Song of the Year: ‘Aik Alif’ by Saieen Zahoor & Noori

There are very few songs that affect me deeply in an emotional (and almost physical) way.

Saieen Zahoor and Noori performing a modern rendition of Bulleh Shah’s ‘Aik Alif’ at Coke Studio earlier this year is certainly one of them. This is my song of the year, if not song of the decade:

 

For more on this song:

Coke Studio Kicks Ass

I first heard of Coke Studio late last year but, when I checked it out, I wasn’t particularly impressed with its first couple of episodes. It was good stuff, yes, and I did like the idea…it just wasn’t all that great.

Then came Season 2 and everything changed.

But Wait…What is Coke Studio?

For all you poor, lost souls who haven’t yet discovered the wonders of Coke Studio:

Coke Studio is a Pakistani television series featuring live music performances. The program focuses on a fusion of the diverse musical influences in Pakistan, including eastern classical, folk, and contemporary popular music. The show provides a platform for renowned as well as upcoming and less mainstream artists, from various genres and regions, to collaborate musically in live studio recording sessions. [Source: Wikipedia]

Think of it as a combination of Later…with Jools Holland, MTV Unplugged, Live from Abbey Road, and the numerous musical collaborations you get to see at award shows like the Grammys.

Oh, and it’s produced by one of my favourite musician-producers, Rohail Hyatt (official site).

Okay, That Sounds Exciting (I think)…Where Do I Start?

Start on YouTube (see links and embedded videos below) by watching the videos that have been uploaded there (don’t forget to rate, comment, and favourite as you see fit). These are available both on the official Coke Studio channel as well as on other users’ channels.

Then visit the official site to download the audio and video of all the performances. Once you’ve been suitably blown away and you still want more (which you will), watch the behind-the-scenes videos for Season 2’s episodes, read the artists’ profiles, and contribute to the site.

And if you still haven’t had enough, check out the Coke Studios Facebook page and the songs from the show featured on Babelsongs (‘Great music translated’).

Let Your Journey Begin…

Start with these three videos.

‘Chal Diyay’ by Zeb & Haniya and Javed Bashir:

‘Aik Alif’ by Saieen Zahoor and Noori:

‘Husn-e-Haqiqi’ by Arieb Azhar":

You can thank me later.

Enjoy :)

‘Love and Justice’ Women’s Anthem

There are two things (so far) that I wish my mother had been alive to see, read or experience: the last few Harry Potter books and the following performance of ‘Love and Justice’ which was composed by Kavisha Mazzella and sung by over 400 women of Victoria late last year:

I get a shiver down my spine every time I listen to it.

The anthem was commissioned by the Victorian Women’s Trust to celebrate the centenary of women’s suffrage in Australia and was performed at the BMW Edge auditorium at Federation Square in Melbourne. For more on the anthem, check out the ABC News’ coverage of it.

Also check out Mazzella’s MySpace page which features more of her awesome music.

Ten Years of the LUMS Music Society

In early 1999, while I was a senior at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), we were planning for the annual student variety show called ‘So?’. Now the ‘So?’ is organized jointly by the all the student clubs who want to participate and, being president of Alpha Hour, I was a part of that year’s organizing committee. [I also co-wrote ‘Zahoor: A Musical’ – Dr. Zahoor being our Associate Dean at the time – that some of my classmate and I performed there but that’s another story.]

A lot of the performances at the ‘So?’ were musical ones. Indeed, we started the show with a song from Jahanzeb and Adil Sherwani, had lots of Ali Hamza in the middle, and even ended the night with the hugely popular cover of The Strings’ ‘Sar Kiye Ye Pahar’ as performed by Saad Ansari, Sameer Anees, Jahanzeb Sherwani, and Adil Sherwani.

It was around this time that we all realized that LUMS needed an official music society and so we encouraged the musicians who had performed at the ‘So?’ to start one. That’s what Saad, Jahanzeb, and Ali Hamza did and thus the LUMS Music Society was born.

Fast-Forward to the Present

The Music Society has come a long way since then: They now have their own fully-equipped recording studio (as opposed to the single room next to the gym that we started out with) and they organize all sorts of musical events, some of which you can check out on their YouTube Channel. Also visit their Facebook Group page for event listings, photographs, and discussions.

This year they’re celebrating their ten-year anniversary with a music conference on 9 May and a big concert featuring the likes of Noori, eP, Laal, and Aunty Disco Project on the 10th. They’ll also be launching their official website at that time.

10th Anniversary of the LUMS Music Society

My Association with the Music Society

I owe a lot to the LUMS Music Society because it was through them that I learnt how to play the drums and it was at their launch concert (called ‘The Jig’) in early 2000 that I first performed in front of an audience as a drummer. I even have a recording of the very first song I played at that concert (‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries) with Mehreen on vocals, Vex on bass, and Saad on lead. Yes, it’s terrible of me but I’ve forgotten who was on rhythm guitar.

Even though the actual performance of that song is mostly a blur, I remember that I started out too fast and was mimed to slow down by Jahanzeb who was sitting in the audience. I also made one major error – a hand-spaz miss-hit on the snare drum – that, not only did no one there notice, you can’t even hear it on the audio recording so it obviously wasn’t as big a mistake as I thought it was. I performed in two more songs during that show – Pink Floyd and Alanis Morissette covers, no less – the latter of which was on the bongos which were also new to me at the time.

A few months later, I performed at their first proper, on-stage concert (called ‘It’) in the central courtyard. This time I was on the drums (‘Dosti’ by Nazia and Zoheb), tambourine (‘Smooth’ by Santana and Rob Thomas), and bongos (‘Those Were the Days’ by Mary Hopkin). Later in the year I travelled from Islamabad to Lahore to specifically attend their first big concert (called ‘The Show’) which featured a professional sound system and hired musical instruments. They could afford all this now that they were officially sponsored by LUMS. I last checked-in on them in 2003 when I went to guest lecture at LUMS and they’d already grown quite a bit. Now, of course, they’re the largest club at the University.

In spite of all that, my strongest memory of the Music Society is still that of me, Ali Hamza and Saad packed into a hot, stuffy jam room as we rehearsed a rock version of Nazia and Zoheb’s ‘Dosti’. I used to have a recording of that performance as well but I seem to have lost it along the way, which is sad. That was the first time I came up with my own drum beat to a song (yes, we really changed it around from the original) and I remember being proud of myself for that because I’d grown quite a bit as a musician over those few months.

To Conclude

It’s been ten years since I graduated from LUMS and ten years since the Music Society was formed. Unfortunately, I’ll be missing both my reunion and the 10th anniversary concert because I’m going to be in Australia during both events. That sucks, I know, but I will be there in spirit. And, at the very least, I do get to blog about it and encourage other people to be there on my behalf. Here’s hoping some of you manage to do so.

Sound of Music Sing-a-long-a in Melbourne

The Sound of Music sing-a-long-a is back in Melbourne this year. It’s on 15 and 16 May at the Hamer Hall (tickets from Ticketmaster, details on the Sing-A-Long-A website) and I would love to attend but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to (it’s expensive!). Besides, it won’t be as much fun without, say, either of my sisters going with me. Still, I’ll see if I can make it.

Meanwhile, have you seen this bit of Sound of Music awesomeness? It’s an Improv Everywhere type of flash mob performance of ‘Do-Re-Me’ at the central train station in Antwerp, Belgium:

Brilliant, isn’t it?  Or should I say “Charming. Quite charming.” :)

Music from the Watchmen Film

I’ve seen the ‘Watchmen’ movie twice now, and though I really like the movie itself, what stands out, for me at least, is they way they used music throughout the film; particularly in transition scenes and montages.

[WARNING: Possible spoilers, especially if you haven’t already read the graphic novel]

The musical good-ness starts with the opening credits that feature Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’. This was a really neat way to start the film as this montage is our introduction to the parallel reality that the movie is set in (I particularly liked the bit where Silhouette replaces the sailor in Eisenstaedt’s famous ‘V-J Day in Times Square’ photo).

The two most memorable uses of music, however, are the cold war era protest song ‘99 Luftballons’ by Nena that gets played at the start of the Daniel Dreiberg and Laurie Jupiter dinner scene and use of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’ for The Comedian’s funeral. Awesome stuff, particularly the entire funeral scene. Also memorable, but more because of it’s unusual placement, is the use of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ during the Nite Owl and Silk Spectre sex scene.

Then there are the more energetic songs that are used at appropriate points. These include ‘All Along the Watchtower’ performed Jimi Hendrix (but, of course, written by Bob Dylan), ‘Desolation Row’ as performed by My Chemical Romance (also originally by Bob Dylan), and ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ as performed the Budapest Symphony Orchestra (which is a nod to the helicopter attack scene from ‘Apocalypse Now’). Oh, and if you stay for the credits you’ll also get to hear Leonard Cohen’s ‘First We’ll Take Manhattan’.

Finally there’s the brilliant use of a muzak version of ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by Tears for Fears that is played in the reception area outside Adrian Veidt’s office.

[End spoilers]

Actually, come to think of it, the good use of awesome music started months ago with the Smashing Pumpkin’s ‘The Beginning is the End is the Beginning’ being used for one of the film’s trailers.

Anyway, if you haven’t yet seen the film I suggest you do because it really is quite good. One thing, though: do keep in mind that this is not your typical, happy-ending superhero film. It’s a dark, dismal, serious movie – darker than what Batman films are supposed to be – and if you don’t go into the cinema expecting that, you probably won’t enjoy it as much.

[For more on the music used throughout the film, check out the Reel Soundtrack Blog’s feature on the Watchmen Soundtrack or the film’s Wikipedia page.]

Further Rant on BBC Article on Zeb & Haniya

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I had a few issues with Syed Shoaib Hasan’s recent BBC News article on Zeb & Haniya.

As expected, that article was picked up by a number of Pakistani blogs like PakPositive and Vajood and I thought it might be useful to include here the comments I left on one of those blogs because it further explains my issues with the article:

I don't understand the relevance of Nadeem Paracha's comments in this article. Was this a news report about Zeb & Haniya or a review of their music? This is aside from the fact that saying their music is "good, not extraordinary" is actually quite useless because it doesn't mean anything. I mean, really, what does it mean when you say that someone's music is "good"? That's too general, too relative, and basically a cop-out. And why does Paracha "caution" people about their music? Is he afraid they'll like it too much and will think it's "extraordinary"?

The reason I'm getting so irritated by this is that this is the only time I've read an article about Pakistani musicians in which their music has been reviewed by a "leading music critic" or by any critic for that matter. And, personally, I don't think it's a coincidence that the only time this has happened is the only time a female duo has been discussed. I don't remember *anyone* talking about the quality of the music of *any* male artist, duo, or group in an article like this *ever* in the past. Do you?

BBC News Report on Zeb & Haniya

The BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan just published an article on Zeb and Haniya on the BBC News website. And while it’s awesome that Zeb & Haniya are getting this kind of international news coverage, I don’t particularly like the angle that Hasan has taken with this story.

As it stands, the article has the “Ooh, look! Pakistanis aren’t all terrorists – some women are allowed to sing!” tone and that really pisses me off. This despite the fact that political commentary in a story like this was inevitable. The phrase “girl band” in the title, ‘Pakistan girl band creates a stir’, ticks me off as well.

The article then makes a needless reference to Bollywood in its first sub-heading (“Ooh, look! They watch Indian movies…they must be normal people!”) and contains this sentence:

Addicted to their Bollywood movies and Pakistani pop music, many are at ease with privately imitating their idols.

Right. That exactly what all Pakistanis are like.

Hasan also keeps calling the duo “Pakistan's first all-female music band” which is not accurate.

Worst of all, though, he goes and quotes the eminently patronizing Nadeem Farooq Paracha who is, apparently, “Pakistan’s leading music critic”. I’m not sure why Hasan did that because Paracha’s sole contribution in the article is to put Zeb & Haniya down (in his usual eminently patronizing style) which is particularly irritating as this is supposed to be a news report and not a music review.

I mean, WTF? Why couldn’t this have been a straightforward article about a couple of female musicians who are doing well in Pakistan. Wasn’t that news enough? What was the added benefit of talking about how good or bad their music is? (This is like writing an article about a new female politician in Pakistan who is doing quite well and then getting a quote from a political analyst who says something like “her policies are good, but they are not extraordinary”.)

All those issues aside, though, I’m glad the article was written because at the very least it gives widespread and much-deserved coverage to Zeb & Haniya and their music.

Impressed With Shehzad Roy

I've never been a big fan of Shehzad Roy's music but I've always appreciated what he's done: the music he's made has generally been good, his collaboration with Sukhbir was fun, he was instrumental in getting Bryan Adams to perform in Pakistan, and his Zindagi Trust non-profit is making a real difference. [Official website]

I am, however, seriously impressed with his latest album, Qismat Apnay Haat Mein, which he launched in Karachi's Juvenile Jail last month. Roy is still fun, funny, and interesting but boy has he matured. And some of his new stuff is good, hard-hitting, and brilliantly political.

Take, for example, the first single from that album, 'Laga Reh'. Rarely do you get such a enjoyable, sarcastic, in-your-face, and yet immensely motivating song all in one. Here's the video:

And the album's title track -- which has also been uploaded to YouTube -- actually has the phrase "I'm allergic to bullshit" in it! :)

Of course, the entire album isn't political -- only four of the songs are -- but it's awesome that he's doing something like this and I highly recommend you go buy the album. (Though I have to admit I only like about half of the album myself!)

Dolly Parton's Cover of 'Shine'

While surfing the 'net for stuff for Collective Soul stuff I found something really interesting: Dolly Parton covered 'Shine' in 2002 and won a Grammy Award for it!

Here's what Rolling Stone had to say about what happened:
Nobody was more surprised to find out that Dolly Parton had covered Collective Soul 's anthemic breakout 1994 single "Shine" than the Atlanta band's frontman Ed Roland. "My phone rang early one morning and one of my friends said, 'Dolly Parton just sang your song on TV!'" he recalls fondly. "Apparently she told the TV host that she was doing it as a gift for her husband Carl Dean, who really loved the song."

She's done a pretty good job, too. Here's the original 'Shine':





And here's Parton's cover version:





Not bad, eh? :)

Bands That Have Influenced Me

After writing my previous post I got to thinking about what it means to have a bunch of "all-time favourite bands" and my conclusion was: bands that helped develop and define my taste in music (both listening and performing).

According to a research study that we discussed in my MBA Consumer Behaviour class, people's overall musical taste correlates most to the music that was at the top of the charts when they were around 21 years old. I turned 21 in 1997 but, given that bands often take a few years to get really big, my favourite bands should be the ones that were big during the mid- to late-'90s. As you'll see below, that's actually pretty accurate.

Here is my (updated) list of all-time favourite bands/musicians (let's just call them "artists", shall we?):

  • U2

  • Dire Straits

  • Peter Gabriel

  • REM

  • Sting

  • The Police

  • Collective Soul

  • Toad the Wet Sprocket

  • Linkin Park

  • Garbage

  • Pearl Jam

  • Def Leppard

  • Goo Goo Dolls

  • Better Than Ezra

  • Matchbox Twenty

  • Sheryl Crow

  • Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

  • Melissa Etheridge

  • The Cranberries

  • Vital Signs

  • A-Ha

  • The Corrs

  • Bryan Adams

  • Madonna

  • Deep Forest

  • Enigma

  • Moby


That's a pretty long and reasonably diverse list, isn't it? And I've probably missed a couple as well.

As you'll notice from the list, most of these artists were really popular in the mid- to late-'90s -- though some were on their first album while others were on their fifth. The only two new artists in there are Moby and Linking Park and the two that disbanded before the 90's -- i.e. The Police and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers -- both released best-of albums during that time.

Did I gain any new insight about myself while compiling this list? Not really. Still, it was a fun list to put together and it might tell you a thing or two about me (though I'm not entire sure what!).