Month: May 2021

After more than a year without touring and solo albums from members Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek, prolific indie folk rockers Big Thief are once again gearing up to hit the road. The band has officially unveiled their month-long fall 2021 North American tour dates alongside an EP of live recordings.

On Tuesday, the four-piece group shared the EP Big Thief – Live At The Bunker Studio, a collection of songs from their recent albums Two Hands and U.F.O.F. they performed in 2019. Each song on the project is accompanied by a video of the performance, like their jaunty track “Shoulder.” The EP arrived in conjunction with details about their their 17-stop tour, which kicks off in Louisville in early September and comes to a close a month later in Philadelphia.

Watch Big Thief perform “Shoulders” live at The Bunker Studio above and find their fall 2021 North American tour dates below.

09/07 — Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall
09/08 — Indianapolis, IN @ HI-FI
09/11 — St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
09/12 — Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall
09/14 — Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater
09/15 — Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater
09/17 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall Downstairs
09/18 — New Orleans, LA @ Civic Theatre
09/20 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
09/21 — Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
09/22 — Raleigh, NC @ North Caroline Museum of Art
09/24 — Richmond, VA @ The National
09/25 — Queens, NY @ The Governors Ball Music Festival
09/27 — Buffalo, NY @ Asbury Hall
09/28 — South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
09/30 — Northampton, MA @ Pines Theatre
10/01 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer

Tickets to Big Thief’s fall 2021 North American tour go on sale 5/14 at 10 a.m. local time. Get them here.

Big Thief – Live At The Bunker Studio is out now via 4AD. Get it here.

Cordae may only be a few years into his rap career proper, but he’s already racked up an impressive list of accomplishments and is clearly focused on making the right moves. His next step is ownership and advocacy for fellow rising artists, as he has launched his own label, Hi-Level Productions. Although he’s revealed little about the venture — how it affects his current deal with Atlantic or whose music it’ll be releasing first — it’s clear its aim is to function differently than a corporately controlled major, with its Instagram touting it as “a family, way of life, and Record Label, 100% owned by @cordae.”

The announcement comes just weeks after Cordae released the four-song EP, Just Until, his first compilation of new material since his 2019 debut The Lost Boy. The project included features from Q-Tip and Young Thug, and so far, Cordae’s released videos for two tracks, “More Life” and “Dream In Color.” The project was also his first since his name change from YBN Cordae signified a split from the YBN crew. The creation of his own label continues to highlight the level of creative control he wants to maintain over his work — and possibly, an intention to start signing and developing his own artists.

Check out the logo for Hi-Level above and more info here.

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

With the new Venom: Let There Be Carnage trailer out in the wild, director Andy Serkis has been a surprisingly open book when it comes to breaking down the highly-anticipated sequel to 2018’s Venom that will be the first film to finally showcase the symbiote antihero’s rivalry with his greatest adversary, Carnage. The two have been battling it out in the comics since the ’90s and quickly became fan-favorites, and even after thirty years, they never fail to draw in readers whenever their paths cross.

However, when Carnage makes his big screen debut, he’ll be arriving with a new power that’s been added just for the movie. According to Serkis, Woody Harrelson‘s version of the character will have the ability to transform into a mist allowing him to fit into tight spaces and avoid detection. Via IGN:

“He can turn to mist. He can turn to all manner of tendrils. He can take different forms. He can weaponize, he can do all of these different things,” Serkis says. “With all symbiotes, they reflect the person who is their host. So the darkness of Carnage, the playfulness, the wit, the strangeness because Cletus… has a real intelligence and in the way that he uses violence as a bizarre, twisted, crazy wit about what he does and he has a real sense of humor, and we wanted to reflect that in the symbiote that is linked to him.”

While Venom’s fighting style will continue to rely on brute strength “like a quarterback,” Serkis says Carnage’s attacks will be all over the place, physically and psychologically, to keep his opponents off-kilter. “It would be like trying to have a fight with an octopus basically.”

(Via IGN)

David Weil, the creator and showrunner behind Amazon’s Jordan Peele-produced series Hunters—about an unassuming team of Jewish Nazi hunters who are on the loose with Al Pacino as their leader—is back with a brand-new limited series. This time it’s Solos, a sci-fi anthology series that has proven, yet again, that Weil is a master of assembling an all-star cast. Oscar winners Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, and Anne Hathaway are joined by the equally talented Uzo Aduba, Dan Stevens, Nicole Beharie, Constance Wu, and Anthony Mackie (Times two! There are two of him!) as the show’s main cast members.

As for what the series is about? Well… don’t expect the first trailer—which you can watch in full above—to give too much away. Or to really tell you much of anything. And don’t look to Amazon’s official summary to fill in the blanks either:

“Solos is a dramatic and thought-provoking seven-part anthology series that explores the deeper meaning of human connection, as explored through the lens of the individual. Solos will tell unique character-driven stories, each from a different perspective and moment in time, that illuminate that even during our most seemingly isolated moments, in the most disparate of circumstances, we are all connected through the human experience.”

You got that? Nope? Same here. That’s fine. All will (hopefully) be explained soon enough when Solos drops on Prime Video on May 21, 2021.

When Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby two weekends ago, it was yet another feather in the cap of trainer Bob Baffert, but the week since has been anything but a normal Derby winner media tour, as Baffert has had to answer for the horse testing positive for a banned substance.

What ensued was an incredibly surreal timeline that included Donald Trump calling the horse “a junky,” which is an objectively hilarious thing to call a horse, Baffert blaming “cancel culture” for his horse testing positive for a banned substance, and then later coming up with the excuse that a groom at the stable took cough syrup and then peed in the horse’s hay, which he ate and then caused him to test positive — which, stunningly, is an excuse he’s used before.

Unsurprisingly, none of that really flew with people in the horse racing space and on Tuesday, Baffert issued a statement through his attorney admitting that they gave the horse an anti-fungal ointment for weeks that contained the banned substance found in the positive test.

Nothing helps your claim that you accidentally and unknowingly gave your horse a banned substance for almost a full month like going on Fox News to blame cancel culture and then lying about someone peeing in the horse’s hay. Even if its true, your job as a horse trainer is to know all the things you’re giving your horse and what is in them, so if the vet recommends an ointment one of the first questions you should look into is, “does this have anything on the banned substance list?”

Alas, this should be the end of the Bob Baffert media tour as its going to be hard to rail against cancel culture or Robitussin’d up stable workers when it was a cream you gave the horse daily for weeks that had the banned substance in it. In short:

Each year since 2017, Billie Eilish sits down for the same exact interview with Vanity Fair. She’s asked a range of questions from the nastiest rumor about her to her biggest fear. Her answers are meant to chart her rise to fame and show how much she’s grown in her teenage years. But most glaring contrast between the interviews isn’t the amount of Instagram followers she has (currently 84.6 million) or that fact that she now has a tattoo. Rather, it’s the vibrant color of her hair.

Billie Eilish’s neon green roots have been a staple of her look for the past two years. Her hair had previously alternated between a range of blue hues, and she even had a short stint with black hair. So when she unveiled her new platinum blonde look on Instagram, the internet was stunned. In under six minutes, the picture of Eilish with her icy golden locks became the fastest post to reach a million likes and just two days later, it was the third most-liked post ever.

So, why is everyone so obsessed with Billie Eilish’s hair? On the surface, it’s just hair. But like for most pop stars, no change Eilish makes is detached from the larger context of her music. Her green hair may have started on accident as she was trying cover up blue dye, but it’s transformed into a statement of her authenticity and will always be linked to her debut album. As someone known for her brightly-colored locks, going full blonde signals a kind of maturity which people expect to be reflected in her music. And as one of the biggest celebrities of her age group, people look to her for new trends and styles to try out.

At the time of her hair change, Eilish had been endlessly teasing her new album. Fans began wondering why it had been so long since the singer tried out a new hair color. She eventually addressed their constant teasing in a video, saying she was gearing up to start a whole new era. “I’m changing it… it will be the end of an era, I’m going to give you a new era,” she said. “I have announcements to make, I got some sh*t to put out. Anyway, doesn’t matter, leave me alone, let me live with my hair that I’ve had for way too long.”

Eilish promised a new era, and she delivered. Though she had been dropping hints about her sophomore album for a while, unveiling her blonde hair was essentially confirmation of new music to come. Sure enough, Eilish officially announced the album Happier Than Ever just a few weeks later and her stripped-down single “Your Power” arrived shortly thereafter.

Eilish is far from the first pop star to change up her hair to signal a new era of music. Miley Cyrus chopped her hair into a teased mullet to go along with her ‘80s-inspired rock album. Dua Lipa bleached her bangs ahead of her Future Nostalgia LP. But none such makeovers elicited a major public response like Eilish’s blonde look, partly due to how drastic it was.

Days before showing off her new look, Eilish had been seen rocking her typical neon green hair at the 2021 Grammy Awards. But after showing off her blonde hair, the singer revealed she actually had been wearing a wig for six weeks while the bleach settled. Eilish’s wig didn’t come as a surprise to her most devoted fans. Many of her followers suspected her hair had been a wig ever since she was seen slightly adjusting it in an interview and an Instagram Story posted to the official Grammys page featured Eilish saying, “I can’t take my wig off.”

Her fans intense interest in whether or not her hair was real reflects how Eilish differs from the typical archetype of a pop star. She’s not seen as manufactured or the product of an industry; she’s authentically herself. For her fans, Eilish is relatable and her no f*cks given mentality and personal style makes her someone to look up to. Her green roots may have been scandalous in 2019, but the hair color has since become a trend. YouTube is flooded with tutorials on how to copy Eilish’s neon root color at home and the look even appeared on the runway earlier this year.

Fashion trends aside, Eilish’s new hair was more than an announcement of her sophomore album. It also points to the direction she plans on taking her new music. Many see her blonde locks as a sign of maturity, which was further proven with her recent revealing Vogue cover shoot, and fans expect the same growth to be reflected in her upcoming LP. Speaking about her new look, Eilish herself said it makes her “feel more like a woman somehow,” and she’s not the only one who agrees. Her brother and producer Finneas declared that the hair change signifies the fact she’s growing up:

“The green roots were such a recognizable thing and whenever there’s a point of change, people just get really excited and fixated on it. […] Hair is the easiest way to feel like you’re evolving as a person. Whenever you change your hairstyle, dye it a little, you feel like you’re growing up a little bit.”

Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele, who regularly collaborates with Eilish, echoed Finneas. To him, the singer is a new kind of pop star — one who is never afraid of reinventing herself. “Billie represents something completely new,” he said. “She is a continuously evolving artist with a new vision and interpretation of herself in terms of femininity. Billie is exactly where she means to be without prejudice.”

This time around, fans were right to speculate that Eilish’s new hair meant new music. But it won’t always be that way. In the past, the singer has wondered why people scrutinize her looks. Like most teenagers, she’s consistently trying out new styles to see which ones fit her best. “It’s funny that I’m expected to have found myself and stick with it,” she said in a 2020 interview. “I’m trying different things out; I’m trying different ways of living, and styles, and personalities, and hairstyles, and clothing, and shoes. I’m trying it all out because I’m a growing f*cking girl.” Eilish may decide to switch up her look in the future without it promising new music because at 19 years old, she’s still figuring out who she wants to be. And that’s okay too.

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

Conservative sh*tposter Tomi Lahren has been “mistakenly” called Toyota Lasagna, Tony Laryngitis, Toby Lungfish, Tamborine, and, of course, Tammy. Over the weekend, a new nickname was added to the arsenal: Nazi Barbie.

“Yesterday, I had a grown man with a cigarette in hand and a mask on his face telling me I’m ‘Nazi Barbie’ and telling me that I dance on the graves of Native Americans,” Lahren said (via Mediaite) on the Fox News Radio show, Fox Across America with Jimmy Failla. She also recalled another “incident” over the weekend. “I had a girl from the sixth floor of an apartment complex try to throw eggs at me. Of course, being a liberal, she’s not super athletic. So she missed me. But yes, she tried to throw eggs at me,” she said, making a similar joke about the alleged egg-thrower’s lack of athletic prowess on Twitter.

“One of those loving, tolerant and unifying Libs attempted to egg me in Nashville today. Unsurprisingly, she was unable to hit me. Next time maybe throw a couple warm up pitches so you don’t waste all your eggs. Eggs aren’t cheap these days,” Lahren tweeted. The top reply: “Still not as violent as killing cops while storming the Capitol.”

Back to the Fox Across America interview:

“I mean, the left has become so emboldened now that where it used to be, for me, just people attacking me on social media, now they’re doing what Maxine Waters said and they’re getting more confrontational because they believe they have this free pass. And I’m concerned it’s only going to get worse for all of us.”

Unlike the right, which would NEVER feel emboldened to attack someone. Anyway, Lahren isn’t fazed by The Haters. Hearing insults “always make me laugh… If I let those things bother me, I wouldn’t be able to live my life.” There’s plenty of other things to be bothered by, like what to do with boxes of unsold “cancel cancel culture” hoodies.

(Via Mediaite)

With their debut 2020 LP The Album, Blackpink broke records, turned heads, and took the world by storm. But in 2021, some of the K-pop group’s members are trying out their solo careers. Blackpink’s Rosé was praised earlier this year when she ushered in a new era with her debut single “On The Ground.” The single was electric and catchy, and apparently made Captain Marvel actress Brie Larson a big fan.

Larson decided to show Rosé’s music some love Monday by sharing a video of her performing a stripped-down rendition of “On The Ground.” Seated on her bed and armed with an unplugged electric guitar, Larson showcased her impressive vocal range with the cover. “A little ROSÉ magic for you,” she wrote alongside the clip.

Previously speaking about her solo work, Rosé told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that pivoting away from Blackpink was a “big step” in her career:

“It was definitely a big step for me. Just the fact that I started my career as Blackpink with all of my girls always there to support me. Having to do everything on my own was a big challenge to me and that was something that I was going to have to learn throughout the process. I always had in the back of my head that I would one day have a song of my own.”

In other Blackpink news, it looks like member Lisa may also be gearing up for some solo music. Over the weekend, French hit maker DJ Snake revealed in a series of since-deleted tweets that he’s working on a track with Lisa. The record producer mentioned that their collaborative song is already done, so it may be released sooner rather than later.

Watch Brie Larson cover Rosé’s “On The Ground” above.

There are plenty of fascinating playoff races taking place between teams across the NBA, but the individual battle that is the most hotly contested is the one for this season’s scoring title between Stephen Curry and Bradley Beal. Curry, at 31.9 points per game, leads Beal by a half point for the 2020-21 NBA scoring title and the two have not shied away from talking about their desire to earn that honor.

Over the weekend, Steph admitted that he was keeping tabs on Beal’s 50-point night prior to going off for 49 in three quarters himself to keep his lead on the Wizards star. During that 50-point outing, Beal injured his hamstring that caused him to miss Monday night’s game with the Hawks, and took away an opportunity to try and reel Curry in further. In the morning during the Warriors media availability, Kent Bazemore decided it was a good idea to make a joke about Beal’s hamstring injury, saying “we got guys hurting hamstrings trying to keep up” with Steph’s scoring pace.

That, unsurprisingly, didn’t sit well with Beal, who then launched a string of tweets ripping Bazemore while the Warriors were playing the Jazz, torching him for making light of an injury and also making sure to point out it was Steph who was tracking Beal and ensuring he kept up. After the game, Bazemore was made aware of Beal’s tweets in his postgame interview and responded with a shrug and “I guess you can’t joke anymore.”

I’m sure Bazemore didn’t mean any harm with his comment, but he also should know that jokes about injuries never go over well. It is one subject that athletes don’t take lightly and once it made its way to Beal, him responding as he did shouldn’t have come as a real surprise to anyone. This will, one would think, be the end of the Beal-Baze beef as Kent seems to want it all to just be over, but it can serve as a reminder that poking fun at someone’s injury is never a great idea.

Chris Rock is in the middle of a career resurgence that’s seen the iconic comedian branch out in some unusual directions. He recently starred in the fourth season of Fargo and he’s in the middle of rebooting the Saw franchise, which are all part of Rock’s increased efforts to push himself creatively and truly leave his mark. In a new interview, Rock reflects on his decades-long career that was kickstarted by Eddie Murphy and is now being driven by his daughter’s input who encouraged him to appear in the Lil Nas X video for “Old Town Road.”

During a video feature for the career retrospective, Rock also shared a heartbreaking anecdote about the last time he saw his friend and former Saturday Night Live co-star Chris Farley before his overdose. Via Esquire:

“I did a gig in Chicago. We tried to hang out afterwards but I don’t know if you’ve ever like really hung out with an addict towards the end. Anything that isn’t the drug is a chore… And I remember I was at his apartment and he showed me his apartment and I leave, and I see him out the window, and I was like ‘Ah, that’s probably that last time I’m going to see him.’ Like, I knew. I knew.”

Leaving behind a body of work that will be remembered is a topic that weighs heavily on Rock, so it’s natural that he’d think back to his time with Farley. Even though Rock’s next project is the Saw reboot, director Darren Lynn Bousman says the actor/comedian threw himself into the project, and he was very involved in crafting the message behind the horror film while also delivering some powerhouse acting — with a Chris Rock twist.

“He comes in and he’s screaming and going off and gets really emotional,” Bousman tells Esquire. “We do it in one extremely long take—it’s silent at the very end, and he’s got tears coming down his cheek. And everyone on the set claps and they’re like, ‘Oh my God.’ And he looks directly at the camera and goes, ‘Lest no one forget: I was in Pootie Tang. So what I’m saying is, I have range.’”

(Via Esquire)