping out Mumbai-based Something Relevant for a few gigs while their vocalist was out of town and I remember him to be very good. Although I was surprised that they were releasing an EP so early and I had missed the launch of Sincerely Yours at the Blue Frog, they were still highly recommended. The EP starts off with a song called ‘Just Another Déjà vu’. The first thing that struck me was the nice clean sound of all instruments. Acoustic guitar strum launches…
Most of us know who Chandresh Kudwa is. In fact I’d wager that anyone who’s been to an Axe-tortion gig was at some point befuddled by the dexterity of his flying fingers and his ambidextrous simultaneous playing of both guitar and ukulele. And since there aren’t very many people around doing that, this was a highly awaited CD release. The album starts off with the title track ‘Conqueror’. A mid-tempo chugging rocker, it immediately re-introduces (if you’ve heard Axe-tortion LIVE) the tone and contrast of both instruments. Some sloppy playing aside, the song does its work in setting up the album sonically. The electric ukulele sounds quite sweet even though some people would say it’s…
I landed up at the Blue Frog last night anticipating some pure guitar wizardry from some of the best musicians on the rock scene. Tonight was yet another edition of Chandresh Kudwa’s long-running and popular guitar-centric initiative called Axe-tortion, where he, along with two other guitarists played individual sets before finally jamming together. On my way there, I made it a point to listen to a few staple favorites by Joe Satriani and Andy Timmons, just to get into the mood. After the customary ‘ingest-as-much-alcohol-outside-before-entering-an-expensive-place’ was out of the way, a couple of friends and I entered my favorite venue. The first act was already up and featured the new shredder on the local scene, Lokesh Bakshi…
Most people first got a glimpse of Fire Exit through the 2008 compilation release, Stupid Ditties 2. ‘MML’ was one the songs that stood out as it had a different vibe to it. Their debut EP has managed to capture the same easy vibe. Although the songs are complex in terms of time signature switches and vocal harmonies, the collection still comes across as simple yet thought provoking. Subhadra’s vocals ring of familiarity, but you’d find it hard to really settle on a definite influence. Her voice sounds mature yet innocent as she delivers textures of harmonies on ‘Waiting For’. Nice subdued percussions close the song out well. ‘Poison Ivy’ starts off with a Tabla and…
To be quite honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to this gig. I was telling people “I god a bad code” all day and the meds I had been taking hadn’t really helped so far. To top it off, it was a dry day and looking for alcohol when you’re sick is never fun. I reached what is probably my second favorite venue, B69, at 8.30pm and was hoping that I hadn’t missed much. As it turns out, I was early and it was quite a sight to see and meet everyone outside the venue instead of Vasant Bar which is the normal meet and greet point, as it was closed. After narrowly…
I love the Blues. I’ve been very recently, completely immersing my self in regular doses of Buddy Guy, SRV, Hendrix and Phil Sayce. So to say I was looking forward to watching the musicians in The Luke Kenny Mojo Jukebox really is an understatement. Having already had a long day, I was eager to get to my favorite live music venue, The Blue Frog and sit back and soak in some long bends and cold brews. I managed to convince my famous Mallu friend Sujit to accompany me and so we caught a slow train from Malad station, party packs in our bags. We entered just as the band was starting up….
