19th May, 2024
04th May, 2022For a college band, there is no better feeling than playing to a house full of fans singing along to their songs. Rum and Monkeys competed against four regional winners to take home the coveted prize of 2 Lakh rupees at the grand finale of the nationwide Parx Hunt Grand Finale - India’s Best College Band Hunt. They also won a chance to perform at the Hornbill Festival in Nagaland in November this year and exclusive Parx merchandise.
In its fifth season, 4 finalists were selected across 60 cities from 120 colleges battling for the title of national winner.
The competition opened with Manga, who grabbed everyone’s attention with their heavy drums and distorted guitars followed by The Northern Wave engaging with the audience throughout the set– especially during the band’s fiery tracks. Gin City who performed next, brought their prog metal grooves and strong rhythm sections to the house, churning out their original material. Lastly, Rum and Monkeys from Shillong, raced through their tracks with stellar showmanship, rocking riffs and stomping drums. The group delivered a power packed set, with vocalist/guitarist Atom taking the set to a higher level.
Bestowed with maturity beyond age, Rum and Monkeys is the perfect band that packs a punch. Driven by the motto 'Hard work beats Talent', the young indie band from Shillong is paving their humble way to the music industry, performing at different events in expanding their horizon.
Beautifully diversified, the band members belong to different states of the Northeast with different cultures and tradition – a perfect example of diversity.
Rum and Monkeys (East) were head-to-head with other bands from other corners of the country like The Northern Wave (North), Manga (South) and Gin City (West). All four bands raised the temperature at antisocial, Lower Parel in Mumbai with pumping energy, enthralling a motley crowd of head bangers, cajoled all the way by host for the evening Radio Jockey Hrishi K.
The jury, comprised of renowned musicians from the industry namely Viveick Rajagopalan (musician and composer), Nirmika Singh (music writer and Executive Editor, Rolling Stone India) and Theja Meru (musician and entrepreneur), who shortlisted the best bands from the regional finals. The college bands are evaluated on criteria’s like the quality of music, style, entertainment value and stage presence to name a few.
The judges confessed that choosing a winner was not an easy decision before they finally picked the winning group which was Rum and Monkeys.
Lifestyle brand Parx as a concept is gaining traction with every passing year and the college youth is now increasingly seen resonating with this musical extravaganza. In its fifth edition, Parx Hunt – India’s Best College Bands has become the most ambitious platform for independent musicians to make their mark. Along with providing a unique platform for young Indie bands, Parx Hunt hopes to touch more lives with every passing year and enrich the musical journeys of everyone who ever dares to dream.
Details of 4 finalists
Manga is a rock n roll band based out of Bangalore where each member in the band has song writing and playing experience of over 5 years. In a span of one year from being formed, Manga has won all the battles they have participated in prestigious colleges across the country.
Manga has headlined several prestigious venues including Fandom, Forum Mall, ST. Joseph’s college, phoenix market city among other venues. The band has been very active even during the pandemic where they have played a livestream concert in partnership with Skillbox and Streamphony.
The success of scouting the talent lies in reaching the length and breadth of the country and it is commendable that Parx Hunt team has brought us a band from a small city of Solan in Himanchal Pradesh. Having a talented band in a city that has a population of less than 50000 people is very motivating for rock n roll scene in India.
The Northern waves is a Rock and Indie Alt Rock Band. The band belongs to Solan, Himachal Pradesh and performs in North Region like Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Chandigarh.
They believe that music has no language, no religion and no cast. Music just may be defined by its composition.
The competition is intensifying with two power packed performances and two more to come. Witnessing the young talent competing and it is heartening to see that brands such Parx is supporting them and giving them the platform to grow.
Gin City is the brainchild of guitarist Shishir Singh who’s been active in the Mumbai indie scene since the last 6 years. After playing with a number of original and cover bands, Shishir decided to chart his own song writing path, by writing music in a completely new direction. His brother and drummer Swapnil Singh was naturally brought on as they wrote songs together and ultimately incorporated guitarist Nikhil Sinha and bass player Kaustubh Meher into the band. The idea for this band was conceived in May 2019 and the line-up was completed by November 2019.
Gin City draws song writing influences from artists such as Bill Withers, The Roots, Green Day, Def Leppard, Foo Fighters and Guns N’ Roses, as well as Indian indie artists like Blackstratblues, The F16s, The Local Train and Skrat.
Gin City has released their debut 7-track album titled All That There Is.
Rum And Monkeys are an Indie-Rock band and the band's formation started with an aim to create music that best complimented the members' miscellaneous genres. The band's incorporates elements of Rock with an underlying tone of Synths, to make for its loud and reverberate sound.
Formed in the latter-half of 2018, the band has gone on to perform in various music festivals and venues around the north-east; to name, The highly acclaimed Cherry Blossom Festival (Four Years in a row), So far (Shillong), The Great North-Eastern Momo Festival (Guwahati), and numerous other festivals and venues, including a self-curated 11 venue tour around the North East.
