Sweet new way to create electronic music.

Could've used this at SXSW.

Southern Cali thrash-metal legends Slayer are branching out into motorcycle-helmet designing. Working with O'Neal USA, the band known for classics like Reign in Blood and South of Heaven and being sampled by Public Enemy on "She Watch Channel Zero?!" lent their memorable artwork to the RockHard line of helmets, which go on sale Feb. 25.

Remember, God Hates Us All, so best wear something that's gonna protect your noggin while riding your boss hog.

You can read the full press release after the jump.

For your next trés-chic electronic-music party (or rave, if you still go to them), you may want to don this doozy of an invention: the beat dress.

Gearfuse's Sean Fallon breaks down the components of this fabulous garment for you:

“The spectacular 'Beat Dress' seen above was part of a project conducted for a Fashion and Technology course at the School of Arts and Communication at Malmö University. The light show comes courtesy of 10 detachable patches on the dress that are equipped with 10 LEDs. There is also a microphone and a small equalizer connected to a microcomputer that picks up ambient sounds or music. When detected, the computer instructs the LEDs to light up in time with the beat. The cool 3D effect is produced by two layers of see-through cloth and a single layer of nylon that help to 'spread the light from the LEDs to larger clusters.'”

Gives new meaning to the compliment, “You look radiant.”

(Thanks to bailee for the tip.)

It’s Guitar Hero on your cell phone! (kind of)

AT&T has announced it’s launch of the new cell phone game GuitarStar.

Modeled after the video game phenomenon, GuitarStar uses similar beat matching technology, instructing players to “catch” guitar picks flying across the screen’s cross hairs design in time with the music.

The better your hand-eye coordination, the faster you can rise from lowly garage band to stadium superstar, and high scores grant access to new songs of increasing difficulty.

AdME, GuitarStar’s developer, says the game is “the first mobile game fully capable of synchronizing visual movements with the beat of the underlying musical sound track in order to significantly amplify the player’s level of gaming engagement.”

As for character choices, you can pick from either a rock-cliche cartoon or a member of an actual band (available for download). Several emerging bands that have signed on to be part of GuitarStar include Hoopla, Bowling Gnomes, The Carps, Mankind Is Obsolete, and The Daily Pravda.

Never heard of them?
Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll get some bigger names as things get rolling.

*Sidenote: Upon researching, I’ve discovered that The Carps kick a decent amount of ass.

With the iTube, from the British company Fatman. This seems like the iDeal compromise between digital convenience and analog sonic warmth.