Month: August 2022

Since the FBI seized hundreds of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, the biggest question on everyone’s mind — besides what sort of intel was actually in them — is what exactly Donald Trump planned to do with them. Defenders have come up with all sorts of reasons why the former president might hold on to top-secret documents that put the world in danger by being moved from the security of the White House, including for research to write his memoirs. If that were true, then what the hell would Trump need with “intelligence” on Emmanuel Macron’s sex life?

As Rolling Stone reports, item 1a on the list of documents and information seized from Mar-a-Lago is “info re: President of France.” While that’s as detailed as the official FBI list gets, Trump’s longtime obsession with all things Macron is hardly a secret to those closest to him. As Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng write for Rolling Stone:

Trump has bragged to some of his closest associates — both during and after his time in the White House — that he knew illicit details about the love life of French President Emmanuel Macron, two people with knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone. And the former president even claimed that he learned about some of this dirt through “intelligence” he had seen or been briefed on, these sources say.

While there’s no confirmation that the material seized from the president’s golf club/home is the same intel he has boasted about seeing in the past, or whether the material has anything to do with Macron’s personal life at all, the mere existence of it — and that it has been in Trump’s nubby little hands — has French officials, including Macron, worried. According to Rolling Stone:

[T]he mere revelation of its existence triggered a trans-Atlantic freakout, according to two other sources familiar with the situation. And Trump’s prior talk about Macron’s allegedly “naughty” ways that “[not] very many people know” only intensified those concerns. Both French and U.S. officials worked to figure out precisely what Trump had on Macron and France’s government, and if any of it was sensitive in nature, the sources said. The officials in both nations wanted to know if this discovery signified some kind of national-security breach — or if it amounted to a frivolous, but stolen, keepsake.

According to Trump’s staffers, including former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, the former president was known to love gossip — both receiving it and sharing it with whoever was listening. So it would make sense if the documents he had were salacious in nature.

Still, a French embassy spokesperson told Rolling Stone that they had not asked for any details on the documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago. Unlike Trump when he was in office, some presidents have real work to do.

(Via Rolling Stone)

With his new album Demons Protected By Angels coming September 9, Nav has revealed the album’s features, which include Babyface Ray, Bryson Tiller, Don Toliver, and more. On Tuesday, he shared a trailer for the album on his social media that opens with stunning aerial shots of his hometown, Toronto, then incorporates some eye-popping visual effects featuring the titular angels, demons, and a solar eclipse. It then lists the features, which also include Future, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Lil Uzi Vert, RealestK, and Travis Scott.

So far, Nav has released two singles from the album. “Never Sleep” features Lil Baby and Travis Scott, while Nav flies solo on “Wrong Decisions.” Demons Protected By Angels is billed as Nav’s fourth studio album, and is preceded by 2020’s Good Intentions, which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Since then, he’s released a deluxe reissue of the album titled Brown Boy 2 and a mixtape completely produced by Wheezy called Emergency Tsunami. He also featured on Internet Money’s hit single “Lemonade” alongside Don Toliver and Gunna and contributed features to songs from Belly, Rowdy Rebel, and Vory.

Demons Protected By Angels is due on 9/9 via XO/Republic Records. Stay tuned as the new album’s rollout continues.

The short answer for why Michael Scott doesn’t get along with Toby Flenderson on The Office is that he hates “so much about the things” that he chooses to be. But there’s a longer, more detailed explanation, too.

On the latest installment of the Office Ladies podcast (via Decider), hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey discussed the season seven episode “Counseling,” in which Michael is assigned six hours of counseling with a professional after yelling at Toby and threatening to smash his face, among other workplace misconducts. Fischer brought up an interview with Paul Lieberstein, who plays Toby and also wrote for the show, in which “he said that Michael’s hatred of Toby goes back to a deleted scene from [season one’s] ‘The Alliance.’ This is where they found this, like, true hatred of Toby.”

Fischer: “In the scene, Toby is coming in to sign Meredith’s birthday card. And Paul said, ‘I just go in, write something quickly and leave — that’s the scene.’ But when they were shooting the scene, I guess it took Paul a long time to physically write down what he was going to write down.”

Kinsey: “I have a memory of this — that he was writing in the card and it took a bit.”

Fischer: “Paul said, ‘I could just feel him watching me and I could feel this hatred burning.’ And he said that Steve [Carell] told him afterwards that it was in that moment that he decided as Michael to hate Toby so much. That was when they ran with it, that Paul went to the writers and said, ‘Michael hates Toby.’ Because, you know, if Jim took a long time to write a message, he would have all the patience in the world.”

Michael shouldn’t, because Jim is objectively way worse than Toby. And if you disagree, you’re the “biggest liar of… history.” You can listen to the Office Ladies podcast below.

(Via Decider)

Taylor Swift’s last concert — not an SNL visit or TV special or acoustic performance of “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” or Jingle Ball appearance, but a show that the public could buy tickets to — was on November 21, 2018. A lot has happened since then: Joe Biden replaced Donald Trump as president, Tyrese and Ludacris went to space, that whole pandemic thing. Also, Swift released three new albums, Lover, folklore, and evermore; five, if you could include the Taylor’s Versions of Fearless and Red; six, if you add Midnights, which comes out in October. By the time she hits the road again, she’ll be touring behind a half-dozen albums, maybe more if 1989 (Taylor’s Version) and/or Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) finally make it from daily Twitter trending topics to Spotify.

What the heck is that setlist going to look like?

It’s basically unprecedented for an artist of her scale to go that many albums between tours. Most stadium-level artists either retire but continue to release music, or go two, maybe three albums between world tours. Swift’s scenario is like Madonna releasing Like a Virgin, True Blue, Like a Prayer, and Erotica without hitting the road, or Beyoncé calling it quits after I Am… Sasha Fierce; The Beatles famously stopped touring in 1966, but they never resumed touring, so the comparison is mute. Through circumstances out of her control — namely, uh, the pandemic — Swift will have a lot of catching up to do.

With that mind, let’s look at the “average” setlist from her last tour, for Reputation.

1. “… Ready For It?”
2. “I Did Something Bad”
3. “Gorgeous”
4. “Style” / “Love Story” / “You Belong With Me”
5. “Look What You Made Me Do”
6. “End Game”
7. “King of My Heart”
8. “Delicate”
9. “Shake It Off”
10. “Dancing With Our Hands Tied”
11. [SPECIAL SONG]
12. “Blank Space”
13. “Dress”
14. “Bad Blood” / “Should’ve Said No”
15. “Don’t Blame Me”
16. “Long Live” / “New Year’s Day”
17. “Getaway Car”
18. “Call It What You Want”
19. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” / “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things”

Not including track 11, which changed every show, that’s 12 songs from Reputation, two complete songs from 1989, and medleys featuring one or two songs from Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, and Red, even though the people (me) demanded a complete performance of “Should’ve Said No.” It obviously makes sense that tracks from Reputation would dominate the setlist, considering it was the Reputation Stadium Tour, but Swift won’t be awarded the same luxury with the next tour (assuming she doesn’t revive Lover Fest). So, again, what the heck is Miss Taylor Alison Swift going to do?

There are four options, as far as I see it:

1. Two shows in every city. One night is Lover through Midnights, songs she’s rarely, if ever, played before in a live setting; the next night is Taylor Swift through Reputation, including “vault” tracks. This option is unfortunately unlikely because double the shows in one city means fewer cities overall, or else she would be out on the road for years.

2. The setlist is post-Reputation songs only, i.e. songs that were released after her last tour. This has its advantages (it would ease the traffic jam of options, and fans would know in advance that they won’t hear “The Story of Us”) and disadvantages (no “The Story of Us”). But the Taylor’s Versions of Fearless and Red, and whatever else comes out before (hopefully) next year, are cheat codes of sorts. Songs that appeared on the original album would be off limits, but “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” “Message In a Bottle,” “I Bet You Think About Me,” the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” (the highlight of every set), etc. are fair game because they’re technically “new.” I think this is the most likely option.

3. She chooses one fan to pick the setlist in every city. “What would you pick, Josh?” Thank you for asking! This is my dream 20-song setlist:

1. “State of Grace”
2. “Cruel Summer”
3. “Mr. Perfectly Fine”
4. “Cornelia Street”
5. “I’m Only Me When I’m with You”
6. “Blank Space”
7. “Delicate”
8. “All Too Well (10-Minute Version)”
9. “Style”
10. “Love Story”
11. “You Belong with Me”
12. “Death By a Thousand Cuts”
13. “Mirrorball”
14. “Exile”
15. “Happiness”
16. “Champagne Problems”
17. “The Story of Us”
18. “New Romantics”
19. “Message In a Bottle”
20. “Shake It Off”

Now, before getting mad at me because I grouped together the folklore and evermore tracks as an acoustic suite and left out “Sparks Fly”… and “Enchanted”… and “Holy Ground”… and “This Is Me Trying”… and “The Last Great American Dynasty,” you should know: 1) I’m mad at myself, and 2) it’s really hard trimming 200-plus songs down to 20. No setlist is going to have every song you want to hear, unless…

4. Every show is five hours long.

I hope it’s #4.

In January 2022, Winnie the Pooh and the wonderful story of a cute little bear and his pals entered the public domain. The bear and his iconic bright red shirt has historically been most heavily associated with The Walt Disney Company, but the original story is now open to all different creators and director who can make any type of Pooh-related drama they wish (except Tigger. He still belongs to Mickey Mouse).

But, instead of a fun CGI reboot, or a quirky stop motion feature, Pooh is getting the horror movie treatment. And today we have the first trailer, complete with blood and, you guessed it, honey.

Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey follows Pooh and Piglet as they go on a rampage after being abandoned by their beloved owner, Christopher Robin, who is now a full-grown adult who is about to get married. They begin to stalk a group of friends who are staying just outside the hundred-acre wood for a getaway that turns deadly.

Earlier this year, director Ryhs Waterfield said that it’s not the Pooh and Piglet you’ve come to know and love: the duo has become vicious versions of themselves after Christopher left them, “Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral,” Waterfield explained. “So they’ve gone back to their animal roots. They’re no longer tame: they’re like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey.” Who would win in a fight? Pooh or The Predator?

The moral of this story? Never get married and abandon your imaginary animal friends.

Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey does not have a release date at this time…unfortunately.

The White Lotus is officially an anthology series with a fairly quick turnaround after the show premiered in July 2021. The brilliant satire landed as a sleeper series, and the show generated so much conversation that HBO couldn’t resist re-upping for a second tour. Sadly, we won’t be seeing Murray Bartlett return (as Armond) to drop a deuce in Italy. That wouldn’t be possible anyway, since this isn’t a prequel series, and his character obviously didn’t make it through Season 1.

Who will appear in Season 2 (which will premiere in October)? The show takes place in Italy with the sole returning cast member being Jennifer Coolidge. She’ll return as boozy socialite Tanya McQuoid, and from there, a whole new assortment of angsty wealth-mongers will manage to be pretty miserable in idyllic surroundings. This season, we’ll see Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, F. Murray, Abraham, Michael Imperioli, and Haley Lu Richardson. They’ll likely be judging everyone, so we can feel free to judge them, too.

There’s no real word on plot yet or if there will be another mystery body bag, but one can hope that we’ll at least receive an intriguing mystery. Sydney Sweeney won’t be around to send withering glances toward clueless vacationers, and I’m sad that we won’t be able to see Alexandra Daddario’s new bride come to her senses and dump her insufferable husband, played by Jake Lacey. Well, there’s always Season 3 for that.

The White Lotus will air on HBO (and stream on HBO Max) in October.

Every month, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden makes an unranked list of his favorite music-related items released during this period — songs, albums, books, films, you name it.

1. Arctic Monkeys, “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball”

One of the best and most popular British rock bands of the past decade announced their first album in four years, The Car, this month. Judging by the tracklist, the Monkeys appear to be continuing their GBV-like descent (or is it ascent?) into screamingly obscure song titles. (I am excited to hear “Jet Skis On The Moat” myself.) As for the music, the one sample we have so far is this heartbroken lounge ballad that hews close sonically to the debauched torch-song vibe of 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (minus the sci-fi element). I was a big fan of that strange, singular and polarizing record — and still am, having revisited recently — but I hope The Car also includes some nods to the riff-heavy, sexy and leather-jacketed rock of their 2013 landmark LP A.M.

2. Cass McCombs, Heartmind

Earlier this month a reader asked if this perennially underrated singer-songwriter has passed my Five Albums Test upon the release of his latest LP (and 10th overall), Heartmind. Actually, he passed it well before now. It just depends on how far back you go with him. For me, he’s been one of the most reliable artists in the indie sphere going back at least a decade, to the sparkling 2011 double shot of Wit’s End and Humor Risk. Though hardcore fans will likely make a case for his aughts-era work, particularly albums like 2007’s Dropping The Writ and 2009’s Catacombs. For me, Heartmind doesn’t quite meet the standard of recent masterworks like 2016’s Mangy Love and 2019’s Tip Of The Sphere, in which McCombs unleashed his inner Jerry Garcia and snaked dreamy guitar solos throughout his enigmatic songs. Heartmind is less guitar-centric, favoring a jazzy vibe that is less immediate. But over time, it really gets under your skin.

3. The National and Bartees Strange, “Mistaken For Strangers” (Live in Dillion, Colo. 8/10/22)

This month I traveled to Utah to meet up with Bartees Strange on a short tour through the western U.S. and Canada with The National. It was a fun and wonderfully strange experience. If you ever get the chance to visit Salt Lake City, do it. To quote myself: “When you’re downtown, you can’t take in the mountain vistas that ring the city without also seeing a monument to the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints lurking in your peripheral vision. But I don’t want to reduce Salt Lake City to a series of Mormon cliches. There are other distinctive attributes. The High School Musical films were made here. There is a surprisingly vibrant Mexican restaurant scene. You can’t order a cheeseburger without someone putting some pastrami on it. Famously, if you get pizza delivered to your hotel room, you might get sick and subsequently be willed to iconic feats of sports excellence. There is no other city quite like it.”

A highlight of this tour was Bartees joining The National for “Mistaken For Strangers.” The video above was taken the day after the show I saw.

4. 2nd Grade, “Strung Out On You”

This Philadelphia band will release one of my favorite albums of 2022, Easy Listening, in September. I’ll have more to say about that next month, but for now, let’s celebrate this deeply pleasurable slice of power-pop goodness released in advance of the record. Led by singer-songwriter and Beach Boys fanatic Peter Gill — who also plays in another very good band, Friendship, which dropped a very good record, Love Is Stranger, in July — 2nd Grade play very short and very catchy songs that draw on a well-curated set of indie-leaning pop-rock sources: Big Star, Guided By Voices, The Raspberries, Teenage Fanclub, Sloan. On “Strung Out On You,” Gill utilizes all of the best tricks for this kind of music — jangly guitars, handclaps, gooey vocals, and irresistible rhythmic bounce.

5. Kiwi Jr., Chopper

This prolific Canadian band — Chopper is their third album in three years — is typically compared to Pavement, because the singer sounds a little like Stephen Malkmus while affecting a slightly aloof and witty lyrical posture. (Which means that they’re also described as a northern Parquet Courts.). Being compared to great bands is a double-edged sword, of course, and given Kiwi Jr.’s rapidly growing body of work it seems unfair at this point. Produced by Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner, Chopper is their best and slickest record yet, tightening up their patented slacker rock with shiny New Wave accents. At its best, Kiwi Jr. sound like The Cars for the agitated TikTok generation. (Yes, I just compared them to another great band but I swear it’s appropriate.)

6. Eli Winter, Eli Winter

Every August needs at least one Americana-tinged instrumental guitar record, in which blissed-out finger-picking designed to soundtrack sunsets occasionally slip into storms of noise and feedback. This month, Eli Winter was that record for me. So many instrumental guitar albums feel more like collections of jams rather than a set of actual songs. But Winter knows how to balance exploratory solos with a sense of purpose and structure, and he builds this six-track self-titled album in such a way that the cumulative effect amounts to something greater than the attendant parts. It helps that he has precisely the supporting cast you would want on an album like this, including Ryley Walker, David Grubbs, and Yasmin Williams.

What will surely go down as one of the year’s most emotional music events is taking place this weekend, as the first Taylor Hawkins tribute concert will go on at London’s Wembley Stadium this Saturday, September 3. The surviving members of Foo Fighters — Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, and Rami Jaffee — are currently in the city getting ready for the show, and now the first new band photo taken since Hawkins’ untimely death earlier this year has surfaced.

A UK-based Twitter fan page for the band shared the image, indicating it was taken in London on August 30. Longtime music photographer (and Sea.Hear.Now Festival co-founder) Danny Clinch confirmed that to be true and that he took the photo, sharing the image on Twitter and writing, “A quick portrait of @foofighters last night in London.”

The Hawkins-less image stirred up some heavy feelings in fans. Reactions range from people expressing sadness to calling the photo “incomplete” to saying it’s weird to see a Foo Fighters band photo without Hawkins in it. One fan noted, “This picture makes it real… he’s not there and won’t come back.”

As for the tribute concert, fans who won’t find themselves at Wembley this weekend will still be able to watch it live on a variety of platforms.

Check out some responses to the image below.

Dwayne Johnson, or Mr. The Rock himself, is known for many things: his giant arms, his ability to crush any role he takes on, and his friendship with Kevin Hart. But recently, he has been more and more open about his straight-up bizarre eating habits, which is certainly respectable but still a little curious. It makes sense: the actor was a WWE wrestler for many years and his public image is a huge part of what makes him THE Rock, as opposed to a pebble or something along those lines.

Recently, writer/director Stephen Merchant, who worked with Johnson on 2019’s Fighting With My Family, opened up about Johnson’s work ethic when it comes to eating his own meals. While appearing on SiriusXM’s Jim Norton and Sam Roberts Show, Merchant recalled an interesting approach that Johnson has when it comes to eating out. “I think someone told me, maybe he told me, that when he goes for dinner with friends he has to take his food to the restaurant and have them heat it up because it’s such a structured diet he has to have,” the director explained.

Not only is his life structured around what he eats, but it’s also important for him to eat certain things at certain times. Merchant recalled a time when he was meeting with Johnson before one of his WrestleMania events when he learned of just how strict the actor is when it comes to his eating plan.

“I do remember having a meeting with him just in Texas just before WrestleMania and we were having a meeting about the movie and his alarm would go off at like 3:17 p.m. and he would go to the fridge and there would be turkey and rice with ‘3:17 p.m.’ written on it and he would microwave it,” Merchant explained. “It was so regimented.” Why he didn’t just round up to 3:20 or down to 3:15 we will never know, but he certainly has his schedule down.

Johnson also loves sharing his various “cheat day meals” so we know that he has got this schedule down to a science and even has some fun with it. Maybe he really just likes 3:17 pm?

(Via Page Six)

Björk is set to release her first album in five years next month. The titled of her 10th album, Fossora, refers to a word she created — a feminized version of the word “fossore,’ which is a Latin word meaning “digger, ditcher, or delver.”

Earlier today, the Icelandic pop star took to Instagram to reveal the album’s cover and release date, while also explaining how the record came together.

“Each album always starts with a feeling that i try to shape into sound,” she said in a caption. “This time around, the feeling was landing (after my last album, Utopia, which was all island in the clouds element air and no bass) on the earth and digging my feet into the ground.”

She continued, revealing that being home during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic inspired her to write, produce, and record music.

“It was also woven into how I experienced the ‘now,’” she said. “This time around 7 billion of us did it together, nesting in our homes quarantining, being long enough in one place that we shot down roots.”

Elsewhere, she explained that the album is sonically “about bass” and will feature “six bass clarinets and punchy sub.” She also revealed she collaborated with Serpentwithfeet.

Check out the cover art above.

Fossora is out 9/30 via One Little Independent. Pre-save it here.