I'm not swearing, though God knows I fucking love to. Dammit! is the latest I picked up as I went on a 2010 EP search. They're an alternative/punk band from Dharwad (The one with the law university where Prof. Nandimath and the CoPo are from). And well, they're actually pretty damned good. Not by Dharwad standards alone, but by any standards. In fact, they're number one on the Reverbnation Dharwad charts.
They're a six member band. That's right six. And these six people are:
Varun Sharma - Rhythm Guitar
Riju Satvik - Lead Guitar
Anup Cowkur - Vocals
Sidhesh Iyer - Keyboards
Rohit Nikam - Bass
Nachiket Kalburgi - Drums
This is what they look like in the usual left-to-right order:
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| Not to be confused with Harvard. |
They've released a three song EP called Confused that's up for free download, which is very sweet of them. At a total playing time of 16 minutes, it's not bad. Considering it's only three songs. They're long enough to meet the time requirement. The EP may be downloaded from reverbnation, link's given at the bottom of the page. The review is assuming you've already heard the music, or are hearing it right nao. If not, please do download, I mean it's free, and you're presumably Indian (so, anything for free, right?). Right, so, three tracks are:
1.) Confused
Starts with a very punk rock riff. And moves on to a very punk rock voice singing. In fact, it's an out and out punk track. With lyrics matching up to the whole punk rock thing. "Heartbreak hurts worse than acidity from booze". See what I mean? And generally about being, well... confused. The one part where the punk rock element breaks away a little bit is the guitar solo. But the solo fits into the song well, so all's good I guess. It's just that I haven't hear too many guitar solos in punk songs, but then I haven't heard too many punk songs, so... guilty.
2.) State Of The Nation
Another proper punk rock song. Guitar work, singing everything. Even the lyrics are very punkish, about corruption, and the deteriorating "State of the Nation". This too has a guitar solo, which again manages to fit in well with the song, which kinda surprised me, cause earlier I wasn't well acquainted with the concept itself of guitar solos in punk songs. Nao here's a band which does that and also makes it sound good. It has a great single line chorus, oft-repeated. And the entire deal from 2:50 onwards (when the solo starts) till the end of the song is absolutely brilliant. Extremely feel. The solo is followed by some great drumming to what I think is the keyboards. Then the One-line x8 chorus, then sort of a breakdown. Over two minutes of extremely skilled instrumentation.
3.) Hero
This one starts off slow. Doesn't have the punk energy of the earlier two songs. Seems more of a ballad when it begins. Some great bass work here. However, it is possible that you may get bored if you're like me, cause I just braved through the energy of two high-charged punk songs, and suddenly got slowed down. However, the last two and a half minutes are worth slugging out the first half of the song (which will grow on you, I promise). The guitar solo is much longer, infinitely more skilled, and extremely "feel". In fact, while listening to this section, I'm kinda regretting the fact that I don't smoke pot. Cause this is extremely soothing, yet unsettling in a something is happening kind of way. Building at all times. An absolute masterpiece this solo, including the drumwork and the basswork going on in the background. In fact, what started out a song which bored me a little bit ended up being my absolute favourite.
Dammit-Hero by Dammit!
Dammit-Hero by Dammit!
Who Will Like It? Fans of punk music. Fans of good guitar solos. People looking for something new.
Who Won't Like It? Metalheads, and metalheads alone.
Where To Find It? Reverbnation.
Lyrics? Yeap, so sweet no?
Free Download? Yeap!
So these are six guys from Dharwad who refused to let the fact that Dharwad is a small town get in the way of their music. This is highly apparent not just from their attitude, but also from the production of their music. Very well produced, sounds great. Unfortunately the keyboards are not very audible, neither is rhythm guitars. In fact, if their Facebook page did not mention the keyboards, I wouldn't have known they were there.
Right so. General Links?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Dammitrock
Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/dammitmusic
Reminder, free EP available here ^
If you don't have time to listen to the 16 minutes of music produced here, download Hero. And skip to 3:45. I trust you have two and a half minutes? Cause this is mandatory listening.
5 comments:
Tan tan. I haven't read this, kinda skimmed over it, but you know, what you're doing is awesome.
Maybe in a few months, we'll all have to turn to you to tell us what to think about Indian rock and metal. Fingers crossed :)
Thanks. Maybe we will... who knows?
Pretty decent band. I like the songs, and they're from dharwad, of all places.
So this means people are listening to embedded music? I'm finding success.
i enjoyed the music.. good stuff
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