Month: November 2021

Superstar center Joel Embiid was scheduled to sit out the Philadelphia 76ers’ game against the New York Knicks on Monday night to rest, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Shortly after that report, however, Charania added that Embiid is now in the league’s health and safety protocols and could miss 10 games.

Embiid becomes the fourth Sixer to enter health and safety protocols over the past week and a half, joining Tobias Harris, Isaiah Joe and Matisse Thybulle. According to the NBA injury report, Embiid is “expected to be out until at least Nov. 18.” If that’s the case, he would miss upwards of five games during that span, including contests against the Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz. A Nov. 18 return would see him face off with Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets that night.

Despite sitting atop the Eastern Conference at 8-2 and winners of six straight games, the Sixers have been decimated by early season absences. In addition to health and safety protocol developments, Ben Simmons is yet to play and Danny Green, who is a game-time decision against the Knicks, has not played since the third quarter of last Monday’s victory over the Portland Trail Blazers because of a hamstring injury. If Green does not suit up, the Sixers will be down four starters and five rotation players.

The Seattle Seahawks are coming off of a well-timed bye week that gave them a respite from the three-game losing streak they’ve been on that coincided with a finger injury to Russell Wilson. Geno Smith has taken over and, unsurprisingly, the Seahawks offense has not been able to be close to as effective without Wilson.

Wilson has been offering some updates on his rehab, noting that he had a pin removed from his injured finger recently and was hopeful for a return sooner than later. On Monday, as most of the NFL shifted attention towards Week 10 with just one more game remaining in Week 9, Wilson tweeted out a hype video, set for some reason to the Succession theme music, that showed him going through rehab with the caption simply saying, “It’s Time.”

That indicated that Wilson intends to play in Green Bay this week in a game that is very important for the 3-5 Seahawks if they are going to make a second half push for the postseason — particularly in a division with two teams at 8-1 and 7-2. Adam Schefter confirmed that Wilson had been cleared by his doctor to play this week, as he has cleared the necessary hurdles in his recovery to return.

That’s a big boost for Seattle, obviously, and now the question is whether Aaron Rodgers will be back under center for the Packers after his absence this past week for COVID-19 that has led to all manner of controversy regarding his not following the league’s protocols for unvaccinated players at all times after it was revealed he hasn’t taken the vaccine, instead seeking “alternative treatment” and claiming he got advice from Joe Rogan, of all people.

The first thing I saw at Pitchfork Music Festival was a group of girls in skeleton costumes — the polyester onesie kind sold at Party City — sipping plastic cups of beer. Although music festivals tend to draw out whimsical fashions, I instantly knew who they were and why they were there, as they intended. They were fans of Phoebe Bridgers. And they were there to see Phoebe Bridgers.

The festival goers were, of course, dressed as Bridgers herself. The musician has made the skeleton suit her signature look since the release of her second album Punisher, the album of catchy, unprecious emo-folk songs that took her from an indie darling to superstar. On the cover, she wears the onesie, doused in red light, staring up at the stars. It’s a reference to the cover of her first album Stranger In The Alps, a baby picture of herself painted to look like a ghost, as well as her love of “corny, creepy stuff.”

The skeleton suit has become deeply embedded in Bridgers’ oeuvre. She’s worn and dressed her band in the costumes at most of their performance over the past two years, during which she’s accumulated a list of awards, TV appearances, viral tweets, and A-list collaborations so extensive that it would simply be easier for you to read about them in any of several dozen magazine profiles. She wore a Gucci rib cage on Saturday Night Live and a beaded Thom Browne bone gown on the Grammys red carpet. A pair of sweatpants with bones down the legs and Bridgers’ name printed on the butt, that fans enjoy posting themselves wearing with the caption “Phoebe Bridgers owns my ass,” are still sold out. It makes sense that fans are so obsessed with the ironic visual, which clicks into her world like a puzzle piece: turn your insides out, make a joke of it.

Later that night, from my tiptoes at the flank of the crowd, I spotted several more pods of skeletons, gazing up at their anatomically incorrect leader and her band of cadavers. The sighting was nothing special. For Bridgers’ biggest fans, nicknamed “Pharbz,” attending her shows in skeleton costumes to match her has become a beloved ritual. Nearly every concert review of her ongoing tour makes a mention of onesie-d fans. On Reddit and meme groups, where fans document themselves at shows, skeleton ‘fit pics abound.

Watching the skeleton girls watch Bridgers, I was transported to the auditorium of Barclays Center, where I once watched KISS spit blood and shoot fire from their guitars to a sea of their doppelgangers. Since the 1970’s, the band’s fans, AKA the KISS Army, have made a ritual of imitating the band’s four members elaborate costumes, from their make-up to their platform boots, at their shows.

KISS is the most extreme, codified, and certainly the campiest example, but there’s a long tradition of fans cosplaying as favorite bands’ at their shows. In rock, these antics have been most aggressively sustained by the aging fanbase of classic rock and metal bands. To this day, devotees of Metallica and Iron Maiden wear their shirts to shows like sports jerseys, while a popular accessory for the latter’s include a mask of the band’s zombie mascot, “Eddie The Undead.” For other examples, look to Smashing Pumpkins’ “ZERO” T-shirt that became a fan staple in the ’90s after Billy Corgan began performing in the skateboard brand’s T-shirt or My Chemical Romance acolytes in military jackets.

It’s commonplace today for Beyoncé or Harry Styles’ fans to pay homage wearing costumes or merch to their shows. But unless you’re a metalhead, you rarely see this kind of full-throttle, fashion-forward display of fandom at rock shows anymore. Until recently, in the world of indie rock that Bridgers has emerged from, as critic Steven Hyden recently discussed in his “Ask a Music Critic” column, it’s been an unwritten rule that so much as wearing a band’s T-shirt to their show, let alone a head-to-toe costume imitating them, is lame.

People never stopped dressing up like rock stars. Strokes devotees may have well been in costume as Julian Casablancas, given the ubiquity in the ‘00s of his uniform of leather jacket, Converse, and skinny jeans. Or, take Vampire Weekend fans in cardigans of ambiguous irony. People who imitate musicians or artists are, if not signaling their musical allegiances, then articulating their identities by attempting to graft the qualities linked to these artists (in the case of the Strokes: youth, sex appeal, moody malaise; for Ezra Koenig: whimsicality, sensitivity, self-awareness) into their own image.

Something has broken with Bridgers, though. Theres’s a difference between wearing a leather jacket to try to look cool, and dressing in a silly costume in public to broadcast to other people that you’re an artist’s biggest fan. The kind of cosplay that Bridgers — and KISS and others before her — inspires is what happens when fans see the opportunity to participate in something that feels bigger than themselves. Right now, as Bridgers’ star rises higher than any other rock artist’s has in a long time, marking yourself as one of her tribe holds great appeal. It gives fans a way of carving out a place in her cultural moment.

Dressing up like Bridgers is about labeling yourself as a fan. But it also it’s a form of sartorial expression like any other outfit. The phenomenon suggests that there are fans who relate to Bridgers so intensely, they’re using her image as a shorthand for what they want to express about themselves, and can say more by doing so than by putting together their own ensemble. The skeletons are not just advertising that they love Bridgers’ music, but also that they share or at least identify with her everydude charm, morbid sense of humor, casual way of processing trauma, anxiety about the world, and view of life as full of both horror and possibility.

Of course, there is reason to be suspicious of the desire to subsume one’s identity within a celebrity’s. (And certainly to question how a band like KISS has turned their fans’ habit into a merchandising empire). Some will be less than thrilled to see stan antics, which famously can be deranged and even violent, blossoming in rock music. But fandom, at its best, is about a collective experience, in which artists become merely a shortcut to finding your people. Attending a show in costume, and knowing there’ll be others doing the same, can transform live music from entertainment to be consumed into a ritual of joyful belonging. At Bridgers’ shows, skeletons can spot their fellow cadavers across a crowd and know they understand without saying a word.

The Green Bay Packers lost on Sunday to the Kansas City Chiefs in a dreadful, 13-7 game that featured incredibly sloppy play on both sides. It was not the game that people circled on their calendar prior to the season as one of the biggest of the year due to the Chiefs general malaise this season and the Packers having to start Jordan Love in place of Aaron Rodgers after he caught COVID-19 and had to enter the protocols for unvaccinated players.

Rodgers’ vaccination status has become one of the leading topics of sports TV shows, as he said prior to the season he was “immunized” and reportedly tried to get the NFL to approve an alternative treatment (which they did not). He hasn’t followed all of the league’s policies for unvaccinated players, sparking an investigation into the team, and after doing an interview in which he said he took advice from Joe Rogan and offered up a good deal of vaccine misinformation, the saga leapt from a sports story to a much broader one beyond the realm of sports fans.

On Sunday, Terry Bradshaw torched him for lying about his vaccination status and putting his teammates at risk, and he was far from alone, as SNL opened their show on Saturday with a Rodgers sketch. Monday morning, Howard Stern took aim at Rodgers, noting that he’s not a football fan but knows “he’s a real good football player,” and says he should be thrown out of the NFL for

“If there was decency in this world, I would throw this guy out of the football league so fast,” Stern said. “What he did to his fellow teammates — and bravo Terry Bradshaw for what you said and everyone else whose got half a brain in this country — but this f*cking guy, they should throw him out of the league so fast. … He said he got his information from Joe Rogan. You’ve got doctors who go to medical school — I don’t know what’s happened to this country.”

Stern also brought up how Henry Ruggs should likewise be thrown out of the league after he killed a woman and her dog in a car crash — he gets some of the facts wrong, as Ruggs crashed into the woman’s car rather than hitting a woman walking her dog, but the point remains.

It is not often that Stern dives into NFL commentary, evidenced by the fact that he only has a fringe knowledge of Aaron Rodgers’ existence as a player, but it’s telling of how big this story has gotten that he got involved.

After Elon Musk was called out by Senator Ron Wyden for using a Twitter poll to decide if he’ll pay taxes or not, the Tesla CEO decided to fire back with a super mature response about Wyden’s “pp.” The exchange happened on Saturday when Musk asked his 62 million+ followers if he should sell his Tesla stock, which would force him to owe taxes because he doesn’t draw a salary.

“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?” Musk tweeted. “I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes. Note, I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.”

While the poll ended with 57.9% in favor of Musk selling his stocks and cutting a check to Uncle Sam, Senator Wyden did not approve of the process and reiterated his support for taxing the wealthy.

“Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll,” Wyden tweeted. “It’s time for the Billionaires Income Tax.”

Instead of replying with an intelligent rebuttal against Wyden’s tax proposal, Musk fired back, “Why does ur pp look like u just came?”

In what’s become a recurring theme, Musk’s tweeting ended up negatively affecting Tesla stock, which took a plunge thanks to his Twitter poll, which decided that Musk should sell 10% of his shares. Via Intelligencer:

In response to all this, Tesla’s value fell by almost three percent as of late Monday morning. (Also on Monday, Musk also changed his Twitter display name to “Lorde Edge,” which is probably a cryptocurrency thing, and designated his location as “Tröllheim,” which seems about right.)

Despite reports to the contrary, Musk’s “pp” tweet has not been deleted and was still up as of noon on Monday, which presumably didn’t help with Tesla’s stock issue. Then again, it’s nowhere near as bad as the time when he caused a nine percent drop by tweeting that “Tesla stock price too high imo.”

(Via Elon Musk on Twitter, Intelligencer)

The Succession Report Card is a weekly recap feature where we attempt to assign grades to the important people, things, and themes from each episode of Succession. The grades are entirely subjective and the criteria for scoring will change from week to week and occasionally mid-week. Someone might get detention. It’ll probably be Roman.

Tom

Let’s check in with Tom Wambsgans

• Is researching prisons he might end up in
• Has seen his status level with Greg flip-flop and is handling it by making convoluted analogies to Nero and castration and what have you
• Is falling apart everywhere and flailing and is just kinda sweaty and jittery a lot, mumbling about toilet wine

It’s not great.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Most things, honestly

Mark Ravenhead

Man is a pompous haircut who got steamrolled. I hate him already. I hope someone whips a pie at him.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Integrity, face, etc.

Hikes, generally

Hikes are now and have always been overrated. You’re just kind of milling about outside through some hills or some woods, exposing yourself to the elements and various poisonous leaves and maybe coyotes or snakes, all for the purpose of… what, exactly? At least with golf or something there’s a purpose and a whacking of things and maybe beers to drink. It’s all completely foreign to me. You can do anything with that time. You could watch television or sit in a park with a book or go find some dogs to pet on a flat surface that is not infested with ticks. You have options.

Here’s what I’m saying: If someone came up to me and was like, “Hey, wanna go on a hike?” the fact that I am in a wheelchair and do not do bumpy wilderness terrain well would be about fourth on the list of reasons I would decline.

Hikes. Get outta here.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Bugs, bumps, lack of electrical outlets

Roman

Weird week for Roman, which is somehow both true and a massive understatement if only for the thing where he was just, like, barefoot in Gerri’s office for a while, jealous but not jealous over the date she very much enjoyed telling him about, like it’s a new twist on their always-evolving mommy/slime-puppy relationship. And then there was the saga of Tattoo Man…

Good: They found him

Bad: He’d had the tattoo removed

Good: He accepted $1 million for a picture of the tattoo

Bad: Roman didn’t even think to realize it would tank his own reputation, too

Once again: Roman is a little boy. He does little boy things. I half expect him to be playing in a sandbox next week

GRADE: D-

MUST IMPROVE: Wear shoes in the office, guy

Connor

Look at Connor with his stupid little American flag pin, acting like he is or might be someone important, making threats and demanding things like anyone has ever cared about a single word that has ever come out of his mouth. Adorable.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: Setting realistic goals

Logan

You know, outside of uttering multiple slurs and getting dragged out to the beach by an investor he resents and continuing his petty feud with his son to the degree that they took separate helicopters to separate airplanes to get there and the thing where he’s starting a war with the President and the thing where he almost died from walking and the thing where his almost dying might put him in a tough spot with the investor he resented anyway, I mean… pretty solid week.

GRADE: D+

MUST IMPROVE: Stamina, general bigotry, etc.

Shiv

On one hand, it’s pretty clear that no one in the office respects her or wants to listen to her and most of them seem to look at her as a kind of combination mascot/showcase person that Logan put in there for optics and the little girl they’ve known since she was a baby who is in way over her head.

On the other hand, she did handle the editorial crap Tom couldn’t, which was the kind of results-getting Logan values and also just a revolting state of affairs, ethically. Which is also something Logan values. Mixed bag here.

GRADE: C-

MUST IMPROVE: Being a little nicer to her loser prison-bound husband

Various Karls, Franks, and Karolinas

I like Karl. And I like knowing that Karl likes being liked because it means me liking him will make him happy. I suspect he — unlike Frank, who is a lifer here — is counting down the days to retirement and planning to move to Florida and play tennis and/or golf every day. Karl is cool.

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: Talking with his mouth full

Gerri

Let’s see…

• Went on a date and rubbed Roman’s face in it a little, which probably satisfied their various kinks in separate and disturbing ways
• Shot down the Tattoo Man thing to protect Roman, which you know Logan would not have done
• Kept her head down and away from most of the chaos for a week

About as good as can be expected under the circumstances.

GRADE: C+

MUST IMPROVE: People wearing shoes around her

Josh Aaronson

So, here’s the thing: We all, just generally, agree that Josh set up this long weird hike as a kind of sick test of Logan’s health, right? Like, he made them come to him because his daughter was “sick,” but then we saw her diving in the pool. They went to the beach for a seafood boil but barely ate any of it. They took the “quick” way back but “sometimes it takes longer.” And then there’s his whole vibe, the business with the “I’m a chill billionaire in a hoodie who likes walks but also I will grill the hell out of you and I’m going to use this to get concessions or make more money and I don’t really care about your family hooey one bit even though I’ll smile and pretend we’re friends” routine.

He’s a vulture and a putz and he’d be an even better character on Billions than he is on this show. I think I love him.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: Cleaning his plate

Tattoo Man

Tattoo Man made out pretty well, all things considered. He’s trying to get his life together. He’s got the tattoo of Kendall’s initials mostly removed and hidden behind some floppy emo bangs. And now he’s got $1 million cash, which he acquired for an embarrassing picture that doesn’t look like it’ll even be used after all. This is, kind of, in a way, the best thing that has ever happened to him.

Good for the Tattoo Man.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: My guy definitely needs a better haircut once he gets that tattoo scrubbed clean for good

Kendall

Lot going on here. Pretty much everyone regards him as an idiot. His dad is calling him Judas and a fraud and saying stuff like “he’s a good kid and I love him” right in front of his face to an investor as part of a ruse they both see right through, which is cruel on about six levels considering they have never once had a sincere conversation like that in their entire lives, I suspect. Greg might have flipped on him to go live in a magical castle. His leverage bobs up and down like a buoy in the ocean every time the tide changes. He thinks he’s smarter than he is and it’s going to be a problem.

But still. Stood up for himself a bit at the meeting. Didn’t, like, let his father die in the weeds. Has a rabbit now. Not all bad.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: Planning, carrying water in case the people around him become ill on long surprise walks

The Beatles

Please take 30 seconds today and picture Logan Roy listening to the Beatles.

GRADE: B+

MUST IMPROVE: Longevity

Stewy

We saw Stewy for about three seconds while he was giving Josh a little high-five and bro hug and it made me so happy for reasons I do not fully understand and am a little uncomfortable with seeing as Stewy represents everything I hate in the world.

A conundrum for me. One I will not be addressing until next week at the earliest. I love him.

GRADE: A-

MUST IMPROVE: I have too much to consider here to make an objective evaluation

Jess Jordan

RABBIT CAM

RABBIT CAM

RABBIT CAM

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: RABBIT CAM

Cousin Greg

There are two things of equal importance happening here.

The first is that I love my sweet awkward boy, in every way, starting with him worrying about “goons, stooges, and roughjacks” coming after him and moving to him chugging a rum and Coke while meeting with Logan because he has no clue how to handle himself in a business setting and is just flailing around like an empty straw wrapper in a stiff breeze.

The second is that he saw his leverage and appears to have used it to score a promotion and raise and the admiration of Logan, who had a tiny twinkle of pride in his eye when Greg tip-toed into making his play. And then there was the casual way he said he was going to come in, “kill Ray,” and continue moving up. Kill Ray!

Greg is slicker and more ruthless than people give him credit for. It is now my position that he ends up running all of Waystar. It will be hilarious. I need it.

GRADE: A+

MUST IMPROVE: Pacing himself with drinks

Appearing on the Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast, OG West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg had plenty to say with regard to the state of the region’s hip-hop scene — and the place within that scene for the pioneering label that originally helped open the door for LA’s dominance in the wider rap culture.

Addressing the diminished importance of Death Row Records in recent years, Snoop was adamant that he could not only bring it back but also make it the hub for the biggest artists in West Coast hip-hop again. “I think all of Death Row should be in my hands,” he asserted. “I should be running that sh*t. Just like I’m [in] a position at Def Jam, Death Row means more to me because I helped create that. I think they should give me that and let me run that shit with the merchandise out, with the music all over the world. [Add] some new West Coast acts.”

He even posited that were he in this position previously, he’d have been able to sign many of LA’s premiere acts, including Roddy Ricch, Ty Dolla Sign, and YG.

But the real kicker is that he believes he could secure ownership of the label soon. “A little birdie told me it may fly my way and if it do, you’ll get everything that I told you,” he said. “If I can get Def Jam poppin’, what could I do with Death Row? Just imagine that.”

Four films from Japan have won Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards. That’s fourth most among countries after Italy, France, and Spain, although none since Departures in 2009. Drive My Car hopes to be the fifth.

Based on author Haruki Murakami’s short story from the Men Without Women collection, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car is described as a “haunting road movie” about a widowed actor and his chauffeur. The nearly three-hour film won three awards at the Cannes Film Festival, including Best Screenplay. It also has a Paddington 2-worthy 100 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Here’s the official plot summary:

Two years after his wife’s unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a renowned stage actor and director, receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There, he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), a taciturn young woman assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900. As the production’s premiere approaches, tensions mount amongst the cast and crew, not least between Yusuke and Koji Takatsuki, a handsome TV star who shares an unwelcome connection to Yusuke’s late wife. Forced to confront painful truths raised from his past, Yusuke begins – with the help of his driver – to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind.

Drive My Car opens in limited release on November 24.

The list of nominees for this year’s American Music Awards was unveiled last month. It’s a star-studded list, and so far, the list of artists set to perform at the Cardi B-hosted ceremony (which airs on November 21 on ABC) packs a punch, too. Organizers announced its first batch of performers this morning and the list includes Megan Thee Stallion, BTS, Olivia Rodrigo, and Bad Bunny.

Megan and BTS will be performing together to give their “Butter” remix its television debut. It’s not clear what song(s) Rodrigo will deliver for her AMAs debut, but Bad Bunny is set to perform “Lo Siento BB:/.”

More performers are expected to be announced soon, but one who won’t make the cut is Morgan Wallen. He’s up for two awards due to his performance on the charts, but AMAs organizers noted last month, “Morgan Wallen is a nominee this year based on charting. As his conduct does not align with our core values, we will not be including him on the show in any capacity (performing, presenting, accepting). We plan to evaluate his progress in doing meaningful work as an ally to the Black community and will consider his participation in future shows.”

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

Los Angeles isn’t exactly known as a hub for successful music festivals. Sure, there’s Coachella a solid two hours out of the city, but within the county lines (and neighboring Orange County), the reputation is a bit more scattershot. Events like FYF, Burgerama, and Beach Goth have all (rightfully) gone the way of the dodo after various levels of controversy, while fests like Made In America, Detour, and Festival Supreme couldn’t quite survive in the competitive atmosphere. Tyler The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw is the class of the town, and its producer Goldenvoice has been further dabbling into more niche events in the area of late. These can make you feel old (the aughts indie-celebrating Just Like Heaven), make you feel really old (the ’80s nostalgia brandishing Cruel World), or, as over the past weekend, make you feel like a part of something bigger than yourself, at 88 Rising’s Head In The Clouds festival.

Head In The Clouds debuted as a single-day event in 2018 and 2019 at Los Angeles Historic State Park, drawing more than 20,000 fans and necessitating this more fully-realized version. The ethos is pretty simple yet crucial: a celebration of Asian music and culture, both from the Asian continent and from Asian-Americans. Speaking with the LA Times earlier this year, 88 Rising (and festival) founder Sean Miyashiro said, “We just want the best of Asian music, so we can invite anyone. The last two fests were scrappy but monumental for us. This one is literally the live interpretation of everything we stand for.”

The resulting festival felt like a revelation. For cultures that often note that they feel invisible within American society, which was only underscored by the Covid crisis that saw them the subject of violence and scorn, this couldn’t be more important, especially as the event highlighted the depth and breadth of their influence. This could feel hyperlocal, like the San Gabriel Valley homage that was the 626 Night Market, to ocean-spanning, like a massive set from K-pop legend CL. During her sunset performance, rap star Saweetie highlighted her own heritage (Black, Filipino, and Chinese) while also shining a spotlight on the “Asian kings and queens” in the audience. If the audience didn’t feel seen in their day-to-day lives, Head In The Clouds was sure that Asian people wouldn’t feel that way on the festival grounds.

It’s a concept that makes more sense as the music world becomes more global. Festivals highlighting music from Africa and Latin America are becoming more common, while micro-festivals around specific cultures are beginning to leave the shadows for the mainstream. Diversity in the major music festivals is also more common, where occurrences like Blackpink’s appearing at Coachella and J Balvin’s dominance of the festival circuit are paving the way for more like them in the future, with international music treated like less like a curiosity and more like a pillar of popular music.

The majority of the big acts at Head In The Clouds wouldn’t feel out of place at a Coachella of Lollapalooza, like Japanese Breakfast, whose “banger after banger” performance proved why Michelle Zauner is one more music’s most exciting personalities, and Saturday headliner Rich Brian, whose earnest bars come across even better live than they do on record. But for someone like CL, who despite a new album that saw a big Rolling Stone feature and an appearance on Lil Dickey’s Dave remains unknown to many outside of Asian circles, the festival provided an argument for why that needed to change asap. The training that went into her K-pop career as a member of 2NE1 was on display as she danced, sang, rapped, and gave her all in such a manner that should put all American pop stars on notice that they need to up their game, immediately.

Taking place just a day after the tragedy at Astroworld in Houston, there was a clear reaction from the festival, with waters being distributed at a frantic rate and security responding to calls for help with prompt and thorough assistance. But still, the events of the day before hung heavily on Head In The Clouds, and I imagine it will over festivals for a long time. But Head In The Clouds was a reminder that this kind of event can be so much more than the party atmosphere that many are reduced to. Festivals can be meaningful celebrations, and here’s to hoping that Head In The Clouds keeps growing and assuming its place as Los Angeles’ next great music festival.

Check out some more photos from the event below.

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

Saweetie

CL

Japanese Breakfast

Rich Brian