FADER TV: Amazing Baby, “Pump Your Brakes” (Live at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort)

In a week during which they played the extravagant New York Topshop opening parties with Mark Ronson hosting and crazy celebrities attending, we are choosing to reminisce back to the good old days of two weeks ago when Amazing Baby played the simple, everymanned Levi’s®/FADER Fort. Watch the boys play the first song we ever posted by them, “Pump Your Brakes.”

FADER TV: Francis & the Lights, “A Modern Promise” (Live at the Levi’s®/FADER Fort)”

We dig Oscar Wilde, but we SUPER dig him when he is doing the James Brown dance. Francis Starlite is the best of both worlds: does the special Wilde pose with the hair in photos, does the hotchacha on stage, not to mention the Lights’ supreme excellence in fulfilling the pinnacle of our wildest pop-funk fantasies. At The Levi’s®/FADER Fort in Austin during their awesome performance of “A Modern Promise,” we were in a heated debate over who dances/danced better: Francis Starlite, David Byrne or Ian Curtis from Joy Division? Francis won and the dude we placed the bet with lost $2 and a Budweiser.

FADER TV: Styles P f. Jadakiss, “Good Times (I Get High)” (Live at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort)

We’re not gonna try to explain how or why, but when Styles P joined Jadakiss onstage at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort for this lively rendition of SP’s 2002 weed anthem, the venue developed its own peculiar weather pattern blocking out the sun and making us feel kind of dizzy. We got over it though and ate 19 bags of pistachios. Clouds make us so hungry.

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FADER TV: Little Boots, “Meddle” (Live at the Levi’s®/FADER Fort)

No style stranger, former FADER cover star Little Boots showed up at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort wearing an elegant sheath in an eggplant shade and five-inch heels—and, if you count her party-emitting, lite-brite sequencer, her accessories game was on point. Here, she performs her crowd-detonating megahit “Meddle”—and without like, 14,000 Dutch remixers on the internet trying to trance it out, it was no mess, no rave, just pure unadulterated disco Boots. We like it like that.

FADER TV: Janelle Monae, “Many Moons” (Live at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort)

Around the time we were thinking, Wow, Austin could really use some more Afrofuturism in its life, the lightning-like phenom Janelle Monae took the stage at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort
and crushed “Many Moons.” Don’t sleep on her guitarist, whose stage name is Kellindo, but who we refer to as Captain Shreddington. Keep watching for more Fort gems!

FADER TV: Kid Cudi f. Kanye West, “Day N Nite” + Crookers Remix (Live at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort)

This seems to be one of the more popular performances making its way around the internet via random attendees’ videos from The Levi’s®/FADER Fort. So here you go, internet, Cudi and Kanye doing the double shot seven minute jumparound version of “Day N Nite” and its Crookers remix in all its hi-fi glory. Stay tuned for more clips from The Fort.

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FADER TV: Peter Bjorn and John, “Nothing to Worry About” (Live at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort)

Bjorn stopped by The Let Out show at the East Village Radio booth not once but twice on Friday. The first time we knew he was coming and asked him a bunch of stupid questions, the second he just showed up and we asked him a bunch of stupid questions. In between, PB & J did their thing onstage at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort in near total darkness, including their newish song “Nothing to Worry About.” Here it is!

FADER TV: Kanye West and G.O.O.D. Music, “Love Lockdown” (Live at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort)

We did everything we could to keep from telling everyone about Kanye West’s secret show at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort on Saturday, but, as we have become accustomed to, Kanye himself blew up his own spot a couple hours before on his blog. By that point, The Fort was already jammed with so many people we thought we might just establish a permanent tent city down in Austin and have its citizens live off Budweiser and Southern Comfort. Despite reports to the contrary, Kanye went on just about when we expected him to and put on the kind of show that has earned him his millions of fans around the world—no crazy stage, no interstellar storyline, only a little auto-tune and a bunch of big surprises. We’ll be putting up the show in its entirety asap, but in the meantime, watch Kanye and the whole G.O.O.D. Music roster tear up “Love Lockdown” on Saturday night at The Fort, including a little love for The FADER. We love you too, Kanye.

FADER TV: Wavves, “Friends Were Gone” (Live at the Levi’s®/FADER Fort)

Here’s a sneak peek at the song from our upcoming 7-inch series record with Wavves. Opening the show at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort on Saturday, Wavves played “Friends Were Gone,” a sad lament to not even having much better times to reflect on. But check the feral scratch in dude’s voice post-European tour thousand show haze—he’s been having at least moderately good times. And check about a minute and a half during an a capella break when he stops to pull up his pants.

FADER TV: Bun B, “Let Me See It” (Live at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort)

There are pros and there are bros and there certain individuals who are both. Bun B wasn’t even scheduled to perform at The Levi’s®/FADER Fort on Saturday—he was just hanging out in the VIP doing interviews and enjoying his birthday. But when Rick Ross was a no show, Bun came through and delivered a performance of solo and UGK classics that got the crowd going like few other artists did the whole week. We, in gratitude, delivered a big yellow birthday cake. Happy Birthday, Bun! Thanks for everything. Watch Bun receive birthday wishes from his fans and perform UGK’s “Let Me See It” live from The Fort.

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