Be Gentle When You Handle Me...

coz I bruise easily…

My pal GTom and Boy Joy (aka chord-master Joy) is a splendid duo! They create their own music, ranging from pop-rock to electronica to Baul stuffs! Needlessly to say, I am an ardent fan (my apt. is known as the groupie house) and cheerleader of their band :)

Anyway, GTom introduced me to the world of Indie singer-songwriter (or appropriately, an entire fleet of female solo musicians) genre. I was really unaware of these talented artists (so thank you bro). Here are some samples of these very gifted musicians. You guys might feel little *cheesy* but worth a try as always.

Natasha Bedingfield – I Bruise Easily (Unplugged)
Feist – Gatekeeper (from the album: Let it Die)
India.Arie – Good morning (from the album – Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship)

Enjoy :)

Well it's time to begin as the summer sets in
It's the scene
You set for new lovers
You play your part painting in a new start
But each gate will open another

June July and August said
"It's probably hard to plan ahead"
June July and August said
"It's better to bask in each others"

Gatekeeper seasons wait for your nod
Gatekeeper you held your breath
Made the summer go on and on...

Well they tried to stay in from the cold and wind
Making love and making their dinner
Only to find that the love that they grew in the summer
Froze

February April said
"Don't be fooled by the summer again"
February April said
"That half of the year, well we'll never be friends"

Gatekeeper seasons wait for your nod
Gatekeeper you held your breath
Made the winter go on and on....

More Underground

VB's post reminds me of a bootleg recording (the quine tapes) of Velvet Underground that I possess. The recording is not so good, but worth a listen. Here, is the whole show for my fellow blogheads.

Disc 1 (Setlist: I'm Waiting For The Man, It's Just Too Much, What Goes On, I Can't Stand It, Some Kinda Love,Foggy Notion, Femme Fatale, After Hours, I'm Sticking With You, Sunday Morning, Sister Ray).

Disc 2 (Setlist: Follow The Leader, White Light/White Heat, Venus In Furs, Heroin, Sister Ray)

Disc 3 (Setlist: Rock And Roll, New Age, Over You, Black Angel's Death Song, I'm Waiting For The Man, Ride Into The Sun, Sister Ray/Foggy Notion)

Enjoy :)

Deadicated...

The other day they waited
The sky was dark and faded
Solemnly they stated
He has to die

And all the children learning
From books that they were burning
Every leaf was turning
To watch him die

The summer sun looked down on him
His mother could but frown on him
And all the others sound on him
But it doesn't seem to matter

And when the day had ended
With rainbow colours blended
His mind remained unbended
He had to die

You know he had to die...

Here, Moe. is doing Cryptical Envelopment>the Other One
(for puritans this is just that's it for the other one :)). Whatever, the Other One is smokin' :D

Show Detail:
Date: October 29, 1998
Venue: Metropol
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

My way home?

Sunset @ University lake. Iff interested for more photos knock on My pal P's shack.

My voyage to Seattle was a bit bitter anecdote. But apart that too, the city is so so melancholic. It’s urban but always cloudy & raining; seems the cloud messenger is too restless and donned a 24 hrs anklet to dance! For some days, I felt restless; I was tired for being into different time zones so fast, seems relatively as days passing I am getting slower…

This tiring times and the gloomy sky of Seattle often dropped nostalgic bombs of my hometown, Calcutta. In any low and thin (and especially gloomy weather), I feel like taking rest in my home, rather in my room and my coveted balcony. Wish they were here!

I don’t wanna go home SOON
I jus wanna go home NOW

Song of now: Moe. doing bring you down ( album- No Doy). The lyrics speak.
Clapton & Knopfler performing Steve Winwood’s can’t find my way home.

David Bowie; UB40

It is almost two years that Phish has disbanded. I possess most of the pre/post Phish efforts of Trey’s (all solo albums) and of Mike Gordon’s (mostly with Leo Kottke) but someway the solo offers are not transporting the original Phishy characteristics; Trey and Gordon knows better than us and may be they are not interested in reconstructing the same sound again..well but IMHO..I do miss the real sound of Phriendly Phish :(

Here is a stellar David Bowie rendition from the last Phish Concert (2004 - 08-14 Coventry Day 1). This track is originally featured in the studio album Junta; a modern rock masterpiece, and a proof of what Trey says - prog is all about pushing the limits of music…

I am in the process of getting the whole lossless version of this coveted show and will be grateful to ship anyone the CDs. VB - I will do send very shortly for you.

A personal note, this is the first song I received from the concert recording and was really excited to share with you guys (VB, K, S, TR and you)!

Test of the Boomerang

My friend VB enlightened me about how Mickey Hart was inspired by the Tabla maestro Alla Rakha and created the rhythm patterns of the Dead track Eleven (this is in 11/8 time, mostly played as three beats of three followed by a beat of two - but with all sorts of variations played against each other). I did some googling to investigate more on how Hart was introduced to Alla Rakha and what he learned from the meetings. What I found is that Dead was doing some show in NYC area and the same time, Ravi Shankar was playing in long island, accompanied by Alla Rakha. Knowing this, Hart went to the concert and was introduced by an acquaintance to Alla Rakha in the backstage.
What follows next is an excerpt by Mickey Hart.

Learning that I (Hart) was a drummer, Alla Rakha invited me back to his hotel room for tea. I brought my pad and sticks with me, and I also happened to bring along a curious little device known as a tri-nome. A tri-nome is a metronome that can keep track of three rhythmic cycles. Each cycle has a different sound. You can set it so the three beats will all weave in and out of each other, circling around in endless loops, and every time the loops intersect with each other a bell will bong, indicating what is known as "the One."

The One—the alpha and the omega, the end and the beginning of the rhythmic cycle.

Alla Rakha was amused by the tri-nome. Picking up my pad, he began to demonstrate a rhythm game to me. He beat out a count to ten and then called out a number, which I then tried to place on top of his next ten beats. For instance, when he called "twelve," I tried to lay twelve beats down within the span of his ten, so that his last beat and my last beat would meet—at the One.

With this simple game, Alla Rakha destroyed my beliefs about rhythm. Rhythm was just time, I realized, and time could be carved up any way you wanted.

We did eleven over nine and twelve over eight and fifteen over thirteen. He showed me the obvious truth that twelve bars of eleven was the same as eleven bars of twelve.

He held onto my hand as I beat so I could feel how time was infinitely elastic. He made me feel what four felt like, then while I was doing four with my left hand, he showed me how I could put five into that four with my right hand.

Even beating on the pad with my fingers I felt it. Every time you crossed at the One, the energy shot up a little. There was a little pop! of something like adrenaline, only in your head.

I returned from that hotel room feeling as if I'd been shown the Golden Tablets.

Song of Now - Eleven (Dick's Picks - Vol 16)
This song needs the real player.