HD by design
Lena Dunham
Girl on Top
How Lena Dunham turned a life of anxiety, bad sex and countless psychiatric meds into the funniest show on TV.
By Brian Hiatt
Photograph by Peggy Sirota
Wrap up,” the big, blinking sign kept telling her last night. But after teetering all the way to that stage in the kind of five-inch heels she’d always assumed were reserved for prostitutes, she couldn’t pay it any mind. Her hands were shaking, but she rambled on, cradling her Golden Globe like a puppy. For once, Lena Dunham was acting like she had plenty of time.
Iso
Iso's Point of No Return
From George Michael’s erstwhile backing vocalist and an X-Factor also-ran to a Grammy-nominated R&B contender, Nigerian songstress Tiwa Savage finally gets her groove on.
By Diane Coetzer
Photography by Sean Brand
Could four Pretoria boys — more known for their incendiary prog-rock Oppikoppi sets than mainstream chart-busting — be the salvation of South African pop? Judging by ISO’s latest album, Piece by Piece, the answer is an unambiguous yes. The 12-track sees Richard Brokensha, Alex Parker, Franco Schoeman and Marko Benini step away from the sonic meanderings of progressive rock and execute an immaculate dive into the pop pool.
"It's the End of the World
as we know it, and I feel fine."
CURRENT AFFAIRS
With high expectation swiftly evapourating after the ANC's corpse-strewn 2012 conference, ROLLING STONE picks through the political debris that now defines the hulking organisation: Its culture of authoritarianism, paranoia, insularity, hegemony and self-interest.
By Niren Tolsi
Illustration by Jerm
Neither the Irishman nor I was in our death throes; fl oundering in a pool of vomit and blood after a relentless fi ve days in Mangaung in December last year.
Rolling Stone Issue 17
Metallica
April 15, 1993 & May 31, 2012
Then and Now [1993 & 2012]
By David Fricke
James Hetfield of Metallica is not a song-and-snappy-patter man on stage. The singer-guitarist’s idea of between-songbanter is the kind of street-simple, off-colourword jive that you can hear any night, anyplace where the citizens of Teenage Wasteland gather over a six-pack. “All fucking right!” Hetfield bellows to a houseful of rabid Metallicats at theNorth Charleston Coliseum, outside Charleston, South Carolina, before leading drummer Lars Ulrich, bassist Jason Newsted and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett into a Godzilla-like stompt hrough “Sad But True”. “You all got the ‘Black’ album, right? Studied all your lyrics and shit? No fuckups now. Hey, any time this stuff gets too heavy for you...”