Fun Facts about Indian Indie | #233
+ How is 'Welcome' the Titanic of Bollywood? 👀
"Brigade Street
Don’t let it pass you by...”
Oh the feeling to be at a college music fest with your best friends, listening to homegrown rock bands perform. This week we’re missing that feeling so the newsletter is dedicated to the Indian indie music scene. If you enjoyed this edition you might also like an upcoming music quiz. Scroll down for details.
And if you’re wondering why the newsletter is a day late, the dog ate our Substack.
Things we learnt this week 🤓
Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ) are the OGs of the Bangalore rock scene. Rajeev Rajgopal and Bruce Lee Mani, the original members of the group, were friends in Christ College and started the band with 2 others - Ajit Varghese Abraham and Sunil Chandy. Though true Bangaloreans who were convent educated, they realized the common theme amongst them - they were all Malyalis. Or at least some part of them. They decided to name themselves Thermal and a Quarter as they had 3 full Malayalis with one quarter Malayali. There is an interesting story as to why the band felt the need to compose original songs - they felt they did not have the best equipment to beat the other bands in college competitions. They’ve been pushing the boundaries ever since - from suffixing ‘Dotcom’ to their 2000 debut album to releasing their 3rd album ‘Plan B’ online for free, and also releasing ‘3 Wheels 9 Lives’ - the first triple-disc album by an Indian band. Check their music here.
Talking of college competitions and creating bands - this death metal band from Mumbai originally started out as a joke until they reached the finals at a competition in Chennai and they decided to take themselves seriously. A B-grade Ramsay Brothers flick caught their attention and they decided to name themselves as ‘Bhayank Maut’ after the movie. One of their early crowd-favourites is a song named Elcit Set Nois Rot. Read the title backwards to find out what the song is about 😏
Oh the horror! There is a story that Bheema, during his exile, was cooking for a king. He realized that he did not have enough quantities of any vegetable to prepare a single dish. So he decided to mash all the vegetables together with a copious amount of grated coconut and created a mouth watering curry called Avial. Whether it is true or not, the essence of that story is seen in the OG Malayalam rock band - Avial. Avial was formed in 2003 and guitarist Rex Vijayan thought of the name as representing a combination of various influences with their music, just like how avial is a dish blended with assorted ingredients. Do we have a bad pun to close out this section? Nope. Nothing. Nada.
From IWTK, with love 💌
The Nana Patekar-Anil Kapoor starrer Welcome is the Titanic of Bollywood - know more about this amazing connection here.
Lot of things about Pushpa: The Rise are fake, including the truck. Know more here.
Only In India 🇮🇳
This helped the customer digest the fact that he spent a lot of money on a PS5.
Upcoming Quiz 🔎
The Karnataka Quiz Association is hosting a written quiz about Indian Indie music for teams of 2, on Dec 22. Deets here
💟 IWTK