Month: December 2021

There’s a reason Glenmorangie is one of the most respected distilleries in Scotland. Known for distilling using the tallest stills in the country, Glenmorangie is well-known for its iconic ten-year expression lovingly referred to as “The Original.” This single malt whisky commonly makes lists ranking the best beginner single malts. The brand also makes long-aged, nuanced, exciting expressions with age statements and others like Nectar D’or, Lasanta, Quinta Ruban, and the beloved Signet to name only a few.

Recently, Glenmorangie has leaned into its experimental side by releasing Glenmorangie A Tale of Cake and X By Glenmorangie. The first was inspired by Dr. Bill Lumdsen’s (Glenmorangie’s director of whisky creation) love of pineapple cake — that’s pretty self-explanatory. X By Glenmorangie is a single malt whisky that was crafted to be mixed with. Flavors like dried fruits, vanilla, creamy caramel, and a gentle nutty sweetness come together to help you make your favorite whisky-based cocktails.

This brings us to the brand’s newest expression that dropped on November 15th just in time for the holidays. Glenmorangie A Tale of Winter was built as a whisky that leans into wintry vibes and a touch of holiday cheer. Let’s dive into what’s in the bottle since the holidays are pretty much upon us.

Glenmorangie A Tale of Winter

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $99 (MSRP)

The Whisky:

This limited-edition single malt whisky was aged for thirteen years in barrels that formerly held bourbon. It was finished in fruity, sweet Marsala wine barrels from Itay. The result is a complex, indulgent whisky that was created to be sipped while you’re swaddled by a warm blanket in front of a roaring fire on a frigid winter day.

Tasting Notes:

This whisky begins with the aromas of ripe apricots, dried cherries, caramel apples, vanilla beans, clover honey, and gentle candied orange peel. Sipping it revealed hints of sticky toffee pudding, ripe berries, chocolate fudge, buttery caramel, and slight pepper and cinnamon. The finishing is extremely mellow, slightly warming, and ends with notes of butterscotch, fruitcake, and candied almonds.

The Bottle:

After one look at the bottle, you know completely what you’re in for. Designed to look like a holiday sweater, it’s adorned with the word “Winter” in a font that looks like stitching. The light blue background conjures up images of cloudless days where snow covers the landscape as far as the eye can see.

Bottom Line:

Overall, this is a very fruity, sweet whisky that definitely won’t appeal to everyone and that’s not such a bad thing. The Marsala wine finishing added extra sweetness and an almost fruitcake-like flavor to the whisky. Similar to A Tale of Cake, it’s best enjoyed after dinner or alongside a slice of pie, cake, or another dessert.

Ranking:

85/100 – Certainly not a bad single malt by any means. It’s nuanced, rich, and memorable. It’s just a little sweeter and fruity for some palates.

Beach House is just a couple of months away from sharing their first album in four years with Once Twice Melody. As opposed to dropping the project altogether, the band decided to release the album in periodic four-song chunks. Ahead of the arrival of Once Twice Melody in February, Beach House with the second batch of songs. “Runaway,” “ESP,” “New Romance,” and “Over And Over” were all made available today. Together, the tracks help to add a few more pieces to the puzzle that is Once Twice Melody all while leaving fans waiting for more.

The second batch of songs arrives a little over a month after Beach House shared the first collection of songs from Once Twice Melody. The album’s title track, “Superstar,” “Pink Funeral,” and “Through Me” helped to kick off the rollout for the band’s eighth album.

In an interview back in January, Victoria Legrand spoke about her and bandmate Alex Scally’s songwriting process. “I’ve always said music is very personal to Alex and I, but it’s not just that I got my heart broken by this guy or girl, it’s I got my heart broken by the whole world,” she said. “Or all the things I ever heard about somebody’s heartbreak, it’s in me somehow. It’s like this stain and it’s coming out because I hear these tones and these chords and these notes, and they make me feel like crying or they make me completely euphoric. That’s the thing that hasn’t changed, but I think it’s become amplified. And that is why I don’t think we’re done making records.”

You can listen to the new songs altogether in the video above or separately in the videos below.

Once Twice Melody is out 2/18/2022 via Sub Pop. Pre-order it here.

Longevity is a difficult thing for electro pop bands to sustain and with seven full length LPs since 2004 and multiple compilation releases, Hot Chip have never made a bad album. One of the most consistent bands in the business, they’ve been rocking concert halls for almost 20 years and put on one of the best live shows out there. Ubiquitous hits like “Over and Over,” “Ready For The Floor,” and “Flutes” stack up masterfully on the dance floor to more recent cuts like “Huarache Lights” and “Hungry Child.” The constant is a full-on release of emotions and the urge to dance that emanates from the speakers.

Now they’re heading back on tour in North America for the first time since 2019 when they toured A Bath Full Of Ecstasy. It’s yet another eclectic mix of concert halls including rooms they’ve never played before, and even new venues that hadn’t been established yet when they last toured. It’s a testament to the unique live experience that Hot Chip strives for at every stop.

Check out the full tour schedule below. You can register for pre-sale tickets beginning 12/08 using the code BELLS here. Full public on-sale begins Friday 12/10 via the same link.

04/15/2022 — Ventura, CA @ Ventura Music Hall
04/19/2022 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
04/24/2022 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
04/26/2022 — Denver, CO @ The Mission Ballroom
04/27/2022 — Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater
04/29/2022 — Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
04/30/2022 — Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek
05/02/2022 — Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl
05/03/2022 — Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
05/07/2022 — Queretaro, MX @ Pulso GNP
05/09/2022 — Boston, MA @ House of Blues
05/10/2022 — Brooklyn, NY @ Avant Gardner
05/13/2022 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
05/14/2022 — Chicago, IL @ Radius

Late last month, Ye and Drake announced that their Larry Hoover benefit concert would be held live from the Los Angeles Coliseum on December 9. The news came after the rappers got back on good terms, having not seeing eye to eye for the past three years. Ye and Drake reconciled in the name of advocating for the release of Larry Hoover, a Chicago gang founder currently imprisoned for a 1973 murder. With two days until the concert goes down, additional info has been shared about it.

The Larry Hoover concert will be livestreamed on Amazon Music and Prime Video. Viewers will be able to watch the show starting at 11pm EST / 8pm PST on Prime Video, the Amazon Music app, and the Amazon Music Twitch channel. The concert will also be made available in select IMAX theaters across the country, according to Stereogum. The show’s main goal is to raise awareness for prison and sentencing reform while benefiting community advocate groups, like Ex-Cons For Community And Social Change, Hustle 2.0, and Uptown People’s Law Center.

“Kanye and Drake have spent their careers pushing boundaries and defining culture, and we’re excited to give fans around the world a front row seat to this concert,” Tim Hinshaw, Amazon Music’s head of hip-hop and R&B, said in a statement. “We have made Amazon Music and Prime Video destinations where artists can make their most ambitious ideas a reality—this concert is just the latest example.”

Donald Trump is many things (including a terrible eater), but one thing he is not is a drunk. Indeed, he’s a teetotaler, never drinking and knowing so little about alcohol consumption that the cocktails at his Trump Tower restaurant were once described by Vanity Fair as seeming like they were “concocted by a college freshman experimenting in their dorm room.” So imagine how the ex-president took it when one of the three rightwing justices he appointed to the Supreme Court publicly uttered the words “I like beer.”

Politico caught yet another not-quite-flattering Trump reveal in The Chief’s Chief, the new book from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, which has already revealed that the former president tested positive before one of his debates with his successor, Joe Biden. Meadows claimed that the hearing Kavanaugh underwent turned him off. And of course, it wasn’t because the judge had been credibly accused of sexual assault while in high school.

No, it was because he said he liked beer. And because he was too apologetic, which Trump certainly is not. After Kavanaugh confessed, during a televised hearing, that he liked the suds then and now, Trump was “extremely put off” and “strongly considered” finding a “stronger candidate.” Alas, it was not to be: Meadows convinced him that, should he yank the nomination, the “blowback would be severe.”

And so Trump kept Kavanaugh on the docket and mocked his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, on the campaign trail over claiming she’d been scarred for decades over what the new Supreme Court jusice had alleged done to her. Then two years later, Kavanaugh, along with all justices, threw out his bonkers voter fraud lies, which Meadows’ book says made Trump, a man who admires strength, really, really sad.

(Via Politico)

Russ rarely takes a break when it comes to releasing music, and after a streak of dropping singles that began over the summer, he’s prepared to end the year on a high note with a brand new album. Russ will drop Chomp 2 on Wednesday, December 8, and hours before he releases it, he shared the tracklist and features. The full-length effort will see contributions from Jadakiss, Snoop Dogg, Jay Electronica, The Game, Big Sean, Wale, Joey Badass, Styles P, Westside Gunn, Lloyd Banks, Ghostface Killah, Papoose, Big K.R.I.T., Ranson, DJ Premier, Hit-Boy, Mozzy, CyHi The Prynce, and more.

Chomp 2 also offers an impressive cast of producers, including 9th Wonder, Hary Fraud, DJ Premier, Hit-Boy, The Alchemist, Statik Selektah, Boi-1da, Bink!

The album comes a year after he released its predecessor. The first Chomp is much shorter, clocking in at six songs and with features from Ab-Soul, Black Thought, Busta Rhymes, Kxng Crooked, Benny The Butcher, and DJ Premier.

Chomp 2 will join a strong cast of singles Russ has released in 2021. They include “On The Way,” “Satisfy,” “Lucky,” “Private,” and “Status.” He’s also worked with Lil Baby and Blxst in addition to teasing a potential joint album with Kehlani.

You can view the tracklist for Chomp 2 in the post above.

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

Donald Trump hates looking weak, which is odd because he humiliates himself in front of the whole world more than anyone in history. When he caught COVID shortly before he lost re-election, he did his best to hide how close it came to taking his life. He’s even furious with his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, because he revealed that he tested positive earlier than he claimed. Speaking of Meadows, his new book has another story he probably doesn’t want the public to know.

As per Insider, Meadows’ The Chief’s Chief has some more insider dirt about the former president’s final days in office. It was over a month since voters overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden. Ever since, he’d been making increasingly batty and desperate (and embarrassing) claims about massive voter fraud. He’d been laughed out of scores of courts, many of them by Republican judges appointed under his watch. But he held out hope that the Supreme Court, newly ultra-rightwing thanks to the addition of Amy Coney Barrett, would save the day for him.

They, of course, didn’t. And their rejection left Trump deep in his feelings.

“To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever seen President Trump quite as despondent as he was when I walked into the Oval Office in late December,” Meadows wrote in his book. “My head hanging low, I informed him that the Supreme Court would not be hearing out challenges to the election results.”

Of course, the real problem was that Trump never had a chance. His army of yes-people had misled him into thinking he could overturn an election, and the actually strong thing would have been to accept defeat. But then, maybe he’s not as strong as he says he is.

(Via Insider)

We’re two days away from Ye and Drake benefit concert for Larry Hoover, which is set to take place on December 9 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The show was put together thanks to the two rappers’ mutual interest in fighting for the freedom of the Chicago gang founder, who was sentenced to 150–200 years in 1997 for a 1973 murder. While it was originally assumed that the concert would only be available to those who showed up in-person, that’s changed: It will reportedly also be shown in IMAX theaters.

Some Twitter users noticed that movie tickets for the show were available for purchase at the Regal Stonecrest at Piper Glen IMAX theater in Charlotte, North Carolina. The runtime for the concert was also listed at 145 minutes, which means a lot may be in store than just a couple performances.

The news comes after arial shots of the Los Angeles Coliseum showed a large circular mound that was being built in the middle of the stadium.

Drake recently withdrew his 2022 Grammy nominations. The rapper was nominated in the Best Rap Album and Best Rap Performance categories for Certified Lover Boy and “Way 2 Sexy” respectively. It’s unknown what led him to make this decision. As for Ye, he dedicated a past Sunday Service event to Virgil Abloh, who passed away after a two-year battle with cancer.

You can check out pictures that were captured in IMAX theaters above.

Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges might be the NBA’s best dunker. At the very least, he’s the most ferocious dunker in the league. Over the last several years, he’s put together a great highlight reel of dunks that includes posters on the likes of Hawks center Clint Capela.

Appearing on ESPN’s NBA Today on Tuesday, Bridges was asked by Richard Jefferson who he’d like to dunk on if he could add any name to his list. One person immediately came to mind: Warriors forward Draymond Green.

“One person I really want to get is Draymond because he always talks stuff to me,” Bridges said. “Every time he sees me trying to go for a dunk, he tries to foul me, so I’m definitely going to get Draymond.”

There are a number of connections between Bridges and Green: Both are Michigan natives who played at Michigan State and are repped by the same agency, Klutch Sports, so they certainly know each other beyond competing on the court.

“He’s from Saginaw, I’m from Flint,” Bridges said. “We both went to Michigan State. So it’s a lot of trash talk between us.”

Asked by Jefferson about Jazz center and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, Bridges said he almost did, but Gobert didn’t jump with him as he went up. As for Green, the Hornets have already played the Warriors twice this year, so a possible Bridges poster on Green will likely have to wait until next season.

Don’t Look Up may be about the planet on the cusp of the apocalypse, but it sounds like Jennifer Lawrence at least had fun making it. For the star-studded, Adam McKay-helmed comedy, the Oscar-winning actress got to meet Ariana Grande and she got to get baked for real. And she got to hang with, among others, Meryl Streep, who plays the president. Problem is, Lawrence may have inadvertently insulted her.

While promoting the epic Netflix film on The Late Show, Lawrence told Stephen Colbert discovered the hard way that Streep isn’t exactly savvy with internet-speak.

“We offhandedly call Meryl the GOAT,” Lawrence said, of course meaning the acronym denoting “Greatest of all Time.” “And we were doing a photoshoot and I said something like GOAT and Meryl kind of said, ‘That’s right. Just tell the old goat where to go.’ I was like, ‘Meryl, you know that GOAT means greatest of all time, right?’ And she was like, ‘Oh, no!’”

She added, “I was like, ‘We haven’t just been calling you goat this whole time.’”

Jonah Hill, another younger Don’t Look Up star, told a similar story on The Tonight Show.

“Then today, we’re doing a press conference and she’s like, ‘You know, Jonah is so comfortable with me, he’s been calling me a goat all week.’ And I’m like, what the f*ck?’” Hill said. [Meryl] was telling Jennifer about this — and she’s so cool, she wasn’t even offended by it! She was just like, ‘I guess he like loves me and is calling me a goat.’

“[Streep] was like, ‘Hey, thanks for calling me the GOAT. I thought you were calling me a goat this whole time,” he added.

You can watch Lawrence’s segment in the video above and Hill’s below.

(Via THR)