Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2015 i Maxim

KURT COBAIN WAS famously aloof in interviews, a revered generational spokesman who was always trying to weasel out of the job. Since his death 21 years ago, the questions have only deepened. Which is what makes the new documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, premiering on HBO May 4, such a revelation. Director Brett Morgen was granted unfettered access to Cobain’s archives, including home movies, 200 hours of unreleased music and audio recordings, 4,000 pages of writings, and a stunning collection of personal artwork, and used it to create a portrait of Cobain that’s more human—and more tragic—than we previously understood. “Just when we realize how much more there was to him, it’s over,” Morgen says. “That’s the sadness of this experience: This is the last of it.” You tell a…

CREATING THE PROPER MUSICAL accompaniment for a romantic evening is every bit as critical as washing the sheets. The wrong songs could send your potential bedmate trooping out into the night, while a well-considered playlist can help set just the right vibe. You don’t want to be the guy cluelessly streaming free Spotify or Pandora, getting assaulted by mood-ruining ads for a local community college or the new Imagine Dragons album every 10 minutes, do you? Herewith, some essential rules for constructing the ultimate “sexxxy” playlist: “For me, it’s a lot of Frank Ocean, the Knife, Zola Jesus, the National— basically, the same songs you’d play if you suffer from chronic depression,” says comedian Whitney Cummings. “The hardest part is naming it so it’s not just called ‘Sex Mix’ on…

THE HAIR WAS FEATHERED, bodysuits were tight, and dance floors were packed. The soundtrack? Giorgio Moroder. The heavily mustachioed Italian producer and recording artist was one of the chief architects of disco and techno, crafting several lascivious superhits for Donna Summer, along with the timeless Blondie classic “Call Me.” He also designed a luxury sports car, collected a few Academy Awards and Grammys, and made a spectacular deejaying debut—at age 73. Moroder’s forthcoming album features Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Sia, and Charli XCX. Here, a half century of Giorgio. ALBUM ○ PRODUCER ■ VIDEO GAME □ DJ ▲ SOUNDTRACK OR FILM SCORE ▶ WRITER ▽ COMPOSER ▼ AWARDED ★ PERFORMED ☆ COLLABORATION △…

I. The Party Starter Shaped like a tennis ball can, the 9-inch-tall UE Megaboom serves up 360 degrees of enough big, punchy sound to fill a pool party or a suite at the Bellagio. Its rubberlike exterior shrugs off spills, splashes, and stains; up to 20 hours of battery life means the speaker will keep pace with the rowdiest festivities. $300; ultimateears.com II. The Refined Companion See the honeycomb shell around the edge of the Bowers & Wilkins T7? More than a striking design element, it provides extra structural integrity and squashes the audio-scarring vibration that often plagues small speakers. Good thing: The 8-inch noisemaker houses two 50-mm drivers that crank out 18 hours of warm, balanced sound. $350; bowerswilkins.com III. The Anything-Proof Powerhouse Drop it, dunk it—hell, drive over…

THE FIRST THREE TIMES, I didn’t mention it, but at this point it’s worth bringing up. “You know you’ve slapped me four times during this interview,” I tell Charli XCX. “No, I haven’t,” she protests, rolling her eyes. I start to recite the incidents back at her, counting on my fingers and then giving up after two. Both of us arrived here needing a drink, and now we’ve had more than I can count. The specifics have gotten blurry. It’s 1 a.m. in Oslo’s city center, and we’re at Kulturhuset, a rowdy bar filled with Norwegian hipsters, their beards dangling perilously close to their pints of pale ale. “Oh, whatever, they were more like facepalms anyway,” she says, as the next round arrives. Sam, her buddy from home whom she’s…

IN THE BROKEN-DOWN BASEMENT of Saint Andrew’s Hall, the historic Detroit music venue that’s rumbled with the reverb of everyone from Iggy Pop to Eminem, a group of 20 or so rappers, their posses, and various scenesters are taking drags of cigar-size blunts, counting stacks of cash, and chatting as a showcase gets started upstairs. Young Thug and Travis Scott, arguably two of the hottest young stars in hip-hop, are here. So is Bryan “Birdman” Williams, the high-rolling cofounder of Cash Money Records. But the only one anybody seems to care about is Dej Loaf, a shorthaired, five-foot-nothing 24-year-old wearing a white track jacket with the words SELF MADE emblazoned on the back. She began the evening standing alone in a corner but was soon beckoned to the center, where,…

OLD LADY holding purse tight shout shut off that racket / But that racket happen to be me rapping out my tax bracket / I told her one man’s noise is another man’s symphony / And one man’s trash lid another man’s timpani / Couldn’t afford guitars, we took the sounds that we wanted / To speak on how we felt unwanted. They say we wanton / But it don’t warrant them wanting us with arrest warrants / They say our music is stupid cause it don’t sound like Warrant? / Who decides what’s wanted and what’s unwanted sound / In rap, we take what’s around us to make art that’s found / Like the leftovers and waste that they cooked up with soul / They would take all these…

IN THE EIGHTIES, the “Showtime” Los Angeles Lakers were as well known for their off-court conquests as their on-court dominance. Players had their pick of the groupies swarming the Forum. Only a small percentage of this massive fangirl population ever found their way to Magic Johnson’s house, the setting for scenes of debauchery worthy of Caligula. The ones who did had to pass a three-part test. “First, they had to be gorgeous,” writes Jeff Pearlman, an expert on all things Los Angeles and all things basketball, in his book Showtime. “Second, they had to be promiscuously dressed. Third, they had to be willing to…do things.” The culture of professional sports has changed in the intervening years, and the breed of dedicated sports fan known as the “jersey chaser” has changed…

IN 2014, THE PENTAGON announced plans to build a drone base in the middle of the Sahara to bolster its surveillance capabilities in West Africa. The site: an ancient marketplace town called Agadez in the nation of Niger. Over the past decade, West Africa has become a hotbed for jihadist groups, including Boko Haram and Al Qaeda. Known as the gateway to the Sahara, Agadez is the final stopping point before West Africa gives way to one of the biggest terrorist havens in the world. Agadez isn’t necessarily a dream assignment for the U.S. military personnel and government contractors who will soon be arriving there. It’s a ramshackle town in one of the poorest countries on Earth, accessible only by long, badly maintained roads, many of them riddled with land…

THE EVENTS WERE BILLED as closed-door, no-media-allowed conversations between artists and Spotify. It was a delicate pairing, the industry equivalent of the Iran nuclear talks or emergency couples therapy, and so it began with the creation of a safe space: In three cities—New York, Nashville, and Los Angeles—the artists would gather in a room by themselves and talk for 30 minutes about streaming. Then the doors would open, and Spotify execs would be allowed in. And that’s roughly when the shouting started, much of it at D.A. Wallach, the guy tasked with playing peacemaker between corporate and creative. “There are certainly conversations I have that begin with people hating me,” Wallach says today. Those events were in October, in collaboration with the British artists advocacy group Featured Artists Coalition. But…

I. SENNHEISER MOMENTUM WIRELESS Wrapped in sheep leather and offering a detailed, studio-quality sound, the dapper Momentums also feature active noise canceling and ear-cup-based touch controls. $500; sennheiser.com II. PARROT ZIK 2.0 These elegantly curved, techheavy headphones are loaded with six noise-canceling microphones, gesture-based controls, and an intelligent, app-based interface for fine-tuning your listening experience. $400; parrot.com III. POLK HINGE WIRELESS A punchy, clean sound and a rustic color scheme inspired by the interior of classic luxury cars lend these collapsible headphones a timeless, wear-anywhere appeal. $200; polkaudio.com…

DRESS BLUES Donning a denim suit doesn’t have to evoke the dreaded “Canadian tuxedo,” a denimon-denim disaster that has unfairly plagued our neighbors up north for decades. In truth, not only is the blue jean blazer roughing up the runways of Paris and Milan but it doesn’t require fussy tailoring and has an undeniably rakish appeal. Consider it a “jean jacket” fit for the boardroom and the bar. —CHRIS WILSON BLUE AND BOLD Here’s a fashion-forward way to avoid the denim blues: Mix up your favorite jeans with some stylish signature pieces. Whether it’s the perfect Western shirt, a well-worn denim vest, or even a trench coat that looks like something Bowie would have worn on the streets of 1970s Berlin, denim is all about exuding confidence and cool. —C.W.…

I The Tiny Titan The palm-size Mass Fidelity Core creates a room-saturating audio that seems as though it’s coming from a family of speakers. The secret: It pushes out several sound waves that intersect and create the illusion of multiple sources. In addition, the speaker boasts Bluetooth connectivity, a 12-hour battery life, and analog and optical inputs. $449; massfidelity.com II. The Ace of Bass Like your streaming music with a thick, juicy low end? The Denon Heos 7’s seven speakers deliver a feel-it-in-your-skin bass that would make Pharrell turn his head. It’s also one of the first on the market to implement the new Google Cast standard, which makes it easy to stream songs from different audio apps on your phone, tablet, and laptop. $600; denon.com III. The Hi-Fi Stunner…

IDENTICAL 23-YEAR-OLD TWINS MIRANDA AND ELEKTRA KILBEY, THE AIRY POP DUO SAY LOU LOU, SKIPPED OUT ON COLLEGE JUST A FEW YEARS AGO TO EXPLORE THEIR MUSICAL LEANINGS IN LONDON AND SILVER LAKE. KNOWN FOR THEIR BREATHY VOCALS AND POLISHED GROOVES, THE PAIR WERE WEANED ON ROCK. MOM KARIN JANSSON WAS IN THE PUNK BAND PINK CHAMPAGNE; DAD IS STEVE KILBEY OF THE CHURCH. THIS SPRING, THEY DO THEIR PARENTS PROUD AS THEIR FIRST ALBUM, LUCID DREAMING, DROPS STATESIDE. WE CAUGHT UP WITH THE DUO ON TOUR IN STOCKHOLM TO TALK ART, FAME, AND FREEING THE FEMALE NIPPLE. JUST DON’T ASK THEM WHICH ONE’S THE NAUGHTY TWIN. MIRANDA: I was named after Miranda from The Tempest. It’s Latin for “worth admiring”—not that I’m claiming it suits me! ELEKTRA: My name…

1956 The first-ever rock shirt is believed to have been made by an Elvis fan club. 1964 Promoters promise $1 and a free Beatles shirt to all who welcomed the band to America at JFK airport. 4,000 fans came. 1973 An Allman Brothers shirt sells so well, show promoter Bill Graham launches the first big music merch company. 1973 Dee Dee Ramone (né Douglas Colvin) meets Arturo Vega, who’d become the Ramones’ designer, T-shirt seller, and more. 1979 Bob Marley becomes the first highly prominent band leader to have his portrait on an official shirt. 1982 Maiden in Texas! Maiden in Japan! Iron Maiden popularizes a new sales idea: unique shirts for each leg of a tour. 1984 After the BBC bans Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s song “Relax,” this shirt…

1. From a resort in Puerto Plata, Ballard checks his phone for updates. His two scouts are at bars, meeting with contacts who have promised to provide them with underage girls for a party. 2. Sex workers, many younger than18, will be picked up here tomorrow for the supposed party. Ballard’s team has rented a house for the occasion. 3. Undercover cameras and microphones await installation in the sting house. 4. Ballard’s team counts their money; it’s what they’ll use to pay the sex traffickers. 5. It’s the night before the sting. Meanwhile, sex workers hang out in town, waiting for tourists. 6. In the morning, $100 bills are laid out on a bed so their serial numbers can be recorded. 7. The sex traffickers have arrived, money has exchanged…

WOMEN IN the music industry have been playing the “weird” card since well before Lady Gaga donned her meat dress (Stevie Nicks and Kate Bush come to mind), and for good reason! It forces listeners to move beyond the sex appeal of the typical pop chanteuse and actually hear the songs. Here’s how three of our current favorites stack up. BJÖRK Björk Gudmundsdóttir SIGNATURE SONG “Human Behavior,” Michel Gondry–directed video featured giant teddy bears ADORABLY ODD MOMENT Too many to count, but wearing a stuffed swan to the 2011 Oscars is definitely up there COOL COLLABORATORS Nurtured careers of Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq and Finnish multimedia artist Heidi Kilpeläinen VOCAL STYLE Can soar from Icelandic baby talk to celestial bellow capable of grinding eardrums into dried fish EXTRA CREDIT…

MDOU MOCTAR Wielding a lefthanded Fender, and often using heavy vocal distortion, the motorcycle-riding star of Rain the Color of Blue with a Little Red in It is currently pushing desert blues in an even more psychedelic direction. His 2013 album, Afelane, became a viral success both in and out of Africa by being shared over mobile phones. GROUP INERANE Hailing from northern Niger, Group Inerane is most notable for its dueling-guitar riffs and ’60s-era psychedelic sound. One of its two guitarists, Adi Mohamed, was killed by government soldiers near Agadez during a 2010 uprising. TINARIWEN Founded in the early 1980s, this Malibased music collective pioneered Tuareg guitar music. Most of the group’s members fought on the front lines during one or more of the rebellions. Their 2011 album, Tassili,…

The Maxim Party was the place to be during the Big Game weekend as Maxim celebrated in style at a private Scottsdale, AZ airport hangar with 1,500+ guests, beautiful models and top celebrities in attendance. Guests enjoyed music from DJ Vice, and a special live performance from Ludacris kept the crowd going all night long. Stars such as Paul McCartney, Chris Evans, Anna Faris, Chris Pratt, Chase Crawford, AnnaLynne McCord, Kellan Lutz, Macklemore, Nina Dobrev and Nick Cannon flled the room making the 2015 Maxim Party one to remember!…

I. The Clear Winner Most speakers are engineered to stand out; the ClearViewAudio Clio is designed to disappear. The bulk of the Bluetooth speaker’s body is composed of a 1-mm-thick wall of acrylic glass that not only blends in with any surroundings but also acts as an audio transducer, spreading waves in all directions. The result is bright, clean, room-filling sound, all from a source that doesn’t need to be seen to be heard. $349; clearviewaudio.com…

THE SMARTPHONE LG G Flex2 LG is making noise with the release of the innovative new LG G Flex2. The curved body form of this stylish new device is conveniently shaped to ft the curve of your hand and angle of your face. It is as beautiful to hold as it is to behold. From the sleek profile to the intuitive rear key, it’s unique from every angle. THE FIGHT Mayweather vs. Pacquiao The wait is over. Witness one of the most anticipated sporting events in recent history as pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather puts his legacy on the line to face eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao. Saturday, May 2, live on Pay-Per-View. THE ACCESSORY Swatch Black Energy Swatch’s new Black Energy is a contemporary piece that has a…

THEY USED TO PARTY at the Motel 6 in Tupelo, Mississippi— rent out a room, invite every girl they could think of, and stay all weekend. The idea was that Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi would be the only guys, but of course other dudes always showed up. Among them was a kid named Jay who went to a different high school, who would grab the room next door whenever he heard Swae and Jxmmi were having a party. Jay recalls wandering over, seeing the two brothers, and thinking, Y’all are so cool. Swae and Jxmmi, whose real names are Khalif Brown and Aaquil Brown, were cool. They were members of what was essentially a boy band, and one of their songs, “Party Animal,” had become a local hit. That…