Fader

Fashion blog/video host SHOWstudio has married fashion and music into one massive live podcast running from yesterday, July 9th through tomorrow July 11th. They invited designers, filmmakers and even REAL DJs to play their fav records for us live on the internet. This means Stella McCartney is gonna play Jeff Buckley on repeat while Lily Allen’s on again/off again BF, Seb Chew, fights for DJ street cred. Sounds like a room of endlessly cool and stylish people! But then again maybe a summer Sunday dressed in layers of Velveteen is your idea of fun, it all depends on perspective. And we've been listening, so there you go. Listen here.

Bronze Age Fox are one of this decade's great lost British bands. A kind of homespun Bristolian precursor to Hot Chip – eccentric record collectors in love with R&B production and buoyed up by those same irresistible schoolboy soul vocals – they made at least three fantastic singles in obscure formats, recorded an album without permission and eventually disappeared into a vortex of low-level record company wrangling. They are still fondly remembered in their home city and obscure corners of the blogosphere, while their spirit lives on in the form of Minotaur Shock, aka former Bronze Age Fox drummer/programmer, David Edwards. For a while I was worried that the Minotaur might have gone the way of the Fox so I was relieved and delighted when a new Minotaur Shock album turned up from 4AD this week, even if it's going to a be a pragmatic download-only affair. more...

Judging from this video for "Buriedfed," Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson's mammoth folk burner, he does not have very much style, and neither do his friends. Look at the cop in the background, look at the doctor. Why are they all lip synching? The point of a successful costume is to imitate keenly, not belie their model. But that's reassuring, an uncomfortable Miles with his arm twisted into video performance. Maybe he's not good at much else aside from being an unfortunately miserable man with a venomous catharsis running through his songs. We want the videos to get worse and the songs to get better, that's got to be the only acceptable dichotomy.

While UK superclub Fabric is known for its massive soundsystem and diverse collection of resident selectors, they wisely decided to eschew the newest UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ dance music of the day for their podcast series, a collection of classic headphone gems by the likes of Andy Weatherall and Howie B. For our money (Free Ninety Nine), it's one of the most underrated musical outposts out there, standing apart from the rest of the interweb mix murk by striking the perfect balance between the obvious and the obscure, refusing to get dusty just for the sake of it. The latest edition comes courtesy of Don Letts, the Zelig-like DJ, filmmaker and inventor of the punky reggae party. He manages to connect the dots between Collie Buddz, Clinic and Big Audio Dynamite (he was a member!) over the course of the podcast, and after listening on repeat this morning we realized we NEED to hear more BAD on all future DJ mixes. Eddie Stats, get to work!

Download: Don Letts Fabric Podcast

On recent trip to Gothenburg, Sweden we bumped into Edvin Edvinson, one half of space disco newcomers Tiedye and purveyor of sweet Sante Fe-themed jean jackets. On the deck of a bar boat, he told us about this cover, coming out as a single on Italians Do It Better soon, while air-performing the bassline (Maybe Edvin's enthusiasm for rhythms stems from his other job as bassist in the light times pop group Fibes, Oh Fibes!). It was pretty awesome, as is the song itself. The other half of Tiedye is Anton Qlint, whose early-March Beats In Space session you can download here. He also has a remix project called Västkustska Ryggdunkarsällskapet. Both guys have excellent mustaches, though Edvin's handlebar does not appear in the above photo.


Download: Tiedye, "Nothing Else Matters" (Metallica Cover)

In his FADER #49 Gen F, B.O.B. said, "My music ain't really too regular," which is kind of like saying "Invading Iraq wasn't really too good of an idea." Dude is grounded yet out there and willing to be super, super corny, and we love him for it. "Mellow Fellow" sounds like it might've been made for Sesame Street until you realize it's a weed anthem. It's on the 12th Dimension EP we told you about, so go get it if you haven't already.


Download: B.O.B., "Mellow Fellow"

It kinda goes without saying that we're going to at least listen to any band that has made an 18 minute song at any point in their career that, translated into English, is called "Midsummer Bong." MIDSUMMER BONG! Lucky for everyone involved, the band that did that is Dungen, and they are awesome. So awesome in fact, that we put Gustav Ejstes, the main man behind Dungen, on the cover of F27 and then proceeded to never get tired of their music ever. On their MySpace they're streaming "Satt Att Se," from their upcoming album 4, which Ejstes will be previewing in New York next week in an acoustic session that you'll able to catch on FADER TV shortly thereafter. Also, here's a fun fact: Ejstes used to make hip hop and he talks about it along with a whole bunch of interesting stuff in this interview we did with him for this very website. You can traverse the archives and find it (always rewarding), or read it here.

Listen: Dungen, "Satt Att Se"

Buraka Som Sistema just put up a stream of their new single "Kalemba (Wenge Wenge)" with vocal assist from Lisbon's Pongo Love on MySpace, which is exciting for sure, but even more exciting is that we have that song plus two others from BSS's show at the Red Bull Music Academy Lounge at last month's Sonár Music Festival in Barcelona. And badass Pongo makes special appearances on all three. Buraka is touring all over Europe this summer starting tomorrow night in Lisbon, so if you're around that continent, make sure to stop by.


Download: Buraka Som Sistema, "Kalemba (Wenge Wenge) (Live at Sonár)"


Download: Buraka Som Sistema, "D-D-D-Jay (Live at Sonár)"


Download: Buraka Som Sistema, "Sound of Kuduro (Live at Sonár)"

Last weekend, Raphael Saadiq opened up his wildly huge North Hollywood studio doors to our weary, sunburned selves. Tony! Toni! Toné! has been kind to this sensitive, soulful man. Amongst the pile of cool treasures amassed were: a fish tank, a guitar signed by Parliament-Funkadelic and lots of tie-dye and incense in this one room where he writes his songs. Raphael just finished mixing his latest album, done the old fashioned way (the only way, as he puts it), with vintage guitars, drum kits, and yes, Stevie Wonder. Right now, he’s at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, pre-screening his soon-to-be-released album to a group of 200 lucky ladies—the idea being that women talk, and talking is promotion. But before he left, we snuck a peek at the inner workings of his dark recording studio on a sunny afternoon.

There are a couple FADER editors who will tell anyone within earshot that The Verve's debut album A Storm In Heaven is the best babymaking (or experimenting in college dorm rooms) music ever made. There are others who think Richard Ashcroft is a ludicrous boob, but they are wrong and are also so far down the masthead that they can be made to do menial tasks for their insolence. Although, watching this new video for the reformed shoegazers' new single, "Love Is Noise" (ludicrously boobish title), us supporters might need some backup.

We think we saw Bound Stems at Knitting Factory as part of a CMJ showcase once, but we don't remember. That's probably because on first listen, Bound Stems make workmanlike indie rock. It's catchy, yeah, but what makes it stand out? The songs on their upcoming album The Family Afloat form into one cohesive album of stories that fold in on themselves—lyrics are crammed into the space between precise drumming and just enough guitar jangle, and before you know it you realize you're listening to a concept album about family and home, with recurring lyrical reference points that keep it comforting. Are we listening to the musical equivalent of Garden State or something? EMBARRASSING. Just kidding. The best thing about Bound Stems is how they are able to approach these concepts with tact and without corniness, keeping things emotionally close without sacrificing catchy songwriting and the central concept of the record. Download "Happens to Us All Otherwise" below because it features near-Destroyer levels of verbosity, and then head over to their MySpace for some more.


Download:Bound Stems, "Happens to Us All Otherwise"

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson probably isn't going to make anyone's summer brighter, but he is writing songs of regret and disappointment that are there waiting for us when things don't quite work out, which ironically makes us feel better knowing we have a miserable comrade. You can't be happy all the time after all, but getting your mug on the cover of The FADER is pretty cool, as is the rest of the subsequent media attention. Read David Bevan's story from our Summer Music issue after the jump and make sure to catch Miles playing in New York in the next couple weeks if you're around. more...

We pretty much traveled the entire spectrum of emotions while watching this video, and by traveling the entire spectrum of emotions we actually mean that at some points we were kind of disturbed (the parts with the wolf guy in the claustrophobic woods) and other times we were totally relaxed (the shots of Canning driving along a pretty scenic looking highway as the sun began to set). Disturbed or relaxed. That's it. Also, the song is pretty good too, but we already said that.

Normally when you hear the words "man sandals" images of black socks and Crocs abound. Up until now, we pretty much decided that we would never use the words "man" and "sandals" (or even the endlessly funny "mandals") together unless we were on a beach in a foreign country and everyone spoke a different language and couldn't understand us. But this time we were nowhere near a foreign beach when we said the words "man sandals." We were actually on the Hudson looking at weird art and the New York skyline. It felt good saying "man sandals", and this guy made us feel good about saying it. Thanks dude. more...

There’s something vaguely religious and impenetrable about Fleet Foxes, but there is also something romantic and safe about them. So in this video for "White Winter Hymnal," when bearded clay people control the stars with the wheel of a ship that every so often starts going too fast, it makes total sense. What doesn't make sense is when claymation beards move with minds of their own, each individual strand wiggling in the wind. Creepy. After the jump check out Sam Hockley-Smith's Gen F on Fleet Foxes from F54. more...

We realize this collabo boils down to an advertisement for Chuck Taylors, but you know, Harrison Ford did a beer commercial in Japan and we still think Han Solo is a pretty good dude. Does he even drink beer? Flockhart does not look like a beerdrinker's girlfriend is all. He also didn't act very well in that commerical. So at least these three are known to wear the shit out of some Converse and made a song that is growing on us as a pool party anthem. And man, do we suddenly want to continue to wear the Chucks we have had since forever OR WHAT?

Download "My Drive Thru" here.

Last week was Bread and Butter time in Barcelona, the big twice annual Euro fashion tradeshow. Alas we were not in attendance to enjoy the sangria and/or streetwear but we did catch up with supermodel Irina Lazareanu, on-and-off girlfriend of Pete Doherty, on the set of Puma photoshoot for Dassler's spring '09 collection before her trip to BCN (the Dassler party with New Young Pony Club was apparently the party highlight of the week). We talked to her about recording her new album (yup, she says Cat Power will be on there) and what she thinks about her buddy Agness Deyn doing music too. Just for the record though, that homemade video for "Maybelline" she shot with Pete—the one where she kills him and steal his cigarette—was all his idea.

Jason "Them Jeans" Stewart, the tallest DJ in the universe, just put this remix up on his blog (spotted by Discobelle), claiming he made it on the 4-hour train ride from Portland to Seattle with some polishing after he got home. Tom Moulton used to take a whole day just to make a disco edit. Here's to technology. It made this balearic-ish remix of one of the sadder songs from Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust possible, and one day it will make us as tall as Them Jeans. And then we will rule the world.


Download: Sigur Ros, "Illgresi (Them Jeans Remix)"

Each Tuesday, FADER editor Matthew Schnipper highlights an underappreciated recent release he thinks we need to know about. This week he gives you a light reminder to not sleep on Vampire Weekend. Listen to "Campus" below, buy Vampire Weekend here and read about it after the jump.

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