Fader

Finally! We've been waiting FOREVER for a video with this concept: Four folky dudes pick up a kid off the side of the road in a van, but its not sketchy at all because it turns out that the kid is annoying and likes to sing and touch people's faces, but then they all bond at the llama farm and it's really wholesome. Also, the kid drives the van for a second? We would have thrown in some apple picking, and maybe replaced the highly dubious van with something more kid friendly like—oh we don't know—the kid's own parents taking him to the llama farm in a less scary car. Whatever though, the point is that Seattle's Grand Archives made us smile.

Watching this video got us thinking, now that Miami is the capital of rap videos, they are shot on either a boat or a highway entirely surrounded by water. Where are the yards? Where are the parking lots? Where are the neighborhood streets. We didn't even know we missed them until we saw this video. We're a little bummed out that we're apparently already nostalgic for 2005. "Let's get back to working wood, let's get back to dropping tops" we're into that. But you know what? There is room for everything in the wonderful world of rap, we're cool with boats and cars.

If you're not currently reading our weekly columns, you're probably missing out on heatrocks (?) like this one from the Essex-bred Magistrates, who just signed to XL Recordings in the UK. Sam Richards wrote about these guys back in April in his Dollars to Pounds column, and we have been playing the hell out of "Make This Work" ever since. XL mixed and mastered that demo version and just put it up on the Magistrates official site along with the song's video. If you like split-screens and falsettos, this is going to make your day. If you live in the UK, Magistrates are going to make some other day because they're playing a bunch of shows there in July and August. Check the dates at their MySpace and check XL Recordings next month for details on the release of the "Make This Work" single.


Download: Magistrates, "Make This Work" (requires email sign-up)

Yeah, we'll be stealing every single move from this video and wearing eyepatches on our third eyes. Thanks 3 Stacks. "Everybody" is the surprise video from Fonzworth's long-gestating C.O.L.O.U.R.S. album, which apparently has a pretty big budget judging by this video and will hopefully have guest spots from all of these guys on several songs. Whether we ever find out is whole other enchilada, but this is pretty great in the meantime. (We got it from Kanye)

Each Tuesday, FADER editor Matthew Schnipper highlights an underappreciated recent release he thinks we need to know about. This week he is writing about Trap Squad's "What's Happenin'?" 12-inch which apparently you cannot give them money for anywhere. Listen to the song below and read about it after the jump.

more...

One of our favorite pastimes is accepting free stuff, so obviously we're pretty excited about tonight's FREE AMBIENT EXTRAVAGANZA at the World Financial Center consisting of two dudes making nice sounds with laptops and probably some other stuff. Fennesz and Sakamoto will be recreating their 2007 collaboration Cendre for the first time in the U.S., and again, it is free. Take it for what it is, or take it as a depressing inside joke about our economy by a couple dudes from Japan and Austria. Oh poor Americans, have some free art. Ha ha ha. Laugh now, cry later, nerds!

Last Friday on "The Let Out" (our weekly show on East Village Radio, made possible by Dewars) we got dirty with Ladyhawk and the Meat Puppets and then went into a full on raptacular show. Listen to East Village Radio this and every following Friday from 6-8pm EST and check the tracklist after the jump.

-Stream the 7/11 edition of "The Let Out" here.
-Download the mp3 for free directly here (right-click and save-as.)
-Add the show to your favorite podcasts by pasting this URL into your preferred podcast software: http://www.eastvillageradio.com/podcasts/2008/68.xml more...

We've been known to get down to some space disco from time to time, but sometimes we're standing there thinking, What are we supposed to be doing here? Do we dance or talk about textures? We don't even really know anymore. The dudes over at Information have played a big part in this confusion, with releases from Studio and now Fontän, also known as the band that played with/produced for Stonefunkers, Silverbullit, Jens Lekman, Uran, El Perro Del Mar, Lykke Li, Studio, Levity Ball, Kenny Håkansson (Kebnekajse), Ensamble Doluri and Niefelheim. We have no idea who half of the people on that list are, but the ones we do know we like. "Early Morning" is from Fontän's upcoming 12-inch (including a Studio remix!), and besides having a sweet slap bass (what up Stanley Clarke) the dudes sing about sunrises and early mornings before ripping into guitar solos, ie music for doing jump kicks on a hill before getting paid to surf. Buy the 12-inch here.


Download: Fontän, "Early Morning"

Nas has long associated himself with a flyness beyond comprehension (he still rocks a part for goodness sakes) so it makes sense that he’d have an album release party in the courtyard of Alife. What doesn’t quite add up is how he’d treat it like it was a barbeque at his house. The space, roughly the size of a bocce court, was packed shoulder to shoulder and subsequently, sweat-dripping-down-your-leg hot by the time we were made to part the waters for Nas and a trailing Fabolous, who, in a number of ways, looked like Nas’ little brother (sorry Jungle).

Standing on top of toppled speaker in the crowd, Nas hosted the party like he’d personally invited everyone there. He introed all the songs he performed (about half from Untitled, the other half from Illmatic, etc), cracked jokes (“Buy this album, cause next year I’m going back to rapping about rims”), stopped to clink glasses between songs, delivered verses a capella, and at one point he completely surrendered the mic to a girl in a form-fitting one-piece who flawlessly delivered his verse from “The World is Yours.” It was indeed hers, and everyone else who Nas made eye contact with and let finish his verses when he forgot lyrics, stopped to take sips, hit the blunt, or just bask in the affection. When Nas wasn’t killing shit, Green Lantern was spinning Biggie, Wu-Tang and more Nas pretty exclusively, which was cool because when you’re hanging out with Nas, that’s pretty much all you want to hear.

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??

Since we put Jah Cure in Issue 49, some FADER editors have become mildly obsessed with the dude. Mildly only because we have jobs to do here and can't really dedicate too much time to any one person other than Akon. But when it's quittin' time and the piñas are pouring, Jah is who we are playing. And fortunately for our copy of True Reflections, Jah Cure has a new album titled Universal Cure out on September 9th and we are debuting the single right here right now. Surprise, his voice still sounds incredible.