Dam Funk Live at FADER Bowl

Though it’s already been a little over two short weeks, it seems like just yesterday that our Dam-Funk issue released and Dam himself rewarded our prescience by delivering a modern funk extravaganza at Brooklyn Bowl. That magical night was the first of many in an upcoming series of good, wholesome FADER getdowns, the next of which we will be announcing soon. Dam’s album, Toeachizown, happened to drop around the same time as the party and is chockful of the modern funk synth carols and keytar mastery we saw in his performance. It’s also five volumes, or a grand consolation for those who didn’t make it out to see his two hour plus performance.

The Amazing at The Levi’s/FADER Fort

We were pretty psyched when The Amazing rolled through our Ace Hotel New York suite at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort last week and started gently strumming the acoustic guitars, which turned into a Nick Drake/Oasis singalong, which eventually morphed into the song, “Is it Likely,” off of their new album.  The presence of good-natured Swedish people at the Fort this year was greatly appreciated.  Check out the video here, and if you’re lucky, maybe we’ll post the aforementioned outtakes someday.

At The Bar With Southern Comfort: Holiday Shores, “Up On The Roof”

It’s the final episode of At The Bar With Southern Comfort, in which we travel to some of our favorite new bands’ hometowns (or as near as we can get) and film them covering some of their favorite bands’ best songs. This time we’ve got a very special number from Holiday Shores, who drove down from the swampwaters of Tallahassee, Florida to meet us in Orlando in the dead of night. They arrived sporting some Leave It To Beaver apparel with a pre-recorded instrumental tape for “Up On The Roof”—a song originally written by Carole King and recorded by the Drifters back in 1962. And then they started dancing. When this old world starts getting us down, we’re just going to play this video over and over again.

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Open Bar With Kurt Vile Pt. 1

This was FADER TV’s second time filming Kurt Vile (the first being Party in the Pines), and we’ve concluded that it is impossible to make this guy look anything short of badass.  He could do his taxes and we would watch it.  But instead, we had the good fortune of seeing him play some new tracks off of Childish Prodigy at Heathers Bar the day before the album was released.  And like some strange hybrid between Eddie Vedder and Farrah Fawcett, Kurt managed to simultaneously make us swoon and wonder what kind of conditioner he uses.  Listen to “He’s Alright” here, and stay tuned for a few more songs on Monday.

At The Bar With Southern Comfort: Idle Times

Welcome to episode nine of At The Bar With Southern Comfort, in which we travel to some of our favorite new bands’ hometowns (or as near as we can get) and film them covering some of their favorite bands’ best songs.  We flew all the way across the country to the verdant Pacific Northwest where Seattle-based band Idle Times met us at the bar for a few beers and catchy throwbacks.  It only rained a few times, but we’re pretty sure that grunge is still alive and well, as it should be.  Take a look at this impossibly upbeat version of the Velvet Underground’s “I Found a Reason.”  And stay tuned for one more episode of At The Bar With Southern Comfort!

At The Bar With Southern Comfort: The Daredevil Christopher Wright, “Drains”

Welcome to episode seven of At The Bar With Southern Comfort, in which we travel to some of our favorite new bands’ hometowns (or as near as we can get) and film them covering some of their favorite bands’ best songs . This week we’re bringing some good-natured Midwestern charm all the way from Madison, Wisconsin. The Daredevil Christopher Wright kept it in the family and covered a song by their Wisconsin bros, Megafaun, at a bar on State Street that had a giant fake tree inside of it. Be warned: the harmonization will make you weep. Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we travel across North America to meet up with other bands while racking up frequent flyer miles and good times.

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Fool’s Gold on Fool’s Gold Part One

A giant collective as much as a band, the California lovers in Fool’s Gold, are a slightly unwieldy crew of folks who know how to wing a riff into the wild abyss. Or as Matt and Sal of the band say, they get into “pockets of ecstasy” when playing with 12 people on stage. To try to break down the enigma, the members of Fool’s Gold and Tehetena Yonas made FADER TV a little gift: Five bios about the band and its members. In the first two of five videos we meet members Sal, Matt, Erika and Michael, who explain the band’s magic, demonstrate it on thumb piano and get some ice cream. Come back tomorrow to meet the rest of the band.

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At The Bar With Southern Comfort: Wild Yaks, “Way Over Yonder in a Minor Key”

We’re up to episode six of At The Bar With Southern Comfort, in which we travel to some of our favorite new bands’ hometowns (or as near as we can get) and film them covering some of their favorite bands’ best songs. This time we had to travel all the way across the bridge to Brooklyn to hear the borough’s native Wild Yaks at a bar where, conveniently, one of the Yaks bartends.  They played a rousing rendition of Billy Bragg’s “Way Over Yonder in a Minor Key,” employing beer cans for percussion instruments. Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we travel across North America to meet up with other bands while racking up frequent flyer miles and good times.

Slideshow: Not Another Mirror Shot

Over the last ten years, The FADER has published thousands of photographs by hundreds of photographers from all over the world. Hopefully, when flipping through the pages of each issue, you are able to pick out little details in these photographs that illustrate the subject’s character or illuminate a situation’s subtleties, and that this attention to detail creates an indelible image in your mind of that person or place. To be honest, we look at these things so many times in the course of editing that we start to only notice patterns. Like a dog staring at a herd of kittens, we are made catatonic by the wonder of it all. One of the recurring patterns over the last few years has been the frequent appearance of mirrors, a device that allows for interesting effects and unexpected outcomes, the illusion of light and space where there is little and metaphor for the public and private lives of artists. It could also just be that there are a bunch of mirrors in this world and people like looking in them. Whatever it is, our keenest eye, that of creative director Phil Bicker, always selects only the ones that make sense and saves the rest for his upcoming book project, Look At Me! Em A Kool!,* to be published by FADER Books on the first of Nevruary, 2010billion. Enjoy this slideshow of Phil’s favorite mirror shots during his tenure here, beginning with a portrait of Andrew WK by Michael Schmelling from issue #33.

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At The Bar With Southern Comfort: Neon Indian, “Mi Viejo”

It’s episode number five of At The Bar With Southern Comfort, in which we travel to some of our favorite new bands’ hometowns (or as near as we can get) and film them covering some of their favorite bands’ best songs. Neon Indian showed up at the bar in Dallas and informed us that they’d be playing an Argentinian folk song and then busted out with a beautiful melody fronted by Alan Palomo. Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we travel across North America to meet up with other bands while racking up frequent flyer miles and good times.

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