Puja music is now as much about dhak and dhol as about guitar and drums. And the spotlight is on the Bangla bands, big time. From roadshows to foreign tours, the trademark sounds flow everywhere from Bengal to Boston this October. Here?s looking at the famous five:

Bhoomi

Kicking off the storm on Mahalaya eve, the popular folk music band (in picture right) left for a one-month, five-city American tour. ?We?ll be performing at Boston, New York, Atlanta, Dallas and Sacramento,? said lead vocalist Surajit Chatterjee. ?The shows were largely a result of the positive response to our performance in the US last year. It?s so much fun watching the Bengali kids there who can?t even speak Bengali but freak out on Tomar dekha nai?? Back home, Bhoomi?s new 10-song album Dekhte Dekhte may be released under the HMV label even while the south Calcutta boys rock the US.

Cactus

The last three Pujas were spent enthralling Bengalis in Delhi. But not this week. ?We had to be in Calcutta this time,? says lead vocalist Siddhartha (better known as Sidhu).

?Then we also got a very high-profile Ashtami show at Hiland Park and a Dashami show at Survey Park. So we?ll have a whole lot of fun this Puja performing with our sound-and-light set up.? On the album front, the long overdue Rajar Raja, mixed and mastered by star recordist Bishwadeep Chatterjee, is almost ready for release.

Fossils

Daily roadshows and a show at Haldia on Ashtami are happening, but the stress is definitely on the new album, which has managed to create quite a buzz. Mastered in the American studios, the first lot of the album simply titled Fossils 2 has already sold out, without a formal launch. Says lead singer Rupam: ?Nobody has heard this kind of hard rock in Bangla music. We plan to launch the album in a big way soon.?

Chandrabindoo

It doesn?t get more hectic than this ? Mahalaya in Siliguri, Tritiya in Hyderabad, Sashthi in Delhi, Saptami in Jaipur, Ashtami and Nabami again in Delhi. ?Yes, it will be a whole lot of fun but there is that sense of sadness for not being able to be in Calcutta during the Pujas,? said lead vocalist Anindya Chatterjee.

The band has just released its first VCD titled Chandrabindaas and also a special animation video of the hit Juju track. Next up, a reconstruction of the band?s first album, this November.

Lakkhichhara

Roadshows rule the band?s Puja plans but the clincher is definitely the circuit house show at Jamshedpur to kick off the Puja celebrations there. ?Most of us being from South Point school, we always end up having a blast at Durgabari nearby,? said keyboardist Debaditta.

?But the roadshows will be real fun as we?ll be mainly freaking out with kids in every para.? On the racks, Jibon Chaichhe Aaro Beshi is still selling very well, while the next album is slated for Poila Baisakh.