Nine Inch Nails once again shatters the commonplace with a new album and a middle finger to the record industry.  NIN’s newest album, The Slip, was released today — for free — online.  The album includes ten tracks for a total length of 43:45.  The album is available in standard mp3 format and all the way up to audiophile quality 24-bit, 96kHz .wav format.  If you’re a NIN fan, or want your own piece of history, go ahead and download The Slip and celebrate the beginning of the end for the RIAA.

Buy: $Free

(image courtesy: ceasar sebastian)

Coachella, one of the premier annual music festivals in the world, starts in just a few hours…  From today, April 25th through Sunday, April 27th, the top names in music touch down near Joshua Tree, outside of Los Angeles, California.  Names like The Verve, Jack Johnson, Aphex Twin, FatBoy Slim, Aesop Rock and more are on tonight.  If by some chance you can’t make it, there’s plenty more to come tomorrow and Sunday.  Portishead, Prince, Kraftwerk, Roger Waters, Justice and more are to come.  If you live in the LA area, get yourself a ticket– scalped or premium.  This is one show you don’t want to miss.  If you’re outside of LA, its worth the last minute trip.  Get yourself a flight to LA and sneak your way in if you have to…

More: Coachella.com.

No, you’re not looking at a first generation iPod flipped upside-down, you’re looking at the ultimate in DJ expression tools, the Korg Kaossilator. The Kaossilator is a “dynamic phrase synthesizer”, which is music geek for “really awesome music thing”. You control an array of sounds, beats and musical phrases with the touch of a finger. You don’t need piano lessons to use this baby– just slide and tap your finger around the touchpad for a brilliant aural response. You can tap out the synth tones from classic dance and hip hop tracks, or even invent your own. Musician or not, this thing will quickly become your new hobby.

Buy: $199 (available May 10th)

Like any piece of music gear, you’ll want to see and hear this baby to believe it. Worry not, we’ve got a YouTube vid after the jump…

MF Doom once referred to himself as a “keen drum machine buff who fiends for more green stuff”. Too Chez, Mr. Dumile, your humble GearCrave editor could be described as the same. Doom and other hip hop greats like Kanye West, DJ Premier, Just Blaze and Hi Tek owe a lot of their sound to that drum machine above, the MPC 2000 and its family. The MPC, or MIDI Production Center, could be considered the heart of hip hop. It took the torch from the classic SP1200 sampler as the beatmaker of choice of hip hop’s greatest producers. If you’ve heard a hip hop beat in the last 20 years, chances are it was made with this machine…

Designer Bill McMullen has immortalized the MPC in rings of sterling silver (above) and gold. This run of silver is sold out, but the gold-plated era edition remains in stock. For those who wish to rock their street cred on their fingers, get this MPC drum machine ring while its hot… [hipyoungthing]

Buy: $225

The iPod is great on the go, no question about it. But at home, are you really going to settle for an iPod as the center of your home media environment? A one-and-a-half inch screen and a 1/4″ analog output is little more than an insult to the history of home hifi. Thanks to Sooloos, you’ve now got a life-size “iMusic” system for your home. Sooloos includes a media server, a dedicated touch-screen control system and a powerful, easy software system running it all. The touch-screen control can quickly become the center of interest at your next party, the ultimate juke box for your wild parties. And yes, the pretty brunette above comes standard with all Sooloos systems…

Buy: TBA

The lifetime you’ve spent listening to music has been a blur. The unfortunate part is that you may not be aware of the problem. There’s a new world of music in all the albums you’ve listened to since the first record you bought on your own. To really understand the difference, I suggest a little experiment. Take your current headphones, coat the speakers with Vaseline, then listen. The difference these Austrian made AKG K701s make is identical, but in the opposite direction. Consider it this way– without having heard your music from the audiophile perspective, your ears have been coated in Vaseline until today.

We’re not saying the K701s are the end-all-be-all of audiophile music listening, they are a damn good start. If you’re looking for the right pair of headphones to explore your musical past, the K701s are it. These open-back studio headphones will have you blowing the dust off your old CDs and LPs and listening on repeat. You owe it to yourself to give this a thought– because until now, you’ve been committing the original sin of iPhone earbuds… for shame.

Buy: $265.99

We’ve been Pandora.com fans for some time now. Fans, yes– but not without a few complaints. After a while, Pandora’s playlists can get a little stale, especially when you have niche tastes like we do. GearCrave reader Dave told us to give a newer service called Slacker.com a try. We did, and we enjoyed. Slacker is a user customizable internet radio service where members can listen to genre, artist, DJ, and user-defined radio stations. Like Pandora, there are “skip ahead” limitations– with Slacker, registered users can only fast forward 6 times per hour. We can’t fault Slacker for that, however, as those decisions are made by everyone’s favorite litigious bastards, the RIAA. We suggest giving Slacker a shot. Its kept us entertained and working happily for the few days we’ve been using it, we think you’ll enjoy it too.

Visit: Slacker.com.

This week, GearCrave asked Bill Keyser of GoodCans.com a few questions about headphones. We absolutely love our music, but we needed expert advice on how to get the most out of our audio experience. In other words, our standard iPod earbuds aren’t cutting it… Bill Keyser is one of the top names in audiophile headphones on the web. We gave Bill the GearCrave soap box to share with us his take on some good, better, and best headphones available from his own store. Wisely, Bill suggested we move past names like Sony, Sennheiser, and AKG for this one and take a look at one of the top boutique headphone manufacturers on the planet– Grado Headphones. Continue reading for Bill’s sound advice on audiophile headphones.

Say what you want to about the midwest, but Chicago is a seriously hip oasis in the middle of the corn and soybean fields that stretch out endlessly along the horizon between Detroit and St. Louis. If you haven’t been to the windy city in a while, check out your frequent flyer miles and plan a trip now that the weather has finally changed from subzero frozen hell to…whatever it’s gonna be this week. GearCrave has the scoop on some hot places to visit. We assume you already know about the Field Museum and the Art Institute, we won’t waste your time there. After the jump, check out part one of two for a weekend getaway to Chicago. In this installment, we’ll show you where to shop and where to party like the locals…

The chumby will quickly become your best friend. It broadcasts your favorite news, photos, music, weather, box scores, blogs, and much more over your wireless internet connection. It doubles as an alarm clock, making for the first truly personalized way to wake up. The chumby network provides widgets such as music, games, movie previews, customized alarm clocks and even prizes. The best part of the chumby network, it’s totally free. No annual fees, for subscription fees, it’s really free. Just plug it in to an AC outlet and watch the gorgeous 3.5″ LCD color touchscreen come to life.

Buy: $179.00.