It Might Get Loud: Rock n Guitar

Three great guitarists- Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White, meet up and introduce to each others their individual style and philosophy. This is the premise of the 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud directed by David Guggenheim. The movie itself contains very few scenes of the meeting. Individual interviews, trips down memory lanes, initial struggles, demos of guitars and equipment they use and old clips of stage shows and photographs make up the rest.

The theme that bind the three narratives is electric guitar. Most of the reminiscences are based on their experiences of learning, knowing and playing guitar. It is interesting to know that the way they approach their guitar sets them apart. Jimmy Page has a love affair with his. He compares it to a woman to make love with, a romantic notion. For Edge, who is very particular about the sound he produces and techno-savvy among three, guitar is a tool to reach that sound that he wants.  Jack White, the garage rockstar has a more primal connection with it. To him, it's a fight that he makes while playing it. He need to win the fight to succeed.

The right move by the makers were to make the three stars to represent three distinct eras of rock music- after Great Depression, during Vietnam war and the Counter Culture movement and finally, someone from present times. This way, they managed to concisely line out the evolution of rock music. Another interesting factor to note is that while Jimmy Page and Jack White, the first and latest of them, are inspired by the Blues, The Edge has no such strains in him. It was interesting to see him clearly out of his comfort zone when others were discussing blues. It's like they reached a complete circle.

For me, the defining moment of the movie was when Page played Whole Lotta Love and others looked on, mesmerised. With all the differences of POV and generation gap between them, that scene demonstrate the power of music to unite all.

Janasheen: Music review

When Stella send me an email appreciating the blog and asking about the possibility to review the album Janasheen by Nickk, which they are publicizing currently, I was a bit worried. I like hearing music and even passing comments on songs. But to review songs... it is out of my forte. So to keep the authenticity of the site intact (I admit that was a trumpet blowing..) I approached my good friend Andrews Lijoy, a wonderful singer and composer with a great music sense, who readily agreed to help this friend in distress and make a guest post on Conscientious Reflections for reviewing Janasheen by Nickk... On to Lijoy.... 

Nickk is the latest musician to hit the already populated Indian pop music field. A singer, composer and lyricist, he has just released his debut album- Janasheen released by Beatfactory music. 

The album has five tracks, if the remix version is considered as a separate track. The first one is Janasheen, the song with a video. Janasheen has a very feel good effect to it, but I don't think it will linger in the mind for long. The song is devoid of any special magic to it. The strength of the song lies in the soothing voice of Nickk. The strings and beats at the start reminds me of a slower version of Ashlee Simpson's "I am me", but it still gives an "ear candy" effect.

The second song, Guzaarish Rock is actually not a rock version. Any song won't fall into a rock song category by having some heavy string portion added to it. An attempt to modify it to a rock version actually kind of disturbed the feel of the song. 

The melody of the pack is the track called Jaane Kyun. Here the singer takes advantage of his voice and the orchestra backs it up very well. A slow and smooth song which is easy on ears. 

Iqteza is a typical club song. It has nothing special that can throw you on the dance floor right away. 

Guzaarish Dance version- Only adding certain extra beat does not make a dance version of a song. 

Overall Janasheen is not a ground breaking pop album, but not a bad one either. Songs are quite okay, but treads the usual path of pop songs that are being released now a days. With a voice like that he could have surely done a much better work. 

Jim Morrison: Beyond The Doors Of Perception

The history of rock music is interspersed with anarchy, craziness, poetry, restlessness, violence, histrionics, excesses, radical politics, discontentment, drugs, sex and alcohol... and the name of Jim Morrison is on the top. James Douglas Morrison, or Jim Morrison as he is known to his fans throughout the world, or Lizard King as he was known to himself, is one of the most contraversial rockers and the main reason for the psychedelic rock band, The Doors to be one of the best in its genre. In his 27 years of existance, in which his musical career accounted less than a decade, he had been a poet, vocalist, rock star, movie buff, selfish, arrogant, bully, maniac, drug addict, alcoholic and the most influential and iconic singer of his time. In his final days he was living in oblivion, in a foreign land, whereabouts not even known by fellow band members and died a mysterious death as shocking as his entire life....

In this biography Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend, Stephen Davis tries to uncover the mystery surrounding this strange and much mistook persona, with a little success, but in the end falls short because of may be the deficiency of authentic material. Any one close to Morrison was dead or hated him. And the poet himself never exposed himself fully to anyone (if you does not count the obscenity charge against him after a concert in Miami). He always kept several pockets of secret friends totally separated from each others. So in the end Davis ends up throwing more mystery to the already dark story with many loose threads hanging.

Jim Morrison was the son of an admiral, who maintained accute strictness in his family. Jim grew up to be an acadamically bright bully and prankster, who hated authority. His practical jokes bordered on extremes. He became addicted to movies and books in a very young age. A sighting of an Indian family injured in an accident left a deep impression in young Jim's psyche. He claimed that one of them had entered into his mind then. By the end of adolescence, Jim had started reading Neitzche, Rimbaud, Blake, Huxley and contemporary beat writers. He was much hooked on to movies and ended up pursuing a graduation in movie- making against the wish of his family. Although his graduation movie was disliked by majority, those who liked it really loved it. A despaired Jim took on to poetry, drugs and alcohol- excessively. His friend Ray Manzarek decided to form a rock band with him after he heard Jim singing one of his poetry on a beach. Jim decided the name to of the band to be The Doors, after Huxley's book The Doors Of Perception. Initially they struggled a lot but with the addition of John Densmore and Robby Kreiger, the band started evolving. Jim's poems where the soul of the band.

On stage, the psychological books that he used to read gave Jim a lot of chance to experiment with the audience psyche, an art that he perfected over time. His drunken antics, swearing and Greek god looks got him a huge fanbase. After performing in several bars, finally they got a chance to work with Elektra records, with whom they cut all their records. The name Elektra gave Jim a chance to flex his Oedipus Rex complex on stage. This time around he met Pamela Courson, with whom he maintained a relation through out his life, though he had countless on- off relationships with many women.   

He was much loved and equally hated for his stage persona. His drunken antics and stubbornness, no care attitude and disheveled life style constantly embarrassed those who loved him. By a few years he became distanced from his band members. When they decided to sell a song to a motor company to use in an ad, he severed all personal ties with them. A song on Vietnam war, The Unknown Soldier, made the Nixon administration to consider The Doors as one of the adversaries. The author believed this ended in much negative publicity to the band, especially with the Miami incident when Jim allegedly exposed himself on public, even though there was not a single photographic or videographic evidences to indict him.

His public performances also were never predictable, some times he created magic on stage, but other times he was pathetic. He became disinterested by the end and wanted to pursue his real ambitions, poetry and movies. But due to his rockstar image he was never considered a poet by his contemporaries although posthumously his poetry was taught in several universities. He moved to Paris in his final days, with his love Pamela and was one day found dead in his apartment, probably due to a drug overdose.

His grave is one of the most visited site in Paris. Even after death Jim Morrison never became obsolete. His anti establishment, chaotic verses and dare devil life style continues to inspire millions, for good or for bad.

Do the Earth a favour: Gypsum

I was going through this news paper suppliment today while I came upon this article about using gypsum for construction of buildings, minimising the usage of bricks, wood, sand and water. I am feeling thats great because dependency on all these things- sand, water, wood especially is creating hell a lot of ecological problems. In Kerala, I have heard, Government has made the laws on buying sand so stringent that it is having an adverse effect, sand mafia, that deals with underground buying and selling of sand! Ultimate effect is more price for sand and increased raping of seashores and rivers... We cannot reduce construction of buildings, we cannot ignore our rising population's basic need of sheltor, and the only way to deal with it is find alternate sources of construction...

The article about which I mentioned earlier puts forward gypsum as a proper substitute.

• It has great insulation properties making it fire, moisture and impact resistant.
• More savings in electricity, due to the less electrical conductivity.
• Light weight and very flexible, making it suitable for dry walls and false ceilings.
• Fast to construct.
• Durable- seems the pyramids where made out of it. Any more proof ?
• Green, recyclable!
• Better aesthetics.
• Helps in water conservation.
• Not messy as is the case after using mortar and bricks.
• Better material substitute for sand cement plasters.

I am not sure if it has any disadvantages. But after reading the article, I feel it cannot be used for the outside walls, because it is not tough.. Some one please correct if I am wrong.

Bonus

My new indiblogger rank has jumped to 73. After debuting with an impressive 72, it was a let down to plunge into 48. 3 months of a non blogging period... Thanks to all fellow bloggers for the support..  On that note, enjoy this great song...

Musical paradox

Only today I noticed this option of checking the most played songs in my mobile. I had seen it before but today morning only could appreciate the advantages of the feature. I was quite astonished to see the list because many songs that I considered favorites are not featured in it. And many that were quite mediocre was there in it. Surely my favorite songs list is not the one that I hear most! What a strange Paradox! I thought I would just list them in this post with a small review of my own. What I like about the song and what I think is not agreeable to my auditory nerves. And I will try to upload some videos of lesser heard ones...

1. Madno from Movie Lamhaa:    I had down loaded this song last week and this is the topper of the list and with every right to be so. This is a great track. The best one of that album, penned by Saeed Quadri and composed by Mithoon. The song has something that reminds us of Maula Mere from Anwar, which is also composed by Mithoon, but it never gets in the way of appreciating this soulful melody. The insertion of Kashmiri Lyrics makes the song all the more exotic. It is a long song (more than 8 minutes) but no complaints. 

Explosive Gulaal

I watched this movie a few weeks back ... and then I watched it couple of times more... because it is a blow on your face when you watch it the first time. It takes time to absorb all the happenings totally into the mind....

Gulaal is the nexe movie of Anurag Kashyap after DevD. It deals with student politics and the impact of interference from outside the campus. Except KK most of the acters are newcomers. But the energy Anurag extrudes from them is explosive, like each character, small or big is a mini atom bomb. Dialogues and situations contributes. Music is excellent, especially the lyrics by Piyush Mishra, who has also starred in an important role, as Prithvi Bana, who is really against what his young brother and revolutionary stands for, the formation of a Rajaputana nation, but is too weak to do anything. Abhimanyu has also done an outstanding performace as Ranasa, who is a prince but doesnt care a damn (excuse the language, it is Gulaal effect again).... I fel Anurag did a good thing by killing him in first quarter itself because if he stayed for the entire movie, screen would have cught fire.

I would recommend it to any body who cares for some serious cinema. If you are for Happily lived everafter KJo stuf, stay out. you wont even understand this movie.

Devdas for Gen X

I happened to watch Anurag Kashyap's Dev D last week....

Anurag Kashyap is a talented film maker who made gem of a film called Black Friday about Mumbai blasts. His next movie No Smoking were he tried a Kafkaesque approach of story telling didn't went down well with mass audiences and many critics, who accused him of self indulgence. But many celebrities like Rahul Bose has this movie in their personal favorite list.

After the debacle of No Smoking Kashyap decided to make a movie with more commercial elements. He selected remaking Devdas, an age old love story by Sarath Chandra Chatterjee, told and retold many a times by many film makers, the last one being Bhansali, who made it a costume drama with huge sets and period setting. Kashyap has taken Dev from traditional Bengali setting and made him a contemporary Punjabi youth who flirts with Paro on phone and compels her to send him her nude pics.

Paro is more bolder than original and the decision to abandon Dev is taken by herself. But the show stealer is Chanda (Chandramukhi), who allows Dev to share her room and supports him when he slowly drifts towards self destruction by alcoholism and drug addiction. Contemporary Devdas rechristened DevD is stylish takes the aspirations, madness and mental agonies of today's youth.

Kashyap's best contribution is the twist in ending where, Dev who inches slowly towards death by addiction when confronted with sudden death decides to change his fate and returns to life and Chanda, thereby making the film to end in positive note. Kashyap has not allowed his Dev to die, may be he feels todays youth is much more practical in approach than their counterparts 50 years back.

Acting department is too good, Abhay Deol is superb as Dev, Kalki who did Chanda's role is a real talent box, she is too convincing for the role, other supporting cast is also good. Music is excellent and contributes much to story telling. I think Rock music in its true sense has entered Bollywood now with Nayan Tarase, and rock version of Emotional Atthyachaar.

All in all I will recommend Dev D for all who hate Davdas and pity him for being the drunken loser that he is.

Caller tune

Its the first time I went for putting a caller tune for my phone in 6 years...

I've added Bohemian Rhapsody by the band Queen...

Its written by Freddie mercury and featured in their 1975 album A Night at the Opera. Its a peculiar song, for a popular one, still it was a huge hit as a single and contributed in the popularity of the band. The music video they made for the single established the style of modern music videos. After its huge success it became the usual practice to make videos accompanying singles.

The song is very complex and is a mixture of capella, ballad, opera and hard rock parts fused in a very beautiful way. Although it got mixed reviews at its opening, the song went on to become a big success later and is regularly featured in top lists of greatest songs. Later it became the part of soundtrack of movie The Wayne's World.

Lyrics:

Is this the real life-
Is this just fantasy-
Caught in a landslide-
No escape from reality-
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see-
Im just a poor boy,i need no sympathy-
Because Im easy come,easy go,
A little high,little low,
Anyway the wind blows,doesnt really matter to me,
To me

Mama,just killed a man,
Put a gun against his head,
Pulled my trigger,now hes dead,
Mama,life had just begun,
But now Ive gone and thrown it all away-
Mama ooo,
Didnt mean to make you cry-
If Im not back again this time tomorrow-
Carry on,carry on,as if nothing really matters-

Too late,my time has come,
Sends shivers down my spine-
Bodys aching all the time,
Goodbye everybody-Ive got to go-
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth-
Mama ooo- (any way the wind blows)
I dont want to die,
I sometimes wish Id never been born at all-

I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche,scaramouche will you do the fandango-
Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me-
Galileo,galileo,
Galileo galileo
Galileo figaro-magnifico-
But Im just a poor boy and nobody loves me-
Hes just a poor boy from a poor family-
Spare him his life from this monstrosity-
Easy come easy go-,will you let me go-
Bismillah! no-,we will not let you go-let him go-
Bismillah! we will not let you go-let him go
Bismillah! we will not let you go-let me go
Will not let you go-let me go
Will not let you go let me go
No,no,no,no,no,no,no-
Mama mia,mama mia,mama mia let me go-
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me,for me,for me-

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye-
So you think you can love me and leave me to die-
Oh baby-cant do this to me baby-
Just gotta get out-just gotta get right outta here-

Nothing really matters,
Anyone can see,
Nothing really matters-,nothing really matters to me,

Any way the wind blows....


Video:

The Stranger.....

Mahendra Kapoor is no more....

His demise happened couple of days back. I am surprised I am late to mention it in this blog.... Because he is one of those singers who has sung such a gem of songs- especially sad and patriotic numbers, that I really love to hear repeatedly..

I am used to hearing hindi songs from a long time... I started watching Rangoli program in DD when I was around 10 years. But I started hearing them seriously from when I was 15, when I bought an audio cassette of Kishore Kumar songs sung by Abhijeet. I started collecting cassettes of Kishore, Rafi and Mukesh which where available in plenty. I was not aware of Mahendra Kapoor then. After 5 more years when I was working at Bangalore my room mate bought an old cassette of a collection of sad songs, of which many I had heard before. I thought they were sung by Rafi. My friend corrected me and explained about Mahendra Kapoor.

After repeatedly hearing them I really started loving those soulful, melodious numbers. Some of those songs were 'Andhere mein jo baithe hain', 'Mere desh ki dharti', 'Cahlo ek baar phirse', 'Tum agar satth dene ka' etc. He was the voice of Manoj Kumar as Mukesh was to Raj Kapoor.

After some more years I happened to read an article about poet Sahir Ludhiyaanvi who had written the lyrics of the song ' Chalo ek baar'. In it was the circumstances that led him to write the song. After reading that I started loving the song much more. I was more humbled by the singing of Mahendra Kapoor, because he was able to portray the true emotion that may be felt by Sahir while penning the poem.

'Chalo ek baar' Video