Motherjane-Maktub Launched

27/09/2008-Mark this date. This is a day that will go down in the annals of Indian rock as one which witnessed the start of a new revolution. It was a day filled with anticipation. Most of the Janeheads stayed at home to witness the live weblaunch of Motherjane's new album 'Maktub'. The last 9 days been a great build up to this special day. On each day, we were treated to a sample from each of the 9 tracks. Accompanying these samples were the short writeups on the track of the day by vocalist Suraj Mani. The philosopher par excellence that he is, these writeups were a collection of inspiring thoughts that made us think. The culmination of all this was the launch function that happened on saturday. At 8 PM IST, as promised earlier, Motherjane made their grand entry on the web. And what an entry it was!!!Potent enough to surprise even longtime 'Janeheads'. They came with half their faces painted in kathakali designs. Hats off to the man behind this idea. It gave a refreshing new feel to the band. And yes, there was that unmistakable Kerala touch.

After the intro of the band, Suraj Mani gave a brief overview of the album. Then it was straight to hig octane action with the video premiere of 'Chasing the sun'. It was a breathtaking to say the least. Heard that it was shot in the hills of Ponmudi near Trivandrum. The images of the sadhus bathing in the ganges near Varanasi and the innocent children walking on the road fit in like a 'T'. The rosebowl team surely did a great job with this video, which according to Suraj was shot in just 15 minutes flat. Gotta take some more looks at the video before I can comment more on it. After the video preview, it was time for the phonecalls. The who's who of Indian rock including guys from Parikrama,Pentagram and Joint Family called in to wish the band luck. There were some problems in the telephone line after this that prevented them from getting more calls. Then, there was the video preview of 'Fields of Sound'. Though it didn't match up to the brilliance of the earlier video, it was still a great work. Shot near a flowing river in an area with a dense collection of trees, the band seemed to enjoy this one a lot. With this the web launch function came to an end. Truely, a great experience which am sure is a sign of the things to come.

The site became active in about 10 minutes and the songs were up for download. One interesting feature of this is that you can decide the value of each song and pay whatever you like. That is you can pay anything from Rs.0 to Rs.(as much as u like). This is truely an innovative idea considering the fact that each of the songs are worth their weight in gold. Anybody will think twice before putting anything less than Rs.20 for each of those songs. There's also a pay later facilty wherein you can listen to the songs now and pay for it later. Kudos to the guys behind this site and the ones who devised this marketing strategy. In this era of piracy, innovative methods such as these can save the sagging music industry from bankruptcy. There are a lot of merchandise to be purchased from the site ranging from t-shirts and keychains to even mouse pads. The cd will release officially by the 15th of october.

Wait for a full review of the album soon. But don't wait to read that, I guarantee you, its worth the money. Having listned to al lthe songs, I can safely say this-Just go and buy it now.

PS-Photo No.1 courtesy Govind, our band stoneage's drummer who was present there with his drumkit. You can see the Kathakali designs painted on the band members there.
Photo No.2 courtesy-Hari's blog

My previous posts on Motherjane
Preview of the 'Maktub' album release
Motherjane-Homecoming
Motherjane-Rock In India

your crusader Praveen