RHCB...

...No this is not a typo...RHCB stands for 'Red Hot Chili Bastards'!!!!!
This is an European band (not sure where they are exactly from...I think Germany) and they claim to be the biggest RHCP tribute band...so much that they have a photograph imitating the RHCP album cover of "The Abbey Road EP" . I stumbled upon their link http://www.redhotchilibastards.com/index.html on RHCP's website.
These guys have a few cover versions of RHCP songs (like Under the bridge, If you have to ask...etc) which you can find in the music section of their homepage. I feel from a musical point of view they have done a good job in their covers, capturing the funkiness of the songs. The instruments are reasonably good and if you are willing to allow a margin of error in replicating the exact notes you might like their sound. The vocals however are slightly sad...you get the feeling that the vocalist suffers from constipation! I have no idea how they managed it but somehow the overall sound comes out to be quite decent.
BIG RHCP FAN? You have no reason not to check out this!

And while we are on the topic of chili peppers...this was something that occured to me a few days back. I have come to the conclusion that if I had to chose a song which I would rate 10/10 it has to be "Under the Bridge"!
If you think about the ingredients of the song...everything has been done to perfection.
The lyrics are gaawd (written as a tribute to Hillel Slovak...former guitarist who died due to drug overdose), sung to perfection by Anthony Keidis, the drumming is amazing and the intro by Frusciante is one of the most beautiful musical pieces created. And of course theres nothing much to say about the 2 things that are PERRRFECT in every RHCP song....Fleas bass and Frusciantes backing vocals. Everything fits in beautifully making "Under the Bridge" the best song I have ever heard. :)
And heres something funny: The first time I was exposed to this song was when I saw the video of a cover of 'Under the Bridge' by ALL SAINTS in my 9th! :D :D ...In case you dont know/remember All Saints was (I doubt they are still arnd) this all girl band of 4 chics...undoubtedly with corporate origins and one of the chics was very very cute. (I think her name was some Appleton :) I remember liking this song (and the video) a lot and of course in my childhood ignorance I didnt even know it was a cover! Once I got to listen to listen to the original I got hold of All Saints version and refreshed my memory and compared! All Saints had literally ruined the entire song by adding crappy techno beats and shadiest of shady vocals. Its sad that people think infusing techno into a song will make it better! Never worked as far as I know!

PS: RHCP Trivia--> Did you know that John Frusciante was pronounced dead 11 times before he decided he was ruining his life with drugs??
It took 11 times for him to learn his lesson!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Donnie Darko..

...is without a doubt one of the psychoest of movies Ive ever seen!
Very very 'champu'-ish! :D
Couldnt really figure the movie out at the end of it and things made sense only after some reading up on IMDB.
I am sure If I had understood the movie by myself I would have loved it but I didnt and so I am only goin to say that theres a good chance you might stop watching the movie in between unless you are the kind who likes weird movies and loves thinking about them!
Caveat Emptor!

Black Sabbath...

...absolutely ROCKS!
There now that we have established that beyond any tiny shred of doubt let me get to why I am making this blog.
I was listening to 'War Pigs' on yahoo after a long time and the song rocked me so much that out of enthu I mailed zubin saying the usual stuff like "BS rocks.....iommi is gaawd". Zubin then emailed me another song "Solitude" with a strong review and asking me to check it out. I was so blown away that I wrote him another mail with its 'review' and he liked it so much that I thought I might as well put it up here (after a lil refining and omission of bad words :D).

The song Solitude is so different from the usual Sabbath songs that I am used to. The entire song has a very melancholy feel to it. Normally when a band writes a senti song the vocals and the lyrics give out the sentiness much more than the other instruments. But in "solitude" you can feel every single sound dripping of emotion. Ozzy's vocals, the eerie bassline, the perfect use of cymbals, rhythm guitar and the flute are perfection put in a song. And just when you think you have reached the highest state that this song can possibly take you to, the genius of iommi comes in with his lick and takes you higher! Bliss!!

Surreal...

...is the word to define this.
http://www.plsthx.com/disp.php?type=m&id=113

This awesome footage of a guy skydiving out of a skyscraper in NYC coupled with Apocalyptica's version of 'Nothing Else Matters' as the background score is just too powerful for words. Watch it!
And if this doesnt move you then 'Nothing Else Matters'!!!!!!!!!

PS: This is an email that zubin had sent to a bunch of us regarding the song...I havent listened to the song and dont really know what zubin is exactly talking about but figured it would be nice to just post this :) ...(this added later--> I did try and figure out what zubin is trying to say and I think I do know now! If you like Metallica Id suggest you defly try and see what zubin is saying)

zubins mail..

abbey did u guys notice in the song by apocalyptica during the lead of NEM when he s playing
E--12s15*--14---------------------
B------------12--------------------
G----------------------------------
D----------------------------------
A----------------------------------
E----------------------------------
he delays the last note (marked star) for a microsecond more than hetfield and itsounds so fucking GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! behenc**d mera dil aa gaya us note pe....

Blogs...

...are fun to read. They sometimes open up an entire new dimension of the person that you never knew existed(the dimension I mean). Take for example G (sometimes known as Gurzadadaaa Pavankumar) He was a typical IIT-ian I would say. Entered IIT probably cuz he thought it was a very good career move. Once here he probably discovered that academics arent something that make him get up every morning and smile. He probably did a little introspection and experimentation and discovered music as his passion. Well...thats just about what I knew about him for a long time. I met him amongst a bunch of gult seniors in a train along with dheeraj and then got to chat with him on quite a few occasions much later once FFF happened. But only did I recently find out that G blogs. To be brutally honest I never thought G was the kind who blogs. I mean who would expect a skinny guy who smokes a lot, gets drunk (or used to atleast) everyday and dopes once in a while to sit down and think about love and economy and actually make a blog out of that! So it was quite a nice surprise when I started reading his blogs.
To say the least, G's style of writing is nice and his blogs are fun to read. Oh well, I might as well put up a link: http://amusinghoink.blogspot.com/
Makes for some fun reading G...keep going! ;)

And just because we are on this topic:
Rahuls got a nice blog too...Rahul would be Maddimsetty 'sonofshaktiman' Rahul Pratap :D
http://primates.ximian.com/~ravi/rahul/blog/
In fact Rahuls weblog was the first blog that I started reading way back in 2003. Hes got a nice writing style too and he ponders about a lot of serious things like Verappans death, crossing over from India to the US, the beuraucracy of Madras Police and the like. Pretty interesting stuff!

And last of the blogs that I keep track of...but most definitely not the least is Zishans Photoblog. I personally am a photography fan (well not the nature kind but the -heres-one-with-all-of-us-doped-out kind ;) and so really enjoy looking at Zishans pics. He is a good photographer and hes got an awesome camera. I recently came to know that Zishans photoblog has become quite popular over the internet in a very short time. Waay to go Zishan...Keep clicking!
And I seem to have lost the link to his blog as of now...when I find it Ill put it up right here!

But for now...food beckons!

Here is the link for Zishans photoblog people...check it out for sure!
http://homepages.iitb.ac.in/~zishaan/photoblog/

This world...

...is so diverse. So many people in it and all of them think so differently. Its so much fun to sit down and have an interesting conversation with a person from an entirely different culture and background. And I find it so amazing that these people who have been brought up in a culture quite different from mine can become such great friends. Just a little note of Thank You to all the amazing people I have met and befreinded here. I am sure they are unaware of the existance of my blog....and I wonder if they ever will know. Its not really that important to me that they do either. This is just to acknowledge these times when I so enjoy their company. I had come to the US not really expecting to find such great companionship here. I thought, surely I would meet a few Americans and probably talk to them once in a while. But meet such nice friendly people? Unlikely (well yes...I did stereotype...I am not perfect and neither are you :P) I am glad I was wrong. So Thanks once again guys! I hope you get to meet my other circle of amazing friends from back home. That would be awesome! :)