Month: July 2020

We’re in that special time of year when a great bottle of dark rum is almost impossible to argue with. The sugarcane-based spirit, aged in oak in a tropical climate, just sings with summer night sultriness — lending itself to exceptional cocktails or being taken neat, with a few ice cubes clinking around the glass. It’s like your favorite bourbon turned on its head. Yes, it’s dark. Yes, there are notes of oak and spice. But dark rum is also just a different beast, every bit as nuanced as the best whiskeys on the market.

While the vast majority of rums that we get on our shelves come from countries dotting the Caribbean Sea, rum is actually just as universal as any spirit. Got sugar cane, sugar beets, or molasses? You’ve got the recipe for rum making. For this list, we’re focusing on the bottles that come from closer to home — in order to keep things both inexpensive and accessible. Expect us to widen the net a little further as July fully gets kicking.

The ten bottles below are rums that work wonders in fruit or citrus-forward cocktails, as smooth sippers over ice, or in mixed with a nice splash of bubbly mineral water. They’re also all available for delivery — a perk for those who are still fully homebound on 4th of July weekend.

Cruzan Black Strap Rum

ABV: 40%
Origin: St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
Average Price: $17.46

The Rum:

This rum is deep and dark for one big reason: The addition of blackstrap molasses (which has the lowest sugar content of any molasses) after it’s aged. This Caribbean rum is aged between one and two years in old bourbon barrels. Next, the blenders cut the harsher edges from the sip with the dark molasses. This addition technically makes this a “black” rum, which is necessary for mixing up a Dark ‘N’ Stormy.

Tasting Notes:

The sweetness of this sip is tempered by a sense of fennel and vanilla. That sweetness edges towards high-fructose corn syrup masquerading as maple syrup with hints of spice and coffee bean bitterness. A note of dark spice arrives with more vanilla and a syrup nature on the semi-hot finish.

Plantation Original Dark Rum

ABV: 40%
Origin: Trinidad and Jamaica
Average Price: $20.89

The Rum:

This blend comes from Maison Ferrand (which has announced a forthcoming name change). The French proprietors bring a Cognac sensibility to rum making in the Caribbean. This particular expression is aged for three to five years in new American oak before being blended and transferred to Cognac casks from Maison Ferrand for a final 12 to 18-month finishing.

Tasting Notes:

This is a fascinating sip. The nose opens with a sense of bananas next to rich plums and pods of vanilla. The sip carries touches of orange zest next to cardamon, cloves, and allspice while the sweetness stays hinged to the plummy fruits. Those Christmas spices and oak marry on the end as a billow of smoke brings about a concise final note.

Goslings Black Seal Rum

ABV: 40%
Origin: Hamilton, Bermuda
Average Price: $20.99

The Rum:

Goslings imports rum made in both pot stills and continuous stills. They then age the hot juice in ex-bourbon barrels for an undisclosed amount of time. This iconic rum was the original spirit used in a Dark ‘N’ Stormy, in case you’re looking for something to mix with this one.

Tasting Notes:

Caramel and dark spices ride heavy upfront with a note of dried fruits. The taste then moves toward butterscotch, vanilla, and sharp cinnamon. Finally, there’s a rush of caramel that leads toward more oaky spice and a wisp of fresh herbs.

Blackwell Rum

ABV: 40%
Distillery: Kingston, Jamaica
Average Price: $22.99

The Rum:

This rum — distilled and blended by J.Wray and Nephew — is a Jamaican gold standard. Master blender Joy Spence (of Appleton Estate fame) worked with Chris Blackwell (founder of Island Records) to revive his mother’s recipe for this rum. They ended up with a rum that embraces the classic styles and craft behind great Caribbean dark rum.

Tasting Notes:

Light molasses covered orange peels mingle with dried tobacco and a note of dark spice. There’s a cacao bitterness at play with a dash of fatty nuts, fruit, and smoke. The wood and fruit combine with the spice and sweetness to bring about a pleasant and short finish.

Myers’s Original Dark Rum

ABV: 40%
Origin: Kingston, Jamaica
Average Price: $24.99

The Rum:

This is another classic rum to have on hand for mixing up some cocktails night or day. The rum is a blend of nine Caribbean rums that have been aged for up to four years in old bourbon barrels. The result is a dark and deep rum with a clear Jamaican molasses signature.

Tasting Notes:

Sweet notes mingle next to black pepper and a sense of wet earth. The sip tips very lightly into mild vanilla and a molasses sweetness. The oak takes hold on the finish as the earthiness dries out, leading to a quickly fading end.

Pusser’s British Navy Rum

ABV: 40%
Origin: British Virgin Islands
Average Price: $26.28

The Rum:

This is an English-style navy rum meant to emulate what the British Navy handed out to its seamen every day for centuries. When the rationing of daily rum stopped in the 1970s, Pusser’s arose to recreate the rum with a spirit distilled and aged in Guyana and Trinidad and blended in Barbados.

Tasting Notes:

This rum has a lot going on, which can turn some people off. There’s a certain, tough to pin down, rickhouse funk next to mild spices and vanilla pudding. On the palate, the sip turns toward that funk with notes of spice, sugar cane syrup, more vanilla, dark chocolate bitterness, and a touch of earthiness next to a wisp of smoke. Finally, that funky age mellows to a mild worn leather and pipe tobacco as the wood takes over with a nice hint of spice on the long-lingering finish.

Appleton Estate Reserve Blend

ABV: 40%
Distillery: Appleton Estate, Jamaica
Average Price: $27.99

The Rum:

Remember Joy Spence, mentioned above? She’s been making magic happen at Appleton Estate for a good while now. Although Appleton is in the midst of rolling out a whole new line, including their much anticipated 8-Year-Old expression, this bottle is going to be around for a while. The expression is blended from 20 different rums that aged for up to six years.

Tasting Notes:

Funky old barrel rooms meet dried orange zest, hazelnut, and ginger cake cut with honey. The sip leans towards a matrix of earthiness with caramel notes next to bright fruit and sharp spices. The finish comes up slowly with oak front-and-center but supported by funk, zest, and sweet notes.

Diplomatico Mantuano Extra Anejo

ABV: 40%
Origin: Venezuela
Average Price: $27.99

The Rum:

This Venezuelan rum comes from the foothills of densely forested mountains. It’s a departure from the Caribbean’s gently lapping shores in more ways than one. The rum is distilled in three different ways — by column still, batch kettle still, and pot still — before being aged in both ex-bourbon and ex-single malt barrels. The juice spends up to eight years in those barrels before being blended into the final product. You can sip this one all day, folks.

Tasting Notes:

Prunes dance with oak as dark echoes of spice cut through. Those prunes lead towards an oily vanilla pod and a clear sense of old oak barrels with hints of Christmas spice next to hints of florals and a lingering whisper of smoke. The finish arrives fairly slowly with the plummy nature fading out as the spice ramps up.

Mount Gay Rum Black Barrel

ABV: 43%
Origin: Bridgetown, Barbados
Average Price: $29.99

The Rum:

Mount Gay, the oldest rum distillery in the world, has created a unique and very new expression of rum with their Black Barrel rum. The rum is distilled in double pot and column stills and then aged in ex-bourbon barrels. Finally, the rum is blended and then finished in heavily-charred ex-bourbon barrels, hence the “Black Barrel” moniker.

Tasting Notes:

Toasted oak greets you with a nice dose of orchard fruit and mild spice. That spice leads towards a bourbon caramel sense with a hint of vanilla next to a building sense of spice and oak. The sip ends on a long, spicy note with that oak char adding a dry bitterness underneath.

EDITOR’S PICK: BACARDÍ Reserva Ocho Rum

ABV: 40%
Distillery: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Average Price: $29.99

The Rum:

This expression is what I use when leading rum tastings to give people a baseline of what “good, sippable rum” tastes like. Nothing is off-balance or demands special attention. It spent generations as a private label product, bottled only for the Bacardi family, but they were wise to share it with the world — it’s a massive upgrade to their base-level dark rums.

In short, we’re talking about classic Bacardi rum that gets left alone to stew in a Puerto Rican rickhouse — spending eight long years aging and maturing into this special (and affordable) bottle.

Tasting Notes:

For a rum defined by smoothness, the nose does have a little bit of alcohol punch. After that, I agree with Zach, who says, “dried apricots and plums lead the way towards a clear sense of freshly ground nutmeg.” In other words, aged stone fruit leading toward holiday spices. There’s vanilla and cinnamon, but you don’t sense them as directly as you would with a spiced rum — it’s more like a rum cake where you say to yourself “is there cinnamon and vanilla in here? I’d bet there is!”

On the palate, Zach noted “hints of fresh grass, dried tobacco, and stewed pears leading towards a mix of allspice, cinnamon, and more nutmeg” and… damn, he’s good at this. I totally agree on the dried grass or hay — not barnyard funk, but definitely some age. You get the molasses throughout but it doesn’t hammer you. The finish is allspice and fruit and “fruitcake” — which is, I suppose, both of those things combined. Zach picks up a “whisper of smoke” but for me, what lingers is the molasses.

-Steve Bramucci

Perhaps the worst thing that could’ve happened to Rachel McAdams is The Notebook. I say this with the wistful, nostalgic affection of one who spent her formative pubescent years worshiping that sentimental nightmare of a film. The Notebook sold us many lies as truths — lies my preteen brain was easily fooled by.

A man threatening to commit suicide because a woman he was interested in wouldn’t go out with him? The Notebook told me that was a swoon-worthy story that you’d want to tell your future children. A relationship in which the two people had nothing in common and spent most of their time screaming at each other for trivial miscommunications? The Notebook told me that was passion. You didn’t paint anymore? The Notebook said you were probably bored in your healthy, sustainable relationship. You spent years of your life and all of your money fixing up an old house so your ex-girlfriend would come back to you? The truest gesture of love and commitment.

But the biggest lie was the one The Notebook told us about Rachel McAdams. She’s a gifted actress who, up until her turn as Allie in Nicholas Sparks’ drama, had starred in two fairly popular comedies: the forgettable Hot Chick and the cult-classic Mean Girls. In the latter, the Tina Fey-penned high school saga that served as a spiritual successor to Heathers, McAdams played Regina George, the Queen Bee of the school’s most popular clique, The Plastics. Narcissistic, manipulative, controlling, and petty, Regina George embodied the titular trope, and though we rooted for Lindsey Lohan’s naïve newcomer to beat her at her own game, years later, it’s Regina George we can’t stop quoting. It’s “So you agree, you think you’re pretty,” and “Stop trying to make fetch happen” that we remember. And that’s because of Rachel McAdams.

After Mean Girls came The Notebook, a cultural phenomenon that defined idyllic romance for a generation of idiots (myself included) and pigeonholed her career with other weepy relationship odes. The Time Traveler’s Wife, where she played a lovestruck woman saddled to a man with the frustrating affliction of spontaneous time travel. The Vow, where she inhabited the role of a woman who suffers a troubling case of amnesia after an accident and can’t remember her own husband. About Time, where she plays a woman with a (different) time-traveling boyfriend, who risks their relationship for his own gain.

A theme had emerged. Of course, because McAdams is so undeniably talented, she also starred in films that didn’t trade off tragic, troubled love stories. Spotlight, True Detective, Red Eye — these films gave us a different side to the woman who once got a man, on camera, to tell her he was a bird, too. But for a long time, when you thought of Rachel McAdams, you thought of these melodramas, these date-night flicks, these movies you’d put on when you needed a good cry. When you thought of Rachel McAdams, you thought of a woman who once launched herself at Ryan Gosling on the MTV Movie Awards stage. But now, you should think of Rachel McAdams as a comedy icon, because that’s what she really is.

Rachel McAdams is one of those rare chameleons who can seamlessly shift from the heavy to the humorous so yes, she’s terrific in The Notebook and To The Wonder and Disobedience. But she’s also uniquely identifiable in her comedic roles, like the ones in Wedding Crashers or Mean Girls or the severely underrated Game Night, or, most recently, Will Ferrell’s Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga.

In fact, her filmography is littered with comedy, whether she’s played bit parts as a crush-worthy bridesmaid to Owen Wilson’s imposter or the black sheep suffering through another holiday get-together in The Family Stone. McAdams has slowly been working her way to the kind of balls-out comedy on display in Netflix’s Eurovision parody with early entries that relied on her relative unknown status. She was a fresh face in Wedding Crashers, a witty love interest in Guy Richie’s Sherlock, and a positive-thinking peacemaker in Morning Glory. In these films, the comedy was happening around McAdams and she, more or less, reacted to it.

But as she’s become more recognizable, taken on franchises and genre films and indies that people like to fawn over on the festival circuit, she’s broadened her comedic horizons too, banking on her likability and pushing her limits to include physical gags and ridiculous costumes and eccentric, over-the-top characters normally reserved for the established comedic geniuses — the Ferrells and Steve Carells and Seth Rogens.

In Game Night, for instance, McAdams plays a fairly straightforward character, a wife who hosts a game night with her husband that quickly spirals out of control. Jason Bateman plays her partner in crime, and they do commit crimes, eventually, but only after they’re taken hostage and thrown into the middle of a black market deal that involves underground fight clubs and Bulgarians and moles in the police force. McAdams plays the plucky, ultra-competitive foil to Bateman’s stiff-lipped, dry-witted half, and she’s tasked with the heavy lifting as Bateman leans on his trademark sarcasm, leaving her to pull off the more exaggerated bits. She does, elevating a hostage scene with a wildly funny dance number that sees her character whipping a “fake” gun around and shoving it into men’s faces before accidentally shooting Bateman’s character and trying to clean his wound with a “nice chard,” a Good Housekeeping recipe, and a squeaky toy. But she’s also able to easily switch from these more ridiculous moments, like being flattered by a henchman holding her at gunpoint, to emotional interactions that carry weight, like when the movie’s main couple open up about their infertility issues.

That emotional heft that McAdams brings to her funnier roles is, oddly enough, what makes her such a compelling comedic actress. It’s on display in Game Night, and also in her Netflix Eurovision parody, where she plays one half of an Icelandic pop duo with dreams of winning the biggest singing competition on the planet. The movie is mid-level Ferrell funny, a cross between Pitch Perfect and Blades of Glory, that’s at its best when it’s not focused on its male lead.

Instead, it’s McAdams’ Sigrit, a wide-eyed, optimistic woman hopelessly in love with her best friend and willing to do anything to help him achieve his goal, that becomes the character you root for, and laugh at, the most. Armed with a heavy accent, a childlike sense of wonder, and an unflinching belief in the power of elves, Sigrit is the better half of this singing group — and McAdams commits to her, eccentricities and all, in a way that makes even the weirdest plot points believable. Her comedy serves a dual purpose — we cackle at her desire to match Lars’ bulge with her own camel toe, or when she finally expresses her anger with a well-timed “sex nuts” jab, but even when she’s making a complete fool of herself, McAdams is also giving us character development, showing us a woman finally beginning to search for her own purpose in life.

So maybe McAdams isn’t just a great dramatic actress or a comedic mastermind. Maybe she’s both, and we’re only now starting to realize it. I blame The Notebook.

Father John Misty’s latest record, God’s Favorite Customer, was released just about two years ago. While the singer hasn’t shared any information about his next studio release, Father John Misty is still debuting fresh music: The singer compiled a handful of covers for the EP Anthem +3, which will benefit select charities.

Anthem +3 features covers of songs by Leonard Cohen, Link Wray, and Cat Stevens. The four-track effort will see an early release via Bandcamp on a day the platform is waiving their fees. Father John Misty will donate proceeds earned from the EP to CARE Action, an international humanitarian organization fighting global poverty, and Ground Game LA, a community-driven organization dedicated to building power for the residents of LA.

Father John Misty’s Anthem +3 marks the second effort released in recent months that aims to raise funds for charity. Most recently, the singer shared the live album Off-Key In Hamburg as a way to assist musicians affected by the pandemic. Also released through Bandcamp, all proceeds from the live album went to MusiCares’ COVID-19 relief project, which provides financial assistance to musicians in need.

Check out Father John Misty’s Anthem +3 cover art and tracklist below.

1. “Anthem (Leonard Cohen)”
2. “Fallin’ Rain (Link Wray)”
3. “Trouble (Yusuf / Cat Stevens)”
4. “One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong (Leonard Cohen)”

Anthem +3 is out 7/3 on Bandcamp and 7/14 everywhere via Sub Pop. Pre-order it here.

St. Vincent has done a lot of different things in her career and explored a myriad of musical styles. Her brain would be an interesting one to pick through, and she is set to offer a look at her process and career as part of Audible’s Words And Music series. In St. Vincent: Words & Music, the artist will discuss her influences, lyrics, and the “discovery of her authentic self.” The release date for this installment has not yet been revealed.

St. Vincent said of the release, “Life is strange and full of uncertainty right now. But music is a constant. Music transcends the chaos. It’s always been there for me when I’ve needed it — whether in times of fear, heartbreak, anger, joy. So I’m thrilled to be working with Audible to share my story and my music, especially at a time when music is such a crucial part of coping and getting through these unprecedented days.”

A previous installment of the series recorded in 2018 at the Minetta Lane Theatre in Manhattan featured Patti Smith, and it included “original spoken-word stories from her life, interwoven with the music of her beloved catalogue, played live by Smith.” Alanis Morissette and Smokey Robinson are set to be featured in upcoming editions.

Roc Nation has officially canceled its Made In America festival for 2020. An update on the promoter’s Instagram provides a statement on the cancelation as well as the new dates for 2021 — over Labor Day Weekend. It appears that the reasoning for the final cancelation is two-fold: firstly, to address the risk from the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak and secondly, due to the protests against police violence that swept the nation in May and June, continuing to this day.

“Let’s focus our support on organizations and individuals fighting for social justice and equality in our country,” reads the post’s caption. “We look forward to seeing you next year.” The festival’s 2019 lineup featured Cardi B and Travis Scott as headliners, with performances from Alina Baraz, Anderson .Paak, Buddy, Charly Bliss, Gucci Mane, IDK, James Blake, Kaskade, Lil Uzi Vert, Lizzo, and more.

The full statement reads:

“2020 is a year like no other. We are in a pivotal time in this nation’s history. Collectively, we are fighting parallel pandemics, COVID-19, systematic racism and police brutality. Now is the time to protect the health of our artists, fans, partners and community as well as focus on our support for organizations and individuals fighting for social justice and equality in our country. Therefore, the Made In America festival will be rescheduled for Labor Day Weekend 2021.

We look forward to working alongside the Mayor’s office and returning to the wonderful city of Philadelphia next year. Please hold onto your tickets, as they will be valid for next year, and we will be sharing additional information as it becomes available via our website and social media.

If anyone would prefer a refund, an email will be sent to request one. For any further ticket inquiries, please reach out to the point of purchase.

Made In America joins a growing list of festivals that have canceled which includes Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, Coachella, Dreamville, Life Is Beautiful, and Pitchfork.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The self-titled album from Boygenius — the supergroup featuring Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker — was one of 2018’s best releases. It left fans wanting more, but given that the three artists are all involved in their own successful other endeavors, it’s not clear when or if the trio will reconvene for more music. Whatever the case may be, they’re about to satisfy fans with previously unheard material: They’re releasing a collection of demos on Bandcamp, which (like Pup’s live album) will only be available for one day.

The release includes versions of “Bite The Hand,” “Me & My Dog,” and “Stay Down.” The tracks were recorded as voice memos, during a rehearsal on June 5, 2018, the day before the group entered the studio to record the EP. Proceeds from the release will be split between three charities chosen by the band members. Bridgers’ donations will go towards Downtown Women’s Center, Dacus’ will benefit Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Richmond, and Baker will donate to OUTMemphis.

There are a couple more de facto new Boygenius songs out in the world as well. On Bridgers’ recently released new album Punisher, Dacus and Baker feature on “I Know The End” (alongside Conor Oberst) and “Graceland Too.” The trio also featured on Hayley Williams’ new album, on the song “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris.”

Meanwhile, Bridgers recently released a similar collection of demos to benefit bail funds.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

A sense of relief can be detected in Danielle Haim’s mascara-smeared eyes as she stands, unclad, in the center of a car wash, accepting the blows dealt by oversized blue bristles. Her sisters look on knowingly, safe behind the car wash’s plexiglass, as they attempt to literally wash away her depression.

This scene is depicted in Haim’s “Now I’m In It” video, one of the first singles to announce their third album Women In Music Pt. III. The visual serves as a metaphor for overcoming crippling depression by leaning on loved ones. It also encapsulates the many layers of unguarded emotion packed into Haim’s most powerful album yet.

Danielle was forthright about the video’s meaning and spoke candidly about her battle with depression. “For my sisters and I, there have been times in our lives where we have felt like we are stuck in a dark hole,” she wrote on Twitter. “Every time I’ve been depressed — it takes me accepting that I need help to start to get out of it.” While some may shy away from this kind of vulnerability, Haim instead find it empowering. Using humor as a tool to unpack their challenges, they show a new level of confidence throughout Women In Music Pt. III.

The Haim sisters wrote WIMPIII during a collective period of disillusionment after they ended their Something To Tell You tour and individually faced major life upheavals. Alana’s newfound free time forced her to confront the abrupt passing of her childhood best friend, Danielle’s partner and WIMPIII producer Ariel Rechtshaid was diagnosed with testicular cancer, and Este’s doctors advised that touring was taking a toll on her health, which had already been impacted by her lifelong fight with Type 1 Diabetes.

“Up From A Dream” speaks to this. Danielle’s detached lyrical delivery marries with a guitar’s droning textures to echo the haziness of uncertainty. She is content in her dreamland — evoked by samples of seagulls and crashing waves — until a cacophony of metallic guitars beckons her back to the anxiety of waking life. But within the realms of defeat, even reality seems unsure. “Are we already up from the dream / Or do we need to wake up again?” she asks.

Haim confront difficult past experiences on the record, but WIMPIII finds comfort through recognizing the humor in adversity. It’s as cheerily sarcastic as it is brutally honest. The title itself stands as an eye-roll response to tone-deaf reporters asking the dreaded question: “What is it like to be a woman in music?” The record’s album artwork further speaks to their sardonic sense of humor, which their other efforts merely scratched the surface of. The three women deadpan behind a deli counter, poised in front of massive, phallic sausages while a placard announces they are “now serving” customer number 69.

While their cover art overtly examines gender roles, their track “Man From The Magazine” playfully critiques sexist microaggressions. They detail real experiences, from getting asked inappropriately personal questions in interviews, to the frustration of guitar shop employees condescendingly correlating their feminine energy to lacking prowess. “Do you make the same faces in bed?” is both a line Danielle croons and a question that Este has actually been asked in reference to what she has affectionately coined her “bass face.”

A handful of songs on the record channel Haim’s signature jaunty pop honed through their last two albums. But some of their tracks teeter between genres, allowing for a type of experimentation not seen on previous efforts. “All That Ever Mattered” is a cathartic scream of self-worth validated by an energetic hair metal electric guitar solo. “3 AM” also experiments with style, probing sultry R&B radio hits the sisters grew up listening to on the radio — though its placement on the tracklist is vexing, sandwiched between two Joni Mitchell folk-rock numbers “Gasoline” and “Don’t Wanna.”

Haim use their lengthiest effort yet to break free from the rigidity of the label “women in music.” Through sincere openness, they reveal universal fluctuations of lived experiences: pain, loss, and mental health challenges, which are eventually eclipsed by sentimentality and the emotional salience of close relationships. WIMPIII proves that to be powerful is to be vulnerable and it demonstrates the importance of holding onto humor through hardship.

Women In Music Pt. III is out now via Columbia. Get it here.

The first trailer for Netflix’s The Old Guard made it clear that Charlize Theron was in serious butt-kicking mode as the leader of an immortal mercenary group. On Thursday, the streaming giant dropped another trailer, which contains a lot of the same moments, but it also adds something that was missing from its predecessor: one-liners that could rival those from a 1980s Arnold Schwarzenegger flick. That might be the necessary ingredient that allows us to get lost in a blockbuster-style action flick at home, as though we’ve been transported back to the height of Cinemax summer reruns. That’s comforting in a time when not even the movies can go to the movies.

I’m getting the same vibes from Charlize’s exasperated reaction (“Can you please not do that again”) to being stabbed by KiKi Layne’s new recruit as I did from Arnold’s immortal Commando line (“Remember, Sully, when I promised to kill you last? I lied). Add the group’s casual reference to going way back to The Crusades, and yeah, this movie will probably hit the spot. It’s comic-book based as well, sourcing from Greg Rucka’s acclaimed graphic novel of the same name. From the synopsis:

Led by a warrior named Andy (Charlize Theron), a covert group of tight-knit mercenaries with a mysterious inability to die have fought to protect the mortal world for centuries. But when the team is recruited to take on an emergency mission and their extraordinary abilities are suddenly exposed, it’s up to Andy and Nile (KiKi Layne), the newest soldier to join their ranks, to help the group eliminate the threat of those who seek to replicate and monetize their power by any means necessary… THE OLD GUARD is a gritty, grounded, action-packed story that shows living forever is harder than it looks.

Netflix’s The Old Guard — directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and also starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Matthias Schoenaerts, Luca Marinelli, and Marwan Kenzari — streams on July 10.

Despite recent spikes in new COVID-19 cases after the first phase of re-opening in multiple states, some artists, promoters, and venues really want to get back to business as well. It’s an understandable impulse, with some experts predicting that many promotions companies will be unable to recover from the lost profits of 2020. Country singer Chase Rice was censured by fans for holding a concert at a state penitentiary over the weekend, while Vanilla Ice is struggling to move tickets to an upcoming live show in Texas. Meanwhile, comedian DL Hughley collapsed during a live performance in Nashville and diagnosed with COVID-19.

That news hasn’t stopped artists from trying to get back to business as usual, though. Consequence Of Sound reports that North Carolina rapper DaBaby is booked for a 4th Of July concert in Decatur, Georgia this weekend at Cosmopolitan, a newly renovated venue. DaBaby is listed alongside Memphis rappers Blac Youngsta and MoneyBagg Yo as headliner of the “4th of July Bash” being promoted by J Hart Productions. While the show’s Eventbrite page urges attendees to “Bring your mask and be prepared for social distancing guidelines,” there’s little question that in the continuum of bad ideas, this one’s a little like crossing a busy street looking at your phone, especially as Georgia is one of those states that recently saw a spike in COVID activity.

DaBaby hasn’t mentioned the concert as yet on any of his social media, but that could just be reasonable reticence to tempt Twitter trolls and so-called “cancel culture” with which he had a recent run-in over social posts. We’ll see how things turn out but hopefully in the future, DaBaby sticks to virtual performances like his excellent one with Roddy Ricch at the 2020 BET Awards.

For more info on the 4th of July Bash, visit Eventbrite.

The first two cover athletes for the latest NBA 2K release were announced earlier this week. Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard will appear on the cover for games who have current generation consoles, while New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson is the face of the game for those who will purchase next generation consoles a little later this year.

But in the announcement last week about cover athletes for NBA 2K21, 2K Sports revealed that a trio of basketball players will appear on the front of the game. The final name was announced on Thursday morning, and in a bit of news that may not come as a surprise, the late Kobe Bryant will get a pair of covers for this year’s version of the game.

NBA 2K announced on its official Twitter account that there will be a “Mamba Forever” edition of this year’s release. One cover, which will be released on current generation consoles, features Bryant wearing No. 8, while the version that will appear on next generation consoles will have Bryant wearing No. 24.

This is hardly the first time that Bryant has appeared on the cover of a game, as he was on the cover for NBA 2K10 and the Legend Edition of NBA 2K17, the latter of which being the first release in the series following his retirement. Preorders for NBA 2K21 began on Thursday morning, with the game slated to drop on Sept. 4. As for pricing, Lillard’s cover will cost $59.99, Williamson’s cover will run you $69.99, and Bryant’s cover — which includes an upgrade for next generation consoles — is $99.99.