Hindustan Times
A couple of weeks back, I listed five albums that stood out for me in 2012, five that I would certainly take with me into the next year. All five—Sigur Ros’s Valtari, Patti Smith’s Banga, Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange, Japandroids’ Celebration Rock, and Dr. John’s Locked Down—are doing heavy-duty shifts on my playlists and, I’m quite sure, shall continue to do so for a bit. But if I look back again at 2012, there are a few albums that I wish I’d spent more time with. Some of them are gems that are sitting there to be discovered. Read more
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Sanjoy Narayan on Saturday, December 29, 2012 at 7:08 pm
Filed under Download Central · Tagged 2012, 2012 Holiday Mix, Allman Brothers Band, Anand Wilder, and Dr. John, Animal Collective, argus48, Ashok Kondabolu, Avey Tare, B.B. King, Banga, Beacon Theatre: Live from New York (2012), Berry Oakley, Beth Hart, bhangra, Bikram Singh, Bloodline, blues guitar, blues-rock, bluesmen, Brooklyn, Brooklyn rapper, Celebration Rock, Centipede Hz, Channel Orange, Combination Pizza Hut, Das Racist, Deakin and Geologist, Download Central, downloads, Dude, El-P, Erin Davis, Frank Ocean, Free and Bad Company, Fuel/Friends Blog, Himanshu Suri, I am Fuel, India, Indian, Indians, Japandroids, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Bonamassa, John Hiatt, Jr., live performances, Locked Down, Man, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Miles Davis, Music, New York, Panda Bear, Patti Smith, Paul Rodgers, Relax, Robby Krieger, Rostam Batmanglij, Sanjoy Narayan, Shut Up, Sigur Rós, Sit Down, Taco Bell, Texas, The Doors, Twitter, Valtari, Vampire Weekend, Victor Vasquez, Waylon Krieger, Yeasayer, You Are Friends
My daughter, about to be eight, has an earworm. You know, a piece of music that seems stuck in your ear so seemingly permanently that you just couldn’t get it out. It’s a song that she hums, sings and dances with vigorously even though it’s not being played anywhere. And I’m happy. Delighted, actually, because the song happens to be Lonely Boy by The Black Keys. Actually, the duo that makes up The Black Keys may also seem like an earworm for Download Central, in case you are one of those readers who for some strange reason follows this column fairly regularly—I don’t know how many times I have written about them, obsessively, compulsively and, perhaps also, maniacally.
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(5 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Sanjoy Narayan on Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 6:32 pm
Filed under Download Central · Tagged Almost Famous, Andrew Bird, argus48, Austin, Black Keys concert, Break It Yourself, Bruce Springsteen, Clear Heart Full Eyes, Craig Finn, Download Central, El Camino, Grateful Dead, Lester Bangs, LLonely Boy, Music, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Phish, Sanjoy Narayan, Texas, The Beatles, The Black Keys, The Hold Steady, The Rolling Stones, Twitter, Widespread Panic
By the time you read this, South by South West, arguably the largest music festival held each year at Austin, Texas, will be winding down. Thirteen hundred odd bands would have performed at more than 90 venues. And festival-goers—I envy them all—would have discovered tons of new musicians, many of them obscure but many among them that are likely to make ripples in the coming months. For several years now, I have had a long-standing objective of making it to the festival and drowning in the non-stop gigs for four consecutive days. I haven’t managed to fulfill that objective yet. Sigh! Read more
(5 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Sanjoy Narayan on Saturday, March 17, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Filed under Download Central · Tagged AC/DC, Alabama Shakes, argus48, Austin, Boys and Girls, Brittany Howard, Download Central, Hold On, I Found You, James Brown, Janis Joplin, Kishi Bashi, Led Zeppelin, Madness in Miniature, Mr Gnome, Music, Nicole Barille, Otis Redding, Room For Dream, Sam Meister, San Francisco, Sanjoy Narayan, South By South West, Space psychedelia, Split 7, SXSW, Texas, The Independent, Twitter, You Ain’t Alone
Everybody knows about Mexico’s bloody drug cartel wars, the narcotics mafia, executions and the state’s often inadequate attempts to curb the menace. But did you know about the controversial genre of music that all this has spawned? I didn’t till I heard my first narcocorrido or drug ballad. It was a song called Quiseron Tumbar al Jefe (They Wanted to Take Out the Boss). It was in Spanish and was a narrative ballad (corrido) that, I learnt later, talked about two lower level drug gang members, Jose and Ramon, wanting to topple their boss. The song was by a Mexican singer called Ernesto “El Chapo” (the dwarf) Perez who may not be known well outside that country but is one of the biggest pop stars in the region.
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(4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Sanjoy Narayan on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Filed under Download Central · Tagged Ballad of Antonio Tormenta Cardenas, Chuy Quintanilla, drug ballad, Ernesto “El Chapo”, Killer Corridos, Mexico, narcocorrido, Quiseron Tumbar al Jefe, Radio Papalote, Rafel Caro Quintero, Reynaldo "El Gallero" Martinez, Texas, They Wanted to Take Out the Boss, Valentin Elizalde
