A great song from The Maccabees to whisk away the blues and get dreamy. Interestingly, there’s another video for this song that was shot, in one long take, by a relative of the band in a London pub. I wanted to post that originally but seems like embeds are disabled by Polydor and Universal Music Group. This song was also featured in a recent Samsung mobile phone advertisement.
This is the first post in my JUKEBOX series. Tune in on weekends :)
It’s been a week into the new year and I’ve been seeing numerous “resolution” posts on the blogosphere without feeling the urge to post one myself. What would I say, I wondered—that I need to write or maybe go to the gym more often this year? Would anyone really care? Or maybe it would it be a nice way to create a record that I can reflect on next year?
But that’s when John Mayer’s Vultures started playing on my trusty last.fm stream and the first line of the song struck me.
Some of us, we’re hardly ever here. The rest of us, we’re born to disappear.
It made me realize that it’s not about what I do this year but how I do it; with pride, conviction and the will to make it a success, I hope. So regardless of your resolutions this year, I hope you’re able to remain focused for 365 days and achieve your dreams.
That said, I do want to write and direct at least one film this year and launch a nonprofit organization. So good luck and best wishes for a happy and peaceful 2009. See you on the other side!
Some of us, We’re hardly ever here
The rest of us, we’re born to disappear
How do I stop myself from
Being just a number
How will I hold my head
To keep from going under
Down to the wire
I wanted water but
I’ll walk through the fire
If this is what it takes
To take me even higher
Then I’ll come through
Like I do
When the world keeps
Testing me, testing me, testing me
How did they find me here
What do they want from me
All of these vultures hiding
Right outside my door
I hear them whisperin
They’re tryin to ride it out
They’ve never gone this long
Without a kill before
Down to the wire
I wanted water but
I’ll walk through the fire
If this is what it takes
To take me even higher
Then I’ll come through
Like I do
When the world keeps
Testing me, testing me, testing me
Wheels up
I got to leave this evening
Can’t seem to shake these vultures
Off of my trail
Power is made, by power being taken
So I keep on running
To protect my situation
Down to the wire
I wanted water but
I’ll walk through the fire
If this is what it takes
To take me even higher
Then I’ll come through
Like I do
When the world keeps
Testing me, testing me
Oooooooooooo
Oooooooooooo
Oooooooooooo
Oooooooooooo
Whatcha gonna do about it
Whatcha gonna do about it
Whatcha gonna do about it
Don’t give up give up
Don’t give up give up give up
Don’t give up give up
Don’t give up give up give up
For all the lives lost in the Mumbai terror attacks of 26/11/08.
Give Peace A Chance - John Lennon
Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance
(C’mon)
Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
Minister, Sinister, Banisters and Canisters,
Bishops, Fishops, Rabbis, and Pop Eyes, Bye bye, Bye byes
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance
(Let me tell you now)
Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
Revolution, Evolution, Masturbation, Flagellation, Regulation,
Integrations, mediations, United Nations, congratulations
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance
Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna
Hare Hare Krishna
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance
As I stood in Mercury Lounge, New York for potentially my final concert experience in the city for a while, I realized just how passionate I am about the independent and experimental music subculture. Over the past two and a half years, going to indie rock concerts has become habitual and the prospect of losing out on that completely when I move to Mumbai (more on that soon) is depressing.
I recently carried out a survey on mainstream Indian pop culture influences, which suggested that there is an emerging independent rock scene (primarily Hindi for now) led by Farhan Akhtar for making films like Lakshya, Dil Chahta Hai and Rock On!!. Local rock bands are also gaining prominence through performances at Blue Frog and Hard Rock Cafe in Mumbai. Last week a friend introduced me to SHAAIR + FUNC, describing them as “an uber-electronic Bjork meets new Britney”. For me, they represent New India—globalized and reconnecting with their roots in new and exciting ways to provide diverse forms of expression.
Though her roots can be traced back to Kashmir, Monica Dogra (of SHAAIR + FUNC) was raised in Maryland on a steady diet of Ani DiFranco CDs. She went on to attend New York University, dabbling in musical theater along the way. Her parents divorced when she was 11, greatly influencing her journey towards the arts.”In a lot of ways the divorce was very freeing, because I was forced into a situation where as it was, I was already different,” she says. “I feel like had my parents stayed together, I would have had this pressure on me to be this perfect Indian girl.” (via Nirali Magazine)
Even though Bollywood and its music dominates mainstream popular culture in India, I strongly believe there is an opportunity to create a sustainable independent music movement in the country. With that intention I’d like to launch SAFFRON NOTE, a grassroots operation that not only promotes Indian independent music but also American and European independent bands in India. And I don’t mean The Killers independent but rather dive bar, abrasive lyrics, cheap beer independent.
If this interests you and you’d like to help in any way please leave a comment on this post and I’ll keep you posted as the idea evolves. In the meanwhile I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts and suggestions as I’ve been away from India for a while.
Can this be successful? Will enough people be interested? What will it take? Setting up a bar in Mumbai dedicated to live shows and/or a music festival à la Woodstock? Would brands be excited by it? Would a company like Jet Airways see benfits in sponsoring artists to fly for free or alternately, would state departments provide subsisdies to promote tourism? Would foreign artsits be excited to travel to India if combined with tourism and promoted as a spiritual journey (similar to The Beatles’)?
I’m glad I managed to snag last minute tickets to see Plants and Animals & Born Ruffians—both Canadian indie bands—at Mercury Lounge last night. I hadn’t heard Plants and Animals before but was immediately impressed by their range and the way they artfully blended a vast array of influences—a bit of the Kooks, The Beatles, Neil Young, Devandra Banhart, Arcade Fire, Yeasayers. They could even go from orchestral, to a dance-driven Afro-beat, to a haunting guitar instrumental.
The Born Ruffians have a very unique sound; it’s frenetic, folksy, and edgy but at the center of their melodies is a special “brand of lovelorn poetry sung by frontman Luke Lalonde sung with equal parts distress and persuasion”—perfectly captured by the iTunes review.
Blog Action Dayis an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Their aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. This year’s topic is Poverty.
Growing up and living most of my life in India, I’ve always had a close view of how disparate the distribution of wealth is in the world. The most disconcerting aspect is that most people are there due to circumstance and that it could very easily be me. Yes, I agree I’ve worked hard to reach where I am but much of the world’s poor may go through a lifetime without getting an opportunity to work or display their talents and at most times oppressed due to their lack of resources.
Take for example this recent article about the shocking treatment of the poor in India.
India is changing so fast that it is starting to look like someplace else. Skyscrapers are sprouting. Towns are ballooning. The young date, drink, smoke freely. But many of the people who are making the new India new - from the stockbrokers to the bedecked socialites - are responsible for preserving a certain gloomy element of the Indian past: a tendency to treat the hired help like chattel, to taunt and humiliate and condescend to them, to behave as though some humans were born to serve and others to be served.
Again, not so surprising for me—I’ve seen it happen often and find it deplorable. One can only wonder how long the poor will remain patient and quiet—in India there are numerous stories about mini revolts sparking off in retaliation. We don’t need more strife and internal fighting, even if we can’t make monetary contributions, we should embrace the moral right to respect human life.
One observation that’s amazed me in my travels around the world is that children, no matter how poor their family, still manage to go about their daily chores with a smile and frolic with their siblings and other street kids. It’s that very innocence, that pure pleasure of life itself, that we tend to lose once we’re entrenched in the greedy quest for wealth. I’m not advocating that we donate all our life savings to charity and become ascetics but rather detach ourselves occasionally from our daily pursuits and understand the need for a more equitable distribution of wealth for the world to prosper. Our strength is in our people and right now millions of them are dying in abject poverty.
Dealing with poverty can be depressing but with this video I’ve tried to capture some of the happier emotions that can inspire ourselves to seek out that same unperturbed joy by limiting our needs and contributing our excess towards uplifting the marginalized. The recent financial crisis has taught us many lessons but the most severe being that many countries have been living way beyond their means and for the most part, at the expense of the less privileged. Lifestyles will have to drastically change to fix this mess and I hope we can all evaluate our lives and make a commitment today to make a positive impact on our environment and the people around us. I hope you enjoy the video… please pass it on, and keep smiling!
The song in the video is Bob Sinclar’s “Give A Lil’ Love”, a DJ who “aspires to bring people together by making music with hope and energy, music that can be shared across the world.” Check out “Love Generation” which also has a similar theme. Here are the lyrics for the song in the video:
now you and I
can get together
let us start a revolution
change this world
to what it should be
and forget all this confusion
we could live together
for the sake of love
what are we fighting for
oooh now
we could start heeling today
if we can just learn to give
give a lil’ love
you and I can change the world
live a lil’ love
make it better if we try
show a lil’ love
let your love rain
let it rain down on me
now if we wait and do nothing
then what about their future
how can we look in to there eyes
and say we love our children
we can make it better
feel the love inside
forget foolish pride.
Here’s an action list that can help you get involved. Another great site that I use is Kiva, which helps you make loans to small business owners in third world nations. It involves concepts that I find very inspirational: fortune at the bottom of the pyramid and micro-finance. I would welcome a discussion of similar new business ideas, ones that we can collaborate on and implement collectively.
I’ve been obsessed with Brooke Waggoner since she released her first EP last year and jumped at the chance to see her given that I missed her the last time. It was my first time at Joe’s Pub and just like Brooke put it, I was expecting something very “pub-sey”. Quite the contrary—reminiscent of a speakeasy, it has a dark candlelit ambiance, velvet walls and couches to lounge on. Brooke was everything I expected her to be and more: beautiful voice, brilliant on the piano, quirky, and cute with a childlike playfulness that resonates in her music—I think I have a crush!
You can download Brooke’s first EP, Fresh Pair of Eyes, free from her website.
The Pines who opened were really refreshing as well… deep, haunting, and Dylan-esque! What’s more, the club played Devendra Banhart in between sets—totally geeked out!
Alessandra Ferri is a highly accomplished Italian ballerina and performs a beautiful ballet routine as Sting plays Bach’s Perlude on his guitar. The warm up scenes are very intimate too as he does yoga stretches and she gets her shoes ready—it’s soothing and has a nice ending as well.
Moodstream is a brilliant mashup and interactive art tool by Getty Images that mixes images, videos, and music based on your mood—happy or sad, calm or lively, humorous or serious, nostalgic or contemporary, warm or cool. According to them:
Moodstream is a powerful brainstorming tool designed to help take you in inspiring, unexpected directions. Whether you want images, footage or audio, or just need a stream of fresh ideas, tweak the Moodstream sliders to bring a whole new creative palette straight to you.
The UI is simple yet elegant and the palette allows you to customize your mood preferences and save them for later as mood playlists on the “Moodboard”.
Some folks have complained about the resolution of the pictures but I quite liked the stylized effect which almost makes it feel like a lenticular surface. The player comes with some preset moods and I highly recommend Simplify and Inspire. I’m not sure how much it can do to change your mood but it’s definitely inspiring and if nothing else, interesting to look at. So start streaming, sit back and enjoy the show.
Enjoy this little video I shot of the concert. The “Hearts on Fire” finale by Cut Copy was the highlight but all the jumping around messed up the audio. Either way, the lights were off the charts.
I occasionally upload songs to let people discover new artists to fall in love with and support. If you are an artist (or represent an artist) and would like it taken down, please email me at blog @ gauravsikka.com
