MIA says she expects her third album to be released as early as this early spring…”I wanted it to be like, no gimmicks,” she declared. “It’s my third album and I have to kind of confront whether I am a musician or not… I wanted to make something that you could play that isn’t like trendy just for three months, or the length of a DJ’s attention span.” [nme]
UPDATE: An earlier post incorrectly implied that Hassan is still a member of POPO. The post has been revised to correct that.
Over the last few months, half a dozen people have told me that I had to check out POPO, a band based in Philadelphia and composed of the three Malik brothers: Zeb, Shoaib and Hassan (who has since left the band). These guys have been around the music scene for a while, their sound has been called “post-hip-hop,” a fusion of punk, hip-hop and world music. In 2007, they opened for Nine Inch Nails and this past year, they signed with Mad Decent records, the record label created by Diplo (who once collaborated with and dated M.I.A.) According to the story, Diplo saw POPO play at a club in Atlanta and was so excited by their music that he detonated a firecracker onstage and was thrown out by the management. I caught up with 24-year old Hassan Ali Malik, POPO’S former drummer and sometimes-vocalist to ask him a little about his time with the band.
Is the band called “The PoPo” or “POPO”? The Internet has a lot of variations….
It went from “The popo’s” to “The PoPo” to “POPO.” Next will maybe be just “PO.” Or “poo poo.”
When did POPO begin?
The popos ( now “POPO”) was started by Jahan Zeb and Mike Collins in the late nineties. They played reggae.
How was the name POPO chosen?
POPO? I didn’t, but it stuck ’cause we liked the way it sounded phonetically. Doesn’t really have anything to do with the police or anything… Continue reading →
Critics have begun posting their “best of” lists for the year and the decade, and I’m thinking that over the next two weeks we’ll do something similar (see ex-SM blogger Siddhartha Mitter’s “Best World Music” album of 2009 here, for instance). Only, I’m not so interested in explaining how great I personally think certain people are; I would rather hear opinions from readers. It’s a blog; we can do that. (To be clear, I don’t have anything against critics’ best of lists.)
The first poll is music. In the next few days, we might do: most influential desi novel, best desi film, most overrated celebrity, and most influential desi politician. (Suggestions for other polls?)
In the comments, please feel free to ‘write in’ the names of people who ought to be on the list but aren’t, or to discuss why you voted as you did.
Last month, the hard rock band Slant dropped their second self-titled album on to the scene. Based out of Southern California, Slant is foursome band with two Bengali guys (Fahim – lead singer, Munir – guitars) and two Russian brothers (Ilya – bass, Andrew – drums). I’ve seen the incredible growth of Slant over the years, from when teenage Fahim used to play guitar in his mother’s living room to seeing him perform on stage years later at the world famous Roxy on Sunset.
In the latest album, you can hear the maturity to their sound – the musical composition is richer sounding than their first album, and the hard rock sound is soulfully anthem-ic without sounding narcissistic. You can read a detailed album review here. I’m not much of a rock music fan (unless there’s a punk in front of it) but I do appreciate Slant’s latest album, particularly the song Beautiful Angel, a song about a family friend of ours that was brutally murdered a couple years ago.
You can download both Slant’s first album ‘A Thin Line’ and their second self-titled album off of iTunes or CDBaby now. But, exclusively for Sepia Mutiny readers, the first person that responds in the comment section with the name of three cities in Europe that Slant has performed, will get an autographed copy of their latest album (don’t forget to leave your e-mail).
I spoke with lead singer Fahim Zaman and guitarist Munir Haque about dropping their second album, the inspirations and their journey to making this album. You can read it below!
For those that don’t know Slant, who are you guys?
Fahim: We are a hard rock/alternative/progressive group made up of two Bengali guys raised in Southern California and two Russian brothers raised here, that are attempting to bring forth and change the world with our “slant” on rock music 🙂 Continue reading →
A little bit of morning music Monday for your listening pleasure to lull you out of Thanksgiving/Eid stupor (h/t rockistani). Music courtesy of the band Fair and Kind.
Who is this dreamy music that we’re listening to?
During summer 2008, Arthi Meera went on a national tour as singer and keyboardist with the band 1997 (Victory Records). During an 11-week tour, Arthi and the band did 35 shows in 24 states, spanning the continental United States from Washington to California to Florida to New York.
> And in October 2008, Fair and Kind–the duo of Arthi and her brother, Anand Subramanian–released its debut CD, A Little Past Twilight. Arthi’s voice is clean and pure with zero vibrato. Anand’s voice is reminiscent of that of Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay, and the two siblings’ voices complement each other beautifully. [[fairandkind](http://fairandkind.com/)]
There’s also a cute story with how they came up with the name for the band…
>
> In the American TV show The Office, there’s an episode where Kelly invites the office staff to a Divali function. Michael Scott thinks it’s like Halloween, so his girlfriend wears a cheerleading costume. Kelly’s parents ask Michael whether she is his wife, and he says not yet. Then Kelly’s father says, “She’s very fair.” And Michael says, “Yeah, she’s very fair. And kind.” [[fairandkind](http://fairandkind.com/)]
Seems like they are also giving away a free song a month off of their website. Fair and Kind can now be found on Pandora and will be featured in the independent film “[Raspberry Magic](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1339488/)”. You can also follow Arthi Meera in [her solo project at her myspace page](http://www.myspace.com/arthimeera). I’m really digging their chill vibe and will be using it as background music while I write, for sure. What do you think of their sound? Continue reading →
As most SepiaMutiny readers know by now, I work for MTV Iggy. And I don’t mean to keep pimping that stuff over here, but whenever something that might interest you comes up, it seems a shame to not share it. A new special feature just went up on the rock music scene in India, with interviews, live performance footage, music videos, slideshows, and more. Arjun S. Ravi, the editor of a Mumbai-based site that tracks the Indian rock scene, contributed fascinating article on the highs and lows of being a rock music fan in India:
The easiest way to sneak alcohol into Rang Bhavan was to hide it under a girl’s jacket. The notoriously long queues of people waiting impatiently to enter Mumbai’s legendary open air theatre were predominantly male, which meant that the security guards at the gate would only frisk guys. A girl, depending on her stature and the size of the jacket, could slip in anywhere between four to eight cans of Kingfisher beer. Inebriation was as crucial to the Rang Bhavan experience as the Metallica-inspired, ’90s metal cover bands.
[snip]
In India, rock is a much maligned genre, mostly because it is totally misunderstood. India’s Bollywood-loving masses generally accept and believe the particularly damaging stereotype that rock music is overrun by dudes with knee-length hair screaming into microphones and groaning like cats being tortured by pitchforks. And until the late ’90s, Indian rockers did very little to change that impression.
He goes on to trace the changes (fan attitudes, new kinds of venues, advent of the internet, bands stopped noodling around) that contribute to the fact that Indian rock bands were recently invited to the Glastonbury Festival in the UK, and SXSW in Austin, TX. It’s long(ish) but you can read it in full here. The full special feature is here.
An video introduction to some of the bands (Jalebee Cartel, Shor Bazaar, Them Clones, etc.) is after the jump.
Continue reading →
Let’s start with this song by the Pakistani rock group co-VEN, “Ready to Die”:
co-VEN was featured in a recent New York Times multimedia video by Adam Ellick (not embeddable) which can be seen here.
Other musicians mentioned in the Times story include Ali Azmat and the band Noori (identified in the video as the Noori Brothers). To me, Ali Azmat comes across as a blithering idiot in the Times video, but I found the comments from co-VEN more compelling — at least coherent. (For the most part, I agreed with the Pakistani journalists in the Times’ video, not the musicians.)
What was interesting to me was the fact that Ellick, in the Times video, seemed to be putting co-VEN forward as an example of a band that criticizes the west but not the Taliban.
I haven’t heard much of co-VEN’s other music (none of the songs on YouTube seem political) or looked closely at their public statements, but the lyrics to the song above are present in the YouTube video, and they seem more ambiguous than Adam Ellick suggests. While “Ready to Die” does put forward the idea that there is a pattern — and a long history of failure — to western policy in the Muslim world, I don’t necessarily think the song reflects Pakistanis in denial. You can be opposed to the “game of chess” co-VEN is talking about while also being opposed to what the extremists have been doing in Pakistan in recent months. I’m not sure co-VEN is actually willing to go there, but it seems like a stretch to put an interesting indie/metal band next to the more banal pop music of Ali Azmat and Noori, as if they’re all the same.
Oh, and one more thing: it’s a shame that this irreverent and upbeat song, Laga Re by Shehzad Roy, was apparently banned on Pakistani TV. (I wonder whether it might have circulated anyway through the internet etc.) Continue reading →
I always wondered how it is that American bands end up touring in India and how they are received – I know that the big concerts in Delhi are usually far more hard rock bands rather than anything that the kids here are listening to today. I was surprised then to watch this short documentary of the Black Lips, a very non-hard rock band, go on tour in India. You may recognize their song Bad Kids from (500) Days of Summer. (The ending of the movie is NSFW; hat tip to rockistani).
I thought the video was amusing, raw, and fun, ending on a spectacular rock star note. And for those who want to see how the movie ended and are curious about the “NSFW” rating without watching the whole thing, I’ll tell you after the jump. Continue reading →
She’s young, talented, cute, and smart. Serious about what she does, no ego, respects the roots of the music she loves. In short, she’s amazing, and sepia loves her.
>>burning envy<<
Seriously, though, it’s hard to hate DJ Kayper. She’s just too amazing. We squeed back in September, when Abhi blogged about her gig at the House of Blues in Houston. Taz and the rest of the beantown mutineers tried to catch her Boston show a few days later as the final touch on an fabulous night. Her skills are ridiculous, her taste is excellent, and she’s so low-key it’s always sort of exciting to get to know anything about her.
So of course I tried to get to know all about her. Recently fired off a batch of unconscionably inquisitive questions…and to my immeasurable delight, she answered them all! Even about being a DJ with breasteses!!
So let’s start with the obvious question — how did an Indian girl from Croydon get into hiphop?
I grew up during the golden era of hip hop and was influenced a lot by what my older brother was listening to. He listened to all types of music but in the early ’90s everyone was a fan of hip hop so that’s really how it all started for me. Continue reading →
Mashups seem the best way show flattery for artists these days. In this case flattery is directed towards Mr. Jay-Z.
Inspired by Indian cinema of the 70’s and Jay-Z’s critically acclaimed concept album, “American Gangster,” “Hindustani Gangster” tells the passionate tale of a Mumbai hustler’s sordid lifestyle.[hg]
The mashup, released by the folks at Music Without Borders, dropped online on Oct 17th for Diwali. I’m not sure what else Music Without Borders has actually done – their profile seems rather bare, but you can follow them on twitter.
As most SepiaMutiny readers know by now, 