Album of the Decade: Is This It?

December 16, 2009 ~ Devanshu Mehta ~ Leave a comment

tshirt-sweatshirt On the 28th of January, 2002 I attended a concert by The Strokes. I bought the tickets on a whim– the only songs of theirs I had heard were “Last Nite” and “Take it or Leave it” on the radio (94.7 The Zone in Chicago, now an Oldies station!). They were good, but so what? Their first album Is This It? came out late 2001, notable for the song “New York City Cops” being removed at the last moment because of the attacks of 9/11 (you could find it on the other side of the Atlantic). They were credited, at the time, with the resurgence of rock (that never quite came).

The concert was at a place called the “Web Theatre” in Phoenix, AZ, named after a failed dot-com venture where someone envisioned synergy between live performing centers and their web site. Didn’t quite work out.

I went alone– having recently moved to a state where the only people I knew were my parents– and sat in the balcony. Of course the General Admission area below was where the *real* fans were.

Julian Casablancas, The Strokes’ singer, let me know. “Are you hear to watch a f***in’ opera?” he screamed at the people in the balcony, halfway through the concert.

Not at all. Continue reading →

My Experiments With Loops

December 14, 2009 ~ Devanshu Mehta ~ 3 Comments

Or loops na prayogo.

Earlier this year, I created two pieces of music using Garageband and my voice.

My Experiments with Loops

The first one was simply an experiment. I took many built-in loops in Garageband, and layered them in to something I found compelling. Every sound you hear is a loop that came with Garageband.

[audio:https://devanshumehta.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/01-my-experiment-with-loops.mp3%5D

Blue Skies

Next, I went one step further. I mixed my own voice (and some audio clips from movies that expressed the sentiments that I thought were shared by the music) with more loops and created something I call Blue Skies.

[audio:https://devanshumehta.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/blue-skies.mp3%5D

Enjoy.

Our Little Harmonica

December 11, 2009 ~ Devanshu Mehta ~ 6 Comments

And now to show my face on the blog. I picked up the Harmonica earlier this year. I can do the simple stuff, can’t bend a note yet and only do a pale imitation of a vibrato.

But here’s me doing the theme from Sholay (1975):

Sholay theme from Devanshu Mehta on Vimeo.

And then “Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyaar ke Charche” from Brahmachari (1968), with a lot of mistakes and a faulty harmonica (not to mention a faulty harmonica player):

Aaj kal tere mere pyaar ke charche – Harmonica from Devanshu Mehta on Vimeo.

Any other suggestions for Hindi songs that sound good on the Harmonica?

2009: My Album of the Year

December 8, 2009 ~ Devanshu Mehta ~ Leave a comment

is The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists.

No one song is my favorite of the year, but if there ever was an argument for the power of albums over singles in the age of MP3s, this album is it. It’s like a musical, it tells a story with multiple characters. When they played live shows this year, the first hour was an uninterrupted The Hazards of Love set with each performer playing a character. It was like watching a musical, or an opera.

Many of the songs work on their own as well– most of all The Rake’s Song, but also The Wanting Comes in Waves and Won’t Want for Love. And the myriad versions of The Hazards of Love.

This is The Hazards of Love live in Boston:

I discovered the album through NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast during SXSW earlier this year. These days, I discover a lot of new music from that podcast.