Indiecision: Music Blog: Independent Music in India and Elsewhere

JACK DANIEL’S ANNUAL ROCK AWARDS 2008-09 GET DATED, PROMOED, FACEBOOKED

The Jack Daniel’s Annual Rock Awards are the closest thing to Indian rock music Grammys. The 2008-09 instalment of the awards hit Hard Rock Cafe, Mumbai on Feb 12, 2009.

Them Clones and menwhopause have previously walked away with the Best Rock Band award, and bets are on for Shaa’ir + Func or Thermal And A Quarter taking it away this year.

In anticipation of the awards, JD and Rolling Stone are hosting ‘tribute’ gigs across the country. They’ve also set up a website, a Facebook group and have a short promo video as well which you can take the jump to watch. Though bands have been asked to upload songs on the website, the website doesn’t have an upload button, yet.

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LIVE: AVIAL, THE RAGHU DIXIT PROJECT, PARIKRAMA, PENTAGRAM @ ROCK ON FOR HUMANITY

Rock On For Humanity had plenty of cynics. Heck, the gig was called ‘Rock On For Humanity’. But here’s the deal. If it takes charity to get top bands together on an outdoor stage with brilliant sound and confetti, then here’s your opportunity promoters. Bring out your ‘Save Darfur’ and ‘Save Bombay’ t-shirts, cozy up with some Bollywood celebs and you’re guaranteed a well sponsored, well executed and well liked gig.

While the motive may have been lost when Javed Akhtar appeared on stage pimping Indian Idol (a whole post dedicated to just that, very soon), Rock On For Humanity must stand as one of the few landmark gigs where independent musicians played to a large crowd (one that booed Zayed Khan off stage) with great media visibility (get your spelling right Bombay Times) and much appreciation from the biggest entertainment industry in Asia.

Also, Saif Ali Khan has promised a movie called Rock Star, but more on that later.

Unfortunately, traffic was responsible for the absence of Something Relevant, Dream Out Loud, Them Clones and Shaa’ir + Func from this review. Head downstairs for Avial, The Raghu Dixit Project, Parikrama (with and without Saif Ali Khan), Pentagram, pics and plenty of Indiecisions.

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THIS WEEK’S TOP GIG PICKS

Your guide to the top gigs in town (Mumbai town), weekly.

Happy Diwali folks!

This week has two bumper-Diwali-special-sale-full-page-Mumbai-Mirror-ad type gigs back to back.

The first is Rock On For Humanity on Friday, Oct 31. The gig will see most of the Counter Culture roster along with acts like Shaa’ir + Func (out with a new video), Something Relevant and Parikrama. So head to the MMRDA grounds on Friday for the chance to watch Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy and Pin Drop Violence on the same stage.

Buy tickets here.

On Saturday, head to the Andheri Sports Complex for the Mumbai leg of the Great Indian Rock festival 2008. If you missed Something Relevant and Them Clones on Friday, you can check them out again on Saturday at GIR. You can also catch Norwegian black metal giants Satyricon rip the place apart with um, black metal.

Passes will be available at the venue.

ROCK ON FOR HUMANITY GETS DATED

Rock On For Humanity, the poorly titled benefit for the Bihar flood victims, is scheduled to happen Oct 31, at the MMRDA grounds, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mumbai. The gig will bring together some of the top names in the Indian music scene in support of relief efforts for the flood victims.

On the bill for the evening are

Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Pentagram
Pindrop Violence
Raghu Dixit Project
Rabbi
Them Clones
Parikrama feat. Saif Ali Khan
Shaan
Kunal Ganjawala
Dream Out Loud
Something Relevant
Shaa’ir + Func
Kailasa
Avial
Farhan Akhtar

Obviously, this is a killer list (though the addition of PDV to the proceedings is a surprise, what with their name and all, but hey, they have a killer song called ‘In Dependence’) (and Parikrama return with their Saif Ali Khan shenanigans). The gig is scheduled to start at 5pm and should, given the inclusion of the Rock On!! folks, gather a large, taxi-less audience.

Also, the ‘underlying message’ of the gig is to

“Improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity”

Hey, if Live Earth can do it…

Tickets will be available via BookMyShow from Oct, 21.