Month: March 2021

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw a long-awaited track from Lil Nas X and a long-dormant one from Taylor Swift. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

Lil Nas X — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”

Lil Nas X has been teasing his debut album for months and months now, and last week, we got one step closer to it thanks to the new single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” He shared a wild video for the track (which drew some comparisons to FKA Twigs) and also noted that his much awaited album is finally dropping this summer.

Taylor Swift — “You All Over Me (From The Vault)” Feat. Maren Morris

As part of her quest to re-record her old albums, Swift is unearthing previously unheard material, of which she noted, “One thing I’ve been loving about these From The Vault songs is that they’ve never been heard, so I can experiment, play, and even include some of my favorite artists.” So, that allowed her to get Maren Morris to sing backing vocals on her new/old country ballad, “You All Over Me (From The Vault).”

Rod Wave — SoulFly

Rod Wave has had quite the ascent since his 2019 single “Heart On Ice” achieved TikTok fame. His 2020 album Pray 4 Love peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and now he’s hoping for continued success with his latest release, SoulFly. He got a bit of help from Polo G on “Richer,” but beyond that guest spot, Wave eschews features and goes about his 19-track album alone.

Serpentwithfeet — Deacon

Serpentwithfeet tackled love from various perspectives on the singles he released leading up to his new album (like the Nao collaboration “Heart Storm“), and now Deacon is here. The artist previously said his goal was to make music that was “a lot softer, a lot more gentle than my previous work,” “something that felt very sensuous,” and “something that felt calm and restrained.”

Beabadoobee — “Last Night On Earth”

Beabadoobee and The 1975 are labelmates over at Dirty Hit, and now the two are linking up on a collaborative project. That would be Our Extended Play, which is out at some point this summer. Beabadoobee said lead single “Last Night On Earth” is “about all the things I would have done had I known we were going into a lockdown and the world was going to change the way it has.”

Vic Mensa — I Tape EP

Ahead of his new EP, Mensa told Uproxx about how punk music, and specifically Rage Against The Machine, is a major influence on him: “One of my biggest inspirations is Rage Against The Machine. Just one of the greatest groups. Rap is punk in a lot of ways. I mean, it’s a counter-culture depiction of working-class realities. They share the fact that generations before them denied the musical value of either one. Rappers are undoubtedly the new rock stars. What categorizes the rock stars? Newspaper headlines, the drugs, and the dying young. I don’t see a distinction between the two. I mention Rage Against The Machine because Zack de la Rocha is literally just one of the best rappers to me.”

Brockhampton — “Buzzcut” Feat. Danny Brown

It’s been about two years since Brockhampton’s last full-length project, Ginger, but they announced last week that a new one, Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine, is on the way in April. That news was preceded by a fresh track, the Danny Brown-featuring “Buzzcut,” which was accompanied by a trippy and chaotic video.

Justin Bieber — Justice (Triple Chucks Deluxe)

Bieber is only a couple weeks removed from releasing his Justice album, but he’s already back with more material on his “Triple Chucks Deluxe” edition of the record. He worked in an eclectic mix of new collaborators on the five fresh tracks, as he secured features from Quavo, DaBaby, Jaden Smith, Lil Uzi Vert, and Tori Kelly (the latter of whom, like Bieber, is managed by Scooter Braun).

Shelley — “Cooking With Grease”

Shelley is at the start of a new era, as the rapper/singer recently changed his name yet again (he used to be DRAM, in case you didn’t hear the news). On recent singles, he has had a running theme of a program called Shelley Show and he continues that in the video for “Cooking With Grease,” a slow and soulful tune that puts Shelley’s vocal abilities front and center.

Mannequin Pussy — “Control”

The members of Mannequin Pussy didn’t get to spend much time together in 2020, but once they felt it was safe to do so, they reconvened and hit the studio. The result was the upcoming EP Perfect, which they teased last week with the dynamic and exciting single “Control.”

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

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out… in excitement!

Disney has announced the full cast for Obi-Wan Kenobi, the live-action Disney+ series set 10 years after Revenge of the Sith (hopefully literally right after the infamous “noooooo” scene). Ewan McGregor is reprising his role as Not-So-Old Ben from the Star Wars prequels, as will Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader. The cast also includes Moses Ingram (Jolene from The Queen’s Gambit), Kumail Nanjiani, Bonnie Piesse and Joel Edgerton (as Beru and Owen), O’Shea Jackson Jr., Game of Thrones actress Indira Varma, Rupert Friend (Quinn from Homeland), and Benny Safdie, a.k.a. one of the Safdie brothers. I will now spend the rest of the day thinking about which Star Wars character is most likely to love Uncut Gems (it’s Dexter Jettster).

Here’s the full announcement from Disney:

The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.

Joining the cast are Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie.

Obi-Wan Kenobi does not currently have a premiere date, but when it does premiere, you best believe I will be using the “hello there” GIF.

It’s been a few weeks since Tobe Nwigwe last dropped a #CincOriginals or #GetTwistedSundays release — almost two months, actually. After releasing “The Truth” in early February and sharing his late-night television debut on his YouTube, he had a quiet month broken up by the release of a three-song live performance with The Roots including his songs “Fresh Air,” “Journey,” and the Black Thought-featuring “Father Figure.”

Over the weekend, though, the tongue-twisting Texas MC returned with a new freestyle alongside wife Fat and production partner Nell to share some big news. As the three sit in their now-familiar living room signing vinyl of the CincOriginals album Tobe released late last year, Tobe spits a laid-back verse touching on all his favorite subjects, from his love of rhyming to his commitment to his Second Amendment rights. While Fat and Nell provide ad-libs to hype him up, Tobe boasts of the connections he’s made with hip-hop legends like Diddy and Nas as a result of his past year.

As he gets more and more hype, he hops off the couch and makes a revelation: Fat’s “pregnant as hell” with “kid number three or maybe even four,” rifling off a tongue-in-cheek punchline in explanation. “Before I lay me down to sleep, I shoot up the club.” It’s a heck of a way to introduce the newest member of his family and give fans a new freestyle to enjoy while they wait for that vinyl in the mail.

Watch Tobe’s “Revealing Freestyle” above.

After blocking the Suez Canal for almost an entire week, the Ever Given container ship appeared to be freed early Morning morning as salvage teams managed to move part of the ship away from the canal walls. Early reports claimed the boat had been refloated and was finally on its way to freedom, which would seemingly put an end to the logistical nightmare that was reportedly costing the shipping industry billions per day.

You’d think the Internet would be pleased that the world’s largest shipping lane was now reopened, but nope, people were having too much fun making boat memes and watching the drama unfold. Shortly after reports of the Ever Green being free started pouring in, #PutItBack started to trend as Twitter users demanded the boat get itself stuck again for the memes.

As efforts continued to keep the Ever Given afloat, Twitter probably should’ve been careful about what asked for because, sure enough, the boat got stuck again. According to Daily News Egypt, high winds pushed the Ever Given back into the walls of the canal. The Internet’s wish came true.

However, in a sign of how fluid this situation is, the Ever Given is reportedly moving again after temporarily getting stuck for the second time, and traffic has resumed in the Suez Canal following the six day ordeal. If things continue to move at this pace, the Internet will have to find another ship to fall in love with as the Ever Given sails into the Great Bitter Lake and out of our hearts…

(Via Daily News Egypt on Twitter)

Halfway through HBO’s latest gripping documentary The Last Cruise, you might realize you’re actually watching a horror movie play out in real-time. It’s a consequence of how the film, premiering March 30th, was shot – director Hannah Olson combed through hundreds of hours of home video footage, shaky cell phone clips, and some awkward panoramic cabin tours to transport audiences. First through time, to the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic – a disaster that would eventually claim over 2 million lives and counting. Then to the ship itself, from its claustrophobic staterooms to its crowded crew decks to see how a virus with the unparalleled ability to spread asymptomatically was able to survive and thrive because of our own willful ignorance and blinding privilege.

It’s also a consequence of having yet to make it to the other side of this unprecedented outbreak, something Olson’s film can’t help but remind us of.

We chatted with the director about why the story of a cruise ship felt like the perfect Covid-19 time capsule to capture on film and what we can still learn from those early mistakes.

Technically this is a documentary, but it certainly feels like a horror film at times – because of the subject matter and the way it’s filmed. Did you get that feeling while making this?

I think I knew it was a horror film when it felt like the getaway car had a bomb in it. These Americans in particular had been quarantining for weeks on the ship in their staterooms, totally claustrophobic. And then they get on the plane to head back to the United States, and all of a sudden they’re placed on the same plane with people who are infected with the virus. It was this feeling of, ‘Well, we thought we were safe, but actually it’s just the beginning.’

Why did a cruise ship – this cruise ship – feel like the right setting to document the early days of this pandemic?

This was the first major COVID-19 outbreak outside of China, so it was kind of the signal that, ‘Okay, this might become something larger than just a localized outbreak.’ We also had the headlines, saying the ship was quarantined in the Japanese harbor with COVID on board. I was reading these headlines, and at the same time, I was also starting to look behind the headlines into the social media that was coming out of the ship — looking on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and seeing what people who were actually on the ship were posting. It was obvious once I started poking around that the ship was being reported about like it was quarantined but the crew were still working, sleeping, and eating together. I just wondered ‘Did these people not count?’

What surprised you when sifting through this footage? What do you think audiences might be surprised by?

It was appalling to me how much we knew so early on. Scientists studied the ship and learned that the virus was spread by asymptomatic carriers and that the virus was airborne. The first mentioned asymptomatic transmission was on February 3rd, and it wasn’t until April 27th that the CDC started recommending testing people without symptoms. It wasn’t until April 3rd that the CDC recommended that people start wearing masks. And you can watch and see the footage in February of people in masks on the Diamond Princess. For as many mistakes as were made, everyone was masked because we knew it was airborne that early on. People were still flying around the world at that point. I don’t think of myself as an investigative journalist, but I felt like I was uncovering the secret about how much we knew.

We’re still not on the other side of this thing. Was it difficult emotionally or psychologically to revisit the beginning of the outbreak? To be reminded of how clueless we were as to how bad it would eventually get?

Of course! I was riddled with anxiety, but I was also interested in looking beneath the surface of the terror to see this whole world of social dynamics playing it out. In my own life, I began to think a lot about class and the way the class plays out in moments of crisis. Scientists were interested in this boat because it’s a closed system; the whole world is contained on a single vessel. As a filmmaker, I think I was attracted for the same reason, only I wanted to look at it through a social lens.

You compiled hundreds of hours of video footage to craft this. Why was that the right style and method for telling this story?

I really wanted the film to be an experiential one. It was like making a magic trick. We tried to treat the footage like it was a verité scene so the music, the claustrophobia, those were very deliberate choices for me. Also the idea of excluding any experts … in hindsight we know so much about the virus, but I wanted to limit what the viewer could see to what people on the boat were experiencing.

What’s even more horrifying than seeing this outbreak play out in real-time is seeing how the virus disproportionately affected people on that ship. There’s a clear line that emerges from the footage you found. Why focus on that?

I really wanted to look at how the virus would reach across class and country lines so differently, to examine the complicity of white passengers in this case, and what their relative comfort cost those below deck. The cruise is like the go-to luxury, on the cheap for Americans, but at what costs? Many of the crew I interviewed were paid as little as $3 an hour and they have long days with little time off. This crisis only exacerbated those class differences. I was in New York when the pandemic started, and the way that I was watching class play out in my own life, with Uber drivers and bodega workers… I started making this film before we even had the phrase ‘essential worker’. It was something that I was starting to watch play out as everyone was having food delivered to them, exposing poor people to the virus. So for me, this was a film about who gets to take cover, who gets to be in quarantine.

There was a real stigma attached to people who came back from those cruises at the start of the pandemic. How difficult was it to get your hands on that footage?

There was a lot of fear, especially with crew members who are told not to talk to the media by Carnival, the corporation that owns Princess. So the crew members, in particular, were taking a large risk in talking with me, but it was an important story. They should have a right to tell their own story and share their experience.

Did Carnival ever give an explanation for what happened on that ship?

I submitted several interview requests, but their PR team was disbanded shortly after this crisis.

The most heartbreaking thing is how so many workers on that ship would still jump at the chance to cruise again.

I think that’s the horror of global capitalism today. Even when we hear that some of the crew members are making as little as $3 an hour on board, and still that’s a good choice for them. Maruca the pastry chef makes less than $3 an hour, and this is still the best job she could get. She’s currently back in the Philippines and is unemployed. Luke, the performer that we saw from Knoxville, Tennessee is working as a UPS driver and taking small jobs. Dede is back in his fishing village with his father and trying to piece together a living that way. It’s been devastating.

How do you think this doc will fit into the larger filmography that will eventually focus on the past year?

I think other films will have large sweeping retrospectives of the way that this has changed an untold number of industries and lives and the mass amount of death and tragedy that has occurred. But for me, I just wanted to make a little time capsule showing this one brief moment. It felt like a moment that was pivotal because it was a moment that gave us the information that we needed to stop the pandemic. We just didn’t listen.

‘The Last Cruise’ hits HBO and HBO Max on March 30th.

No one is more relieved that Donald Trump is no longer president than Dr. Anthony Fauci. The director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to the president appeared in the CNN special Covid War: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out over the weekend, where he discussed Trump’s colossal mishandling of the virus that has killed nearly 550,000 Americans since last year.

“The thing that hit me like a punch to the chest was then all of a sudden he got up and said ‘Liberate Virginia, Liberate Michigan,’” Fauci said. “And I said to myself, ‘Oh my goodness. What is going on here?’ It shocked me because it was such a jolt to what we were trying to do.” Trump urged his supporters to “LIBERATE” three states — Minnesota, Michigan, Virginia — from coronavirus restrictions. This was, of course, back when he had access to his Twitter account (Trump has been “permanently suspended” since January). Now he reaches out to far-right extremists through “elegant” press releases.

Fauci also talked about the “best decision” he made:

“When I saw what happened in New York City, almost overrunning of our health care system, it was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ And that’s when it became very clear that the decision we made on January the 10th – to go all out and develop a vaccine – may have been the best decision that I’ve ever made with regard to an intervention as director of the institute.”

Fauci has said “virtually everybody” will have access to the vaccine by the end of April.

(Via CNN)

As soft and relaxing music plays, birds fly over the horizon, and a steamboat moves upstream. A decision has to be made. Where is this train track tile going to be placed? There’s a track that could use an addition on the other side of the map, but the potential to start a new track on this side of the world is tempting. As is the possibility of earning some extra tiles thanks to a bonus.

After placing that tile down a sudden realization occurs: There’s only 10 tiles left, and now that relaxation has been replaced with focus. How can this game be extended? Where is the perfect tile placement? Unfortunately, the tiles you were dealt were not in your favor. And so your game ends with an incomplete train track and a river that goes nowhere due to poor planning. If only you had allocated your resources better.

This is Dorfromantik, a city builder currently in Early Access on Steam with a relatively unique concept. What if there was a game like SimCity, but only one piece of land can be played at a time, and that piece is decided for you at random. There’s no traditional time limit, so take as long as you want, but be careful with how you use your tiles because if you’re too careless your game is going to end quicker than you expect.

The way Dorfromantik works is really simple and a quick tutorial will have players jumping in almost immediately. A player starts a game with 100 tiles and their goal is to build the largest world possible before they run out of tiles. Once there are no tiles left it’s game over and a score is given out based on how organized the town is. Tiles currently are houses, fields, trees, water, train tracks, and empty space. Extra points are gained for combining like tiles together, such as keeping houses clumped to form towns, or keeping trees in a region to form wide forests. It’s all very relaxing, until those tiles start to run out.

The crux of the game comes with quest tiles. As the player goes through their deck they find tiles that have numbers on them such as some houses with a 14, or a group of trees with 125+. These are tiles with quests that, once completed, get you extra tiles. The quests themselves are simple: A house with a 14 on it means that the player needs exactly 14 houses connected to that tile, while trees with 125+ on it mean the player needs at least 125 trees linked together. Of course, you can’t just place these at random and earn the rewards, you need to be smart about linking these together. Some tiles need to be rotated to connect with each other physically, turning those that have half one tile type to link that side with the right tile type. In that same spirit, a river must connect to another river and same with train tracks so some spots become reserved for certain resources when they’ve been placed down.

These rules create some interesting resource management decisions when it comes to quests. None of them are required, but they help keep a healthy deck of tiles available. Follow those quests too religiously, though, can sometimes hurt you later in the game. Focusing too hard on quests can limit your build potential, as not every title is exclusive to one resource. The combined water train tiles in particular can quickly end a run since the rules around those are so specific.

What will keep bringing players back, though, are the roguelike elements of Dorfromantik. Every playthrough brings a new set of tiles, meaning no build is quite the same. One round could feature a lot of fields and forests, or another might involve train tracks surrounding the entire world. It will never feel the same, and every endgame will bring the sense of “Just one more” because that last one was almost perfect. You can sink hours into the game pretty quickly, with relaxing music playing to keep stress down.

Dorfromantik can be as long or as short as you want it to be. Four hours or 45 minutes, it’s entirely up to you. It’s the perfect game to load up after a rough day at work, or when there’s a desire to escape into a different world. The depth of the game is impressive a title still in Early Access. The developers believe it will be ready sometime in mid-2021, and the menu teases a creative mode so there is new content on the way. It’ll definitely be worth checking back in on later in the year, because what we’ve already seen here certainly seems worth giving a try. For now, let’s just sit back, relax, and try to build a nice happy town together.

Ted Cruz’s second spring break continues after he bypassed his preferred Cancun, Mexico haunts to lurk in the bushes near the U.S./Mexico border. He gathered up 18 fellow Senate Republicans in an attempt to frame the influx of migrants as a “Biden crisis” (as noted by Mediaite, the Associated Press has asked reporters not to use the word “crisis” while reporting on the situation), and one Texas lawmaker (Rep. Veronica Escobar) is attempting to spread the common-sense word: “This is not something that happened as a result of Joe Biden becoming president…We saw the increases dating back almost a year, and this was during the Trump administration.”

Well, Ted Cruz is here to keep insisting that this whole thing is Biden’s fault, which is what he did while entering the Donna facility, even though Biden’s only been president for two months (and he’s inherited one of the biggest overall messes, including a raging pandemic, of any incoming administration). Of course, Cruz decided to crank up his own theatrics by describing a facility staffer as follows: “Biden sent a political operative from DC to block our cameras and even threatened another senator to obstruct legitimate congressional oversight.”

Cruz filmed the staffer while she asked him to “respect the rules” and give “dignity” to the people in the facility, all while he argued that “the rules are arbitrary and designed to keep the American people in the dark.” When he refused to stop filming, she told him, “This is not a zoo, sir.”

As with last week’s “crisis to cosplay” video (credit to Beto O’Rourke for that term), people are dragging Ted for his “feigned outrage” while suddenly showing concern for illegal immigrants. In addition, they’re calling him out for staging photo ops and not inspecting these same facilities while Trump was president. Also, people are calling Cruz out for not offering any constructive criticism on how to remedy the situation (“no sympathy for the suffering of desperate people… Just fear-mongering and bigotry”) after years of shouting about building a massive wall.

It’s been a tremendously long album cycle for The Weeknd’s After Hours. The album’s journey began when “Heartless” and “Blinding Lights” were released as singles in late November 2019, and after performing at this year’s Super Bowl, it appears The Weeknd isn’t done with After Hours just yet.

Over the weekend, The Weeknd took to Twitter to declare that he is getting in on the NFT craze with a release of his own, tweeting, “new song living in NFT space. coming soon.” Hours later, he suggested that there’s more to come in regards to After Hours, tweeting, “p.s. this chapter isn’t quite done yet …” He then added, “still tying some loose ends.”

That said, if The Weeknd was done pushing After Hours now, he will have left behind a prosperous era of which he can be proud. “Blinding Lights,” “Save Your Tears,” and “Heartless” achieved respective Billboard Hot 100 chart peaks of Nos. 1, 2, and 3, while “In Your Eyes” managed to top out at No. 13. “Blinding Lights” was the best-selling song of 2020 and it recently became the first song to ever spend a full year in the top 10 of the Hot 100; On the current chart, it sits at No. 6.

Revisit our review of After Hours here.

Lil Nas X’s new “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video has become a moment since its release last week, partially because reactions have been mixed. Some admire the clip’s creativity and execution (like Big Sean) while others pushed back against the imagery of Hell and the devil. It turns out Joyner Lucas has a foot in both camps and Nas has shared his thoughts on the criticism from his fellow rapper.

In a pair of tweets, Lucas (who became a trending topic on Twitter after posting about the video) started by praising the clip before noting the video’s potential impact on children: “That @LilNasX video is wild but as a artist he doing everything he supposed to do. Creating viral moments, making people talk, & creating content he already knew you was going to react to. It’s a formula guaranteed to work. I doubt he actually worships the devil. I think the biggest problem for me is the fact he dont understand ‘old town road’ is every kids anthem. Children love him for that record. They tuned in and subscribed to his channels. So with no disclaimer he just dropped some left field ish & all our kids seen it. Smh”

Nas had a response ready, tweeting, “i literally sing about lean & adultery in old town road. u decided to let your child listen. blame yourself.”

Nas has a point. Despite how popular his global hit became with fans of all ages, the song features lyrics that probably won’t be repeated on Sesame Street any time soon. Specifically, Nas was referring to the song’s second verse: “Ridin’ on a tractor / Lean all in my bladder / Cheated on my baby / You can go and ask her / My life is a movie / Bull ridin’ and boobies / Cowboy hat from Gucci / Wrangler on my booty.”

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