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J. Cole is days away from releasing his latest album, The Fall-Off, on February 6. The way Uproxx’s Jeremy Hecht sees it, he thinks Cole is retiring after this project, but he hopes to do so having accomplished one final goal.

In a new video, Hecht starts, “We all know that Cole dropped out of the battle with Drake and Kendrick, and with that, he did give up his ability to gain the crown as the greatest rapper alive. Some people like Fat Joe can’t even listen to his upcoming project, and I think that’s stupid: I’m excited for the album and I’m gonna listen to it. But I do agree that he has given up the chase of the throne. But I don’t think Cole cares at all. I think he only has one last mission.”

He explains:

“In front of his new song, “Disc 2 Track 2,” Cole put a message that I think a lot of people skipped over. He said that for the past ten years, he’s been giving himself a single challenge: to create his best album yet. He said he wants to do on his last what he was unable to do on his first.”

Jeremy goes on to discuss how Cole previously talked about wanting his first album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, to be a hip-hop classic. In his opinion, though, Cole missed the mark on that particular release. Jeremy concludes by saying there’s “no question” that Cole retires after dropping next week’s album:

“We might get another mixtape and we might get a tour so that he can sell out Wrigley like he said. But before he does that and before he rides off into the sunset on his bike, he wants to drop an undeniable classic album. I think he already has it with 2014 Forest Hills Drive, but this is Cole’s mission.”

Check out the video above.

In recent days, the Recording Academy has been gradually rolling out its list of performers for the 2026 Grammy Awards (set to air on February 1). Today (January 30), days before the ceremony, they added one more name to the list: Bruno Mars. As Billboard notes, he’s the last performer that will be announced.

He joins a performance lineup that also includes Addison Rae; Alex Warren; Andrew Watt; Brandy Clark; Chad Smith; Clipse; Duff McKagan; Justin Bieber; KATSEYE; Lady Gaga; Leon Thomas; Lola Young; Lukas Nelson; Ms. Lauryn Hill; Olivia Dean; Pharrell Williams; Post Malone; Reba McEntire; Rosé; Sabrina Carpenter; Slash; Sombr; The Marías; and Tyler, The Creator.

It’s a big day for Mars news, as also today, he was announced as this year’s Record Store Day ambassador.

Check out the categories in which Mars is nominated below and find the full list of nominations here.

Record Of The Year

Bad Bunny — “DtMF”
Sabrina Carpenter — “Manchild”
Doechii — “Anxiety”
Billie Eilish — “WILDFLOWER”
Lady Gaga — “Abracadabra”
Kendrick Lamar and SZA — “luther”
Chappell Roan — “The Subway”
Rosé and Bruno Mars — “APT.”

Song Of The Year

Lady Gaga — “Abracadabra”
Doechii — “Anxiety”
Rosé and Bruno Mars — “APT.”
Bad Bunny — “DtMF”
HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI — “Golden [From ‘KPop Demon Hunters’]”
Kendrick Lamar and SZA — “luther”
Sabrina Carpenter — “Manchild”
Billie Eilish — “WILDFLOWER”

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande — “Defying Gravity”
HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI — “Golden [From ‘KPop Demon Hunters’]”
KATSEYE — “Gabriela”
Rosé and Bruno Mars — “APT.”
SZA Featuring Kendrick Lamar — “30 For 30”

In 2025, we received exceptional projects from Black women in electronic dance music: Kelela equipping her talents for an enchanting jazz-filled live album, hypnotic club grooves from Rochelle Jordan, Amaarae’s ode to Black diasporic dance music, Sudan Archives’ sensual fusion of techno and house, two albums by FKA Twigs for the pregame/afters, and keiyaA’s layered experimental sophomore album.

These projects are often applauded by other Black women and femmes while simultaneously acknowledging the reclamation of dance music’s inherently Black roots. In the music industry, Black women have to work twice as hard to bend the limitations of genres, and that notion is understood by PinkPantheress: “People are less willing to listen to electronic music that is made by a Black woman,” she said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

The 24-year-old singer-songwriter refers to herself as a producer first, crediting her days using GarageBand as the foundation of her artistry. Billboard doubled down on this by awarding her the Producer Of The Year award at the 2024 Billboard Women In Music ceremony. In her speech, she mentioned that it took “a lot in the [two-step drum and bass] genre to be recognized on a wider scale.” Filled with gratitude and visibly flustered after receiving the award, she also reaffirmed that it’s common for herself and other Black women to not be taken seriously in the electronic dance music business.

Nearly two years later, PinkPantheress received her first two Grammy nominations, in the Best Dance Pop Recording and Best Dance/Electronic Record categories. If you revisit her two prior projects — To Hell with It and Heaven Knows — a Grammy nomination was clearly in the cards.

Fancy That, PinkPantheress’ second mixtape, is a concise 20 minutes of booming club bangers and playful lyricism. Its lead single, “Tonight,” was previewed on TikTok in mid-March and commenced the progressive thrill for her next album, which arrived in early May. Not like PinkPantheress needs this adrenaline rush from digital virality — her charm and tendency to be online allows her to connect with her fan base in an accessible fashion.

Notoriously known as Gen Z’s pop star princess, PinkPantheress blends breakbeat, jungle, UK garage, drum and bass, two-step, and pop, accompanied by lyrics that directly explore death, love, and desire. Her clever samples on Fancy That range from Florida rapper Nardo Wick on “Noises” to Panic! At The Disco on “Tonight,” furthering evidence from prior projects that she’s a skilled archivist for resurrecting timeless tracks on a funky beat.

The album transported listeners into a glimpse of PinkPantheress’ childhood — filled with UK garage and adorned with Y2K accessories — and its admiration glided through summer into fall following the October release of a star-studded remix album. Walking down the path paved by pioneers like Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, and Destiny’s Child and continued by modern songstresses Kelela, Rochelle Jordan, and Tinashe, PinkPantheress’ talent for remixing all three of her projects is a rare skill. Featuring collaborations with Basement Jaxx, Kaytranada, Seventeen, Zara Larsson, JT, Kylie Minogue, and other artists, DJs, and producers, Fancy Some More? is bound to make you boogie more than its predecessor.

In an interview with Complex, PinkPantheress lamented about the connection between online stardom and the hurdles she encounters, such as being stereotyped as a TikTok artist. This one-dimensional view of her is presented through unwarranted comments about her musicality, often resembling microaggressions. Clearly, her talent surpasses TikTok.

For her first late-night television performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, PinkPantheress led a stunning medley of “Illegal,” “Girl Like Me,” and “Tonight” that subtly squeezed sound bites from Wii video game Rhythm Heaven Fever, assisted by her DJ and backup dancers. It’s not surprising she receives Hannah Montana allegations with a performance reminiscent of a celebrity cameo. Meanwhile, on her NPR Tiny Desk Concert, the vocalist — utilizing a harmonica and percussion — formed a stripped-down eight-track setlist including hits like “Pain” and “Mosquito.” Even though this was her first performance without AutoTune, PinkPantheress and her band held it down.

In less than five years, she’s attracted a fan base full of producers, Black alternative women, dancers, queer people, and old British music nerds, and it’s likely that she’ll win over the Grammys next. After Beyoncé’s celebrated win for Renaissance in 2023, it felt like there was hope for Black women to receive proper praise for their contributions to a genre created by their ancestors.

Even if PinkPantheress’ talent goes unrewarded, she’ll be alright. From the moment a snippet of “Break It Off” hit TikTok in 2021, her extraordinary knack for sending listeners into a sonically compelling time capsule has been a gratifying journey to watch. Although the Grammys have been criticized for snubbing Black women, let’s hope they’ll fancy PinkPantheress enough to award her at least one trophy.

As music approaches language and genre-fluid territory, those working behind the scenes are as essential to the process as the artists themselves. Latin music has long served as an outlet for both emotion and celebration, and visuals for artists like Bad Bunny, Omar Apollo, and Karol G have proven to be equally powerful.

Many of these artists have remained with their visual collaborators for years, displaying excellent creative chemistry. As these musicians’ creativity evolves, the directors of their music videos have grown alongside the singers’ and rappers’ craft. Consistency is a key component of Latinidad and work ethic, and below, we’ve compiled seven essential Latin music video directors, creating cinematic universes centered around the artists we know and love.

María Zardoya

María Zardoya of The Marías wears several hats — lead vocalist of The Marías, solo artist, and creative director. The Puerto Rican multi-hyphenate has driven the visuals for The Marias’ songs, like “Back To Me” and “If Only,” creating an emotional universe with the surrealist imagery, and capturing the feeling of being suspended in time. Last year proved to be a big year for The Marías, with “Back To Me” achieving viral success, as well as the band’s collaboration with Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco, “Ojos Tristes.” Zardoya also released her solo album Not For Radio, expanding upon her artistic vision by way of her own creative methods.

Bad Bunny

We know Bad Bunny’s songs by heart, but equally captivating are his visuals. Last year, he released a self-directed short film to accompany his album Debí Tirar Más Fotos, highlighting Puerto Rico, the land he calls home. Through poignant anecdotes and images of the territory, Benito comes full circle with international stardom, while revisiting the place that shaped him. But this isn’t the first video he’s directed. He’s also credited as a director in the festive video for “Pitorro de Coco,” which sees him celebrating at a traditional Puerto Rican New Year’s party. Given his creative lens, we can’t wait to see what he has in store for his upcoming Super Bowl Halftime performance.

Martin Seipel

For years, Martin Seipel has been Rauw Alejandro’s go-to video director. Having visualized romance and sensuality in the video for “Carita Linda,” as well as feelings of stillness and emotional processing in “Buenos Términos,” Seipel’s ouvres for the nature of soft masculinity are unmatched. While Seipel has also directed clips for Grupo Frontero, Duki, and Ruggero, he and Alejandro make a dynamic creative duo.

Pedro Artola

Speaking of creative duos, Pedro Artola and Karol G are a match made in heaven. With songs as big as Karol G’s — specifically “Ivonny Bonita” and the Tiesto collaboration “Contigo” — Artola takes Karol’s vision to 10. In “Ivonny Bonita,” Artola brings to the screen the art of self-mythologizing, taking Karol’s confidence and putting it out to a bigger scale. While “Contigo” demonstrates the softness of allowing love in, but the strength in intimacy and holding someone closely. Like Karol, Artola has a knack for both simultaneously displaying grandeur and intimacy.

Alejandra Hinojosa

While it’s been a while since Alejandra Hinojosa has directed a video, she’s bringing her vision to various components of the Latin music landscape. Hinojosa has captured visuals for artists like Pau Mor, Ben Carillo, and Leroy Sanchez, but she’s also taken her creative lens to immortalize significant moments in the culture. Some memorable milestones include Busta Rhymes receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, cover art for Faouzia and Ricky Martin, and Rolling Stone shoots or Ruzzi Cambia. La cultura would not be the same without Hinojosa at the director’s seat.

Cliqua

Mexican-American duo Pasqual Gutiérrez and Raúl “RJ” Sanchez — better known as Cliqua — crafts videos that feel as monumental as Latin culture. Additionally, they bridge gaps by bringing various genres together, like their work on the video for 2023’s “K-Pop” by Travis Scott, Bad Bunny, and The Weeknd. They also were key components in the rise of Bad Bunny with videos for “Vete” and “Ignorantes,” as well as Rosalia and Ozuna’s “Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi.” The two have also directed short films like Shut Up And Fish and Serious People.

Stillz

While some Latin artists achieve viral fame through TikTok, Stillz makes sure their visuals maintain a long-term cultural impact. Balancing raw intimacy with high-concept spectacle, Stillz was an early co-signer of Rosalía, Bad Bunny, and Omar Apollo, laying the foundation to each of these artists’ cinematic universes. Most recently, Stillz brought the orchestral elements to Rosalía’s “La Perla” from her game-changing album Lux, crafting a visual as transcendental and theatrical as the record itself.

Hayley Williams has been going pretty much nonstop the past few years. Paramore dropped their latest album, This Is Why, in 2023. The band spent some of that year and next opening for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour. In 2025, she released a series of singles that ended up comprising the album Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party. Well, new year, new project: Williams just unveiled a new band, Power Snatch.

It’s a duo and the collaborator is a familiar one: Daniel James, who was heavily involved in writing and producing Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party. So far, they’ve premiered a song called “Assignment” on Apple Music 1 (here’s a snippet). As Kerrang notes, fans have uncovered other songs from the band, too: Here’s “DMs” on Bandcamp and here’s an unreleased song that was shared on Instagram months ago.

This comes after Williams addressed the status and future of Paramore, saying:

“Do we ever know where we’re at?! [laughs] We always take huge breaks. In order for us to metabolize sh*t that we go through as people, it takes the amount of time it takes between albums. […] There are no better musicians in the world than Zac [Farro] and Taylor. There are no better performers than [the touring musicians affectionately known as the] Parafour. It’s just magic, man. I feel such a vindication in knowing that nobody can discount Paramore. But it’s also really important for me to strengthen other muscles and these parts of myself that I deflated because I was scared that people were going to notice me too much.”

Check out Williams’ upcoming solo tour dates below.

Hayley Williams’ 2026 Tour Dates: Good Dye Young Presents: Hayley Williams At A Bachelorette Party

03/27 — Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
03/28 — Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
03/31 — Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
04/01 — Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
04/03 — Boston, MA @ Citizens House of Blues
04/04 — Boston, MA @ Citizens House of Blues
04/06 — Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall
04/07 — Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall
04/09 — New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
04/10 — New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
04/12 — New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
04/14 — Baltimore, MD @ The Lyric
04/15 — Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore
04/17 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore
04/18 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore
04/21 — Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
04/22 — Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
04/25 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
04/27 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
04/28 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
05/02 — Austin, TX @ ACL Live at The Moody Theater
05/03 — Austin, TX @ ACL Live at The Moody Theater
05/05 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
05/07 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
05/09 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
05/10 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
05/12 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
05/13 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
05/15 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
06/05 — Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz
06/08 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
06/10 — Cologne, Germany @ Live Music Hall
06/11 — Cologne, Germany @ Live Music Hall
06/15 — Berlin, Germany @ Tempodrome
06/16 — Copenhagen, Denmark @ Poolen
06/19 — London, United Kingdom @ Roundhouse
06/20 — London, United Kingdom @ Roundhouse
06/22 — Manchester, United Kingdom @ Academy 1
06/23 — Manchester, United Kingdom @ Academy 1
06/26 — Glasgow, United Kingdom @ O2 Academy
06/27 — Glasgow, United Kingdom @ O2 Academy
06/29 — Dublin, Ireland @ National Stadium
06/30 — Dublin, Ireland @ National Stadium

If you know anything about the Chicago indie-rock band Ratboys, it probably concerns their likeability. Ratboys are a likeable band. They are likeable because they make really good music, and they are likeable because they have made really good music consistently over the course of 11 years and six albums. (Their latest, Singin’ To An Empty Chair, arrives February 6.) But they are also likeable because they work hard, they travel pretty much anywhere and everywhere, and they do their jobs with kindness and professionalism. They are likeable the way your mailman is likeable.

The “Ratboys are likeable” narrative is the bedrock of Ratboys’ media coverage. And that is all well and good. But let’s be frank: This is boring. And I’m convinced it doesn’t tell the whole story. What, for instance, is unlikeable about this band? Why doesn’t anyone ever ask about that? What are these people hiding?

“Oh, that’s such a good question,” Ratboys singer-songwriter Julia Steiner replied when I brought this up during a recent phone conversation. Her voice was bright, sunny, and warm. I could use another word to describe her tone, an adjective that starts with “L.” But I won’t.

“Holy crap,” she continued. “I wish the guys were on the call because nothing’s coming to mind.”

So, you’re saying the guys are the unlikeable ones in the band?

“They’re probably pretty unlikable,” Steiner said. She was joking. It was quite charming. And also really lik- ah, Jesus Christ.

“No, God, I’m trying to think. I mean, I definitely have fixations on art that most people wouldn’t tolerate. In the van, I sometimes force the guys to listen to… well, actually I don’t force them. I’ve learned my lesson about that. I love listening to show tunes and I’m pretty obsessed to maybe an unhealthy degree with the 2019 film Cats. I love terrifying uncanny valley art, but that’s not unlikable.”

No, Julia, it’s not. A fixation on a campy cinematic disaster, again, is quite charming! It’s like in a job interview when you ask someone, “What is your worst trait?” And the person says, “I work too hard.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of a cop-out answer,” Steiner admitted. “I mean, this is something that I talk about with my sister. I brought it up with her yesterday, I’m like, ‘Man, I’m the least mysterious person on the planet, so it’s hard for me to kind of build that up. I wouldn’t even really want to try artificially.’”

This was going nowhere fast. I hadn’t yet gotten around to Singin’ To An Empty Chair, a hyper-catchy pop-rock record with some seriously dark overtones. Darker, in fact, than any Ratboys album yet. It was recorded at a cabin in the “driftless area” of southwestern Wisconsin, a region that sounds foreboding on paper but in reality is a scenic landscape composed of green rolling hills, lakes loaded with pontoon boats, and small towns outfitted with bountiful go-kart tracks and drive-in burger places.

Which explains why Empty Chair (at least musically) is hardly a Bon Iver-esque isolationist downer, but rather a sonic expansion of Ratboys’ usual mix of crunchy emo-pop and punky alt-country. The music contrasts with Steiner’s introspective lyrics, which dwell on the challenges of interpersonal communication while veering into therapy-speak. (The title alludes to a psychiatric exercise in which a patient speaks to an imagined person.) Steiner had an unnamed estranged loved one in mind when she was writing songs like the album’s eight-minute centerpiece “Just Want You To Know The Truth,” where she seems to address a family member: “Once you left home / we cleaned out the house / came upon some skeleton / that none of us knew shit about / if I told you I was okay / well that would have been a lie / so, I blocked your telephone / without sayin’ goodbye.”

This is heavy subject matter, and I’m not surprised when Steiner says that she’s more open in the song than she’s been in real life. “I’m working my way toward being able to say these things without an open-E guitar and a big-ass band behind me,” she told me.

Are you trying to communicate with this person with this album?

Yeah. I mean, my plan has been to send it off, you know what I mean? Get a CD copy and put it in the mail. Not just by itself, that would probably be pretty psychotic, but with a short letter just bridging the gap and saying like, “A lot of these songs are about us, and I hope you like them and listen to them.”

It feels a little bit selfish to have this album as a communication tool for me, but life is short and I’m willing to try. I’m willing to go to great lengths to repair a broken relationship, so that’s where we’re at. I hope I don’t chicken out.

You mentioned going to therapy. How has that influenced you as an artist?

It’s just a level of structure and clarity that I really appreciate. The specific thing that I got out of this was this exercise that I tried, the Empty Chair Technique, and it really unlocked this song, “Just Want You To Know The Truth,” which is the emotional centerpiece of the album. It’s the main confrontation, if you will, or the firmest gesture of extending a hand.

I was really struggling in writing that song. I had that little hook, and I had this idea of sort of chronologically venturing through these different snapshots of my life and moving from the past to present and seeing how the scope of everything led us to where we are. But I was getting in my own way a lot, shooting down ideas before they even were fleshed out. My therapist suggested this Empty Chair Technique idea, and was she wasn’t pushy about it. She just proposed it and said, “Make of this what you will.” And I gave it a go and recorded myself and listened back. And that really did help me unlock the, God, story of my life, for lack of a better word.

Has that introspection caused you to look at older songs you’ve written and realize, “Oh, I was actually writing about this“?

I’m still trying to figure that out about a lot of stuff. I’ve had this impulse in the past as an English major to want to ask a writer about a specific line like, “What was your intention? What did you mean here?” And I’ve realized on the other side of it, writing creatively or poetically in any sense, that’s the worst question to ask a writer because they often are still not sure. So that is how I think of some of our older songs. I’m waiting for them to reveal themselves.

I was joking about this earlier, but does it ever get annoying to be talked about as this nice Midwestern rock band?

We had a bit of a moment, the four of us, I think, on the last record. I don’t remember which outlet it was, but someone called us “that charming little band” or something, and we were like, “What? That is such a backhanded compliment.” I would just encourage people to listen to the songs and there’s some heaviness and weight there and grit.

I was thinking of the trajectory of Ratboys, and it’s been this slow and steady climb, where every record seems to do a little better than the last, but it’s never a dramatic shift. It reminds me of R.E.M. in the 1980s or The National in the aughts.

Or Spoon.

Yes, exactly. Obviously, you have no control of that. But it does seem to suit the band’s personality.

Kind of, yeah. I mean, we’ve fully embraced the gradual growth approach. If we hadn’t, we would be truly driving ourselves insane at this point because when you want or expect some sort of immediate life-changing success and you don’t get it, what are you left with? Just total disappointment.

We come from a background of playing in basements for no one. Literally no one. Maybe this is the reason people keep saying we’re this charming little underground band or whatever, but we still have the mindset when people come to our shows and we don’t know them, it’s such a win. We love band practice and love playing these songs by ourselves, and so any audience that comes just to hear the music is a bonus. We’re going to have a great time no matter what and the fact that people come out to see us is all we could want.

Obviously, we would have loved to been able to start playing bigger rooms sooner. We’re not trying to stay small forever. And, honestly, none of us make a living from this band, so that’s our goal. In a perfect world, we would have more eyes on us and be able to keep playing, selling more tickets and selling more records and be able to sustain ourselves. Bu we would never expect that to happen, go viral, any of that bullshit. It’s just so out of our control.

Have you ever had a moment where you thought, “We’re about to blow up,” and it didn’t happen?

It kind of felt like on our third record, Printer’s Devil, that we were going to have this breakout moment. We really felt that that record was a huge level-up and something new, and we had a big tour booked and all that. And then everything just went away with COVID, which isn’t a story unique to us at all. You can’t control the timing and the way the world spins.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about bands, and what it means to have a band identity. Obviously, bands have always existed. But in the mainstream, it seems like the pendulum has swung so far in favor of solo artists for a long time. And now I wonder if it’s swinging back a bit. Ratboys have been a band for more than a decade. But you could have just as easily billed yourselves as “Julia Steiner” and played with the same musicians. And maybe that would have even been better marketing in the 2010s and early 2020s. But you didn’t do that, which makes me think you also care about bands. Why is that?

I haven’t thought about this in a long time, but this brings back a memory when — a long, long time ago — Dave and I were in the position of needing to change our band name. At the very beginning we were just Ratboy, no “S,” and we got sent a threatening email from another Ratboy and we needed to figure out what to do. And we deliberated so much on different ideas. My dad at the time was like, “Why don’t you just go by your name?” And I was, for whatever reason, very resistant to that and we ended up just adding the S.

It’s funny to think back because we didn’t really have a band back then, it was just me and Dave. But from the very beginning, even before Marcus and Sean came into the fold, I really saw the value in Dave’s contributions and wouldn’t want to shine the light on myself. It’s hard to explain, but Dave provides this really tangible but also subconscious structure for the songs. And he’s just as much a Ratboy as I am.

As a music fan, I’m so obsessive and nerdy about The Beatles and parsing a song out and thinking about what each person is doing at any given time. Same goes with Wilco, who are one of my favorite bands ever.

Wilco is a good example of what I’m talking about. The songs mean something different coming from a band than from “Jeff Tweedy,” even if that difference is somewhat subliminal.

I hope this Geese phenomenon — obviously Cameron Winter has a solo record and everything — but Geese is such a kick-ass band and the thing that happens when they all play in the room together is so special. We saw it at Pickathon last year. And hopefully kids realize that that’s the thing that is so transcendent here. Obviously, it’s what they bring uniquely, but also it’s the story of band in a room rocking your face off.

Singin’ To An Empty Chair is out 2/6 via New West Records. Find more information here.

Keeping up with music news and resources like Spotify’s giant and regularly updated New Music Friday playlist are great ways to keep your listening habits from getting stale. Sometimes, though, you need a deeper dive. That’s where Uproxx’s Baylee Lefton comes in as she routinely offers quick-hit lists of songs you need to add into your rotation this week.

She just delivered a fresh mix and it’s full of songs for sipping margaritas on the coast.

What does that mean? “Think beachy, smooth, and tropical,” as Baylee puts it. The mix includes Reyna Tropical’s “Cartagena” and “No Me Quieres,” Gilsons’ “Pra Gente Acordar,” Acid Coco’s “Soňando,” and Gilsons and Mariana Volker’s “Devagarinho.” A couple artists, you may have noticed, made the list twice. One is Reyna Tropical, whose debut album, Malegría, arrived in 2024. The other is Gilsons, a Brazilian trio that descends from musical royalty, as all the members are related to Gilberto Gil.

Baylee concludes, “I don’t know about you, but this is exact kind of vibe that I’m looking for when I’m sipping a margarita on the coast.”

Check out the video above and to listen to the full songs yourself, hit up the link in Lefton’s Instagram bio.

Melvins were a key force in rock music beginning in the ’80s. Specifically, their influence on grunge and sludge metal is incalculable. Despite forming in 1983, they’re still around today, and so are legions of artists who took inspiration from their distinct sound.

As Uproxx’s Joypocalypse notes, Melvins are one of those bands where hearing them makes you realize how much music traces back to them.

She says:

“They slowed everything down from the typical ’80s hardcore punk speed, incorporating heavier riffs and grittier tones. With this shift, they were laying the groundwork for sludge, but also shaping the sound of grunge.

Through the ’80s and ’90s, their sound continued to get more heavy and intricate. But the thing about the Melvins is they have such a talent for innovating and exploring different sounds. So sometimes, and occasionally on the same album, you’ll hear them jump between noise, metal, ambient, and sometimes something unexplainably bizarre.

Despite their impact, feel like the Melvins are a band that get overlooked from time to time, but I’ve been hooked since the first time I heard them.”

She concludes, “Bullhead is my personal all-time favorite album. I think from top to bottom, it’s a no-skip, but they are a band with a lengthy discography.”

Check out the video above.

Very few people in the world get to design their own car (Billie Eilish would really like to have a go). Now, .idk. is among them, as he just teamed up with Land Rover to make his own custom Defender design. He made great use of the vehicle by taking a test drive with fans as they listened to and discussed his latest project, e.t.d.s. A Mixtape by .idk..

This is all chronicled in a new video. It starts with .idk. in storyteller mode, explaining the meaning that parts of his past brought to this collaboration:

“When I got out of jail at 17, a lot of my friends were getting their first cars. And of course, like anybody else my age, I wanted one, too. Cost $500 on Craigslist. I remember showing that car to my friends being so proud and everybody was just laughing at me. For whatever reason, that stuck with me. And that feeling of being proud of something that others made fun of presented me with the opportunity to make something out of nothing. I used to watch Pimp My Ride, so I knew a little bit about how to customize cars, and I used that to customize the 1994 Buick LeSabre I had.”

He continues, “The idea of this Land Rover was to make it the Swiss Army knife of vehicles: luxury meets utility, utility meets comfort, and style meets design.”

.idk. also tells Uproxx in a statement:

“Ultimately, this was just a unique way to take a skill set that I learned coming out of prison and turning it into something that my fans can use to experience the music that I created for this mixtape. The collaboration came about when I became a fan of the Defender after seeing NO-ID’s — a collaborator on this mixtape — Defender and being inspired to get one myself. Big shout out to Galpin Auto Sports for helping me make this come to life.”

Check out the video above.

Benson Boone isn’t playing the Super Bowl Halftime Show yet, but in the meantime, he will have a presence at the big game this year via a new Spike Jonze-directed ad for Instacart, in which he stars alongside Ben Stiller.

In the ad, Boone and Stiller play an ’80s musical duo singing a song about Instacart. Boone does a backflip, which upsets Stiller, who feels like he’s being upstaged. He tries a flip of his own, which doesn’t go well. This sparks some on-stage conflict and a series of escalating flip attempts.

Boone discussed the ad with Billboard, saying of working with Stiller:

“I was really impressed by him the whole day. I’ve obviously grown up watching his movies and observing his acting skills. […] It was so fun doing that with him, and he’s so good at just keeping up with literally anything. Spike would just be like, ‘All right, you two, you got 10 minutes. Show me what you got.’ And we would just start ripping.”

He added, “I think [Stiller] was genuinely surprised at the fact that I could keep up with him. I’m just a very expressive person. […] I’ve always wanted to do something with acting. The last couple years have been tough, because I haven’t had a ton of time to put my focuses on that, but going forward, I would love to do more acting and take classes.”

Check out the video above.