When hip-hop was insanely cool

And these guys made it so slick

Public Enemy
A Tribe called Quest
Digable Planets
Arrested Development

To borrow from Rage Against the Machine

they are the renegades of funk

Sunken Treasure

Awesome Jeff Tweedy and his acoustic guitar. Lot of fuck ups. Crowd sings along. Brilliant music. And it's all live.

Free mp3 download with the DVD.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

I'm SPEECHLESS.

Jefferson Nigh Mangum, how do you feel?

We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, the latest Modest Mouse album is pure guitar attack. Even at close to 62 minutes (a general MM phenomenon) the album does not seem too long. It’s a very accessible album. I get a feeling this album may be criticised for its overt radio friendly songs. But again, Modest Mouse have always been ace pop song constructors. So, I really don't care.


The album leaked on February 15.

Stones Touring Party

Anyone who has followed the Stones would know the story behind their legendary 1972 American tour (probably the greatest tour ever). Apart from the debauchery, it was also about great music (Exile was being promoted), Truman Capote getting bored and that infamous documentary called Cocksucker Blues (anyone seen it?).
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Shot cinema verite, docurocku style, Cocksucker Blues is a pinball machine of images -- soft, warm, harsh, exploitive, funny, sad, boring, stupid and smart, jammed with images of excessive hard drug taking, nodding-off Stones, roadies fucking groupies, backstage parties, naked women, heroin shoot-ups, and, yes, some great concert footage.

Read more
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After-effects of the tour

Singer-songwriter Gram Parsons was excommunicated from the group's social circle after demanding all of the cocaine in the Denver hospitality suite; he would die a year later. Publicity coordinator Gary Stromberg, "one hundred percent fucked up" as per Greenfield's account at the conclusion of the New York run, was left on a boat off Fire Island to clean up; a "thirty percent fucked up" Stromberg would replicate his duties for T.Rex's first tour of America.
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Read more.

After a lot of effort (and a little help from a friend), I was finally able to find fantastic bootlegs (seven discs/500 minutes of live Stones) of some shows from the aforementioned tour (The boots are called the Stones Touring Party). The sound quality is so good it feels just like official live recordings. And the motherfuckers play it very loud and very fast (especially the 1st Fort Worth, TX show). But the best thing about these shows is that you get to hear songs like Dead Flowers, Torn and Frayed (they never play this live), Ventilator Blues and Sweet Virginia live. If I am not wrong, the Stone have rarely played these songs live after 1975. These boots are a must have (at least a few shows because the set list was more or less the same for the whole tour).

Going back

There are many great albums, which I have not heard in years. From Monday onwards I am going to spin one (long ignored) album everyday. The five albums for the coming week mainly consist of late 70’s stuff.

Monday: Elvis Costello- This year’s model
Tuesday: Van Morrison- Into the music
Wednesday: Tom Petty- Damn the Torpedoes
Thursday: The Rolling Stones- Some girls
Friday: Bruce Springsteen- Darkness on the Edge of Town

There was blood all over MMRDA grounds last night. An axeman called Buddy Guy had come to see us.

Leaks galore

These days every major (indie or otherwise) album makes its way to the Internet months before its official release. Bloc Party’s A Weekend in the City got leaked way back in October (its out Feb 5). I got hold of some tracks from Neon Bible in early January (now the complete album is available, more than a month before its release). Some Loud Thunder, Friend Opportunity, Wincing the Night Away(Has reached #2 on Billboard. Fuck you, Timberlake) and The G, the B & the Q, all these albums (btw, they are all awesome) leaked before their official release date. Record companies have been trying their best to delete these from file-sharing sites like Rapidshare (the reason why the links conk out). I don’t know if it’s good or bad. So until I make up my mind, I will be actively making use of these leaks.

Why am I getting an attack on my morality? These albums won't be released in India anyway. So it just don't matter.

The G, the B & the Q

The G, the B & the Q is fantastic. I love it.

This is how you cover a gig.