HGTV/Paste SXSW Preview - Red Baraat

HGTV has teamed up with Paste for our ninth annual party in Austin, Texas, at SXSW, March 13-16. With 11 bands per day, the lineup includes both some of the festival’s most exciting veteran performers including Billy Bragg, Buddy Miller & Jim Lauderdale, Josh Ritter and The Zombies, as well as newcomers like Foxygen, The Lone Bellow and GUARDS.

The official four-day party will be held at one of 6th Street’s biggest music venues, The Stage on Sixth (508 E. 6th Street), from noon to 6 p.m. In the days leading up to the event, we’ll post previews on the artists on the lineup.

Red Baraat

Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Members: Sunny Jain, Rohin Khemani, Tomas Fujiwara, Mike Bomwell, Sonny Singh, MiWi La Lupa, Ernest Stuart and John Altieri
Current Album: Shruggy Ji
For Fans of: Bhi Bhiman, The Soul Rebels, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds

With as many different instruments as Red Baraat features in its eight-piece band, it should sound like a chaotic mess. It shouldn’t work, but it does.

There’s a charismatic unity that flows over those energetic bhangra beats that gets everyone on their feet, even the usually reserved Al Gore.

And that sense of unity, paired with an intensely upbeat mix of bhangra, jazz, brass funk, hip-hop and go-go music, is definitely on purpose according to lead member Sunny Jain in Red Baraat’s website bio:

“We are simple creatures that desire community. If we can unite people of all backgrounds and ethnicities to partake in the exuberance of life through the universal language of music, then life is that much sweeter.”

You can listen to the title track from Shruggy Ji below.