MASHROU3 LEILA - مشروع ليلى

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A33izza2una, Sayyidatuna, Sadattuna, al sa3idiyeh, al 3asha2iriyyeh, al jumhooriyyeh, al allahwiyyeh, wa ruwwad al tishtikitamtam,

It’s done. Those of you who’ve been here for a while will know exactly how much this means to the seven of us. Those of you who came in late, fuck we’re 2500 plus!!!!!

The People’s Republic of Lubnanabad cordially invites you to join us in commemorating the anniversary of the Republic’s institution, and the birth of its founding Matron, Leila, daughter of Marika Spiridon, Liberator of occupied territories, chic by day, skank by night. The celebration will take place on the 19^th of December 2009, Demco Steel Warehouse, Bourj Hammoud, 9:00 PM. Come one, come all. Wear something saucy [Less Georgina Rizk, more Samira Sa3id].

In other announcements:

-WE FINISHED OUR CD!!!!!!!!!!!

-HAMED’S FAILING HIS THESIS, but it’s okay if we get famous we might make it into parliament, and paint everything pink.

-BOB’S BACCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKK.

-The People’s Republic of Lubnanabad is currently negotiating diplomatic relations with Jumhooriyat al Hummus: hummus-nation.blogspot.com/

If anyone’s a publisher publish this guy. He’s a genius. GENIUS I SAY!!!!!! We wanted to collaborate for a little show thingy on the 19^th but time is an imperialist, maybe another time.

-The People’s Republic of Lubnanabad would also like to announce a collaboration between heads of Parliament [Mashrou3 Leila] and a brilliant design/animation/art collective called YELOSTUDIO. YELO shot a video for Raksit Leila that should be out soon. They did a phenomenal job, and have excellent work: http://blog.yelostudio.com/

-Haifa Wehbe is the coolest chick in the middle east, after Nawal al Saadawi.

Eat more hummus.

Salamat.

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Mashrouʼ Leila is not a bandʼs name. It is not a proper noun per se; Mashrouʼ Leila is Arabic for ʻan overnight projectʼ lusting out a microphone, a violin, a bass, two guitars, drums and keyboards. It started out as a music workshop at the American University of Beirut in 2008, an open platform for students of architecture and design, somewhere to experiment with sounds and make things audible. Haig Papazian, Carl Gerges, Hamed Sinno, Omaya Malaeb, Andre Chedid, Firas Abou Fakher and Ibrahim Badr have enjoyed this sound fetish savoring its façade of nonchalance and feeding on its lack of genre – sustaining their collective as Mashrouʼ Leila, an experiment.

You can hear Leila, cascading melts of masculine vocals only suspended with thrusts of violin, beats and bass – attacked by neurotic melody that means no harm – sometimes tender, even sometimes on pause. Through the music, you can smell where Leila has been, in bed sheets, on sidewalks, jasmines in riﬂes and spilled coffee on dresses as she made you play with aubergines, dancing her dance. Music has constantly been their place to play with things, to match and mis-match, a project.

In the various performances, Mashrouʼ Leila is a constant attempt to taste and produce, more than happy to harvest anyone from the audience as a guest in their encores. They have performed around Lebanon since 2008, playing in various venues in Beirut, taking over supposed public piazzas as well as clubs, pubs, hybrids and the such – they also played in Zahle, Sour, Jounieh, Saida and Deir el Qamar, each of which pushed forward their thinking about how to go about their music, lyrics and performance. It is only when Mashrouʼ Leila goes live, that you can actually catch a glimpse of Leila. As it talks to you of Beirut, the city that tastes of the absurd, the product of its day-to-day experiences, its stubborn security and lack of the latter, its musical bombshells, incoherent sexuality and thrusting pleasure…narcotic pain – as it brings forward hints of Arabic Tarab, rock, to folk pop, electro, you can see Leila in every man and woman in the silent- come-raving audience. In this trajectory, they participated in music workshops and concerts in Amman and Cairo to maneuver their way into a pan-Arab music scene, to know and to announce, more importantly to grow, musically.

In March 2009, Mashrouʼ Leila won the Lebanese Modern Music Contest jury prize and public vote organized by Radio Liban in partnership with CCF, Incognito and the Basement. They are currently recording their debut album with B-root Productions, to be released in December 2009. The music in the album is a reclamation of the aftertaste; sequel-ing a dose of Beirut.

written by Raafat Majzoub