Not content to explore the vast timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in his own series, Loki will be invading the world of Springfield in an all new animated short for Disney+. The all-new Simpsons crossover titled The Good, The Bart, and The Loki, will feature Tom Hiddleston voicing the God of Mischief as he joins forces with another iconic trickster. Via The Wrap:
In the new short coming exclusively to Disney+, Loki is banished from Asgard once again and must face his toughest opponents yet: the Simpsons and Springfield’s mightiest heroes. The God of Mischief teams up with Bart Simpson in the ultimate crossover event paying tribute to the Marvel Cinematic Universe of superheroes and villains.
You can see key art for the Loki/Simpsons crossover below:
The Good, The Bart, and The Loki is now the second Simpsons short centered on a Disney property. To celebrate Star Wars Day on May the 4th, Maggie Simpson appeared in the animated short The Force Awakens From Its Nap. The long-running series also took aim at the MCU in its most recent season by having Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige voice Chinnos, an obvious riff on The Avengers villain Thanos.
On top of invading The Simpsons, Loki will also be getting his own Fortnite skin in July as part of the Fortnite Crew membership package. The guy’s everywhere.
The Good, The Bart, and The Loki starts streaming July 7 on Disney+.
Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony is a future member of the Basketball Hall of Fame whenever he is done playing in the NBA. Just this season, Anthony reached the top 10 of the NBA’s all-time scoring list and, in short, he lives in rarified air for his on-court accomplishments. On Tuesday, however, Anthony was honored for his work away from the hardwood and named as the NBA’s inaugural Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Justice Champion.
Earlier this month, Anthony was joined by Sacramento Kings forward Harrison Barnes, Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris, Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday, and Golden State Warriors forward Juan Toscano-Anderson as the five finalists for the honor. As part of his win, the 37-year-old Anthony chose the Portland Art Museum’s Black Arts and Experiences Initiative to receive a $100,000 donation on his behalf. In the end, he was honored for what the NBA described as his “dedication over the past year to pursuing social justice and advancing Abdul-Jabbar’s life mission to engage, empower and drive equality for individuals and groups who have been historically marginalized or systemically disadvantaged.”
Among his incredible contributions off of the court within the last two decades since being drafted in 2003, Anthony partnered with Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade to create the Social Change Fund during the summer of 2020. Through that lens, he has championed criminal justice reform and inclusion, helped to expand voting access, and served as an advocate for marginalized communities. In addition, Anthony helped to raise awareness and stress the importance of the creation of a national holiday for Juneteenth, and his content company, Creative 7 productions, focuses on purposeful storytelling that highlights diverse voices.
On Tuesday night, Stephen Colbert had some exciting news to share about the Capitol riot investigation: “We may finally learn what we already all know happened, because yesterday Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced a bill that will ‘create a select committee to probe the January 6 attack on the Capitol.’”
It’s worth noting that Pelosi’s announcement was delivered exactly one month after Senate Republicans blocked a previous effort to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the riots—a move that had Colbert saying, “What a surprise! Asking Republicans to investigate the Capitol riot is like my favorite book in middle school: Nancy Drew and the Case of Nancy Drew Murdered Somebody.”
If an investigation is to move ahead, however, the GOP wants to make sure they’ve got their say in how it proceeds. While Pelosi will select eight members of the commission, five would be chosen “after consultation with” House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy. Which is where the real fun begins, according to Colbert:
“Insiders say McCarthy is likely to suggest loyal MAGA-heads to gum up the works of the investigation and the crème de la crazy are already volunteering for the job, like Georgia Representative and woman in The Matrix who took all the pills Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been ‘publicly pushing to be seated on the panel.’ I for one can’t wait until she offers up her theory that the halls of Congress were actually soiled by Jewish poop lasers!”
Florida Representative and Jimmy Douchetron Matt Gaetz also openly expressed his interest. As usual, he showed his interest by offering to give the commission a ride home from band practice.”
Just what every serious probe needs: A certifiably insane conspiracy theorist and a man under investigation for sex trafficking.
You can watch the full clip above, which starts around the 4-minute mark.
Fans who tuned into Tyler The Creator’s new album Call Me If You Get Lost may have noticed that, as opposed to the more tender sentiments expressed on his last two collections, this project featured much more materialistic subject matter than usual (I consider this a good thing). According to TMZ, this newfound ballerific intent isn’t just confined to the lyrics on the new album, as Tyler’s new chain based on his nickname from the album set him back half a million dollars.
It’s a tiny, multicolored bellhop — yes, Tyler chooses to have people call him one of those hotel guys who carry your bags, which… actually makes sense, considering how much he loves bags — covered in yellow, pink, red, and green gems, including diamonds and sapphires. Per TMZ, it contains 23,515 hand-set stones comprising 186 carats in diamonds and 60 carats in sapphires, while the little suitcases actually open and close. It was designed by jeweler Alex Moss, with whom Tyler worked on the piece for around seven months. The idea was sparked then, with around four of those months dedicated to actually acquiring the stones (I would love to see a movie about this, a la Uncut Gems).
The majority of the songs on the recently announced Big Machine project How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? have a guest, as the album features Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Ben Howard, This Is The Kit, Naeem, Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Nova, and Taylor Swift. There are a handful of songs credited just to the group though, and on three of them, Aaron Dessner sings lead vocals, which is a first for him. Now, one of those songs, “The Ghost Of Cincinnati,” has been unveiled.
Dessner sings and plays acoustic guitar on the track. Dessner shared a statement about the song, writing on Instagram:
“The Ghost of Cincinnati is one that I play and sing all by my lonesome. It was inspired by a screenplay called ‘Dandelion’ by the filmmaker [Nicole Riegel] (who co-wrote the lyrics with me), which my brother [Bryce Dessner] and I are working on. It’s about someone who feels like a ghost, stalking the streets of their hometown, interrogating the past and contemplating their fate — something I can deeply relate to. I imagine this could be a little bit about myself, or friends I’ve lost or someone who has overextended and overspent themselves to a point where they’ve lost everything, empty and hollow like a ghost.
Thanks to Justin, Taylor, Jack, my sister and brother for convincing me to sing more and to finish this song for the album.”
Dessner previously said of the project as a whole, “This is all music I initially generated and feel emotionally connected to, but it has been very interesting to hear how different people relate to it and how different voices collide with it. That’s what makes it special. With everyone that’s on this record, there’s an openness, a creative generosity, and an emotional quality that connects it all together.”
Listen to “The Ghost Of Cincinnati” above.
How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is out 8/27 via Jagjaguwar/37d03d. Pre-order it here.
Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.
Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of June below.
The Roots — Do You Want More?!!!??! (Deluxe Edition)
Geffen/Ume
The Roots have been one of hip-hop’s finest groups for a long time and their ascent began with their 1995 major-label debut, Do You Want More?!!!??!. Now, they’re celebrating the iconic release with a slew of new reissues. The most expansive is the 4-LP edition, which includes a 24-page booklet and a whopping 18 bonus tracks, some of which have never been released and all of which were curated by Questlove.
2Pac — Until The End Of Time (20th Anniversary Reissue)
2Pac
Before Tupac was prematurely taken from us, he had a hell of a career, to put it lightly. One of the highlights, his album Until The End Of Time, turns 20 this year, and now it’s available on “high-quality, 180-gram audiophile grade vinyl” for the first time in two decades. This 4-LP release is a special one, as it comes with previously unseen photos and even a tracklist handwritten by Tupac himself.
PJ Harvey has essentially become the cornerstone of his monthly vinyl rundown with her regular rereleases. Her latest project to get the reissue treatment is White Chalk, her well-received seventh album from 2007. Also shared was a collection of demos, which were previously unreleased and are also available on CD and digital formats.
Last year, Dave Chappelle famously released 8:46, the title of which references how long Derek Chauvin had his knee of George Floyd’s neck before his death. Now the comedian is extending his special’s reach with a new Third Man Records reissue, which is pressed in a color edition that is limited, appropriately, to just 846 copies.
Alicia Keys — Songs In A Minor (20th Anniversary Reissue)
RCA Records/Legacy Recordings
Alicia Keys came blazing out of the gate with her 2001 debut album Songs In A Minor. Now the chart-topping, multi-platinum release has gotten a fresh reissue that includes some enticing goodies. Most excitingly, there’s a pair of previously unreleased bonus tracks from the original album recording sessions: “Foolish Heart” and “Crazy (Mi Corazon).” Additionally, there’s also “Fallin’ – Ali Soundtrack Version” and “I Won’t (Crazy World),” the latter of which was previously available on the 10th Anniversary Physical Deluxe edition, meaning this is the first time it’s available to stream.
Lady Gaga had one of 2020’s defining pop albums with Chromatica, and now she has come out with the ultimate edition of the album for diehard fans. This one is pressed on 180-gram black vinyl and comes with a trifold embossed jacket, a new 28-page booklet, and a 40-page fanzine.
Although Rod Stewart had a No. 1 album early in his career, he needed a boost after 1974’s Smiler, which was a relative chart flop in the US. He followed that by signing with Warner Bros. Records and busted out a quartet of prosperous albums, three of which were top-two on the charts: Atlantic Crossing (1975), A Night On The Town (1976), Footloose & Fancy Free (1977), and Blondes Have More Fun (1978). Those four pivotal records have been compiled on this new box set, which also features studio outtakes from each of them. Stewart himself says of the collection, “It’s extraordinary for me to look back on this era of my career. I think fans will enjoy experiencing these songs on vinyl. I know I did.”
Ludacris — Word Of Mouf (Vinyl Me, Please Reissue)
Vinyl Me, Please
Ludacris remains a pop-culture force today, and that was especially true when he released 2001’s Word Of Mouf, which features hits like “Area Codes” and “Move B*tch.” In celebration of the record’s 20th anniversary, it has gotten a slick new reissue via Vinyl Me, Please, which is pressed on “orange galaxy” vinyl and has a gorgeous overall presentation.
Sharon Van Etten came up with a great way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of her album Epic: Re-release it alongside a version of the album covered by other artists. Participating in the project are folks like Courtney Barnett, Justin Vernon, Fiona Apple, and others. Van Etten says of the reissue, “Epic represents a crossroads for me as an artist. Going from intern to artist at Ba Da Bing, from solo folk singer to playing with a band for the first time and beginning to play shows on tour where people showed up. I am in awe of the artists who wanted to participate in celebrating my anniversary and reissue, from young inspiring musicians, to artists who took me under their wing, who I met on tour, and to artists I’ve looked up to since I was a teenager. Each one of these artists continue to influence my writing and provide a sense of camaraderie during this new era of sharing music.”
The Avalanches — Since I Left You (20th Anniversary Reissue)
Astralwerks
June was a big month for 20th anniversaries, because here’s another one. This time, it’s Since I Left You from The Avalanches, and it features a handful of bonus tracks, including new mixes from Black Dice, Leon Vynehall, Sinkane, Carl Craig, and MF Doom. The Doom contribution is previously unheard vocals on “Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF Doom Remix),” which adds to the icon’s posthumous legacy. The box set collection that houses this anniversary set is essential for fans of the project.
Fede Álvarez directed two of the best wide-release horror movies in the 2010s, Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe. The Evil Dead series will continue on without his involvement (HBO Max’s Evil Dead Rise ignores the 2013 reboot and “builds off the original trilogy” with Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi), but he’s back for Don’t Breathe 2. Álvarez co-wrote the script with director Rodo Sayagues, while Stephen Lang will reprise his role as Norman Nordstrom/the Blind Man. Please don’t bring back the turkey baster, though.
In Don’t Breathe, a group of no-good delinquents, including Evil Dead‘s Jane Levy, break into a blind man’s house for a quick robbery. But what they don’t consider is that he’s a murderer who’s keeping a young woman hostage in his basement. It’s sick, it’s nasty, it’s… great. Don’t Breathe 2 is set years after the events of the first movie, with Norman “living in an isolated cabin with a young girl orphaned from a devastating house fire. When a group of criminals kidnap the girl, the Blind Man must leave his safe haven to rescue her.” It’s the difference between The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day — in the original, he’s the bad guy; in the sequel, he’s the conflicted hero (Lang worked with Terminator director James Cameron on Avatar, so just go with it).
The moment Jakob Dylan put himself out for public consumption as a singer-songwriter, he proved to be a determined, headstrong and, yes, highly courageous individual. Talk about an inhospitable work environment. Who could possibly live up to the inevitable comparisons to you-know-who?
Actually, the 51-year-old Dylan has more than distinguished himself over the course of a nearly 30-year career. And if you must compare him to his father, consider that Jakob’s signature song with his long-running band The Wallflowers — 1996’s deathless alt-rock standard “One Headlight” — has been streamed more times than nearly every track by Bob save for “Like A Rolling Stone” and “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” As long as there are sports arenas and gas stations that spin durable rock hits, Jakob Dylan’s legacy is secure.
But he’s also more than a one-hit wonder. The Wallflowers’ catalogue is deep with ruggedly enjoyable proto-Americana albums that function as a shadow history of major-label rock in the past three decades. Dylan was an MTV star when the channel still played songs like “One Headlight” and “6th Avenue Heartache,” he weathered the record industry’s piracy nadir in the aughts with producers like Brendan O’Brien and Rick Rubin, and he’s carried on as an elder statesman who has rubbed shoulders with nearly every rock icon still standing.
“People don’t always know what to do with me,” Dylan said when I reached him last month. “I’m aware that I’m an anomaly. Because there’s nobody like me working … for a lot of different reasons.”
Ahead of the release of Exit Wounds, the first Wallflowers album in nine years due out July 9, Dylan candidly discussed the high and lows of the band’s career from the early ’90s to now.
The Wallflowers (1992)
I think we did it in just two weeks, and there were not a lot of overdubs. That wasn’t necessarily a choice, as much as that’s just how we thought bands did it. At the time, that’s how everybody was doing records. In hindsight, it’s certainly a great way to do your first record.
When you’re doing your first record, you’re not only bringing in your songs. You haven’t ever really been in the studio before and you haven’t worked with a real producer before. So, you’re really juggling and learning a lot, all at once. You haven’t really addressed a microphone before, you’ve never had to really dial in an amp sound. There’s a lot of things you haven’t done yet, so you’re doing it all at once on the floor together in a short amount of time.
There are a lot of rough spots on it, and there’s a lot of meandering. There’s a 9-minute song and an 11-minute song, I think. We were completely overly ambitious and probably full of ourselves, and that’s how you should make your first record. You want to believe you’re The Rolling Stones. I mean, you’re not. But you might as well believe you are because that’s what rock bands should do.
I think we sold 40,000 records of our debut. I’m sure it’s sold more than that since, but I didn’t think that was a failure at all. I had no barometer of what a successful number would be. 40,000 people is a lot of people if you ask me. I was just really excited to make a record and go on tour and play to people.
The only disappointment with that record was that the people who I really liked, who brought us there, they were either removed or dismissed or left, I don’t recall. That’s a bad situation for any group, when you come back from a tour and there’s different people in the offices. Because, generally, the new people don’t want to inherit other projects, especially if they haven’t done well. So, we were in kind of a pickle — we had a record deal, but we had new people who didn’t seem to really know what to do with us. So, we asked to be released.
I don’t blame them, I get it now, but I think the label — instead of saying that they let us go — probably smartly said that they dropped us. We didn’t know that, it just kind of circulated back to us after doing clubs for a long time, looking for another record contract. You have to put all this in perspective: Record contracts were really a lot more important then than they are now. There’s a lot more opportunities now. And there were then too, without a major label. But it was the more typical route you wanted to be taking.
Bringing Down The Horse (1996)
I never was that devoted to the radio or the climate to know what others were doing. But I didn’t think what we were doing was out of fashion at all. I thought it went back to the roots of rock ‘n’ roll. And that has always been present in music. It’s never been really in fashion or out of fashion. It’s a rock band setup: two guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards.
It took us a little while to figure out that we had a reputation, that I was really difficult. I mean, maybe I am. I don’t think it’s inappropriate for guys in rock bands to be difficult. I mean, what does that mean? Does that just mean I don’t do what you’re asking? That I don’t want to do an interview for Hard Copy or Us Weekly? Does that make me difficult? To some people, I guess it did. I just wanted to be in the band and tour and play. And I understood quickly, coming into it, that there were things coming my way that were just celebrity-driven, and I didn’t have any interest in being a part of that.
It’s not confusing for me why the second record did what it did. There’s a lot of reasons for it. It was a young company, Interscope, that was really behind us. And T Bone Burnett helped us make that record. I knew we were using classic instruments and that with dobros and mandolins and B3 organs and pianos, that you can sound like you’re doing a throwback record, which I was really worried about. I didn’t want to do that. I thought we had to take that sound into the future and make it modern. As T Bone Burnett had said at the time, it was a hyper folk record, and that is kind of what it sounds like.
I had “6th Avenue Heartache” written for that first record and we just couldn’t get a recording of it that made any sense or sounded good. I don’t think we were good enough to play to the song’s potential. And that doesn’t feel good, to be in a band, knowing that my end of the deal is I’m writing the songs and I feel like we can’t play the song very well. By the time we had gotten to Bringing Down the Horse, the group had mostly fallen apart, which is why there’s a lot of different musicians on that record.
I think that bands go through a typical arc when they get noticed for a certain song and the crowds get bigger and they start to feel like people are only coming to hear the one song. They have a mixed relationship with that song, and I certainly did for a while with “One Headlight.” But over time, you realize how unique that is, certainly today, that any rock band has a song that everybody knows. I don’t know if that’s happening anymore. I mean, as big as rock bands are today and as many people as they’re drawing to festivals, I don’t know that the general public knows their material. Those days may have come and gone, so I have a lot of gratitude.
Breach (2000)
That was a difficult record to make. I didn’t feel any pressure to follow up with the first one. But the follow-up record to the record people hear, you’re now aware that people are going to hear these songs. Before, you didn’t think anybody’s really ever going to hear them. So, you’re writing them for yourself and your band and maybe the small crowd you’re playing to. But once you have something like Bringing Down The Horse, you know whatever you do next, it’s going to be listened to. I can’t tell you exactly how that changes how you write and how you behave when making a record, but I knew that people would hear these songs, one way or another.
I felt like I was a better songwriter by that point. I mean, you’re only talking 20 songs later into a career. You’re not talking many, many records later, where it’s difficult to figure out what to write about. It’s only my third record. So, I thought I was getting a better grip on songwriting by that point. I had spent a lot of time staying away from anything that might be perceived as personal or having anything to do with divulging my background, and there was no reason to still feel like that. I felt that that was an unfair burden that I was giving myself.
I can’t tell you that I figured that out right away and suddenly changed my writing, but I was aware that to be connected to an artist that you like, you have to feel something from them that is singular and personal. Now, when I say personal, I don’t mean exposing their personal therapy sessions. But you have to feel those people that you’re listening to, and I wasn’t really doing that. I was actually spending a lot of time denying that I’m actually a real person with a background, and that was only going to get me so far. By Breach, I knew there was going to be scrutiny on some of the songs and I decided that I was just going to not care about it.
With “Hand Me Down,” I’m sure at times you’ve felt like hand-me-down. That’s a universal thought, I believe. I still don’t believe there was anything about that song that is singular to me. It’s easy to draw the connection to me and think that I’m addressing that, and I possibly am. But who hasn’t felt like that? Who hasn’t felt like they haven’t been noticed? Who hasn’t felt like a backup plan? Who hasn’t felt like a plan B?
Red Letter Days (2002)
The original guitar player that I started the group with, Tobi Miller, had gone down the path of being a really strong record producer. So, we brought him in to produce. And I think part of that was for me to go full circle. I guess I probably felt a little bit of guilt for not being able to carve out a better place for him in the band. He certainly wasn’t on anybody’s list of big producers at the time but that didn’t matter to me. I just thought I was very connected to him and we essentially started the group together many years before that.
That record is difficult for me to listen to. I don’t think it sounds as good as the other records. There’s a sheen to that record that confuses me. That was at the peak of us not really understanding the studio. The electronica stuff? You try to make room for other people to put their ideas in, and I felt okay with that at the time, but I don’t think it holds up. I do like the songs on it quite a bit and I play some of those songs still. But as a record, I feel like we may have veered off the path a little bit.
Rebel, Sweetheart(2004)
We went to Atlanta for a month to make that record with Brendan O’Brien. I think it’s good for bands to get out of town. And Atlanta is a nice place to make record. And I’d known Brendan’s work. I like Brendan’s stuff a lot.
But I remember that, sonically, it sounds very similar to those Bruce Springsteen records that Brendan was making at the time. To be honest, there were times when I was singing and I was thinking, “Take my voice off, and this sounds like The E Street Band.” And it’s just not the instrumentation. You’re at the studio, you put in that drum kit and that B3, and you keep them all in the same place. You don’t move them around every time a new band comes in the studio. There’s a sweet spot for a drum kit, there’s a sweet spot for a B3. So, we just left that stuff where it previously was, which I think was the E Street session. So, we not only had the same instrumentation, I think our gear was in the same spot. And there’s certainly a connection you could draw between my own writing and Bruce’s writing. So, that doesn’t surprise me. But that was a good experience. I like that record quite a bit.
Brendan is great. Brendan came on tour with us that summer. He played guitar for that summer. So, he’s a musician first. There’s a lot of different kinds of producers and I’m not going to tell you which one is best. I can only tell you which ones I respond to the best and which ones I don’t respond to. I don’t respond to the vibe people. I don’t respond to people who are just music fans who think they have better taste than everybody, who can guide you because they got great ears. I prefer to be in a studio with somebody who knows a bit about songwriting, who knows how to play the instruments, and who maybe can work with the control board.
Glad All Over (2012)
No matter who’s in your band, it’s a complicated effort. When I went to make those couple of solo records, I just wanted to be left alone, really. And I didn’t think the songs I was writing, as they came in, applied to a big drum kit and electric guitars. Sometimes, I make a Wallflowers record and sometimes it’s the, quote-unquote, “solo record.” I know it’s confusing but I’m confused all the time anyway. So, what’s the difference?
When we came back together, I think everybody with all that time off looked forward to making another record. But it was a contentious record to make, to be honest. When I made the solo records, none of that stuff was really discussed and the band just took a break. We never broke up, we just stopped working. But I think when we came back together, there were issues and resentments that we hadn’t really sorted out.
I never wanted to write every song on all the records. If somebody else wanted to write, I welcomed that. But I didn’t imagine people would be experimenting with writing for the first time on the floor with me, and that’s what seemed to be happening. And I let that happen, but that’s why that record is very disjointed. There’s a few songs that stand out to me as being very strong. Honestly, those are the songs I brought by myself, that were finished, completed at home.
I don’t think Rami Jaffe’s heart was really in it, being on that record. I think he already had one foot out. He had spent some time playing with the Dave Grohl thing, and who could argue with that? I think that interested him more. Simply put, I don’t think the band was getting together that great when we got back together. So, you can hear it in the record.
Exit Wounds (2021)
I don’t need somebody to make my record. I’m not a pop star. I have ideas of what I’m doing and I needed somebody to help me get there, I need another set of ears. And I trusted Butch Walker and I thought that he understood what I do in my music. We’re not making just a paint-by-numbers rock record. I am the point, I am the centerpiece, I’m what’s in the middle. Otherwise, our instrumentation is not that unique to what I do really. What might make it unique to you is the songs and the singer. So, I think Butch got that, he knew that pretty early on, and he created space for me to come up front.
Writing songs, it’s all-consuming. You get this song stuck in your head and for the next 48 hours, all you can do is think about that one lyric that’s not working for you. And you’re not that fun to be around. If people are talking to you, you’re not hearing anything. You go to sleep with it and it haunts you and it bugs you.
I don’t always want to be in that place. When it’s time to write a record and get my stuff together, I tend to work really well when I see what we’re doing and what my job is. You say we’re going to make a record in four months? Well, that’s great. That’s plenty of time. I know what I’m going to do.
These songs are written before Covid, but we still had the dumpster fire of everything else that was happening before that. While I didn’t write specifically about those four years of … I don’t even want to say it. I’m so happy not to hear the person’s name lately, I don’t want to say it out loud. It informs your work because it informs what you order on a menu, it informs what radio station you listen to, your mood. It was like a blanket over everybody. So yeah, it’s throughout all these songs, without a doubt. But you honestly believe in perseverance. I don’t want to sing songs that don’t have an escape hatch and hope in them. I try to put that in most of my songs, and I genuinely always feel that way.
My goal is to write songs that I would want to be singing for the rest of my career, and I don’t want to sing anything about that shit. I don’t want to think about it, I don’t want to talk about it any more than I had to, and I didn’t want to watch any more of it. We should all try to move on. There’s a lot of work to be done, there’s no doubt, but I kind of knew that time moves really quick and it wasn’t going to last forever.
Exit Wounds is out July 9 via New West. Get it here.
“Critical Race Theory,” or CRT, is a pretty major buzzword these days. But do the people whipping the term out even know what the hell they’re talking about? The Daily Show’s Roy Wood Jr. isn’t so sure. So this week, he attempted to get to the bottom of the matter in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries: MAGA Edition—trench coat and all.
Though many GOP-led states have embraced a new bill that would ban the teaching of critical race theory in classrooms, it’s not something that really comes up at all. Like, ever. (There’s even a study to prove it.) Still, anything with “race” in the word is understandably scary to conservatives… even if they haven’t got a clue what it is. Which has Wood wondering: “Has anyone even Wikipedia’d this thing?”
After sharing a barrage of clips featuring conservatives describing CRT as everything from “an ideology that threatens to overturn the advances of civilization over the last 500 years” to “a device designed to capture white guilt” (didn’t the Ghostbusters have one of those?), Wood attempted to set the record straight… but really couldn’t. At least not based on the senseless, and usually contradictory, ideas that a variety of conservatives are putting out there into the world. Including one truly bizarre OAN interview (is there any other kind) in which it somehow came to be described as something that reinforces “the Oedipal notion that all kids have [of] wanting to kill their father and marry their mother.” (“Next week on Unsolved Mysteries,” promised Wood: “Is that dude trying to smash his momma?”)
Emphasizing the “unsolved” in Unsolved Mysteries, Wood admitted that “we’re not getting any closer to solving this mystery. Basically, the only thing we know about critical race theory is that it has something to do with race, or does it?… Is it a theory? Is it critical? Is it real at all? Is it possible critical race theory is a mass hallucination we’re all having? The result of 15 months of being locked in our apartments and spraying Windex on all of our groceries? Nobody knows.”
Manchester Orchestra are a few months removed from the release of their latest album, The Million Masks Of God. Songs like the single “Bed Head” are in-your-face rockers, but that’s not the only thing they’re capable of being. This was proven today with a new remix of that song from Local Natives. The rework goes decidedly lighter, giving the song softer, more dance-ready instrumentation.
Andy Hull recently told Uproxx of the band’s new album, “We knew we really wanted from the beginning for it to be all connected in a similar way as Black Mile, but more thought out, and allowing the songs to fold in on each other. And having repeated melodies and phrases that, at the end of the second song, is the same melody and lyrical nod to the fifth song. That happens all over the record. Throwing out the rule book that we had made for ourselves about even what a song can be. It’s been a really difficult record to pick a single and pick songs to play for people, because I do feel like it’s best served as a whole thing. The album’s the song.”
Listen to “Bed Head (Local Natives Remix)” above and compare it to the original version of the song below. Manchester Orchestra also recently announced 2021 and 2022 tour dates, so find those below as well.
10/05/2021 — Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey
10/06/2021 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
10/08/2021 — Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
10/09/2021 — Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution Live
10/10/2021 — St. Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Live
10/12/2021 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
10/13/2021 — Richmond, VA @ The National
10/15/2021 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
10/16/2021 — Baltimore, MD @ Ram’s Head Live
10/18/2021 — Boston, MA @ House of Blues
10/19/2021 — Portland, ME @ State Theater
10/21/2021 — New York, NY @ The Hammerstein Ballroom
11/16/2021 — Louisville, KY @ Mercury Ballroom
11/17/2021 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
11/18/2021 — Birmingham, AL @ Alabama Theater
11/19/2021 — Atlanta GA @ Manchester Orchestra’s The Stuffing at Fox Theatre
02/16/2022 — St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
02/17/2022 — Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
02/18/2022 — Denver, CO @ Ogden Theater
02/19/2022 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
02/21/2022 — Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theater
02/22/2022 — Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
02/23/2022 — Seattle, WA @ Moore Theater
02/25/2022 — Berkeley, CA @ The UC Theater
02/26/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium
02/27/2022 — San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
03/01/2022 — Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl
03/02/2022 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
03/04/2022 — Austin, TX @ Stubb’s
03/05/2022 — Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion
03/06/2022 — Omaha, NE @ The Admiral
03/08/2022 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
03/09/2022 — Chicago, IL @ The Riviera Theatre
03/11/2022 — Columbus, OH @ Express Live!
03/12/2022 — Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore
03/13/2022 — Buffalo, NY @ Buffalo Riverworks
03/15/2022 — Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
03/16/2022 — Montréal, QC @ Corona Theatre
The Million Masks Of God is out now via Loma Vista Recordings. Get it here.
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