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We stumbled across London's Stricken City while doing our regular check up on Adventures Close To Home and had a hard time initially deciding whether we were going to get into them or not. Ultimately, lead singer/Korg-er Rebecca Raa's awkward dancing and rad voice led us to do believe that, yes, we will get into it. And our committment was rewarded with a free copy of Stricken City's debut EP, which includes "Tak O Tak" as well as the pretty great, pretty mellow "Bardou" and "The Traveller" on it. As if that weren't enough, we found a couple more excellent demos on their MySpace, both of which you can download too. And then you can stop being greedy.

Download: Stricken City EP
Download: Stricken City, "Better As A Girl" + "Killing Time"

As happens every couple of months, this week has given us reason to revive Outkast watercooler discussions in FADER HQ. Andre essentially put out a new song of his own with his guest spot in Fonzworth's "Everybody" video on Wednesday, and (even though it's been floating around in crap radio rips for a minute) we just got this crispy clean version of Big Boi's newest song from Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty with Mary. If you've been sitting around looking for a TGIF joint—something to play when you're feeling whiny about your job—this is it. Antwan and Mary both remind us that things could be a lot worse. It's not exactly the most uplifting song we've ever heard, but at least it makes us want to have a drink!


Download: Big Boi f. Mary J Blige, "Something's Gotta Give"

Usually, putting limitations on yourself helps you create some wild shit. Brooklyn’s Growing use only two guitars and move from quick percussive punches to expansive blooms of fuzzy ambience that eventually envelope the entire song. The lack of drums, or any other instrument, makes Growing’s music sound out there, but their attempts—furthered with each album—to create something approaching structure and beauty out of clipped noise frequently result in totally not embarrassing moments of fist pumping from dudes and ladies like us.

“Innit” from their upcoming album All The Way (out September 9th on Social Registry) is a perfect example of this, with Joe Denardo and Kevin Doriain's guitars emulating drums and something that sounds like an underwater xylophone. Basically, Growing provoke a lot of “DUDE—DUDE!—Dude…” moments, also known as Epic Stoner Visionquests Into The Heart Of Music. If all that sounds like your thing, hit the New Museum tonight to catch Growing play the final Get Weird of the summer along with Gang Gang Dance side project I.U.D.


Download: Growing, "Innit"

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.

“Secousse” is the name of Radioclit’s tropical-themed monthly bashment in London, but it is also the name of a dance track they did which sounds like DJ Znobia and Armand Van Helden merged into one person and then made a 12” sampling Konono No1. The first time ‘clit sent this track our way for inclusion in a Ghetto Palms blend, that column's author, FADER editor Edwin 'Stats' Houghton, actually said the words “This is the best thing I’ve ever heard.” This week it became available for purchase on Beatport as an EP with four remixes by FADER favs like Crookers (F55) and as we work my way down the playlist from Crookers remix to the Bablee coup decale mix we keep saying “No, This is the best thing I’ve ever heard...” then, from Bablee to Mumdance: “No THIS is the best thing I’ve ever heard...” You follow. It’s good.

Dudes standing around talking about what they would do to girls if they had the chance reminds us of middle school dances. As a matter of fact, we used to dance kind of like they do in this video in middle school. We also used to describe the size of things with our hands. "Man, the FedEx guy brought a package THIS big and we had to unwrap it like THIS." We need to get back to that.

This Sunday at the Delancey on the Lower East Side, East Village Radio, who bring you The Let Out, our very own weekly radio show, present the 10 year anniversary party for Frank Restaurant. For 20 bucks, get all-you-can-drink drunk, eat all the food you can stomach and spazz to bands like Changing Holes, Gay For Johnny Depp and the Original NYC Punk/Metal Karaoke Band. It starts at 9pm at 168 Delancey St. Full flyer after the jump. more...

We rarely shoot models—as in fashion models with agents and beauty campaigns etc—for the fashion pages. But every now and again we like to get fancy with it, like back in Issue #51 when photographer Martina Hoogland of Prada fame shot a bunch of young models in their homes. Martina (yes another Martina!) is signed to Supreme and was one of our favorite models. She's from Argentina and has a real lovely warmth about her, a very sparkly spirit. We ran into her quite randomly in SoHo wearing a pale pink skirt layered like the petals of a rose—cleverly paired with a grey tank and white plimsolls to take a wee bit of the edge off the prettiness. It reminded us that even though the golden days of giant models with actually personalities like Naomi, Linda, Christy and Kate, are pretty much dead, there are still models out there that can hold their own when it comes to swagger. more...

The Cure's 13th album is out this September, and the eyeliner kings have devised a marketing campaign to release a new single on the 13th of each month until the record drops; a video just came out this week for the latest addition. However, the best (or at least the most interesting) new Cure-related music of the moment comes in the form of two gleefully bizarre tributes. First up is Scarlett Johansson's slooow version of "Boys Don't Cry" from her new iTunes live session, which swaps the original's jerky BPMs for Radiohead guitars and marble mouth. Second is "Lowridin" by Far East Movement, where a trio of AZN Akons turn the Cure's "Lovesong" into auto-tuned pop rap. The song has become an unlikely west coast radio hit, and gets the win (by wide margin!) over ScarJo because these guys understand Robert Smith's whole formula from jump: sad songs are supposed to sound happy.


Download: Scarlett Johansson, "Boys Don't Cry"


Download: Far East Movement "Lowridin"

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.

Wiley: "Yeah, you know Kanye, yeah?"
Stoned friend: "Yeah ..."
Wiley: "You know my man sampled Daft Punks, yeah?"
Stoned friend: "Yeah ..."
Wiley: "What if I sampled Daft Punks?"
Stoned friend: "Er ..."
Wiley: "What if Wiley sampled Daft Punks?"
Stoned friend: "Er ..."
Wiley: "That would be a lot you know"
Stoned friend: "Yeah, that would be a lot. Pass the lighter."

This is the conversation I imagined when I first heard Wiley's new Daft Punk-sampling single, below.


Wiley, "Summertime" (radio rip) more...

Diplo and Santogold's long-rumored Top Ranking mixtape recently and suddenly appeared on the shelves at Turntable Lab, so we walked down there and bought a copy. That copy, after one hour in the office, is already tattered, missing a CD and might possiby have some saliva on it. In other words, folks are excited, and rightly so because the shit is a banana boat on the Jawnongahela River and we are onboard. So we asked Diplo for a freebie and he sent us "Guns of Brooklyn" along with a little background of its recording. You can get a couple more free bonus cuts over at the Mad Decent blog, and if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to Mad Decent Worldwide Radio on iTunes.

I DJ'd Chung King's Xmas party for free for some studio days in there. I never record bands so I need a full on place and help. I got Moose at Chung to open this day like a coupla hours in advance for us. We recorded this and a Bad Brains cover.

These are two songs that Santi used to do when she was in Stiffed, but we had to dooo mad takes on the screams at the end of the Bad Brains joint. And she accidently said "Brooklyn" instead of "Brixton" and we decided to use that version. Big thanks for Chuck Treece who came in from Philly and gave me a ride home that night.

ps. We also squeezed in two sessions with DJ Sega and Mizz Streamz where we did her vocals for a new 12" on Ol Head/Mad Decent that's gonna be big. All her family was there when Santi was recordin "Right Brigade" and they were like.. damn this black girls crazeeee.


Download: Santogold & Diplo, "Guns Of Brooklyn (Doc and Jon Hill Dub)"

Indian Jewelry, for those of us who’ve seen a live show, is the type of band we just assume would turn to pillars of ash under direct sunlight. So when they suggested that we head to Coney Island for some thrills and chills on a Wednesday afternoon, we happily obliged and were delighted to see their beautiful porcelain skin in the light of day. And there they were, traipsing all around the grounds of Astroland with a running commentary of the slightly depressing rides and patrons of the amusement park. They even threw around a few shout-outs to Astroworld (R.I.P. 2005) in their mother-city of Houston, TX. It took a few beers and a few shirtless, fat men to get them to leave the Coney concrete and board Brooklyn’s last standing lawsuit in the making, but they did it! They rode the Cyclone! Afterwards, whiplashed and nauseous, they went to the beach and tried not to get sand in their beer. Watch the video above to be a part of our psychedelic exploration of an American pastime.

Every week resident FADER selector Eddie STATS runs through dancehall riddims and other artifacts from the ghetto archipelago.

If you read FADER you may have noticed that our favorite thing is to go out on a limb for new-brand artists we really fuck with. That is partly for the just cause of shining a light on deserving creative endeavors but also partly so we can sit back and congratulate ourselves with every future success that artist has (which is way better than being mad at an artist’s success, if you think about it). The intrepid staff here at thefader.com have done a pretty good job of chronicling the mounting successes of F42 cover star Mavado, but it seemed like high time to take a step back and ponder the overall phenomenon he’s become this year and say, Wow. more...

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...

FADERlabel artist Saul Williams is having quite a year, having released his Reznor-assisted Niggy Tardust album for free download to much fanfare, slayed SXSW, placed a song on a Nike ad, and generally taken his aesthetic to a level that none of us could have expected (and some of us have nightmares about). And it has all culminated in this new clip for "Convict Colony" directed by the same group of awesome weirdos who did the recent MGMT videos. We of course are biased so will avoid saying it's the best thing ever, but it is safe to say that we are happy to be the first to put it into the universe.

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...

The other day we were in a vintage store and all of the clothes had been arranged by what seemed like a genre or period: laces and linens, a tribute to early 20th century summer garments, and a western section with heeled boots and cowboy shirts. But our favorite was what looked like the French section—a whole rack of striped blue and white shirts a la mode de Paris in the Sixties. We had no idea that there were so many variations on the same idea: blue shirts with white stripes, thin stripes, fat ones, loose collars, cropped shirts, we could go on and on.

Days later we saw this gentlemen standing outside of East Village Radio while we were hosting our weekly show. Although he seemed a bit stand-offish at first, he quickly realized our enthusiasm was genuine. His stripes are a bit more subdued, an understated style that fits nicely with a summer hat and suede shoes. It’s not screaming “FRENCH,” or “HIPPIE” or “BOHEMIAN” the way a vintage store with its sectioned period pieces might. His is more of a personal statement like, “I hate frog legs and only smoke in the evening but I take my Espresso with a bit of steamed milk and enjoy reading Foucault.” Or at least that’s what we think he’d say. more...

On Sunday F55 featured artists Abe Vigoda played at FADER editor Matthew Schnipper's apartment after the furniture and heirloom rug were moved out of the way. There were mimosas and bagels and some dudes who drove from California in a 4Runner playing songs from their new album, Skeleton. We spoke to them and other attendees of the tiny show. Special thank you to Dan McGinley for assistance with the equipment.