Fader

The 21st century is THE century of flying cars, cyborgs and food pills… and possibly heat sensitive fabrics. We know what you’re thinking, Wait a second, that was the eighties! It’s true, Hypercolor arrived in the eighties with quite a punch, but some of us would rather not relive our Generra days. Visions of hot summer afternoons when our heat capacity is at a max and our pits are provocatively splotched with white stains somehow doesn’t seem that appealing. Hypercolor has managed to have a resurgence lately though, sneaking into surf shops across the California coastline and even managing to take the spotlight in a new American Apparel campaign. So should we give it another chance? Designers Anzevino and Florence did a whole season of heat sensitive designs using brightly colored fabrics and the final outcome didn’t have us running naked for the streets. In fact, the pieces included flanks of scarves and loose tanks in a style that resembled Hypercolor’s cousin, tie-dye. Maybe we will give it another chance, but only if it promises to bring new futuristic outcomes and not embarrassing flashbacks of Aquanet-ed wave bangs. Check AA's demonstration video here.

Even though we now listen to most of our music through tiny earbuds and laptops and look at album art in 200 square-pixel corners of our iTunes screens, the grand traditions of the band t-shirt (which we explore more in F56) and the limited edition rock poster are being kept alive by dudes like Jason Munn. The designer, also known as The Small Stakes, created unique images for 20 of InSound's favorite bands like Magnolia Electric Company, Constantines and Grizzly Bear for the new InSound 20 collaboration and silk-screened them onto a limited run of posters, t-shirts and hoodies. Will the indie rock zip-hoodie replace the mega-tour shirt one day? Who knows. We might miss the tour dates on the back that proved that we were there, dude, we totally were, but we're willing to forgive them since the twenty first shirt/poster featuring all the bands will donate all profits to 826nyc, which is a worthy cause if there ever was one.

The talent that brought you the videos for MGMT's "Time To Pretend" and "Electric Feel" has yet another tripped-out video for eager eyes and ears. With their video for Saul Williams' "Convict Colony", co-directors Chris Edley and Rob Leitzell set out to superimpose Saul into mystifying desert landscapes and nightmarish situations involving multiple other Sauls. It took them weeks and weeks to explode our minds with psychotropic images of Niggy Stardust hanging out with his animal spirit, so we figured we'd ask them what took so long. Read up about this video, and other videos produced by these Gondry-endorsed guys, after the jump in our interview with Chris. more...

What else can we say that isn't said in the title of this post, other than Tim and Eric appeared briefly in FADER 53 in a Newsprint about their friend David Liebe Hart (who also appears extensively in the interview before the whole thing descends into chaos) and you can find out whatever else you need to know about them here. Interview by Rikki Rozelle. (video via the excellent Golden Fiddle) more...

Like the blonde chick from The Hills there are lots of famous people that should be banned from designing clothes. MIA isn't one of them. After seeing the video for her first collection of clothing we actually almost wouldn't be mad if she quit the music business for good and just spent the rest of her days filming skinny teenagers running around the Caribbean in her watermelon-print bomber jackets with little dogs shagging in the background. There's even an awesome chopped up flag print in there that might as well read United Republic of MIA. Seriously though Maya, how much for the flag print cycling onesie (yes tight cycling onesie to the knee!!)? Where can we buy these clothes?? And is the little dude Okley Leslie your love child with Ryan Leslie??

Before you check them out live, read Matthew Schnipper's feature story from our Summer Music issue after the jump. more...

We didn’t go see FADER 55ers Abe Vigoda in Baltimore on Wednesday. We almost did, but couldn’t and were burned pretty bad by it. Instead we sat in our apartment and angrily housed Chinese delivery and thought about what we would be doing if we were there and it sucked. But thanks to some guy named Jeff Mewbourn and Aural States, their whole set is available online, so we can go home and put it on real loud and maybe invite some people over and pretend it’s three days ago and we’re in Baltimore. Or not, because that would be really pathetic and we can just go see them for real tonight at South Street Seaport (with No Age and Telepathe) or tomorrow at The Yard (with High Places and basically every other band ever) or Sunday at Mercury Lounge and it’ll be way more awesome.

Stream or Download: Abe Vigoda Live in Baltimore

To paraphrase el jefe Phife Dawg, whether you're "brown, yellow, Puerto Rican and Haitian" (and also a bunch of other people from all diasporas back to the Cro-Mags, we don't discrimihate), you need to go to this party. Peace / love around the world forever. The Chicanas among us expect to rep (and wreck) fully this Latin 'splosion tonight at Santo's Playhouse in beeeyootiful downtown New York, as a hot sidebar jump to the Latin Alternative Music Conference. DJs include Toy Selectah (pictured above), from Monterrey, MX's dope hip-hop crew Control Machete, possibly dropping some cumbia? Maybe not. Also Stereotyp from Vienna doing dub time and LA-via-Monterrey turntable bruiser Mexican Dubwiser. Go celebrate the fact that Luis Miguel and Aracely Arambula are expecting again! Oh don't front you know you read ¡Hola! So it's supposed to be super packed but show up, maybe you can pretend to be part of the house band and carry in a bongo like Marc Antony in El Cantate.

We've been known to enjoy music that sounds like it either comes from outer space or the bottom of a bong, so when we were presented with New York's Amazing Baby, who sound like Bongs In Space, it didn't take long to decide that they were pretty great. It also didn't take long for us to want to know more about them, but since they are just starting out we didn't want to waste a full-time editor's valuable skills. So after the jump read our intern's recent interview with Will and Simon, the creative masterminds of Amazing Baby, during which talk about Eddie Money, diarrhea, kissing label ass and playing at Medieval Times or a volcano. We'd see them at either, but we'll settle for a free show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg this Sunday, July 13th at 6:30.

Download: Amazing Baby, "Pump Your Breaks"
more...

This week Chet Matsui of Brooklyn's MrMatsui Design mailed us the stomach-butterflying, powerful oversized fanzine he created in memory of Sean Bell. Photocopied in cut-and-paste fashion with trial-related headlines snipped from the Post, juxtaposed with symbolic imagery like the American flag and the bar tab the undercover cops racked at the club the night they shot Bell 51 times a day before he was to be married. Most weightily, Matsui then took the limited-edition zines to Harrisburg, PA, where he shot each one 51 one times, bullet holes piercing every page. Packaged with an RIP Sean Bell sticker and bullet casings, it's a subtle but impactful way to commemorate him. The cops were acquitted, and we will never forget. Proceeds go to >Sean Bell Benefit Fund.

Really dude? You're really going to name your album that? And you're really going to have that be the album cover?

Two weeks ago psych blues monsters and lower Manhattan heroes Endless Boogie released Focus Level, their first album. They've been playing together for eleven years. Their decision to finally record the album only came after they were invited to leave the island and play in the UK for All Tomorrow's Parties. If mentions of "Rare Book Room," "Andy Maclead" and "Matt Sweeney" in the liner notes aren't enough to indicate that Endless Boogie is a true New York thing, consider this: we bought our copy of Focus Level at Amoeba in Los Angeles, where there was one copy in the Misc. E section.

Ultimate Collection (40 tracks deep!) on Capitol vs. Innovative Life: The Anthology, 1984-1989 (mad rarities!) on Stones Throw.

Lexie Mountain Boys, Tuvan throat singers of Baltimore, have recently released Sacred Vacation, a yelpy mélange of acapella and foot stomp singalongs. "You got a boyfriend? You got a husband?" when catcalled from a crew of tough women on a CD is a peculiar thing. Really, Lexie Mountain Boys as a concept is a large pile of mystery. To clarify (a little) we asked the women of the Boys some questions and they all answered separately. Illuminations are after the jump. more...

The FADER Summer Music Issue is the issue where we throw all the hottest of heatrocks into our glossy mag in anticipation of the days when we'll be standing outside eating ice cream or whatever and multiple cars will go by, all playing the songs that are contained between the pages of our magazine. On the front cover we have the undeniable Estelle, poised to become the next megastar and dropping catchy jam after catchy jam, and on the flipside we've got Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, there because he creates lush pop songs for the 4am train rides slash ultra introspective moments that come at the tail end of every night. In between those covers we've got Diddy's next producers Ryan Leslie (you know you love "Diamond Girl") and Sean C and LV, who are responsible for pretty much every banger coming out of New York lately. We've also got a feature on the bedroom dance music of Cumbia, Abe Vigoda's summertime melancholy and Crookers' next level raveups. And all that comes withouth us even mentioning our Gen F lineup, featuring profiles on the summeriest of summertime bands Windsurf, Lindstrom's endless space disco, 77Klash's dancehall/everything hybrid and Whalebones' Seattle folk among a whole bunch of other stuff. We know we say this pretty much constantly, but you can download this for free, as in ZERO dollars, as in no money. It doesn't get better than that.

Get Issue 55 now on iTunes,
subscribe via your favorite RSS reader here,
or download the individual F55 full-issue PDF here.

Remember in Alice and Wonderland when she gets really small after eating a magic mushroom? Well, things got similarly psychedelic in London over the weekend at the 2008 Festival of Architecture, where designers of British label Eley Kishimoto outfitted the fountain court at Somerset House in an experimental over-sized living room set. With design group Studio Weave, Eley Kishimoto helped create an outdoor room of tables, chairs, and lamps out of pink geometric patterned plywood. The instillation gives people a reason to enjoy public space, to feel at home in it, and maybe even take a snooze, which is probably what Alice would have done after all those pretty color traces subsided. Check the process photos after the jump. more...

JOKES:

Record Makers is proud to announce an agreement has been reached with American Apparel, which will make Sexuality available at all American Apparel locations throughout North America in an exclusive pre-release beginning July 22nd (full release to follow in October).

"Sexual Sportswear" video and FADER 51 Sebastien Tellier Gen F


Download: Sebastien Tellier, "Sexual Sportswear (Donovan Remix)"

It goes without saying that any film made by Werner Herzog deserves a look, especially his bizarre deadpan documentaries like Little Dieter Needs To Fly and The White Diamond, both of which played during the Herzog: [Non] Fiction Series this and last month at the Film Forum in New York, now sadly over. But still showing is Herzog's new doc Encounters at the End of the World. Encounters is about Antarctica and basically how that place is really really weird and kind of like outer space. Based on the trailer, we imagine there will be lots of shots of vaguely creepy underwater things scuttling around as well as rugged dudes with ice in their beards chipping holes in ice and then scuba diving into them. The film is playing through June 24th, so hit Film Forum up before then and you'll probably hear us in the back row being like, Duuuuuddeeee did you see that starfish? That was crazy! Seriously, did you see it? It's cool, you can tell us to be quiet.

It bodes well for A-Trak's new Nike+ Original Run album, titled Running Man, that this three-minute sampler is good enough to get us doing generally calisthenicky things that we would usually avoid unless coerced by guns or money. In fact, we're going to use this to build up our endurance for the full 45-minute mix coming out on June 24th only at Nike Sport Music on iTunes so that we may run like gazelles with the hipsters of New York. And may we say it's just in time because LCD Soundsystem's excellent and initially inspiring 45:33 Nike jawn has become our soundtrack not for running but watching our asses expand. We need change, and Running Man sounds like it.

It also appears that A-Trak will not pull an LCD and use this music for a separate album, as his first solo single, "Say Whoa" (from the mix), will be released exclusively by Nike. AND ALSO, if that's not enough Running Man leads into Nike+ Human Race on August 31st when "an expected one million runners in 25 cities across the globe will partake in a 10k that combines the power of running and music through sport and also gives participants the chance to run for a cause and support charities who have a positive impact on the world." We would guess more than a million people are running across the globe at any given moment, so it seems like a good idea to make them race. Check back soon for more.


Download: A-Trak's Running Man: Nike+ Original Run Sampler