Shor Bazaar is on MTV!

Yes, we are now on MTV as well. I don’t quite know if we are on the regular playlist or some selective indie set. I got this info from my friends who sent me messages on FaceBook and WhatsApp.

Now I can say to my folks – “Hey look, I’m on MTV!” By the way, the video is for the song “Hello, Hello” that we wrote for a FedEx ad. Here is the video if you would like to watch it.

Thank you everyone! Thank you Shor Bazaar!

The Shor Bazaar video

About a couple of months back, Shor Bazaar was invited to write a jingle and act in a video for a famous brand. The video shoot was last month, when Joe was here, and it was pretty cool. We were supposed to talk nothing about it or post anything about it. Today, this photo, taken after the video shoot, was posted on FaceBook.

So, this is the snippet. Wait for the full video soon!

OK Go’s latest video - Needing/Getting

So, the boys from Chicago are at it again. This time playing over 1000 instruments while driving around in a car. Here’s the YouTube official video and the description.

The new music video from OK Go, made in partnership with Chevrolet. OK Go set up over 1000 instruments over two miles of desert outside Los Angeles. A Chevy Sonic was outfitted with retractable pneumatic arms designed to play the instruments, and the band recorded this version of Needing/Getting, singing as they played the instrument array with the car. The video took 4 months of preparation and 4 days of shooting and recording. There are no ringers or stand-ins; Damian took stunt driving lessons. Each piano had the lowest octaves tuned to the same note so that they'd play the right note no matter where they were struck. For more information and to download the studio version of the song for free, visit http://www.LetsDoThis.com/stunts andhttp://www.okgo.net. Many thanks to Chevy for believing in and supporting such an insane and ambitious project, and to Gretsch for providing the guitars and amps.

I’m not too thrilled by the song. But the video is a must watch.

Shor Bazaar's Savita Bhabhi (video preview)

It's here! The "Savita Bhabhi" video directed by Varun Agarwal (from Last Minute films) has just been uploaded on FaceBook. We don't yet know how to upload it on YouTube. Until then, here's the link.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=234123750370

I think too much of my yellow teeth is showing. But I still love it! What do you think?

Shoonyas live - video

This happened then. I wasn't aware of it's web presence until someone e-mailed me about it. I haven't watched the whole video yet. But from what I watched, I don't think there is even a single shot of me in there.



(PS: Tim is singing. Rob is on Tim's right and E-boi is on the drum behind Tim.)

A song for literacy

Yesterday, after much resistance from my side, I sat down to work on a song that we were asked to write for the national literacy campaign. It is actually something arranged by our record label to promote us - something that is probably making them a little less guilty of goofing up with money.

The lyrics are written in Bhojpuri and is going to be sung by a famous playback singer whose website is accessible here. The secrecy is because I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to make this public. We get to write the song, arrange it and then record it at a professional studio. A video will be made for the song and it will receive good promotions.

Today, we got around to re-writing the song thrice. We were happy with the first one's demo but our clients were not. We made a second one which was unanimously voted out of contention. The third one is taking it's final shape at Rob's home. We will get the nod on the demo version and will probably hit the studios again next week.

From my side, I'm happy with what we made despite the song being rather unlike our usual stuff. The weird thing is that this project is probably going to turn out to be our first single/video - the first dose of Noise Market that you guys are going to see/hear on television and radio. We hope to not convey the wrong first impression!

Hey There Alan - the video

For the sake of convenience of fellow bloggers, I did something nifty. I made a single slide on MS Powerpoint with some clever wordplay and embedded the song in there and made it into an avi before uploading it into blogger. Enjoy this as you can forget the rest of the songs in the earlier post! ;)



(PS: Alan is Vinokur. Vinokur is Alan. Just clarifying before you start alleging me of adultery.)

(PPS: Vinokur did shed some Jew tears when I made him listen to the song last year. Maybe he'll do an encore performance this year!)

Noise Market video

This is just and experiment. We recorded (with my camera) some home videos of our songs in January. This I thought was the funniest of them all. Do you like the song? Do you like the video? Please bother to comment!

Brandon Boyd

If you were to ask me one present super-hero in the realm of the music business who I would like to be if it was possible, it would be Brandon Boyd - the singer in the band Incubus. He's handsome, talented, sexy, creative, charismatic, artistic etc.

He sings, writes songs, draws sketches, paints and writes. What more could you ask for? Here are some excerpts from that website which I thought were interesting.

I live in an old building that at one point in the 1900's was a working brothel. As a result, the ghosts of under paid and over worked prostitutes roam my hallways.

I have always had a hard time in describing my creative style. I find the same dilemma when asked what type of music I play. But if I had to, I would say that I am doing my best to turn my mind inside out and see what it looks like framed. ;)

I think that to live a life of expressivity is paramount. To me it is the embodiment of freedom.

If you feel like reading this, please go to this website and check him out. And by the way, he's very cute and straight (as he claims in the about section of this website)!

And here's a video of a song by his band Incubus called 'Drive'. It sort of gives away Brandon's influences and is reminiscent of the lithograph 'Drawing Hands' by M. C. Escher.


Incubus - Drive - Click here for funny video clips

Da Saz - Jet Lag

During the blitz of social networking that I went through last week or so, I stumbled on MySpace pages of some labels (Counter Culture, and DemonStealer) of India's budding Indie music industry. Very cool stuff. All have started websites, and as you can expect some aren't exactly functional (Only Much Louder , Counter Culture, DemonStealer). But still it was a sign of life in the Indie music industry in India.

I, like my self-centred paranoidal mind, started searching for my record label's (Phat Phish Records) footprint on the social networking spectrum. Curiously enough, I couldn't find anything. Of course, they have a fantastic website which is a treat to the eye. But still, nothing on MySpace, Orkut or Facebook.

I decided to inform my manager about this little anomaly. I did that yesterday night before going to sleep. Voila, I got a reply today morning. Yes, the reply acknowledged the fact that they need to start their own pages. But the interesting fact is that our manager got very defensive of the label explaining that they can't be compared to other labels and stuff. And the reason stated, as if I needed another kick in the nuts to get me going, and I quote 'We actually signed you guys.' If I were to picturize this in a sit-com situation in a real conversation with my manager, the camera would have zoomed out of my dorky face and focussed on the manager who would have had an expression of disbelief/irony/dismay!

Okay okay. I understand that they have been generous to support us. And I'm thankful of that. And that's the reason why I'm posting this wonderful video that our music label has made for the artist Da Saz. This, I feel, is one of the best music videos that I have seen to have come out of India. Just the kind of stuff that I reckon is cool. I must also not take any credit away from the music.



And I confess, I'm proud to be associated with our record label.

PS: My band mates and friends think that I, and only I would do such a thing, should not encourage other competitive bands and records and all that shit. I mean, how naive and self-centred is that huh? What do y'all think?

PS2: If this post comes posted more than once, blame it on YouTube. I tried posting it from there where I first saw the video. But then, it didn't come up.