Chansons Nouveau: Take III

First things first, I have been sick (this is where you are supposed to go “Sooooo sad…!”) and down for the whole of last week. And busy as hell the week before that doing stuff I really can’t remember at this point of time. And sometime between being feverish and weak with a high blood pressure and giving stage performances (oh yeah!), I still managed to listen to some really catchy stuff. Inspite of the HUGE volume of new music I have listened to in the past two weeks, somehow the only songs that come to my mind right now are the ones I have heard (on repeat, ad nauseum) in the last four days.

And just in case you’re interested, this time I went through a whole “hunting” phase, where I made it a point to only listen to stuff I would never listen to before. Which meant a lot of “different” and lesser-known-to-me music, like School Of Seven Bells, Spoon, Charlotte Gainsbourg and The Magnetic Fields. I also threw in a bit of MGMT and Mumford and Sons, which settled* tad better. That phase didn’t last that long, though, and I was back to the more conventional Billboard Hits in a week. So well, here’s my pick from the mid-year Billboard Top 100.

Your Love (Nicki Minaj): Believe me when I say I haven’t felt this mushy in a long, long time. Which is weird because the lyrics of this song isn’t really all profound and moving, and most of the time it is the lyrics which does the trick for me. If anything the song goes “And for your lovin’ Imma Die Hard like Bruce Willis ” (I mean, seriously?). But I remember trying to go off to sleep late at night after a crappy day and a frustrating conversation with the guy in Vietnam (High Speed Internet Access, you suck!) and then playing this song and going all “Awww… but don’t I just luuuurve him?”. Maybe what I loved about the song is how simple it is, and how it made me feel like a teenager when it was all about the “Ooh ooh aah aah sexy eyes”. Beware though, this song is overtly sweet, and could leave you thinking of pink candy-floss or bejeweled pink shiny jackets.

Glitter In The Air (Pink): Told you hadn’t I? That I am a Pink devotee? I wonder how I had missed this song, considering the fact that I’ve had the album Funhouse in my system for more than half a year now. But anyways, given my weakness for Pink, this was one of the first songs in the compilation I had heard, and now I am hooked to it. I only wish I could sing it the way she does, because any other way would be doing injustice to the song. My favorite bit in the song: “There you are, sitting in the garden, Clutching my coffee, calling me sugar“. Man, you can almost hear her soul pouring out. I die for the piano chords in this one, and will stop doing whatever I am doing, when this one starts playing. Makes sense actually; this is not one of those songs you can let play in the background while you go about doing something else. Oh, and while I mention Pink, I have also been listening to her latest single “Raise Your Glass” quite a lot. Spicy lyrics, perky beats. Need I say more?

Up, Up and Away (Kid Cudi): This is my latest “happy” song and I swear by it. It’s simply so buoyant you can’t help feeling light after you listen to it, and I guess I spend an average of thirty minutes per day listening to this one (given the amount of depression I have been going through the dosage of happy music is proportionately larger). The amazing thing is I don’t get bored of the song, at all! I can’t sing along to this one, alright (rap has never been my thing) but I sure do the whole groovin’ and the pouting (yeah, I am weird like that) when I put this on. This is the one if you want your soul to be lifted “Up, up and away” and soaring high for a long time!

Pray For You (Jaron And The Long Road To Love): Okay, I’ll confess something today. When listening to new music, I am more likely to listen to songs AND artists whose names I like (I try stay away from the long names ‘feat’ some more long names) and it surprisingly works for me. And while going through this method of picking and choosing, this one came up randomly on my playlist. It hasn’t got a very impressive intro, and would lead you to believe that it is yet another of those lame boring songs, but if you have a little bit of patience (like I have) and keep listening (like I did) you are in for a treat. The lyrics. Oh. Man. It made me smile like nothing else could. I even posted it to my Facebook profile. I mean, read it for yourself here. I seriously couldn’t think of anything more brilliant in a long time. Melody wise the song is not that exceptional, so I don’t really listen to it unless I am grumpy, but well, given how often I have been grumpy these days, this has been quite the savior!

If I Die Young (The Band Perry): This one will tug and pull at your heart strings and make you want to sing it again and again. Death is not a very happy thing to think about, and singing about death just makes it sadder, but somehow, this one doesn’t make you sad. It is just very profound that’s all. So while Just Jack‘s “The Day I Died” made me all sad and heavy in the heart, “If I Die Young” just made me philosophical. It almost makes me think of a young woman with curly disheveled hair wearing a baggy red sweater, who’s sitting by her window on a gloomy winter with a mug of coffee cupped in her hands (and it’s not me I see, if you must know… just blame my oversensitive overactive imagination), who’s thinking of life, but that beyond death. Sigh!

Teenage Dream (Katy Perry): This one’s all about the mm-chk mm-chk that’s typical Katy Perry but I love it to bits. Or maybe that’s why I love it so much. I am not normally a fan of techno, but just like Hot N’ Cold, this one stuck with me, and I can’t get enough. I guess sometimes I just love being a girl and being able to love chicky-chick songs like this one! I would keep humming this all day long, so much that my Mom must have started raising her eyebrows about the “Let’s go all the way tonight, no regrets, just love” bit, and wondering if that’s what is on her daughter’s mind after all! Lyrics, again, is pretty simple and easy-going, but that makes it easier to relate to I guess. Dang, why do I need to justify me loving it? I just do!

I guess this should do for today, or I run the risk of writing about everything at one go and exhausting myself yet again. Will come up with the pick of the week next time, although I have a feeling these songs are here to stay!

* by “settled” I mean the songs made me crave for them at odd hours, and I found them playing inside my head even when I was trying to sleep. I know I don’t love a song until and unless this happens!

Chansons Nouveau: Take II

Prelude: Yeah, I am writing this one out, even though all around me people are dressing up in their sparkling best and jostling each other in the streets. And if you are one of them fussy people (like we are) who will, on principle, only drive around, chances are you will end up seeing more flashy glittery throngs of enthusiastic hoppers than “pandals” and idols. And you will be back home before it’s too late, with all the time in the world to do more un-festive like stuff. Like I am doing right now.

Picking up from where I last left off, and with more enthusiasm than what I started with (honest!), here goes this week’s picks. From Pakistani to the more predictable English to German, this one has it all.

Khairheyan De Naal (Shafqat Amanat Ali): This one is another one of those gems that BIL had mailed to me, and I remember pausing midway in a sentence when I started listening to it. And I couldn’t stop listening to it. Although the lyrics is not something I could relate to at this point (he begs not to be sent to some foreign land because his love is out here, while I would fly away to Vietnam at the drop of a hat), I stayed up awake with this song on repeat. And since then this is the song that I have been humming all the time even though it’s been a week now. Love the classical touch that Shafqat flirts with oh-so-perfectly with his honeyed voice. And while at it, I should mention Shafqat’s Mahiya , which is another b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l song that somehow makes me a little sad. Both definitely worth a listen. Or two. Or umpteen, which it is in my case.

Paimona (Zeb and Haniya): I’d have loved to tell you how I discovered this one, but that would mean I would have to explain just how my mind works when it comes to music, which, if I may say so myself, can’t be put in a few words. So let’s just say I discovered this song. And how! I was hooked to the Rubab piece that opens the song, and then to the language of the song, which is a mix of Farsi (Persian) and Pashto (Afghani), and sounded just the right amount of mysterious to be beautiful. The song in itself is quite simple, has very simple notes, and is very “hummable”, if only you “get” the beats and the lyrics. Both are tricky. “Nazar Eyle” and “Chal Diye” are two of my Zeb and Haniya favorites after Paimona.

Done with the Pakistani, moving on to the English.

Stitching Leggings (Kate Nash): Before I discovered this song, the only Kate Nash I had heard was “Pumpkin Soup” and I had found it pretty interesting. But Kate Nash earned my Leo loyalty right after I heard Stitching Leggings. And everything in it can be summed up in the one line that I keep waiting for: “At least I’m lucky that I don’t have all the power in the world so I can’t fuck everything else up” which she sings in one breath (took me sometime and then Google to realize just what it is that she sings). The song in itself is quite nice and easy, as is another of my Kate Nash favorites, “Foundations“. The sucker for good lyrics that I am, it just doesn’t get any better than Kate Nash. Her songs are funny laced with weird, and leave me smiling each time I hear them.

King Of Anything (Sara Bareilles): Just a month ago I had compiled a playlist called “It’s A Woman’s World” for Fried Eye, which included almost all the so called women-empowering songs that I had known. And this one would have made it there if only I had heard it before. Sara Bareilles had a fan in me right after I had listened to “Gravity” (and also watched the dance sequence in So You Think You Can Dance some seasons back; don’t remember) and “Love Song” but King Of Anything is something I would love to sing over and over again. Love the bit where she goes “Who cares, if you disagree; You are not me; Who made you king of anything?“. This is signature Sara Bareilles, and you will like it if you like prominent piano chords and easy beats.

And I mentioned German didn’t I? Ah, this is like saving the best for the last, yet again.

Rette Mich (Nena): Cut to last year around this time, when the one song I would keep mumbling was “99 Luftballons” (meaning 99 Red Balloons), since I didn’t have the capacity to really sing it, the song being German. There is also an English version of it, but for me it isn’t just quite the same. And so a random search on Nena led me to Rette Mich, which has quite conveniently replaced 99 Luftballons for me now. Rette Mich means “Save Me” and the song is about a girl who’s stuck in a hotel room in the night and is asking her guy to help her and save her from the loneliness, which can’t be cured by any amount of video cassettes and discs. The beat is peppy and fast and there’s a lot of “dhink-chik-dhink-chik” if you know what I mean. But it is a happy song, even if it is about loneliness. The tone which starts the song has got a little addictive for me now and I find myself humming it at odd hours. And while at it, “Kino” and “Leuchtturm” are another couple of songs by Nena I really dig.

That just about covers it for now I guess. Have been listening to music like a maniac the last week, starting from Sufi to Rubab instrumentals to Scottish Bagpipes. Few other songs I have just discovered are “Naya Jahan” (Anaida feat Noori; from her album with the same name), Shafqat’s “Aankhon Kay Sagar” and just yesterday I started listening to A.R. Rahman’s latest “Jhootha Hi Sahi“. But more on that in the next post. Let’s see how well they settle in my system.

Tastin’ the wastin’ and groovin’ and sharkin’

Finally I am through with the screw-ups I call my mid-terms, and suddenly I have time in my hand to do everything I want to do, and it is sort of a let down. See it’s not even like I stopped doing stuff because my mid-terms were going on, but well, it was a whole different case of the thrill of the taboo. Can you even imagine how boring it is to do things only when they are meant to be done?

So well, although I don’t really love to write when I am expected to (like in the free time I get when the exams are over), I had to do this. Tried talking it out but R’s busy (nothing new in that anyway) so I can’t talk to him. I even took an outside chance on getting my sister to listen to me, but seems like I am the only person in the universe who won’t be home late tonight.

But it’s not everyday you realize you are an addict. And I have to get this off my chest. So let me do this right.

I am Sam (nickname courtesy AB), and I am a musiholic. I am afflicted by that disorder characterized by the excessive consumption of and dependence on music (oh yeah, I tweaked the definition of an alcoholic, and in case you were wondering, *consume* is exactly what I do with music)

And how did I come to realize it?

Exhibit A: I spent four hours on the night before my Artificial Intelligence paper, surfing for new music to listen to on Grooveshark, and I wouldn’t stop smiling, all the while that I listened to some awesome, awesome songs.

Exhibit B: After getting into bed at 2am in the morning, I spent another hour listening to *one* song that I had hurriedly transfered to my phone (the only one I had with me; rest of the songs I could only listen to online) and thus ended up sleeping at three. And it doesn’t end there.

Exhibit C: I wake up at 7.30, and turn on the laptop (meaning to go through the slides) and almost unconsciously connect to the internet, and before I know it, I am shuffling more through the random searches than the pdf files I am meant to learn.

Exhibit D: I come back from a f***ed up exam (no surprises there), and the only thing I want to know the moment I enter my room is if the wi-fi’s still behaving itself. It is. And I start right from where I had last left off, and that is where I start having a doubt as to if this is really normal behavior.

Exhibit E: I try taking an afternoon nap, and have my laptop right next to me, with the earphones still in my ears, and a playlist put on repeat (rubab instrumental, if you must have it). You must have some idea about how a woman feels when she wakes up with her cheek squashed on top of her laptop and her hands lovingly placed on its closed screen like it’s the most natural thing to do. Freaked out, yeah. That was exactly how I felt.

And if it were not enough, I am still at it. I am even now, zealously searching for new music like it’s going out of fashion; I find myself counting hours till I can get home and start downloading all the songs I have been listening to, so I can have them with me all the time, unlike now when I need to be connected to the net, (which in itself is such a pain).  I have got into the bad habit of active listening, because half the time I am like “Ya..ya..hmm.. hmm…so have you heard *this* song?“, and rest of the times I am humming something under my breath. And why would the social networking be left untouched? The obsession spreads over Facebook AND Twitter as well. I wonder at times why my earphones don’t just start growing out of my ears. And I wonder how many more years I have left before I start hearing music inside my head without even actual music being played. Oh, and it wouldn’t matter, because the rate at which I am going, I will be deaf way before my time anyway.

So there you go. I am confirming my Dad’s worst fears, and confronting my own. Oh no, I am not scared I am an addict. I am just scared of that slightest possibility that I might someday change. Because I hope, hand upon my heart, that I don’t. I love being a musiholic, which means I will not even try to stop myself, so help me God.

Just heard an amazing song I need to Google the lyrics of. So ciao for now.

P.S. Maybe , just maybe, this has to do with the whole idea about putting up playlists on my blog. I can’t believe I have deliberately, on my own,  set myself up a routine to write. But boy am I excited about it.

The roller coaster ride called youth festival.

… and how I survived to tell the tale.

This one needs no prelude. To sum it all up: I went, I croaked, I came back. But just so you at least know what I’m talking about, I was a part of the ten-member contingent that represented our dear darling university in the East Zone Inter University Youth Festival held in Kalyani University just a few days back.

The woman of too many words that I am, if I were to put down all the instant-by-instant emotions and opinions that I felt during the entire trip, then this post would run the risk of turning into a novel. So I’ll do what I do best. Paint the snapshots that remained with me, even though it took me three whole days of doing absolutely nothing and remaining submerged and insulated from everything to get a life back.

To start from where it all began would be a waste of space, since for me, it all truly began the moment we arrived at the Ghoshpara railway station (which, incidentally, is just one big platform, and is a minute’s walk to the main gates of Kalyani University) hungry, dirty and with all energy sapped out of us. So imagine someone (namely me), who’s not slept the whole night in the train, not had a single morsel of food since previous night’s excuse of a dinner, with a guitar slung on either shoulder and a backpack on her back, one tabla on one hand and a heavy pair of “borkaah” on the other, being confronted by an angry mob of students just on entering the university campus, with cricket bats and heavy sticks on their hands, breaking anything that comes their way. And then being asked to leave the campus quietly just so no “harm is done” to anybody unintentionally. Hurriedly taking refuge in the quarters of a compassionate faculty member till the storm died out. Being numbed with shock for a little while at actually having witnessed such a frenzied mob.

I think the best part was that all the “worst”s we encountered were on the very first day. Like getting to know that no less than fifteen girls were alloted to stay in a four seater room in the girls’ hostel. Or that we would have to walk for twenty minutes to reach the place where food was served. Then sitting for lunch after more than twelve hours of not having food and realizing that the food was so hot we couldn’t have more than a few morsels. That was maybe the only time I almost cried out of hunger (people who know me better know the relationship I otherwise have with food), and the worst part was that I did have food right in front of me and I couldn’t have it.

But after that the ride was significantly better. That was the day we discovered the joys of riding on the “van”. Aah, you have to ride one to know how it feels to totter about sitting on a huge wooden plank supported on wheels. And it just gets better. It cost just five bucks per person to go from anywhere to anywhere! That was also the day I learnt that ultimately it is about the people who are around you, and not the place where you are. And I learnt to laugh through all of it, even though my dinner comprised of “roti”s and “Maaza”. Oh, and the fact that we got to know that the ten other girls who were alloted to our room would not be attending the youth festival after all did go a long way to ensure that the smile remained intact.

From the next day onwards it was a tiring albeit happy blur for me. Dancing barefoot on the streets of Kalyani in full “Sattriya” costume for the cultural procession that marked the inauguration of the fest. Passersby showing us (the smallest contingent, with one-fourth of what other contingents had) the thumbs-up while half the time I was wondering if the next minute was going to be the one when I pass out of thirst and fatigue. All of us sitting and trying to figure out how people could be at two different places at the same time, since the same people were taking part in parallel events. And miraculously pulling it off alright. Dropping off dead each night and waking up each morning with a strange desire to tuck myself away for the whole day and make myself unavailable. Crying out loud for my lost voice and making it worse. Preparing a new group song in five minutes and performing it like confidence permeated in our veins. Letting myself down in my western solo, and then being pleasantly surprised by compliments flowing in from other people (that was something, let me tell you!). Witnessing some awesome performances that left me awestruck and spellbound. Rushing, rushing, rushing all around, and yet having time to belt out the “Bhola Baba” song while on our way between venues on the vans (complete with guitars and the tambourine and the harmonizations!) Making friends and witnessing crushes (wink, wink!), having disagreements and then sorting them out. And the last night, walking all the way back to our hostel, singing Jayanta Hazarika numbers with LT playing the guitar while walking with us like the cool dude he is.

Taking a detour, this reminds me that LT is not a dude to be mentioned in the passing. He’s the sort who would sing “Summer of 69″ AND Bihu with his guitar on the same stage, with a “gamosa” tied around his head to show the people just which beautiful land he hails from. He claims fame as the boy who made all non-Assamese out there dance Bihu to his tunes. Just so you know.

Coming back, obviously the prizes count too. And win them we did. For a contingent of ten members, getting five prizes would be considered some achievement, eh? I did win a bronze for my solo after all (thank you, thank you), and we won the silver for our impromptu group song, which means we get to attend the nationals. Our debate team won the gold, because of which our team won the best literary team. And our champion photographer, DB bagged the silver, although in our eyes he deserved the gold (poor guy had to empty his memory card of some of the best photos he had clicked just for the event).

But somehow, what I would most remember from the trip are snippets of moments, flashes that just happened, you know. They just came without any warning, and left us doubled up in laughter and tears. Like AB being confused for a guy not just once, but quite a few times. Will never forget how the “haye-haye” party (you know what I mean) in the train demanded money from her and yelled out “Aye, handsome, Salman Khan, chal nikaal…!“. Or AG learning to speak broken Bangla, and resorting to sign language for words she couldn’t find. Or the famous “bottle attack” (this is the best kept secret among us girls who were there, let me tell you.. so I wouldn’t dare divulge it here even though I am dying to). SS getting a love letter from some “fan” with her name misspelled. And the girls in the hostel getting us breakfast to our room on the last day, just as we were wondering how to have breakfast AND be on time for the valedictory function. Oh, and the first bite of the famous “papri chat“. I don’t think the taste will ever fade from my memory. How can I forget the sweetheart K from Central University of Jharkhand, who asked a drunk van driver to let him drive the van, and then took me and JD for a long van ride in the campus sometime around midnight just because I had mentioned that I fancied a walk…!

And the music… it was all around. If we were going about yelling songs from our vans, there were people who chose to sit under a shed and sing quietly late into the night. Even in the rooms where everybody would be rehearsing, there was music all the time. And boy did we have a song for each moment. We cribbed and cried and lamented and laughed, but most of all we sang our hearts out. Whether it be under the nicely lit streets with lamp posts adorned with strings of lights, or on the steps outside the boys’ quarters with semi-nude guys bathing under rows of plastic taps right next to us, there was always someone strumming a guitar, humming a tune, playing a neat beat.

Did I mention this was meant to be a “short” piece? My due apologies. Sometimes I really don’t know when I start getting carried away. But maybe I am still out there, drifting in that campus, floating around with the music… so just so I bring myself back with a thud, I wrap this up with a thud. Mid terms from next Thursday and singing my way through it won’t be much help, you see.