The Fader back issues from December 2008:
Thank you.(Talk Talk)(Letter to the editor)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Thank you for the photo essay on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I count it as the most intense and important experience I have ever had with a magazine. The photographs, captions and essay make for a singular document that treats these situations with the right attitude: one of honesty, ...
Define reggae.(Talk Talk)(Letter to the editor)
Dec 01, 2008; ... First off I read this blog all the time. Secondly, I've just been wondering why you don't include reggae music? Slightly Stoopid is one of my favorite bands and I don't ...
Sandmanager, is that you?(TALK TALK)(Letter to the editor)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Not sure if this is the right email address but I saw this new video from the ...
Award tour.(TALK TALK)(FOLIO magazine awards )(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008 ... We won some prizes. In the annual FOLIO magazine awards for awesomeness, Matthew Schnipper's "Slept On" won best online column, our Africa issue (March '08) won best overall ...
Editor's letter.(Kanye West)
Dec 01, 2008; ... In the ten years since this magazine was founded, The FADER has always been about looking ahead, being fearlessly enthused about breaking-out musicians and artists and filmmakers and, um, even pastry chefs (issue #20!), when they are at their rawest, fightingest, experimentalest selves. We ...
The Collected Fanzines of Harmony Korine.(NWS PRNT)(Brief article)(Book review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... The Collected Fanzines of Harmony Korine, produced between 1992 and 1999, half of them co-created with skateboarding legend Mark Gonzalez, provide little insight into the brain behind the films Kids, Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy and Mister Lonely. Instead the zines are full of absurd celebrity ...
America.(NWS PRNT)(Brief article)(Book review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Photographer Zoe Strauss was a babysitter on welfare up until she got her first artist grant. That's when mining for beauty in the shit-end of South Philly got upgraded from a hobby to a career to a mission--a mission to create a dentist's X-ray of all her ...
Keith Haring.(NWS PRNT)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Since May, Manhattan has seen a florescent orange shadow over the corner of Houston St. and Bowery, cast by a reproduction of a mural painted on that same spot by Keith Haring twenty-six years ago. Deitch Projects commissioned the mural and unveiled it on May 4, 2008, what would have been ...
FADER/New Era hat series.(NWS PRNT)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... We've come a long way since the release of our Panda Bear hat, collaborating with No Age, High Places and finally Gang Gang Dance who are honoring a big fan of theirs by using the logo he made for them on the latest installment of the FADER/New Era hat series. Way back in issue #51, when ...
Murder most foul: the femicides of Roberto Bolano's 2666.(NWS PRNT)(Brief article)(Book review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Roberto Bolano spent more than half of his career on the literary fringes, a bohemian poet who vagabonded across Latin America, befriending guerilla freedom fighters and shoplifting books for self-education after dropping out of college. He turned to prose ...
Boys' life: the flourish of the independent gay magazines.(Kaiserin )(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] In the fourth issue of Kaiserin ("a magazine for boys with problems") there is a photograph of a piece of French bread that looks like a penis. On the other side of the spread, there is a photograph of a penis with a censored-style black band over its ...
Fight on two fronts: Tricia Rose picks up her sword and shield for The Hip Hop Wars.(NWS PRNT)(Interview)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Tricia Rose's seminal 1994 book Black Noise was one of the first by an American intellectual to view rap music as a subject worthy of serious discussion, going deep with oral histories on the philosophy and technique of many of the era's most influential figures. Now a professor at Brown, ...
Wendy and Lucy.(NWS PRNT)(Movie review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... After the screening I went to of Wendy and Lucy ended, a man complained to two women about it. He said it didn't go deep into Wendy's life, that all we know about her is from little glimpses, there is no beginning and end, just a stationary middle. But that's why it's a good film, like a ...
I Know Who I Am.(NWS PRNT)(Ruben Soto)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As the 2 freeway feeds into Echo Park, there is a mural of Mickey Rourke, the talented actor whose career has been shadowed by what is euphemistically called, "erratic behavior." Painted by Ruben Soto--an Echo Park-raised artist, electrician and aspiring ...
Sarah Haskin.(women's issues)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Comedian Sarah Haskin is not angry, but she is a feminist. In her segment "Target Women" on Current TV's Infomania show, she dissects Bridezilla-style reality shows and commercials for bowel-moving yogurt. "Women have to be all things to all people," says Haskin. "You have to be ...
Soul Tigers.(high school marching band)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Without the proper school funding, feather plumes, gauntlets, capes and sashes, most high school marching bands don't stand a chance in the competitive arena. Until recently, this was the Brooklyn-based Soul Tigers' problem. Band director Kenyatte Hughes says, "We didn't compete often ...
Nerd, guru, idiot: the multivalent life of Richard Ayoade.(NWS PRNT)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I have a commercial death touch, in that nothing I do is ever commissioned again," says Richard Ayoade, displaying a very English knack for self-deprecation. Tall, boyish and with an explosion of hair, Ayoade has been a striking presence in a raft of ...
Rebirth: Strut Records wants to listen.(NWS PRNT)(Company overview)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Strut Records started in London during the '90s as an ambitious, globally minded reissue label. Forced to close in 2003 for financial reasons, the label rebooted in 2008 under the !K7 umbrella with six precise and pleasing compilations, including Calypsoul 70, Disco Italia and Funky ...
The open road: Blind Pilot tours by bicycle.(NWS PRNT)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski started Blind Pilot, a loose-knit indie rock outfit with country roots, they decided they would only tour by bicycle. The choice wasn't made from a self-righteous political agenda--in the riding party that fluctuates ...
Masterpiece.(STYLE)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Roughing it in the wilderness with burly dudes in week-old threads doesn't necessarily call for deep plum knapsacks with suede trimmings and fancy embellishments, but the 60/40 bag by Japanese accessories line Masterpiece is tougher than you think. A 60/40 hybrid of water-repellant cotton ...
Mociun for men.(STYLE)(Caitlin Mociun )(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We've had a thing for designer Caitlin Mociun since the cheeky monster-face prints and Darger-inspired brushstrokes of her spring '07 line of women's wear. Now after much coaxing from her male friends (and maybe us too!), she turns her hand-drawn genius to ...
Costalots.(Matthew Costa new line of sunglasses)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Matthew Costa takes his style cues from outside the safety zone (read hazardous) for his new line of sunglasses. Entitled Costalots, he cleverly repurposes industry-standard safety specs, replacing the lenses originally designed to shield your eyeballs from say, the flicker of a Bunsen ...
Vael Project.(STYLE)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Exiting a summer of shot-to-hell plimsolls, there are stark realities that come into play for the spell of colder months ahead. Vael Project has some sensible, season-appropriate alternatives, with a style that's more The Great Escape than, say, Surf Ninjas. Vael designer Coleman Horn has ...
Head start: Rabbit on the Run takes first place.(French designer Julie Thevenot's works)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Inspired by vintage art deco shapes and dollar store party costumes, French designer Julie Thevenot takes scissors to paper to suture compositions for her line of women's wear Rabbit on the Run, crafting templates for her geometric prints like paper ...
Candid camera: French filmmaker Yoann Lemoine gives us the final cut.(STYLE)(Interview)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Documentarian, music video director and muse to Diane Pernet (the unofficial Frida Kahlo of the fashion blogosphere), twenty-five-year-old Parisian Yoann Lemoine is already splitting time between the most artistic hubs in the world. An illustrator and animator by trade--and musical prodigy ...
Complex simplicity: Generic Man designer Kevin Carney puts his best foot forward.(shoe design)(Interview)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Generic Man shoes are completely without branding, tags or labels. Designer Kevin Carney's attitude towards footwear is one of lasting quality along with simple beauty, never sacrificing form for function, or vice versa. He has collaborated with Steven Alan and his shoes were recently worn ...
Gridlock: Colin Henderson is all stitched up.(STYLE)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For Colin Henderson it all starts with graph paper. "I like working within the confines of a grid," says the London-based illustrator turned knitwear designer, whose pixilated patterns lock together like tribal Tetris. He began working with wool after a ...
Black stars: Fan Death's devotion to disco and darkness.(GEN F)
Dec 01, 2008; ... There's something otherworldly about Fan Death. Maybe it's how members Dandilion Wind Opaine and Marta Jaciubek-McKeever whisper about Eastern European cartoons and the perilous state of planet Earth. Or maybe it's how they make disco sound dangerous. It's as if together they negotiate ...
Who's house? DJ Mujava's township funk prophesies the future.(GEN F)
Dec 01, 2008; ... The first time I get DJ Mujava on the phone, the crackles of the cellular connection render an anecdote totally useless three or four times before I give up on the interview. When we do have a proper conversation a few weeks later there is, in some ways, nothing special about what Mujava ...
California love: the misguided affection of College.(GEN F)(Teenage Coed)(Sound recording review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Imagine an unreleased film from 1984 where the final shot is of a tall eighteen-year-old girl in a heather grey sweatshirt alone on a pale beach, bonfires burning in the distance. The camera is pulled out wide, and as it zooms in calmly we see she's not moving because she is dead. Whatever ...
It's poppin: Ron Browz lites up Harlem.(GEN F)(Pop Champagne)(Sound recording review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... One Thursday in late June during the first week of Rucker Park's famed Entertainer's Basketball Classic, the announcer gave his halftime command: "All right, all out war! Everybody go crazy!" Immediately, swarms of children from elementary to high school age heaved themselves over the ...
Totally upfront: The Muslims clatter and clang.(GEN F)
Dec 01, 2008; ... It's just before noon and three of the four members of The Muslims are sitting down for a hearty breakfast of eggs and potatoes, freshly cooked by bassist Dave Lantzman. While lead singer Matt Lamkin resides in East Hollywood and drummer Brian Hill is still down in San Diego where the band ...
Heart bussin: Trai'd spreads Dallas love.(GEN F)
Dec 01, 2008; ... On his MySpace page, Trai'D proclaims that his single "Gutta Chick" is "THE HARDEST LOVE SONG YOU EVER HEARD." But it wasn't love that gave "Gutta Chick," or "Gutta Bitch" in its uncensored form, its first fans. After recording its first incarnation in his bedroom over an instrumental from ...
Brain damage: the blissful bludgeoning of the big pink.(GEN F)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Ask a band how they met and the usual response is an eye roll and a mumbled something about mutual friends. For London's blissed-out shoegaze adventurers The Big Pink, things are a little more dramatic. "It was this millennium party where people were actually fencing and swinging from the ...
Little brother: Illa J finds meaning in unexpected moments.(GEN F)(Yancey Boys)(Sound recording review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Yancey Boys marks the first real collaboration between rapper/singer Illa J and his older brother, the late J Dilla. It's a project that could have only come from a familial connection--reverent but not deifying, as Illa comes to terms with the loss of a family member while simultaneously ...
I'm amazing: you'll never take the heart from Kanye West.(Interview)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kanye West wants to make history." That is how we began the Kanye West story in our December 2003 issue, his first cover. Exactly five years later, he has done so in a way that even we could not have imagined. His personal style--skinny jeans rising out of ...
Everything is possible: when No Age decided to question what it means to be a punk band now, they found out that the answers are infinite.(Interview)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Since their formation two years ago, No Age has been a band to believe in. Not just because of their music--cathartic pop thrashing inside of noise and gnarled fuzz--but because of the open minded and enthusiastic approach of twenty-seven-year-olds Dean ...
My selector: with impressive prescience and impeccable taste, these curators and everthing-mongers continually shape our cultural vision.(CURATORS)(Wendy Yao's Ooga Booga )
Dec 01, 2008; ... CURATORS OOGA BOOGA IT'S RARE TO THINK of browsing as intimate, but when Wendy Yao opened Ooga Booga in 2004, she wanted to evoke the experience of going to a friend's house and her eagerly showing you a strange book she loves or playing you her new favorite song. "A ...
Family.(CURATORS)(David Kramer)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHILE HE WAS preparing to open Family, David Kramer tried applying to the American Booksellers Association. Their response was disheartening. "They sent me this flier that was like, 'So you think you can open a bookstore? Don't think you can because you ...
Cipha Sounds.(CURATORS)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... LOOKING BACK to the early part of the decade, the peak of my dedication to New York's Hot 97, two things stand out: one, Funkmaster Flex bombing the shit out of anything from Queens, and two, Flex screaming, "Cipha, don't get gassed!" at random points during his mix. Flex was scolding his ...
Santos party house.(CURATORS)(Andrew WK)(Essay)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SANTOS PARTY HOUSE is a calm place from the outside. Two small pens of railed in smokers talking quietly and an overly polite doorman separate a crisp Manhattan office building facade from the pristinely planned club's massive guts. The first time I went ...
Rico Wade.(CURATORS)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AS ONE THIRD of legendary production crew Organized Noize and a founding member of Atlanta's Dungeon Family collective, one could argue that Rico Wade has all but cemented his legacy in music. At only thirty-six years old, however, Wade couldn't be ...
Oak.(CURATORS)(Louis Terline and Jeff Madalena)
Dec 01, 2008; ... WALK INSIDE Oak's 28 Bond St. storefront and, invariably, the first thing you notice is an impressive geometric structure snaking its way across the store like some hard-edged leviathan. Oak has been open for little over a year in Manhattan, and its owners like to think of their in-store ...
Bounty killer.(CURATORS)
Dec 01, 2008; ... IN THE DANCEHALL ARENA Bounty Killer is known primarily as the Warlord, the unchallenged master of gun talk and the last artist you'd want to face off with in a soundclash. But since his heyday in the early '90s he's carved out a secondary persona as the Poor People's Governor, channeling ...
Partizan/The Directors Bureau.(CURATORS)(Danielle Hinde and Lana Kim)(Interview)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FROM A CIRCLE of girls sloppily passing the kiss as Simian Mobile Disco's "Hustler" plays, to Feist's elegantly elaborate musical numbers, some of the greatest visual statements of the past ten years have come from music videos. Many of The FADER's ...
Rare Book Room.(CURATORS)(Nicolas Vernhes)
Dec 01, 2008; ... STANDING WITH Rare Book Room's Nicolas Vernhes on his Brooklyn rooftop, I feel disoriented by the suddenly panoramic views. From this vantage point you can see a postcard-appropriate shot of the Manhattan skyline, the whispering treetops of nearby McCarren Park, the Williamsburg Bridge and ...
Transformer: how Erol Alkan changed London club life ... and remixing ... and music in the 21st century ...(Biography)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For a long time, I hated "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide," and it was Erol Alkan's fault. At 3AM on Monday night/Tuesday morning, David Bowie singing, Gimme your hands cause you're wonderful meant Alkan's club night Trash was over and with it, the weekend had ...
Joyriders: witnessing Dublin's Ballymun flats crash and burn.
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Roam just four miles north of the Liffey and the frenetic buzzing of boomtown Dublin gives way to the hollowed-out urban desert that is Ballymun. Known affectionately as The Mun, Ballymun flats is the most flagrant example of Irish social planning gone ...
Drumless space: shoegazes slouch toward electronica.(VINYL ARCHEOLOGY)(sound recordings)(Sound recording review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Shoegaze in its original form didn't last long--after the noisy bliss of Nowhere, Ride embraced psychedelia; after Spooky, Lush went Britpop; after three EPs, Moose grabbed their pedal steels and leaned toward alt-country. And post-Loveless My Bloody ...
New Order Power, Corruption & Lies: Collectors Edition (Rhino).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... New Order Power, Corruption & Lies: Collectors Edition (Rhino) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] New Order's sophomore album, 1983's Power, Corruption & Lies, represents the sound of a band finally learning how to play their instruments properly. It's also one of the first ...
88 Keys The Death of Adam (Decon).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... 88 Keys The Death of Adam (Decon) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 88 Keys, best known for production work for Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and more peculiarly, Scarface, offers his debut as an ambitious hip-hopera of sorts. In the vein of Prince Paul's groundbreaking A Prince Among ...
Metro Area Fabric 43 (Fabric).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Metro Area Fabric 43 (Fabric) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Of the twenty-three tracks on this compilation, thirteen have some sort of parenthetical qualification: instrumental, remix, dub version, acid rainforest mix. It's not a slight to ...
Belle & Sebastian BBC Sessions.(Matador)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Belle & Sebastian BBC Sessions (Matador) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I'll be honest, Belle & Sebastian have never hit me the way they've hit literally every single person I know, so when BBC Sessions came across my desk, I was not exactly amped. But at about ten minutes ...
Surf City Surf City EP (Morr Music).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Surf City Surf City EP (Morr Music) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If nations' topographies were determined by the bands they produce, New Zealand would be one long, flat highway to a kind-of-too-cold sea. Since the Flying Nun days of the 1980s, the island country has given ...
Deer Tick War Elephant (Partisan).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Deer Tick War Elephant (Partisan) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] John McCauley, the main dude in Deer Tick, sounds like every bad thing in the world has happened to him. Obviously that's not true because it's impossible and also because he's like twenty-two, but the point is ...
The Lines Flood Bank (Acute).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... The Lines Flood Bank (Acute) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Lines were an obscure band from the early '80s that no one knew about except their friends and moms until the nerds at Acute Records took it upon themselves to cast ...
Tina Turner Tina! (Capitol).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Tina Turner Tina! (Capitol) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I've seen Thunderdome, so I know what Tina Turner is capable of. This Tina! compilation pretty much reiterates everything that I like about Tina Turner. The early energetic Tina in "River ...
The Rapture Tapes (!K7).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... The Rapture Tapes (!K7) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An incomplete list of anthem subgenres included in The Rapture's Tapes DJ mix: Ghostface Killah's "Daytona 500," Non-Nerdy Rap Abstractions Breakbeat Anthem; Junkyard Band's "The Word," Fuck Reagan Go-Go Anthem; Vaughan ...
Various Artists Randy's 50th Anniversary Anthology (VP).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Various Artists Randy's 50th Anniversary Anthology (VP) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This double CD/one DVD package is being flung down by VP Records to celebrate fifty years in the biz, but also in recognition of the fact that, having just bought out their main rival ...
Gucci Mane The Movie (mixtape).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Gucci Mane The Movie (mixtape) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Just days before Gucci Mane was poised to undergo the biggest break in his career--releasing a Gangsta Grillz branded mixtape with DJ Drama--since the only break in his career, his debut single "Icy" co-starring a ...
TRV$DJAM Fix Your Face (mixtape).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
Dec 01, 2008; ... TRV$DJAM Fix Your Face (mixtape) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I really liked Blink-182 for about three months in junior high school. I knew all the words to that one song (the one about the loser guy, you know?) and so did all of my friends. But then my dad ...
Old to begin: revisiting the beloved pavement album that no one talks about anymore.(Pavement's Brighten the Corners)(Sound recording review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... When he was twenty-nine and promoting Pavement's album Brighten the Corners, Stephen Malkmus told the New York Times, "Nothing bores me more than the generation of twenty-something people. It's such a yawn. I'm more into what my parents are doing. I'd rather read about troubles that ...
Splatterfest: for Ladyhawke, Sarah Larnach got her watercolors dirty.(SLEEVES)
Dec 01, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I was working with oils originally, mainly painting oil on wood, until I moved to Sydney and Pip Browne, aka Ladyhawke, did at the same time. We were living together in a tiny apartment, and I started painting with watercolors out of necessity. They didn't ...
Revisionaries: Ratatat's jammed-out loops and rhythms.(BEAT CONSTRUCTION)(Interview)
Dec 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For many musical twosomes, the economy of playing rock as a duo tends to offer up a complicated--and sometimes stifling--set of limitations. "It's a lot like a puzzle," says Evan Mast. As one half of Ratatat, Mast, along with bandmate Mike Stroud, has ...
Legendary Performances: Merle Haggard (Shout Factory).(Brief article)(Video recording review)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Legendary Performances: Merle Haggard (Shout Factory) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There's a moment on Legendary Performances where Merle Haggard is about to play "Mama Tried" on Billy Walker's Country Carnival. In the second that he looks down at his guitar he has the ...