Month: April 2021

Paper Route Empire and Maybach Music connect on “Plenty Cake,” the money-hungry new single from the former’s DJ-Q, which features opulent verses from Young Dolph and Rick Ross. The truck-ready beat is classic Memphis, but that doesn’t stop Floridian Rick Ross from demolishing a verse in which he lists his luxury cars and name-checks his favorite foods (lemon pepper chicken wings and peach cobbler!). Dolph comes in after to remind listeners that Memphians are built different and that he gets “plenty cake” himself, choosing to spend his spoils on chains, scallops, and lobster.

The track popped up with little fanfare on Dolph’s streaming pages this morning, trusting longtime listeners to fall in line in relatively short order. The strategy has served Dolph relatively well in the past; the Memphis mogul reserves promotion for music video budgets and other indie label overhead, choosing to let the work find the people and generate dollars organically. It seems to have worked out because he recently announced his retirement from rap to let the other members of his label, like Key Glock and DJ-Q, shine on their own.

Meanwhile, guest rapper Rick Ross is reportedly working on a joint album with Drake, looking to expand his own empire — from which he doesn’t seem to have any plans of retiring anytime soon.

Listen to DJ-Qs “Plenty Cake” featuring Rick Ross and Young Dolph above.

Skepticism is my default setting when confronted by big promises and splashy game trailers. I’ve been hurt before. So have you. But I so wanted to believe the promises that puppet Fernando Tatis Jr and Coach made about the long-awaited Stadium Creator in the next-gen version (and only the next-gen version) of MLB The Show 21 that I allowed myself a glimmer of hope. Yet while Stadium Creator in MLB The Show 21 is a whole damn meal on its own, offering plenty of options for amateur stadium designers and fans of games like Minecraft, I’m struggling to love it with my whole heart. And I’m not sure that that’s the fault of the game.

Before I unpack that, let me do the thing where I give a general read on that most basic of questions so you can hurry on out of here if that’s all you’re looking for: should you buy MLB The Show 21? It depends! If you’ve got an XBOX Series X or XBOX One, no, don’t buy it. Just get or use Game Pass and play the game there (the first time the series is available on Microsoft platforms). If you’re on a PS4, I don’t know that the game’s improvements justify the expense. Road To The Show seems like it has been deepened with a more customizable and versatile experience with your created player (who can be a two-way star). The overall gameplay, by way of an influx of animations, is smoother. So that’s something. Enough of a something? Eh.

For PS5 players, who like XBOX Series X players get the full breadth of the dev and design team’s love with the shift to next-gen, the answer is a clear yes, but it’s mostly because of the addictive experiences at your disposal in Stadium Creator. If you’re not into that, then this may not be a necessary game for you.

I, and many others, have complained for years about the lack of stadium creation and customization in MLB The Show. It’s something we got in a more limited tech time with EA’s much-missed MVP Baseball series, so the expectation was understandable. To their credit, San Diego Studios (a Sony operation that produces MLB The Show) could have caved to criticism years ago, delivering a surface experience to shut us all up for a minute. But they didn’t. They waited. They put in the time (two years in development) to deliver something that feels, not revolutionary, but at least evolutionary with the potential to improve in subsequent years.

As far as what you have at your disposal now, Stadium Creator offers 30 templates (including options that look a LOT like Jack Murphy Stadium and Ebbets Field) and hundreds of options to create funzos where you can bounce homers off of the head of a T-Rex 285 feet down the line from home plate with floating space ships swapped in for bleachers. The time of your life can be had while engaging in a little imagination that breaks the laws of reality. If that’s the limit of what you’re looking for, this is going to give you everything you want. And I hope you get weird with it for as long as that keeps your attention.

Much like the laws of reality, the laws of physics are also suspended with Stadium Creator, though. To pull off some angles, sections merge with each other in unappetizing and pointy ways demanding you stack a section on top of another one and crush a few hundred NPCs or cause them to sort of phase into each other. None of this means a damn thing in an actual game, but it’s still aesthetically unpleasing when you’ve sunk a ton of time into these projects. But, I mean… you also can’t alter foul territory, add on-field features, take out a generic batter’s eye, or build a dome. This means that while you can get close to replicating stadiums of the past with a lot of trial and error (a lot), you’re ultimately going to fail at true authenticity and perfection. And for someone like me that was pretty much all in on this with the hope that that wouldn’t be so, that’s a problem.

I get it. Mine is a micro niche folded into another micro niche. But we’re conditioned to think that everything is meant to be tailored to our wants. Algorithm curated playlists and streaming recs, ample chances to alter a food order to your liking, and on and on. Hashtag campaigns like #ReleaseTheSnyderCut even started working. It’s hollow, but as consumers, we get our way a lot or are at least led to believe that’s what’s happening. And it’s broken our brains a little. Broken mine, because I’m somehow feeling disappointed in something that is probably 95% what I was hoping for (being able to play these stadiums online with friends would be nice, by the way. My little Canuck friend that I mentioned last year is just heartbroken that we can’t battle on our obscure and bizarre stadiums).

Am I going to sit here, arms folded, mourning my inability to make an exact replica of Palace Of The Fans from the early 1900s? Maybe! But no, not really.

Truth be told, I spent 20 hours and came away with a half dozen false starts and one not-terrible tribute to Tiger Stadium (above). I know where all the warts and weird bits are. The things I had to do to make things work to the point where I’d be satisfied. And while it was often frustrating (I see you flashing red section that’s a half-centimeter over the wall, and would it KILL them to put in an undo button?), it’s also been on my mind all week and I can’t wait to do it again. So I guess the takeaway is something about the journey being the reward? No, that doesn’t sound right. Take wisdom from the Rolling Stones song about not always getting what you want? Nah.

How about this: while I was looking for authenticity and annoyed by the inconsistencies in my creations, didn’t I just stumble onto true authenticity because imperfections are part of the charm of old stadiums? Nah. Maybe I should borrow a line from the theme song to Mystery Science Theater 3000: “repeat to yourself it’s just a game, you should really just relax.”

With any Marvel Cinematic Universe project, there’s always the question of whether an end credits scene will link the project to future movies and/or TV shows. And with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, one major question going into the finale was this: Who is the Power Broker? Well, the show decided to combine both the end-credits scene and the identity of the Power Broker — the facilitator of the super serum used to power-up the Flag Smashers — who was revealed to be Sharon Carter. Given her mysterious phone call (to Batroc) in the penultimate episode, Sharon’s newly nefarious ways do not arrive as a complete surprise, but the manner in which the announcement was made was something. No longer does Sharon even vaguely resemble the friendly “nurse next door” to Steve Roger’s apartment or even Agent 13 or Peggy Carter’s great-niece.

As viewers now realize, Sharon believed that she got the shaft from Steve Rogers and the U.S. government. I’m not talking about anything related the fan backlash to Steve and Sharon’s kiss, either. Nope, this was actually some rude (and apparently clueless) stuff on Steve’s behalf. Oversights are bound to happen when you’re trying to save the world from cosmic threats and a genocidal maniac, but seriously, Steve found the energy to travel back in time to spend decades with his true love, and he couldn’t help clear Sharon’s name first? She put her butt on the line to bring Steve and Sam their gear during Captain America: Civil War, and this earned her fugitive status. MCU lore held that she got snapped by Thanos and resurrected, but she actually seems to have fled (years ago) to Madripoor, where she became Queen of the Sketchy Art Dealers.

She did, however, truly take things too far. During this series, Sharon didn’t hide her disillusion from Sam: “Look, you know the whole hero thing is a joke, right?” She was brutal to Bucky: “You buy into all that stars and stripe bullsh*t. Before you were his pet psychopath, you were Mr. America. Cap’s best friend.” Yet Sharon put on a sugary face in the show’s end credits scene. She graciously accepted a full pardon and declared herself honored to go back to her work for the government (as Agent 13?). Then she stepped outside and made a phone call:

Confirmed: Sharon Carter’s gonna start dealing weapon prototypes and government secrets because super soldiers are no longer in demand. Damn! As unlikely as this outcome seemed back when Sharon Carter was simply kicking ass in the show’s trailer, it appears that Power Broker could be a Season 2 villain. Looking back at the conversation that she had with Karli Morgenthau in the finale, it’s clear that she’s got a mega-beef with the powers that be, and Karli was at odds with her ending objective, which now seems to be world domination. As Karli put it, “You wanted to control a world that hurt you.. I wanted to change it… I’m not interested in power or an empire.”

What’s kinda crazy is this: If Sharon had the super serum and wanted to rule the world, why did she not take the serum as well? Instead, she apparently meant to use the Flag Smashers as her goons, and when Karli refused to play along, that meant the end of Karli. Likewise, Batroc made the mistake of threatening to expose Sharon’s Power Broker identity, and Sharon had no problem killing him, either. At this point, we can only assume that she’s off-the-hook but very good at maintaining the illusion of composure, given that she was very cool with the Senator declaring that Sharon’s surname “has always been synonymous with service and trust” and running with it after the hearing.

An important point: This series’ version of the Power Broker is nothing like the Marvel Comics character of the same name, so comics will be of no use to predict where Sharon might go from here. What’s very obvious is that Sharon’s now ascending to greater heights, and her intentions are not good. She’s entirely disillusioned with the idea of heroics, and she has an accomplice waiting in the wings to help her sell off every other dangerous thing she can access. “Should be something for everyone,” she added, which could mean… other countries, other planets? Yikes.

The situation could go a few ways. It could take Power Broker into another MCU show or movie, or this could line up a Season 2, should the Marvel Studios gods choose to go there. Kevin Feige has left the door ajar for more, and if that happens, the new Captain America, Sam Wilson, and his sidekick, Bucky Barnes will have a Power Brokered mess to fix. Also, the betrayal factor! Let’s hope we see that drama unfold onscreen.

‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ season finale is streamable on Disney+.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: being an actor must be weird.

Look at Andrew Scott. The Fleabag and Sherlock star has won a BAFTA and a Critics’ Choice Award, and been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy. He’s also an acclaimed theater actor. But for the rest of his life, whenever strangers see Scott on the street, they will yell “HOT PRIEST” at him. It’s what I would do.

There are worse things than to be associated with one of the best TV shows of the 2010s, and also be called “hot,” but it still must take getting used to. At least he’s not wasting his “hot” talents.

Scott and Lily James star in BBC’s The Pursuit of Love, “a romantic comedy-drama about love and friendship. An adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s celebrated novel and set in Europe between the two World Wars, the story follows the adventures and misadventures of the charismatic and fearless Linda Radlett and her best friend and cousin Fanny Logan.” That stuffy-sounding plot summary leaves out Lily James spitting bath water on her friend; Andrew Scott making out with a scantily-clad woman on the dance floor; and McNulty from The Wire screaming about how “an adulterous women is the single most disgusting thing there is.” It looks like a steamy good time.

Look out for The Pursuit of Love on BBC and Amazon Prime Video soon.

Back in September, Hayley Williams was one of a bevy of artists to contribute to Good Music To Avert The Collapse Of American Democracy, a 40-track compilation of songs released for just 24 hours to benefit the voting rights organization Fair Fight. So, her cover of Broadcast’s “Colour Me In” has been officially unavailable since the album was removed from digital shelves, but now Williams has re-shared the cover on its own.

Williams says of the cover, “I really love Broadcast. It was hard to choose which song of theirs I wanted to cover, but I feel like this one hits me in a sweet spot that’s strangely comforted by longing and melancholy. I recorded this days before lockdown last year and it’s just been floating around in the ether. So happy it’s got a place to land now. Enjoy.”

Back when the Good Music To Avert The Collapse Of American Democracy compilation was initially released, Williams wrote, “TODAY ONLY get an unreleased cover of ‘Colour Me In’ (one of my favorite Broadcast songs) along with tons of other unreleased songs by so many great artists on @bandcamp!”

Listen to Williams’ cover of “Colour Me In” above.

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

Following his death in 1992, Francis Bacon’s studio revealed dozens of destroyed paintings. The idea of those completed works hung in galleries or private homes existed in some form or fashion for Bacon, but that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t what it was meant to be. And yet, those works remained, in their mangled form. The destruction was its own act of creation, part of Bacon’s process, one that created sacred beauty out of the profane.

Recently, very much alive guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López was featured in German newspaper The Süddeutsche Zeitung along with Clouds Hill producer Johann Scheerer in advance of The Mars Volta’s massive, career-spanning box set La Realidad De Los Sueños, out today. In the interview, the two discuss the role of pain in work, among other topics. And Rodríguez-López expresses his thoughts on the physical act of creating art, or in this case, a song:

“You’re destroying all the possible ways in which it may have developed. You’re erasing all the different chords, intervals, melodies and arrangements in order to see a manifestation of your own view – which is the same as taking control of destruction and turning it into creativity. You’re cooperating with destruction. When I’m starting off with a song, I can hear hundreds of different versions and I love each and every one of them. They all make me happy. But I have to choose one that’s going to be mixed, mastered and printed.”

There’s no doubt when listening to The Mars Volta that pain and destruction form a common thread. Rodríguez-López famously spoke of trying to “wrestle the guitar” due to his combative and complex relationship with the instrument. Singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala utilizes the profane amidst the sacred in his lyrics, often tying death and decay directly to religious iconography. The pair’s musical journey has been filled with tragedy and loss since their early At The Drive-In days.

And yet, there was always creation in destruction.

That’s on full display in La Realidad De Los Sueños, an eye-opening 18-LP set featuring no shortage of surprises (including pins, 3D glasses, illustrations, and yes, that truly haunting “Mr. Muggs” song — but strangely, missing the “Frances The Mute” single). Nowhere is that motif clearer than the disc that’s (rightfully) drawing the most attention: the unfinished Deloused In The Comatorium sessions (titled Landscape Tantrums). This destroyed canvas showcases the raw, the exposed, the unsanded of the band at its earliest, still reeling from the dismantlement of At The Drive-In. Holed up in Long Beach, Calif. (at a place they dubbed Akinulapo — which translates to “he who carries death in his pouch”), the band would find its voice, one as unique as any in modern rock.

The result was the Long Beach-recorded Tremulant EP (also remastered in the box set), which gave way to the finished product of Deloused, given the appropriate amount of Rick Rubin magic that has made it as powerfully disruptive as ever since its release almost 20 years ago.

But between Tremulant and Deloused was a destruction of all the possible permutations The Mars Volta could’ve developed from. Spiritually and in some ways physically, as band members joined and left, the “train” — Bixler-Zavala’s cheeky term for the band — rolled on regardless of who was on it. That’s what makes Landscape Tantrums so intriguing, not just as a time capsule, but as a work of art. One can parse both the past and the future of Bixler-Zavala and Rodríguez-López’s work in these tracks. It’s a chance to experience those Bacon works before he would slash them to ribbons or make them unrecognizable to anyone but himself.

And in a lot of ways, this ouroboros of beginning and end in the physical act of creating a box set represents the entire ethos of The Mars Volta. By going back to the beginning, a band that ended in 2013, but always twisted and morphed — songs appearing in one form or fashion on other projects or other groups, collaborators teleporting in and out, At The Drive-In bookending both, with Antemasque (a 2014 project featuring Flea made possible by the end of The Mars Volta in the first place) and Bosnian Rainbows wedged in — could start again as an Escher painting.

Where one chooses to engage with the group is up to them, and box sets like this have power in ways streaming can’t. You’re free to dive in, but once you’re in, you’re on a staircase to nowhere. You’re in the Dark City. You’re K from The Castle.

It’s a fitting monument to a band that never purported itself to be boring or accessible. Just looking at a The Mars Volta album cover, or even just peering at a tracklisting or their song lengths, gives that away. One album is based on a cursed Ouija board that is now allegedly broken and buried. Bixler-Zavala often switches between languages, and creates his own words mid-song. Rodríguez-López presents a challenging production style to both listeners and his own musicians (who sometimes don’t know which project they’re recording their isolated tracks for). One song (in five parts) off Frances The Mute clocks in at over 32 minutes.

(All of it – from profane to sacred and from absurd to inspired – it should be noted, sounds absolutely incredible on this vinyl, and reflects the painstaking process that must have been remastering each of these recordings.)

And yet, for as silly (or “self-indulgent,” as critics loved to write as often as possible) as all of it can be, it’s also incredibly ambitious. For every musical interlude that features four minutes of coqui frogs, there’s some of the most inspired guitar work or percussion of the 2000s. For every challenging riddle or narrative in Bixler-Zavala’s lexicon, there’s inspired repeated refrains that stick with you. They’re all or nothing. They’re pain and laughter. They’re destruction and creation. And La Realidad De Los Sueños (which fittingly translates to the reality of dreams) is the beginning and the end and a new beginning (in the form of Landscape Tantrums) of The Mars Volta.

Because what is a punctuation mark if not the end of one sentence and the start of another?

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been lauded for drawing inspiration from decades of Marvel Comics, yet still blazing its own trail that keeps the films (and now shows) fresh and unpredictable, the The Falcon and the Winter Soldier season finale delivered a surprisingly comics-accurate moment for its most controversial and morally ambiguous characters: Wyatt Russell’s John Walker. If you walked away from the finale confused about whether he’s a hero or a villain now, don’t feel bad. That’s how you’re supposed to feel about John Walker, especially now that he’s assumed his more well-known persona from the comics who’s been a divisive character from the minute he first appeared on the page.

Who is U.S. Agent?

In the final moments of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier finale, Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘ Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (call her “Val”) gifts Walker a new outfit that looks exactly like his old Captain America suit except its black. She then dubs him “U.S. Agent,” and literally everything about this character change is pulled straight from the comics. In the ’80s, John Walker was introduced as the new Steve Rogers after Captain America retired over the questionable patriotic zeal of the Reagan years. Walker, on the other hand, was an ultra-conservative, hardline Christian who was very eager to do the government’s bidding as the new Cap. However, things went south as it became evident that the Red Skull was manipulating Walker and the U.S. government, which prompted Steve Rogers to return and set things right. Despite being a seemingly gun-crazy killer, Walker helped Steve take down the Red Skull and returned the Captain America mantle to its rightful owner. Walker then took on the name U.S. Agent and donned a black suit similar to Steve’s.

As U.S. Agent, Walker is mostly a hero and has worked with several teams including leading The Avengers at one point. But he continued to operate in a morally grey area, and built a reputation as a cocky, obnoxious asshole, which seems to be the direction the MCU is taking Russell’s interpretation of the character. In the finale, there is definitely some question marks around whether he’s really good or bad, and he seems to be concernedly pumped about working for Dreyfus’ Val. Let’s not forget that Russell’s version of Walker killed an unarmed man in cold blood after recklessly injecting himself with super-soldier serum. The guy is still very unstable, and that can present problems down the line.

What happens to U.S. Agent next in the MCU?

Now, we’re in fan theory country. Here’s what we know: After the events of Endgame, The Avengers appear to be disbanded. In the five years between The Snap and The Blip, Black Widow and Steve Rogers were running the team. They’re both off the table along with Iron Man, who sacrificed himself to defeat Thanos. As for Thor, he jetted off with the Guardians of the Galaxy. So that leaves the Earth without an Avengers team, and it’d be a solid bet that someone is going to step in and fill that vacuum. Judging by Val being positioned as a more pragmatic (and possibly evil) version of Nick Fury, it seems like Dreyfus’ character is putting something together.

There’s also the matter of Zemo, who’s now being held at The Raft, the super prison under the purview of William Hurt’s General Ross. In the comics, Ross forms his own team of seemingly reformed villains called the Thunderbolts that was led by, you guessed it, Zemo. Could Val be helping to put together an MCU version of the Thunderbolts that includes U.S. Agent? Maybe. Could she be forming an entirely different team with Walker that doesn’t have the same moral compunction as The Avengers? Also, maybe.

What is known for certain is that wherever he shows up next, U.S. Agent’s methods will be problematic, morally ambiguous, and frankly, a true representation of modern-day America as John Walker unflinchingly uses deadly force on whoever’s in his way.

A lot of very famous people worked at County General Hospital over ER‘s 15-season run: Julianna Margulies, Ming-Na Wen, Linda Cardellini, Angela Bassett, and of course John Stamos. But the most famous was George Clooney, who played Dr. Doug Ross on the NBC medical drama until he left in season five to become an Oscar-winning actor.

Would he ever consider returning for a reboot?

“I don’t know. The hardest part is that when you look at the show and consistently over so many years — it would be hard to say that you could do it at the level that we did it,” Clooney said during a virtual cast reunion on Thursday. “I’m not sure that that’s available.” He added, “I’m not sure [about a reboot]… It’s hard to catch lightning again.”

But Clooney has been re-watching ER with his wife, Amal, a decision he now regrets. “This has been a very, very disastrous thing for me because I forgot all of the terrible things I’d done as Dr. Ross,” he joked. “My wife keeps going, ‘Is that it? Are you done? Season three, do you finally settle down with Nurse Hathaway?’ It’s been a disaster for my marriage.” Nurse Hathaway was played by Margulies, who admitted during the reunion that she had a “crush” on Clooney. Join the club.

The chemistry that erupted between Margulies and actor George Clooney turned them into one of TV’s hottest on-screen couples. “That can’t happen if you don’t have a crush on each other,” Margulies allows. “And with George and me, it was so organic. I was just supposed to be a guest star, number 39 on the call sheet. But he treated everyone the same.”

Also in attendance for the reunion, which benefitted Waterkeeper Alliance: Anthony Edwards (Mark Greene), Noah Wyle (John Carter), Gloria Reuben (Jeanie Boulet), Laura Innes (Kerry Weaver), Goran Visnjic (Luka Kovac), Ming-Na Wen (Jing-Mei Chen), and CCH Pounder (Angela Hicks), among others. You can watch it below.

Also, watch ER! It’s a good show that people don’t talk about enough.

(Via People)

After producing a few hilarious skits and a slick new single, we’re still not sure exactly what Chance The Rapper’s “House Of Kicks” really is. However, the creative run he’s been on since teasing “The Heart & The Tongue” last month has apparently extended to shooting live, stripped-down performances, as well. Today, Chance shared a self-directed video of his good friend Vic Mensa performing an acoustic rendition of his soulful single “Shelter” at Chance’s house, with The Rapper filling in for Wyclef Jean on the chorus.

The performance opens with Vic performing his verse in front of a crackling fireplace backed by a mellow orchestral arrangement sans drums. Meanwhile, Chance leans on his picture windowsill across the room to sing the tender hook and perform his own verse. The two rappers harmonize nicely on the chorus, then the video loses saturation for a black-and-white view of Vic’s final verse and the song’s outro.

“Shelter” was the friends’ first on-record reunion since 2013, when they guested on each other’s mixtapes Acid Rap and Innanetape. They had a falling out as they both rose to stardom, but were eventually able to put their differences aside as both found their footing in fame, with Chance starting a family and Vic returning to form on the fiery V Tape. They finally reunited officially on Vic’s follow-up, I Tape, and it seems that the creative chemistry they once shared seems intact and growing.

Watch Vic Mensa and Chance The Rapper’s live performance of “Shelter” above.

Lil Nas X is not one to be content with releasing just one version of a song, especially when there’s potential success to be milked from remixes. That’s something he’s joked about with “Old Town Road” (which had a bunch of different versions) and a strategy he’s also put into practice with “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” So far, he has released versions of the song subtitled “But Lil Nas X Is Silent The Entire Time,” “SATAN’S EXTENDED Version,” and “but it’s lofi and something you can study to lol.” Now he’s back with another one: “Montero (Call Me By Your Name) (But Lil Nas X Makes All The Sounds With His Mouth).”

The video sees different clips of the rapper in front of colorful backgrounds arranged in a Brady Bunch grid on the screen, like what Jimmy Fallon and The Roots have done on The Tonight Show time and time and time and time and time again over the years. As for the recording itself, with all the sounds layered on top of each other, it’s actually a decent reproduction of the original song.

Watch the video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name) (But Lil Nas X Makes All The Sounds With His Mouth)” above.