Fader

Some things we pictured while listening to this song:

1)Busta Rhymes and Machel Montano hiking on the rolling hills of Lord of the Rings-style New Zealand.
2)Elephants walking in a row
3)Elephants playing flutes
4)Elephants stomping on a giant piano like in Big except it makes synth noises instead of boring regular piano noises
5)Elephants hitting giant gongs that make synth noises with their trunks
6)Elephants blowing money out of their trunks and raining it down on Busta Rhymes and Machel Montano as they perform in front of 96,000 people playing drums.

OH SHIT BONUS BEAT: Here's a song that will probably be on Busta's new album produced by producer of the summer Bangladesh. It sounds like an orchestra of bees.


Download: Busta Rhymes f. Machel Montano, "Let Me See"

Alright look, if you like rap at all it's a given that there will be something at Rock the Bells for you. But if you don't like rap, you should go anyway because Ghostface and Raekwon are performing together and that is worth the price of admission alone. Luckily for you, if you win these tickets the price of admission is $0.00, and things will still be awesome. You know the drill, send an email with Rock The Bells as the subject, your full name and RTB city of choice (see below) in the body of the email to contests@thefader.com.

Chicago, IL (7/19/08)
Toronto, ON (7/20/08)
Boston, MA (7/26/08)
Columbia, MD (7/27/08)
Miami, FL (8/2/08)
New York City, NY (8/3/08)
San Bernadino, CA (8/9/08)
San Francisco, CA (8/16/08)
Denver, CO (8/23/08)
George, WA (9/06/08)

Sometimes we think about old style computers—fondly remembering playing Shufflepuck and generally just being wowed by the concept of a colorful moving screen that was not a television. The new video from Tan Lines (featuring half of the production/studio team Brothers, who we profiled in F53) taps into that same feeling, but puts a melancholy spin on it. Maybe it is kinda sad that we can't get wowed by Flight Simulator and a dude juggling 3D shapes anymore because that shit was awesome. If you're into the video—and if you remember the first half of the '90s you will be—you can download the song below.

Download:Tan Lines, "New Flowers"

If you've already picked up Issue #55 of The FADER, you may recognize some of the outfits in this video. If you haven't, read T Cole Rachel's cover story in the post below (or here if you're coming in on a direct link) along with some lovely "No Substitute Love" on-set photography by the one and only Dorothy Hong.

Estelle's "American Boy" has already assumed its position in nearly everyone's barbecue rotation, and now the followup singles from Shine are simmering as well. Not to say we told you so, but read T Cole Rachel's feature from our current Summer Music issue on the Girl of the Summer (don't accept any substitutes) after the jump. more...

There literally is not one person who appears or is talked about in this newest episode of Bangladesh TV, filmed at a T-Pain album party, who hasn't been in the pages of The FADER. In fact, the one dude doing most of the talking, Polow Da Don, shared an issue with Bill Callahan, successfully forming one of our oddest cover duos ever (Smog not big triangle samples and goblin voices, maybe should be). The best thing about the video though is that those of us who didn't get to interview Polow for that story can now imagine how much fun it must have been listening to him talk this fast about Rich Boy for three days.

What is it about cardigans that make us feel all cozy inside? Even when you’re feeling faint from suffocating humidity, there’s nothing like the excuse of office air conditioning to get us to pull our fall sweaters out. This plaid clad girl seems to have taken pre-fall (is that what we're calling summer now?) fashion to a whole new level. Seattle, we're kinda jealous that you can diversify your wardrobe with layers all year long while we pretty much only want to trudge around in a towel or a snowsuit most of the time. more...

We have a bunch of tickets to give away for this year's Lollapalooza, so if you feel the uncontrollably intense urge to go to a festival at the beginning of August hit us up at contests@thefader.com with the headline: Lollapalooza (and your full name).

Tracing fancy catwalk trends back to late '80s dancehall is a new algebraic-meets-stylee pastime of ours. For example: Roberto Cavalli (flashy, Italian, fashion designer)+Tiger (Jamaican, dancehall star)= a whole lot of animal print. Beginning of the End actually have a tee in their summer '08 collection that shows off Tiger's furry wardrobe quite nicely (we're sure that Rockers NYC have a hand in the new line somewhere). Fingers and toes crossed next season will include a homage to Shabba Ranks and his collection of early '90s corduroy click suits.

"K-BILLY's Super Sounds Of The '70s continues... We just heard 'The World Is A Ghetto' by War and 'Billy, Don't Be A Hero' by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. And if you're the 12th caller, you'll win a copy of Killer Mike's I Pledge Allegiance To The Grind II (which hits stores today with 17 suitably aggro tracks, including this banger that samples Joe Tex off the still-incredible Reservoir Dogs soundtrack), and two tickets to the monster truck extravaganza being held tonight at the Carson Fairgrounds, featuring Big Daddy Don BoDean's truck, The Bohemiath. The 12th caller wins on the station where the '70s survived, K-B-I-L-L-Y..."


Download: Killer Mike, "I Gotcha"

Can someone who is better than us at making video montages put together a series of images of Nas standing on top of buildings or cars wearing chains that provoke extreme lens flair? We won't watch it, but we'll appreciate it. Here's a video for Nas' "Hero," produced by Polow and featuring Keri Hilson. FADER COVERS! Also Nas does that thing where he namechecks legends from other music genres, which always sounds nice.

Mr Paul Devro recently put a post up on the Mad Decent blog detailing the rags to riches story of one Friend, a graphic design wunderkind and natural disco dan. We especially are feeling "Dreams" as day turns to night because, well, it sounds like when we are slipping out of our work duds and into a hot tub with a bunch of badass models. Also worth getting over there is Friend's July mix, a Metronomy remix and another original called "Secret".


Download: Friend, "Dreams"

While sitting back watching the "A Millie" video over the weekend, we had to stop and ask, does Lil’ Wayne represent the new era of patriotism? We know you checked the video already, so lets take a moment and get deep into the political style genre that is Lil’ Wayne…no seriously. You got your jeans, and your "wife beater" tank, pretty run of the mill. Then, wait a second, a "Don’t Tread on Me" hat!? We’re all turned upside down. Was Lil’ Wayne preparing for the weekend holiday? Or has he just been studying up on his American Revolution-era Gadsden flag history? The office buzz started with, "Who’s his stylist?" and excelled quickly to, "Is Lil Wayne in the running for VP?" While we admit that would be quite scary, we’re gonna roll with his mysteriously patriotic hat and assume that he was testing his garb out for a 4th of July BBQ.

If you're a fan of dancehall (we are) or dubstep (we can be persuaded), or all things bass (who isn't?) two guys who should've been on your radar a long time ago are The Bug and Kode9 from London. The Bug (pictured left above) has a new album coming out called London Zoo with guest shots by everyone from Tippa Irie to Warrior Queen, and we just got this exclusive preview of it mixed by Kode9 hisbadself. Expect a lot of strange vacuum and blip noises as both of these guys seem to wish they were DJs on Mir or something. London Zoo is out on July 29th on Ninjatune, so enjoy this until then.

Download: The Bug's London Zoo Album Preview (Mixed by Kode9)

Let's say you are a rapper-turned-actor. Actually, fuck it, let's just say you're Method Man. And let's say your acting career isn't doing what you'd like it to be doing, despite your great portrayal of Cheese Wagstaff on The Wire. You've reconciled the fact that How High 2: Even More Higher, The Legend of Ivory's Ghost is never going to come out. You've accepted roles like Muggsy in Soul Plane and Persian Emissary in Meet the Spartans. The last semi-legitimate film you were in was an extraneous bit as a bellhop in Garden State, so sure, you take the part as the weed supplier Percy in The Wackness. It even let's you try an accent, even if it is a Welcome To Jamaica, Mon!-style accent. But our question is this: When the director asks you to a deliver a "Biggie will change your life" bit of dialogue as "The What"—a song that you, Method Man, appear on with Biggie—plays, don't you say, "Come on, Jonathan. All the references to Zima and Kurt Cobain's death already make it abundantly clear that this film is set in 1994. This is getting too nudge-nudge-wink-wink even for me."? Or do you just say, "Fuck the world, don't ask me for shit. If you want to keep your S.A.G. card you have to work hard for it."?

We like Fucked Up. Sometimes shit gets a little too heavy and we just appreciate Fucked Up. Other times though, like with this newish song called "No Epiphany," we feel totally comfortable riding for Fucked Up's layered crush of instruments and vocals that sound like they were birthed from a smoker's lung. If we turn it up loudly it's actually hypnotically soothing, and then before we know it, we're suddenly lost in the internet and at at the Fucked Up blog, where they post mixes of music they are into(including their own). Also, how do you describe the moment when, after seeing a side-by-side video comparison between Slipknot and Olympia's Sex Vid, you realize that you know at least two people in the video and have been to the house where they are playing? Rock on Olympia. Rock on the past.


Download: Fucked Up, "No Epiphany"

Unless the United States falls off the face of the earth (knock on wood), there's no way Sweden will ever become the epicenter of rap. However, this video from Stockholm's Snook is all over MTV Sweden and we here in New York City are feeling it. First of all, it was filmed here, so that's a plus. Second, Snook's Kihlen produced it and he's got something going with this kind of goofy synth beat. Third, of all the languages in the world that are not English, Swedish has to be one of the most well-suited to rapping because, as a friend recently described it, "it sounds like they are just making up words." That's what rap is all about, so they're in good shape. Snook's album Är is full of this kind of stuff, so if you can find it feel free to purchase it before Kihlen's solo non-rap album comes out and makes us change our minds.

Sometimes we give an artist his/her/their first cover thinking he/she/them will be the biggest artists in the world someday, sometimes we just think they are great right at that particular moment. To wit, the above split of Kano and Bloc Party from F29. Now we're not saying they both couldn't make spectacular comebacks and recapture what made us put them on in the first place, but Kano has a lot of ground to recover and this new Bloc Party single, "Mercury", debuted on Zane Lowe's BBC1 show today, isn't exactly vintage BP. Still, at least they aren't resting on their post-punk/nu wave/disco-punk (or whatever people were calling it in 2006) laurels, and hey, who doesn't love them some astrology?

Stream: Bloc Party, "Mercury"

We first stumbled upon the this brilliant Icy Demons song last year when it was given away on the Obey Your Brain site and thought it was the band's best. They've since taken it down and put it on Icy Demon's newest album called, ta-da Miami Ice, and now RCRD LBL has the song up once again for giveaway. The internet is just like bartering without all the effort of producing something, isn't it? You just have to wait around and someone will give you what you want. We like the Demons offline too though and are willing to wait for their show with Extra Golden at the Knitting Factory in NYC on July 29th which is part of their summer tour. It's gonna be polyrhythm central in there so don't even try to come if you got flat feet.


Download: Icy Demons, "Miami Ice"