ARTS The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 9 New doc shows life and quest of yogi s By Kristin MacDonald Daily Arts Writer Rising jam band vows to trip out the Blind Pig Warbling loud, monotonous chants, three brightly colored, nearly naked Hindu holy men carefully pick their way along the sharp back- bone of a rocky mountain ridge. The snow-capped Himalayas loom tall and majestic By Jake Smith Daily Arts Writer CONCERT PRVIEW The future looks bright for former house- party rockers Tea Leaf Green. After their stint as a supporting act during this Tea Leaf past fall as openers for jam- Green rock demigod Trey Anasta- Tonight at sio and select shows with 9:30 p.m. Gov't Mule, the band has Atthe Blind Pig funneled their newfound support into a headlining tour, which rolls into the Blind Pig tonight. Sprouting out of Nor-Cal's fertile music scene, Tea Leaf Green is a collection of eclec- tic musical tastes and influences paired with a relaxed but focused demeanor. After meet- ing in class at San Francisco State University, bassist Franz Hanzerbeak and drummer Scott Rager started jamming with no intention of ever becoming serious about their music. After adding Rager's high school friend, gui- tarist Josh Clark, and keyboardist/frontman Trevor Garrod, the soulful quartet was pieced completed. "We met Trevor at a house party and we've been playing together for the last seven years," Hanzerbeak said. "At first, we would play at other house par- ties and the occasional small club." Growing up around the diverse milieu that is Los Angeles, their broad musical inspira- tions are present in their songs. "Our sound is a combination of our tastes," Hanzerbeak said. "Trevor is coming from a folky songwriter vibe and (Josh and Scott) are more rock based. I'm rooted in classic rock and hip hop." Coming off their fall opening role, Tea Leaf Green heads to Ann Arbor with a new per- spective on touring and what it takes to make it big. The blends of musical styles within the band do make practice difficult, but the band finds the tension rewarding. "They strive to learn new material before shows and they push their band to play well. I (look) up to them and how they go about (their) music," Hanzerbeak said. This new mindset has installed a distinct drive in the band on their current tour. "When you're on tour, it's tough to be (really) creative on that sixth day in a row, but whenever we get on stage, we make it excit- ing," Hanzerbeak said. "It took a long time (for us) to get serious as a band; we've only been touring for three years," he added. Naked in Ashes At the Michigan Theater Paradise Filmworks International courtesy of Madison House Tea Green Leaf will perform a "psychedelic" set tonight at the Blind Pig. in the distance. Straight off a postcard, this picture-perfect image of personal hardship and natural beauty provides the resounding visual center of "Naked in Ashes," a documentary pivoting around the typical practices of North Indian yogis. But it's not all mountain vistas. The film spends the bulk of its time down in the riverside slums of Hardi- war and Benares, cities that rest along the banks of the holy Ganga river, an essential location in the beliefs of these Hindu yogis. To them, it is holy Moth- er Ganga, the source of life. No mat- ter what environmentalists might say about its extreme levels of pollution, they swarm to its banks at least twice a day to bathe in its purifying waters. One guru in particular presides as the movie's central character, sporting a long, matted beard, large potbelly and thick, ankle-length dreads. He's Shiv Raj Siri, a gregarious and enthu- siastic yogi, known for walking about town with his disciples and an over- sized, evil-deterring, Neptune-style trident. Within yogi circles, however, Shiv Raj's fame stems from a beloved practice which he proudly terms his "penis-control exercise." Shiv Raj Siri, it seems, has a knack for pulling a load- ed Jeep with his bare genitals, and he has the newspaper clippings to prove it (most notably from the occasion on which he performed the feat for the Indian Parliament who apparently had little interest in seeing it). Just when you think you've got the gist of the yogi life, "Naked in Ashes" pulls a sucker punch (like Shiv's strange penis revelation) and keeps you guess- ing. The camera pans along the barren scenery of the Ganga's flat riverbanks only to break its solemnity with the signature ringing of a cell phone; but before you can go medieval on the presumably offending theater patron, one of the onscreen yogis cheerfully answers to have a quick word with his downstream guru. But most yogis do pledge to shun such modern developments, of course, choos- ing instead a life of austere minimalism. They live in bare, streetside tents. They practice yoga positions of the pretzel variety, paint their bodies with thin, gray coats of holy ash and take issue with social impediments like alcohol. When in possession of excess food, they give to the poor. Their general con- demnation of materialism is repeatedly emphasized. They abandon basic pos- sessions like shoes. That annual trek to the Himalayas, and its inevitably snow- strewn trails, is performed barefoot and without complaint. The cast of such committed persons is predictably colorful, even if the film largely fails to properly distinguish between them. We meet Hanuman Das, a leper who, shunned from other social circles, finds a home and acceptance as a yogi disciple. There's an elderly Ger- man woman who founded a Himalayan ashram with her yogi husband. Another yogi mentions his resolution to live on nothing but Ganga water as a necessary abandonment of worldly pleasure. And one notable holy-man-in-training, the "Standing Baba," plans to remain on his feet for the next 12 years in a show of spiritual commitment. For sleep, he rests on a special sling that allows him to stay upright; large open sores have already developed on his calves from the blood flow's heavy strain. In presenting the radical yogi cul- ture, "Naked in Ashes" wisely excludes an external narrator, instead allowing the yogis to speak for themselves. The notion that the world "wouldn't run without saints and yogis" becomes all the more meaningful when coming straight from the horse's mouth; they see their spiritual-shepherd role in the world as a vital, even necessary one. But despite the documentary's fasci- nating material, "Naked in Ashes" fails to fully engage the audience. Its editing is noticeably scattered, jumping from vignette to vignette rather than follow There has been an exponential explosion of their fanbase - an obvious mark of their new- found maturity - which will hail a new chap- ter for Tea Leaf Green, shooting them into the upper echelon of the jam-band world. Hanzerbeak is excited to start off this next tour in venues that return the band to their roots, with intimate atmospheres that allow them to ignite their tunes on stage with bois- terous energy. As Tea Leaf Green rolls into the Blind Pig tonight, expect two strong sets of jam-driven tunes with lyrics reminiscent of the laid-back west coast songwriters of the '70s. Hanzerbeak is optimistic to say the least: "We're there to put on a good show. If you want to show up and dance and have a psychedelic expe- rience, expect a good time," he said. r We believe everyone's more successful in a flexible environment. We want you to succeed. That's why we've created an environment that's conducive to personal and professional growth and success. At Ernst Young we're offering an opportunity to learn from some of the best talent in the industry. So visit us on campus, or on the Web at ey~com/us/careers. Whatever's best for you. We're flexible. I