Month: July 2021

After launching his successful Blue Origin flight on Tuesday morning, you’d think Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would be the talk of social media for making it to the edge of space on the heels of Richard Branson, and that’s happening to a degree. However, people have been actively highlighting that his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott has been donating literally billions to charity while Bezos has been financing what even he has admitted is a “joyride for the wealthy.”

It also didn’t help that following Blue Origin’s mission, Bezos made some apparently tone deaf references to Amazon employees, who have attempted to unionize amid allegedly unsafe and grueling work conditions to power the pervasive online shopping empire.

“I wanna thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this,” Bezos announced after the extremely expensive launch. Oof.

Of course, it should be noted that the praise for Scott was already pouring in before Bezos basically thanked the little people for footing the bill for his 11 minute space ride, but his remarks only made Scott’s philanthropy look even notable.

While the vast majority of the tweets about Scott focused on the persistent concerns that Bezos and Branson’s space race is a use of resources that could be used to fix actual problems on Earth like the ongoing pandemic, global warming, systemic inequality, and a laundry list of issues, there were also some jabs about the joy of watching your ex get strapped to a rocket and blasted into space. That had to feel good.

This article originally appeared on 08.09.18

Recent polls suggest that Republicans and Democrats have slightly different tastes that have nothing to do with politics.

If you like cats, The Beatles, and Starbucks, you tend to vote Democrat. If you’re into Toby Keith, Budweiser, and Dunkin’ Donuts, you tend to vote Republican.

But an interesting new quiz claims to be 98 percent effective at determining people’s political affiliations by asking questions that have zero to do with politics.

Click here to take the quiz.

So how does it work? (Don’t read the answer if you haven’t taken the quiz yet.)

According to ChartsMe, recent studies have found that people who were more prone to disgust are more conservative. This leads them to more closely align with the Republican Party.

Some scientists believe it’s ancestral and that the adverse reactions to conditions we’d label “disgusting” were used to protect primitive ancestors from contamination and disease. This way a person wouldn’t confuse drinking water with dirty pond scum. But if the test told you that you’re a Republican, you probably won’t accept that explanation because studies show you probably don’t believe in evolution.

Click here to take the quiz.

Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.

Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week we got the the anticipated new album from Clairo, two surprise EPs from Gang Of Youths and Yves Tumor, and an epic new single from Foxing. Check out the rest of the best new indie music below.

While we’re at it, sign up for our newsletter to get the best new indie music delivered directly to your inbox, every Monday.

Clairo – Sling

On her sophomore album, Clairo dials back the lo-fi bedroom pop sound she perfected on her debut, instead favoring a sparse singer-songwriter approach. Sling is a fully-formed project that feels like it emerged from the Laurel Canyon scene, a mature and ambitious step forward for the young artist.

Willow – Lately I Feel Everything

Willow’s debut album proves that pop-punk isn’t going away anytime soon. Featuring contributions from Travis Barker and Avril Lavigne, Lately I Feel Everything feels simultaneously nostalgic for the mall punk of the early 2000s and forward-thinking in its delivery.

Gang Of Youths – Total Serene EP

Australian rockers Gang Of Youths are roaring back this year after nearly four years of silence. The band returned earlier this month with a new single “The Angel Of 8th Ave,” then unleashed the full Total Serene EP without any warning. The EP contains four songs, including the previously-released single and a cover of Elbow’s 2001 track “Asleep In The Back.”

Yves Tumor – The Asymptotical World EP

Less than a year after dropping Heaven To A Tortured Mind — one of 2020’s best albums — Yves Tumor is back with even more music. The six-track The Asymptotical World “boasts skittering beats, mind-melting electric guitars, and layered production Tumor has perfected on their previous efforts,” writes Carolyn Droke for Uproxx.

Hovvdy – “True Love”

In the two years since the last full-length Hovvdy album, both of the band’s members got married, and one has since become a father. On their new album True Love, the duo returns to make sense of the changes, and creating the title track was a particularly cathartic experience for songwriter Charlie Martin, who wrote in a statement, “it feels so good to express love and appreciation when you really fucking mean it.”

Foxing – “Draw Down The Moon”

The rollout of Foxing’s fourth studio album Draw Down The Moon has been an impressive journey full of puzzles, riddles, and incredible music. The album’s title track is the latest entry in a string of awesome singles, showcasing the band’s knack for massive hooks and pop-rock song structures.

Pet Symmetry – “Pet Sympathy”

Chicago emo supergroup Pet Symmetry is finally back with brand new music after a painful absence. Comprised of Evan Weiss (Into it. Over it.), Marcus Nuccio (Ratboys), and Erik Czaja (Dowsing), “Pet Sympathy” is the first taste of the trio’s new album Future Suits, a breezy and groovy number that serves as a clever disguise for lyrics that illustrate the various horrors of 2020.

Shortly – “Science”

For the debut Shortly album, songwriter Alexandria Maniak stepped into the producer chair alongside Hop Along’s Joe Reinhart to flesh out song sketches revolving around themes of dysphoria, codependence, and grappling with a sense of belonging. “Science” is the first taste of what to expect with Dancer, the long-awaited full-length effort from one of Michigan’s best songwriters.

Soccer Mommy – “Rom Com 2004”

Although there is no word on when Soccer Mommy will follow up the acclaimed 2020 LP Color Theory, Sophie Allison has been rolling out a handful of standalone singles over the last few months. “Rom Com 2004” is the latest entry in the series, a track that “sounds like one of the breezy, poppy tunes from one of her last two albums, but there are times when it sounds like the device used to play the track is malfunctioning, resulting in some dissonance that keeps you on your toes and wondering what’s going to happen next,” as Derrick Rossignol writes for Uproxx.

Turnstile – “Alien Love Call” (ft. Blood Orange)

A few weeks after dropping the explosive and versatile Turnstile Love Connection EP, the Baltimore hardcore band has officially announced their forthcoming full-length project. Glow On is due out in August, and alongside the announcement, the band shared another new song in the form of “Alien Love Call,” which shows the full spectrum of the band’s melodic ability and features guest vocals from Blood Orange.

Vial – “Something More”

I included a track from Vial in this column a few weeks back, and the latest release from the Minneapolis quartet is an even more impressive entry. “Something More” is an infectious love song that employs fuzzy guitars and bouncing percussion to evoke a sense of longing.

Torres – “Thirstier”

The title track from Torres’ forthcoming LP is what Derrick Rossignol calls for Uproxx “a blistering, full-bodied single” that serves as an exciting preview for an album that comes from a more joyous place and anything Mackenzie Scott has released to date.

Alexa Rose – “Human”

“Human” is the second sampling of Alexa Rose’s sophomore album Headwaters, a sparse and meditative number that gives Rose’s gorgeous vocal full range to explore and anchor the track. In a statement, Rose explained that the song is “about the ways we try to show up when we’re just not equip, and how we contort ourselves to provide abundance for others when we don’t even feel it within ourselves.”

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

How does that old saying go? Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it, but those who attempt to learn about history from Donald Trump might be out $100 and think Frederick Douglass is still alive? Yeah, that sounds about right. On Monday night, Seth Meyers dug into the talk surrounding the sluggish ticket sales for Trump and Bill O’Reilly’s so-called “History Tour,” where they’ll undoubtedly chat about fake news and the rigged 2020 election. But will anybody be listening?

Quoting a Politico article from last week, Meyers explained on Late Night with Seth Meyers how the not-so-dynamic duo are having trouble moving advance tickets for their shows, a claim which O’Reilly is vehemently denying to the point where he’s threatening a lawsuit against the article’s author. The story made specific mention of a show at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, which has the capacity to host 20,000 people. According to Meyers, a box office employee of the arena (who opted to be quoted anonymously) said there are still a lot of tickets left for the December event and that “We have concerts that are doing a lot better than this.” Meyers’ response?

“I’m sure they do. First of all, it’s in Orlando. There’s a wealth of theme parks. Why go to a Trump/O’Reilly History Tour when you can learn more about U.S. history at the Hall of Presidents or even Space Mountain? Hell, even SeaWorld could probably be a better use of your time… Who the hell wants to go see a so-called ‘History Tour’ with a disgraced former cable news host and a man was just quoted as having said: ‘I think it would be hard if George Washington came back from the dead and he chose Abraham Lincoln as his vice president, I think it would have been very hard for them to beat me.”

Let’s put that into context: One of the few sitting presidents to lose a reelection bid not only believes that he could beat both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in a presidential election, but has actually spent time pondering what would happen if Washington and Lincoln were brought back from the dead? (Though, from his quote, it’s not completely clear whether he knows that Lincoln was assassinated more than 150 years ago.) Meyers said it best when he described a history tour with Trump as “the opposite of a Ken Burns documentary.”

You can watch the full clip above.

Click to download here.

The Makings Of A Varsity Podcaster

Comedian, writer, and actor Paco Romane from the Sup Doc podcast takes a break from his eighth rewatch of the Sopranos to join Matt and Vince for a conversation about season five episode three, “Where’s Johnny?”

This episode, unlike the marinara Janice is buying from Vesuvio and passing off as her own, is full of beef. Johnny Sac and Little Carmine have beef over who collects gambling debts, Feech and Paulie are beefing over gardener territories, and Tony and Junior are beefing over Tony’s athletic prowess. Junior says it was Tony’s small hands that kept him from being a varsity athlete, but I think he was always winded from all the nose whistling.

Near the end of the episode you’ll hear as Vince experiences the great Fresno earthquake of 2021. Sort of felt like the earth’s way of saying it was time to wrap it up.

If you have any suggestions for how Vesuvio could improve the eggplant parm, leave them in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe to Pod Yourself A Gun on Apple Podcasts

Email us at [email protected]; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want, AND if you sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier, you can bask in the glory of hearing your name on the podcast like this week’s newest members: Mondays and Earthquake

-Description by Brent Flyberg.

Brooklyn singer-songwriter Steve Gunn has unveiled a lovely new single, “Fulton,” plus news of a three-night residency at Los Angeles’ Gold Diggers, happening from September 9 to 11. The lovingly melodic “Fulton,” which you can hear above, follows two previous singles from Gunn, “Other You” (which is also the name of his forthcoming album, arriving in August) and “Reflection.”

As you might remember, Gunn first got his start in Kurt Vile‘s backing band, The Violators, before moving over to a solo career. In a statement alongside the album’s June announcement, Gunn described how he arrived at the album’s title, Other You:

“I came up with this title when we were recording vocals and [producer] Rob [Schnapf] was very into harmonies. There was a third part and I just couldn’t find the note. I couldn’t vocalize it. He went in and took my voice and put it into his computer program, then he could playback and ‘sing’ the note with my voice using the computer. And he said, ‘Sing to the other you.’ So I was singing along to myself singing a note I couldn’t sing.”

Gunn’s updated tour dates are below, with the LA residency reflected.

07/22 — Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House^
07/23 — Livingston Manor, NY @ Catskill Brewery^
07/24 — Burlington, VT @ Backside 405^
07/25 — Peaks Island, ME @ Lion’s Club^
07/26 — Keene, NH @ Nova Arts^
07/27 — Newport, RI @ Folk On^
07/29 — New Haven, CT @ Cafe Nine^
09/09 — Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers
09/10 — Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers
09/11 — Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers
12/02 — Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall #
12/03 — Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center #
12/04 — Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club #
12/05 — Lakeside, MI @ Lakeside Inn #
12/07 — Nashville, TN @ Third Man #
12/08 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West #
12/09 — Charlotte, NC @ Recover Brands #
12/10 — Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle Tavern #
12/11 — Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle #
12/12 — Baltimore, MD @ Creative Alliance #
12/14 — Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair #
12/15 — Holyoke, MA @ Gateway City Arts #
12/16 — Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s #
12/17 — Ardmore, PA @ Ardmore Music Hall #
12/18 — New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom #

^ with William Tyler
# with Jeff Parker

Listen to “Fulton” above, and grab tickets to Gunn’s LA residency here.

Other You is out 8/27 via Matador. Pre-order it here.

There are few athletes who have found social media late in their careers who have done more with it to make themselves seem likable than Tom Brady. The surefire Hall of Famer has delighted fans in recent years with his Twitter account that happily pokes fun at himself and others, making timely quips and embracing jokes about his age, mistakes, or drunken boat parade escapades rather than trying to run from them.

For someone who long played the villain as the leader of the Patriots dynasty, it has been stunning to see the face turn in Tampa, where the 43-year-old Brady has let the more fun side of his personality shine through. On Tuesday, the Bucs visited the White House, a place Brady is quite familiar with, for their Super Bowl celebration with Joe Biden and Brady came prepared with a full on standup routine that few expected but absolutely delighted POTUS and his teammates.

The surprise in all this is that we are not all that far removed from Brady having a MAGA hat in his locker (and refusing to talk about it), and here he is jabbing at Trump and his supporters. I’m not sure Tom has a future on stage as a comic, but after a little stumble setting up the 40 percent joke he found his stride and the “Sleepy Tom” one landed pretty well. Biden was clearly loving it and the continued emergence of fun-loving Tom Brady remains a somewhat stunning but enjoyable final chapter in his legendary career.

Coldplay have announced that their ninth studio album, Music Of The Spheres, is due for arrival in October. Posting a handwritten note to social media, the band said that their forthcoming follow-up to 2019’s Everyday Life was produced by pop superproducer Max Martin and that a single, “Coloratura,” would drop in full on Friday, July 23. Also, another single will drop sometime in September, according to the note, which looks like it was written in Y2K-era milky pens.

https://twitter.com/coldplay/status/1417501479263477770/photo/1

Chris Martin and company also shared a new teaser trailer for around the new album. The clip, titled “Overtura,” is overtly space-themed, depicting a swirling, cosmic trip around a bustling solar system. Meanwhile, song snippets play in the background as the camera circles around each planet. (Visually speaking, “Overtura” contains definite Windows screensaver vibes, but I mean that in a good way.)

Back in May, Coldplay released “Higher Power,” also Max Martin-produced. At the time, they circled around the subject of a new album, saying, “there won’t not be one.”

Martin also spoke with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe around that time, touching on his interest in musical experimentation: “I think that every artist is completely intertwined with what’s happening culturally and what’s happening technologically around them, you know? So when the delay pedal came through, whoever invented that, then you had all these amazing delay pedal records. So we’ve existed in the band concurrently with the barriers between types of music coming down… which for us is the biggest blessing in the world. When we started, it was like, ‘You’re a white indie band and this is urban radio and this is alternative radio,’ and basically old-fashioned racist statements. Of course, we fit in a box at the beginning, and then right now in 2021, everyone’s doing everything. You can like Olivia Rodrigo as much as you like AC/DC and no one thinks that’s weird, and that’s musical utopia for me. […] It’s miraculous. So why would you want to stay in one box?”

Music Of The Spheres is out 10/15 via Atlantic. Pre-order it here.

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

It’s been over a year since Tekashi 69 was officially released from prison due to COVID concerns. The rapper finished the remainder of his sentence on house arrest and in that time recorded a hit track with Nicki Minaj. He’s played a handful of large-scale stadium concerts since his sentence was completed, which he’s been majorly flexing on Instagram, but it now looks like he’s opting to put some upcoming shows on hold due to more legal issues.

Though he usually posts regularly, it’s been a while since Tekashi has been active on Instagram. But this week, the rapper took to social media to inform fans he would be postponing a few concerts. Tekashi explained the shows will be pushed back to deal with family matters and court issues. “I must postpone my North Carolina show & Virginia show due to personal family & court matters,” he wrote. “Update soon.”

While the rapper didn’t specify which family or court matters he needed to attend to, Tekashi has had his fair share of legal troubles in recent months. Earlier this year, Tekashi was reportedly sued by a stripper in Miami after getting in a fight with someone who called him out for snitching. After that, the rapper was hit with another lawsuit, this time by his own security team. The lawsuit reportedly noted the rapper owed the company which employs his security team over $75,000.

UK songwriter Nilüfer Yanya gained a cult following with her jaunty 2019 debut album Miss Universe. Late last year, the musician followed-up the LP with the three-track project Feeling Lucky?, which further explored her melodic pop-rock sound. Now, Yanya has tapped a few talented artists to rework each song for her Feeling Lucky? Remix EP.

Yanya officially announced the remix project with a reworked version of the track “Day 7.5093” by Chicago-born producer KeiyaA. The new version of the track picks up the original song’s pace, melting Yanya’s textured vocals over a skittering beat and vibrant keys.

In a statement about the upcoming project, Yanya said, “The soundtrack to your summer has arrived! I’m a massive fan of all the artists and really honoured they took the time to put their own unique spin on each track. Hope all 3 remixes lift your mood like they have mine.”

After reworking “Day 7.5093” for the remix EP, KeiyaA expressed her excitement about the project. “It was an incredible challenge to re-harmonize this record using Nilufer’s melodies as my guide,” KeiyaA said. “Nilufer is an excellent songwriter and I was thrilled to be asked to do this remix.”

Listen to KeiyaA’s remix of “Day 7.5093” above and find Yanya’s Feeling Lucky? Remix EP tracklist below.

1. “Same Damn Luck (Little Dragon Remix)”
2. “Day 7.5093 (KeiyaA Remix)”
3. “Crash (Kwes Rework)”

Feeling Lucky? Remix EP is out 8/18 via ATO Records. Pre-order it here.