'Wild Light' cover art

Yesterday I shared a new video from 65daysofstatic, which offered us a brief listening of Taipei. Today 65daysofstatic have revealed the cover art for Wild Light:

The band also shared the complete track list:

1. Heat death infinity splitter
2. Prisms
3. The undertow
4. Blackspots
5. Sleepwalk city
6. Taipei
7. Unmake the wild light
8. Safe passage

Finally a European tour comprising of 37 dates was announced. These guys look to be pretty busy from late September till November.

65daysofstatic announce fifth album

Instrumental, experimental, math rockers 65daysofstatic are back with their fifth studio album Wild Light, set for release in September.

Taipei from 65daysofstatic on Vimeo.

Iron Man 3 movie 16-bit homage

Here's an 16-bit summary of the Iron Man 3 movie. If you haven't seen Iron Man 3 yet, this video is full of spoilers.

Nine Inch Nails débuts third track from 'Hesitation Marks' in South Korea

Nine Inch Nails played two new songs off Hesitiation Marks at the Ansan Valley Rock Festival two nights ago in South Korea. The new tracks played are entitled 'Copy of a' and 'Disappointed.' Below is a video of the band opening the show with Copy of a, followed by the first live performance of Disappointed.

From the three tracks I've heard from Hesitation Marks so far, I'm quite impressed. I'm equally excited to hear the rest of the album, which sounds like it has been influenced by electronic music much more than previous Nine Inch Nails albums.

Things are stirring again in the ††† camp...

††† (Crosses) was formed in 2011 and comprises of Chino Moreno (Deftones, Palms, Team Sleep), Shaun Lopez (Far), and Scott Chuck (Chuck Doom). The group has previously released two EPs, and there have been several recent photographs uploaded to the bands social networking sites. These photos have shown band members in the recording studio, as well as the possible cover for the groups next release. It is however unclear whether the next release will be a third EP, or the highly-anticipated  first full-length album.

††† first EP is available as a free download below;

Sons of the Sea's second single

Sons of the Sea, Brandon Boyd's side-project with producer Brendan O'Brien,  has released a video of the for the second single off the Compass EP. You can watch the video for Come together over at Radio.com* 

--

* I did try get the code in order to embed the video here, but it seems the video is intended to be a Radio.com exclusive, so you'll have to watch it there.

'Untrust us' a cappella

Here's an a cappella version of Crystal Castles' song, Untrust us sung by the Capital Children's Choir.

These kids are really talented, and this is one of the best alternate versions, of one of my favourite Crystal Castles songs I've heard in a while.

Crystal Castles - Affection (Mr. Kitty vs Invisibles remix)

Here's a free download of Crystal Castles' Affection remixed by Mr. Kitty and Invisibles.

-- Updated 20:47 CAT 30 July --

The link looks to be working again.

-- Updated 23:24 CAT 29 July --

It appears that Invisibles has removed the track from his Soundcloud page, and deleted the post from his Facebook account. 

Listen to Vuvuvultures 'Push/ Pull' now

Today sees the release of Vuvuvultures début album Push/ Pull. You can listen to the full album exclusively over at Clash.

Push/ Pull tracklist:
1. Ctrl alt Mexicans
2. Steel bones
3. Deaf epic
4. Your thoughts are a plague
5. Whatever you will
6. The professional
7. Tell no one
8. The strangler
9. Another hit
10. I'll cut you
11. Death of us all
12. Empurrar Puxar

Incredible PhotoShop art

Alexander Koshelkov is not your ordinary digital artist. Below is a time-lapse of the creation of his Airship of Doom piece using Adobe Photoshop. For those of you who know a little about Photoshop, the image final contains over 280 layers, and took over 7 hours to complete. After watching the video you'll realise just how detailed the final image is, and why it necessitated so many layers and working hours to achieve the final image.

A hi-res download of Airship of Doom is available here, while according to Koshelkov's YouTube and DeviantArt profiles, the original PSD file will also be made available for download at a later stage (possibly 3 August 2013 as hinted by an image on his FaceBook account.

In addition to all this, Koshelkov is offering to give-away three PlayStation 4 consoles if the video reaches 1 million views. At present the video only has 88 775 views, but I'm sure that will increase quite drastically as more websites start picking up on the story, and share it.

How to say 'beer' in Europe

Here's a map by Feòrag NicBhrìde showing the various word(s) for 'beer' in the local language(s) for the whole of Europe. You can also download it as a PDF or PNG file.

I'll definitely be consulting this before my next trip to Europe.

Want to go surfing with Brandon Boyd of Incubus?

Ten years ago the members of Incubus started the Make Yourself Foundation (MYF), a non-profit organisation that funds various charities around the world. Right now the MYF have teamed up with Urgency Network in order to raise additional funds for several charities close to the band's heart.

Brandon Boyd promoting Heal the Bay

As part of the fund raising campaign Incubus are offering several incentives to support the Make Yourself Foundation, including original artworks by Brandon Boyd and a surfing trip in Malibu. There are tonnes of way to show your support of the various causes without opening your wallet, but if you can afford to donate a few dollars to the cause it would help just that little bit more.

Manchester Orchestra to join Deftones in South Africa

So Em and I are heading to Cape Town for the long weekend in August. I'll be heading to One Night in Cape Town to see Deftones with my brother, while Em will likely go shoe shopping. 

Manchester Orchestra have been added to the line-up as the third international act, which I'm quite excited about, although I am also still hoping some local acts will be performing at the event too.

The Naked and Famous: New single and album

The Naked and Famous are set to release their second album In Rolling Waves later this year. The first single, Hearts like ours, can be streamed below or via Soundcloud.

'In Utero' 20th anniversary edition

My favourite Nirvana album is getting the re-issue treatment in September for its 20th anniversary. I can't wait to see which b-sides are included. Full track listing for all physical editions here. 

'Hesitation Marks' artwork, Part II

Last month I wrote about the album artwork for Nine Inch Nails' album Hesitation Marks. Turns out that that particular cover is for the iTunes deluxe digital version, and that these are the covers for the remaining physical and digital editions of the album. The digital cover is my favourite, but that wont stop me from getting the Deluxe CD edition.

Digital

Standard CD

Deluxe CD

Vinyl

Super Bock Super Rock you say?

So I didn't make it to Optimus Alive as originally planned. After a week in Barcelona in which the earliest I got the bed was 01:00, and my latest time to get up was 07:30, and every hour of 'sleep' being punctuated by other people in the dormitory coming back/ getting up to leave. It was probably for the best since as I have a series of lectures to attend this week.

One of the benefits of not attending Optimus Alive this weekend, is that I should have enough money to attend Super Bock Super Rock instead, which Queens of the Stone Age are headlining! I don't feel so bad on missing out on Depeche Mode and Crystal Castles now, as I'd much rather see QotSA perform live. One downside though, Super Bock Super Rock is a little bit further than this weekends festival, and as such a little trickier to get to. I also wont be able to attend the first two days due to the aforementioned lectures, but I'll be happy enough with seeing Saturday's line-up.

Grand Theft Auto V gameplay video

The new video for Grand Theft Auto V makes it look as though this game is going to be amazing. I still have a fair a bit of Grand Theft Auto IV to complete before GTA V's September release, but that hasn't stopped me from pre-ordering the game.

...Like Clockwork available in USB format

Queens of the Stone Age are releasing a USB flash drive ediiton of ...Like Clockwork. The USB will have an 8 Gb capacity, and will contain the complete album, high resolution artwork, and the music videos. The USB drive can also double as a bottle opener. 

I already have a CD copy of ...Like Clockwork, but I'd still consider getting the USB edition for all the extras.

Free track from NYPC

Hard knocks is the first single taken from NYPC's (formerly New Young Pony Club) next album. You can download it here.

Happy 4th of July!

Especially for the American readers:

Source: Thrillist - Red, White and Booze

My American geographical knowledge isn't the best, but I will definitely keep this map in mind for my intended trip to New York, Boston and Los Angeles later this year.

Space shuttle launch POV video

Despite being afraid of heights, I love flying. This must be the most adrenaline-pumping form of flight that humankind has developed and a lucky few have been fortunate enough to experience.

The sound recordings are also really cool and creepy at the same time. I wonder how long before someone incorporates them into an ambient soundtrack of sorts.

Cambridge parkour

I'm not really good with heights, so this point-of-view video is probably the closest I'll ever get to seeing Cambridge from these angles.

Drumcell's 'Disturbance' video

One more music video to add to today's list; Disturbance is the first single taken from Drumcell's upcoming début album Sleep Complex. The video features a man in a gimp suit, and some may consider this to be even more bizarre than the video in the previous post.

Big Black Delta gets violent

Here's another new music video for today, this time from Big Black Delta. The track is called X22, and features a girl beating up a gang of dudes hitting on her. 

Big Black Delta - X22 from Eli Berg on Vimeo.

For me this is one of Big Black Delta's better songs, but the video looks a little too much like Skrillex's video for First of the year (Equinox), except with more blood. That said, the violence in this video may make it unsuitable to watch at work or school. If only all woman and children could look after themselves this well.

Diablo III coming to consoles

Despite still having quite a few unfinished, unplayed, and even two unopened PlayStation 3 games, I've just pre-ordered the console version of Diablo III. I'd heard of Blizzard's intention to make a console version of the game some time ago. I'd even seen several advertisements at retailers offering the 'Infernal Helm' as a pre-order incentive. But the thought of buying the console version of the game had never crossed my mind. That was until I watched a trailer showcasing the game-play of the console version of Diablo III.

This was enough to peak an interest in watching a few more Diablo III videos on YouTube, and I eventually found myself on the Diablo III website, where I found an updated list of pre-order content. I'm not entirely certain these will be available for South African players, but I had a look at the two South African retailers anyway.

What I found, one retailer is offering the 'Infernal Helm' and a Diablo III keyring, while the other is offering the 'Infernal Helm' and an art book as pre-order incentives. While I have a fairly large collection of keyrings, and the retailer offering the keyring may be slightly cheaper, I'd much rather get my heretical hands on the art book. So that's it, I pre-ordered Diablo III, not because of the game, or the bonus in-game content, but for a book full of pictures of various monsters from the gaming realm of Diablo.

Now to wait until 3 September, and hopefully by then I will have gotten my girlfriend into playing PS3 with me through either Portal 2 or Borderlands.

New Ghost B.C. video

Ghost B.C. have offered us a viewing of the music video for the final hymn Monstrance clock, off their second album Infestissumam. Chances are if you haven't heard of Ghost B.C. before, you haven't heard music like this before either.

First person shooter poll results

The final result of the 'First person shooter poll' was really a no result, since nobody voted. So I took matters into my own hands, and bought Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition and Portal 2, neither of which were titles in the poll.

I played quite a bit of Borderlands on my brother's Xbox 360 while back home. It was amazingly good fun, especially when playing co-operatively.* The comic book graphics and dark humour are brilliant, and I really enjoyed playing as Mordecai. There is little doubt that I will eventually get the sequel too, but I'll hold out until I've finished Borderlands, or a Game of the Year (GotY) edition of Borderlands 2 is released.

I also ended up buying Far Cry 3 (which was one of the options in the poll) as the price was reduced by a further 25%. So from having no first person shooters a month ago, I now have three, even though Portal 2 isn't a conventional shooting game.

--
* Except when my brother (playing as Lilith) ran around looting all the chests, and scavenging dropped ammo from around me, while I was busy taking on various badass bandits, bruisers and psychos; or when he used phasewalk too close to me, inadvertently depleting my shield; or when he ran away from the conflict, waited for me to soften up a couple of the tougher opponents, then reappeared with his shotgun, killed everything with a single shot, and got the experience for doing so.

Tool side project, Volto!

Danny Carey, of Tool, has been working on a side project named Volto! with John Ziegler (Pigmy Love Circus) and Lance Morrison (Autograph). Volto! will be releasing their first studio album Incitare on 23 July 2013. For now though, you can download one of the tracks on the album for free.

Music video: Travis - Moving

Travis had been rather quite up until April when they released their first single in a few years. The Scottish band has now released the second single, and accompanying video, off the forthcoming studio album Where You Stand. 

The new single is entitled Moving. The music video for Moving is incredibly clever and features various animations created by illuminating the band members breath in a particularly cold environment.

Travis 'Moving' - Directors Cut from Wriggles & Robins on Vimeo.

Here's the 'making of' video for those of you interested in the creative process behind the animations.

Travis 'Moving' - Making of from Wriggles & Robins on Vimeo.

Not your average compilation video

This is one of the most awe-inspiring YouTube videos I've seen in a long while. Also the soundtrack is pretty epic, and is available as a free download under the video. 

--Updated 21:47 CAT--

Fixed the faulty code that prevented the embedded video from displaying properly in the post.

Greatness awaits - PlayStation 4 trailer

Here's the new PlayStation 4 trailer. There is also an interactive version which has 35 uncrackable items (desktop images, mp3s, etc.). After one run through I managed to find 16 items, with several more not yet available due to insufficient views, or the countdown timer has not yet reached zero. I'm go to see if I can find a few more easter eggs with a second viewing.

First South African Discworld Convention

For the local Terry Pratchett fanatics, the First South African Discworld Convention will take place on 1 May 2014. The organisation of the convention still looks to be in it's early stages, but three-day passes are available via the SADWCon webpage at the cost of R500 (humans) and R350 (small humans).

I've only ever read one of Pratchett's books (Faust Eric), but I've never been to a convention of this nature before. This could be a lot of fun to attend, and I have plenty of time to read a few more of Pratchett's works before May 2014.

New album and single from Moby

Moby has announced some details regarding his next album Innocents, which will be released in October. Innocents features several guest musicians including Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips) and Mark Lanegan (Queens of the Stone Age). 

Listen to the first single off Innocents below. It's called A case for shame, and features Al Spx a.k.a Cold Specks.