Month: May 2022

For the past two weeks, Kellyanne Conway has been aggressively promoting her new book, Here’s the Deal, which reflects back on her time working for both Donald Trump‘s campaign and his administration during his one term as president. While Conway still remains a steadfast supporter for Trump, she has been vocal that he lost the 2020 election and claims she told him as much. So it really didn’t come as a surprise when the former president took to Truth Social on Thursday and blasted his former adviser. Pushing back on the Big Lie is a huge no-no.

“Kellyanne Conway never told me that she thought we lost the election,” Trump wrote. “If she had I wouldn’t have dealt with her any longer – she would have been wrong – could go back to her crazy husband.”

Again, not a surprising reaction from Trump who has always been notoriously thin-skinned. However, according to Conway, his reaction did catch her off-guard because she had recently been shown a glowing statement about her book that he was going to release until something changed.

“I was given a statement last night that he was going to put out — a beautiful statement about the book and our relationship and how hard we had worked together,” Conway told Mediaite’s The Interview podcast shortly after Trump’s remarks. “So somebody worked overtime between last evening and this morning to have him put that statement out.”

Conway then proceeded to call out Trump’s inner-circle who “have their own interests at hand” even though she knows they “privately” say Trump lost. But despite her belief that Trump has been poisoned by sycophants (Mark Meadows is a name that comes up often), Conway says she’d gladly work on Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign “if he would have me.”

(Via Mediaite)

For millions of people, the idea of being in agreement with Tucker Carlson on anything is as laughable as it is terrifying. But on Thursday night, in a rare moment of empathy, the Fox News host seemed genuinely appalled to learn that police in Uvalde, Texas waited approximately one hour before entering Robb Elementary School, while a teen shot and killed 21 people, including 19 schoolchildren.

As Mediaite reports, Carlson—who, earlier this week, was blaming the shooting on COVID lockdowns—played a clip of Texas governor Greg Abbott praising the “amazing courage” of the police officers who risked their own lives by “running toward gunfire for the singular purpose of trying to save lives.” Yet based on new interviews and information, Carlson questioned the veracity of Abbott’s statement. While the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that police officers were on the scene at the time of the gunman’s arrival, and engaged with him immediately, Carlson was more interested in what an eyewitness to the events saw.

Juan Carranza, who lives next to the school, told the Associated Press that he saw the gunman crash his truck outside of the school, pull out a rifle, and begin shooting at a pair of people outside a nearby funeral home. He then began shooting at the school before running inside. According to Carlson, Carranza stated that there were no officers at the school to engage him, and that when law enforcement did arrive “they didn’t do anything at all for about an hour. In fact, parents had to beg the police to save their children.” Which… is quite a different tale.

Shockingly, Carlson has seen the videos that have emerged in the wake of the shooting and agreed that they corroborate what Carranza said happened. In the meantime, rumors are swirling that some officers did enter the school sooner—but only to remove their own children, which Carlson described as “a moral crime at the very least.”

Carlson also played clips from a Thursday press conference in which police officials were basically able to confirm very few details—except the fact that their initial statement that the gunman had been immediately engaged was, in fact, untrue.

“So the point is not to point fingers or blame people,” Carlson said. “Nobody wants a school shooting. Everyone’s heart is broken by it, but the authorities are not allowed to lie to us in the aftermath of an event like this.”

Carlson then took his anger even further when he concluded: “No matter how pro-law enforcement you are—and we are—there’s only so much B.S. you can take in the face of a tragedy like this.”

You can watch the full video at Mediate here.

(Via Mediaite)

The Dallas Mavericks’ season came to an end on Thursday evening in San Francisco. The team took on the Golden State Warriors in their second win-or-go-home game of the Western Conference Finals, but unlike their win in Game 4, the Mavericks came up a bit short. By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Warriors picked up a 120-110 win to punch their ticket to their first NBA Finals since 2019.

Luka Doncic put up his usual big numbers in Game 5, going for 28 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and a steal in 40 minutes of work. Despite that, he had a poor shooting night — 10-for-28 from the field, 3-for-13 from three — and saw his team get outscored by 12 points when he was on the floor. After the game, Doncic did not mince his words when asked about his performance.

“I don’t like losing, especially like this,” Doncic said, per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “I played terrible.”

Doncic was also critical of his defense, saying that while he is proud of the “huge step” he took forward on that end of the floor, “there’s so much room for improvement. I’ve got to be way better there. I think that’s one spot that can take us to the next level.” But despite this, he made it a point to praise Dallas for going as far as they did this year.

“If we talk about our season, I’m really proud of this team — everybody, every player, every staff member,” Doncic said. “Nobody had us here. But I promise we fought until the end. Congratulations to Warriors. They were obviously the better team. But I’m really proud of this team.”

It’s pretty rare for a festival lineup to genuinely have something for everyone. You’ll have your hot pop headliners, your buzzy R&B/hip-hop/dance acts a few lines below, a few indie acts in the undercard, maybe a smattering of punk and metal, and probably a couple of big rock legacy names. But for those who want to dig deep into any facet of the music world at a major festival, it’s pretty lean out there.

This is where the Barcelona institution Primavera Sound comes in. When they say they have something for everyone, they really mean it. The first thing that’ll strike you about its lineup is how much of it there is — there are two stacked weekends at the actual festival ground, Parc del Fòrum, plus the full week in between featuring venue shows around the city. And from the big fonts to the small, you can find both the most relevant current artists and some genuinely legendary legacy acts from all over the spectrum: pop, indie, hip-hop, dance, R&B, punk.

Headliners for 2022 range from The Strokes, Pavement and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, to Megan Thee Stallion, Tyler, The Creator, and Dua Lipa. Elsewhere, you can find Bikini Kill, 100 Gecs, Kacey Musgraves, Charli XCX, Big Thief, Run The Jewels, Sky Ferreira, Little Simz, The Jesus & Mary Chain, and still more exciting names than could comfortably fit in a list. It’s the kind of festival lineup that makes your jaw drop.

This year the festival celebrates its 20th edition, which was of course supposed to be in 2020. (And while this feature focuses on the Barcelona iteration, there are also set to be spin-offs this year in Porto, LA, Santiago, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.) For a long time it was a purely indie and alt festival, but beginning with a 2014 headline set from Kendrick Lamar, its genre net has widened considerably.

“Some of the people who started back on the first edition are still working here. But our booking department has grown a lot, and [now] it includes younger people, and way, way more female bookers,” says Head of International Press Marta Pallarès. “So we keep some of the roots and the origins of those lineups, but with our tastes evolving and new people coming to the festival, the lineups became more diverse. [But] the festival grew with a very clear philosophy about what is Primavera and what isn’t. We start thinking as a whole, and at some point we say yes, of course Megan Thee Stallion makes sense with Phoenix, or Jorja Smith with Interpol.”

“The way we decide is — do we really like this artist, would we go to see this artist if we were part of the audience? It’s sort of a commitment never to do a festival that we don’t believe in,” adds Comms Director Joan Pons. “And all the people that have spent all of their lives listening to music such as me or Marta, our criteria change. It’s like okay, maybe twelve years ago, Lorde was a pop artist that doesn’t belong to Primavera. But now it makes sense for her to be in our festival, because it makes sense for the playlist that someone in our audience is listening to every day to also have a Lorde song.”

He adds, “We remember one day [during the 2017 festival], Justin Vernon from Bon Iver looked at the running order of the stage that he played, and on the main stage it was Solange, Bon Iver, Slayer, and Aphex Twin. And he goes, ‘Wow, who’s the genius that made this running order?’ Because they’re such different artists, but it makes a lot of sense to have them all in the same day, because they are leading their genres to new expressions of music.”

It’s a true music lovers’ festival, and as such when its organizers talk about the Primavera experience, music is at the forefront. (That said, Barcelona in June at the oceanside Parc del Fòrum should be pretty spectacular in itself.) The ideal festival experience, explain Pallarès and Pons, would tick four boxes. The first, catching an artist you’ve always wanted to see but never gotten to; this year, that might be Pavement, Bikini Kill, or M.I.A., for example. The second, finding an artist you haven’t heard yet who becomes your new favorite; maybe that could be the fun-loving indie-poppers Beach Bunny, the pop-punk newcomers Meet Me @ The Altar, or the poet-slash-soul innovator Jamila Woods. The third, watching a set that’s a lot of fun; you could pick out eccentric hardcore crew The Armed, the intense hyperpop duo 100 Gecs, or the maverick rap of Tyler The Creator. And finally, checking out something that will challenge you; maybe that could be the extreme sounds of Lingua Ignota or Napalm Death, or else diving into any of the genres on display that aren’t usually your speed. And then, of course, there’s the climactic headliner Megan Thee Stallion, who could embody any one of those four categories, and is sure to be a highlight of the sprawling twelve days.

The platform of the festival comes with its responsibilities. Pallarès explains, “We always say that the festival has four big pillars. One of them being commitment to music. One being sustainability. The third one is everything related to social responsibility, with gender equality being the biggest one. And the fourth one is the commitment to the city.” Illustrating the third point, in 2019 Primavera became the first major festival to honor a 50/50 split of male and female artists. And to speak to the fourth, the Primavera a la Ciutat section of the festival — in between the two weekends — is aimed at supporting city venues that have suffered over the pandemic.

If this all sounds like a music fan’s dream, you wouldn’t be the first to say so. As Pallarès recalls: “The singer of Deerhunter said that he doesn’t know what heaven looks like, but he thinks that maybe St Peter is someone like the guy who every year delivers the keys to his room here. It is really, really nice to see that this could be a little paradise, at least for three or in this case twelve days — for artists, for audience, and also for the people who work here.”

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

Last year, Seth MacFarlane signed a $200 million overall deal with NBCUniversal, ending his long relationship with 20th Century Fox Television. The Family Guy creator is no fan of Fox or, specifically, Fox News. “Tucker Carlson’s latest opinion piece once again makes me wish Family Guy was on any other network. Look, Fox, we both know this marriage isn’t working anymore. The sex is only once a year, I don’t get along with your mother, and well… I’ve been having an affair with NBC,” he tweeted.

Unfortunately for MacFarlane (although fortunately for his bank account), Family Guy isn’t going anywhere, but his sci-fi series The Orville has moved from Fox to Hulu, which he called an “absolute thrill” at the season three premiere this week.

“I want to say, it is an absolute thrill to not be on the Fox network. We never really belonged there. And they’ve curated a specific brand now. Between Beat Shazam, Name That Tune, and Don’t Forget the Lyrics!, Fox has really captured the demo of people who have no idea what song they’re listening to,” he joked. Macfarlane added that when he looks at Fox’s ratings, “I gotta hand it to them: It takes a special talent to pander to the lowest common denominator without actually getting them as an audience. That takes talent! But hey, we’re here on Hulu, thank God.”

Like someone who puts butter on a Pop Tart, Macfarlane feels so frickin’ good.

The Orville: New Horizons premieres on Hulu on June 2.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

WARNING: Spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi below.

To keep the Star Wars Celebration vibes going, Disney+ dropped the first two episodes of the highly-anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi series earlier than usual on Thursday night, and the maneuver paid off big time. The Ewan McGregor-fronted series immediately started trending thanks to a very surprising character reveal that has fans simultaneously tearing up and smiling with glee. We’re talking, of course, about Leia Organa.

All during Obi-Wan‘s announcement and development, there was zero mention of Leia appearing in the show, and kudos to Lucasfilm for making fans think Luke would be the focus of the show. To be clear, this isn’t some fan service cameo. Leia is an integral part of the series. She’s featured prominently in both of Obi-Wan‘s first two episodes, and despite fan theories about Kumail Nanjiani to the contrary, Leia’s presence is what kicks off the show’s story.

On top to being a welcome surprise, Star Wars fans were here for Bird Box actress Vivien Lyra Blair‘s performance that managed to meld together elements of Padme, Anakin, and Carrie Fisher‘s iconic strength and wit. As you can see by the reactions below, seeing little Leia interact with Obi-Wan and hold her own against larger foes brought out all of the feels. Plus, those outfits that were adorable callbacks to the original trilogy? C’mon.

The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are now streaming on Disney+.

In recent days, Rolling Stones leader Mick Jagger has taken to speaking on the new generation of artists. He compared Harry Styles to himself (not favorably) recently, but a few weeks before that, he offered some praise for Machine Gun Kelly, saying, “In rock music, you need energy and there have not been a lot of new rock singers around. Now there are a few: You have Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly. That kind of post-punk vibe makes me think there is still a bit of life in rock and roll.”

Well, MGK was on The Tonight Show yesterday and during his chat with Jimmy Fallon, he offered a reaction to the compliment.

Kelly noted he heard the news “on a bad day” and continued, “It was a day… I’m polarizing to people for some reason, so there was a lot of… you can just feel a lot of hate coming at you sometimes. I just remember, I was feeling it that morning, and then I read that quote, and then I just said… ‘I didn’t say it.’”

Elsewhere during the show, Kelly and Fallon did a “Mad Lib Theater” segment, so check that out below and watch the interview above.

Rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert loves guns. That might be the understatement of the year, given that she proudly posts family photos of all her sons brandishing firearms. She’s also the owner of Shooters Grill (and her employees have had plenty of dish to say about her management style), and she began her freshman (and possibly only) term by vowing to carry her Glock while strutting through the halls of Congress.

Boebert also famously railed against Nancy Pelosi for installing gun detectors at the U.S. Capitol following the insurrection, and she was triggered when SNL did a parody sketch about her gun obsession. She, of course, has responded to the Texas school shooting by sparring with AOC in a means to defend the Second Amendment at all costs to life and limb, and let’s just say that Boebert dragged out her most nonsensical argument yet while speaking to Sean Hannity about the evils of laws on gun restrictions.

“When 9/11 happened, we didn’t ban planes,” Boebert declared on Fox News. Also during the segment, she (counterintuitively) argued that more guns would have protected the 19 Ulvade schoolchildren who were killed by an 18-year-old gunman who had no problem buying two assault rifles: “This is my equalizer. I need a way to protect myself and my children.”

Boebert’s position is that teachers should be armed and schools should essentially become a military fortress, so that civilians can waltz around with AR-15s for freedom. Let’s just say that people had a ball while pointing out that 9/11 changed the entire structure of the airline industry. It also spawned a new government agency and an entirely new way of experiencing airport security. It’s created an entirely new set of restrictions that continue even today, and that was to prevent another tragedy that took about the same number of lives that guns do each month in the U.S. Yep, might be the “dumbest” thing that Boebert has ever said in public, according to Twitter.

The Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway brings it home.

A few days ago, Ed Sheeran announced a tour edition of his most recent album = (Equals), which dropped nine months ago. Since the release, he’s recruited Taylor Swift for a remix of “The Joker And The Queen” and then called on Lil Baby for a new take of “2Step.”

This new edition of = is out today, with the brand new songs “I Will Remember You” and “Welcome To The World,” along with two previously unreleased tracks “One Life” and “Penguins” that were both featured in the 2019 film Yesterday. It also features the aforementioned remixes that came after the initial record release, as well as his collaboration with Fireboy DML for “Peru” and with Bring Me The Horizon for “Bad Habits.” The latter crossover surprised everyone, despite Sheeran’s interest in heavy music: “I was really into death metal as a kid. I listened to Cradle Of Filth and Slipknot and all that stuff,” he said last summer.

“Released the Tour Edition of ‘=’ today,” Sheeran said in a statement. “9 extra tracks, including 2 brand new ones and 2 you might have heard in a film called Yesterday. I hope you love these songs as much as I do x.”

Listen to the new songs above and below.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

When Japandroids released their sophomore album Celebration Rock in 2012, fans and critics alike weren’t expecting such a strong follow-up to their revered debut album, Post-Nothing. Now revisiting Celebration Rock ten years later, Indiecast hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen reflect on the album’s legacy and how Japandroids successfully embraced old school rock clichés.

Speaking of veteran indie musicians, Wilco released their new album Cruel Country this week. It’s an album the band essentially recorded live and has quickly become one of Hyden’s favorite Wilco projects in the last 10 years. Perhaps the most talked-about song this week was Sky Ferriera’s “Don’t Forget,” which marked her second single in nine years. Elsewhere in the episode, Indiecast talk standout movie soundtracks and yet another Conor Oberst mishap.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian spotlights Sweet Pill’s new album Where The Heart Is. Steven gives a shout out to Dehd‘s fourth album Blue Skies, which shows the band’s progression to polished songwriting.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 90 below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.