I have posted 1 show in more than 3 months !!!

I have just changed jobs and the new job is keeping me very very busy. I just dont have enough time to research and post shows nowadays. And I dont expect the situation to change in the next few months either.

This cant go on like this. I NEED HELP !!! (No, not help from a medical professional, silly. Help in posting the podcasts) I will continue to have enough space and bandwidth. We could try out some collaboration. Got any ideas ?

Please send in your ideas.

Thanks Amit

I have been watching recordings of Sony Television's hit Reality Singing Talent show Fame Gurukul this last one week. I would watch the clips on their website (http://famegurukul.sify.com) last year, but this is the first time I watched the complete shows. And it is one hell of an addictive show.

Is kahani main Suspense hai, Romance hai, Tragedy hai, Drama hai, Comedy hai aur Action bhi hai (in the form of tiffs between Javed Akhtar and anyone else who dares to cross his path !). And on top of that some great singing. The things that irritate are the numerous breaks (quite common for Indian TV viewing I guess) and the overly dramatic and stretched out suspense moments when they announce results.

I have been thoroughly impressed by the contestants' talent. Till very recently I thought being able to sing in tune was the most important (or maybe even the "only") thing required for playback singing. This was perpetuated by the fact that I have extensive Classical Music vocal training and I confidently thought I could sing all songs very well. Not so. Though I can sing most songs in tune, what separates the good from the great are the other ingredients - voice projection (or modulation as maybe some people call it) feeling the song (or singing with the feeling) and the versatility.

Now to the podcast. As you know, this year I want to focus on talking to and showcasing as much new talent as possible. Wouldn't it be great to interview the participants of FG ? I'll try to contact these people on my own, but if any of you know any of these really talented individuals, drop me a line.

And yes the next podcast show is in the can. I'll be posting it soon. Thanks for your patience.

Ciao.

Its been a very long gap in "programming". My sincerest apologies to my listeners for whom I couldnt post anything the last 6 weeks.

Had been working on quite a few things that took up most of my time. And then laziness set in. But now I have woken up and dusted the cobwebs off and am ready to start discussing music with all of you again.

I plan to change direction slightly this year and focus more on upcoming bands and artists. But to wrap up the wonderful 2005, I'll start off by posting the Top Songs of 2005. Look out for stuff over the weekend.

Cheers

What were the top 10 songs of the year 2005 ? Email your top choices to me or just post them in the comments below and lets see how that compares to mine, when I post the show.

For some time I had been trying to create a survey form but it was a little hard to list all the more than 50 good songs on one page.

So send in your choices and lets have some fun !

The MTV Immies were given away on Dec 9th. the Immies recognize talent in the Indian Music Industry. God ! I would have loved to cover the event... Maybe when (and if) I am in Mumbai in the future, I'll be able to.

Check out some photos from rediff here : http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2005/dec/12sld1.htm

Was just thinking about the name - The Immies (Indian Music ies). Maybe any contest I have in the future, I should call them the Impies or Pimmies. Probably not the Pimmies - dont know why but it reminds me of Lillette Dubey in Monsoon Wedding. I think Impies it will be. :)

Was a great experience being on BBC Radio and talking about the podcast. You can listen to it here (my part comes 40 minutes into the segment)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/fivelive_aod.shtml?fivelive/pods_blogs

Returned from an extended weekend - it was a holiday here in the US - and saw that both contests still were open. The next respondents for both contests get the autographed H1Bees CD. So hurry up... We're waiting to hear from you.

See you soon with the top songs from October and November 2005.

I should probably remove the "Upcoming artist" tag from the interview with the producers of H1Bees. Srikanth, the force behind the H1Bees has produced an album (Maha Kavi) with SP Balasubraniam in the past !

And H1Bees has been covered by The Washinton Post, BBC, CNBC India, National Public Radio (NPR), The Economic Times, Voice of America, Indian Express, The Hindu, India Abroad/Rediff, Aaj Tak, TV Asia, Sulekha and others. Get the details here : http://www.h1bees.com/press.html. So after all this, can I call the producers of the H1Bees upcoming ? I think not.

One bit of bad news though, you might have to wait a few days more for the interview. These guys (as you can imagine) are very very busy and wont be available for an interview till Tuesday. So we'll have their interview available by next week. And this week you'll just have to make do with reviews of new music !! :)

Talk to you soon.

Just yesterday, a listener brought to my attention the fact that the number listed at the top (206-202-2648) didnt seem to be mine. Thanks Agul.

Well, I use a free service for this voicemail feature (k7.net - thanks to Raghav for that Tip) and they discontinue the number if there is no activity for 30 days. And since no one called me in the last one month :(, I lost it to someone else. So the new number is 206-203-2648. And please prevent this one from going under too, by calling in and leaving me a message.

This might also be a good time to acknowledge all the people who have sent in corrections/suggestions in the past.

Kartikey, thanks for all your suggestions in the past and also your idea about voting on the 30 top songs of the year. I am going to implement it soon.

Venkatesh and Chinmay thanks for pointing out that Ina Mina Dika was composed by C Ramchandra and not RDB. And again Venkatesh, thanks for catching my slip - My Dil goes Mmm is by Shaan and not Sonu Nigam. And also thank you for the composer for Lawaris - Kalyanji Anandji.

Thanks to the people above and everyone else for listening and writing in. There have been more than 11,000 visits to the page since I started in July and around 7700 downloads which is just phenomenal. Thanks so much !

Here we go again. Another missed deadline. Let me reduce expectations a little bit since I dont seem to very good at keeping to the dates - I'm going to try to post the podcasts on the weekends, but there might be delays now and then. I am working on show #13 - music appreciation. It should be here soon so hang on tight.

The best way to make sure you get it as soon as its available (and that too Automagically!) is to subscribe to the Podcast. And what better way to do that than through the new service from Yahoo! - Yahoo! Podcasts (http://podcasts.yahoo.com). Yes we are listed and here's the link.

Other podcast directories and services where you can get this podcast are listed under Syndication on the bottom left.

Ruchir Agarwal is the winner of the second Contest ! The correct answer was Hazrat Waaris Ali Shah.

Congrats Sonal and Ruchir ! Enjoy your CDs.

Hmm... Still havent got our response #5 to give away the autographed SaazMantra CD. Let me repeat the question. What is the name of the Sufi Poet that SaazMantra's song Rashq Ki has a couplet from ? Send the answer to indianmusicpodcast at gmail dot com and we'll mail the autographed CD to you.

Cheers

Congrats Sonal ! Yes, the female singer for "Main Tumse Hoon" is indeed Ranjini. We will be mailing you an autographed CD as soon as we get your mailing address.

The other contest is still open. We havent got the 5th respondent with the correct answer yet. So do send in your answer, and who knows you might be the lucky one. (And dont worry if you are not in the US - wherever in the world you are, we'll get the CD to you) So what are you waiting for ?

Hello everyone, Due to a small family medical emergency, posting of show #10 is getting delayed. I should be able to post it in a couple of days (maybe even earlier). You'll get to hear SaazMantra, who are poised to hit the big time (they've already been signed by a big label). Which label ? Find that and much much more when I post the show.

Also you would be the very first ones to get to listen to some really fresh music that they are still developing for their next album

We'll be giving away CDs for answering really simple questions. So take positions and get ready to type out the answers. (Hint : visit their website and read up on them. go to http://www.saazmantra.com)

Amit

Recorded show #6 with the Lukkhhas (http://www.lukkhhas.com) on saturday. Should make for an interesting show - will take me another day to post it.

Thanks for your patience.Stay tuned !

Amit

A couple of corrections to the show : a) Loy not only has a Jazz background but also Motown, R&B & Soul. More about the trio here, their official website. Check out the cafe on this website - a discussion forum where these guys regularly respond to questions from visitors. Way too cool ! b) The other mistake was saying Prannoy Roy can be called an economist; he cannot. He is a psephologist and a political analyst.

My apologies. Take care. Bye

Amit

Am greatly encouraged by all the interest in this podcast. Am also anxious because the first show was more of a sound check - testing out the whole Podcasting process; and I hope that it hasnt turned away a few people who tried it out. Please let me know in the comments section what you thought of the first show. That'll really help me improve.

The coming shows will be a lot more fun - we'll have better production quality (in the first show it was hard to hear me speak and I have corrected that in the coming shows), also I plan to have less of me speaking and more of music - I hope you'll all like that. Also I plan to invite some guests - people seriously into music for the upcoming shows.

Let me know if there's anything that you'd like and I'll try my best.

Thanks again for all your interest.

Amit