#82 Dus Bahane

#82 Dus Bahane
Zayed Khan and Abhishek Bachchan



Several years ago I was flipping through the channels and then I ran across a show called Namaste America which features the best of Bollywood music. And I saw the video for a song called Dus Bahane. It was really cool, kind of looked like an action movie. So, the next week I caught it again and saw that it was from a sound track to a movie called Dus.

I looked up the movie and soon it was on the top of my Netflix queue. As an American you don’t expect much from non-American action movies, but DUS delivers in every way. Now back to the song, sung by the two stars of the movie Zayed Khan and Abhishek Bachchan. It is traditional for Bollywood stars to sing in their movies and Khan and Bachchan really deliver. Much like their characters their styles are very different, Khan is more hi-pitched and poppish while Bachchan is a cool baritone. I don’t think Bachchan is much of a singer (but he is a better actor). The song is sung half in Hindi and half in English, so I really have no idea what the song is about, but the beat is great and I want to dance to it. And dance to it in a room of other people all dancing in sync with me.

I thought of this song when we were watching the new NBC show Outsourced and during the opening sequence there was a Bollywood style song and Olivia started dancing.

#83 In Bloom

#83 In Bloom
Nirvana



I'll say it Smells Like Teen Spirit is kind of overrated. I'm not saying it’s a bad song, but it would have made a better name for an album. Personally I prefer In Bloom also from Nevermind.

In In Bloom Nirvana spreads its musical wings, its not all mumbling, snarling and screaming. You can actually discern a few words in there. Its funny the song was on an album that would make the band huge rock stars and it was a shot at a part of their fan base. They were smart enough to know that their loud aggressive punk music (which would be called Grunge) would attract meatheads and jocks who would be into something because it was popular and they could mosh to it. But as Kurt says "he's the one he likes all our pretty songs, but he don't know what it means."

Though they would hit their peak as musicians in their In Utero album a few years later, In Bloom is Nirvana at their snarky-punk-rockiest.

Awesome

We just got our Yo Gabba Gabba tickets in the mail. Olivia is going to flip out when she realizes that she is in the same room as DJ Lance and the gang.

#84 - painkiller

Years ago when I was a metal neophyte I was introduced by buddy Mike to the Judas Priest song Painkiller.

From their last album (for a while) with original lead singer Rob Halford The song starts out with those pounding drums and then that screaming guitar attack. Painkiller is about a metal messiah sent to earth to set us free by way of Armageddon. Honestly I always thought it was about drug addiction, while others contend it was about some guy Halford was into.

"Faster than a lazer bullet
Louder than an atom bomb"

Those lyrics from the song describe the band to a tee. No one in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was faster or louder. People always talk about the double guitars but for me Judas Priest is about the voice. Halford's voice is the voice of Heavy Metal. Unrelenting, intense and honest.

As the years have gone by there are other Judas Priest songs I like better but Painkiller was that first taste that has stuck with me all these years later.

Back from a break

I've been a bit negligent with this blog. Here are a few reasons:

• new baby
• broken thumb
• general laziness
• trying to understand the appeal of the music of Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers

So I'll be back with new songs starting tomorrow.