Discography of me- part deux (the rise of the radiohead)

as we know in episode 1 (here i'm inclined to mention that there wont be an episode 3, ever, i really don't want these posts to sound like star wars prequels), i put forth my musical influences till standard 12 and left off saying that music in college was a raging inferno. actually that last bit was a bit of an exagerration, i'm not sure if it was an inferno as much as it was different.

very few will say that an alarm clock changed their musical (i meanter say, taste in music) preference for ever. ok a bit dramatic. actually my alarm clock had a built in radio. it also had that inventively clever snooze button. ordinary alarm clocks, jangle the firt moment of waking existence, my snooze button was so hip i got 4 minutes of grace snooze time everytime i hit it, and well you know would politely wake me up in stages, from deep slumber to light slumber to breakfast aromas, and then finally to "oh shit, im fucking late for school (or college)", oh yes about the built in radio, well see it required 4 extra batteries, and we are not quite the household that leaves 4 extra batteries lying around, so i never did use the radio for a long time, till my brother scrambled out and got them to hear cricket commentary for an important match when we had a power outage. so i fiddled with the knobs, i quite like the radio disturbance, the crackle of mangled sound waves, infact i read recently that these crackles have the remanence of the big bang, (kou!) anyhow i came across unknown stations, i love listening to AIR news, the person reading the news has such a "all is calm"quality, and one day while twisting the knob hoping to get some good music, i got this voice, a voice that was so soothing and strong and comforting, that melted my insides into a fine goo, a voice that i'd like to have for a blanket, and amazingly, that was talking about western classical music. that day i realized i was going to marry a man with a great voice and that i liked western classical music. the show was preetham koilpillai's friday night rendezvous, he introduced me to the music of my life, beethoven, bach, mozart, swan lake, so much so that i took up violin lessons for 3 years after that. trust a man to introduce you to these things!. its funny how men have influenced me the most in my music. my brother influenced me because he was the feudal lord of all the electronics in the house, and wouldnt let me play any teeny bopper song, the men i've been involved with introduced me to artists im still hooked onto.

the radio scene started to pick up and bangalore got its firts FM (private) station, radiocity 91 in 2002 (july 4th). im a radio person, im not one for videos, for me videos distract from the essence of the song. 91 fm was a english station and i loved all their shows especially the late show (10pm- 12 pm) hosted by priya ganapathy. she had the most endearing of giggles, now i sincerely believe that if you can't be a beautiful idiot or a brilliant lunatic you should atleast have an uplifting giggle, she played the most amazing of music and introduced me to the doors, when i first heard riders of the storm, i wanted to die right then, because surely there could none better than it. the late show was this period of calm and stock taking everynight. priya giggled, gave words of advice, cheered us up and crafted a wonderfully hum world filled with great music, if i ever meet her, im going to gush unashamedly. she also hosted the retro show on sundays and i never ever missed it. there were specials on bob dylan, the disco era (fav), divas (fav), nina simone (fav), elvis presely,( i got on air for this one!!). then one fineday they went hindi, inexplicably, and the music stopped. i really miss the english 91 fm, they used have this show on relationships and sex, after 12 and people used to call in about their sex problems. one time, this guy called up and asked the expert if size really mattered, and the "expert" told him that 2 inches was sufficient !( yea right, for conceiving!!!). jonzy and santosh gnanakan had this metal head show on thursdays, where all these "serious metal heads" (oxymorons!!) would call up and ernestly ask for metal, thats where i heard sound garden. im in love with chris cornell and his "spoooonman" voice. especially, the humming interlude in audioslave's "show me how to live". aah soo delectable.

college was such a sea of change from school. for one thing there were men around, coming from a girls only school, a very big plus. and when there are men around, you can be sure there arn't posters of the backstreet boys. i too had that mandatory pink floyd year, and the mandatory angst that came with it. some people thought of it as the ultimate sensory deprivation tank. on retrospection pink floyd was the anthem for every non conformist in the first year, the us versus them, the che guevara affiliation, where we promised to see each other on the "dark side of the moon", yea the conformity of the non conformists, lol. my pink floyd year, was nicely wrapped up by the roger waters concert, that concert was fun, he sang time, and shine on you crazy diamond with an anti-commie animation as a backdrop. it oddly reminded me of 1984 and i never listened to pink floyd again!. i had great seniors who were into a lot of great music. through saigo i got urban hymns ( verve) and 14 albums of the grateful dead, and i guess friend of the devil is a friend of mine.

well my radio phase is still alive and kicking. im on internet radio now and its simply fabulous, any and every artist is on it. i once got onto radio guyana, where all the islanders called in to request, and a scottish radio station where the RJ had the yummiest scottish accent ever!, well now im hooked to the radio station i customized on yahoo's launch cast. its plays a lot of jazz, lot of REM, mazzy star, a lot of my favourite divas, not too much rap, some hip hop, a good deal of experimental music, an album of nick drake's........

yea im happy now.