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X-WR-CALNAME:Young the Giant
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:271842025-07-13
DTSTART:20250713T230000Z
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:OPAQUE
DTEND:20250713T040000Z
LOCATION:31806 Lake View Drive\nSelbyville DE 19975
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=31806 Lake View Drive\nSelb
 yville DE 19975;X-APPLE-RADIUS=49;X-TITLE=31806 Lake View Drive:geo:38.466
 017,-75.112054
GEO:38.466017;-75.112054
SUMMARY:Young the Giant
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:American Bollywood\, Young the Giant’s fifth studio album and
  first\nsince 2018’s Mirror Master\, is structured after the ancient San
 skrit\nHindu text of The Mahabharata (part of the Bhagavad Gita). The\nban
 d’s front man and creative force Sameer Gadhia learned about\nthose tale
 s by way of the Mumbai-based Amar Chitra Katha comic\nbooks/graphic novels
  with their serialized depiction of religious\nlegends\, folklore and epic
  poems. That nexus of the ancient/classical\nand modern/art-pop culture is
  at the heart of American Bollywood’s\nvarious threads and subtexts.Sepa
 rated into four acts of four songs\napiece (I. Origins\, II. Exile\, III. 
 Battle\, IV. Denouement)\, American\nBollywood is a musical meditation\, a
  song suite\, a cinematic blend of\nmodern indie-rock and ancient Indian i
 nstrumentation\, including sitar\nand tablas (Gadhia’s father played the
  latter\, while his grandmother\nwas a professional singer). The album rec
 ounts the true-life journey\nof Young the Giant’s front man Sameer Gadhi
 a’s parents\, who\nemigrated in 1984 from India to America\, where he wa
 s born\, tracing\nhis own internal struggle to preserve a cultural identit
 y while\nassimilating into the melting pot of Southern California’s Oran
 ge\nCounty. Co-produced by John Hill [Santigold\, M.I.A.\, Phantogram\,\nK
 halid] with the band\, the album represents the perfect storm in Young\nth
 e Giant’s professional and personal lives – the isolation\nbrought on 
 by Covid\, starting families of their own and breaking away\nfrom the majo
 r label system with their own label\, Jungle Youth Records\nthrough AWAL. 
 And while the narrative follows the particular journey\nof Gadhia’s fami
 ly\, the songs are expansive enough to apply to\nanyone who has relocated 
 from their homeland to another country. Every\nlast one of us in America i
 s an immigrant or descended from one.In\nessence\, American Bollywood is a
 bout the journey\, not necessarily the\ndestination\, with nods to family\
 , companionship\, sacrifice and\nromantic love along the way\, between par
 ents and children\, man and\nwife\, in fact\, all of us “Same Folk\,” 
 the final song on the\nrecord. And just as that odyssey moves from India t
 o the United\nStates\, so does the music\, going from traditional Indian s
 ounds to\nmore western rock and pop in Act III: Battle\, with the funky 
 “Dollar\nStore” and the Bowiesque “Cult of Personality.”Although t
 he\nalbum’s subject was highly personal\, Gadhia’s bandmates –\nguit
 arists Jacob Tilley and Eric Cannata\, bassist Payam Doostzadeh and\ndrumm
 er Francois Comtois – were enthusiastic participants in making\nAmerican
  Bollywood a Young the Giant project. The band’s backgrounds\ninclude Pe
 rsian (Doostzadeh)\, Italian-Jewish (Cannata)\,\nFrench-Canadian (Comtois)
  and British (Tilley).Gadhia’s family\nodyssey began back in the ‘40s 
 with the Partition of India\, which\nestablished India’s independence fr
 om Britain\, but also set up the\nneighboring Pakistan\, setting off confl
 ict between the Hindus and the\nMuslims that displaced tens of millions. H
 is own parents defied the\ncountry’s strict caste system by being from t
 wo different classes\nand cultures. “American Bollywood expresses a para
 dox\, a\nyin-yang\,” says Sameer. “It’s who I am\, not quite America
 n\, but\nnot completely Indian\, either. I don’t particularly fit in wit
 h the\nway South Asians are depicted in popular culture\, even though it
 ’s\nstarting to change for the better\,” citing the visibility of\neme
 rging auteurs like Ramy Youssef\, Aziz Ansari\, and Kumail Nanjiani\,\nadd
 ing\, “Hopefully this album will help in that regard.”The\nambitious p
 roject – Sameer uses the phrase “mystical punk” to\nrefer to their D
 IY\, experimental approach -- includes a succession of\nhome-made videos w
 hich capture the essence of dislocation\, combining\nhome movies with chor
 eographed scenes in a surreal\, dream-like\ndepiction of the album’s cul
 tural themes. The Mahabharata\, a tale of\nfive brothers cast out of the k
 ingdom into the forest\, could be\nequated to the five members of Young th
 e Giant set loose to fulfill\ntheir own destiny. The four individual secti
 ons represent Sameer’s\ngrandparents in the old world (Origins)\, his pa
 rents finding\nthemselves strangers in a new world (Exile)\, his fight to 
 maintain his\nculture while also trying to fit in (Battle) and finally\,\n
 reconciliation and transcendence for future generations (Denouement).\nGad
 hia points out the individual categories could also refer to the\ncreative
  and career progression represented by the band’s first four\nalbums.You
 ng the Giant have been streaming each of the individual\nAmerican Bollywoo
 d acts once a month – emulating\, per Gadhia\, the\ncliff-hanging nature
  of the original episodic graphic novels –\nculminating in the release o
 f the full version of American Bollywood\,\neventually as a double-vinyl s
 et. A series of fall and winter dates\,\nincluding dates at Red Rocks Amph
 itheatre in Colorado and L.A.’s\nYouTube Theater will feature a mix of A
 merican Bollywood material\ninterspersed with fan favorites from the catal
 og and “songs that fit\nthat story line\,” according to Gadhia. Starti
 ng out calling\nthemselves The Jakes (after the first-name initials of the
  band’s\noriginal five members\, who first met in high school)\, Young t
 he Giant\nwas initially signed by Roadrunner Records\, releasing their\nse
 lf-titled debut in 2010\, spawning three hit alternative singles\,\n“My 
 Body\,” “Cough Syrup” and “Apartment.” A prominent\nperformance 
 on the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards and a subsequent tour\nwith Incubus fou
 nd the debut album climbing to #42 on the Billboard\n200. Released on Fuel
 ed by Ramen/Atlantic\, Mind Over Matter (2014)\nreached #7 on the Billboar
 d 200\, while Home of the Strange (2016)\,\nwhich hinted at some of the im
 migration themes explored in American\nBollywood\, peaked at #12. “We’
 ve carved our own path\, which is\npretty amazing\,” says Sameer. “We 
 don’t fit into the structure\nof American pop music. We check ‘other
 ’ on the box. I was in\ndenial of that for a while. Hopefully\, we can b
 ring a little brown to\nthe white world of indie-rock. This album is a lit
 mus test for whether\nwe can make that a reality. I believe music has the 
 ability to bring\npeople together without being pedantic or preaching.”C
 ontinuing to\nlive up to his band’s unique name\, Gadhia says\, “We st
 ill believe\nin the power of being young\, naive\, innocent and optimistic
 . We always\ntry to find the beauty in things.” American Bollywood does 
 just\nthat\, turning his family history and memories into a work of exquis
 ite\nhigh art and popular appeal. Venue: Freeman Arts Pavilion.
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:American Bollywood\, Young the Giant’s fifth
  studio album and first since 2018’s Mirror Master\, is structured after
  the ancient Sanskrit Hindu text of The Mahabharata (part of the Bhagavad 
 Gita). The band’s front man and creative force Sameer Gadhia learned abo
 ut those tales by way of the Mumbai-based Amar Chitra Katha comic books/gr
 aphic novels with their serialized depiction of religious legends\, folklo
 re and epic poems. That nexus of the ancient/classical and modern/art-pop 
 culture is at the heart of American Bollywood’s various threads and subt
 exts.Separated into four acts of four songs apiece (I. Origins\, II. Exile
 \, III. Battle\, IV. Denouement)\, American Bollywood is a musical meditat
 ion\, a song suite\, a cinematic blend of modern indie-rock and ancient In
 dian instrumentation\, including sitar and tablas (Gadhia’s father playe
 d the latter\, while his grandmother was a professional singer). The album
  recounts the true-life journey of Young the Giant’s front man Sameer Ga
 dhia’s parents\, who emigrated in 1984 from India to America\, where he 
 was born\, tracing his own internal struggle to preserve a cultural identi
 ty while assimilating into the melting pot of Southern California’s Oran
 ge County. Co-produced by John Hill [Santigold\, M.I.A.\, Phantogram\, Kha
 lid] with the band\, the album represents the perfect storm in Young the G
 iant’s professional and personal lives – the isolation brought on by C
 ovid\, starting families of their own and breaking away from the major lab
 el system with their own label\, Jungle Youth Records through AWAL. And wh
 ile the narrative follows the particular journey of Gadhia’s family\, th
 e songs are expansive enough to apply to anyone who has relocated from the
 ir homeland to another country. Every last one of us in America is an immi
 grant or descended from one.In essence\, American Bollywood is about the j
 ourney\, not necessarily the destination\, with nods to family\, companion
 ship\, sacrifice and romantic love along the way\, between parents and chi
 ldren\, man and wife\, in fact\, all of us “Same Folk\,” the final son
 g on the record. And just as that odyssey moves from India to the United S
 tates\, so does the music\, going from traditional Indian sounds to more w
 estern rock and pop in Act III: Battle\, with the funky “Dollar Store”
  and the Bowiesque “Cult of Personality.”Although the album’s subjec
 t was highly personal\, Gadhia’s bandmates – guitarists Jacob Tilley a
 nd Eric Cannata\, bassist Payam Doostzadeh and drummer Francois Comtois 
 – were enthusiastic participants in making American Bollywood a Young th
 e Giant project. The band’s backgrounds include Persian (Doostzadeh)\, I
 talian-Jewish (Cannata)\, French-Canadian (Comtois) and British (Tilley).G
 adhia’s family odyssey began back in the ‘40s with the Partition of In
 dia\, which established India’s independence from Britain\, but also set
  up the neighboring Pakistan\, setting off conflict between the Hindus and
  the Muslims that displaced tens of millions. His own parents defied the c
 ountry’s strict caste system by being from two different classes and cul
 tures. “American Bollywood expresses a paradox\, a yin-yang\,” says Sa
 meer. “It’s who I am\, not quite American\, but not completely Indian\
 , either. I don’t particularly fit in with the way South Asians are depi
 cted in popular culture\, even though it’s starting to change for the be
 tter\,” citing the visibility of emerging auteurs like Ramy Youssef\, Az
 iz Ansari\, and Kumail Nanjiani\, adding\, “Hopefully this album will he
 lp in that regard.”The ambitious project – Sameer uses the phrase “m
 ystical punk” to refer to their DIY\, experimental approach -- includes 
 a succession of home-made videos which capture the essence of dislocation\
 , combining home movies with choreographed scenes in a surreal\, dream-lik
 e depiction of the album’s cultural themes. The Mahabharata\, a tale of 
 five brothers cast out of the kingdom into the forest\, could be equated t
 o the five members of Young the Giant set loose to fulfill their own desti
 ny. The four individual sections represent Sameer’s grandparents in the 
 old world (Origins)\, his parents finding themselves strangers in a new wo
 rld (Exile)\, his fight to maintain his culture while also trying to fit i
 n (Battle) and finally\, reconciliation and transcendence for future gener
 ations (Denouement). Gadhia points out the individual categories could als
 o refer to the creative and career progression represented by the band’s
  first four albums.Young the Giant have been streaming each of the individ
 ual American Bollywood acts once a month – emulating\, per Gadhia\, the 
 cliff-hanging nature of the original episodic graphic novels – culminati
 ng in the release of the full version of American Bollywood\, eventually a
 s a double-vinyl set. A series of fall and winter dates\, including dates 
 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado and L.A.’s YouTube Theater will fe
 ature a mix of American Bollywood material interspersed with fan favorites
  from the catalog and “songs that fit that story line\,” according to 
 Gadhia. Starting out calling themselves The Jakes (after the first-name in
 itials of the band’s original five members\, who first met in high schoo
 l)\, Young the Giant was initially signed by Roadrunner Records\, releasin
 g their self-titled debut in 2010\, spawning three hit alternative singles
 \, “My Body\,” “Cough Syrup” and “Apartment.” A prominent perf
 ormance on the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards and a subsequent tour with Incu
 bus found the debut album climbing to #42 on the Billboard 200. Released o
 n Fueled by Ramen/Atlantic\, Mind Over Matter (2014) reached #7 on the Bil
 lboard 200\, while Home of the Strange (2016)\, which hinted at some of th
 e immigration themes explored in American Bollywood\, peaked at #12. “We
 ’ve carved our own path\, which is pretty amazing\,” says Sameer. “W
 e don’t fit into the structure of American pop music. We check ‘other
 ’ on the box. I was in denial of that for a while. Hopefully\, we can br
 ing a little brown to the white world of indie-rock. This album is a litmu
 s test for whether we can make that a reality. I believe music has the abi
 lity to bring people together without being pedantic or preaching.”Conti
 nuing to live up to his band’s unique name\, Gadhia says\, “We still b
 elieve in the power of being young\, naive\, innocent and optimistic. We a
 lways try to find the beauty in things.” American Bollywood does just th
 at\, turning his family history and memories into a work of exquisite high
  art and popular appeal. Venue: Freeman Arts Pavilion.
DTSTAMP:20261029T013721Z
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR