TAAQ in 2000 with their first album, Thermalandaquarter.com

Even our most articulate culture commentators tolerate Indian rock music with exasperated indulgence, treating it as the fetish of cultural misfits who overstay in the waiting room between adolescence and oblivion. Having documented an independent rock band for nearly 15 years, I try to set the record straight on that immaculate misconception (thanks to a new friend for that phrase!).

Just as in Mumbai/Bombay (which languishes in its own cultural Truman Show) and Delhi (which appropriates culture as if its only representatives are those that camp in the capital), in Bangalore the underground pop/rock/jazz music movement began in nightclubs (like Boscos and Three Aces) where musicians were paid to perform covers of contemporary hits. When an overactive excise department (in collusion with the moral police) forced these joints to close shop, musicians were left with no stage.

The Music Strip (a brainchild of the late Sunbeam Motha) revived the movement somewhat in the early 1980s, launching bands like Human Bondage. Motha followed it up in the late 1990s with the Night Of the Long Guitar (where I watched the Sarjapur Blues Band for the first time) someplace in the backwoods of Bannerghatta. I was there — quite stoned as was customary then — so I don’t remember the coordinates.

That music movement preserved the exuberance of the Sixties and Seventies and distilled it into an expression of its own making. Refining that expression and beveling its edges into something rich and strange took time. Along the way, initiatives like Freedom Jam gave city bands a soapbox for their voice. But the money still wasn’t there. Organizers of college cultural festivals, which offered the best opportunity to draw crowds, favoured cover bands — mostly from Mumbai and Delhi. Local bands had it rough. The meagre prize money at semi-pro band competitions hosted by collegiate festivals such as Autumn Muse (St John’s Medical College) and Vibrations (Indian Institute of Science) offered incentive for new bands to strut their stuff. Even here, original music wasn’t the highlight. Crowds wanted Bon Jovi or Iron Maiden or Metallica, depending on how high they were, or how low they cared to stoop.

TAAQ and crew watch Ian Paice (Deep Purple's drummer) at soundcheck, April 2001

On April 1, 2001, Deep Purple performed in Bangalore. It was the first big appearance of a major Western rock band in Bangalore (Aside: When Roger Waters stopped by on his 2001 “In The Flesh” tour, one of the TAAQ boys got a chance to shake hands with guitarist Snowy White who asked him: “Deep Purple? Were they any good?”). For the first time, a local band — Thermal And A Quarter — was given a chance to open for the British legends. They played a complete set of originals that night, despite shortchanged sound, dimmed lights and no fee.

Two years earlier (in July 1999), TAAQ — then three years old — organized the Potatoe Junkie Concert at the amphitheatre behind Ravindra Kalakshetra. The gate collection went to a charity for soldiers martyred at Kargil. In November that year, the band organized Floodaid, a fundraiser for flood-affected villagers in Orissa. These events marked the first times that an independent band made money playing its own music at a completely self-organized gig.

A very wet Bruce Lee Mani narrowly escapes electrocution at FloodAid, November 1999. A spirited crowd cheered through the torrential rain and held up a sheet of tarpaulin over the band when things got too gusty.

Thermal And A Quarter’s music, to those who came in late, is a commentary on the angst of being Bangalorean in a city racked by change. And change — we know — is never completely desirable despite its inevitability.

My piece on the band’s music, published in today’s Mint Lounge, traces TAAQ’s relevance and rootedness to Bangalore’s cultural milieu, and argues that independent rock music can actually represent the sound of a city, if only one cares to listen.

Excerpt:

A thousand or so 30-something Bangaloreans might remember the date 24 July 1999. That day, Taaq performed at the Potatoe Junkie concert and hauled the city’s underground rock music movement to the surface. The theme song—its title inspired by former US vice-president Dan Quayle’s infamous spelling howler—sneered at the city’s growing obsession with cable television. The band played a 2-hour set consisting mostly of original songs and, after breaking even, donated Rs 15,000 to a relief fund for the families of soldiers martyred during the Kargil war.

MORE

Separately, I am also quoted by the Times of India‘s Sandhya Soman in her article “Do Indian musicians make a mark abroad?” published today in the paper’s Crest edition.

Cross posted from Bijoy’s blog

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Of course, we couldn’t let anyone know about the gig (really let ’em know) because we might’ve been busted. Bangalore denizens are of course aware of our wonderfully evolved government – stuck firmly, ostrich-style, in the dark ages… you know, those times with random acts of senseless violence against women, curfew, feudal overlords, and guys wearing metal underpants (jetties!) caroming off to slay non-believers. Hmmm, now why does that sound so familiar?? Gawrsh. But to think – they actually had live music and dancing in places that served hooch back then! Now that’s evolved.

Anyway – back to the gig. Hush-hush as it was, quite a few TAAQies did show up – thanks, people! For braving the traffic, thumbing your nose to the MP (moral police), and for singing along.

The Hard Rock Café here is at a great address – 1, MG Road (hotly contested by the Police Station across the street, which also calls itself 1, MG Road – glad our TAAQies found the right one!). Stage-wise, it’s the same as Mumbai, with the musicians playing on a high platform above the bar. Local hitch – no lights! Seriously, these guys didn’t have lights for the band. Talk about the dark ages. Our super-roadies actually had to scram off to get some small halogens from somewhere for the second half of the gig.

Played a bunch of new material – Rajeev’s Sold and Ordinary Affair (lyrics here), the fresh-off-the-hotplate One Small Love, Surrender, our little blues Grab Me (lyrics – see footnote) and more. All this seems to be going down rather well with our regulars – and the newbies – so I guess we’re doing something right.

Wrapped up punctually at 2300 hours. Ate a bunch of American Hard Rock cuisine (read tasty cholesterol bombs), drank some Hard Rock beer and gawked at Eric Clapton’s Strat, Elton John’s, er, Jammies, Paul McCartney’s picks and Madonna’s pointy underthings.

Back to the hard place now…

Footnote (as promised above):

New Songs

Here’s some brand-new TAAQ stuff. Live testing in progress… Welcome all ye lab rats! Leave yer footprints behind, please.

One Small Love

One small breath
One small word
One small man
One small space
Can be everything
In a tired world

One small glimpse
One small truth
One small cry
One small change
The leaves they turn
And slowly I learn

It’s such a big deal
Oh a pretty balloon
Blow it up make the steal
We’re all in
We’re all in
And there’s no getting out

I’m such a big man
Take a look at my shadow
I’ll make my last stand
It’s all right
It’s all right

Cause suddenly I know
How

One small time
One small kindness
One small light
One small darkness
Can be everything
In a tired world

We made a big splash
But the well ran dry
We smoked the big cash
Light it up
Light it up
At least we didn’t lie

And it’s

One small breath
One small word
One small step
One small love
That’s everything
In this tired world

Grab Me

It’s one thirty o clock in the morning
Woke up late last night
If that isn’t right
To start the blues bar
Then the sorry girls are winning the fight

Feeling mighty high and low
Just like I did some crooked lines
Funny because I’m clean and dry
Never needed any joy juice to get high

I play in a cool smart rock n roll band
It’s like the only thing that makes it go round
Been everywhere but the big time lover
Somewhere this ruby yacht ran aground

Grab me by my fingertips and take me off this page
Dance me to the ground it’s lover-ly
How lots of chocolates can mystify the mage
I’m not about to shake my cage
Losing my mind with the daily wage

I get home early, shut off my head
And fire all my synapse slaves
It’s pleasant and even mildly euphoric
Oh these after-burner polychrome waves

Rise up with the sorry sunlight
That bleeds all over the floor
The shadows shrink as I pour my first drink
It’s a Boost in the mug with no happy encore

Grab me by my fingertips and take me off this ride
Dance me to the ceiling it’s lover-ly
How honest work can crucify my pride
I’m just about to set aside
A modicum of love and a paisa-worth of bromide

Surrender

Stepping over, stepping light
I’ll discover, I don’t need to fight
The mantras chanted, the rite complete
There’re only ashes at my feet
It’s out of my hands now

I’ll hand over, I’ll let go
What’s forever, I’ll never know
Give it all up, give it away
Don’t take it back, that’s what they say
And it’s out of my hands now

Worry, it’s scary
Too much care
Losing my hair
Trying to prepare
For something I can’t see or hear or smell or even know…
There’s only now
Only this note
Only this moment, take a bow
Or should I surrender

Is there chaos, is there a plan
Random patterns for every man
Invisible wires and a safety net
Or only freefall space cadets, freefall
And gravity always wins

I know the G word, I know it well
They say it’ll keep me for going to hell
Whatever works, makes you content
Lets you deal with how insignificant, you are, we are, we all are
And suddenly we’re gone

Worry, it’s scary
Too much care
Losing my hair
Trying to prepare
For something I can’t see or hear or smell or even know
There’s only now
Only this note
Only this moment, take a bow
Should I surrender

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