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Category: World music
Rewind Review: Bombay the Hard Way – Guns, Cars & Sitars (1998)
I’ve been looking for Bombay the Hardway – Guns, Cars & Sitars for years. Lo and behold, I found it at Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas during my recent trip there, and in a used CD bin to boot. It’s a collection of “brownsploitation” music from 1970’s Bollywood action and crime films composed (often quickly and with all sorts of studio hiccups) by legendary Bollywood film music brothers Kalyanji and Anandji Shah and edited by Dan the Automator, who convinced Anandji to release these tracks from his vault. The result is a stunning, ultra-cool mix of funky jams, lounge music, and make-out tracks you need to hear.
“Bombay 405 Miles” opens the album with a nice sitar gliss and then turns into intense music suitable for a stakeout or sneaking into a palace to commit a jewel heist. “The Good, the Bad and the Chutney” brings in, no surprise, spaghetti western guitar touches to up the intrigue. “My Guru” has a lovely sitar groove throughout it, and the flute loop is icing on the cake (or chutney on the naan, if you prefer).
“Ganges A Go-Go” is 1970’s psychedelic garage rock filtered through a hookah, and it’s a crime if “The Great Gambler” wasn’t the opening song for a movie of the same name. It immediately throws you into a world of high stakes dice rolls, sexy people, exotic cars, and nefarious schemes. “Professor Pyarelal” is, by contrast, a lounge groove with between the sheets beats and sizzling synths. “Fists of Curry” doesn’t hit as hard as you’d expect with such a title, but it is slicker than Bruce Lee’s footwork.
The squeaky guitar and table-infused rhythms of “Punjabis, Pimps & Players” are a great combination, and you can just imagine “Inspector Jay from Delhi” going after them in his muscle car (with a case of $50,000 in the trunk) while his bad-ass, bass heavy theme song plays from its speakers. “Satchidananda” could be a love theme, or it could be the music for a leisurely journey on a Bond villain’s yacht. “Theme from Don” lets you know that Don is a bad cat who will probably punch your lights out as soon and then kiss your girl if you cross him, so don’t. The underlying synths on it convey menace, and those tabla drums and sitar riffs convey street smarts beyond belief.
“Fear of a Brown Planet” (a nice play on Public Enemy‘s record Fear of a Black Planet) has hints of John Barry’s James Bond theme in it, but it adds psychedelic spice to the mix. “Uptown Bollywood Nights” has fierce drumming and those tinny, weird, great synths you only seem to hear in bhangra and Bollywood music. The beats on “Kundans Hideout” are even wilder, as are the crazy vocal sounds (chants, whistles, and possibly a woman nearing orgasm). It’s the soundtrack of escaping from a madman’s lair and rescuing your latest fling along the way. The record ends with “Swami Safari,” which, as you might have guessed, combines surf rock guitar with Bollywood beats.
This record will stay in your head for days. It always sounds great. There’s a sequel out there that was released in 2001 that I now need to find. Find them both if you can.
Keep your mind open.
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Levitation Music Festival Recap Day Two: Scrambled eggs, scrambled brain
The second day of Levitation Austin was going to be a feast of bands from outside the U.S. The number of international acts that play the festival every year is one of my favorite things about it. I’ve discovered many great bands I wouldn’t have heard otherwise at Levitation Austin.
After a great brunch at the South Congress Cafe (which I couldn’t finish), the first of the six bands we’d see that day was Superfonicos – an Austin band of locals and Colombians who play a great mix of Afro / Colombian funk. They played to a crowd that seemed to grow larger with each track, as more and more people walking by the venue came in to hear who was dropping all that killer groove.
Following them were musicians all the way from Algeria – Imarhan. My wife and I have fallen in love with Tuareg music thanks to the Levitation festival, and this was our second time seeing Imarhan there. A lot more people were hyped to see them this time than when we saw them in 2016. It’s not that they were a bad band in 2016 – far from it. It’s that they’ve been working hard, touring a lot, and have a fine new album (Temet) that’s getting a lot of buzz. They had everyone moving and people behind me in the crowd were stunned by their bass player and lead guitarist.
Closing the night at Cheer Up Charlie’s were hometown heroes / aliens Golden Dawn Arkestra, who entered the venue through the crowd and billowing sage incense everywhere before they launched into a sun-worshipping funky freakout that had a packed crowd of dancing revelers all communing with other-dimensional beings. GDA never disappoint, and some people we met that night (one of whom was in a psychedelic band out of Chicago) who hadn’t seen them before thought the set was one of the coolest things they’d ever seen.
We then went over to Barracuda to see Chilean psychedelic rock outfit Vuelveteloca. Unfortunately, we missed the first half of their set, but what we did here was psych-rock as solid as the Andes.
NYC’s The Men followed, and they came out gunning. In the first two tracks I thought, “This might be the closest I ever get to an MC5 show.” They even played some Captain Beefheart-like stuff by the end. They were loud and brash, which made the next set even weirder.
The final act we saw the second night was another Chilean band – Follakzoid. I’d only heard a couple tracks by them before coming to Austin, and they were good ones that bordered somewhere between shoegaze and psychedelia. I didn’t know what to expect from a live show, but I can tell you it about melted my mind. They played two tracks and an encore. The two tracks during their main set were about twenty-five minutes each of droning, repetitive (in a good way) space rock that is hard to describe. Imagine synth bass and riffs combined with drumming from apparently a human metronome (considering how long he kept those beats going) and maybe five different notes played in different ways and with different effects and levels of distortion and reverb. Sound weird? It was – wonderfully so. Sound like it shouldn’t be good? You couldn’t be more wrong. It was one of the best sets I saw all weekend, easily in the top three.
Up next, my wife tries to figure out the big deal about Slowdive, we bump into more musicians, and a laptop keeps giving someone fits.
Keep your mind open.
Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Rishi Dhir
Primarily known for being the front man in Elephant Stone, Rishi Dhir is also now with the psych-rock outfit MIEN and has played bass and sitar for the Black Angels in the past. Dhir will be performing a solo set (probably all sitar) at Stubb’s BBQ on April 29th at 6:00pm at Levitation Austin. Don’t miss it. He’s a good joe and a heck of a sitar player.
Keep your mind open.
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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Golden Dawn Arkestra
Austin, Texas’ psych-funk playing, sun worshipping Golden Dawn Arkestra will be closing out a night of exciting world music jams at Levitation Austin on April 27th at Cheer Ups. GDA put on a wild set when I saw them in 2016 that had the whole crowd bouncing. I’m sure it will be another funky ritual this year.
Keep your mind open.
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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Imarhan
Tuareg music has been part of Levitation Austin for the last few years, and this will be Imarhan‘s second time playing the festival. They’re playing at Cheer Ups on April 27th at 7:30pm. They put on a great set the last time I saw them (in 2016), and they’ll be part of a fun night of world music. They’ll also be promoting their new record, Temet, which I’m eager to hear live.
Keep your mind open.
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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Superfonicos
Afro-Colombian funk outfit Superfonicos will be opening a great night of funk and world music at Levitation Austin on April 27th at 6:30pm at Austin club Cheer Ups (otherwise known as Cheer Up Charlie’s). They play a great blend of funky psychedelia that mixes styles from around the globe. It’s sure to be a fun night.
Keep your mind open.
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Levitation France announces first artists for 2018.
Levitation France is coming this September, tickets are already on sale (for great prices, I might add), and the first artists for this year’s lineup have been announced – the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Spiritualized, Mdou Moctar, MIEN, Holy Wave, and La Luz.
Many more will be announced over the summer. I’m hoping for Zombie Zombie and Ladytron to be added to the list.
Keep your mind open.
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Good rest to you, David James – a local Irish music legend.
Many of you might not know who David James was, but I’ll try to sum up his amazing life in a blog post.
David James was well-known in the South Bend / Mishawaka (“Michiana”) area as a legend in the Irish music scene. He pretty much put South Bend on the map as a hotspot for Irish music, and he wasn’t even Irish. He loved the music, promoting it, and most of all playing it. He played banjo, fiddle, bass, harmonica, and probably half a dozen other instruments I’ve forgotten about as I write this. He was best known, however, for his mastery of the hammer dulcimer. David won multiple prestigious awards at Irish music festivals for his dulcimer skills.
He was a Notre Dame graduate with a degree in political science and he remained an avid advocate for social justice all through his life. He championed workers’ rights, LGBTQ and racial equality measures, education reform, and many other causes that sought to help the underdog.
The way David affected my life was that he co-founded Nocturne – the WSND program for which I DJ in the summer and winter – in 1968. David worked at WSND as the host of “Celtic Traditions” for many years, broadcasting Celtic music all over the world. He would often be there when I showed up for my Nocturne shows and tell me stories of playing grimy blues clubs with blues legends, Irish music festivals with hardcore hippies, and being in the middle of the politically charged 1960’s.
He was a lover of all kinds of music and often asked me about the music I spun on my show. He’d hang out for the first couple tunes I’d play while we chatted and sometimes stop in mid-conversation and ask, “Who is this?” I introduced him to Ancient River when I played one of their tunes and he said, “Sounds like someone’s been listening to a lot of Doors.” I also turned him on to Gary Wilson and Earthless one of the last times I saw him over the summer of 2017.
I’ll always think of him when I spin at WSND now, and I wish he could’ve seen the new station once the construction is done. I’m sure his spirit will slide into the booth now and then when he’s not kicking back a ghostly pint at the Fiddler’s Hearth in South Bend. I plan to play a tribute to him this summer on WSND with lots of psychedelic rock, blues, and his own music.
Oh yeah, as if his local legacy, national tours with multiple bands, and international awards weren’t enough, he released two albums – Tiompan Alley in 1992 and The Lone Man’s Path a decade later.
Good rest to you, sir.
Keep your mind open.
Top 10 singles of 2017: #’s 5 – 1
Here they are, amigos.
#5 – Caroline Rose – “Money”
Funny, sharp, and frenetic, this single from Caroline Rose‘s upcoming album (due in February 2018) is instantly catchy and one of the wittiest post-punk songs of the year.
#4 – LCD Soundsystem – “Tonite”
Speaking of witty songwriting, LCD Soundsystem‘s “Tonite” has the most scathing lyrics of the year as lead singer James Murphy takes down Millennials, Gen X’ers, the rich, hipsters, and himself with lyrics like “Life is finite, but that shit feels like forever,” “Are you shocked from being used?” and “You’ve lost your internet, and we’ve lost our memory.”
#3 – Tinariwen – “Sastanaqqam”
The beats on this amazing track by Tuareg music legends Tinariwen were enough to get my feet tapping, but as soon as the guitars kick in I knew this was going to be one of my favorite songs of 2017. There is something about Tuareg music that is hard to describe, but you feel it in your core. This song is a prime example of that.
#2 – Soulwax – “Missing Wires”
As soon as I heard the opening synths of this playing somewhere in Chicago, I thought, “Who is this?” It was Soulwax. This song grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. I immediately tracked it down, along with their stunning album, From Deewee, which was all recorded in one take.
#1 – Feltworth – “Forget This Feeling”
Yes, this is my favorite song of 2017. Do not dismiss it. It has the best power pop hooks I’ve heard all year. It also has sharp lyrics, shredding guitar, killer piano work, and a crisp rhythm. The lads in Feltworth are also fun dudes, so that’s a win.
There you have it, folks. Enjoy!
Keep your mind open.
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