Blog: Indiecision

They say laughter is the best medicine. So, we've decided to shine that torchlight of enlightenment on the general practitioners of comic relief and hopefully, get a scribbled prescription to a whole lotta laughs. Karunesh Talwar is a young stand-up comedian who isn't afraid to speak his mind. Born in Ghaziabad but brought up in Mumbai, this Mithibai College student first tried his hand at music with his band, Fatman's Entourage (which was a huge failure in his opinion), and then started his stand-up career only nine months ago. Talwar now writes for Vir [...]

Mumbai alternative rock band Blakc released a music video for their song 'Untitled' this week. This is the band's first music video and it has been made by Enter Guerilla Films (read more about them here ). When we spoke to Anish Menon (who plays guitar for Blakc) earlier this month , we found out that this video was going to be part of their plans to release their forthcoming second album. Menon also told us that they shot the video in a warehouse and that they had a concept in mind which wouldn't be about simply [...]

What do an ex-corporate lawyer, an English teacher from Japan and Andheri have in common? The answer is the Leaping Windows Comic Library and Cafe. I do not like Andheri and would voluntarily never go there. It isn't a nice place. There are rude rickshaw drivers, the buses are always over-crowded and people almost never give you the right directions. There has never been a good enough reason to spend time in Andheri, but things have now changed and I'm not too sad about it. Previously only an online comic book library, Leaping Windows was conceptualised by three [...]

After New Delhi alt rockers menwhopause played Tihar Jail towards the end of 2011 (more here ; photos here ), the prison headquarters have been a talking point for a lot of Indian indie acts who want to associate themselves with what is possibly one of the most feared locations in the country. After the New Delhi quintet conducted a three-week workshop and hosted a performance, ska act The Ska Vengers played in the jail premises recently, preceded by a preview gig at Blue Frog, New Delhi in support of the cause, on April [...]

Hindi progressive rockers Paradigm Shift had only just been a band for a few months before their vision of musical stardom seemed a bridge too far. They were picking up as an act but then changes in their lineup forced them to stall their plans and they nearly became one of those bands that faded into obscurity sooner than it could make a mark. Paradigm Shift has been active since 2009, when Kaushik Ramachandran, Nikhil Warrier and Nikhil Nandakumar got together to form the band. Unfortunately, Warrier had to leave to pursue his studies in Aurangabad and the band continued [...]

New Delhi electronica artist Jatin Puri and Mumbai singer-songwriter Dilpreet Bhatia won honours at the International Songwriting Competition, bagging the awards for Music Video and World Music respectively. The two winners were chosen from a massive 16,000 entries and were selected by a panel of judges which included the likes of Tom Waits, Jeff Beck, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Smith (The Cure), Tori Amos, McCoy Tyner, Kelly Clarkson, John Mayall, Monte Lipman (President, Universal Republic Records) amongst others. Check out Puri's video, for the song 'Life Is Good', below. Stream the song here . [...]

Norman Quentin Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim has sent all his music fans in India a message. It may be just 29 seconds long but you will definitely love his quirky sense of humour. Cook starts off with a 'Namaste' and that he's excited to come to India, but it's the end that's the real comedy piece. If you haven't been bombarded already, here is our coverage of the funk soul brother's arrival into the country, Fatboy Slim is coming to India Kvlt-est press release about Mister [...]

The lyrical-pop duo rounded off their album tour with a stellar performance at Blue Frog, Mumbai last Thursday. We've got photos!

We thought that the Silent Disco at the recently concluded Indo-German Urban Mela in Mumbai would be either be hilariously bad or, well, quite good. But in the end, it was a bit of both. Although the "India Goes 3D" gig was also a silent disco with the added novelty of 3D video, it wasn't quite as fantastic as the first day of thrills and spills at the Mela. DJ Uri and Daniel Haaksman were the DJs on the first Silent Disco night and they had no idea what they were getting into. It wasn't even all that silent because [...]

Furtados, Dimapur is organising the one of the most alliterative online guitar contest ever organised. The Acoustica Online Acoustic Guitar Contest was announced on April 15 and has since then been soliciting entries. The first round of the contest will run up to May 15 but the end of round one will depend upon the number of entries the contest will receive. The contest is an online contest in the sense that participants will have to upload videos of themselves performing, on YouTube. The link of this video will go to the organisers (Furtados, Dimapur) who will then host [...]

Who are the Early Set guys? No, they are not a hypothetical German math rock band, nor do we mean Software Engineers in Test , or a bunch of people who worship the Egyptian god of desert, storm and foreigners . We're talking about those singer-songwriters who feature in the 7.30-8.30 slot at the Blue Frog (or any singer-songwriter who's trying to make it big in the music scene). Who are these people? Find out right here. Middle East-returnee Anoushka Lewis aka Nush Lewis is a singer-songwriter who's lived in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Bangalore, and [...]

The lineup of the fourth edition of the Escape Festival has been announced. The festival will be held on May 18, 19 and 20 at Naukuchiatal, Uttarakhand and will feature musicians, artists, writers, potters, tattoo artists, adventure sports, workshops and a flea market. Featuring two separate stages, the three-day event is a camping festival. Check out a photo gallery from one of the artists at this year's edition of the festival, Shiv Ahuja, of the 2011 edition of the festival here . Here is a description of the stages from the official press release, [...]

Following the release of their debut album Till You Appear , acclaimed Bangalore duo Sulk Station shall perform at Out Of The Box this Wednesday. If their recent shows are anything to go by, they'll be playing the record in its entirety. When asked about the performance, here's what one-half of the group, Rahul Giri, had to say 'Cause it's an album promo, we find ourselves bound to the album songs. The album in many ways is a slightly toned down version of our live set, but it won't be radically different. We trip [...]

As details trickle in about Fatboy Slim's maiden Indian visit, the British big beat DJ plots his two-city tour to Delhi and Bangalore. We had previously announced his impending arrival , shared the kvlt-est press release from the organisers (which was a great resource for our weekly comic Out Of Toon ), and how to get tickets for the first gig in Delhi NCR on May 5 . The support acts that will be performing along side Fatboy Slim are Arjun Vagale (of "Jalebee Cartels" ), Dualist Inquiry , DJ Ivan and host Nikhil [...]

The Urban Culture Project is a series of workshops and performances that is being put together in Mumbai by Alliance Francaise de Bombay, Blue Frog, The German Consulate, Rikskonsertene (Norway) and Sound Curry. This project is being put together to celebrate Europe Day on May 9. Artists from Germany, Norway and France will co-ordinate with local artists to conduct workshops on breakdancing, graffiti and beatboxing and on the final night there will be a show at Blue Frog, Mumbai. The international artists that will be participating in the project are PEKOR (beatboxer, Germany), Criss (breakdancer, Germany), [...]

Baiju Dharmajan is set to release his debut album The Crossover in the third week of May. The guitar shredder from Kochi has been prepping for his debut since he went solo last year, and has released a montage of tunes from the upcoming record (below). Dharmajan has also invested a lot of time producing the debut album of instrumental prog rockers Kaav (stream here ), taking advantage of his experience producing the first two Motherjane albums - Insane Biography (2001) and Maktub (2008). We caught up with the Mallu guitarist to find out what we [...]

Out Of Toon is a webcomic created by Deepak 'Chuck' Gopalakrishnan . Click for a hi-res version Here's that Fatboy Slim press release . Check out previous editions of Out Of Toon here .

Dream Theater have announced their tour for their 2011 studio album A Dramatic Turn Of Events, but sadly they don't have any dates in India. However, the closest these prog rock dudes will get to our shores will be Singapore at Kallang Theatre on Wednesday, May 2 at 7.30pm. This is not the first time the band have performed in Singapore - they've played there before in 2006, 2008 and 2011. 25 years on, their 11th studio album marks the recording debut of drummer Mike Mangini. Last year, the band received their first ever Grammy nomination [...]

Submerge hosted their annual party, Supernova, at E-Zone, Bangalore last week. We've got photos!

Jason Pierce (you can call him J. Spaceman) is a dying man. He's had his lungs filled with liquid, his heart gave up on him twice, and more recently, he told everyone "... my liver was pretty gone, basically." And yet, he's been turning drug-induced reverie into wholesome music for longer than two decades. He's still at it, drawing copiously from near life/death experiences, making music on borrowed time. He works like an auteur of sorts, projecting his musical vision through the ever-changing neo-psychedelia 'group' Spiritualized, of which he's been the chief songwriter and only permanent member in its 22-year [...]