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more eaze Announces New Album ‘Strawberry Season’, Shares New Single ‘Cold’

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more eaze has announced a new mini-album called Strawberry Season. It will be released on November 9 via her new label home, Leaving Records. Today, the Texas sound artist has shared the new track ‘Cold’, which you can check out below, along with the record’s cover artwork and tracklist.

Strawberry Season will follow this year’s oneiric, as well as Never Stop Texting Me, more eaze’s latest collaboration with claire rousay. Check out Our Culture’s feature ‘claire rousay and more eaze: On Friendship’, and revisit our Artist Spotlight Q&A with more eaze.

Strawberry Season Cover Artwork:

Strawberry Season Tracklist:

1. gentle pets
2. suped
3. blank check
4. known
5. cold
6. your call
7. low resolution at santikos
8. goodnight

Albums Out Today: Jockstrap, Oliver Sim, The Afghan Whigs, Sudan Archives, and More

In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on September 9, 2022:


Jockstrap, I Love You Jennifer B

Jockstrap, the London-based duo of Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye, have released their debut full-length, I Love You Jennifer B, via Rough Trade Records. Following their Wicked City EP, the record was preceded by the singles ‘Glasgow’, ‘Concrete Over Water’, and ’50/50′. “I Love You Jennifer B is a collection of Jockstrap tracks that have been 3 years in the making,” the group said in press materials. “Everything on it is pretty singular sounding so we hope there is a track on there for everyone and something that speaks to you and says ‘I’m a banger.’” Read our review of the album.


Oliver Sim, Hideous Bastard

The xx’s Oliver Sim has come through with his debut solo album, Hideous Bastard, via Young. The 10-track LP was produced by his bandmate Jamie xx and features the advance tracks ‘GMT’, ‘Romance with a Memory’, ‘Fruit’, ‘Hideous’, and ‘Run the Credits’. “Early on in the making of my record, Hideous Bastard, I realised that I was writing a lot about fear and sham,” Sim explained in a statement. “I imagine that might paint a picture of a dark, ‘woe is me’ sounding album, but in recent years I’ve become a firm believer that the best antidote to these feelings can be bringing them to the surface and shedding some light on them. I haven’t written the record to dwell, but rather to free myself of some of the shame and fear that I’ve felt for a long time.” Read our review of Hideous Bastard.


The Afghan Whigs, How Do You Burn?

The Afghan Whigs’ first new studio album in 5 years, How Do You Burn?, is out now via Royal Cream/BMG. Following 2017’s In Spades, the LP was recorded in 2021 and features the voice of the late Mark Lanegan on two tracks. “It was Mark who named the album,” frontman Greg Dulli said. Susan Marshall, Van Hunt, and Marcy Mays also contributed to the record, which includes the previously unveiled tracks ‘A Line of Shots’, ‘The Getaway’, and ‘I’ll Make You See God’.


Sudan Archives, Natural Brown Prom Queen

Sudan Archives has dropped her latest album, Natural Brown Prom Queen, after putting out the singles ‘Home Maker’ and ‘Selfish Soul’. The record centers around home – both Sudan Archives’s adopted hometown of Los Angeles and Cincinnati, where she was raised. Across 18 tracks, Sudan tackles “race, womanhood, and the fiercely loyal, loving relationships at the heart of Sudan’s life with her family, friends, and partner,” according to press materials, and takes on a character called Britt, “the girl next door from Cincinnati who drives around the city with the top down and shows up to high-school prom in a pink furry bikini with her thong hanging out her denim skirt.”


Built to Spill, When the Wind Forgets Your Name

Built to Spill are back with a new album, When the Wind Forgets Your Name, their first for Sub Pop. The follow-up to 2015’s Untethered Moon was produced by Doug Martsch, who recorded the album with two members of the Brazilian psychedelic jazz-rock band Oruã, Le Almeida and João Cases. “Making When the Wind Forgets Your Name was such a great experience,”  commented Martsch in a press release. “I had an incredible time traveling and recording with Almeida and Casaes. I also learned so much about Brazilian culture and music while creating it. My Portuguese was terrible when I first met Almeida and Casaes, but by the end of the year it was even worse.”


Santigold, Spirituals

Santigold has returned with her fourth album, Spirituals. Recorded primarily during lockdown in 2020, it features contributions from Rostam, Boys Noize, SBTRKT, and more, as well as the previously shared singles ‘High Priestess’, ‘Ain’t Ready’, and ‘Nothing’. “Recording this album was a way back to myself after being stuck in survival mode,” Santigold explained in press materials. “It wasn’t until I made the space to create that I realized I wasn’t only creating music but a lifeline. I’d never written lyrics faster in my life. After having total writer’s block, they started pouring out. I decided to create the future, to look towards where we are going, to create beauty and pull towards that beauty. I need that for myself, but it’s also there for whoever else needs it.”


Ari Lennox, age/sex/location

Ari Lennox has issued her sophomore album, age/sex/location, today via Dreamville/Interscope. The follow-up to 2019’s Shea Butter Baby was previewed with the singles ‘Pressure’, ‘Hoodie’, and ‘Queen Space’, which featured on her recently released Away Message EP. Ahead of the release, J. Cole took to Instagram to share a message from Lennox about the meaning behind age/sex/location: “Transitional space. Very vulnerable codependent and validation seeking part of my life,” the R&B singer wrote. “I remember the countless times I was kicked out of dating apps because they didn’t think I was really myself, it reminded me of those age/sex/location days where I actually wasn’t being myself in those chat rooms.”


Wyldest, Feed the Flowers Nightmares

After the release of 2021’s Monthly Friend, Zoe Mead was looking for a way out of writer’s block. She started collaborating with Dama Scout‘s Luciano Rossi, and the pair bonded over shared influences including Jon Brion, Mica Levi, Johnny Greenwood, and the video game Doom. The resulting record, Feed the Flowers Nightmares, is out today via Hand In Hive and includes the previously released singles ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’, ‘Abilene’, ‘Tin Foil Girl’, and ‘Hungry For You to Know’.


Other albums out today:

Sampa the Great, As Above, So Below; Holy Fawn, Dimensional Bleed; John Legend, Legend; Badge Époque Ensemble, Clouds of Joy; Preoccupations, Arrangements; Marlon Williams, My Boy; Ozzy Osbourne, Patient Number 9; Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, When The Lights Go; Sarah Davachi, Two Sisters; Julian Lennon, Jude; Gabe Gurnsey, Hey Diablo; Coby Sey, Conduit; Son Little, Like Neptune; Briana Marela, You Are a Wave;  Luca Yupanqui, Conversations; Madison Cunningham, Revealer.

Rosalía Releases Four New Songs

Rosalía has released MOTOMAMI+, the deluxe edition of her latest album MOTOMAMI. It includes four previously unreleased songs – ‘Aislamiento’, ‘La Kilié’, ‘LAX’, and ‘Chiri’ – along with a live version of ‘La Fama’ and remix of ‘Candy. Take a listen below.

MOTOMAMI, the follow-up to 2018’s El Mal Querer, arrived back in March. Rosalía has been a world tour in support of the album, with a European leg set to kick off in November. The Spanish singer recently shared the standalone single ‘Despechá’.

Easiest ways to consume cannabis

Cannabis consumption has seen a spike in recent years. After cannabis was federally legalized, people have shown an increase in interest in weed.

In this post, we are going to share with you some time-tested methods of consuming cannabis.

So let’s get started!

Consuming Cannabis by Smoking 

Smoking is one of the most common ways for people to consume cannabis. 

While one may enjoy getting high and feel the need to constantly use it for a pleasurable experience, you should be aware that cannabis smoke also contains irritant chemicals and tar linked to respiratory issues just like cigarette smoke.

How to smoke cannabis? 

You can smoke cannabis or THC-O products in a bunch of different ways. You can roll it into a joint or a blunt. You can even smoke it from a pipe or a bong. 

Joints

You can make a joint easily if you follow some simple steps:

  • Crush the weed using your hands and remove unnecessary stems or seeds.
  • If you feel like using a filter, cut and fold a piece of thin cardboard accordion-style to use it as a tip. 
  • Hold the paper like you hold a hot-dog, then fill it with the crushed weed. Your filter will be placed at the tip-end.
  • Once full, pinch the paper using your fingertips and let it form a cone shape. 
  • Light your joint and inhale the smoke through the filter’s end. 

Blunt 

Blunts are larger versions of joints that last longer and are made of a blunt or cigar wrap instead of rolling paper. Such a wrap contains nicotine because it is made out of tobacco leaves. 

To make a blunt, follow the steps below:

  • Use a blade to cut the cigar open and empty the tobacco inside if required. 
  • Dip your fingers in water and add moisture to the wrap.
  • Fill the wrap with crushed weed.
  • Form a tube shape by pinching the wrap between your fingers and rolling and tucking it. There, your blunt is now ready to be lit.

Pipe

The three main components that make up a pipe include a stem, a mouthpiece, and a hollow bowl. Certain pipes also have a carb hole, which is a tiny hole adjacent to the bowl that you cover and uncover with your finger while inhaling to clear the pipe of smoke.

While adding weed to your pipe, make sure you leave a little space and do not fill it tightly, otherwise it will be difficult to take a hit. 

If the bowl has a carb, place your finger over it before lighting it and taking a draw. As a result, the smoke will accumulate inside the pipe. Inhale the smoke into your lungs after lifting your finger off the carb to clean the pipe.

Bong 

Bongs are also commonly known as water pipes because they use water to cool and filter smoke. They usually tend to produce more smoke and give people larger hits. 

Bongs are made up of a bowl and a “downstem,” which is a cylindrical piece of glass. When you hit a bong, smoke moves up the bong’s neck to the mouthpiece after passing through the downstem and water filter.

Follow the steps below to learn how to smoke from a bong:

  • Add water to the water chamber of the bong until the base of the downstem is soaked.
  • Add crushed and filtered weed to the bong but do not pack it too tightly.
  • Use your mouth to suck in the smoke from the mouthpiece after lighting the bowl.
  • Slide the bowl out of the downstem after the chamber is full of smoke and take a puff to expel it.

Consuming Cannabis by Vaping

Vaping is a popular method of consuming cannabis. You can buy vape carts from a dispensary or you can buy them online. 

A vape cart contains vape juice which is basically cannabinoids in a liquid form. There are many vape carts that you can choose from, these include, Delta 8 Carts, Delta 9 Carts, CBD carts, etc. 

Vaping is an efficient way of consumption as most of the vapors are quickly absorbed by us and enter the bloodstream quickly. Therefore, after vaping, you would not have to wait for long for the effects to kick in. 

Try out vaping today! You can start with Delta 8 Carts which are recommended for beginners.

How to vape cannabis? 

Vaping cannabis products is the easiest. All you need is a vape pen and a vape cart. Depending on whether you have bought a disposable vape pen or a rechargeable vape pen, you will need to buy vape carts

Once you have assembled all the necessities, you can start inhaling the vapor from the mouth of the vape pen. Vape pens work automatically upon inhalation and do not need to be turned on. 

When you inhale as a beginner, make sure you do not take long drags and restrict it to small short puffs. If you feel like coughing has some water to ease out your throat otherwise you might end up scratching it. 

Consuming cannabis by tinctures

Tinctures have a long history stretchy as far back as 11th century Egypt, where they were first invented. Since then they have been an integral part of our history.

The cannabis industry has wholeheartedly adopted the concept of Cannabis Tinctures and people have loved them. They are made by soaking the hemp biomass in water and certain other liquids for days on eds until all the good substances are released into the mixture. 

Sometimes Tinctures contain a mix of multiple cannabinoids such as THC-O Products, Delta 8, etc. 

How to use tinctures of cannabis? 

Using tinctures depends on tolerance. Making sure you always hit the right dosage is important. For this, you need to be clear as to what is the motive behind you’re using tinctures. 

If you’re using a tincture for sleep, then a small dose won’t cut it. You need to take a single high dose to ensure that you sleep well throughout the night. But instead, if you’re using it for general health and wellness, then multiple micro doses throughout the day is what you’re looking for.

Tinctures are generally consumed by putting a drop or sheet of them under your tongue and letting them get absorbed from there on naturally. You don’t need to do anything else when it comes to consuming cannabis tinctures. 

Consuming cannabis by edibles

Edibles are much loved by everyone. Edibles are notorious for appearing innocuous. People innocently end up consuming one too many of these little buggers, only to end up like a flying kite.

Cannabis Edibles are normal food products such as gummies, cookies, brownies, and chocolates in which cannabinoids such as THC, CBD, and others are mixed. 

You can have Cannabis edibles that don’t get you high such as CBD cookies, or you can have products such as THC-O products that will get you flying. Honestly, the choice is yours to make. In the market, there are all kinds of products on offer. 

How to use edible cannabis? 

Using cannabis edibles couldn’t be simpler. The first decision to make while using Cannabis edibles is what kind of edibles you want. You can have edibles such as cookies, gummies, cakes, brownies, milkshakes, etc. The best gummies are Delta 8 Gumimies

You can even make them at home! It is so simple to make edibles at home. According to leading cannabis review platforms like Hempercamp, the thumb rule to follow while using cannabis edibles is that, do not take too much and do not do anything after having them. Just make sure you’re in a comfortable spot. 

Depending on what kind of edibles you have taken, the effects will kick in after 20-30 minutes It is recommended that you do not drive or use heavy machinery after consuming edibles. Just stay with someone you like and enjoy the vibe! And remember, the best gummies are for beginners are Delta 8 gummies

Gaming Is Becoming More Accessible: Here’s Why

We live in a special time for gaming. In the decades to come, people will probably look back at this as “the golden period” of gaming. While gaming has been around for decades, in the past, it was the reserve of people who had an intense interest in gaming and the money to afford consoles and games. Today, that’s no longer the case. Gaming has never been more accessible. But that didn’t just happen — many factors contributed to making it the case. In this blog, we’ll run through just some of the key factors that have pushed gaming towards mainstream, widespread success.

Smartphones are Cheaper

It wasn’t so long ago that smartphone games were, well, we won’t say embarrassing, but they certainly weren’t anything that would interest serious gamers. But in the past five years, smartphone game developers have really stepped things up, and today there are iOS and Android games that are really impressive. The quality of the games was a secondary factor, however. The key factor was the decreasing cost of smartphones. Today, smartphones are so cheap that pretty much everyone can afford to have one, and that has expanded the gaming audience considerably.

Games Are Moving Online

It’s not just the development of new, cheaper devices that have made gaming more accessible. The digitization of traditionally offline games has, too. People have been playing roulette since the 18th century, but you could only play if you lived near a casino. Today, you can play roulette online and offline, making the game accessible to people who live near a casino or have an internet connection. In addition, thanks to the development of technology, companies have developed new variants that further improve the user experience.

There’s a Bunch of Consoles

Plus, there are a whole host of consoles. Indeed, the number of how many there are may be surprising. Did you know there are more than one thousand? Of course, many of these didn’t sell too many, and the majority also don’t produce new games. But they’re still out there. The big consoles have shifted a lot of units, too. Everyone knows at least one person that has a PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch.

There Are More Games Being Released Than Ever

The rise of consoles doesn’t automatically mean there will be more gamers. If there are no games that are of interest to a person, then they won’t play a game. But in 2022, the odds of there not being at least one game that would interest a person would be pretty low. Why? Because there are many, many games released each year, much more than there were in the past. There are nearly 5,000 new titles released each year, compared with around 2,500 titles in 2008.

Accessibility Boosts

Video games are also increasingly accessible to people with disabilities, too, a group of people who have historically been underserved by the gaming community. There’s been a sharp rise in audio and visual assistance for the impaired, for instance, which truly helps to make gaming a global hobby.

The Next Generation 

The audience for games is growing every year. And there’s a good reason why this is the case. The younger generation is the first that are “digital natives.” A person who is twenty years old will have been using technology for the majority of their lives, and that means that they’ll find it much easier to pick up a game and intuitively know how to play it. That isn’t something that we could have said in 1990 or even later than that.

Final Thoughts

As we said at the beginning of the article, this is a boom time for the gaming industry, which is now worth more than the music and movie industries combined. With technology getting better with each passing year, there’s no doubt that gaming will continue to become more accessible. The future of gaming is bright, in other words.

The Music Streaming Debate: Friend or Foe?

Streaming platforms like Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music are now ubiquitous. Over the last decade, our music discovery and listening habits have shifted dramatically as consumers, with access to new music easier and more equitable than ever before. But this very equity is at once a blessing and a curse to the industry itself; specifically, to the artists that justify it.

A Shifting Industry

The music industry is in a constant state of change, with its form shifting in response to changes in technology, attitude, and listener habits. This is evident enough in the changing popularity of genres and emergent forms of songwriting – but there is also a profound impact to be explored from changes in platform and medium.

Before the commercial availability of the phonograph – and hence, before the emergence of the contemporary ‘record label’ model of music management, there were only two ways someone could listen to their favourite song: by seeing a band play it live at a club or theatre, or by playing the song themselves.

Inexpensive upright pianos were much more commonly found in homes across the country. Sheet music sales were a leading source of income for publishing companies – with a percentage of sales passed on to the composer. The emergence of recorded music media upended this relationship, giving birth to the concept of mechanical royalties.

So too, then, has the emergence of streaming disrupted a model built on the sale and distribution of physical media in the form of CDs, vinyl records and cassettes. Subscription-based models have rendered music much more accessible at a much lower cost to the consumer – and their tech-led platforms are also changing the fabric of new music in subtle ways.

Battling for Royalties

But streaming remains a contentious topic in the music industry, not in the least due to the various legal battles plaguing platforms, publishers, labels and even artists. Many of these battles are centred around royalties, and the fair distribution of income from streams to the various parties involved in a song or album’s release to market.

The distribution of streaming royalties takes notes from the distribution of physical media; record labels existed to grow artists, and to facilitate the reproduction and sale of their material as such, labels would front the cost for manufacture and opening distribution networks, a cost reflected in a relatively large share of the profits from their sale.

In streaming, the ratio of streaming revenue making its way to major record labels remains high, despite the minimal costs associated. As such, the artists responsible for the music – and in many cases, who funded its recording – are at the bottom of the pecking order.

To further complicate things, copyright streaming is also becoming an issue on platforms like YouTube for content creators and even live video game streamers on Twitch. Royalty-free sampling, such as trance sample packs for EDM tracks, is a viable solution for a music producer. And one where you receive a high-quality product where the original creator has been well paid. Additionally, there is no risk to you as an artist should there be any contest over specific content.

This issue has affected artists of all sizes for years, but has come to particular light via a lawsuit electronic artist Four Tet brought against their former label Domino Records. Four Tet’s record deal was signed before the emergence of streaming platforms; Domino elected to pay out 15% in royalties from streams, treating them as physical sales. Four Tet maintained that streaming was not akin to sales, and that he deserved more.

The Industry Mood

Four Tet won his case, but his is one of a great many examples of artists receiving ever-thinner slices of the pie from music revenue – despite being the creators responsible for that revenue in the first place. Even in situations where no label or distributor is present, smaller independent artists are receiving next-to-no returns on streaming.

For many up-and-comers, Spotify is the primary platform for discovery and engagement. But on a per-stream basis, Spotify pays as little as £0.002 to artists. While the platforms are demonstrably good in levelling the playing field for a new industry of independents and grassroots artists, the financial situation is untenable; according to artists, the current landscape could spell the end of the industry without key change.

Wednesday Sign to Dead Oceans, Release New Single ‘Bull Believer’

Asheville, North Carolina five-piece Wednesday have announced their signing to Dead Oceans with a new single, ‘Bull Believer’. The track arrives with an accompanying video directed by Josh Finck. Check it out below, along with the band’s upcoming tour dates.

“This song is an excuse for me to scream on stage, an outlet for the anger and sadness that has been collected by the current and past versions of myself,” vocalist/guitarist Karly Hartzman explained in a statement. “An offering to myself of a brief moment of release from being tolerant of the cruelty of life: feels like cutting my hair to let go of the history it holds.”

Wednesday released their latest studio album, Twin Plagues, in 2021, followed by this year’s covers LP Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ’em Up. Revisit our Artist Spotlight interview with Wednesday.

Wednesday 2022 Tour Dates:

Sep 21 – Greensboro, NC – The Crown at Carolina Theatre *
Sep 22 – Durham, NC – Motorco *
Sep 23 – Washington, DC – DC9 *
Sep 24 – Philadelphia, PA – Ukie Club *
Sep 25 – Asbury Park, NJ – Bond Street Bar *
Sep 27 – Somerville, MA – Crystal Ballroom *
Sep 29 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Made *
Oct 1 – Chicago, IL – Sleeping Village *
Oct 2 – Bloomington, IN – The Bishop *
Oct 3 – Lexington, KY – The Burl *
Oct 4 – Knoxville, TN – The Pilot Light *
Oct 6 – Asheville, NC – DIFFERENT WRLD *

* with Truth Club

Watch Tegan and Sara Perform ‘Yellow’ on ‘Seth Meyers’

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Tegan and Sara appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers last night (September 7), where the duo performed their recent single ‘Yellow’. The sisters also sat down for an interview with Seth Meyers to talk about their upcoming memoir Highschool, the Amazon TV series of the same name, and their new album Crybaby. Watch it below.

Crybaby is due for release on October 21 via Mom + Pop. So far, Tegan and Sara have previewed the LP with the singles ‘Fucking Up What Matters’ and ‘Faded Like a Feeling’. Earlier this week, they put out a cover of Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Today’ featuring That Dog.’s Anna Waronker as an Amazon exclusive; the song also features in the trailer for Highschool.

Blood Orange Announces New EP ‘Four Songs’, Unveils New Song ‘Jesus Freak Lighter’

Blood Orange, aka Devonté Hynes, has announced a new EP titled Four Songs. Marking his first release for RCA, the EP comes out on September 16 and includes contributions from Ian Isaiah, Eva Tolkin, and Erika de Casier. Check out the project’s first single, ‘Jesus Freak Lighter’, below.

Since releasing his 2019 LP Angel’s Pulse, Hynes has scored Luca Guadagnino’s HBO series We Are Who We Are, Gia Coppola’s 2021 film Mainstream, the Netflix documentary Naomi Osaka, HBO’s In Treatment, and the Rebecca Hall film Passing. Hynes has been opening for Harry Styles’ 15-date residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Four Songs EP Cover Artwork:

Four Songs EP Tracklist:

1. Jesus Freak Lighter
2. Something You Know
3. Wish
4. Relax & Run

Hyd Announces Debut Album ‘Clearing’, Releases New Song ‘So Far’ Co-Written With SOPHIE

Hyd – the project of interdisciplinary artist and PC Music associate Hayden Dunham – has announced the release of their debut LP. It’s called Clearing, and it’s set to drop on November 11 via PC Music. Today, Hyd has shared the new single ‘So Clear’, which was co-written with the late SOPHIE and EASYFUN. Check it out, along with the album’s cover art and tracklist, below.

“The feeling of rejection opened up my own questions about choosing Earth, choosing to make something new here, to be rooted when turbulent winds bend the stems,” Hyd explained in a statement. “Transmuting a feeling of loss into something fortifying – ripples in the water that become still. ‘So Clear’ emerges from a place of total loss, full collision, and the freedom that comes through surrender.”

Clearing, which features the Caroline Polachek-produced single ‘Afar’, will follow Hyd’s self-titled EP. It will also include contributions from A. G. Cook, Jónsi, and Ö.

Clearing Cover Artwork:

Clearing Tracklist:

1. Trust
2. Fallen Angel
3. So Clear
4. Oil + Honey
5. Breaking Ground
6. Chlorophyll
7. Glass
8. The Real You
9. Bright Lights
10. Only Living for You
11. Afar