Month: June 2020
A lot of artists have used their time in quarantine in productive ways. Perhaps the most notable example is Charli XCX, who recorded and released a tremendous new album, How I’m Feeling Now, over a relatively brief period during the pandemic. She’s not the only one, though. Lauv (who coincidentally released a similarly titled album, How I’m Feeling, earlier this year) also recorded new material in quarantine, and the result is an EP that is out today, Without You.
Lauv marked the release by release by sharing a video for the EP-opening track, “Dishes.” The video opens with Lauv popping up from behind a counter full of plates, and from there, it’s a one-shot video in which Lauv dances around his kitchen and sings the song. He sings about memories of a former lover and the strangeness of them not being there anymore: “The dishes in the kitchen / The dancin’ in the rain / The singin’ in the shower / Yeah, that’s stuck in the drain / A party on the weekend / And everyone is here / But it feels so weird, without you.”
Watch the “Dishes” video above and listen to Without You below.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Following the trend of every major festival this summer, San Fransisco’s Outside Lands announced it would be canceling its 2020 event. Instead, the festival is looking towards the future. Though it will no longer be taking place this year, Outside Lands just unveiled its 2021 lineup, and it features a handful of some of today’s biggest artists.
Next summer, Outside Lands will be held the weekend of August 6 through 8 at San Fransisco’s Golden Gate Park. Sharing its new lineup, the festival invites artists like Lizzo, Vampire Weekend, Tyler The Creator, The 1975, The Strokes, and Young Thug to perform headlining sets. Along with the headliners, the festival boasts sets by Khruangbin, Beach House, Jpegmafia, Moses Sumney, Mxmtoon, Hinds, Yves Tumor, Caroline Polachek, and many more.

In a statement alongside the artist announcement, co-producer of Outside Lands Allen Scott said he wants the lineup to provide hope for fans: “We are thrilled for the festival to be coming back in 2021. There’s been a lot of bad news out there with regard to COVID-19 and we want to give people something to look forward to. We’re hopeful that in sharing our excitement about the future of the festival and next year’s lineup, that it provides some much-needed positivity for our fans and community.”
Rick Farman, another co-producer for the festival, echoed Scott’s statement: “Outside Lands was created to celebrate the Bay Area creative community and the small businesses that are the fabric of San Francisco’s culture. Given everything that our community is going through, we will continue that mission with a renewed focus as we plan for the 2021 event.”
Check out Outside Lands’ lineup above.
General Admission passes go on sale 6/25 at 10 a.m. PDT. Get them here.
Some of the artists mentioned here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Despite news Wednesday that he had tested positive for COVID-19, Indiana Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon said he was nevertheless planning to accompany the team to Orlando for the restart of the NBA season.
Brogdon is currently quarantining, and said in a statement, “I’m doing well, feeling well and progressing well. I plan to join my teammates in Orlando for the resumption of the NBA season and playoffs.”
Statement from Malcolm Brogdon
>> https://t.co/wSzjOAF7XE pic.twitter.com/jmclXRQHX3
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) June 24, 2020
While Brogdon is an All-Star caliber player and has been one of the more outspoken players in the league in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, he is not the first player to have a positive test in recent days, as it has been reported that Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is unable to make it to the United States after learning he contracted the virus in Serbia.
The Pacers will also pay close attention to the health of All-NBA guard Victor Oladipo, who had just made his way back from a ruptured quad tendon in the spring when the league went on hiatus.
Indiana is currently the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, but is within striking distance of getting as high as third. As for Brogdon, the hope is that he will make a speedy recovery, but as with anyone infected, the long-term effects are not clear.

An Arizona dirtbag. A human turtleneck. A narcissistic monster. And literally the dumbest person you will ever meet. These are the heroes of TV’s great comedy, The Good Place. It’s a show about the meaning of life, the adventure awaiting in the afterlife, the power of a chic bow-tie, Blake Bortles, and the very real need we all have for a human starter kit right now.
Maybe you’ve never seen it, to which we say, “What the fork have you been doing with your life, shirt for brains?” Or maybe, in this time of isolation and uncertainty, you’re thinking of a re-watch. Either way, this ranking, as with every ranking you’ll come across on this weird, troll-infested, adult playground that we call the internet, is just a mixture of personal taste and professional criticism. Every episode of The Good Place is, in fact, good. These are just our picks for the best.
10. “Whenever You’re Ready” (Season 4, Episodes 13 & 14)

The Story: The series finale asks an impossible question: Would you want more if you had perfection? The answer for some of our Soul Squad is yes, and this episode imagines a way out of The Good Place that’s both hella inspiring and terribly sad. Like being too young to die but too old to eat of the kid’s menu, sad.
Why It’s On This List:
Maybe you expected the series’ finale to be on every Top 10 list because, by nature, it’s the episode that wraps up this wonderfully chaotic philosophical circus, but it’s important we recognize just how damn good of a job the show did by ending things by exploring the ending of things. Everyone’s blissfully happy in The Good Place, but after decades of contentment, the realization that, without an “end,” even good times feel meaningless (and growth can never happen) spurs some to step through that swirly door of unknown cosmic potential. It’s bittersweet, it’s incredibly profound, powerful storytelling, and it’s the perfect way to wrap a show that’s spent seasons investigating the meaning of life. The answer? Find your Eleanor, Take It Sleazy, and Bortles your way through any roadblocks on your path to convincing Timothee Chalamet to step out into the sun.
9. “Jeremy Bearimy” (Season 3, Episode 5)

The Story: The Soul Squad is now living on Earth, but after a laughable blunder on Michael’s part, they all come to learn that, no matter what they do with their second chance, they’re destined for the Bad Place. Each spirals accordingly.
Why It’s On This List: There’s nothing quite like watching your favorite characters have a comedic-filled meltdown over some bad news, and no one sells the whole “descent into madness” journey quite like William Jackson Harper, who manages to convey Chidi’s initial rage and then despairing acceptance over this afterlife sentence perfectly. And by perfectly, we mean he spends the episode quoting Nietschze to drug dealers, shocking grocery store patrons with his shirtless, swole bod, and cooking Peep-flavored, M&M riddled pots of chili while teaching his students the finer points of nihilism. The world is a trash fire, and nothing you do is of any consequence. Eat up, chili babies!
8. “Dance Dance Resolution” (Season 2, Episode 3)

The Story: Michael gives his experiment a reboot – or 800 – after Eleanor continues to realize they’re actually in the Bad Place at some point in each version.
Why It’s On This List: There are two halves to this episode. The first is filled with quick comedy clips stitched together in a montaged quilt of absurdity sprinkled with restaurant puns — Biscotti Pippen is a five-star Michelin joint, and you can’t convince us differently and rogue hogs. The back half is even more interesting, as Chidi and Eleanor discover the truth about The Good Place (again) but this time manage to run away to the Medium Place where they meet Mindy St. Clair, an average human doomed to an existence filled with boredom, and learn they’ve been there, and been together, before. Shirt gets real.
7. “Everything Is Great” (Season 2, Episodes 1 & 2)

The Story: After Eleanor solved the mystery of The Good Place in the show’s season one finale, this two-part season two opener wipes the slate — and our resident cockroaches’ memories — clean as Michael finds new ways to torture the group.
Why It’s On This List: Everyone praises the show’s season one finale, including us (see below) but the writers had an arguably harder job in crafting a follow-up to that world-shattering epiphany with this season premiere. Do we retread old ground? Do we pick up like nothing happened? Do we scrap everything and start again? Do we confront Michael’s failure? The answer is a mix of all of these, so well done, so easily accomplished it’s a wonder any comedy following in the footsteps of The Good Place even tries at this point.
6. “Pandemonium” (Season 3, Episode 13)

The Story: Humanity’s chance to prove it can get some things right rests with our favorite Arizona dirtbag, who’s heading up a new Good Place experiment with help from Janet, Tahani, and Jason while Michael has a meltdown and Chidi’s memories are erased so he can participate.
Why It’s On This List: Did we mention that The Good Place is a comedy? That feels important to remind everyone of after episodes like “The Answer” and “Pandemonium” rip our hearts out and serve them on top of a bed of noodles at Lasagne Come Out Tomorrow. The show’s season three finale combines some of the best elements of past season-enders. There’s a resetting of the board as Eleanor poses as the architect of this new human experiment. There’s conflict, particularly when the group discovers Shawn chose, not the worst people, but the worst people for Team Cockroach to try to rehabilitate. But mostly, there’s bittersweet heartbreak, as Chidi preps to have his memories erased so he doesn’t fork things up by viewing a montage of his most romantic moments with Eleanor. Michael Schur, you son of a bench!
5. “The Answer” (Season 4, Episode 9)

The Story: The gang needs Chidi to come up with a better afterlife system before the Judge wipes out all of humanity, so Michael gives him a reset, forcing him to sift through his memories for the answer.
Why It’s On This List: Each member of the show’s cast has enjoyed their fair share of iconic comedic moments, but this episode was William Jackson Harper’s showcase. Sure, there were gags to laugh at and the ever-present knowledge that, should he fail, the whole world would be doomed, but the joy of this episode is in watching Harper explore his emotional range through Chidi’s complicated backstory. We see pivotal moments in the character’s life: a young Chidi saving his parents’ marriage through a philosophy lesson, a painful breakup, his death, his time with Eleanor in The Good Place. All of these experiences lead to a tearjerker of a Ted Danson monologue and Chidi’s realization that the “answer” he’s been searching for has been right in front of him this whole time.
4. “Rhonda, Diana, Jake, And Trent” (Season 2, Episode 11)

The Story: Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason must don disguises in order to escape The Bad Place and reach the Judge, but first, they’ve got to confront robotic mockups of their worst selves and get comfortable with their inner white male.
Why It’s On This List: Again, The Good Place offers a masterclass in how to combine truly silly gags with expert storytelling in this episode. There are a plethora of comedic riches, from the introduction of Jake Jortles to Chidi proclaiming himself “the torture master” to Tahani convincingly playing a hot-dog-themed torturer named Rhonda Mumps and crediting her believability to that time she dated Johnny Depp. But the real joy here is in seeing how far this group has come, especially when they’re faced with their Bad Place counterparts. Okay, maybe not Jason.
3. “The Burrito” (Season 2, Episode 12)

The Story: The group makes a final plea to Judge Gen (an always terrific Maya Rudolph), who sets a series of tasks for each of them. If they all pass, they can move on to The Good Place. If even one fails, well…
Why It’s On This List: There are two reasons this episode earns such a high place on this list: Rudolph, who plays an all-knowing being convinced of Bloodline’s mediocrity because she “can’t see Kyle Chandler as anyone else but Coach Taylor,” and the sight of Bell and company bowing to a stuffed burrito. The group must jump through hoops to prove they’ve become better people, so there are also scenes of Chidi taking 82 minutes to choose between two hats, Jason being forced to play Madden as the Tennessee Titans, and Tahani made to ignore the fact that Quvenzhane Wallis and Stephen Hawking have settled their beef to talk sh*t about her, but Rudolph owns this episode and she has a hell of a time passing her judgment.
2. “Janet(s)” (Season 3, Episode 10)

The Story: Michael and Janet sneak into the universe’s accounting office where they discover that the whole Good Place/Bad Place point system is just a sham. No human has amassed enough credits to make it to the actual Good Place in 500 years, which Stephen Merchant gleefully reveals after confirming that, yes, destination-themed weddings are blasphemous.
Why It’s On This List: It’s a testament to the writing staff of this show that a plot point so vital to the future of its story feels almost like a neat afterthought. The idea that the system is flawed, and Michael can do something about it, sets up enough action and conflict to get fans excited, but the more immediate (and ridiculously funny) payoff of the episode comes thanks to D’Arcy Carden, who deserves an Emmy for her performance as multiple Janets, all inhabited by different members of Team Cockroach in a strange void. Instead of forcing these friends to come clean about their feelings for each other in some straightforward, forgettable way, Schur and company utilized Carden’s unparalleled comedic talents to give us a truly beautiful metaphor — only when Chidi and Eleanor are honest with each other can everyone return to their human forms. Forget puppies. This is what definitely shattered our voids.
1. “Michael’s Gambit” (Season 1, Episode 13)

The Story: Holy motherforking shirtballs. We’re in the Bad Place. After spending an entire season convincing resident dirtbag Eleanor (and the rest of us) that we were watching a group of people living their best afterlife in a quaint, heavenly village, The Good Place threw a Molotov cocktail at our perceived reality.
Why It’s On This List: When future generations debate the greatest TV twists, they won’t be talking about Lost or Mr. Robot or Westworld. They’ll be talking about The Good Place. Specifically, how the show managed to weave a seasons’ worth of mystery building right under our noses by focusing on careful character development (and distracting us with cactus jokes). Revealing the truth — that Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, and Tahani were actually part of an experiment proposed by Michael to find new ways of torturing souls — signaled that The Good Place was moving the goalposts for sitcom storytelling. It was a bold, thrilling choice executed perfectly and sealed with a lip-curling laugh from Ted Danson that was so deliciously evil, basic cartoon villains everywhere were left shook. The finale also serves as the perfect excuse for a season one re-watch (as if you needed one) because watching this group of cockroaches torment each other in a filthy dumpster filled with their worst anxieties is so much more fun once you actually realize… that’s the point.

The latest rapper to take Walmart to task for not policing its website more thoroughly is Kodak Black, who threatened to sue the retailer despite being incarcerated for gun possession. TMZ reports that the 23-year-old rapper from Pompano Beach, Florida had his lawyer prepare a cease-and-desist letter to both Walmart and the third-party vendor on Walmart’s site.
“If Walmart refuses to recognize that the seller is not a licensed authorized dealer of Sniper Gang products, we will be proceeding with a lawsuit against both Walmart and the unauthorized seller,” Kodak’s attorney Bradford Cohen told TMZ. Jackboy, Kodak’s artist, posted a tweet as well, tagging Walmart’s Twitter account and warning, “Y’all better hope y’all can’t get sued because if so Sniper Gang about to have [our] own Walmart.”
@Walmart Y’all Better Hope Y’all Can’t Get Sued Because If So Sniper Gang About To Have Are Own Walmart
SniperMart Coming Soon
pic.twitter.com/mBECmNneAu
— 1804 JACKBOY
(@Jackboy) June 23, 2020
21 Savage previously echoed the sentiment with regard to his “Savage” and “Slaughter Gang” chains, which were also being advertised on the site, tagging Lil Baby and telling him, “We finna own one.” Lil Baby was the first of the aggrieved artists to notice the knockoffs when his “4PF” chain was brought to his attention. According to TMZ, Walmart claims it’s taking steps to remove the knockoff rapper gang chains from its site.
Kodak Black is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
For Kelly Lee Owens, her sophomore record, Inner Song, was an opportunity to explore the inner-most parts of her psyche. The electro-pop artist worked through personal struggles in the years since her 2017 debut album and aims to translate those experiences into song. Whether it’s her pulsating single “Night” or the club-ready “Melt,” Owens marries textured rhythms with sultry synths to craft an evocative sound.
Owens’ latest release, “On,” has the singer once again looking inward. Her accompanying video is similarly introspective. Directed by Kasper Häggström, the visual takes the viewer on a secondhand journey through epic landscapes from the point of view of a car’s backseat.
In a statement alongside the single, Owens said “On” is one of her most personal songs yet: “This is perhaps the most intimate and personal song I’ve written so far – the two halves of the track reflect upon sad acceptances of the truth and then the joyous aftermath of liberation that can come from that. This can definitely be heard in the production and arrangement of the track – the first half sonically connecting to the inner revelations and the second half, the liberation in action, the forward motion.”
Watch Owens’ “On” video above.
Inner Song is out 9/28 via Smalltown Supersound. Pre-order it here.

The New York Knicks continue to fill out their basketball operations staff, with their latest move being one that has been rumored ever since Leon Rose took over the franchise. William Wesley, better known as Worldwide Wes, will officially join the Knicks with a vague title and a close relationship with Rose.
As the Knicks’ new executive vice president and senior basketball advisor, Wesley’s job will likely be to act as Rose’s right-hand man in the ongoing struggle to return the Knicks to relevance and paint over a badly stained public image.
“We are very excited to announce the hiring of William Wesley, someone that I have known for over 40 years and consider to be family,” Rose said in a team statement, per Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. “He is one of the most well-connected and respected people in the basketball community and he will be a tremendous asset and resource to both myself and the New York Knicks.”
Wesley had been a rep on the NBA coaches side of CAA, the agency where Rose used to run the NBA operations. But he is widely known as one of the most well-connected people in the league, and was around the Knicks’ organization long before Rose was hired, according to Vorkunov. The Knicks will continue their coaching search, which has been expansive and starry thus far, and with Wesley in tow, perhaps the powerful relationships the Knicks’ new front office has formed over the years will begin to come in handy.

A lot of what makes Henry Cavill’s performance as The Witcher‘s Geralt of Rivia believable is owing to his true status as a nerd. He’s been very upfront about playing all the games and reading all the books and basically living with a sword in his hand for at least a year (it must have been fun being around Henry Cavill during that time, right?). So, he’s definitely got the authentic Geralt attitude down on his own, but when it came to embracing the character’s physicality, Cavill also didn’t want to take short cuts. In fact, he learned lessons in that department from Tom Cruise.
As the Man of Steel star told Variety, he’s always been up for being physical as an actor, but watching Cruise go hog wild on stunt work during their time together on Mission: Impossible — Fallout really hammered the value of doing one’s own stunts home for Cavill. He admits that producers aren’t always crazy about their leading man embracing dangerous moves, but he’s standing firm:
“I really want to do them now, and I think it’s an essential piece to the character. If an audience is watching Geralt on-screen, they must believe that it is me. If it’s not me, I feel like I’ve betrayed the character in some way, and so I try and do as much as a production will let me.”
It sounds like a difficult challenge for producers when it comes to insuring Cavill from injury, but hey, at least there’s no danger of him clinging to the side of airplanes on the continent. Instead, The Witcher mostly involves Cavill tossing himself into fight scenes, which are at least choreographed. And then he takes baths onscreen. Note that no one is arguing for him to do less of that! And to that end, The Witcher will get poetic later this summer and resume filming for Season 2. Hopefully, we’ll see Geralt’s wig on Netflix again before too long. There are monsters to be hunted, after all.
(Via Variety)