Month: May 2022

When Taylor Swift released her 2020 album Folklore, the album’s credits spawned a mystery, as credited on a couple of songs was William Bowery, who nobody had ever heard of before. It wasn’t a longstanding mystery, though, as it didn’t take long for Swift to reveal that Bowery was actually boyfriend Joe Alwyn. Now, Alwyn himself has spoken about how he came to collaborate with Swift, revealing that it was unintentional.

In a new Vulture profile, he notes he was “messing around” on piano and singing the first verse of what would become “Exile,” which ended up being a duet between Swift and Bon Iver, when Swift overheard.

Alwyn continued, “It was completely off the cuff, an accident. She said, ‘Can we try and sit down and get to the end together?’ And so we did. It was as basic as some people made sourdough.”

He also noted of writing the chorus to “Betty,” “I’d probably had a drink and was just stumbling around the house. We couldn’t decide on a film to watch that night, and she was like, ‘Do you want to try and finish writing that song you were singing earlier?’ And so we got a guitar and did that.”

Read the full interview here.

This August is the 60th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death, but fascination remains high in the Golden Age of Hollywood actress. Ana de Armas will play her in a biopic that director Andrew Dominik called the “NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story” (he also compared Blonde to if “Citizen Kane and Raging Bull had a baby daughter,” whatever that means), while Kim Kardashian walked the Met Gala red carpet in the same dress that Monroe wore when she seductively sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy in 1962. Kardashian was also gifted a lock of the Some Like It Hot star’s hair by kitsch emporium Ripley’s Believe It or Not — except it might not be Monroe’s hair.

Great, next you’re going to tell me the Ripley’s tour guide is fake, too.

“News Alert: Marilyn Monroe Hair Gifted to Kardashian by Ripley’s is Fake. Who styled Marilyn’s hair for the JFK gala: Robert Champion or Kenneth Battelle?” Monroe historian Scott Fortner wrote on Instagram (via People). He continued:

A photo of some blonde hair in a frame with the caption reads, It’s no doubt that one of Marilyn’s most defining physical feature (sic) was her bombshell platinum-blonde hair. This lock was clipped by her hairstylist Robert Champion just prior to her Madison Square Garden performance. Paul Fraser Collectibles sold the hair in 2019. Their description for the lot: “Just hours before her performance, Monroe visited her personal hairdresser Robert Champion at the Coiffures Americana Beauty Salon, housed within the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue.”

However, Fortner notes, “Champion did not cut and style Marilyn’s hair for the JFK gala. It was actually the one and only ‘Mr. Kenneth’ (Kenneth Battelle) who had the honors. Battelle is responsible for Marilyn’s famous hairstyle from that night, as documented by a receipt from Lilly Dache Beauty Salon.” (He literally has the receipt.)

Kardashian said she was going to do “crazy voodoo sh*t” with her Ripley’s gift, but what if Fortner is correct? What if the hair didn’t belong to Monroe? The Kardashians have been blamed for everything that’s wrong with America — if an ancient evil is about to be unlocked, they’ll be to blame for everything that’s wrong with the world.

(Via People)

Elizabeth Olsen is firing back at the spate of directors who have criticized Marvel movies over the years. The actor, who currently stars in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, has been playing Wanda Maximoff (a.k.a. Scarlet Witch) since 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and she’s not a fan of seeing the crew disrespected by remarks from Martin Scorese and Francis Ford Coppola that treat Marvel films like a “lesser type of art.”

Obviously, Olsen understands that the MCU are designed to be more broad and aimed at general audiences as opposed to more arthouse fare, but that doesn’t mean they’re not incredibly creative projects made by talented people behind the scenes. Via The Independent:

“I’m not saying we’re making indie art films, but I just think it takes away from our crew, which bugs me,” she says. “These are some of the most amazing set designers, costume designers, camera operators – I feel diminishing them with that kind of criticism takes away from all the people who do award-winning films, that also work on these projects.”

Again, Olsen concedes that the Marvel films are a different flavor of cinéma, but she’s not going to sit back and let people disparage the hardworking crew.

“From an actor’s point of view, whatever, I get it; I totally understand that there’s a different kind of performance that’s happening,” Olsen said. “But I do think throwing Marvel under the bus takes away from the hundreds of very talented crew people. That’s where I get a little feisty about that.”

(Via The Independent)

Jack Harlow is winning right now. His latest single, “First Class,” is his first solo No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, his new album, Come Home The Kids Miss You is out now and receiving warm reviews from fans on social media, and now, he’s headed off on his first headlining arena tour. His Come Home The Kids Miss You Tour is set to take off from Nashville, Tennessee on September 6 and run through Atlanta, Georgia on October 16 with opening artists City Girls joining him at all but one stop — Fenway Park in Boston. The title’s kind of fitting when you think about it. Naturally, tickets will be available here beginning on May 13 at 10 am local time. You can sign up for pre-sale access beginning on May 11 at jackharlow.us/tour. See the full list of dates below.

09/06 — Nashville, TN @ Nashville Municipal Auditorium *
09/08 — Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory *
09/10 — Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall *
09/11 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center *
09/13 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Federal Theatre *
09/17 — San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena *
09/20 — Inglewood, CA @ The KIA Forum *
09/23 — Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater *
09/24 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena *
09/25 — Portland, OR @ Veterans Memorial Coliseum *
09/27 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Maverik Center *
09/28 — Denver, CO @ 1STBANK Center *
09/30 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory *
10/01 — Chicago, IL @ Credit Union 1 Arena *
10/02 — Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre *
10/05 — Toronto, ON @ Coca-Cola Coliseum *
10/08 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Liacouras Center *
10/09 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway
10/11 — Washington DC @ The Anthem *
10/14 — Miami, FL @ PFL Solar Amphitheater at Bayfront Park *
10/15 — Tampa, FL @ Yuengling Center *
10/16 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena *
* with City Girls

Indie darling Angel Olsen announced her new album Big Time in March and has been unveiling dazzling singles and music videos since then. The “Shut Up And Kiss Me” singer stated that this album came after an intense period of her life, during which she was reckoning with her sexuality and then grieving the loss of her parents all at once. Today, she’s announced that Big Time will come with an accompanying film of the same title.

The film will be 28 minutes, premiering the night before the release of the album. It will stream on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch and via the Amazon Music App. This is what Olsen has to say about the film:

“At the time of my mothers passing I kept having these super visual dreams about time travel. Later on I decided I’d name the record Big Time, not only because of the song but also as a kind of wink to time expansion and change. When I approached Kimberly Stuckwisch about making these videos, I thought it would be cool to include the storyline of one of the dreams I’d had, and really use it as a way to tell the story of the songs. She added dialogue and events, some that are based in reality and others that haven’t happened, to create a story arc around my dream, to give it a thicker plot, using the music videos within and creating a larger film. I’ve always had a vivid imagination and it was really special to make these subconscious moments real, but it was also a really emotional and raw process and felt almost at times like a spiritual clearing, that by putting myself in the story and moving pieces of it around, I also personally had to re-examine my losses and find a new way to process the events that actually took place in my life. Though most of it is scripted, it is probably the most intimate work I have ever made and shared with the public […] and it serves as an homage to my mother. I only wish my mom was here to listen to the record, because something tells me that she would have really liked this one.”

Watch the trailer above.

Big Time is out 6/3 via Jagjaguwar. Pre-order it here.

It seems like Olivia Rodrigo just can’t miss as of late. The 19-year-old took home three Grammys at this year’s event, she’s popular among the masses, and now she’s blazing multiple stages on tour supporting her debut album Sour. Portland attendees were treated to a Veruca Salt and Avril Lavigne cover, only for Rodrigo to then bring Lavigne out to sing “Complicated” at her Toronto tour stop.

This past Friday in Philadelphia, the California native tried her hand at No Doubt’s 1995 record “Just A Girl” and the crowd seemed pleased. She moved back and forth across the stage with passion as she belted the lyrics over the backing of her band.

Olivia Rodrigo got her start in entertainment on television, appearing in Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. From there, she released her debut single “Drivers License” in 2020, which broke many records and is one of the best-selling songs of 2021. Her debut album Sour was a global chart-topper, earning her a Brit Award and three Grammys, most notably Best New Artist. Time named her 2021’s Entertainer Of The Year and Billboard selected her as 2022’s Woman Of The Year. Needless to say, life has been anything but sour for the artist.

Watch the No Doubt cover above.

Jethro Lazenby, the son of Nick Cave, has died at 31 years old. A cause of death has yet to be revealed. Per Pitchfork, Cave confirmed the news in a brief statement, saying, “With much sadness, I can confirm that my son, Jethro, has passed away. We would be grateful for family privacy at this time.”

Lazenby’s death came shortly after he was released from jail on May 6, according to Melbourne, Australia’s Herald Sun. Lazenby was jailed following an attack on his mother in March, according to Daily Mail.

In 2008, Cave noted of his relationship with Lazenby, “To my eternal regret I didn’t make much contact with Jethro in the early years. I now have a great relationship with him.”

Lazenby’s passing comes a few years after the death of Cave’s other son, Arthur Cave, who died in 2015 after falling off a cliff. He was 15 years old. The 2019 Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds album Ghosteen was written about Arthur.

Meanwhile, Cave is in the midst of promoting This Much I Know To Be True, his and Warren Ellis’ documentary that will “document the duo’s first performances of the albums and will feature a special appearance by close friend and long-term collaborator, Marianne Faithfull.”

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Drake’s influence is all over Jack Harlow’s new album, Come Home The Kids Miss You. I don’t just mean in the sense that he appears on the album’s magnetic standout track “Churchill Downs,” on which Jack sounds almost exactly like his hero. But throughout the album, I couldn’t help but feel the same sense I did when I first popped Drake’s mixtape Comeback Season into my car’s CD player 15 years ago.

To be clear, this is a good thing. Harlow has been maligned over the years, perhaps somewhat unfairly, for being kind of, well, goofy. In hip-hop, there’s more or less always been the prevailing attitude that rappers should carry themselves with exaggerated coolness. Even throughout the “keep it real” era, nobody really wanted most rappers to be themselves. Look at who all was elevated to the culture’s upper echelons.

From The Notorious B.I.G’s mafioso raps to Eminem’s serial killer horrorcore, over-the-top personas have been the order of the day. In more recent years, the keep-it-real ethos has been completely blown away by characters like Rick Ross and Future, who couldn’t be realistically expected to live what they rap about and still be alive to rap about it. Tucked somewhere into the middle of all that stylistic evolution, the regular guys who exploded in the noughties were kind of exceptions to the rule.

Drake stood at the forefront of that movement and was its de facto face. When he dropped Comeback Season in 2007, he had yet to become the internationally recognized global superstar he is today or would become on his next tape, the breakout So Far Gone. He sat somewhere between the wordy headiness of his backpack rap heroes like Little Brother and Slum Village and the pop-reaching sensibilities of 106 & Park heartthrobs like Trey Songz and Pretty Ricky.

His rhymes were marked less by the belligerent boastfulness of 50 Cent and Lil Jon’s constellation of crunk associates than by a plainspoken earnestness. Drake just wanted to be successful, and he wanted to do it by making relatable, semi-sincere rap music about having his heart broken and chasing his dreams. Nary a gunshot was fired, not a kilo was sold. No one got stomped out in the club, and Drake himself had a relatively average success rate with women. He felt like an underdog but carried himself with the confidence that he wouldn’t be for long.

On Come Home The Kids Miss You, Jack Harlow bears the same sensibility. He’s sort of always had a similar outlook and an introspective approach. But now, his circumstances somehow match both the confidence and the humility. He’s got multiple No. 1s to his name, but he’s also an outsider in hip-hop (so much as rapping-ass white guys can still be considered outliers in a world where Eminem still tops the album chart and Lil Dicky makes poop jokes on a hit cable TV show).

So when Jack shoots his shot at pop stars as he does on “Dua Lipa,” which not only name-checks the British singer but also accurately predicts the inevitable Twitter backlash for doing so, it does give “heart-eye emojis in the comments” energy — but success doesn’t seem completely out of reach. When Jack titles one of the bouncier tracks “I Got A Shot,” you believe him.

The parallels to the prologue don’t stop there. With every successive generation reaching back a couple of decades for inspiration – Drake famously leaned heavily on ‘90s R&B samples throughout his oeuvre – it might be odd to think that it’s time for Gen Z rappers to begin mining the platinum era. But that time has come – sorry, fellow Millennials, you’re officially old now – as Harlow looks to 106&Park mainstays like Pharrell and Snoop Dogg’s “Beautiful” for “Side Piece,” Tweet’s “My Place” for “Lil Secret,” and Fergie’s “Glamorous” for his chart-topping single “First Class.”

In this, Harlow defies convention as much as his new mentor did with Comeback Season and So Far Gone. The defining sound of our modern era is very much “808s and trap breaks”; with Come Home, Jack signals what perhaps could be the next evolution of the sound for the still-young decade ahead – just like someone we know. He’s willing to take the risk of diverging from the mainstream with his glossy collection of synth horns harkening back to the days when T.I. and Bow Wow held radio in a chokehold. But he’s also perfectly positioned to be the one to spark this latest nostalgia wave, what with TikTok being deluged in 2000s hits and radio playing a song sampling Mariah Carey four times an hour.

In my review for Harlow’s debut album, That’s What They All Say (I love his penchant for wordy titles), I pointed to the Kentucky MC’s potential and obvious passion and love for the craft of rap. On Come Home, he certainly lives up to that potential – perhaps even exceeds it – by pairing it with ambition. Before, Jack was satisfied with walking in the footsteps of prior greats. Now, it looks very much like he intends to make some of his own.

Come Home The Kids Miss You is out now on Atlantic. Get it here.

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s never a good sign when a company has two widely publicized incidents on its hands. Live Nation discovered as much in the wake of Astroworld Festival with the attack on Drakeo The Ruler at Once Upon A Time In LA just a month later, and now, the security company that worked Astroworld is learning the same lesson. According to Buzzfeed News, Contemporary Services Corp. is one of North America’s largest event-security companies — and may face added scrutiny after the recent Netflix Is A Joke Fest show where Dave Chappelle was tackled by an armed man during his set.

Even worse, Buzzfeed’s report found that CSC’s practices may have opened the door for these failures. Due to hiring inexperienced staff as independent contractors, CSC shields itself from liability at the expense of the overall safety of events. One staffer told Buzzfeed, “We were told there was going to be a big crowd and to get them in as fast as possible. There were no details on what that meant and how to do it — just get them in as fast as possible.”

Incidentally, just before he was tackled by the 23-year-old Isaiah Lee, who had a concealed knife on him (in the shape of a gun), Chappelle joked about “increased threats against comedians” as an oblique reference to the Oscars, where Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage. Chappelle had brought members of his own security onstage, and it was them who subdued Lee, although Chappelle later joked that he, Busta Rhymes, Jamie Foxx, and (lol) Jon Stewart had “stomped” Lee backstage.

Meanwhile, the venue, the world-famous Hollywood Bowl, is “reviewing its “existing procedures both internally and with the assistance of outside experts.” CSC, which also worked the Astroworld Festival and the Route 91 Harvest festival in 2017, is reportedly named in a number of lawsuits from event attendees and former staff, including those stemming from the Astrowold disaster. In 2020, CSC, along with MGM and Live Nation, settled a lawsuit with 4,400 people impacted by the mass shooting for $800 million.

The cutest and bravest good boy in Ukraine is over there saving lives every day, and he’s finally receiving the recognition that he deserves for fighting Putin-led atrocities. And hopefully some treats, too.

All due credit for a job well done is going out to a Jack Russell terrier named Patron, who has been out on the field with minesweepers since the Russian invasion began. All told, he’s busted over 200 explosive devices, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy brought Patron out (as revealed in the above USA Today video) to recognize his devoted work in front of the whole world.

The BBC notes that Patron has been hailed as a “a national hero, a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance against Russia,” and Zelenskyy recognized the precious pup as “wonderful little sapper Patron.” He’s only two-and-a-half years old, but he’s getting it done, and look at that wagging tail! Patron also proudly posed atop a pile of neutralized explosives, and the world could really use some more frequent good news like this.

Patron deserves all of the belly rubs. There’s no word on whether he got those from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was also on hand for the weekend ceremony. Ukrainian grandmas and dogs: we don’t deserve ’em.

(Via USA Today & BBC)