Since launching her solo career in the early 2010s, fans have been waiting a while for a new album from the Australian artist; She released By The Horns in 2012 and hasn’t dropped a new record since then. That changes later this month, though, when she will release Sixty Summers. She previously previewed the album — which was co-produced by St. Vincent and features The National’s Matt Berninger and Bryce Dessner — with “Fire In Me,” and now she’s back with a video for the song.
The dark, movie-like clip features Lord Of The Rings actor David Wenham alongside Stone herself, and press materials draws comparisons between it and Mad Max and The Walking Dead. Stone says of the visual, “The song is about a fire that drives you. The video echoes different aspects of that fire. We wanted the story to show both the will for survival and the natural urge to be good and do good, against the beauty and harshness of the outback.” She also previously said of the song, “For me, ‘Fire In Me’ was about creating a feeling of pure energy. I love the feeling when the music sounds like what the lyrics mean.”
There are far too few movies with Black superheroes. There are even fewer movies with Black female superheroes. Whoopi Goldberg is hoping to change that.
In an in-depth profile with Variety, Goldberg revealed that she’s writing a movie about an “older Black woman” who acquires superhero powers. “Since I was a little kid, I’ve been obsessed with superheroes,” she said. “They’re all saving the earth all the time. But do you know who’s really going to save the earth? Old Black women.”
The EGOT winner (Emmy: Outstanding Special Class Special for Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel; Grammy: Best Comedy Album for Whoopi Goldberg: Original Broadway Show Recording; Oscar: Best Supporting Actress for Ghost; and Tony: Best Musical for Thoroughly Modern Millie) is one of the only famous people left who hasn’t played a superhero in a movie. Unless you count Deloris in Sister Act as a superhero, which you absolutely should. It’s unclear whether Goldberg, 65, would play the Earth-saving superhero, but that is something I would enjoy seeing.
Goldberg also discussed how long she plans to stay on The View:
“I’m there until I don’t think I can do it anymore, but I’m not there yet,” she says. “As long as they allow me to do both [acting and hosting], I can do it. The minute they say, ‘No, you can’t,’ then I have to figure out what to do.”
Her superhero’s first act of kindness: getting Meghan McCain booted from The View.
No matter what she does, it seems as though Lizzo cannot escape critics. However, Lizzo takes a lighthearted approach to her haters, trolling people for questioning her weight and having very open discussions about the body positivity movement. But seeing as we live in a society that upholds unrealistic beauty standards, even Lizzo admits to occasionally airbrushing her selfies. That’s why the singer opted to ring in Taurus Season by sharing a completely unedited, naked photo with her over 10 million followers.
Lizzo shared the photo to her Instagram page Tuesday. “WELCOME TO TAURUS SEASON,” Lizzo wrote in the photo’s caption. “To celebrate I wanna give y’all this unedited selfie.. now normally I would fix my belly and smooth my skin but baby I wanted show u how I do it au natural.” The singer also mentioned that she’s partnering withe the brand Dove, saying that the company is “helping to reverse the negative effects of social media and changing the conversation about beauty standards.”
Many celebrities like Jonathan Van Ness, Grimes, and even Marc Jacobs expressed their support. But Lizzo’s friend SZA was perhaps the most vocal. In the comment section, SZA applauded Lizzo’s beauty: “It’s you having no blemishes at ALL lol .. sigh I jus admire u Fren,” she wrote. “I wanna drop the FaceTime pics.”
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
“The hood” figures prominently into many a rap song, but most often, it’s in a context of poverty, trauma, and violence as artists detail their rags-to-riches success stories, contrasting their humble beginnings with their newly lush surroundings. However, Fayetteville, North Carolina trapsoul artist Morray flat-out refuses to let that narrative continue to be the only one dominating hip-hop’s expansive landscape. In his new video for “Trenches,” he expresses love for his hometown, lifting it up instead of denigrating it by informing listeners of all the positive that comes from a proletarian upbringing in the hood.
“I got love for the ghetto, love for the hood,” he croons on the chorus. “Love for the people that turn the bad into good.” The video flashes imagery of neighbors, friends, crew, and family at play, cooking out, and watching over children as Morray explains that “everything is easier if you believe.” He also shows off his pitbull puppy and the energetic dance moves that first endeared him to fans who discovered his music via viral clips of his impromptu choreography.
“Trenches” follows “Quicksand,” “Kingdom,” “Switched Up,” and “Big Decisions” as the fifth single from Morray’s upcoming debut album Street Sermons, due April 28 via Pick Six Records/Interscope. You can pre-save the album here.
DMX’s music is great for a lot of things; contemplating complex emotions, increasing the energy at sporting events, and starting fights at a moment’s notice. All those things are expected — he was the sort of artist whose lyrics nearly always matched the vibe of his songs — but as it turns out, DMX is pretty effective in the area of natal care as well, as Action Bronson learned during the birth of his son. Appearing on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast this week, Bronson shared the story he wished he could have told DMX before the rap legend’s passing.
According to Bronson, his wife had a difficult, 17-hour labor, accompanied by Peruvian flute music (they were in the Andes at the time), facing an impending C-section due to the difficulty and length of the labor. After the doctor advised the couple that time was running out before they would need the surgery, Bronson told the attendees to cut the flutes and drop DMX’s “Ruff Ryder’s Anthem.” As Bronson tells it, upon the first refrain of “”Stop, drop… that motherf*cker jumped out of her. I swear on everything! It’s on camera! It’s on film! As soon as the Peruvian flute music stopped and DMX came on, he f*ckin’ heard the dog and… just jumped out. It hurts my f*ckin’ heart that I was never able to tell him that.”
Netflix continues to roll into 2021 with more content than we could ever possibly consume, and that’s an excellent conundrum to face. For sure, there’s always a lot of variety coming from the streamer — how does Netflix keep doing this, especially a year into the pandemic? no one really knows — and the challenge is how to pick the best offerings that are worth your time. That’s where we come in, hopefully, to dig into the impressively massive list of offerings and emerge with a handful of suggestions that would be great picks for your queue.
The best of the best selections here include a Zack Snyder film that returns him to his (excessive) basics, the return of a Parks and Rec star to the public eye, and a superhero series that makes a very handsome actor look nearly unrecognizable. There’s also a compelling true crime documentary (Netflix is really beefing up on that end) and a thriller starring an actress who really should have won an Oscar by now. You can’t go wrong with spending some time diving into this month’s goodness.
Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix in May.
Army Of The Dead (Netflix film streaming 5/21)
Zack Snyder’s pretty much the current King of Streaming after Justice League for HBO Max on the superhero front, and he’s spreading his love around over at Netflix. Army of the Dead (which takes Snyder back to his zombie roots after 2004’s Dawn of the Dead remake) tackles a plague of the undead in Las Vegas. Not only that, but a group of mercenaries are attempting to pull off the most masterful heist ever, and those zombies look surprisingly intelligent. Dave Bautista’s character wants to nail down $50 million all for himself, so don’t count the humans out, and Tig Notaro (who replaced Chris D’Elia) is capturing the Internet’s fancy, so maybe we shouldn’t #AlwaysBetOnDead after all.
Master Of None: Season 3 (Netflix series streaming TBA)
Alright, so the above trailer is from Season 2, but it’s been awhile since we’ve seen Aziz Ansari’s brainchild do its thing (and a refresher couldn’t hurt) and that’s not even (officially, at least) down to the pandemic. Ansari’s been largely out of the public eye following sexual misconduct allegations, although he did emerge a few years ago for an insightful comedy special that goes a long way to show that he’s still got a lot of material under his belt. No details on a third season synopsis have materialized yet, but considering that Ansari appeared to be gazing inward for that stand-up special, we can expect even more social commentary coming with the comedy.
Jupiter’s Legacy (Netflix series streaming 5/7)
Kick-Ass and Kingsman creator Mark Millar is to thank for this epic superhero series, starring a heavily bearded Josh Duhamel as The Utopian. He’s the head of a superhero family that’s hoping to pass the torch to a new generation, but (surprise) things aren’t going smoothly on that end. Yes, this description does evoke shades of Robert Kirkman’s Invincible (currently running on Amazon), but the vibe is a less R-rated and also entertaining on its own accord. No spoilers here, but there are twists involved with this family’s ethics as heroes, and the show answers to a lot of questions left open by Marvel Studios’ The Avengers.
The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness (Netflix documentary film streaming 5/5)
Netflix continues to delve deeper into the true crime realm with new selections every month, from the ongoing Unsolved Mysteries to Murder Among The Mormons and Joe Berlinger’s haunting Crime Scene anthology series. Now, the streamer is taking on the case of serial killer David Berkowitz, a.k.a. “Son of Sam,” who was arrested and convicted after a stream of murders in the late 1970s. New Yorkers felt a sense of relief after Berkowitz could no longer stalk the streets, but journalist Maury Terry (author of Ultimate Evil) didn’t rest easy. He felt convinced that Berkowitz had a partner, at the very least, and this limited documentary series will dive down the rabbit hole with him.
Love, Death + Robots: Volume 2 (Netflix series streaming 5/14)
Two years ago, Netflix previewed adult-animated anthology series Love, Death & Robots, from co-executive producers David Fincher and Tim Miller, with the “messed up audiences only” label. Comfortingly, it sure looks like not a whole lot has changed for the show’s vibe. As with the Emmy-winning first season of this show, this trailer tells us to expect more existential “robots-gone-wild” but fewer of them (along with “naked giants” and “Christmas demons”), as the series included eighteen short films in the initial round but will crank out eight more for this second batch. All will keep the seemingly infinite number of animation styles going, including a very simple looking installment that, uh, involves a poop-scooping robot. Otherwise, expect several genres (including sci-fi, horror, fantasy and comedy) to gain more of the spotlight with mind-bending stories, some frivolous and some thought provoking but all entertaining.
The Woman In The Window (Netflix film streaming 5/14)
After HBO’s Sharp Objects, no one needs convincing to believe that Amy Adams is quite adept at playing a woman on the verge. Here’s she’s portraying a woman (who is, yes, in the window) who either saw something terrible happen across the street or at least believes as much. She’s agoraphobic, and her neighbor does indeed disappear, so there’s that. Yet since this is a psychological thriller from director Joe Wright, so one can guess that the resolution (which is based upon the best selling novel of the same name) will be anything but straightforward.
Here’s the full list of titles coming to Netflix in May:
Avail. TBA AlRawabi School for Girls
Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir
Halston
Mad for Each Other
Master of None
Racket Boys
Ragnarok: Season 2
Avail. 5/1 Aliens Stole My Body
Angelina Ballerina: Season 5 Angelina Ballerina: Season 6 Back to the Future
Back to the Future Part II
Back to the Future Part III
Barney and Friends: Season 13 Barney and Friends: Season 14 Best of the Best
Dead Again in Tombstone
Due Date
Fun with Dick and Jane
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Green Zone
Hachi: A Dog’s Tale
JT LeRoy
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
Mystic River
Never Back Down
Notting Hill
Open Season
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Resident Evil: Extinction
S.M.A.R.T Chase
Scarface
SITTING IN LIMBO
Stargate
State of Play
The Land Before Time
The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure
The Lovely Bones
The Pelican Brief
The Sweetest Thing
The Whole Nine Yards
Under Siege
Waist Deep
Your Highness
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Zombieland
Avail. 5/2 Hoarders: Season 11 Avail. 5/4 The Clovehitch Killer Selena: The Series: Part 2 Trash Truck: Season 2
Avail. 5/5 Framing John DeLorean
The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness
Avail. 5/6 Dead Man Down
Avail. 5/7 Girl from Nowhere Jupiter’s Legacy Milestone Monster
Avail. 5/8 Mine
Sleepless
Avail. 5/11 Money, Explained
Avail. 5/12 Dance of the Forty One
Oxygen
The Upshaws
Avail. 5/13 Castlevania: Season 4 Layer Cake
Avail. 5/14 Ferry
Haunted: Season 3 I Am All Girls
Jungle Beat: The Movie
Love, Death & Robots: Volume 2 Move to Heaven
The Strange House
The Woman in the Window
Avail. 5/16 Sleight
Avail. 5/18 Sardar Ka Grandson
Avail. 5/19 The Last Days
Sabotage
Small Town Crime
Who Killed Sara?: Season 2
Avail. 5/20
Hating Peter Tatchell
Special: Season 2
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World
Avail. 5/21 Army of the Dead
Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous: Season 3 The Neighbor: Season 2
Avail. 5/22 Sam Smith: Love Goes – Live At Abbey Road Studios
Avail. 5/25 Home
Avail. 5/26 Baggio: The Divine Ponytail
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America
Nail Bomber: Manhunt
Avail. 5/27 Black Space
Blue Miracle
Eden
Soy Rada: Serendipity
Avail. 5/28 Dog Gone Trouble
Lucifer: Season 5 Part 2 The Kominsky Method: Season 3
Avail. 5/31 Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story
Here’s the full list of titles leaving Netflix in May:
Leaving 5/1 Hoarders: Season 10
Leaving 5/3 War Horse
Leaving 5/5 Hangman
Leaving 5/6 City of God: 10 Years Later
Lockout
Leaving 5/7 The Chosen Ones
House at the End of the Street
Leaving 5/10 Quartet
Leaving 5/14 Sherlock: Series 1-4
Leaving 5/18 Trumbo
Leaving 5/29 American Crime: Seasons 1-3 My Week with Marilyn
The One I Love
Leaving 5/31 50 First Dates
Act of Valor
All Dogs Go to Heaven
The Blair Witch Project
Brokeback Mountain
The Boy
Deliver Us from Eva
The Help
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Julie & Julia
Marauders
Milk
Miracle
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz
The Pursuit of Happyness
The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior
The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption
Soul Surfer
Striptease
Waiting…
The Las Vegas Raiders got waves and waves of criticism on Tuesday evening for their tweet in response to the Derek Chauvin verdict. Instead of responding to Chauvin being found guilty on all charges related to the murder of George Floyd with a statement about the long march towards justice and the need for law enforcement to no longer uphold institutions of systemic racism, the Raiders tweeted out “I CAN BREATHE.”
The tweet got pinned to the top of their Twitter account, and eventually, owner Mark Davis explained what happened: this was a directive that came from him; the wording (he claimed) came from Floyd’s brother; he did not know that NYPD officers wore this after the killing of another Black man, Eric Garner; and that while he apologized for any hurt it might have caused, Davis will not have the Raiders delete the tweet.
The reaction was swift, both in terms of excoriating the Raiders and, once it was evident Davis was behind this, severely critiquing him. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, LeBron James joined in, expressing a pretty common sentiment that this is unbelievable.
The conservative commentator paid a visit to Tucker Carlson yesterday to preach forgiveness for Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who murdered an unarmed Black man named George Floyd last summer. Floyd’s tragic death sparked protests and demonstrations calling attention to the systemic problems within our justice and policing systems so Chauvin’s trial was always going to be polarizing. For many, the guilty verdict represents much-needed accountability for law enforcement. For Beck, it represented an opportunity to appear on camera and urge us all to be more like the Amish.
No, seriously. Beck told Carlson he was discouraged by the responses to Chauvin’s conviction.
“This takes another man who got up one day and wasn’t thinking, ‘I’m going to kill somebody,’ away from his family — perhaps for the rest of his life,” Beck said before referencing a mass shooting that happened within the Amish community over a decade ago. “I wish we could be a little more like the Amish. When the gunman came in and killed a lot of their children, they mourned with [for] their children but they also went and mourned with the killer’s family.”
Beck seemed to be referencing a shooting that happened in 2006 in which five Amish girls were killed. The community reportedly attended the funeral of the gunman, showing support for the shooter’s family. He went on to complain that the focus of Chauvin’s guilty verdict seemed to be solely on our need for “collective justice.”
glenn beck saying we should also mourn chauvin because he’ll most likely die in prison. and I’d just like to say
We could point out the differences between a civilian carrying out a mass shooting and a police officer using his authority and position of power to kill an unarmed Black man. We could also point out that, as lovely as Beck’s story about forgiveness is, it’s never the responsibility of victims or their families to offer that to perpetrators, but we’re pretty sure this guy just wouldn’t get it.
Seeing as Dinosaur Jr. has been making music for nearly four decades, they’re no stranger to album rollouts. The band has been previewing their upcoming Kurt Vile co-produced LP Sweep It Into Space with a handful of breezy singles. On Wednesday, Dinosaur Jr. returned once again to further tease the album with the claymation video “Take It Back,” which also arrives with an exciting tour announcement.
About the visual, director Callum Scott-Dyson explained his vision:
“[I] really wanted to use the creature on the front of the album sleeve for Sweep It Into Space as an inspiration and springboard for its own little adventure, exploring some simple notions of creation, dependence, coming of age and searching for another like yourself. I wanted to mix those themes with my style of stop motion animation, everything being very DIY and handmade, using any materials I could get my hands on to bring the idea to life and give it a surreal and otherworldly feel. I’ve always been a really big fan of Dinosaur Jr, so I was working extra hard to do something that could add to such an awesome track and sit alongside it.”
Watch Dinosaur Jr.’s “Take It Back” video above and check out their Sweep It Into Space 2021 and 2022 tour dates below.
05/22/21 — Swanzey, NH @ Cheshire Fairgrounds
05/23/21 — New Haven @ CT Westville Music Bowl
07/27/21 — 07/30/21 – Big Indian, NY @ Camp Fuzz
09/07/21 — Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre
09/09/21 — Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
09/10/21 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Venue TBA
09/11/21 — Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
09/13/21 — Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
09/14/21 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
09/16/21 — St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
09/20/21 — Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
09/21/21 — Kansas City, MO @ Truman
09/23/21 — Austin, TX @ Moody Theater @ ACL Live
09/24/21 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
09/25/21 — Dallas, TX @ Canton Hall
09/27/21 — Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
09/28/21 — Bloomington, IN @ The Bluebird
09/30/21 — Columbus, OH @ Athenaeum Theatre
10/01/21 — Cleveland, OH @ Agora
10/02/21 — Ithaca, NY @ State Theatre
11/12/21 — Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl
11/13/21 — Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
11/15/21 — Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
11/16/21 — Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
11/18/21 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
11/19/21 — New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall
11/20/21 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
11/26/21 — Northampton, MA @ Academy of Music
11/27/21 — Boston, MA @ House Of Blues
02/03/22 — Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy’s and Harriets
02/04/22 — Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl
02/05/22 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
02/07/22 — Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory Music Hall
02/08/22 — Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
02/10/22 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox at Market
02/11/22 — Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
02/12/22 — Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
02/15/22 — Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
02/16/22 — San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
02/17/22 — San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
02/19/22 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda
02/20/22 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda
02/22/22 — San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park
02/23/22 — Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
02/25/22 — Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theatre
02/26/22 — Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
Sweep It Into Space is out 4/23 via Jagjaguwar. Pre-order it here.
Welcome to another installment of Ask A Music Critic! And thanks to everyone who has sent me questions. Please keep them coming at [email protected].
For some reason I decided to visit The Pretenders catalog this week and it got me thinking: Are the Pretenders the most underrated band of all time? Consider: They never charted very high and no one I’ve even spoken to waxes poetic on The Pretenders. Who in your opinion is the most underrated band of all time? – Mike from Boston
Hey Mike, good to hear from you. Before I can answer this question, we need to hit upon a workable definition of “underrated” in this context.
Let’s begin with The Pretenders. Good band! Chrissie Hynde is a fine songwriter and a fabulous singer. Based on how you’re apparently defining “underrated,” I could see that term applying to them. For instance, I can’t say I’ve ever met anyone who waxed poetic about them. (Until I met Mike from Boston, at any rate.)
But let’s pull back a bit for a slightly longer view of The Pretenders. They are in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame. They have a handful of songs — like “Brass In Pocket” and “Back On The Chain Gang” — that still get played regularly on classic rock radio. On Spotify, they have one song at more than 100 million streams (“I’ll Stand By You”), one song that’s almost at 100 million streams (“Brass In Pocket”), and a few others hovering around the 50-million mark. (Weirdly, my personal favorite Pretenders track, “Middle Of The Road,” only has about nine million streams. Get that tune on a hyperpop playlist so we can jack up those numbers!)
It’s true that The Pretenders aren’t the most hyped classic-rock band, but they are far from being the most overlooked. For starters, consider all of the acts who aren’t yet in the Rock Hall. Sonic Youth isn’t in there. Thin Lizzy isn’t in there. There are a million other examples. Add in all the worthy artists who have never even been played on the radio, therefore depriving them of the widespread cultural exposure that would make it more likely that subsequent generations would seek out their music on streaming platforms.
The fact is that outside of the relatively few number of huge names that everybody knows from music’s present and past, nearly every good to great artist is underrated, if being “underrated” means that their artistry should warrant more commercial and critical acclaim than they currently have. Some acts have become so known for being underrated that they can’t really be considered underrated. (The Kinks, Tom Petty, and Spoon come immediately to mind.) In reality, the majority of underrated artists are simply forgotten by 99.9999 percent of the public, save for the .0001 percent of fans who loudly insist that those acts are underrated.
So, for this conversation, let’s try to be more discerning with “underrated.” First, because you set the terms with your question, let’s confine it just to bands, rather than artists generally. Next, let’s add some qualifiers to the usual standard of “not enough people like or talk about this band.” I think a truly underrated band should be genuinely significant in the history of modern music, and also genuinely forgotten in terms of the critical conversation as well as their contemporary commercial profile. The band that sits at this nexus of “importance” and “unsung” is the most worthy choice for most underrated.
Therefore, I am picking Los Lobos.
Los Lobos is not in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame. (They were nominated once, in 2015.) Their only song to achieve mass exposure was a cover of Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba,” from the soundtrack to the 1987 film of the same name. Their most-streamed song, by far, is also “La Bamba,” which sits at about 80 million streams.
Otherwise, you don’t hear much about Los Lobos. This is a travesty! Personally, I didn’t become a fan until I read an interview with Dean Ween in the late ’90s in which he enthused about their live show. Before that, I only knew the “La Bamba” cover. But Los Lobos, indeed, is an excellent live band, which you can hear for yourself right here. They have also made many fantastic records. (I recommend starting with 1992’s Kiko, which did the “deconstruct roots music and reassemble it into unexpected shapes” thing a decade before Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.)
Whatever Los Lobos does, they do exceedingly well. And given our nation’s ever-changing demographics, a band that melds bedrock American music forms with traditional influences from Latin America seems even more forward-thinking now than when they first started putting out records in the early ’80s. You can listen to this band and hear how our nation has evolved over the course of the past 40 years. You might very well call their music one of the most progressive forms of “Americana” music that there is. That’s what makes them important. That most people still only know them for “La Bamba” makes them unsung. The gap between what makes them important and what they’re actually known for is wider than it is for any other band I can think of. Put it all together, and you have the most underrated band of all time.
What ’22 post-pandemic tour are you most eager for? — Doug from Silver Spring, MD
How about every tour? I can’t say that I’m all that picky at the moment. It could be 3 Doors Down performing Robin Thicke’s Paula in its entirety and I would be pretty psyched to hear Brad Arnold’s interpretation of “Tippy Toes.”
To my surprise, when I fantasize about my first post-pandemic concert, I don’t imagine shuffling into a tightly packed club or even getting cozy at a local theater. I think I’m most psyched for [Craig Finn voice] the crowds at the really big shows. I want to stand in an arena or a stadium and feel the collective joy of tens of thousands of people enjoying the same song at once. That seems pretty mind-blowing to me right now.
With that in mind, I have an idea for what I think could be the biggest tour of all time. It’s U2 doing a 30th anniversary of Achtung Baby show — one year late — where they re-create the Zoo TV tour. This could be the first tour to gross more than $1 billion. The nostalgia value, added to the overall pizzaz value, would be off the charts.
This is such an obvious idea that I’m sure it’s already actually in the works. I’m just stating it publicly so when it happens I can get credit for calling it. Let’s see what happens!
Recently read your book about Radiohead’s Kid A and it got me thinking a lot about the state of the album in 2021. Now before you roll your eyes and think this is another “is the album over?” question, rest assured I’ve also grown tired of that conversion. I was thinking of how Kid A didn’t necessarily have a stand-out single and how crucial that was at the time. When I grew up, most albums were preceded by one single and then rolled out over the course of six months to a year in order to try to maintain some momentum while also touring. Nowadays, it seems most acts release four to five singles before the album is even out which essentially means that the day the album is released, it’s usually tapped out in terms of the most immediate songs and makes it nearly impossible to stay relevant. How do you see acts continuing to promote albums beyond the typical one-two week period these days, and do you think it’s now pointless to even release new singles/make new videos once the album has been out for more than a few weeks as the discourse will have moved on? — Phil from Brooklyn
Hey Phil, I appreciate you acknowledging the first rule of this column — any email that allows me to plug my own stuff is worthy of a response. (By the way, the paperback edition of This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’ And The Beginning Of The 21st Century drops June 8. Pre-order now!)
Back to your question: In 20 years, when marketing scholars ponder this very question about how artists promoted new albums in the early 2020s, they are going to focus on one person: Phoebe Bridgers. Yes, she’s a really good songwriter and a winning performer. But nobody has also been a more masterful self-promoter, particularly in the indie realm, than Bridgers.
None of it would matter if Bridgers’ 2020 LP, Punisher, didn’t happen to be one of that year’s best records. But Bridgers helped to keep that album in the public’s consciousness by regularly – by which I mean at least weekly — doing something in social media that caught people’s attention. Whether it was an interesting cover or a visually compelling late-night performance or a skirmish with a rock icon, Bridgers was always creative and surprising. People paid attention to her (and her music) because no matter what, what she did she was entertaining.
So, I wonder if that is an example that more people will follow. Simply putting another song on streaming platforms or releasing a video, purely from a promotional standpoint, doesn’t seem like it’s creative or surprising enough to sustain an ongoing conversation. Of course, I would also like to believe that simply writing terrific songs ought to be enough to captivate the public, but that’s another conversation.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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I am WHEEZING at this Whoopi Goldberg reaction to Meghan McCain. 
