DudeAsInCool

Jarvis Cocker has a new song featured in the Netflix animated series The House, which was released last week. As Brooklyn Vegan points out, Cocker sings a song called “This House Is…,” which plays over the closing credits — Cocker co-wrote it alongside the show’s composer Gustavo Santaolalla. Cocker also voices an animated rat in the series. Check it out below. View the full article

In 2014, when the blindingly heavy Van Nuys metallic hardcore band God’s Hate released their debut EP Divine Injustice, their hulking frontman Brody King hadn’t yet become a professional wrestler, though he was already a Southern California moshpit legend. King made his wrestling debut a year later, and he’s made a name for himself on the independent scene over the years. For the past three years, King has been wrestling for Ring Of Honor, and his wrestling career has been busy enough that God’s Hate went years without releasing anything. Last year, when the pandemic opened up a scheduling hole, God’s Hate came back with their self-titled sophomore LP, one of my favorite hardcore albums of 2021. And now, King’s wrestling career has hit a whole new level. He’s All Elite. View the full article

The Tibet House US Benefit Concert will be celebrating its 35th anniversary this year with a special virtual edition of the show. It’ll take place on March 3, and it will honor the event’s artistic director Philip Glass’ 85th birthday. This year will feature performances from Keanu Reeves, Trey Anastasio, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Nathaniel Rateliff, Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit, Angélique Kidjo, Margo Price, Punch Brothers, the Fiery Furnaces, and more. There will also be greetings by Iggy Pop and Bernard Sumner. View the full article

In November, Australian artist Alex Cameron released a new single called “Sara Jo,” the first new music he’d released since 2019’s Miami Memory. Now, Cameron has announced a follow-up album coming in March. Titled Oxy Music, the project features guest spots from Lloyd Vines and Jason Williamson. Cameron has shared a kicky new song called “Best Life,” which also has a music video directed by Jemima Kirke. View the full article

Enlarge / A look at the Windows 11-style Task Manager, with Mica theming and dark mode support. (credit: FireCubeStudios) Microsoft's piecemeal approach to updating and unifying Windows 11's new look has led to updates for all kinds of old and obscure corners of the operating system, including everything from the volume indicator and the system icons to the humble Paint, Calculator, and Notepad apps. The next app to get its once-every-decade-or-two design renovation may be the Windows Task Manager, and it would be the first major update since Windows 8 came out a decade ago. The Verge reports that engineering student Gustave Monce spotted the new Task Manager design lurking in a current preview build of Windows 11 (the FireCube Studios Twitter account later posted instructions for enabling it yourself). The app's basic structure is visible in these builds—like all Windows 11-era apps, the window uses Mica theming and has dark mode support, and it trades the current Task Manager's horizontal row of tabs for a vertical stack of navigation buttons that mirrors the modern Settings and Windows Security apps. Those text labels will also collapse into a vertical stack of buttons if the window is resized. Redesign aside, the new Task Manager looks like it does the same things that the current one does. Also note how the navigation buttons on the left have collapsed to hide the text labels and make more room for the window content. [credit: FireCubeStudios ] According to screenshots posted by users who have the new Task Manager working, it doesn't look like the redesigned app includes significant functional improvements; the vertical buttons all correspond to the tabs in the current Task Manager, and the views for monitoring processes and resource usage all look pretty much the same as they do now. But the new design is clearly a work in progress, and Microsoft may have more changes planned before it formally introduces the redesigned app to Windows Insiders. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Starby is an animated web series created by Minneapolis artist Matt Latterell, made in conjunction with the guitar pedal company Chase Bliss, which is part of the reason why Starby has been able to recruit quite a few notable music names for the episodes that have been rolling out over the last month. Jason Isbell (and his daughter Mercy), Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, and more have already appeared in the series. The latest episode features Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline, portraying garbagemen who find the titular Starby (who is a balloon, and something of a long-running Chase Bliss mascot) in a dumpster. Check it out below — you can watch all the episodes so far here. View the full article

We’re in a funny little moment for musical performances on late-night TV shows. These days, about half the performances are done in the show’s studios, in front of live audiences, and about half of them are filmed remotely and sent in. It’s a little difficult to predict which performers will take which option. And it was definitely a surprise to see that Blur/Gorillaz leader Damon Albarn actually showed up in the Jimmy Kimmel Live studio to sing a song last night. View the full article

This year has started off hard. Four key but too little appreciated figures in jazz history died while this column was being prepared. View the full article

Australian psych-rock goon squad King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are already so wildly prolific that it seems almost unfair to add remix albums to the pile. Nevertheless, they’re following up last year’s synthy Butterfly 3000 with Butterfly 3001, a new space odyssey/remix album featuring reworkings of the original LP’s tracks from artists like the Flaming Lips, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, DāM-FunK, Peaches, and Peaking Lights. We’ve already heard DJ Shadow’s version of “Black Hot Soup,” and today, the entire collection is streaming a day early. Listen to it below. View the full article

Ghost have announced a new album, Impera, the Swedish band’s first full-length album since 2018’s Prequelle. Where Prequelle took its inspiration from the Black Plague, the press release for Impera hypes up the album as such: “Over the course of IMPERA’s 12-song cycle, empires rise and fall, would-be messiahs ply their hype (financial and spiritual alike), prophecies are foretold as the skies fill with celestial bodies divine and man-made…” Sounds like a lot! View the full article

The Super Bowl Halftime Show is always a big deal, but this year, it’s going to be an especially big deal. Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation has been responsible for booking the show for the past three years, and for this year’s display, they’ll follow last year’s freaky Weeknd set with an interconnected web of the biggest stars in rap history. It’ll be Dr. Dre and his collaborators Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, and Mary J. Blige. (The fact that 50 Cent isn’t part of this group might be the coldest evidence of his general fall-off since he lost that opening-week record-sales battle to Kanye West.) Today, all of those stars make appearances in the extremely fancy trailer for the Halftime Show. View the full article

Enlarge / Keychron K14 with no backlight (top) and an RGB backlight (bottom). (credit: Scharon Harding) A common complaint about mechanical keyboards is that they're too expensive. Options are limited further for budget-minded buyers if they want a wireless device, especially if they're looking for a Mac-specific board. But the market has come a long way, and you can now pick up mechanical keyboards, including cable-free options, for under $100. And not only can you buy a wireless mechanical keyboard that works with Apple computers, but in the case of the Keychron K14, you can get one that comes with a Mac layout out of the box (don't worry, Windows keycaps are also included). The K14 is a 70 percent wireless mechanical keyboard, meaning that it ditches the numpad (but not the navigation keys) and forgoes a dedicated function row. The result is a compact clacker with an option for white or RGB lighting and hot-swappable switches to get the exact typing feel you want. The K14 even throws in some wireless luxuries, like the ability to pair the board with up to three Bluetooth devices and toggle between them, plus USB-C charging and the option to use the keyboard with a cable. At $59–$99, the K14 is a good candidate for someone seeking a budget- to mid-priced wireless keyboard with mechanical switches, and it's even better for those who want Apple-ready legends. For keyboard enthusiasts seeking the finest craftsmanship from sight to sound, though, some of the K14's features fall short. Read 45 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Band To Watch Wet Leg are gearing up to release their debut self-titled studio album in April, and they’ve released a handful of super-strong singles already: “Chaise Longue,” “Wet Dream,” “Too Late Now,” and “Oh No.” Last month, they made a spectacular debut TV performance on Seth Meyers, and now they’ve stopped by SiriusXMU to perform a totally off-kilter cover of Madonna’s “Material Girl.” Over sludgy guitar and dizzying effects, lead singer Rhian Teasdale’s vocals slip in and out of melody and talk-singing. Check it out below. View the full article

Enlarge / Google's Windows Android app store. (credit: Google) As it announced in December, Google is bringing Android games to Windows. The project is simply called "Google Play Games," and the Windows version is now open for beta sign-ups. The catch is that Google Play Games is getting a very limited distribution: you'll need to be in Korea, Taiwan, or Hong Kong to sign up. If you manage to get in the beta, Google says you'll be able to "play a catalog of Google Play games on... Windows PC via a standalone application built by Google." The company says, "We're excited to announce that some of the most popular mobile games in the world will be available at launch, including Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Summoners War, State of Survival: The Joker Collaboration, and Three Kingdoms Tactics." Games that use the Google Play Games cloud to store achievements and progress will be able to have their progress synced across PC and mobile (and Chrome OS, of course). As for why this is happening, it's probably in response to Microsoft's plan to bring Android apps to Windows 11. Microsoft teamed up with Amazon to bring the Amazon App Store catalog to Windows, and now Google is bringing its Android game catalog along, too. This is only games though, not any other type of app. Games have an easier time scaling on bigger screens, but I can still think of some normal apps which might be useful on a PC. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Enlarge / An artist's rendering of Google's current reputation. (credit: Aurich Lawson) Google says the free ride is over for early users of the company's custom domain G Suite service. Google has long offered a service that lets you use Google apps on a custom domain, allowing you to have a Google email address that ends in your domain instead of "gmail.com." For the first six years of the service's life, the basic tier allowed you to create a custom domain account for free. Now, you have to pay for the privilege of using a custom domain with a Google account. Google turned off the ability to create these accounts for free in 2012, but it wouldn't take away accounts from existing users, would it? It would. As 9to5Google was the first to report, Google will shut down free G Suite accounts if the account holder doesn't transition to a paid account. Google is sending out emails to users of "G Suite legacy free edition" accounts, telling them they have until July 1 to start paying. A support page details how this process will work. Starting May 1, Google will try to automatically "upgrade" users to a paid account if it has available billing information. If there is no such information by July, accounts will be "suspended." After 60 days, those accounts will lose access to "core" Google services like Gmail and Calendar. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Bellows, the expansive and ambitious folk-pop project led by Oliver Kalb, are coming back with the new album Next Of Kin in a couple of months. And now, following early tracks “Rancher’s Pride” and “McNally Jackson,” we’re getting “Death Of Dog,” a sweetly melodic, unexpectedly catchy meditation on loss featuring harmonies from Another Michael’s Alenni Davis. Listen and watch the music video directed by Matt Hixon below. View the full article

Over the last several years, the Belfast quartet Junk Drawer have drummed up a bit of buzz overseas. Their official debut, 2020’s Ready For The House, earned them a bunch of acclaim, and now they’re back with the first bit of music since its release. In March, Junk Drawer will return with an EP called The Dust Has Come To Stay. Today, they’re sharing the first single from it. View the full article

This week, Band Of Horses were supposed to release their first new album since 2016’s Why Are You OK. It’s been pushed back to March, so instead we get one more new single. Leading up to the release of Things Are Great, the band has shared “Crutch” and “In Need Of Repair,” and now they’re back with “Lights.” View the full article

“Went to Austin, Texas for a day/ To everyone I saw, I said your name/ The setting sun, the hot wind on my face/ Felt like home, an unfamiliar place.” This is the opening verse from Georgia Harmer’s new single “Austin.” It is an evocative sequence of words, even more so when affixed to the high-pitched vocal melody that darts across the guitar-strewn twilight. Toronto-based Harmer, a new signee to Arts & Crafts, continues to be mesmerizing as “Austin” progresses; she burrows into a deeply appealing vibe that reminds me of a slightly rootsier spin on the guitar-powered indie melancholia of early Wye Oak. View the full article

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It’s been a while since Camp Cope’s last album, 2018’s How To Socialise & Make Friends. In the four years since it came out, Georgia Maq split off for her solo album Pleaser. But now, Camp Cope is about to return. In November, the band released “Blue,” promised as the first preview of a forthcoming album. That album is called Running With The Hurricane, and it’ll be out in late March. View the full article

British singer/songwriter Nilüfer Yanya (and Album Of The Week alum) is currently plotting the release of her second album, PAINLESS, out in March. So far, she’s shared lead single “stabilise,” and today she’s unveiled another one. It’s called “midnight sun.” View the full article

Enlarge (credit: Garmin) Garmin has released two new high-end smartwatches, the Fenix 7 and Epix, less than two weeks after launching the Venus 2 Plus and Vivomove Sport at CES. The Fenix 7 is the latest iteration of the company's robust, multi-sport flagship, while the Epix picks up the torch of a similarly high-end watch that hasn't seen an update since its release in 2015. Both are aimed at the outdoor adventurer who treks far and wide. That's why all three sizes (42 mm, 47 mm, and 51 mm) of the Fenix 7 can be equipped with solar charging. The smallest and mid-sized variants (Fenix 7s and Fenix 7) make this feature a $100 premium add-on, while the largest (Fenix 7X) has the feature standard. That tacks on an extra nine days of battery (on top of 19 days without solar charging) in smartwatch mode, according to Garmin's estimates. The Fenix series has always been a more utilitarian, yet highly specced device. Garmin has only now added traditional smartwatch comforts, like a touchscreen, to accompany the Fenix line's button-based navigation. Tracking features like marathon performance prediction, trail ascent and descent evaluation, and downloadable maps for trails and courses have long set the Fenix apart from traditional smartwatches, though. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

North Carolina indie rock OGs Superchunk are releasing a new album called Wild Loneliness next month. We’ve already heard lead single “Endless Summer,” and now we’re hearing “This Night,” which features strings by Owen Pallett and backup vocals from Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell. The band’s Mac McCaughan explains: View the full article

Enlarge (credit: Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images) Wi-Fi 6E products only started arriving in the US last year, but the tech world is always looking toward what's next. Wi-Fi 7 represents the next generation of the wireless network protocol, and today marks the first time someone has claimed to make the technology work. Wi-Fi 7 isn't available yet, since the Wi-Fi Alliance is still creating the standard. Also known as the IEEE 802.11be standard, Wi-Fi 7 is expected to provide a max throughput of "at least 30GBps," according to the Wi-FI Alliance, which is quite a bump from Wi-Fi 6's 9.6GBps claim and an even bigger jump from WiFi 5's 3.5GBps. Keep in mind, however, that all three speeds are theoretical. Don't expect to hit these numbers while surfing the web at home. The next Wi-Fi standard aims to manage the growing networking needs of evolving technologies, like 4K and 8K streaming, virtual and augmented reality, and cloud gaming and computing, by reducing latency and jitter through improvements to the physical (PHY) layer and medium access control (MAC). Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article