Month: November 2021

The War On Drugs just returned last month with their first new album in four years, I Don’t Live Here Anymore. The album sees the band at their peak, delivering dreamlike chords and glistening guitars infused with a bit of twang. Celebrating the project’s wonderful reception, The War On Drugs bring its title track to a late-night performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

The War On Drugs took the stage with their full band in tow. Collaborators leaders Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius were even seen on stage, adding emphasis with backup vocals.

Along with delivering a faithful rendition of their recent album’s title track, The War On Drugs announce that they have another way for fans who aren’t able to see them play live to engage with their music. Next month, the band is set to premiere the livestream concert, Living Proof: The War On Drugs Global Live Event. The event officially premieres December 9, and ticketholders can stream the concert on-demand the following weekend. It was filmed at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in LA and offers a preview of their upcoming world tour.

Watch The War On Drugs and Lucius perform “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! above.

Tickets for the band’s global livestream event go on sale 11/19. Get them here.

I Don’t Live Here Anymore is out now via Atlantic. Get it here.

The War On Drugs is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In 2011, Jennifer Lawrence became one of the youngest Best Actress nominees in the history of the Oscars when she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Winter’s Bone. Two years later, when she was 22 years and 193 days old, she became the second youngest actor to win a Best Lead Actress Oscar (Marlee Matlin was 21 when she nabbed the same award in 1987, and still holds the record for the youngest). Which is all to say that Lawrence has already achieved some pretty major career milestones in her 31 years on Earth, and has worked with some of the best actors in the business.

But just because she’s worked with the likes of Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep doesn’t mean that she still doesn’t get starstruck on occasion. And in Lawrence’s case, that most recently happened when she got the chance to work with Ariana Grande.

Lawrence recently sat down with Vanity Fair to break down the trailer for her new movie, Don’t Look Up, a disaster comedy co-written and directed by Adam McKay which features a who’s who of Hollywood’s most in-demand talents, including Lawrence, Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Cate Blanchett, and Jonah Hill. And while Lawrence had wonderful things to say about many of her co-stars, she admitted that she totally fangirled over meeting Grande, who also has a role in the movie.

According to Lawrence, Grande “plays a pop star named Riley Bina. And that was, like, one of the coolest days of my life. I took a picture with her—I looked like a radio contest winner. She couldn’t be nicer.”

You can watch the full trailer breakdown above; Grande appears around the 7:30 mark.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Belly’s latest video from his new album See You Next Wednesday is “Flowers,” a paranoid meditation on early death and leaving a legacy. While Belly demands to be given his flowers while he’s still here, a chance encounter with a pair of plotting women results in a psychedelic trip for the Toronto rapper that ends with him getting buried alive in a shallow grave.

Prior to releasing “Flowers,” Belly kept up a steady stream of content from the album, including videos for “IYKYK,” “Zero Love,” “Better Belive,” “Die For It,” and “Requiem.” Upon its release See You Next Wednesday reached no. 26 on the Canadian Albums chart and no. 27 on the US Independent Albums chart. The album, which was named for the running gag in the films of John Landis, sees Belly ruminating on years of depression and PTSD, for which he’d recently begun therapy.

The Canadian star was also recently a fixture at Uproxx Studios in Los Angeles, where he joined our panel of rappers to watch and react to the music video for Lupe Fiasco’s “Kick, Push” for React Like You Know, and gave a passionate performance of his album single “Moment Of Silence” for UPROXX Sessions.

Watch Belly’s “Flowers” video above.

Jimmy Kimmel has a field day with right-wing figures, which has led to a rather incredible set of exchanges where he made the MyPillow guy Mike Lindell look like the sleep-aid-hawking doofus that he truly is. This led to Lindell actually appearing as a Kimmel guest, and that’s probably why Rep. Lauren Boebert has come calling. She loves attention more than anything else, and last week, Kimmel indulged her, although he did clarify that he had already fired a shot.

Kimmel had mentioned his reaction to watching Boebert’s bizarre videos, which are really out there. She has declared her God-given right to “carry my Glock” throughout the halls of Congress. She has also demanded, of Nancy Pelosi, “Tear down this wall.” Her misguided attempts to channel Ronald Reagan are beyond parody, and Kimmel did remark that these videos were like “stepmother porn.”

That led to Boebert posting another kooky video and tweeting, “Good morning. @JimmyKimmel is a sexist pig. Have a great day!”

And Kimmel responded in a monologue: “This is a woman who wears glasses to make it seem like she can read. She is apparently not a fan of me or my show because, over the weekend, she posted a clip of our monologue….” He continued: “It was obviously a joke. Her videos are so much dumber than stepmother porn. Some of the videos that she makes are so over-the-top, it’s hard to believe this person exists.” Kimmel wasn’t done yet: “They seem like sketches from Saturday Night Live.”

From there, Kimmel showed street footage of people reacting to Boebert’s videos. The overwhelming sentiment was that people thought this totally couldn’t be real, but they figured it was a very good impression of Lauren Boebert. They were then practically speechless when they learned that, yep these are real videos.

This all went down late last week, and people are starting to catch wind of what’s happening with the “likes” and “retweets” piling up ^^^ on Kimmel’s tweet.

The joke really is on Boebert. We’ll see if that carries over to 2022.

Sacramento Kings forward Tristan Thompson spent the bulk of his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he won a title in 2016, before going to the Boston Celtics for a year and being traded to his current spot over the summer.

Long story short, Thompson knows what it’s like to be on a team in the midst of struggles. And right now, things have gotten to a point where Kings head coach Luke Walton is coaching for his job and the team is on the heels of an 0-4 road trip. Thompson seems like he’s had it with the current state of affairs, and expressed some of his frustrations on the heels of Sacramento’s 107-97 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night.

“In the NBA, you’re going to have nights where you’re going to make shots, you’re going to have nights where you don’t make shots,” Thompson told reporters, per NBC Sports. “Like we’ve been preaching since training camp, your offense can’t determine your defense. We gotta understand that if we’re trying to get somewhere this team hasn’t been in over a decade or damn near two decades, it’s the little things that are going to put you in a position to be there. It doesn’t guarantee you it, nothing is guaranteed in life, but it puts you in position. It’s a compound thing and what guys gotta understand is those little things over the course of 48 minutes, the ‘my bad’ after ‘my bad’ after ‘my bad’ is what is going to cost you a game in the fourth quarter and the reason why we got a loss.”

Thompson also went on to say that players should not need a coach to motivate them to be successful and win games.

“I’m gonna say this,” Thompson said. “I think no man in this world should rely on another man to inspire them. Point-blank, period. You can put that in all capitals. Me personally, no one should ever need a coach to inspire you. If you don’t get inspired in the game, then you shouldn’t be on the court. Losing teams, losing players, you need to get inspiration from your coach, and I’m not with that sh*t.

“My teammates aren’t with it, because I know guys want to win and win badly,” he continued. “It’s not about coach Walton inspiring you, this is not no freaking Glory Road sh*t. You gotta be ready to play. Your number’s called, you in the damn game, I don’t need no f*cking coach to inspire me. Never have, never will. The day I need a coach to inspire me, is the day I’m f*cking retiring, I’m going to go play with my kids in the park. I speak for my teammates with that quote, we don’t need a coach to inspire us.”

Right now, the Kings are 6-9 and 11th in the Western Conference. They’ll look to get back on track with a win on Friday night when they play host to the Toronto Raptors.

There are many musicians out there who really love their dogs. Megan Thee Stallion is often seeing toting around her Frenchies and Billie Eilish is oftentimes affectionate with her rescue dog, Shark. But a woman who bought one of Madonna‘s former mansions proved she had a love for her pups that was on a whole other level: She left her German Shepard dog as the legal heir to her massive property.

One of Madonna’s former Miami mansions has been put up for sale by Gunther VI, who is an actual dog, according to a report from TMZ. A German countess named Karlotta Leibenstein apparently bought the property from Madonna several decades ago. Before her death in 1992, the countess created a trust that named Gunther VI’s grandpa as the legal beneficiary.

Since the owner’s death in the ’90s, the family of German Shepards have reportedly been living quite the lavish lifestyle. Gunther VI apparently has a particular taste for the finer things in life and eats better than the average American. He has a personal chef prepare a meal made of caviar every morning for breakfast and runs around on mansion’s acre of property. He even sleeps in Madonna’s former bedroom as the official head of the household. “He literally sleeps overlooking the most magnificent view in an Italian custom bed in the former bedroom of the greatest pop star in the world,” a realtor told TMZ.

While Gunther VI’s days of living in opulence probably aren’t coming to an end any time soon, Madonna’s former mansion is now on the market. TMZ states the singer originally bought the place for $7.5 million, but the dog is asking for an eye-catching $31.75 million for the property.

Breaking news: Liz Cheney thinks Ted Cruz is a p**sy. On Tuesday, as Insider notes, the Texas senator—and former favorite punching bag of Donald Trump—appeared on Fox News to chat with Sean Hannity about a range of topics, including his issues with Cheney, who he accused of having “Trump derangement syndrome.” According to Cruz:

I’ve always liked [Cheney]. I haven’t agreed with her on everything—I think she’s a bit too eager to send in the Marines and to invade countries all over the planet—but I’ve always liked her, and I think she falls into the category of people who Donald Trump just broke, just shattered.

She hates Donald Trump so much that it just has overridden everything in her system. She’s lashing out at Trump and Republicans and everything, and she’s become a Democrat, and it’s sad to watch what has happened. It is Trump derangement syndrome.

Cheney took issue with basically every word that came out of Cruz’s mouth, and shot back at her fellow Republican on Wednesday. In a conversation with CNN’s Melanie Zanona, Cheney suggested that Cruz had it all backwards. “Trump broke Ted Cruz,” Cheney said. “A real man would be defending his wife, and his father, and the Constitution.”

There’s no denying that Cruz made a 180° turnaround on Trump. For those who have blocked out much of 2016, Cheney was referring to the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, when Trump and Cruz regularly exchanged barbs, with Cruz once remarking that “I don’t know anyone who would be comfortable with someone who behaves this way having his finger on the button. I mean, we’re liable to wake up one morning, and Donald, if he were president, would have nuked Denmark.” But Trump took the low ground when it came to throwing bombs Cruz’s way, going so far as to call Cruz’s wife, Heidi, ugly and suggest that his dad had something to do with JFK’s assassination. But fast forward just a couple of months and there was Cruz, exalting the man who had insulted his family members.

It’s doubtful this will be the last we hear on the topic from Cheney, or the man currently picking a fight with a Muppet.

(Via Insider)

After his Netflix series You experienced an awkward viral moment during a Laura Ingraham‘s Fox News show, Penn Badgley has weighed on whether he thinks the whole thing was real or a scripted bit. To bring everyone up to speed, Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo stopped by Ingraham’s program to complain about “woke storylines,” of course, which sparked an Abbott and Costello-esque back and forth when Arroyo said, “I was watching an episode of You when measles came up.” Ingraham said she’s never talked about measles on her show, and that kicked off the “comedic” exchange along with a field day on Twitter as people were convinced the awkward exchange was not scripted.

Badgley, however, declared that he immediately knew a bit when he sees one, and he came to Ingraham and Arroyo’s defense despite the Fox News hosts attacking his serial killer show for being too “woke.”

“It’s gotta be a bit,” Badgley tweeted. “Dude is committed, he actually made me lol, but watch how he waits for her to cut him off.”

Shortly after the segment went viral, Arroyo got raked over the coals for tweeting the whole thing was obviously a bit, which people on Twitter did not believe at all:

So the Fox News contributor was obviously thankful that Badgley stepped in, and he let the You star know as much. Arroyo also tried to keep the comedy going with an awkward You pun that probably should’ve stayed in his drafts.

“Thanks @PennBadgley! (Your delivery is pretty great as well.),” Arroyo tweeted. “Now please don’t #YouNetflix kill all my friends!!”

(Via Penn Badgley on Twitter)

According to Billboard, Michael Williams of Valdosta, Georgia, was sentenced yesterday to eight years in prison for burning a car to intimidate a witness in R. Kelly’s then-upcoming trial for sex trafficking. Wiliams, who prosecutors said was related to Kelly’s former publicist, apparently went to Florida in 2020 and set fire to the car outside of the home where a witness was staying.

The vehicle apparently belonged to the woman’s father. According to reports, Williams left a note on the SUV that read, “It might be wise for you to protect your daughter from heartache she’s gonna endure through this and after. She had to live with every stain you guys create publicly.” Williams’ search history was also used as evidence, showing that he’d looked up how to make explosives, as well as witness intimidation and witness tampering laws, and countries that do not have extradition agreements with the United States.

Williams wasn’t the only one who was found guilty of witness intimidation. In February, Richard Arline Jr., a longtime friend of Kelly’s, pled guilty to charges of bribery after offering one of the women accusing Kelly $500,000 in exchange for her ceasing cooperation with the authorities.

Incidentally, all those efforts eventually went to waste; In September, R. Kelly was found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering in federal court in Brooklyn, with his sentence to be determined at a future date. He still faces trial in Chicago on similar charges.

The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to censure congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and strip him of committee assignments after the conservative congressman posted an anime video (with photoshopped details) to his social media accounts showing him killing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and attacking President Joe Biden. Very normal stuff here. Via USA Today:

This is the most serious action the House can take to punish a lawmaker short of expulsion from Congress. Gosar will be stripped of his committee assignments but will remain a House member. The last time the House voted to censure one of its members was in 2010, against former Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., over ethics violations. It was the 24th time the House had censured a lawmaker in its history.

Shortly after he was censured, Gosar shared a “thug life” meme on right wing-friendly social media platform GETTR. It shows him in sunglasses and wearing a gold chain, smoking a joint, with a caption that reads, “GOSAR LIFE.” He also retweeted the violent anime-style video that got him in trouble, even as his own family has discredited him.

“I believe he’s dangerous, unhinged, and is reckless,” his brother, Tim, told MSNBC. “And is somebody that, as I’ve said before, needs to not only be censured but he needs to be expelled.” His sister, Jennifer, added, “To be honest with you, it is about time.”

Gosar has refused to apologize to Ocasio-Cortez for the video. He called the censure “kabuki theater” and a “hysterical mob,” and brought up the Charlie Hebdo tragedy. “I remind everyone that pretending to be upset over a cartoon is what happened to the Charlie Hebdo magazine in France,” he said. “All right-thinking people condemned that then, and they should condemn the Democrats now for their violation of free speech.”

Here’s how AOC responded:

(Via USA Today and the Daily Beast)