Underground Music

[samerlb]

pls let us discuss our ( in lebanon or in any other arabic country ) underground music scene .

i am going to post some links and stuff soon ... but if any one have anything pls start posting ....

we need info about these artists ....
infos about the genre the r performing ....
and surely songs and music ....

[paully86]

TIME Magazine Sex, Drugs and Rock ’n’ Roll in a Failing State
Category: Music

Lebanese youths party in a nightclub in Beirut.

Marwan Naamani / AFP / Getty

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Despite a jihadist uprising in the north, a political crisis in the capital, and rumors of war swirling all around, it's business as usual in Beirut's packed nightclubs. The good-looking people in this good-time town have long partied to a familiar soundtrack of popping champagne corks, clacking high-heels, and the generic beat of computer-generated dance music — whatever it takes to drown out the sound of Lebanon's continual crises. But for a relatively small number of Beirut hipsters, there's another soundtrack, evoking rather than denying the instability of their lives.

Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll in a Failing State

Lebanon's underground music scene sees its own demise in the fading promise of the 'Cedar Revolution'

Many of them gathered last Thursday for a performance by Scrambled Eggs, four nerdy-cool local guys in tight jeans and high-tops who strangle their guitars and have onstage seizures as if this was Manchester in the 80's or Seattle in the 90's. "I was locked in a cellar but it became my shelter," sang frontman Charbel Haber on "See You in Beirut Whatever Happens," one of the band's original songs that convincingly channels the post-punk era of Sonic Youth and the Cure, but which seems somehow appropriate in the current Beirut setting: a subterranean nightclub called Basement, which coined its slogan "It's Safer Underground" during last summer's Israeli air raids.

For the past ten years, Beirut has been home to a small but artistically significant rock scene, where a handful of bands with names like Soap Kills, the New Government and, of course, Scrambled Eggs, have tried to put this tiny country on the musical map for something other than sexy Arab pop divas. As such, they've been part of a creative subculture of artists, architects, and designers who've tried to reconcile Eastern and Western cultural forms, as well as tradition with modernity.

A foreign visitor might find it strange to find a rock subculture in the Middle East, but Haber, a former Catholic schoolboy, sees a similarity between rock's golden age during the 1950s and 1960s in America, and the Middle East today — sexually repressed conservative societies dominated by religion and an ideological cold war. Interviewed last week at the band's studio in Gemmayze, a formerly working class neighborhood of garages and crumbling townhouses that's become ground zero for Beirut's young and restless, Haber places the Beirut rock scene in a wider Mideast cultural context: "At the end of the day, sex, drugs, and rock and roll means freedom."

Rock and freedom — if not necessarily sex and drugs — got a big boost in Lebanon in 2005, during what outsiders called the Cedar Revolution, when huge crowds gathered in central Beirut to demand an end to the Syrian occupation and an end to the country's sectarian divisions. But the creative and intellectual frenzy that accompanied the Syrian withdrawal was cut short after the country's ruling sectarian political class co-opted the Cedar Revolution, and turned Lebanon into battlefield between regional superpowers. Spurred by last summer's war with Israel and by the current struggle between Iran and the U.S. over Lebanon's government, talented young people have been leaving in droves. "We're not a country that can handle big missions," said Haber. "One side wants us to spread democracy in the Middle East, the other side says that we're the country that's going to bring about the downfall of the Israelis and the Americans. They have been pushing the country into a state of survival, and in a state of survival, art doesn't survive."

The music of Scrambled Eggs isn't overtly political. But Haber's lyrics, which focus on his "entourage of completely wasted people" reflect what it's like to live in a society fraught with uncertainty and violent change. "We do everything as if the world is going to end tomorrow," he said. "The Syrians might come back, Israel might attack, Hizballah might start another war. In a situation like this, you do a lot of self-destructive things." One recent song, "Let It Go," is both a rousing exhortation to ignore one's mounting problems, but also an elegiac farewell to the city's golden moment that followed the Cedar Revolution. Its haunting melody is meant to conjure the orange and violet melancholy of a Mediterranean sunset. "It's an Arab thing," explains Haber. "They always go back to the ruins and cry and remember their lovers. In Beirut, it happens every decade, the city is destroyed and then rebuilt. It disappears and then appears. That's why it's raw."

[paully86]

Lebanon does have its own underground music scene! I've been listening to underground music for about 8 years now (i had a mohawk one point, my father quickly put an end to that). I'm really glad Lebanon has one, in Egypt such music is considered "haram" both by the public and the government. Thankfully the Lebanese government and public does not view such music as a gigantic threat.

[Abdallah K.]

This is DJ Lethal Skills and he does underground English\Arabic Rap and Hip Hop

www.djlethalskillz.com/
www.myspace.com/lethalskillz
http://www.youtube.com/user/djlethalskillz

[Abdallah K.]

Some of DJ Lethal Skillz songs...hes really good

KL to Beirut (my favorite)



"Perempuan" DJ Fuzz, DJ Lethal Skillz & MC Moe Collective

[lebnani]

Lebanon’s Redemption Song
Reggae’s popularity rises in Beirut


A mural of late musician Bob Marley in Kingston, Jamaica. Marley, who was born in 1945 and died in 1981, remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music and is also credited for helping spread Jamaican music to a worldwide audience. (AFP /Jewel Samad)

House music may be the unquestionable soundtrack of the city, but as with any trend, once something becomes mainstream in Beirut, it quickly turns passé and is replaced. And it seems Reggae may be a strong contender for the next big thing here.

Almost every night of the week a Beirut locale hosts a Reggae band.

On weekdays, the Reggae scene can be found in Achrafieh; at Snatch on Mondays, Bulldog on Tuesdays and Beer Bar on Fridays. On weekends, the Rasta vista moves across town to Hamra, with shows at Amadeus every other Saturday and then B.lb café on alternate Sundays.

While the Reggae movement sweeping the city may seem huge, it is spearheaded by just two bands: Rasta Beirut and Jammit the Band.

Both groups began as rock band Panadol, formed during the 2006 July War. But with a waning following and a change in lead vocalists, the band switched to Reggae and picked a new name. Then, early this year Marc Bassila, the drummer and a founding member of Panadol, split from the group and started Rasta Beirut.

Egyptian Rany Mikhael joined Jammit the Band and its seven other members, who are of Arab and Brazilian descent.

Rasta Beirut features a significantly younger line up; aside from 25-year-old Bassila, Imad Jawad (bass) and Ian Masry (lead singer and guitarist) are both 19-year-old students at the American University of Beirut.

On the two bands’ choice of genre, Masry said, “I guess it’s just going back to music we grew up listening to.” It is perhaps not insignificant that Masry is part West-African, a Gambian-Lebanese mix, while Bassila of Rasta Beirut has lived in Africa among other places.

According to Jammit the Band’s Mikhael, the growing presence of Africans in the region has a lot to do with the local resurgence of Reggae. He himself was introduced to the genre when he heard a group of African refugees in Egypt sing at their church.

In Lebanon, African workers introduced Reggae in the 1990s before Rasta Beirut and Jammit the Band spread the sound.

In 1996, a dreadlocked man called Rudy began performing Reggae in the Jounieh area. Both Bassila and Mikhael played with him on occasion before he disappeared from the scene in 2000. Around the same time there was also a Nigerian man called Danny Brooks who used to play Reggae at Kalinka near Hamra.

In 2001 Basilla helped form Jah Stix with a Nigerian Reggae artist who went only by his first name, Jack, and performed with his Nigerian/Lebanese wife. Two years later they disappeared as well, said Bassila, who speculates Jack’s work papers may have expired. In 2003, Bassila tried again with Green Tea, featuring a vocalist from the Ivory Coast, who soon returned to his country.

Reggae’s local resurgence can also be explained demographically, as the country draws a lot of its cultural influences from the global Lebanese diaspora who left Lebanon during the civil war settled in Africa and in South America.

Besides, Reggae is quite political, which makes it attractive to the Lebanese, says Bassila. Reggae lyrics tend to largely promote the catchphrase “one love, one aim, one destiny” while simultaneously promoting individual rights and addressing social ills such as racism and colonialism.

“There’s a big relation between Reggae and Beirut, you know, because people are always fighting against the government and fighting for their rights… this is what Reggae music talks about: to be free; you know, get up, stand up, fight for your rights,” Bassila said, quoting a popular Bob Marley song.

It is this message that Rasta Beirut hopes to impart on the people of a country that is home to 18 recognized sects that have a history of turning on each other.

Indeed, Lebanon’s problems are a bit different than those that inspired the reggae of Africa and the Caribbean. At AUB on Monday for the inauguration of the university’s new president, Rasta Beirut performed Bob Marley’s classic “Redemption Song” with a distinctly Lebanese inflection.

“Emancipate yourselves from the Israelis/None but ourselves can free the Palestinians,” sang Masry to the elated cheers of the audience.

[Abdallah K.]

anyone else have links?

[samerlb]

may favorite rap band in lebanon is katibe 5 . there first album came out in 2008.

i found 5 songs of their songs on youtube

here is one of them ( the others are in related videos or videos from osloob )

[samerlb]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XeYj06XGx0

These newcomers on the Lebanese rap scene hail in actual fact from Palestine, but have spent their young existence in the refugee camps of Borj el Barajneh. Their incendiary prose and hard-edged beats, however, do not confine themselves to their geopolitical surroundings; quite the opposite, these five (as their "street" moniker indicates) young men look and rap beyond the events of their daily life, taking in the political state of their country(ies), the social condition of the youth and education, to name but a few. Providing their fiery lyrics with a near-perfect shield of beats and rhythms is Zeid Hamdane, the man behind Lebanese band Soapkills, with able assistance from sound engineer Fadi ‘Fe’ Tabbal. This vital collection of sounds and prose is a remarkable document of life on the Lebanese street, one that will undoubtedly be remembered in years to come as the first step of a successful musical career.

[samerlb]

this website ( label ) is one of the best
http://www.incognito.com.lb/store/

[Rabih]

Y.A.S. - Get it right (Yasmine Hamdan of Soapkillz)


LUMI - Don't fuck with my cat

[Darkthekiller]

there's also soapkills, the new government, scrambled eggs. Unfortunately as you all know soapkills do not exist anymore. Btw my favorite underground music is YAS, the new government and soapkills ! for those who like rap music there's also 3aks el sir !
Links :
http://www.myspace.com/soapkills0

http://www.myspace.com/shiftz

http://www.myspace.com/scrambledeggslebanon

http://www.myspace.com/thenewgovernment

[paully86]

Friday night I went to T Marbouta with a British acquaintence and some band called "The Night Project" (this is translated from their Arabic name which I can not spell out) was playing and it was fantastic!!! The leading singer was amazing at rhyming in Arabic and had an amazing voice. Tonight is La Fete de Musique and downtown and I can't wait to go!!!


Also The New Government is playing tommorow in Hamra.

[Rabih]

The Basement - Beirut

[Rabih]

Jesse Younan - Queeny

[lebnani]

Originally Posted by paully86

Friday night I went to T Marbouta with a British acquaintence and some band called "The Night Project" (this is translated from their Arabic name which I can not spell out)

Mashrou3 Laila ! I've heard soo much about them and I hear they are awesome. I need to catch them when they play again. They are releasing their album soon. I am not sure if you would classify them as underground anymore so much as independent... I dunno, they are releasing a widely anticipated debut album.

Another local Lebanese artist that is going world wide is Y.A.S. (Rabih posted a link to one of her singles near the beginning of this thread) I don't think she is independent (since she is managed or produced by the same people that produced a few of Madonna's albums) but she is releasing her album "Arabology" in north America very soon.

[lebnani]

[lebnani]

A site with a bunch of awesome Lebanese underground artists from many genres.
http://www.lebaneseunderground.com/music/index.asp

[jb_nl]

are there some good arabic rock bands, singing in arabic?

[Rabih]

Mashrou3 Layla - love their music