Bamboo Shoots attend "Age of Stupid" premiere in NYC and Shiv chats with Heather Graham

(via http://shivhead.blogspot.com/)

Yesterday Bamboo Shoots and I were invited to attend the premier of the documentary, The Age of Stupid. It's about climate change, the war for resources, the ending of humanity if we continue to consume the way we do etc. It was pretty moving. Here's a link to a decent review in case you wanted to read more.

Upon arriving, we were escorted to walk the "green carpet" and posed for a couple pictures and did some interviews.

And then I met Heather Graham! I've always been a fan of her but when she appeared in my favorites series ever, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, it sealed the deal. I got a quick photo with her, and upon saying goodbye I said "I love Saddam!" (it's a line she spoke in ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, Season 1 Episode 14, "Shock and Aww")...she laughed and smiled. And the rest of the night I was glowing. And of course I totally thought she was into me.

Kofi Anan was also there, as well was the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson (whose business card I still have from meeting her at a development conference at Yale back in 2004), the president of the Maldives (Bamboo Shoots tour??), Gilian Anderson, Stephen Baldwin, and one of my new favorite actors, Larry Gilliard, Jr. who plays D'Angelo in HBO'S The Wire.

Coming soon...cooking with Frankie

Hey guys it's Shiv here, the drummer from Bamboo Shoots, and this is my first blog entry! Wanted to let you know that tomorrow, Wednesday September 9th, I'll be featured doing one of my favorite things - cooking! There's this blog site about music and cooking called The Young and The Hungry, and I've been invited to showcase some of my favorite recipes for a video shoot. This is a really interesting site by an eccentric guy called Frankie who has previously hosted bands to come in and cook for the show. And in between he does a bunch of weird stuff like this video which is all about cooking a fillet of sole fish -- all set to an original song and video written, directed and performed by Frankie himself. I must say I've never seen anything quite like it before -- there's a part in the middle of the video when the fish is slowly frying and reaching it's point of done-ness that Frankie splits the screen to a raging and building guitar solo which matches the climax of the cooking fish! So I'm pretty excited to be working with Frankie tomorrow and think it'll be a lot of fun to cook for his show.

I figured I'd make what I love to cook for the rest of Bamboo Shoots when we have super long rehearsals at Avir's house. My boys need a high protein, lowfat and tasty meal to keep on rockin! So tomorrow I will showcase my "Chicken Curry with Lentil Brown Rice and Cucumber-Mint Lowfat Yogurt." I don't know if you're into Indian food, let alone curries, but wait till you see how I'm going to make it -- this aint yo mamma's preparation for sure! I don't know when the video of me doing this is going to be online, but be sure to check back for updates! THIS IS GONNA BE FUN....AND TASTY!!

Shiv with his Mom, the best cook in the world!

Shiv quoted in DNA India...

Check out this weird, but interesting quote from Shiv in this article...

Featured in Hindustan Times (Again!)

Namaste, Shooting Stars

Bamboo Shoots. the alternative dance rock band based out of New York, recently performed in Delhi at Turquoise Cottage, organized by Hot Coffee Events. The five members - Avir Mitra (lead vocals and guitar), Karl Sukhia (Backup vocals and keyboards) Shiv Puri (Drums), Ahmed Mahmoud (Guitar) and Ankur Patel (Percussionist) speak with HT City about their music and the debut album.

What's this buzz about the dancerock genre? What makes it different and unique?

SHIV: Well, I think you can get down and dirty with our songs the way you would at a club.

Tell us something about your debut album.

SHIV: This is our first album with Epic Records. We're lucky to have worked with our producer, Jerry Harrison from the Talking Heads.

How did you guys come together?

AVIR: Karl and I met when we were little kids. I met Shiv at New York university and got to know he played drums.

ANKUR: I met you guys in '03 right? AVIR: Ankur, just sort of walked in to our practice, and was like, 'I play this', and we were like, 'Alright, cool'.

AVIR: And Ahmed joined the band about two years ago. We needed a guitarist and he knew our songs better than we did. We were like, 'You're in!' How different are the shows in India from the US? Which one's better? ANKUR: The shows here are not that different from the US. The only difference lies in the venue - which varies from big and fancy to more intimate... I can't say which one is better, but both countries are exciting in their own way.

Which indian musician you would want to work with?

SHIV: I'm a big fan of classical music... I would love to collaborate with Viku Vinayakram. He's such an incredible musician.

The craziest thing you guys have done?

SHIV: Well, I recently got married here in Delhi to my girlfriend. I don't think anyone in the band anticipated dancing with the hijras. I think some of us will have some explaining to do to our friends in America, when they see these photos (above).

Are you guys planning to enter the Bollywood music industry?

SHIV: It's an interesting time to be in the Bollywood industry, especially with the huge success of AR Rehman. Even before the Oscars, however, the pulse of a lot of new music coming out of Bollywood, like influences of hip hop, is something Bamboo Shoots can contribute towards.

What next?

SHIV: We're going to continue touring America when we get back and prepare for our album release. We'd love to come back to India but maybe in the fall or winter when the weather isn't so damn hot.

himadree.c@hindustantimes.com