Indiecision: Music Blog: Independent Music in India and Elsewhere

INTERVIEW: THE MINT CHICKS

A few days ago Indiecision featured a track from one of New Zealand’s top new bands, The Mint Chicks. With a new album on its way, and a live act that’ll kick your ass, you can’t afford to miss these guys. Here’s an interview about chainsaws and walking through doors.

1. Tell us about The Mint Chicks. How did the band come about?
We used to tell people we were in a band together at highschool. We would get invited to parties in people’s garages and we’d pretend we had songs when we didn’t. That’s how we learned how to entertain a crowd. If you are making a song up as you go you learn really quickly what works and what doesn’t. We did amazingly  well for a band with no songs. One day my brother Kody wrote all these songs on a piano. He’d never really written songs before but they were really good quality. They sounded like the Beatles. He recorded them on my Dad’s computer and then asked me if I wanted to make the recordings into a real band, so I said yes.

Take the jump for the full interview.

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SCRIBE ANNOUNCE CONFECT WITH TEASER AND ARTWORK

Metalcore act Scribe are getting ready to release their debut full-length album Confect. The album comes on the back of a slew of EPs and compilations + their win at last year’s I-Rock.

Their music is a far more accessible brand of metal, and it’s good to see that the new album has only new material from. Also good to see is that the entire album will be available as a free download via their MySpace. Sahil Makhija (better known as the Demonstealer) also had his album up as a free download. The more bands experiment with the distribution of their music, the better.

CDs of Confect will also be available, but later. Scribe play on Day 2 of I-Rock, this Sunday.

Head downstairs for the album cover and a promo video that looks like a slomo-ad campaign for a government owned steel company.

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GUITAR PRAISE - THE CHRISTIAN ROCK GUITAR HERO

I swear, I’m not making this up.

From the house of Digital Praise (glorifying God through interactive media) comes Guitar Praise - Solid Rock. The game is pretty much like Guitar Hero, except it features songs by Christian rock bands like 12 Stones, Kutless, Skillet and Relient K. According to the website

Grab the guitar and play along with top Christian bands! Shred those riffs or blast the bass…you add a unique sound to the solid Christian rock. But watch out: if you can’t keep up, the artists will take a break and stop the music. Crank it up and try again - you’ll soon be rockin’ with the best while praising the Lord!

The game will retail for $99 and is playable on PC/Mac. Also, one of the game’s key features is

Onscreen lyrics reflect Christian values.  Vocalists can sing their hearts out as their friends play the guitar.

Once again, I’m not making this up. Head here for proof.

What I really want to see, though, is Sitar Hero. Includes sitar battles with Pt Ravi Shankar, Anoushka shankar and George Harrison. What a killer, and heavy, game that would be.

CONSERVATICE ISLAMIC PARTY ORDER MALAYSIAN YOUTH TO PROTEST AVRIL GIG

A few years ago I-Rock was set to be held at the Gateway of India in Mumbai. But unfortunately, Indian politicians scarcely understand English and therefore, the much lauded (seriously Times of India, get a grip) concert wasn’t allowed to fill the malodourous space with black t-shirts and Gary Lawyer.

In a similar but not quite situation, Avril Lavigne’s finding it hard to get a gig in Malaysia. Though the Malaysian government has allowed a concert, the conservative Islamic party Pan Malaysian Islamic Party PAS has announced its disapproval. The party has further stated that it will order Malaysian kids to protest the gig.

A spokesperson for the party said

A concert of this nature is not conducive to teach the younger generation to become good citizens, upright and competitive, but instead would weaken them morally and mentally. If the concert organisers do not heed this warning to cancel the concert, PAS youth will order all Muslim youth to turn up and protest the concert in order to prevent it from taking place.

Apparently Lavigne is too racy for the party who feel that the gig is disrespectful to their religion.

Sure, this isn’t indie. But it just goes to show that there’s crazy people everywhere. So watch your iPod.