Month: May 2021

Coldplay just released their new single, “Higher Power.” While that seems to indicate the band has a new album on the way, they haven’t officially announced one yet… although Chris Martin has done everything he can to let fans know that one is more than likely on the way.

Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland spoke to Capital Breakfast With Roman Kemp this morning (as NME notes), and when asked about the possibility of a new album, Martin chose his words carefully. That said, he did everything but directly say the band has a record coming, saying, “We’re not supposed to say, but there won’t not be one.” Buckland added, “We’ve recorded more than one song.”

Elsewhere, Martin spoke with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, and while he didn’t talk about the album that doesn’t officially exist, he did speak about his willingness to experiment musically, saying, “I think that every artist is completely intertwined with what’s happening culturally and what’s happening technologically around them, you know? So when the delay pedal came through, whoever invented that, then you had all these amazing delay pedal records. So we’ve existed in the band concurrently with the barriers between types of music coming down… which for us is the biggest blessing in the world. When we started, it was like, ‘You’re a white indie band and this is urban radio and this is alternative radio and basically old fashioned racist statements.’ Of course we fit in a box at the beginning, and then right now in 2021, everyone’s doing everything. You can like Olivia Rodrigo as much as you like AC/DC and no one thinks that’s weird, and that’s musical utopia for me. […] It’s miraculous. So why would you want to stay in one box?”

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

After spending Wednesday evening reporting his “most f*cking evil lie yet” about the COVID vaccine, which put him in the crosshairs of a significantly large backlash on social media — even for him — Tucker Carlson attempted to blame his own shoddy reporting on Joe Biden. Naturally. In a nutshell, Carlson had reported figures from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which is an open-source system where literally anyone can submit a report claiming an adverse reaction. Here’s the important part: these claims are in no way verified as accurate because, again, it’s open source. For example, Raw Story reports that in 2004, one doctor submitted a claim that a flu shot had turned him into the Incredible Hulk.

As many people noted after Carlson’s Wednesday report, he either missed this important piece of information about VAERS in his haste to stoke fear about the COVID vaccine, or worse, he intentionally omitted it. However, when Carlson returned to the air on Thursday, he was downright furious over the backlash he received, and instead of owning up to his mistake, he blamed the Biden Administration for the VAERS numbers, even though the system has been around since 1990s. VAERS is not part of the official statistics on vaccine efficacy because, again, anyone can submit the claim, and you can only guess how that is going in these partisan times.

As The Daily Beast notes, there are several warnings directly on the VAERS page:

“Reports may include incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental and unverified information,” one disclaimer reads, while another warns: “The number of reports alone cannot be interpreted or used to reach conclusions about the existence, severity, frequency, or rates of problems associated with vaccines.”

Maybe Tucker should try reading next time.

(Via The Daily Beast & Raw Story)

Since the day it happened, Kurt Cobain’s death has been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, so much so that documentaries have been made about them. Now it has been revealed that some of these theories were officially acknowledged by the FBI: Recently, the Bureau shared its file on the Nirvana leader. As Rolling Stone points out, the file was quietly shared online in April, without comment from the FBI.

The file is only ten pages long and the main features are letters about Cobain’s death that were sent to the FBI, as well as the Bureau’s responses. The response letters are nearly identical in their phrasing, and one reads:

“We appreciate your concern that Mr. Cobain may have been the victim of a homicide. However, most homicide investigations generally fall within the jurisdiction of state or local authorities. In order for the FBI to initiate an investigation of any complaint we receive, specific facts must be present to indicate that a violation of federal law within our investigative jurisdiction has occurred. Based on the limited information you provided, we are unable to identify any violation of federal law within the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI. We are, therefore, unable to take any investigative action in this case.”

The Cobain FBI file can be found here.

There are multiple Muppets-themed Christmas movies and specials, most notably The Muppets Christmas Carol (a masterpiece), but Halloween has been sadly overlooked in the Muppets canon. The Muppets wiki notes that “the Muppets have made several attempts at producing Halloween-themed television specials,” but none of them came to fruition, even though Uncle Deadly could serve as in-house Vincent Price. But this fall, Disney is finally giving the Muppets a spooky adventure in Muppets Haunted Mansion.

I hope these grim grinning ghosts meet these grim laughing ghosts.

The special will take place on Halloween, obviously, when Gonzo is “challenged to spend one very daring night in the most grim grinning place on Earth.” That would be the Haunted Mansion, a top-five ride at the Disney parks. (Disney should promise that if everyone with a Disney+ subscription watches Muppets Haunted Mansion, Muppet*Vision 3D will never be taken down.) Muppets Haunted Mansion will “feature a star-studded Muppets cast, celebrity cameos, all-new music, and spooky fun for families to enjoy together,” according to Disney+. As part of the “Halfway to Halloween” event, the streaming service also released a teaser for the special featuring Gonzo and Pepe the King Prawn. I like the talking crustacean, especially when he’s dressed like the Rock, but seeing Gonzo with anyone other than Rizzo is not right. Get those two back together and let them narrate more movies.

Muppets Haunted Mansion premieres in the fall.

For weeks, we’ve been quietly hoping that Steve and Ian would dedicate an episode of Indiecast to the evolution and purported impending comeback of ska. Well, that day has finally arrived, as this week’s episode is all about talkin’ ska. For the uninitiated, ska is a genre of music that originally started in Jamaica in the 1960’s but soon moved over to the UK with the 2 Tone revival in the late 70’s, then re-emerged prominently in the 80’s and 90’s with bands like Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, The Aquabats, and more.

With Jeff Rosenstock reimagining his entire 2020 opus No Dream as a ska album and the prevalence of Ska Tune Network on YouTube, could ska be making another comeback in the 2020’s? Perhaps, but the deciding factor will come when a new ska band starts to get critical and commercial attention.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian has been digging Internet Breath, the new album from Montana band Hey, ILY. Hyden is looking ahead a bit to the forthcoming album from Brooklyn-based quintet Lightning Bug, which is due June 25.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 38 on Apple Podcasts and Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

For their last episode of the season, Desus and Mero traveled to Boston to meet up with the legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who was not only ready to cut it up with the two hosts, but also very game to cover a host of modern classics. Most notably, Desus and Mero got Yo-Yo Ma to provide some cello beats from DMX’s “Ruff Ryders Anthem” as the two threw in some freestyle in honor of recently passed rapper. After that, Yo-Yo Ma put his own spin on Britney Spears’ “Toxic” before tackling Sisqo’s “The Thong Song,” at Desus and Mero’s request.

The whole thing was a blast from start to finish, as the Showtime hosts also spent time meeting folks in Yo-Yo Ma’s neighborhood, including his barber who used to tame the Grammy winner’s locks. In short, it was prime Desus and Mero as the two have spent the past season locking down big name interviews like Barack Obama, and also doing some public good by checking in with mental health professionals who have had their hands understandably full during the pandemic.

The two also took the time to educate a fifth grade class on two very important topics: The Revolutionary War and Megan Thee Stallion. For their time, the students all walked away with free sneakers, but not before touching the hosts’ heart by having nothing but good things to say about their Zoom teacher who shed some light on what school has been like in these pandemic times.

“You know how like the yellow in your battery, like no matter how much you charge your battery, it still stays yellow? That’s what it feels like,” Mr. Robles told Desus and Mero. “But you draw energy from the other students in your class, so we’re all looking out for each other and charging each other’s battery.”

As Conan O’Brien is in his final stretch of Conan shows on TBS, he took some time on a recent episode to reflect on his legacy. He had the harsh realization, though, that if BTS’ cultural awareness is any indication (specifically, J-Hope’s), his name may not live on for long after he’s gone.

This whole thing actually happened a few days ago, but the situation is a trending topic on Twitter today. Earlier this week, O’Brien shared a clip of a game played on a BTS variety show, on which the band members were shown photos of celebrities and had to identify who the person was. O’Brien was featured, and when J-Hope saw the photo, he proudly exclaimed, “Curtain!” He and the rest of BTS quickly realized the error and had a good laugh about it. As other BTS members razzed J-Hope, he explained (translated from Korean), “I got confused for a moment.”

After showing the clip, Conan cut back to its host, sporting a steely look of disappointment and anger. An outraged (but not actually) Conan said, “Curtain. He called me Curtain! […] He said I was a curtain! I’ve been to Korea! I’ve been there! I was popular! Curtain! I’ll get you, BTS. Oh I’ll get you good.” He then broke his fake anger and continued with laughter, “And by that, I mean I’ll silently resent you. I have no power to do anything to you. You’re going to go on to have huge success. I’m very old and on the way out and you guys are pretty much running the world. So when I say I’ll get you, I just mean I’m gonna stew in my own juices for quite a long time, and you’ll be vastly unaware.”

Check out the clip above.