Month: June 2022

Lil Baby’s rise to being one of the rap game’s favorite acts has been a long time coming. He began bubbling on a nationwide scale back in 2017 with the release of his Too Hard mixtape. He reached a new level the following year with his debut album Harder Than Ever, and by 2020, he had cemented his name as a rap superstar with the release of his sophomore album My Turn. Through it all, we’ve seen different sides of Lil Baby: focused, braggadocios, introspective, and desiring of social change. Now, with the upcoming arrival of his new documentary, we’ll get a new look at the Atlanta rapper.

A trailer for the documentary, which is titled Untrapped: The Story Of Lil Baby, gives viewers a look into Lil Baby’s life as a father. We see him playing with his two sons while speaking about the type of father he wanted to be with them after opening up about his experience and memories with his own father. “Today Lil Baby is a devoted father to his two young boys and a powerful voice in the fight for racial justice and police reform,” a press release says about the upcoming film which arrives on August 26 through Amazon’s Prime Video platform.

“Untrapped: The Story Of Lil Baby is at once an intimate portrait of a singular artist and activist and an exploration of the systemic oppression that keeps far too many people of color from participating in the American Dream.”

You can watch the trailer for Untrapped: The Story Of Lil Baby in the video above.

It’s been five years since the release of dream-pop band Cigarettes After Sex‘s beloved 2017 self-titled debut. They’re celebrating with a North American tour this fall, as well as a limited edition vinyl on white and clear vinyl and picture disc available via Partisan here.

The tour will kick off in September in Seattle, Washington and will end in October in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This follows the unveiling of the 2020 single “You’re All I Want,” a track that definitely left fans wanting more. About the track, they said, “Recorded in the summer of 2017 during the sessions for our second album, Cry. The initial takes of the song were finished in the courtyard of the house we were staying at in Mallorca, late in the evening, right as a thunderstorm was rushing in over us.”

Check out the full tour dates below.

09/12 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
09/13 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
09/14 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
09/16 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
09/18 – Los Angeles, CA – Primavera Sound LA
09/20 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
09/22 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
09/23 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
09/25 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
09/27 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
09/30 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
10/01 – New York, NY – SummerStage
10/02 – Boston, MA – House of Blues Boston
10/04 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
10/05 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY
10/07 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
10/08 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue

Find ticket information here.

Rudy Giuliani used to be called “America’s Mayor.” Today he’s the Inspector Clouseau of politics. As the Jan. 6 committee hearings continue, even more of his accident-prone tomfoolery than already known is being made public. On the fourth day of hearings, Arizona’s house speaker revealed he and his colleagues found Giuliani’s attempts to overturn democracy so incompetent that they laughed at him.

Meanwhile, two election workers, whose lives Giuliani helped overturn, testified about an absurd mistake he made while accusing them of voter fraud. According to The Daily Beast, the former president’s then-attorney accused them of passing a USB stick, which he claimed contained fake votes. It did not contain fake votes. And one reason it didn’t is it wasn’t a USB stick. It was a ginger mint.

It’s an absurd story about a tragedy. After the two women were falsely accused of voter fraud by Giuliani and Donald Trump, they received death threats and even had a mob show up at their homes, attempting to make a citizens’ arrest. They described how it upended their lives, and “all because of lies.” She added,“Do you know how it feels to have the President of the United States target you?”

The next Jan. 6 hearing is on Thursday, and Rep. Bennie Thompson said it will focus on Trumps “attempt to corrupt the country’s top law-enforcement body, the Justice Department, to support his attempt to overturn the election.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, as well as the most tabloid-heavy billionaire. Just in the last week, the Tesla and SpaceX honcho has taken part in a chaotic town hall meeting with Twitter staff, got sued over his Dogecoin cheerleaderism, and demonstrated his free speech absolutism by firing employees who criticized him. Now he’s having some personal problems.

As per The Daily Beast, one of Musk’s eight children has effectively disowned him. An 18-year-old trans woman — whose name has been withheld for her privacy — has filed to have her gender officially listed as female. She also wants a name change, saying, “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”

Musk himself has noted that his daughter “does not want to be a public figure.” After the news broke, her mother, Musk’s first wife Justine, tweeted out in support of her daughter.

Musk has a history of making comments critical of the trans community. In 2020, he got in trouble with then-partner Grimes after he tweeted, simply, “Pronouns sucks.” Even after being told to “turn off ur phone,” Musk later commented that he “absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare.” Last week he threw his support behind Florida governor Ron DeSantis, he of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The New York Knicks have been on a never ending journey for a high-level point guard ever since Walt Frazier hung up his alligator boots for good. The good vibes from the Kemba Walker homecoming last season only lasted a few weeks before his knee issues punctured his production, leaving New York without a floor general that could consistently generate good shots for the offense.

The Knicks front office have not been shy about their pursuit of Jalen Brunson in free agency this offseason, but if he decides to re-sign with the Dallas Mavericks, the Knicks may turn their eyes to the trade market for a new point guard. ESPN analyst Jonathan Givony went on Zach Lowe’s podcast and hinted at the Knicks trading their lottery pick for Malcolm Brogdon.

Brodgon would be a significant upgrade for the Knicks providing both on-ball creation and shooting off the ball to complement RJ Barrett and Julius Randle. Brogdon’s injury history has been the major sticking point throughout his career. He only played 36 games last season and he has not played more than 65 games in any season in his 6-year career. While Brogdon is only 29, Indiana could be looking to retool its future around third-year guard Tyrese Haliburton, and acquiring a lottery pick from New York would go a long way towards that.

On the other coast, the Los Angeles Lakers have been searching for a Russell Westbrook solution for months now. New head coach Darvin Ham sounded enthusiastic about creating a role for Westbrook to thrive this season, but the Laker front office may have different ideas for Russ. Givony also mentioned discussions between the Lakers and Pacers centering around Malcolm Brogdon, Russell Westbrook, Talen Horton-Tucker, and future draft picks.

This trade would require Indiana to buy in on the Horton-Tucker hype that has yet to bear much fruit, but also allows them to shed three seasons of Brogdon’s contract of more than 21 million a year. Brogdon would, in theory, be a perfect fit next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and would allow Los Angeles to move past the Westbrook debacle and refocus on title contention for the remainder of James’ time as a Laker.

Alvvays haven’t released any new music since 2017’s Antisocialites, but that hasn’t stopped indie heads from fawning over their two-album catalog non-stop in the meantime. The jangly Canadian band played some one-off shows opening up for The Strokes over the years and will be appearing as part of Courtney Barnett’s Here And There touring “festival” in August. But now they’ve shared a full-on slate of US fall tour dates beginning in October at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre, the hometown of their support act, Slow Pulp.

Not only that, but the band posted a teaser on their Instagram yesterday and said in a statement that new music “may” be on the way.

We’re gonna take that to probably mean, “Yes, new music is coming and you will hear it live on this tour!” (surely one can dream?) Until then, check out the full slate of Alvvays’ US tour dates below. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, June 22nd at 10 am local time here.

08/16 — Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed (Here and There Festival)
10/14 — Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre $
10/15 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave. $
10/18 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot $
10/19 — Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory $
10/20 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom $
10/21 — Eugene, OR @ McDonald Theatre $
10/22 — Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre $
10/24 — Arcata, CA @ Arcata Theatre Lounge $
10/26 — San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore $
10/27 — San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore $
10/29 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern $
10/30 — San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park $
11/02 — Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater $
11/04 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall — Downstairs $
11/05 — Dallas, TX @ The Studio at The Factory $
11/07 — Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse $
11/08 — Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works $
11/09 — Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel $
11/11 — Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club $
11/12 — Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall $
11/15 — New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall $
11/16 — New York, NY @ Kings Theater $
11/18 — Boston, MA @ Roadrunner $

$ = w/ Slow Pulp

J.R.R. Tolkien did not invent orcs; version of them date back to at least the 10th century. But the author’s magnum opus The Lord of the Rings helped make them popular in modern times, leading to their appearances in Dungeons & Dragons, Warcraft, and Peter Jackson’s beloved film trilogy from the early aughts, which were designed to look like Harvey Weinstein. Warcraft has its share of female orcs, but so far the Tolkien wing has not. That’s about to change.

In a new interview with IGN, members of the production team for Amazon’s super pricey forthcoming Lord of the Rings series — subtitled Rings of Power — revealed that among the expansions in their version of Middle-earth will be orcs of more than one gender. When asked what she loved about the new series, executive producer Lindsey Weber said, “There’s some female Orcs that I truly loved.”

It sounds like Tolkien heads will be learning quite a lot more about orcs than they did before. They won’t just be the fearsome baddies as presented in previous films.

“The way I described it to my team, it’s a bit like these are the baby versions,” says Jamie Wilson, who is head of the shows prosthetic department. “They’re not actually babies, but it’s them coming out from the darkness. So this is early on. So for example, if you go to past films about them, you’ll see them and they’re quite battle damaged and scarred and all that kind, because there’s been lots more battles.”

Sympathetic orcs, some of whom are also ladies, eh? You’ll be able to see them when the show debuts on Amazon on September 2.

(Via IGN)

If you want to recreate OK Go’s iconic “Here It Goes Again” video from 2009, you need not one, but multiple treadmills. This is where Stella Donnelly and her friends find themselves in the new video for “Flood.” As they traipse through the neighborhood collecting treadmills for their grand experiment, the delight of the journey almost supersedes their valiant, but ultimately failed attempt to recreate the very complex treadmill dance moves at the end. “We have made a very feeble attempt at recreating the legendary OK GO video clip for ‘Here It Goes Again’ and we failed gloriously,” the affable Donnelly said in a statement.

The title track to the Melbourne indie singer-songwriter’s upcoming album (due out August 26th), it’s a very pretty song. We’ve loved both “Flood” and the previously released “Lungs,” for Donnelly’s sweet vocals that have a special sense of melody, and for her honest songwriting that captures emotions quaintly in a relatable fashion. “This song feels like a sad little adventure,” Donnelly says. “I wrote it in the dark depths of a Melbourne winter lockdown where it had been raining for consecutive weeks. Everyone around me was falling into their own version of depression at different times. It felt like a flood of trauma yet at the same time, we were given an opportunity of time to work through stuff that we’d been distracting ourselves with for so long prior to the pandemic.”

Watch the video for “Flood” above.

Flood comes out on 08/26 via Secretly Canadian. Pre-order it here.

Jeopardy! has had a long string of hosts since the death of Alex Trebek, though the show has largely settled on a mix of Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings. The former is currently slated to host most of the show’s tapings, including some primetime specials on ABC.

But Jeopardy! fans got worrying news on Tuesday when Bialik revealed that she recently tested positive for COVID-19. Bialik broke the news on Instagram and later expanded on the announcement on an account related to her podcast, Bialik Breakdown.

“It’s very, very exhausting,” Bialik said. “The exhaustion is very special. I had mononucleosis in college, and the exhaustion hits like that. Where you cannot be awake. You can try to be awake, but all of a sudden, you need to sleep.”

The news is worrying to anyone concerned about the health and wellness of people during the still-ongoing pandemic, but it does come with some good caveats. Namely, that Bialik is fully vaccinated and boosted, which will help limit the severity of her symptoms as well as hopefully limit her odds of seeing long COVID symptoms. The Hollywood Reporter said Tuesday that Sony reps did not comment on how this would impact filming Jeopardy! but it’s a concern given the rigorous schedule the show has in filming five episodes a day. Bialik did update her status on Tuesday, saying she’s feeling a bit better.

She also warned against thinking that the pandemic is over, noting that she’s “feeling a whole bunch of regret that I ever took my mask off.”

“I’m just putting this out there: I’m feeling a lot of fear,” Bialik said. “Like why did I ever go out? Why did I think that anything was fine, ever?”

It’s also noteworthy because Bialik’s thoughts on vaccination were a topic of interest among Jeopardy! fans last year when vaccine skepticism in a book she wrote went viral. Bialik affirmed that her thoughts on vaccine safety and efficacy had changed, and her COVID vaccination status certainly seems to reflect that here.

Hopefully, Bialik recovers soon and is back to feeling 100 percent in time to film whatever Jeopardy! episodes are on the horizon for her. Fans of the syndicated game show are certainly looking for some confirmation about just exactly who will be hosting their beloved trivia show very soon.

[via THR]

It looks like anyone who is anyone will have a part in the upcoming Dune installment, which seems to cast new parts weekly. This time, French actress Lea Seydoux is getting her chance to shine on the infamous sand planet.

It’s no surprise that Denis Villeneuve recruited Seydoux, as she has released a string of buzzy moves over the past year, including the critically-acclaimed Cannes hit One Fine Morning and the critically-grossed-out Crimes Of The Future. Seydoux first gained recognition for her breakout role in Blue Is The Warmest Color in 2013.

Seydoux is expected to star as Lady Margot, a character who has a major role in the Dune prequel stories. She will join returning cast members Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, and Josh Brolin, along with several recent additions, which include Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Christopher Walken. Part Two will continue the story of Paul (played by Chalamet) as he fights to save his family from the increasingly inhabitable planet.

Production is slated to begin this fall, with a release date of October 20th, 2023, just in time to get your House Atreides costumes together. The first installment garnered several Oscar nominations, along with an exponential amount of memes about sand and various spices. Who knows what the second will bring!

(Via Deadline)