Workshop

To be fair, Workshop are great live. They crack some terrible jokes and the getup (hard hats and boiler suits) does add a sense of novelty. Plus, if you’ve seen the ”˜Bunty aur Malika Sherwath’ video on YouTube, you know these boys have a sense of humour. Lyrically, however, Workshop comes across as a bunch of hormone-loaded  pimply teenagers whose days revolve around masturbation, sex,  women and women’s anatomy. Khooni Murga, Workshop’s debut album features 10 tracks. Four of these deal overtly with sexual behavior; be it getting an orgasm (”˜I Came’), a woman who’s a big tease (”˜She Folked Up My Jazz’), a man’s desperate seekings for a sexual partner on a cold festive night (”˜Garba Gandu’) or a man waiting hopelessly with a “cookie in his hand” (”˜Cookie Monster’). There’s also a song about a guy who wants to take a dump (”˜Kothai Doro Cho,’ incidentally also the worst song on the album). Not funny, especially when you’re paying 300 bucks for the CD + DVD combo.

On the positive side, the band delivers a truckload of foot thumping metal riffs and pounding drums that are a treat. ”˜Pudhe Sarka’ clearly stands out as one of the best tracks on the album. A clever telling of the travails of travelling on Mumbai’s BEST buses, the song has a catchy sing-along chorus delivered with some hi-speed punk drumming. ”˜Cookie Monster’ is another well-executed track with a pleasant melody and a sweet lead section courtesy guitarist Rajarshi Bhattacharya.

The album showcases the funny side of Sahil “The Demonstealer” Makhija (also from Demonic Resurrection) who’s written all the lyrics and the music. The music’s great, especially for metal novices but the crass lyrics leave a lot to be desired. And it’s annoying especially because this seems to be a band with great potential in the vein of superb spoof bands like Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. It’s worth a one-time listen. One star for the music and one for the balls to put this out.