Month: June 2022

No more teasers, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ new song, “Spitting Off The Edge Of The World” featuring Perfume Genius is here. And since we all had to wait for nearly a decade, they’ve also just officially announced the release of their next album, Cool It Down.

The eight track album from the trio of Karen O, Nick Zinner, and Brian Chase, is due out on September 30th and the band has already announced a slate of performances worldwide.

“To all who have waited, our dear fans, thank you, our fever to tell has returned, and writing these songs came with its fair share of chills, tears, and euphoria when the pain lifts and truth is revealed,” Karen O began in a statement. “Don’t have to tell you how much we’ve been going through in the last nine years since our last record, because you’ve been going through it too, and we love you and we see you, and we hope you feel the feels from the music we’ve made. No shying away from the feels, or backing down from what’s been gripping all of us these days. So yes we’ve taken our time, happy to report when it’s ready it really does just flow out.”

The album’s lead single is “Spitting Off The Edge Of The World,” which features Perfume Genius’ Michael Hadreas and was produced by TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek. O’s voice sounds as glorious as ever, while Hadreas brings depth to the vocal arrangement as they sing over Zinner’s possessed guitar, about the grim future that our planet could face if we keep living wastefully. “I see the younger generations staring down this threat, and they’re standing on the edge of a precipice, confronting what’s coming with anger and defiance,” O says. “It’s galvanizing, and there’s hope there.”

Watch the Cody Critcheloe-directed video for “Spitting Off The Edge Of The World” above and check out the album art and tracklist below, as well as Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ up-to-date list of upcoming live shows.

1. “Spitting Off the Edge Of The World” Feat. Perfume Genius
2. “Lovebomb”
3. “Wolf”
4. “Fleez”
5. “Burning”
6. “Blacktop”
7. “Different Today”
8. “Mars”

06/05 — O2 Apollo @ Manchester, UK
06/07 — London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton
06/08 —London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton
06/11 — Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound 2022
07/20 — Melbourne, Australia @ Margaret Court Arena
07/22 — Yelgun, Australia @ Splendour in the Grass 2022
07/24 — Sydney, Australia @ Hordern Pavilion
07/29 — Montreal, QC @ Osheaga Music and Arts Festival 2022
09/18 —Chicago, IL @ Riot Fest
10/01 — New York, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium
10/06 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl

Cool It Down is out 9/30 via Secretly Canadian. Pre-order it here.

Mayans M.C. launched four years ago in the shadow of Sons Of Anarchy. It’s now 2022, and everything has not only changed within this world but also within this FX franchise. The spinoff’s now in the thick of Season 4 with Elgin James pulling sole showrunner duties (Kurt Sutter left the building long ago), and Danny Pino, who portrays drug lord Miguel Galindo, now takes the director’s seat for the first time. This move has been a long time coming for him, given that Pino’s done a lot of Hollywood time. That includes a recent return to a beloved role for Law & Order: SVU‘s 500th episode along with more fearsome characters, not only in Mayans but also The Shield.

In Mayans, however, Pino’s character (who is, at times, both unspeakably ruthless and empathetic) has taken quite a turn. No longer is he simply the Ivy League-educated prodigal son of the Santo Padre drug trade. Rather, he’s heavily bearded and hiding out in a convent after leaving his luxurious life (and Michael Corleone-esque ways) behind. He’s on the run from everyone; his wife has also run away after he attempted to poison her out of vengeance for her betrayal and let’s just say that Miguel’s life is messy. Ain’t no drama like biker-related drama is what I always say.

While Miguel’s (relatively) sidelined, Danny Pino has gearing up to direct, and now, he’s doing it on his own for Season 4, Episode 8. It’s a heck of an episode, too, after the death of a fan-favorite biker and as the Mayans and Sons engage in war, this time for real. Danny was kind enough to speak with us (shortly after the devastating Texas school shooting in Uvalde) about his realization of his long-running directorial plan and how he dealt with all of that unfamiliar hair.

Hey Danny, thanks for talking about Mayans with me today. I know that we’ve all got this shadowy cloud hanging over us.

Of course. And thank you for bringing that up, and I agree. Everything else seems trivial.

And we’re all struggling to find words to process this.

Unfortunately, it feels like, you know, it doesn’t seem like words are getting to the right people so that we can fix this epidemic that we have going on. It’s frustrating and heartbreaking, sometimes you can get lulled into thinking that it’s hopeless, but it’s not. We have the power to change it.

And of course, now I have to awkwardly change the subject.

Yeah. [Laughs] Yes, yes.

So, this episode that you directed, whoa, it looks great. I was taken aback at how beautiful the lighting is and striking the shots are. It felt like I was watching Ozark but had no trouble seeing everything without cranking up the brightness.

Thank you very much for that. It gives me an opportunity to quite literally shed light on the first person who makes every frame a piece of art. And that is Vanessa Joyce Smith, who started off as a camera operator on Mayans in Season 1, and then moved into the cinematographer position and just flourished. So to be able to create those frames with her and think about what those scenes would look like, I had the advantage of not only being on the show, obviously as an actor, but also Elgin James encouraged me to shadow him and other directors on our show over the course of the last few years. He knew that I had an interest and a passion to tell stories and to direct and to expand my artistic expression and to continue to challenge myself as an artist. And I think that he probably recognized some of himself in that, and opened up many doors to me, to the department heads. And allowed me to ask them questions and one of those people was Vanessa. To tag along and ask her questions about what her taste for film and television and to watch things that she enjoyed watching, a long list of recommended material that Elgin suggested, that he derived some of his inspiration from, whether it was old-school film to some Asian films and Chinese cinema…

That Asian influence really comes through in this episode’s battle scenes.

… and really getting an understanding of that and applying it to the script that I was lucky to inherit when I was assigned Episode 408. Nobody really knew what that meant. We just knew that was the eighth episode in the fourth season because the storylines hadn’t really been broken yet. So we didn’t really know what all was going to land in Episode 408. It turns out that I received a huge gift in the depth and also the action, the kinetic energy in the episode. I got very fortunate with that combination of emotion and action, and it was really up to me and try not to mess it up. [Laughs] And to rely on the incredible ensemble of actors and equally incredibly talented and artistic crew. And editors to collaborate on telling the story.

What an episode to direct, too. The Sons of Anarchy are at war with the Mayans, who are sending a message to Charming. That feels like a lot of pressure for you?

I think fear is a great motivator. But it certainly helps to feel supported in every way from Elgin to the studio to our network, FX, and like I said, this cast and this crew. Having worked with them for the last three seasons and having built friendships and relationships, artistic and otherwise, to be able to collaborate on something that means so much to all of us. We all have skin in this game, and so I knew I wasn’t alone. And so sure, there was some intimidation, but more than that, it was excitement to be able to tell this particular story.

I know you can’t tell me any spoilers, but hey, is Miguel okay after this episode?

[Laughs]

C’mon, could you give me any reassurance here?

You know, Kimberly, I respect you too much to… tip my hand in any way, but I will say that our writers, specifically Elgin James, has a way of writing himself into a corner, only to kick through the wall.

That’s very cryptic. You’ve got me really wondering here.

[Laughs]

Let’s talk about your transformation. It’s a very new look for Miguel. With the facial hair and the new hair, how much of that was makeup?

Oh none of it, none of it was makeup.

Because you recently showed up on Law and Order: SVU‘s 500th episode looking, well, not like you do in Mayans right now, so that’s impressive.

No, I mean, all the hair was mine. The sunburn and the sunspots and the beating down of what Miguel has been doing at the convent, that was makeup. But the hair, the facial hair and the locks were all mine, which my wife protested vociferously about it, and nobody was happier when I cut it all off and shaved than she was. But I had to give her one last flavor of rebellion. I told her I would shave, but she came home to a handlebar mustache.

Oh nooooo.

You know, you gotta keep things interesting in a marriage.

Well, now I’m very distracted by that.

[Laughs]

Are you going to post a picture of the mustache on Twitter?

I’ll keep the anticipation… buoyant.

Speaking of social media, this show’s fans are enthused and very vocal. How much attention do you pay to that?

I really enjoy our fandom. They’re smart, they’re sarcastic. The anticipation they have for every episode, they’re prognosticating as to what will eventually befall certain characters. It’s amusing and sometimes very accurate. I don’t ever give that up, I don’t like to put spoilers out there, but oftentimes on shows, there’s a feeling that you are performing in a vacuum. Unlike live theater, where you get immediate feedback, and the experience of shooting something months before and having it edited/sculpted and finally having people see it. And to get on social media and to hear that people are enjoying it. There’s something very gratifying about that, and to be able to have a dialogue with people who appreciate all the work and time and effort and the emotion that goes into it. The ownership of the material that goes into it.

Almost ironically, Miguel is almost on an island to himself, so to speak, this season. I talked to you before Season 2, and you mentioned how everybody asked if you were gonna ride, and you said that you only rode in a Maybach, and Miguel is very far from that Maybach now. I imagine you’re still seeing the usual suspects, even though you’re not in scenes with them?

It’s a strange dichotomy to be honest because while Miguel is isolated and certainly the faces of the actors who I was working with this season were new to me and to Miguel. I’ve never spent more time on set with this cast and this crew as I did this season. From prepping Episode 1 of Season 4 with Elgin and being there right alongside him, shadowing him. Spending time on set and asking questions and observing to having out with the cast. Miguel didn’t make an appearance until Episode 4 this season, but I was on set throughout every episode leading up to that. Every day, all day, which is very rare for any actor. In general, an actor shows up when he or she is called. They get in makeup and hair and they shoot however many scenes they have, and then they go home. The crew continues to shoot, but as a shadowing director, I was there from dark to dark. Even then, the crew is generally there an hour before call time, and an hour after wrap, putting things away. It was very eye-opening for me. I mean, I knew this, and I’ve spent enough time in the industry to know that intellectually, The hours involved, but to feel it physically, viscerally, along with the crew and to observe that. The irony is that Miguel isn’t seen for the majority of this season, but I certainly felt much more present as a member of this ensemble and this crew.

We’re running short on time, but I wanted to say that I just realized you and Emilio Rivera were in an SVU episode together. And it feels like everyone has guest-starred on that show.

Yeah, and Emilio and I actually go back to The Shield.

The timelines are all kinds-of crossed right now! You were a baddie on The Shield.

Emilio and I played brothers, and that was one of the first things I did in Los Angeles and in front of the camera. I was in a conservatory theater program and done mostly stage work, and one of the first things I did in Los Angeles was to work with Emilio, and then one of the next things we did together was to work on SVU. But we’ve always had this kind-of shorthand because we came up together, so the relevance of us being on Mayans and working so closely together, especially when Alvarez and Galindo were quite literally working together , there were a lot of layers in that experience. He’s one of those guys, when Emilio calls, I’m there.

He’s a class act. And hey, I’m looking forward to seeing the social media reaction to your episode next week.

Thank you, Kimberly. I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed the episode. We certainly spent a lot of time on it. There was a lot of love and effort put into it.

FX’s ‘Mayans M.C.’ airs on 10:00pm EST on Tuesdays (and next day on Hulu).

In a hilarious bit of schadenfreude, Donald Trump is reportedly banning anyone who’s wearing Proud Boys or QAnon symbols from his rallies. If you’re thinking to yourself, “Isn’t that his base?” Yes, it is, and the Proud Boys are pretty confused by the whole thing, too, considering Trump gave them VIP tickets to his most recent rally in Wyoming.

In a new viral video, a Proud Boy films himself being turned away by security after being told of the new rule prohibiting symbols that Trump no longer wants seen at his events. He is given the option of his turning his shirt inside out, but the security team made it very clear that no Proud Boys or QAnon logos are permitted.

As for why Trump is suddenly making a concerted effort to distance himself from the two movements that practically define the MAGA world is unknown, but it probably doesn’t help that the Proud Boys have been in considerable legal trouble for their involvement in the January 6 insurrection. The same January 6 insurrection that was committed in service to Trump, which makes his betrayal of the Proud Boys all the more disingenuous and hilarious to people watching the video online.

“Ahhhh…. Those delicious Proud Boy tears of confusion not being able to understand how quickly Trump went from ‘Proud Boys standby’ to ‘come in disguise ONLY. I’m embarrassed to know you,’” wrote Hadley Sheley.

“To Trump, we already know these are your dudes. Too late to try and disassociate now,” Bethany tweeted. “To the Proud Boys, ‘ha ha f*ckity ha ha ha.’ Your savior does not care about you. You were a prop, a tool, & someone to use just like every other MAGA asshole. Find a bag of dicks. Consume them. ”

“Trumps supporters are finally starting to find out that he wants them for votes and money not to hang out with,” wrote Marc Vondem.

You can check out more reactions to the Proud Boys learning Trump doesn’t want to be seen with them below:

(Via Ron Filipkowski on Twitter)

Last month, Phoebe Bridgers dropped a video for “Sidelines,” offering a Conversations With Friends-themed clip since the song was made for the Hulu series. Now, though, Bridgers has returned with a new visual for the song, going Conversations-agnostic this time around.

The clip is a slice of life of a Bridgers tour, as it features behind-the-scenes footage of herself and her band on and off stage. Specifically, the video comes from the Reunion Tour and was shot by Jackson Bridgers, Phoebe’s brother.

Bridgers previously said of the song’s origins, “[Marshall Vore] had this like love song idea… he sent it to me right in the beginning of the pandemic. I was like, ‘This is insane.’ Was so obsessed with it, was playing it all the time in the house. And then when the show asked me to make something, I was like, ‘But I don’t have anything that fits.’ And Marshall was like, ‘What about that ‘Sidelines’ one?’ I was like, ‘What?!’ So we re-wrote some of it and re-recorded it and changed some stuff around, and it just kind of magically fit and was exactly what I wanted.”

She also noted of previously indicating “Sidelines” would be her only new song of 2022, “Uh, who knows, actually. I try to do things that are exciting, so I never really know what I’m gonna do.”

Check out the “Sidelines” video above.

The NRA has rarely missed the chance to be in the right place at the most inappropriate time. They proved their impeccable timing yet again over Memorial Day weekend when they decided to proceed with their annual conference, where thousands of gun lovers and pro-gun lawmakers gathered in Houston, Texas, just days after 21 innocent people were killed less than 300 miles away at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

On Tuesday, Jimmy Kimmel didn’t waste any time in laying into the thoughtlessness of everything about the event, which he dubbed a “meeting of the mindless.”

Kimmel shared a clip of a charming couple who very seriously declared that “demons” were the ones to blame for America’s gun problem and that “we don’t need gun control, we need demon control.” Which offered Kimmel the perfect segue to talk about how “Ted Cruz was on hand in Houston to spread his slime all over the NRA halls” (and how he was heckled while he tried to enjoy a nice sushi dinner out in Houston).

Of course, Cruz is on a door rant right now and used some of that material on the crowd in Houston. After explaining that the gunman in Uvalde got into Robb Elementary through an unlocked door (a story school employees deny) and going off about how we need to upgrade our schools to have bulletproof doors, etc. “Senator Ooze” waited for his obligatory round of applause. Except there was a problem with Cruz’s whole story, according to Kimmel:

“By the way, the school in Uvalde already had heavy-duty locking doors. That’s how the killer kept the police out. The police had to get the janitor to give them their keys to unlock it. Any other bright ideas, dumbass?”

But Cruz was only the warm-up act for Donald Trump, who was oblivious to the irony when he told the crowd how “we need to make it far easier to confine the violent and mentally deranged into mental institutions. We have also, very importantly, got to deal with the problem of broken families, because no law can cure the effects of a broken home.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” observed Kimmel. “The deranged narcissist who had children with three different women is lecturing us about mental illness and broken homes.” He also shared a clip of how, after mangling the names of the victims in Uvalde, the former president closed out his appearance “the way only he can”—by busting out his signature hip gyration-fist pump move.

“They were giving him a round of applause,” noted Kimmel. “What’s he gonna do, not dance?!”

You can watch the full segment above.

If the past three decades have taught us anything, it’s that in the wake of any school shooting—especially a highly publicized one—Republicans will offer up just as many ridiculous reasons for why the shooting happened as they do “thoughts and prayers.” On Tuesday night, Trevor Noah was almost amused by the tidal wave of batshit excuses lawmakers had for how a Uvalde, Texas teen with a gun could kill 21 innocent people with that gun, and yet still never blame America’s rampant gun problem.

“While most Americans, liberals and conservatives, are open to common sense restrictions on guns to keep Americans safe,” Noah said, “there is still a small yet powerful group of gun f**ks who believe the problem with gun violence is not because of guns. No, it’s because of everything else.”

Among the many scapegoats cited were: the internet, video games, movies, and music. It’s an argument Noah says “totally falls apart when you realize the entire world listens to American music and plays American video games. Yeah, but they have nowhere the same level of America’s mass shootings. And don’t get it twisted, it’s the same music. It’s not like, in Sweden, Snoop Dogg is like ‘Rat-tat-tat-tat, and I never hesitate to put a hat on a ca–aaat.’ It’s the same music. Why aren’t they getting the same results?”

While Noah understands that lawmakers “want to blame anything but guns, it still has to make sense. Can we agree on that? You can’t just blame stuff that you were already mad at… And if it’s not religion and it’s not video games and it’s not the music, what else could it be?”

While Ted Cruz is sticking to his story that 19 children are dead in Uvalde because of doors, many Republicans are dusting off their favorite chestnut: The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Except in the case of Robb Elementary School, Noah says, “there wasn’t just an armed resource officer on the scene. There was a whole platoon of police officers who responded to the shooting but didn’t do sh*t to stop it while it was still going on. And I’m willing to guess it was because they were also sh*t scared of a gunman armed with an AR-15.”

You can watch Noah’s full clip above.

Take a pinch of Nicholas Hoult, a dash of Anya Taylor-Joy, a smidgen of Ralph Fiennes as a creepy chef, and what do you have? The teaser trailer for The Menu, an intriguing horror-comedy that will make you swear off tasting menus for good.

Directed by Mark Mylod (Game of Thrones, Succession) and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, The Menu stars Taylor-Joy and Hoult as a couple who visit an exclusive restaurant on a remote island. They’re there for a fancy meal prepared by a famed chef (Fiennes), who explains, “Over the next few hours, you will ingest fat, salt, protein, and at times, entire ecosystems.” Those in attendance, which also includes John Leguizamo, Judith Light, and Hong Chau as an attentive waitress, are “not the common man… What happens inside this room is meaningless compared to what happens outside. We are but a frightened nanosecond. Nature is timeless.”

Yeah, I’m good. I’ll stick with Popeyes (again).

A couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) travels to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

The Menu opens in theaters on November 18. Just in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

It’s been made clear over the years that One Direction wasn’t without its internal strife, despite the happy-go-lucky image the group cultivated. Now, on a new episode of the Impaulsive With Logan Paul podcast, Liam Payne outlines a particularly tense encounter in which one of his former bandmates pinned him against a wall.

Without specifying who exactly he was talking about, he said, “I think it was well-known within the band that I don’t like taking sh*t… at a certain point. I made it very obvious, I’m not going to tell you how. There was one moment where there was an argument backstage and someone… one member in particular threw me up a wall. So I said to him, ‘If you don’t remove those hands, there’s a high likelihood you’ll never use them again.’”

Elsewhere during the chat, he discussed both the disdain and the empathy he has for Zayn, saying, “There’s many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there’s many reasons why I’ll always, always be on his side. If I had had to go through what he went through — with his growth and whatever else… My parents are overly supportive to the point where it’s annoying at times. Zayn had a different upbringing in that sense. You can always look at the man for where he is and say, ‘Oh yeah, whatever, that guy’s a d*ck.’ But at the end of the day, once you’re understanding what he’s been through to get to that point — and also whether or not he wanted to be there.”

He added, “Listen, I don’t agree with any of his actions. I can’t commend some of the things that he’s done. I can’t be on his side for that. What I can say is I understand and your only hope is that at some point in their life, the person at the other end of the phone wants to receive the help that you’re willing to give them.”

Payne also noted of his relationship with Louis Tomlinson, “Louis was wild. Louis was wild and he wanted to be wild and that’s his spirit. He’s my best mate now, but in the band, we hated each other. Like, to come to blows hate each other. It was close.”

Watch the full Impaulsive With Logan Paul episode above.

Yesterday, BTS swung by the White House to discuss anti-Asian hate and meet with Joe Biden. Naturally, Fox News host Tucker Carlson had thoughts on that, as did his guest, fellow controversial conservative commentator Candace Owens.

In a segment on yesterday’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, the host said, “So things have gotten very bad for Joe Biden, both public-facing and internally. What are they doing about it? Well, they broke glass in case of emergency and invited a Korean pop group to speak at the White House today. Watch.”

The show then cut to a clip of RM saying, “Hi, we’re BTS, and it is a great honor to be invited to the White House today to discuss the important issues of anti-Asian hate crimes, Asian inclusion, and diversity.”

Carlson continued, “Yeah, so we got a Korean pop group to discuss anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States. OK. Good job, guys.” All the while, an on-screen graphic read, “WH invites K-pop group to bolster street cred.”

The host goes on to launch into a point about “white supremacy” in the Biden White House, citing reports of a recent exodus of Black White House staffers. He was then joined by Owens, who talked further on that topic before bringing it back to the White House hosting BTS, saying, “They’re frantically searching to drum up a new narrative of hate, and this one is going to be Asian-American, Asian Lives Matter. ‘Quick, grab me K-pop and hopefully America is going to fall for this,’ when in reality, we’re focused on gas prices, the inflation crisis, and it’s just an absolute, complete joke.”

Now, we wait to see how the BTS Army will respond to this.

LeVar Burton has landed two hosting gigs, but not the one (he thought) he wanted: Jeopardy! Despite numerous fan campaigns to have the Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow star take over the full-time gig following Alex Trebek’s death, the show went in another direction — it did not go well. Burton has since said that he’s “really happy with the way things worked out,” but he talked about the “humiliation” of not being offered the job in a recent interview with Newsy‘s “In the Loop.”

“Experiencing a very public defeat — humiliation, if you will — was sobering. And what I learned from the experience, really, is that it reinforced my belief that everything happens for a reason, even if you cannot discern the reason in the moment,” Burton said. The actor, who called Jeopardy! his “favorite game show,” thought he was “well-suited” for the hosting gig, but “as it turns out, it really wasn’t a competition, after all, the fix was in.”

He continued:

“In the fullness of time, everything will be revealed. And like I said, it was I think in that first week of feeling really sort of not just disappointed, but wrecked. I didn’t expect that I would not be their choice for host.”

“In the fullness of time, everything will be revealed.” In Jeopardy! speak: What is… the most ominous thing I’ve read all week?

Burton called getting asked to host the Scripps National Spelling Bee a “huge balm on an open wound. And I thought ‘Ah, they see me,’ and I’m definitely one to go where I’m wanted and loathe to go where I’m not invited.” The spelling bee final airs June 2.

(Via Newsy and E! Online)