The first thing I did on my PlayStation 4 was watch an episode of Barney Miller.
I don’t need a PlayStation 4 to watch Barney Miller, and that wasn’t the first thing I thought I’d do with a brand new $400 game box. After powering up the console and downloading the first mandatory system update (which took far less time than the typical PlayStation 3 download), I sorted through the various game options available. I signed up for the free month of PlayStation Plus that comes with every PlayStation 4 and started downloading Resogun and Flower for free. I slid the copy of Killzone: Shadow Fall that Sony sent with the system into the slot, and it immediately started to install itself onto the 500 GB hard drive. I poked through the various streaming video services, which include all the standards, the Netflix and the Amazon Instant Video and the Hulu. I saw Crackle—a video service available on every gaming console that nobody I know has ever used—and downloaded it, to figure out why it exists. Crackle was the first download to finish, and thus the first program I ran on my PlayStation 4. As I sifted through its relatively slim offerings, I found Barney Miller listed under comedies. I wanted to watchBarney Miller. So I did.
Barney Miller is good.
But the PlayStation 4 isn’t just a Barney Miller machine. It’s the latest console vying for supremacy in your entertainment center, offering up not just state-of-the-art videogame technology but a full suite of entertainment options for the modern day internet household of the future. The PlayStation 4 streams music and movies and TV shows and sports into your living room, as long as you have a reliable internet connection, and all in high definition. You could easily cancel cable and make do with a PlayStation 4 and subscriptions to a few video services, but then you could easily cancel cable and make do with your computer, or your Xbox 360, or your PlayStation 3, or any number of other products you probably already have in your home that offer the same services.
You could make the PlayStation 4 the only box you ever plug into your TV again, but you’re not going to buy one to watch sitcoms from the ‘70s. You’re going to buy one to play games, and then maybe use it to watch TV sometimes. And as a device built to play games, the only opinion you can really have about the PlayStation 4 right now is that it’s way too early to have an opinion.

Killzone: Shadow Fall I’ve played at least part of eight of the system’s 23 launch titles. As expected, the graphics look better than they do on the PlayStation 3, but it’s not as dramatic a leap forward as when games transitioned from standard definition to HD. Assassin’s Creed IV looks cleaner and crisper than the PlayStation 3 version, with tiny details like pores and arm hair more visible, but that doesn’t enhance or hinder how the game plays or the (considerable) amount of fun I have playing it. Characters look less blocky and two-dimensional in Call of Duty: Ghosts than they do in the surprisingly ugly PlayStation 3 version. The shooter Killzone: Shadow Fall might be the most impressive launch game, visually; like its predecessors, it depicts in pristine and startling detail one of the drabbest and most lifeless aesthetics seen in a genre defined by drab lifelessness.
The best games for the PlayStation 4 wouldn’t work as a flashy tech demo at a Best Buy kiosk. The dual joystick shooter Resogun dug deep into my brain with its arcade action and thorough commitment to sensory overload. It’s the only PS4-exclusive game that I actively want to spend more time with. Flower andSound Shapes, two of the best games for the PlayStation 3, reappear in prettier form. Flower in particular benefits from the transition; the gorgeous environments occasionally approach photorealism, and the new DualShock 4 controller features smoother and more responsive motion controls than the DualShock 3. None of the games most worth playing make the PlayStation 4 look obviously more powerful than the PlayStation 3, though.

Resogun That’s what the PlayStation 4 is missing at launch: a game that defines the system and justifies the upgrade for the most dedicated of players. Of course, games like that rarely appear when consoles launch anymore. The days of Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 are gone. (Maybe even the days of Wii Sports, if the Wii U is any indication.) Instead, early adopters will make do with beefed-up versions of games that came out for the last generation of systems just a month ago and a handful of exclusives that could probably run on the PlayStation 3 without really losing anything. Buying a PlayStation 4 in 2013 means you’re either impatient or wealthy enough to not mind that the price will only decrease from here.
Actually, you’d have to be a patient person to buy a PlayStation 4 right now. You know better games are coming. On Thursday, Sony announced an Uncharted game for the new system. Although it’d be nice to see what the developers at Naughty Dog could do with this technology outside the well-plowed turf of the Uncharted world, the fact that Sony’s in-house stable of world-class developers will be releasing games only on the PlayStation 4 will probably impel many to buy a system now in anticipation.
Beyond the games, Sony has gotten a lot right with the PlayStation 4. The new DualShock 4 controller feels great, with longer handles that are easier to clutch and trigger buttons that don’t fire as easily as the DualShock 3’s. I anticipate less haphazard and unintentional grenade tosses or machine gun salvos with these sturdier trigger buttons. There’s a small touch-pad on the face, and it’s easy to swipe quickly when prompted in Killzone. The system’s main menu is easier to navigate than the PlayStation 3’s, defaulting to a list of recently installed programs with a less cluttered equivalent to the XMB, accessible with an upward press on a joystick. The cool blue hue and cleaner layout resembles the PlayStation Vita. The PlayStation Camera, a separately-sold peripheral that acts like a less obtrusive Kinect, didn’t have any major issues with the poor lighting situation in my basement. It did struggle to recognize my face, but like all bearded gentlemen, I am familiar with and resigned to that fate.

Sony trumpets the fact that every PlayStation 4 game will be playable on the Vita through the Remote Play feature. This is similar to how many Wii U games can be played entirely on the GamePad, without need of a TV. Remote Play works reasonably well on the PlayStation 4—I didn’t notice much lag while streaming Assassin’s Creed IV, and although the game didn’t look as vibrant as it does on my TV, it was still beautiful on the smaller screen. The Vita has fewer buttons than the DualShock 4, though, so the L1, R1, L2, R2, L3 and R3 buttons are remapped by each game that uses them. In Creed, I had to tap the rear touchpad for the L1 and R1 buttons, and tap the bottom corners of the main touch screen for the L3 and R3 buttons. It’s not too confusing for this specific game, but games that heavily depend on all four shoulder buttons as well as the L3 and R3 buttons could suffer from poorly remapped controls.
The PlayStation 4’s most forward-thinking feature might also be the most confusing to the average consumer. The “share” button on the controller streams whatever game you’re playing on Twitch or Ustream. I tried it out a few times while playing Resogun and Killzone, and it’s incredibly simple to get started. I just had to create a free Twitch account and then hit that share button to start pumping my gaming incompetence out into the world. If I ever feel comfortable letting strangers see my basement, I can use the PlayStation Camera to pop a live video feed into a picture-in-picture box. I personally don’t feel the urge to watch other people play games on the internet, but it’s a massively popular segment of gaming culture that still has the potential for tremendous growth, and a direction that any gaming site (including this one right here) needs to seriously consider branching into. This partnership between Sony and services like Twitch and Ustream could prove to be a huge boost for all involved, as it emphasizes connectivity among players while also encouraging them to sign up for Twitch or Ustream and inadvertently advertise Sony products.
The PlayStation 4 offers a lot right out of the box, but again, it’s too early to have a strong opinion about the system. Future games will determine the console’s merits, but at the moment the PlayStation 4’s library is understandably not full or diverse enough to recommend. It’s tough to justify buying any console at launch—that’s the most expensive time to buy a system, and with the least amount of games to play. The Wii U’s been out for a year, and it’s only now becoming a worthwhile purchase. If you have the money and the patience, the PlayStation 4 might be a smart buy. Otherwise, don’t rush into anything. There are many ways to watch Barney Miller.

My wife won’t let the Xbox One in our living room. She’s afraid the upgraded Kinect camera will spy on us. That’s become a pretty standard line about the One, and my wife’s at least partially joking when she says it, but after seeing how powerful the Kinect has grown from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One, it may not be that paranoid of a reaction.
When the Kinect is plugged in, the Xbox One is always listening. If you say “Xbox”, it turns on. Once it’s on, it’s always watching, and it will almost always recognize you, immediately logging int o your Xbox Live account. It hears better than the original Kinect, and it sees better, both in light and in darkness. It can handle beards. It stares down to our bones, tracking our skeletons. Consumer electronics now know what we look like and wait for our voice to turn them on. I can see why my wife is a little creeped out.
I’m probably not inviting the NSA into my home by setting an Xbox One up in my basement. Microsoft swears that won’t happen, and if I was truly afraid I could disconnect the Kinect and still use the Xbox One. I am bringing in a high tech piece of gaming technology, though, one that aims to redefine how I interact with my entertainment boxes. If you want to judge the “next generation” of videogame consoles by how futuristic they seem, by how far removed they feel from the previous systems, than the Xbox One edges out the PlayStation 4 based simply on its display and user interface. The PlayStation 4 stylishly redesigns the bulky box and stilted “Xross Media Bar” of the PlayStation 3, but the Xbox One embraces a low-rent sci-fi aesthetic with its voice commands and the ability to snap multiple active screens on top of each other. It’s the videogame version of every movie where characters sternly tell a computer what to do.

It’s weird, then, that something so futuristic looks so dated. The Xbox One looks like something you’d find in your uncle’s den in 1986. It’s a big, black block that should eat VHS tapes from the top. It should be plugged into a massive rear projection TV that has football scores burned onto the screen. My dad tried to force a laserdisc into it. Despite its boundary-pushing tech, the Xbox One’s exterior doesn’t share the sleek industrial design of the PlayStation 4. I’m tempted to rebuild the state-of-the-80s entertainment set-up my friend’s dad had thirty years ago with the One at the center.
That’s just the exterior, though. Between the Kinect and the HDMI input port, the Xbox One feels more advanced than the PS4. It feels more foreign. Microsoft has heavily marketed the One as more than just a gaming device, touting it as the one essential piece to a home entertainment system. That’s a bit of a reach, but the One’s non-gaming applications are more ostentatious and more central to the system than the PlayStation 4’s.
The Xbox One replaces your TV’s remote control with your voice. You can plug your cable box directly into your console through that HDMI input on the rear. The Xbox One can then control your cable box via the Kinect’s microphone. If you say “Xbox Watch NBC”, the Xbox will change the channel to NBC. It will do that in the middle of a game, popping you straight from Dead Rising 3 to Brooklyn Nine-Nine. You can’t control your cable box’s DVR or On Demand features through the One, so you’ll have to keep that remote handy, but for live-viewing or random channel flipping you’ll be able to speak your destination rather than type in a series of numbers. (You can also plug any device with an HDMI output into the Xbox One, including other gaming systems, but there’s no point to that and the lag between the screen and the controller becomes unbearable.)
It’s still something that only people who play games should buy, but the Xbox One’s weird TV business isn’t as pointless or off-putting as I had expected. It works well enough that I can legitimately see a button-free future for the living room. I’m not entirely converted—I still use my remote control more than my voice box—but the Xbox One’s voice recognition works reasonably well, and as that technology improves the remote control’s primacy will slowly dwindle away.
When you first load up a TV image on the One it appears in a large rectangle on the main menu that’s surrounded by a jumble of smaller panels. The One’s main menu is patterned on that Windows 8 layout that Microsoft has extended across most of its consumer products. It’s a familiar look if you’ve played a 360 or seen any ads for the Surface tablet (or if you watch any of the many network sitcoms that blatantly work a Surface into multiple shots every episode.) It’s a cluttered, awkward interface, and runs counter to the simplicity and ease of use that voice commands supposedly offer. But then perhaps that’s the point—if they make the menu a bummer to cycle through, people might flock more readily towards the weird new voice interface.
Those panels resurface in one of the One’s signature features. You can “snap” an app to the side of the screen while running another program. You can snap the Xbox Music app and jam a playlist while playing a game. You keep an eye on the news or sports scores or anything else on TV while slashing your way through Ryse: Son of Rome. There are some limitations right now—certain apps, including Skype, don’t support snapping, and the audio for both screens runs simultaneously—but in certain situations snapping is a useful tool.

Ryse: Son of Rome Speaking of Skype, with that app and the new high definition Kinect camera, the Xbox One is the closest we’ve yet come to Infinite Jest-style videophones. It’s FaceTime on your forty inch TV, with that new 1080P Kinect letting whoever you Skype with get a vivid look into your home. I anticipate avoiding this type of communication for the rest of my days.
That camera would make the Xbox One a perfect fit for streaming on Twitch or Ustream. It’s easy to stream on the with a less powerful camera. I was deeply skeptical and disinterested in letting others watch me play games until the PlayStation 4’s simple and direct Twitch interface made it as easy as pressing a button. Surprisingly the Xbox One doesn’t have that functionality, at least not yet. A Twitch app should be available in January, but for now there’s no way to live stream from the system.
It does feature a game DVR, though. The One continuously records video as you play through a game. You can save thirty-second clips and upload them to social media with a voice command. You can make longer clips or edit clips together in the Upload Studio app, and upload those videos to Microsoft’s SkyDrive file hosting service. It’s not live video, and there are space limitations, but if you are desperate to let other people watch you play as a crude ethnic stereotype in the Killer Instinct remake, it is possible with the Xbox One.
Skype, the upgraded Kinect, the TV interaction and the game DVR all make the other, more popular kind of streaming feel a bit blasé at this point. Videogame consoles were given new life when Netflix and other streaming video services first became available in 2008 and 2009, and even though those kinds of entertainment choices are central to the Xbox One, it no longer feels revolutionary to stream movies or old TV shows through a console. Of course the One has all the streaming services you expect in the year 2013. HBO Go will remain exclusive to the Xbox platform, but it won’t be available for the One until December. As I wrote with the PlayStation 4, these apps are basically mandatory for game consoles now, to the point where it doesn’t even seem necessary to mention them. It’d be far more newsworthy if the One didn’t come with Hulu or Amazon Instant Video. And yes, Barney Miller fans, Crackle is an option, as well.

This falderal is all well and good, but you will buy the Xbox One to play games. The current line-up of games features many of the same third-party perennials as the PlayStation 4, with the latest Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty and Need for Speed games, and a variety of sports releases from EA and 2K. The Xbox One has a deeper roster of exclusives, though. Dead Rising 3 is familiar but fun, and the beautiful but brutal Ryse: Son of Rome succeeds with brief spurts of mindless violence, but most of the other exclusives don’t just underwhelm but often bring some of the more odious trends of mobile gaming into the console sphere. Repetitive on-rails shooter Crimson Dragon and racing simulator Forza 5 push annoying microtransactions, and the new Killer Instinct embraces a free-to-play model where you have to pay extra to unlock game content, including the full roster of fighters. The family friendly Zoo Tycoon and PowerStar Golf might be the best of the lot. There are many games that you can only play on the Xbox One, but none of them are worth going out of your way for.
The Xbox One controller makes several changes to the 360 model, but most are minimal. The joysticks have the same asymmetric positioning, but the tops of the sticks are textured to keep thumbs from slipping. The directional pad is no longer set into a ring of plastic, so it isn’t nearly as imprecise. The home button is smaller and higher up on the controller. Back and Start are replaced with View and Menu buttons, which are used to pop out of a game and back to the main menu of either the game or the system itself. (Like mobile devices, the Vita and the PlayStation 4, you can now effectively pause a game and back all the way out to the main system menu without losing your place.) The controller still requires two AA batteries, but instead of bulging out from beneath the controller the batteries slide unobtrusively into the controller’s top. The shoulder triggers and bumpers both feel a bit clunkier than on the 360—they make louder clicks when you press them, and they feel cramped, crammed in tightly to the point where the bumpers take more effort to press than on the 360. The controller feels noticeably different in your hand, but it’s not a significant redesign.
I’ve been comparing the Xbox One to the PlayStation 4 throughout this review because those comparisons are inevitable. They came out within a week of each other. The greatest thing they have in common, besides playing games, is the fact that there’s no reason to rush into buying one unless you are a diehard videogame fan who can’t wait for the next new thing. The Kinect might give the Xbox One an edge, at least for those who are dying to control their cable box with their mouth, but the camera is still untested as a viable videogame interface, and the current line-up of games isn’t particularly inspiring. For now we’re keeping an older game box in our living room, one that runs the same video apps as the Xbox One, but that doesn’t make my wife feel paranoid.

The 2014 Game Developers’ Conference kicks off in just a few weeks, and in advance of the conference, the conference’s organizers released the results of a survey about current industry trends given to attendees of last year’s event.
One notable result indicated that of the latest generation of consoles, the PlayStation 4 will be the top pick for game developers: About 20% of game-making teams anticipate their next title will be on the PS4. However, anticipated development on the PC far surpassed that percentage, with 52% of developers having selected “PC” on their surveys. Smartphones and tablets were the next runner-up for a planned platform at about 51%.
As for how those games will hit the marketplace, 64% of respondents stated that they did not plan to work with a publisher. As for how those game makers plan to fund their games, 52% plan to use existing company funds, and about 46% intend to use personal funds. Only 11% of developers stated that they made use of crowd-funded money, up from 4% last year.

TowerFall was one of the best indie games of last year. Actually, it was one of the best videogames last year, period. The problem was its exclusivity to a console virtually no one owned, the Ouya.
That’s all changing come March 11, when TowerFall Ascension, a new version of the game, launches on both Steam and PS4. Ascension is similar to the Ouya exclusive, but it features 50 new arenas, new powerups and new game modes.
TowerFall was created by Matt Thorson and is a competitive local multiplayer game in which players duke it out in one of the game’s numerous arenas. It’s in a similar vein to Super Smash Bros., but with arrows and one-hit kills and a whole lot of depth.
The news of TowerFall’s release means that March 11 will be the biggest release day for videogames thus far in 2014. Also launching that Tuesday are Titanfall and Dark Souls 2.

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg pulled all their friends together to end the world, so what better way to unwind from than with some old-school videogames? According to Collider, producer Scott Rudin bought the film rights to Blake Harris’ Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo and the Battle that Defined a Generation, and tabbed Rogen and Goldberg to write and direct.
Considering The Social Network started as a Rudin production based on an unpublished book, this movie might have a similar bent, regardless of its writer/director team’s funny credentials. There’s also no word on when it will all come together, as Rogen and Goldberg are also tied up with killing Kim Jong-un, adapting Preacher into an AMC series and creating a R-rated animated movie called Sausage Party. Either way, we can only hope at least one of those projects features the classic Console Wars-era character of James Pond, who surely deserves some form of a movie adaptation by now.

Microsoft surprised the games world last year at E3 when it announced the Xbox One would offer Twitch integration, allowing users to stream gameplay live through the new console. The Xbox One launched without that feature in November, though. Meanwhile, Xbox One’s most direct competitor, the Playstation 4, has allowed its owners to broadcast on Twitch since day one.
Speculation over when Xbox One users might finally see Twitch on their shiny new systems has percolated since the One’s release. Well, speculate no more. Twitch took to its blog today to announce that streaming support will arrive on the One on March 11. Just in time for the most anticipated next-gen release of the year thus far, Titanfall.
The streaming company said in a statement that the long wait Xbox users have endured will be well worth it.
“The Twitch experience on Xbox One is easily the most feature-complete of our console integrations, and will hopefully turn on legions of gamers to the Twitch phenomenon,” it said.
This is another step forward for Twitch, who recently leapfrogged Hulu, Facebook and Amazon to become the fourth largest site in terms of peak internet traffic. Expanding its service to a third platform will allow Twitch to grow even larger, and the influx of incredible videos that are likely to come courtesy of Titanfall won’t hurt, either.
For more on the announcement, including how exactly streaming will work on the Xbox One, head over to Twitch’s blog.

Did Sony read our list of 2013’s best games, or something? Last week they announced a release date for the PS4 version of Towerfall, and today they’ve announced that The Swapper will be coming to the Playstation 3, Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita in May. And that’s with cross-buy, meaning a single purchase will unlock the game on all three systems.
Sci-fi platformer The Swapper made two of our 2013 year-end lists for one simple reason: it’s really good! As Lana Polansky wrote in her review for Paste, it “does what good science fiction is supposed to do: create an exaggerated, futuristic scenario to examine questions that concern us now.” The Swapper exploits our expectations of videogames to make us think about heady topics like memory and existence, and soon you’ll be able to play it on the Vita when your car is stuck in an ice storm. That’s good news.

Nintendo Japan and Australia recently announced the end of their Internet services to older models of Wii consoles and DS units. This means that any single or multiplayer games that require a Wi-Fi connection from Nintendo on a Wii, DS or DSi will lose its online features. This termination will also affect connections in the U.S. as of May 20.
Luckily, gamers will still be able to connect to the Internet on the DS for the DSi Shop, DS and DSi Browsers, while Wii users can still use Netflix, Hulu, Wii Shop Channel, Internet Channel, Pay & Play and YouTube. Any games that have been released since the 3DS launched in 2011 are still able to use the Nintendo Network after May 20. However, online features will also be unavailable to Wii software games played in Wii Mode on Wii U and 3DS systems.
Approximately 20 Wii games and 40 DS games will be affected by the disconnection of the Nintendo Network. So if you’re looking to save Princess Peach, you’ll want to give it your all—several Mario games will no longer be available to play on the Nintendo Network after May 20.

Since its formation in 2011, the Montreal post-punk band Ought has been working toward its first full-length album release. Last year, the four-piece released an EP titled More Than Any Other Day, but today the band announced that an LP is on the way this spring.
More Than Any Other Day was recorded and mixed in Montreal at Hotel2Tango with sound engineer Radwan Moumneh back in November 2013. You can view the tracklist and listen to “The Weather Song” below. The LP is set for a April 29, 2014 release. Pre-order the new album at Constellation Records.
More Than Any Other Day Tracklist:
1. Pleasant Heart
2. Today, More Than Any Other Day
3. Habit
4. The Weather Song
5. Forgiveness
6. Around Again
7. Clarity!
8. Gemini

If you’re a Bonnaroo devotee, you’ve been counting down the hours this week—and now your patience has paid off. After teasing festival followers with “Roo Clues” by posting graphic designs on Instagram, the full Bonnaroo lineup was announced during the festival’s online BLAM Party, which was hosted by SNL’s Taran Killam and Hannibal Buress.
Headliners include a surprising performance from Kanye West, who is bouncing back from a tumultuous 2008 performance, Elton John and Jack White. The Tennessee summer music festival will include performances from over 125 bands which include notable acts like Vampire Weekend, The Avett Brothers, Arctic Monkeys, Neutral Milk Hotel, Fitz & the Tantrums, CHVRCHES and The Wild Feathers.
Bonnaroo will also host over 20 comedians during the four-day festival. Bonnaroo takes place in Manchester, Tenn., from June 12­-15 and tickets will be available to purchase on Feb. 22 at Bonnaroo.com. You can view the full lineup below.
Bonnaroo 2014 Lineup
Elton John
Kanye West
Jack White
Lionel Richie
Vampire Weekend
The Avett Brothers
Phoenix
Skrillex
Arctic Monkeys
Frank Ocean
The Flaming Lips
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Kaskade
Damon Albarn
Neutral Milk Hotel
Wiz Khalifa
SuperJam with Skrillex & Friends
SuperJam “?”
The Bluegrass Situation Superjam hosted by Ed Helms
Disclosure
Cut Copy
The Head and the Heart
Zedd
Ms. Lauryn Hill
Funkiest Dancer
Chromeo
Broken Bells
Tedeschi Trucks Band
James Blake
Bobby Womack
Umphrey’s McGee
Ice Cube
Ben Howard
Slightly Stoopid
Fitz and The Tantrums
Cake
Janelle Monáe
Grouplove
Amos Lee
CHVRCHES
Cage The Elephant
Die Antwoord
Andrew Bird & the Hands of Glory
Mastodon
Capital Cities
Jake Bugg
Chance The Rapper
Dr. Dog
Yonder Mountain String Band
John Butler Trio
Little Dragon
City and Colour
The Glitch Mob
The Naked and Famous
Taran Killam
Phosphorescent
Drive­-By Truckers
Washed Out
Danny Brown
Warpaint
Sam Smith
A$AP Ferg
Darkside
Seasick Steve
Shovels & Rope
Lucero
Carolina Chocolate Drops
The Wood Brothers
The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar,
with special guests Billy Martin, Marc Ribot, DJ Logic and Shazad Ismaily
Pusha T
Meshuggah
Poliça
DakhaBrakha
Goat
ZZ Ward
Seun Kuti
Blackberry Smoke
MS MR
Hannibal Buress
First Aid Kit
Rudimental
A Tribe Called Red
Omar Souleyman
The Bouncing Souls
Greensky Bluegrass
Ty Segall
Sarah Jarosz
Vintage Trouble
Okkervil River
White Denim
Jonathan Wilson
Robert DeLong
Cloud Nothings
Typhoon
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
Valerie June
King Khan & The Shrines
Cherub
BANKS
Break Science
The Black Lillies
Real Estate
The Lone Bellow
Caveman
Big Sam’s Funky Nation
Jon Batiste
La Santa Cecilia
Classixx
Allah­Las
Cass McCombs
Vance Joy
Haerts
J. Roddy Walston & The Business
Those Darlins
Deafheaven
Lake Street Dive
St. Paul & The Broken Bones
The Wild Feathers
The Preatures
Blank Range

For many, it’s hard to believe that Band of Horses is making a Newport Folk Festival debut in 2014, but it’s true. On the heels of Acoustic at the Ryman, the band is set to perform at the festival on Friday, July 25—for the first time ever—with its mostly stripped-down set. They’ll be joining previously announced acts like Nickel Creek, Jenny Lewis, Mavis Staples and more.
Tickets are available now, but early bird, two-day and Saturday options are already sold out—so pick up your three-day passes soon. The festival will be held July 25-27 in Newport, R.I. You can check out a list of current performers below, but keep checking back for updates on Newport’s ongoing lineup announcement.

Newport Folk Festival 2014
Band of Horses
Nickel Creek
Mavis Staples
Jenny Lewis
Shovels & Rope
Hurray for the Riff Raff
Death Vessel
Houndmouth
The Oh Hellos
Benjamin Booker

Conor Oberst filed a libel lawsuit in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday stating he was defamed by a fan who wrote online posts stating she was sexually assaulted by the songwriter in 2003.
According to the Associated Press, Oberst’s attorney filed the lawsuit based on claims made in the comment section of an XOJane.com article “It Happened To Me: I Dated a Famous Rockstar & All I Got Was Punched in the Face,” which was written last December. She said Oberst assaulted her a decade ago after Oberst’s brother—her middle school English teacher—introduced the two at a show in North Carolina.
The lawsuit said the media coverage resulting from the posts has damaged Oberst’s music career and that the woman made “despicable, false, outrageous, and defamatory statements” about him.
Oberst said he’d never met her and that she’d written positive things about Oberst and Bright Eyes on social media in the past decade—as recently as January 2013.
According to TMZ, he’s suing for more than $1 million in damages. In his statement, Oberst said all proceeds from the lawsuit will go to charities for victims of domestic violence.
Here’s a copy of the statement released by Oberst’s publicist:

Today Conor Oberst filed a libel lawsuit in a New York federal court against [a woman] who falsely accused him of rape in the comments section of the xoJane website in December of 2013 and again, some days later, on her Tumblr page. The suit counters [her] baseless allegations and states that Oberst never had any physical contact with her, either at the concert in Durham, NC at which she claims the attack took place, or at any other time. The only connection between Oberst and [the woman] was one of artist and fan – a fan who has posted laudatory comments about Oberst elsewhere online, including describing attending his band’s concert as the “Best memory ever!” 

The lawsuit filed today outlines [her] history of inventing stories and personalities online in order to gain attention. Although her false statements about Oberst have since been deleted from the locations where they were initially posted online, Oberst’s suit alleges that her malicious lies spread across the Internet and are archived by multiple blogs. Through his attorneys, Oberst requested that [she] recant her false accusations, but she ignored the requests. Oberst has thus been forced to proceed with this libel suit in order to set the record straight and to clear his name.

Oberst is seeking to promote the truth and repair the distress this has brought upon him and his family. Oberst intends to donate the proceeds of this suit to charities benefitting the victims of violence against women.
Oberst’s new solo album, Upside Down Mountain, is set for a May release.

If you’re a fan of The Roots and SVU, the two will shortly be colliding in a way you might not expect. Yesterday Law and Order: SVU star/rapper Ice T took to Twitter after posting a picture of a cadaver that looked oddly familiar. Surprise—it was none other than Questlove. The photo shows him resting on an examining table with a nasty bullet wound in his head (but that stylish afro pick still remains).
In November, Questlove wrote a piece for Us Weekly called “25 Things You Might Not Know About Me.” In the article, the No. 7 spot is “It’s my fantasy to play a dead body on Law & Order,” and now that dream—tongue-in-cheek or not—is coming true. Although there is not a date specified for the episode, it’s bound to be a must see.
You can catch Questlove alive and well on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and keep your eyes peeled for his debut on SVU.

With a shift toward digital consumption, it’s not common that we hear of many unique, new record stores opening for business. But with vinyl making a comeback in popularity and increased sales in recent years, hopefully we will see more in the same vein as Sub Pop’s most recent effort. The Seattle-based record label is taking steps to open a store at the Tacoma-Seattle International Airport, which will be open year-round for all your travel music needs. We’d expect the store will stock merchandise from the label’s historic lineup and house other Sub Pop goodies.
The store is set to open in April 2014 and the label is already looking for a manager who has “knowledge of the Sub Pop catalog, Pacific Northwest music, the Seattle music community, and the city of Seattle.”

Bruce Springsteen’s showing up for Record Store Day with the release of a new 12” vinyl EP titled American Beauty. It features four previously unreleased songs, three of which are outtakes from the sessions of his latest LP, High Hopes.
But that’s not all The Boss is up to: Springsteen is working on a concert film documenting the multi-artist charity tribute concert that honored him as the 2013 MusiCares Person of the Year. A DVD, Blu-ray and digital download of the concert are set for release on March 25. The show was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Feb. 8, 2013, and featured Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Alabama Shakes, Mavis Staples, Patti Smith and other notable artists covering Springsteen masterpieces.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s American tour kicks off in April. Check out the tracklist for both American Beauty and A MusiCares Tribute To Bruce Springsteen below.
American Beauty Tracklist
1. “American Beauty”
2. “Mary Mary”
3. “Hurry Up Sundown”
4. “Hey Blue Eyes”
A MusiCares Tribute To Bruce Springsteen Tracklist
1. “Adam Raised a Cain” by Alabama Shakes
2. “Because the Night” by Patti Smith
3. “Atlantic City” by Natalie Maines, Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite
4. “American Land” by Ken Casey
5. “My City of Ruins” by Mavis Staples and Zac Brown
6. “I’m On Fire” by Mumford and Sons
7. “American Skin (41 Shots)” by Jackson Browne and Tom Morello
8. “My Hometown” by Emmylou Harris
9. “One Step Up” by Kenny Chesney
10. “Streets of Philadelphia” by Elton John
11. “Hungry Heart” by Juanes
12. “Tougher Than the Rest” by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
13. “The Ghost of Tom Joad” by Jim James and Tom Morello
14. “Dancing in the Dark” by John Legend
15. “Lonesome Day” by Sting
16. “Born in the U.S.A.” by Neil Young with Crazy Horse
17. “We Take Care of Our Own” by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
18. “Death to My Hometown” by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
19. “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
20. “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
21. “Glory Days” by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and cast ensemble

The Hangout Music Fest added to its lineup today with the announcement of more notable acts, which included Gary Clark Jr. and the Alabama-based St. Paul & the Broken Bones.
Other acts include Matt & Kim, Dawes, Ozomatli, Tommy Trash, The Tontons, Caked Up, Empires, Black Cadillacs and The Electric Sons. These artists join a list of previously announced acts that include: Outkast, The Black Keys, The Avett Brothers, Modest Mouse, Queens of the Stone Age and many more.
The Hangout Music Fest takes place May 16-18 on the beach in Gulf Shores, Ala. General admission and VIP tickets can be ordered at the Hangout Music Fest website.

An Instagram video post with the words “26 FEB, 9AM” with flashing photos of Liam and Noel Gallagher in the background set the Internet off with rumors of a possible Oasis reunion.
Sadly, that wasn’t the news, but get giddy for this: Oasis has announced a reissue of its first three studio albums, Definitely Maybe, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and Be Here Now, called Chasing The Sun, in honor of the 20th Anniversary of their musical debut.
The first of the reissues, Definitely Maybe, will be released May 20 via Big Brother Recordings, and is said to include “rare and unseen footage” and “previously unheard tracks.” The remastered version of the album will be available in a three-disc special edition CD, digital download, a 12-inch LP featuring the bonus content, and a box set of all of those formats combined.
For nostalgic purposes, they’re issuing a limited number of replica cassettes (!) of the Original 1993 Demos, sold by Oasis before they were officially signed.
And if you haven’t had enough Oasis yet, the band will also release a 12-inch of their single “Supersonic” for Record Store Day on April 19.
All of this is available for preorder through Oasis’ website.
The Chasing The Sun editions of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and Be Here Now will also be reissued sometime this year, though a date has not been set.
Check out the trailer for Chasing The Sun, as well as the tracklist for the Definitely Maybe reissue, the Definitely Maybe: Original 1993 Demos and the 12-inch vinyl of “Supersonic” below.



Definitely Maybe Disc 1
1. Rock ‘n’ Roll Star

2. Shakemaker
3. Live Forever
4. Up In The Sky
5. Columbia

6. Supersonic
7. Bring It On Down
8. Cigarettes & Alcohol
9. Digsy’s Diner
10. Slide Away
11. Married With Children
Definitely Maybe Disc 2
1. Columbia (White Label Demo)
2. Cigarettes & Alcohol (Demo)
3. Sad Song
4. I Will Believe (Live)
5. Take Me Away
6. Alive (Demo)
7. D’Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman?
8. Supersonic
9. Up In The Sky (Acoustic)
10. Cloudburst
11. Fade Away
12. Listen Up
13. I Am The Walrus (Live Glasgow Cathouse June ‘94)
14. Whatever
15. (It’s Good) To Be Free
16. Half The World Away
Definitely Maybe Disc 3
1. Supersonic (Live At Glasgow Tramshed)
2. Rock ‘n’ Roll Star (Demo)
3. Shakemaker (Live Paris in-store)
4. Columbia (Eden Studios Mix)
5. Cloudburst (Demo)
6. Strange Thing (Demo)
7. Live Forever (Live Paris in-store)
8. Cigarettes & Alcohol (Live At Manchester Academy)
9. D’Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman? (Live At Manchester Academy)
10. Fade Away (Demo)
11. Take Me Away (Live At Manchester Academy)
12. Sad Song (Live At Manchester Academy)
13. Half The World Away (Live, Tokyo hotel room)
14. Digsy’s Diner (Live, Paris in-store)
15. Married With Children (Demo)
16. Up In The Sky (Live Paris in-store)
17. Whatever (Strings)
Original 1993 Demos Cassette
Side One
1. Cloudburst
2. Columbia
3. D’Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman?
4. Strange Thing
Side Two
1. Bring It On Down
2. Married With Children
3. Fade Away
4. Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
“Supersonic” 12-inch
A: Supersonic
B1: Take Me Away
B2: I Will Believe (Live)

After LCD Soundsystem’s final run of shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden, which was documented in the concert film Shut Up and Play the Hits, the band is finally gearing up to put a cap on its final 2011 concert with a massive, five-LP box set titled The Long Goodbye. The set will feature the full, uncut recording of the band’s final Madison Square Garden concert, which ran at nearly four hours long.
The concert was produced and mixed by frontman James Murphy. The box is set for a Record Store Day release on April 19 and a wide retail release on May 20. There’s no details on the current price—but with five LPs, you might want to start stashing some cash aside for the April release.
Check out the tracklist below, where you can also see a video of “Losing My Edge” from the show.



The Long Goodbye Tracklist
Dance Yrself Clean
Drunk Girls
I Can Change
Time To Get Away
Get Innocuous!
Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
Too Much Love
All My Friends
Tired / Heart Of The Sunrise
45:33 Intro
You Can’t Hide (Shame On You)
Sound Of Silver
Out In Space
Ships Talking
Freak Out / Starry Eyes
Us v Them
North American Scum
Bye Bye Bayou
You Wanted A Hit
Tribulations
Movement
Yeah
Someone Great
Losing My Edge
Home
All I Want
Jump Into The Fire
New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

Adam Driver of Girls fame has been reported as the new villain for Star Wars: Episode VII—a character who will apparently send any hero back to their parents covered in trash compactor goo.
Variety’s got the scoop, and while writer Justin Kroll says no deal is finished, he states Driver’s close to signing for a part that’s “in the vein of iconic Star Wars villain Darth Vader.” As Variety points out, he’s the first cast member to be near-official for the next Star Wars film, which takes place after Return of the Jedi.
True Driver fans, though, will appreciate that he teased the role last year in Inside Llewyn Davis—some of his only lines included the words “outer space.”