Saturday, October 17, 2009

Five Funky Stories:: Diemonds

This here music blogging thing can be quite the education, because even though most bloggers would be loathe to admit it, you learn at least a little something about music every day. Take sleaze for example. No, I don't mean what you'd find on the dancefloor at the New Palace at 1:45AM (HI-O!), but rather Sleaze Rock, which I have learned is the new slang for what was more widely known as "glam metal". Who knew? Well I'm sure many of you did, either way, one of Toronto's premier purveyors of Sleaze Rock is playing this year's HPX: Diemonds.

So folks, if you're hitting HPX and looking to party with a band that has ear-splitting guitars in abundance, and a badass female vocalist to boot, then you best be at the Toothy Moose next Saturday night to see Diemonds headline a bill that also features Bike Rodeo, Thrushes, The Pack A.D. and Carpenter. So yeah, that's going to be a loud evening. Priya Panda is that aforementioned badass female lead vocalist, and besides being able to belt out the jams, she has other skills that the youtube commentors for their Highway video articulated nicely ("good band? - good luck guys - sweet lookin' lady on vocals will help big time!"). Anyway, all male jerkish-ness aside, Priya was kind enough to answer our questions, so let's get to it:

Name: Priya Panda
Band: Diemonds
Web: www.myspace.com/diemonds

1. Name a Canadian band (past or present) that should be bigger outside this country.

April Wine!!!!! Hands down. They have a KILLER discography and they really wrote a song for everyone. And for a more current band, I'm gonna say Kill Cheerleader from Toronto. I REALLY hope they decide to play live again someday!

2. From your perspective, is the music business in better or worse shape when compared to 10 years ago?

Ii didn't affect me ten years ago, so it might just seem worse now...I don't really think about. I just wanna play!

3. What are your top 3 favorite songwriting topics?

The Apocalypse, Fresh Starts, and Unhappy Endings

4. Dream show...who plays with you/for you?

A badass free festival that went on for days with Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, ZZ Top, Wings, KISS, Guns N' Roses, Plasmatics, and Crucial Taunt all with their classic lineups oh, and Diemonds and a million people everywhere. And no bag checks! They ruin all the best parties, if you know what I mean.

5. What excites you about most about making music?

Just that whole feeling of being mentally and physically in the gray area between dream and reality, I guess.