2007 December archive at Rhythmic Dissonance

Archive for December, 2007

Dec

Best Music I Discovered in 2007

By Raj 11 Comments

Categories: Lists and Music

I am aware that all of these artists have been around for years. Its just that I happened to discover them this year.

1. Stars: They are a Canadian indie pop-rock band.
Found them through: the song “Calendar Girl” on last.fm.
I like: the fact that they are one of the few rock bands with many great duets thanks to the two lead singers, Amy Milan and Torquil Campbell. Love their music and wordplay as well as experiments with electronica.
Favorite work: Almost half the songs on the albums ‘Hearts’, ‘Set Yourself on Fire’ and their latest release, ‘In Our Bedroom after the War’. My favorite tracks are “The Night Starts Here”, “The Big Fight” and “Look Up”.
File next to: Rilo Kiley, Broken Social Science.

2. The Postal Service: They are an electronic rock band.
Found them through: the song “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” on last.fm.
I like: their sound. Its all about the sound! The lyrics, though mostly good, come second.
Favorite work: I love all the songs on their only album, ‘Give Up’ but “Clark Gable” and “Brand New Colony” are the ones I like the most.
File next to: The Shins, Frou Frou, Death Cab for Cutie.

3. Camera Obscura: They are a Glaswegian indie band.
Found them through: the song “Houseboat” on last.fm.
I like: their unique timeless, country sound and Tracyanne Campbell’s voice.
Favorite Songs: There are just too many! “Tears for Affairs”, “The Last Song”, “I Don’t Do Crowds”, “Happy New Year”, “Let’s Get Out Of This Country” and “Country Mile” top the list though.
File next to: Belle & Sebastian.

4. Nitin Sawhney: He is an English musician who is considered to be one of the pioneers of Asian underground music in the UK.
Found him through: the video for “Koyal” on music channels though I knew about him even before that.
I like: his eclectic, soothing music, trippy music.
Favorite Work: Almost all of ‘Philtre‘ and the songs “Nadia”, “Breathing Light” and “Spark”.
File next to: Talvin Singh.

5. Talvin Singh: They are a Canadian indie pop-rock band.
Found him: because of the Nitin Sawhney connection though I had seen the video for his song “OK” years ago.
I like: his ambient, fusion music. Its almost magical.
Favorite Songs: “The One”, “Its Not Over”, “Butterfly” and “Abalonia”.
File next to: Nitin Sawhney, State of Bengal.

6. Agnee: They are an Indian rock band.
Found them through: their video for “Sadho Re” on music channels.
I like: their unique (for Indian bands) sound and strong vocals.
Favorite Songs: “Shaam Tanha” and “Kuch Ankahee”.
File next to: Strings, Junoon, Pentagram.

7. Interpol: They are an indie post-punk rock band.
Found them through: shared music on the office network.
I like: their hazy sound. It sends me into a vortex. (Okay, that made no sense!)
Favorite Songs: “Obstacle 1″, “Evil” and “PDA”.
File next to: The Arcade Fire, The Shins.

8. Jack Johnson: He is a Hawaiian singer/songwriter/musician/surfer.
Found him through: a friend.
I like: his relaxed style of music with clear guitary sound which is rare to find in most of today’s overproduced music.
Favorite work: The songs “Better Together”, “No Other way”, “Banana Pancakes” and “Sexy Plexi”.
File next to: John Mayer, Dave Matthews, Jason Mraz.

Feel free to share any new music that you might have discovered recently!

Dec

I’m No Superman!

By Raj 8 Comments

Categories: Happy and Life

As has been the tradition on this blog, I wish myself a very happy birthday!!

It wouldn’t be entirely right to say that the last year was tough. Its just that whenever I think that I am finally living in the real world, things get a little more real and I feel lost.

In the last one year, I went through a lot of ups and downs and found myself looking for answers to a lot of questions but most importantly I learnt a lot of things about myself. That I am just a normal human who’s just as likely to falter and fall as the next person. That I will have to go through things that I once thought would never happen to me. Well, self awareness is always good! Plus, I did have my share of fun too.

There are few things that I plan to do in the coming year. Some changes that I hope to bring to my life. I’ll let this blog be the witness of how much I actually achieve.

Dec

Why I Love My Broadband Connection

By Raj 3 Comments

Categories: Internet and Funny

In September 2007, my ISP, Tata Indicom, introduced online bill payment. (Yeah! There are that technically advanced! )

This is what the bill I needed to pay back then looked like:

So I logged into their website and went through the whole process of payment using a credit card only to get a timeout error in the end. So I restarted the process, choosing to pay using my bank account. The same error resurfaced. I got a little worried now so I checked my bank account’s statement immediately only to find out that Rs. 1908 had been debited from it. So I called up Tata Indicom customer care (cc) and I was informed that they had in fact received the payment both the times but it was alright because that just meant that I wouldn’t have to pay the bill the following month. Phew! So I had payed double the amount I was supposed to, right? Wrong!

The bill I got in October looked like this:

So instead of Rs. 3816 that I had actually paid, they somehow received Rs. 22896! Could it be that they are trying to make up for the hell I had to go through because of them? I don’t think so. I still called up cc and asked the guy about it. He told me it was a system fault which would be rectified and that I didn’t need to worry. Since I had already paid for one extra month, I didn’t care much and forgot about it.

Funnily enough, if I look at my transaction history on their website, it gives the correct details:

But this month I again got a weird bill:

The due date has already passed and I did not receive any warning. My connection is also working perfectly. I still thought I would pay the Rs. 1123 that I should but their bill pay screen scared me. They want me to transfer a negative amount. Take a look!