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The Lightyears Explode Win Launchpad

Grishma Rao — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 09:30:38 +0000

Channel [V]‘s Launchpad, “the baap of all rock band competitions in 2011″, in its new avatar as part of Indiafest, has declared a winner. Punk trio The Lightyears Explode from Mumbai beat bands like Goddess Gagged (Strawberry Fields 2011 winners) and AbraXas (Mood Indigo 2011 winners). Strangely enough, the Indiafest twitter was quite superlative about these two bands, but has nothing to say about the winners. The competition was held in two stages – the semi-finals in each city, and the finals in Goa. Previous winners of the competition include bands like Reverrse Polarity and Indigo Children.

We spoke to Saurabh Roy, vocalist of The Lightyears Explode, about their victory:

We were playing alongside bands like Goddess Gagged and AbraXas. We didn’t expect to win because while we were on stage, my pedal stopped working, stuff like that happened. But we played without thinking of the competition. We played the semifinals in Bombay at Firangi Paani, and we got to play a set of 25 minutes. In the finals, every band played two songs. We received Rs. 50,000 as prize money, along with some vouchers. We left promptly after, we didn’t stick around.

Fair enough. The band performs with humour metal act Workshop at NMIMS college today. Stream music from The Lightyears Explode below.

[trackplayer 2930, 2933]

Channel [V] Launchpad Revamped

Kunal Kakodkar — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:53:32 +0000

Remember Launchpad? Channel [V] remembers. After a hiatus in 2010, the reality show is back, albeit in a heavily modified avatar. For starters, it’s no longer a reality show. The format has been reworked to fit into the Indiafest schedule, where it will feature alongside other kvlt college-fest-themed events like ‘BLITZKREIG (Treasure Hunt)’, ‘Stylize (Fashion Show)’ and ‘Kahaani Poori Filmi Hai (Bollywood Quiz)’. Thankfully, eligibility will not be restricted to college bands. The contest will be bifurcated into ‘western genre’ and ‘regional/hindi genre’ and zonal finalists will get a chance to play Indiafest (India’s College Festival). Sounds underwhelming so far, but Channel [V], what are the prizes?

Launchpad Bengali Winning Band: Best Bangla Band wins a chance to create a jingle for Star Jalsha
Launchpad Hindi & Western Winning Band: Best Hindi & Western band to be featured on Channel [v]

That isn’t particularly spectacular considering that previous editions of the show were televised and mere participation ensured that one would be ‘featured on Channel [v].’ Also, there’s apparently a mysterious third category for Best Bangla Band. More details are available on the website.

In the battle of kvltness that Channel [V] and MTV are perpetually engaged in, we’re unsure who comes out ahead on this one. One the one hand, MTV Kurkure Rock Desi On Bring It Beats On clearly has the more memorable name, and the show is still actually on TV (for us to mock). But Channel [V] has diversified its attempts, giving us awesomeness like ‘Face Off (The Hunt for the fresh…)’ and ‘Beat It!! (Street Dance).’ Too close to call.

Photos from Launchpad III elimination gig, 2009.

MTV Announces Rock On Band Hunt

Arjun S Ravi — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:42:16 +0000

MTV’s answer to Channel V’s Launchpad is Kurkure Desi Beats Rock On with MTV. Now we’re not saying judge a book by its cover, but ‘Kurkure Desi Beats Rock On’ doesn’t inspire us to believe that a hardcore metal act is going to be the result of this talent hunt. For that matter, neither does Kareena Kapoor.

This new Making the Band style hunt will be judged by Kailash Kher, Ram Sampat (of Colourblind, and, er indipop) and VJ Nikhil. Auditions will be held in four cities. Dates

July 9 – Swabhumi Heritage Plaza, Kolkata
July 12 – Ambedkar Bhavan, New Delhi
July 15 – Jnana Jyoti Auditorium, Bengaluru
July 19 – MTV Studios, Mumbai

More details as we get them. Till then, check out the MTV Rock On page, the main attraction of which is a video of Kareena Kapoor breaking a snare drum.

Did the Faridkot dudes pick the wrong reality show?

(via IRMP3)

Reverrse Polarity Plot Tour, Contest

Arjun S Ravi — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:38:29 +0000

Launchpad winners Reverrse Polarity will be making good their winnings by taking off on a mini-tour of the country this month. The metal act were surprise winners of the competition, with favourites Faridkot failing to come up with the goods at the final performance (where Bappi Lahiri showed us some awesomeness). It also did much for Channel V’s cred to have a metal act win their competition.

The band is also giving one fan the chance to go on tour with the band and “shoot video diaries with them”. If you want to be that fan, answer the following question

Q. Which of these songs did Reverrse Polarity sing at the Concert for Change?

a. Johnny Corny
b. Johnny Horny
c. Johnny Money
d. Johnny Pony

The last date to for contest entries is June 15. Send in your answer to channelv.in@gmail.com

Dates

June 17 – Firangi Paani, Bangalore
June 19 – Firangi Paani, Hyderabad
June 23 – Firangi Paani, Mumbai

Download: ‘Mind Therapy’ – The Circus

Arjun S Ravi — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:55:23 +0000

Launchpad finalists The Circus were one of our top finds from the competition. Their brand of Incubus-inspired alternative was refreshing and, with the help of an elastic bass player, made for entertaining viewing. They were however eliminated from the competition after a lacklustre final performance at the Blue Frog.

The Delhi act is now *waiting around* getting its non-TV act together with demo material and some gigs in the capital. They recently supported Parikrama and Them Clones when the latter played the F Bar as part of their ‘My Life’ single launch tour.

‘Mind Therapy’ kicks off with The Circus’ now familiar, videogame-ey guitar intro. It’s three and a half minutes of largely generic alternative, but Abhishek Bhatia’s vocals (surprisingly underrated by the Launchpad judges) take the song out of the ordinariness the construction tries hard to throw it into. Listen closely for some efficient bass work.

Download: ‘Mind Therapy’ – The Circus
The Circus on ReverbNation

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