Five Bands to Watch



The best thing about scouring for music on the Internet is that you discover new bands and musicians constantly. Sometimes these are brand new outfits, lurking under the radar, like hidden treasure that’s waiting to be discovered.

British Sea Power are a highly underrated band...
‘British Sea Power’ are a highly underrated band…

At other times they are fairly established bands with a small retinue of followers and fans yet unknown to the rest of the world. Last year, I discovered dozens of new bands, singers, songwriters and DJs. While I must admit that more than a few of them ranged from being just bearable to intolerable, there were some that made me sit up and take notice.

Several of them became long-time residents on my playlists for most of last year; and many, I believe, will grow to become big blockbusters in the coming years. Here are five that rocked in 2008 and could be well worth checking out.

The first of them is a band that I discovered at the fag end of last year. ‘She Keeps Bees’ are as yet unsigned (although they have two self-released albums) and hail from Brooklyn, New York.

A two-piece band—Jess Larrabee on vocals and guitar and Andy LaPlante on drums — ‘She Keeps Bees’ is refreshingly not like the celebrated duo that makes up The White Stripes and their sparse use of instruments and tightly written, intelligent lyrics delivered in Larrabee’s powerful voice made me an instant fan.

The second band that became a near-permanent resident on my playlists last year is not exactly a spanking new, yet-to-be-discovered gem. ‘The Hold Steady’ are already a ripe four years’ old and their fan following is growing steadily.

Also from New York, ‘The Hold Steady’ are a quintessential bar band, replete with classic rock guitar licks and lyrics that tell a story. The stories are dark and singer Craig Finn’s harsh, raw-edged voice sometimes seems steeped in booze but all that adds to the band’s appeal. Last year saw the release of Stay Positive, their fourth and, arguably, best album yet. Story-dense lyrics and heavy, heavy, guitar riffs. Any rock fiend is bound to find it appealing. If you haven’t heard ‘The Hold Steady’ before, start with this album and then go back to ‘Separation Sunday’ (2005).

Watch She Keeps Bees perform Gimme
Watch ‘She Keeps Bees’ perform ‘Gimme’

The third band on this list are ‘Black Mountain’, formed by five musicians from Vancouver. Canada, incidentally, has been producing excellent bands in recent times and ‘Black Mountain’ is one rising star. If you happened to have grown up in the seventies on a wholesome diet of the ‘Rolling Stones’, Velvet Underground, Animals, a bit of Floyd (okay, only a tiny dash of those guys!) and even some David Bowie, I can assure you, you’ll take to ‘Black Mountain’ instantly.

Bandleader Stephen McBean is a veteran of other Canadian rock bands and he and his four colleagues are at the cutting edge of Canadian indie rock. In The Future is their 2008 album, the second from a four-year-old band that has the potential of making it very big. I’ve mentioned ‘British Sea Power’ before in Download Central but although the four-piece from Brighton are among the oldest bands on this list (they’ve been around since 2000), they’re highly underrated.

‘British Sea Power’ are a throwback to ‘concept bands’ of the seventies. Their members often wear military-type uniforms and large stuffed birds are used as props on the stage during their live gigs, which can be quite wild. They’ve often been compared to Joy Division (1977-80) and count among their influences other wild gig-masters like David Bowie and Iggy Pop, who many consider the godfather of punk.

The last band on this list is also the most commercially successful. Describing their sound as “Upper West Soweto”, New York’s ‘Vampire Weekend’ literally burst onto the scene in January 2008 with their self-titled debut album. Afro-pop, classical music and rock standards are the influences the quartet draws from.

The four clean-cut, preppie musicians all went to Columbia University and took their name from a movie that one of them made during his early college years. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa is the song to download, get hooked and then go buy the album. And if you really want an endorsement, Peter Gabriel recently did a cover of Cape Cod. Was it because his name features in the lyrics?

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  • Anonymous

    Reservation per se discourages excellence .However, to set right social imbalance ,it needs to be enforced but limited to a specified period.A well defined cut off date will effectively encourage the addressed communities to use the opportunity to the maximum.Perpetuating the reservation regime for ever will only encourage mediocrity

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    RajX Reply:

    DrBhaShyam, well put. The problem is certain groups have an interest in prolonging reservation and for them the immorality of reservation and the destruction it cause in society doesn’t matter.

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  • Anonymous

    Zia, my mate WHEN WILL YOU STOP SEEING TREE FOR THE WOODS.
    Now lets say THERE IS NO RESERVATION BASED ON CASTE OR RELIGION ., BUT BASED ON FAMILY INCOME.
    Please answer me, WHO WILL BE THE BENEFECIARIES,
    will it not be the SC/ST , OBC AND MUSLIMS.
    The preference will be given to the poorer of the poor.
    IT COMES TO SAME , ONLY NO LABELS , OR PERHAPS ONLY LABEL
    INDIAN, not a bad idea really.

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  • Anonymous

    So long as the Nehru dynasty is in power,reservations for any caste or religion,are provided for garnering votes and are hogged primarily by the fat cats of that segment of society and secondarily by the congress and babudom.Time has come for the weaker sections of society to refuse to be exploited by the govts that offer small doles and make big promises before the elections for looting the country.Marx,the real father of Marxism,had advised the working classes to rise against those who exploited them,saying ‘You have nothing but chains (Gulami ki berian) to lose’.Communists of West Bengal are the agents of trade and industry(the two corrupt classes).The bulk of their party cadres consisted of power-hungry criminals.A large number of them were inducted into various departments of the govt.Personaly, I won’t be surprised,if an honest probe holds them responsible for some of the heinous crimes,including the death(killing?) of infants for destabilising the govt.There is a saying in Chinese:’Don’t give me fish,teach me how to catch fish”.The real well-wishers of deprived classes must put pressure on the govts to provide free educational facilities for the first two children of parents of this class in the schools where the children of babus and netas generally study.It must be ensured that Jagjivan Rams,Paswans and Jogis (the fat cats of these castes and the corrupt favourites of the powerful families)don’t hog the reserved seats.It should also ensured that the students of these classes are not discriminated against.And this can be ensured by honest govts.Therefore,the voters of deprived and underprivilleged classes must vote only for honest candidates.This time Anna hazare could guide you in this matter.The supporters will certainly be the agents of the corrupt.

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  • indian

    It should strictly be based on income. Otherwise there are going to be internal wars as we have seen like gujjar agitation, jat agitation. People will realise this one day how congress is doing the harm by using divide and rule policy.

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  • Sumit Bose

    Helloooo, is or isn’t India a secular country?
    If we are indeed a secular country then we must not have any reservations based on anyone’s religion. We must also not have the Prophet’s birthday as a national holiday, alongside our Independence day and Republic day. We must cease being pseudo-secular. That is the only way to give a sound stability on the bedrock of individual merit. My query to this muslim and the pseudo-secularists is why cannot they give a direction to the country for merit to be the sole criteria for personal or social advancement. In areas that were seceded to Pakistan, the people of this muslim’s community drove out almost all Hindus and Sikhs, and instead of the muslims of India, who voted whole-heartedly for the Muslim League in the 1946 , who after coming into power, resorted to “direct action” of brutal aggression on Hindus, stayed on in India. These muslims who stayed on in India, faced no official harassment or social terror. They live and are viewed equally by the official machinery and the judiciary, something that is to speak voloumes of the “large-heartedness” of the Indians. Mr muslim, please dont spit on the plate you have been feeding yourself.

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  • anil

    I think some politicians in politics will fall sick if they don’t take minority tablets every now and then.
    Are you one of their kind?

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  • Anonymous

    It seems totally naive and wrong for this blogger to conclude majority of the people of the nation ”cannot bear the sight of even crumbs being given to minorities!” On the contrary, the writer should have emphasised the well-known fact that even after almost 65 years of independence, the minority still refuses to become part of the majority without realising the broad range of benefits that will accrue to them!

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  • http://twitter.com/shreyasdesai Shreyas

    Instead of focusing on rightwing, why don’t u ask real questions? Why rulers of India for 600 years require affirmative action? Why is it that muslims breed at twice the national rate, do poorly in women education and empowerment and education?

    Probably you can take guy out of muslims but can’t get muslim out of a guy like you.

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    RajX Reply:

    For people like Zia, it is easy to take the tax payers money based n religion. To fix social issues you are talking about, it requires a lot of hard work and social reforms. There are very few social reformers in the Islamic community unlike other religious groups in India. You won’t find any dayananda saraswati in that community.

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  • Anonymous

    They call you Muslim because you don’t want to erases your identity as a Muslim. Greatest tragedy of Muslim community of India they think themselves orphan.Living ghetto not to mix up in national circle, not participated in business ,education, never think to be competitive with, Hindu in every field.Don’t want forget their historical past. Till obey Maula and Moulvi.When they break the out of dated old norms and came forward with new norms which are appropriate with new era till people called them Muslim.

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  • RajX

    Every Indian is a minority in some way or the other. I doubt if SRK’s kids need help from the government through reservation but the “high” caste Kashmiri pandits in refugee camps in Delhi who were driven away from their lands by Muslims will definitely need government help. But the in sad and pathetic India, the Muslims who drove the “high” caste Hindus out of Kashmir and stole their property will get reservation while the poor “high” caste Kashmiri pandits will be left to rot in refugee camps with no support even though he has lost everything because he was loyal to India. Our country is full of injustices where villains are turned into heros and victims are turned into oppressors, up is down and down is up.kalyug where communal groups rule the roost and have their people like Zia firmly in place in the Indian main stream media. We need a revolution.

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5LKDVIAY6R5XC3TZH3EJ5DGQUM R

    who do you think will benefit from this? only the creAMy layer

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  • Anonymous

    Why not people called Kalam or M.J. Akaber Muslim?Simple answer both mingle in main social circle.Majority accepted both of them useful to nation.Why not other Muslim follow both of them?

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  • Abu Ahmed

    U.P. elections have become fertile playground for a thousand mutinies after 1992 – all the major parties are seducing voters with whatever it takes to have their vote. There will always be those who will oppose any scheme designed to benefit any community’s backwards – as the cake is of a definitie size while its claimants are infinite. Whatever – Mukhtar Naqvi of the BJP should be arrested for threatening of a civil war – opposing a political scheme with another political one is the name of the game, not the threat of violence as that amounts to terrorism – hence Naqvi and his colleagues should be arrested for threatening a civil war and trying to terrorise people. Why can’t the BJP come up with a better offer to entice voters instead of issuing threats?

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  • RajX

    Hahaha…here you go again. Funny guy.

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  • RajX

    You meant to say that Muslims in nonmuslim majority nation want secularism? The answer to that is easy. Because they can’t have sharia in nonmuslim majority countries. The majority won’t tolerate primitive Arab practices in their countries.

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  • RajX

    Smart approach. Both congress and BJP are crooks.

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  • Azhar Hussain

    Your Hindus are living happily in Mid east Muslim countries, and most of your fellow country would love to go there. what BS are you talking about.

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    RajX Reply:

    Take the oil away from the middleast and they got nothing we want. They are just a bunch of not so civilized societies.

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  • RajX

    I have discovered a donkey…you.

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  • engrich

    yes and feel proud.

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  • engrich

    forceful making was hindu samaj was the first major terrorist act in india.there was no forceful conversion.

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  • Anonymous

    The author has made at least one grievous factually incorrect statement in this article.

    Whale meat does NOT make up one-quarter of the Japanese diet. In fact, only a tiny fraction of the Japanese population actually consumes whale — as little as 1%.

    This lack of regular consumption also reveals the misleading supposition that there is great cultural significance to whaling in Japan. Jun Morikawa, in his book “Whaling in Japan: Power, Politics, and Diplomacy”, explains that whaling was only ever a tradition in certain isolated coastal villages, like Taiji.

    At the start of the 20th century, Japanese modern whaling began with the adoption of Norwegian methods, technology, and even Norwegians hired as crew. Powered ships, canon-fired explosive-tipped harpoons, and later factory ships with refrigerated storage were all used for mass production. Japan’s whalers exported whale oil to Western countries for margarine production and fuel.

    It wasn’t until WWII and the post war recovery that whale meat became a significant source of protein nationally. Whale was a substitute meat. As the economy recovered, when Japanese families could afford it, they purchased meat other than whale even when whale was cheaper. Today, if the government did not include whale meat in compulsory school lunches most Japanese children would never know the taste.

    Japan’s whaling continues due to the corrupt influence of entrenched bureaucrats (amakudari) who often leave their government jobs to take high paid positions in the commercial whaling industry they once oversaw, and secured tax funded subsidies for, as public officials.

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  • RajX

    I agree with Zia on this. There are many people including many Hindus who eat beef. There should not be any laws to prevent these people from having what they want. I beleive that’s the case in many states. Maybe this is an issue in some states but not in most. Zia should add some numbers in his article. Without numbers, the full picture is not revealed.

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  • Anonymous
  • RajX

    In this article Zia makes some good points and then goes into a communal spiral like most of the arabized do.

    “By subjecting Muslims or others who consume beef to a cow-slaughter ban, are they also being made to passively worship the cow”

    So compulsary shutting down of restaurants during eid fasting period in many muslim countries means nonmuslims in that country are made to worship Arab Allah? Can take the communal nastiness out of the arabized. They just can’t help it. Communalism has become a part of them.

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  • engrich

    IS EATING PORK ALLOWED IN ANY MUSLIM COUNTRIES?

    except saudi arabia it is allowed in every muslim country.

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  • engrich

    : What a pity our idli-sambar, micro-minority, grass-eating papans have killed the world’s most popular game — football.

    Their heart is in the stupid cricket, a game which is neither man nor woman. IPL frauds. Olympics has ranked India at 133, below some unknown islands. What a shame that the Brahminical India is at the bottom in everything — though it is the world’s No.2 in population. But No.1 in bragging, boasting, cheating, manipulating. Shameless fellows.

    The hate-mongering Brahminists starved our robust Muslims and SC/ST/BCs, banned cow slaughter which made them weak and killed their stamina, affecting our sports. Vegetarianism killed our sports which will be proved in the asian Games in which India will eat the dust.

    Brahminists are killing India itself. We have said it repeatedly. A land where milk and honey were once flowing is today blighted beyond recognition

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  • Plumbline

    God does not dwell in buildings made by man. But He wants to dwell in YOU.

    One simple prayer made the difference for me.

    When we experience God personally, as I did about 34 years ago. Alone in my
    apartment I felt Jesus speaking to my heart. I did not grow up in a christian
    home and was a rebel, almost dying in a motorcycle accident when I was 17. I had
    a revelation that turned my life around. I had a strange desire to go to church.
    Imagine that. I had an old Bible in my home given to me as a baby dedication.
    Never had read it. When I had tried a few times in my life, I could never
    understand it. When I started to read it after hearing God speak to me, saying,
    give me your life, and I will make it what it should be, I started to understand
    the Bible. It made sense, like nothing else in this world. It explained where
    evil came from, the fall of mankind, their is a devil at work in the world,
    blinding people to the light of Jesus Christ. It explained about Israel and why
    they are persecuted, and how the messiah was to come from Israel, born
    of a
    virgin, God walking the earth as a man. Then to die in our place on a cruel
    cross, bearing our sins upon himself. Then rising from the dead, to enter heaven
    as our Eternal High Priest, ever living to make intercession for us. He is
    coming back as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, to reign upon this earth as King
    of Kings, and Lord of Lords. You can have a place in his kingdom, if
    you ask Jesus Christ into your heart. You can be born again of His Holy Spirit
    and recieve the Gift of Eternal Life. Then start reading the New Testament.

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  • Arshad Ali

    Islam has nothing to do with Cows..rather it talks about Cattle ( A’naam) . Islam never prescribes eating of Cow. Moreover, most of the Muslims avoid eating beef.
    Even if people take beef, it is generally the bullock or Buffalo.

    I see a deliberate effort by Zia (la)Haq to ignite the fire of communalism and the Press is promoting that.

    I guess, funded by RSS.

    @ Zia, theology is a specialised subject. Dont exhibit your ignorance in such an evident manner. Have some education before you utter some rubbish like this.

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