FEATURE: Theophilus London and the Subtle Art of Snatching Your Shit
- story Peter Macia
- photo Jason Nocito
To represent the early adaptive skills of our recent icon, David Byrne, we selected Brooklyn’s own mixtape maestro Theophilus London, who jumps on wildly varying beats like it was his job (it is) and usually only takes the space of a welcomed guest instead of taking the whole thing for himself. Read Peter Macia’s story after the jump and listen to London’s new remix of The Very Best’s “Warm Heart of Africa” with vocals by Esau Mwamwaya and Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend here.
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.
Stylee Fridays: The Making of a FADER Fashion Story
- story THE FADER
Our fashion stories are never fashion stories in the traditional lights-camera-action sense of the word. We rarely shoot models, there are not many fancy photo studios to be found, and for every spread that appears in the magazine there is usually a long and elaborate tale that involves our contributing style editor Mobolaji Dawodu finagaling his way in to the home/backyard/farm of a complete stranger. Issue 61, our David Byrne Icon Issue, was a little different. Byrne likes to ride his bike around New York and has a book coming out this fall called Bicycle Diaries so our creative director suggested we make our fashion story a global snapshot of cycling style, connecting us with photographers in Cairo, Rio, Rome, Portland, China and even Bangladesh. The idea was brilliant, the fashion logistics were a little more tricky–how would we get Mobolaji to style in six different places across four different continents all at once?
FADER TV: Nipsey Hussle, “Let’s Talk Money” (Live at the Issue #61 Release Party)
- story THE FADER
Everyone, ourselves included, has been comparing Nipsey Hussle to Snoop, but after his brief yet intense performance at our party on Wednesday night, we’ve decided that’s only because they kind of look alike. Hussle has no kind of Snoopish blasé when he’s onstage: snatching spliffs, barking at the sound guy (sorry dude), jumping into the crowd and generally firing off round after round of awesome LA gun clap rap. If you missed the party, here’s “Let’s Talk Money,” and make sure to pick up the new issue of The FADER when it hits newsstands next week to read our story about Hussle.
Video Premiere/Exclusive Freeload: Pterodactyl, “December”
- story THE FADER
Oh shit sneak peak! In FADER #61 (on stands very soon) we’ve got a Gen F on Pterodactyl, who we caught as they were filming the video for “December” in the creepy ass Market Hotel. We’ve always thought that place was haunted and this confirms it—only this video is happy enough that we can see it being haunted by friendly ghosts as opposed to scary ones. ANYWAY, Pterodactyl’s manic and joyful new album Worldwild (Brah Records) is available right now, and to celebrate, the dudes have linked up with Oneida for an epic release party this Saturday featuring a bunch of video work, some DJ sets and—of course—performances from Pterodactyl and Oneida. It’s only a 5-10 dollar donation, and if you buy the album you get in free, which is pretty much the best deal around. Oh yeah also, if you’re prone to seizures you might want to skip the first 30 seconds of this video, but if you’re into that kind of thing you can probably just watch this over and over until you become prone to seizures.
Download: Pterodactyl, “December”
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posted on Apr 23, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS tags exclusive freeload, F61, Pterodactyl, rock, video premiere
