The world does not need more boy bands, desi or otherwise :) Wait, we're talking about N'Sync-type boy bands, right?

Okay, I get that they are not a traditional 'boy band', but I just have such an aversion to that term.....

MD - help me about concerning the attribute question - is it allowed for one of them to be cute and goofy and another to be both sensitive and quiet? Or is that too much for one person to bear?

isn't the 'boy band moment' over? or are you a specialist in this area ennis?

Quite the opposite - I had no idea it was over until now. I like the idea of pop stars with turbans and beards is all @:-{D#

Ennis: I loved Duran Duran as a teen. What? I'm a gen x'er! Let's see, there was sandy-haired sailor Simon LeBon, some guy named Nick who wore a lot of makeup, a cute drummer, and a cute bassist (I use drummer and bassist very loosely) and this one other guy. Dunno.

Don’t you need the cute one, the sensitive one, the goofy one, and the quiet one

the gay one, ala Lance Bass who came out recently

Kabhi

I think they are from Monteal or Vancouver. West coast desis are gangtas and drug dealers, not boy-band material. And Q has a very Montreal look.

Ikram - correction made, thanks!

I was listening to an interview with Nelly Furtado on the BBC Asian Network and she ended it by saying 'Sat-Sri-Akal'. How cool is that?

This Josh band are a little too easy listening for me. They need to get grittier and dirty. Although the guy called Q is tweaking my gaydar, which has been active like crazy since Sin started writing for you, and which I believe is influencing me via gay radiation rays channeled through Sepia Mutiny pages.

I was listening to an interview with Nelly Furtado on the BBC Asian Network and she ended it by saying 'Sat-Sri-Akal'.

her daughter is also 1/4 brown (1/4 filipino).

AWWWW. they are cute! And they're music on myspace is hot. I have a new desi boy band crush, thanks Ennis! Can we get some promo tickets to the Bombay new years show show? seriously...!

a for effort@josh.

but the real reason i write:

Don’t you need the cute one, the sensitive one, the goofy one, and the quiet one?

and

Like I said, I’m not really a fan of most boy bands, so I’m hardly target audience. On the other hand, if I ever form one of my own, you all will be the first to know

when this ephemeral boy-band-of-bloggers hits the stage, which one of the prototypes would you be ennis?

i think sajit would be the quiet one, so that's taken. i'm voting abhi for the goofy one, but in an adorable-goofy-sciencegeek-astronaut sort of way, but vinod could also pull this off with his too-fly libertarians-or-bust bit. siddharta has clearly taken over the sensitive market. sigh!!! and you ennis? where do you fit in on the boy-band scale?

new kids on the blog! nkob i love ya!

I love it - which boy band archetypes are we, dear Mutineers?

whatevz: Hilarious! Please, photoshop experts, we need some kind of pictorial to go with New Kids on the Blog....

West coast desis are gangtas and drug dealers

I think this is a potential way to overcome fears of recent stereotyping issues (see below)

Which do you prefer to be seen as,this or this?

This guy or this guy?

West coast desis reprezent! We need some more of this gangsta Scarface shit! If you want respect, you have to take respect, screw the model minority. Remember, the World Is Yours. Keep it real.

I was listening to an interview with Nelly Furtado on the BBC Asian Network and she ended it by saying 'Sat-Sri-Akal'. How cool is that?

red snapper i think i read somewhere that she grew up with canadian punjabi kids and they (and their music) had an influence on her.

also, i think she's worked with other canadian south asian artists before too. if i remember right, The Tabla Guy, comes to mind.

I like them! Their songs "Baan Far Kay" and the "Powerless" music was fun to dance to. Its not groundbreaking for sure, but fun to groove to!

Ok ok, I admit it, I am an undercover boy band lover!

I liked some songs by *NSync and Backstreet Boys. Does that make me a bad person? Combined with my affinity toward hair bands in the early '90's, I would say I am a little disturbed by my musical (dis)tastes.

I was never a teenage girl,

Now now, Ennis. I think we all know you've always been a teenage girl at heart.

Flamin', I tell ya. Practically pyrotechnic.

;)

I was listening to an interview with Nelly Furtado on the BBC Asian Network and she ended it by saying 'Sat-Sri-Akal'. How cool is that?

Nelly is a great looking woman.

her daughter is also 1/4 brown (1/4 filipino).

lots of people want to be on that promiscuous girl's team :)

Did you mean she's 1/4 brown and 1/4 filipino? Aren't filipinos brown too?

heh, i got this question from a workmate recently. even though filipinos are brown-skinned i don't label them as brown, cuz i don't think their brown skin defines them. they have 'asian' features quite often. but itz a subjective thing. no need to get into the 'brown wars' again, itz been done on this blog. just search for 'brownz.'

Funny - when I wrote the post on Deep Purple, I expected nobody to respond, and we got hundreds of comments. I'm wondering if most of our readers are purely listeners of "classic rock"

Regarding who we are, re: mutineers, I'm going to step out on a limb here and say I'm slutty one with the gay vibes going on (you know there's always one). Q, as I'm pleased you've noticed (the gay osmosis occurs at last, my secret homosexual rays are working!) does strike me as a bit queer. The music's quite good though, but I tend to like pop as a rule of thumb.

lots of people want to be on that promiscuous girl's team :)

Where do I sign up.

no need to get into the 'brown wars' again, itz been done on this blog. just search for 'brownz.'

No, no! No brown wars. When I first read your comment I though you meant the kid was brown because she was 1/4 filipino, but I remembered reading about the Indian part somewhere, so I thought I would clarify in case anyone else was similarly confused.

Boy Bands are a decade-old phenomenon. These days it's goth-punk bands.

Don’t you need the cute one, the sensitive one, the goofy one, and the quiet one?

Does that make the Beatles a boy band? The thought makes me ill...

Man, music would have been so much more awesome if New Kids had pulled a "Revolver" or even a "Sgt. Pepper"

I always thought the Beatles WERE the original boy-band.

eih, why do all the cute boys have to set off gaydars...leave some hotties for us too...harumph!

why do all the cute boys have to set off gaydars

Does nobody think Rup is cute? Or does nobody think he's straight? Why is the brother with the turban getting no lovin from the crowd?

They just set them off. They all go to you in the end anyway ;)

Personally, it's because I'm a huge fan of the desi 'fro. It's probably because I keep my own head shaved.

I always thought the Beatles WERE the original boy-band.

I think they are. But I realized it only just now. Now I have to come to terms with the fact that I've spent my whole life worshipping a boy band. But they're British, so maybe that makes it okay?

Does nobody think Rup is cute?

He's not wearing a tight green t-shirt in that picture. So he doesnt count.

Now that Sin is in the area with his spectral conspiracy to gamma ray us all to the other side of the bread, I feel a strange compulsion to do a youtube and google search for "Arjun Rampal + topless"

But they're British, so maybe that makes it okay?

It makes most things OK.

They started out as a boy band but then they became like geniuses.

Where are Sonia and Patty Kaur ... Rup needs some appreciation. Equal opportunity for men without the abs to pull off that shirt ;)

Boy band? Boy Ennis you are turning uncle on me come on stay with me! Boy bands are so 1990s!

I don't know what they are anymore but before the 90s duo bands were quite popular...hello WHAM! Milli Vanilli (ducking), Hall & Oates, Pet Shop Boys, Thompson Twins...so the duo concept is just fine with me thank you :-)

Forget the abs, it's about the pecs in that one's case. ;)

Plus, hello. MONTREAL. Good grief I love Montreal men so much.

They just set them off. They all go to you in the end anyway ;)

Aww Sin, we can split them :)

Personally, it's because I'm a huge fan of the desi 'fro.

I LOWE IT the desi fro...I also lowe it the baldy...ok, I just love heads ;)

Does nobody think Rup is cute? Or does nobody think he's straight? Why is the brother with the turban getting no lovin from the crowd?

no, no, and I was simply responding to what was being said...
ie. I think he's cute, and straight, although he could be gay, who knows) and stop putting words into my mouth Ennis-ji :P

Hmm. Don't you need a badass/tattooed member to balance everything out? Ex: AJ from BSB. (eeeyuck...I said BSB)

Awww. I went through a boy band phase...once.

Boy bands are so 1990s!

I always thought the Beatles WERE the original boy-band.

There were a few boy bands before them, mostly in the jazz and rockabilly genres. But if you want to name one band THE original (internationally recognized) boy band, it would have to be The Monkees, whom the Beatles were trying to emulate when they first formed the band.

Would a desi Beatles-type band be the Macacas?

Hilarious comment, btw Shruti ...

SIN!!!

JoSH's will shoot the next video for "Mausam" in Pakistan December, 2006

JoSH is goiong to be shooting their next video for the track "Mausam" in Karachi, Pakistan. This video project is very special to Josh and they will be giving their fans something very special

You should TOTALLY use your SM guest blogger celebrity status to gain access to the set!!! And then blog about it, for the sake of all us kiddies that are now totally crushing these two hotties.

Does nobody think Rup is cute?

That is one handsome fellow. Even I can see that, and I'm not even remotely as gay as Ennis some Mutineers are.

Why is the brother with the turban getting no lovin from the crowd?

I agree. What a suspiciously deafening silence. It's a heinous omission on the part of the SM community. Let's have more objectificational exotificationizationalistic ogling of our handsome sardar, laydeez !

Let's have more objectificational exotificationizationalistic ogling of our handsome sardar, laydeez !

And leave some complements for Rup as well! Amardeep and I aren't selfish, you know ...

it would have to be The Monkees, whom the Beatles were trying to emulate when they first formed the band.

Eh? Don't you mean that the Monkees were trying to emulate the Beatles? Because the scouse boys, they were first.

Eh? Don't you mean that the Monkees were trying to emulate the Beatles? Because the scouse boys, they were first.

Yes. Although I guess you could say that the Monkees were the original boyband, not the Beatles, because the Monkees were created for a TV show and didn't come about spontaneously.

I love this - there's even a Pete Best figure in the band's history:

As an original member, ... [Rup] along with Shazi Hussain and his brother Rik, began a band called JoSH. Josh initially started as a band that performed covers of any type of music including popular Punjabi, filmi, kawali, or ghazals. Josh impressed its crowds with its versatility. Rup’s main role in Josh at that time would be as a back-up singer as well as a percussionist. Over time, as the group improved its skill set, Rup has become a lead singer, as well as music arranger and co-producer with his partner and best friend, Q. [Link]

You know what this means? Behind the Music, baby! Interviews with original disgruntled members talking about how people changed, sold out, how the music lost its meaning ...

You know, the Monkees had a little mid 80s comeback because MTV-retro (I mean, the 80s version) played their show all the time....along with the Young Ones. I loved the Young Ones. Who was the crazy punk med-student, again?

ohmygawd rup's so hawt! saxy saxy turbanating bhangra king! i wonder how big his joora is!

*****

there ennis and jai. happy?

and ya, i miss patty kaur too. i don't think i have ever witnessed so much mad-love panting for all-things-turban since forever.

Ooooo Rup...even his name begins like mine. Which might be weird when I scream his name. It's getting hot in heeerrreee. There are things I want to do to that pagdi I can't quite write here in public space.

OK happy?

I love Josh! I've been drueling over them since day one. I taught my 2 year old niece how to do bhangra by repeatedly dancing to Baa Phar Key every night for a year. Meri Jaan and Kabhi remind me of the train in India from Delhi to Amritsar. I love Mahi Ve on the new album (though I liked their first album better). Go Josh =)

Holy Snapper Ennis! Another Beatles desi angle! Pete Best was born in India according that wiki link!

But they're British, so maybe that makes it okay?

It makes most things OK.

It certainly didn't make Take That OK...

Where are Sonia and Patty Kaur ... Rup needs some appreciation

...sitting in Ohio.

Anyway, I think I was one of the original signers of their guestbook on their first website. The original group consisted of Rup, Q, and Rup's brother (also a sardar). Can you imagine the heaven I was in when I heard abou them? I bought their CD and used to sneak glances at them on the cover all throughout the day at work (this was many moons ago, before I was married). There's your turban loving =)

You know, the Monkees had a little mid 80s comeback because MTV-retro (I mean, the 80s version) played their show all the time....along with the Young Ones. I loved the Young Ones. Who was the crazy punk med-student, again?

They used to play that show on Nickelodeon after school in the early 90s too...

The Young Ones? That explains the gen y'ers.....kidding!

Yes. Although I guess you could say that the Monkees were the original boyband, not the Beatles, because the Monkees were created for a TV show and didn't come about spontaneously.

not unlike the sex pistols, the ultimate boy band.

Don't hate on the Monkees too much. I'm a believer is one of my favorite pop songs of that era.

Let's get this history of the "boy band" right. The actual "first" boy band was Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. They were huge in the '50s. Lymon and the Teenagers became the framework when Motown Records owner Berry Gordy created the ultimate boy band the of '70s, we now know as The Jackson Five. The Jackson Five influenced so many other countless boy bands like:

Menudo
New Edition
New Kids On The Block
Boyz II Men
Troop
Shai (pronounced "shy")
All-4-One
Jodeci
and many others...

West coast desis are gangtas and drug dealers

what does that make Chicago desis? -besides icky...

what does that make Chicago desis? -besides icky...

fat & frozen. kinda like ice cream.

As a young male indian singer I've been asked more than once to be in or audition for an indian boy band. There's always some indian manager/agent/A&R guy trying to put one together. Seems most of them don't make it very far.

There were three Thompson Twins. Whoever wrote that they were a duo, shame on your 80's esoterica.

what up, Huey, no mention of Kids Incorporated? ;)

fat & frozen. kinda like ice cream.

:(

There were three Thompson Twins. Whoever wrote that they were a duo, shame on your 80's esoterica.

I foresee this being played during many a gym class in the near future. The deal is that if you don't work my nerves, I'll play coach approved music during study hall and PE. That's how my kids learned about bhangra mixes.

Thanks for the heads up Ennis!

West coast desis reprezent! We need some more of this gangsta Scarface shit! If you want respect, you have to take respect, screw the model minority. Remember, the World Is Yours. Keep it real.

Word to the mother.

omg.
nkotb mentioned on SM....
damn. never thought i'd see that day.
go jordan knight ;).

dd:
kids incorporated..
blast from the great past. such talent. who you may ask? Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas (real name: Stacy Ferguson), Martika (real name: Marta Marrero), Mario Lopez, Shanice (real name: Shanice Wilson), and Jennifer Love Hewitt and Eric Balfour (Six Feet Under).

Fergielicious.
Dancing with the Stars Loser Lopez
Toy Soldier
I like Your Smile
Party of Five.
Dead Man walking.
nuff said.

I spend all my daylight hours listening to 16 year-olds frontin' about respect, takin' respect and keepin' it real like dat.

Nothing gets you respect like a respectable bhangra mix that my kids can grind dance to. ;)

Coach - which tracks did you like?

Hey Ennis-

I liked Mahi Ve and Baan Far Kay. They remind me a little of Sean Paul.

The Powerless mix and Kabhi much less-so. They seemed a little more romancy or something and that's definitely not my thing. Sentimentality...earnestness, sure. Romance, well, not so much.

I don't have a lot of patience for the whole pretty boy thing either. (That's probably why I think Rup is much finer).

Can't stand a man that puts more time into his hair than I do, ya know? The turban zaps all dat noise. Wash and wrap-I like that!

Can't stand a man that puts more time into his hair than I do, ya know? The turban zaps all dat noise. Wash and wrap-I like that!

You've never seen a sardar style his beard ;)

I'm a believer is one of my favorite pop songs of that era.

I totally agree. Just because I accused the Monkees of being packaged and processed doesn't mean I think they can't be good. That is one of my favorite songs of all time.

I've heard of these guys...they have a really good sound and well...ok I confess I have a thing for desi guys with curly fros.

Coach - Baan Far Kay is (at least in the start) propa old school Bhangra. Kind of like this retro piece.

Ennis,
Old school or new skool, I predict many interesting mixes with local (Richmond) flava. I'll be teaching several IB classes after the holidays and those kids are wildly talented. ( I know, I know, IB PE! Strange right?)

You should hear our band! The band director is a world music kinda guy and he puts turntables on the bleachers to mix up with the band. Inner city high school is better now than it was back in my day. Our football team gets no respect but people come out just to hear the band and the steppers.

Vat is IB?

But if you want to name one band THE original (internationally recognized) boy band, it would have to be The Monkees, whom the Beatles were trying to emulate when they first formed the band.

Other way 'round. Monkees emulated the Beatles.

IB stands for International Baccalaureate. http://www.ibo.org/

These are essentially honors classes. Students test into the program. The program exists within a regular high school population.

For IB PE we have a pretty rigorous curriculum than encompasses a lot of life skills and history relevant to my kids experiences like 'history of black american athletes', diabetes prevention, high risk assessments- as well as a more comprehensive fitness program, and of course, boxing. They get exposed to a lot of stuff inner city kids generally wouldn't. Hiking trips, climbing, etc. My student population hovers around 92%% black and many come from economically challenged homes. That's the official phrasing...

Not attempting to threadjack, I swear. I'm just sayin' my kids rock the bhangra beats.

coach diesel, are you in richmond, VA?! much love. I grew up in newport news. richmond is no joke. the homeless people out there are fierce!

Ennis, I think IB is international baccalaureate.

As for JoSH, they need to get their tracks on itunes already!

Where my Virginians at?????

not a boy band but these guys are great too: www.myspace.com/thepopomusic

Desi Rappers? Too few good ones (the ones that sing in English):

Jay Sean
Overseas
Bombay Rockers

Am I missing any?

aw, they're cute. i really like the mahi ve song on their 'site. and although Q's fro is intriguing, look at the sardarji in his suit. he's so ozwald boateng... (sigh) a designer that all men should discover...

DesiDancer, I thought you knew that Kids Incorporated was a TV show, not a real group, per se.;
It's not a true boy band, b/c they had girls in it, e.g. Martika and Fergie (now in Black Eyed Peas).

Nelly is a great looking woman.

What an image change, eh ? Someone's obviously been busy doing her stomach crunches.....

I think we should give Ennis a big hand for that completely gratuitous (and very nice) photo of the foxy Ms Furtado at the bottom of his article.

*clap clap clap*

Of course this could be a devious, typically Machiavellian manouvre by Ennis to prove that his paratha's not buttered on the other side. Either way, if anyone's going to "turn" Ennis, it's definitely Nelly bahenji. She even speaks some Hindi, apparently.

Hell, she even said "Sat Sri Akal" at the end of that radio interview mentioned previously on this thread. If that's not an invitation to the Punjabi boys to send a box of laddoos to her parents and arrange an initial family-to-family meeting, I don't know what is. "Maneater" indeed.

One summer, many years ago, I received my first guitar. On the first day I played it till my fingers were bleeding. Along with some pals from school I soon formed a band. But then Raj quit and Vikram got married and it all fizzled out. Such a shame, we were quite good actually...

this music f'in blows - listening to the second song, i couldnt stop laughing

if you want to listen to decent hindi pop/rock music listen to atif aslam - pakistani boy can sing for real

UberMetroMallu writes the brown spin-off of Summer of '69... (comment 93)

Standing on your kaka's porch
You told me it would last forever
Oh and when I look back now
Yeah I think I'd wanna be there

You were the best biodata of my life...

Desi Rappers? Too few good ones (the ones that sing in English):

Jay Sean
Overseas
Bombay Rockers

Am I missing any?

Shanti
Shanti on myspace

I like most of his stuff, his lyrics are actually intelligent...how often does that happen in rap these days?

When it comes to the Monkees, I'm all about Pleasant Valley Sunday. It was just a matter of time before pre-fab music reached South Asia. There's just too much money to be made. Still, boy bands have got to go.

SWEET. a two-guy group. do they sound more like Savage Garden or like Nelson?

Okay folks, I think I need to issue a belated disclaimer before Abhi's laywers act on their threats to extradict me to Guantanamo for slander & libel.....

Ennis, our Secret Sardar, is not actually gay. It was a misguided, Sun Tzu-inspired strategy on my part to defame him due to the rumours about half the supermodels in Manhattan being familiar with what lies underneath his turban. I was fed up about only being able to approach those Victoria's Secret models which my esteemed Sikh brother on SM had deemed insufficiently gorgeous for his delight and delectation.

I sincerely apologise to the Mutiny's legal team and henceforth vow not to cast any aspertions on any of the Mutineers' orientation based purely on the fact that wearing a luminous purple shirt should only be allowed if you can sing Purple Rain at the top of your voice while doing lascivious things to a microphone stand.

As a gesture of compensation and remorse, I will refrain from making any references to Angelina Jolie for a week.

Probably.

Unless absolutely necessary.

Now please take these furry pink handcuffs off me.

I saw Ennis come out of the End Up in San Francisco wearing a sheepish expression and a choker. He was walking funny.

On that note, here's video of the Bombay concert. Happy New Year!

Yeah, this is a great track. I first heard it on the podcast www.desihits.com . Very cool podcast show with lots of fusion music