Month: May 2021

Tom Hiddleston’s theater background couldn’t be more evident with the way that he embodies mercurial trickster Loki, and it’s clear that he has an absolute blast whenever revisiting the character, so the upcoming Loki series looks to be a treat for all involved (especially for those of us at home). Well, Monday evening’s Marvel-themed NBA game (the Golden State Warriors vs. the New Orleans Pelicans) revealed a special look for fans who are counting the weeks before the show’s June arrival on Disney+, and Loki is getting things done again.

By “getting things done,” I mean that he’s disturbing everyone else’s goals and generally frustrating the world. Yet he’s always a delight to behold, and this series’ trailers have already revealed that Loki’s sort-of making attempts to clean up the fine mess that he made and must atone for his time crimes. Of course, Thor’s brother was last seen snatching the Tesseract during Endgame, so who knows whether the God of Mischief will actually cooperate with Owen Wilson’s Time Variance Authority agent. Loki does, of course, remind everyone that he’s been “burdened with glorious purpose,” and he’s probably waiting for these pesky humans to subjugate themselves.

Given that this show very obviously revolves around the time concept, it’s tough to completely nail down a timeline, and we might not be able to expect full clarity on that end at all. The show takes place following the events of Avengers: Endgame, but it’s still unclear what Loki’s true essence (somewhat reformed, or no?) will be in this show. We saw Thanos kill Loki as Avengers: Infinity War began, yet he popped into Time Stone-stealing mode at the conclusion of Endgame. In other words, we should expect the unexpected and realize that, yeah, Loki is in charge here. We’re all just a bunch of mewling quims to that Frost Giant exterior.

In any event, it seems likely that Loki will be a multi-season affair. Marvel Studios VP of Production & Development Nate Moore recently told IndieWire that the show “lends itself to multiple seasons in a way where it’s not a one-off.” The first season (which co-stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, and Wunmi Mosaku) will premiere on June 22.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

For the last several years, Julia Stone has been working on new music. That in of itself isn’t unusual: Stone has released several albums with her brother as the duo, Angus and Julia Stone, along with a couple albums of her own. But last week’s Sixty Summers marks her first solo record in over eight years, and some of the songs on the record are almost that old. After writing thirty demos over the last five years — the bulk of them collaborations with Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman — Stone said that, in some ways, her third album is functioning like a debut would. “For me it does feel like a first record,” she mused when we spoke over the phone about the album, and how her sound has pivoted in the process of refining these songs. “It’s a body of work I’ve been creating over five years, and it was a really slow understanding of where I was heading. I was so used to working with my brother, and we had found a nice rhythm with the way that we worked that was very comfortable. I didn’t realize this was what I wanted to do until I was doing it.”

This new direction moves away from the slow and steady folk-pop songs Stone has been making with Angus for the last decade and a half, and toward a bluesy, frenetic pop sound that was guided and shaped by album producers, Bartlett, and Annie Clark of St. Vincent. “Being championed by people like Annie and Thomas gave me a lot of confidence to do something in a different style and a different way of writing,” Julia said. “Some of the music I wanted to make was less of a first-person, direct way of communicating a specific experience and more about exploring abstract ideas. It’s a bit more abstract lyrically and sonically.” Across thirteen tracks, Stone explores ideas as disparate as booming ’80s nostalgia on the title track, dramatic, slinky glam-rock on “Queen,” and the disco-inflected electro-pop on “Who” — even bringing the familiar folksy duet set-up on “We All Have,” although Matt Berninger of The National subs in for Angus in this case.

As a whole, Sixty Summers is a gigantic step forward for the Australian singer-songwriter, who faced the twin crises of the devastating bushfires in her native country, quickly followed by the onset of COVID-19, when it came to timetable for the release of her most ambitious album yet. “It was so wild in 2020, I just couldn’t see or feel a space where I wanted to release the record or any of the songs,” she explained. “It just took time for it to feel like a natural inspiration. I wanted to bring it out at a time when I felt a little bit more colorful in my life, and I wasn’t feeling that for most of last year.” With the widespread distribution of vaccines, and a hopeful opening to travel, touring, and public gatherings, Sixty Summers is now coming at a time when dreaming of summer is more relevant than ever. Read a condensed, edited conversation with Julia below for more details about her songwriting for the album, how working with Annie and Thomas to help shape it, and the emotional resonance of the record’s themes.

How was the songwriting process different for the songs on Sixty Summers than it was on your first two solo albums?

There’s been sounds I’ve had in my head for a long time but never felt like I knew how to get them out, within the context of how I was used to writing songs, which was traditionally for me on an acoustic guitar or on a piano, and writing on my own a lot. When I started co-writing with Thomas, the way that we were working was different. I was working to the foundations of songs that he’d already structured in terms of chords. Writing to music that comes from somebody else’s brain and heart opened up this world of possibilities. In those songwriting sessions it felt natural to freestyle write. There was a real freedom to it and a lot of just turning on the microphone and recording whatever came into my head. A lot of the songs like “Break” and “We All Have” and “Heron” — they were songs that were just happening in the moment.

Because of Thomas’ sound palette, and when Annie (of St. Vincent) came on board, her influence, I found a space where those sonic and lyrical ideas really worked. I felt like it was bringing me back to life in music, and I was having a lot of fun making it. It sounds really obvious, but songwriting has been a cathartic way to explore quite challenging experiences. And this was still exploring challenging experiences, and there’s a lot of darkness on the record, but I was doing it in a fun way.

Working with Thomas and Annie seems to have influenced the record quite a lot, can you talk about your relationship with both of them?

The first time I meant Annie was in an airport in Helsinki. It was a really nice meeting, we both shared a drummer, Matt Johnson, and I saw Matt walking through the airport with this beautiful woman. I ran over to him and gave him a hug and he said ‘Annie this is Julia, Julia, Annie. You guys should be friends.’ She got out her phone and said ‘What’s your number?’ and sent me a text message on the spot saying “friends.” That was the beginning of us occasionally texting each other and bumping into each other at the hotel and a festival, here and there around the world.

Thomas I met years before that backstage at a festival in the UK. I’d been a fan of his solo music, Doveman, for a while, and he was backstage with his friends from The National. I went over to him and I said ‘I love your music, I think you’re extraordinary,’ and that was a very fast friendship. He took me by the hand and said ‘let’s go watch my friends play,’ so we went to watch The National. And Thomas and I just kept trying to find excuses to hang out. Music was a side product of our friendship. We just, we enjoy each other a lot. I think we understand each other really well. I have always felt quite at home with Thomas, and that was very immediate.

So you’d been collaborating with Thomas on a set of songs for years, when was it that St. Vincent got involved with the process as a producer?

During the writing of the record, Thomas and I would just be in the studio where so many people come and go, it’s a very welcoming place. He likes to bring people together for a real collective feeling. And after we’d gotten to about year three of sessions writing together, we had all these demos and just didn’t really know what it was going to be. I finished a tour with my brother and Thomas brought up the idea that maybe there was a record in these songs. We both felt a bit confused about what genre it was, or what the record was going to be, they all felt so different. He said ‘You know who will know what this is? Annie. Let me ask her if she’d be keen to jump on board as a producer and help us turn this into a record.’ She was just in the final stages of producing the Sleater-Kinney record, and she listened to a few of our songs and said yes. I’ll never forget her turning up to the studio and after the first listen through she narrowed it down to sixteen songs she wanted to work on.

Introducing this new shift in your sound with the song “Break” felt like a major moment — with all the multi-tracked harmonies, the uptempo feel and the horns — why did you choose that one as the first single?

I chose “Break” as the first single because I felt like it was the most indicative of what the record was about, for me. It was still a song about love, which is the only thing I guess I write about. And it’s a song about accepting the challenges of love, and being at the mercy of a feeling you have no control over. It also had a sonic quality to it that was so weird and strange to me, and I love it. It also came together easily, it was one of the most natural songs to write. I’d just got off tour and came to Thomas’ studio, and he’d usually make tracks for me to listen to when I got there. That song started, and I just felt like I instantly wanted to turn on the microphone and sing. I found myself very comfortably singing and speaking these words. I was speaking memories and feelings that were coming out from listening to the music, it felt so fun and cathartic in a really fun way. We did this for about twenty minutes, I just didn’t stop until I said something really stupid that made us both laugh. I remember us looking at each other and Thomas said ‘I think there’s a song in that.’ We found these parts and turned it into three verses, and took the “darling darling” part and made it the chorus. It felt like as a first song, it embodied what the record was about: Making music for the love of making music.

Another distinctive moment early on in the album is when Matt Berninger’s vocals suddenly appear on “We All Have.” What was that collaboration like?

That was definitely a real highlight in my life of collaborating with artists. I’ve been a fan of the whole band and Matt for so long. I’ve had the good fortune of collaborating with almost everyone from The National except for Matt. I remember Thomas coming to me with the idea for “We All Have,” and that one is the very first song we wrote in 2015. It was very close to how it sounds now, it had almost all of the same parts. Originally I had sung the ‘love is all we need to be here for part. Then Thomas said he thought “We All Have” is missing something, and said ‘I’d like to ask Matt if he wanted to sing on the track with you, I think it’d be really great.’ Matt said he liked the song and he’d like to sing on it, and he sent back these beautiful vocals. Straightaway it felt like the dichotomy between his voice and my voice was really special. We’re at the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of tone and sound, and it added this beautiful gravity to the message of the song too to have this deep voice come in sand say ‘love is all we need to be here for.’ Then to have the two voices together — I like the directness of that song and Matt’s voice to me is very direct and easy to connect with.

Let’s also talk about the title track. There seems to be such a nostalgia there but also a look toward the future, what’s the story behind this song?

There was this period of time in my life where I was living in London, and I’d fly home for summer in Australia. Summer for us is Christmas and the New Year, and I’d go back to the beach town I grew up in. It would be really nostalgic, a summer of seeing friends and family and going to house parties, going to the beach. I had this one particular friend who I would always spend the summer with when I came back from London, and we had a beautiful few years doing that. It was on the third or fourth year of these summers back in Australia. It felt like summer was just there all of a sudden, it felt really quick. So when I was back and we were having a house party. It was a really beautiful night, one of those magic nights where everything just goes beautifully. She turns to me and grabs me by the shoulders and very urgently looks at me and says ‘can you believe we only have sixty summers left?’

I remember feeling what that meant, in that moment, it was the first time I had some clarity around how short life was going to be in. In the context of summer it just felt so brief to only have sixty of them, I’d already just had three and they’d gone by rather quickly. I started to think about how do you create a sense of urgency around that moment, about not wasting time. That was how the song became what it became, and I felt it was very representative of why I made this record. When I started really understanding I had this freedom to write music in any way I wanted, that was starting to feel like I was using my sixty summers in a way that felt conducive to my happiness and authenticity.

It seems like this an album that resonates with you emotionally, even if it isn’t super first-person-y. So what are some of the emotional themes that stand out to you about Sixty Summers?

A lot of it has to do with acceptance. Accepting the fact that you don’t have control over the circumstances that you find yourself in very often. The only way through those circumstances or that grief or the pain is to accept it. That’s something that definitely in the past I’ve resisted. I have felt that I could control the outcomes of certain things, but part of growing and learning in my life has been about learning that it’s not in my control. There’s a certain amount of accepting of the path you’re on. Through that acceptance come an opening and a lightness. Maybe a clearer view about what you can actually do and contribute.

Sixty Summers is out now. Get it here.

Billie Eilish made waves recently (as she tends to do) with a revealing new British Vogue photoshoot. Aside from that and the cover story, though, she also participated in the publication’s Ask A Legend series, in which she fielded questions from some other famous folks.

Justin Bieber came through with a challenging hygiene-related question, asking in a pre-recorded video: “I’m going to have to ask you a really, really serious question: Would you rather have fresh socks or fresh sheets?” Eilish responded, “Oh my god, I can’t have them both, Justin? It really depends on the situation. I really don’t wanna sleep in dirty sheets, and I really don’t wanna put on dirty socks, you know? I feel like fresh sheets, but also I… I can’t wear dirty socks. So maybe fresh shocks. But I love sheets, so either one.”

Finneas, who has regular access to Eilish and probably doesn’t need this forum to get answers from her, came through with a question as well, asking if there are any concerts of hers that she sees photos of but does not remember. She responding by mentioning an outfit she’s seen herself wear but doesn’t remember at all. She also told Dominic Fike that she just went on a date for the first time the day before the video was filmed.

She also fielded questions from Missy Elliott, Halle Berry, Denzel Curry, Avril Lavigne, Dominic Fike, Stormzy, Hailey Bieber, Arlo Parks, Orlando Bloom, Viola Davis, Tim Burton, Mel C, Jessie Reyez, and others, so check out the video above.

Elizabeth Olsen has lined up her next TV project after dominating the small screen with her celebrated performance in WandaVision. The Scarlet Witch actress will play axe murderer Candy Montgomery in a new limited series for HBO Max titled Love and Death. The Montgomery case gripped headlines in the 1980s after the Texas woman murdered her next door neighbor and best friend Betty Gore. Via THR:

“This is a gripping story about the frustrations and desires of two women in a small town that culminates in a terrible act of violence,” said HBO Max head of original content Sarah Aubrey. “We are thrilled to be partnering with David, Lesli, Nicole and Per [Saari] and incredibly fortunate to have Elizabeth at the center of our story to bring out all the layers of Candy that make this story so unforgettable.”

If that project rings a bell with true crime aficionados, that’s because The Handmaid’s Tale actress Elisabeth Moss also has a TV series about Montgomery in the works. Titled Candy, the project was picked up by Hulu back in December 2020, according to Deadline. Moss had been shopping the project since July after being captivated at the chance of tackling the role.

“I have been wanting to play an anti-heroine for a while now, and have been trying to work with [executive producer Robin Veith] again after Mad Men for even longer,” Moss said in a statement. “So when she asked me if I wanted to play a housewife from Texas who, some would say, got away with murder, I simply said, ‘Where do I sign?’”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

The rollout for DJ Khaled’s recently released twelfth studio album Khaled Khaled continues today with the video for the album’s opener, the Lil Wayne and Jeremih-featuring “Thankful.” The song, which samples Bobby “Blue” Bland’s 1978 soul single “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City.” opens the album with a worshipful, gospel-inflected meditation on the success the three men have experienced over the course of their careers, as well as Jeremih’s recovery from a recent bout of COVID-19.

“Thankful” follows the Jay-Z and Nas-featuring “Sorry Not Sorry” (which also featured a harmonious, undercover appearance from Jay-Z’s wife Beyonce, as “Harmonies By The Hive”) and the dancehall-accented “Where You Come From” featuring Bounty Killer, Buju Banton, and Capleton as the latest single from Khaled Khaled to receive the video treatment — a departure from the video-crazy rollout for Khaled’s last album, Father Of Asahd.

The more measured release strategy seems to be paying off, as Hits Daily Double projects a No. 1 debut looming for Khaled — his third in five years, after Major Key and Grateful. Father Of Asahd debuted at No. 2 in 2019, prompting Khaled to rebuke Billboard for changing its counting rules.

Watch DJ Khaled’s “Thankful” video featuring Lil Wayne and Jeremih above.

Tucker Carlson is a dangerous man. No, not because of the grotesque looking fungus that seems to be engulfing his bottom lip (though he may want to have a doctor take a look at that). And not just because he so recklessly spreads misinformation and outright lies that even some of his fellow Fox News staffers have dubbed him a “trash human being” and called upon the network to fire him. What makes him so dangerous is that he has an audience—one who, for whatever reason, actually seem to believe what he says. Despite, as The Wrap reminds us, a real, live federal judge deemed him a not credible resource for “any reasonable viewer.”

Yet, Tucker persists. And on Monday night, his opening night rant—which was yet again filled with erroneous information and “facts”—once again took aim at how COVID vaccinations are a threat to your civil liberties. But where Carlson’s diatribe really went off the rails is when he shared a video that Barack Obama had filmed for TikTok, in which the former POTUS encouraged teens 16 years or older to get vaccinated. While it looked like a normal PSA to most people, what Carlson seemed to see were shades of an episode of To Catch a Predator.

Here’s the video in question, which Carlson introduced as “a creepy little video telling small children to get the shot.”

If you’re thinking you missed something there—you didn’t. The former president simply encouraged teens to get a vaccine so that they could get back to doing “normal” things like visiting their grandparents. Wow—where’s Chris Hansen when you need him?!

Carlson’s response?

“Some creepy old guy telling your children, your little kids to take medicine with effects we don’t fully understand. Totally normal. That happens every day. Don’t ask questions. Just do it. CNN explained recently we’re not getting our freedom back until you do.”

Music festivals seem like a relic of the ancient past, but slowly but surely, they’re coming back. Now, one of New York City’s biggest events is making a return in 2021, as it was announced today that Governors Ball will be hosting its tenth anniversary event at Citi Field between September 24 and 26. Tickets go on sale on May 6 at noon ET, and ahead of then, the lineup has been shared.

The first day will be headlined by Billie Eilish, while ASAP Rocky and J Balvin will lead the second day and Post Malone will wrap up the final day. Other notable artists on the poster include DaBaby, Leon Bridges, Megan Thee Stallion, Phoebe Bridgers, 21 Savage, Ellie Goulding, Young Thug, Carly Rae Jepsen, Kind Princess, Portugal The Man, 24kGoldn, Future Islands, Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist, Earthgang, Tate McRae, Sasha Sloan, Orville Peck, Bartees Strange, RMR, Aminé, Big Thief, Cordae, Cleachers, Chiiild, Jamie xx, Dominic Fike, Smino, Princess Nokia, Jay Som and Palehound’s Bachelor, and 100 Gecs.

Ahead of today’s announcement, organizers shared a tease that read, “We miss the music. The crowd. The energy. The streets were quiet, the venues empty, our gates closed. It’s not the same to scream at the top of your lungs alone, and it sure isn’t as fun dancing at home. For too long there has been too little to look forward to. That changes tomorrow.”

Check out the Governors Ball poster above.

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

Ben Affleck is blowing up the internet again, but this time, it’s not about Batman or his unusually large Dunkin Donuts order. The actor is the star of a TikTok video where he comes off looking kinda sad after getting “rejected” by a woman on the Raya dating app. According to actress and author Nivine Jay (Neighbors), she allegedly matched with Affleck on the app, but ultimately “unmatched” The Way Back star. While that’s just the way things go on dating apps, Affleck apparently noticed and went out of his way to contact Jay on Instagram where he lived her a video message, confirming she unmatched the real Ben Affleck, and not some catfish.

“Nivine, why did you unmatch me? It’s me!” Affleck said in the video, which Jay then shared on TikTok with the following caption: “Thinking of the time I matched with Ben Affleck on raya and thought it was fake so I unmatched him and he sent me a video on instagram.”

You can see the awkward Affleck video below:

Once Jay’s TikTok video was out in the wild, it didn’t take long for it to spread to Twitter where people lost their minds over Affleck shamelessly sliding into Jay’s DMs to let her know that she just missed a chance with Batman:

While the video has produced a cornucopia of dunks on Affleck, Jay actually feels bad about the whole thing and claims she really wasn’t trying to make Affleck look bad. “I’m seeing a lot of comments calling him a creep and l don’t think that’s fair. l wasn’t making fun of him in the video,” she told E! News. “l was making fun of myself for thinking he was a catfish and it was just supposed to be funny.”

(Via Nivine Jay on TikTok)

Mark Wahlberg is playing a boxer-turned-priest in the boxing biopic Father Stu, which is the most Mark Wahlberg-sounding movie ever. To prepare for the role, the actor vowed to gain 30 pounds in six weeks. “After we do the boxing scenes, I get to put on as much weight as possible over the course of the film, so I’m challenging myself to put on 30 pounds in the next six weeks,” he told Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live last month.

Wahlberg was excited to “go to bakeries, I want to go to Denny’s, I want to get pancakes, I want to get everything I can possibly get my hands on,” including the “20-piece chicken nugget and 20-piece hot wings from Kentucky Fried Chicken with a six-pack of beer.” (He clearly has never been to KFC — no one who has been to KFC calls it “Kentucky Fried Chicken.”) Let’s check in with Wahlberg’s progress.

“From left photo 3 weeks ago to this, now,” he wrote on Instagram, thanking his personal chef Lawrence Duran. He still has six-pack, but “I’m up about 20. Inspired to be better! I’m going up another 20.” Like Will Smith, Wahlberg is in the “worst shape of my life,” but he was quick to note, “It’s for a role.” If only he had access to unlimited free burgers…

(Via People)

Ted Cruz fancies himself a pop culture aficionado, although he generally misses the point, as he did with The Avengers and while completely misreading some evil environmentalist message into Watchmen. That’s consistent with his tendency to self-own on most subjects, although it was almost sad when he declared himself a The Princess Bride superfan and then completely fell on his face while feuding with the likes of Cary Elwes. Yet Ted is nothing if not persistent, which is why people are scratching their heads at his newest reference that makes zero sense.

Ted decided to mention Jason Bourne for some unknown reason while reacting to a “Humans of the CIA” video, in which a woman makes mention of her “intersectional” identity. Ted picked up the ball and ran with it, although it’s unclear what his goal was, other than to say that the woman in the video wouldn’t be intimidating enough to China, Iran, or North Korea? He then sarcastically (?) added, “We’ve come a long way from Jason Bourne.”

This, of course, led people to wonder if Ted realizes that Jason Bourne (embodied by Matt Damon in five movies and a late 1980s take starring Richard Chamberlain, all of were adapted from Robert Ludlum’s novel-born character) is fictional. Surely Ted realizes that much, right? People weren’t in the mood to give Ted the benefit of the doubt, though. That’s probably because Ted didn’t articulate his point well, and for that matter, he failed to make any point at all. It’s clear, at the very least, that he doesn’t understand that Jason Bourne wasn’t, you know, a role model… he was brainwashed and molded into an assassin. Then again, Ted Cruz considers Watchmen‘s Rorschach to be a hero, so it’s safe to say that he didn’t think the Bourne reference through.