That thing called Bangla Band

By Sohom Das
Kolkata, India

The strange thing about upcoming Bengali bands is that they think themselves to be great artists like their inspirations--Kurt Cobain, Axl Rose, Jimmy Page, Slash, David Gilmour etc..but the harsh world of reality tells a different story. It might sound rude but after some hit Bangla bands appeared in the scene mostly every teenager started dreaming about creating a rock Bangla.

Well, I was no exception in my childhood days but I really came out of that la-la world pretty fast when I realised it was not my cup of tea and moved on to photography instead.It might sound funny but yes, it’s not only my story but you will find a similar story in almost every house in Kolkata. The most funny thing about these bands is that they all talk about revolution, break ups and unfulfilled love stories. The only subject in their songs is love, it seems that there are no other topic in this whole universe. They have some trademark factors which will help you to understand they belong to a third category of people called "Bander Chhele" they are as follows:-

• Goatee beard :-They have no reason for it...they just have it, which is like a symbol of their pack which suggest that they are wannabe musicians.


• Converse shoes :- These are kool with a "K" and these are in. They will wear it with anything and everything from jeans to dhutis.


• Marlboro cigarettes :- Or any brand of Cigarettes which are a short modified version of drugs(cocaine, weed, tablets) because they are Bangali babus by blue blood and they can’t go so much down and do drugs. This is the first condition to be in their "If u r a musician you must fag, else you are an underdog."


• Che Guevara badges and Tshirts :- Again another necessity which they will always own with pride ,doesn't matter if they are non communist by birth. Yes people here blindly follow parties and political philosophies which they inherit from their forefathers."Ami 7 purush dhore c.p.m kori" which means that he is a communist by seven generations"


• Typical lyrics :- These bands are united in their lyrics where the terms "neon alo" , "mon" , "alokbosrsho" "aamra" comes again and again which might be replaced by "led lights" and "CFL lamps" very soon.


• Black Tshirts :- "Black is my colour " Black tshirts" ,"black jeans","black shoes","Black hair" all black and some of them are even dark complexioned which quite resembles "the darkness of the society" or "the dark subjects which their songs deal with" as they say.For me i think that's the trick to escape faster in the darkness of night ,if people don't like their songs.


• Power chords, distortion guitar :- The best part of the distortion is that they don't have to waste time on lyrics as no one can actually hear them sing. Rather the audience will come and listen to some strange noise which sounds more like a motorcycle without a silencer than a guitar solo. And when power chords are there then what to fear? You don't even waste time composing music on your guitar. So much time saved to study engineering books, fag, drink, text girlfriends, plead organisers to arrange a free show and how can I forget to mention posing in photo-shoots with a lot of attitude ,where? Rooftop seems to be best place for that.


So that's our Bangla bands enriching our society with a lot of good music and philosophy. You don’t agree? Keep Rocking!