Month: May 2022

The Phoenix Suns moved one game away from making a second consecutive Western Conference Finals with a 110-80 beatdown of the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night. Devin Booker led the way for the Suns, scoring 28 points on 11-for-20 shooting to give them a 3-2 lead in the series.

Booker and Luka Doncic went at one another on a few occasions on Tuesday, and at one point, Booker took a moment to do what he thought was a pretty good impression of the Mavericks star. Booker went up for a layup and got hit by Dorian Finney-Smith, who got assessed a flagrant 1 after the officials looked at the play. It looked like Booker was in some pain, as he laid on the ground for a minute before getting helped up by his teammates.

As it turns out, a video captured by a fan sitting courtside showed that Booker might have been embellishing a little. Booker laid on his stomach with his arms blocking his face, but showed that he was cracking a smile and, as he got up, screamed out he was was doing “the Luka special.”

Mavericks fans will hope the Luka special means their All-Star goes for a 35-point triple-double in a win during Thursday night’s Game 6.

Flight Of The Conchords was the toast of comedic music in the 2000s, although since the end of the HBO show in 2009, they’ve been relatively quiet as a duo. Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie kept busy individually, though: Clement has done plenty of acting while McKenzie has stuck more to music, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Man Or Muppet,” from 2014’s Muppets Most Wanted.

Now, McKenzie is looking to get deeper into music by releasing Songs Without Jokes, a solo album of non-comedic tunes (although maybe one of the songs, “Dave’s Place,” is a reference to Arj Barker’s Flight Of The Conchords character Dave). The album was announced today and it’s set for release on August 26. Today also brings the single “A Little Tune,” a jaunty and theatrical number.

McKenzie says of the album:

“Post-Conchords, I’d been working on songs for the Muppets films, and during a session I had the thought that it would be fun someday to work on some songs that weren’t for someone else, that don’t have to tell a story or be funny or continue the narrative plot, checking all the boxes for the character in the movie. I thought it’d be fun to do a record like that, something different.”

The album rollout isn’t entirely without humor, though, as a press release offers the following sample headlines for publications to use:

“-Kiwi Flies, and Solo!
-Songs From One Bloke
-Three (Con)chords (Minus Two Conchords) and the Truth
-Uh-Oh! Rhymenoceros on the Loose!
-Bretty or Not, Here He Comes”

Press materials also cite Harry Nilsson, Steely Dan, Randy Newman, and Dire Straits as some of McKenzie’s influences.

Listen to “A Little Tune” above and find the Songs Without Jokes art and tracklist below.

1. “This World”
2. “If You Wanna Go”
3. “Dave’s Place”
4. “Here For You”
5. “That’s LA”
6. “Up In Smoke”
7. “Carry On”
8. “A Little Tune”
9. “America Goodbye”
10. “Tomorrow Today”
11. “Crazy Times”

Songs Without Jokes is out 8/26 via Sub Pop. Pre-order it here.

Emmy Rossum spent nine seasons as Fiona Gallagher in the U.S.-based iteration of Shameless, and she went as far as possible away from that role in her newest project. That’d be Angelyne, the Peacock limited series based upon the 1980s billboard queen of Los Angeles, and as clichéd as it sounds to say this, Rossum is truly unrecognizable while draped in wigs and pepto-pink accessories. The show will arrive next week, and it’s a raging exploration of identity and celebrity for a Paris Hilton-esque character who arrived on the scene long before Paris Hilton.

To promote her labor of love, Rossum sat down with The Hollywood Reporter for a wide-ranging interview on a number of subjects, including her famous fight for pay parity alongside William H. Macy in her long-running Showtime series. There’s plenty of fun to be had in this piece, but one tidbit that sticks out is how Emmy moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990s with her family. They landed near the Sunset Strip and moved into an apartment where Axl Rose once lived. And that’s how Emmy learned about Guns n’ Roses, and here’s an unusual detail about the bathtub:

Their landlord, for whatever reason, disclosed that the bathtub had not been updated since the Guns N’ Roses frontman lived there. “I was coming out of the classical music world,” says Rossum. “I did not even know who Axl Rose was, but I used to play his music in the bathtub and think, ‘This feels cool.’”

Now I want to know which GNR album that Emmy listened to in the bathtub. Naturally, Appetite For Destruction seems like the opposite of bubble-bath relaxing, although there’s plenty of Use Your Illusion II that would have worked alright for the vibe. As long as it wasn’t The Spaghetti Incident?, well, that’s all that matters here.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Lil Baby boasted that he isn’t doing features for less than six figures, but it looks like he’ll make some exceptions. Despite tweeting in 2020 “it’s safe to say I want $100k for a feature,” he recently gave the homie discount to one rapper who came looking for a verse. According to Vince Staples, who popped up on LA radio host Big Boy’s show to discuss his new album, Lil Baby gave him a big break on his feature fee to appear on “East Point Prayer.”

“He did it for free,” he said. “And I don’t believe in asking nobody to do nothing for free. I believe in whatever you charge – you gotta feed your family, and he did it for free. And you already know, he can charge whatever he wants. It’s funny because I met him at a Motown thing. We was cool and we ain’t really talk like that. And I was like, ‘Lil Baby would sound good on this.’ And I was tryna get it so where we could talk about it. He said, ‘We don’t even have to talk, I’ma do it.’ He just went and did it … he looked out.”

Both artists are signed to Motown — Vince through Blacksmith Records and his manager Corey Smyth, and Lil Baby through Quality Control Music. Still, that Lil Baby would waive his exorbitant feature price for Vince shows a lot of respect between the two rappers — and the potential for future, possibly more lucrative collaborations.

Madison Cawthorn is an absolute trainwreck—so much so that even Donald Trump is reportedly “weirded out” by him. While every politician has a public persona and a private one, given how unlikeable Cawthorn’s bizarre and obnoxious behavior makes him seem when the cameras are rolling, it’s hard to imagine that he’s a much kinder, gentler person behind closed doors. And, according to The Daily Beast, even the freshman North Carolina congressman’s closest “friends” and colleagues allegedly hate his guts—and are most likely the ones who leaked the video of a naked Cawthorn frantically humping a man, photos of him clad in women’s lingerie, and other evidence of him acting all a fool.

Or, as The Daily Beast puts it: “the attacks are coming from inside the house.”

According to one political insider, North Carolina Republicans are tired of bearing witness to Cawthorn’s childish antics and want to see him go. So they’ve gotten together to combine powers and make that happen ahead of the primary, which is in less than a week. “It’s definitely a hit job that I’m happy to be a party to,” the political operative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Beast. “Most of the GOP universe has come around to align against this guy. You’re seeing a full-court, state-based, establishment pushback against him. Get this guy out. Take him out. We’re gonna see if we can pull it off in eight days.”

Of course, Cawthorn didn’t do himself any favors when he bragged about all the invites he receives from his fellow Republicans to their cocaine-fueled orgies.

While much of the negative information and evidence against Cawthorn that has come to light has been via the Democrat-backed Fire Madison PAC, one of the heads of that group, David Wheeler, admits that they’re not even having to search for negative stories about Cawthorn; they’re just being handed to them, with supporting evidence.

“We’ve become kind of the dumping ground for info on the guy,” Wheeler told The Daily Beast. “Obviously, we have a target, we’re not afraid to take him on and put out the information his opponents wouldn’t—or the Democrats wouldn’t.”

The video of Cawthorn wearing nothing but a crazy look in his eyes and wildly humping another man’s face, for example, came to Fire Madison PAC by a former Cawthorn supporter and donor. Wheeler says they have lots of other video that he hasn’t released because it’s much more explicit and could break some of the state’s decency laws. And most of it’s coming from Cawthorn’s so-called friends and colleagues.

“People think we’re under Kevin McCarthy’s finger, and that he’s telling us what to do because he wants to get back at Madison,” said Wheeler. “It’s not folks out of Washington that are sending this stuff. It’s folks who used to work with him, who were his supporters.”

While a spokesperson for Cawthorn did not respond for a request to comment on the story, the congressman himself claims to be bored with the whole spectacle.

The North Carolina primary election will take place on May 17th.

(Via The Daily Beast)

As Top Gun: Maverick gets ready to barrel roll into theaters after several pandemic-related delays, fans of the original film are sure to notice the absence of Kelly McGillis. The actress played Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood, Maverick’s flight instructor and love interest, but she’ll be notably missing from the high-flying sequel that puts Tom Cruise back in the cockpit after 30 years.

However, in an interesting and awkward wrinkle, McGillis isn’t the only actress from the original film who wasn’t asked to return. While the sequel centers on Maverick’s relationship with the son of Goose, his flight partner who died in the first film, Meg Ryan was not brought back to reprise her role as Goose’s wife. Via Variety:

“Those weren’t stories that we were throwing around,” Kosinski said about bringing back the original female stars. “I didn’t want every storyline to always be looking backwards. It was important to introduce some new characters.”

Kosinski preferred to limit the connective tissue between the original “Top Gun” and its sequel to Goose’s son and the relationship between Maverick and Iceman.

For her part, McGillis has no interest in returning to the world of Top Gun. In 2019, the actress bluntly told Entertainment Tonight that she wasn’t involved with sequel, which frankly, is for the best.

“I’m old and I’m fat and I look age-appropriate for what my age is, and that is not what that whole scene is about,” McGillis said. “I’d much rather feel absolutely secure in my skin and who and what I am at my age as opposed to placing a value on all that other stuff.”

(Via Variety)

America First fuhrer Nick Fuentes is described by the Anti-Defamation League as a “white supremacist leader and organizer and podcaster who seeks to forge a white nationalist alternative to the mainstream GOP.” But he would prefer to describe himself as “just like Hitler” and a “proud incel.” Both — being a white supremacist and an incel — are true, but his group has descended into chaos because of the latter.

The Daily Beast‘s Fever Dreams podcast reports that America First is “undergoing turmoil after its treasurer got a girlfriend and stopped living in the basement of leader Nick Fuentes. That was a problem for Fuentes, who describes himself as an incel (that’s ‘involuntarily celibate’) and beseeches his young, male fanbase not to have sex.” More:

The movement is so grounded in being “racist and ridiculous in public that it ruins people’s lives,” says Fever Dreams co-host Kelly Weill. “You can’t go and get a normal job after that. So they turn further and further into this movement, which really does function almost like a cult.”

Earlier this year, Fuentes put together the American First Political Action Conference, a “white supremacist event” that was attended by, among others, Marjorie Taylor Greene. She claimed that she wasn’t aware of the group’s views (“I am not aligned with anything that is controversial”) and that she didn’t know Fuentes, even though they were pictured together at the event. MTG only has eyes for “polyamorous tantric sex gurus,” I guess.

You can listen to the podcast below.

(Via the Daily Beast)

Black Thought, frontperson of The Roots, has teamed up with producer Danger Mouse for a full-length collaborative album called Cheat Codes, which is set for release this summer. The album has been anticipated for years and was once originally rumored to be titled Dangerous Thoughts.

Ahead of Cheat Codes, Black Thought and Danger Mouse have released the lead track, “No Gold Teeth.” The song features Black Thought rapping in his signature chorus-less flow over Danger Mouse’s pulsating bass lines and crisp drums and cymbal patterns. In the song’s video, Black Thought is seen rapping, with a square screen over his face, alternating images of dogs, flowers and other human figures.

In addition to Black Thought and Danger Mouse, Cheat Codes boasts an impressive set of collaborators, including Raekwon, Joey Badass, Run The Jewels, and a contribution from the late MF Doom.

Check out “No Gold Teeth” above and the Cheat Codes tracklist and cover art below.

1. “Sometimes”
2. “Cheat Codes”
3. “The Darkest Part” Feat. Raekwon and Kid Sister
4. “No Gold Teeth”
5. “Because” Feat. Joey Badass, Russ, and Dylan Cartlidge
6. “Belize” Feat. MF Doom
7. “Aquamarine” Feat. Michael Kiwanuka
8. “Identical Deaths”
9. “Strangers” Feat. ASAP Rocky and Run The Jewels
10. “Close To Famous”
11. “Saltwater” Feat. Conway The Machine
12. “Voilas & Lupita”

Cheat Codes is out 8/12 via BMG.

(Spoilers for Mayans M.C. will obviously be found below.)

In the Sons Of Anarchy universe, the gut-wrenching death of Opie (Ryan Hurst) still weighs heavily upon loyal fans who are all up in Mayans M.C., which saw the death of a character (who’s actually more of a Juice) that’s causing similar shockwaves this week. And it must be noted that the spinoff’s gotten pretty crazy and deliciously soap-operatic in the fourth season. Alvarez/El Padrino (Emilio Rivera) is back in his kutte, and drug lord Miguel (Danny Pino) is heavily bearded and exiled (while hanging out at a convent), and Emily (Sarah Bolger) is leading a secret life in freaking Ohio. Drama!

This show’s principal club’s also been signaling war with the Sons, and that means (in addition to previous appearances from Tommy Flanagan’s Chibs and David Labrava’s Happy) that some Tig (Kim Coates) is in order. And on the A Crow Flew By episode, a cliffhanger went down with the apparent death of poor Coco (Richard Cabral). He’s a beloved character, but I’m frankly shocked that he made it through all the cult-drug stuff last season. I mean, the guy’s number has been up for quite some time (after his Mom and all that), but let’s just say that people did not want to see him go.

Coco’s death scene also arrived out of the blue (after a heartwarming conversation with Hope), which only added to the blow. One joke, though, did hit me pretty well: a (fantastical) theory that El Padrino would only allow “room for one set of fly braids up in Santo Padre. Sorry, Coco.” In other words, this might inadvertently be the fault of former Galindo cartel security dude Nestor.

Still, fans are crushed. And yes, there’s a “Killing Coco is like killing Opie!!!!!!!” tweet.

The fallout should be interesting after Coco’s death, and could this really set Angel on a path of greater self-destruction? Hmm, I dunno.

“RIP Coco” may not be the new “RIP Opie,” but it’s still a tragic development.

FX’s ‘Mayans M.C.’ airs on Tuesday nights before next-day replays on Hulu.

Rock legends Smashing Pumpkins excited a lot of Gen X-ers by reuniting in 2018. Their comeback tour attracted masses of fans, though their return has not been without controversy. Either way, they’re back again this year with the announcement of a massive North American fall tour with Jane’s Addiction.

It kicks off in Dallas, Texas at the American Airlines Center in October, and ends in Los Angeles, California at the Hollywood Bowl in November. It will have special guests Poppy and Meg Myers opening at select dates.

Check out the full dates below.

10/02 – American Airlines Center @ Dallas, TX**
10/03 – Toyota Center @ Houston, TX**
10/05 – Moody Center @ Austin, TX**
10/07 – Amalie Arena @ Tampa, FL**
10/08 – Hard Rock Casino @ Hollywood, FL**
10/10 – Bridgestone Arena @ Nashville, TN**
10/11 – State Farm Arena @ Atlanta, GA**
10/13 – Mohegan Sun @ Uncasville, CT**
10/14 – UBS Arena @ Belmont Park, NY**
10/16 – TD Garden @ Boston, MA**
10/18 – Capital One Arena @ Washington, DC**
10/19 – Madison Square Garden @ New York City, NY**
10/21 – Wells Fargo Center @ Philadelphia, PA**
10/22 – PPG Paints Arena @ Pittsburgh, PA*^
10/24 – Scotiabank Arena @ Toronto, ON**
10/26 – Bell Center @ Montreal, QC**
10/27 – Centre Videotron @ Quebec City, QC**
10/29 – Rocket Mortage Fieldhouse @ Cleveland, OH*^
10/30 – Fiserv Forum @ Milwaukee, WI**
11/01 – Enterprise Center @ St. Louis, MO**
11/02 – Little Caesars Arena @ Detroit, MI**
11/04 – Xcel Energy Center @ St. Paul, MN**
11/05 – United Center @ Chicago, IL**
11/07 – Ball Arena @ Denver, CO**
11/09 – Spokane Arena @ Spokane, WA**
11/11 – Rogers Arena @ Vancouver, BC**
11/12 – Climate Pledge Arena @ Seattle, WA**
11/13 – Moda Center @ Portland, OR**
11/15 – Chase Center @ San Francisco, CA**
11/16 – Honda Center @ Anaheim, CA**
11/18 – Footprint Center @ Phoenix, AZ**
11/19 – Hollywood Bowl @ Los Angeles, CA**

** with Jane’s Addiction and Poppy
*^ with Jane’s Addiction and Meg Myers