THERMAL AND A QUARTER: Jupiter Café

Thermal And A Quarter

Jupiter Café

© 2002 Thermal And A Quarter (634479101267)

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Thermal And A Quarter (TAAQ is the abbreviation, not our NASDAQ listing) is from Bangalore, India. 'Genre-busting' is one way to describe our style - Jupiter Cafe juxtaposes the rhythms of Bangalore with the cycle of karma...

notes

ABOUT THERMAL AND A QUARTER

Thermal And A Quarter, launched in 1996 in Bangalore, then not yet the outsourcing capital of the universe, is arguably India's most talked about band. The band was conceived, like the rest of us, in a bedroom, not a garage (but oh yeah, we still have plenty of drive). Pretty soon, we put out the message: Love us or hate us if you will, but you cannot ignore us.

TAAQ: JUPITER CAFÉ

Our first, eponymous demo album was released 2000. It was called thermalandaquarter.com and it won us hosannas and every other variety of lip service, and was lapped up all over the material and wired world with so much gusto that we were encouraged to give our fans something better.

So we took the rhythms of the city and juxtaposed it with our psychological landscape: the alternating cacophony and pulsating calm of Bangalore set against the cycle of karma.

Slice of life. With extra cheese.

Ten stories. Ten songs. Strung with laughs, tears and irony.

Ergo Jupiter Café.

Pythagoras called it metempsychosis - the transmigration of the soul. All it really means is that life is a journey, the body a vehicle, and the soul the tireless traveller. On an unending journey.

And you're invited.

Come on in, the weather's fine.

TAAQ: HERE & NOW

OPENING ACTS

TAAQ set its sights on an international stage after being chosen to open for classic British hard rockers Deep Purple in Bangalore on April 1, 2001. In February 2006, TAAQ opened for the legendary English-Celtic rock band, Jethro Tull.

Voted "Second biggest band in India" by a nation-wide reader's poll conducted by RSJ Magazine.

FEB 2005: Interviewed by Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers (www.jeffreypepperrodgers.com), noted American writer and music journalist (who has interviewed Dave Matthews, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Ani DiFranco, and more) TAAQ was prominently showcased on National Public Radio's All Songs Considered on February 28, 2005. It put TAAQ firmly on the American map -- the first Indian band to get this magnitude of airplay in the US. The mail has since been pouring in -- and downloads of our online album, Plan B, are going through the roof.

TAAQ: BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

Bruce Lee Mani (acoustic & electric guitars, vocals), Rajeev Rajagopal (drums), Rzhude (bass, acoustic guitars & vocals) & Sunil Chandy (guitars, vocals, keyboards) bring their musical talents together to form Bangalore's Thermal and a Quarter.

The band first took stage in 1996, representing Christ College, Bangalore, and went on to win music fests all over the country. Over the next four years, we played more than 100 concerts in cities like Bangalore, Mysore, Chennai, Mumbai, Vellore, Pondicherry and New Delhi, and has received tremendous attention from music lovers and the media for organizing their own concerts to support humanitarian and charitable causes.

TEAM TAAQ

Apart from the musicians, the band as an enterprise consists of able technicians.

Bijoy Venugopal (Website and online communications)
Bindu M Mani (Design)
Nishith Singh (Chief Technical Strategist)
Santhosh P G (Marketing, Production & Finance)
Didier Weiss (Sound design)
Umesh P N (Concert tech)
Gurudarshan Somayaji (Strategic Alliances - UK & Europe region)

reviews

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  • AMAZING BAND
    author: Tecky

    Your guys rock ..... !! look forward to hearing you rock this part of the world (Newzealand)

  • Brilliant! -- and then some!!!
    author: Mathew Joseph

    This is terrific work! The musicianship is top notch and the recording and production are excellent! The songwriting style is as refreshing as it is unique. The vocal harmonies are nothing short of exquisite. I've had the pleasure of knowing many good bands from India but TAAQ is in a class by itself. Jupiter Cafe is OUT OF THIS WORLD - no pun intended!!

  • Amazing!
    author: spacial_k

    These guys are great funksters. A coworker of mine went to college with one of the band members and got us all into them. Can't wait for these guys to tour stateside. I'm there!

  • Super!
    author: Jan

    This is a great CD and a breath of fresh air after most of the drivel that I hear on the radio, etc. I look forward to more from TAAQ.

  • Great!!
    author: Cheryl

    This is an amazing album - very exciting. The musicians are outstanding and the songs great.

  • Loved it! Very Unique!
    author: Lori Robinson

    I loved this CD. It is an incredible spin on rock music, using the traditional intricate rhythms of the Middle East in combination with fantastic melodies and vocals. It reminded me of Santana, but way better, more challenging. It was a treat for the ears, stimulating and entertaining.

  • Absolutly the best new band I have ever heard. Only one problem...YOU CANT FIND
    author: Joseph B

    This Album was great. Loved it. I would definatly buy more of thier albums. Good job guys.

  • author: Marji

    Heard about this band on NPR, just amazing!! Can't wait to hear more from them..

  • This aint Bollywood. Welcome!!!!!
    author: Ed Douglas, President - Brash Music

    This band makes the term "Indie" make sense,… finally! Because I am in the biz, I can’t count the number of CD submission that come across my desk and some even make it all the way through the whole list of songs, and to be fair some are absolutely great and underexposed which is a pity but that's the nature of the music biz as it is today. Hopefully there are forces in play that will change that. But when I heard the NPR spot on Thermal and a Quarter my curiosity and excitement exploded. The musicians are all superb and never out of the pocket. Their singing is very strong and the harmonies, phrasing, combinations of out of the norm measures, and guitar work (as well as the excellent bass and perfect drumming) all reflect a musical collective mind that their culture offers as a gift to us music lovers in the west. Having lived in India for a year myself, I can relate to the perspective from which the lyrics live. You don’t hear it as much in Indigo Cafe as from their other recordings, but the flavor of the interesting scales and measures are such a treat from power chords and simple timings that our "western" indie music is fraught with. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I mean...it is rock and roll after all. But TAAQ’s music wanders at times to the edges of jazz and if it is rock, it is unmistakably rock that is decorated with original guitar licks, odd (for our ears) timings and synchronization that most indie bands barely reach for. And the amazing thing to me is that unless you are actually counting you may not even notice the unique timing changes that riddle so many of their songs. There is no pretense here, just guys playing their asses off as one. Personally I would like to hear a little more of their musical culture represented in their songs, but that’s me and maybe their playing needs to represent their western influences out front to reach more ears. I get that. I could see this band blowing the minds at Bonaroo or the Newport Jazz Festival. Where ever they end up playing, they are sure to catch the attention of anyone who has an ear for great music. I look forward to watching and listening to them flourish. And as a guitarist myself, I am encouraged at the innovation represented by the the hooks and the inspiring lead work. Go for it guys. Its about time the west has something to listen to from India that isn’t born in Bollywood.

  • Intelligent, Joyous, no gimmicks good Music...
    author: W. Nick Dotson

    Technically, as good as it gets, but there's "no hotdogging" going on here. The songs have a blend of "alt" rock without the solopsistic narcisism, wise but never jaded... Their idealism and energy revives the idealism of this 53-year old aging hippie who hasn't heard something so complex and joyous since say, "Beatles", Grateful Dead" or "Frank Zappa". More East Indian in orientation than "Plan B" and it rocks a bit harder. More please!

  • The musicianship is sublime, inextricably intertwined with the energy of the lyr
    author: The Music Magazine, India

    With their second album Jupiter Café, Bangalore's Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ) have pushed the precincts of the musical and lyrical terrain they covered in their first album. The themes are intensely personal, dealing with ideas of urban angst in a manner that oozes maturity and character. The musicianship is more sublime, inextricably intertwined with the energy of the lyrics, constructing a vibe which threads each track to the other. This is no concept album, but Jupiter Café is composed seamlessly, forming a sort of thematic continuum, if you will. From all angles, Jupiter Café is light years ahead of Thermal's earlier work. Brigade Street 1 introduces us to the album with the cacophonous sounds of Bangalore's Brigade Road from which emerge Brigade Street's wah-wah drenched guitar, merged with Rzhude's unique vocal cadences. The vocal harmonies on Brigade Street, as with the whole album, are lush and more intricate than before. Wishing for Magic is filled with a sense of yearning, enveloped in an unmistakeable, easy Thermal groove. With some vague Billy Joel allusions and jazzy acoustic guitar work, State of Mine once again features Rzhude's vocals. The pace of the album soon picks up with Respectable, a fiery number, which, as beguiling as it is, feels a little outdated to me. It would have sounded more at home in their debut. But with Look at Me, Thermal and a Quarter have found a balance between the old and the new. With a characteristic Thermal riff, some wicked scatting and brilliant lyrics, this track embodies the tone of the whole album. It discusses the peculiar state of urban India: beleaguered by the West, thinking in their terms, yet easily slipping into the Indian mentality when it suits us. Beginning with some wild string bending, Getting There has some stellar bass playing from Rzhude who is largely laid-back on the album, abandoning his percussive slapping style for more restrained, melodic bass playing. In fact, all three of them have eased their instrumental approach on the album, meshing tightly, but not afraid to be spontaneous. Drunk is a rather unusual blues-based number that makes you feel you could sing along, but it is spun around a time signature that will often leave you lost. This is Thermal at their tantalizing best. There are more odd time signatures on Sanity in Gravity, centred on a jazzy guitar melody. Thermal turns poignant on Without Wings, written about one of Bangalore's many tragic suicides. The title track is a ten-minute long masterpiece that has shades of Pink Floyd in its eddying movement and 'altered consciousness' sensibilities. Based on Thermal's live jams, it may seem a little out of place in such a tightly pieced album, but nonetheless it is one of the best cuts on the album, conveying Thermal and a Quarter's improvisational prowess. The second time around, TAAQ and engineer Didier Weiss make no mistakes, producing a near-flawless record that sounds polished, professional and yet has the vigour of the live Thermal experience. Jupiter Café seems, at times a hesitant foray, and at others a bold entry into fresh territory. But what is truly new about the album, probably paradoxically, is that Thermal and a Quarter have aged, much like a good wine. In this album we see the band growing into mellower but stronger songwriters, more conscious artists and subtler exponents of their craft. Anand Varghese

  • ...an in-your-face, energetic exposition of the blues-rock funk style that the b
    author: RSJ Online, India

    Pop this CD into your deck, crank up the volume and what first greets you are what sound like street noises, and it is then that you remember to glance at the inlay card and you notice that it is a 22-second intro track. The songs on Jupiter Café are an in-your-face, energetic exposition of the blues-rock funk style that the band has patented. Strong melodies, funky grooves and thoughtful lyrics combined with excellent production by Didier Weiss result in a record of international standards. From the laidback, yet powerful melody in 'Wishing For Magic' to the catchy riff in 'Look At Me' it is clear that Thermal has finally mastered the art of writing hit songs, without reigning in any way the proficiency displayed in the first record. The tracks that stand out, apart from these two, include the ode to inebriation 'Drunk', with an infectious beat and a brilliant 'inebriated' guitar solo, replete with off-key bends, whammy bar usage and other quirks that fit in delightfully with the theme of the song. That brings me to 'Jupiter Cafe', a track where the musical wizardry of the three guys reaches its zenith. With Floyd-esque atmospherics and a deliciously lazy groove, this song is a bloody masterpiece. All three get to demonstrate their mastery over their respective instruments in the instrumental first half of the song (it's ten minutes long, by the way) with a nice Carnatic vocal interlude by Rajesh, the band's guitar tech (and rhythm guitarist when playing live). The final blues-drenched guitar solo, with Bruce 'singing' the solo along with it, is a fitting finale for this outstanding album.

  • A landmark release for Indian rock!
    author: The Hindu, Metro Plus, Bangalore

    Jupiter Café A2G Music, CD, Rs. 150 THERMAL AND a Quarter, Bangalore's claim to fame in the Indian rock music industry, has now launched its second album Jupiter Café. It may be mentioned here that the band is best remembered for its opening performance with British rockers, Deep Purple, in the City in 2001. Those familiar with the band's first album will not be disappointed with Jupiter Café, considered as a landmark release for Indian rock. The album has Bruce Lee Mani on guitars and vocals, Rajeev Rajagopal on drums and percussion, Rzhude on vocals and bass, and Guitar-Tech Rajesh Mehar on backing vocals. Bangaloreans will be familiar with songs on the albums such as "Brigade Street", "Drunk", "Without Wings", and the signature "Jupiter Café", which the band has performed frequently at live concerts. "The album tells our stories through its songs. The title track, `Jupiter Café' can best be described as a telescopic kind of number," explains Rajeev. "Wishing for Magic", "State of Mine", "Respectable", "Sanity in Gravity", and "Getting There" are the other songs in this 11-track album. These songs are about life, living, and being. Urban settings, the fast life, people and the cycle of Karma are some of the most relevant themes that characterise the mood of the album. One of the absurdities the band speaks of is something it likes to rather starkly refer to as "urban rape" — what the City does to you and your consciousness and the mechanised way of living that engulfs us all. The album is an attempt to capture the unique sound of a band that has consistently refused to conform to the "flavour of the day". Bruce adds: "It has always been hard to categorise our sound. We like to think of ourselves as reinventing genre instead of playing by the rules all the way." One thing that deserves mention in this connection is the inclusion of a distinctly Indian tone in their music. Being an Indian rock band, the members were keen on an Indian feel for their compositions. The high production standards are evident in the sound and look of the album. Recorded on industry standard ProTools at Sunshine Studios, Auroville, with the French "sound wizard" Didier Weiss, Jupiter Café has already received support from radio channels in India and abroad. SOMIKA BASU

  • At the heart of the enterprise is the creation of songs that resonate with the m
    author: Bangalore Times, The Times Of India, Bangalore

    Ten songs, ten tales, signed off with the Jupiter Cafe. From a college band in 1996, through thick and thin. One demo album and then that dream debut on the international scene as opening band for the DNA-organised Deep Purple concert. They've been rocking since, with such splendidly composed pieces as Brigade Street, Drunk and Without Wings. For their fans in Bangalore and elsewhere across the country, the album will be a revelation, for the music has an international quality not only in terms of its content but also its engineering. Check out State of Mind, Respectable and Sanity in Gravity. Jupiter Cafe has Bruce Lee Mani on guitars and vocals, Rajeev Rajagopal on drums and percussion, Rzhude on bass and vocals and Rajesh Mehar on backing vocals. Bangalore was the scene of homegrown rock long before the rest of urbania caught up with it. But alas, when music channels and the record industry began booming in the late 80s and 90s, Bangalore was hopelessly out of the loop. Except for musician and composer Sandeep Chowta who made the transition from Club to Bollywood and soon an album of Hindi pop, embellished with jazz, rock, reggae and rock n' roll. It is in the context of Bangalore's overall poor showing on the music scenario that the launch of Jupiter Cafe is commendable, for it has taken plenty of sweat, tears and courage to create and launch the album. From our very own Planet M to other music outlets, Thermal And A Quarter's newest CD is bound to garner an ever larger fan following. For at the heart of the enterprise is the creation of songs that resonate with the mood of contemporary India. No quarter given.

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