Month: June 2022

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.

Tim Heidecker is an interesting bunch of guys. There is Tim Heidecker, the inventive co-star of the pioneering Adult Swim program Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Good Job! There is Tim Heidecker, the egomaniacal co-host of the popular web series On Cinema. There is Tim Heidecker, the L.A.-based husband and father who oversees the amiable podcast Office Hours. And then there’s Tim Heidecker, character actor and surprisingly (even shockingly) earnest singer-songwriter.

On the forthcoming album High School, due Friday, Heidecker the singer-songwriter has made his most straightforward and autobiographical album yet. A song cycle that looks back on his early ’90s adolescence with the sort of wistful sensitivity and wry specificity associated with ’70s soft rock titans like Paul Simon and Randy Newman — both of whom Heidecker has cited as personal favorites — High School evokes a pre-internet, Middle American, suburban world buoyed by references to Kurt Vonnegut, fiscal conservatism, Gulf War-era CNN reporter Peter Arnett, and Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon.” Depending on the age and background of the listener — Heidecker and I are around the same age and come from similar communities — it will feel eerily familiar and vivid 30 years after that world started to fade away forever.

Working with indie-rock ringers like Mac DeMarco and Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering, Heidecker evinces none of the chaotic irreverence toward show business that characterizes his comedy. While his early output as a musician — in combos such as Heidecker & Wood and the Yellow River Boys — can be classified as either parodies or jokey, character-based musical bits, High School essentially is the work of a traditionalist proudly situating his songs in the continuum of iconic, confessional writers dating back to the ’60s and ’70s. He’s come to salute his inspirations, not savage them.

While Heidecker has been moving in this direction for several years now, dating back to 2016’s In Glendale (which was inspired by becoming a parent, an extremely singer-songwriter subject for a singer-songwriter), an album like High School still might strike some Tim And Eric fans as strange or confusing. After all, isn’t Tim Heidecker also the monstrous caricature of a hack stand-up who complains about taking his wife to the opera? On his upcoming tour in support of High School, he will further muddy the waters by performing both his satirical stand-up and his “serious” music, side by side, across two separate sets.

When I spoke with Heidecker on the phone last month, he admitted that always using his own name no matter the project might have been a mistake, though “there’s part of me that thinks that’s interesting at the end of the day, that it is on you to figure out what’s going on here,” he said. “And maybe that’s ultimately more satisfying.”

Either way, it’s too late to change course now. “I think it would be stupid,” he added, “if I had a singer-songwriter persona that was named Dave Sexton or something.”

In your comedy, a lot of the humor comes from taking conventions of the media and show business and deconstructing them and putting them back together in these surreal and even grotesque shapes. But as a musician, you go in the opposite direction. You have an obvious reverence for the continuum of singer-songwriters going back to the ’60s and ’70s. What is it about this lonely corner of show business that inspires such devotion?

I don’t know if I have a great answer. I think even in the Tim and Eric stuff, there’s love — you got to love it and know it to make fun of it. But it really is two completely different parts of my creative brain. Making fun of things and pointing out the hypocrisy or the grotesqueness of certain elements of media, that’s one part of how I have expressed myself. With the music, it is about trying to make a record that I’m genuinely proud of, that I would want to listen to. I enjoy working with very talented musicians who also like that kind of music. I’m letting another part of my personality come out in a less veiled way, though it still ends up being confusing because people don’t know if this is part of the joke or not.

I know you’re a fan of Randy Newman, who is among the best songwriters at melding humor with music. But generally speaking, that’s a really difficult combination to pull off. If you push too far in either direction, it’s either not funny or it rings false on an emotional level.

Newman’s songs generally come from a point of view that isn’t necessarily him. He’s playing characters a lot of the time, but sometimes he doesn’t, and that’s always interesting. I got to interview him a few months ago for Office Hours, and he was super nice. There’s a song of his called “My Country,” it’s on Bad Love, I think. There’s a line about how when his kids come over, he’s always happy to see them, but he’s also relieved when they leave. And I was like, “Is that you?” And he’s like, “Yeah, that’s me checking in.”

Obviously, there’s Yellow River Boys and a few Trump songs of mine that are more like a character singing. But in my songs it’s more or less me, or at least the way I’m thinking that day. It’s not so much a character. The big mistake I made is that I have just adopted my own name in all these different parts of my expression. You have Tim Heidecker the standup comedian and Tim Heidecker the guy from On Cinema and Tim Heidecker from Tim and Eric. Some of them aren’t me at all, and some of them are closer to me.

You and I are around the same age, so the numerous references to very specific early ’90s pop culture on High School really hit home. First instance, in the song “Stupid Kid,” you write about seeing Neil Young on television playing “Harvest Moon” backed by a guy sweeping a broom, and being inspired by that to play music. Are you referring to a specific performance? I have clear memories of him playing that song on Saturday Night Live and MTV Unplugged.

What I realized later after writing it — and I didn’t go back and change it because it just worked out too well — is that I thought it was him on SNL, playing solo. But there was another version that was him with a small band. I think it was on The Tonight Show, and he did have a guy with the broom. Do you remember that? It was the percussion element of that song. And it was sort of like the brushes on a snare, but it was a broom. It was very memorable. I’m sure somebody had to mike the broom.

After doing some research I think it was actually MTV Unplugged.

Well, then that’s the unreliable narrator in the telling, a total mash of two different experiences. But the core of it is the same. It was back in the day before YouTube and places where you can find chord sheets and lyrics. You had to do it on your own and figure it out by watching it and writing the lyrics down. What he’s doing is in some ways very attainable. I could figure out those chords and I could do that cool harmonic thing he does. Though there’s an ocean of difference between me doing it as a 16-year-old kid and him doing it on TV.

There’s a funny line in that song about how you didn’t like the studio version of “Harvest Moon” at first because it sounded too slick. It made me think about the style of your own records, which really emulate that specific kind of impeccable ’70s SoCal studio craft. One of your collaborators, Jonathan Rado, is a real student of that production style. What do you like about that style?

When I started with Davin Wood, we were in my little studio garage with Logic and MIDI and simulated sounds. You can do fake organs or fake synths or fake strings or whatever. Hooking up with Jonathan, in his garage, he had an actual tape machine and he had microphones and a piano and a bunch of good, vintage instruments. It was how they used to make records. It was capturing a performance. You weren’t going in there and editing and changing and doing all this work — you were getting a few people together in a room, hitting record, playing it four times, getting the take and then going back and working on that take.

It’s so much fun to do it that way, because you’re playing together and looking at each other and reacting to each other. There’s a magic in that recording. Everything on the last three records I’ve done, you are listening to a moment in time when people came together. I just am so grateful and lucky that there is this community of players out here that love doing that, too, and are around. Rado gets really busy and he’s producing people like The Killers. This record was me and Drew Erickson, who did Fear Of Death with me, and Natalie Mering [of Weyes Blood] and Mac DeMarco, who also has a similar setup as Rado.

Kurt Vile is also on the new record. How have you formed relationships with all of these indie rock people?

I think I’m lucky in that I’ve done a body of work that all those people like and grew up with. Some of them are a little younger, some of them are around my age, but they all are coming from being fans. They appreciate what I do and they’re supportive. I sent my record to Kurt because I sent him my last record and I got to know him a few years ago through friends and him reaching out. And I like sharing my music with him because he’s very supportive of it and very positive about it. I feel safe with these people, I guess. We’re all trying to do the same thing and they have validated my journey a little bit. I’m in awe of them. Certainly Kurt, I think his past few records have been fantastic. Weyes Blood, in my opinion, she’s just a generational talent. Kevin Morby is another guy that I love who has been very supportive of my music. And I’m like, well, I’m a fan, too. Let’s figure it out, let’s do something together. It’s pretty organic. I’m trying not to be manipulative or strategic about it.

To go back to Neil Young for a second, the thing I find most fascinating about him is looking at the arc of his career and noting all the things he’s done, and just his willingness to fuck with his audience time after time. The same can also be said of Bob Dylan, obviously. I imagine that aspect of those old singer-songwriters must have been inspiring for you.

This is a joke on my podcast, because at one point I said, “I’m like Dylan.” And now the guys have that as a sample because every time I say anything, they play the clip of me saying, “I’m like Dylan.” But Dylan did make me understand what I wanted to do, and to not really worry about how it’s received, and to not cater to an audience or be afraid to step out of my boundaries, of what people expect from me. It’s not a guarantee of success, but you can’t think about what people expect from you or what you’re supposed to do. He did that so early in his career. Two years in, he’s already throwing out the playbook and starting over or giving people what they don’t think they want.

Some people are very comfortable and good at just doing this one thing. The example that makes the most sense to me is Larry David. Larry David is just Larry David and he’s been doing it for his whole life and it totally works. There’s no reason to expect him to do anything else. Good. But I’m not built that way. It’s depressing to me to think about getting stuck in a mode and just being that one thing over and over again. I’m much more interested in just exploring and experimenting and trying to grow and get better.

It’s hilarious to me that the Grammys gave Bob Dylan a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991, a few months before he turned 50. The assumption at the time was that he was washed up. And here he is, more than 30 years later, still going.

I mean, the last 30 years, in a lot of ways, have been more interesting and better than his first 20 years.

Many of the songs on the record are vignettes from your childhood. What moved you to write about that period of your life?

What’s happened lately with music for me is there’ll be a song that really comes from out of nowhere. Like “Buddy,” for whatever reason that was in my head. There are some people from high school that I have not thought about or checked in with, and I wonder if they’re okay. They didn’t seem great last time I saw them. And then I’ll have some other songs that aren’t really about anything and I’ll realize, oh, maybe I should start thinking about those days. And then it gets pretty literal.

It was interesting to see what were some of the things that made me who I was that I hadn’t thought about for a while. Like Kurt Vonnegut — I hadn’t thought about or read Kurt Vonnegut in a long time. Or Neil Young and classic rock radio. Or my relationship with my parents and their supportiveness and their encouragement. Just all that stuff that with some distance, it’s not cringey anymore. It’s beautiful.

I grew up in the suburbs. I did not have a deep well of culture available to me. I had what was at the record store, what was on MTV and some older cousins and older friends who were into cool things. That turned me onto cool things.

I had a similar childhood around the same time. It’s pre-internet, not a lot of culture, there’s a couple record stores in town, but you’re really relying on MTV and music magazines. And it does seem maybe more precious now because that world is gone, and as bad as it was in a lot of ways, there’s that melancholy because you can’t go back.

I remember I would get Rolling Stone, and there would be an essential album section. And that’s where I heard about Pet Sounds. It’s where I heard about the first Velvet Underground record. And Astral Weeks. The records that are on all the lists, but they’re really great. And they blew my mind. Listening to the Andy Warhol Velvet Underground record, I really needed that record when I found it. It was really important to me. I wouldn’t have found it without Rolling Stone. Somebody might have turned me onto it, but that’s how I found out about that.

There are definitely downsides to having a music canon, but those lists really did have value at the time when you couldn’t just go online to learn about music.

I don’t even know if the internet is helpful in that regard. It’s not pointing people towards taste and it’s not shaping taste. It’s just there for you to learn more about something if you found it, but I don’t know how people discover the past or what was great in the past.

You reference Kurt Vonnegut in the song “Sirens Of Titan.” I wanted to ask you about this lyric: “I was a little shit, a little right wing / When he said he loved Clinton. I couldn’t help but disagree / I was fiscally conservative until I got that college degree.” That, again, seems like a relatable Middle American experience growing up in the ’90s.

I mean, I was at a Kurt Vonnegut lecture that he was giving at Lehigh University, and he did make a remark about voting for Clinton. And I booed. This was Clinton versus Bush. I did something that I think actually caused him to walk off stage. I was a product of my family at that point. My parents were always very cool about cultural issues for the most part. It wasn’t like a Christian fundamentalist home. But my dad was a Goldwater Republican — small government and business-minded.

I think the dam was about to break there a little bit for me. R.E.M. and that kind of activism liberal perspective was starting to seep into my brain and make me feel like, wait, what do I believe in? But it took a while and I think it really was going to Philly. I was assigned the Howard Zinn book and I was educated about history and about sociology and why people do things and it opened my mind to different points of view. It made me more empathetic and more hopeful that there can be civic-minded solutions to people’s problems.

I thought it was gutsy to write about that, because that’s a pretty common trajectory where you just adopt your parents’ politics until you get to a certain age.

It’s funny that when I am an outspoken critic of the right, people assign that to me being this Hollywood liberal and I’m like, I’ve been like this well before I had any breaks in this business.

You’re going to be playing music and doing standup on this tour. Do you find that the audience who likes your comedy also likes your music? Or are those separate constituencies?

The stand-up character is a character, a little one-act play. You’re going to see this awful, toxic, terrible person. What happened when I did the show in New York was fascinating, because the crowd was so on my side as a comedian and they were pretending to be on my side because you’d have to be an idiot to be entertained and enjoy his point of view. So, that’s the first half of the show. And then there’s a very short break, and I come out and play music. I’m not up there super serious, either. I’m able to tell jokes and be a little loose, but treat the music seriously. The band is fantastic. They’re really good players who are having fun. So it’s 45 minutes of stand-up and an hour and a half of music. Just for me and for the people I talked to at the show, it wasn’t confusing. I mean, I changed my outfit. When you look at the pictures, they do seem like two completely different people.

I guess you have to quickly unslick your hair?

I put a hat on and it’s a total magic show. It’s like a Clark Kent/Superman thing.

Jennifer Lopez’s new Netflix documentary Halftime gives fans an inside look at the process of creating her iconic 2020 Super Bowl halftime show. The documentary also looks back on her career, and the scrutiny she received in the press.

After the 2000 Grammys, where Lopez wore the famous green dress, much attention went to her backside. The documentary shows a clip of 2002 interview with Billy Bush, in which, Bush asks Lopez, “How do you feel about your butt?”

J.Lo responds, “Are you kidding me? You did not just ask me that.”

“I did,” said Bush.

In the documentary, Lopez recalled this, and several other moments, and said, “It was hard when you think people think you’re a joke, like you’re a punchline. But I wound up affecting things in a way that I never intended to affect them.”

Over the years, Lopez has achieved several remarkable feats in the realms of music and film. However, she admits that she felt people felt more focused on her body, her marriages, and her rumored diva-like behavior, as opposed to her art.

“No matter what I achieved, their appetite to cover my personal life overshadowed everything that was happening in my career,” Lopez said. “I just had very low self-esteem. I really believed a lot of what they said, which was that I wasn’t any good — I wasn’t a good singer, I wasn’t a good actress, I wasn’t a good dancer, I wasn’t good at anything. I just didn’t even belong here why wouldn’t I just go away.”

In the days leading up to her halftime performance, fans see the process that went into planning the portion of the show in which children appear in neon-light cages in protest of the detainment of immigrant children in ICE detention centers. Higher-ups from the NFL initially wanted to cut this portion, but Lopez refused to give into their requests.

“For me, this isn’t about politics; this is about human rights,” She said. “I’m facing the biggest crossroads of my life — being able to perform on the biggest stage of my life, but to take out the cages and sacrifice everything I believe in would be like never being here at all.”

The ongoing racketeering case against Young Thug, Gunna, and YSL Records has drawn increased scrutiny to the use of organized crime laws to prosecute musicians — especially rappers — using their lyrics as evidence of supposed criminal activity. While many have spoken out against this practice, including rival rappers like The Game and YFN Lucci, and YSL’s parent label 300 Entertainment’s founder Kevin Liles has posted a petition on Change.org, the people fans likely most want to hear from are the ones who are currently locked up in Fulton County Jail without bond.

To that end, Gunna has shared an open letter through his publicist asserting his innocence. You can read the letter in full below.

June 14th
2022 has been one of the best years of my life, despite this
difficult situation.
This year I had the whole world pushing P.
Growing up from where I come from in a marginalized neighborhood, I never dreamt my art would change my life and the lives of, my loved ones. My entire life, I’ve seen Black Men, Black Women, and Black Children constantly attacked, hated, murdered, berated, belittled, silenced, judged, used, and held captive.
I used my art form, my gift from God, to change my circumstance. I worked, I honed my craft, I worked, I empowered Black Women in my industry, I worked, I lived in the recording studio, I worked, I lived on the road, I worked. I worked every day to show God how grateful I am for my gift, for my art, for, life and to be able to provide for my loved ones.
For 110, I don’t have my freedom. But I am innocent. I am being
falsely accused and will never stop fighting to clear my name:

The picture that is being painted of me is ugly and untrue. My fans know I love to celebrate life, I love my family, I love travel, I love music, I love my fans. I have all faith that God will grant me justice for the purity in my heart and the innocence of my actions.
Ass Black Man in America, it seems as though my art is only acceptable when Is a source of entertainment for the masses. My art is not allowed to stand alone as entertainment, I’m not allowed that freedom as a Black Man in America. It is a sad reality that slavery is still alive in America today and still affecting my people. In 12 states more than half of the prison population is Black, one of those states is Georgia.
Nothing will stop me from chasing my dreams, I won’t stop being a good person, even if some unnamed and unknown accusers want the world to see me as a bad person. When I was free, I tried to be good and kind to the community around me and, when I am released, I will do the same thing all over again.
We still pushing P: Power, Prayer, Progress, Passion, Productivity, Praise, Precision, Peace, Prosperity, Patience, Pride, and Persistence.

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

Only Murders in the Building has been a delightful success on Hulu thanks to the chemistry between its all-star cast of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. The trio worked so well that, at one point, there was talk of getting them to host the Oscars together. While Martin and Short’s comedic relationship stretches back decades, Gomez is obviously a new addition to their duo. But according to a new interview with Short, her comedic timing was scorching right out of the gate.

While talking to Deadline, Short opened up about the moment that Gomez joined the cast of Only Murders, and what it was like bringing in a much younger star. (Spoiler alert: She burned him good.)

“She’s such a great actress ’cause she pretended to know who we were,” Martin joked before revealing the moment Gomez made him feel his age. “I said, ‘Selena, what did you do when you found out you were working with me?’ And she said, ‘I Googled you.’”

Damn, Selena Gomez. Of course, the interaction was all in good fun, and Only Murders quickly became an audience favorite at Hulu who wasted no time in getting a second season together despite the pandemic. The first season just ended back in October, but Season 2 is already set to start streaming on June 28. That’s one heck of a turnaround.

(Via Deadline Hollywood on Twitter)

Amber Heard’s multi-part TODAY interview (with Savannah Guthrie) continues to unfurl after the morning show showed how the actress alleged unfair treatment on social media. It’s something that she believes led to the jury’s verdicts — that both she and Depp were guilty of defamation against each other, but she somehow was on the hook for $15 million against Depp’s own $2 million in damages. This, surprisingly, led Joe Rogan to sympathize with Amber, and there’s no telling how she’ll ever be able to pay for those damages with her own career left in tatters as he could gain a resurrection.

More of Amber’s discussion with Guthrie revealed her insistence that she was truthful at all moments in court (“To my dying day, I’ll stand by every word of my testimony”), but she didn’t stand a chance given the environment in and surrounding the courthouse. Jurors were non-sequestered and able to view all those viral TikToks that lampooned her testimony. Via Variety, here’s how Amber described the chaotic courtroom circus:

“I think even the most well-intentioned juror…it would have been impossible to avoid this. Every single day I passed three, four, sometimes six city blocks lined with people holding signs saying ‘Burn the Witch,’ ‘Death to Amber.” After three and a half weeks, I took the stand and saw a courtroom packed full of Captain Jack Sparrow fans who were vocal, energized.”

She also adding her own interpretation of the First Amendment, saying, “It’s a freedom to speak truth to power, and that’s alI I spoke. I spoke it to power and I paid the price.”

Amber further pointed out that she didn’t understand how she was accused of performative testimony under the circumstances:

“Says the lawyer for the man who convinced the world he had scissors for fingers? I’m the performer? I had listened to weeks of testimony insinuating or saying quite directly that I’m a terrible actress, so I’m a bit confused how I could be both.”

Amber also alleged that audio footage revealed in court was heavily edited after Guthrie questioned her regarding testimony that Amber may have instigated fights with Depp:

“I know much has been made of these audiotapes. They were first leaked online after being edited. What you would hear in those clips are not evidence of what was happening. It was evidence of a negotiation of how to talk about that with your abuser.”

Meanwhile, Depp appears to be embracing that legion of TikTok fans by joining the platform, and there are still plenty of questions surrounding allegations that a paid army of bots fueled an anti-Amber campaign for years. In addition, IndieWire detailed how Hollywood insiders remain skeptical that fans alone can push Depp toward reinvigoration at the box office, particularly after several of his movies flopped, and alleged substance abuse (and “Marlon Brando-scale set behavior”) may have contributed to production hiccups. In summation, it sure doesn’t feel like there are any winners here.

(Via Variety, TODAY & IndieWire)

As the Golden State Warriors move one win away from their fourth NBA title in the last seven years, the rest of the league is beginning to ramp up their discussions around the upcoming NBA Draft.

We’ve already had one trade, as the Nuggets moved JaMychal Green and a 2027 first to the Thunder for the 30th pick in the draft, and that figures to be the first of many, with a number of teams in the lottery and mid-first round all looking to make moves for veterans. The question, of course, is whether there are enough teams out there looking to move their veterans for draft capital, which may create a bit of a sellers market for those squads.

Among the teams reportedly making their first round pick available are the Chicago Bulls, who hold the 18th overall pick and are seeking an upgrade to their frontcourt. After some rumblings that Zach LaVine might open up his free agency recruitment to other teams, it appears the Bulls got the message and are willing to play ball on discussing the five-year max LaVine wants, per Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, making them likely to retain the star swingman. However, retaining LaVine puts the pressure on to contend immediately, and the immediate need is in the frontcourt, where Nikola Vucevic struggled to capture the same magic he had in Orlando in years past.

Per Fischer, the Bulls are “actively discussing” trade packages centered on Coby White and the 18th overall pick, with other salary filler possibly included (including Vucevic if it were to be for a bigger name). It seems unlikely that Rudy Gobert ends up being the main target as they aren’t willing to part with Patrick Williams in those discussions, but other bigs on the market could be in play for Chicago.

Myles Turner in Indiana is, once again, finding his way into trade rumors and would fit Chicago’s defensive needs, but trading within the division is always a bit tricky — although Indiana has shown a willingness to do so after dealing Caris LeVert to Cleveland. The Hawks are open for business and if Clint Capela doesn’t end up in a deal for Deandre Ayton or Gobert, he may be an option for the Bulls to consider.

It’s clear that the Bulls recognize that their end-of-season struggles weren’t solely the result of injuries and that upgrades are needed to contend in the top-heavy East, and they’ll go into this month’s draft hoping to make a win-now move for a big man.

Fleet Foxes are one of the most respected indie bands of their generation, and to a degree, that has been reflected on the charts: Helplessness Blues peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 while Crack-Up topped out at No. 9. As is often the case with indie bands, though, while the albums perform well, they haven’t had much success with singles on the Hot 100. In fact, before this week, Robin Pecknold and company had yet to get a song onto the chart.

This week, though, that changed: Post Malone’s “Love/Hate Letter To Alcohol,” a collaboration with Fleet Foxes from Twelve Carat Toothache, debuted at No. 70 on the new Hot 100 chart dated June 18, giving the band their first-ever appearance on the chart.

The band was pretty happy about the accomplishment: On Instagram, the accounts for both the band and Pecknold shared a graphic noting the chart debut, with Fleet Foxes adding heart and sparkle emojis and Pecknold going with the “call me hand” emoji (which is also used to represent a shaka sign).

This collaboration was a long time coming: Posty called Pecknold a “great writer” in 2018, then in 2020, Pecknold said of his friendship with Malone, “He’ll text me every once in a while and it’s always a really fun thing to receive. To have that pop up in my iMessages, it always feels like a glitch in the Matrix or something. […] He’s a super sweet guy, he’s a real gentleman, and he’s probably the best melody writer in the business right now, I think. And by some glitch in the Matrix, we have a casual friendship.”

[This post contains spoilers for Stranger Things season four]

The new “Bob Odenkirk spoiled the Better Call Saul midseason finale months ago” is “Gaten Matarazzo spoiling Stranger Things season four years ago.”

Back in 2016, the cast of the Netflix show, including Matarazzo (Dustin), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Noah Schnapp (Will), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), and Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), spoke to AOL’s Build series (remember, this was 2016) about the unexpected breakout success of season one. They also discussed their favorite fan theories. “There’s this one in this video and he was saying how other test subjects, besides Eleven, like, 1 through 10, most of them are dead,” Matarazzo said. “But others were banished to the Upside Down. Like, they couldn’t get out.” Sounds familiar!

After referencing the effects the Upside Down had on Will, he reiterated the theory that the influence of the mysterious alternate dimension eventually morphed one of the test subjects into the season one monster: the Demogorgon. Now, if you watched season four, you’ll know that this 2016 theory isn’t far off from what was revealed at the end of volume one. Specifically, viewers learned that Vecna, the mind-controlling monster murdering the teenagers of Hawkins, Indiana, was Dr. Martin Brenner’s first test subject, Henry Creel (later renamed 001).

This will only further encourage people on Reddit to throw fan theories at the wall and see what sticks. You never know when your “Adam Scott from Severance is actually one of the cannibals on Yellowjackets” theory will come true years down the line.

Stranger Things season four returns for two more (very long) episodes on July 1.

(Via E! Online)

On January 6, 2021, millions of people watched on in horror as hundreds of insurrectionists busted through security barriers and crashed through windows to illegally enter and attempt to overtake the Capitol building. Those images were horrifying to watch in real time, but were practically PG-rated compared to the security camera footage and other never-before-seen videos that have been brought forth during the first two days of the hearings surrounding the attack. Yet Marjorie Taylor Greene seems to have somehow have missed ALL of this, as she’s demanding to know why we haven’t seen any photographic evidence of the supposed MAGA coup… Say what?

As Raw Story reports, the Georgia congresswoman was interviewed by Right Side Broadcasting on Monday and complained about how she was being partly blamed for the events of January 6, but seemed confused about whether she was admitting that there was a violent attack on the Capitol or not.

“Third day on the job, the Capitol gets breached, then they blame me and President Trump and many other Republican members of Congress for doing it,” Greene complained. “I was so shocked, and I’ll tell you what was so shocking: I thought the Capitol was the most secure building in our country, at least.”

When the host noted that the Capitol is outfitted with thousands of cameras, Greene wildly claimed that “Well there are lots of cameras, but you can’t see the video footage. I don’t know why you can’t.” Again: Say what?

Even if Greene truly HAS totally managed to avoid seeing ANY photographic evidence of the violence at the Capitol on January 6, the House Select Committee played an 11-minute video of never-seen-before footage (which you can see below) during its first primetime hearing last Thursday night. So it would follow that she’s not watching those either.

As Raw Story writes:

[T]here have been massive releases of video and photographic evidence, including images taken by the insurrectionists themselves. The U.S. Dept. of Justice, and the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack have released video and photographic evidence. There was also video and photographic evidence released by the House impeachment managers during Donald Trump’s second impeachment.

Yet, somehow, any and all video footage of that day seems to have eluded poor Margie. Amazingly, not everyone seems to believe Greene, who is a big fan of the “I don’t recall” defense.

(Via Raw Story)

Day 2 of the January 6th select committee’s hearings — and a reportedly sh*tfaced Rudy Giuliani urging Donald Trump to simply declare victory on Election Night 2020 — were at the forefront of every late night talk show host’s mind and monologue on Monday, Jimmy Kimmel included. But Kimmel also made sure to reserve some time to talk about the fascinating/disgusting rumors coming out of Russia that pooping in a suitcase is part of Vladmir Putin’s brilliant plan to win the Russia Ukraine War.

According to Kimmel, there are rumors coming out of Russia that Putin “reportedly travels with a suitcase to poop in.” Yes, it sounds like a Triumph the Insult Comic Dog punchline, but this is actual news — and Putin has his reasons for adopting this repulsive habit, as Kimmel explained:

They think he does this because he doesn’t want his enemies to get information about his health status from analyzing his fecal matter. Because nothing screams ‘I’m in perfect health’ like traveling around the world with a suitcase full of your own bowel movements.

They say the way it works is a security guy carries a briefcase around… that’s a good gig. ‘Hey, Sergei. You’re on the poop bag today.’ It’s so interesting. I mean, if he goes to another continent with it, would that technically make it an ICBM?

It’s a story that elicits many questions but hardly any answers, though Kimmel thinks it could be a good product for people flying Spirit Airlines. You can watch the full clip above, beginning at the 9:10 mark.