the most excited blogpost ever!

By jingo! Last night was eventful indeed. I shall start from the beginning....
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Okay enough of that.

Introduction

Our drummer, Owais, will be leaving in June..or maybe July. He is joining the army. Yes that is the best he could come up with. This and a particularly impressive jam with him while working on our originals led us to properly consider recording our work. Finally Saad Khaleel emailed OBA(OmarBilalAkhter) of ADP(AuntyDiscoProject) and asked him for ADVICE(advice). Being the uber-nice dude he is he apparently replied and said that this should be done on the phone and we can call him anytime and stuff. I say allegedly because well, this what Saad told me and I trust no one -_- ...

This was around the same time OBA-san wrote this post on his own blog....coincidence?...I dunno maybe..

We find out...

Then we found out that there was going to be an ADP gig at the Clifton Nandos on the 29th, a free gig. GASP! Free? ADP? Me? This has never been a good combination! For the very very few of you who are not regulars here, I would like you to recall this post!

No matter, this was Nandos(should there be an apostraphe in there?). There would be no "families only" bullshit here. We'd go and watch the show, maybe even talk to OBA and all afterwards. Though Saad had injected his usual weak spineness at this juncture by saying stuff like "dude he'll just have gotten off stage we can't go up and bug him about this stuff".To which I'd usually say something like "dude I hate you I hate you" and run off crying while I flung myself onto my hugeass four poster bed with silk sheets and red pillowcases.
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The day arrives

I'd discovered the day before that this was the launch of something of the other at Nandos and not just a free concert. Which made me turn into the bitchy don't-be-late person I become since I reasoned that it would start on time. So yeah, we went. Two cars; mine with Saad, me and Owais and Anes' with him and Kanwal(his fiance, oooooooooh). We got there on time, which was to be 7pm and since we were there by 642pm it was pretty cool. I didnt even drive fast. Anes had yet to arrive. We were walking in and I was all happy and relieved that there appeared to be no major obstructions to our getting in. The guy at the door asked us how many people were in our group and I told him, even remembering to make him write down Anes' name so that our buddy buds could get in hassle-free.

Deja vu

We got in and sat down on the lower level. We could hear a lot of noise coming down from the floor above us where the whole shebang was going down. At the door we'd seen a few tv people coming in and they all had gone upstairs. Logically we concluded that this wasn't where we were supposed to be. We asked the waiter when the concert was to begin and if we should go up now or later. He asked us if we had invites to which we suavely replied "uhh.....no?"*slight pause* "sir could you please step out with me". Oh crap. This was the long friday all over again! Nobody had said anything about invites! Nobody! Or had they?? Saad must've forgotten! God, I hate him! I'm going to kill him when this is done!

The guy at the door said we were supposed to get invites, we told him we were invited by email and he should ask Omar Bilal Akhtar. He was like "Bilal Akhter who?". We elaborated that he was in the band who were to play and such and such so he sent a waiter dude to call mister saleem or whoever since he didn't know enough. So we waited. Then God sent us OK(Omar Khalid) and Yasir Qureshi. ADP's drummer and darbouka man respectively. We breathed a sigh of relieft, we could get in now since they knew us we knew them blah blah. OK came over and started talking to Saad, Yasir went up to the door and was stopped by the guy so he told him he was with the band. "What band?" I heard, horror struck. Holy shit if THEY cant get in what hope do we have?? By then Saleem or whoever had showed up though and we got in along with OK and Yasir. Anes still hadn't shown up so we reminded the gate demon about him.

We're in!

We went up. There was a ginormous crowd and this lady going on and on about the Cataplana. Turns out they were introducing a new menu item. This well known chef dude from MasalaTV showed up and explained to everyone that it was a South African Portugalese dish which had rice, chicken and some vegetables in it. With a description that detailed I could taste it already. The hostess person also said that everytime anyone ordered it, the waiters would open the container in which it was served with a tada! I immediately made a mental note to NEVER order the catawhatsit.
While we were milling around aimlessly waiting for stuff to happen Anes and Kanwal showed up. Anes, as per usual, had to go the the bathroom. This only happens when we're out. I do not know why. Kanwal was stuck with us so Saad and her promptly got into a we-are-in-IBA conversation. Someone asked us why we were standing and if we needed a table. I told him we were with band and surprisingly we were made space for. How quickly times change. Then this witer lady told us to go down so that we could be served, yes there was free food! The excitement! Free music AND free food?? All was right in the world. Anes still hadn't shown up by the way. We went down, got to a table and waited.

Suddenly we heard the sound of a bass guitar and panic struck! They were going to start and we were stuck here! Nooo! No wait! Anes is up there! He doesn't know we're downstairs! He'll be himself and get lost! We'll go up and find him! And stay there and watch the show! At this point Anes showed up. Sigh. It looked like we'd have to eat.

The phood

We got a couple of caterpillars or whatever which the server opened with a very wilted "tada?". I was being my usual asinine self and trying to be funny. Then we got free chicken and free fries and free lemonade. So I shutup and tucked in. Since there was a lady present we all had to be polite and eat like civilised people and not cavemen. Sigh, what testing times we live in. But anyway, we kept at it and were done quickly enough. Then we moved upstairs with alacrity. Yeah baby, today is SAT english vocabulary usage day.

Upstairs ADP were all on stage and going through the final stages of their soundcheck. OBA came off and shook hands with me and graciously said a few words to the effect of "hey dude" to which I replied with great wit "uh...". What! He's a celebrity okay?! I was subdued into silence. Anyway he talked to Saad and Anes, asked them about the sound and all they told him the guitars weren't loud enough and so yeah that was that and then they started! Woohoo!

The show!

ADP as always, I have found amazing. They just have SO much energy. This show was no different. OBA was jumping around for all that he was worth. Ali Alam was very energetic too. OK had brought his shiny sparkly new drumkit. I was jumping and all too, singing along to every song and I more or less new the words to EVERY song. Needless to say I was very pleased with myself. They did around 10 songs i think. All their famous originals like Sultanat, Sheher ke Aansoo, Nazar, Likhta Nahin Mein etc. Ali Alam did three of his own songs which I also knew though I can't remember their titles(sorry Ali!). They did Prince's Kiss, Womanizer by britney(that was fun lol), Teenage Wasteland by The Who which was very cool of them. They were so loud and crazy that lightshades started dropping out of the ceiling! That was pretty awesome. My excitement was beginning to affect people around me like the camera man whos ear I was yelling the lyrics into and who asked me try and not shake him so much.

The awesomeness!

And just like that we were done. The show ended. People started to leave. Anes had already left since he had to drop Kanwal back home. We milled around for a bit so that we could meet the guys and stuff. I was excited by this prospect since it meant we could talk to them and also ask them about recording and general advice and what not. Though when Saad said that OBA was tired and we shouldnt bug him I was pissed enough at that to leave immediately. But he did end up going to OK and talking to him about stuff. Yasir at this point hailed me with a "hey starman" I was like whaaaaaat! He knows my secret identity! How?! He's read my bloj! Yes! This bloj! Amazingness! I asked him haltingly(didnt want to seem like a opportunistic douche) about RJing at fm91 and he said he'd introduce me to the guys then and there since they happened to have come too! All my dreams are coming true! Then Saad motioned me to come and join him as we joined OBA who was half lying on this bench, so tired he was. Ali Alam was packing up and I thought I should offer to help but alas shyness took over and I kept quiet and sat myself down next to OBA, who said "hey star dude"...WHAT!! He's read this bloj too! I should start charging you people! Ali Alam asked me for a rubber band! He recognised me by my hat from the forum show!! I was overjoyed.

Anyway we talked at length about recording, general direction we should be headed in and stuff and a few other things too. For one we are now in the running to be ADPs opening band. We were planning to ask them about this for a while now and as it turns out they were looking for somebody too and so....YAY!!! Plus I asked OBA about RJing at fm89 and he gave me some pointers on that too! Double yay!


I didn't get a chance to talk to Yasir since we left after that and the band was eating and what not and I didnt want to intrude. But nevertheless. I left a happy, happy man. Man..not boy...wow...I am getting old. Sigh. 22 next month. But no. Nothing can bring me down for now. ADPs gone to Lahore for a couple of shows. Hope they go awesomely awesomatic. We jammed today, started to work on our stuff with renewed purpose. Now we know what the immediate future may hold. Quite a few days of general down-ness have been forgotten. Washed away by the hope that the dream might just work and that one day; Saad, Anes and I will be like ADP, will be famous, will be making music.

Will be rockstars.

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green
And the girls are pretty
Oh, won't you please take me home

The Verld through my Ass!

I mean eyes. That's just how Meera says it.

OMGOGMOMGOMG Barack Hoosayn Obama is in! Foshizzle son! We be burnin' not concernin' what nobody wanna say! No wait Sean Paul isn't African American.. he isn't even American. Whatever jigger, roll wit it. This is where the man(me!) gets political!

How to solve ALL of Pakistan's problems and why it wont' happen anytime soon:


As you know, the country is in deep shit. As you also may know, it's always been that way. We've never really been good at the whole stability thing. Governments suck and by that I mean both in the slangy way and the sucking-the-country-dry way. The last ray of hope we had was when Musharraf took over but that too went the way it usually goes in this neck of the woods. Musharraf came with big ideas and big talk and in the beginning it looked like it'd work but then as the years progressed, he too was unable to fix the system and the system fixed him. Another hypothesis is that he found the power a bit too appealing and did what everyoen else had been doing so far.
Anyway point is, he's gone now.

Now we have the PPPPPPP headed by the digressing duo; Stache and Smiley. Smiley calls the real shots while Stache looks busy. Apparently this time around our president is more powerful than the prime minister. We are up to our necks in debt, the country is nearly bankrupt, we've got the taliban to the and in the west, India to the east with a few Staches of their own and everyone else all around to worry about. Also I still am not a rockstar. Though I am told that isn't so related to the issue. Thank you O.

Not Oprah, Oracle.

No what I think is fundamentally wrong with our country, is our leadership. It's always been our leadership. Yeah I know nothing new just passing the blame, ask not what your country can and blah. But seriously, hear me out.

Along with leadership, our main issue is corruption. This one-two punch affects us in the following way:

-Leaders rich
-Rich people not as concerned about poorer majority
-More concern with self leads to corruption
-Corruption further solidifies the status of the poor
-Since poor are well...poor..they have to make a choice between making a living/surviving and politics
-Majority not effectively represented
-Majority stays screwed

Tada! All our problems in a nutshell. Now the solution!

-Independant judiciary
-Stops corruption
-Corrupt leaders in jail or out of circulation at least
-Non-corrupt leaders since not busy with corruption, help country in fields like the economy, education and health.
-Jobs created
-Poor not so poor anymore, standard of living raised
-Have time to participate in politics
-Enter politics
-Represent their constituencies effectively, since they know what it's like in the ghetto/hood (f'real)
-Majority represented, majority helped, country fixed!

Now, why it won't happen.

-Corrupt in power
-Don't give a shit about anyone else
-Judiciary not independant
-No one to stop them
-No one to fix shit
-Shit stays shitty

It all makes so much sense! I know right!? Gawd I am impressed with my glorious appraisal of me. That's what she said.

But no seriously, it all falls in place. The only way anything proper will go down is if the PPPPP reinstate the old judges who started the whole ruckus in the first place. But they won't cuz then they'll be the first to go out the door. Oh and don't be fooled by the Metallurgist Motuus, of the PML-79FK, rhetoric demanding the judges be brought back. They themselves ordered an ATTACK on the Supreme Court when an unfavourable decision was passed. All they want is for the judges to be back so that the PPPPP is out so that THEY get their turn with the G's.

What we can do is hope that somehow someway a government will come into power that actually helps the people and is not concerned primarily with themselves. That isn't happening for at least 4 more years.


Flam! updates

I uploaded a couple of videos from the disasterous Oktoberfest gig. Or so we thought it was. What happened then was that we didn't manage to manipulate the soundsystem to our liking so the monitors were messed up in a way that we thought we sounded really shitty. The result was a stiff and sulky performance, 4 songs performed out of 5 planned and an exit without even a goodbye to the folks.

Then there came the video.

Turns out we wern;t sounding so horrible as far as the audience is concerned. If only we'd realised that and done something like shut off the monitors or I dunno what.

So anyway, I posted the videos on this orkut community of guitarists for feedback and constructive criticism and lo and behold, people actually liked it =O! Surprise is me!

Oh and we met the guy who wokrd with Nadeem Jafri(mentioned at the end; here). I don't think that'll work out cuz he's to old school and by that I don't mean LedZep, I mean Ali Haider. Which means a lot of production, a lot of instruments and very measured and calculated. While we are so much more plug and play. Next target: ADP. Apparently they got their entire album recorded in 25-30k. Must find out more!

Here are the videos:

Jaduu Ka Chiragh


Shab-e-Hijr, our first single


Yeeeup so that's that I will return sooner than usual for another post. I shall start posting notable comic volumes here so as to spread my love for them, download links too though they'll be rapidshare only which I don't think is very popular in Pakistan. At least not among the people I know.

Au revoir.

Complications of a mastermind
Last temptation of my kind
Extra planetary sign
When do we align
All in time
Right on

Mental vacancy

It's around 4am. I could write the exact time but then what that would involve me waiting till I've finished this post and then fitting in the time at that moment. Which wouldn't accurately reflect the general situation I want to describe. Yeah, I think too much. Or so "they" say.

I'm listening to John Mayer, listening and watching too since it's his latest concert/dvd offering. I tend to return to this in times of mental vacancy. Right now I should be asleep. I should have been asleep 2 hours ago, for I have to go to Anees Hussain in the morning as I have to every Saturday at 12noon. Since my sleeping habits a more Catwoman than Batman, in terms of duration I mean, I really should be asleep. I should have checked the stuff from the last class too by now. Which was 6 days ago but like I always do, I've left it for the very last moment. One of the things I don't really plan to fix but hope I will automatically when it is necessary.

So much depends on hope nowadays it seems. Shit's happening all over the world. Though like the song Sunscreen, these truly will seem like better times as the years pass.

But I digest, I was talking about Mayer.
I am a fan, girly/commercial/pop as it/he may be, and while all today I was listening to songs like Hard Rock Hallelujah by Lordi and for the past four or five days I've been air-performing in my room to the screams of Chris Cornell on Audioslave's Shadow on the Sun(which I am so intent on covering asap), I now am listening to John Mayer. I am now feeling a bit guilty over not really playing my guitar as much as it deserves. Hell, it deserves to be played till the finish starts to chip, the string have been replaed a dozen times and till I can play at least my top 6 favourite Mayer songs. At least.

By that time I'll hopefully have learnt quite a few other songs too and that will be the time to get a new guitar. I want a tonne of guitars. So, so many. But only if I can play upto their worth.

Since I believe I should keep my posts short so that the multitude of people who hang onto my every spinning punctuation mark can not have to suffer the shame that comes from drifting off to sleep half way through, sleep-read and then hours later have to come back since they realise they don't remember a certain phrase I so cunningly employed; I shall try and not extend this too far.

I plan to expand my blog purposes to include more indepth efforts towards helping me put me in perspective since that's what this bloj is about, me. I'll talk about comics because I'm really into them. Not in the uber-geek, high pitched nasal voice, condescending "studies have conclusively revealed that Power Girl is a size D as evidenced in JLA #.." crap. The actual plain and simple, stripped down appreciation of the medium and the storylines and characters. I'll probably upload a few of my favourite story arcs too since I have a rapidshare account lying around that I don't exploit to it's full potential. Now if I can work out why it doesn't show everything I upload..

I also think I'll start cooking stuff. Yes I know not really what guys my age or guys in general are expected to do where I'm from and at but yeah I like it and I've watched more than enough Jamie Oliver, Michael Smith, Ainsley Harriot, Gordon Ramsay and BBC Food in general to not do something about my love for food. Since theres no point in talking about Aloo Gosht and Khichri, I think I'll do stuff that mum doesn't. And tell everyone about it. Which will be through my bloj so probably amount to you farigh few. You know who you are.

Oh and, I wanted to talk about a few major things too. Major as in relevant, serious, deep stuff that I don't know much about but have opinions on that I believe are correct.

I need to do more. Of everything. Music, studies, work, partying, reading, talking, everything. There is time aplenty. I am too substance-free for myself.


Flam! updates:

We planned to get our stuff recorded so were looking for all possible options. We've found a few. The one we plan to pursue with greatest vigour is a guy who is allegedly Nadeem Jafri's studio technician. Who is currently going through this process of giving us times to meet up and then blowing us off for lame excuses. Which is pissing me off. Will post more as it happens.

Here's some John Mayer to wind up.

Gravity is working against me
And gravity wants to bring me down

I'll never know what makes this man
With all the love that his heart can stand
Dream of ways to throw it all away

Twice as much aint twice as good
And can't sustain like a one half could
It's wanting more
That's gonna send me to my knees

Gravity, stay the hell away from me
Oh gravity has taken better men than me how can that be?

Just keep me where the light is

PS: blogger is getting irritating. new posts don't show up immediately. i fear i too may have to migrate to wordpress ala ms.saiyed. fix up, blogger. fix up or die.