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"It was a toss-up as to which was the more fascinating experience:\nhearing Cornershop cast their gentle spell of Punjab-flavored pop,\nhip-hop grooves and psychedelic drones last Sunday afternoon; or\nwatching the band perform outdoors amid wood chips, mulch and skate\nkids who were inexplicably attracted to the idea of scaling the\nhigh, scrawny trees planted in front of the stage.\nCornershop seemed a tad out of place at this local rock radio\nstation&amp;apos;s all-day festival (the skateboard half-pipe set up a dozen\nyards away certainly didn&amp;apos;t add anything to the mellow atmosphere\nthe band was trying to conjure). Then again, perhaps environment\nhad little to do with singer Tjinder Singh&amp;apos;s demeanor. Some nine\nhours later, playing in front of a packed, crimson-lit club crowd\nat midnight, Singh managed, somehow, to look just as ill at\nease.\nIt&amp;apos;s a good thing the music was a lot warmer and relaxed -- and,\nfrankly, a lot more interesting -- than Singh&amp;apos;s stoic, even\nindifferent, on-stage persona. Uttering nary a word to the\naudience, Singh stepped up to the mic at the outset of the band&amp;apos;s\nsixty-minute club set and leaned into &amp;quot;Sleep On the Left Side&amp;quot; from\nCornershop&amp;apos;s breakthrough second album, When I Was Born For The\n7th Time. That tune, built on a foundation of Brill Building\npop, glued together with dollops of chunky percussion, and\nornamented with exotic (at least by American mainstream rock\nstandards) instrumentation, showcased the luscious, alluring beauty\nof the band&amp;apos;s music. Old School and New Style bubbled up from the\nband&amp;apos;s shambling grooves like vintage wax and melted into a\nblissed-out amalgam of bedroom indie-pop and streetcorner\nscratching.\nCornershop further hooked the audience with a faithful cover of\nthe Beatles&amp;apos; &amp;quot;Norwegian Wood&amp;quot; sung in Punjabi, and a spirited\nreading of their infectious, retro-radio hit, &amp;quot;Brimful of Asha.&amp;quot;\nLike all great pop moments, the latter song (named after Indian\nmodel/singer Asha Bhosle) suggested, rather than spelled out, a\nstream of luminous images and memories. When Singh strummed his\nacoustic guitar and toasted the names of all those old record\nlabels (&amp;quot;Ardent Records -- 45! Trojan Records -- 45!&amp;quot;), the tune\nsounded like the Velvet Underground&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Rock and Roll&amp;quot; by way of\n&amp;quot;Sweet Jane.&amp;quot; Later, the band stretched the sitar-laden &amp;quot;We&amp;apos;re In\nYr Corner,&amp;quot; with its propulsive rhythms and rustling chimes, into a\nloping, languid jam that slipped, first, into the stop &amp;apos;n&amp;apos; scratch\ninstrumental &amp;quot;Butter The Soul,&amp;quot; then crashed jubilantly into &amp;quot;Good\nShit.&amp;quot;\nCome to think of it, with song titles like those, there was\nreally no need for Singh to say anything (besides, does anybody\never really need to hear the canned rock star query &amp;quot;hey, how you\ndoin&amp;apos; out there&amp;quot; again?). The music spoke eloquently for itself,\nand titles like &amp;quot;Good Shit&amp;quot; pretty much summed up what Cornershop\nwere doing."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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