Thal,
who visited India in June last year, is part of the jury for the
ninth Jack Daniel’s Annual Rock Awards
February 17, 2014
Ron
“Bumblefoot” Thal has a pretty clear connection with India at
the moment. The Guns N Roses guitarist has taught Mumbai indie rock
band The Koniac Net’s frontman David Abraham and visited the country
twice with two different bands – Guns N Roses in December 2012 and
Dubai hard rock band Point of View in June last year.
This year, Thal is part of the jury for the
ninth Jack Daniel’s Annual Rock Awards, where he listened to
artists nominated in seven categories, including Best Guitarist and
Best Song. Thal particularly liked Sanjeev Thomas’s collaboration
with Carnatic rock guitarist Baiju Dharmajan on the album Epic Shit.
In his score sheet for JDARA, Thal commented on Dharmajan’s music
saying, “I love the musical theme, the acoustic and electric
[guitar] together, the ethnic instrumentation, arrangement and the
complimentary tones.”
The guitarist also picked his favorite songs, comparing Mumbai punk
rock band The Lightyears Explode’s song “I Am A Disco Dancer” to
Scottish indie rockers Franz Ferdinand. Thal also commented on
Bengaluru psychedelic rock band The Bicycle Days’s nominated song,
“Conundrum.” Says Thal, “There’s a certain feeling of
‘order-to-the-chaos’ in this song, as all the pieces fit together
well. But that aspect might be the most mentionable thing about the
song – there’s style, but we need the melodies to haunt us for days
after hearing it, in order to top this list.”
Photo: Bobin James |