Be Yourself...

Album Cover - Battle Of Los Angeles

Music to me explains the world. Good music is better than any high I’ve ever experienced…just a feel good factor that is a one-time investment. I feel it is the only positive output of an over populated world. The math is quite simple…more people…greater the fraction of musicians…greater the pie…greater the variety.

This is a cause and effect cycle. As a result of the explosion of our musical output, so expands the number of genres. Somehow, some idiot (in my opinion…not necessarily yours) somewhere invented, what I refer to as, ‘dingchak’. Its roughly similar to the combination of the sound dad pounding my door when a get a call and an orangutan playing with a Casio keyboard. Well…if anyone does personally know he-who-invented-trance, please ask him to contact me, would really like to know if he knows my dad and if possible I’d like to get my picture clicked with the ape. (PS – Leave out the finer details like how I refer to him as an idiot.)

Trance was like a ripple in a pond. Take a walk down Park Street in my city and all that stands sound you is the ‘MeDJ’ crowd. There are rules to enter the guild of MeDJ…I shall explain. Now imagine the voice you hear reading this out to you is that of Steve Irwin.

The average Indian MeDJ is rather ugly with bulging eyes that stay hidden behind dark glasses, even at night. This has led the government to invest crores in research on whether the Indian youth has other superior senses to account for the disparity. So far research has shown that the Indian youth spends the majority of his time in dingy nightclubs where the courtship display take place. These are not very elabourate, they can roughly be broken down into:

1. Get drunk.
2. Bump against the closest person of the opposite sex.
3. Get laid!
4. In the morning - For men and women – (if you used protection…) Brag
5. In the morning – For men (without protection) Go find a hole like Saddam and pray that she wasn’t related to Bush.
6. At whatever time – For women (without protection) Please contact Rimi.

Now quit the Steve Irvin voice…(PS if you’re wondering how he’d say Rimi…I wouldn’t know either but there is a 10buck award scheme I’m proposing to the person who comes closest to it.)

There are standard requirements to becoming MeDJ. Firstly you gotta be filthy rich. This means that you must have a set of wheels…either yours or borrowed/stolen (whatever works for you). Next, the look...this means that you need to invest in preferably industrial strength glue. Why? This would be for your hair…on your head. Anyway, I hear that gel or even wax provides a good styling substitute (however you now know what to use for the ideal weatherproof effect). As for the clothes…well…designer labels! Very very important! The cheaper alternative – buy a solid colour t-shirt and lend it to any construction worker or even a painter for a couple of days. If you do keep facial hair…style it sharp edges…something like Lovelace in Wild Wild West will do great. The results are roughly alike. All you now need is the software, this is easily available on the net…look no further than download.com. Start mixing.

Now remember the keyword I began with – dingchak. This is your mantra…what does it mean? Say it aloud…again…again…to a rhythm. There you go…so now you see…anyone can become MeDJ. An essential part of becoming MeDJ, yes this something they don’t teach you at DJ school…so listen up, you must get your own calling card with your name in the Indian font. Bas…now you’re set.

For those of you who are already yawning…I shall get back to what I set out to talk about. Since the Pie is ever increasing in size, it is also important to realize that good music is not a myth…but today it involves a lot of soul searching to find a sound that strikes the right chords within. Then suddenly while yours eyes were shut and your hands were gripping the head-phones you feel connected. Admittedly, you suddenly realize that you possibly are making a complete ass of yourself by singing really loud in a music store or even head banging. But hey, you’re celebrating! Then comes something called the Theory of Marginal Utility…a definition of which shall live with me for a long time to come thanks to the glorious voice in which it was recorded in my head – Deep’s. Well…the theory is quite simple…too much of anything is bad thing. It has its advantages of course like when people finally got sick of Celine Dion’s - My heart will go on. At this point I shall thank Weird Al for ‘My fart will go on’…however I don’t listen to that song cause I hate the tune!
As you can see, a person soon gets tired of listening to the same tune over and over, and then eagerly anticipates the next big album from his/her favourite artist. Sometimes that never happens again…you see in music, at times a phenomenon known as ‘disbanding’ occurs.

For Mr.Idunno and Ms.Imwithhim’s benefit I shall try and explain…‘band’ meaning ‘cohesive unit of elements producing rhythmic noise’ and ‘disbanding’ hence indicating a disruption in the balance of those elements terminating noise production.

When you hear about it, you’re suddenly faced by the fact that yet another good thing in your life has suddenly been taken away from you. Strangely, when I analyze the aftermath, I find that the biggest loser is their audience and arguably those musicians themselves. Several bands have been through this ordeal. The ones that come to mind at present are Floyd, Guns n’ Roses and more recently Savage Garden. The gauntlet laid before those band members intending to pursue their careers in music and hence this field in largely based on how accommodating their audience is. In the case of Savage Garden, it’s quite accurate to say they were a really good band before…and now Darren Hayes solo sounds like he’s being repeatedly kicked in the jewels. His voice could also be compared to the sound of a cartoon character who has inhaled too much helium.

Since I’ve actually rambled along this far…I plan to ramble along a little more…I’d like to speak about a band called Rage Against The Machine.


Rage Against The Machine

Their last concert was on the 13th of September, 2000 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium. The band comprised of …

Zack de la Rocha – Vocals
Tim Commerford – Bass
Brad Wilk – Drums
Tom Morello - Guitars

Their music was geared towards awareness amongst the youth. The name of the band would say it all. . I began listening to this band about a year ago knowing that there was nothing more to be expected from this particular band (sometimes you do things that you regret later…but its something like the blonde cheerleader who has got to find out what went bump in the middle of the night). They had a very raw sound, which might not be appreciated by all I must admit. You see I’m pretty much used to what my dad refers to as ‘Shut Up’ music (Chester Bennington on repeat doing the chorus for One Step Closer would be the reason). For those who were wondering…yes yes…my dad is my substitute for Tom Hank’s mom in Forrest Gump…if you’d like I could begin next time with…‘My Papa used to tell me…’.
The Rage Against The Machine music videos would make the Blair Witch Project proud in terms of its camera techniques. The great thing about the band was the fact that they weren’t driven by their videos but something that did speak louder were their lyrics. Unfortunately they disbanded and the vocalist went his own way.
I, being a very picky listener, am suddenly faced with the fact that there is only this much of music they have produced which I can listen to. The other problem faced by others and myself is the fact that they were one band that generated negative publicity in the eyes of the political machinery. A suppressed band if you please. They did the job rock was born for…they pasted the message loud and clear across a nation and now the world. Lets just say they’ve spent plenty of time in the cooler.
Ideally the largest music store in any city should provide access to any album. But, this being India, is not possible. I could buy Britney Spam or even the Backstreet Bums, however when it comes to this band…only their last live album is available. It is quite safe to say that a music store largely will reflect the choices made by the listeners of today. Yet one can find zillions of movies, t-shirts and computer games in a music store. Bizarre! Why not just call it a department store? What, in my opinion is even more strange, and is possibly an explanation is the fact that the music channel’s on offer today, including Channel V and MTV, have movie trailers with almost-naked-ugly-chicks-with-no-ability-to-dance playing on them constantly. There are more trailers being thrown at the viewer than ads! Sheesh…no wonder we have a generation full of MeDJ. An alternative called VH1 has showed up. However my cable operator has chosen to place the channel on a shitty frequency…the result…I can watch…but I hear static. May his testicles be provide a breeding ground to the fleas of a thousand camels!

Back to the jargon…Rage Against The Machine disbanded and so did Soundgarden (Black Hole Sun being among their hits). All of RATM excluding Zach de la Rocha joined the vocalist of Soundgarden - Chris Cornell.


Battle Of Los Angeles - Back Cover

The result happens to be this strange fusion of soul and traces of the raw sound that was once Rage Against The Machine. The target audience today would be different. The bass leads, for example, are largely entertainment driven now. The lyrics are no longer bare and in your face…but they allude to fragmented imagery and dissociated ideas. The vocals of the band sound like a combination of Everlast’s deepness and Dylan’s whining. The band will take a while to climb to their pinnacle…but they’re going the right way. I just wish Tim Commerford would let the listener know he’s that he’s not planning to take a step back and sacrifice his vision.
My articles shall continue to speak my mind against the world I live in…mano-a-mano. I probably shall continue infusing music to explain myself…and my microcosm…I shall leave you with a message I came upon today…Be Yourself.


Audioslave

Audioslave – Be Yourself

Someone falls to pieces
Sleepin’ all alone
Someone kills the pain
Spinning in the silence
To finally drift away
Someone gets excited
In a chapel yard
Catches a bouquet
Another lays a dozen
White roses on a grave

To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

Someone finds salvation in everyone
And another only fame
Someone tries to hide themselves
Down inside their selfish brain
Someone swears his true love
Until the end of time
Another runs away
Separate or united?
Healthy or insane?

To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

Even when you've paid enough
Been pulled apart or been held up
With every single memory of
the good or bad faces of love
Don’t lose any asleep tonight
I'm sure everything will end up alright
You may win love

But to be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do