Palatable pizzas from Pokhara
The no-less-than legendary Pokhara Pizza House has had a branch in Kathmandu for a couple of years now. With its pizzas priced at just Rs 300 a pop, its luscious offerings are already winning the hearts of the Valley’s food connoisseurs. Popular among budget tourists and locals of the Lakeside area, the Pokhara Pizza House’s Kathmandu branch at Dhumbarahi serves the same fire-wood pizzas they’ve been selling since 2009. The mid-sized, decently priced pizzas can be eaten at the quaint little venue, ordered online or via phone, and the delivery is free.
We recommend you visit the place though, with its exotic placement in the middle of a small plateau formed between Dhumbarahi Chowk and Sukedhara. You can gulp on some chilled draught beer at the joint too.
THE MENU
Chef’s Special:
- Firewood Pizzas
- Chicken Wings
- Draught Beers
Opening hours: 11 am-9 pm
Location: Dhumbarahi
Cards: Not accepted
Meal for 2: Rs 1000
Reservations: 014377722, 9851240267
Grunge is not dead, neither is rock
I met them on a lazy Saturday afternoon—hot, humid and just lethargic. Now Saturday afternoon is not a good time to meet musicians. With complaints of how their (and mine) Friday-night shenanigans had them still sleep deprived, we slugged a few cups of coffee at Basantapur before finally mustering the energy to get to the office of Skathi Records—a literally underground studio at Lagan where the band ‘Shree 3’ rehearses. Totally worth the time and energy spent though. I was awestruck by their raw energy and how tight they sounded even in rehearsals. I also managed to get a raw video footage of “The Monk”, a song with an infectious guitar riff, from their upcoming album. (Follow the QR code for the video.)
The band came to life in 2016 as a side project of three proficient musicians already playing for different other bands. Sarad Shrestha (Tumbleweed) on guitars and vocals, Rozet Gurung ( Jugaa, Nude Terror) on bass and Robin Neupane (Tumbleweed, H.O.S.) on drums complete the lineup of Shree 3, a power trio. Nothing to do with the dynastic rule of the Ranas; the name Shree 3 just signifies the number of band members.
As for their music, although band members do not prefer tagging themselves with any single genre, at its heart Shree 3 is an alternative rock band that also explores stoner rock, desert rock and a lot of grunge. With Sarad’s heavily overdriven guitars and unique finger-style playing, his raw vocals reminiscent of the alternative greats of the 90s, Rozet’s groovy basslines, and Robin’s steady drum beats, the band is a complete package of skilled musicianship and scintillating energy.
“We make most of our music while jamming at rehearsals,” says Sarad, who also writes lyrics for the band. “We discuss topics and then conceptualize the songs we’re going to work on. A song may originate in one of Rozet’s bass grooves or Robin’s drum beats.” For inspiration, the band looks up to heavy music from the 60s to the late 90s— heavy metal, punk, rock n’ roll, grunge and all.
Shree 3’s previous singles “Eutai Antya” and “Sanity Wreck” are already popular among Nepali listeners and their latest, “Maze”, is also getting a lot of attention on social media. The band, even in its short history, has already been able to tour eastern Nepal—a region where Nepali artists long to play. Love and support from the easterners is a measure of success for any Nepali artist. The band already has a small but supportive fan base across the country, perhaps owing to the reputation of band members from their past exploits. “We have been taking it slow at Shree 3 due to our commitments with other bands,” Sarad says. “But now that we are releasing our first album, we will be doing more shows around the country.”
“This is an experimental album,” Rozet talks about “Drabya Dharma”, the band’s upcoming album. “There are 10 songs, each one sounding very different to the others. We have tried a lot of sub genres. Our influences come to play here and we’re still trying to find our sound.” Robin, one of the most popular drummers in the current music scene, adds that the inspiration for Shree 3’s music comes from the grunge era of the 90s as well as progressive rock. “I like to keep it groovy and not complicate the music with technicalities,” Robin says.
Drabya Dharma (roughly: ‘the religion of money’) is an independent album the band is set to release on its own. “As the name suggests, our themes are mostly distraught individuals and how they relate to the world,” Sarad says. “But there are messages of awareness in our music too,” Rozet adds.
Without a record label, the band is releasing the album with the help of its friends, namely Skathi Records and US-based Tarang Entertainment. “We got great response to our previous singles which motivated us to cut the new album,” Sarad says. “With a few English numbers, we’re also trying to enter the international arena.”
Shree 3’s “Drabya Dharma” is set to release amid a concert at Purple Haze, Thamel, on May 18. Local acts ASM, Kaagaz and Hermeneutics of Suspicion (H.O.S) will be supporting Shree 3 with opening performances. After the release, the album will also be available on online platforms like Spotify, Bandcamp and iTunes.
Barpak rises up with the New Year
His eyes are moist as he looks at his new ‘model’ house. Ram Bahadur Ghaley, 77, has bitter memories of the 25 April 2015 earthquake in which he lost many of his relatives as well as his ancestral home. The Barpak village in Gorkha district was the epicenter of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake.
All the homes of the small village were destroyed, with 70 of its residents dying. It has been exactly four years since the devastating earthquake and the villagers of Barpak are still in the process of rebuilding their homes with the help of the Rs 300,000 in compensation from the government.
Having spent many nights under the open sky, Ghaley has just finished building his new home. Even if he cannot get back the loved ones he lost in the earthquake, says Ghaley, he nonetheless wants to bring some happiness to those who remain.
In the Dharche rural municipality in Barpak, 6,149 families have already rebuilt their homes while 1,033 families are still homeless. Their traditional abodes have been replaced by modern, earthquake resistant houses. One storied, quaint little houses with blue tin roofs are in fact the new signature feature of Barpak. The Barpak residents, who do not want to remember April 25, are forcefully reminded of the catastrophic day by the recurring aftershocks. But Barpak is slowly regaining its vitality, one blue tin roof at a time
Capturing subaltern tunes and lost melodies
A bunch of metalheads, all prolific in their respective instruments, got together in 2006 to form a Nepali ‘folk-metal’ band. They wanted to mix their favorite genre, metal, with ethnic musical instruments. But finding musicians to play those instruments to the rhythm and tempo of metal music was almost impossible. Thus they learned to play the instruments themselves.
As their skills in the folk instruments grew, the band decided they would continue composing music with only ethnic instruments. Thus started the evolution of Night—a new-age Nepali folk band. Today, Night is a oneof- a-kind musical ensemble of young, determined and talented musicians who have set out to redefine Nepal’s folk genre and recover lost and endangered tunes of its farflung corners. An example of mature artistry and profound understanding of music, Night’s compositions are manifestation of the unexplored or understated contemplations of the unheard communities in the country, all captured as they are, and served organically to the aural satisfaction of its listeners.
Night’s debut album “Ani Ukali Sangai Orali” (2014) gave us absolute tearjerkers like “Kathor” and “Sunko Jutta” while “Jhalka Raya Buka” (2017) introduced the audience to the authentic sounds of deuda from far-western Nepal. The band’s subaltern folk music challenges the very roots of heavily-synthesized commercial Nepali folk, with the madal and sarangi dominating the plasticized music (read : lok-dohoris).
‘We have been in this for over a decade because of the immense satisfaction we get and the freedom we have in creating our music’
Jason Kunwar, Night
The success of Night and their global acceptance show there is more to Nepali folk music than lamentations of one’s failed life, mistimed political jibes, and running away with other people’s children. Night’s music come not just from superficial absorption of a single regional or communal music, but from deep research and extensive travel to some of the remotest parts of the country, in search of local dialects and melodies that are being lost.
“If you evaluate our success in terms of album sales, we’re not doing so well. Night is definitely not a profitable band,” says Jason Kunwar, a founding member who writes most of its lyrics, composes music, sings, and is also a multi-instrumentalist playing ethnic instruments like the sarangi, piwachha, Nepali banjo, tungna, nyakhin and bamboo flute. “But we have been doing this project for more than a decade because of the immense satisfaction we get from it and because of the freedom we have in creating our music.” Like any other band in the country, Night has seen its share of differences among its members resulting in some line-up changes. But Jason along with another founding member Niraj Shakya (backing vocals and tungna) have been the anchors of the ensemble which has seen up to 14 members sharing the stage together.
The current line-up has, besides Jason and Niraj, Sudhir Acharya in the rhythm section playing the nagara, dhime, nyakhin, madal and doing backing vocals; Sugama Gautam on vocals; and Shiva Kumar Khatri playing paluwa ( just leaves) and vocals. The Schima leaves Khatri plays, called chilaune in Nepali, have traditionally been used as musical instruments. This art is on the verge of extinction, band members inform.
The musicians from Night are all involved in various other projects for their livelihood. Night is just an outlet for them to create music that differs from commercial norms. “We’re together because we play for pleasure,” says Niraj. “We love the feedback our audience gives us and we have been blessed with positive responses so far.” Night has performed at prestigious world music festivals like Shambala Music Festival in the UK, Sommarscen Malmö festival in Sweden, and Womex festival in Germany.
The band has also traveled to other European and Asian countries including the exotic Uzbekistan with their music and are all set to tour Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Macau with their new album “Ramite-The Music, Volume 1”. The album, launched on April 13 this year, is inspired by Jason’s upcoming novel ‘Ramite-Daam’ translated as “The Spectator: Scar”, and finds Night at its peak of artistic confluence with the rhyme and rhythm of the Nepali folk music. “Our songs have in the past been about communities, places and natural disasters. But this album is based on a fictional alternate world and the struggles its people have to go through,” says Jason. Night has released some new songs from the album on Youtube. The physical copies are on sale at Ekta Books, while the digital copies can be found on the band’s iTunes and Spotify pages.
