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How Convenience Has Changed the Gaming World

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How Convenience Has Changed the Gaming World

It used to be the case that if you wanted to play video games, you had to have a home computer of some description or a console you plugged into the TV. Those games have grown in quality and complexity over the decades but require you to sit down for possibly several hours at a time and immerse yourself in what you are doing.

While that is not a problem, those who just want something to play while they are waiting for the bus or in a spare five minutes were left out, as were those that didn’t have their own computer or the ability to use the household TV for hours on end.

This all changed as games for your phone became more popular, and like their console equivalents, grew in quality. This convenience has changed the way people play games and for some, even the definition of gamer itself.

Freemium games

This is a broad term for what is probably the most popular type of game played on mobile devices. Freemium is used to describe any software or game that is free to use but where you can buy enhancements to improve your experience. In the gaming world, these games come in many formats, the most popular of which are Match 3 games, management games, and RPGS.

An example of a match 3 type game might be Candy Crush, and the management games can be anything from running your own virtual diner, farm, township, island, or mythical kingdom. This ties in nicely with RPGs, where you can build characters and have them interact with the world around them. In all of these circumstances, you can buy extra resources, lives, or equipment or stick to the free-to-play regime.

Casino Games

Another growth area has been the rise of casino games in locations where they are allowed by law. Technology has played its part in taking casinos online so that those that live far away from a land-based casino don’t miss out. In recent years the quality of games has improved to help create a more authentic experience, to the point where live dealer options are available at most sites.

This has also created a slight problem where there are now so many online casinos available that you can spend longer looking for the right one than you might spend playing the games. This is where guidance from sites like freeextrachips.com is useful, as they have already checked most of these sites out for you and rated them.

Final thoughts

Playing games on your mobile device used to involve clunky graphics and little or no online interaction. In recent years, technology has gifted players with a host of new games that they can play, matching crystals, slaying dragons, or just making sure their virtual cows get milked on time. It has also given players the chance to have their own online casino in the palm of their hand, as well as access to sites that tell them which ones are best.

Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos Joins Pip Blom on New Single ‘Is This Love?’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos Joins Pip Blom on New Single ‘Is This Love?’

Pip Blom have released a new track, ‘Is This Love?’, featuring Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand. It accompanies the announcement of their third LP, Bobbie, which is out October 20 on Heavenly and includes the previously shared single ‘Tiger’. The follow-up to 2021’s Welcome Break was produced by Dave McCracken. Check out ‘Is This Love?’ and find the album’s details below.

“The nice thing about working with Alex, besides the fact that the atmosphere was really good, was that we both had quite different perspectives,” the band said in a press release. “Whereas I am a bit more rock by nature, Alex is a lot funkier. And that turned out to be the perfect addition for this song, both in the verses and completely in the chorus. Never before has such a funky Pip Blom song appeared, and we all absolutely love it.”

Bobbie Cover Artwork:

Bobbie Tracklist:

1. Not Tonight
2. Tiger
3. Red
4. Kiss Me By Candlelight
5. I Can Be Your Man
6. Where’d You Get My Number
7. Brand New Car
8. Is This Love?
9. Fantasies
10. Again
11. Get Back
12. 7 Weeks

Strawberry Runners Unveil New Single ‘Circle, Circle’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Strawberry Runners Unveil New Single ‘Circle, Circle’

Strawberry Runners, the songwriting project of Emi Night, have returned with ‘Circle Circle’, their first new single since 2017. Check it out below.

“‘Circle Circle’ is a song I wrote one delirious evening while I was sick with a fever – experiencing cyclical thoughts, rumination, and anxiety during the strange waking hours illness brings,” Night explained in a statement. “The song, the consistent melody and rhythm, felt like a lifeline of certainty through the existential dread of fever dreams.” Night continued:

Writing this song, I gleaned a new understanding of the transmuting power music carries. It’s difficult to describe, but if you’ve ever felt at sea in the midst of a disorienting transformation, and can imagine that through torrents of emotion you find a pillar of stability to cling to, to climb and gain your bearings, to witness the whole stormy sea thrashing about without being swept up in its current – that’s a bit how music began to feel to me while writing this song.

The song’s lyrics illustrate a search for meaning in a lifetime of disparate moments that can feel both monumental and insignificant, and maintaining curiosity in what can be simultaneously a mundane, cruel, chaotic, lonely, and beautiful world.

Musically, I wanted to create a song that would evoke the sensation of climbing a mildly sloped but deceptively long hill on an old road bike during a spring day, plodding ever upward over false peaks: the slow start, the frenetic frustration, the eventual surrender into the groove, the sensation of never quite reaching the destination, but finding purpose + strength in little joys along the way.

Michael Cormier O’Leary helped me arrange the song, drawing inspiration from the music of Virginia Astley. He played many of the parts, providing a playfully off-kilter synth backdrop and a curious, meandering solo to the persistent, if idiosyncratic rhythm.

The music video begins with three tarot cards that set the tone for the song’s meaning. It continues using match-cutting to tie seemingly random circular objects to key lyrics, related memories, and each other. This technique was championed by the editor, Santi Slade, who punctuated the music’s rhythmic movements in his edits. I gathered the footage and we worked together to find a balance of humor and candor in pairings.

Strawberry Runners released their In the Garden, In the Night EP in 2017.

The Clientele Share New Song ‘Dying in May’

Konstantinos Pappis
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The Clientele Share New Song ‘Dying in May’

The Clientele have released ‘Dying in May’, the second single from their forthcoming record I Am Not There Anymore. It follows the previously shared track ‘Blue Over Blue’. Listen to it below.

Speaking about the new single, the band’s Alasdair MacLean said in a press release:

I think ‘Dying in May’ is the first Clientele song with no guitar, It also has no chords, as such — it’s a drone, with french horn, cello and Mellotron. So the rhythm does a lot of the work — the drums and percussion are in 9/8, but the singing and instruments are in 4/4, so as each bar goes past, there’s a slightly different rhythmic emphasis. This was a complete accident, but I loved it when I heard it — the patterns are a bit disorientating, but there’s a pulse that goes through it. I almost feel I could dance to this, but not quite. It’s based on an Arabic flamenco rhythm.

The words are all fragmented too, simple images repeating, like someone in a high fever. I took some inspiration from cante jondo, Spanish flamenco – there tend to be two or three very focused, repetitive images in the words. There was no way in hell I could play guitar along with these rhythms, so I scored out a simple melody which would leave space for the drums, and be something the bass could latch on to. By the end, the words go over and over, like someone beside themselves with grief. Hence the title. It’s a harrowing subject, but I think it’s presented with love – the song hopefully opens it out and lets some air in. It feels like an exorcism for me.

I Am Not There Anymore comes out July 28 via Merge.

Palehound Release New Song ‘My Evil’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Palehound Release New Song ‘My Evil’

Palehound have released a new single from their upcoming LP Eye on the Bat, which was led by the song ‘The Clutch’. It’s called ‘My Evil’, and it comes with a lyric video that pays homage to The Sopranos. Check it out below.

“‘My Evil’ is about the extremely humbling experience of realizing that yes, you are the asshole,” El Kempner remarked in a statement. “I found myself acting in ways I was ashamed of, and realizing how capable I was of hurting somebody when I was trying so hard not to. Sometimes when you try so hard to be a “good person” you’re actually swinging so far and recklessly that you make a full circle back to being a shithead. It can be very hard to forgive yourself, and this song is a portrait of that struggle for me.”

“The Sopranos is a show that’s been constantly on loop in my life for the past few years,” Kempner added of the video. “When I got the idea to make a video based on the intro credits of Tony driving through Jersey, I knew I had to do it with my friend Richard Orofino. He’s possibly even a bigger Sopranos fan than I am and he did an incredible job mapping out a lot of the original locations from the show, including Tony’s house that we see at the end of the video. This whole thing was super DIY, just me and Richard (and his camcorder) having the time of our lives and being embarrassing superfans. It’s not exactly shot for shot of the original but, to brag for a sec, I’m truly amazed at how close we were able to get it.”

Eye on the Bat is due out July 14 via Polyvinyl.

Joanna Sternberg Shares New Single ‘People Are Toys to You’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Joanna Sternberg Shares New Single ‘People Are Toys to You’

Joanna Sternberg has released a new single, ‘People Are Toys to You’, lifted from their upcoming LP I’ve Got Me. It follows the previously unveiled title track and ‘Mountains High’. Check it out below.

“I wrote this song while I was in a rush walking to the subway with my double bass,” Sternberg explained in a press release. “I was upset about something and the song sort of wrote itself. The funny thing is that Soundcloud Pro’s ‘who is listening’ feature told me the person I wrote this song about listened to it four times when I posted it on Facebook. Oops!”

I’ve Got Me, which was made alongside producer Matt Sweeney and engineer Daniel Schlett, is out June 30 via Fat Possum.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Share New Song ‘Open the Door, See What You Find’ With Johnny Marr

Konstantinos Pappis
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Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Share New Song ‘Open the Door, See What You Find’ With Johnny Marr

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds have released a new track, ‘Open the Door, See What You Find’, which features Johnny Marr. It’s taken from the new LP Council Skies, which is out this Friday (June 2) and includes the advance singles ‘Pretty Boy’, ‘Easy Now’, ‘Dead to the World’, and the title track. Check it out below.

“Lyrically, the premise is that, at a certain point in your life you look in a mirror and you see all you’ve ever been and all you’re ever going to be,” Gallagher said of ‘Open the Door, See What You Find’ in a statement. “It’s about being happy with that. Being happy with where you are in life, with who you are, and where you’re going. Life is good!”

Wye Oak Unveil New Song ‘I Learned It From You’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Wye Oak Unveil New Song ‘I Learned It From You’

Wye Oak have unveiled ‘I Learned It From You’, one of three new songs that will appear on their forthcoming collection Every Day Like the Last. It follows the previously released title track. Take a listen below.

“This song is about unconsciously recreating dysfunctional patterns, and about the exhaustion and despair that comes from realizing that awareness alone isn’t necessarily enough to save you from repeating your past,” Jenn Wasner explained in a statement. “The metallic sound in the intro is the sound of Andy pulling down the metal door of our storage unit practice space (which we would open between takes to get some fresh air from the hallway). Conveniently enough, the hallway also functioned as a perfectly serviceable reverb. Later, our friend Joseph Decosimo recorded the fiddle parts with Andy at Doom Homestead.”

Every Day Like the Last arrives June 23 on Merge Records.

Queens of the Stone Age Release New Song ‘Carnavoyeur’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Queens of the Stone Age Release New Song ‘Carnavoyeur’

Queens of the Stone Age have shared a new song called ‘Carnavoyeur’. It’s the second preview of their forthcoming album In Times New Roman…, following ‘Emotion Sickness’. Check it out below.

In Times New Roman…, the follow-up to 2017’s Villains, is set to arrive June 16 via Matador.

Silvana Estrada Shares Video for New Single ‘Milagro y Desastre’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Silvana Estrada Shares Video for New Single ‘Milagro y Desastre’

Silvana Estrada has unveiled a new single, ‘Milagro y Desastre’, alongside an accompanying video. Check out the Camila Grandi-directed clip below.

“This song was born out of my belief that big life-changing events are equal parts miracle and disaster,” Estrada explained in a statement. “This idea has helped me a lot to understand and heal my experiences over the years. In this song I wanted to vindicate all the faces of love, even the love that hurts when it ends.”

Last year, the Mexican singer-songwriter released her album Marchita, as well as the Abrazo EP, which landed on our best EPs of 2022 list. More recently, she shared a cover of Suzanne Vega’s ‘Tom’s Diner’.

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