Instead of the Oscars...

Yo Sudhir!

Happy Oscars! ppft. :/ 

Remember the time we loved the Oscars? The time of the year I'd watch ALL the movies nominated, then we'd make lists of our picks and we'd talk about nothing else. Haha, what a fail this year! I barely managed to watch all the trailers for the nominations and today I listened to all the song and score nominations and couldn't find anything I liked. I then went on to listen to nominations and wins from previous years and almost decided to share Harry Connick Jr.'s With a Wink and a Smile from Sleepless in Seattle in 1994. But there is nothing new or uncommon about that song. So, I give up. 

So I moved to Grammy winners. Alabama Shakes won 4 Grammys this year! So much talent they have- Brittney Howard with her incredible vocals. The blues rock sort or reminds me of The Black Keys. I picked an older song of theirs for this week - this was on the soundtrack of Silver Linings Playbook (hey look, some Oscar reference) :P

Sudhir's Pick

Hey hey! So our Oscar things didn't work out as well as we would have hoped. Oscar time for me is usually like Christmas for me however, this year was just super rough all around glad I still get to watch it with you.

So in lieu of an Oscar song, I am sending you a song that reminds me of one of my favourite bands I have seen live. AG Silver did a killer set at Concordia in 2010 and has remained a favourite. Enjoy! I know I do. And so did a lot of Cobbers.

Live is the Way to Go

On stressful days in the office trying to finish off work before the end of the day or on lazy afternoons when we need something to wake us up, music sharing happens. My first week of work, I remember that we listened to Parvaaz and Prateek Kuhad on repeat, but we've gone through many other genres since then.

Today Aditi is sharing a modern twist on bal-musette off the streets of Paris and one of my favourite voices from movie soundtracks! Enjoy. 

Nantes : Beirut

I have been hooked to this song for the past few weeks! If you ignore the french lyrics, it is a guy singing a love song to his beloved across the Nantes. The impromptu performance of the band outside a cafe (did you notice him using the garbage bin?) is beautiful. Can people in Bangalore come out and give lovely performances like this?!

Short People : Randy Newman

How can you put up a list and forget Randy Newman. Such an adorable quirky old man! He knows how to say funny things in a song with a straight innocent face. Listen up and don't take offense. He's just trying to tickle your funny bone and some twisted lyrics to good music.

And the Oscar goes to...

It's that time of the year again; the glitz and glamour on the red carpet, those 45 second speeches, the long list of nominees hoping for that golden statue and of course, Neil Patrick Harris! :D We love everything about the Oscars.

Tanisha's Pick
I didn't come close to finishing the long list of movies to watch this year in time for the ceremony. I did, however watch the movie Begin Again that has an Oscar nomination for 'Best Original Song' for the track Lost Stars sung by Adam Levine.

I totally loved the movie. I've already watched it twice and listened to the soundtrack on repeat the whole week I worked on my portfolio. My favourite song from the movie is definitely A Step You Can't Take Back. 

Ignore the average vocals of Keira Knightly and focus on the production of the song that Mark Ruffalo's character puts together in his drunkenness and depression. Pretty brilliant I think.

Sudhir's Pick
While we both love the Oscars equally, Tanisha and I differ in approaches. I stay as far away from all the Oscar-nominated movies until the winners are announced. I do this mainly to prove the political scientist in me correct by predicting the winners based on what is in the press. I do pretty well most years guessing more than 85% correctly each year.

My favourite song of the Oscar season wasn't nominated, unfortunately. Hero by Family of the Year from Boyhood perfectly defines what it means to be in your early 20s. The lyrics while being incredibly simple bleed with raw emotions. 

"And we can whisper things
Secrets from my American dreams
Baby needs some protection
But I'm a kid like everyone else"

The country- feel for the song, aided by a strong video makes this one of my top finds from last year. 



But this is a competition, after all so I am throwing my support behind 'Glory' from Selma to win the award. Let's see how it goes.