Live: David Byrne Brings Future Funk to Vermont
- story THE FADER
With outfits matching his shock of white hair, David Byrne—our current Icon Issue honoree—brought the same oddball dance and music troupe we saw a couple months ago at Radio City to a remote hillside in Northern Vermont on Monday to play a highly-choreographed set, mostly culled from his frequent collaborations with Brian Eno. It was a family-friendly funk show, with an adoring crowd politely eschewing the weirdly-enacted “No Dancing in Front of the Stage” law to groove in what might be the most picturesque concert setting outside of Red Rocks or the Gorge (even the Port-o-Lets tucked behind a stand of pine were pretty). Byrne worked through a mix of Talking Heads hits (”Crosseyed and Painless,” “Once in a Lifetime,” “Take Me to the River,” “Life During Wartime”) and Byrne-Eno gems (”Help Me Somebody” from the seminal My Life in the Bush of Ghosts) with a nervy confidence and strut that threatened to melt all the free Ben & Jerry’s being doled out from a truck parked at the top of the hill. The adoration was mutual—Byrne wound up playing three encores despite the mountain air dropping from almost comfortable to “I should’ve worn pants” levels.
Download the current Icon Issue, check out our interactive slideshow of David Byrne’s insane office narrated, just for you, by the Luaka Bopster himself, and by all means check out Byrne’s Band of Merry Dancers on his current tour, coming to a hillside near you. Setlist after the jump and more photos over on The Tripwire.
Slideshow: David Byrne Takes Us on a Guided Tour of His Insane Office, Part III
- story THE FADER
In our current issue, along with all of its other David Byrne-related wonder, you can see regular FADER contributor Jason Nocito’s intimate photos of Byrne in his massive office at the Todo Mundo headquarters. Because of the natural constraints of paper magazines, we were neither able to fit every photo in the issue nor have Byrne explain what you were looking at. Fortunately, we have the internet, and Byrne was generous enough to record this guided audio tour of all the peculiar objects and ephemera photographed by Nocito that otherwise would’ve never been seen. We had so much material, and Byrne had so much to say, we’ve decided to split it into three parts, the last of which focuses on the many personal works of art that adorn the space. See and hear above. And as a bonus, head over to NPR to listen to Byrne and many others perform at the recent Dark Was The Night concert at Radio City Music Hall.
Slideshow: David Byrne Takes Us on a Guided Tour of His Insane Office, Part II
- story THE FADER
In our current issue, along with all of its other David Byrne-related wonder, you can see regular FADER contributor Jason Nocito’s intimate photos of Byrne in his massive office at the Todo Mundo headquarters. Because of the natural constraints of paper magazines, we were neither able to fit every photo in the issue nor have Byrne explain what you were looking at. Fortunately, we have the internet, and Byrne was generous enough to record this guided audio tour of all the peculiar objects and ephemera photographed by Nocito that otherwise would’ve never been seen. We had so much material, and Byrne had so much to say, we’ve decided to split it into three parts, the second of which you can see and hear above, with a full explanation of Byrne’s bong collection.
Slideshow: David Byrne Takes Us on a Guided Tour of His Insane Office, Part I
- story THE FADER
In our current issue, along with all of its other David Byrne-related wonder, you can see regular FADER contributor Jason Nocito’s intimate photos of Byrne in his massive office at the Todo Mundo headquarters. Because of the natural constraints of paper magazines, we were neither able to fit every photo in the issue nor have Byrne explain what you were looking at. Fortunately, we have the internet, and Byrne was generous enough to record this guided audio tour of all the peculiar objects and ephemera photographed by Nocito that otherwise would’ve never been seen. We had so much material, and Byrne had so much to say, we’ve decided to split it into three parts, the first of which you can see and hear above.
FEATURE: Grizzly Bear on the Soft Edge of Stardom
- story Matthew Schnipper
- photo Jason Nocito
The best thing about Pitchfork’s Veckatimest review is that the reviewer doesn’t seem to realize how deeply he’s been affected by Grizzly Bear. He goes on for over 1,000 words without really saying much to persuade anyone to buy the album, but says it in geographically and historically bewildering blend of English idioms and dialect—a couple Lord know’s, some ain’ts, a Shakespearean plea for shopping and a few dudeses. If you don’t actually care about his opinion, it’s a pretty good conceptual rendering of the album itself, which taken as a whole, could be the greatest work of Hillbilliamsburg musical theater we will ever hear. This is why we chose to put Grizzly Bear in our current David Byrne icon issue, because they are not afraid to go all out in search of beauty, in the same way Byrne did and still does. Read the feature story after the jump, and make sure to pick up Veckatimest today at your favorite music shop.
Slideshow: Todo El Mundo
- story THE FADER
With his book The Cycling Diaries out this fall, the fashion spreads in our current icon issue pay homage to David Byrne’s transportation habits. We talked about the insane logistics of this story a couple of weeks ago—an 80-days-around-the-world affair that involved shipping clothes to all four corners of the planet. This slideshow features the best outtakes of the story and is a rare opportunity to follow six very stylish cyclists beyond the pages of the magazine–past city centre canals in Rome, fields in Bangladesh and deserts in Egypt. And to round out the Byrne-centricity, we’ve featured the colorful music of Byrne’s old label, Luaka Bop, all available for purchase on iTunes.
Freeload: The FADER Issue 61 Podcast
- story THE FADER
Every release of an Icon issue is a special occasion, but this year is a little extra special because we’ve dedicated it to someone who’s still around: man about town and former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. We switched up the format and spoke to Byrne himself, as well as profiling five artists we think are carrying on his legacy, namely Grizzly Bear, Michael Bell-Smith, Theophilus London, Micachu & The Shapes and the Dutty Artz crew. There are also life maps, old photos, essays and weirdness. And as always, we’ve got a bunch of great bands in our Gen F section and a million other interesting things throughout, including a globetrotting fashion photo story of cyclists around the world (That one’s for you, Byrne!). We’ve put together a mix of music from the issue, presented by Bacardi B-Live, that includes jams from Byrne, Salem, Joker, Pterodactyl, Grizzly Bear, Erup, Jahdan Blakkamoore, Theophilus London, Nipsey Hussle and more. Download it below and pick up a copy of the issue now at the newsstand of your choosing. When the paper wears out, come back to FADER.com for a free download of our issue PDF in two weeks.
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Check the tracklist after jump.
Live: David Byrne in a Tutu!
- story THE FADER
David Byrne is no stranger to collaboration, but last weekend’s Radio City extravaganza left us feeling like we had not only witnessed, but taken part in, some kind of ridiculous orgy of talent, with props like office chairs and toy guitars to boot. It wasn’t exactly CBGB’s, but it wasn’t the Varvatos store either. While New York has changed, Byrne, unlike so many of his contemporaries, manages to roll with the times and steer clear of corny (even during the ’90’s!).
Dressed in celestial white garments and floating around the stage like modern-day apostles, Byrne’s backup band almost stole the show. With people like Kaïssa, a Cameroonian singer whom Byrne met at the latest BAM retrospective, and the left-field keyboardist Mark Degliantoni (formerly of Soul Coughing), it seemed like Byrne had enlisted all of his friends to hop on the crazy train and take it around the world: The Rockettes’ linedancing to “Life During Wartime” or Byrne “Burning Down The House” in a tutu battling for craziest moment. Sure, it’s all a big show and we could’ve used more solo DB, but who can complain when an elegantly-suspendered man makes such an effort to take your mind of troubled times.
Freeload: Dirty Projectors & David Byrne, “Knotty Pine”
- story THE FADER
Next month, Red Hot, the longstanding organization dedicated to fighting global AIDS, will release its 20th compilation to note its 20th year of existence, and this time around they’ve collected an indie rock justice league to record special covers, collaborations and exclusives for Dark Was The Night. Over the next month, they’ll be previewing a track a day on the Dark Was The Night MySpace, but to kick things off they’ve made the first song on the first disc available for free. And if the rest of the 31 songs are as good as this one, we might have to forget all about Animal Collective. Not really, but seriously, Dirty Projectors and David Byrne are match made in is-this-dude-crazy-or-just-kind-of-shy heaven and “Knotty Pine” just brought the sun out in New York. Check the tracklist after the jump and buy the Red Hot compilation on February 17th.
Download: Dirty Projectors & David Byrne, “Knotty Pine”
David Byrne’s Playing The Building
- story THE FADER
Playing the Building: An Installation by David Byrne opened at the Battery Maritime building last weekend and we trekked downtown to see what the Talking Heads genius had imagined up this time. After his Business as Poetry exhibit (yeah, we were skeptical) where he showed us how to bring artistic possibilities back into PowerPoint Presentations—and forever changing FADER office meetings—we got on board for all the charming and clever projects in his ever-growing portfolio. This time around, Byrne’s inspiration came back to the piano bench. He’s placed an antique organ at the center of the large warehouse and linked it to whistling tubes and spinning motors. The tubes, girders and crafty homemade flutes then connect to metal columns and overhead rafters, producing Thuds! Wheeews! and Ping! noises when projected off the room. The project encourages anyone to sit at the retrofitted organ and strike a tune, but artists will be invited to challenge the mechanisms in talks throughout the summer (check dates here). Wait! What’s happening? This musician is aging gracefully!? Bret Michaels, pay attention.
Playing the Building: An Installation by David Byrne is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Noon to 6pm at the Battery Maritime Building through August 10th.
