AASHOR
The up & coming sensation from the alternative underground

By Tawsif Saleheen & Faizul A Tanim

Ashor has all the awesome charm of an Alternative rock group. Distinguished by their own style, their qualities draw you into their type of songs bringing out almost all the emotional patches of cheerful and grieved tunes. With an unconventional mix of guitar processor sounds, this quartet did fall from a graceful musical backdrop. Heavy riffs, distinguished solo, groovy basslines, deep vocals and very energetic and entertaining drumming-- The elegance of this band is striking out.

It all started when…
The old pals Tony and Zubair (ex- Extrude) always wanted to groove a bit of a Rock n Roll together. When they needed a guitarist, they called up the nice-dude Abir (ex-Ironic Fate). Soon Titu joined in. The band had their first aashor on 28th December, 2002. By January they had delved into a full-time practice, the initial name of the band being Violent Green. The virtuosos had their first concert in March at DBC, where they received plenty of kudos from the audience. After that there was no looking back.

The Big Bang…
The Rock n Roll prodigies had their second concert in August, at the Engineering Institute. There they appeared as Aashor for the first time. The hit track Shunno was aired, and it swept the audience out of their feet. Soon Aashor received the contract for recording the track Shunno in the mixed album Din Bodol. Recording started in September. When Din Bodol came out in 25th February, Aashor was one of the undisputed stars of the underground arena.

Present Line-up…
Zubair- Vocals and guitars.
Abir- Guitars.
Tony- Drums.
Titu- Bass.

What's up with the name, dude?
Russel, a mutual friend and a well-wisher of the band, came up with the name Aashor. 'Aashor means a musical congregation,' said Tony. 'Our music is an outcome of the aashors we have among ourselves. Hence the name.'

Inspirations…
Zubair: Chris Cornell, David Coverdale, Nuno Bettecourt, Sound Garden,
Stone Temple Pilots (STP).
Abir: Venni Moore, Paul Gilbert, Skid Row, Dire Straits, Sting.
Tony: Matt Cameron, Dennis Chamber, Danny Carrey, Vinnie Paul, Mudwayne, Tool.
Titu: STP, Sound Garden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Billy Sheehan.

Style n Attitude…
Aashor is a rock n roll band, with a flavour of alternative. 'Its about music and fun', said Tony. ' We mainly work on abstract topic,' added Zubair. ' Our works deal with depression and the psychedelic.' Rather than sticking to the stereotyped esplanade, Aashor endeavours to set a new aura with their utterly versatile music. Some of their upcoming tracks boast the perfect blend of classical music and the alternative!!

Most memorable stage performance…
The day after Din Bodol got released, Aashor had a concert at the Russian Cultural Centre. Thanks to Shunno, they were celebrities by then. When they reached the stage, the crowd broke into a total frenzy. Fans came up in front of the stage, and started banging their heads with the beat of the music, leaving Aashor absolutely enthralled. 'Oh! There's another memorable performance,' Abir added with a grin. 'We once performed at Mahanagar Nattyamancha with (ahem) celebrities ranging from Asif to Tishma. It was an experience filled with pain and pleasure!’

Embarrassments…
Sound system,' Abir said with a smirk :-).

Any competitor in the underground arena?
'Music is an art,' the band replied. 'The word competition doesn't go with it.' All the other underground bands are Aashor's friends, not foes. Some of their favorite contemporaries include: Nemesis, Breach, Fulbanu's Revenge, Reborn, Stentorian.

How about music as a career?
'Music is our passion,' the band replied. But, in a country like ours the society is still reluctant to acknowledge music as a true occupation. Nevertheless, no matter what careers they pursue in future, music will always be the top priority for the members of Ashor.

Five years from now…
Five years from now, Aashor expects to have its own listeners. They don't want to get commercialized. On the contrary, they want to enter the mainstream by playing quality music.

What makes them different from rest of the bands?
'The fact that we are the laziest band,' Zubair replied mischievously.

Upcoming events…
Aashor is currently working on Agontuk 3 and Lokayat mixed albums. We, the RS crew, hope that they would soon come up with an album of their own.

Aashor wants to thank…
Russel, Sohel, Mumtahana, Pratik, Prohi, Hamza, Bubli, Nusrat, Ershad (AKA Baka), Fuad Bhai, Duray Bhai, Sumon Bhai, Black, Artcell, Aurthohin, Families, and ofcourse fans.

The very small duration in which Aashor sprung up, the fans and RS desk can wish for only matured music with prolific taste that now is underground-ish, but can become great mainstream band in the near future.

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S P I D E R M A N 2

Review by Gokhra

Cast :
Peter Parker/Spider-Man: Tobey Maguire
Mary Jane Watson: Kirsten Dunst
Dr. Otto Octavius: Alfred Molina
Harry Osborn: James Franco
Betty Brant: Elizabeth Banks
Snooty Usher: Bruce Campbell
Aunt May: Rosemary Harris
J. Jonah Jameson: J.K. Simmons
Louise: Vanessa Ferlito

MOst of the times sequels tend to be a bit dull. It could be because people expect too much from the first movie or that the movie is actually dull. So when Spidey 2 came out, albeit in pirated form, it was a bit of apprehension with which I watched. The print was horrible but the temptation was too great to resist. So there I was watching a movie with faded colors and an echoing soundtrack.

The plot: It all begins a little after the last movie left off. Peter Parker is having a hard time. His constant fights with the criminals of New York leave him exhausted for time. He can't make it to dates with Mary Jane who has gotten tired of being stood up and is engaged to an astronaut. Peter is dong badly in school, is late in payment for the huge warehouse like apartment he lives in, lost his job at the pizzeria and his friends are annoyed with him for his irresponsible time keeping. Lastly he has lost his love because he was too afraid that he would lose her to the bad guys if they knew. So he's losing in a big way.

Life is hard for a teen as it is and being a superhero doesn't make things any better. So he has finally decided to call it quits and thrown his costume in the dump. Is this the end of our hero? Well, c'mon there's Doc Octopus who's out to terrorize the Big Apple.

Peter Parker admires the famous Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) whose experiments on fusion technology promise to power everything or destroy everything. To handle the dangerous materials of his experiments, Octavius devises four powerful tentacles that are fused to his spine and have a cyber-intelligence of their own. There's' a chip at the top of his spine that prevents the tentacles from overriding his wish but when an accident destroys the chip the gentle scientist is transformed into the fearsome Doc Ock.

Superheroes cannot ignore the call of duty so that's where we have our hero slinging to the rescue. Of course along the way his web spurting abilities fail him but that's a minor glitch.

The movie is great. In fact, it is in a way better than the first movie. Sure the first one had all the surprise of parker discovering his powers but all that left t a lot of the character development in the dark. In the sequel there is a lot more emphasis on the characters and their lives. Peter Parkers exhausting life is something as lot of people can relate to. The regular traumas of life he deals with are familiar to most people. I mean, look at Superman and Batman. They can handle everything that comes their way.

But that does not mean there is any cutback on the thrills. There's plenty of action start to finish. There's a scene consisting of Spidey, a train and its horrified passengers that would make Superman proud. A lot of people complain that Spiderman looks a bit cartoonish as he swings from building to building but this sequel has made a slight change to that.

It's a real proper movie with a great plot, character depth, terrific action and an endearing human element. So was it worth being impatient and watching a bad print. Yes, and its definitely something to watch all over again.

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Sites Unseen

By Niloy

You know, Google is doing a lot of favours for us lately. You probably know by now that Google is going to serve us with a legendary email service. Anyway, by developing that email service, Google kick-started the new revolution of improving email services. You see, Yahoo first got inspired by this big bad kick and improved it's service (increased account size to 100 MB). Most other email services will soon improve their services. Except Hotmail. I wish somebody would literally kick them (owners of Hotmail) in their face to make them realise that their 2 MB email account seem microscopic in front of Gmail's gigantic 1000 MB accounts.

Anyway, lots of responses from my dear readers again. That's exactly why I'm working so hard to make sure you can enjoy internet at it's best. But I'm facing some limitations though. You see, most people are forced to use very slow internet connection. So, I can't recommend really cool (but huge in size) sites for the next generation.

Stuff to discover
www.forests-forever.com
Do you have any idea how a helicopter flies? How car engines works? How that chopper actually flies? How the newspaper you are reading actually gets printed? Lot's of thing yet to discover, huh?

Well, upgrade the one of the most powerful computers in this planet: your brain. Visit the site and discover stuff. It's designed to be addictive, encouraging and, of course, interesting.

Stuff to watch
www.teasdaleart.com
"I have travelled around the world observing people and nature. Travelling heightens differences, so seeing similarities is more challenging. It's subtle. A look or a gesture can give a glimpse of human essence, a commonality that binds us. It is the same thing with a sunrise; it will always affect us whenever it takes place. That sort of link, and a sharing of intimate moment, is what I seek to convey in my work." That's what the artist has to say about his special website. And I totally agree… how inspiring….

Stuff to download
http://www.miniclip.com/download.htm
Games, games, games… and lots of them. Small, funny, enjoyable and also for free. New games are uploaded every other week. This is my favourite site for finding small-sized playable games. Just thought you would like a site like this.

Get a break now
www.thehungersite.com
…and save the world.
What if I told you that feeding a hungry person was as simple as clicking on your computer mouse? That you could save some land for forests? That you can help nourish an abandoned animal for free? Would you believe me?

Trust me. It's as simple as a click on a button. Just log on to this site… find the yellow "donate" button and click it. There, you just gave 1.1 cups of staple food to a hungry person.

After you clicked on the button, you will see some ads, and those ads pay for your donation. Cool idea, huh? Last year, this site donated about 3000 metric tonnes of food.

Then get happy
flab.pixelpope.com
Do you have any idea how easily you can make a cool music video? Check out this site.

A simple techno beat playing on the background, a video of a man repeatedly smashing record-disks on his head, cool colour effects on the screen… add in your favourite song and your creativity… And you get the coolest music video in the world. I especially loved watching that guy breaking things and dancing to Eminem's classics.

This site is amusing… though not exactly guaranteed to lift your moods.

Or get sad
www.darwinawards.com
The ultimate award that you would never want to get. Yet, hundreds of people are getting it. We don't really know how they feel after getting the dreaded award… because they are all dead.

Here's how to get the award: you have to kill yourself, accidentally, in a very stupid manner. The dumber your death is, the better your award would be. I just don't feel saying anything more about this site.

Ahh, finally the end approaches. I hope you enjoyed the sites. If you are interested about any particular subject, let me know (niloy@yours.com). I might just have a good link for you. Until then, happy web surfing.