January 2007 - Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ) - Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ)

Waxing Lyrical

Uncategorized | January 20, 2007 | Permalink | Comments Off

Hi there everyone, I am back again, after a fairly long hiatus, as they say. A special hey hey to Mister Guru McDarshan, who is painting the town in all colors of the visible spectrum!

As a die-hard Thermite, I have a very big complaint against them. Well, not a complaint exactly but a rile factor. I always argue with the band that their very superior musician skills always drown out their equally fantastic lyrical penmanship.

As a case in point, I refer to this line… Wishing for Magic

I’m just an ordinary Joe

Waiting for Godot…

And I say, wow, did you get that? It worked on so many levels for me!

The band says… naaah, no one pays too much attention to the lyrics anyway, although we’d like them to. Well, I beg to differ… many of us would like to know what exactly you’re all saying and what the heck exactly are we humming anyway? So I thought I should let all of us know what some of the new and unrecorded songs are saying. Hence … Waxing Lyrical

Check out the super gritty

Chameleon…

I don’t have the time

There’s water in my hourglass

And the sand is in my eyes

I don’t have my mind

There’s flickering lights in my head

And my reasons are all lies

Today is just the same old same old

Too many teeth behind those smiles

And I don’t care about the stories told

If it means more, more, more,

More frequent-flyer miles

More secretary smiles

More…

* I’m dangerous, I’m your best friend

I’m a colour-blind chameleon

I’m moving up, I know what’s going down

I’m just an urban

Super human

The consumer and the consumed…

I don’t have the reasons

I lost them in the fire

Of my ambition to be

Something far far away from me

I don’t have a saviour

I’m too smart

To be taken in by

Your incense and your prayers that your round-trip to heaven

Today is just the same old same old

Too many teeth behind those smiles

And I don’t care about the stories told

If it means more, more, more

More frequent-flyer miles

More secretary smiles

More…

I’ll catch you singing those lines in the next show. Meanwhile more lyrics to wax about…

What A YEAR!

Drum Patient | January 3, 2007 | Permalink | Comments Off

Itanagar was rocking! Slammed down three meals on our long Good Times flight to Guwahati, got into a chopper straight from Babewatch (exact model, as our captain informed us, minus the babe of course). Most of our luggage made it into the chopper except for Rajeev’s monstrous hardware bag and Rzu’s bass. Most frightening thing on chopper ride: big red handle next to captain with caption ‘Jettison luggage’. Eeep. Can guitars fly?

Received at deserted Naharlagun heliport by warm reception committee, complete with white silk scarves and all. Packed into some stylish transport and lugged to the Donyi Polo (sun & moon) Ashok hotel. Nice. Really nice folks – took great care of us throughout. Getem and Gyaani and Newin and Bomar and Gomar and everybody else – thanks dudes!

The gig was in this enormous field next to a school I think – the Rajeev Gandhi stadium was otherwise occupied. Huge sound/light set up. Very impressive. The sound guys, from Guwahati, were also pretty much on the ball – sound check took very little time and we were all pretty happy! The rain, of course, arrived then and damped things a bit. Getem’s band was opening for us, and things were delayed with the precipitation.

Nice crowd. We got on with a wild intro to Brigade St., and the roar that came after was good to hear. Things went a little haywire in between, with Rajeev’s monitors crapping out all of a sudden – perhaps some wiring issues complicated by rain. But good gig overall – signed dozens of autographs – on CDs, little bits of paper, arms, t-shirts, etc. Gave away a whole bunch of CDs as well. Hope there’ll be folks singing along the next time. What a gig to end the year with.

And what a YEAR it’s been. Haven’t stopped gigging from end-May.. from Glasgow and London to Delhi and Calcutta, Chennai and Bombay to Itanagar, it’s been such a great ride. Here’s a big thank you to all the folks who wanted to hear us badly enough to keep us flying. And one more to our families for keeping those home fires burning for all us way-ward musicians.

A very happy 007 to all. What with new double-O status, it should be killer. If we play our cards right, we should do even more gigs this year. Playing in clubs doesn’t always get you diamonds, but at least you’re not pushing spades. Hearts are meant to be won. And the joker must always rule.