New York Magazine posted the quintessential spontaneous New York Desi moment (h/t Sadaf).
Bhangra in the East Village from Derek Beres on Vimeo.
Do you recognize the deli? I It’s that one place on 1st street in New York’s East Village where all the taxi workers go. I went with The Kominas after a show last fall. They have great saag paneer. The man providing the beats in the video is Duke Mushroom (not Derek Beres as stated earlier), both of EarthRise SoundSystem. Updated: Here’s the original version of the song (thanks Amitabh).
Very nice. Here is the original version of that song.
Actually that’s Dave Schommer (!) aka Duke Mushroom– not derek.
Nice find!
Ahh Nostalgia … their chana masala/chole is a pretty tasty treat as well .. can never beat that price and taste .. i wish these guys opened up a joint in Boston … they’d make a killing among the below-mediocre desi food scene here
this totally made my afternoon. love it.
punjab deli! this place is no joke. amazing!
3 · desigooner on June 16, 2010 8:49 PM · Direct link Nice find! Ahh Nostalgia … their chana masala/chole is a pretty tasty treat as well .. can never beat that price and taste .. i wish these guys opened up a joint in Boston … they’d make a killing among the below-mediocre desi food scene here
Desigooner:
I couldn’t agree more. Let’s start our own South Asian restaurant called: “Child Bears Outsourced Your Hunger”. The Indian restaurants over here in Bosistan are all run by money-eyed capitalists. It’s only after I eat this lousy food that I cheer on the Maoists in India for curtailing the bad-food-trends brought upon by the capitalists.
Another another note: This video was so nice and uplifting. I prefer the shop-worker’s version to the original.
I love this!
Gosh, he’s so good. And i don’t even like Punjabi music. He really must get a record deal.
This is a great thing to see at the start of the day. As my aunt says, with desi music you will always have great soul. I liked it better then the original. 🙂
great video…i enjoyed the wet sari scene
this is great… i go to the punajbi deli at least once a week and never knew that guy could sing like that.
needed something refreshing for the day/week…thanks for this post! made my day.
People may enjoy this impromptu version more than the original because the female singer’s voice on the original is truly an abomination. However, the male artist, Chamkila, who also wrote the song, was pure brilliance. His voice wasn’t special, but he wrote dozens of classic songs. He was totally uneducated, but a genius. His songs could be quite vulgar, and were geared towards a very rural audience, but captured that particular culture better than most, before or after him. His audience loved and hated him. I imagine that if Shakespeare had been born in a dalit family in a Punjabi village in the early 1960s, he would have been like Chamkila. A raw and unpolished diamond.
More about Chamkila here.
My post was going to be similar to what Amitabh posted. This store owner is pretty good as well. There are many guys just like him, like many of my friends, i hang out with, truck-drivers, shop-owners etc… just do this for fun. Sad truth is when these guys want to pursue it to the next level, some bedroom dj with weekend dhol lessons takes their vocals and exploits them with his own crap remixes without crediting the actual singer. The bhangra-record industry is really f@ked up.
i was trying to figure out who he looks like then it hit me, apna yaar has a slight resemblence to Raekwon. Which also reminds me that was the first time I noticed a Sikh guy in Raekwon’s “Ice Cream” video. silly desi factoid for you if you didn’t know 🙂
love it! I like this better than the orignal version.
Chamkilla was like the “2 live crew” of Punjab. I cant understand any of this songs, but I recall some hardcore punjabi people I knew, would talk about how dirty he was for his time and in fact I think someone shot him to death for being so raunchy.
Those pesky Sikhs http://sikhchic.com/article-detail.php?cat=7&id=52
that was brilliant! I do recognize that deli…it’s open 24 hrs I think, teeny tiny but very famous and I have yet to try it.
Here is a MUCH BETTER sounding, very recent cover version of this song I just found online. These contemporary singers sound a lot better than the originals. The female vocalist I believe is Chamkila’s daughter. Sounds pretty good.