...is called Beat Connection (also an LCD Soundsystem track you probably know and love) and is being written by newly relocated to NYC Stranger contributor/It's a Hit columnist Michaelangelo Matos. First edition is up today over here, and is packed with Matos' usual smart observations.

Below is a track singled out for praise in his review of 5: Five Years of Hyperdub.

From last night's Jimmy Kimmel Live!

...is Chris Kornelis, who formerly held the title of Web Editor at the Weekly.

Seattle-based Stranger freelancer Brandon Ivers' cover story on the mutant strains of funk emerging out of England is live now on XLR8R's site and available on newsstands.

In the feature, Ivers interviews Roska, Cooly G, and Geeneus, key players in the vital, viral UK underground who are merging UK funky with dubstep and other species of dance music. Things in this scene are very fluid and mutating rapidly, and Ivers diligently captures the excitement and describes the attributes of an electronic-music genre in its rapid-growth phase. It's an important piece of journalism.

After 19 years of publishing, urban/electronic-music-oriented mag URB is ceasing its printed version for an undisclosed amount of time.

Co-founder/publisher Raymond Leon Roker elaborates:

To simply blame the prevailing conditions on the financial markets is only partially accurate. We're experiencing an incredible and sweeping shift in consumption and media habits worldwide, especially in the magazine market. It's affecting giant publishers like Condé Nast as well as niche publishers like us.

For these are other reasons (read on), effective after Issue 158 (Summer 2009), we have decided to take a hiatus from the print edition of URB so that we can evaluate the landscape, relaunch URB.COM and decide where we fit in the new, new legacy media ecosystem.

Read the whole thing here.

For various reasons (losing interest in its content, lacking sufficient time, discovering other publications more to my liking, etc.), I haven't read URB in years. So you can partially blame me on this development. My bad, URB. But back in the '90s, I considered URB to be an essential read; it consistently spotlighted crucial new artists in an entertaining and enlightening manner. In the '00s, though, its direction seemed to lean more toward mainstream and rock-based artists (a tough competitive market will often do that), which perhaps did not play to the mag's strengths.

Whatever the case, I wish URB the best. Roker is good people and smart and will surely conceive a sustainable model to continue with his brand.

ht: Donte

Apple is still promoting the iPod Touch as a gaming system and has lowered the price to $199.

You'll now be able to copy your library to up to five computers in your home.

Selected LPs will come with liner notes, illustrations, interviews, and etc. The focus seemed to be on classic rock (The Doors, the Grateful Dead).

Apple's highly intrusive Genius system in iTunes will be able to make playlists for you by determining which songs go well together.

There will be more Shuffles available in more colors, and the standard, slim ($249) iPod is going from 120 GBs of music to 160 GBs.

But the big announcement was that every iPod Nano will now come with a video camera to counter cheap video cameras like the Flip. They will also—FINALLY—be able to pick up radio, and apparently, you'll be able to pause the radio as well. 8GB cost $149 and 16 GB will be $179. iPod Touches still will not have cameras because FUCK YOU.

It's pretty easy to find out: just use this handy checklist and click each one you're familiar with. The original list, of course, begins here (500-451) and ends here, with the Top 10.

My total was 330. That's mostly because I listen to a lot of music and because I heard a number of the albums that included some of the songs—many of which I couldn't hum for you or remember a lyric from if I tried. I do know I heard them, however. If we were going on the number I've actually retained (or even more to the point, wanted to), it would probably be in the 200 range. I like indie rock fine but not the way Pitchfork does, and a number of things that are probably obvious to a lot of people reading this are unfamiliar to me. Vice versa, I'm sure.

Just for fun, the ten highest-ranked songs from the list that I don't know (castigate away in the comments):

15. The Knife, "Heartbeats" (I still haven't heard these guys; I'm sure I'm missing out but have never been compelled for some reason)
35. Animal Collective, "Fireworks" (as I mentioned in a recent It's a Hit, they've always sounded to me like a Beach Boys consisting entirely of Mike Loves; never been a fan)
36. Sigur Ros, "Svefn-G-Englar" (again, I've never been intrigued enough to give them a shot; actually, I might have heard this once but have forgotten it completely)
61. Wilco, "Jesus, Etc." (see 36)
62. The Shins, "New Slang" (see 61)
73. Animal Collective, "Grass" (see, uh, 35)
81. Deerhunter, "Nothing Ever Happened" (actually, Grant Brissey did play these guys for me once and it sounded pretty good, but the title doesn't ring a bell)
85. Phoenix, "Long Distance Call" (I know some of their music but again, the title isn't doing it for me)
86. Mclusky, "To Hell With Good Intentions" (haven't heard a note)
95. Wolf Parade, "I'll Believe in Anything" (nada)

I just got the new novel from Nick Cave, The Death of Bunny Munro, in the mail last night. I'm kind of excited to read it, although I haven't read his earlier novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel.

I'm always wary of novels by musicians, although Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers wasn't too bad (I especially enjoyed the riff on Charles Atlas ads). Unfortunately, the fall reading season is fast approaching, which means I probably don't have enough time to read both Cave books, and so if anyone's read And the Ass... and has opinions on it, I hope you'll let me know, either by e-mail or in the comments. If you felt like it was a truly exceptional reading experience, I could be coerced into giving it a shot.

We are not live-blogging Michael Jackson's funeral. But if you really want to read a Michael Jackson funeral liveblog, Entertainment Weekly is doing one. And MTV. And The Guardian. And The Boston Globe. The Wall Street Journal, too. And, wait, so is The New York Times?

Hold on a minute: The New Yorker is live-blogging Michael Jackson's funeral? I think the world just somehow fucked itself into crazytown.

Larry King is discussing the loss with....JC Chasez. It's Night One, and it's already come to this?

Hold up: Corey Feldman has shown up, Larry King tries to get him to talk about his adolescent drama with MJ, Feldman demurs: "The world lost a great artist today, let's not focus on the negatives."

And now we've got Smokey Robinson, so shut my mouth...

If Will.i.am is this age's Dylan, this age needs to end.

Lawyers: Is this in any way prosecutable? Malicious comparison? Felony gall? First-degree bullshit?

Will.i.am: Suck.u.do (and I typically like you and your brilliantly stupid songs.)

Example 1: Pitchfork's Ian Cohen summing up the new record by Cam'ron:

[L]eaks like "I Hate My Job" and "Get It in Ohio" suggested a possibility of a The Wrestler-style comeback narrative that derived power from admitting how far its protagonist had fallen. Instead, Crime Pays has a lonely, defensive, and vaguely desperate Kirk Van Houten vibe...

Ouch. Can I borrow a feeling, indeed.

Example 2: Eric Grandy describing how Matt (of Matt & Kim) worked pro-Bacardi shout-outs into last night's Neumo's gig:

It was on some straight Duff-Man shit.

Subject line: proved. Carry on.

From a wall of sound...

...to this, sound on the wall:
A speaker as thin as a screen.

A groundbreaking new loudspeaker — less than 0.25mm thick — has been developed by University of Warwick engineers. It's flat, flexible, could be hung on a wall like a picture, and its particular method of sound generation could make public announcements in places like passenger terminals clearer, crisper, and easier to hear.

Lightweight and inexpensive to manufacture, the speakers are slim and flexible: they could be concealed inside ceiling tiles or car interiors, or printed with a design and hung on the wall like a picture.

First Plasma TV; now Flexible Loudspeaker (FFL)—home entertainment is fast migrating to the land of mirrors and pictures, the wall.