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If you haven't checked out/purchased/dreamed about and saved money in your piggy bank for designer Christian Joy's debut collection of women's wear then we strongly recommend you do, right now. We were lucky enough to get an invite to her studio a couple of weeks back, and extra specially psyched that our studio visit coincided with a package from the mailman—more precisely a package of spectacular archival Joy pieces created for her BFF Karen O straight off the exhibit floor of a museum in Tokyo. CJ and Karen O have been friends pretty much since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs started out and as well as talking us through the inspiration behind some of the most iconic costumes, she gave us some really great insight into what makes their creative chemistry sparkle.

Exactly one month and three days ago we hung with the Last Shadow Puppets. They are really British, have nice shoes and played guitar for Open Bar, our new series of music played all casual and friendly-like at Heathers bar in the East Village. Heather was there, and, like us, she swooned for the Beatles cuts and general soft cockney of Miles Kane and Alex Turner as they ripped through some joints from their upcoming album The Age of the Understatement. For this, their first (un)official performance ever (!) they told us their Shadow Puppet mantra is to write grown-up songs. Not the biggest departure from the deep heady goof of Arctic Monkeys, but not as teen swoon, either. Either way, charming jams for midday. Dudes know how to write some shit for the ages and we're happy to have captured it first.

For our FADER 53 cover, we headed to Portland and hung with the elusive and awesome Glass Candy. Above check out Glass Candy beatmaker and Italians Do It Better mastermind Johnny Jewel showing us around his studio and music, and then make the jump to see Ida No's crazy house with lots of clothes, a cat that is everywhere and uh, a weird ventriloquist dummy. Keep hitting up thefader.com for T Cole Rachel's feature on Glass Candy from F53, presented here for free in just a bit. more...

A little while ago we caught up with Hisham Bharoocha aka Soft Circle bka renaissance badass at the New Museum's Get Weird series, where he performed a couple new songs to be released on RCRD LBL. We asked him about those two new songs and his plans for the future (hint: 888), and we put it all on FADER TV. RCRD LBL, in turn, has just put up the exclusive download of the first of the two, which you should get below if you have any soul left at all. Expect the second next month and check Hisham's tour dates with the Boredoms over there as well.

Download: Soft Circle, "Night Hike" from RCRD LBL

Canadians Born Ruffians and FADER TV field reporters David Bevan and Hanly Banks all share one thing in common: they're homeless. Wait, not true, Bevan lives in a glass castle and Banks sleeps in our fashion closet. HOWEVER, when Born Ruffians visit New York City they stay in the last flop on the Bowery and go to the bathroom in their pants. Sound dubious? It just might be, but they also love Ellen Page so there you go. Regardless, they play great pop rocks, we like them, and at the end of this clip they give us a very likeable accapella + handclaps rendition of "Badonkadonkey" from Red, Yellow & Blue, the original of which you can download at RCRD LBL.

Between the little pre-school man we saw wearing a ¡Sí Se Puede! Obama t-shirt this morning and Bun B talking about superdelegates in this video interview we did with him down in Texas, we have to say we are feeling the political spirit in the US of A today. Bun sat down to talk about the unique love he gets in Texas, real government representation, why he thinks so many young people are excited about Barack, and of course, his new album II Trill.

Give a kid an inch and he'll take a yard. FADER TV field reporter David Bevan was recently given carte blanche to interview deep woods troubador Bon Iver on video, so what did he do? Took him to Relaxation Studio in Chinatown for a massage. Great dude! You're fired. Oh wait there's another video of Bon Iver performing an easy, lovely acoustic version of "Flume" off For Emma, Forever Ago just for FADER TV. So you're rehired Bevo. And by by hired we mean working for promo chocolate and leftover wine. more...

Last Friday at The Knitting Factory we hosted, along with Bass Ale, a party celebrating the release of our Africa issue. Featuring the sweet sounds of DJs Eddie Stats and DJ/Rupture floating down on us from that weird upper level that looks like those raised indoor tracks that we had to run around in high school, as well as a surprisingly bass heavy set from Brooklyn's own High Places followed by the US debut of South Africa's BLK JKS. We did the jam band dance along with everyone else—we see you dude in multi-colored beanie! Check out BLK JKS' performance of "Lakeside" from our party up above and check out a select few pictures from the event after the jump. more...

You already know that Re-Up Gang's Sandman and Ab-Liva (MAJOR FIGGAS DO IT BIG!) are two of Philly's nicest MCs. You already know all about the industry yaddy yaddy ya, and that We Got It for Cheap parts 1, 2, and 3 have burned holes in your mind, and you can recite them in your sleep. But did you know they are also hilarious dudes? When they came through the FADER Sugar Shack for this video interview, they played Ping-Pong in our conference room and extolled the virtues of Nacho Libre (one of Sandman's favorite movies). But we caught all the real gems on tape—from Sandman detailing his googling habits, to Liva detailing Sandman's smoking habits.

One of our favorite bands of the moment The Teenagers are playing a special Valentine's Day show in London tonight with one of our other favorite bands Justice. This seems like a pretty big deal and also a good opportunity for some English kids to make out with each other to French music. FADER contributor and friend to the stars, David Bevan, recently met up with the Teenagers in New York to hang out with cats and order Chinese food. Coincidentally, he filmed the whole thing and recorded a cover of "Starlett Johansson" with his brother Dan for the music. Maybe he should just be in the band. Regardless, it's pretty awesome and now you can watch it.

After meeting her for our FADER 51 Gen F, we have decided that all people should be as fun and cool as Teyana Taylor. So when she invited us over to watch her film her new video for "Google Me," we of course said yes. And then we met her mom Nikki and decided that her mom should be our mom. So there you go. In the above video, FADER TV goes behind the scenes with Teyana, Nikki and some fierce catwalking dudes for our exclusive first look.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with FADER 39 coverstar and sartorial genius Rick Ross about his new album Trilla, set for release on March 11th. But instead of asking him the same old questions about producers and collaborators and lyrical content, we wanted to know how Rick stays so fly, and dude OPENED UP FOR REAL. He talks about his vintage Cazals, Miami style, his "breast area" and a few minutes in, shows us his tattoos. All of them. And it is magnificent. We now see Ross in a whole new light, honestly, and we hope you will too. (Video by Joe Angerone)

From the Newsprint section in FADER 51:

Cleveland’s Baby Dee has amassed a hefty list of admirers, a tiny albeit esteemed portion of which joined forces for the recording of her Drag City debut Safe Inside the Day. Superwolf duo Matt Sweeney and Will Oldham took key producing reins for the multi-instrumentalist’s third outing, an autobiographical disc brimming with Vaudevillian songs of odd but never faltering beauty. “Everyone that would come in would hear it and immediately get it,” Sweeney says. “I feel like we were all playing at levels that we had never played before. This music sounds like it’s been around for a thousand years.” -David Bevan

Another admirer is awesomest dude in the universe Andrew WK, who, in preparation for Baby Dee's show tonight at Joe's Pub, sat down for a candid interview with the artist for FADER TV. We couldn't bring ourselves to edit any of it out, so watch Part 1 here and click more for Parts 2 and 3. more...

Isn't it weird how old people are always rattling on about the great American car or about how things were before that pesky Toyota Camry arrived and Detroit started pumping out crap instead of muscle? While the Camry may be an affordable, even at times enjoyable ride (it's hard to argue with those numbers), the idea that nothing but garbage is coming out of Detroit is just total poppycock. Case in point: the fine men of Tyvek, mangy garage blasters, FADER favorites and, after another weekend of shows on either side of the East River, conquerors of New York. We took in their late show at Cake Shop on Friday night (pics after the jump) and it's a real wonder the place didn't catch fire, because dudes sounded dangerous. We're talking Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner getting out of serious pickles time and time again in Romancing the Stone dangerous. They banged and yodeled their way through a set of jams pulled from seven-inches past and future, the latter something we can't be more excited to hear again soon. Stay tuned to What's Your Rupture? for those.

Incidentally, we also had Detroit filmmaker and friend of Tyvek, Joe Casey record his sit down with the dudes recently and here's what he sent us. Curiously, Dr. Teets is not present, but that's the magic of crappy internet television. more...

Last week we spent a little time in the studio with Sean C & LV, the two dudes behind the bulk of Jay's American Gangster as well as some of the jammiest jams on the new Ghostface album. They talked about transitioning from DJs to producers and then recreated "Roc Boys (And the Winner is)" for us live in the studio. Also, we all laughed a lot.

Gilbert Arenas rolls out the beginning of his sneaker opus this month, a 20-piece limited collection of kicks which he will be sporting on the court throughout the season. If your familiar with his blog, then you won't be at all surprised by the awesome random energy of his new line—there's a sneaker dedicated to his two kids, another to Benihana's Hibachi grill, one really dope pair designed by FADER homies Undrcrwn and another that pays homage to his 8-hour-a-day X-box habit. FADER contributing style editor extraordinaire Mobolaji Dawodu paid Gilbert a wee visit when he was in town last month, and here's a little sampler of what went down in their style tete-a-tete.

Video by Joe Angerone

By the grace of good management, we were able to get I-Wayne to come through The FADER CMJ Sideshow (delivered by at&t) at the last minute. Here is the girls-onstage-free segment of his performance from Saturday night.

Video by Joe Angerone

Remember when Dad used to call you a turbo fruit? We do! We also remember last Friday when Nashville's Turbo Fruits shredded their opening slot at The FADER CMJ Sideshow (delivered by at&t), and now you can remember too.

Video by Joe Angerone

Turzi was cool enough to come all the way from Paris, France [Ed. They were in New York anyway] to play at The FADER CMJ Sideshow (delivered by at&t), so we're going to be cool and post this video of them performing "Afghanistan" on Saturday in return.