Month: October 2021

You have to hand it to Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis for building one of the most rewarding, truly independent acts of the past decade. Dupuis is much more than just an artist with her band and solo project Sad13, but also an accomplished author, label owner and industry activist who has always championed marginalized voices. Now as her flagship Speedy Ortiz project approaches ten years of age, the jam-packed The Death of Speedy Ortiz & Cop Kicker…Forever double album of her first recordings is due out next month.

The package features the newly remastered titular LP and EP where Dupuis recorded all of the instruments herself ten years ago, as well as previously unreleased bonus tracks plus unearthed photos and journal scans from the band’s beginnings. In the new liner notes written by Dupuis, she shared some thoughts on the release:

“I can’t claim Speedy as a solo project anymore—I love working with the friends and bandmates who have played and recorded with me over the years—and I’m glad I now have Sad13 as an outlet for my home-produced concoctions. But I’m so proud of these 22 solo songs, which I put a lot of heart and time and sweat into in both 2011 and 2021, and it feels right to honor them by finally re-releasing them with Carpark (who I’ve worked with for pretty darn close to a decade, too) in a more widely listenable way. Happy 10th birthday, Speedy Ortiz, and thanks to everyone who’s been following along. Me at 23 and me at 32 love you very much.”

And along with the announcement, comes the self-directed video for the new version of “Cutco.” A well-documented fan of teen horror flicks, Dupuis applied a Blair With Project treatment to the clip, which you can watch above. The Death of Speedy Ortiz & Cop Kicker…Forever is out digitally on November 12th and physically as a double LP on January 28th via Carpark Records. Check out the album art and tracklist below and pre-order it here.

1. “Hexxy Sadie”
2. “Cutco”
3. “Phish Phood”
4. “Kinda Blew”
5. “Ken Ohki”
6. “Speedy Ortiz”
7. “Hurricane Speedy”
8. “Thank You”
9. “Frankenweenie”
10. “Blondie”
11. “Ka-Prow!”
12. “Necronomicon”
13. “Teething”
14. “Doomsday”
15. “All Red”
16. “Let’s Get Evicted”
17. “Open Sesame”
18. “Bill Sauce”
19. “Summon It”
20. “Deady”
21. “Meat of Contract”
22. “Son Of”

The cult favorite Swedish post-punk band Makthaverskan announced their fourth album, För Allting will be out next month, kicking off the news with the shimmering lead single, “This Time.” Considering this is their first new music since 2017’s III — their third album — the band’s devoted fan base were thrilled to get new music. And this time around, the band has moved into more of an atmospheric, melodic direction. The album’s second single, “Closer,” doubles down on that shift. Check it out above.

According to a press release, the band started recording music just before lockdown last year. They purposefully wanted to shift their sound away from the first three albums:

“When we started the songwriting process for this album, I think we all were pretty determined to take the music in a new direction. Not necessarily that we would sound ‘different,’ but to work on the songs using somewhat different methods than before. For our previous albums we have written the songs in our rehearsal space and pretty much recorded them the way they were. For this album we intended the songs to be finalized in the studio in a different and left some more room to work with.”

The method seems to be working well, as both new singles are epic. För Allting will be out 11/12 via Run For Cover Records. Pre-order it here.

We’re already halfway through October, meaning spooky season is in full effect. Because the sun has already started setting much earlier, it also means it’s time get cozy by bringing out the chunky blankets and warming up a bowl of soup. Jimmy Fallon and country rocker Chris Stapleton know exactly how to maximize the cozy vibes, so they wrote an entire sketch about it on a recent episode of The Tonight Show.

Of course, Stapleton is an awarded musician, but Fallon also has some musical chops. The host even filled in for Stapleton on guitar earlier this month for a performance of the singer’s track, “You Should Probably Leave.” Because of their shared love of music, they decided to write a song to narrate their perfect night in.

Titled “A Film By Nancy Meyers,” the tongue-in-cheek track makes light of the affluent characters in Meyers’ iconic romantic comedy films like Something’s Gotta Give, starring Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, and “The Holiday,” starring Jack Black and Cameron Diaz. They sing of getting comfortable in cashmere sweaters, linen pants and wool while opening a bottle of white wine curling up on the couch with one of Meyers’ classic films.

Watch Stapleton and Fallon’s “A Film By Nancy Meyers” sketch on The Tonight Show above.

While it won’t be out in time for this Halloween, just the first trailer for Universal Pictures upcoming horror film The Black Phone might be enough to give you chills — and leave you incredibly creeped out by Ethan Hawke. In the first trailer for the upcoming film, Hawke dons a top hat, seriously sinister-looking mask, and a pretty spot-on Heath Ledger’s Joker impression as he abducts and ultimately murders young boys. The supernatural thriller is the next project from Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Deliver Us From Evil) and is a collaboration between the filmmaker and iconic horror film studio Blumhouse.

Based on a short story by Joe Hill from his New York Times bestseller 20th Century Ghosts, The Black Phone follows Finney Shaw (Mason Thames), “a shy but clever 13-year-old boy,” after he is adducted by Ethan Hawke’s “The Grabber.” Shaw is then trapped in a soundproof basement with a cot and a broken phone, seemingly doomed to meet the same fate as all of The Grabber’s victims — until the phone begins to ring. Using calls coming from beyond the grave (while the police investigate the case with the help of his prophetic, former classmate), Shaw must figure out how to escape the basement and get home free, even if that means taking on The Grabber head-on.

In addition to Hawke and Thames, The Black Phone features Jeremy Davies, James Ransome, Madeline McGraw, Kellan Rhude, J. Gaven Wilde, E. Rodger Mitchell, and Gina Jun. The film is produced by Derrickson & Cargill’s Crooked Highway, and will be presented by Universal and Blumhouse. The Black Phone hits theaters February 4, 2022.

Lil Kim is just about fed up with her “Magic Stick” collaborator 50 Cent after his latest post, calling his trolling antics corny and opining that the Queens rapper is “obsessed” with her. 50, who seems to spend almost as much time trolling on Instagram as he does producing his many, many shows on Starz (which include the latest iteration of Power and BMF) posted a side-by-side comparison of a photo of Lil Kim performing at a show and the titular villain from the Leprechaun horror movies.

“I’m sorry i know it’s early but i don’t know why sh*t like this is funny to me,” he captioned the photo. However, when Kim saw it, she was less than amused. “Ur so obsessed wit me this is getting creepy,” she commented. “This one ain’t it bro. Not funny at all. I was hoping to laugh wit u but cornyyyyy. Boooo!!! U falling off. Im too bad and too fly in this video. U reachin now but we all know whyyyy.” For those who don’t know, Kim previously joked that 50 was “in his feels” over being turned down for a dinner date after he compared her BET Awards look to an owl.

In that instance, Kim herself reposted the side-by-side, teasing 50 and promoting her upcoming memoir (a very 50 Cent-esque move, to be honest). This time, though, there was no image to repost after the initial clap back. 50 deleted his post… but not before The Shade Room got ahold of it. You can see both posts above.

A MAGA rioter learned a hard lesson recently: No matter how many episodes of Law & Order you’ve watched, it doesn’t make you a good lawyer.

Brandon Fellows appeared before a federal judge on Tuesday to argue that his bond status be reconsidered. He’d been indicted on charges stemming from his participation in the Jan. 6th insurrection but had been granted a pretrial release before his court date was set. Fellows is facing a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding after he entered the Capitol building through a broken window without permission from Capitol Police and proceeded to smoke marijuana in Sen. Jeff Merkley’s (D-OR) office. Despite the severity of the charges he’s facing, a judge ruled to let him out on bond before his trial takes place, only to quickly reverse that order when Fellows repeatedly violated the conditions of his release, first by missing a court-ordered mental health evaluation and then, allegedly, by calling a probation officer’s mother.

So, yeah, Fellows is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but even the presiding judge for his case questioned his mental capacity when Fellows, who has no formal law training, requested to represent himself in court this week. According to WUSA9 (and via The Daily Beast) Fellows asked U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden to appoint him as his own lawyer, saying he spent two weeks in the D.C. jail’s law library and felt confident he could do a better job of it than his court-appointed defender. McFadden repeatedly warned Fellows against this idea, but eventually, the judge granted his request.

What happened next is something that everyone but Fellows could see coming.

Not only did he make some bizarre claims as NSA agent filing charges against him (they didn’t), he also admitted to committing even more felonies, and serious ones at that. Fellows told prosecutors that, yes, he had broken into the Capitol building and yes, he had smoked marijuana in a senator’s office. He also told the court that he had conversations with his lawyer, trying to find a legal loophole to get McFadden removed from his case and that he’d done something similar with the last judge assigned to him.

According to court reporting from WUSA9, Fellows said he had intentionally given the phone number of another judge’s wife as his emergency contact, so that judge would be removed from his case. He asked his then-lawyer if he should do something similar to get McFadden removed, suggesting he could call a family member of McFadden’s to do so. Later, Fellows also admitted to his role in the Jan. 6th riots and confirmed he had missed scheduled mental health evaluations and drug testings since his release from jail.

Obviously, the judge was not happy about all that, so, you guessed it, Fellows is going back behind bars — and his stay will probably be substantially longer after he’s incriminated himself so badly.

(Via WUSA9 & The Daily Beast)

Dave Chappelle makes several remarks against trans people in his new Netflix special, The Closer, including declaring himself “team TERF” in defense of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos defended the special, saying that “we don’t allow titles on Netflix that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe The Closer crosses that line,” but the company’s transgender employees and co-worker allies are staging a walkout next week over Chappelle’s comments. Via the LA Times:

On Oct. 20, members of the Netflix employee resource group Trans* and their allies will take a “day of rest” prompted by their concerns about Chappelle’s The Closer. “I encourage all [members of] Trans* and allies not to work for Netflix that day. … As we’ve discussed through Slack, email, texts and everything in between, our leadership has shown us that they do not uphold the values for which we are held,” a Netflix employee posted Monday in a public, company Slack channel comprising more than 800 staffers representing “gender minorities of all sorts and their allies.”

The message continues, “I encourage us all to state clearly that we, as Netflix employees are stunning not simply when we are doing the work that our roles demand of us but also when we challenge the very principles of our company.”

Last week, GLAAD released a statement about Chappelle’s special and history of anti-LGBTQ jokes. “Dave Chappelle’s brand has become synonymous with ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities. Negative reviews and viewers loudly condemning his latest special is a message to the industry that audiences don’t support platforming anti-LGBTQ diatribes. We agree,” the statement reads.

In response to the backlash, Chappelle said, “If this is what being canceled is like, I love it.”

(Via the Los Angeles Times)

After IATSE union members voting in overwhelming favor of a strike back on October 4, union officials have officially set the date for the proposed industry shut down: October 18. According to The Hollywood Reporter, unless an agreement is reached between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada (or IASTE, to keep things significantly more brief) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMTPT) by the end of the weekend, 60,000 film and television crew members will go on strike starting on Monday, October 18 at 12:01 a.m. PDT in what is sure to be a massive blow to both the film and television industry.

IATSE international president Matthew D. Loeb said the union will continue trying to bargain with the AMPTP in hopes of reaching an agreement “that addresses core issues, such as rest periods, meal breaks, and minimum wages” and avoiding the looming strike. However, Loeb also said the AMPTP is not making it easy on them:

“The pace of bargaining doesn’t reflect any sense of urgency,” Loeb warned. “Without an end date, we could keep talking forever. Our members deserve to have their basic needs addressed now.”

Following the IATSE’s announcement, the AMPTP released a statement of their own, seemingly reassuring workers they are willing to compromise and have faith an agreement will be reached. According to the AMPTP, “there are five whole days left to reach a deal, and the studios will continue to negotiate in good faith in an effort to reach an agreement for a new contract that will keep the industry working.” However, after months of failed negotiations, how this situation actually plays out is entirely up in the air.

Among the items the IATSE are bargaining to find resolutions for are: excessively unsafe and harmful working hours, unlivable wages for the lowest-paid crafts, consistent failure to provide reasonable rest during meal breaks, between workdays, and on weekends, and workers on certain “new media” streaming projects get paid less, even on productions with budgets that rival or exceed those of traditionally released blockbusters. Since the demands were made, countless Hollywood actors have voiced their support for crew members receiving better treatment by production companies, with Katherine Heigl going so far as to call crew member working conditions “cruel.”

According to a post made on the official IATSE Twitter account, the AMPTP has until the end of the weekend to reach an agreement with the union. If the two organizations fail to reach an agreement, the IATSE says that its “strung-along” union members “will have no choice but to go on strike” Monday, October 18.

Cardi B recently turned 29 years old and to celebrate, she threw a blowout, dancehall-themed birthday bash in Los Angeles attended by friends and collaborators like Chance The Rapper, Lizzo, Snoop Dogg, and more. And while the fashion was mainly in keeping with the theme, one star’s risque ensemble raised a ruckus on Twitter when photos from the party surfaced online, as fans battled over her controversial look.

Lizzo, with whom Cardi B collaborated on the former’s new hit single “Rumors,” attended the party in a revealing outfit consisting of a glittering purple mesh dress, nipple pasties, and black thong underwear. Just as in the past when Lizzo’s worn a revealing outfit, folks on Twitter had a plethora of thoughts.

Plenty of those reactions were negative, focusing on Lizzo’s body shape and deriding her for sharing so much of herself with the world. However, others came to her defense, pointing out that commenters didn’t have much to say about Rihanna when she wore a similar see-through dress at the 2014 CFDA Awards. In fact, Rihanna was celebrated and the dress has even become a popular Halloween costume. It seems that Lizzo and her looks will continue to cause controversy as long as she remains so unapologetic about her shape and society, on the whole, remains judgemental of women with larger bodies. Society can grow up, though, because there are far more pressing concerns than what a celebrity wears to her friend’s birthday party.

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

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is getting dragged on social media after people caught wind of a bizarre rant where he warns of South Americans in designer clothes invading… Connecticut? The whole thing went down on Hannity, of course, where Graham stopped by to rail against President Joe Biden’s administration for pulling back on raiding work sites to track down illegal aliens. According to Graham, this is going to lead to an apparently fabulous influx of Brazilians. Via The Independent:

“Now, what Mayorkas did today, calling off all the raids of work site, is going to be another incentive for people to come, because the word is out. You come, you claim asylum, you never leave. The policy choices of Biden are all over the world now,” Mr Graham said.

Continuing, Mr Graham claimed: “We had 40,000 Brazilians come through the Yuma sector alone, headed for Connecticut wearing designer clothes and Gucci bags”.

Now, Connecticut is a seemingly random state for Graham to single out considering it is nowhere near the southern border. The Independent reached out to his office for a statement on Graham’s source for his claims, and his spokesperson said that Graham had “just visited the Yuma sector.” So, apparently, we’re to believe that Lindsey Graham personally witnessed Brazilians with Gucci bags stating their intentions to storm New England. Interesting.

As for how Graham’s rant is going on social media, the dunks are coming in fast:

(Via The Independent, The Recount on Twitter)