Month: December 2021

With Ye and Drake’s Free Larry Hoover concert just hours away and scheduled to stream around the world live, TMZ reports that the crew at the LA Memorial Coliseum are working overtime to finish the stage ahead of the production. In addition, TMZ’s sources say that the show’s budget comes in at well over $10 million, covering the cost of the stage, space rental, staff, and security.

Of course, to the two rappers, who have spent the last several years sniping at each other on their records and social channels, the cause is worth the cost. According to J. Prince, who is the one who ultimately connected the two artists, Drake saw the bigger picture was worth setting aside their petty — and extremely funny, let’s be honest — feud.

Hoover, who helped co-found Chicagos’ notorious Gangsta Disciples organization, has been in prison since 1997, serving a life sentence (six of them, actually, which… how?) for an extended list of crimes committed in his capacity as the gang’s leader. However, since then, he says he’s seen the error of his ways and can do more good outside of prison keeping kids away from gangs with his knowledge, experience, and street credibility.

In addition, Larry Hoover Jr. has been advocating for his father’s release, as well as overall prison reform.

The Free Larry Hoover Concert is expected to begin tonight at 8 pm.

At some point in the past year or so, Mike Lindell went from creepy pillow salesman to deranged pusher of The Big Lie without missing a beat. So much so that we’re now just used to the fact that a heroin addict-turned-infomercial pitchman has become a kind of political operative who is regularly hosting rallies, protests, and days-long marathons in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Despite the fact that he’s being sued for more than $1 billion for continuing to push The Big Lie, and that he seems more invested in seeing Donald Trump back in the Oval Office again than even Donald Trump does, Lindell cannot be stopped. And now, as Raw Story reports, Lindell’s fans (a.k.a. enablers) are assisting the Pillow Man in his harassment of the Supreme Court.

According to Raw Story, Lindell’s believers are so enraged that the Supreme Court has yet to reply to his 80-PAGE petition to “reinstate” Trump as president that they have taken up the cause as well, and are now also sending hard copies of the hefty plea directly to the Supreme Court. This report comes from the Daily Beast’s Zachary Petrizzo, who tweeted that Lindell—who was giddy to hear that people were supporting him in his cause—“told The Daily Beast that he supports his followers ‘bombarding’ the Supreme Court with overnighted packages filled with his so-far unsuccessful legal filing.”

Will it be as effective a stunt as Lindell is hoping? Well, considering that there’s no reason why—or likely any mechanism for—the Supreme Court to just proclaim the guy who lost the election is now president, probably not. Also, since Lindell’s Thanksgiving “Thanks-a-Palooza” at one point only have about two dozen people watching while Lindell bragged it was millions… it’s possible the Supreme Court mailroom won’t even notice an influx in letters.

(Via Raw Story)

Before Rami Malek landed his Oscar-winning role as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, actor/guerilla comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was originally attached to the part before exiting after a disagreement with the band. According to founding Queen member Roger Taylor, that move was for the best because he feels Cohen would’ve been terrible as Mercury, and that’s putting it nicely.

“I think he would have been utter sh*t. Sacha is pushy, if nothing else,” Taylor told Classic Rock magazine before elaborating on his thoughts.

Via IndieWire:

“He’s also six inches too tall. But I watched his last five films and came to the conclusion he’s not a very good actor. I might be wrong there. I thought he was an utterly brilliant subversive comedian, that’s what he’s great at. Anyway, I think Rami did a brilliant job in an almost impossible role.”

Taylor’s harsh criticism jibes with Cohen’s reason for exiting the Mercury role. Back in 2016, Cohen explained to Howard Stern that he left the project after having creative differences with the remaining members of Queen who reportedly wanted the last half of Bohemian Rhapsody to be entirely about them.

“A member of the band, I won’t say who, he said, ‘This is such a great movie because it’s got such an amazing thing that happens in the middle of the movie,’” Cohen told Stern. “I go, ‘What happens in the middle of the movie?’ He goes, ‘Freddie dies.’”

(Via IndieWire)

Adele’s chart-topping album 30 has been out for a few weeks now. True to the singer’s previous releases, the LP features a mix of empowering and heart-tugging songs. This time, however, her songs were about her 2019 divorce. The album was supposed to arrive in 2020, when all her feelings about her marriage were still fresh. But because of COVID, 30 was delayed for nearly a year and the singer now says that if she had waited any longer, she would have decided not to release the LP altogether.

Adele recently sat down with Rolling Stone UK for a cover interview, where she talked about her album’s delays. “If it wasn’t coming out now, I think I probably would never put it out,” she said. Because the music was about her divorce, the singer was nearly ready to put those emotions behind her before it actually dropped. “I know I would’ve changed my mind and been like, ‘It’s moved on. Let’s start the next album,’” she said. “And I couldn’t do that to this album. I feel like it deserves to come out.”

One major reason why she went ahead with the album’s release was due to a conversation she had with her good friend Drake. The rapper had been in a similar position as Adele, sitting on his album Certified Lover Boy for quite some time. “I had that conversation with Drake,” Adele said. “Because he kept having to push his album back. Suddenly he just announced that it was out and was like, ‘I feel like I’ve been working on it for so long because I’ve been sitting on it.’ I feel a bit like that.”

Based on how wildly popular her album has been, Adele is likely glad she decided to heed Drake’s advice and go ahead with the release. The LP became the best-selling release of the year just three days after it debuted. This week, 30 also hit a major milestone: The album became the only release of 2021 to reach one million sales in the US.

Read Rolling Stone‘s conversation with Adele here.

If you haven’t read the New Yorker‘s profile of Succession star Jeremy Strong yet, you should do that now. It’s a fascinating look (no matter what Jessica Chastain thinks) at a famously intense actor who says things like, “I want every scene to feel like I’m encountering a bear in the woods,” and, “To me, the stakes are life and death.” (He’s referring to his performance on a show where someone ate their own load once.)

Strong’s co-star, Brian Cox, dropped by Late Night with Seth Meyers on Wednesday to discuss the profile of his on-screen son. “The thing about Jeremy’s approach is it works in terms of what comes out the other end. My problem — and it’s not a problem, I don’t have a problem with Jeremy because he’s delightful… He’s a pretty unique individual,” he said. “But, he does get obsessed with the work. And I worry about what it does to him, because if you can’t separate yourself — because you’re dealing with all of this material every day. You can’t live in it. You know, eventually, you get worn out.”

Cox compared Strong’s method acting to Daniel Day Lewis, who “got worn out at 55 and decided to retire because [he] couldn’t go on doing that every day,” he said. “It’s too consuming. And I do worry about it. But the result — what everyone says about Jeremy — the result is always extraordinary and excellent.”

Cox isn’t one to shower his fellow actors with compliments (“Personable though I’m sure he is, is so overblown, so overrated,” he said about Johnny Depp), so he clearly has affection for Strong — and his f*cking go nut-nut process.

You can watch the interview above.

A few days ago, Olivia Rodrigo announced her first-ever run of tour dates, which is set to go down between April and July 2022. She has given a handful of live performances so far, but tours tend to be different than award show appearances and things of the like, so it remains to be seen just what sort of experience Rodrigo’s tour will offer. Looking back at Lorde’s shows may offer at least a bit of an idea, though, as Rodrigo says she’s very inspired by Lorde’s concerts, specifically by one show she went to.

Speaking with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Rodrigo said:

“I remember going and seeing Lorde’s Melodrama [tour] at the Staples Center, with two of my friends that I’ve grown up with since I was in elementary school, and just balling my eyes out at the experience that she created. She cultivated this whole experience and you could just feel it in your body. The visuals and the sounds and the everything just heightened the album so much for me, and I remember walking out of the Staples Center and being like, ‘I wanna like cultivate an experience for someone like that.’ That’s just like the highest form of art to me, a concert.”

The interview was pegged to Rodrigo’s dominance over this year’s Apple Music Awards, which were announced last week and saw Rodrigo win Breakthrough Artist Of The Year, Album Of The Year (Sour), and Song Of The Year (“Drivers License”).

Meanwhile, Rodrigo recently got some touring advice from Phoebe Bridgers, who said, “If you go on vacation and you get kind of depressed or whatever, it’s so much worse. If you’re depressed on tour, you’re surrounded by people, you get to be with all your friends and it’s like work. So then the magical moments are so much better and the sad moments are weirdly so much better. I have such a great friend group of people who are like, ‘I know it’s hard to miss your dog.’ My advice is FaceTime your pets, call your mom… it’s OK if there are times that feel a little bit harder, but mostly, it’s the best thing ever.”

If I called Barn the best Neil Young album in more than a decade, would it register as faint praise? We are, after all, talking about a bar set by the inauspicious likes of A Letter Home, Peace Trail, The Visitor, Colorado, and several (!) other albums that came and went in the 2010s without much fanfare. Compared with the recent competition, Barn practically feels like a return to the gold standard of Tonight’s The Night, On The Beach, and Rust Never Sleeps — but only when compared with the recent competition. It’s just good enough to make you wonder: Will he ever get around to making another truly great Neil Young album?

Being a Neil Young fan has always required a taste for roller coasters. Throughout his iconic 50-plus-year career, which dates back to his days in Buffalo Springfield with his musical soulmate Stephen Stills, Neil has willingly (and often thrillingly) steered between tremendous highs and crushing lows. He’s been fantastic and flat, brilliant and boring, insightful and insipid. All the while, he’s put out studio albums — 41 in all, not counting live records or his voluminous archival releases — at a steady clip, even when he hasn’t seemed particularly inspired.

Unfortunately, Neil’s “not particularly inspired” era has gone on for a while now. His output in the ’10s resembled the music he made during the most polarizing decade of his career, the 1980s, when he flitted from genre experiment to genre experiment — synth-pop, old-timey country, rockabilly, beer-commercial blues — both as a way to troll his long-time frenemy David Geffen and, one suspects, to satisfy his insatiable appetite for novelty and stimulation. The past decade has a similar ADHD quality: He put out a screamingly shambolic collection of folk standards (2012’s Americana), another album of covers made with Jack While in an ancient vinyl recording booth (2014’s A Letter Home), an album of tunes with orchestral and big-band arrangements (2014’s Storytone), a concept record about the food-industrial complex (2015’s The Monsanto Years), and a live LP that includes the “backing” of farm animals (2016’s Earth). All of these albums are “interesting” without being especially “good.”

But since this is Neil Young — one of the greatest artists to ever work in rock, full stop — I can’t fully dismiss any of them. Maybe they’ll grow on me. Maybe he’s just ahead of the curve. Maybe in a decade I’ll write a thinkpiece entitled, “We Were All Wrong About The Monsanto Years.” At the moment, however, it’s hard not to compare him to one of his only real surviving contemporaries, Bob Dylan, whose most recent studio album, Rough And Rowdy Ways, was a genuine event in a way no Neil record has been in many years. Dylan has had his own share of roller-coaster moments, to be sure. But in the past 20 years as his songwriting has slowed, he has tended to take his time before putting out new original work, waiting until he’s had a cogent set of songs. Now there’s a concept that apparently hasn’t occurred to Neil.

Whenever I’m confronted with yet another marginal Neil Young album I wonder — god help me — if he could use someone like Rick Rubin to help him focus again on songwriting fundamentals. Remember how he worked with a strong producer, Daniel Lanois, on 2010’s Le Noise, his last significant album? Perhaps he just needs to buckle down?

But then I recoil at the thought. Who wants a “well thought out” Neil Young record? Letting it all hang out is what Neil does. Neil is all instinct. Instinct is his brand. Working though it is his process. But the question is: What in the hell is he working toward?

Coming out of the ’80s, Neil Young recovered his stride by reconnecting with Crazy Horse, his partners in crime and his most reliable muse, commencing a run with 1990’s glorious Ragged Glory that rivals even his hallowed golden era in the ’70s. Lately, he’s drifted back into this familiar (and fertile) safety zone. On 2019’s Colorado, he revived the After The Gold Rush edition of his backing band, re-installing Nils Lofgren. (The previous Crazy Horse LP, 2012’s sprawling and jammy Psychedelic Pill, featured the band’s usual guitarist, Frank “Poncho” Sampedro.) And now Young, a man infamous for quickly changing course, has opted to work again with this lineup for Barn.

Judging by the “behind the scenes” documentary directed by Young’s wife, Daryl Hannah, that accompanies the album, making music with Crazy Horse seems, if nothing else, to be extremely fun. Working out of a gorgeous converted barn dating back to the 1850s perched high in the Rockies — an indulgence that only a gazillionaire hippie rock star could afford — we see Neil and his epically grizzled compatriots wail away under a full moon while surrounded by adorable dogs and ample bottles of cold beer. In the movie’s best scene, Young improvises a song on piano about having “no fucking cold beer” until some cold beer magically materializes via one of his assistants. Being Neil Young, as we all know, is pretty cool.

The movie re-affirms what is already evident from Neil Young’s music: He remains a master of vibe. On his best records (and even many of his weakest), you hear the room as much as the songs. The gregariousness of the sessions bleeds into the communal feel of the sounds. His records are often described as “sloppy,” and rightfully so, but in the sloppiness there’s a sense of genuine life being lived and captured on tape. This feeling of electric liveliness is assisted, of course, by Young’s stunningly well-preserved voice and the peerless rumble of Old Black, the 1953 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop responsible for the gnarliest guitar tone known to man next to Link Wray. Even as Young’s songwriting has wavered, Old Black has never failed him. His guitar playing is always what eases me into appreciating and even enjoying albums in which I can’t recall a single memorable melody or lyric. (Psychedelic Pill, for instance, ranks with my favorite Neil Young albums of the past 20 years simply because many of the songs have guitar solos that go on for at least 10 minutes.)

And so it goes on Barn, in which Neil once again dwells on the central obsessions of his late career. There are songs steeped in nostalgia (“Heading West”), songs about cars (“Change Ain’t Never Gonna”), songs about the dire state of the world sung in the tenor of a cranky Facebook poster (“Human Race”), and songs about how one shouldn’t forget about love (“Don’t Forget Love”). Many of them aren’t great, but they sound pretty good, thanks to Old Black and that high and lonesome whine frozen in amber.

And then there are the two songs that stand out from the pack. The first is “They Might Get Lost,” a punch-drunk shuffle in which Young trades harmonica licks with lines about “waitin’ for the boys to come and get the goods.” It has that brittle Tonight’s The Night feeling, in which Neil seems to be describing some illicit misadventure unfolding in front of him in real time with a band that’s about to keel over from a tequila overdose. The other standout is “Welcome Back,” a glowering slow-motion guitar breakdown imbued with the sinister beauty of “Cortez The Killer,” through which Old Black meanders in an aimless death spiral for what feels like several hours, except you hope it actually goes on for several days.

When I hear these songs, my hope that Neil may one day produce another Ragged Glory or Harvest Moon is renewed. As for Young himself, I wonder if at this point it’s more about process than destination. He makes records because that’s what he does. And he drinks his cold beer and he pets his adorable dogs and he breathes in that high Rocky Mountain air and feels alive. The songs will come when they come. In the meantime, there are worst ways to wait.

Neil Young is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Tucker Carlson has a lot of opinions, and almost all of them idiotic, offensive, unfounded, dangerous, or all of the above. His rhetoric surrounding COVID-19 in particular has been especially alarming. He’s regularly been called out by the media, scientific experts, and even his Fox News colleagues for sowing doubts and outright telling lies about COVID and vaccinations (all while refusing to state whether or not he himself has been vaccinated), yet he persists. And on Wednesday, as Mediaite reports, he made one of his most outlandishly inappropriate comments yet when he claimed that contracting COVID “feminizes people.”

By “people,” of course, Carlson means men. Manly men.

The comments were made while Carlson was chatting with Brexit instigator Nigel Farage on Carlson’s Fox Nation show Tucker Carlson Today. The two were discussing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership skills, and the many flip-flops he has made. Which led Carlson to comment that:

“Somebody who knows him told me, and I’d be interested in getting your take on this, that getting COVID emasculated [Johnson]. It changed him, it feminized him, it weakened him as a man.”

Farage confirmed that Johnson, who was hospitalized with COVID in 2020 and spent time in the ICU, was indeed “very seriously ill” and noted that “one of the things we have learned from COVID is people who are 50, 60, 70, 80 pounds overweight tend to have fared very badly.”

Carlson agreed, but seemed desperate to get back to his decidedly sexist opinion that “The virus itself, this is true, does tend to take away the life force in some people I notice.” (Note: This is not true.) “It does feminize people,” Carlson continued. “No one ever says that, but it’s true.” (Again, this is not true. And no one ever says it because it’s not true.)

Farage seemed reluctant to agree with Carlson’s statement, though he did agree that getting COVID seemed to change Johnson—but Farage thinks that the prime minister’s new wife, whom he referred to as “Carrie Antoinette,” is the real issue.

If you want to watch two misogynistic pigs have a conversation about the dangers of COVID and women, you can watch the clip below.

(Via Mediaite)

The tracklist and cover for Juice WRLD’s second posthumous album Fighting Demons have arrived, revealing a surprising feature for the prolific Chicago rapper. In addition to expected features from Juice’s peers, Polo G and Trippie Redd, a member of the K-Pop world makes an appearance: BTS member Suga, who will appear on the track “Girl Of My Dreams.” Rounding out the guestlist are Justin Bieber, on the previously released “Wandered To LA,” and Eminem, with whom Juice previously collaborated on “Godzilla” from Eminem’s 2020 album Music To Be Murdered By.

The news of Suga’s appearance is already drawing significant buzz among K-pop fan circles as the genre edges closer to the American mainstream — mainly by high-profile collaborations with other US rappers like Megan Thee Stallion and Juice, and other pop acts which are already popular here, such as Coldplay. “Butter,” BTS’ collaboration with Megan, hit no. 1 on the Hot 100 and has become a staple of this year’s live televised performances. Likewise, “My Universe” with Coldplay has also become a huge hit, contributing to the overall visibility of the international group.

Meanwhile, the collab could help Juice to another posthumous No. 1 debut after his prior 2020 release, Legends Never Die, became one of the most commercially successful posthumous releases ever, hanging onto the top spot for two weeks.

Fighting Demons is out 12/10 via Interscope.

The Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang dojos are now working together against Cobra Kai, and the Cobra Kai Season 4 trailer sets up an intense All-Valley showdown. Man, superfan Andrew Garfield is gonna be so happy to see this happen.

This tournament lead-up, of course, is a direct callback to the O.G. All Valley Karate Tournament confrontation that took place 30 years ago, and forever (and arguably) changed the life paths of Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence. Unsurprisingly, they can’t get over this rivalry, but they’re gonna have to suck it up and go there. Likewise, their respective dojos, Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang, attempt to join forces against John Kreese’s ownership of Cobra Kai, but of course, getting along will prove to be a bumpy road. As you can see above, Johnny’s doing the wax-on-wax-off training favored by Mr. Miyagi while Johnny pushes Daniel into knuckle push-ups and encourages kids to roof-hop. What could go wrong? Oh, everything.

Well, Kreese has called in reinforcements in the form of his old Vietnam War buddy and co-founder of the Cobra Kai dojo, Terry Silver, who returns to the franchise. Who will win the spirit of karate in the Valley, and can Hawk and Tory stay afloat in life while Johnny’s messing around with a crane kick? Most of the grown-ups are a-holes in their own way on this show, so hopefully, the kids can talk some sense into them. At the very least, we’ll have fun watching them try while carrying torches for new generations.

Cobra Kai returns on December 31.