Month: June 2021

Lorde is notoriously tight-lipped with any updates about her upcoming projects. But her fans are less patient when it comes to her first new music in four years. So when Lorde temporary uploaded and then removed her new song “Solar Power” to select streaming services, fans were beside themselves.

On Thursday, Lorde’s new song “Solar Power” reportedly appeared on Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, and YouTube Music. It was only available for a short period of time before being removed, though, and some lucky fans were able to hear it in time.

According to one fan, who was able to catch the song before it was pulled off the internet, the “Solar Power” credits feature some recognizable indie names: Phoebe Bridgers appears in the song’s credits alongside Clairo and Taylor Swift producer Jack Antonoff, who seemingly contributed backup vocals.

Lorde first teased “Solar Power” by sharing its cover art, which features a revealing photo of her in a swimsuit. Rumors about her next album have been circling for months, so when the singer shared the cheeky photo, it was instantly turned into all sorts of hilarious memes. Fans were also quick to make memes about the short-lived nature of “Solar Power,” and they assumed the song was mistakenly leaked by someone on her team.

Lorde has yet to make a statement about the temporary release of her song. But since several fans have already been able to hear “Solar Power,” it’s possible Lorde could be planning on widely releasing it soon.

George Harrison’s 1970 masterwork All Things Must Pass — the album Rolling Stone once called “the War And Peace of rock and roll” — is the centerpiece of a definitive, limited edition 50th-anniversary box set, available on August 6th via Capitol/UMe. The super-deluxe package, which you can pre-order here, is filled with unreleased tracks from the prolific period of the former Beatle’s career, newly mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Paul Hicks.

One of these gems is the whimsical “Run Of The Mill (Take 36).” According to Olivia Harrison, the song was one of their favorites. The Harrison estate released the track with a new video, set in Friar Park, which is on their property. “Mill,” along with “Isn’t It A Pity,” “Wah-Wah,” and “Beware Of Darkness,” came out of Harrison’s frustration concerning the Beatles’ breakup in April of 1970.

All Things Must Pass, produced by Harrison and Phil Spector, is an enormous, ambitious statement of Harrison’s remarkably gifted songcraft, deep spirituality, and his dedication to both his distinct style and collaboration with his fellow musicians. The album bursts with a variety of musical genres: rock and roll, country, gospel, blues, pop, folk, Indian classical music, and devotional melodies. Despite being phenomenally popular, Harrison said in the liner notes for the 30th-anniversary reissue, issued in 2001, “I still like the songs on the album and believe they can continue to outlive the style in which they were recorded,” adding, however, “it was difficult to resist re-mixing every track. All these years later I would like to liberate some of the songs from the big production that seemed appropriate at the time.”

The Super Deluxe Edition box set, presented on 8LP (180g) or 5CD + 1 Blu-ray audio disc, explores the 1970 album sessions through 47 demos and outtakes, 42 of which were previously unreleased. The Blu-ray allows fans to experience the main album in a high-res stereo, enveloping 5.1 surround sound, and Dolby Atmos mixes. The collection contains a beautiful 60-page scrapbook curated by Olivia Harrison, with unseen imagery and memorabilia from the era, handwritten lyrics, diary entries, studio notes, tape box images, a comprehensive track-by-track, and more. It also includes a replica of the original album poster.

Watch the album trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvoEtEx95tk

Illuminati Hotties are ringing in Hot Vax Summer with a pop-punk cannonball. “Pool Hopping” is the first track from the just-announced forthcoming album Let Me Do One More, which arrives October 1.

Directed by Katie Neuhof, the bubblegum-bright video features singer/writer/producer Sarah Tudzin chirping about indecision from various doughnut inner tubes. The song emits so many summertime vibes, it’s easy to gloss over Tudzin’s most excellent couplet game, which had me at “Stealth makeout / Breakfast takeout.”

Tudzin said that this record is the culmination of three years of uncertainty in the music business, where she was embroiled in label disputes and unpaid royalties. Let Me Do One More sounds — so far — like a big sigh of relief from all that. As Tudzin said of “Pool Hopping”: “I’m so stoked to have grilled up a splashy new song & music video to soundtrack your wettest & wildest parties to date. This track is for when it’s hot, you’re crushing on someone new, and your adventure senses are tingling. Come on in, the water’s fine!!!”

Illuminati Hotties are on tour supporting Death Cab For Cutie’s west coast dates in September. The day after the album drops, on October 2, the Hotties will headline Zebulon in Los Angeles.

Watch the “Pool Hopping” video above and find the Let Me Do One More art and tracklist below. Also revisit our 2018 interview with Tudzin here.

1. “Pool Hopping”
2. “MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA”
3. “Knead”
4. “Threatening Each Other re: Capitalism”
5. “u v v p” Feat. Buck Meek
6. “Protector”
7. “Joni: LA’s No 1 Health Goth”
8. “Kickflip”
9. “Toasting” Feat. Alex Menne
10. “The Sway”
11. “Cheap Shoes”
12. “Growth”

Let Me Do One More is out 10/1 via Snake Shack Tracks. Pre-order it here.

Death Cab For Cutie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

A whistleblower and a suspected sex trafficker walked into a political debate…

What sounds like the setup to a likely offensive joke turned out to be data scientist Rebekah Jones’ way of pointing out a glaring hypocrisy in what is going down in Florida right now. Specifically: In the way that she is being treated for speaking out against Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ questionable handling of the coronavirus pandemic while Matt Gaetz, who is under investigation for possible sex trafficking as well as for obstruction of justice in that investigation, is carrying on like it’s just another beautiful day in the Sunshine State.

On Tuesday, Jones announced via Instagram Stories that she was planning to challenge Gaetz for his congressional seat, stating:

“I had hoped that someone in the Republican Party would step up and primary him, and I’ve yet to see that happen. And so, if it takes me going home to Florida to run against Matt Gaetz, then I will do it. If it means getting one child sex trafficker out of office, you’re damn right I’ll do it.” Jones also spoke to NBC News about her announcement, telling them that, “I hope I do better than a sex trafficker. It’s absurd that he’s still in office. Someone like that should not go unchallenged.”

While Gaetz, who is somehow not above cracking jokes even though he’s being accused of sex trafficking a minor, basically told Jones to come at him when he tweeted, “Looks like I’m running against Florida’s Fauci…”

Wow. A world-renowned doctor who has served as the chief medical advisor to seven presidents and proven himself over and over to be a man of the utmost integrity whose only goal is to see as few people killed by the pandemic as possible is now an insult? Good one, Matt!

Well, it turns out that Jones—who worked for the Department of Health and helped to create and maintain Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard, but was fired in May 2020 after refusing to (in her words) “manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen”—wasn’t really serious about challenging Gaetz. It was simply her way of trying to illustrate the criminal way in which she has been treated since blowing the whistle on DeSantis and his shady disciples while Gaetz remains unscathed (at least officially, for now).

In a follow-up to her announcement, she posted a statement to Instagram which explained:

“In suggesting a run in Florida 1, I was pointing out the hypocrisy in DeSantis writing a law to prevent the silencing of government critics, while simultaneously celebrating my suspension for sharing a news article that exposed the lies he made that cost so many Florida lives.

I truly believe there is someone good in the Panhandle — Republican, Democrat, or no party — who can and should keep this pervert from writing laws regulating his own sick behavior.”

Gaetz is probably working up a doozy of a sick burn for that one as we type this.

(Via Yahoo! News)

Bill de Blasio is the mayor of New York City. New York City is known for, among other things, da Mets, King Kong attacks, and pizza. Therefore, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio should have good taste in pizza. Folks, he does not.

Ahead of the June primary election, de Blasio, seen here eating pizza with a fork (“disgusting”), performed a ranked choice voting tutorial using pizza toppings. The ballot consisted of eight focus group-approved toppings — olives, pineapple, vegan cheese, clams, sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, and pepperoni — for five slots.

Let’s see how he did:

De Blasio, holding up a large eight-option “ballot,” ranked green peppers first, olives second, sausage third, mushrooms fourth, and pepperoni fifth. “A lot of people don’t appreciate green peppers enough,” de Blasio deadpanned. “I have southern Italian roots. Green peppers are a very big, important part of our life.”

I won’t hate on de Blasio picking green peppers. Green peppers on pizza is great. But first? Over pepperoni?!? That’s nuts. de Blasio picked olives second because he’s “had very good experiences with olives,” whatever that means, but olives are a trash topping. The mayor tried to redeem himself by accurately proclaiming that pineapple “doesn’t belong on pizza,” but it was too late. You lost me, and many others, at olives, Bill.

I’m terrified to look up former-mayor Rudy Giuliani’s preferred pizza toppings.

(Via the New York Post)

Kevin Smith’s enthusiasm for all things geeky has led him down many roads, all of them filled with very big feelings. One doesn’t have to throw an Infinity Stone too far to find Smith’s openly emotional reactions to, say, the Avengers: Endgame trailer or the WandaVision finale or to visiting a Star Wars set. I like to imagine that he had the same reaction to watching his own teaser trailer (for Netflix’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation series), as finished, for the very first time, because, honestly, the dude has the Power of Grayskull running through his veins.

Following first-look images of He-Man and Skeletor, Netflix released this teaser trailer as part of their first Geeked Week. If you ever caught an episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (which ran for two seasons beginning in 1983) or the spinoff, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, you’ll be in awe of what Smith has whipped up as showrunner. Between bursts of color, Flashdance vibes, and “Holding Out For A Hero” from the Footloose soundtrack, Smith nailed the (worthy) nostalgia factor with this teaser trailer. Oh, and there’s Orko(!) and lightning and sword play, too.

The voice cast includes Jason Mewes, of course, but also Mark Hamill, Lena Headey, Henry Rollins, Chris Wood, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and more. Here’s how the synopsis describes the state of the war of Eternia in this series:

After a cataclysmic battle between He-Man and Skeletor, Eternia is fractured and the Guardians of Grayskull are scattered. And after decades of secrets tore them apart, it’s up to Teela to reunite the broken band of heroes, and solve the mystery of the missing Sword of Power in a race against time to restore Eternia and prevent the end of the universe.

Netflix’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation streams on July 23.

With Migos‘ new album Culture III dropping in less than 12 hours, the trio’s most visible members, Quavo and Offset, have been busy doing press all week to drum up buzz for the long-awaited, twice-delayed release. While Offset went the print route, giving some choice quotes to Billboard on Monday, Quavo decided to take on the Hot Ones challenge today… and paid the price, ultimately tapping out after the eighth week, topped with the infamous Da Bomb sauce (“It’s got a nuclear weapon?” has to be a top ten response to the sauce’s label).

Before he threw in the towel, though, he gave some pretty insightful answers to questions about how his collaborators set the vibe in the studio, a photo on Instagram featuring Quavo hanging out with Elon Musk, Kanye West, and Travis Scott, Quavo’s upcoming feature film debut alongside Robert DeNiro, and the early days of Migos before they were a trio. When host Sean Evans brings up the song “Boost It Up” and the group’s high school origins, Quavo details how Takeoff earned his name (by getting all of his verses recorded in one take), why fellow students teased them about their early music, and how Offset was eventually added to the crew to form the trio as we know it.

Watch Quavo’s Hot Ones interview above.

Culture III is out 6/11 on Quality Control, Capitol, and Motown Records.

There’s always a serious amount of concern whenever hackers get in and take data from a company. What they get from the hack could be extremely valuable and sometimes can lead to privacy leaks or personal information being stolen. This recently happened to Polish game developer CD Projekt when hackers broke in and stole personal employee data and locked them out of their workstations.

According to a forum post, hackers recently managed to get in and steal 780 GB of data from video game giant Electronic Arts. Vice reported that the hackers are currently trying to sell the data, claiming it contains source code for the Frostbite engine as well as games like FIFA 21 and Battlefield.

EA released this statement in response. Via VICE:

“We are investigating a recent incident of intrusion into our network where a limited amount of game source code and related tools were stolen,” an EA spokesperson told Motherboard in a statement. “No player data was accessed, and we have no reason to believe there is any risk to player privacy. Following the incident, we’ve already made security improvements and do not expect an impact on our games or our business. We are actively working with law enforcement officials and other experts as part of this ongoing criminal investigation.”

Luckily, it sounds like the only information that was stolen was in relation to the development side and nothing personal. However, the statement only mentioned player data, so we don’t currently know the status of any employee data that could have been stolen.

One of the coolest parts of the Nintendo Switch is how it lets you play games like Mario, Zelda, and Skyrim quite literally anywhere. Taking a home console and bringing it on the go is a concept that even now sounds like it shouldn’t be real. This idea is having so much influence that a Kickstarter is out there to turn the Xbox Series S into a portable console.

The “xScreen” is an attachable device that owners can connect to their Xbox Series S and utilize as a screen. This will allow them to play any games on their Series S on the go. The best part of course is that the Series S is a discless console so there’s no need to carry around physical games making it an even more effective portable console than the Switch in some ways.

The Kickstarter hasn’t launched yet, but the idea of it is really cool. It’s not particularly original, these kinds of devices existed for the GameCube for example, but screen technology is far better than it used to be. The xScreen will have 1080p with 60 a Hz refresh rate which is actually more powerful than an undocked Nintendo Switch.

It’s impressive that a device as small as the Series S is powerful enough to run something like the xScreen, but a lot of this is still a concept. We’ll need to see how it performs once it’s in production, but the idea of turning more of our consoles into portable devices is cool. Especially with technology today allowing these portable devices to actually look like they would on actual TV screens. If this screen succeeds, alongside the continued success of the Nintendo Switch, we may see more hardware like it.

The past month has seen some pretty ambitious headlines about travel to Europe this summer. Most of these technically only refer to the European Union (though they don’t make that explicitly clear), which includes 27 of the continent’s 50 countries. But even when focusing just on the EU countries, the re-opening of Europe is a tangled web of individual country regulations, hygiene requirements, tracking apps, and localized quarantines, curfews, and lockdowns that break down beyond national borders to state-to-state (sometimes town-to-town) rules.

In short, “Europe reopening” is a big, confusing mish-mash of ever-changing policies and guidelines that can shift at any moment. Yes, even if you’re vaccinated.

Not surprisingly, the European Union wants to make it easy to travel to the economic bloc and between the 27 nations therein. But ambitious travelers need to understand that right now all of this is still a “let’s see if we can make this happen”-type situation. Each EU nation has its own entry requirements and rules once you’re actually in that country. And these are the sorts of rules that can’t be skirted. Fines for things like not wearing masks where mandated can be pretty steep, depending on which country you’re visiting, and PCR testing and quarantining can be very expensive.

There’s is a ray of hope, though. The EU dropped a new app called Re-Open EU. The handy app (which is available wherever you get your apps) breaks down the absolute latest rules covering who can enter each EU country and what the rules are then you’re actually there.

The app has interactive maps that show the situation on the ground with a color-coded display. That color-coded map tells you where every state within every country currently stands in its fight against COVID-19. Green denotes the virus is waning or under control. Amber refers to the virus declining but not overcome. Finally, red means that a certain state or region is a no-go for non-essential travel. All of this helps you make smart decisions about where to travel in general.

From there, if the country is open to U.S. citizens for tourism, they’ll break down what you need to enter. That will always include participation in the EU Digital COVID Certificate — which will show your vaccine data, PCR tests, and whether or not you’ve recovered from covid within the last six months.

The other two sections of the app that are crucial are “Coronavirus Measures” and “Health Situation.” The first covers the rules you’ll have to follow while in-country. It breaks down all the on-the-ground rules in the nation — from museums and cinemas to beaches and parks to bars, clubs, and restaurants. It also covers the rules when going out, dining, partying, and expected behavior along with what’s open and at what capacity. It’s pretty comprehensive. The “Health Situation” section will let you know where vaccination rates stand along with infection, recovery, and death rates right now. Generally, these numbers are updated daily to keep you abreast of the situation to make smart travel decisions.

Finally, the app’s greatest asset might be the “Travel Plan” option. This allows you to input two countries and it’ll give you all the information about crossing the border between those two countries. It’s incredibly useful given that a trip to Europe would often include hitting one or two or more countries within the EU back before all this started. On one side, it’ll tell you if the country you’re in will let you travel to other EU countries in general. Then, it’ll let you know all the entry requirements for the country you want to travel to. The page also links to all health and entry forms you’ll have to fill out and further information about rules for when you’re in that country.

If you are planning to go to the EU this summer, this app really is crucial to do it legally and with as little hassle as possible. Good luck!