Do you ever find yourself surrounded by music connaisseurs that go on and on about the latest trends, news, and releases, while you lost track of everything when Beyoncé dropped a surprise album called Lemonade and you still don’t know who the hell ‘Becky with the good hair’ is? Worry no more! Rockstone is happy to provide you with a weekly update on important music related news, so you can steal the show at every party with facts, figures and abundant namedropping!

Apple is about to put an end on phones during gigs

Yes, you read that right. And it’s not in the form of special plastic bags, like at an Alicia Keys concert, but via a new technology that would allow mobile phones to be temporally blocked from using the camera. An infrared transmitter would send out signals to any mobile phone in an area, say a live music venue, and temporarily block them from shooting photos or video. Good thing for those who are always annoyed (me) by people watching the entire performance through their tiny screens. Focus on the here and now people!

The patent reads:

“A transmitter can be located in areas where capturing pictures and videos is prohibited (e.g., a concert or a classified facility) and the transmitters can generate infrared signals with encoded data that includes commands temporarily disabling recording functions.”

Google now helps you with song lyrics

Ever wondered what Taylor Swift was singing about ‘Starbucks’ in her song ‘Blank Space’? Finding the exact lyrics on dodgy lyrics-sites probably won’t help you figure out she actually sings about a ‘long list of ex-lovers’. But, as always, Google is here to make a change. The search giant has inked a deal with Toronto-based LyricFind to source and show lyrics right in search results. It’s available from today in the US and should roll out globally as its partnership reportedly includes international licenses. All you need to do to see lyrics is search for the name of the song followed by ‘lyrics’ on Google. The engine will also display a list of alternative results of songs with the same name by other artists. The deal also brings lyrics to Google Play Music. It isn’t yet clear how they’ll be integrated into the service, but it’s likely that songs will now be accompanied by lyrics on Play Music’s various apps. (Source: The Next Web).

google-lyrics

Gorillaz re-upload videos in hd

When I was younger I was obsessed with the Gorillaz. Not only because of their great tunes, but also because of the artwork. It was a time where anime-esque cartoon characters met music. I had the floating island with the windmill from the song ‘Feel Good’ as a screensaver and could watch the videos on repeat. Well, for all you readers that share this nostalgic Gorillaz feeling, there’s great news! Over the past 24 hours, Gorillaz (who are due to release a new record in 2017) have started a process of taking down all their old videos and replacing them with shiny new HD versions.

So far, they’ve only updated three of them (“Feel Good Inc”, “Clint Eastwood” and “19-2000”), which you can watch below (and remember to click that little quality adjustment button). But according to this Reddit thread, there are many more to come. (Source: Noisey UK)

Converse with build-in guitar pedal

Every rockstar that takes itself the tiniest bit seriously, has rocked a pair of Converse’s Chuck Taylor All-Stars. This shoe literally never gets out of fashion! Especially not on stage, even though it’s originally designed as the perfect basketball court shoe. However, Converse knows the popularity of the shoe amongst guitarist and brought the music world and their All-Stars together in the form of very special footwear.

The new shoe, titled the Chet Atkins All Wah, feature a built-in wah-wah guitar pedal. These newly designed sneakers feature a sensitive and flexible sensor within the sole that recognizes movement and transforms it into sounds that mimic that of the wah pedal. The bluetooth technology built-in the sneaker sends the patterns of movement to a wah box that will in turn give musicians the same results as an ordinary wah pedal. The really tech savvy musicians can even sync these All Wah sneakers to their iPhone or Macbook as a replacement for a traditional amp. The new Chet Atkins All Wahs—named after the famous guitarist—do not have an official release date as of yet. (Source: Pigeons and Planes)

Musicians lobby for more gun control

Dozens of artists and music industry executives have joined Billboard to sign an open letter to Congress urging them to “Stop Gun Violence Now.” The letter appears on the cover of this week’s issue of the magazine. Among those who signed are Thom Yorke, Paul McCartney, Trent Reznor, Lady Gaga, Beck, Iggy Pop, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Yoko Ono, Michael Stipe, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stevie Nicks, Pearl Jam, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Courtney Love, Diplo, Kesha, Ringo Starr, Questlove, Pusha T, Rivers Cuomo, Sia, Selena Gomez, Talib Kweli, Wayne Coyne, Zayn, Alicia Keys, Andy Samberg, and Andrew Bird.

The letter states that music, which “has been celebrated communally, on dancefloors and at concert halls,” is now threatened due to gun violence. They ask Congress to address two matters to prevent gun violence: “Require a background check for every gun sale,” and “Block suspected terrorists from buying guns.” Read the full letter here. (Source: Pitchfork)

Sampha debuts track and video from upcoming album

Also, Sampha has a new video + track called ‘Plastic 100°C’, from his long awaited debut album, which is just too good not to share here. It’s directed by Robert Semmer and Kevin Hayden for The Fader. Enjoy!

Hey, what’s that? We didn’t write anything about Kanye West his new video for ‘Famous’? Correct! You can’t have missed the hype around that video. If you did, learn more when searching for the hashtag #famous on Twitter. It’s fun!

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