Tim Heidecker has released ‘Dad of the Year’, the latest single from his new album Slipping Away. Following ‘Well’s Running Dry’ and ‘Like I Do’, the song arrives with a music video featuring Heidecker’s actual father. Check it out below, along with Heidecker’s upcoming tour dates.
Tim Heidecker & The Very Good Band 2024-2025 Tour Dates
Thu Sep 19 – Nashville, TN – 3rd & Lindsley – Official Americanafest Showcase – 8pm !
Fri Sep 20 – Nashville, TN – Vinyl Tap – Bloodshot Showcase – 1:45pm #
Fri Sep 20 – Nashville, TN – Analog at Hutton Hotel – Americanafest Shindig presented by Mountain Stage and Missing Piece Group – 3:15pm #
Fri Sep 20 – Nashville, TN – Franklin Theatre – Mountain Stage – 7pm !
Wed Jan 22 – San Francisco, CA – Bimbo’s 365 $
Fri Jan 24 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall $
Sat Jan 25 – Vancouver, BC – Hollywood Theatre $
Sun Jan 26 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre $
Wed Jan 29 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue *
Thu Jan 30 – Madison, WI – Majestic Theatre *
Fri Jan 31 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall *
Sat Feb 1 – Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme *
Sun Feb 2 – Detroit, MI – The Majestic *
Tue Feb 4 – Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall *
Wed Feb 5 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom *
Thu Feb 6 – Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Hall ^
Fri Feb 7 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer ^
Sat Feb 8 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel ^
Mon Feb 10 – Boston, MA – Royale ^
Tue Feb 11 – Washington, D.C. – Black Cat ^
Wed Feb 12 – Durham, NC – Motorco Music Hall ^
Thu Feb 13 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel ^
Fri Feb 14 – Nashville, TN – Basement East ^
Sat Feb 15 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn ^
Mon Feb 17 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West ^
Tue Feb 18 – Orlando, FL – The Abbey ^
Wed Feb 19 – Tampa, FL – Jannus Live ^
Fri Feb 21 – New Orleans, LA – Tipitinas %
Sat Feb 22 – Houston, TX – Secret Group %
Sun Feb 23 – Dallas, TX – Studio at the Factory %
Tue Feb 25 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom %
# = duo performance
! = solo performance
$ = with TBA
* = with Neil Hamburger
^ = with DJ Douggpound
% = with Secret Suprise Guest
Jane’s Addiction have canceled the remainder of their reunion tour. The announcement follows an onstage altercation between frontman Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro at the band’s Boston gig on Friday night (September 13).
An announcement on Jane’s Addiction’s Instagram page reads: “To all the fans, The band have made the difficult decision to take some time away as a group. As such, they will be canceling the remainder of the tour.”
A separate statement, posted on the personal pages of Navarro and bandmates Eric Avery and Stephen Perkin, offers some more insight:
Due to a continuing pattern of behavior and the mental health difficulties of our singer Perry Farrell, we have come to the conclusion that we have no choice but to discontinue the current US tour.
Our concern for his personal health and safety as well as our own has left us no alternative. We hope that he will find the help he needs.
We deeply regret that we are not able to come through for all our fans who have already bought tickets. We can see no solution that would either ensure a safe environment on stage or reliably allow us to deliver a great performance on a nightly basis.
Our hearts are broken. Dave, Eric and Stephen
Love and Rockets, who were opening the tour, wrote: “We would have loved to have completed the rest of the dates on the tour with Jane’s Addiction but unfortunately the matter is out of our hands.”
In the wake of the incident, Perry Farrell’s wife, Etty Lau Farrell, wrote on Instagram that “clearly there had been a lot of tension and animosity between the members.. the magic that made the band so dynamic. Well, the dynamite was lit. Perry got up in Dave’s face and body checked him.”
Farrel continued: “Perry’s frustration had been mounting, night after night, he felt that the stage volume had been extremely loud and his voice was being drowned out by the band. Perry had been suffering from tinnitus and a sore throat every night. But when the audience in the first row, started complaining up to Perry cussing at him that the band was planning too loud and that they couldn’t hear him, Perry lost it.”
Farrel also noted that Avery “put Perry in a headlock and punched him in the stomach three times … Perry was a crazed beast for the next half an hour — he finally did not calm down, but did breakdown and cried and cried. Eric, well he either didn’t understand what descalation meant or took advantage of the situation and got in a few cheap shots on Perry.”
In a statement of his own, Perry Farrel said: “This weekend has been incredibly difficult and after having the time and space to reflect, it is only right that I apologize to my bandmates, especially Dave Navarro, fans, family and friends for my actions during Friday’s show. Unfortunately, my breaking point resulted in inexcusable behavior, and I take full accountability for how I chose to handle the situation.”
“All my dreams are rock n’ roll,” Aaron Maine confesses on the final track of his latest Porches record, “And I love to play it fast/ I love to play it slow/ I love it when the music takes a hold.” The music on Shirt, which builds on the experimental, punchy rock sound that made 2021’s All Day Gentle Hold ! stand out from the project’s earlier releases, drags Maine to a very particular place, both utterly dreamlike and eerily familiar. Energized by playing the last Porches record live but made in a windowless basement, it finds the singer-songwriter reaching back to and distorting memories from his formative years spent in rural New York, peering through the veil of both childhood naivety and its picturesque surroundings – internal and external landscapes blurring together. It’s a jagged, fiery, maximalist record you should play as loud as you can, though ‘Music’, the slow awakening, is mostly backed by piano and some gentle acoustic guitar. If the whole thing yearns for a sense of home through jumbled, torn-up pieces, it also seems to come down to a new understanding of it, one clearly anchored in the present.
We caught up with Porches to talk about youth, rural New York, Nirvana, touring, and other inspirations behind Shirt.
Subconscious and youth
As you can tell from the list, I don’t consume all that much media or listen to much music. I watch some TV here and there, but it feels like more than being inspired by physical things, it was trying to get into this headspace or inhabit a kind of abstract, autopilot, subconscious flow state. Not to sound like a hippie or whatever, but there was a lot of closing my eyes and picturing myself in these dreamlike settings, with the trees and the grass and the fences and the lakes. It’s very self-referential, and it feels like there’s this strange world of my own that exists in an isolated way that I kept trying to pluck things out of. Three-quarters of the way through, it felt like I was fully inhabiting that place and kept going back to it. At times, it almost feels like a play or something like that. It clicked for me when I was working on the sequencing, when I started to see all the characters, the settings, the surroundings. It’s almost like a dream, where you have it and it makes perfect sense in your head, but when you try to put it down on paper or recount it to someone, it sort of falls apart.
How does that idea of inhabiting the subconscious relate to youth in the context of Shirt?
I was working in this basement, which is another important part of the inspirations. I was very closed off from the world; there were no windows down there, and I kept it really dim. It was a new space where I wasn’t surrounded by any of my things – my clothes or any tokens of my current day-to-day life. It felt like an anonymous spot that inspired my imagination to sort of let go of the more autobiographical, current goings-on in my life and reached back – I like this feeling of having this memory of myself as a kid and retelling it in any way that satisfied who I am today, trying to bridge the gap in between. It goes back to trying to get to that autopilot state that’s ingrained in me in a deeper way – way less literal, a lot more physical and emotional. Those moments when I was making stuff where it felt the best, when I didn’t understand what was coming out of my mouth, but it felt like it necessarily had to be that, and I was tapping into something in my subconscious or my youth or some broader experience of life – emotions that I had swimming around in this tie-dye, black-hole of, I don’t know, just feelings. I don’t know what else to call it.
Maybe part of that was the guitars and rock music that I attached to being younger, like 13 or 14, making music and playing music in bands, and that felt youthful and dramatic and angsty at times. In a way, I feel like I was trying to shed whatever understanding or hold I have over my life now and get back to that looser, more off-the-cuff space and see what would come out when I was down there making music.
Nine Inch Nails
I was in the middle of making this guitar-drum-bass-heavy record, and I didn’t want to make just another rock album. I wanted to take these familiar sounds and then tweak them and buck them up just enough so they felt like something you’ve heard a billion times, but also something you’ve never heard before at the same time, to create this uneasy, dreamlike state of confusion. I was just reading about some of Trent Reznor’s production techniques – he’s such a master at resampling acoustic instruments and sounds, twisting them into these really interesting soundscapes. That was like a guiding star for me as far as taking something and trying to make it modern, new, jarring, and exciting. That was more of a production inspiration with the Nine Inch Nails stuff.
Nirvana
With Nirvana, I was thinking a lot about Kurt Cobain’s lyrics and how he exposes parts of himself that are darker and almost villainous, touching on the evils of humanity and himself – not being afraid to share that or skirt around that and edit until you only put out the stuff that makes you seem cool or like a good person or a perfect character. I thought that was beautiful, and maybe even more useful, in people confronting themselves and not being silent or false about it; identifying these uglier thoughts, fantasies, or tendencies, with the intention of not being like that, or being more sensitive, gentle, and aware in your day-to-day when you interact with other people. I tried to experiment with that and not shy away from more provocative or prickly emotions or themes. In the past, my lyrics have been, depending on the song, pretty watercolor-esque and vibey. It felt good to embrace those moments rather than skirt around them.
Rural New York
Is Pleasantville the kind of landscape that inspired the record?
Well, there’s Pleasantville, and then there’s Greenwich, New York, where my dad moved when I was 10. I went to school in Pleasantville but would spend a lot of time up there visiting him with my brother. Maybe because I was in a basement, but I wasn’t making a New York album. When I close my eyes and imagine the scenes, it’s grass, fields, dirt, and mud. I’m not sure why I was drawn to those rural locations from my youth, but I couldn’t really write about any other place. It just seemed like my mind kept going there when I was like, “What’s happening in this song? Where are we? Who is doing what?” I’d be transported back to these flashes – some of them are real, and some of them are these distorted memories I have of being up in those places. That’s where whole record is set, in my mind. I don’t even know if there’s there’s any reference to the city or an apartment – it’s all house and yard and fence.
I don’t think I found it particularly inspiring – it wasn’t like, “Oh my God, I could write write write about this place.” But I just was there mentally. Maybe because I didn’t want to be in New York or I wanted to escape. Because there were no windows and I was all alone, I could be wherever I wanted to be, and maybe I was longing for those places because they felt familiar in a comforting way. I just wanted to spend time there in my head, and I think there’s a lot of looking back and seeing the bigger picture. Trying to understand what was going on beneath those vague memories, to come to terms with it and pinpoint some of the darker stuff beneath the surface of these picturesque, pastoral American scenes. And come to terms with that having always been the case. There’s always more to a memory than the way you initially recall it, and there’s some of that going on – re-analyzing these innocent, naive moments and trying to pick them apart a little bit more.
Working in a basement
You said being there allowed you to escape – I’m curious what other effects it had on you creatively.
I think being literally underground, sub-street level, maybe affected my brain a bit. I was beneath the surface of New York City, and I was kind of singing from this place beneath the surface of my appearance and external world. I was also able to really listen to music loudly at any point of the day. Sonically, the kick and bass were really important to me down there. I could turn it up enough to feel the kick drum in my chest, it felt very womb-like and warm, and that was exciting. In the apartment, I always felt like I had to keep it low or use headphones, definitely couldn’t turn the subs up.
I feel like it’s one of the more punchy records I’ve made, and that was definitely part of it, just making music in a different room. I never thought about it making that much of a difference, and before I moved there out of my apartment, I was like, “Oh fuck, am I even going to be able to make music outside of my house?” I’d never really done that, except when I visited someone else’s place or popped into a studio for a day or something. The more I think about it, the more I think that really had a huge effect on how the record turned out and what I was singing about.
Touring
When you were touring All Day Gentle Hold !, that must have been right after things started opening up again.
Yeah, that felt like was the most victorious, euphoric tour I’ve ever been on. The band felt really on fire, and we were turning the guitars up really loud. All Day Gentle Hold ! Is a rock album, essentially, so it felt amazing to play songs like that and not have to be so subtle or worry about electronics. It just felt really raw. I think that’s what we wanted to give, this really human experience, not something electronic in any way. It felt so good to be in rooms full of people playing music and sweating and smelling each other. I was pushing my voice in places I hadn’t really pushed it before in a long time. When I came home from that, I really did want to keep that energy going when making the next record. That was a big guiding star as well, to imagine these songs in a room with people and sing them in a way that was really charged-up, unhinged, over-the-top, celebratory, and surprising.
I was also really surprised by the audience’s response to the heavier and more dissonant moments on the All Day Gentle Hold ! tour. I thought maybe they would be put off or want a smoother synth-pop vibe, but it seemed to really land and connect, and that was exciting to me. That was exciting to me, I felt like I had the license to push that further. I was thinking a lot about what an opportunity it is to get to play shows and have some people show up. I was like, I never want to make a kind of demanding song again; I wanted it to be as devourable, in-your-face, and immediate as possible.
So it was more about feeding off that energy than writing on tour?
It was feeding off that energy and intensity, that volume, and my voice being up in that range and getting to yell. ‘Crying at the End’ was maybe the first song I wrote after the tour, and that part where I scream as high as I possibly can, the chorus – those moments even took me aback for a second at how intense and raw it felt. It was definitely a sonic and energetic inspiration, wanting to have more of those moments in the set and on this album and tap into that bliss and freedom. That drama and heavy-handedness felt really good to experience together in a room full of people. It’s really cathartic, and it’s not so prim and put together. That’s what felt right to do – expose ourselves and be freaks together and not try and pretend we’re not a bunch of freaks. [laughs]
There’s channeling the drama of live performance, and there’s also writing about it, in a way, on ‘Music’, which is the least musically heavy-handed song.
That one is obviously a very autobiographical song. I really like it at the end of the album because it feels to me like a sort of reckoning, like waking up from the fever dream of what happened in the last nine songs. Which is sort of what it’s like making an album: you enter this space and then come to, and you’re like, “What? Oh, I guess that’s what happened.” I think it stands as a standalone song and a ballad that’s very personal, but in the context of Shirt, I liked what it was doing because it doesn’t necessarily have to be me singing it. To me, it represents this broken American dream, this reckoning with whatever you thought was going on and then crashing down to reality in a really introspective way. Just tying it all together and landing myself back in the basement, trying to understand what happened and how impossibly important it all is, and how impossibly nothing at all at the same time. And accepting that – the beauty in both scenarios.
Guitars
When it came to the actual process of finding the right tones and riffs for Shirt, was that something that came naturally?
Yeah, I think that stuff is ingrained in my fingers and in my head. That’s how I learned to write a song, on guitar, and that’s how I learned to perform – with a band, with a guitar and an amp. It was really fun to embrace that for the first time in a while. For a long time, I’ve been trying to come up with other solutions, like dressing up a song or exploring different techniques or genres with synthesizers, drum machines, and synth bass. So it was fun to take what I felt I knew how to do naturally and figure out how to treat it with all the things I’ve learned over the past like 10 years of producing the Porches records.
Most of the guitars were DI, and that already takes it out of the live band record feel – it has these high and low frequencies that you don’t hear through the speakers in the guitar amps because they’re not meant to put them out. The acoustic guitar, too – I don’t think I’ve ever used as much acoustic guitar on a record since I was 17 or something, and that felt liberating and familiar. It was a really amazing texture to work with on this record. It was fun and crazy to try and tie it all together. I like how it’s like this Frankenstein-like stone, obscenely sewn back together with influences from my life to make something uniquely Porches. I feel like each Porches record becomes more like Porches in its own way.
Tension between opposites
In a way, there’s tension between those different production techniques, or even just between the acoustic and electric guitar. What other kinds of opposing elements did you notice creeping up while writing Shirt, and how did you go about juxtaposing them in a way that felt true to Porches?
I think I was feeling sort of manic and up and down, maybe more so than usual, during the time I was making these songs. Going back to each album trying to paint my internal emotional landscape, I think I was, without knowing it, using whatever tools or combinations of sounds I could to recreate this uneasiness, anxiety, fear, as well as bliss, euphoria, and rawness. Pitting the acoustic guitar on ‘Joker’ over a sort of club beat felt like a bastardized country song over the most tasteless 909 kick-and-clap thing. I think it has moments of real beauty and harmony, but I also liked how that sort of clunkiness and confusion makes you feel a little unsettled. Which is how feel most days – bouncing back and forth between two opposites.
I felt like a lot of the lyrics second-guess or negate themselves; just as quickly as I catch on to a thought, I’m thinking about the other side. There’s a lot of sudden dynamic shifts. I think that’s a more realistic sentiment than picking one vibe and riding it out for the whole record and ignoring everything else in between. Maybe it’s kind of maximal and insane to listen to in a way because it tries to pack all the ups and downs and the roller coaster of being human into one short album. But in some way, I felt like that’s I was trying to capture – the shakiness, excitement, and fear of being one snap away from the other, and how quickly it can shift. I was trying to wrap my head around that and capture that energy because my brain always darts around like that. I’m a Libra, so this two-sides-to-everything is part of it. But there’s a lot of tension, and I was feeling excited by trying to put that into the music. I wanted to make something honest and punk and angular and jagged, less beautiful and more realistic.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Olivia O., one half of the NYC-via-Atlanta duo Lowertown, has dropped a new single from her upcoming sophomore album, No Bones, Sickly Sweet. ‘Hole’ follows lead offering ‘One Hit Wonder’. Check it out via the accompanying video below.
“It’s that sad, sickening feeling in your chest that it’s over and u have no longer have an attraction to someone you used to love,” Osby said of the new song, “thinking of them turns your stomach clenches and turns, and the memories together have become tainted like fresh milk gone sour.”
2nd Grade, the Philadelphia power-pop project led by Peter Gill, have announced a new album. Scheduled Explosions, the follow-up to 2022’s Easy Listening, arrives October 25 on Double Double Whammy. Today, the band has shared three of its 23 songs: ‘Made Up My Own Mind’, ‘Out of the Hive’, and ‘Airlift’. Take a listen below.
Speaking about ‘Made Up My Own Mind’, Gill had this to say in a statement: “I came up with the melody while I was biking around working in downtown Philly. Lyrically it ended up being an anthem about the joys of thinking for yourself, constructed entirely of cliches. That’s my sardonic reading, but I hope the song works too as just a pure optimistic expression of pop.”
1. Live From Missile Command
2. Triple Bypass in B-Flat
3. Uncontrollably Cool
4. Out of the Hive
5. Fashion Disease
6. Joan On Ice
7. Crybaby Semiconductor
8. Ice Cream Social Acid Test
9. Instant Nostalgia
10. Like Otis Redding
11. Airlift
12. King of Marvin Gardens
13. Made Up My Own Mind
14. No Fly Zone
15. All About You
16. Evil Things
17. Bureau of Autumn Sorrows
18. Like a Wild Thing
19. American Rhythm
20. Jingle Jangle Nuclear Meltdown
21. Sophmores in the Wild
22. 68 Comeback
23. I Wanna Be on Your Mind
New formats of interaction with consumers are constantly emerging in the world of technology and entertainment. One of the latest trends is online concerts in virtual reality (VR). This format is changing the way we think about music performances, giving users the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of music on a new level. VR concerts give listeners a sense of full presence and interactive participation that traditional online streams cannot provide.Similar innovative approaches to user interaction are being implemented byseven casino, offering new opportunities for entertainment in the online space.
How does virtual reality change online concerts?
Virtual reality allows users to get into a full-fledged three-dimensional environment that is created specifically for concerts. Thanks to VR, music performances become not only spectacular but also interactive, allowing viewers to become active participants rather than passive observers. In VR space, you can get closer to the stage, ‘walk’ around the concert venue, or even interact with other viewers.
In addition, the latest technologies make it possible to create unique virtual spaces for concerts that cannot be reproduced in the physical world. For example, the stage can be located in outer space or in the middle of a fantastic landscape. Such possibilities give artists a lot of freedom for creative experiments, which makes VR concerts especially attractive to the audience.
Another feature of this format is its accessibility. Online VR concerts can be watched from anywhere in the world with just a virtual reality headset. This is especially important for people who are unable to attend traditional concerts due to geographical or physical limitations. Thus, virtual reality opens up new opportunities for the music industry and makes music more accessible to everyone.
Benefits of VR concerts for artists
Online concerts in virtual reality not only change the experience for listeners, but also open up new opportunities for musicians. One of the main advantages is the expansion of the audience. Thanks to VR, artists can enter the global market, attracting fans from different countries, without the need to organise tours around the world.
Another advantage is the possibility of creative experiments. Using VR technologies, musicians can create completely new performance formats, combining music with visual effects, animation, and interactive elements. This allows them to implement the most daring ideas that would be impossible in real life.
For artists, it is also important to earn money by selling tickets to VR concerts or selling virtual goods. For example, musicians can sell digital merchandise such as avatars or virtual costumes that become part of a unique experience for the audience.
How VR is changing the relationship between artists and fans
An important aspect is the change in the interaction between an artist and his or her fans. Virtual reality allows for closer contact, as viewers can feel closer to the performer. In the VR space, musicians can hold personal meetings with fans, which is difficult to achieve at traditional concerts.One of the social platforms for VR concerts that allows music fans to interact with their favourite artists in virtual worlds https://www.noysvr.com/
In addition, the interactivity of the virtual space allows listeners to influence the course of events. They can vote for the tracks they want to hear or even participate in virtual flash mobs, which adds dynamics to the performance and creates a sense of community between the artist and the audience.
The role of technology in the development of VR concerts
Technological advances have made virtual reality concerts possible, but with the development of this industry, they are becoming even more exciting. Modern VR headsets provide a high level of immersion thanks to improved image and sound quality. Motion controllers also play an important role, allowing viewers to interact with objects in the virtual world.
One of the most important technical aspects is sound transmission. High-quality 3D audio allows you to create an immersive experience where the sound changes depending on where the user is in the virtual space. This provides a more realistic experience that is closer to that of a live concert.
Another important element is motion capture technology, which allows the smallest movements of artists to be transmitted to the virtual space. Thanks to this, musicians can perform on virtual stages in real time, and the audience can see their exact movements and emotions.
Technological advances and their impact on the availability of VR concerts
With the development of technology, virtual concerts are becoming more accessible to the mass audience. VR headsets are becoming cheaper, and internet connection requirements are becoming less stringent. Many platforms also provide the ability to watch concerts without special devices, via regular computers or mobile phones, which makes this format even more attractive to different categories of users.
Thanks to such innovations, virtual reality technologies are becoming an important tool not only for musicians but also for a wide audience of fans, which is changing the entire music entertainment industry.
Which platforms use VR concerts?
Various platforms have already integrated VR concerts into their services. For example, one of the most famous platforms, Wave, specialises in organising virtual music performances. It allows users to watch concerts in real time using VR headsets or conventional devices.
Another popular platform is Sansar, which provides interactive three-dimensional spaces for concerts. This platform also allows for the creation of custom avatars, making the experience even more unique for each user.
Many large music events, such as Coachella, are also starting to use virtual reality to expand their audiences. Attendees of such concerts can not only listen to music but also interact with other spectators or even participate in virtual events held during the festival.
List of the main VR platforms for concerts
Wave: specialises in music performances in VR and provides interactive features.
Sansar: a platform for creating custom avatars and organising virtual concerts.
AltspaceVR: allows users to organise their own events, including musical performances.
Coachella VR: a virtual version of one of the largest music festivals in the world.
The future of VR concerts: new horizons
Virtual reality technologies are constantly improving, and this opens up new perspectives for music concerts. One of the most promising areas is the integration of artificial intelligence into virtual performances. AI can be used to create intelligent avatars of artists that will react to the actions of the audience in real time, which will add a new level of interactivity.
Another important area is the use of augmented reality (AR) technologies in combination with VR. This will allow organising concerts in mixed environments where virtual and real elements will interact to create an even more immersive experience.
In addition, the development of blockchain technologies may change the monetisation system of VR concerts. Musicians will be able to sell unique digital assets, such as NFTs, which will be available only during the performance. This will create new opportunities for fans to support their favourite artists and receive unique virtual goods.
How can VR change the entire music industry?
Given how fast virtual reality technologies are developing, we can assume that this format will become dominant in the music industry in the future. More and more musicians will start using VR for their performances, and the audience will expect a more interactive and immersive experience.
It is also worth considering that VR concerts can change the economics of the music industry. Thanks to these technologies, artists can sell more tickets, as there are no restrictions on the number of visitors or physical space.
Conclusions.
Virtual reality is already changing the way we experience music concerts. This format allows viewers to immerse themselves in new worlds, interact with artists and other fans, and enjoy music anywhere in the world. Artists, in turn, get new opportunities for creativity and monetisation of their performances. With the development of virtual reality technologies, VR concerts are becoming a new stage in the development of the music industry, opening up new horizons for artists and audiences.
Omaha Hi/Lo is one of the most played variants of Omaha poker which has cultivated a loyal band of followers through the decades, both on and offline. There’s a clever alternative take on classic poker gameplay, where the pot is usually won by the player with the highest-ranked poker hand. We’ll go into more detail about this and the rise of Omaha Hi/Lo below in this article charting the roots of this fascinating poker format.
Omaha Hi/Lo is also labelled within the poker community as Omaha Eight or Better. You’ll find out why shortly. It’s a spin-off from the original version of Omaha, which shares the same poker hands ranking as Texas Hold’em, as well as Seven Card Stud and Five Card Draw. In Omaha Hi/Lo there’s also an Ace to Five “Lowball” hand ranking to consider.
The game was conceived in the 1980s in the heart of Las Vegas’ poker scene. There are few bigger things to come out of Las Vegas than casino gaming, except for The Killers, who recently released a new track.
The mastermind behind Omaha Hi/Lo is said to be Robert Turner, a Californian poker professional, who demonstrated the game to the iconic Golden Nugget Casino card room manager, Bill Boyd. Boyd was so taken by the concept that he asked Turner if he could run the game, marketing it as “Nugget Hold’em”.
It didn’t take long whatsoever for poker players to dabble with Omaha variants like Omaha Hi/Lo, wanting to enhance their skillsets by mastering a dual-reward pot system.
Exploring the rules of Omaha Hi/Lo
That’s right, in Omaha Hi/Lo, only 50% of the pot is reserved for the player with the highest-ranking poker hand. This is adjudged using the conventional poker rankings that Texas Hold’em and Omaha Hold’em lean on. However, the remaining 50% of the pot is ring-fenced for the player with the lowest five-card poker hand.
The best possible “low” hand you can make in Omaha Hi/Lo is a “Five Low”, also known as a “Wheel”. This is a straight from five to ace. Aces are always low when it comes to measuring a low hand. Meanwhile the worst possible “low” hand you can make is an “Eight Low” – a five-card poker hand with an eight as the highest-value card.
In terms of the gameplay and hand construction, Hi/Lo mirrors original Omaha Hold’em. Players receive four hole cards – double the amount of Texas Hold’em – and must use two of their hole cards and three community cards to make a high or low hand.
What’s the appeal of Omaha Hi/Lo poker?
The split-pot dynamic is a fun twist for traditional poker players. In most other poker formats, the aim of the game is to land the entirety of the pot. However, in Omaha Hi/Lo, you get two bites of the cherry. In many ways, this helps to create a more even playing field, with players able to win with hands at both ends of the ranking spectrum.
With more calculations to be made across two pots, Omaha Hi/Lo isn’t quite the brute force that is No Limit Texas Hold’em. With double the number of hole cards in play, coupled with two high and low pots at stake, there’s greater importance on being selective.
In essence, Omaha Hi/Lo ticks all the right boxes for poker fanatics that don’t have an aversion to deep-thinking and strategic card games. It’s less confrontational and certainly more cerebral than most other poker variants.
More recently Omaha Hi/Lo has become a staple inclusion in some of the world’s biggest live poker circuits. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) plays host to several Omaha Hi/Lo events during the summer, with fixed-limit and pot-limit tournaments on the schedule.
A fixed-limit Omaha Hi/Lo event has a ceiling at which all players can bet during any round of betting. A pot-limit Omaha Hi/Lo event caps how much you can bet or raise to the current size of the pot, thereby preventing aggressive all-in shoves and such like.
The meteoric rise of Omaha Hi/Lo from the back rooms of smoky Las Vegas poker rooms to some of the world’s most historic poker events is a testament to its intricacies and appeal.
London five-piece Ain’t have released a new song called ‘Teething’. It’s the group’s second single, following May’s ‘Oar’. Check out a lyric video for it below.
“’Teething’ is definitely our creepiest song – Ed wrote it ages before Ain’t and the lyrics ‘you don’t even notice me from the window’ encapsulates the whole premise of the song neatly,” the band explained in a statement. “It’s about vying for someone’s attention when they couldn’t care less – and how the sting of that rejection isn’t so much a sting, but a persistent throbbing, like toothache.”
Since the advancement of technology in all areas of our lives today, people have been interested in the relationship between artificial intelligence and emotions. This has led to this question: Can artificial intelligence, primarily through chatbots, substitute genuine human relationships? Even though AI chat platforms are advancing, there is still much debate on whether such virtual friends could replace humans as social beings.
The Rise of AI Chatbots in Modern Communication
With the advent of advanced ai chat technologies, interacting with machines has never felt more human. AI chat platforms are designed to understand and respond to human emotions, creating natural and engaging conversations. These chatbots are not just programmed to answer queries; they learn and adapt to the user’s preferences, making them seem more empathetic and responsive over time.
To illustrate, individuals seek emotional encouragement, friendship, and love from artificial intelligence-programmed chatbots. Having a partner who does not judge and can respond immediately is easy and comfortable. Nevertheless, one may ask whether this is effective enough to replace human relationships because it is just like a digital placebo.
Understanding the Emotional Connection with AI
Connection is a fundamental aspect of human nature. We always want to relate with people with whom we share some commonalities and those who can offer us emotional depth, compassion, empathy, and sympathy. On the one hand, chatbots are much more technologically advanced nowadays as highly sophisticated algorithms have programmed them. By considering language models and giving appropriate responses, they may even pretend to be empathetic. Nevertheless, it is essential to note that there is a significant dissimilarity between learned empathy and real feelings.
The Convenience Factor: Is It Enough?
Convenience is one of the primary factors driving people towards AI chatbots. It can be attractive to have a “relationship” that does not require as much time and energy as everyday interactions do, especially now with everyone rushing around so much. Such chatbots spare their users from dealing with communication problems, carrying out emotional issues, or being afraid of being accepted. Be it day or night outside, the AI chatbot can provide a clean chat without human mood complications.
Can AI Chatbots Enhance Human Relationships?
Instead of asking if artificial intelligence can replace genuine relationships, a better question would be whether such relationships would benefit from it. The emergence of AI chatbots has made communication among people easier. They have also played a significant role in boosting specific individuals’ confidence since they provide them with the most secure way through which they can express their feelings without any problem.
Therefore, rather than replacing human connections, AI could supplement them. Interactions like using AI to chat around, expressing one’s feelings in a conversation, and many more might help one relate well with other individuals in real life. It is important to remember that we must maintain this balance: using AI as an instrument and not as a substitute for communication between people.
The Role of AI in Human Connection
To sum up, even though AI chatbots may provide company and, at times, mimic being in love, they lack the complete ability to take the place of deep human links. These are important in improving communication and offering temporary help, which can only be found among people, such as empathy, growth, and mutual understanding. As we incorporate artificial intelligence into our society, one thing should be remembered: nothing can ever replace human connections.
Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this best new music segment.
This week’s list includes the breathtaking first single and title track from her twigs’ new album, ‘Eusexua’, which she co-produced with Koreless and Eartheater; Men I Trust’s delicate, driving new song ‘Husk’; Half Waif’s somber, meditative ‘The Museum’, the latest single from her forthcoming album; Merce Lemon’s sweet yet eruptive new single ‘Crow’; Sea Lemon’s dreamy, radiant collaboration with Ben Gibbard, ‘Crystals’; ‘Secret History’, the intensely cathartic opener of Foxing’s new LP; Soccer Mommy’s ‘Driver’, a shimmering and tender-hearted rocker; and Pom Pom Squad’s caustic, playful new track ‘Street Fighter’.
