Album Review: Accidental Hero – Junkyard Groove

I see a trend with a lot of the Indian bands who are releasing their albums this year, and it’s not a positive one. The albums don’t seem to be thought through, they feel repetitive… it’s almost like complacency that has set in. Unfortunately, Junkyard Groove’s second album ‘Accidental Hero’ seems to be joining the league as well. It’s just more of the same thing. While I simply loved the first outing of the band (a completely different line-up except for front man Ameeth Thomas), the much anticipated second album just feels lazy. 

It’s fairly evident that Ameeth is the only one pulling the strings of the band because there does not seem to be any musical contribution from the remaining band members in finding a new sound. Normally with an all new line-up, one would expect an evolved sound, and hopefully a better sound. But that just does not seem to be the case. Two years in the making, the album lacks the groove of the first album. Older songs like Folk You and It’s OK were always crowd pullers. Accidental Hero has none of that magic. The overall sound is simply the current band mimicking the sound put in place by the old band members. That being said, the only song that I did enjoy was 4 or 5 Things, which had the groove of Junkyard Groove.

While I’m thankful for the free download from the band’s website during the first 24 hours post the release, that’s about all I am thankful for. We all loved JYG from the early days, but I’m not sure how many more new fans they would garner thanks to this album. I’d like to say It’s OK(pun intended) but to me, it’s just not. I’m going with 2 out of 5 stars for this album.

The 10 Best Songs to End a Concert

As a budding guitar player who does the occasional show in his spare time, the one thing I've come to respect is the Holy Grail of every show known as ‘the set list’. A set list can make or break a band's performance. While a band might have great music, it can all be undone by a poorly planned set list. Typical problems such as spending too much time changing tuning between songs, changing instruments, too many long-winding guitar solos followed by an even longer drum solo and an overly poorly laid out puzzle of songs can make the best band lose their audience. 

I’m always of the opinion that the closing song of a set is the most important song of the evening. While that doesn't mean you play whatever you please until the last song, the closing song is that song by which a show is ultimately judged. It is the last chance you have to give people a kick or a high, a last chance to leave them with an emotion they will never experience again. People go home and talk about the concert to their friends and the last memory they will have about the show is that one closing number you put your heart and soul into.

Before I get into a poetic mood about set lists, I've put together a list of what I feel are the best  ten closing songs in my mind. Before you come marching to my house with pitchforks, please note that this is just my personal opinion. Don’t send me email saying stuff like “You don’t know anything… this is mainstream music… ‘Metal Puke’ by ‘Acid Vomit’, a Turkish underground goth metal band is the best way to close a set” (PS: I made the song and band up, I don’t think either exist). Please don’t graffiti ‘Down with Metallica…Long live Mustaine’ on my house. Also please do don’t send the severed head of a bass player by post. 

Anyway, here are the ten best closing songs in no particular order.

10. Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

This song, that starts off slowly with easy to sing along lyrics with the expansive guitar solo at the end that can go on for hours, was the easiest choice for me. Having ended many weekends at the bar with the DJ playing this song, I've always come out wanting to listen to it again.

9. Rock and Roll All Nite by Kiss

Wait, wasn't this the band that said they would never do a disco song? This song by Kiss is especially great when doing smaller venues or even acoustic sets. It’s a song that remains in your head thanks to the extremely easy lyrics. For a good many years, I didn't know any of the other words other than the chorus. It helps if you can do the Gene Simmons tongue thing.

8. Killing in the Name of by Rage Against the Machine

Find me a rock/metal enthusiast who doesn't like to scream ‘F**k you I won’t do what you tell me’. One of the best anti-establishment songs written, this song is bound to get everyone pissed off and high. 

7. Every Breath You Take by The Police

Ending a concert does not always have to be a musically heavy song. An emotionally heavy song is great too. While I've only seen one band do a brilliant cover of this, Sting’s version from the ‘All this time’ is a great sing along and gives a lot of scope to introduce the band to the audience before you walk off stage. 

6. Train Kept A Rollin by The Yardbirds

This is a great song when you have way too many guitar players on stage. It gives a lot of space for generally messing around the fret board. Originally by The Yardbirds, this songs serves a lot of lead guitar players with an avenue to show off.

5. Tubthumping by Chumbawamba

While this song is more apt for a crowd of football supporters whose team just lost, it still makes a great sing along with all the positive reinforcement of ‘getting back up again’. This is probably the one misfit in the list, but still is an awesome song.

4. Hallowed be Thy Name by Iron Maiden

Extensive guitar solos and riffing with Bruce Dickinson hitting those ungodly high notes at the end gives any warm-blooded metal head one hell of a rush. I've seen this live, and it gave me a much better kick than the booze I was having. The intro is also a great piece for people to sing and clap along, before all guitar hell breaks loose.

3. Hey Jude by The Beatles

Probably the most cliched closing song ever with which to end a concert, but it never fails to get an audience singing together. And who doesn't like The Beatles?  

2. Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd

4 words…. David Gilmour’s guitar solo. Enough said. 

1. Rockin in the Free World by Neil Young

This has always been one of my most favourite songs to end gigs. It works for both acoustic and electric sets. It has all the settings of a great song with ample room for guitar players and drummers to show off solo-skills. It has the most important ‘sing-along’ feature and the general message of how despite everything in the world, we can still keep rocking on. This is sure to get any audience  happy. I fell in love with this song after I heard the Pearl Jam version. Incidentally, they too end a lot of their gigs with this piece.

I'd like to know what you think of this list and look forward to comments on what you feel would make a better closing song. Just want to remind you, no death-threats please. I have enough cholesterol flowing through my arteries to kill me. 

Gig Review: TAAQ @ B-Flat

 The Bangalore boys were back in town after their 55-show tour to wrap up what started out a few weeks ago. Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ) closed their recent extensive tour with a set of 3 night back-to-back performances at B-flat. Considering how long this band has been on the circuit, one always expects a super show. Last night’s gig met all the usual expectations from TAAQ.

Enter Heavy Riff

 While the show did start much later than scheduled thanks to the band’s additional commitment at another place, the set up was quick and they wasted no time in between songs. Being a budding guitar player, I’m always fascinated by the amount of equipment Bruce Lee Mani uses. But they’re all just there to add different colours to his playing. The evening was a blend of some of the old and the new material from the somewhat extensive catalog of TAAQ. This included songs like Someone Like Me, In the Middle, Holy Jose, Hot Day and more. They also played their version of the Nirvana classic In Bloom.

Bruce's Arsenal

Rajeev was immaculate on drums (as always) and did a rather cool drum bit with the song Fly. I recollect seeing the band about a year ago when Leslie Charles was brought on to handle bass responsibilities. While he seemed a little nervous at the start, and at a subsequent show I saw later on, he seems to have settled into his role really well. I do hope he can bring a little more groove to the band on future albums and gigs, not just as a bass player, but as a back up vocalist too.

Rajeev on Drums

The band played some of the songs from their recent Three Wheels Nine Lives album which included If Them Blues, Who Do We Have Sex With and a rather interesting organ (using the guitar) start to Grab Me. The audience was also treated to a fabulous performance of the TAAQ’s classic- Jupiter Café. The one song that did stand out in the evening was Bruce’s solo rendition of The Beatles hit In My Life. Respect man…total respect!

Leslie on Bass

Bruce Lee Mani

Bruce Lee Mani was at his usual best keeping the crowd entertained between songs about jokes of Roland from Poland (you had to be there to get it) and people coming from ‘native’ and going to ‘foreign’. I however don’t understand why he kept reminding us that it was Monday the next day and we had the day job thing to attend.

Playing Jupiter Cafe

The Guiding Star aka the set list

It was a super fun evening with a rather intimate gathering of fewer than 50 people. And B-flat has the sort of stage that if worked correctly by the band, can have everyone grooving. And TAAQ’s experience showed. I look forward to their gig at NH7 Weekender in Bangalore which should be a totally different experience.

Album Review : Paradise Valley – John Mayer

After having a long list of albums I've wanted to review, I chose to start somewhere and am going with John Mayer’s 6^th outing – Paradise Valley. I rather enjoyed the opening song of Wildfire and had a lot of expectations from the rest of the album. Unfortunately, considering the space that John Mayer has created in my books of being an artist who excels with each passing album, I found the album to be a letdown of sorts.

I've heard and reheard the album at least 5 times in the last one week and I just don’t find a single tune that I can remember instantly and want to come back home and learn on the guitar. With songs like Gravity, Vultures, Daughters and more to his credit, I expected a lot more from Mayer on this outing. I honestly don’t understand Mayer’s pet-peeve of having his current girlfriends sing on his albums. It was Taylor Swift on Battle Studies and Katy Perry (on Who you love) on Paradise Valley. I guess it’s one of those things you can get away with if you’re at the level of John Mayer.

Most of the songs felt like what was left over during the song-writing process of Born and Raised. The previous outing of Mayer was a move away from his blues avatar and had a lazy country ‘listen to my life story’ sort of feel to it, and I loved it. Mayer has tried to recreate the same in Paradise Valley, but falls short. The song writing in bits and pieces on a couple of songs was good, most notably on Dear Marie (which I assume is about his first real love), Wildfire and  On the Way Home. Mayer also does an enjoyable cover of J.J Cale’s Call Me the Breeze which is poignant considering J.J Cale passed away recently. Talk about timing.

I’m giving the album 2 out of 5 stars. It’s an easy lazy listen that doesn't really have you eager to want to listen to it again. Paradise Valley offers nothing new to listeners but just might satisfy the appetite of the really-hard-core John Mayer fan. To me, Mayer’s benchmark will continue to be the Continuum album.