DudeAsInCool

Last year, Alex Edkins, leader of the great Toronto noise-rock power-trio METZ, launched his solo side project Weird Nightmare. With Weird Nightmare, Edkins makes catchy, guitar-driven power-pop that’s really nothing like what he does with METZ. The self-titled Weird Nightmare debut album was impressive but I’ve been even more into the one-off singles that Edkins has released since then: “So Far Gone” and the version of the Troggs’ “Our Love Will Still Be There.” Today, we get a Weird Nightmare version of a Ramones classic. View the full article

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The Italian hardcore band Spirito Di Lupo, SDL for short, has members in Milan and Bologna. They play fast and nasty ’80s-inspired hardcore, the kind of punk rock where passion elevates bashed-out basics to a state of raw transcendence. A new album called Vedo La Tua Faccia Nei Giorni Di Pioggia — I See Your Face On Rainy Days — is coming this summer, and they’ve shared a pair of ripping tracks today. Hear “Nebbia” and “Spirito Selvaggio” below. View the full article

Cynthia Weil, a songwriter who penned dozens of classic hits over a period of decades, has died. Weil’s daughter Jenn Mann, the psychotherapist and Couples Therapy host, tells TMZ that Weil died last night. No cause of death has been reported. Weil was 83. View the full article

We’ve Got A File On You features interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc. View the full article

If Paris Hilton ever succeeds in making the full transition from cultural irritant to kitsch icon, then her 2006 single “Stars Are Blind” will have a lot to do with it. People were set to hate “Stars Are Blind” back when the song came out, since few of us were into the idea of Hilton, the socialite and reality-TV star, becoming a pop star. But “Stars Are Blind” is an absolutely charming reggae-pop gem, and it utterly disarmed many of us. View the full article

Enlarge / Paint's long-promised dark mode is now available to Windows Insiders. (credit: Microsoft) In the summer of 2021, Microsoft’s efforts to redesign its software for the Windows 11 era were just kicking into high gear. The company announced an overhaul for the venerable MS Paint that promised, among other things, dark mode support, but the version of the app that appeared along with Windows 11 in October 2021 was missing the feature. Now, Windows Insiders in the Dev and Canary channels can finally begin testing a darker version of the Paint app. The update, announced on the Windows Insider blog yesterday, also introduces more granular zoom settings and a zoom slider in the lower-right corner of the app, a new Settings page, new keyboard shortcuts, and “many accessibility and usability improvements to dialogs throughout the app.” Features rolled out to the Windows Insider channels don’t always make it into the regular builds of Windows 11 that most people use, but these kinds of app updates generally make it out to everyone within a few weeks or months. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Colter Wall, the country traditionalist from Battle Creek, Saskatchewan, is rolling out his new album Little Songs right now. We previously heard his cover of Hoyt Axton’s “Evangelina,” and today Wall has shared a new original called “Corralling The Blues.” It’s a sad, slow sway full of harmonica and dobro, topped off as always by Wall’s conversational baritone. “It’s a feeling I’ve known since before I was grown,” he sings. “I’m howlin’, corrallin’ the blues.” Listen below. View the full article

Here’s a combination that makes no sense whatsoever. The soul and funk legend Chaka Khan got her start as the singer for the band Rufus. Today, Khan has teamed up with a very different Rufus, the second-generation singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, to sing “Cotton-Eyed Joe,” a song that most of us remember for deeply silly reasons. View the full article

The Tallest Man On Earth recorded his Spotify Singles in Stockholm rather than New York. Makes sense. Having the corporate offices for the world’s largest streaming behemoth is convenient for Swedes! As per the series ritual, Kristian Matsson performed one original and one cover at Spotify Studio. In addition to “Looking For Love” from his recent album Henry St., Mattson did a rendition of “Say What You Will” from James Blake’s 2021 release Friends That Break Your Heart. View the full article

Bloc Party are wasting no time moving on from last year’s Alpha Games, their first album in six years. The band returned in April with the funky dance track “High Life,” and today they’ve got another new song, their first ever collaborative single. “Keep It Rolling” matches the band with Kennyhoopla, the pop-punk upstart and Travis Barker collaborator out of Cleveland. It sounds nothing like “High Life.” It sounds kind of like an old-school Bloc Party song that morphs suddenly into a screamo/post-hardcore track. I like it more than I like most of what Kele Okereke has been releasing lately. View the full article

Enlarge / The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B isn't in-stock at any official Pi resellers as of this writing. (credit: Getty Images) There will be a 1 million unit stock of Raspberry Pi products available in the month of July and every month onward until consumer backlogs are cleared, Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton told hobbyists in a recent community newsletter. As reported by Tom's Hardware on Thursday, the newsletter, said to be an "update from Eben" (screenshot via Tom's Hardware here), promises to assuage customer demand after small businesses were favored over individual consumers during the pandemic-fueled silicon shortage. Upton's message reportedly reads: Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Enlarge / The inner display of the Oppo Find N2. (credit: Ron Amadeo) One of the more interesting designs we've seen in the wild world of foldable smartphones comes from the Oppo Find N2. Its unique form factor and construction make it the lightest tablet-style foldable on the market, and it manages to have one of the least-noticeable creases of any foldable device. While the phone is not shipping in the US, Oppo's sub-brand OnePlus shares a lot of parts and software with the company, so we may see something similar here someday. But the limited distribution isn't a huge loss, as Android is kind of a disaster on devices of this size. The device clearly needs to show something other than a phone UI on the big interior screen, but Android boots into a phone UI anyway. This means the bigger screen often presents a worse user experience because Android doesn't know what to do with it. The phone also reveals Android's dark secret: Even if you dig into the developer settings and force everything to act as a tablet app, those apps don't look good on foldables, either. Google's tablet resurrection plans revolve around ultrawide 16:10 tablets, and those interfaces are cramped on the smaller square displays of foldables. Apps built for tablets are just not good enough for foldables. Read 35 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Jack Black and Kyle Gass frolicked in the near-nude for their rendition of the Chris Isaak classicView the full article

Six years after Hilton appeared in the "I Don't Want It All" video, Petras joins her on the refreshed songView the full article

On New Year’s Eve, at Australia’s Beyond The Valley Festival, Nelly Furtado returned to the stage for the first time in over five years, teaming up with house producer Dom Dolla. Today, the duo are releasing a new song, “Eat Your Man,” which cheekily references Furtado’s breakout 2000 hit “I’m Like A Bird.” View the full article

These days we often post about Kelly Clarkson covering unexpected songs on her daytime talk show, or we revisit her chart-topping hits in our Number Ones series. Today we turn our attention to a new Clarkson original. View the full article

The rap super-producer Metro Boomin curated a soundtrack for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, the animated feature that hits theaters this weekend. It’s a sequel to the very popular 2018 film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse — that movie also had a star-studded soundtrack, and it resulted in a Billboard #1 hit in Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower.” View the full article

The first episode of The Idol — the controversial new show co-starring the Weeknd — airs on HBO this Sunday, after getting some very negative reviews when it premiered during the Cannes Film Festival last month. Given the music talent involved — in addition to the Weeknd, it’ll include appearances from Troye Sivan, Moses Sumney, and more — and the show’s music industry setting, it makes sense that it would have an accompanying soundtrack. View the full article

Here’s a fascinating and unexpected collab: Sheffield screamers Bring Me The Horizon have surprise-released a new song, “AmEN!,” and it features Lil Uzi Vert (fresh off of his “Misery Business” duet with Paramore) and Daryl Palumbo of post-hardcore greats Glassjaw. Bring Me The Horizon also gave “AmEN!” its live debut today at their tour opener at Papp László Sportaréna in Budapest. View the full article

Panamanian star Aldo Ranks is featured alongside Karol on the Barbie soundtrackView the full article

Next month, Atlanta rapper Mercury will release an EP called heaven — it follows last year’s fear mercury EP. Today, Mercury shared a NIY5H-directed video for the title track, which was produced by Laila. “‘Heaven’ is basically a song about getting lit, having fun, and being sexy,” Mercury said in a statement about the jittery cut. “I made it for the girlies and the gays but hopefully everyone shake they ass to it.” View the full article

"It was always about pleasing my dad," the singer saidView the full article

In February, Guns N’ Roses announced a global stadium tour starting in June in Tel Aviv and eventually touching down in the US come August. Well, tonight (Thursday, June 1) GN’R kicked off that tour a few days earlier than initially announced, playing at the Etihad Arena in the United Arab Emirates, where they broke out some rarities. View the full article

Last summer, Afrobeats sensation Burna Boy released his sixth studio album LOVE, DAMINI. Since then, Burna Boy has played Coachella 2023, Dreamville Music Festival, Afro Nation Miami, the 2023 NBA All-Star Game halftime show, and Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty Vol. 4 show. In June, Burna is set to play London Stadium in the UK and co-headline the 2023 UEFA Champions League Final Kick Off Show on June 10. Next month, on July 8, he’ll play Citi Field in New York, making him the first Nigerian artist to headline a stadium in the US. Ahead of those shows, Burna has shared a brand-new song — his first since “Last Last.” View the full article