Ska Vengers: The Clean Version
18 September 2012
The Ska Vengers have been busy bees during the rain soaked Delhi summer, working on two music videos for their song 'Rough and Mean' with provocative Bengali director Q.
Q got involved with the Ska Vengers through veteran mixing producer Miti Adhikari (read our interview with him here) who worked with him on the soundtrack to his film Gandu.
Originally intended to be a part of the main video where the band appear on a TV set in a few scenes, they thought it was shot so well that a separate video was created from outtakes from this scene. Catching up with keys maestro Stefan Kaye he explained how this version is also more likely to be televised: “This one ought not bother the moralists. Though one can never be too sure […] The clean version is suitable for your auntie to view. The other is what we wanted to film and follows the narrative of the song to a large degree. Of course your auntie may like that one too.”
The premise for the other ‘censored’ music video for the song revolves around musician Gautam Ghosh being fellated by girls (“whom we’d picked up in Paharghanj only an hour previously”) in the back of an SUV driven by pcrc’s frontman Suryakant. “Add some BDSM and class A narcotics and we probably have enough material to trouble the censor.”
Whist we can’t imagine seeing the censored version on VH1 or MTV any time soon it did make a sneak preview appearance at the last Ska! Ska! Ska! in Delhi. If you missed it you’ll have to wait until the bands long awaited debut LP release which has now been confirmed as 2 November 2012. It will hopefully be included on a bonus disc full of other treats alongside an album launch that promises to be pretty exceptional; “To make up for the delay we are planning a very special concert to coincide with the launch that will take place at a famous Delhi monument. We’ll reveal more soon.”
Lots to look forward to, in the meantime enjoy this version of the video for 'Rough and Mean', maybe with your auntie.
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Image Credit (Thumbnail): Sachin Soni