FEATURES
2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L Chassis Deep-Dive: Don’t Call Me Giorgio
Executives on hand at the unveiling of the 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L were uncharacteristically tight-lipped about their new baby’s architectural pedigree, as if loose lips risked sinking their just-christened ship. Now that trucks are rolling off the newly refitted Detroit Assembly Complex Mack Plant, Jeep veep Jim Morrison finally divulged some family tree details about the Grand Cherokee’s all-new WL platform. See all 117 photos An All New Platform Okay, there’s nothing entirely new under the sun, and surely a few bolts, bits, and bobs carry over, but Jim swears this architecture essentially started from a clean sheet. The team that designed it was, of course, intimately familiar with the Giorgio platform that underpins the Alfa Romeo Stelvio (and Giulia sedan) and pre...
Song of the Week: Tyler, the Creator Returns With the Towering “LUMBERJACK”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Tyler, the Creator returns with a new offering and an album announcement. After mocking Eminem for choosing the “worst beats ever,” you’d expect Tyler, the Creator to put his samples where his speakers are. Enter “Lumberjack,” the first preview of his just-announced upcoming album Call Me If You Get Lost. The beat drops faster than you can shout “Timber!” with a driving loop cribbed from Gravediggaz’s 1994 cut “2 Cups of Blood.” Throughout, Tyler hits pause and rewind, and for additional variety, the music video and digital versio...
Composer Dan Romer on How a ’90s Weezer Song Inspired His Emotional Score For Pixar’s Luca
At its heart, Pixar’s latest, Luca, is a film about adventure: the fear and thrill of stepping outside of your comfort zone, throwing caution to the wind, and experiencing the world outside your door. In the case of the film’s titular sea creature (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) that adventure comes from an unforgettable summer spent with a rambunctious fellow sea monster named Alberto (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer) in the sleepy Italian seaside town of Portorosso. Together, the two trade their fins for legs, learn to fit in with the rest of the island’s colorful characters, and dream of freedom and possibility — and owning a Vespa. Fitting, then, that director Enrico Cosarosa would tap one of contemporary film music’s most adventurous composers, Dan Romer, to provide the score for Luc...
Heavy Culture: Palaceburn Singer Meredith Bell and Hyro the Hero on Juneteenth and Being Black in America
Heavy Culture is a monthly column from journalist Liz Ramanand, focusing on artists of different cultural backgrounds in heavy music, as they offer their perspectives on race, society, and more as it intersects with and affects their craft. The latest installment of this column features Palaceburn singer Meredith Bell and Hyro the Hero and focuses on Juneteenth and other topics. Juneteenth has just been declared a federal holiday in the United States by the Biden administration. The day, marked on June 19th, commemorates the end of slavery as the date the last remaining slaves in Texas learned of their freedom in 1865, two years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Philadelphia-based Palaceburn began their music journey with their EPs The Awakening in 2013 and Curs...
Here’s Every Tesla We’ve Tested So Far
We can largely thank Tesla for making electric vehicles exciting. From the original Roadster to the more practical and mass-market Model 3, Tesla hasn’t missed a beat in creating vehicles that are quick, nimble, and technologically advanced. While other automakers will be flooding the market with high-performance EVs in the coming years, we’ll always appreciate Tesla for beginning the charge. And though there’s no shortage of turmoil at the company these days, Tesla remains committed to high performance, promising a host of new vehicles including the Model Y SUV and next-gen Roadster. To see how the carmaker has evolved over the last decade, keep reading for a list of all the Tesla vehicles we’ve ever tested. 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport See all 9 photos 0-60: 3.7 seco...
Cascada’s Natalie Horler on the Future of Hard Dance Music and Predicting “Evacuate The Dancefloor” Success
Since Cascada’s inception in 2004, they have sold more than 30 million records worldwide. Their iconic track “Everytime We Touch” has garnered over 200 million views on YouTube, where the group has amassed a total of over 1 billion views. They represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013 and are the third most successful act from Germany of the 21st century. The list of accolades goes on. When Cascada vocalist Natalie Horler first got started in the music industry at the age of 17, she was doing a lot of toplining for producers. She’d get paid in cash and then go on her way to the next gig, until she met her Cascade bandmates, DJ Manian, and Yann Peifer. Since she was so young, inexperienced, and nervous, Horler was not comfortable singing in front ...
Underground Vibes | 068
“Come & Go“ Ft. Noa Angell – Kleak & Veebu Italian production duo Kleak & Veebu are well on their way towards establishing themselves in the scene, and their latest collaboration with Noa Angell, titled “Come & Go” might be one of their best singles to date with its bright melodies and stunning vocals. “Phases” – Redrum Redrum has arrived on SSKWAN and previews her upcoming EP Pisces Moon with “Phases,” an experimental bass gem filled with wonky percussion, impressive arpeggios and hard-hitting drums. “Glacier” – Floret Loret & Silva Boundary pushing producer Floret Loret debut’s on Quality Goods Records’ Quality Vibes series with “Glacier” alongside Silva, a truly mind-bending production. “Dont Look Down” Ft. Vana – MICA Coming to rising record ...
Jeep’s Hands-Free Driving Tech Sets Its Sights on Super Cruise and BlueCruise
Adaptive cruise control is so 2020. It’s the price of entry for vehicles above a certain price point, and indeed every trim level of the 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L gets this advanced driver assistance feature. To really wow buyers, automakers must offer a hands-free system like GM’s Super Cruise or Ford’s BlueCruise, the latter of which is just rolling out. With the launch of the 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L, most of the pieces of Stellantis’ answer to these systems are in place by way of the automaker’s new Active Driving Assist feature, but the full hands-free variant is still some months off. How Active Driving Assist Works What separates Active Driving Assist from plain old adaptive cruise control is a more sophisticated sensor suite that involves camer...
How Gasoline Engines Can Survive in an Electric Car Future
Combustion engines won’t completely disappear any time soon, if ever. Certain transportation tasks or operating environments simply don’t lend themselves to battery– or hydrogen-powered electric propulsion. A century and a half of research and development has greatly increased the efficiency of combustion engines, and engineers have loads of additional tricks up their sleeves that promise to extract even more work from a molecule of fuel while producing even fewer harmful emissions. Here are but a few we’re keeping our eyes on, listed in order of complexity and cost to implement. A 98-Octane Fuel Standard Simply being able to design an engine to run 15:1 or higher compression greatly improves its thermodynamic efficiency and power density, permitting further e...
Spotify launches Clubhouse competitor Greenroom
Spotify’s live audio app, Greenroom, formally launches today on iOS and Android, marking the company’s first real attempt at creating a social media platform. The social audio app, which is similar to Clubhouse, allows users to host live conversations about sports, music, and culture. Today’s launch doesn’t come with a marquee creator announcement or specific event planned, but instead, the company is taking the opportunity to encourage people to sign up and figure out how they’ll want to use the app. Some of its core functionality, a person close to the situation says, will eventually make its way to the actual Spotify app, so the team will monitor what happens in Greenroom closely. The app is built on Locker Room, which Betty Labs created and Spotify acquired in March. That app focused s...
The EV Tech That Will Improve Range, Cost, and Environmental Impact
With most crystal balls indicating an impending mad dash toward widespread adoption of electric cars, the R&D community is working overtime to solve the thorny problems limiting the market penetration of plug-in vehicles to around 4 percent of global passenger vehicle sales: not enough range or raw materials, and too much mass and cost. Here are some key advances to watch for in battery, fuel cell, and electric motor technology. Battery Tech Today’s lithium-ion batteries mostly use lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide chemistry with a liquid or gel electrolyte. This stuff can freeze or catch fire, lithium “dendrite” spikes can form and cause a short circuit if the battery is charged too quickly, and cobalt is rare, expensive, and increasingly difficult to source ethi...
Roger Waters’ 8 Most Incendiary Quotes
It’s been over 35 years since ex-Pink Floyd bassist and lyricist Roger Waters left the band that made him famous, but he’s still finding ways to keep himself busy. Outspoken and irreverent, Waters’ career as a solo musician has been underscored by his shocking quotes about world politics, whether he’s defending Palestine or lashing out at Donald Trump. Amid creative differences, the founding member left Pink Floyd in 1985. Since then, he’s put music under his own name pretty steadily, from his 1992 art rock opus Amused to Death to his classical works like Ça Ira. But no matter what he’s working on in the music world, Waters always has time to speak his mind — for better or for worse. Related Video Below, we’ve rounded up just eight of his most incendiary quotes over the past year and a hal...
