Sunday Jams

Sunday is a night i'd want to relive in my memory forever. So there we were, the final sound check before our last gig together as this line up; Jim on drums, Aadhil on vocals and guitars, Sarani on Lead, Uvindu on bass and myself on guitars. It was 7:30pm, but we knew no one ever came on time, so we took our time perfecting the sound. If at all, it sounded a little echo-ey, but once the people started trickling in that problem would be solved. It was sounding nice, we were pumped and ready to go, so we left our stuff and sat down. Sarani, Uvindu and I got there early. Real early! 4pm to be precise. This was our own gig, and the club had given us permission to do whatever we wanted. So there we were, the three of us redecorating the furniture arrangement at Zanziba while the sound people set up. This involved a lot of pulling, pushing, lifting, grunting and heaving before falling flat on the couches, tired of exhaustion. But we were happy with the end result. Around 9:15pm CC took the stage along with Vidhu, Nuvina and Sarani. It was a great little set from them, however I was disappointed that they didn't play Micheal Jackson's Earth Song as promised. But, as usual, CC was ever competent at wooing the crowd. Next up were us! We were looking at 2 sets and 15 songs in total. It was the first time ever that I had to play that many songs, and boy did it feel good. There are no words to express the feeling you get from playing live. Maybe RD can help there! But to see the crowd moving to your music gives you a wonderful kick! Although we only played 3 covers on the night, the highlight for me was our version of Matchbox 20's How Far We've Come. In the middle of the song I looked up to find Aadhil on the floor, belting the chorus out! The whole band was tight on the night. Jim is an amazing drummer, but I've never seen him play any better, and I could see the crowd just staring at him open mouthed and in awe. Sarani just blew the roof off with his lightening solos. Uvindu was just happy to be himself and play his funky grooves. I could tell Aadhil was just having the time of his life, and I was standing there with my guitar trying to soak it all in. It wasn't a huge crowd, but it was a lovely crowd! It was also the first time that the audience took the stage and jammed. We were entertained by Magicbox Mixup, Cynosure, Anil, Ranil, Spy, Star 69 and a host of others! What's this post getting at? Well, I'm not really sure. But it was a great experience playing with these guys. All of them have a lot more experience than me, and I enjoyed a wonderful learning curve. So thank you, and I hope we can jam again sometime, somewhere:) Thank you to all who came, including fellow blogger themissingsandwich . Hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did.

Download Link

Pic by Lindsay MS3: After the Rain is available for download here. In other news, no frigging sms till 12? How am i supposed to wish uncle Mahinda? More abt the trip to Unawatuna which was cut short by Jazz Unlimited which was cut short by Deyata Kirula which was cut short by recent bombings, soon.

Watch out for Independence day

Another weekend getaway to yet another beach. Went down to Beruwela this time, and by golly it was packed! With foreigners too! Never have I seen a Sri Lankan beach with so many foreigners! But the fun is over, the sand has been washed off, Djokovic just won in Melbourne, and now the things-to-do list is staring at me on the eve of the first 5 day working week in 3 weeks! First up on the list is the release of the 10 Second Rule album. We've decided to release the album online for free download, taking inspiration from Radiohead of course, on independence day, i.e. 4th of Feb. Album is titled "Monsoon Sunday 3: After the Rain" and will be available at www.rock.lk. You won't be able to do anything on independence day, apart from stay at home, so you might as well download the album;) Well, off to the showers now!

10 Second Rule - Sneak preview of the new album

This is very exciting stuff. The first song, "Monsoon Sunday", of the upcoming album is now ready for a bit of a sneak preview. You can find it at www.reverbnation.com/10secondrule . Please feel free to go have a listen, but pump up the volume first. Let us know what you think! More tracks to follow.

The show must go on...

Monsoon Sunday is finally over. For now. It's been a hectic two weeks in which we put on this show. But the 50 minute set was well worth it. We might've not made any money, but hopefully we have a few fans now. I'm thankful to all of you who turned up, especially those of you who stayed till the very end! Also to the bands that played, great job guys. We set ourselves a high bar to jump over by opting to play right after Hollowpoint Halo, who, incidentally, were super as always! If any of you caught 10 Second Rule at Monsoon Sunday, I'd love to hear what you thought.

Doctor of Drumology

5 papers down as of today, and lucky number 5 had to be the worst one. Who bothers with the constitution anyway? Bah! So after trudging away from the exam hall looking and feeling all too glum, i headed toward the infamous green path hangout. The plan was to jam. On the way, I stopped at Colpetty junc and got a yummy egg bun and a chinese roll. Food always hits the spot right after an exam. Actually food always hits the spot, period. At green path you always meet new people and, more often than not, they are fascinating! Today was plain ol' Jim, who is doing a PhD in drums and percussion! Now how fucking cool is that? It gets cooler. He's in Sri Lanka for a year to learn Sri Lankan drums as part of his course. So here he is, learning the language, suffering in the heat and playing everything from gata bera to hak gedi to kala, all the while earning more credits towards his PhD. So at the end of all this he's gonna be a doctor in drumology? Woah! Not only that, as soon as we started jamming I realised he's fucking brilliant! Over the course of a couple of hours, about 8 of us switched between guitars, bass, drums (not me:D) and percussion. Probably the best impromptu jam session I've ever had! I'm still buzzed about it. Tomorrow, 10 Second Rule heads off to record some new material in a strangely unusual way. I'm excited, but I hope it goes off well. Fuck exams. I know what i'm gonna do my PhD in!

Rockapoluzza!

Although I never did quite agree with the title for the evening, it turned out to be one hell of a gig! In typical Sri Lankan fashion, the gig got under way at 9:15, a good hour and a quarter late, but that was mainly due to the fact that the crowd was slow to trickle in. But, by the time it got going, with 350 people packed into the onyx (including RD - Nice to meet you mate) it was sure to be a good night. Daddy kicked off the proceedings with a tight, 3 song set, which included their song "Mage Massina". HollowpointHalo followed with Black eyed lullaby, Pardon me (incubus), The Pot (Tool) and Lost Horizon Star. Playing an acoustic set, the line up included Marsh, Ranil, the lil Bass guy and a guy on congos that i'd never seen before. They were tight. They were good. But, to me at least, they lacked the oomph they generally generate. Next up were us, 10 Second Rule. 'Twas our first gig together and we had a blast. But i'd like to hear what people in the audience thought so please comment:D Anil was supported by some great musicians and pulled off a good set, which included music from his album "Last few pieces of April". He also did quite a good rendition of Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars, which was well received. I had been looking forward to getting a taste of Powercut Circus live and they did not fail to deliver. Picture funk mixed psychedelic melodies with an amazing drummer thrown in and some pretty interesting voice effects they were nothing short of different, if not entertaining. I love their compositions. I love how Shehan's bass gels with Dhinesh's beats. It's great! Can't wait to hear more from them. When I think of Paranoid Earthling, I still think of them as the punk band that played a super cover of The Offspring's "the kids aren't alright" at the 80 Club. Back then their music was more punk, more grunge, and for the faint hearted, more listenable. However, they've taken a turn towards sounding extremely metal-ish. Even favourites such as 69 are sounding heavier than ever, at which point I had to get out of Onyx for some fresh air. All in all, it was a great night for live music. Rumour has it that the next one is in Kandy.

Live tonight...

There's been a lot of hype about tonight's gig, which does not help calm my, already frazzled, nerves. This being at work is not help. Neither does it help that the closest guitar store does not have any G-strings, let alone E-strings, in stock when i desperately need one! (having broken a string last night at practices). Well, all hitches aside, 10 Second Rule is finally about to hit the stage. But I like my blog title so I ain't changing it, although, technically at least, my search is over. I digress. Excited? hell yeah! It's been 8 months since i've been on stage. it's been 4 years since I last played in SL, and that last time was also at Onyx (then known as MKOP). I digress again. Blame it on the nerves. It's going to be a dive into the deep-end of a freezing pool to be playing alongside some of the biggest names in Sri Lanka, ie HPH, Paranoid Earthling, and, the soon to be famous, Powercut Circus. But it's a good challenge to take on. See you all tonight!

10 Second Rule Website

We're just about to launch the website for the band, where you'd be able to find music, pictures, info, etc. You will also be able to vent ur views on the band. It is built entirely on blogger and is still very much a work in progress. But pls feel free to venture into the unknown and let us know what you think. www.10secondrule.co.nr

GIG!

10 Second Rule's first live performance will be on the 3rd of August at Onyx alongside HollowpointHalo, Power Cut Circus, Paranoid Earthling and Anil Balasuriya. We will also be releasing a 10 track album entitled "Monsoon Sunday 2: Storm" on the night. Doors open at 8:30-9 pm methinks. For those of you who are not familiar with venues and who will be down in CMB during that time (i.e. RD) Onyx is at the Taj Samudra. Be there...somehow!

More 10 Second Rule Music

I've added 2 more songs from my band 10 Second Rule; "Lord Help Me" and "Still". Pls listen in on the flash mp3 player which can be found at the top right-hand corner of this page!

10 Second Jam Session

After a lapse of 2 weeks, we managed to find time to get together for a jam in our trusted joint in Dehiwela. Since we're all working class, the sessions have to be in the night, and this joint is the only one we know of that'll let us play as loud as we want at that time of the night. The place is not the greatest. It does have air-conditioning which is a big plus. Viran (the owner) has also done a bit of a DIY sound-proofing which adds to the ambience. The room is actually quite small but is big enough for the 3 of us + KP (KP came along to watch us and we ended up making him play percussions on a bass! haha. (yes we're still short of a bassist)). The drum kit could've been a lot better though, considering there's only half a high hat left (the last time we came the other half was there but almost falling off). But, we don't complain. We can't afford to. So we set up quite quickly, as we play only for 2 hours on one night per week, and had to make the best of our time. We breezed through a 7 song set that included 5 originals and 2 covers (including All these things that i've done - The Killers). We were mucking up in style on maybe 2 songs. Decided to change things around and it sounded great! I decided to do a few things differently to see if it'll add a new flavour to some of the songs. Played around with my amp and put a little delay on the solo for Rain Come and I loved the sound I got. That's probably a change that'll stay! This is definitely turning out to be a good thing. We're thinking of putting more songs out within the next week or so watch this space!

X&Y

Enthusiasm is hard to find. Mutual enthusiasm, harder still. But when you're looking for mutual enthusiasm, mutual interests, common tastes, individual specialities, impeccable talents, similar people, then you're fucked. And this ain't even for marriage, for which at the end you would be.

10 second rule - Rain Come. Listen first here!

The single "Rain Come" ran on radio on Sunday night. If you missed it, have a listen on this blog. Hit the play button on the mp3 player on the right. You might have to wait for it to load thanks to Sri Lankan broadband speeds. Please let us know what you think! (thanks B for sorting out my flash player woes!)

10 Second Rule debuts tonight on radio...

10 Second Rule's first single "Rain Come" airs this evening on TNL. The band comprises of Aadhil on vocals/guitars, Myself on guitars, Naveen on drums. Watch this space for more news.

Two Cents.

Won Bradby. Super Kandy. Into Shakespeare Finals. Look forward. First Jam Session. New band. 10 second rule. Roy-Tho Rugger. Shakes finals. Good week. I like.

Band Names Anyone?

So we're looking for a band name. We're not too fussed. Funny, witty, creative, stupid, dark, etc., it doesn't matter. Have u got any ideas? Please share:)

Bassist Anyone?

Bassist wanted for an alternative band. Preferably someone who can slap bass and also who has fast fingers. Even if you can't that's fine:) Influences include Pearj Jam, Dave Matthews, Gin Blossoms, Incubus, Alice in Chains, Muse, The Wallflowers, Goo Goo Dolls, etc etc. The band plays mainly originals with a few covers thrown in. Whatever your capabilities, we'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment here with your contact details or email aftab_aziz@hotmail.com.

Musicians Wanted!

I've been looking high and low to find ppl to jam with since i got back. It's not easy to find musicians who are more than just copy-cats. Does anyone want to meet up and jam, even if it's just for fun? I'm looking for open-minded, easy going folk. I'm no brilliant guitarist. So i'm not fussed about your ability at the instrument at all. As long as you've got your own style and you're willing to try new things, that's really all that matters. My influences are quite varied: Goo Goo Dolls, Incubus, Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam, Muse, Nirvana, A perfect circle, Audioslave, John Mayer, Damien Rice, Lifehouse, Gin Blossoms, Snow Patrol, etc etc. Whatever instrument you play, or even if you're a vocalist, if you're interested, please let me know.