Month: February 2021

Beloved indie group Manchester Orchestra last dropped an album in 2017, A Black Mile To The Surface. Now, after four years away, they’re coming back with more: The band’s sixth album, The Million Masks Of God, is set for release on April 30.

They’ve prefaced the album with “Bed Head,” an upbeat rocker that Andy Hull describes: “‘Bed Head’ is two old friends existing in two separate realities. It’s a conversation about the lives they lived, the consequences of life’s decisions, and finding purpose in trying to be better.”

Hull also spoke of the album, explaining its connection to Robert McDowell’s father’s battle with cancer:

“If Black Mile was this idea of ‘from birth to death,’ this album would really be more about ‘from birth to beyond, focusing on the highs and lows of life and exploring what could possibly come next.’ […] It started off really abstract, but as Robert’s dad’s fight with cancer got harder and harder those last couple years, I started making parallels in my mind to what I was actually writing about. It became an examination of my own faith. While Robert’s dad’s story certainly influenced this album, it’s equally about me coming to grips with the realness of adulthood and that there’s an expiration date to all of this — and how you’re going to live your life knowing that. […]

There’s a decision we’re faced with when experiencing loss and the inevitable grief that follows. Do we let it sink us? Try to ignore it and pretend it’s not there? Or do we search and dig until we find signs of beauty in life and all of its experiences? In a way, the grief will always define you but being together and creating something meaningful from all of the hardships has been the most helpful tool I’ve found.”

Listen to “Bed Head” above and find the The Million Masks Of God art and tracklist below.

1. “Inaudible”
2. “Angel Of Death”
3. “Keel Timing”
4. “Bed Head”
5. “Annie”
6. “Telepath”
7. “Let It Storm”
8. “Dinosaur”
9. “Obstacle”
10. “Way Back”
11. “The Internet”

The Million Masks Of God is out 4/30 via Loma Vista Recordings. Pre-order it here.

Donald Glover has always been a multihyphenate talent but according to The Hollywood Reporter, he’s just certified his mogul status. According to a report from the trade magazine, Glover has come to an agreement with Amazon to develop a content channel for the Prime Video hub worth eight-figures. Glover has ended his previous deal with FX.

However, that won’t affect the upcoming third and fourth seasons of Glover’s hit show Atlanta, which is said to start filming both seasons back-to-back in March to get the show back on the air sooner. Meanwhile, the Amazon deal will see Glover — and his brother Stephen, with whom he writes and produces Atlanta — executive produce such projects as Hive, a series revolving around a Beyonce-esque diva figure. Sources told THR that among the writers recruited for that show is Malia Obama, the daughter of former President Barack Obama.

Glover is also said to be working on a series reboot of the TNT Sunday afternoon classic, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, with Fleabag‘s Phoebe Waller-Bridge. In November, Glover teased new music as well, posting a rare tweet promising “a lot (of magic) comin. yall thought i was hot in 2018.” His last official album, Awaken, My Love! was released in 2018, although he also dropped a project in 2020 whose rollout Tyler The Creator hated.

After football fans and sports media observers on the internet whipped up an exaggerated controversy on the Fox NFL booth’s alcohol habits this week, play-by-play man Joe Buck took to Twitter to explain himself, clarifying that there was not much actual drinking going on, but that the alcohol instead served as a reminder to stay calm and in the moment.

The comments initially came on Colin Cowherd’s podcast, and Buck stated that although he wasn’t in any professional trouble from Fox for what he said or worried about the ramifications, he wanted to set the record straight, particularly as it pertained to Troy Aikman, his co-pilot in the booth.

As Buck explains, he occasionally has the runner for the booth buy the biggest cup of beer available in the stadium just to set it in his line of sight while calling a game and potentially sip it every so often just as a reminder to relax. Buck has been open about his battles with anxiety and depression as a result of his career, and this was one way that he was able to stay cool.

In the tweet thread, Buck elaborates on how his biggest regret of discussing the practice out in the open with Cowherd was bringing Aikman into it, though Aikman has not officially commented.

The whole story has become far more fraught than it probably had to be, as no matter what the extent of this little mental trick is for Buck and Aikman, it does not seem to ever affect their work.

Despite decades of fame and an entire amusement park dedicated to her life and music, Dolly Parton continues to remain exceptionally humble. Earlier this month, the singer revealed that she had actually turned down the the Presidential Medal Of Freedom twice, stating, “I’m not sure that I even deserve it.” Now, Parton is making a similarly modest move: rejecting legislation that would build a statue of her.

Back in January, Tennessee Representative John Mark Windle introduced a bill that would create a statue of Parton in Nashville to honor both her music and philanthropy. The bill seemed as though it was moving forward, but Parton has now put a stop to its advancement. Issuing a statement Thursday, the singer said she has asked lawmakers to “remove the bill from any and all consideration” as she doesn’t think it’s the right time:

“I want to thank the Tennessee legislature for their consideration of a bill to erect a statue of me on the Capitol grounds. I am honored and humbled by their intention but I have asked the leaders of the state legislature to remove the bill from any and all consideration.

Given all that is going on in the world, I don’t think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time. I hope though, that somewhere down the road several years from now or perhaps after I’m gone if you still feel I deserve it, then I’m certain I will stand proud in our great State Capitol as a grateful Tennessean.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to try to do good work and make this great state proud.”

Not only did the original bill have the support of lawmakers, but it was sparked by a petition created by her supporters. They wanted Parton replace statues of Confederate leaders that can be seen throughout the state, arguing that “we need not glamorize those who do not deserve our praise.”

Read Parton’s full statement above.

Back in January, Seth Rogen spent days roasting “fascist” Ted Cruz for tweeting a hilariously ill-informed take on the Paris Climate Agreement, and now, Rogen is back to feast on what could be the biggest political blunder of Cruz’s career, which is pretty impressive given his track record of repeated self-owns. The Texas senator was caught flying to a resort in Cancun while his state is still reeling from an historic winter storm that has left millions without power and water. It was a bad look all around, and Rogen didn’t waste a golden opportunity to drag Cruz for the brazenly callous trip.

“I think @SenTedCruz is desperately trying to rebrand from the ‘inspired a deadly insurrection’ motherf*cker to the ‘left my constituents to freeze to death so I could go to Cancun’ motherf*cker, but luckily he can be both,” Rogen tweeted. “He’s just that big a motherf*cker.”

Just to put an emphasis on how big of a PR nightmare Cruz is facing, the news of him trying to quietly slip out of the country didn’t fully start to break until very late Wednesday evening, but by Thursday morning, he was already trying to fly back to Texas according to unconfirmed reports.

Even for Ted Cruz, the Cancun trip is an extraordinarily bad move. While the Texas senator has a long history of bumbling into embarrassing situations on social media, leaving your constitutions to freeze to death is a whole other level. What makes the move especially Cruz-ian is that earlier in the week, he actually showed a hint of self-awareness by acknowledging that maybe he shouldn’t have mocked California when it suffered rolling blackouts in the summer. For a brief moment, it seemed like Cruz actually had a heart — and then he hopped on a plane to get his resort on while millions of Texans struggled to stay warm in their own homes.

(Via Seth Rogen on Twitter)

Anyone who follows LeBron James on Instagram knows that the dude really loves music. James will oftentimes dedicate his entire IG Story to clips of him listening to music and vibing, he’ll tweet about music he’s listening to, he’s been sponsored by Beats headphones for years, all sorts of stuff.

In fact, James tweeted in the early hours of Thursday morning that he wants to add “made an album” to the lengthy list of things he has going on away from the court. James, while “thinking out loud,” said that he wants to tap into his “love for music,” but there is a catch: He has zero plans to rap on whatever he creates. He does, however, have a number of friends who he thinks can get the job done, and wants to give them a platform.

James has rapped in the past — he famously once hopped on a track alongside Kevin Durant back in 2011 that did not see the light of day until it hit the web a few years back — but it seems like he’d rather not do that again any time soon. Who knows, thought, maybe he can be talked into doing a guest verse somewhere down the line on an album he produces.

Get over here — and watch the trailer for Mortal Kombat.

Based on the video game series, Mortal Kombat is an R-rated, blood-soaked grand ol’ time from director Simon McQuoid and producer James Wan. It stars Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, Josh Lawson as Kano, Sisi Stringer as Mileena, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, Mehcad Brooks as Jax, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, and Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero, as well as Lewis Tan as a newcomer to the Mortal Kombat-verse, Cole Young. Maybe “Cole Young” isn’t as exciting a name as “Sub-Zero,” but based on the trailer above, he’s going to do his fair share of fatalities. 2021’s Mortal Kombat looks to be less campy than 1995’s silly-but-fun Mortal Kombat, but as long as it’s better than Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, people will be happy.

Here’s the official plot synopsis.

In “Mortal Kombat,” MMA fighter Cole Young, accustomed to taking a beating for money, is unaware of his heritage—or why Outworld’s Emperor Shang Tsung has sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero, an otherworldly Cryomancer, to hunt Cole down. Fearing for his family’s safety, Cole goes in search of Sonya Blade at the direction of Jax, a Special Forces Major who bears the same strange dragon marking Cole was born with. Soon, he finds himself at the temple of Lord Raiden, an Elder God and the protector of Earthrealm, who grants sanctuary to those who bear the mark. Here, Cole trains with experienced warriors Liu Kang, Kung Lao and rogue mercenary Kano, as he prepares to stand with Earth’s greatest champions against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. But will Cole be pushed hard enough to unlock his arcana—the immense power from within his soul—in time to save not only his family, but to stop Outworld once and for all?

Mortal Kombat premieres on HBO Max on April 16.

Canadian dance producer extraordinaire Kaytranada teams up with TikTok to celebrate Black History Month via his groovy new single, “Caution.” The bouncy, electric track is the latest sound on TikTok users can add to their videos as they make up elaborate dance routines and prank their parents. TikTok will continue rolling out more BHM-inspired sounds throughout the month, including a cover of the 1971 gospel song “Like A Ship” sung by Leon Bridges, and will cap the month with a live concert featuring Saweetie, Snoop Dogg, and Tyga.

Kaytranada had a relatively chill 2020, contributing tracks to Tinashe’s “Worst In Me” and JID’s “JIDtranada Freestyle” around Halloween after remixing Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” in September. He also helped his brother Lou Phelps with his mixtape Extra! Extra!, including producing the beat for “Nike Shoe Box” featuring Problem. He also contributed heavily to VanJess’ new album Homegrown.

Meanwhile, TikTok continues to be the latest hub for artists to connect with their fans. Doja Cat’s 2019 song “Streets” was recently vaulted onto the Hot 100 behind the sexy #SilhouetteChallenge, while SZA saw her unreleased song unofficially renamed by TikTok teens. As dances and challenges become more popular on the app — and more crucial to artists’ success — big names like Cardi B have embraced the trend, even though they’ve faced some criticism over “pandering” to the app. With that said, TikTok is going out of its way to make itself the new place to discover new music with its original songs and live concerts, making it one of the more potent tools in any musician’s arsenal.

Listen to “Caution” above.

Michael Cudlitz, the brilliant veteran actor from Southland and currently Clarice, appeared on Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast, Inside of You this week and, invariably, talk turned to his time on The Walking Dead. Cudlitz had nothing but great things to say about his years on the series, as well the opportunities the show has given him to direct episodes (in fact, he said he’d be back to direct an episode for the final season).

Cudlitz said that when he came into the series in season four, he’d been told by Scott Gimple that they were trying to get back to the source material after having strayed under Glen Mazzara (the reason, some speculate, that Mazzara was replaced by Gimple). The major difference between the comics and the series, he said, was Daryl’s presence. In the comics, Rick was periodically given a new best friend like Tyrese and that those best friends would be used to inform Rick’s character. On the series, however, Rick’s best friend was permanently Daryl, who absorbed some of the storylines for those other characters, like Abraham.

Cudlitz knew, then, that his time on the series would be limited, although when he got the call that his character would be killed off, he “wasn’t upset, per se. But he wasn’t happy to leave the show. I would have liked to continue,” he said, “but I wasn’t bummed about it.” He did say that he’d wished that he’d gotten to do a few more episodes with Sonequa Martin-Green, who played Sasha, because he wanted to continue to develop that relationship. He also said that he’d have liked to hang around for the All-Out War, because “it would have been nice to see [Abraham] function as a soldier.” He also mentioned he didn’t cry when he left, but he did cry at the end of Netflix’s Queen’s. Gambit.

Interestingly, Cudlitz also revealed something I’d never heard before, which is that appearances at conventions became part of the negotiations when new actors came on to the show in later seasons. “You got a little more each episode to not do X number of conventions,” Cudlitz said.

Why? Because “some people were doing them every weekend,” he said, “and it was interfering with the work schedule. It wasn’t like the top people — Norman [Reedus] wasn’t doing that. His [convention appearances] were spaced out, because they took a lot out of him because he was a huge convention draw. It took a toll on him physically just doing that.”

“But there were some people who were doing quite a bit,” he continued, although he said that he was not among them. He would schedule his carefully around episodes that he was in. That said, Cudlitz seems to enjoy the convention appearances, particularly his first one, where he was introduced at New York Comic-Con and received thunderous applause when he walked on stage (at the 27:40 mark below). “The wall of sound that hit me, I was like, ‘Holy sh*t, what is happening!”

The Walking Dead, by the way, returns this Sunday on AMC+ and on February 28th on AMC.

Source: Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum

2020 was a big year for disco, headlined by songs and albums from artists like Dua Lipa, Jessie Ware, and BTS. Now Foo Fighters are continuing that party into 2021 by covering a Bee Gees classic, “You Should Be Dancing.”

The group performed the track for Jo Wiley’s BBC Radio 2 Sofa Session series, and while the cover has a bit more of a rock edge than the original does, Foo Fighters didn’t stray too far from the Bee Gees disco formula. Dave Grohl even busted out a high-pitched vocal impression and totally nailed it.

Elsewhere on the program, Grohl explained how the group came to cover the song and revealed that singing like the Bee Gees was a delight:

“We’ve been going down to our studio every day and filming things and recording things, and this one day, we had our list of things we were supposed to do and it said, ​’Record a cover song for Jo.’ And while we were having this conversation, somebody said, ‘Hey, have you seen that Bee Gees documentary?’ And I was like the last person on Earth… the only person that hadn’t seen it. So I was like, ‘Why don’t we just do a Bee Gees song?’ And someone was like, ‘OK, how do you wanna do it?’ And I said, ‘Well, let’s do it like the Bee Gees.’ […] We started recording the instrumental track and then I thought, ​’OK, well I’m gonna go out and sing it,’ and let me tell you: I have never, ever in my life sung like that, but it was the easiest song I have ever sung in my entire life. I didn’t realize that my voice could, like… [sings with a high voice]. I sang the song, and it was like six minutes and I was done. I should have been singing like this for the last 25 years!”

Meanwhile, Grohl recently declared that the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is essential listening for kids, saying, “If you put Saturday Night Fever on, it’s going to feel like Saturday night, but it could be a Monday morning.”

Check out a snippet of the Bee Gees cover above and listen to the full session here, with the Bee Gees cover opening the program.

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