Vish Iyer

BORN: March 1979JOINED THE DV STAFF: September 2003HOMETOWN: Mumbai, IndiaNOW LIVING IN: St. John's, NL CanadaSPOUSE / KIDS: Happily married / no kidsFAVORITE ARTIST: Steven WilsonOTHER ARTISTS I LIKE: Cure, Smiths / Morrissey, Catherine Wheel, Cocteau Twins, Curve, Tears For Fears, Nine Inch Nails, Sneaker Pimps, Depeche Mode, New Order, The Mission UK, Faith No More, Massive Attack, Electronic, Grant Lee Buffalo, Jeff Buckley, Jesus Jones, The The, Manic Street Preachers, etc.BEER: The hoppier the better!OTHER HOBBIES: Writing poetry, watching documentaries of all sorts, reading books (PG Wodehouse, J D Salinger, Albert Camus, etc.), and a little bit of guitar-playing and music-mixing.PERSONAL MOTTO: Don't worry too much about life. It will depress you anyway.I WRITE MUSIC REVIEWS BECAUSE: ...it gives me a great sense of satisfaction by writing them and sharing my thoughts on music with other cognoscenti, like myself.
10 Posts
03 Apr

Vish Iyer’s 101 Favorite Songs

Vish IyerFeature
Music tastes change, like everything else in life. As a result, it is almost impossible to pick a list of songs as my all-time favorite. So, for this exercise, I have selected tracks that I find special: either because of a particular artist, album, or because they transport me to certain memories, or because the songs have an endearing quality and they never wear off on me. With that in mind, below are 101 songs that are special to me (in no particular order). The only rule this list adheres to is that no artist/band is repeated. Finally, why “101”?…
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13 Jan

20 Albums That Influenced Me: Vish Iyer

Vish IyerFeature
The albums in the list below (chronologically arranged, but in no special personal order) mark key milestones on my journey to discovering rock ‘n’ roll itself, growing up in India in the ’80s and ’90s. 1. Kraftwerk – The Man-Machine (1978)The Man-Machine was probably one of my very first exposures to music of any kind, period. My father picked up a cassette tape of this album on one of his trips abroad in the early ’80s (I forget where) on the recommendation of one of his friends. Of course, he didn’t know what Kraftwerk was! I still remember playing with Matchbox…
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13 Aug

Dark Progression DVD Delves Deep Into Depeche Mode

Vish IyerFeature
As an official documentary, not authorized by Depeche Mode or their record company, The Dark Progression is stripped-down and dry – no band interviews, no fancy information booklet (in fact no booklet at all), no extra music. This documentary analyzes the progression of the band through the string of four key records – Some Great Reward, Black Celebration, Violator, Songs Of Faith And Devotion – that shaped their career and made them the greatest electronic band of all time. In the absence of band interviews (barring snippets from archived interviews of Martin Gore and Alan Wilder), the story is told…
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29 Jun

Puracane’s Ali Rogers: The Daily Vault Interview

Vish IyerFeature
New York electronica group Puracane has a new album out called I've Been Here The Longest. Recently the Vault's Vish Iyer had the chance to chat with frontwoman Ali Rogers about the band, herself and the new record.  (You can hear the interview in its entirety on live365 here.) Daily Vault: I want to ask you about your cover of “Summertime Rolls,” the Jane’s Addiction song. As you know, the original song is a psychedelic grandiose epic. Now I wouldn’t associate Puracane as a psychedelic dance band. And the way your version has turned out, it’s almost entirely the opposite.…
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01 Jan

Depeche Mode / Tears For Fears Retrospective

Vish IyerAnnouncement
Depeche Mode and Tears For Fears are two bands that are almost synonymous with electronic new Wave music. With their unique individual styles, both these bands helped to shape the synth-pop music scene of the eighties, and have influenced countless acts in the decades following it. The year was 1980 when four young lads from Basildon England -- singer Dave Gahan and keyboardists Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, and Andrew Fletcher -- formed the group known as Depeche Mode after the band’s several initial short-lived incarnations in the late seventies. Their debut record Speak And Spell released in 1981 was a…
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25 Mar

Inside The Smiths

Vish IyerFeature
The one idea that resonates throughout this film is that it is about The Smiths from the people who were actually there (and no, they aren’t Marr or Morrissey. And the way it is shot goes hand-in-hand with this idea – Inside The Smiths is not a typical rock documentary of The Smiths. It doesn’t go deep inside the lives of the band to expose spectacular facts about its members that the public never knew. It is merely a series of interviews – almost like story-telling – of the “other” two Smiths, bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce.In a…
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24 Dec

2007: Ten Shows That Rocked (And Three That Didn’t)

Vish IyerBest Of
Three That Didn't1. IAMX (Great Scott, Boston, MA; October 18) Chris Corner of Sneaker Pimps (aka IAMX) and his band did an excellent job of bringing this cavernous little nightclub to life with an electrifying performance promoting his sophomore effort, The Alternative. Even with just one keyboardist in the band, Corner did a great job of performing a catalog of densely electronic dance tracks, and these rawer, more rock versions never for a moment sounded stale or out-of-place. But the show gets big “no-no” for the set-length, which consisted of more than half of The Alternativ, and only two cuts…
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31 Dec

2006: Top 10 Concerts

Vish IyerBest Of
My top 10 favorite concerts of 2006, in descending order:1. Porcupine Tree (Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA & State Theatre, Falls Church, VA; October 07 & October 08): These back-to-back shows top the list because Steven Wilson and his group simply put on awesome performances both nights. In what seemed like a common theme on all concerts on the band’s entire Arriving Somewhere tour, both the shows were divided into two halves. The band played unreleased material from the upcoming album on the first half and the regular favorites during the second. The new material, which included the brilliant tentatively-titled “The…
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07 Feb

Collective Soul’s Will Turpin: The Daily Vault Interview

Vish IyerFeature
Collective Soul is prepping the release of their new live DVD Home: A Live Concert Recording With The Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. The live DVD -- to be released on the band's own El Music Group record label -- is scheduled to hit major retailers on February 7 and will also be available as a two-CD set. Recorded in April 2005, the concerts were filmed in the band's hometown of Atlanta during two special performances featuring the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. The 20-song collection spans ninety minutes and encompasses hits from throughout Collective Soul's seven studio albums, including their latest…
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22 Aug

Drop The Fear: The Interview

Vish IyerFeature
Drop The Fear is a promising trip-hop-rock act from Denver, Colorado. They have a debut LP and a DVD out, both of which have been reviewed on this site. I happened to catch up recently with one of the band members, Sarah Marcogliese, for an interview.  Q: Tell me something about yourselves. The album has no band photos, and the website doesn't have an "About" or "Bio" section. Tell the world what Drop The Fear is.A: Yeah, we received a bit of flack for that. We started putting together our website, and all three of us had the same thought…
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