F/I/M²/P · Issue 08 · October/November 2013 by F/I/M²/P

FASHION

ILLUSTRATION

MUSIC

MOVIES

PHOTOGRAPHY

FREE LAZZY LUNG EP INSIDE

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER

JUVENILE DELINQUENTS

SAILOR’S DELIGHT

LAZZY LUNG’S LONG-AWAITED FOLLOW UP + A FOUR-TRACK EP TO FEED YOUR HUNGER

MARIPOL WOODY NAUFAL NOUR OUAYDA HUSSEIN BAZAZA + MORE HAVOC RAISERS FIRST AID KIT

ALBUM REVIEWS

GROUND-BREAKING ALBUMS THAT ARE NOT OF AGE

MUST-SEE MOVIES

FROM HIGHSCHOOL TO THE SKATE PARK

CAT POWER

LIVE IN PARIS

AMANDA BYNES & MACAULAY CULKIN

10 USD

15.000 LBP

F/I/M²/P - OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2013

‘I WANT TO START A REVOLUTION OF LOVE. ARE YOU WITH ME?’ - MADONNA -

F/I/M²/P - OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2013

LOCK ‘EM UP BOYS

ISSUE N 08

hhh, the teenage days…. Gulping down dinner in order to slip out through screen doors, dodging rustling summer bugs to secretly meet up with the guy/gal your mum warned you about, join up with some friends to play “ditch” or even, we don’t know, simply egg an elderly’s place… Admit it! You’ve either done it or wish you had. We’re pretty sure that most of you reading this have waited for that reassuring snoring down the hall so as to swipe a bottle of alcohol from the liquor cabinet, pocket the car keys and roll the car quietly out of the drive way to head to a nearby beach with some friends, get hammered, then wake up the next day with absolutely no re-collection of the night before. All of that, along with talking yourself out of some minor fake ID situations, pulling off outfit makeovers in the car away from parents’ censorship, ditching class or even hiding rock CDs under your jacket, is some sort of juvenile delinquency; whether you’ve been caught or not. Some kick it up a nudge and go overboard, like the Hollywood Hills Burglar Bunch as documented in Sofia Coppola’s real-life-based film The Bling Ring, and end up in prison. Others like “I need some coke and a lesbian DJ lover to go with my DUI” Lindsay Lohan end up with more media exposure than they could’ve dreamt up! She, the no-longer-supercute-Parent’s-Trap-freckled-face, is illustrated on one of our three covers by none other than Mr.-make-everybody-else-look-bad Fouad Mezher; a new direction we decided to go with to reaffirm F/I/M2 /P’s aim: shining a spotlight on Lebanese talent. Up to this point, the cover illustrations were the collaboration of two of the people behind F/I/M2 /P. From now on, however, they will be done by a contributing young talent. You see, change is refreshing! On another/same note, Amanda Bynes and Macaulay Culkin are on the remaining two covers, also by Fouad, of course. Don’t you dare go all juvenile delinquent-like on us by buying one cover and stealing the remaining two! What else is in this issue? Dammit, we knew those tequila shots last night were not a good idea… Ah yeah! The ever-supportive/occasionally talent-bashing album and movie review sections are packed with four albums released before the artists turned 21 (Patrick Wolf and Fiona Apple to list a couple), alongside four movies that take you from high school to skate park. So go on, flip through… There’s a surprise for you! You already know what it is by now but for the sake of the teenagers within us: LAZZY LUNG ARE GIVING AWAY THEIR NEW EP, THE HUNGER, AS A PREQUEL TO THEIR COMING ALBUM, SAILOR’S DELIGHT!! Don’t steal your parents’ cars and don’t drink. Stay cool, stay in school… or not. If you’re still at an age where you’re sneaking out to party, walk away from this issue… it’s not for you!

EDITORS’ LETTER PHOTOGRAPH BY TANYA TRABOULSI COLLAGE BY MARIA KASSAB

A COMPLETELY RANDOM AND UTTERLY USELESS THOUGHT COURTESY OF THE CHILDISH MINDS OF MOHAMAD ABDOUNI & RUDY SHAHEEN

COVER STORY

OUR PEOPLE

35 THE TROUBLE

EDITORS IN CHIEF / CREATIVE DIRECTORs RUDY SHAHEEN & MOHAMAD ABDOUNI

WITH YOUNG HOLLYWOOD

MANAGING PARTNER FATIMA M. EL MARINI ASSOCIATE EDITOR KARL HITTI FASHION EDITOR CHARLES HADDAD PROOFREADER AND GRAMMAR SAVior krystel kouyoumdjis RESPONSIBLE DIRECTOR LAMIS KHAWAJA EXHIBITING PHOTOGRAPHERS ANGELO BEAINI & DANIELLE KASSOUF EXHIBITING ILLUSTRATOR ELY DAGHER

MACAULAY

CULKIN

LINDSAY LOHAN

AMANDA BYNES

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS CLARA ABI NADER EDWIN HARB KADRI JAD YOUSSEF RAYMOND GEMAYEL TANYA TRABOULSI CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS FOUAD MEZHER KRYSTEL KOUYOUMDJIS TIMI HAYEK TANIA KHAZZAKA CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER MARIA KASSAB

COVER ILLUSTRATIONS BY FOUAD MEZHER

EXHIBITING FASHION DESIGNER HUSSEIN BAZAZA CONTRIBUTING WRITERS ALLAN CHAARAOUI CARINE KHALAF CLARA ABI NADER IMAD JAWAD KARIM ABOU ZAKI KARIM SINNO NADIA ALI PEDROS TEMIZIAN RAYMOND GEMAYEL SERGE KALDANY BADARO, SAMI EL SOLH BLVD. / BEIRUT, LEBANON INFO @ FIMP-MAG.COM +961 (0)3 71 90 86 // +961 76 64 41 26

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WHAT ARE YOU IN FOR? FASHION

60 WOODY NAUFAL EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

12 THE FASHION ARTICLE HIGH SCHOOL CLIQUES

MOVIES

19 GROWING PAINS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN HUSSEIN BAZAZA, TANYA TRABOULSI & MARIA KASSAB

38 THIS PLACE DOES NOT EXIST EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH NOUR OUAYDA

ILLUSTRATION

72 MOVIE REVIEWS HEATHERS KIDS FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF LORDS OF DOGTOWN

26 ELY DAGHER EXHIBITING ILLUSTRATOR

MUSIC

A SPECIAL HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BOTH MARYA AND SARAH, THE TWO BEAUTIFUL MODELS IN THIS ISSUE’S FASHION SHOOT.

44 SAILOR’S DELIGHT THE NEW LAZZY LUNG EP OFFERS A TASTE OF WHAT THE NEW ALBUM HAS IN STORE 33 GENERATION GAP TINASHE MADEON LORDE DISCLOSURE 64 ALBUM REVIEWS FIONNA APPLE - TIDAL PATRICK WOLF - LYCANTHROPY TYLER, THE CREATOR - GOBLIN I BLAME COCO - THE CONSTANT 82 LIVE REVIEW CAT POWER LIVE AT L’OLYMPIA, PARIS

FEATURES PHOTOGRAPHY

18 THE BLING RING HOW CRIME LED TO FAME

50 ANGELO BEAINI & DANIELLE KASSOUF EXHIBITING PHOTOGRAPHERS

58 PICK ME UP IN YOUR MUSTANG INSTEAD ( / STAY IN SCHOOL) JUVENILE DELINQUENTS AND THEIR MUSCLE CARS

REGULARS 90 THE LAST THOUGHT

80 SOUNDTRACK REVIEW SPRING BREAK ... FOREVER

14 MARIPOL EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

FASHION ARTICLE: ON WEDNESDAYS, WE WEAR PINK

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FASHION ARTICLE: HIGH SCHOOL CLIQUES

ARTICLE BY CHARLES HADDAD ILLUSTRATION BY TIMI HAYEK

No hipsterswere harmed duringthe conception of this article, however we may have forced some geeks to do our homework for us. Did we just label? I think we may have, just a tad, to prove a point That thing where people differentiate themselves from the general population by conforming to a specific clique.

hether you are pro or con, we all do it at some point in our lives. Nevertheless, we are here to talk about a specific time in our lives where most of us felt the need to belong. Oh those glorious four years of raging hormones, pimple popping and awkward facial hair. Whoever said it was supposed to be the best years of our lives must have been a jock or one the of the poplar kids. We are here to talk about our high school years and mainly the cliques that make us feel part of one thing and apart from everything else. We tend to act like each other, listen to the same music and drool over the same hot lead singer. More importantly, we tend to look the same; our closets collide as one of us borrows the other’s Metallica t-shirt and that limited edition of Dr. Martens that don’t seem to be as limited as advertised. Or even have someone steal your favorite Cher tank top that you got from her 7th farewell concert. No? Was that just us? Between the band t-shirts and studded belts there’s a lot more to dig into. Let’s get to labeling, shall we? First in line, the “Preps”, those rich kids at school that only hang out with you after inspecting your Polo shirt to make sure it’s not a knock off. Right next to them on the high school fashion pyramid come the “Jocks”. Par example, the star quarterback who sleeps in his varsity jacket because it’s getting him a full scholarship to some Ivy League school in Connecticut. Obviously we cannot talk about jocks and leave out the girlfriend, who is also the captain of the cheerleading team The “A-list Girls” in some cases known as the plastics (thank you Tina Fey for providing us with the perfect example of this girl). When she is not strutting down the hall in her cheerleading outfit that she wears so proudly, she is showing off that cheerleading physique in other garbs. Less is more y’all; from mini skirts, bootie shorts, tank tops that say “Juicy” across the bust to that occasional “freakum” dress, with the splash of lip gloss that tops it all off. Rule number 27 in the fashion bible: “Thou shall not wear lip gloss on a windy day”. That’s a little extra tip for you kids… you’re welcome. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the not so popular kids starting off with the “Nerds”; the ones that don’t have much time to put into their outfits because they are too busy cramming;

a striped short sleeved button up shirt with some khakis that are belted above the pelvis, make for a quick and easy wardrobe. Between the “Emos” and “Goths” is a fine line; a black line that is. The “emotionally unstable” kids seem to be constantly inspired by the street style version of Beetlejuice with a hint of Edward Scissorhands. Baggy black cotton trousers the size of trash bags on each leg with dangling chains and studded straps, paired with some sort of black and white horizontal stripes. Contrasted with the “Goth” kids that enjoy turning historical costumes specifically from the Victorian era into something quite Adams Family-esque. From corsetry to full skirts in ruffled ripped black lace to fishnet everything and black lips, all of it, is quite the must. Birthing from the same womb as the “Emos” and “Goths”, come the “Punks”. Those rebels that you see in the cafeteria and can’t help but stare at their neon chartreuse Mohawks. Grab a pair of skin tight jeans that look like they were painted on the legs, a studded leather jacket with random band buttons, throw a little plaid into the mix along with a spiked dog collar and this outfit is good to go. The one element that crosses the border between these three cliques is an abundant amount of piercings, tattoos and lots and lots of skulls. Moving forward, you see yourself walking into the nurse’s office to find at least 3 boys wrapped up in bandages coz of that failed attempt to skate down that rail. For those teenage boys, Vans sneakers, distressed denim, baseball hats and plaid shirts pretty much summarize their wardrobe. The “Tom Boy”, interestingly enough tends to be very similar to the “Skater” except with a female reproductive system. With the “Drama kids”, a normal stroll to your locker turns into a stroll Shakespeare lane. Thou shalt not do what, now? Oh yes, wear lipgloss on a windy day, got it. As generations get recycled and new ones step up to the plate, we find ourselves with new types of cliques forming more frequently than before; where one clique decides to secede from the union and form its own constitution. The desperate need to belong, differentiate, and rebel call for desperate measures. With new cliques come new fashions, so we look forward to seeing what the entering class of 2013 is going to come up with this season. “Ninth Grade Fashion Week” here we come. We heard rumors that Miranda Priestly will be attending and all we’re saying is: she better sit with us. That’s all.

INTERVIEW: MARIPOL - POLAROID QUEEN

INTERVIEW BY THE PEOPLE BEHIND F/I/M2/P PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARIPOL The “Polaroid Queen” steps out of her ultra glamorous A-list-celeb-studded party to chat with us common folks about her friends (be jealous, Madonna’s one of them), her camera and how she became a historian of her time; documenting Popular Culture and the rebellious youth that resided within it. AN EXHIBITION OF MARIPOL’S WORK WAS ON SHOW AT STATION IN BEIRUT.

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It’s no mystery that you were close friends with Madonna and it feels as if she was your favorite subject to photograph. How do you perceive Madonna? Obviously not as the rest of us do... She was my favorite, as much as everyone else. I’m not sure I know how people perceive her now, but she is truly a mega Pop Star who managed to achieve her dreams. She’s a fragile girl who lost her mother at a very young age and obviously made up for the pain through hard work. You designed the nowiconic wedding dress she BEAUTIFULLY wore for the Steven-Meisel-photographed cover of her Like a Virgin Album. One wouldn’t take such an achievement lightly. What went on behind that? Behind that was a great shoot at the St. Regis Hotel. It was very professional and well prepared. The art director wanted Madonna to wear black, what we now call “gothic”! What do you think of her evolution and change in the music industry, and of what she has become? She goes with her times and the trends that come along. She surrenders herself to the unknown and well-known talent. That proves that she remains fresh and modern. Your weapon of choice seems to be an old-school Polaroid camera. Anything against the progress of digital PhotoTechnology, or is it simply a nostalgic attachment to “groovier” times? My weapon of choice is less and less Polaroids as the films are not so great nowadays. I’m moving more and more into digital and film.

What was the last picture you shot with your phone? A model at the Agnés B fashion show for the summer collection 2014. What was most challenging ABOUT BOTH infiltrating & documenting the lives of great icons such as Andy Warhol, Madonna, Grace Jones, Basquiat and Debbie Harry? I did not document their lives (except for Warhol). When I met them they were not famous yet nor mainstream. It was very casual to take pictures back in the 80’s. Just like iPhones today, I had my Polaroid on me wherever we went – Studio 54, Xenon, Mudd Club (when it opened) and at the Studio. I also used it to shoot my creations, my environment, architecture, etc. Do you see yourself doing anything other than what you do? Yes – doing nothing on a deserted beach! Five tracks that take you back to rebellious youth. * * * * *

The Doors - Light My Fire Bob Marley - No Woman No Cry Rolling Stones - Satisfaction Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen Serge Gainsbourg - Aux armes etc

If you could be invisible for one day, who would you sneak up on and What would your Polaroid take a photograph of? Our president Obama. Taking pictures of a garden would make me very happy! give us five words you would want or hope people describe you with? Skinny (I am not), curious, generous, original and nice.

Ever since September 20, Maripolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s polaroids have been on show at Station, a nifty new multipurpose venue in the burgeonning and industrial Jisr El Wati, right next to the Beirut Art Center. The folks behind Station have repurposed the recently renovated wood factory and plan on holding an eclectic mix of cultural and recreational events in their 3 different spaces. Keep an eye out everyone!

F/I/MÂ˛/P - OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2013

THE BLING RING: A FILM BY SOFIA COPPOLA

etween the years 2008 and 2009, a group of teenagers ran rampant spreading distress and fear throughout the Hollywood hills. They were later dubbed the bling ring, along with several other less flattering names. Sofia Coppola’s depiction of this eruption was packaged in a 90 min eponymous movie. Her project, just like many of her other past movies, carries on with another spin on the theme of loneliness. By trying to create an impartial and completely neutral illustration of the salacious gossip story, she sheds a light on the coming generation’s desolation; loneliness so flammable it burns its host’s connection with simple reality. The mood is set as a group of unknown dark shapes slip into an empty house. Covered in moonlight, they make use of their anonymity to vulgarly walk in. As they set foot inside, Sleigh bells’ cacophonous ‘Crown On the Ground’ shreds the silence. The burglars take shape; they are now spottable entities as they ransack the luxuries that lay before them. The scene ends with them slipping out with the phrase “based on actual events” appearing at the bottom of the screen. The choice of words here is not accidental as for the remaining length of the movie, Coppola does just that; she exposes a succession of events with surgical frigidness. The perfect depiction of this cold study is summarized in a scene where reality star Audrina Partridge is burglarised. The camera is placed at a distant radius; a single wide shot is our only link to the action taking place. With this method the viewer is supposedly given the chance to decide whether what happened was good, bad or nonsensical. When reality television made its first impact during the 90’s, a shockwave of ambiguity rippled through pop culture’s classical means of entertainment. We were taking what would seem like non-events and turning them into important situations that deserved everybody’s attention. As this medium evolved, so did the characters it depicted. The subject already was, or is now, turned into a notorious celebrity, which finds us debating the now age-old question “Why is this person with presumably no talent famous?”. Tabloids have also since then kicked into high gear while shamelessly displaying explicit personal details of celebrity lives. This mounting obsession naturally poured itself into the realm of our materialistic culture. Simply put: Do you want to be happy? Then buy whatever your so-called idol already has; this will magically dissipate all of your problems. The Bling Ring is a zoomed-in look at teens looking for happiness and finding it, for a small length of time. Mark Hall (originally Frank Prugo) is a teenager that just recently moved to a new town. His parents enrol him in the “drop out school” of Calabasas. There he meets Rachel Lee (originally Rebecca Ahn), she helps him get rid of his new kid syndrome. Certain events like breaking into a friend’s house, reveal that Rachel

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ARTICLE BY KARL HITTI has a knack for kleptomaniac shopping. One day while hanging out the duo discovers that Paris Hilton’s house will be empty for the evening. A simple Google search uncovers her address and a break in follows. The pattern set forth throughout the movie is pretty simple, rob, party, rob, party, rob, do some drugs then party some more. Intercuts of pictures and videos revolving around celebrities sometimes shake this rhythm. They are employed as a way to show us what the characters constantly look at. These interjections, although purposely out of place, don’t add any significance to the bigger picture. The dialogue and ambiance employed make a perfect job of that on their own. Stretches of silence and lugubrious atmosphere make up most of the movie’s communicative dimension, while certain strategic points are filled with mashes of dialogues and excessively upbeat and Pop music. The characters take life when looting or partying. The images are now in slowed motion; our teenagers are in an induced state of joy and pleasure. These happy beats are never present in the rest of the scenes, since they are an obvious representation of the protagonists coming to life. Obsession also comes to life when the dialogue is quantified: Paris Hilton is repeated 17 times throughout the picture, Lindsay Lohan joins the race closely with 12 occurrences. Rachel Bilson, Audrina Patridge, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Jude Law, Kirsten Dunst, Miranda Kerr, Megan fox, Heidi Montag, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutsher, Orlando Bloom and Hayden Christiansen are also added to the mix. A slew of designer brands like Chanel, Prada, Miu Miu, Hermes (Birkin bag), Kitson, Guess, Alexander Mcqueen, Louboutin, Balmain, Herver Leger, Rick Owens, Victoria’s Secret, Rolex and BCBG deserve a mention as they draw the perfect representation of this fascination. Two specific colours: blue and red, appear in almost every scene in the movie. They may be a wink at the iconic red and blue pill in the Matrix franchise; a simple reminder that there is no going back after the choice is made. Another interpretation made available is the objectified transposition of the American flag; the nation’s pride and joy. In a mostly ironic turn of events, the delinquents became celebrities in their own right. They got a Vanity Fair article written about them. The article then became a book. Alexis Neiers (Nicki in the movie) even got some extra promotion for her reality show. By not being entirely sympathetic nor entirely critical either, Coppola wants to give us the needed tools for us to judge. The use of celebrity cameos and celebrity houses, however, gives upon closer inspection a sensational look at the whole scandal (Paris Hilton lent her house during filming). Sofia Coppola uses the method that is in theory designed for reality television for the making of The Bling Ring: “Film events in a voyeuristic manner, slice the good bits together and finally make a long collage out of them.” This manages, as history has sadly proven, to give the supposedly neutral footage, the extra sparkle it needs to reach the celestial sphere.

GROWING PAINS COUTURE BY HUSSEIN BAZAZA PHOTOGRAPHS BY tanya traboulsi collage by maria kassab STYLING / HAIR & MAKE-UP BY moe rida

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ILLUSTRATOR 26

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1. Tell us briefly about you and what makes you do 4. What is the one illustration you wish you had drawn? what you do. That’s a tough question. Although there are many I have been working in video, illustration, animation illustrators whose work I appreciate, I never had one and everything in between within the last few years. that I looked up to; my world of inspiration derives My mediums, or methods, are pretty eclectic. that’s from texts, movies and life in general. because I am, first of all, content driven. There are recurrent themes, questions and a processes that my 5. Professionally, what is a project you’ve always work revolves around. WANTED to delve into but haven’t gotten the chance to yet? 2. What was the most delinquent-like behavior you’ve ever engaged in growing up? I have many notebooks filled with ideas and projects but there are some that have stood out and lingered It would be illegal to say. Weirdly enough I found for the past few years, and I am slowly making my myself getting more delinquent-like behavior as I got way through them. I started working on a major one older. I am much more rebellious now then I was five of those projects A couple of months ago and I am years ago. completely submerged in it right now. Other than that, I would love to run my own small cinema eventually. 3. Have you ever found yourself rebelling against 6. Who’s the first person that pops to mind when you something through your work? think of a “Juvenile Delinquent”? Most of my personal work is a response to something happening in my life and around me. you build up so Harmony korine. much frustration that you are bound to rebel and find your own voice when you Grow up in Beirut. It is definitely a driving force in my work.

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ARTICLES BY KARL HITTI

GENERATION GAP

U. S . P O L I C E

TINASHE A -7 4 - 9 8 - 3 1 1 2 CHARGE

POP / R&B

reventing underage young adults and teenagers to inebriate their bodies with crass amounts of alcohol is a somewhat genius decision. After all, if you are not considered mature enough to make decisions for yourself, you shouldn’t be slurping a toxic concoction, especially if it’s known to release your social inhibitors while temporarily ridding you of the several IQ points you’ve tried so hard to accumulate over the years. The theory “not old enough/ not permitted to” is blatantly contradicted by all the salacious ladies we see roaming around our music channels. Take pop music’s 90’s revival with two sixteen year olds singing about wanting to be “rubbed the right way”. You may not be of drinking age, but you certainly are young enough for sexual endeavours. Well done everyone!

Think: what if Janet Jackson got in touch with her heartburning sexuality before making it big and released Janet as her first LP? Tinashe is part of this new breed of R&B singers that have learned to merge the style with all of the electronic elements that are engulfing our atmosphere. She has currently put out two mixtapes, In case We Die and Reverie. Both contain elements that vary from Post Dubstep to glitch-R&B riding waves of drippy, sometimes oriental influenced, beats.

Backed by angelic vocals, Tinashe Jorgenson Kachingwe is a twenty-year-old sweetheart who has conspicuously fallen in the aforementioned category of musically inclined underage sexpots. Born in Kentucky, her ancestry varies from Irish to Zimbabwean, which clearly illustrates the songstresses’ strong exotic appeal. Because of her father’s connection to the theatre industry, the singer’s career started pretty early when she got involved in some baby modelling (also known

Enormous buzz has been gradually gathering around the performer. Critics compliment her crisp production while throwing their hats off to her crystal light vocals. Tinashe’s next move will be decided with the release of her debut album. If she plays her cards right, flashes the right amount of cleavage paired with the correct sexual innuendos, she might escape the doomed fate already made obvious by all of the Ciaras and Cassies out there.

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as child abuse in some cultures). Over the years, she cultivated her acting resume while slowly making the transition into music. Around 2007 Tinashe joined the short-lived girl group The Stunners, but after that fizzled out, she decided to pull a Beyonce and hopefully prove herself.

GENERATION GAP

FRANCE POLICE

MADEON B-67-18-3469 CHARGE

NU-DISCO

umanity has always had a complicated relationship with underage male singers. Take Justin Bieber for example; this kid has been constantly ridiculed, mocked and parodied ever since Usher decided to make him his new pet project. Of course tween girls go crazy at the mere sight of his underdeveloped body mass, but they thankfully only make up a small part of today’s population. The same treatment is generously reserved for his other five carbon copies also known as One Direction. However, the question remains: why do we like mistreating these kids? Are older men so threatened by the coming wave that they have to annihilate it? Or is it simply because the music is just so damn horrible. Now that we have sufficiently discredited ourselves as serious music commentators, it is time to finally make a point. Hailing from France is a joyous kid that fits right in this group as the bashed teen boys, but with one peculiar distinction: the general public loves him. Hugo Pierre Leclerq was born in Nantes, France. And just like other famous French DJs before him, he identifies with French house music. Only difference is that unlike The Shoes, Justice or Daft Punk, he started cultivating a serious following long before he

even learned how to drive. He turned eleven around the time when Daft Punk’s Intersella 555 was making a serious impact on history. This encounter inspired Hugo to create his own music. He sat in front of his computer and began to experiment; thus Madeon was born. Soon after that, he entered every competition he could get into while also remixing other artists’ music. Things kicked into high gear when in July 2011, a clip of his monster creation ‘Pop Culture’ made it on the Internet. The juggernaut tune was a mash up of 39 different song samples and it immediately captivated the attention of the general public. A slew of artists and critics took notice of Madeon and soon enough was booking gigs at an alarming pace. His resume now includes opening for the likes of Yelle, Lady GaGa and Swedish House Mafia. In 2012 he cemented his status as a hot up-and-comer when he was invited to play in festivals such as Lollapalooza, Coachella and the Electric Daisy Carnival. An album is supposedly in the works, but we suggest you make do with The City EP in the meantime. Leclerq turns twenty in May 2014. Why haven’t we bashed him yet? Because you don’t bash the Messiah of Nu-Disco…

GENERATION GAP

NEW ZELAND POLICE

LO R D E C - 3 1 -2 5 - 3 5 2 2 CHARGE

A L T E R N AT I V E P O P

n the week of June 8, 1996, American alternative rock singer Tracy Bonham reached the top of the alternative charts in the United States. She is one of seven women to have accomplished that feat as a solo singer in the tracking system’s history. Bonham’s single at the time, ‘Mother Mother’, would stay at the top of the chart for two more weeks before giving up its throne. In November of that year – specifically 22 weeks and five days after Tracy’s song delegated the top spot – Ella Yallich-O’connor was born. We know her by her stage name, Lorde. She will be the first solo female to rule the alternative chart since Tracy Bonham’s mandate, 17 years later. The now sixteen-year-old songwriter was born in Auckland, New Zealand. Her dad works as a civil engineer while her mom is an award-winning poet; which would explain Ella’s knack for writing opulent lyrics while keeping the listeners’ feet firmly on the ground. At the age of twelve, the little New Zealander made an appearance at her school talent show. A stranger recorded her performance and sent it to an executive at A&R Studios. This then led to a meeting with her parents and a subsequent record deal. The now signed

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songstress took time to hone her poetic skills before producing her debut EP The Love Club, three years later. Chart ascension started in New Zealand; but before long, the contamination spread to every corner of the globe. From a musical standpoint the planetary outbreak makes perfect sense. Crispy melodic hooks shine through sparkles of minimalistic yet crystal clear beats. Lorde’s thematic glimmers with the aura of a young, rebellious Lana Del Rey. It’s precisely located on the polar opposite scope of the hip shaking Selena Gomez. Songs cast a shadow on today’s materialistic money-fueled pop culture, while they carefully reveal a small group of teenagers trying to pave the way for their own ideologies through these dark times. As of September 16, 2013, ‘Royals’ broke the record for the longest running single by a female artist previously held by Alanis Morisette’s ‘You Oughta Know’. Morisette had dominated the Alternative chart for five weeks; Lorde just marked her sixth week on top while showing no sign of slowing down. Hey! If you’re going to contradict the lyrics of your biggest hit and actually become “royal”, might as well do it with a big bang.

GENERATION GAP

U. K . P O L I C E

D I S C LO S U R E D - 1 5 -7 3 - 3 9 8 5 CHARGE

SYNTH HOUSE

oday’s dance music craze is one of the worst things to happen to the industry since Will.I.Am decided to “bless” humanity with several solo albums. Who do we have to blame for this? Well, we can only blame ourselves! We admit that David Guetta’s single with Kelly Rowland was pretty close to perfect and that his previous efforts were never dangerously alarming, but we should have drawn a line and screamed “Stay Away Devil!” the day he decided to collaborate with Akon. Several years after our failure to boycott that, our sad reality can be summarised in five words: “David Guetta Featuring Nicki Minaj”, the horror… Expecting mainstream music to suddenly pull a 180 and drop all its house elements, would be a tad too optimistic. There might be a change on the horizon and it may have started to take place, but it is going to take patience and some time. Like the Lawrence brothers for example; Guy and Howard, respectively aged 22 and 19, hail from London and have started a collaborative electronic duo called Disclosure. Their area of expertise, as you might have already figured, is house music and every style that pops out of that genealogical tree, like Future Garage and Deep House.

The young lads have been popping out EPs since 2011. The collections of songs gradually started to pick up traction on UK radios, which endowed them with a somewhat large following. Then, as every success story goes, the duo released their first official full on single: a collaboration with Sam Smith that ended in a pretty high chart position. What did the boys do then? Well they added up-and-comers Alunageorge to the mix, got an even bigger hit and followed up by dropping their already successful debut album Settle. “The Disclosure featuring…” formula made popular by the aforementioned Mr. Guetta is present throughout the whole tracklist, but you needn’t worry because the artists that they have chosen to work with are either superbly talented or fall perfectly into place with the dark musical elements spread out throughout the seventeen tracks. Disclosure might not be the most ground-breaking band when it comes to sonic originality, but that is a fact that they more than make up for with their insanely catchy beats. They prove that electronic music doesn’t need to be tacky in order to, at the end of the day, make a dent in the charts.

FILMMAKER: NOUR OUAYDA

INTERVIEW BY CARINE KHALAF Why did you choose this subject? I felt the need, as a student in film, to question my position in accordance with Lebanese cinema; a heritage I didn’t feel I belonged to. I wanted to create a dialogue, a proximity between images of the past and those of the present. What got you into filmmaking? And what genre of cinema inspires you the most? I found cinema by accident when I was eighteen years old. I had always wanted to pursue theater. For practical reasons, I was blindly directed towards filmmaking hoping to make the switch to theater for my master’s degree. Cinema very quickly took over: it became the only thing that made sense for me to do. I am fascinated by cinema’s ability to layer different ‘realities’ and superimpose the real and the fabricated. Those are the films that inspire me, films that hold at their core this friction between reality and fiction. What did you want to prove through the thoughts of your protagonists? Does it reflect your stand on Lebanese Cinema?

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PHOTOGRAPH BY JAD YOUSSEF

I didn’t want to prove anything. My film is not an argument for or against something… it is a search, a way to question the existence of a national cinema in Lebanon. We all have our ideas about the subject; my film is just here to create a space for dialogue; not to convince the spectator of a certain point of view. Tell us more about your casting choices. While all the cast was comprised of friends and relatives, Fadi Abi Samra was the only professional actor on set. I thought of Fadi because he is a well-known actor in Lebanese contemporary cinema and he is part of the scene I am so reluctantly trying to understand through this film. Fadi’s presence added substance to the images and gave us this instant credibility to play with; constantly reshaping the discourse he was delivering. In your film, you mention that the image of Beirut is now an archive. Do you think that shooting in the city is possible nowadays? On a practical level, I feel that shooting in Beirut is not as complicated as it might seem. Despite the noise, the increased

security, which makes it harder to get permits to shoot in certain neighborhoods and the general lack of organization which makes it all quite unpredictable, I think we manage quite well. We just have to be prepared for the worst and hope that the building we are planning to shoot hasn’t already been demolished. As a filmmaker, how do you describe your relationship with Beirut? Its image? I can’t describe it... that’s why I made the film. That’s why it was important for me to make this film and to try to find my place as a filmmaker within this city. By the end of the movie you state that the city is dead and we, ourselves, are dying. Is there a future for Beirut in cinema? Yes, I think so. As long as there are people looking at it, filming it… You juggle throughout the movie with different filming techniques and image effects, as if you’re searching for a new way to represent the city. Can you tell us more about the meaning behind it? It’s not as much about the meaning behind the different ‘techniques’ as it is about the movement they produce within the film. As you said, I was – and still am – searching for a way to represent Beirut, to film it, to look at it. This film is about this search for an image and all the responsibilities it implies. We noticed the reference to Ingmar Bergman’s close up of Monika in the film Summer with Monika, described by Godard as the saddest moment in cinema. Why reproduce it out of context? what DOES IT add to your movie?

I would say that Monika’s regard caméra is one of the most honest moments in cinema; rather than it being the saddest. For me, it is not Monika who is gazing into the lens through the screen; it is the actress Harriet Andersson that has suddenly come to realize the reality of the character she is playing. In this close up, Bergman introduces a new regime of images to his film. He breaks the established consensus with the spectator. In This Place Does Not Exist, I felt a similar need to create a rift at the moment where the actor Fadi Abi Samra decides to renounce his role as Marwan. Harriet’s gaze would become a witness and a condemnation to this act of abandonment. What are the challenges you faced during the making of your short? The most difficult part was the editing. I struggled a lot to find the right structure. I made a first cut of the film following the notes I had written during the pre-production and production phases. That first cut was too fluid. It wasn’t dirty enough to express the unsettling feeling I thought necessary when broaching the subject of Lebanese cinema. At that time, the edit didn’t include any excerpts from other films; it was a homogeneous mass of images and sounds that weren’t clashing to create a dialogue…they were just there; quietly placed one after the other. I felt I had irretrievably lost the film. I took a few days off, and with the help of some external opinions, I decided to start working with images from other Lebanese movies. It was almost overnight that the whole film came to be. It suddenly made sense; this new layer of archival images allowed for the friction I needed. I had to confront the images we produced with those that were produced before us. I believe it was this tension that made it possible for this film to speak of my inability to identify with the cinema of my country.

COVER STORY: YOUNG HOLLYWOOD RAISES HAVOC

THE TROUBLE WITH YOUNG HOLLYWOOD ARTICLE BY KARL HITTI ILLUSTRATIONS BY FOUAD MEZHER Growing up in Tinsel town has its perks, but for children losing baby teeth while filming on sets of billion dollar movies, it might not be such a great idea. It’s a shame to have it all when you’re at an age where you don’t really need it, and then lose it all in the process of aging into adulthood under the judging spotlight.

sacrificial virgin is always a key ingredient in an effort to send the world into distress and chaos. You plan on jetting the four horsemen of the apocalypse on an early flight to earth? Use a human as an incubator for Lucifer’s comeback? Even take control of the four cardinal elements in order to become the most powerful mage in all the galaxies? You will need to find yourself a pretty lady to offer as a gift. She must preferably be unscathed by the touch of humans. The purity of an element is normally in direct link with its price. From clothes, to drinks, to furniture and even accessories; the worth is in close proximity with refinement. This would mean that the constituent itself has not been ravaged by any external entity; its authenticity still intact. When this same train of thought is applied to humans, things get more intricate. With virgin semiotics aside, we find our attention gravitating towards children. A parent’s sole purpose is to protect their children and keep them from harm’s way. They must educate them, provide for them and love them unconditionally. Whatever an infant does is normally forgiven in that instant, it is simply out of curiosity and not the result of careful calculation, but rather simply the most basic form of teaching, trial and error. They are innocence at its purest form, and their guardian’s aim is usually to keep that purity intact. A strange fascination is linked to children that get the label “prodigy”. Seemingly still untouched, they have not really had the time to actually fully internalise a skill from any outside source. Yet they are blessed with a talent so overdeveloped for their age that

it is easily seen as divine. Thus is the case of every child star; a category of offspring renowned for monumental success at a very young age. The wonder kid is almost a child star on steroids. These little people are, for a brief period, given all the attention they could have ever fathomed to get. While being veneered by a general public that projects desires, hopes and fears onto them. However, these extrapolations take on a completely different constitution when the transition towards adulthood begins. The love that once was, turns into criticism and confrontation. It’s like having a million so-called parents that don’t actually love you but are looking to simply censure you whenever they get the chance to. But how do minors who are admittedly trying to find themselves deal with this onslaught of opinions and attacks? The result itself depends on several outside factors; the most influential being their touch with reality, which is a pretty difficult concept to latch on to in a city that has solely based its notoriety on selling dreams. Lindsay Lohan’s downward spiral has been so publically debated that in a recent interview with Oprah. The starlet was asked how it felt to be both an adjective and a verb for a child star gone wrong. After appearing in a couple of commercials, Lindsay landed her first role in a feature film playing twin sisters, The Parent Trap. At the age of twelve, she became a bona fide tween star. Several other highly publicised TV film roles followed and the actress had already built a name for herself as she hit puberty. A couple of years later came another blockbuster hit, Freaky Friday. The Jamie Lee Curtis assisted comedy impressed critics and moviegoers alike. Tina Fey’s now-cult-masterpiece followed; Mean Girls signalled the beginning of Lohan’s transition towards more adult

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roles. She even ventured into music by releasing a platinum certified album, Speak. Her debut single ‘Rumours’, a rejection letter to the paparazzi and tabloids, even made it to heavy rotation by topping MTV charts like TRL. At this point, the multi-talented starlet’s family life was making headlines. Her father’s derailed lifestyle was the subject of public debate. She even added fuel to the fire by releasing a follow up album, A Little More Personal (RAW), preceded by the single ‘Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)’. Sometime during this period, the general public started pulling away from the entertainer. She had begun hanging out with people like Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton; broadcasted nights of heavy partying were joined by the staple eating disorder rumours. These events were only the tip of the iceberg. In the span of five years, the once-primand-proper young adult was arrested five times after being busted for drunk driving and possession of hard drugs. She served time in jail after nonchalantly skipping scheduled court summons, was admitted into rehab about 3 times, was accused of shoplifting and, lest we forget, was arrested from home adorned with an alcohol monitor bracelet. Lohan’s presence (or lack there of) on film sets was obviously affected by this behaviour. She gradually started losing film roles and was panned by critics who took pleasure in shattering every attempt of a comeback she made. The lack of family stability in the troubled starlet’s household was one of the several reasons she had to grow up a lot faster than a normal toddler. Lindsay even admitted that at given moments, she was the second parent around the house when her paternal figure was missing in action. This means that, unlike other children, she did not have a blueprint to model herself upon, but rather she had to make up her own out of necessity(Flip page to continue)

Pair that up with the fact that she also had a high-income job at a very young age, and you’ve got yourself a ticking bomb. Most adolescents rebel by experimenting and pushing their parents’ buttons. Lindsay, however, kept the rebellion under control until the lid exploded. Throughout, papa Lohan would lash out at his daughter publicly, and mama Lohan, a former singer and dancer, well she was too busy filming her own reality TV show and trying to make a star out of her younger daughter. After a couple of shakedowns, it seems that things may have calmed down on their once-apocalyptic personal front. Other famous child actors and actresses were able to recover from bad streaks, so there may be some hope for the star if she’s able to pull herself together. Entrepreneur Drew Barrymore famously entered rehab twice before the age of 14, while Robert Downey Jr., who once admitted liking the taste of metal after considering to pull a gun on himself, is now worth an estimated 140 million dollars. Another child star who had a famously complicated relationship with his father, is Macaulay Culkin. Between the years 1985 and 1994, the firecracker starred in 14 movies. Home Alone made him into one of the biggest child thespians to ever roam this planet, even drawing comparisons to the iconic Shirley Temple. Unlike Lindsay Lohan whose success was spread out amongst different decades, the public’s interest in Culkin fizzled instantly when he started growing up. Moviegoers gave him the cold shoulder while tabloids waited attentively for him to screw up. After several conflicts and spats with his dad, he decided to completely sever his relationship with him. This private information obviously made the hop to national news. Maybe it was the fact that his growing age mirrored our impeding mortality. It seemed that the love that was once directed towards the actor had now become a personalised tirade of hate and ridicule. After being nominated for three different Razzy awards during the same year, Macaulay declared that he would retire from acting at the age of 14. In an interview he did with Larry King in 2004, the now-twenty-something-year-old admitted he suffered from agoraphobia. He later explained that it was due to his difficult relationship with outside vultures: “there were so many things out there that were trying to consume me”. Rumours of drugplagued teen years came swirling back when in September of that year, he was busted for the possession of two controlled substances. Ironically enough, that same week, two former child stars were also jailed. Actress Tracey Gold of Growing Pains fame who battled anorexia in the past, was arrested for drunk driving, while Edward Furlong (Terminator 2) was imprisoned for public intoxication when he tried to free lobsters from a restaurant’s aquarium. Culkin kept a pretty low profile until pictures of him looking frail surfaced in 2012. Heroine addiction rumours kicked into high gear with his estranged father even making statements to the press. He denied vehemently the accusations, but this didn’t stop the media from speculating that his cravings led him to move in with Pete Doherty the following year. What’s interesting about Macauley’s descent to the depth of hallucinatory hell is that he was only caught red-handed once. Unlike other cases where the stars slip up about a dozen times before learning their lesson. He kept a low profile and steered clear of the public eye, by only appearing in low budget independent movies. The rumours surrounding the actor’s dependence were mostly without any merit. It is true, “there is no smoke without fire”, but how much flame does a small amount of smog need? It seems that the audience was so thirsty for a train wreck failure that stories started to materialise out of thin air. We expect this once-perfect-symbolic child to disappoint us so strongly that we start laying out the grounds for his destruction at the first sign of combustion. We begin by rejecting them for maturing, an act out of their control, and then we sit and wait for them to fall apart.

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Culkin’s fallen comrade Amanda Bynes wasn’t smart enough to keep her personal demons out of the vultures’ hands. The comedian got her start at the age of seven. She made the leap from advertisements to stage productions of Annie and The Sound of Music. Amanda is coveted as being one of the youngest members to have ever preformed her own sketches at the Comedy Central stage; she was only 10. The people over at Nickelodeon studios took notice of her perfect comedic timing and immediately struck a deal. After appearing as a regular on two different shows, she starred in her own sketch comedy series, The Amanda Show in 1999. For the next eleven years, Bynes starred in more than seven TV shows while gradually making the move towards cinema with several feature films. The child star image that plagued her was hard to shed in the beginning until she turned on the sex factor and appeared in a racy shoot for Maxim: A technique sadly used by almost every starlet that is having a hard time making the jump into more grown up roles. “I can now give you tingly feelings so you can’t treat me like an infant anymore”. In June of 2010, she proceeded to reveal that she was retiring from acting; a decision that meant she would have to drop already inked movie deals. The statement was backed in 2012 when Amanda revealed that she was moving away from Hollywood to New York in order to pursue a career as a fashion designer and rapper. This migration came with a new look (cheek piercings) and mantra. Out of nowhere, the seemingly low profile actress was making headlines. The first was a simple “chatting on cellphone while driving”, but things escalated quickly with DUIs and Hit and Runs. She even ended up getting her license revoked. This didn’t stop the headstrong young lady from driving with a suspended license. She finally ended up getting her car impounded. Her Twitter profile saw a large flux of attention when she started posting some unconventional affirmations. She would aggressively insult any person who dared question her wellness. Plastic surgery was an always-discussed subject: Bynes confessed to an obsession with nips and tucks and she also allowed herself to lecture other celebrities about the benefits. No discussion was off the record; from eating disorders to wanting Drake to “murder” her vagina. Crude honesty was paired with equally bizarre statements, and the public ate it up. Things took an even weirder turn when police detained her after she threw a bong out of her apartment window. She tried to clarify the situation by insisting that it was a vase and expressing concern about how the police officers molested her. Amanda finally decided to start a fire in a friend’s driveway. She thankfully ended up getting herself sent to a specialised facility outside of New York for psychiatric assessment. The girl’s mental capacity was in such bad shape that her estranged parents had no trouble being granted conservatorship of her estate. Amanda Bynes, just like others before her, had officially lost touch with reality. Being under constant scrutiny would probably send most of us over the edge. Kids in the entertainment industry feel like they are only good for one specific thing. When it’s taken away from them, some rebel, while a few fight through and make a successful transition. For every Justin Timberlake you get three bare-headed Britney Spears. The importance of a strong family unit comes as a high recommendation in order for the infant to have stable markers. They can never consciously predict the hefty bulks of backlash that could ensue. More money means more complications. The saddest part of this reality is that it’s just like a car crash; the public watches agape with amazement. They enjoy observing the seemingly once perfect toddlers grow up and they prove to be as stale as each and every one of us. When that is made obvious, we enjoy punishing them for it. They are supposedly the archetype of human creation, or so it seems to us. People tend to forget that when the TV is turned off and the entertainment segment is over, they are still leading normal lives. In the end, our conviction for perfection strips us of our humanity, sacrificing virgins to the gods of entertainment.

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photographs by raymond gemayel texts by every man for himself ep artwork by maria kassab

LAZZY LUNG: SAILOR’S DELIGHT ALLAN CHAARAOUI - GUITAR / LEAD VOCALS

t’s 2 a.m after a night out celebrating New Year’s Eve… Fighting off the desire to continue drinking in the bars and bedrooms of Beirut, filled with strange faces that dress to impress and drink the night away. Somehow, I am back home with the final chapter to the story of Sailor’s Delight: ‘New Year’s End’. So much has happened over the years for the band; it has been a constant battle that isn’t for the faint hearted. The city we live in is as cruel as the great big sea and we are like a tiny vessel caught in a storm of swelling waves that test us as we fight to stay our course. But it’s the thrill of the ride that keeps us going. A true Sailor’s delight. We seek refuge in our music and performance. We throw it all down and let it all out at every show in every city we go to. We hunger for the next adventure and we’re always hungry for more. Over the course of making this album, we have had members come and go: we parted ways with original band members (Patrick Hanna (guitar) and Hadi Oueini (drums) be it for academic purposes, or for new career opportunities, and were joined by Anthony Sahyoun (guitar) and what feels like maybe a hundred million drummers. We got lucky for some time after releasing the 1st album, which landed us in the 1st place at the Dubai Rolling

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Stone Battle of the Bands, Esquire Musician of the Year and gave us a chance to record at the legendary Capitol Records in Los Angeles, in addition to touring with the Black Lips for the Middle Eastern Super Tour in 2012. Three recording studios and an outrageous hotel bill later, we decided to throw it all away and start from scratch in our very own humble basement studio. It is what it is and we just didn’t feel that things were right. Imad and I re-worked and fine-tuned the compositions day and night for what felt like an eternity and totally changed things into what they are today. We stuck with our gut and worked with long time friend Karim Sinno to mix and co-produce for us again, enabling us to work at a far more relaxed pace and working environment. We also had the pleasure of working with renowned designer extraordinaire Maria Kassab for the album artwork to help us with an artistic vision that properly compliments our new album and direction. This album follows Strange Places and tells a story with a completely different tone. The city has breathed out its song and we drank and danced to its seductive rhythms and charms. We lose ourselves every weekend in a thick smog of high times and Irish whiskey. Love comes in and out of our lives like the waves on a shoreline. All of these things inspire the stories told on Sailor’s Delight. The pace has changed and the volume is cranked and we leave you begging for more.

LAZZY LUNG: SAILOR’S DELIGHT IMAD JAWAD - BASS

S ‘

ailor’s Delight’ – Our weekdays were nothing short of the simple notion of torture. Imagine this: shuffling classes in the morning, only to catch the first break to jump back to the office and manage to meet some deadlines before your employer starts catching on to the fact that you just can’t keep up. Come night time, I’d carry my books, my instrument and a worn down version of myself. I would climb to the 8th floor of some dodgy building in Beirut where I’d find the rest of the band waiting for me. Anything after that, I’ll leave for the album to tell. ‘Settle It Out’ – Our Weekends were a little more magical. Come Friday, the streets of Beirut put words and melodies to every single thought we’d have roaming this beautiful city: “Stepped in, started the dancin’ – Dancing, started the sweatin’ – Sweatin’, started the drinkin’- Drinkin’, started the mess.” ‘Whine & Dine’ – Listening to The Cure on a late night drive back to the house, I took the exit after Martyr’s Square that led me straight to the road that takes me home. I always thought that the words to ‘Just Like heaven’ were dedicated to their music embodied in a woman. After countless broken hearts, an apartment being emptied out of all of her clothes and picture frames, it’s safe to say that Lazzy Lung has been my longest relationship to date and I’m ready for a little more... maybe more.

KARIM SINNO - CO-PRODUCTION

wo years after having worked on Lazzy Lung’s first album, we met up to discuss the next one. The first thing they said was: “We’re really having fun in our jam room, and we’d like to record there”, and that’s how it all began.

Over the span of 6 months, I believe I’ve recorded the album 3 times, remixed it about 2 times and went through 3 or 4 revisions. As tough as that sounds, it’s been a hell of a ride. The first album we worked on together (Strange Places) was completely different from what we did here, and what I, as a mixing engineer, would usually do; and I think that has definitely paid off. What started off as scratches recorded at their makeshift recording studio and a few overdubs at my studio, ended up as Sailor’s Delight, and I couldn’t be more proud! We tried weird things and experimented with unconventional effects just to give the material justice. Strange Places set the bar pretty high for the music scene over here back in 2010, and it made Lazzy Lung a force to be reckoned with. I just can’t wait to see what’s to come when this album is released. It’s been a pleasure hanging out and working with my close friends, as always, and I hope this album does what we all said it would do.

‘New Year’s End’ – Three years later, 2011 is almost coming to an end. I finally understand why Beirut will always be my home. The screams and shouts of the young 20-somethings dominating this city and dancing the night away, will always be louder than any political unrest, impromptu gunshots, car explosions and a depressing 8 p.m newscast.

PEDROS TEMIZIAN - FILM

first met the band around 2009, a time when many of the bands and musicians in the underground scene were still establishing themselves and Lazzy Lung was one of them. It’s a band that makes Toe Tappin’ catchy tunes that get stuck in your head; they remind me of how I feel like when I listen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers or the Foo Fighters. I remember the first time I met them: there was an event at a local bar and Allan - the band’s frontman - was there for a soundcheck. He was playing with this electronic instrument that I hadn’t seen before - it turned out to be a loop station - and I was completely both fascinated and amused by it. We just clicked instantly and became friends right there and then. It wasn’t until their new album was coming out that we actually got around to working together professionally. We had been talking about it for a long time - basically since we met - but hadn’t simply gotten around to it yet. I direct music videos and e-posters and I’ve worked with a lot of the local independent groups; it just made sense that I would eventually work with the Lazzy guys. Being friends was quite the help.

We 1st worked together end of 2010 on a teaser for Strange Places at a Luna Park, which was quite cool. Their new material is amazing! After listening to ‘New Year’s End’, I was immediately inspired for a music video on which I really hope we can work together again soon. There will definitely be more collaborations between us in the future.

RAYMOND GEMAYEL - PHOTOGRAPHY

t was a late night/early morning shoot. Allan, Imad and I met up in Mar Mikhael, had couple of drinks then hopped over to Allan’s place around 1 a.m. We hung around, listened to some tunes and had more drinks as we waited for the rest of the crew.

Allan suggested trying out an alternative idea first; have all 4 of the boys hang out and play cards on the Corniche. I personally wasn’t too keen on it but was up for trying it anyway. After Anthony and Marc came over, we loaded all the props and went to the Corniche at around 2 a.m. It was unfortunately raining cats and dogs so we had a pretty hard time setting up. We did manage to get some shots... but nothing great. Soaked playing cards, broken cigarettes, dripping clothes; not exactly the best setup! Mother nature what the heck?! She’s usually on our team, but not this time… or was she? At around 4 a.m we went to Ramlit El Bayda, the rain had passed by then. We had given up on the props so we left everything in our cars and just focused on taking natural shots in that setting. Some random guy showed up, asked us what we were up to and told us that we weren’t allowed to be on the beach at that hour, yadi yadi yada…. Thankfully though, we talked ourselves out of it! We wrapped up at around 7 a.m; everyone was then ready to collapse. Although the weather was harsh, the shoot was a whole lot of fun. But the cherry on top was that I got the chance to listen to Sailor’s Delight and personally, I think it’s a beautiful sophomore album; each of the 9 songs has a unique energy and vibe!

LESSON NUMBER TWO: ARMAN FOR ABSOLUT VODKA

Lesson number one brought us Andy Warhol, Pop Artist extraordinaire! Now as lesson number two rolls in, we bring you one of Mr. Warhol’s good friends, Arman Fernandez. Arman and Andy’s relationship extended past the realms of friendship; Warhol was a huge fan of the French-born American artist and even owned two original Arman ‘Poubelles’ and another one of his accumulations by the name of ‘Amphetamines’. As one might suspect, amazing talent is quickly associated to ABSOLUT, which has for long been supporting the Arts. For his ABSOLUT bottle, Arman supplied the brand with its first sculpture by attaching ninety-eight ABSOLUT gift boxes and paintbrushes to a piece of wood. Arman (Armand Fernandez) November 17, 1928 - October 22, 2005 Nice, France Painter, Sculptor, Printmaker FACTS THAT WILL HELP YOU IMPRESS YOUR LITTLE SNOOTY FRIENDS: - Arman was the son of an antiques dealer and an amateur cellist. - His fascination with Eastern Philosophy and early Chinese Art somehow led him to work as an instructor at the Bushido Kai judo school in Spain. - He served for two years as an orderly in the French military in Indochina. - In 1954, Arman decided to fill the entirety of the Iris Clert Gallery in Paris with garbage. He called it ‘Full Up’ (‘Le Plein’). - The mystery behind ‘Arman’ comes from 1958, when a printer misspelled his name and he decided to roll with it and keep signing his artwork with it throughout the rest of his career. - In 1964, he became the subject of one of Warhol’s short films in which he silently read what appeared to be a newspaper for four minutes; still at most times with the occasional rubbing of the eyes and licking the corner of his mouth. - The Lebanese Prime Minister commissioned ‘Hope for Peace’ (‘Espoir de Paix’) from him in 1995; an over-50-foot-high column of concrete encasing armored vehicles and tanks. - Arman had six children from three different women. Our kinda gigolo!

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LAZZY LUNG: SAILOR’S DELIGHT / THE HUNGER EP ARTWORK BY MARIA KASSAB

PHOTOGRAPHERS 50

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1. Tell us briefly about you and what makes you do on this unilateralism where photographer aims to what you do. always show a different perspective from the one provided by community. We didn’t come into the world of photography as professionals but rather stumbled into it mainly 4. What is the one photograph you wish you had taken? through curiosity and in an effort to create a better world. Angelo: the photo is what will come and not what has already happened. So there is not a photo I wish I 2. What was the most delinquent-like behavior you’ve had taken, but I leave it to the world to amaze me in what I have not thought of. Danielle: I wish I could ever engaged in growing up? go back in time to take pictures of myself as a little We grew up in secure social and familiar surroundings, girl, which is something i was deprived of at the time. so we rarely got to engage in delinquent-like behavior. Nonetheless, we did do our share of sneaking into 5. Professionally, what is a project you’ve always to movie theaters that screen porn, setting dry grass on delve into but haven’t gotten the chance to yet? fire and even engaging in violent problems with some friends. In fact, we view photography as somewhat of a Angelo: Shooting communities in areas of wars and conflicts would probably be the project that I have form of this rebellion. always dreamt of. Portraying the direct approach and contiguity of human emotions and violence. Danielle: 3. Have you ever found yourself rebelling against i desire to visit Latin America to portray the slums. something through your work? According to Gilles Deleuze, existence is composed of several sheets (Plateaux), and this multi platelets presence is not seen by everyone; society makes us view existence as one platelet and leaves us no choice to see the others. Photography is an ongoing revolution

6. Who’s the first person that pops to mind when you think of a “Juvenile Delinquent”? whenever we think of “minor offenses”, we think of Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange.

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FEATURE: WHAT DRAWS JUVENILE DELINQUENTS TO MUSCLE CARS

ARTICLE BY SERGE KALDANY ILLUSTRATION BY RUDY SHAHEEN As a preface to this homage to true American icons, we would like to say that if you think this article is going to be about Shia Laboeuf and his bumblebee’s Camaro, then just go f**k yourself.

he typical young rogue image is tall, dark and handsome, jumping into a beat-down Transam after some sort of mischief, laughing away and tire-smoking it off to the horizon with his hand round a babe’s shoulder. True, they had their accessories like signature leather jackets or jeans and a t-shirt, but none was more important than the muscle car. From the mid 60’s to the early 80’s, muscle cars conquered the world. These days, you won’t see a lot of them on the roads anymore because the engines are always trying to escape; tearing the steel bit by bit. It’s like the cars are trying to kill you or buck you from the saddle. Why do you think they have names like ‘Mustang’? These are cars that were described as ‘unsafe at any speed’ back when they didn’t even care about safety. A muscle car never wanted to take any corner other than sideways, with a cloud of tire-burning smoke, to mark its territory; But that’s the whole point. That’s what you want from this type of car. You blast away with the radio cranked up to the maximum and try to tame the beast into staying within the edges of the road. What better feeling than arriving to your destination and realizing that you are in fact still able to breathe? It’s not about how precisely you take the corner; it’s about how you feel when you take it. It puts that big smile on your face,

that smile that says “I’m getting head, while on a rollercoaster, in outer-space!” That’s also what you expect from a true juvenile delinquent: going the extra mile – the step that you were always afraid to take. They live the life you wanted to live. They have the names that demand respect along with a shred of fear and envy; names like Joey, Vinnie and Rick. Today’s men have names like Leslie and Keith who give in their homework on time, do the dishes and take out the trash; not exactly delinquent or even manly behavior. Getting back on track, American muscles have big pumping V8s under their hood with multiple explosions a second, call them orgasms if you like, powering fat wheels that turned rubber into deafening speeds. These engines are caged beasts, roaring at anyone who would approach them and devouring the asphalt they run on. Just looking at them makes us feel alive; they ooze a certain satisfaction and feeling of freedom. How often have boys dreamt of switching places with that bad boy and longed to run away with one of those girls? We have all played it out, we have all done it, all of us… If you disagree, or want to prove that you never have, please feel free to send your comments to i-am-full-ofshit@i-should-shut-the-f**k-up.com.

even overshadowed big stars, right down to Catherin Bach’s tits in Dukes of Hazard and Angelina Jolie’s lips in Gone in 60 Seconds (Blasphemy!). And so, we have lost the muscle car era and the true juvenile delinquent portrayal. Unfortunately, the blithering green activists are working and pushing to replace fuel with grass, which will eventually end up in one of the joints they will light up at a protest against eating animals. Cars are going faster, safer and greener in an effort to help out in the whole planet issue that Al Gore has been whining about for the past however many years since he was cheated out of being president. The same goes for today’s delinquents. Nothing more than posers now… Where is the jean-jacketed, greasy-haired bad boy? Where are the gum chewing, hair curling, loudly whining chicks? All we’re left with is just self-cutting emos that hate their lives because daddy didn’t buy them a Polaroid camera for Christmas. Though we long to bring that infamous icon back to life, it is a futile attempt, and – saying this will feel like pushing a poisonous dagger into our own heart – it’s probably best to leave these icons where they belong, in the past, in our memories and on our bedroom walls.

This extraordinary match between man and machine was also depicted in movies and on TV. Sometimes, the cars

INTERVIEW: WOODY NAUFAL - THE MAN BEHIND ALL THE WICKED SOLUTIONS

WOODY NAUFAL INTERVIEW BY THE PEOPLE BEHIND F/I/M2/P PHOTOGRAPH BY EDWIN HARB KADRI Meet Woody Naufal, the man in the shadows. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you are an admirer of his skills and should be thankful for the hard work and effort he puts into every single event in order for you to enjoy a night out, dancing your bum to heavy beats or watching a concert in musically-booming Beirut. We had a little chat with the man lurking backstage...

Tell us MORE about Wicked Solutions, what you do, what you’ve done and what you aim to do. Let’s just say you have a party, a corporate gig or anything that needs either a sound system, a sound guy, a stage to be built or even installed screens. You call us. We don’t just install and rent out our equipment; we help you optimize the party and try to give you the most effective (as well as cost-effective) solutions for you to have the best audio/ visual experience possible. What led you to decide to start your own venture and bring your ideas of having your own business to life? I had been in the live music and events business for over 8 years before I started Wicked Solutions. Throughout that time, I realized that there was a major lack in the “solutions” department, which in Lebanon meant: what to do when shit hits the fan? I was already taking care of all these things myself and I thought why not just open up a company and do things my way? We have the equipment, and so does everyone else, but the added value we had to offer was our experience and know-how. That’s exactly why we started the company. You seem to work most, and by choice that is, with independent bands. Why so? It’s the independent bands and promoters that seem to go for us. It’s about the

people as much as it is about the gear and the services. If you don’t like your nearest baker, you will go through the effort of walking a bit further. In our industry, it’s very much about whom you can count on. It’s about reliability, familiarity and most of all, availability. We try to be there as much as possible for the local scene because it’s growing and we’ve always been supportive of it in one way or another. We heard that you’ve been on stage yourself as lead singer of a garage band. What happened there and what made you choose to work behind the scenes instead? *Chuckles* Rumors! Rumors! The only time I’m on stage is to position the mics. What ARE THE innovative technologies THAT Wicked Solutions employS? We are proud and honored to be the first rental company in Lebanon to cater event promoters with the latest Funktion One P.A. System (recipient of DJ Mag’s Best Club Sound System Manufacturer Award) as well as a vast array of sonic quality speakers like Meyer and D&B. How do you see Wicked Solutions growing in terms of the services that it offers? Our aim is to eventually get into Audio Consultancy and be the guys you go to when you need to permanently equip your venues, be it a bar or a club.

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What in recent memory was the event THAT WAS most fun to prepare for? All of them were exceptional! That’s one of the best things about working in Lebanon; there’s no lack of creativity or innovation. In a fantasy world where you could work with just about ANY band you would want to prepare for, who would it be? Negative (-) Apart from sound, lights, the stage and the show, what is it that you would like to get into next? What world haven’t you tackled yet and would like to invade? Honestly? Nothing. Our industry is an interesting one. You can spend years building your company’s reputation and it takes only a few minutes to undo it all. That’s why it only makes sense for me to choose the best partners, products, technicians and stick to what we are good at. We don’t want to just climb to the top. Anyone can do that. Staying there is the challenge and one we’re more than willing to take on.

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FOR THE MODERN DAY ARTIST & CULTURALLY INTRIGUED INDIVIDUAL 64 ALBUM REVIEWS

72 MOVIE REVIEWS

80 SOUNDTRACK REVIEW

82 LIVE REVIEW

THE MIXTAPE

PHOTOGRAPH BY CLARA ABI NADER

ALBUM OF THE ISSUE: fiona apple - tidal ARTICLE BY KARIM ABOUZAKI

iona Apple suffered for our sins. By her wounds we have been healed and have been brought salvation through Tidal. Aptly named, the record is about extremes, the ebb-and-flow of her journey and an invitation into her heart. Fiona introduces us to her inner chamber of pain, lost love and ultimate growth from said torments; allowing us mere mortals to relate our pain vicariously through her. Her songs are haunting and stark personal confessionals immersed in emotional torment coming from a composer that was 18 years of age at the time of production. The heartfelt lyrics are accentuated by her sophisticated piano playing which also belies her young age. The intricate rhythms, the lyrical content and the cascading melodies all flow effortlessly together creating a body of work that exhibits true musicianship an artist of her age rarely attains.

ILLUSTRATION BY TANIA KHAZZAKA

Limiting Fiona to her age would be doing her a disservice and if one were to question the truthfulness of her emotions they need only consider her life experiences. In therapy by age 10 for behavior that was considered antisocial, little Apple was bullied by school peers – including her teachers. When she was 12, on the day before Thanksgiving, Fiona was raped outside her mother’s apartment after walking home from school. She developed an eating disorder following the encounter, which also influenced her experience with her first love and consequently her first heartbreak. Fiona says that she feels things strongly, which would explain her uninhibited approach to exposing her deepest thoughts without any sense of pretentiousness. Brooding arrangements draw the landscape of her psyche with a resulting sound that is moody, jazzy and heavy with piano and pain. “Sleep to Dream” kickstarts the album: a percussion and piano driven romper with Fiona’s deep-toned bluesy voice delivering a series of blows to her reluctant lover. The aforementioned protagonist was first exposed to the song as he was going to second base with a girl. He looked over to find Apple on his TV screen staring him down in what looked like her old bedroom and almost speaking directly to him: “This mind, this body and this voice cannot be stifled by your deviant ways.” Suffice it to say, he didn’t hit a home run with his lady. ‘Sullen Girl’ is an intimate piano narrative of her traumatic childhood experience: “he washed me shore/And he took my pearl/And left an empty shell of me”. ‘Slow like Honey’ is a smoldering highlight that slithers and builds up slowly and dangerously: “You’ll remember me/Like a melody/I’ll haunt the world inside you” croons Fiona in her deep and sultry tone. ‘Never is a Promise’ is a beautiful ballad written at the tender age of 15. A piano, cello and violins accompany this honest tale about the limits to which one can communicate one’s core, even to the people closest to them: “You’ll never feel the heat of this soul/My fever burns me deeper than I’ve ever shown – to you”.

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Fiona feels. Fiona knows. Fiona understands. Her music is her outlet which is what makes her album so relatable. Tidal is entrancing, a journey on Fiona’s emotional waves, and a portrait of a young girl’s physical and emotional growth. Take an hour to ride along, and treat yourself to an astounding debut that defies age and time.

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ALBUM REVIEW: PATRICK WOLF - LYCANTHROPY ARTICLE BY KARIM ABOUZAKI

ILLUSTRATION BY TANIA KHAZZAKA

ly·can·thro·py n. 1. In folklore, the magical ability to assume the form and characteristics of a wolf. 2. A delusion that one has become or assumed the characteristics of a wolf or other animal.

atrick Wolf is not afraid of the dark for “the darkness is simply a womb for the lonely”. Composed between the ages of 11 and 18, Lycanthropy, chronicles Wolf’s struggle with the darkness in life and how he emerged victoriously in the end; making the most from an unusual childhood and adolescence. His story is told through highly imaginative tales and raw creative energy; experimenting and pushing the envelope and creating a fascinating listen that is both daunting and uplifting. An honest unraveling of the heart, his ability to capture his puberty and adolescence is remarkable, beautifully tackling issues of growing up, alienation, maintaining your identity, the hardships in the process and finally finding yourself through it all. He does so using strong imagery of nature, wolves, demons, werewolves and full moons and employing a plethora of instruments that includes ukulele, accordion, whistle, violin, harp, piano and a laptop, to name a few. An eclectic and eccentric mix of traditional folk acoustic instruments is tricked out with relentlessly aggressive and manic electronic and industrial textures, creating a powerfully bizarre sound. His voice is deep, theatrical and multifaceted as he unpredictably switches from singing, to speaking, to wailing, and screaming. Howls mark the prelude to the album as ‘Wolf Song’ serves as an initiation to the wolf pack and our first invitation into Wolf’s imagination “Us wolves were right behind you/And Lucifer will never find you”. Fiddles, cheerful whistles and drums come together in this ritualistic tune that can fit perfectly in a Renaissance Faire. ‘Bloodbeat’ chimes in after a 20 second buildup and gives way to disjointed dancey beats, a throbbing bassline, and wooshy electronics. Wolf is unafraid; exuding great confidence as he sets into the night “without a light, to the unknown”. ‘Pigeon song’ is an acoustic tear jerker, an accordion and viola lament for a child lost in the capital’s streets, alienated and alone away from home. Wolf does strike up one friendship in his exile: “Now the pigeons gather/

Round my feeding hand/And we talk til’ the evening fades”. ‘The Childcatcher’ is a disturbing rite of passage song about surrendering one’s sexual innocence. Wolf’s suggested statutory rape is accounted for from the abuser’s perspective: “boy, you better spread”. Wails and squealing mark the mid-section before the abuser’s revelation is set forth in the second half: “I think you even enjoyed it/I think I even saw you come”. An arresting and unsettling tune covering very complex emotions. The gist of this album’s message is summarized in the title track. ‘Lycanthropy’ is about transformation and growth in the face of exterior barriers and internal struggles. Be your own hero and stay true to yourself no matter what: “Let No Foot Mark Your Ground / Let No Hand Hold You Down.” A remarkable debut from a great young talent.

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ALBUM REVIEW: tyler, the creator - goblin ARTICLE BY KARIM ABOUZAKI

ILLUSTRATION BY TANIA KHAZZAKA

“

’m not a fucking role model, I know this/I’m a 19-year-old fucking emotional coaster with pipe dreams,” Tyler, the Creator raps on the title and opening track of his bleak and uncompromising album Goblin. Tyler rose to prominence as the leader and co-founder of the indie hip-hop group Odd Future, a nihilistic rap crew, whose ultraviolent verses are full of misogynistic rape fantasies, demented humor and the stuff of nightmares. With no holds barred, this album is harrowing and unsettling. It is also a brutal and honest look inside Tyler’s world and his self-perception. The scenery is ugly, beautiful and sometimes terrifying; giving us front row access to the young artist’s emotional and artistic landscape. At the surface, Tyler appears to rap primarily to offend in his shock-and-awe psycho-drama. ‘Transylvania’ finds him pitching down his voice to prowl through disjointed menacing beats with ridiculous flow: “God damn I love bitches/Especially when they just suck dick and do dishes/Cook and clean and grant my wishes” (‘Transylvania’). You see, other rappers “rap about fucking bitches and getting head”. Tyler, on the other hand, raps about “fucking bitches” and then decapitating them. Big difference! Such is demonstrated on the ominous electrosway of ‘Tron Cat’, reminiscent of early Eminem viciousness: “Rape a pregnant bitch and tell my friends I had a threesome”. It’s not all about rape though, there’s murder, in the choppy synths of ‘Yonkers’: “I’ll crash that fucking airplane that that faggot nigga B.o.B is in/And stab Bruno Mars in his goddamn esophagus”. Tyler does confess that these fantasies are merely fiction and that he tries too hard for attention. “OK, you guys caught me,” admits Tyler early on in Goblin, “I’m not a fucking rapist or a serial killer. I lied.” This is all for shock value.

When you look past the grotesque, you can find Tyler exorcising his demons with candor and picking at his teenage psychological wounds. His raps are inter-cut with dialogue between Tyler and his therapist, voiced by Tyler himself, trying to work out issues that he has with his life, childhood, upbringing, public image, fame and suicidal tendencies. The therapy-session tracks ‘Goblin’, ‘Nightmare’, and ‘Golden’- pull back the curtain on Tyler’s darkest secrets and his constant inner struggle. His estranged father is a focal point of his rants. On the title track, he bellows, “Competition missing like that nigger my mom fucked/He still hasn’t called me yet. But that’s a whole fucking different argument.” The slinky piano driven ‘Nightmare’ is an honest number about the perils of early fame and finds Tyler mourning the loss of his youth and the emptiness of celebrity life: “I ain’t even killed myself yet, and I already want my life back”. ‘Golden’ is a chilling and spiteful curtain call bringing the album full circle and delivering a final climax. If you can stomach this record it will be difficult not to be awestruck by it. The Creator visits some truly dark and troubled places both sonically and lyrically. Goblin is a gamechanging record and will weirdly mesmerize you in the same way road kill does.

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ALBUM REVIEW: I BLAME COCO - THE CONSTANT ARTICLE BY KARIM ABOUZAKI

oco Sumner is Sting’s daughter!! Look up any article about the English musician’s band I Blame Coco and you will find that irrelevant tidbit in every leading sentence. The Constant, her recording debut, would either propel her away from the comparisons or limit her to her dad’s shadow. Coco started her musical journey at 15 by posting songs on her myspace page before landing a multi-record deal at age 17. Inspired by the Scandinavian electronica music scene, she teamed up with producer Klas Ahlund (Robyn, Britney, Kylie, Sugababes), wrote most of her songs and released her gift to the world at age 20. Befitting her age, Coco’s lyrical content is drenched in dystopian ideals and teenage angst: the world is absurd, my loneliness has no limits, I don’t belong here, I want to be rescued, I’m starting a revolution. Existentialism at its best. Her voice is unique and husky like aged smoked steak soaked in whiskey with an English twang on top. Most of her songs are sung in her lower register and rarely feature any vocal variation.

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ILLUSTRATION BY TANIA KHAZZAKA

The record is eclectic sonically; she dabs into different genres, Kelly Clarkson emopop in ‘Please Rewind’, ‘80’s disco tinges in ‘Turn Your Back On Love’, bluesy jazz in ‘Summer Rain’, ska in ‘No Smile’ and soft electronica in the rest of the songs. The effort is ambitious but the result feels like a case of identity crisis and idea-cramming. The synths abundantly dominate the record with obligatory electronics sprinkled over repetitive bright guitars. Songs like ‘In Spirit Golden’, ‘Playwright Fate’, ‘The Constant’ and ‘Party Bag’ share similar predictable patterns with no surprise elements; aiming high but sounding flat and undernourished. Contrary to the dark nature of the content, the songs provoke nothing but vanilla warm fuzzies and will move you only if you’re a sappy old fart. Salvation for the album comes in the form of ‘Ceaser’ a jam featuring Swedish queen Robyn. “I want to annoy/And I’m going to enjoy it” such is the brattitude exhibited by Coco as synths begin pulsing and the bass throbbing. Robyn gives the song life on the soaring chorus with her angelic vocals and provides a nice contrast to Coco’s husk. ‘Selfmachine’ is electropop done well, the bassline is reminiscent of Yeah Yeah Yeah’s ‘Zero’; catchy and melodic. The lyrics tackle alienation and liken her loneliness to a robot in a wasteland; major WALL·E flashbacks. ‘Summer Rain’ is a piano-driven standout with a solemn rhythm, major strings, a drum breakdown and a powerful bridge: “You should’ve known I was trouble/You should be careful who you fall for”. It sounds misplaced amongst the synths but it is refreshing and convincing. ‘No Smile’ is a ska tune cloaked in keyboards, drums and offbeat guitar picking that will leave you skanking in no time. In conclusion, The Constant has potential but needs further development. Coco has yet to find a consistent sound compelling enough to establish her as a musical force separately from her father and her contemporaries that have done what she does and done it well. ‘It’s About To Get Worse’–an electro string-laden ballad about a deteriorating relationship– closes the album: “I hope it gets better/It’s got to get better”. One can only hope she’s talking about her next record.

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MOVIE OF THE ISSUE

DIRECTED BY MICHAEL LEHMANN

“ YOU’RE NOT A REBEL, YOU’RE F**KING PSYCHOTIC ”

ARTICLE BY SERGE KALDANY ILLUSTRATION BY FOUAD MEZHER

hen I was just a little girl, I asked my mother what will I be? Will I be pretty? Will I be a whore? Here’s what she said to me: Que Sera Sera, but always keep a condom in your bag, just in case.

If you ever lusted after Wynona Ryder, the charming actress who doesn’t seem to know that people age, well here’s your chance to drool like a hound dog. Unfortunately, Veronica Sawyer (Wynona Ryder) is not one of the Heathers (Shannon Doherty, Lisanne Falk, and Kim Walker). The Heathers are elusive creatures to be worshiped, almost fairylike. People know they exist, but they have never really experienced their presence. They are the pinnacle of high school class in public. In private, they are capable of sentences like “F**k me gently with a chainsaw, do I look like Mother Teresa?” No lies, have you ever heard this phrase? Just imagine the gory scenery! Not a single boy can approach them, let alone touch them, but a college boy will get a blowjob. Veronica, unlike them, has a heart, but still finds herself being their lackey; trying to edge herself up the ladder of the group. The story begins with number 1, number 2, and number 3 pissing on people’s dream and crushing their last remaining slice of dignity. Veronica is distracted by the boyish good looks and peering eyes of the new guy, one peculiar young man called Jason Dean (Christian Slater), who might as well have been called James Dean since the caricature is a little bit too obvious. That peculiar guy is the kind of guy who brings a gun to a knife fight – he also brings a gun to school. Bad boy alert!

Martin Luther King Jr. look like flushing a dead goldfish down the toilet. However, number 1 is dead, but number 2 and 3 remain… for now… The acting is… well, boys playing boys, Christian Slater playing a tough bad boy, teenagers playing bitches – not technically acting. The characters in this movie might be a little extreme, but this is what in fact affirms its real-life attributes. Classic high school movie, right? Not nearly! Halfway through the movie, director Michael Lehmann had a change of heart and shifted to a thriller verging on satire. But then again, he might have just been testing his blood spattering skills with this one until he achieved the directoialship (you almost want to look it up? fooled you enough to think it’s actually a word, ey?) of the following sweet and non-violent series: True Blood, Dexter, Californication, American Horror Story… what did you expect?! This movie doesn’t really have a second degree. It’s a fun watch, a whiff of escape to a simpler time; a time where censorship wasn’t afraid of f**king with people. Check out this film. It’s one of the most confusing cinematography pieces in history. Between the three Heathers, you get more lost than if you’d watch The Matrix in Hungarian, with no subtitles.

Welcome to the crisis every single teen movie has been describing since the dawn of time. A girl is torn between guaranteed fame, or her real friends and a possible love life. In a weird twist, Veronica chooses the latter! Where Lindsay Lohan chose to suck up to her queen bee, Veronica went and actually killed her Regina George, with the help of gun-toting James Dean. The future prom queen is dead, and high school life is at a halt. The once loathed Heather number 1 is revered, making the loss of

MOVIE REVIEW

DIRECTED BY LARRY CLARK

“ When you’re young, not much matters ”

ARTICLE BY SERGE KALDANY ILLUSTRATION BY FOUAD MEZHER

ids is the title of a movie that is not at all suitable for kids. You know how in a lot of movies, the first scene is often the shot of a lovely background that slowly focuses on the protagonists, or a nice jingle that smoothes into the action? Well, this is not one of those. As of second one of this particular movie, we’re introduced to two kids frantically trying to shove their tongues as far down each other’s throat as possible. The interesting one is the male. We’re not gonna even bother calling them boy and girl, we’ll just stick to their scientific labels. Trust us, you do not wish to get even remotely familiar with them. So as we were saying, the male, named Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), is a scrawny, freckly, reptilian creature; in other terms, a typical teenager except that he really isn’t. Selflessly, Telly decides to spread the ‘wealth’ and sets out to become a serial deflowerer and HIV donor; trying to take down and go down on as many female beings as he can. During the course of his blood drenching escapade, one of his victims, Jennie (Chloe Sevigny), along with her bff, Ruby (the first ever screen appearance of one of the most smoking actresses on this planet, Miss Rosario Dawson), embarks on the mission to cockblock Telly so that no other females suffer her fate. In the meantime, Telly and Casper (Justin Pierce), his partner in mischief, go about their routine; creating havoc, shoplifting and trying to seduce 13-year-olds. They wind up at the same party, concluding in the forever perpetuating HIV shackles with a surprising, but judicious, twist. Karma’s a bitch Telly, and you haven’t exactly been a saint. Leo Fitzpatrick’s rendition of Telly is as believable as Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of a mad man in, well, all his movies. This either denotes a very talented actor or a mentally deranged human being, but seeing that he has done a few good movies and TV series since then, we can assume

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we’re on the safe side and call him one of the most underrated child actors of the 90’s. A weird twist to all that, is that it’s been dreamt up by young writer Harmony Korine who was only 18 when she took a pencil to a piece of paper and created this abomination of a thought. Thanks to this movie, she cast a spell over the director Larry Clark and was spotted by all major directors, like Oliver Stone, who tried to have her write a script for one of his movies. If you turn to IMDB, you can… oh damn… Harmony’s actually a dude! Our bad… Do you think he was so traumatized by his name and being bullied that he had to invent a male substitute who can devirginize every female he’s able to encounter? Whatever the reason is, it seems to be working for him. He is now rampaging through Hollywood with his latest creation, a little movie you might have heard of and the feature in this issue’s original soundtrack, Spring Breakers which features slutty girls and Disney’s goody-twoshoes Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens. Parents and grandparents, don’t watch this movie, you’ll just get paranoid. Kids, don’t watch this movie, you need a childhood and preserved innocence before it’s too late. The rest of you, don’t miss this movie, you’ll get a real kick out of every aspect of it.

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MOVIE REVIEW

DIRECTED BY JOHN HUGHES

“ Come on, Live a little! ”

ARTICLE BY SERGE KALDANY ILLUSTRATION BY FOUAD MEZHER

ho in the hell names anything Ferris, let alone a stupid squirrel? Oh wait, no it’s not a pet, it’s a human being! Around the time that we were all still looking at the stars circling over our cribs, some stars were emerging in the movie industry. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off brought on the fame of a few superstars, mainly Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, and Charlie Sheen (we’ll get to him in a few lines so read on). Off to the plot: imaginatively, this original script is based on a child faking an illness to ditch school. Sounds pretty conventional now, but maybe back then, it wasn’t so common. Want the perfect recipe to fake an illness to skip school? Well, it might be too late but here’s how you should’ve done it: go watch the movie. The first 10 minutes or so are basically Ferris (Matthew Broderick) explaining a foolproof method to fool your parents. Then comes the actual conundrum: what to do when you feel like the king of the world on a day off? First of all, you need a car, and for this you need a Cameron (Alan Ruck). The second step is to fiddle around with the school system so that you appear to be there without being there. However, a few people are out to get him; the headmaster (Jeffrey Jones) and his sister (Cindy Pickett). The rest of the day basically relies on this cat and mouse chase. Between the street-smart Ferris getting out of absolutely anything and everything with countless tricks up his sleeve, the more than clumsy headmaster and the loyal sidekicks, the chase is quite amusing. Think of it as Home Alone meets Breakfast Club, not surprising since all three have been written by the same man: John Hughes. In the end, it’s a joy that still makes us smile, even 30 years in. This movie is a classic, it just is. The soundtrack isn’t spectacular. The acting wasn’t amazing (the Broadway star was still in his teenage years). The Director is not a genius. There is not one thing that makes the film stand out, and yet, it still manages to be an enjoyable time killer.

from a one liner boy in a hit movie, to best-paid television actor, to an utter meltdown. But now he’s back on track, proving that you can never defeat a legend; and what a legend! Step away High School Musical, this is the cornerstone high school movie that is the yardstick for all high school movie like Clueless, Mean Girls… all of them, really. If you watch the movie you might get the hints and familiar tones and lines that can be found in every movie and/or parody. All of this is really nice, but the most important part of the movie is its lead actor, Matthew Broderick. He went from being a peculiar character with boyish charm to a list of unpredictable roles: Godzilla’s veterinarian, a lion, a gay producer. He was in fact so convincing in his homosexual performance, along with his theatre career, that we forget he might also be a zoophile, what with him being married to Sarah Jessica Parker and all. If you think that Matthew Broderick has been hiding from the camera lately, you couldn’t be more wrong (well you can always be more wrong, you can say that he’s dead, or even been struck by an alien disease that’s slowly taking away his insides… that is one stupid expression). But more to the point, a new Godzilla movie is about to come out of the ocean in 2014 and Mr. Broderick had signed a 2 sequel contract in 1998, just in case a sequel would come roaring back to life. So there you have it, another movie lifted by the muscles of an A-list actor, but that doesn’t stop it from becoming a classic picture, one that should be in everyone’s “must see” or “already seen” list. And now we leave you with the wisest words ever put into a teenager’s mouth: ‘Ferris Bueller, you’re my hero’.

At some point in the movie, a young man appears in a police station and says “drugs”, three times. That young man is Charlie Sheen; which explains a lot. We all know and love Charlie Sheen and what he’s become and this movie is where it all started. He went

MOVIE REVIEW

DIRECTED BY CATHERINE HARDWICKE

“ What’s wrong, Jayboy? Don’t got no hair on your inch worm yet? ”

ARTICLE BY SERGE KALDANY ILLUSTRATION BY FOUAD MEZHER

e think it’s a little safe to assume that we all know and loath the Twilight saga. Just so you know, you have Catherine Hardwicke to blame for directing the very first one. Thus, Miss Hardwicke has to do a lot to redeem herself from the aberration that is the pussification of the feared creatures of the night, i.e. vampires and werewolves. Then again, she had already made up for it proactively, long before Twilight, with two films dealing with juvenile delinquency and/or adolescent distress: one about teenage girls, called Thirteen, and the other about teenage boys, called Lords of Dogtown. This review deals with the latter. Let us describe the movie in the first degree in one word: boards. Now, we describe the movie in its spleen: mind-blowing witnessing of the experience of coming of age of teenage dropouts. Enough chitchat. The story revolves around a crew of four young golden haired friends, Stacy (John Robinson), Jay (Emile Hirsch), Tony (Victor Rasuk), and Sid (Michael Angarano). Their perilous escapades on wheels are overseen by their so-called manager Skip (Heath Ledger), a surf and skateboard shop owner. But lets tackle each story at a time… Stacy has a shady background, best explained by his father’s predilection to alcoholic refreshments. He gets snubbed out of the Zephyr team put up by Skip, because he got a job and feels left out of his friends’ group. He’s the thief of young hearts and ends up enticing the wrong one, forcing him to get hostile with his soon to be ex-friends and leave the team for another. Jay has a stoner for a mother and a ditcher for a father. His sense of family is somewhat watered down by his frustration and need to rebel. He finds himself among the Zephyr crew of boarders, training relentlessly to become the best skaters of the region by performing his very personal and peculiar style of sliding. Tony is by far the most experienced skater of the lot. He has been taken under Skip’s wing the longest, which is why when he gets recruited by another team, drawn by money, fame and cars, it causes a great deal of tension among his friends and Skip. Sticking to his decision to upgrade from a dogtown group, he finally distances himself from the bunch; making him the second boy who quits Zephyr.

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Sid is the youngster of the group, and younger means clumsier and more ignorant. He, however, manages to get away from the mishaps that come with such an approach to life. His luck runs out when he develops a cancerous tumor in his brain. But hey, at least now the weed is considered medicinal! His condition has another positive point; it brings the broken-up group of friends back together. One of the last requests of the sick boy is to have all his friend regroup over the emptied out pool; a metaphor for their emptiness and thrust for fulfillment. Skip loves trouble, and if it doesn’t show up, he goes to the deepest ends of the sewers to find it. After the first competition, he quickly regrets the decision of shutting Stacy out and takes him on as his new recruit for the Zephyr team. His laid back and reckless attitude doesn’t help with the kids’ development and it turns out that his motives are purely selfish. Overall acting, even though played by unknowns of the screen, is superb. But the brilliant performance award goes without hesitation to the late Heath Ledger. Another underrated comedian/actor appears in the movie. For those who don’t know him, he is the king of one-liners and the poster boy for drug addicts, Mitch Hedberg. A pimp-looking Johnny Knoxville joins the cast as a rich-man skate manager. Other well-known personalities who make cameos in this movie are none other than boobs herself, Ms. Sofia Vergara and Skating legend Tony Hawk. If you want to watch a good movie, then go watch Thirteen, but if you want to watch a great movie, this is the one for you. It’s the picture that made Emile Hirsch and that reaffirmed the talents and genius of the beloved Joker, Heath Ledger. So thank you Catherine for your movie that took a team of young actors and turned them into movie stars. We just wish you hadn’t gone and ruined your reputation with Twilight. Come on, no amount of money was even close to worth it. Lords of Dogtown is a movie based on a true story that teaches an important lesson: No matter what, true friendship prevails.

SOUNDTRACK REVIEW: SPRING BREAKERS

...forever Hot flashes of booze, boobs and bongs are established as a theme throughout Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers. As the title suggests, the movie tells the tale of four college students aiming to embark on the all-American rite of passage: Spring Break. ARTICLE BY NADIA ALI

andy (Vanessa Hudgens), Faith (Selena Gomez), Brittany (Ashley Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) go out of town to a beach resort to engage in hedonistic activities. The opening sequence gives the viewer the equivalent of an MTV music video sneak peak to the film with, if we haven’t already made it clear enough, naked sun-kissed skin, drugs and teenage pandemonium. This is later followed by an incorporation of visual styling brought to you by “the hood’’: rifles, ghetto get-up and masks create an amalgam of recurring imagery that completes the mood for Korine’s movie to which Skrillex and Cliff Martinez co-compose the soundtrack.

ILLUSTRATION BY KRYSTEL KOUYOUMDJIS

of Martinez’s previous works such as Solaris or Contagion. Despite the music’s adoption of the teenage/college student “go with the flow” philosophy, he manages to preserve a musky feeling to the tone that creates an ambience of dissociation. Taking a look at the clashing melancholia that Faith or Cotty experience in some scenes in contrast to Candy and Brittany’s elation in others, we are able to notice the psychological parallelism generated through the musical score. This being said, despite being advertised as“Disney Girls gone Wild”, the film displays a certain verismo that is only visible to us as fiction through the musical score that creates a distance between viewer and silver screen. Also, the quasipornographic imagery, in the sense that it is socially immoral to carry out such a viewing process outside of the filmic frame, only During the introductory sequence, makes your sound palate experience the the film’s ambience is sustained to no music more feverishly. In addition to that end by Skrillex’s ‘Scary Monsters and promise of eargasms, the music promotes Nice Sprites’. This track has Skrillex’s feelings of an escapist nature. fingerprints all over it: the shoutouts, heavy bass drop, as well as the teasing build ups This primarily hints at the delinquent work together to intoxicate all you party lifestyle the girls adopt/succumb to. To animals with its frenzy.What is also peculiar director Harmony Korine, the line“Spring is the track’s ability to spell out the title’s Break for ever” implies that it’s become a fictional references; the nice sprites jolt you state of mind to them or a transcendence to as you move towards the heavy bass-drop- a different world which they see themselves intoning scary monsters.We could comment in. Rather than being branded as an on the value of the fictionalization of music excessively long video clip, the film displays in relation to the fairy-tale-turned-into- Spring Break as part of the American nightmare essence of the movie, however, culture and allows for a taboo-filled, we’re going to skip over that elaboration. pleasure infused, voyeuristic spectacle, where the exposure of breasts, pink face masks and The use of dubstep, trap and ambient rifle guns become more common than the music sets itself as the middle ground to cuts within a scene. what the Huffington Post described as “Scarface meets Britney Spears”: the Cliff Martinez and Skrillex’s dreammusic to which gangsters and innocent like score enhances those scenes and takes college kids let go of their labels to party. them to a deeper level of meaning that expresses the turmoil the girls experience. Those feverish rhythms in Spring In this manner, Korine uses Martinez’s Breakers clash with the somber atmosphere slow-paced heavy-bass beats to intone his

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characters’ inner thoughts and feelings and plays Skrillex’s tracks against sex and drugs with a dash of violence. The music takes over the dialogue, and proves itself superior by acting as the narrator undressing the girls with its rhythm. The classic conventions concerning the utility of music in film with a modern twist in terms of genre and experimental style become an indispensable element to the indie style of the film that Harmony tries to employ.This is visible throughout Martinez’s ‘Pretend it’s a Videogame’ , as the girls plan to mirror Grand Theft Auto onto “reel” life. This ambient music’s first half is characterized by light strings that build up the suspense while bass lines are introduced just as the girls start carrying out their criminal act. Martinez and Skrillex teamed up to compose a few tracks like‘Bikinis & Big Booties Y’all’ where Skrillex’s background bass and synthesized piano mingle with Martinez’s wistful synthesized strings. However, the track’s ambient nature hints at Skrillex’s subordination to Martinezesque stylistics. An addition to Martinez and Skrillex’s works is a less worthy mention: Dangeruss and James Franco’s ‘Hangin’ With Da Dopeboys’. Taking into account the fact that this song would probably fail to gain recognition if it weren’t performed by Franco, its chaotic impulsivity reflects Alien’s (Franco’s character) gangster persona. Reasons to get your hands on this soundtrack? The escapist nature of music makes it appropriate for a typical Lebanese night out. It also makes for the perfect soundtrack to an after-club car ride where the party remains ongoing. If you want to experience Spring Break any time of the year just pop that album on and let loose.

LIVE REVIEW: CAT POWER / L’OLYMPIA, PARIS

ARTICLE & PHOTOGRAPHS BY CLARA ABI NADER

et us kick this off by letting you all know that instead of providing you with an objective review of Chan Marshall’s (Cat Power) show at l’Olympia in Paris this past July, you will be subjected to a neurotic first-handexperience description of the event through the eyes of what could just be Chan’s biggest admirer. It goes something like this:

secret, I listened closely while shivers ran down my spine. She took her time with every sound; every lyric. It was all suddenly happening so slow. She was singing in slow motion and no one seemed to complain. The melodic words coming out of her mouth felt like heartbeats and I immediately lost my own for the remainder of the encounter, but that didn’t seem to matter.

It finally arrived. The date I had repeated under my breath for months past, the date that I anxiously looked forward to. July 17, and every other July 17 to ever come by will forever be remembered as the July 17 that Cat Power performed for me in Paris. Yes, she performed for me and me alone, or so it seemed, as I had no recollection of the hundreds of audience members that surrounded me and gazed in awe at a blonde Ms. Marshall.

I could see nothing but her on stage; her and her denim jacket. Her and her pixie blond hair. She seemed so fragile and yet managed to hypnotized the hall with an overwhelming energy. To say that I calmly remained in my seat and listened to her would be a complete lie. Since you already think that I’m leaning a bit towards the nutty side, I might as well just tell you that I genuinely felt like running up to that stage, wrapping my arms around her and let her weep on my chest. But I found myself standing still, frozen as her warm voice chiseled away at my frost. There was so much emotion trapped in her just begging to be released. From ‘Manhattan’ to ‘I Don’t Blame You’ to her electrifying rendition of ‘Human Being’, she told a story. She told me a story. She told the greatest story that began with ‘The Greatest’ and ended with ‘Ruin’. I could feel nothing but her voice delicately taking over me entirely. Chan threw a transparent sheath of music and emotion that landed ever so lightly over my head and covered me up. I almost thought that I would want nothing more than to cup my ears, hold them tight and record that memory in my mind so that I could come back to it whenever I felt like it for years to come; engrave that one moment in my conscience and relentlessly re-visit it whenever I needed to. I wanted to trap her echoes and make them resonate time after time.

A hall fit for 1772 audience members suddenly had one seat, one performer and one spectator. Every time she’d sway her hand in the air, I’d sway back. Every time she’d throw a smile, I’d smile back. At times she felt disoriented and that made me uncomfortable, simply because I wanted her to feel at ease. You might think it’s ludicrous that such a crazed fan would wait until the day of the show to come down to the venue and pick up the ticket she had reserved, but that’s alright, I’ve been called worst things. Following a disappointing quarrel with the ticket lady ending with me dragging my feet back home without a ticket in hand (“We can’t seem to find your ticket Ms. Abi Nader, you must have picked it up already”), I thought I’d check my mailbox – just because – and to my luck I found my ticket to the Cat Power concert in there waiting for me with my name on it and it suddenly felt like summer again. To top it all off, bad timing and wretched public transportation schedules, made sure I arrived later than expected and had no way of getting to my seat. All I could think about was: what are all these people there to do? Are they all there for her? Have they all been waiting for the day when they’d finally get to hear her serenade them in person? I just stood there, motionless, in a spot I had hoped would allow me to see her best. And so, my encounter with Chan began. ‘The Greatest’. I can see you chuckling. Well my friend, I insist that it was an encounter, not a staged act, and an intimate one at that. Right when those violins began their sad anthem, I felt that Cat confided in me. Every song felt like a secret. She was telling me her greatest truths and I listened to every sweet word she uttered. Secret after

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I never thought I could cheer so loud, but I did. I never thought that I could clap so hard and lift my hands so high in the air, but I did. I never thought it would end with my eyes flooding with tears, but it did. Throughout it all, it seemed as if the music would never come to a halt, but sadly… it did. There is nothing more to say, really. I was slapped back into reality as I trudged away from the venue. I walked back home, thinking of nothing but Chan’s rendition of ‘Metal Heart’. I thought of it and how it had never sounded better. I had truly heard ‘Metal Heart’ for the first time that night. I sat in my bed, closed my eyes and let We Were Trees sing me to sleep with ‘Dear Chan Marshall’ while wondering when my next encounter with her would be.

CHAN MARSHAL (A.K.A. CAT POWER)

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C.A.R. (OPENING ACT)

COMPILED BY THE PEOPLE BEHIND F/I/M²/P

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CAPTURES COURTESY OF SKY FERREIRA’S ‘YOU’RE NOT THE ONE’

01 ‘HONEY & I’ HAIM This progressive sliced Rock number hesitantly references a relationship so strong it shoots down any outside interference in cold blood.

02 ‘BITTER RIVALS’ SLEIGH BELLS The quintessential Shred Rock gods make a comeback with this slightly more Pop sound. Electric guitar infused 90’s inspired hip-hop beats make the perfect backdrop for Alexis’ enticing vocals. 03 ‘FRESH’ (FYFE REMIX) SUMMER CAMP The married English duo give their best single yet, the “Fyfe remix treatment”. He strips the Indie Pop track to its bare vocals and injects a multitude of electronic and ambient elements. 04 ‘COME ALIVE’ HANNI EL KHATIB Sweet Blues vibe, lyrics to seduce a sweet young lady and perfectly doubled vocals. Hanni El Khatib will frazzle your heart chords as you’re slowly charmed to unbutton them pants. 05 ‘CAMPAIGN OF HATE’ THE LIBERTINES The Libertines are, in sort, modern personifications of past Rock gods. Doherty analyses our dead-end society, it drives him slightly over the edge and we love him for it. 06 ‘ARCHITECTURE’ WEAREMANOR Dancy Dream Pop tune courtesy of this alternative Australian duo. Caitlin and Nathaniel will most probably enchant you as they pair mellow voices and a hallucinatory base line. 07 ‘DEAR CHAN MARSHALL’ WE ARE TREES A “how to guide” to successfully slip under your listener’s skin. Pick a simple acoustic guitar riff, pair it with some lovely strings and reference the abyss queen that is Cat Power.

08 ‘GIDDY UP’ FE Globe-trotting thief Carmen Santiago takes on a human form with the help of Fe. Lyrics “whiskey and wizardry” are the essence of this nymph-possessed musical endeavour. 09 ‘DON’T WAIT’ MAPEI ‘Don’t Wait’ is 21st Century is Doo Wop pioneering deliciousness. Mapei creates a new genre with class, ease and beats.

10 ‘DEER STOP’ GOLDFRAPP Electronically altered chants set the mood for a deeply captivating array of simple instruments and velvety palpitations.

11 ‘THIS IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE’ BANKS Mysterious chanteuse takes on sultry nu-R&B with magnetic results. BANKS’ track comes packing a serious electronic punch that radiates through lovemaking compositions and vocals. 12 ‘YOU’RE NOT THE ONE’ SKY FERREIRA Sky successfully proves yet again that some models will never fit the stereotype mould. She surprisingly emulates Blondie while keeping her trademark offbeat sound intact. 13 ‘FLUORESCENT ADOLESCENT’ ARCTIC MONKEYS One of the Monkeys’ signature songs. The Indie Rock ballad twirls around sweet chords detailing the story of a cheeky friend that turned stale after her racy adolescent years.

15 ‘I DON’T KNOW HOW’ BEST COAST Thirty three words are not nearly enough to accurately describe how inhumanely perfect this melancholic Surf Rock track is. You will simply have to take our word for it. We shit you not. 16 ‘CHELSEA DAGGER’ THE FRATELLIS The Scottish rockers successfully revive Garage Rock with mass modern appeal. This track tells the story of a high-class call girl while punning pop tart Britney Spears. 17 ‘GET OFF’ DANDY WARHOLS Dandy Warhols take on a more acoustic sounding Power Pop/Rock style. There is nothing more romantic than dedicating 3 minutes to declare your insatiable appetite for illicit substances. 18 ‘KICK THIS LOVE’ GIN WINGORE New Zealand native with a knack for kicking you in the balls. This Cabaret Rock tune is the perfect track for trying to get over your evil ex. Results may vary depending on loop replay counts. 19 ‘400 LUX’ LORDE This tune is the luminance of sunrise. Lorde creates the perfect song to describe what interaction takes place during that magical hour.

20 ‘GIRLS & BOYS’ BLUR Incontestable Brit Pop classic 101. Damon Albarn chants about pansexuals, transexuals, omnisexuals, asexuals, bisexuals, metrosexuals and every other sexual in the book.

14 ‘COME BACK TO ME’ HOLLYSIZ Vincent Cassel’s half sister Cecile makes it her mission to revive authentic Disco. ‘Come Back To Me’ will have you whipping out your sparkly bodysuits and busting a groove in no time.

LISTEN TO THE MIXTAPE ON-THE-GO

A ONE OF A KIND POSTER FOR SERGE KALDANY BY MOHAMAD ABDOUNI

LAST THOUGHT

FREDDIE MERCURY 1946 - 1991 90

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THE SHOW MUST GO ON

ARTWORK BY MOHAMAD ABDOUNI

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