Month: January 2021

With so many people finding so many ways to put out new music, it’s harder and harder to be original these days when it comes to release strategies. Hayley Williams managed to do something different last night, though: By cover of night, she stealthily hand-delivered a CD to a fan and gave them her consent to leak the song on it.

Williams chronicled the stunt in a video, in which she drove up to the home of superfan Carly Butler, dropped a CD containing the song “My Limb” into her mailbox (along with a candle), and honking as she drove off.

Butler later tweeted, “did hayley williams drive to your house and drop off a candle and a cd with her new song on it or are you having a normal night.” Since Butler had permission to leak the track, she did just that, and as of this post, the song is only available online as a YouTube video.

It’s possible the song is a taste of a new album, and if Williams were to drop a new effort this year, it would be a quick turnaround for her: Her latest album, Petals For Armor, was just released in May 2020.

Listen to “My Limb” above.

Hayley Williams is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Jpegmafia has announced the forthcoming release of EP2!, the follow-up to his 2020 EP, the fittingly-titled EP!. To accompany the announcement, the avant-garde Baltimore rapper has shared the video for one of the seven songs from the tracklist he posted, “Fix Urself!” As an artist who never sticks with one style, Jpeg once again uses the track to morph into a reasonable approximation of Drake’s concerned lover boy schtick over a downtempo beat with digitally manipulated vocals.

The accompanying video is another self-shot affair, featuring Peggy and his girlfriend on a road trip and a nighttime walk through a city. It’s low-fi and very similar to his videos for “Living Single” and “Last Dance!” although it’s a bit grainier and he’s less aggressive in the video thanks to the softspoken nature of the song itself.

Jpeg spent much of 2020 releasing the gritty, self-contained videos, culminating with the release of EP! in November. Fans who wondered why “Last Dance!” wasn’t included on its tracklist received their answer today as Peggy shared the tracklist for EP2! which includes both “Fix Urself!” and “Last Dance!” According to Stereogum, the tracklist is below.

01. “Intro!”
02. “Last Dance!”
03. “Fix Urself!”
04. “Keltec!”
05. “This Ones For Us!”
06. “Panic Room!”
07. “Feed Her!”

Watch Jpegmafia’s “Fix Urself!” video above.

(Spoilers from Marvel Studios and Disney+’s WandaVision will be found below.)

WandaVision spent three episodes stirring up easter eggs that propped up HYDRA and Age Of Ultron references to remind everyone that Wanda Maximoff can’t escape her traumatic past. She can’t even do so while hiding in suburbia and, potentially, concocting an entire sitcom-y world to avoid reality. This week, we’re finally getting some answers, many of which were more than suggested in an advance clip, but let’s do this:

(1) Geraldine is, as suspected, actually the grown-up version of Captain Marvel‘s Monica Rambeau (who might become Captain Marvel one day), and she’s definitely an agent of SWORD (Sentient World Observation and Response Department), which is essentially a cosmic version of SHIELD that similarly deals with threats to humanity that would include HYDRA. She’s there in an attempt to “snap” Wanda out of whatever nefarious business SWORD has detected in Westview (and we also see how Monica went through her own trauma when she re-materialized from Thanos “snap” from Infinity War).

(2) Agent Jimmy Woo (from Ant-Man And The Wasp) is also a SWORD guy, and he’s the voice who was attempting to contact Wanda over the radio. At one point, he asks, “The universe created a sitcom starring two Avengers?” Oh sweet Jimmy Woo, there is so much more to that story coming your way.

(3) Darcy Lewis (from multiple Thor movies) is also assisting with the SWORD investigation on what’s going on with Marvel. She’s that figure who we saw peering into a monitor while the Westview events began to unfold earlier in the season. She’s essentially the audience POV but so much cooler than all of us.

So, that’s the setup. The episode is essentially an infodump that takes a break from the sitcom mold that it crafted for itself. Actually, there’s more to that because we’ve been wondering all along if Wanda created this world to enjoy one last, lingering hurrah with Vision after he died in Avengers: Endgame. He didn’t even just die, he had a damn hole burned into his head when Thanos extracted the Mind Stone. And after we’ve heard some “indestructible head” jokes from Wanda (who appeared to truly believe what she was saying), we got one hell of a reality check at the end of the episode.

Here’s how that went down. Wanda got nasty with Monica/Geraldine and ignited her powers, thereby hurling the SWORD agent through several walls and out of Westview.

This instantly clues Monica into exclaiming that this is “all Wanda.” From that, it sure as heck looks like Monica believes that no one else is pulling the strings in Westview. (This may not be the case, given that Darcy was shown to have uncovered everyone’s identities in Westview other than Agnes, meaning that Agnes is also up to no good.)

And, well, here’s the money shot of the week. Vision’s looking pretty damn dead here, which answers the whole “how on earth is he alive?” question.

So yes, he’s obviously dead now. No question about it. Even though he’s dead, Vision still seems freaked out by Wanda’s behavior, but since we don’t know if she reanimated his corpse or is simply imagining that he’s there (and can’t escape the “dead” thing), I have to wonder if Wanda’s thoughts from her subconscious or conscience are coming out of Vision’s mouth. Whatever the answer to that question might be, Disney+ gave us one heck of a jump scare, and worked on people.

All of this, really and truly, makes me scratch my head at the swirling rumors (that have not been discouraged by the show or cast interviews) about who the villain of WandaVision might turn out to be. It’s generally understood that this will be the greatest MCU villain of all, one who would rival Thanos in badness, but might we receive two major villains from this show? Clearly, Wanda’s losing her tenuous grip on sanity after a lifetime of trauma (she was a HYDRA test subject, lost her parents to a Stark Industries bombing, and witnessed Pietro/Quicksilver being killed by Ultron). While I’m thinking about Ultron, I do need to say that he was easily the worst MCU villain that we’ve ever seen, so that adds further insult to Pietro’s death. And I wonder if everything here might be building toward a major MCU villain actually being… Wanda/Scarlet Witch?

Wanda was introduced as the most powerful Avenger before being sidelined. She can bend reality and get inside of her enemies’ minds, and she nearly took out Thanos. Recall how she vengefully faced off against Thanos during the Avengers: Endgame final battle while snarling that he’d taken everything away from her. Kevin Feige recently confirmed that the moment does matter (a lot) in his mind. “I think it’s interesting, if you look at Endgame, Wanda Maximoff was going to kill Thanos,” Feige pointed out. “That’s as scared as I’ve ever seen Thanos, and if he hadn’t said, ‘Decimate my entire team to get her off of me,’ I think she would have done it.”

Wanda Maximoff as not merely an antagonist but a supervillain is definitely possible!

It’s worth theorizing about at the very least. A lot of the fandom still believes that, at some point, Agnes will be confirmed as Agatha Harkness, a sorceress from the comics who helped Wanda come into her powers while training with HYDRA. Her husband, Ralph, is suspected of being Mephisto, who fans are presuming will be the next big baddie. Hey, why can’t there be two big baddies? We know that Wanda will play a pivotal role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so let the speculation begin on that note.

‘WandaVision’ will stream new episodes each Friday.

After the Robinhood investment app made a highly controversial decision to block purchases of GameStop stocks on Thursday, it received bipartisan condemnation from congressional leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz, along with intense pushback on social media where the fight between retail investors who use the app has dramatically played out over the course of the week. That decision is now being reversed. As of Friday, Robinhood users can now make “limited buys” of stocks like GameStop, AMC and others that were targeted by Reddit day traders. The investment app also offered up an explanation for the now temporary ban, which it blamed on SEC and other vague financial regulations.

“Starting tomorrow, we plan to allow limited buys of these securities,” the company announced in a blog post on Thursday night. “We’ll continue to monitor the situation and may make adjustments as needed. To be clear, this was a risk-management decision, and was not made on the direction of the market makers we route to.”

However, that explanation isn’t holding water. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev appeared on Cuomo Prime Time on Thursday evening, where he was clearly not expecting host Chris Cuomo to pushback on the GameStock ban. Cuomo grilled Tenev on the decision and the “lack of trust” that’s now fomented from what looks like a move to put the interest of big Wall Street players over that of the day traders who use the app. Cuomo also challenged Tenev’s assertion that it was the SEC who forced Robinhood to pull the controversial stocks, and the CNN host listed a variety of conditions that were not present for that to be the case. Tenev was visibly caught off guard by Cuomo’s Wall Street experience.

Also on Thursday evening, Tenev appeared on CNBC to insist that his company isn’t having any liquidity issues that would have prompted the GameStop trade ban.

(Via Robinhood, CNBC)

The Weeknd is just days away from one of the biggest moments of his career: the Super Bowl halftime show. In a recent Billboard feature, it was revealed that he is throwing a lot of money at the performance, as he has invested $7 million of his own dollars to put on the best show possible.

Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, The Weeknd’s manager and founder/CEO of management company SALXCO, noted that while Super Bowl organizers cover production costs, The Weeknd put up $7 million of his own money in order to “make this halftime show be what he envisioned.”

Amir “Cash” Esmailian — one of The Weeknd’s managers who also runs his own management company, YCFU — also noted, “We always had the Super Bowl on our bucket list, and we’ve always had timelines for all of our goals. It came a few years earlier than we expected.” The Weeknd added, “We’ve been really focusing on dialing in on the fans at home and making performances a cinematic experience, and we want to do that with the Super Bowl.”

In recent days, there have been reports that The Weeknd’s halftime show would run for about 24 minutes, which would be twice as long as the typical Super Bowl performance. However, those rumors were debunked, a a Pepsi publicist noted, “The Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show featuring The Weeknd will be roughly 12 to 13 minutes in length, as it has always been.”

Read the full feature here.

HBO Max subscriptions doubled when Wonder Woman 1984 was released in December, but the streaming service could be in for another massive increase in “activations” soon. On Friday, HBO Max announced that Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a.k.a. the Snyder Cut, will “exclusively” arrive on March 18. It will be released as a four-hour movie with loads of “previously unseen footage,” not four one-hour installments as initially reported.

The superhero team-up film stars Henry Cavill (Superman), Ben Affleck (Batman), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Jason “My Man” Momoa (Aquaman), Ray Fisher (Cyborg), Ezra Miller (The Flash), and Mr. TwIsTeD himself, Jared Leto (Joker). Here’s more:

In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, determined to ensure Superman’s ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne aligns forces with Diana Prince with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Bruce imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own pasts to transcend that which has held them back, allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. Now united, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad, and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions.

HBO Max also released teaser art for the movie.

A couple days ago, Halsey hopped on Instagram, shared some photos of herself with a larger-than-usual belly, and thus revealed that she is pregnant. Now that the news has had a few days to marinate, Halsey has taken some time to thank her fans for the support.

On Twitter last night, she wrote, “blahhhh. anyway. [white heart emoji] thanks for the love I’ve been bursting at the seams for the past 48 hours. it’s wonderful to celebrate something with you all after years of sharing all the sad stuff ;).” In another tweet, she added that had the pandemic not thwarted her plans to tour behind her album Manic, she doesn’t think the bun in the oven would have stopped her either. She tweeted, “and just so we’re aware, if it wasn’t for Covid I woulda done the tour pregnant [crying laughing emoji].”

This comes after Halsey officially canceled her Manic tour last week, writing in her announcement, “Despite our absolute best efforts, there is no guarantee I’ll be able to tour the currently scheduled dates. I miss seeing all of you in the crowd every night more than anything, but I need to prioritize your health and safety. That being said, the Manic tour is now officially canceled. As much as we wanted to hold out hope that this tour could eventually happen, our priority is now getting your ticket money back to you immediately.

Twenty-four years after it went off the air, Seinfeld’s popularity remains as resilient as ever. In the nearly quarter of a century since the Seinfeld finale, we’ve heard numerous behind-the-scenes accounts about the sitcom, the cast’s involvement in Larry David’s follow-up, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and we’ve even looked into Jerry Seinfeld’s brief foray into Scientology.

What almost no one ever seems to hear, however, are bad stories from behind-the-scenes of the long-running sitcom. This is not a bad story, per se, but Sarah Silverman did have a “bad experience” on the set with Michael Richards. Silverman had a guest role on the series early on in her career, and while she wasn’t one of the many girlfriends of Jerry, she did play a girlfriend of Kramer.

It wasn’t a good experience, as she recently revealed on The Sarah Silverman Podcast. “I auditioned and I got the part, and oh my God, here I am with Kramer, and I have a scene with Michael Richards, in bed.”

“So I’m nervous, and jacked up,” Silverman continues. “But you know, I’m still a pro.” She recounts the scene in which Michael Richards says his line, “What’s that noise?” and Silverman is supposed to respond, “It’s probably the wind.” Instead, she accidentally says, “It’s probably the rain.”

“This guy, Michael Richards, breaks character and just starts ripping me a new asshole. He points to the window and he goes, ‘Do you see rain in that window?! Do you see rain in that window!?’ and I go, ‘No,’ and he says, ‘Then why did you say rain?’ It’s not rain. There’s no rain in that window! The line is ‘wind’!”

Silverman was shocked by the moment. She said she had a “lump in her throat,” and just had to get through it. She processed it overnight, however, and thought, “F**k this guy. Nobody calls him on his sh*t because he’s Kramer from Seinfeld. He walks through the front door and he gets a standing ovation.”

The next day, Silverman returned to set, and she had a scene with Richards in the diner. They’re both sitting at the table, and while they are setting up the shot, Richards starts casually talking to Silverman about real estate and other small-talk matters, as though nothing happened.

“And finally, I just cut him off and I say, ‘I don’t give a f**k!’ And he’s kind of stunned, and it’s like he snapped out of it a little. He understand what I was saying was, ‘You don’t talk like that and act like nothing happened. I’m not going to be one of those people that joins in and acts like nothing happened. That was sh*tty behavior.’”

Silverman gives Richards credit, however, for accepting the criticism. “And then we became casually friendly,” Silverman says. “And he would call me sometimes” and ask for advice about stand-up (he clearly did not listen).

Silverman also recounted that Richards was a “famously odd guy,” and had heard a story about him from the Farrelly Brothers. They asked him to come in to discuss a role in their movie Kingpin, and the conversation didn’t go particularly well and there was a disagreement. At one point, Richards asked to use the private bathroom in their office. They allowed it, but after Richards didn’t return from the bathroom within half an hour, they had to break down the door to see if he was OK. That’s when they discovered that he’d climbed out the window and left.

“Showbusiness is filled with very odd people,” Silverman concluded. “Very talented, but very odd people.”

Source: Sarah Silverman Podcast

Donald Trump met with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) at the former-president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday. The two reportedly discussed how the Republican party can win back Congress in 2022.

“President Trump’s popularity has never been stronger than it is today, and his endorsement means more than perhaps any endorsement at any time,” a statement from Trump’s Save America PAC read. The meeting, which was described as “a very good and cordial one,” comes less than a month after McCarthy said on the House floor that Trump “bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”

But now he’s back to kissing the ring in the world’s tackiest room.

The meeting caught the attention of The 11th Hour host Brian Williams, who, after introducing panelists Baratunde Thurston and Bill Kristol, said, “We are all about to see something for the first time, we have what I’m told is the first video of, exclusive video out of this meeting today between McCarthy and Trump. We’ll watch it and react on the other side.” Here’s a hint: Williams should have said, “Show me the clip.”

After playing the video, Williams deadpanned, “That is obviously, we have rolled the wrong clip, and we were sold a bill of goods here, I thought this was going to be of the McCarthy and Trump meeting, and someone is going to be, of course, in big trouble.”

You can watch it below.

(Via Mediaite)

Netflix continues to hold our hands in 2021 while never failing with to bring us fresh content every week and month. Thank goodness, too, because things are still rough out there, and TV is there for us. This week’s lineup of new stuff gets straight-up inspirational with a documentary series from the award-winning Rudy Valdez and an adventure film that will delight with its sweeping visuals and cultural value. There’s also a Turkish hitman coming at you, and an animated series for you to plop your kids in front of for hours. In other words, this streaming service is still crushing all of the quadrants.

Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) the streaming platform this week.

We Are: The Brooklyn Saints (Netflix series streaming 1/29)

Rudy Valdez, the Emmy-award winning filmmaker who poured his soul into HBO’s The Sentence, is here with more intimate verité footage of his newest subject. Here, Valdez turns his camera upon a youth football program in the heart of inner city Brooklyn. The program, of course, is much more encompassing than a pastime but also a vehicle for opportunity for these boys. They also become family with an incredible support system of coaches and parents, all while they strive for victory and overcome losses on and off the field. All of this, hopefully, will point toward a brighter future for all involved.

Finding ‘Ohana (Netflix film streaming 1/29)

Two siblings who hail from Brooklyn head to rural O’ahu, where they explore their Hawaiian heritage and head off on an epic adventure in search of long-lost treasure. Naturally, this involves a cryptic pirate’s journal, and one of the siblings is very skeptical while the other’s plowing full-steam ahead. In the process, they learn to love their native culture and discover that the true treasure is family.

50M2 (Netflix series streaming 1/27)

This Turkish hitman series (and how can you not be intrigued?) revolves around Gölge doing the second-chance thing while doing dirty work for Servit Nadir while taking refuge in a tailor shop. Gölge is masqurading as the late tailor’s son, and he’s transforming the neighborhood and vice versa. Meanwhile, Gölge doesn’t recall his own childhood, so get ready for the photograph-related fallout there.

Go Dog Go: Season 1 (Netflix series streaming 1/27)

This one’s mostly for the kids, but it’s DreamWorks stuff, so hey, adults might like it, too. The show follows an inventive puppy named Tag, who seeks adventure and helps solve problems in the town of Pawston with the help of her best friend, Scooch.

Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:

Avail. 1/22
Blown Away: Season 2
Busted!: Season 3
Fate: The Winx Saga
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: Season 2
So My Grandma’s a Lesbian! (Salir del ropero)
The White Tiger

Avail. 1/23
Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce)

Avail. 1/26
Go Dog Go

Avail. 1/27
Accomplice
Penguin Bloom

Avail. 1/29
Below Zero (Bajocero)
The Dig
Finding ‘Ohana
We Are: The Brooklyn Saints

And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:

Leaving 1/31
A Thin Line Between Love & Hate
Braxton Family Values: Seasons 1-2
Death at a Funeral
Employee of the Month
For Colored Girls
Malicious
Mr. Deeds
Pineapple Express

Leaving 2/4
Erased

Leaving 2/5
Lila & Eve
Woody Woodpecker

Leaving 2/7
Don’t Knock Twice
Swiped

Leaving 2/10
A Bad Moms Christmas