Album Notes

ABOUT THERMAL AND A QUARTER

Thermal And A Quarter, launched in 1996 in Bangalore, then not yet the outsourcing capital of the universe, is arguably India's most talked about band. The band was conceived, like the rest of us, in a bedroom, not a garage (but oh yeah, we still have plenty of drive). Pretty soon, we put out the message: Love us or hate us if you will, but you cannot ignore us.

TAAQ: JUPITER CAFÉ

Our first, eponymous demo album was released 2000. It was called thermalandaquarter.com and it won us hosannas and every other variety of lip service, and was lapped up all over the material and wired world with so much gusto that we were encouraged to give our fans something better.

So we took the rhythms of the city and juxtaposed it with our psychological landscape: the alternating cacophony and pulsating calm of Bangalore set against the cycle of karma.

Slice of life. With extra cheese.

Ten stories. Ten songs. Strung with laughs, tears and irony.

Ergo Jupiter Café.

Pythagoras called it metempsychosis - the transmigration of the soul. All it really means is that life is a journey, the body a vehicle, and the soul the tireless traveller. On an unending journey.

And you're invited.

Come on in, the weather's fine.

TAAQ: HERE & NOW

OPENING ACTS

TAAQ set its sights on an international stage after being chosen to open for classic British hard rockers Deep Purple in Bangalore on April 1, 2001. In February 2006, TAAQ opened for the legendary English-Celtic rock band, Jethro Tull.

Voted "Second biggest band in India" by a nation-wide reader's poll conducted by RSJ Magazine.

FEB 2005: Interviewed by Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers (www.jeffreypepperrodgers.com), noted American writer and music journalist (who has interviewed Dave Matthews, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Ani DiFranco, and more) TAAQ was prominently showcased on National Public Radio's All Songs Considered on February 28, 2005. It put TAAQ firmly on the American map -- the first Indian band to get this magnitude of airplay in the US. The mail has since been pouring in -- and downloads of our online album, Plan B, are going through the roof.

TAAQ: BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

Bruce Lee Mani (acoustic & electric guitars, vocals), Rajeev Rajagopal (drums), Rzhude (bass, acoustic guitars & vocals) & Sunil Chandy (guitars, vocals, keyboards) bring their musical talents together to form Bangalore's Thermal and a Quarter.

The band first took stage in 1996, representing Christ College, Bangalore, and went on to win music fests all over the country. Over the next four years, we played more than 100 concerts in cities like Bangalore, Mysore, Chennai, Mumbai, Vellore, Pondicherry and New Delhi, and has received tremendous attention from music lovers and the media for organizing their own concerts to support humanitarian and charitable causes.

TEAM TAAQ

Apart from the musicians, the band as an enterprise consists of able technicians.

Bijoy Venugopal (Website and online communications)
Bindu M Mani (Design)
Nishith Singh (Chief Technical Strategist)
Santhosh P G (Marketing, Production & Finance)
Didier Weiss (Sound design)
Umesh P N (Concert tech)
Gurudarshan Somayaji (Strategic Alliances - UK & Europe region)