Avial: A must follow band

The one thing that has hit me straight in the face after coming to (and living in) the US since fall 2007 is the emphasis on originality. There are many facets to it, but I will concentrate on the music scene for now.

I am at the University of Illinois. This is a place far in between the happening west coast or the progressive east coast. This is the mid west, as they call it. The point being that there is no sizable influence of any structured institution like Hollywood, or Disneyland or any such thing in between.

Maybe this is the reason that most of the music I hear here is mostly original. This is in stark contrast to what we used to do in our college in Bangalore. A good quality music piece among our friends was usually decided by how close we were to the original. Be it a college fest, where a vastly popular band will dole out well practiced renditions of GNR, Pink Floyd, and Dire Straits, or a quiet gathering of friends where one super guitar player will play any of those songs deftly.

Somehow it was given and accepted that there is no scope (or need) of originality. (You are welcome Anu Malik and Preetam). Not only does this reflect on our inability to think, but also on our appetite of accepting new ideas in general. No wonder we dont have too many inventions coming out of India I guess...

And then I came across Avial. A Mallu band that plays ROCK in something other than English! Not only that, their music is a mix of traditional folk songs in the rock avatar. And its not as if they anglicize the folk songs, they give it the Indian touch on rock music instruments.

Have a look at some of their songs here:

And this..

I think this is a band that somehow resonates with me and I can relate to it.

Lemme know what you think...