5 songs you need to stream this week: Conor Oberst, Gorillaz, and more

Every week, there are thousands of new songs hitting the airwaves — and it’s just too much for your two ears to handle. With all those options, you can’t be wasting your time on tracks that deserve a thumbs-down click.

But don’t worry, we’re going to save you the hassle. We listen to some of the most-hyped and interesting songs each week, and tell you which are worthy of your precious listening time.

More: Spotify vs. Apple Music: Which service is the streaming king?

Here are our top five songs to stream this week. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our Spotify page for a playlist of our weekly picks, which can also be found at the bottom of this post.

Conor Oberst — Barbary Coast (Later)

Bright Eyes songwriter Conor Oberst is famed for his gorgeous and wordy ballads, and Barbary Coast (Later), a single off his Salutations album is no exception. A simple guitar melody and drumbeat join with image-heavy lyrics like, “Try to lose myself/in the primitive/in Yosemite/like John Muir did/but his eyes were blue/and mine are red and raw.” It’s a combination of words and music that grabs your ears and refuses to let go.

Gorillaz — Let Me Out (Feat. Pusha T and Mavis Staples)

This week marked the release of the fourth song from famed electronic band Gorillaz’ upcoming album Humanz, and so far each new one seems to boast an entirely different set of musical influences. On the latest single, Let Me Out, there’s an awesome mid-2000s Kanye West vibe going on, with slow-paced lyrics from West collaborator Pusha T and a soul-influenced hook from vocalist Mavis Staples.

Big Thief — Mythological Beauty

We’ve been fans of Brooklyn-based band Big Thief ever since we first heard their fantastic album Masterpiece last year, and were extremely happy to hear the recent news that the band has another LP, called Capacity, coming soon. The first new single from that record, Mythological Beauty, showcases the same use of musical layers we loved on Masterpiece, with Fender Rhodes, guitars and the smooth, round vocal tone of songwriter Adrianne Lenker transporting you to a land far away.

Middle Kids — Edge of Town (and More)

Australian rockers Middle Kids nailed their recent appearance on Seattle’s KEXP radio, performing their hit single Edge of Town live with a raucous and upbeat energy. Though they’re a newer band to the world stage, this live video shows just why they’ve seen such a quick rise to popularity around the globe. This clean and poised performance  seems sure to grab them more fans.

Nite Jewel — The Answer

Your night driving cut of the week comes via songwriter Ramona Gonzalez, whose Nite Jewel project has been putting out fantastic electronic songs for years. On The Answer, a four-on-the-floor beat supports the ethereal synthesizer lines above, with Gonzalez’s shimmering vocals putting a bow on the whole musical package.

That’s it for now, but tune in next week for more tunes — and check out the playlist loaded with our recent selections below:

Your shoelaces will thank you — Chainless is a new kind of bike sans chains

Why it matters to you

Chains on bikes can be frustrating — they rust, they break, and more. But the Chainless wants to do away with the headache once and for all.

Take a closer look at this bike. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. This is indeed a chainless bicycle known as Chainless, powered instead by tungsten gears and RTS technology. And without chains, that means no worries about rusting parts, caught shoelaces, or snapping hardware — really, your bike riding experience may never be the same.

“I was sick of bicycle chain maintenance and wanted to develop a chainless bicycle,” Chainless creator Sean Chan said. “After several years of prototypes and engineering help from my father the Chainless was born and ready to be shown to the world.” Chan is preparing to launch the Chainless via a Kickstarter campaign in the next few days, in which he hopes to raise $75,000.

In designing the bike, Chan noted that he wanted to satisfy four key metrics — comfort, versatility, portability, and of course, chainless-ness. The bicycle is fully adjustable, making rider optimization a breeze, and the lightweight and compact design of the Chainless means that city riders can easily carry the bike up and down stairs or store it in a closet. And finally, without the presence of chains, Chan says, there’s no need to worry about links breaking or loosening — bike maintenance is almost too easy.

More: Propella introduces a lighter, more agile e-bike to attract more traditional cyclists

So how exactly does the chainless technology work? As Chan explains, the Chainless replaces the traditional bike mechanism with a series of tungsten gears, which won’t rust and never have to be oiled. But just because there are no chains doesn’t mean this bike can’t compete with the best of them — the wheels of Chainless are constructed from a high density magnesium alloy, and come in three sizes: 20-inch, 24-inch, and 26-inch.

And thanks to both front and rear disc brakes, the Chainless claims to be able to stop on a dime. Finally, with the Chainless’ Lock-N-Go mechanism, you can fold your bike in half for storage in just 15 seconds, so you can take it anywhere you need to go.

Once launched on Kickstarter, you’ll be able to pre-order a Chainless for the early bird price of $799, with an estimated delivery date of November.

Android feeds my constant yearning for something better

Constant change is music for my soul. Android’s frenetic pace of change fuels that.

Grado’s SR125e, a newer version of the classic.

When I was a teenager, I bought headphones. As many internet-addled 15 year-olds do, I found gaming (Diablo 2) and I found forums, one of which was head-fi.org. It’s still running today — it’s great, you should go! — but back in the early 2000’s it was home to a few thousand people really obsessed with pairing great music with equipment that evoked its Platonic ideal, its highest fidelity.

I got hooked. I started small, as obsessions often do, but at my peak — and remember, I was 15 or 16 years old, with very little disposable income — I had seven or eight pairs of very good, carefully-picked headphones to pair with music tastes that, in retrospect, were not that discerning. I wasn’t particularly interested in listening to Brahm’s Violin Concerto on my Sennheiser HD600s, nor test the soundstage of a deluxe pressing of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue on a pair of Grado SR125s. My musical world was small and fragile, but I kept yearning to find ways to eke the best possible sound from Radiohead’s OK Computer and Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick (I inherited my dad’s taste for weird, early 70’s prog rock). I would replace one set of headphones with another, constantly trying to contrive the perfect three-minute window to whatever profound truth was awaiting me on the other side.

Being dissatisfied with what you have isn’t good, but trying to improve what you have is empowering.

Today, that same quest for perfection continues to propel me forward, but my canvas has changed: the perfect cup of coffee; the right watch; the ideal phone. In fact, I turned that longing for something better into a career (I’m a lucky guy), and the disorder that is my office will attest to that fact that I don’t remain contented for long. Part of that is the job itself — I’m always testing a new phone — but part is something else, a driving need to find the right phone, the right experience to fit into my life.

What I didn’t realize until now, though, was that with every new Android phone I now immediately try to recreate the same experience. Call it the minimalist in me — really, call it getting older — but I’ve pared down my digital life to 20 or so apps and services, and now use the same home screen layout (a saved Nova Launcher backup) on every phone.

You’d think that would be where creativity goes to die, but of course, being me, I’ve found a new canvas to obsess over. Because I have unified the look and feel of my homescreen across all devices, I have turned to wallpapers and icon packs as a new outlet. I’ve spent more money on icon packs that I have on apps this month as I, predictably, try to find the perfect combination of 15 icons that, without speaking, says everything about me. Here’s the thing, though: minimalism is hard, and it takes a lot of work. A finished canvas is as much about the silence, the empty space, as it is about the music or the paint. I keep thinking I’m finished with this little project only to find that I have just started, and am far less satisfied than I was at the beginning. (My favorite icon packs right now: Dives, Pixel Icon Pack, Glim, Orbit UI, and Polycon.)

And I’m fine with that, because playing with headphones, with phones, with the minutiae of icon packs, all fulfil the same psychological purpose: to strive, to tweak, and to discover something better. I know enough about myself to channel that nervous energy into small projects, so the big ones — building a good life, raising a family — feel a little more manageable.

A few other thoughts for this Sunday:

• You may have caught a Galaxy S8 post that was taken down. I’m happy to explain exactly what happened once the phone is more widely available, but it’s pretty easy to read between the lines: Samsung is very excited about this phone.
• We recorded a really great podcast this week all about the Galaxy S8 and what it means for Samsung’s future products, including the Note 8.
• I got some pushback over the article I wrote about how OnePlus is doing everything right lately. Namely, that I didn’t address in detail the company’s propensity to discard its old phones as soon as its newer ones are released. I’ve spoken to the company about this numerous times, and while the OnePlus One is likely dead in the water due to the complicated relationship with Cyanogen, the OnePlus 2 is very much alive, and the newly-consolidated software team is working to make Nougat happen. After that — who knows.
• This phone is ridiculous. I got to play with it briefly when the AC team converged in New York, and my goodness — the excess is real.
• I don’t really know what to make of Comcast’s opening salvo into wireless. The company will never take on the Big Four directly — even if it buys spectrum in the 600MHz auction, it will never have enough to launch a wireless network of its own — but the move feels inevitable, if only because when you’re a bloated, vertically-integrated, pseudo-monopoly like Comcast, you have to offer the proper connectivity bundle of internet, TV and wireless or you can’t call yourself a true enemy of Net Neutrality.
• I’m kind of bummed this isn’t coming to the U.S. I’ve been using the Huawei P10 Plus for the past few days, and I really like it.
• Jerry has a very smart take on the future of Android, why its open-source nature is becoming less and less aligned with Google’s business goals.
• Feels good to write about the Canadian wireless market every once in a while. It’s so different (and less exciting) than the American equivalent, but it’s home, and home feels good.

Hope you’re all comfortable in your home today. Have a great Sunday!

-Daniel