Comedy Rock Group Live Banned Release Debut Album

Live Banned. Photo: Ashwath Nair

After three years of clowning around on stage, vocalist Amrit Rao of rock act Live Banned is a pro at improv ”“ from the tongue-in-cheek rants about Bollywood to jokes about Tamil superstar actor Rajnikanth, Rao is never short of jokes. Says Rao, “We got the name of our new album after coming across a ”˜no parking’ sign outside a kebab shop in south Bangalore.”

The Bengaluru band, who formed in 2011, have another theme going for them for Twisted Metal, a gig produced and organized by performing bands, which takes place on August 24th in Bengaluru. On the lineup alongside metal bands such as Threinody, Bhoomi doom metallers Djinn and Miskatonic, melodic death/thrash metal act Neolithic Silence and old school metallers Lucidreams, Live Banned plans to make their set louder. Says Rao, “You’d imagine every other band to play together [at the gig], except Live Banned, but we’re going to be doing a metal parody set.” Live Banned will perform their debut album If You Park Here Your Tyre Will Be Air Out, which released last week, but making them heavier. Says Rao, “We’ll take metal greats and mix it with South Indian and Bollywood pop. Imagine a [thrash metal band] Slayer song mixed with [Bollywood actor] Govinda’s dance numbers.” Rao adds that he won’t be growling any lyrics just yet.

Live Banned decided to ditch the original plan to release a DVD comprising music videos [including their most successful “The Auto Tune,” which has over 20,000 hits on YouTube] due to financial and time constraints and put out a seven-track album instead. Jokes Rao, “We were kind of forced to do an album, since we weren’t being taken seriously.” With gigs in Bengaluru and Pune crossed off, Live Banned are playing at the second edition of The Music Festival in Chennai on August 9th, followed by a show at B-Flat, Bengaluru on August 15th and wrapping up the month with Twisted Metal on August 24th. Next month, the band is slated to play in Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune and Kolkata. Says Rao, “There’ll be a lot more merch and we’ll also start shooting a mockumentary when we’re on the road.”

Live Banned August 2014 shows:

August 9th ”“ The Music Festival (w/The F16s), Egmore Museum Theatre, Chennai

August 15th ”“ B-flat, Bengaluru

August 24th ”“ Twisted Metal (w/Threinody, Djinn and Miskatonic, Bhoomi, Neolithic Silence and Lucidreams), Pebble, Bengaluru

Watch the video for “Death Dance” here. Buy the album on OKListen.