This morning I awoke to find my cell roommate, Rajni, sleeping on my leg. Monkeys can be heavy. Monkeys can also be strong. “Rajni, man, I’m late making breakfast for the masters, eek!”, I gave her a shove. She single-handedly flipped me off my hammock and onto the floor, face first. Monkeys = 1:Neha = 0. THIS. After spending all night coughing because she insists on smoking cigars before bedtime. All those cute gibbons and gorillas about and I get stuck with a smoking lemur.
Anyway, I crawled around looking for some type of wake up/make up music, something less aggressive than my usual fare of German synths, big bass, and synthetic hand claps (just like garba!). Something combining bittersweet melodies, energetic drums and clever lyrics. Something to make Rajni like me better so we can just chill, sing along and bond over heartbreak, instead of all this fighting-biting. Good thing I took my indie-loving friend Bird’s advice and brought along some most suitable fare…
Last December, Spin mag profiled a then under-the-underground band called Voxtrot and made it their ‘Band of the Day’:
The Austin, Texas quintet’s debut EP, Raised by Wolves, is a stunning mini-collection of John Hughes-heyday paeans, twitchy pop, and surging, Strokes-y dancefloor fillers. [link]
Had I been keeping open to the possibility of jangly guitars bringing me to my knees then news of lead singer, Ramesh Srivastava, would have hit SM tip boxes way sooner:
When Srivastava moved to Glasgow at the age of 19, he’d already written the tracks that would comprise the Raised By Wolves EP, songs with deft arrangments and charming melodies that evoke Belle & Sebastian, Morrissey, and the Lucksmiths, but with jagged, rumbling guitars remindful of early Cure and, sometimes, Joy Division. [Link]
Good ol’ fashioned guitar pop made by a twee Texan of Indian descent who writes Morrissey lyrics and sings in a vaguely Scottish accent. It really is a small world, no? The unprecedented word-of-mouth coverage their first EP, Raised by Wolves, has received in the music blog scene has helped propel interest in their second, titled ‘Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives’, which dropped earlier this month.
The releases are quite complementary but I would choose the first one, if only because it includes the gorgeous, “The Start of Something”, which can be heard on their My Space page, and the easy falsettos on “Missing Pieces”. From what I read and hear their stage shows are mad fun so have a look their website for tour dates. Creative, sensitive, cute and a piano-playing blogger, sigh. Take me back to seventeen, cruel world 🙂 The only thing lacking in the mix at this point is a full length album.
um. swoon. genius. thanks so much, neha!
I’m not sure how Morrisey comparisons were drawn, listening to that MySpace page. I’ve not really had any desire to check out MySpace – so is 119500 plays of a track quite a lot? Sounds like these chaps are fairly popular. Cool post Neha, this is the stuff SM does well and even though most of the acts you (pl.) big up (invariably Manish) are ones I’ll never see, I like reading about budding brown boppers. Lots of desi artists seem to have a Glasgow link…interesting what what?
What is this about hammocks and monkeys? Who is Rajni? Cigars eh?
Rajni is a lemur I recruited on a trip to Madagascar in 2003. She has been with SM since the begining and at one time was in charge of our SMU. She’s a bit old now and I thought she’d make a good assistant for Neha. Neha, she is fond of putting people’s hands in a bowl of warm water while they are sleeping. Just a warning. Carry on.
Neha, you have cool taste in music.
Yup. And since every cell in my body quivers uncontrollably over the Pixies, we HAD to have a lemur at the bunker. It’s actually a sign of our great affection for Neha that we let the newbie room with righteous Raj.
VELOURIA – what it mean Akka? I’m so confused.
I used to have the hots for a girl called Rajni. It wasn’t mutual. So is this monkey a helper monkey like Mojo?
Are you sure Ramesh’s last name is Srinivastava and not Srivastava?
was referring to that. Don’t mean to be pedantic.
hello. HOT.
now i’ll listen to the music. but hot.
woohoo thanks neha lol
Just one thing: lemurs are prosimians, (that is, pre-monkeys) not monkeys.
And this is the best place to see them in the US.
They played here at UCLA about two months ago…awesome awesome show, and Ramesh is beautiful in person =) Silly me, I should have sent this in as a tip back then, it would have introduced all the faithful SM-ers to the band earlier. But it’s never too late, I say…
D’OH. Spanks Brown! That’s the second one so far. Rajni, why you gotta be that like that, boo? You know I love you, all messing up my damn spelling and shit. IT’S NOT FUNNY…no, no, I didn’t mean it baby, come, I’ll buy you a hot dog, girl. Don’t look away, I’ll treat you right.
holy hell! i just upped my cool points! jared van fleet…they keyboardist/pianist for the band is a friend of mine! we went to undergrad together, spent many a-drunken evenings together, sang beatles covers together, and he was my new years date in 2003! wow! he and i were always in and out of bands in austin, but i moved to san anto, and left the music scene….i had no idea voxtrot was so big! wow! great post neha!
BB – The lyrics reminded me of Morrissey’s writing. Actually, I’m not very well-versed in the ‘rock music’ that’s so popular with kids thesedays so if the lyrics hint at obsessive longing then Morrissey it is!
Meerkat – That’s wicked! Here’s hoping they get huge…
sigh not only does he play guitar for a good band, he’s cute. some people have it all
hello groupie much? ok not really, but i’m listening to some of the songs now and i actually really LOVE this! what a beautiful lilting voice….is lilting the right word? it seems the best word to describe it. doesn’t matter…all i’m trying to say is that he’s got a great voice.
Meerkat – That’s wicked! Here’s hoping they get huge…
Well, seeing as Birds got one of their tracks on her profile, chances are they will. Shes particularly good at pegging bands that make it huge (before they make it huge). Oddly enough her fortune telling does not leave the indie/britpop music scene.
There ya go Neha filling that quota.
Holy shit. They’re going to be starting their tour in Tucson. Finally… I hear about a decent band coming to town before it’s too late. Thanks muchly.
WTF?? German synths, big bass, and synthetic hand claps are what it’s all about. Fuck guitars. And sitars.
if the lyrics hint at obsessive longing then Morrissey it is!
All the more reason I love both the title of this post and the post itself!
I like it. It shall be the name of my next album.
And by next, I mean first. And by it shall, I mean it probably won’t.
But I still like it.
From their myspace page:
I’ma gonna try and go 🙂
The music has a nice swing to it…..very enjoyable!
Ravin (#18):
SOMEONE ELSE FROM TUCSON!? woohoo!!
Austin! Reprezent. Next time I run into him drunk in a bar, I’ll let him know he has Sepia-Love (TM).
yay! i love this band! i saw them at the mercury lounge here in new york a week ago and they were fantastic! i strongly urge everyone to take a little listen. and ramesh, aside from being a hottie has the most vibrant energetic stage presence. that alone is worth attending one of their shows. thanks neha for posting about one of my unrequited loves!
He sounds a bit like the dude from broken social scene.
The title alone of this piece deserves a huge bag of cookies. I’d never thought I’d get to see an Indian reference The Smiths. hands over cookies
I’ll have to share those cookies with the Masters & Monkeys…Allow me to link you to the post that did it better. The comments on that puppy made me feel warm and fuzzy 🙂
pish posh. 😉 i’ve known DOZENS of desi smiths fans. now finding a fellow (in every sense of the word) PIXIES-lover…ah, well. let’s just say there’s a reason why i’m not married at 31. sigh.
and just in case you’re new– SM has had tons of indie or twee or modern rock or new wave or….etc refs. i mentioned the smiths in my last (and uber-hated) kaavya-defense post and once, manish even namechecked my beloved cocteau twins…but he did it to cite what HE considers the “gayest” song ever, i believe. vatewer.
I’m a male desi pixies fan, I have even seen them live 4 times since there return to touring a couple of years ago.
I have never seen a goodlooking Srivastava man before. Rather pleasing to the eyes 🙂
Madurai Vivekan (#24)
hey… what say we have a little Tucson meetup at this concert… maybe we can dig out more than just the two of us Mutineers?
now finding a fellow (in every sense of the word) PIXIES-lover…ah, well. Meeeee! But seriously, there are tons of Desi pixie fans out there. I was part of the college rock scene back in the motherland, and those of us who were into alt rock were crazy about the pixies. And about the velouria – lemur linkage, i would be surprised if many people around here got it.
the fact that you got it was more than enough.
Sorry ravins, I’m an ex-pat Tucsonan and won’t be there until mid-June. If there’s something going on then I’m down… but are there actually any mutineers in Tucson? E-mail if you’re out there…
Yet another expat Tucsonite 🙂 Loved it and love those times. I’d be at the concert in Austin this weekend, though 🙂
ANNA – I probably live in the wrong continent then. I rarely get to meet desis of our generation, and when I do they’re always into Bollywood and Indi pop.
This groups seems (sounds?) interesting. As luck would have it, I will be in Seattle on May 31 and am going to try to catch their concert. Thanks.