New Poem by Vikram DC

Vicky i am taking the liberty to post this on your behalf....

As I spend the night to prepare

For the day that has ceased to care

And as I stare at the sky

And the sun makes me blind,

I see my cheery young face

Standing with a guitar

My mates humming out loud

Come back my friend

Lets sing like we used to

Together lets prepare

For the day that has ceased to care.

Oh, that silly young face

Singing of hope and glory,

Of conquests, of travels

Of the blooming love story.

The poet, the philosopher,

The lazy boy geek

We strike a chord, we thump a beat

We hum together

A tune so diabolic.

We sing together,

Together we prepare

For the day that has ceased to care.

The Songs!

Jeebanar Gaan - By, for and from Diabolique Soulz

Today sitting in my creative pot (:p better known to the Diablolique mates), a few words flashed across my mind in one of the languages very close to my heart, Assamese (Okhomia) . This is probably my first song in Assamese or rather a scribble at the spur of the moment (would be a song once the D Soulz put in their souls to it) that I dared to write. Apologies for any wrong pronunciation or wrong usage of words maybe. Here it is:

Gobhir endhar anyay abichar
ajiu hemeka raati
hapun bilak hasi tholu
rodore puhar baki

Nishpaap monor nishthur byebohaar
kiman je hohiba aji
bukur agun musi dile
thake nu jiyon baaki
(lalala lalalala lalala lalalala lalalalalalala) x 2

(Puhar (High) aji dekhu puhar
tumale monot kori
Jeebanar rod dawarar asila tumi s(h)arathi) x 2

Tumar pathat haahir baatot
ahilu ulai aji
eke hoyi gorhim s(h)amaj
hoi rom preranar saki

(lalala lalalala lalala lalalala lalalalalalala) x 2

Wedding Bells !

Good to know that what Bhaku started we are wrapping it off. The bells started ringing with Bhaku, Sunil and vikram in 2008 continued with Ankur in 2009 and started of with a big TWANG in 2010 with back to back marriages of Kangkan and Subhra.

So we have got extended families here and more preaching... Little wonder the other halves would have a tough time understanding what the heck is all about this crazy sounding non existent band called the diabolique soulz.

Ending with a musical note...John Mayer's Battle Studies is worth a listen!

we're gonna be friends - jack johnson

Fall is here,hear the yell
back to school,ring the bell
brand new shoes,walking blues
climb the fence,books and pens
I can tell that we're going to be friends

Walk with me,Suzy Lee
through the park and by the tree
we will rest upon the ground
and look at all the bugs we found
then safely walk to school
without a sound

Well here we are,no one else
we walked to school all by ourselves
there's dirt on our uniforms
from chasing all the ants and worms
we clean up and now its time to learn

Numbers,letters,learn to spell
nouns,and books,and show and tell
at playtime we will throw the ball
back to class,through the hall
teacher marks our height
against the wall

And we don't notice any time pass
we don't notice anything
we sit side by side in every class
teacher thinks that I sound funny
but she likes the way you sing

Tonight I'll dream while I'm in bed
when silly thoughts go through my head
about the bugs and alphbet
and when I wake tommorow I'll bet
that you and I will walk together again
cause I can tell that we're going to be friends

NO SURPRISES

I've practiced this for hours, gone round and round
And now I think that I've got it all down
And as I say it louder I love how it sounds
Cause I'm not taking the easy way out
Not wrapping this in ribbons
Shouldn't have to give a reason why

It's no surprise I won't be here tomorrow
I can't believe that I stayed till today
Yeah you and I will be a tough act to follow
But I know in time we'll find this was no surprise

It came out like a river once I let it out
When I thought that I wouldn't know how
Held onto it forever just pushing it down
Felt so good to let go of it now
Not wrapping this in ribbons
Shouldn't have to give a reason why

It's no surprise I won't be here tomorrow
I can't believe that I stayed till today
There's nothing here in this heart left to borrow
There's nothing here in this soul left to say
Don't be surprised when we hate this tomorrow
God know we tried to find an easier way
Yeah you and I will be a tough act to follow
But I know in time we'll find this was no surprise

Our favorite place we used to go
The warm embrace that no one knows
The loving look that's left your eyes
That's why this comes as no, as no surprise

If I could see the future and how this plays out
I bet it's better than where we are now
But after going through this, it's easier to see the reason why

It's no surprise I won't be here tomorrow
I can't believe that I stayed till today
Yeah you and I will be a tough act to follow
But I know in time we'll find this was no surprise

The kiss goodnight, it comes with me
Both wrong and right, our memories
The whispering before we sleep, just one more thing that you can't keep
Our favorite place we used to go
The warm embrace that no one knows
The loving look that's left your eyes
But I know in time we'll find this was no surprise

Too Much Too Young - The Diabolique Soulz Video

The Date: Somewhere in 2002

The Venue: The Old Auditorium, REC Silchar

The Occasion: The Final Year Farewell

The Video quality is bad and the audio is pathetic (there is no audio on the left channel and the right channel is all noise).

That's why I choose to borrow a song from "The Little Angles" to carry the video forward.

What we need to appreciate here is the over whelming response of the crowd to our performances. We just couldn't ask for more. Enjoy!

The Curtain Call

In this era of HD and when you see a digicam in the hands of every other guy in street; it really feels odd to put across a bad and grainy video of a band which we eulogise so much. I remember during those days only few guys had still cameras ( the film camera) and there was only one DV videocam in the entire college - the proud possession of Mr. Mayank Saxena!!!

This is a clip from an REC festival - The RENCO FEST. Unfortunately this is the only clip we have of the entire performance which featured all of our great covers.

But here's the fact - we were miserably low in our gear which consisted of

Electric Guitar: 1 noisy givson blue dimond - Ankur

1 rented 2 pickup guitar, make: Unknown - Chiranjeev

Bass Guitar: None

Accoustic Guitar: Hobner Jumbo- Vikram

Effects: 1 Distortion padel, make: Stranger - Whoever gets it!

Drums: Rented 5 + 1 drum set, make:unknown

Keyboards: Yamaha basic model ( dont remember the no. but definately not a PRO series) - Shovik

Congo: 3 piece make:Unknown - Sunil

Speakers, Monitors and Mic : The mercy of the premtilla Mic Man - He choose to increase or decrease the volume of the instruments - whichever pleases him more.

Subro and his version of Hotel California

Weaving unsung destinies

In this mad race for survival, I somewhere left behind the legs that used to walk for me as well as those that used to walk with me.."The Diaboliques"..My memory takes me back to a Utopian land, the land of the Soulz, the land of innocent dreams, unconditional friendship, unbound laughter, and those pristine melodies that made us so essentially the "Diabolique Soulz".

I was once asked by someone long back as to what made us name ourselves Diabolique soulz. Most of us were angels at heart (or werent we..:-) ) and nor did we sing or even listen to Death metal numbers (at least not me).Then why this explicit reference to something evil.Honestly speaking, I never had an answer to that question, nor do I have it now, around 9 years after we came into existence and then gradually vapoured out.

I nurture a dream to reunite, reunite as the "Vocal partners", a dream that I shared with Ankur and now sharing it with every member of the group. Music in its original form is divine, no matter what cult it belongs to, no matter who creates it and no matter who sings it provided he/she sings it from the heart.We are unable to put up our original compositions on the blogs, anywhere on the net owing to the fact that we are not protected from plagiarism, or because many of us feel that it will not grow beyond us and we would keep weaving our unsung destinies.My proposition to our group is to reignite and reunite the spirit of original music that lies hidden among many like us, through a protected platform (may be a sharepoint/website), which will eventually be exposed to the digital studios that may change fortunes and give many of those original minds/voices the right direction.

I would take this opportunity to pay my tributes to the very original Diabolique Soul "Late Rian Das", who walked with us in our dreams and will always be fondly remembered by every member of this group through the moments we lived together.May his soul rest in peace and his memories reignite our thoughts and our mission forever.

Juno - Soundtrack

Juno is a canadian movie based on the events that take place in the life of 16 year old girl Juno after she gets pregnant. The film basically shows a sensitive issue such as teenange pregnancy with warmth and in good taste. A sudden spike in teenage pregnancy was seen in the US post the film release. Time magazine called that "The Juno Effect" (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1815845,00.html)

This led to the film inviting stiff critisim of the culture police. Nevertheless the movie was well recieved everywhere and got several academy award nomination including the best actress for Ellen Page for playing the lead role. If you haven't already seen it, i would highly recommend you to do so!

Coming back to the subject...Juno soundtrack is absolutely in sync with the theme of the movie...pleasant and laid back.

Most of the songs are accustic and has a very raw and natural feel to it. Most of songs are by Kimya Dawson, but there are classics such as "All the young Dudes" by Mott The Hoople.

My personal favourites are:

"Pizza, Newyork catcher" by Belle & Sebastian, and the absolutely sweet "Tree Hugger" by Angsty Pants.

This is a kind of Album you would like to listen on a lazy sunday afternoon when you just want to sit down , lean back and do nothing.

Lend your ears to it, just for the sake of feeling earthly!

Happy Friendship Day

Me and Ankur having a great time in Ankur's house!!! Talking about the diabolique days.... Watching our old vidoes (will be uploaded very soon!!)... Our great Kangkan shome with "Run to you"... Shouvik Dhar with his all time favourite - "Better man" [:)] .... Subra with Hotel California... Dipyaman with "anjane khyun"... Mama with "dur dur.."... Arunabh introducing our group... and many more.. "Summer of '69" - "Aap ki dua" - "Purani Jeans".... "aare yaro" yehi to zindagi hein.....

wish we had a get together soon....!!!

Inspiration

Hope most of you have heard about or seen the amazing Andy McKee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_McKee)

If you don't already know him, he is an youTube legend and his peculiar guitar playing style has earned him respect and a stupendous fan following. His signature song "Drifting" has recieved more that 22 million hits in youTube alone.

I thought we should include him in our portal...Just for the sake of inspiration.

Enjoy!

My golf balls, gone missing

Someone forwarded the professor's mayonnaise jar speech to me once again this morning. I had read it years back. When the jar was empty the professor filled it with golf balls and asked his students if it was full- they replied, it was. He went on to pour marbles that filled in the empty spaces and asked again, they said 'twas full now. After which, he poured some sand that filled in the remaining spaces, he received the same response- it was full. Two cups of coffee followed to fill it more before the students finally said, now there's space for no more. Seemingly, the golf balls are a man's primary priorities- family, passions, love, and everything else that can still make a person full in the absence of everything else. The marbles and sand are the other priorities that are good to have, but not indispensable. If one pours the sand and the marbles before the golf balls, all the golf balls wont fit in.

Where are my golf balls? Did I empty my jar and pour the sand and the marbles before? I have, perhaps- my guitar gathers dust, my diary has comfortably enconsed itself in a remote corner of the bookshelf, and wherez my gifted ivory plectrum that I so fondly treasured all my life... I dont quite remember. I do talk to my parents once a while, I do watch silent wildlife documentaries at times, I do open a couple of nondescript trivia Web sites when I assume I have nothing to do, but where are my other golf balls? Gone missing!!!

The Spark - Its Coming... Watch this space

Excerpts from the Gtalk Chat

chiranjeevdas is online.

ankur: why dont you accept the invitation and start writing

chiranjeevdas: ill do it its good

ankur: when?

Sent at 8:41 PM on Tuesday

chiranjeevdas: its so emotional

ankur: whY?

chiranjeevdas: i feel like jamming again

ankur: Yeah man

write something

it would keep those treasured moments alive

did you sing btw...in any of the functions... i faintly remember something

chiranjeevdas: no i did not

there were lots of singers

hey i m writing a song called dosti

the lyrics

E maj, A maj, F#min, B maj

intro chords

the rest ill tell later

ankur: why dont you sing it to me over gtalk

chiranjeevdas: heh heh ill do it over the weekend

ankur: you can post that in the blog

i mean you can upload your songs there

chiranjeevdas: ok

ankur: it would be really fun

all the musical pieces you made

chiranjeevdas: yeah!

ankur: everyone can listen to it

chiranjeevdas: thats good...ill upload the musical titbits

ankur: the lyrics are really good...chiru you have got real talent!!!

yeah...

chiranjeevdas: yes it is

and its taking me a long time to write

ankur: hmmm.... i cant write songs.... :( i get a block when i think of writing a song

thats a rare talent actuallu

chiranjeevdas: me too

its taken me 5 days to get it

!!

ankur: :)

chiranjeevdas: i have got the song stiched up

just need a little bridge version

i got the bridge chords

but no lyrics

Sent at 8:56 PM on Tuesday

chiranjeevdas: u there?

sending u my recording

dosti

Sent at 9:08 PM on Tuesday

chiranjeevdas: accept the file

Sent at 9:14 PM on Tuesday

chiranjeevdas: ankur da accept the file

ankur: thanks.

chiranjeevdas: its a demo of the song

its raw at the moment

there is plenty of space to crack a guitar solo

turn up the volume

ankur: plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz upload in the blog with the lyrics and some words... its would really start the spark

i am listening to it now

chiranjeevdas: ok

ankur: WOW

great chiru

great

chiranjeevdas: thx

ankur: i am still listening

chiranjeevdas: the chords are E maj, A maj, F#min, B maj

the bridge chords are C, A min, F G

The Cassette Dukani

I used to be very happy when my uncles visit us on my Birthday's and on Bihu and more so if they forget that its a special day; cuz thats when they would hand me over a Rs100 or so(in lieu of a gift)... to buy something i like... They would mostly expect me to eat that money out :) ...they always thought that the best way to spend the money is to have a nice platter...its in their genes. But though i fall into the same genetic line i always kept the money away for something else. The 100 bucks would get me 2 audio cassettes!!! Those days we use to have just three major companies which sold international music ( yeah boy, i was always a firangi ass kisser) - MagnaSound, MIL and HMV.

And it would be extremely difficult t

o find the right album, specially in a place like tezpur ( Assam)

So i was always in the mercy of the beetle leaf chewing cassette dukani ( Shopkeeper) to get me some good albums. But somehow he miraculously was able to choose some pretty good ones - Like the "The Very Best Of Eagles", "Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits", "Blaze of Glory - Jon Bon Jovi" and the likes. I mean i really got those albums from this cassette dukani and the irony is i don't even remember his name....

I didn't get to buy a lot of them , given my limited resources , in a year i would be buying around 2 or 3 at the max.... These 2 cassettes will travel all round the small sleepy town by the way of our effective barter system at School. There we few guys like me who too had this craze for the

international acts...and our prized possessions would find way to each others tape players.

Though their audio quality has faded over the years...some have even become useless i still attach a lot of emotional value to them so much so that few lucky ones have found their way to Banglaore now!!!

I keep them as souvenirs; just to remind me of those days where i had so less to listen and so much to enjoy. And now when i can get any damn music i want; i still don't seem to get the kicks i used to get back then.

The cassette shop is no longer there and what we have now is a rampant sale of cheap mp3 pirated CDs for as low as Rs10 a piece. Thats less than a candy bar....Kids now don't have to try too hard to save the money for an Album. Then there is the iPODs and the iTunes and the P2Ps and what not. We seem to get the music so easily!!!

Lets See.

The original MagnaSound cassette cover of the #1 Best Selling Album of the US "The Very Best Of Eagles"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_in_the_United_States

One of my prized collection.

Wherez my music gone?

My guitar stares at me day after day. As one layer of dust fights for space with another, I start wondering... wherez my music gone?

I dust it once a while, and lay it on my lap. As my fingers stiffen and the strings revolt , I start wondering... wherez my music gone?

I organize the folders on my desktop. And as I arrange arrays of vacation pictures and office folders, I start wondering.... wherez my music gone?

I marvel at my neatly piled CDs and DVDs; movies, teleserials, documentaries I have it all. And I wonder, wherez my music gone?

Food for thought

I dont really remember how I met Ankur....and how the Diabolique Soulz started.....all I know is that we enjoyed every moment of those REC nights when we used to practise non-stop throughout the night....never bothered about food or drinks....it was just the love of creating music....

Heart of Life is Good

I wasn't a John Mayer fan until recently. I had some preconcieved notion about the way be sings . I didn't dig into the lyrics but i hated the way he sang...your body is like a wonderland.

But that changed when i saw the movie "Ghost Town" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Town_(film)) which ends with a song by John Mayer - " Heat of Life" . Maybe it was the movie and the mood that it set ... i could actually connect to the song. It has got wonderfull lyrics and a great groove. And since then, thats the song i play over and over in my guitar just to feel good. Do tell me how you feel about the song. Its from his album Continuum.

The Endless Wait

I 've been waiting for a reunion from God knows when...there seem to be some cosmic force that works against it. When shovik is in bangalore, i am in chennai, Subhro and kangkan are busy with their MBA.While i am in banglaore , shovik is in hyderabad, Subhra is in the oz. Thats the way it is for... well almost 6 years and it never seems to work.

There was always someone who goes missing...The last time we were closest to being together was 24-Jan-2009, a day after my birthday...when most of the gang was together....Bhaku, kangkan ,Subhro and ofcourse our fans a.k.a cheer leaders Proku and Mistry.

I mean that was it.... We never met like that again... I am going to salute Subhro for making that possible , cuz when we here don't get the time out to meet each other when we are just 10 kms away... he came all the way from Kolkata to make the reunion ( well, a sort of ) possible!

We had fun together playing music... the old ones...it was really nostalgic...It just seemed so surreal...

We are no rock stars and we have don't seem to have any god damn fan following... but there's something very special about us. I mean, we do get the audiance listen to us and enjoy the moment. Maybe its the vibe...the special bond that we share with each other that makes us so special, makes us click. I could feel the the listner is connected to us with the "special" bond ( yeah, i know i am sounding cliche) called friendship.

I think thats the biggest thing Diabolique Soulz was most successful in doing... It kept us connected with this illusive,magical and now non-existant band. And thats why the spirit of the band should always be kept alive... Maybe we'll never play together for an audiance again, may be we wouldn't even get to play at all...But we should never lose the hope....we should always be looking forward to playing together again...we should always keep the flame burning and join our hands to save it from burning out...when its too windy.

You know what i mean?