Month: September 2021

Ted Lasso is in the home stretch of its second season, as we’re just a few episodes away from the Apple TV+ series’ season finale in October. Ahead of that, though, the score/soundtrack for the season has been shared. It’s mostly compositions from the show’s composers, Marcus Mumford (of Mumford & Sons) and Tom Howe, but kicking off the album is a new version of the theme song, as performed by Jeff Tweedy.

Unsurprisingly given the tone of his recent output, the Wilco leader takes a more reserved approach on his rendition, utilizing hushed vocals and finger-picked guitar for an intimate version of the track.

The soundtrack is only available on Apple Music at the moment. The first season’s soundtrack album found its way to other streaming platforms, though, so perhaps there’s a window of Apple Music exclusivity before the album is made more widely available.

The past few months have been great for fans of the ultra-specific niche of TV-related Jeff Tweedy songs: The Awesome Album, an album released by the fictitious (although not really anymore, I suppose) Parks And Recreation band Mouse Rat, features a couple songs from Tweedy, who made cameos in the show as local Pawnee music hero Scott Tanner.

Stream Tweedy’s cover and the rest of the new Ted Lasso soundtrack above.

While stopping by Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast (perpetual guest Mike Lindell must’ve been busy), Marjorie Taylor Greene advocated for a full government shutdown to stop the Democrats $3.5 billion reconciliation bill that’s fast approaching. Notably, this is not the current position of Republican leadership in the House, but Greene has never been one to shy away from bucking her own party. Mostly because she has very little idea how anything works as evidenced by her nonsensical rant on Bannon’s War Room podcast.

“I’ll tell you what I have to say, Steve: Shut it down! Shut the government down — who cares?” Greene said before boldly claiming that the American people don’t need the government to fix the nation’s infrastructure. They’ll build their own roads — at home? Via Raw Story:

She then said that Americans shouldn’t trust the government to rebuild the nation’s roads and bridges and implied that this could somehow be done instead by private citizens.

“Guess what — the American people can get it done at home without the government!” she said. “I say, put up a fight, shut it down! We shouldn’t be spending this!”

The rant was yet another of Greene’s bright ideas like her recent gun raffle for unvaccinated Americans. That’s right, if you don’t get a life-saving shot to stop the spread of a deadly disease, you can enter into a drawing for a free assault rifle courtesy of Marjorie Taylor Greene. And you’re going to need it in her bold, new future where everyday Americans whip up new roads in their kitchens, or something.

(Via Raw Story)

Logan Roy is ready to go “f*cking beast” mode.

HBO has released the full-length trailer for Succession season 3, which premieres on October 17. There’s a lot to process, beginning with Tom suggesting that Greg eat a cyanide pill, only to call him a “doofus” for not realizing it’s a mint. Succession has some of the most creative insults in the game (“You look like a dildo dipped in beard trimmings”), but a simple “doofus” works best sometimes. Other trailer highlights include our first look at new cast members Alexander Skarsgård and Adrien Brody, who accurately calls the Roys “next level” f*cked up”; Shiv hitting Roman in the neck; and Logan slamming his phone on the ground. Also, everything’s coming up Logan! The Pope followed him on Twitter. Unless… yeah, no, never mind. Not the actual pope.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Ambushed by his rebellious son Kendall at the end of season two, Logan Roy begins season three in a perilous position, scrambling to secure familial, political, and financial alliances. Tensions rise as a bitter corporate battle threatens to turn into a family civil war.

You can watch the trailer above. Succession isn’t up for any Emmys this Sunday (damn you, COVID), but it won Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor In a Drama Series for Jeremy Strong, and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for creator Jesse Armstrong, among other well-deserved awards, at the 2020 ceremony.

Week 1 of the 2021 NFL season was pretty wild, capped by an insane, back-and-forth contest on Monday Night Football. In the handicapping space, underdogs were gold with a 12-4 record against the spread and, given the overall ethos of this particular column, that paved the way to overall success. It is always nice to get off to a nice start at 4-1 but, as is the beauty of the NFL, the schedule keeps rolling and Week 2 is here in earnest.

Before we get to this week’s five-pack of picks, let’s take stock.

• Last Week: 4-1
• 2021 Season: 4-1

Come get these winners.

Jacksonville Jaguars (+6) over Denver Broncos

Apparently we’re just going to be gross right out of the gate this week. By no means do I believe in the Jags. In fact, I might’ve been higher on the Broncos than the consensus coming into the season. This is a class perception spot, though, as the Broncos rolled in Week 1 and the Jags looked ghastly. As such, the lookahead line of three is now up to six. Six is too many for the Jags at home here. Hold your nose.

Indianapolis Colts (+3.5) over Los Angeles Rams

This is another ugly spot where we’re looking to buy low and sell high. The Colts didn’t exactly light the world on fire a week ago, and the Rams breezed in a primetime, standalone game. That gives us a line that moved through the key number of three, and I’m buying the extra bit of value on the home underdog.

Philadelphia Eagles (+3) over San Francisco 49ers

I’m kicking myself on the timing here, as this number was 3.5 or even 4 just a few hours/days ago. Alas, the current number will have to do, and I still think it’s the value side. There is sharp money all over Philadelphia, and there was a lot to like in the modern approach the Eagles deployed under a new staff last week. Combine that with some volatility in San Francisco’s skill position groups and an early kick on the East Coast… sign me up.

Carolina Panthers (+3.5) over New Orleans Saints

New Orleans should still be pretty good, but I’m betting that Week 1 won’t be representative of their true performance level. This is also a division game and Carolina is catching a bit of extra value at home after the way the Saints drubbed the Packers. It’s not my favorite play of the week, but it’s the only side.

Atlanta Falcons (+13) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Our first double-digit dog of the season! Nobody wants to play the Falcons this week. They were horrible in Week 1 while the Bucs haven’t lost a football game in almost a calendar year. The thing is that this line was eight a week ago. Yes, it moved five points. Atlanta might actually be this bad, but they’re going to have to prove it to me.

Can Sarah Palin change her mind, and can she do so for attention on an inexplicably popular Fox News “comedy” show? You betcha.

The last notable Palin pandemic update arrived back in March, when the former VP candidate declared herself to be pro-mask and pro-vax while warning people that “anyone can catch this.” Well, Palin decided to sing a different tune as a Gutfeld! guest with Dr. Drew Pinsky nodding alongside her.

The subject came up with Palin described herself as a “white, common sense conservative.” She added, “I believe in the science and I have not taken the shot,” and she somehow decided to cite Anthony Fauci to support her train of thought. “The Fauci-ism of the day, back then, was if you’ve had Covid (I’ve had Covid) well then mother nature was creating an immunity.” Palin added, “And even today they say you’re 27 percent more immune…” At that point, Dr. Drew backed her up: “27 times.” Palin felt even better about her stance, declaring, “So I want to ask the questions.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Fauci recently declared, “[I]t still is the policy that if you’ve been infected and recovered, that you should get vaccinated.”

No one will probably be able to convince Palin (who is likely pandering to an intended audience at this point) that the doing-my-research claim isn’t working out so well among the unvaccinated. So the dark humor began, including a resurrection of the the (misattributed-yet-believable) “I can see Russia from my house” joke from years back.

Others were convinced that Palin is lying, given that Fox News is reported to have a mandate about vaccination, although it’s unclear if those requirements apply to guests.

And cue the horse-medicine jokes as well. What a time we are living in.

After a months-long gestation and a slew of mild controversies, Lil Nas X’s debut album Montero has finally arrived. The album turned out to be a star-studded affair, with appearances from major names like Doja Cat, Elton John, Megan Thee Stallion, and Miley Cyrus. However, one pair of prominent names were missing from the final tracklist, although according to Nas, it wasn’t from lack of effort on his part. During the triumphant young artist’s recent interview with New York’s The Breakfast Club, he revealed which stars were missing and explained their absences.

He explained that despite reaching out to both Drake and Nicki Minaj, he was unable to secure their features. “No reply from Nicki, Drake was still working on [Certified Lover Boy].” Nas accounted for Drake’s rejection by pointing out how busy he was on his own album. “Drake replied, ’cause you know Gee Roberson’s my manager,” he said. “Drake and Gee are cool. And he was still working on Certified Lover Boy and whatnot and he was 100 percent focused on that. This was like a few weeks ago and I understood completely, and he said he’s down to do something but [it was] just not the right time. He was trying to get his own sh*t together.”

When asked which song he wanted Drake on, Nas’ answer, “Dolla Sign Slime,” prompted some light roasting from Charlamagne, who wondered, “‘Slime’ is gang slang. Is Nas in a gang? Is Nas banging?” Ever the diplomat, Nas replied simply, “Next question,” with a shy grin. The hosts took a minute to educate him on the slang’s origins after he explained how it’s meaning has expanded for Gen Z — it’s a pretty funny moment.

Watch Lil Nas X’s interview with The Breakfast Club above.

Montero is out now via Columbia Records. Get it here.

Following the still-shocking death of Norm Macdonald after a nine-year battle with cancer, his fans shared their favorite videos of the comedian on social media. I went with the “Chairman of the Bored” clip, but many people went with another iconic Conan moment: the Moth Joke. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself favor and watch it now. It’s so good and so long — and as Conan revealed on his podcast, so unexpected.

In a special episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend dedicated to Norm, Conan discussed the origin of the mythical Moth Joke. “I’m so happy that the Moth Joke is getting circulated so much from our The Tonight Show, because it is completely outrageous what he is doing,” he said (via Pajiba). “I love it just because even though I was there, I’m delighted every time I see it because what he’s doing breaks every rule. ‘Brevity is the soul of the wit.’ That is the rule. And man, he completely, like Picasso, blew up the form. He goes and he tells this joke forever, and he finally gets to the punchline and you can see that everyone is delighted. He has broken every rule in the book.”

The original plan was for Norm to only appear in one segment, but “I always wanted more Norm. So he didn’t know we were going to ask him to do a second segment. He had nothing planned, absolutely nothing planned.” Podcast producer Frank Smiley added that when they went to break, Norm remembered an old joke Colin Quinn used to tell. “It was a 20-second joke,” he said. “And he asked [Conan], ‘How long is the segment?’ and he was hoping [Conan] would say ‘20 seconds.’ But [Conan] said seven minutes. So it became a seven-minute joke.” A legendary seven-minute joke.

Conan went on to praise Norm’s gutsy brilliance:

“This has to be understood: he’s doing this on the fly. His way to slow it down, that he came up with on the fly, is that he invents a Chekhov play with Russian names and there’s an ineffable sadness in life weighing on the character’s soul. I’ve never met anybody who would take that chance and make that chance, and I’ll ever meet anybody like him again.”

You can watch the clip above, and listen to the episode below.

(Via Pajiba)

The Morning Show debuted in 2019, a year that I don’t think that anyone would debate was a simpler time. Not that I’m suggesting that the subject matter of that first season reflected such simplicity. After all, that batch of episodes largely revolved around a Matt Lauer-esque sexual misconduct scandal and all of the fallout involved with replacing Steve Carell’s character, at least in an on-air capacity. It is, however, fair to say that the current global situation is terrible in a different, and all-encompassing context. And it’s not as though this show (which takes place in a world that closely matches our own) could choose to ignore it, like most other series (other than medical-soap operas or law enforcement-focused shows) could believably choose to do.

That’s a strange way to begin a review, and doubly so because it sounds like I’m daring to suggest that a character like Billy Crudup’s network executive (so slimy, yet so infuriatingly charismatic) could exist in our world and also be endearing as hell. Seriously though, Crudup is still the best part of this series, and Apple TV+’s most star-studded production can’t pretend to exist in a reality where Covid hasn’t intruded. Also, the manner in which the show handles it mirrors the way that I remember the virus beginning to edge into real life. That’s both good and, well, not so good.

Yep, watching this season of The Morning Show reminded me of precisely how I felt as the pandemic began to unfold. A little mention here, a little anxiety there, remember? My first conversation about Covid took place over dinner with one of my best friends in early January 2020. Cable news and morning-show coverage had begun, and I hadn’t wanted to pay much attention. At that point, it was a waiting game, and nothing could be done but wait to see if the whispers of impending doom were real. I recall chatting about how the virus sounded scary, sure. Yet it felt like a distant threat, and news reports suggested that the virus wasn’t terribly hardy in terms of its ability to survive outside the body. We (like most people) thought that things would blow over, and fast. Particularly because I’m the kind of person who baselessly worries about everything (including slightly imperfect tire pressure), I forced myself not to freak out. Survival, man.

Slowly and incrementally, it became apparent that the best-case scenario for this virus wasn’t happening. (Fast forward 21 months, and I have only seen that same friend in person on rare occasions, whereas we used to see each other almost every day.) As far as the early days of the pandemic go, that’s pretty much the kind of way that The Morning Show acknowledges it, other than a heavier treatment later in the season. With that dramatic treatment, I mildly cringed when it began, but it eventually worked, too. Let’s just say that someone else (and no clues will come from the below image) in the cast wanted an Emmy for next year.

More to the point, I’m here to tell you that if you dug The Morning Show (or even thought it was simply digestible entertainment), then don’t shy away from Season 2 simply because it incorporates our current, terrible timeline. Instead, you’ll see an overstuffed season on other issues that also includes the slow realization — beginning with an anchor determining that only “one minute” of an entire morning of programming should be devoted to the virus that would eventually take over the world — that Covid is a force that will alter life as we know it. There are other touches, too, including the surreal moment when Tom Hanks (who’s not onscreen) became the first celebrity to publicly acknowledge infection. As silly as it sounds when I type it, we’ll likely all remember where we were when we found out Hanx tested positive. And that’s not a moment that The Morning Show could pass up, for better or worse.

For most of the season, that feat happens by storytelling sleight of hand, so the show continues focusing upon characters that we can readily imagine seeing on our screens every day, and the backup players who support them. Hasan Minhaj will show everyone how much they’ve missed him on TV. Julianna Margulies plays a character with mysterious motives, although she seems like a positive force. And Greta Lee (the Russian Doll actress who oozed a “sweet birthday babeeeeee” many, many times) is onboard as a character who, yes, endures publicly slung racial slurs weathered by Asian characters by right-wing conspiracy theorists. Meanwhile, Martin Short’s still around in the skeeviest role, and cameos pop up here and there, including a Foo Fighters appearance that might remind you of how they closed The Late Show With David Letterman out a handful of years ago.

All of this is to say the following: there’s a lot more to Season 2 of The Morning Show than mere Covid coverage. Actually, it’s a very small part of the season, although yup, one should expect more as the season wears forth. What else do you need to know if you’re new to the show? This was one of a few original series to launch Apple TV+, which now boasts stunningly watchable selections including All For Mankind, Ted Lasso, and Mythic Quest, all of which are better than The Morning Show, but this series isn’t too shabby, and it’s full of familiar-feeling characters, who are all now navigating an awful specter in a way that feels, you know, comforting. And we can understand why Jennifer Aniston’s Alex has had it with Slimy Crudup, and why Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley is still hanging on, and why these women are unable to deny their begrudging mutual respect. Also, Steve Carell’s character’s still reckoning with exile, and Mark Duplass maintains a steady and oddly stabilizing presence as chaos begins to unfold.

The Morning Show, ultimately, remains an easily digestible series full of characters who are all vying for more airtime and they’re clawing at each other on their way to stay at the top. Things will get intense again with issues like systemic racism while, more superficially, barbs are thrown, both on-and-off camera. This is not the highest of art forms when it comes to storytelling, but this show deserves credit for successfully embedding tough issues amid soap-operatic storylines, and everything goes down smoothly. No one who wants to be entertained also wants a dose of Covid in their stories, yet somehow, The Morning Show (mostly) pulls it off.

Apple TV+’s ‘The Morning Show’ returns on September 17.

Taylor Swift’s current passion project is re-recording all of her old albums; This summer, she confirmed that Red is her next LP to get the “Taylor’s Version” treatment. However, an internet trend has prompted her to go a bit out of order with the songs she’s sharing, as she dropped a track from 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which hasn’t even been officially announced yet.

Swift shared “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)” today, explaining on social media that she chose to do so after noticing that the original version of the song was gaining traction on TikTok. She wrote, “Hi! Saw you guys got Wildest Dreams trending on tiktok, thought you should have my version.”

She also shared a snippet of the track on TikTok and addressed the “#slowzoom” trend that breathed new life into “Wildest Dreams,” writing, “Someone said slow zoom makes you look like the main character I said make it Taylor’s Version pls.” She also noted, “felt cute might drop the whole song later,” and indeed, she did.

Meanwhile, Swift recently offered a supportive message to Anita Baker, who regained ownership of her master recordings. In response to Baker’s celebratory post, Swift offered, “What a beautiful moment, CONGRATULATIONS ANITA!!”

Listen to “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)” above.

It’s that time again: Steve and Ian are taking questions from listeners. This week’s episode of Indiecast kicks off with a recap of last weekend’ Pitchfork Festival, before diving into a discussion of bands that started their career in the indie world before eventually growing to a point that their indie cred became nonexistent. Bands like The Black Keys and Kings Of Leon are shining examples of this phenomenon, while bands like LCD Soundsystem, Vampire Weekend, and Arcade Fire retain the coveted indie credentials.

Other conversations include the ultimate Indiecast concert that would bridge the gap between Steve and Ian’s musical tastes, the discographies of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica, and whether there will ever be a lane for a band like Brand New to make amends and stage a comeback after the frontman Jesse Lacey was accused of sexual misconduct four years ago.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Steve is vibing with the new single from Orlando duo Tonstartssbandht, which previews their first album in four years. Ian is enjoying a new split release from European emo bands I Feel Fine and You Could Be a Cop.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 57 on 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.

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