Classic or Dud, Kula Shaker

I always thought KS were as dorky as all get out, but back in Britpop's halcyon days people could trot out the most backward and anemic pop and it would still sell by the barrow load.

Yeah, I was in the record store and these stoners were playing "Find the K's" on the cover of KS's debut.
Stoner 1: Hey, Superman doesn't start with a K...
Stoner 2: Kal-el, dude. Kal-el.
Stoner 1: Uh, whose the big blue dude, anyway?
Stoner 2: Kkkkkkkkkkk...Vinshnu?

Well, if the debut is any indication, he might be good with the soundscape like tracks, but he has a tin ear when it comes to making singles.
I give a 6 out of a possible 10, and from here on out, I won't fool myself into thinking that Grant Morrison's has flawless taste in music.

This proves what twats they were. I mean, every other band they parodied played along with the entirely good-natured joke. I suppose Crispy must have inhaled a few too many burning swastikas.

Kula Shaker were (justly) fucked from then on in.

Almost a parody of the empty-headed, upper class, English buffoon. Has anyone got anything nice to say about him?

That's 3 posts I've made about pissing Kula Shaker now.

Somehow I ended up with a copy of the "Tattva" single which I keep around for kicks. What I find particularly amusing is the fact that they're all 'St. George' about Mr. Harrison and all that, but say nothing about the fact that the second song on the single is a cloning of "Norwegian Wood" which makes any of Oasis' recastings of the Fab Four seem like Disco Inferno in terms of sonic innovation.

Old Fart!!!!

Ok, first I'll admit that yes, I do own K and dig it every time I listen to it, about once every 13 months when I find it somewhere in my collection. Tattva may not be original but it's just fun, geez. But this whole "silly embarassment" thing - I'm Hindu by birth, so I kind of feel weary about hearing how every time some popular Western singer converts to my religion it's derided as "appropriation," or "insane posturing," or "exploitation," or "silliness" or what-have- you. What if they really are interested in Hinduism ? The sad thing is that almost all these singers: 1) are still pretty clueless and in the infantile stags of learning about Eastern religion, and yet still have to talk to the press about their newfound enlightenment, coming across as extremely pretentious and arrogant 2) never have a sense of humor, which is ironic, since eastern religion teaches not to take the world seriously at all.

Its just harmless, you know? Some other Indians I know actually feel pseudo-proud, if slightly bemused, when a western celebrity does all this. It can be an honor for Madonna to take up Sanskrit chanting; of course this may say more about Indians than anything else, but that's been written about elsewhere. In a California Indian show here they were doing a trad folk dance sequence to her "Shanti Ashtangi," when they could have had the real sonic thing, but it's more..fashionable? Of course, there are other Indians who never take westerners seriously anyway. The Beatles getting nixed into the TM movement? The TM movement was a nonentity in India, socially; gurus are a dime a dozen there. And in the 60, evreyone knew that all of them hippies were coming over there just for the ganja and silk; they were really easy to scam and milk and fool by fake gurus. I've seen Hindi movies about this.

Or maybe the "silly embarassment" thing is more a depiction of how the world of rock/pop music/culture is basically secular/athetistic in aesthetic if not anti-religious, and anyone who goes against the grain gets ridiculed (like Santana?). It's sex and drugs and rock and roll, and only that; God doesn't belong in that list. This probably belongs on another thread.

Crispian Mills probably didn't know what he was talking about. But it's not hentirely his fault if he misguidedly wanted to steal the swastika back for some sort of pure visual representation, after Adolf stole it first. It's not about Naziiism at all, but it really is pathetic that it'll always be linked to that. It was the premiere Aryan (in the original sense of the word) emblem, along with the Om symbol, and there used to be four dots in between the 4 squares. It's still sprinkled in rice designs at temples, durings weddings, ceremonies, etc. There are never Jews around

On my last pedantic note (can you ever have enough?): the k is for Krishna who was on the album cover, not Vishnu.

and hot as hell too!!

BTW, "Ha! Ha! Said The Clown" is better than practically any single that has ever been called "Britpop", and better than a good many 60s singles you may have heard of.

Oh gotcha, well I have no problem with that then. I don't even remember if I was directly writing that in reference to your comment or if I just used his name since I recalled it first, after seeing it in the thread, but I really haven't read any interviews by the man, so I can't say either way whether he's cringe-worthy or not. I'll assume he is; besides, he's collaborated with Rob Thomas on the most overplayed song ever which is enough for him to make my shit-list for eternity.

I seriously doubt whether any of these celebrities can leave behind their regular self-delusional states of solipsistic narcissism and get truly spiritual in the eastern sense, if we define that as being anti-ego. Few pursue it with any depth. I guess someone like Richard Gere maybe really is into Buddhism, but he's also Richard Gere.

Did anyone here (or anyone anywhere?) hear that other Kula Shaker album, the pigs. astronauts something one, not that the title was memorable. What's Crispian up to these days ?

You knew that, and I knew that, the the two stoner dudes didn't know that.
But what keeps knawing on my mind is this: The hot hindu babe hanging off of Krishna...I forget her name: Parvati? Durga? What IS the name of Krishna's helpmate...and does it start with a K?

Every Hindu goddess is hot by definition (note the breasts to hip- sizes, ratios), remember that or you'll incur Someone's divine wrath or something. Well everyone, I guess, except for Kali, her name starts with a K (the bloodthirsty figure Indiana Jones & Temple of Doom caricatured) but I've read some weird tantric stuff that says that certain mantras have caused creepy sadhu-tantrics who live in cemeteries to have sex with Kali, it's one way of propitating Her. So if that's true, she must be good in bed, but in a very scary, s&m sort of way, and you can guess who's going to dominate.

"Parvati? Durga? " No, good guesses though - those are all names of Kali in her "good" moods. You're thinking of Radha, Krishna's teenage sweetheart, the young girl pictured with him I think on the album cover? or pictured with him everywhere he's playing a flute. But he fucked everyone though - our god is the ultimate player/stud, heh? - for when he was "dating" her he supposedly seduced every married milkmaid in Gokul (there's scripture on this?), and then went on to have 1600 wives, out of which Rukmini and Satyabhama were the most prominent. but you're thinking of Radha. I'm procrastinating again...

Has anyone else heard the new Strangefolk album? It isn't great, or even good for that matter, but there's a couple of tunes worth hearing a time or two.

custos day is tomorrow, man.

"Tattva" still sounds pretty great, if y'ask me (silly lyrics notwithstanding).

Borrowed K from the local library shortly after it came out. I thought it was sonically quite adventurous and nothing to do with Britpop at all - it conjured up dense Rousseau-esque jungles suddenly parting to reveal imposing hindu temples, and stuff. No sillier than "Kashmir" at any rate.

As for the fascist malarky, well they were stupid to meddle with it in the first place and even stupider to back down squealing as soon as they were challenged. It's not as though the Rolling Stones, Zep, Bowie, Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle and Killing Joke, to name but a few, hadn't been there previously in some form or other.

Overall, I suspect their stuff may date pretty well. If I could be arsed to find out.

Which I can't.

Has anyone else heard the new Strangefolk album? It isn't great, or even good for that matter, but there's a couple of tunes worth hearing a time or two.

just found this by accident in the archive.

great dictator (of the free world) : haha.

said this before on another thread, but Grateful When You're Dead ripped off The Prisoners, as did their cover of Hush