Most of you already know this, but for the last couple of days, taaq.in was under the influenza of some evil bug. Google et al had identified taaq.in as a malware site and flashed the message ‘This site could harm your computer’. But we’ve sorted the mess out and we are happy to say that taaq.in has gone native again… all is well! So, come ye and flock here.
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Rites from the Road – TAAQ @ Java Jazz 09
What a trip this is.
Landed in Jakarta 3rd afternoon. Heard it was rainy in these parts, but perhaps they were taking it a bit too far – it was actually raining inside our Air Asia Boeing from KL to Jakarta (last leg). Greeted at airport by the very friendly Mike from Java Jazz, holding a big ‘TAAQ’ sign. Helped through paperwork; all the baggage shows up – it’s a great day already!
taaq with prasanna @ java jazz 09
The Sultan Hotel used to be the Hilton (that rhymes – if you’re Mark Knopfler) and it’s swankus maximus, so all’s well again! The JJF folks are amazing, really friendly, really efficient, and really hard working. Have lunch at the Peacock Café here, and we are immediately hit with the realization that we’re not getting back without carrying a few extra pounds. If there was ever a buffet to die for, This Is It.
Spend the rest of the day bumping into (name dropping coming up!) Dave Weckl, Mike Stern etc, while 40,000 odd folks queue up to get tickets for the festival. Yes, 40,000.
TAAQ jams with Prasanna
4th morn, meet Prasanna on his way in – we’re supposed to jam tonight at our first pre-festival warm-up gig here, at the Airman Planet Lounge. Do a small ‘Glaswegian’ practice (if you followed our UK tour, you know what that means) in Prasanna’s room – fix up to play new track Grab Me and the staple Brigade St. Nice vibe! Nice PRS axe too.
Brigade Street goes to Indonesia
Gig starts 10:30 pm, no soundcheck; launch into Sunset Man, Look at Me, etc. Good vibes from the crowd so far… Prasanna comes in on the last two tracks and puts his distinctive stamp on them, all right. Finish up with a fully jammed out Brigade St and our first gig at Java Jazz is done… two more to go, sowatchthisspaceetc!
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One Small Love – the video
In our small, tired world, there’s too little space for anything. And then we cram in terrorism, recession, traffic jams, politicians, elections, pink slips, pink chaddis, climate change, crop failure…
Where do we draw the line?
Stop, for one small moment…
Think one small thought…
Do one small deed…
Say one small word…Draw the line. And put the smile back on the face of your day.
Change your Facebook profile to the smiley for today. And then download the song off www.bangalorerock.com. Let’s see how far you can spread the love.
One Small Love was performed and recorded by Thermal And A Quarter. Thanks to Happy (www.thinkhappy.biz) for the creative on the video and director Ashvin Naidu of Avakkai Films. Great work, guys!
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On Facebook, One Small Love Epidemic
Draw the line, spread the love
It started some time this afternoon. A little yellow smiley face started making an appearance on Facebook. Along with that, a status message: ‘One small love is all it takes… in a tired world’.
The last time we checked, the love virus had spread like a happy yellow rash.
If you know anybody on Facebook who has changed his/ her profile picture to the One Small Love smiley face, get the the image from them and change your profile pic, too. And don’t forget to change your status message to: ‘One Small Love is all it takes… in a tired world’.
Spread the love. Draw the line. Watch this space.
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This Is *Finally* It at Jakarta Java Jazz 09
Only Bijoy Venugopal, our tireless penman, could put it better:
“And finally, the news that makes all other news pale in contrast. The curtains – which have been playing peek-a-boo with you for well over a year – are up on This Is It.
Dear TAAQ fanatic, we are pleased to inform you of the official launch of the one-of-a-kind superalbum (that Rolling Stone India placed at #5 even though it hasn’t yet been actually released). This Is It, the elusive-on-CD fourth album that you have been previewing and pre-hearing and being pre-promised like never before until you very nearly, or quite completely in some cases, pre-gave up on us, will be released at Jakarta Java Jazz 09.
Be there if you can – there’s nothing we’d love like a home crowd. Or, if you can’t, you can come to the airport with garlands when we return. Vayu Vajra tickets are on us!
”So, people, we hope you’ll be rooting for us. Of course, you’ll get to buy the CDs too. Get them at CDBaby.com (if you are outside India) and on MusicYogi.com (in India).
And there’s more big news coming… so stay tuned!
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TAAQ off to Jakarta for Java Jazz ’09
It’s all happening, folks.
Yes, we’ve been invited to play at the Java Jazz Festival ’09, Jakarta’s prestigious international Jazz festival. Also on the bill, as you’ll see when you click on that link, are folks like Dave Weckl, Simon Phillips, Jason Mraz, Harvey Mason, Mike Stern, Prasanna, Brian McKnight, Dianne Reeves, and oh, did we mention, Thermal And A Quarter!
We will play pre-festival gigs on March 4 and 5 at the Sultan Hotel, Jakarta. Here, we will be joined by special guest Prasanna. Our festival appearance is on March 6, where renowned jazz guitar virtuoso Vinny Valentino will appear as a special guest on TAAQ material.
Enough name dropping… but we’re quite delirious about it all you see! Us apart, there is, of course, significant representation in terms of fusion and crossover styles – there’s Moon Arra (with Jagadeesh, Prakash Sontakke, Karthik Mani and others from good ole Bangalore). Prakash Sontakke, heard so wonderfully on Plan B’s ‘Dead Inside’ on Hindustani vocal and slide guitar, will join us on stage for a few tracks.
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Urulunna Kallugal*
*For what the intriguing title means (in Mallu), read on…
If Led Zep was a Hindi rock band, and “Chandrande irritu bhagam” was that great Floyd album and “Sakkaray magu nanna” or something like that, was the biggest Tamil/Kannada hit by Guns n Roses, if only it had happened like that, it would have helped me learn all our beautiful languages so much more easily. It’s difficult for me to catch up now… at this ripe age. I repent bunking all those tuition classes for 2nd 3rd and 4th language in school. I’m part of a pathetic hopeless minority, and it’s lonely here. Obviously, you must have figured by now, i bunked most English classes also
So that’s no Eng, no Mallu, no Hindi, no Kannada, no French..wow (and when it comes to math and physics and chem… just forget it boss..it’s a hopeless scene).
Some people say we ape the west…Bijoy says we are the apes here.. and that mixed with being a hard core Nirvana fan makes it the full circle of life, evolution existence, sociopsycho whatever etc.
Speaking of Nirvana, that reminds me of what happened at a tribute concert in Kozhikode (Calicut) Kerala, when Kurt Kobain died. Why a tribute gig happened in Kozhikode??? I don’t know, blame it on Vasco da Gama.
Anyways, some Calicut buddies (the drugstore cowboys) who were devastated at Kurt’s death got plastered, and were screaming out all the lyrics of Nirvana songs…and that’s when the cops landed up.
And the mallu cops pull up the boys and ask them whats happening?
So my friends replied “Kurt marichu saaray, Kurt marichu sniff sniff”
Cop is very surprised and replies – “endhu keatu marichu???”
hehehe…sorry that was a bad private mallu joke
But i guess in the end its all about how you mean things and not about how its said … remember that Moody Blues song that went…
“Its not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me.
Its more the way you really mean it
When you tell me what will be.”Spot quiz – name the song.
So I guess, in a sense, if the heart is in the right place then language skills are not that critical
In any case I would like to catch up with the Indian vernacular rock and I hope in a few years we will see the Delhi release of Patthar Gully Akhbaar (Rock Street Journal) and Urulunna kallu (rolling stone) for our beloved Keralites.
Had a quick beer with a good friend of TAAQ + eminent journo (not a paper puli, she). She interviewed Mick Jagger once and asked him a pretty pertinent question… why they sang ‘Satisfaction’ in such an American accent. “i Cain’t get no saaatisfaaaction” as opposed to “i Kaant get no satisfaction”. For that matter even the sentence construction is completely non British. In propah English it should have been “I cant get ANY satisfaction”…. ‘i cant get NO satisfaction’ is so wrong.
Obviously, even Jagger was aping someone from further west.
I think there’s no education like rock education – we don’t need no education.
Or to put it in correct English – we don’t need “any” education period (meaning bunk all classes)
Cheers,
Rajeev
PS:
Here’s my favorite Nirvana lyric. The way he meant it can never be translated. Listening to it right now … long live Kurt
Dumb
I’m not like them
But I can pretend
The sun is gone
But I have a light
The day is done
But I’m having fun
I think I’m dumb
Or maybe just happyThink I’m just happy [repeat 3x]
My heart is broke
But I have some glue
Help me inhale
And mend it with you
Well float around
And hang out on clouds
Then well come down
And I have a hangoverHave a hangover [repeat 3x]
Skin the sun
Fall asleep
Wish away
The soul is cheap
Lesson learned
Wish me luck
Soothe the burn
Wake me up[repeat first verse and chorus]
I think I’m dumb
I think I’m dumb
I think I’m dumb
I think I’m dumb
I think I’m dumb
I think I’m dumb
I think I’m dumb
I think I’m dumb
I think I’m dumb
I think I’m dumb
I think I’m dumb
I think I’m dumb -
Buying a New Axe…
Got this for the Dr. recently:
“Hey, I saw you guys at mood indigo 07 and it was an awesome experience!had..ahem..never heard of you till then but since , ive bin going TAAAAAQ TAAAQ TAAAAAAQ to all my friends. Anyhoo, the diddly-o is this..im going to (finally) learn how to play the guitar. I think i`m committed enough, yada yada.I really really want to. Now since this is a big deal for me, I want to make sure I buy the first guitar right. An acoustic. I`ve been saving up for this. Umm about 5K :p ADVICE PLEASE!I live in mumbai by the way.so if you recommend any shops here (other than furtados) /brands/what I should look for etc. ALSO my friends who DO play the guitar tell me I have peasant hands, they have long fingers, hence I should not pick up string instruments cuz I wont go too far. >_<. what do you say?as in my friends have long fingers. I have short ones.” – Sagar
Sagar – first, don’t worry about ‘peasant’ fingers! You’ll probably fret y0ur first barre chord (usually an ‘F’, so you can tell your long-digited pals to ‘F’ off!) with surprising ease. Those long slender arty fingers usually struggle for weeks to get past the ‘pttthh’s, ‘pptthhhonk’s and ‘dongrlefraagle’s.
About buying a new acoustic: I’ve been thinking about putting a small video together on what to check for – that way I hope to answer yours and many other queries along similar lines. Will get around to that pretty soon I guess. If you’ve never played before, it helps to take along someone who can, when you go shopping.
Let’s try getting that vid up…
Cheerio
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Thermal And A Quarter on 'We The People', NDTV 24×7
TAAQ was invited to be in the audience (for once!) on the talk show, ‘We the People’ hosted by journalist Barkha Dutt on NDTV. The issue on the dissection table was ‘Culture Wars’, triggered by the recent attacks on women in a Mangalore pub by members a certain right-wing group, and the ensuing protests in Bangalore and across India.
Towards the end of the show, Bruce performed the first verse of One Small Love, our brand new single. The song was used in the show’s end titles, too.
Watch the video here
Thus, One Small Love was launched nationwide, officially. And it’s yours to keep. So, download it off our website now. Go to http://www.bangalorerock.com/, click on the ‘Wassup’ icon and fill in your email address. We’ll send you a link from where you can download it.
Go on, spread the love!
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Jack up the volume, boys and girls!
First off, our hearty congratulations to all the winners of the various awards at the JD Rock Awards. You, well, rock!
Overheard after Bruce Lee Mani won ‘Best Guitarist of the Year’:
“What da, only this year, uh? He’s been playing bestly all these years, no?”
Happy birthday, Bruce! One more in the kitty, bro. Time for some extra-jolly saapaad!
About the JD Rock Awards, hearsay has it that in inimitable Mumbai ishtyle, all the glitterati descended upon this gala event. Now, now… what should we make of that? We asked the boys what they thought of an Indian rock awards program, and got some surprisingly cerebral answers…
Keep your tongue firmly in cheek, and enjoy!
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