I actually went to high school with Himanshu and knew him back in the day. Dude is super cool. He once told me he was starting a rap group called Loose Motions. I think that is a far superior name.

Further, not a lot of people want to hear rappers talk about Dinesh D’Souza being a punk

He always struck me as more New Wave.

You're right. You're so right. Or even like a New Romantic type..... his earlier stuff was heavily influenced by Spandau Ballet, no?

his earlier stuff was heavily influenced by Spandau Ballet, no?

Many critics think he belongs in Spandau.

Re: Kominas, Himanshu probably has people hearing his "Dadaist" music and wondering why the hell they spent years learning how to play a Kanjira, Ghatam, Mridangam or Veena. After all, call it "Dada" and you can call it a day, right? Nobody cries for the artists that produce gimmick commodities (which, in and of itself, is no bad thing for how you are received--look at the Kominas and how they managed to keep 'punk' cred ) and if they did the poetic justice violins would be playing for Vikku Vinayakram's children, U. Srinivas and Prasanna--not people so conscious of their cultural companions that such awareness seems to permeate every 4/4 midi-constrained turd wattalappam they produce.

and if it wasn't clear (which it usually isn't) i'm not saying that some work didn't go into this--but for this guy to complain about a group of people who are equally vapid and not-a-musician, it strains credulity as well as my lesser ribs.

nayagan: i have no idea what ur saying in 5, but it really sounds brilliant, like gayatri spivak. is that dadaism?

Nayagan,
Your analysis is straight-up Jainism--welcome-aboard, my friend. It has always been present in its absence, in your life and those live(s) of those you've loved. You can be spiritual and "free," but we'll still make sure you make a buck (or two!) before you shuff off your current mortal coil! Embrace the love.

even after #8, i still have no idea whats going on. this is why i stick to straight shooters like dinesh d'souza and rudolf hess

Manju,
Rammstein; it's a German band. Watch it, and weep for the power, the soul, the transcendent truth.
It's . . . indescribable.
Then, go to puja to be a good boy again.

Manju,

you're so transparent.

"Dada" is when you find out that counting 4 with both left and right hands simultaneously is about as true an artistic expression as calling your granny's favorite deity a feisty rentboy.

"Bollywood punk" is "Chicken and meat" is "I have so little time to ponder my coolness, it finds expression in exactly how disheveled I make myself appear on a daily basis and how Pitchfork-appropriate my playlist is. Never once must I fail to invoke the specter of inauthenticity to describe any coexisting competitors for the title of Captain Identity-Politics for Unwashed Hipster Masses."

I do this for fun. Spivak does it for bucks. Dada did it for Dada.

Just listened to a few of their songs, absolute shit.

You can tell that these guys dont like their politics to be to straightforward from their photo.

You guys just see a guy with an extension cord around his neck.

I see two guys displaying their satisfaction with the powerful "Extension cord" lobby.

Knowing that Suri probably understands the complexity of orientalism and how it is coded into language makes the line "Mahatma Gandhi Whats up my gandhi" totally my shit. So meta. And as for musical merit, Jinendra, get back to me when they bump Baltimore club in your local booty joint.

i haven't been this confused since the time an abstinence only teacher licked my ear at a dinesh d'souza concert

I very seriously wish I could travel back in time to a point where I didnt read about these guys.

Are the lyrics to their sorry excuses for songs supposed to mean something? Combination pizza hut and taco bell? Are you kidding me.. these guys are terrible

OK, sorry if it's a dumb question, but which one in the picture is Himanshu Suri and which is Victor Vazquez? Not that it matters, but just curious.

Sorry, I tried (and apparently failed) to put up a caption. Suri is on the left and Vazquez is on the right.

Yo, dat shit IS racist.
Imran / The Kominas

Seriously, the Captcha(C) was brown? It should have been daaljit.

Popo might be a better band, but Das Racist is just as campy as our most nonsense shit. We started as a joke band and started playing marathon sets during tours that ended up sounding little like our recordings.I stand by our live sets, most night. You can HAVE the album.

Das racist embraces a set of philosophies that makes poor translation to music or musical musings. Dadaism teeters so precariously on the edge of validity at any historical point that it is summoned, that I think most people should just leave it alone. At least leave it the romance of History. The same reason that modern graphic artists don't drag cave painting technique back into modernity kicking and screaming to show us all how simple and uninteresting it has become since we've moved on as a culture.

Mike Knight is legit even if you might think the Kominas have too much chrome in the grille of their punk hoopti. Read up on Mike, his autobiographicals are way betteer than Taqwacores. Personally, lets not talk about the music. Lets just see what happens with the next album, then we'll talk.

Nayagan
About Prasana, I have to say I feel bad for him because his gimmick takes so much more time and energy to perfect than either Kominas or Das Racist, but in the end he is falling victims to the constraints of his instrument precisely in showing how one does not need to be contrained by western fretted instruments. Its very obvious that hes playing Carnatic music, badly, on electric guitar. I can hear every fret and it hurts, make it stop. I hope that wasn't what he was going for....