Issue 51 December 2018 Issue 51 ONLINE www.thecutmagazine.com FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/TheCutMagazine ADDRESS The Cut Magazine 5000 Forbes Avenue UC Box 122 Pittsburgh, PA 15238 COVER PHOTO Cassandra Scheirer December 2018 Editor-in-Chief Brooke Ley Assistant Editor Trevor Lazar Photo Editor Matthew McGehee PR Editors Dalia Laredo Issue 51 CJ Rosado Letter Design Editor Jackie Chou Copy Editor Wilson Ekern From Writing Staff Amanda Vallon Clara Enders Clare Lai The Claudia Osorio Emma Blank Izzy Sio Jamie McArthur Editor Julianne Tippett Julie Heming Leila Berger Winter has come in best soundtracks. Finally, if you holiday cheer. Lexie Rodriguez Pittsburgh, despite what the you’re looking to leave your I’m also particularly fond Megan Naji recent 60° day might make significant other before you of this issues mixtape, an Mei Leng you think. With the changing have to bring them home for imagining of a new Shrek Michelle Ng of seasons comes the joy of the holidays, check out Clare movie through its potential Omasan Richardson finals and the push towards Lai’s write up on breakup soundtrack. I had the Shrek Shambhavi Mishra the end of the semester. What songs. If you’re the one who soundtrack on CD growing better way to cheer yourself up has been broken-up with, up, so this one hit particularly and relax than with Carnegie check out Jamie McArthur’s close to home. "My Beloved Design Staff Arpita Nag Mellon’s very own music guide to Joji who can help you Monster" by the Eels still goes Jenna Kim magazine. through this time. hard. Julie Heming If you need something We also, as always, have our So with that, be sure to sit Michelle Ng to warm your cold, winter reviews on recently reviewed down and warm up with a Mina Tocalini heart, I’d recommend Mei albums and concerts that have cup of hot chocolate and your Yuri Lim Leng’s essay on the cuteness come through the ‘burgh. favorite music magazine. of Post Malone. If you’re lost Read through our thoughts on on who that is, check out everything from k-pop band Photo/Art Staff Amanda Vallon Claudia Osorio’s write up on EXO to good old fashioned Brooke Ley Cassandra Scheirer his musical style. Looking for Britney Spears. Editor-in-Chief Michelle Ng Letter a way to procrastinate from The Cut also got the finals? Read up on music to chance to catch up with study to by Wilson Ekern or Pittsburgh local and internet prep your Oscar’s list with art-pop legend Jack Stauber. I From Shambhavi Mishra and Leila recommend his video “Trent The Berger’s catch up on this year’s the Baby's Christmas” to bring Editor 4 Masthead Letter From The Editor 5 What We’re 8 Listening To 9 Essays Album 18 Reviews Interview 30 Jack Stauber Concert Reviews Photo by Cassandra Scheirer 36 Table of Contents 7 Albums and EPS "Drunk in LA" Warm Hi-Fi Melodies to Beach House All We Know Is Falling "play the part" Procrastinate and Stress To Paramore ROLE MODEL by Wilson Ekern The Window "Sweet but Psycho" Cécile McLorin Salvant Ava Max We Can Die Happy "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy" Tennis Justice feat. Uffie Studying sucks, mostly. It needs extended focus, looking over easily from page to brain, all the while “over it” by ṰṏỞ↑ἧᾯrṰḩ material you’ve seen before, doing problems you either can’t leaves your mind detached and relaxed, but still laser focused. Trench "All my best friends do at all or can do all too well. Will it be on the test? Am I just Words would just get in the way - this is your time, your Twenty One Pilots are metalheads" wasting my time? Why do I even want to be in school? Questions, preparation, and no fancy lyrical tricks or turns of phrase will Less Than Jake questions, and an ever-spiraling anxiety that threatens to turn distract you from chasing that GPA. Michl time spent studying into time spent frantically procrastinating. Not that literally anything that lessens the sometimes- Michl "Party for One" Thankfully, there’s a solution to soothe even the most nerve- unbearable, chest-crushing anxiety that can come with sitting Carly Rae Jepsen wracking, nail-biting, high-stakes study sesh. I’m talking Chill down for several hours at a time, trying vainly to force your Songs LoFi Hip-Hop Beats To Study and Relax To. In our anxious brain onto the knowledge track. You could try checking Twitter "Bless the Telephone" times, what with fascism on the rise and the crushing weight of every other practice problem, or standing up and stretching, or "Wednesday" Labi Siffre student loans heavy on our shoulders, what we need is not a 10- just stare at the wall and wonder if it’d really be that bad to fail O.C. Ska Kids hour YouTube playlist of dramatic instrumental classical movie just this once. I don’t discount any of those options - I’m a well "Tints" soundtracks, but the lush, warm, syrupy sounds of chopped and seasoned work-avoider, as my 112 grade can well attest. The "The Heights" Anderson .Paak feat. screwed production, lacking even a single spoken syllable to nice part about playing music while you study, whether some of Thomston Kendrick Lamar distract your fried and exhausted brain from whatever else you’ve the chill lofi hip hop beats to study and relax to, experimental been trying to cram in there. thrash-metalcore fuzz grime rock rap, or just static interrupted "Stupid Deep" "Nowhere2go" Connoisseurs of the art form might recognize the connections by screams every few minutes (cathartic!), is that you’re not all Jon Bellion Earl Sweatshirt to Vaporwave, the somewhat-ephemeral genre of slowed down the way there, in the library or the dorm room or the nice shady 90s pop music, forever reaching for a nostalgia that never spot under that huge oak on the Cut. You’re somewhere else, in "All Your Yeahs" quite existed: a dream of empty polished tile flooring, muted a world that someone wove from sound, just so you could listen Beach House fluorescent lighting, and the worry-free end of history. Think and be, however momentarily, taken away from your back- of the typical chill lofi hiphop beat to study to as touching on a breaking load of responsibilities. In these rip-roaring times, we "Honey" similar longing, one in which the Sorrel’s study pods are always could all use something a little chill, a little lofi, and maybe even Johnny Balik open, the lights overhead bright but calming, the words and a little hip hop, to help us keep on keeping on. numbers and code and whatever else must be learned flowing "I'm Goin' Down" Mary J. Blige What We're Listening To 8 What We’re Listening To What We’re Thinking About 9 by Jaie McArthur Jaie by Himself Reinventing Joji's We’ve all seen serious dubbed “Filthy Frank”. As exemplified during his time artists reinvent themselves his popularity grew, he began on Youtube. His art under throughout their careers. creating more personas, the alias “Joji” has revealed From the Beastie Boys moving like “Pink Guy”, eventually a much more emotional from hardcore punk to hip reaching his comedic peak and vulnerable side of his hop to Taylor Swift cutting ties with the creation of the well- creativity. This shift from with her country image, it can known “Harlem Shake” dance. absurdist rap songs to Article and be difficult for serious artists Throughout his Youtube career melancholy R&B ballads is a Illustration by to completely change their he wrote satirical rap songs unique occurrence, and not Mei Leng Cutie image, especially if that image under the character Pink Guy. many can pull it off. However, has been well-established Soon after, he released an Joji seems to be mastering the in their career. However, album titled Pink Season that art of self-reinvention and this transition can be more made it to the upper half of making it look like a piece Posty difficult for some than the Billboard 200. of cake. Joji is not the first Scanned with CamScanner others. For former Youtube Now, Joji is paving a new Youtuber to set out to have a sensation George “Joji” Miller, path for himself. He recently serious music career, but he Maloney the transition from Youtube debuted his first album, is one of the most distinctive. comedian to serious musician Ballads 1, a collection of Leaving his old path behind is seemingly out of the mellow and heavy-hearted and blazing a new trail is ordinary, but he’s managed to love (or lack thereof) songs. inspiring, and it’ll be exciting do it. Joji debuted on Youtube This album is the complete to see what he will bring into Every time anyone calls Post Let’s move on to his eyes. mesmerizing eyes paired the sides of his peach face melts in 2011 with a character he opposite of everything he the world next. Malone ugly, I cry a little bit The main point here is that the way he smiles with all his teeth my heart everytime I think inside. In order to reduce physical aspects of the eyes are conveys a carefree zest for life, about it. Not to mention, his my tears, I guarantee I will not as important in judging full of magical hopes, dreams, mustache is precisely the convince all the fools out there cuteness compared to the kind and naivety.