Month: August 2022

Ahead of their upcoming album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language, The 1975 have premiered a new single. On the groovy, instrument-driven “Happiness,” the band’s lead vocalist, Matty Healy, fondly remembers a young woman who showed him “what love is.”

Over the course of the five-minute track, it’s easy to get lost in the song’s plucky guitar strings and thumping drums. But a jazzy saxaphone in the song’s bridge makes the song feel all the more transcendent.

The 1975’s upcoming album comes amid rumors of a potential break-up of the band, which Healy seemingly confirmed around the time of their last album Notes On A Conditional Form. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone UK, Healy revealed that he doesn’t believe a split will happen at any point.

“There’s always been a lot of ‘will they, won’t they’ with my band,” Healy said “‘Will they split up? Will they not? Will I get over drugs in order…?’ And I’ve always leaned into that because I like that. I love the drama of it. And I think that now I’ve realized, not in a non-sexy way, but The 1975 aren’t going to split up. What happens with The 1975 could be a myriad of things, but splitting up is not really going to happen.”

Check out “Happiness” above.

Being Funny In A Foreign Language is out 10/14 via Dirty Hit. Pre-order it here.

On the heels of rumors of a falling out between comedy duo Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, Showtime officially confirmed that their Desus & Mero show was abruptly calling it quits as the two “pursued separate career endeavors moving forward.” However, The Kid Mero is finally setting the record straight that the whole thing was not as dramatic as it seemed.

In a new interview with the Basic! podcast, Mero revealed that he and Desus had hashed out pursuing their own projects well in advance. “The intent was to go our separate ways in a way that is supportive of each other,” Mero said. “It’s not like I’m breaking up with my girlfriend on the phone. It was a strategy and one that we all agreed on.”

According to Mero, the plan to move on had been in place for a while. Via Deadline:

“Desus and I had discussed pursuing separate interests over a year prior to the show coming to an end and that conversation solidified us in signing overall agreements that recognized our intent to operate independent of one another. As far back as June of last year, we were both pitching or looking to join existing projects as individuals.”

With the Showtime series over, Mero plans to focus more on writing. “[I want to] dig a lot more into that, features, series, books, I want to get into all of that.” He’s also content with Desus & Mero coming to a close because the last thing he wanted was to overstay their welcome.

“At the end of the day, when things are winding down you got to recognize that they are winding down and not supermax Patrick Ewing when he has two [knee pads] and his career is coming to a close,” Mero said.

(Via Deadline)

Jennifer Coolidge‘s first credited on-screen role was on a little show called Seinfeld. Pretty good! She continued to work throughout the mid-1990s — usually as characters with reductive names like “Hottie Cop” and “Woman at Football Game” — before her breakout performance in 1999’s American Pie as Stifler’s mom, who famously has got it going on. A year later, Coolidge made her Christopher Guest movie debut in Best in Show, leading to future scene-stealing parts in A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration, and a year after that came Legally Blonde. She was also nominated for her first Emmy this year for playing a distraught vacationer on The White Lotus.

But to many, she’s still cinema’s second most “MILF” (Mrs. Robinson is obviously number one), a designation that Coolidge seems to enjoy. “I got a lot of play at being a MILF and I got a lot of sexual action from American Pie. There were so many benefits to doing that movie. I mean, there would be like 200 people that I would have never have slept with, she told Variety.

You probably know this already, but it’s worth repeating: Jennifer Coolidge is the best.

Coolidge also told Variety about the “one thing” she’s done “really right” in her life. “I’ve picked great friends. If [The White Lotus creator Mike White] was never successful, and we just did White Lotus as a play in a little theater where everyone paid 10 bucks to see it, it would still be one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. Because it was a killer job that no one else thought I could do,” she said.

The White Lotus season two premieres in October.

(Via Variety)

When the Supreme Court and other conservative lawmakers decided to overturn Roe v. Wade, they seemed to have failed to take into account — or just temporarily forgotten — that the vast majority of Americans support an individual’s right to bodily autonomy. While there are plenty of polls that prove it, one really need look no further than the very conservative state of Kansas, which on Tuesday voted to keep abortion legal. As The Daily Beast’s Matt Taylor reported:

Voters in Kansas on Tuesday rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed the GOP-dominated legislature to ban abortion, a stunning victory for reproductive-rights advocates in a region where the procedure was already nearly impossible to access.

Backers of the amendment — a campaign largely largely funded by the Catholic Church in the state — took pains to argue it was not in and of itself a ban on abortion. Some experts and advocates disagreed, and both local officials and outside observers said turnout appeared to be far higher than expected in a typical primary-day contest, a reflection of the high stakes.

Both voters and onlookers claimed that there seemed to be an extra large turnout for the vote, which, while it may be state-based, sets up a much larger precedent for conservative groups and lawmakers around the country.

The language of the law made it an especially tricky challenge. “You could read it and think you were voting to eliminate state funding of abortion when there is no state funding to abortion,” political scientist Neal Allen told Vox. “And there is language that refers to exceptions to preserve the health of the mother, and for rape and incest, but there’s nothing about the amendment itself that would create those exceptions.”

Adding to the confusion, according to The Daily Beast, is a last-minute mass text message that attempted to convince voters that voting “yes” to the amendment would give women the right to choose. (This is where you’d insert the Ron Howard voiceover to say: “It would not give women the right to choose.”)

The victory could turn out to be a huge win for other states planning similar laws, amendments, and votes. “Despite Republican control in the Kansas legislature,” Taylor writes, “the result complicates the path ahead for anti-abortion types in a state where the procedure is legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy — and was sure to resonate in capitols across the country.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

By now, you are probably aware of Kelis’ ongoing grievance with Beyonce’s new album Renaissance, but if not, here’s a quick refresher. Last Thursday, Kelis posted a video relaying her resentment and dismay at learning that a song from the upcoming album, “Energy,” apparently used a sample (or interpolation, we’ll get into the differences later) of her song “Milkshake.” Kelis’ objected to Beyonce’s representatives neglecting to contact her for approval for using the snippet in “Energy.”

Of course, once the wider internet caught wind of Kelis’ complaints, a widescale donnybrook ensued that found fans taking sides between the two artists to argue whether Kelis deserved such a contact, Beyonce did anything wrong, or whether some other factor was to blame between the two. Even iconic songwriter Diane Warren weighed in to offer her own sorta shady take on songwriting, sampling, and how such things should be credited. Things came to a head when Beyonce removed elements of “Energy” from DSPs on Tuesday.

However, in all of the fuss, it seemed that more than anything else, fans were confused by the difference between what an interpolation and a sample are, let alone the mechanics of how songwriting credits are issued. Many folks still can’t tell where the interpolation appears in the song, despite her leaving the actual interpolation untouched. It all seems very complicated, so I reached out to an expert to help clear things up.

Naima Cochrane is an industry veteran with 20 years of experience working in entertainment law alongside the late, great Reggie Osse — aka Combat Jack — as well as a journalist who has written for major publications like Billboard, Mic, Vibe, and Vulture. Her Music Sermon Twitter lectures draw massive engagement from fans as she discusses the history and legacy of Black musical movements and culture-defining moments of the past three decades. She graciously agreed to a Zoom interview to sort out the terminology, backstory, and impact of this fraught situation, as well as whether Kelis has a point. “The whole thing is confusing for folks,” she says. Hopefully, this will help make it less so.

So, let’s just get to the root of what we think this dispute between Kelis and whoever she’s disputing with is about. She didn’t like that she wasn’t contacted for clearance for what she believed to be at the time to be a sample of her song “Milkshake” on Beyonce’s new album Renaissance.

Well, at first she didn’t think it was “Milkshake.” She got information about another track initially from a Beyonce fan site before the album came out. I think it was Beylegion who said that Beyonce was sampling. And that was prerelease.

And what she wound up using was an interpolation of drums from “Milkshake?”

Yeah, that kind of… That basic, kind of Neptunesish drum beat that’s under the track. The “la, la, las” were credited to… I know people are debating whether those were part of the sample or interpolation, but those should be credited to Teena Marie.

Okay, so why do we think that this turned Kelis off so much?

Well, I think it’s a couple things. I haven’t seen the original post that Kelis reacted to, but apparently, the first mention that Kelis saw used something like Beyonce was either collaborating with people including Kelis, or collaborating with Kelis, but there was something about collaboration. And also, like I said, they named a different track.

I think that that language triggered Kelis. She’s in a space. She recently lost her husband, which I’m going to acknowledge and dare to say if she’s already in that space of grieving, the perception of additional loss or especially unfair loss could possibly be a spark. But also, Kelis has been increasingly vocal lately about the fact that she feels Pharrell and Star Trak gave her a bum deal, specifically that she contributed more as a writer to the songs that she performs than she’s been given credit for and that Pharrell [cheated] her out of her publishing.

Is it not standard practice to contact someone when you want to sample or interpolate their work?

She made it seem as though it was standard practice in the music industry for an artist to contact a performer — and by performer, I mean the person who sang the song, even if they didn’t write and produce the song. Even if that person isn’t a publishing rights holder to just give a, quote, unquote, “heads up,” a courtesy heads up. In theory, I can see why people think this makes sense. In reality, if you understand how extensive the clearance process is for an album, you would understand why this is not realistic. This is not a practice that happens.

First of all, there’s two things that people don’t do: even when artists are getting clearance for samples from artists that they’re cool with, Beyonce did not call Pharrell and say, “I’m about to sample ‘Milkshake.’” That is not a conversation that happened. What happens is the lawyer contacts the other lawyer. That lawyer goes back to their client, “Beyonce has an interpolation on a song. She’s offering you this percentage. Are you cool? Yeah? No?” Boom.

The only time artists even contact artists directly when we’re talking about a sample or interpolation for clearance is when there’s a serious deference situation going on like maybe it’s a new artist and they’re worried that this other artist will pass and they really want to appeal to them directly, or when there’s some kind of impasse in the approval so they need to talk to each other to make an appeal. Maybe somebody wants to change some lyrics. For example, Stevie did that with Coolio, for “Gangsta’s Paradise.” He wouldn’t approve “Pastime Paradise” until Coolio changed some lyrics.

And as far as alerting Kelis, who I presume is not the publishing rights holder?

The second part is nobody calls people who aren’t copyright holders to say, “I’m using a song you performed on,” because what purpose does that serve? Because Kelis can’t get a check off of [something she’s not legally entitled to]. And this is the part where people are stuck. Because people are like, “Well, if she knows that Kelis is fighting Pharrell on her publishing, she could show support.” And that’s where I’m like, “Okay A, that presupposes that Beyonce agrees that Kelis has a case against Pharrell,” because Kelis never filed a piece of paper against Pharrell, Neptunes, or Star Trak.

B, though, more importantly, this would be Beyonce going on record as saying she supports the theory that Kelis has the standing in publishing a claim for this record. Beyonce can’t get Kelis paid for this record. That’s the thing that some people don’t seem to understand. No matter what Beyonce does, she can’t arbitrarily cut Kelis in on this record. She can’t. That’s not a thing. People seem to think, “Oh, if she put her name in the credits, Kelis is going to get paid.” No, she’s not ’cause Kelis is not an owner of the song. Period. So Beyonce credited her as a performer of the song. She did that on her website, which is different than a legal line.

300 credits on her website because her intention was to actually give the people who don’t usually show up in credits because they are not owners of the song or composition, lyrics or composition, give them a chance to actually be credited.

Yeah. Because of course, that would spark someone’s interest and they would discover someone and maybe go play their music and get them that streaming or a record sale or something.

Exactly. It’s a discovery thing. Ms. Tina [Knowles, Beyonce’s mother] said she really was conscious of trying to make sure people who maybe don’t always get a look, got the look. She credited Clark Sisters on “Church Girl.” She credited Robin S. on “Break My Soul.” So the thing about the conversation is that then it took this really weird turn that all things Beyonce and Jay tend to take, where because Beyonce is who she is, she is held to this really ridiculous standard, right?

So that’s the first thing. I don’t believe that Kelis is a co-writer on “Milkshake.” Even if she were, there are two parts to song ownership. There is lyrics and there is composition. This is aside from the masters ownership, which I know is confusing. There’s masters and there’s publishing. The masters is ownership of the recorded song itself, the version that’s on an album, the version that was released for sale. Then when you’re talking about an interpolation, we’re not talking about masters clearance. We’re talking solely about publishing.

So we are looking at either composition and lyrics or both. Even if Kelis was a co-writer of “Milkshake,” she would not have been part of this because the producers of “Energy” interpolate the track, not the lyrics, not the vocals. So for the people who are like, “Well it’s Kelis’s song,” it’s also Pharrell and Chad’s song. Kelis performed that song. It is not solely Kelis’s song. There’s nothing of Kelis on “Energy.”

One of the things that I wanted to ask you about was that we’ve seen a lot of these contract publishing rights disputes come up a lot more in recent years.

I have a couple of answers and they go in a couple of different directions. The first thing is that sometimes artists get great counsel and they don’t listen. Sometimes it’s pressure. Sometimes it’s promises that sound good in the moment. Sometimes it’s “Who you going to listen to, them or me? You should trust me. I’m your family. I got your best interest at heart.” It’s any number of things.

There is also, like Kelis, there is a production deal. Kelis was not signed directly to a major. Kelis was signed to Star Trak. Now, when you are signed to a production deal, that means that that company, like with a major label, is going to front all the costs to develop you, to make your music, to basically put together a whole package, and then shop you to a label. But shop you as part of them. It’s a package deal. So the production company gets signed to the label. So what happens is there is a pass-through before you even see your money. And usually, when you hear artists complain about they ain’t seen a dollar, they ain’t see no dough, not even an advance, it’s because they were to a production deal.

So why do we think Beyonce removed the vocal portion and not the actual interpolation, which was the drums?

Right. She did not remove the actual interpolation of the song. That’s important because even outlets are reporting stuff like, “Beyonce removed contested Kelis sample.” There was no Kelis sample, that was the point. People were arguing that they heard Kelis’ voice in those “la la las.” I ain’t hearing nobody talk about the fact that Grace Jones was on the album, but we talking about Kelis all day.

I think, knowing a little bit about how [Beyonce’s] mind works and how she operates from a business perspective, rather than have this conversation distract from the larger conversation about her album, she was like, “Let me just remove this entire distraction. Let’s just take it off the table. Boom. Done.”

So how do artists avoid getting into situations like this one, or like how we’ve been talking about Megan Thee Stallion with 1501 or Fivio Foreign with Mase?

I think there does, unfortunately, have to be some self-ownership with artists who are looking to get in the business to educate themselves or to take time to find a really good manager and to ask a lot of questions. Honestly, that’s my solution for everything. Ask all the f*cking questions, ask every goddamn question. Don’t be afraid to sound stupid. If they don’t want to answer it, ask them again. Because if you don’t, or if you try to be too cool for school, or if you’re going off of an assumption, that’s how you end up X years later being like, “Well, I don’t know what happened with my deal.”

Seeding is still greatly up in the air with just under two weeks remaining in the hotly-contested WNBA playoff race. Chicago and Las Vegas have likely cemented top-2 seeding — the pair separated by just one game, while the Aces find themselves one game up on the third-seeded Connecticut Sun. Meanwhile, the Suns are a game and a half up on the Mystics, which currently sit in fourth, and the Storm, currently in fifth. Those aforementioned two teams just split a two-game series over the weekend. Playoffs are clinched for the top-5 seeds, but who they’ll be playing and whether or not they’ll have homecourt advantage remains to be seen.

The WNBA playoffs are shifting to a new format this season, eschewing one game elimination games and moving to an 8-team postseason. The first round will feature best-of-3 series, while the semifinals and finals will be best-of-5.

This makes the mid-tier playoff push all the more exciting over the last 12 days of regular season play. The sixth seeded Dallas Wings (14-16) are only 2.5 games up on the 11th seeded Minnesota Lynx (12-19). This could get chaotic!

What’s the situation in which each team trying to make the playoffs finds itself? Why should you root for them to make it? And who are the standouts for each team? Let’s dive in.

(Before we get started: I’m not going to cover the Indiana Fever. They’re staunchly out of playoff contention, Kelsey Mitchell is out for the rest of the season, and things have been difficult in a rebuilding year. However, there’s real reason for excitement and optimism with a young group. Destanni Henderson is starting to get more run and this is a team still worth watching as they find themselves and continue to develop. The playoffs just aren’t in the cards.)

Dallas Wings

The Wings are weird, man. They have a really compelling roster with young talent, but their identity changes on a game-to-game basis, which is frustrating both from an analysis and development standpoint. Satou Sabally’s injury has really hampered this team as she’s an All-Star level talent. Teaira McCowan’s emergence in the frontcourt, meanwhile, has changed the dynamic of the team.

The Wings have made a concerted effort to feed her in the post and she’s responded by averaging 15.4 points and 8.7 boards per game across seven straight starts.

As mentioned with the identity shift, though, McCowan’s takeover has been part of the oddity. The Wings started the year built on an aggressive hard hedge, trapping defense, which Isabelle Harrison fit perfectly. She started the season playing at a career rate, but things got thrown out of rhythm as the Wings tried to incorporate more of the roster (they routinely play 11 players a game). I just am not sure what this team is supposed to be and they seem to go through stretches where they’re unsure, too. While the offense has found more stability playing through the post, it can become very one-dimensional and predictable. The defense has fallen off hard — ninth in the W over that seven game stretch, as McCowan brings size and some rim protection, but the roster isn’t built to play a deep drop consistently.

On the bright side, this team just played one of their better games of the season against the Atlanta Dream. Arike Ogunbowale played one of the best defensive games I’ve ever seen from her while also dishing the rock, making consistent playmaking reads, and generating high-quality offensive looks. It was perhaps the most encouraging game I’ve seen from her in regards to her ability to be the engine of a team and I (and the Wings) hope it’s a glimpse into what we can expect out of her going forward.

With six games remaining, the Wings are in an interesting spot where they can maintain their seeding with .500 play or fall out of the playoffs if they hit a rough patch. They play the Aces this week before finishing the last five games against other teams vying for playoff positioning. If last night’s victory against the Sky (with Ogunbowale sidelined) is any indication, the Wings feel like a playoff lock.

Phoenix Mercury

The Mercury have found some stability after a rough start, evening out to roughly .500 level play since the start of June. Most importantly: Free Brittney Griner until it’s backwards.

Skylar Diggins-Smith has been arguably the best guard in the league this season. She’s played phenomenal defense, created high level offense for others, and generated her own shots like few in the league can. Phoenix has found a bit of a base defensively, playing zone consistently to try and offset their lack of frontcourt size.

Brianna Turner’s rim protection and defense have been special. I don’t want to imagine this team without her.

Sophie Cunningham is having a breakout season, making a late push to put herself in the Most Improved Player conversation. She’s gunning from deep and solidifying herself as one of the sharpshooters of the league.

Phoenix has been strapped for depth this season, hurt substantially by injuries throughout, and have felt in flux all year. What makes it interesting is the potential they bring to a best-of-3 series. Yes, they’re undersized, but the shot-making they can bring on a night-to-night basis is difficult to match, particularly if they hit a hot stretch, something that can strongly influence a small sample of games. The Mercury led the league in three point attempts in July, and while they were only eighth in actual accuracy, the point remains.

Diana Taurasi’s heating up. Over her last five games, Taurasi was averaging 24.4 points a night while canning 41.7 percent of her 9.2 attempts from deep per game prior to exiting last night’s game before halftime. She’s getting to the line at an impressive rate. The bar is low, but her defense has been better as well.

Phoenix has another match-up with the Sun after last night’s loss before they round out their schedule with the Liberty, Lynx, Wings, and Sky. It’s not an easy schedule, but the Mercury are shaping up as the most likely sixth seed. Three games against the shot creation on this team? Good luck!

Los Angeles Sparks

The Sparks are in an incredibly weird spot right now as a team. Sitting at 12-18 and in the ninth seed, this season hasn’t exactly gone as planned. While I think some were too hasty in considering this team a title contender, being below .500 for much of the season has been unexpected. Last week, starting center and former All-Star Liz Cambage left the team. While the identity they built around her wasn’t exactly fruitful, it was still something they were leaning into. They’re trying to find themselves again and it hasn’t gone great.

I think there’s a happy medium where this team can really tap into playing a bit smaller, being aggressive and active on defense, and trying to grind out possessions with sets. Part of the issue though is the lack of shooting, which in turn really hurts the spacing.

Lexie Brown and Katie Lou Samuelson are both amid career years and have shot the lights out from deep. Kristi Tolliver is the only player on the team outside of that duo who shoots two or more threes per game above league average. That is a tough recipe for success!

Nneka Ogwumike is having an All-WNBA level season. She’s been otherworldly. But there isn’t a single lead guard on the team who can command an over on pick-and-rolls. Paint touches aren’t generated regularly, so the shot diet is extremely difficult to survive on. If L.A. is going to make a late season run and be competitive in the playoffs, the defense has to be better. We’ve seen glimpses, but it’s now or never.

What I’m most curious to watch for over these last few games: What happens with Chennedy Carter?

Carter was traded for in the off-season, one of the most intriguing prospects in women’s basketball, and she’s been far from prioritized by the Sparks. Again, part of that is roster constraints, but also, figure it out. The team needs to create easier offense and finding ways to make Carter and Ogwumike work in tandem should be a priority down the stretch. Those paint touches we mentioned? Yeah, Carter can create them in bunches.

The Sparks have six games remaining; the second game of a back-to-back series with the Liberty, and road games in Atlanta and Washington before closing out in L.A. with two games against the Sun and a season finale against the Wings. This schedule is not for the faint of heart! I’m really hoping the Sparks start to find their footing, and that sink or swim schedule is certainly going to induce some form of reaction.

Atlanta Dream

The Dream are on a four game losing streak headed into Wednesday’s match-up with the Indiana Fever, but make no mistake, this season has been a success. They came out hot to start the year, putting forth the best defense in the league across the first stretch of the season. The defense is still solid, but injuries and fatigue have sapped the Dream a bit as they’ve hit a rough patch.

The name to watch here is Tiffany “Tip” Hayes. She missed the early portion of the year after dealing with injury returning from overseas play, but she’s been the best player on the team and one of the best in the league since re-entering the starting lineup.

Averaging 16.2 points per game on 64 percent true shooting, Hayes is an immaculate bucket. The angles she creates from attacking off of second side actions are second to none, and few in the league finish at an above-average clip on tough looks in the interior like she does. Her slashing and drive game is unreal.

Everything about this team oozes fun to me. Watching a young team develop while being competitive is as good as it gets, as far as I’m concerned. What strides will rookie Naz Hillmon make as she keeps seeing extended run? How does Rhyne Howard continue to attack the interior and work on her budding game off the dribble as a shot creator? Does this team find their groove again and make that foray into the playoffs that felt distant before the season?

The Dream take on the Fever and Sparks at home before road games against the Lynx and Aces, and then close with a home and home against the Liberty. I feel good about Atlanta’s chances, but they really need to go over .500 in this stretch. A win against the Lynx, one of the teams that have risen most in the last month, is a must.

Minnesota Lynx

Speaking of the Lynx, IT IS SYLVIA FOWLES’ LAST SEASON. An absolute legend in the game, one of the all time greats, and still playing at an All-Star level, Fowles and the Lynx are looking for a proper send-off. After a wretched start to the season marred by injury, signings that didn’t work out, and poor play as a result, the Lynx are 9-6 since the start of June with the second-ranked offense in that time frame and a slightly above average defense.

Cheryl Reeve has sought to get the most out of a DHO and high-post oriented, movement-based offense, which has in turn gotten Fowles rolling downhill more often, making her that much harder to guard. Her fluidity still at her size and age is remarkable.

Aerial Powers went from one of the coldest stretches of her career to playing like an All-Star over the last month. In July, Powers averaged 16.9 points per game on 45.3/33.3/87.2 splits while getting to the line at a top notch rate.

https://twitter.com/MG_Schindler/status/1542141671219011591d

Her drive game has been essential for creating better looks for the Lynx, in tandem with Moriah Jefferson’s rejuvenation in Minnesota. From getting cut in Dallas after a myriad of injuries the past few season, to playing legit plus ball as a starter on a team vying for a playoff spot is one of the coolest and most rewarding stories of the season.

This isn’t last year’s team, but watching this group grow from subpar to legitimate playoff level squad has been pretty incredible this year. While they have played better of late and have arguably been the best of the 6-11 seeded group over the last two months, they can’t afford to drop games. They only have five games left and against stiff competition — facing the Storm (twice), Dream, Mercury, and closing with the Sun is about as tough of a draw as they could’ve asked for.

New York Liberty

The All-Star Break was not kind to the Liberty, as they dropped five of their last seven games after returning from the break before blasting the Sparks last night. The offense, which started to click in June, has fallen to 8th in the league over that time frame, and their 9th-ranked defense hasn’t helped their case either. Turnovers continue to plague the offense, they struggle to get to the line (dead last in percentage of points scored from the free throw line), and they just don’t generate easy points on the inside regularly.

It’s important to note how much injuries have impacted this team, as franchise star Betnijah Laney has only played four games, and starting wing Jocelyn Willoughby just returned from an injury a few weeks ago after going down in May.

On the bright side, Laney practiced with the team on Tuesday, and while a date hasn’t been set for when (or if) she will return, she is trending in that direction. Consistency has arguably been this team’s biggest struggle, and the last seven games will hopefully provide the runway this team needs to find something to propel them into next season.

While many expected them to make the playoff leap this season, where they’re at now is understandable to a degree, even if it’s disappointing from a team building standpoint, but next season will be pivotal. Sabrina Ionescu’s growth into a true star this season has been the most important part of their season, bar none.

Ionescu is developing into the player the Liberty envisioned, and that’s easily been the most fun thing to follow along with as the season has gone on for this team. Her two-player game with Natasha Howard is absolutely divine, as they form one of the better pick-and-roll duos in the league.

No schedule is “easy,” in essence, but the Liberty face the least difficult schedule to close out of this group of teams. It starts with a back-to-back against the Sparks, then the Mercury on the road, then a two-game series with the Wings in Dallas, and then a home-and-home with the Dream finishing up in New York at Barclays Center on the 14th. The Liberty, in a way, control their own fate, playing strictly against the teams seeded above them in that mid-tier while having the most games remaining in the league (tied with the Wings). Whether or not they can find something remains to be seen, but it’ll be worth watching what they can do along the way and whether or not they can muster a stretch to claw their way into the playoffs.

HBO is crafting another brutal, bloody, and binge-able TV show based on author George R.R. Martin’s writings but where Game of Thrones recounted the events of a host of books within his A Song of Ice and Fire series, House of the Dragon is based on one novel – and it’s likely to be a story even diehard GoT fans are unfamiliar with.

The civil war that erupted amongst members of House Targaryen is known as the Dance of Dragons and its build-up is detailed in Martin’s book Fire & Blood. Unlike the more linear storytelling of his previous series, Fire & Blood is written like a history tome, recounting the rise and fall of a dynasty via various historical accounts – not all of them unbiased – translated by a maester. In other words, it’s a complicated read and one that’s open to plenty of interpretation, which House of the Dragon creators Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik will likely take full advantage of.

Still, if you’re hoping to get a better sense of what this new Martin-inspired fantasy series is about, there are some storylines from the books that will probably make their way to the screen at some point.

The Line of Succession
The main catalyst for the eventual destruction of House Targaryen ends up being a pretty simple problem to solve in the books – if anyone had taken a second to write down some rules for succession, that is. Unfortunately, despite reigning for decades, they didn’t, and when Rhaenys Targaryen, a woman, was next in line to inherit the Iron Throne, it threw the whole dynasty into chaos. Eventually, her uncle Viserys was chosen by a council to become king in her stead, setting up a tradition of something called agnatic primogeniture – which basically means only men can run things in Westeros. And that becomes a big problem when Viserys, the current king, only has one heir — who happens to be a girl. Rhaenyra is intelligent, well-bred, and a dragon rider, but her gender is what causes even her own family members to question whether she has the right to rule once Viserys is gone.

Year of The Red Spring
This was a time period in Viserys’ waning rule that was marked by death and the fracturing of his house. It’s also where some have speculated House of the Dragon will pick up when the show begins. Viserys is a good man, but good men don’t make for great kings and he faces opposition on all sides when he refuses to name a male relation his heir over his daughter, Rhaenyra. Worse, plenty of people in his inner circle meet their untimely end during this year, some thanks to suspicious circumstances. From Velaryon’s allies to his own trusted Hand of the King, the Year of the Red Spring was marked by blood and bitter feuds amongst House Targaryen, ones Viserys just couldn’t keep in check.

The Small Council
We’ll be sad to lose Paddy Considine but that time will come at some point during House of the Dragon as it’s King Viserys’ death that really sets this civil war in motion. Well, his death, and how his wife handles the aftermath of it. In the books, Alicent Hightower is a beautiful woman nearly a decade Rhaenyra’s senior who’s already given the king sons she believes should inherit the Iron Throne. To make that dream a reality, she gathers together some loyal followers in a secret small council meeting immediately after the passing of her husband and the events that take place during it are probably what inspired GoT’s eventual Red Wedding massacre. Without spoiling too much, Alicent makes sure her son’s inheritance can be secured by cutting deals (and throats) with some of her step-daughter’s most loyal allies – a betrayal that should sting even worse on screen because the show has aged up Rhaenyra and given the two women a strong friendship grown since childhood that makes Alicent’s power play even crueler.

The Blacks vs. The Greens
Another memorable moment in the books that signals the beginning of the end of House Targaryen happens during a tournament held sometime around the Year of the Red Spring. With tensions between Princess Rhaenyra and Queen Alicent running high, the two women make an appearance at court sporting very distinct colors. Rhaenyra wears a stunning dress in her house colors of black and red while Alicent robes herself in green, the color of House Hightower. The animosity between the two was so clear at that point that their followers started identifying themselves by the colors of the women’s dresses, hence “Blacks” and “Greens.” It’s basically the medieval version of Marvel’s Team Cap versus Team Iron Man.

The Battle at Harrenhal
Prince Daemon Targaryen becomes a powerful ally to his niece, Princess Rhaenyra, once she makes a play for the Iron Throne, even marrying her to strengthen his claim and boost support for the Blacks abroad. But, the same qualities that made Daemon a poor choice for king are what lead him to a duel to the death with his nephew and would-be usurper, Aemond Targaryen, at Harrenhal. Both were prolific dragon riders and both were hotheads which means, for much of the war, they chased each other around, trying to snag a kill that would ensure their side ultimately won. In the books, Daemon eventually grew tired of hunting his nephew and challenged him to a fight at Harrenhal on dragon’s back. We’ve seen Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen take on the Night King in the air before, but if House of the Dragon can pull off this spectacularly brutal brawl with more experienced dragon riders in charge, it’s likely to go down as one of the more impressive fight scenes to come from the fantasy series.

Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower had The Tonight Show audience screaming and Jimmy Fallon losing his mind after delivering a mashup that no one could’ve seen coming: Vecna singing Lizzo’s “About Damn Time.” Bower was on hand to talk about joining the Stranger Things cast as the crazy powerful dark wizard, who literally tore a hole in Hawkins to set up the Netflix series’ final season. However, Fallon had other plans in mind. Namely, making Bower recite famous lines using his Vecna voice.

After having Bower say Julia Roberts’ Notting Hill line, “I’m just a girl standing in front of a boy,” and, “Jack, oh Jack, I want you to draw me like one of your French girls,” from Titanic, Fallon teed Bower up to perform the Lizzo lyrics and it killed. The audience was clearly here for it and Fallon went nuts over how well Bower leaned into it.

As for how Bower came up with the Vecna voice, earlier in the interview, he revealed that it took him a bit to get it right, which was scary because he was hired only a month before the fourth season started shooting. Via Entertainment Tonight:

Bower sat behind co-star Millie Bobby Brown at the first table read, where his initial version of Vecna “started in this very kinda nasally area,” he said. “More like Freddy Krueger — and it just wasn’t landing. So I went home and worked on it, did a bunch of reference work for Hellraiser and Doug Bradley, particularly. It said that this deep, booming voice kinda comes out of the darkness and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, you can tell.’”

Clearly, Bower found his groove as Vecna quickly became a fan-favorite once Stranger Things 4 hit Netflix, and the actor is still getting used to the attention, particularly all of the “Vecnussy” talk out there. Kind of hard to prepare for that one.

(Via Entertainment Tonight)

The Bear will give us a second season, thank goodness. The show’s got viewers addressing each other as “Chef” out of respect, and there’s plenty of other useful jargon that has entered the public discourse, but what of Jeremy Allen White and his seeming onscreen addiction to not being able to leave Chicago? Well, this may or may not affect viewers’ lust for his Carmy character, but White has been asked to weigh in on the eternal question of which regionally favored pizza is the best. Spoiler alert: The Shameless veteran does not embrace all things Chicago.

White’s been doing the rounds while the show still reverberates around the Internet’s nether regions, and although he recently told Eater Chicago that he’s “happy to help” restaurant workers get down, he’s also pushing back on some of his own kitchen-based appeal. Here’s what White told InStyle about a very pressing issue:

Chicago-style hotdog or deep-dish pizza? You have to choose one.

Deep-dish pizza is disgusting. That’s the easiest question I’ve ever been asked.

Spoken like a true New Yorker.

It doesn’t make any sense. It’s so doughy. Get it out here. I don’t need it.

Oh man, carb lovers everywhere will be reeling. And if he doesn’t dig Chicago pizza, he surely doesn’t enjoy Detroit pizza either. Will this hurt or help his “Chef” status among The Bear devotees? I’m slightly disappointed (but will recover) and not alone.

(Via InStyle & Eater Chicago)

Young Jesus has announced a new album, set to arrive this fall. The album, titled Shepherd Head, marks the group’s sixth album, and was recorded within the span of a week.

Young Jesus crafted the album following the death of a close friend of the band’s lead vocalist, John Rossiter. With Shepherd Head, Rossiter utilized found sounds and voice memos when creating tracks.

“I would pitch things down an octave and add strange reverb,” said Rossiter in a statement. “If a dog barked, I would isolate it and make it part of a beat. I recorded a voice singing on the street just walking by a storefront and autotuned it. Some guitar parts are just mistakes from voice memos that I chopped, stitched, and looped. I used sounds of rivers, people walking, friends talking. It was a lot of fun. I didn’t care about the fidelity of the recording. Whatever wanted to be in came in.”

Ahead of the album, Young Jesus has released a new song called “Ocean,” which features Tomberlin. In the song, found sounds, like leaf crunches, can be heard in the background of bassist Marcel Borbón Peréz’s hypnotic bassline and Peter Martin’s looped percussion. The song’s accompanying video contains scenes from Coney Island in New York City.

Check out “Ocean” above and the Shepherd Head tracklist and cover art below.

1. “Rose Eater”
2. “Ocean” Feat. Tomberlin
3. “Johno”
4. “Shepherd Head”
5. “Gold Line Awe”
6. “Satsuma”
7. “Believer” Feat. Arswain
8. “A Lake”

Shepherd Head is out 9/16 via Saddle Creek. Pre-save it here.