Catch all hot stuff of Coke Studio Season 3

Episode 5:

1st August, 2010
Sunday
10:00PM

Performers:

Abida Parveen, Amanat Ali, Arieb Azhar, Arif Lohar, Aunty Disco Project (A.D.P), Entity Paradigm (E.P), Fakir Juman Shah, Karavan , Meesha Shafi , Noori (with parents Ali Kazim and Noor Zehra Kazim), Rizwan and Muazzam, Sanam Marvi, Tina Sani, Zeb & Haniya

By Omar Bilal Akhtar

I wrote the first part of this a couple of days after Imran’s passing. I wrote the next part a few days ago. Writing about Imran has been the most difficult thing I have had to do. But I felt I couldn’t move on to anything else until I did.

In the days since his death, I have been searching for the words, looking for a place to start. Every time I formulate something in my mind, or I try to clear the mist, it seems woefully inadequate. There seems to be nothing in the spaces except grief, heartbreak and shock. I cannot think of him without the tears. Even though the time Imran and I spent together were some of the best moments of my life, it is hard to remember them in the face of the hurt, and the deafening finality of his departure from this world. {Read More…}

By Khaver Siddiqi

Given the nature of the current socio-political climate, venues, musicians and organisers are wary of what to expect at a concert. Likewise, the people themselves also share a sense of cautiousness when going out and about. Thankfully, that wasn’t the mood when JoSH, Aunty Disco Project and 90 Degrees performed recently at the Royale Rodale in Karachi.

The concert kicked off with 90 Degrees. Though a relatively unknown band, the members of the group should be commended for performing whilst the organisers were still trying to work out the sound check. This didn’t bode well for 90 Degree’s performance as the sound was all over the place during its performance. However, the band deserved an A for effort as not that many bands can pull off a decent cover of Sajjad Ali’s songs (including Sajjad Ali’s own cover of Didi by Khaled, Babiya). {Read More…}

One of the sources close to Coke Studio reported today that Entity Paradigm and Arif Lohar were found jamming in Coke Studio and are going to be part of the season 3. The source also mentioned that they are going to do a song together too.

I have found the news as much weird as you did but that’s what we have heard.

Rumors also tell that this season will also feature Abida Parveen,  Aunty Disco Project and Karavan

by

Omar Bilal Akhtar

After our fantastic gig at the Shanaakht Festival, (November 2009) where we played with Laal, Fuzon, Taal Karisma and Noori, we did what we do best. Put our heads up our asses and disappeared.

Well not entirely. We had noble intentions. Buoyed by the success of Shanaakht we went back into the recording studio with renewed confidence in our abilities. So far the only song we had recorded at Mr. E’s studio was “Mujhay Sahara Do”. Now when we recorded that song with Omar Khalid back in the day ( July 2009), we thought it sounded pretty good. But upon listening to it after 4 months, we realized it was rather shit. We asked Mr. E to mix it for us anyway. Mr. E mixed it in a rather unconventional manner. By also putting his head up his ass. {Read More…}

Image Courtesy: Jamal Ashiqain

By Omar Bilal Aktar ‘OBA’

It’s time I confirmed what many people have suspected, that Omar Khalid, the drummer and founding member of Aunty Disco Project has left the band.

Usually when somebody leaves the band there are rumors of an acrimonious split, whispers of fights and clashing egos. Then each party issues some sort of statement with the usual ‘creative differences’ being listed and how they wish each other well etc. I want to make clear that this truly wasn’t the case with OK leaving.

There were several reasons contributing, but the most prevalent one is that OK’s life plans simply couldn’t accommodate being part of a band full-time. He won’t be in Karachi much longer and he simply couldn’t carry on with us the way we were. {Read More…}

It’s the second Eid and not as festive as the first. This one is about the spirit of sacrifice and of course family time. With a long weekend, it’s also time to kick back and unwind. Instep asked some celebrities what Bakra Eid means to them by giving them the following options and got an insight into what these men are all about.

a. Slaughtering one goat and distributing the meat amongst the less privileged.

b. Slaughtering a couple of goats, bulls and perhaps even a camel and then buying an extra deep freezer to stock meat for the entire year.

c. Nothing, I am a vegetarian and have just joined PETA (Protection and Ethical Treatment of Animals)

d. It means stocking up on movies and spending a couple of days lounging

e. It is the one day I wait for the entire year because my family still gives me Eidi. {Read More…}

The story which had started, when the news publication on celebrity blogging by Saba Imtiaz was published in Instep Today, has now reached an extremely humorous situation. OBA (Omar Bilal Akhtar) from ADP (Aunty Disco Project) made a comment on that publication by making a post titled “Is Ali Zafar reading my blog for ideas?” to which Ali Zafar replied on his blog. Later, OBA made another of his usual humorous, R18 blog posts titled “Ali Zafar is totally reading my blog“.

Just three days ago, Aunty Disco Project launched their Vlog (Video Blog) blended with OBAs usual humor to reach the people in better and more innovative way. Three hours ago, Ali Zafar announced his youtube channel on Facebook with his first interactive video. Dude, you are definitely reading OBA’s blog for the ideas

Watch Video Below: {Read More…}

Shanaakht Festival concludes with a fiery concert featuring Noori, Laal,
ADP, Fuzon and Taal Karisma

Abid Hussain
Karachi

As deafening noise emanated from the auditorium at the end of ‘Raag and Roll Concert’, the concluding event of Shanaakht Festival truly brought the house down with some fabulous music played to the full house, which thoroughly enjoyed the four hour spectacle.

With passes running out as early as 10 am on the last day of the festival and waiting list running well into hundreds, it was evident that the event was clearly the hottest ticket in town. {Read More…}

Noori performing Aik Alif live & acoustic @ Shanaakht 09 featuring Yasir Qureshi from ADP.

Celebrating the Pakistani identity, as well as our culture, heritage and history, Shanaakht 2009 aims to bring together ordinary citizens and give them something to celebrate. And that’s not all: entry is free for everyone.

Newsline talks to Omar Bilal Akhtar, the vocalist/guitarist for Aunty Disco Project, about the band’s performance on November 11, 2009.

Tell us about the event, Raag and Roll.

Raag and Roll is a collective musical performance featuring some of the best in Pakistani music sharing the same stage. We’ve got some very diverse and exciting acts, we’ve got the pop-classical mix of Fuzon, the classical-world music rhythms of Taal Karisma, the pop-rock of Noori and, Aunty Disco Project (ADP) and Laal with their brand of political music. I’m told that there will be several folk musicians performing with us as well, so it should be a fascinating mix of the indigenous and the influenced. The concert isn’t so much a collection of performances as it is a showcase of our musical identity. I expect it to be a lot more interactive and intimate than regular music festivals because we will be using our performances to highlight the Citizen Archive of Pakistan’s work and shape our performances to fit the theme of the evening. We’re humbled and absolutely thrilled to be sharing the stage with such fantastic artists. {Read More…}

As Overload and Mekaal Hasan Band release their records without the backing of a record label and pull it off without a glitch, Instep takes a look at the burgeoning music scene, record label battles and how the Internet just might be the way out

By Maheen Sabeeh

Throwing out the blame

Internet. The inescapable term that has become an intrinsic part of our lives. We tweet through our phones; share pictures and at times send pointed (albeit indirect) messages to people on Facebook… and that is just one small example. According to the CIA Fact Book, Pakistan had an estimated 17.5 million internet users in the year 2009. So if music sales are going down at stores, which they very much are, we can guess that fans are downloading and sharing albums online instead. {Read More…}

It may have brought forward an identity crisis of its own when the festival came to a rather unplanned end this April, but the Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP) and the festival volunteers have geared up to bring a new edition of the Shanaakht Festival next week. Scheduled to take place at the Imperial Gardens and Clifton Crossways in Karachi from November 9 – 11, the festival really does seem to be one of the more erudite events to take place in the latter half of the year. {Read More…}