Month: July 2021

While the rest of the world continues battling the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and attempts to establish a new normal after being locked away in our homes for more than a year, Virgin Group founder/business magnate caricature Richard Branson is plotting out how to beat that dastardly Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in becoming the first billionaire to go to space. Yes, while you’re spending 10 minutes agonizing over whether or not you should spring for the extra $2.50 to add pepperoni to your pizza, billionaires are… doing this.

On Tuesday, Virgin Galactic announced that the window for the next test flight of its SpaceShipTwo Unity opens on July 11, and that Branson will be onboard as one of the flight’s Mission Specialists. Though it will be the vessel’s twenty-second test flight, hence the mission being dubbed “Unity 22,” it will only be its fourth manned spaceflight and the very first to be fully crewed.

So just what will Branson be doing onboard? We have to imagine he’s had somebody craft some sort of space-safe champagne flute, so that he’s not splashing it all over his designer space suit. But his real role is to play the role of “private astronaut” so that he can get a better idea of the kind of experience the Lance Basses of the world might be in for once space tourism becomes a reality. But Branson might have an ulterior motive: Beating Bezos to becoming the first billionaire to visit the great unknown.

Bezos, who has also dropped mad cash to make space travel a reality, previously announced that he’ll be headed into space on July 20. So if all goes well for Branson, he’ll beat him to it by more than a week. Bezos may have $190 billion more than Branson, but at least Branson has more private islands. And possibly soon, the title of First Rich Dude to Spend a Ton of Money to Travel to Space. Of course, Branson’s official announcement of the meaningfulness of this journey was much more magnanimous:

“I truly believe that space belongs to all of us. After more than 16 years of research, engineering, and testing, Virgin Galactic stands at the vanguard of a new commercial space industry, which is set to open space to humankind and change the world for good. It’s one thing to have a dream of making space more accessible to all; it’s another for an incredible team to collectively turn that dream into reality. As part of a remarkable crew of mission specialists, I’m honored to help validate the journey our future astronauts will undertake and ensure we deliver the unique customer experience people expect from Virgin.”

And this, ladies and gentlefolk, is what people with too much time and money on their hands do. Wait until Elon Musk hears about this!

(Via BBC)

Late last year, Steve and Ian created the Indiecasties, a special, highly sought-after distinction honoring the best, worst, and downright strangest releases of the year. This week, they’re bringing back the segment for a mid-year review to award titles like Most Valuable Album Cycle (MVAC), Memory-Holed Album Of The Year So Far, and Most “Festival Band” Festival Band to the best and brightest of the first six months of 2021. Artists recognized in this year’s installment include St. Vincent, Japanese Breakfast, Kings Of Leon, Iceage, and many more.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian is plugging South Carolina outfit Adjy, who released The Idyll Opus (I-IV) earlier this week. Steve, on the other hand, is taking a break from plugging new albums to shout out Summer Of Soul, the new Questlove-directed documentary focused on the Harlem Cultural Festival during the summer of 1969.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 46 on Apple Podcasts and Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

During his Thursday night monologue, Stephen Colbert did his best to contain his enthusiasm for the recent Trump Organization indictments. The Late Show host really wants to be onboard with this latest development, “but I’ve been hurt too many times,” he jokingly said. As Colbert notes, the recent indictments do not specifically target Trump, but instead, his Trump Organization CFO Allen H. Weisselberg. Although, Weisselberg is being hit with a number of chargers in the hopes that he’ll flip on Trump, but Colbert can’t help but feel like he’s been down this road before.

“First, I fell in love with the Mueller Report, and then, I bounced back with the first impeachment. Then, I gave love one more chance with the other impeachment, and I just hurt, you know,” Colbert said with mock tears in his eyes. Citing legal experts, Colbert joked, “these charges, unlike the former president, seem kind of thin.”

Via The Week:

“Nothing sticks to this guy. I’d call him ‘Teflon Don’ but I’m pretty sure that coating is deck sealant.” Still, he added, “this is a moment of reckoning. It’s like the end of the Avengers, when Tony Stark snaps his fingers and destroys Thanos’ … accountant. You gotta work your way up to Thanos — they’ll get there.”

Despite the Trump Organization indictments not being the earth-shaking charges that people have been hoping for, Colbert promised that The Late Show will “continue to stay on this story as it continues to disappoint us.”

(Via The Late Show with Stephen Colbert)

Ever since Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner worked together on Swift’s Folklore and Evermore albums, the two have basically been praising each other non-stop. They clearly love making music together, and yet another fruit of their collaborative labor was shared last night, a new Big Red Machine Song called “Renegade.” In light of that, Swift found yet another chance to show love for Dessner, saying she “can’t believe” she gets to work with him.

Sharing a teaser for the song on Instagram, Swift wrote,

“I can’t believe I get to work with Aaron Dessner. When Aaron came into my life, I was ushered into his world of free-flowing creativity where you don’t overthink, you just make music. His generosity of spirit and humility bleeds into every part of his life, and that’s why so many artists have jumped at the chance to be a part of his collaborative project, Big Red Machine. A song we wrote (which also features Justin Vernon) is out today! It’s called Renegade. Thanks Aaron for asking me to show up at your party.”

In response to the truncated version of the message that Swift shared on Twitter, Dessner responded, “[heart emojis] still hard to believe I get to pass the ball to one of the best ever.”

This follows a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in which Dessner said of Swift, “Every time we write a song together, we both sort of are a little bit dumbfounded by it, or sort of like how is this possible because it feels like the shoe fits so well somehow. And I think something about the way that I think, or the way that I relate to music emotionally, and then her incredible acumen or her way of tracing music and her storytelling and her sense of melody, there’s something that really clicks.”

How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is out 8/27 via Jagjaguwar/37d03d. Pre-order it here.

Chris Pratt was a wrestler in high school, but there’s a big difference between wrestling your brother in your parents’ basement and challenging WrestleMania headliner Dave Bautista to a wrestling match. He learned that the hard way.

“There was a moment in my life where I would take sleep aids to help me sleep. And I don’t anymore because of things like this,” Pratt told host James Corden on Thursday’s The Late Late Show. After taking Ambien and blacking out, he once texted Bautista, his Guardians of the Galaxy co-star who wrestled under the name Batista. “The next day, he goes, ‘Hey man, that text you sent last night,’ and I go, ‘What text?’ He goes, ‘You don’t remember?’” before launching into Big Dave’s iconic laugh. Pratt looked at his phone and saw the lengthy text. It read, “Dave, I wanna wrestle you. I wanna wrestle you. No one needs to know, but I just want to know. I think I could take you. I think I could wrestle you, bro. Like, collegiate rules, no elbows, no knees. I just want to feel the power.”

Pratt was “mortified” by what he sent, accurately noting that Bautista “would kill me so fast. He is by far the toughest dude in all of Hollywood.” The moral of the story: never challenge a big man to a wrestling match — especially a big man wearing tiny glasses.

You can watch Pratt’s Corden interview above (and The Tomorrow War on Amazon).

Last night marked the end of Ed Sheeran’s week-long residency on The Late Late Show, and during the week, he busted out some great performances; There was his new single “Bad Habits,” his first single “The A Team,” and his gigantic single “Thinking Out Loud.” Last night, he wrapped things up with a performance of one of his biggest hits, “Shape Of You.” For the song, Sheeran was joined by a backing band, giving the pop hit a more organic feel.

The song made a brief appearance on the previous night’s episode, when during a comedy bit, Sheeran and Corden re-worked it to be about getting vaccinated.

In a recent interview, Sheeran spoke about starting to perform with a band now, saying, “I’ve done band stuff before, but only kind of at the request of TV shows. I’ve done the loop pedal thing now for fifteen years, ten years professionally, and the last tour that I did… the most people of any tour went to that tour. So I’m kind of like, ‘I’ve done that, I’ve done the loop pedal show I need to do something different.’ What I like about it is what I felt were the weakest bits of the tour are some of the songs that needed a band, like ‘Castle On The Hill’ and ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and the best bits of the tour needed pedal, like ‘Shape Of You’ and ‘Bloodstream.” Now the set feels very on level with each other. It’s kind of a learning experience for me.’”

Watch Sheeran perform ‘Shape Of You’ above and revisit Sheeran’s previous Late Late Show performances from this week below.

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

Joe Rogan has a lot to say about a lot of things, not all of it particularly enlightening—or even accurate. So much so that he has referred to himself as a “f*cking moron.” He’s perhaps not wrong. One of the concepts he has railed against a lot recently is the idea of cancel culture—a fact that comedian Carlos Mencia tells The New York Times is particularly “ironic,” given that it was Rogan who “cancelled” him in a brutally public way back before the term was even being used.

Here’s the short version of the story: In 2005, Rogan made a post to his blog titled “Carlos Mencia is a weak minded joke thief.” The title sort of tells you everything you need to know: Rogan accused Mencia of stealing material from a number of other comedians and tweaking them just enough so as to seem original.

Fast forward two years to a night in 2007 where both Mencia and Rogan found themselves at The Comedy Store. While Mencia was still onstage, Rogan—dressed like the stand-in for John Belushi in Animal House—stepped up and very publicly accused Mencia of being a plagiarist, which was captured on video and quickly became a viral hit.

Since these were Rogan’s pre-podcast days, and Mencia had his own Comedy Central show, The Mind of Mencia, Rogan was banned from The Comedy Store and the public largely sided with Mencia in this particular debate… until someone edited a clip of Mencia’s act intercut with the original jokes being told by the comedians he was accused of stealing from.

In 2008, The Mind of Mencia aired its final episode. One year later, The Joe Rogan Experience launched—and has since become one of the world’s most popular podcasts. Sort of like Trading Places. But the irony of Rogan’s ongoing attacks on “cancel culture” have not been lost on Mencia. In a new profile of Rogan in The New York Times, which described him as a “crusader against cancel culture,” Mencia weighs in on the comedian-turned-podcaster’s success, who had this to say:

“For the majority of comedians, he was looked at—still is—as a kind of hero to the cause. It is ironic that a guy who is now saying you shouldn’t cancel anybody at least started the building of his podcast by canceling me.”

If it makes Mencia feel any better, Rogan has plenty critics of his own—Prince Harry and John Oliver among them.

(Via The New York Times)

On Thursday, Hillbilly Elegy author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance entered the crowded field for Ohio’s open Senate seat. “I think we need people in Washington who are fighters — and not just fighters, but smart fighters,” he said during a rally in his home town of Middletown, OH. “There are a lot of fighters in Washington, D.C. They just fight for the wrong things.” Someone who fights for the “right things,” Vance believes, is Donald Trump. He was one of the former-president’s most ardent supporters in the waning months of his presidency and he met with Trump (and fellow finance ghoul Peter Thiel) at his Mar-a-Lago resort ahead of his campaign announcement.

Vance wasn’t always on the Trump Train, however.

On October 9, 2016, Vance tweeted that he found Trump “reprehensible” and that “God wants better of us.” Two days earlier, the day the Access Hollywood tape was released (“And when you’re a star, they let you do it”), Vance wrote, “Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us.” Those tweets, along with one where the author throws his support behind independent candidate Evan McMullin, have since been deleted, as discovered by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski.

Vance’s criticisms of Trump extended to interviews:

“I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place,” Vance told NPR’s Terry Gross before Trump’s win in 2016. He also told conservative commentator Mona Charen, “If Trump wins it would be terrible for the country, but good for book sales.”

He also called Trump “an idiot,” “reprehensible,” and described his policies as “immoral and absurd,” according to an opinion piece in the Cincinnati Enquirer. The headline: “Don’t buy what J.D. Vance is selling.” (Except for the thing about Trump winning being terrible for the country — that, of course, turned out to be right.)

(Via Insider)

If there’s one thing most people remember about Ted Cruz’s ill-fated 2016 presidential run, it’s probably watching the Texas senator be verbally beaten into submission by Donald Trump again and again… and again. In addition to nicknaming Cruz “Lyin’ Ted” (no one ever said Trump was very clever when it came to nicknames), the soon-to-be president claimed that Ted’s dad was involved in JFK’s assassination and, perhaps most infamously, said Cruz’s wife Heidi was ugly. Basically, they were one debate away from 60 minutes of yo mama jokes. However, according to Cruz, it was “the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.”

On Thursday, the booger-eating senator appeared on Newsmax—because, let’s face it, who else wants him?—to discuss the current state of affairs in the country and was eventually asked if he had any plans to run for president in 2024. His answer was the one we all feared:

“Well, sure. I’m certainly looking at it. I’ll tell you, 2016 was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. We came incredibly close, had an incredible grassroots army—326,000 volunteers nationwide. And so whether it is in the Senate or whether it is in a presidential campaign, I’m committed to fighting to defend free enterprise, to defend freedom, and to defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And right now, the battleground is the U.S. Senate. Right now, the battleground is fighting back on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the incredible threat they’re posing to our liberty and so I’m proud to be leading that fight right now in the U.S. Senate.”

Whether he remains in the Senate or moves his Creep-a-Day calendar into the Oval Office, if things ever get too heated, he can always sneak off to Cancun for a weekend of margaritas and foam parties at Señor Frogs.

The Fourth Of July weekend is finally upon us, and Netflix programming is getting slightly patriotic, too. Somehow, the streaming service is also giving us quite a stars-and-stripes treat in the process, given that Magic Mike star Channing Tatum is starring as a rowdy and not-for-the-faint-at-heart George Washington in an animated film. There’s also a fresh horror adaptation that will keep you inside and cool, and an inspiring movie that will take you inside the Deaf community, where challenges differ but the truth remains universal. These selections are all geared towards taking you through the hottest days of the year, so settle in with some ice cream and get to binging.

Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) the streaming platform this week.

Fear Street Part 1: 1994 (Netflix film streaming 7/2)

Author RL Stine’s works find new terrifying life in this first trilogy installment about a group of teenagers who inadvertently stumble upon a source of ancient evil. Before long, they’re wrapped up in a 300-year-old nightmare that’s messed with their Shadyside community, and expect more where this came from when Fear Street Part 2: 1978 and Fear Street Part 3: 1666 eventually arrive.

America: The Motion Picture (Netflix film streaming 6/30)

Channing Tatum voices a very profane (and buff) George Washington in this series that’s directed by Archer‘s Matt Thompson and produced by The Mitchells vs. the Machines‘ Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Washington declares that he wants to “start a f*cking revolution,” and he’s accompanied by a beer-guzzling Sam Adams, an angry Geronimo, Paul Revere, and Thomas Edison as they decide to take on Benedict Arnold and King James. In the synopsis, Netflix promises, “[T]hese are not your father’s Founding… uh, Fathers.”

Audible (Netflix film streaming 7/1)

This coming-of-age documentary follows a group of Deaf high school students as they confront the impending reality of graduation and heading into the real world. A popular athlete, Amaree, tears up the football field following a tragic loss, and overall, this group of teens seek to conquer adversity while looking toward the future and intending to prove their worth to the world.

Young Royals (Netflix series streaming 7/1)

A teenage prince heads to a ritzy boarding school, where he intends upon exploring his identity and figuring out what he’d really like to do in the future. His dreams turn to freedom and unconditional live and away from royal duty, but those dreams are thwarted when he finds himself next in line to become king. Will he choose love (I think we can all guess what’s going to happen)… or his apparently predestined life?

Prime Time (Netflix film streaming 6/30)

The time is 1999, and the occasion is New Year’s Eve. A 20-year-old man takes hostages after entering a TV studio. The man doesn’t know his plan, nor does anyone else, although he has a message that’s interrupted by police, and as he waits it out, he apparently bonds with his hostages. Hmm, sounds like a case of Stockholm Syndrome with shades of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker.

Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:

Avail. 6/28
Killing Them Softly
The Seven Deadly Sins: Dragon’s Judgement

Avail. 6/29
StarBeam: Season 4

Avail. 6/30
America: The Motion Picture
Lying and Stealing
Sophie: A Murder in West Cork

Avail. 7/1
Audible
Dynasty Warriors
Generation 56k
Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway
Young Royals
Air Force One
Austin Powers in Goldmember
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
The Best of Enemies
Boogie Nights
Born to Play
Bureau of Magical Things: Season 1
Charlie’s Angels
Congo
Dennis the Menace
The Game
Hampstead
The Karate Kid
The Karate Kid Part II
The Karate Kid Part III
Kung Fu Panda
Kung Fu Panda 2
Life as We Know It
Love Actually
Mary Magdalene
Memoirs of a Geisha
Midnight Run
Mortal Kombat (1995)
No Strings Attached
Not Another Teen Movie
Ophelia
Sailor Moon Crystal: Seasons 1-3
She’s Out of My League
Spanglish
Star Trek
The Strangers
Stuart Little
Supermarket Sweep: Season 1
Sword of Trust
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Underworld
Underworld: Awakening
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
What Dreams May Come
Why Do Fools Fall in Love
ZATHURA: A SPACE ADVENTURE

Avail. 7/2
The 8th Night
Big Timber
Fear Street Part 1: 1994
Haseen Dillruba
Mortel: Season 2
Snowpiercer

Avail. 7/3
Grey’s Anatomy: Season 17

And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:

Leaving 7/5
The Iron Lady

Leaving 7/7
The Invitation

Leaving 7/14
Holidays