Impressed With Shehzad Roy

I've never been a big fan of Shehzad Roy's music but I've always appreciated what he's done: the music he's made has generally been good, his collaboration with Sukhbir was fun, he was instrumental in getting Bryan Adams to perform in Pakistan, and his Zindagi Trust non-profit is making a real difference. [Official website]

I am, however, seriously impressed with his latest album, Qismat Apnay Haat Mein, which he launched in Karachi's Juvenile Jail last month. Roy is still fun, funny, and interesting but boy has he matured. And some of his new stuff is good, hard-hitting, and brilliantly political.

Take, for example, the first single from that album, 'Laga Reh'. Rarely do you get such a enjoyable, sarcastic, in-your-face, and yet immensely motivating song all in one. Here's the video:

And the album's title track -- which has also been uploaded to YouTube -- actually has the phrase "I'm allergic to bullshit" in it! :)

Of course, the entire album isn't political -- only four of the songs are -- but it's awesome that he's doing something like this and I highly recommend you go buy the album. (Though I have to admit I only like about half of the album myself!)

Dolly Parton's Cover of 'Shine'

While surfing the 'net for stuff for Collective Soul stuff I found something really interesting: Dolly Parton covered 'Shine' in 2002 and won a Grammy Award for it!

Here's what Rolling Stone had to say about what happened:
Nobody was more surprised to find out that Dolly Parton had covered Collective Soul 's anthemic breakout 1994 single "Shine" than the Atlanta band's frontman Ed Roland. "My phone rang early one morning and one of my friends said, 'Dolly Parton just sang your song on TV!'" he recalls fondly. "Apparently she told the TV host that she was doing it as a gift for her husband Carl Dean, who really loved the song."

She's done a pretty good job, too. Here's the original 'Shine':





And here's Parton's cover version:





Not bad, eh? :)

Bands That Have Influenced Me

After writing my previous post I got to thinking about what it means to have a bunch of "all-time favourite bands" and my conclusion was: bands that helped develop and define my taste in music (both listening and performing).

According to a research study that we discussed in my MBA Consumer Behaviour class, people's overall musical taste correlates most to the music that was at the top of the charts when they were around 21 years old. I turned 21 in 1997 but, given that bands often take a few years to get really big, my favourite bands should be the ones that were big during the mid- to late-'90s. As you'll see below, that's actually pretty accurate.

Here is my (updated) list of all-time favourite bands/musicians (let's just call them "artists", shall we?):

  • U2

  • Dire Straits

  • Peter Gabriel

  • REM

  • Sting

  • The Police

  • Collective Soul

  • Toad the Wet Sprocket

  • Linkin Park

  • Garbage

  • Pearl Jam

  • Def Leppard

  • Goo Goo Dolls

  • Better Than Ezra

  • Matchbox Twenty

  • Sheryl Crow

  • Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

  • Melissa Etheridge

  • The Cranberries

  • Vital Signs

  • A-Ha

  • The Corrs

  • Bryan Adams

  • Madonna

  • Deep Forest

  • Enigma

  • Moby


That's a pretty long and reasonably diverse list, isn't it? And I've probably missed a couple as well.

As you'll notice from the list, most of these artists were really popular in the mid- to late-'90s -- though some were on their first album while others were on their fifth. The only two new artists in there are Moby and Linking Park and the two that disbanded before the 90's -- i.e. The Police and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers -- both released best-of albums during that time.

Did I gain any new insight about myself while compiling this list? Not really. Still, it was a fun list to put together and it might tell you a thing or two about me (though I'm not entire sure what!).

Collective Soul - Afterwords

One of my all-time favourite bands, Collective Soul, released a new album a few months ago (called 'Afterwords') and I only just found out.

This is what happens when you are overly absorbed in something (like, say, an MBA) and, when you get some free time, only listen to mainstream music. Terrible, isn't it? I am such a bad fan.

Fortunately, now that I am up to speed, some album buying shall ensue. Meanwhile, there's always Collective Soul's MySpace page to keep me happy.

Signed Up With GotRadio.com

I wrote about GotRadio.com a few weeks ago: that I was impressed with it and was considering signing up for its paid service. Well, after listening to it regularly for almost two months now I went and signed up with it today and, guess what, I'm even more impressed!

Why? Well:

  • The higher-quality audio makes a big difference
  • The player interface is much cooler and you can do many more things with it (more than just skip to the next track in the playlist)
  • I like that I can create channel blends (to play different kinds of music at the same time) as well as playdecks (which are custom playlists)
  • I like that I can both 'favourite' and 'block' songs and artists
  • I like that I can see the next/previous five songs in the my current playlist
  • Importantly, I love the music discovery benefits that you get from a radio station, particularly one that's tailored to your specific tastes and moods

The best part is that it doesn't cost much: US$4.95 per month or $26.95 per year.

So, if I was highly recommending GotRadio.com earlier, I'm even more highly recommending it now!

12 Most Powerful Musicians of Today

Interesting post on MuchMusic.com on the 12 Most Powerful Musicians of Today. The list is cool because it isn't just based on album sales but also on things like merchandising, tours, and charity work. And, in my opinion at least, it's pretty accurate.

That said, if you were to take a few more variables into account -- particularly since the word "powerful" could mean a lot of things -- you might want to add a few more names to that list. For example:

  • If you include the ability to make industry-changing strategic moves, you'd include Trent Reznor.
  • If you think about who controls the most sought after copyrighted material in the world these days, you'd include Paul McCartney.
  • If you think of musicians as influencers, then you'd consider adding people like Elton John and Sting.
  • And if you think of musicians as enablers, then people like Peter Gabriel would also warrant a mention.

But that's not the point of this post. The point is to get you to read the post on MuchMusic.com, which you should now do.

I Think She Knows Interlude is Awesome

The 'I Think She Knows Interlude' part (i.e. the second half) of Justin Timberlake's song Lovestoned / I Think She Knows Interlude is really quite awesome.

I've heard the song a few times before, but mostly on the radio. Today, however, I heard it on my earphones (thanks to Got Radio) and I am very impressed. Others think so too. In fact, John Mayer did a really cool electric guitar cover of it:

Cool, no?

[Via All Things Go]

Internet Radio Explorations: Got Radio

I used to be a huge shortwave radio buff in my teens [1] but that was before cable TV and the Internet came to Pakistan and became affordable to the general public. I never really got into Internet radio, though. I was never in a situation where I could. At home cable TV ruled because we got our first satellite dish antenna a good ten years before broadband and at work I never got the time or the bandwidth.

The one time I did get into 'net radio was when I was working for InterActive Communications and I would listen to Radio Free Virgin quite a lot. Even then, I'd only tune in when I was working late because during the day I was office DJ -- playing music from our pooled CD and MP3 collection via large speakers connected to my workstation -- and, besides, there was rarely enough bandwidth to get a good, high quality stream going before 6pm.

So it's only recently -- thanks to having broadband Internet but no cable TV at home and full days on my laptop at work or university -- that I've really started to get into Internet radio...and there's a lot of catching up to do. So far I've used both Windows Media Player and Real Player to explore radio stations and that's been a lot of fun. I've also checked out Australian stations, NPR, VOA, and, of course, the BBC (with its really nifty iPlayer). They've all been good too.

I'm still in 'net radio investigation mode, though, and I'll share my thoughts on it as I learn more. For now let me just recommend to you Got Radio which has a really good selection of music channels, all of which are on-demand (i.e. if you don't like a song you can press next and move on to the next track in the playlist). The quality of the stream isn't all that great for an audiophile like me (though it sounds alright on my Altec Lansing laptop speakers) but the music selection is really good. And if you sign up (US$4.95/month or $26.95/year) you get a high quality, ad-free stream instead. I don't think I'm quite ready to do that yet, but it's something I might consider for the future.

For more on Internet radio in the future, stay tuned to this blog.

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[1] Ooh, now that's an idea for another blog post: my days as a shortwave radio buff. I should write about how I got introduced to the BBC back in the late '80s (my father used to listen to their MW service every morning and evening) soon after which I became a real radio geek, building SW antennas and keeping a logbook and all.

Ah, the good old days...listening to the latest news, talk, and music from the BBC, VOA, Radio Australia, Radio Moscow, and everything in between. Of course I had a lot more free time in those days. Time enough to sit for hours on the balcony listening to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, live coverage of the '92 Olympics, and music from all over the world.

Peter Gabriel & Technology

Peter Gabriel, one of my all-time favourite musicians, continues to be at the forefront of technology usage -- particularly when it comes to technology for music and human rights:

On the human rights side:

  • In 1992 he co-founded WITNESS, "an international human rights organization that uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations"
  • In 1999 he started TheElders.org, which is a "new gathering of world leaders who [have] come together to guide and support our 'global village'".

So it's no surprise that he is involved in recent areas of music technology as well:

Both sound really interesting and I'll write more about them once I've played around with them a little more.

[More PG: Wikipedia, Last.fm, Real World Records, WOMAD]

'Last Night' by Moby...9 Days to Go!

We're still nine days away from the release of Moby's latest album, Last Night. Says Moby:

"last night" is basically a love letter to dance music in new york city. what i love about the new york approach to dance music is the eclecticism and the open minded-ness on the part of the musicians, the dj's, and the people in the bars and clubs. in making 'last night' i essentially tried to take a long 8 hour night out in new york city and condense it into a 65 minute long album.

To keep us busy till then, here's some fun Moby related stuff that you can do:

Enjoy :)

Three Years On...

One of the best ways I have of remembering my mother is through music. When we were little she used to sing us to sleep and it's mostly thanks to her that we're a very musical family (we start to sing at the drop of a hat, for example). Since it's been three years since she died I thought it would be nice to post a few videos of the songs that she really liked or that we used to sing a lot.

She was a big fan of Edith Piaf, for example, and her favourite Piaf song was 'Non, je ne regrette rien':

Her other favourite songs included Dean Martin's 'Under the Bridges of Paris', Harry Belafonte's 'Jamaica Farewell', and Frank Sinatra's 'Three Coins in a Fountain'. I'm sure there were others she liked, but these are the ones she knew the lyrics of and sang most often.

Here's Harry Belafonte singing 'Jamaica Farewell':

Bed Time Songs

A lot of the songs she sang us to sleep with were folk songs like 'Lavender Blue', 'Red River Valley', 'Danny Boy', and 'Tom Dooley'.

Here's a video of The Kingston Trio singing 'Tom Dooley':

And, since this is too good an opportunity to pass up, here's the Muppets version of 'Danny Boy':

I remember Ami having a good laugh over this when we first saw it :)

I believe she was more familiar with the Elvis version of this song, though, so here's the tribute video made for his 29th death anniversary that features it:

Travelling Songs

There were also a number of songs that we always sang in the car, particularly on long journeys. One of those was The Three Stooges song 'Swinging the Alphabet':

Other songs included 'The Animal Fair', 'Why Shouldn't My Goose', 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat', and 'Ten Green Bottles'. There were, of course, many more.

It's still hard to believe that she's gone...and I'm glad we have all this music to help keep her memory alive.

Jonathan Coulton!

I'd heard a couple of Jonathan Coulton songs before but, thanks to this episode of TWiT, I went and explored more of his music...and I love it!

If you're a geek and you love good music with fun lyrics, be sure to check him out. I mean, who couldn't love these lyrics:

Heya Tom, it’s Bob from the office down the hall
Good to see you buddy, how’ve you been?
Thing have been OK for me except that I’m a zombie now
I really wish you’d let us in
I think I speak for all of us when I say I understand
Why you folks might hesitate to submit to our demand
But here’s an FYI: you’re all gonna die screaming

All we want to do is eat your brains
We’re not unreasonable, I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyes
All we want to do is eat your brains
We’re at an impasse here, maybe we should compromise:
If you open up the doors
We’ll all come inside and eat your brains

[From Re: Your Brains]

:)