Month: August 2022

Some bands make fans wait years between albums, and others have been very consistent with rolling out new releases. Early aughts groups Hot Chip and Silversun Pickups fall into the ladder category, dropping a new album like clockwork every two or three years. On this week’s Indiecast episode, hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen share their thoughts on Hot Chip’s latest LP Freakout/Release and Silversun Pickups’ new project Physical Thrills, two albums which rely heavily on synths.

The biggest indie news of this week came from a band no one has heard much from in over 15 years: Mclusky. The Welsh group officially disbanded in 2005, but they just announced they’re going on a North American tour this fall. Indiecast also discusses the 25th anniversary of Oasis‘ Be Here Now, partially reigniting the Blur vs. Oasis britpop discourse.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian tells listeners to check out Spielbergs’ new album Vestli. Meanwhile, Steven endorses Cass McCombs’ tenth studio album Heartmind.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 102 below and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Elmo has had a really tough year. First, he was subjected to a media frenzy after having personal drama with his best friend and her pet rock (it happens!). Then, the fuzzy red muppet was viciously attacked by real-life Senator Ted Cruz over his COVID vaccine (really). Now his hit HBO Max talk show looks like it’s getting the ax from the streamer, along with dozens of other Seasame Street specials.

HBO Max has continued to slowly but surely yank lesser-known titles from the site, and the latest sweep is removing 36 programs and specials, including the fan-favorite animated series Summer Camp Island, Aquaman: King of Atlantis, Uncle Grandpa, Sesame Street specials, and more. Also leaving the streamer is The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo which just wrapped up its second season in December. There is no word on if this means the show will not be renewed for another season.

The company has been open about its restructuring ahead of the HBO Max/Discovery+ merger that’s slated for next summer. “As we work toward bringing our content catalogs together under one platform, we will be making changes to the content offering available on both HBO Max and discovery+,” HBO Max said in a statement earlier this week. “That will include the removal of some content from both platforms.” This makes sense, but couldn’t you leave Elmo out of it? He’s been through so much and just wants to make an honest living.

Here is the full list of everything HBO Max is scheduled to remove this week, according to NPR:

12 Dates of Christmas

About Last Night

Aquaman: King of Atlantis

Close Enough

Detention Adventure

Dodo

Ellen’s Next Great Designer

Elliott From Earth

Esme & Roy

The Fungies!

Generation Hustle

Genera+ion

Infinity Train

Little Ellen

Mao Mao, Heroes of Pure Heart

Messy Goes to Okido

Mia’s Magic Playground

Mighty Magiswords

My Dinner with Herve

My Mom, Your Dad

Odo

OK K.O.! – Let’s Be Heroes

The Ollie & Moon Show

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures

Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness

Select Sesame Street Specials

Make It Big, Make It Small

Share

Squish

Summer Camp Island

The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo

The Runaway Bunny – Special

Theodosia

Tig n’ Seek

Uncle Grandpa

Victor and Valentino

Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs

(Via NPR)

Fat Joe is a 30-year veteran of the stage, but this fall, he’ll be standing in the spotlight in an entirely new capacity. Rather than rocking the mic, he’ll be doing stand-up as part of a one-man show based on his upcoming memoir The Book of Jose, out November 15 via Penguin Random House. You can pre-order it here.

The show is co-produced by Magic Lemonade and Roc Nation and will include anecdotes from Joe’s life and career. Examples from a press release include a time he was kidnapped in Angola and his four months in prison for tax evasion charges in 2013. The show will feature pop-ups from fellow celebrities including Dave Chappelle, who’ll give a special introduction. Ticketing information is TBA.

In the press release, Joe said, “The world will be getting Fat Joe at his most authentic, vulnerable, and comedic self on that stage. I’m not holding anything back. I’ve always taken pride in my storytelling, but we’re about to take it to the next level. I’m grateful to Dave Chappelle, Roc Nation and Magic Lemonade for their support in sharing my story and helping make this one-man show the biggest event ever.”

Fans have already gotten a glimpse of Joe’s wit and charm with his weekly Instagram Live streams, in which he’s expressed skepticism for J. Cole’s hoop skills, called out Irv Gotti for his uncouth Drink Champs interview, and given his unfiltered takes on everyone from Jay-Z to Joe Rogan.

Tucker Carlson has never had a problem backing the worst trends of the Right. Whether it’s downplaying the January 6 insurrection, pushing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, or attacking Jon Stewart for championing a veterans healthcare bill, Tucker has been a loyal soldier. But not even he could hold it together while covering Dr. Mehmet Oz‘s ridiculously out-of-touch campaign video where he pretends to shop in a grocery store.

In the video for his PA senate race, Oz mispronounces the name of the store and refers to a veggie tray as “crudités,” which opened him up to even more relentless trolling from his opponent John Fetterman. During his Thursday night monologue, Carlson said Oz should be focusing on crime and immigration instead of inflation. According to Mediaite, the Fox News host also couldn’t stop from snickering at how bad the Oz video is.

“Twenty dollars for crudités?” Carlson said while trying to keep it together. “Whatever that is. It’s very obviously easy to make fun of that, but it’s not entirely a stupid ad if inflation were the salient issue here.”

But don’t give Carlson too much credit. He opened the segment by noting that Oz is losing in the polls to a “stroke victim” and he once again dabbled in replacement theory by accusing Democrats of “changing the population of the United States.”

On top of being laughed at on Fox News, Dr. Oz is reportedly losing critical support from Donald Trump. According to Rolling Stone, Trump has been privately telling people that Oz is going to “f*cking lose” and it will be “incredibly embarrassing” in a race against Fetterman, who “has hidden in his basement more [than Joe Biden].”

(Via Mediaite)

Today is a busy day for Red Hot Chili Peppers. Earlier, they shared a video for “Tippa My Tongue,” the lead single from their upcoming album, Return Of The Dream Canteen. Now, it has been revealed that they will receive the Global Icon Award at the 2022 MTV VMAs. They’ll get the honor during the live show, which is set for August 28 at 8 p.m. ET.

They’re also set to perform during the broadcast, which will be the first time they’ve done so in decades: It will be the group’s first time playing on the VMAs stage since 2000, when they performed “Californication” before accepting the Video Vanguard Award.

RHCP, who have won eight VMAs in their day, earned their 29th overall nomination, and first since 2006, this year with “Black Summer” up for Best Rock. Their last win came in 2006, when “Dani California” got Best Art Direction In A Video.”

Meanwhile, Chad Smith recently said of the band’s upcoming album, “We’re just so happy to be making music again. Like most people, and creative people, and artists, to be able to have that opportunity to go out and play concerts and play new music. We wrote a lot of songs during the pandemic time and we recorded them all. We just wanted this next record to be an extension of Unlimited Love. It stands on its own. We felt like we had so many songs that we love that we just need to have them all come out, and we don’t want to put them all out at once. Here’s the second batch and it’s just as important.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

(For You)r Consideration is a weekly column breaking down the rappers and singers doing it RIGHT on TikTok and the viral trends and top songs taking over your FYP.

Akon’s Return To The FYP

Thirteen words from Akon’s 2004 “Locked Up” have TikTok in a chokehold. “I’m steady tryna find the motive (motive). Why I do what I do?” is the background chant for creators as they virtually sit backseat of a squad car after their favorite — often most scandalous — obsession becomes illegal. Accompanied by JPhant’s “POlice” filter, the trend isn’t the first time an Akon classic has gone viral on the app. “Belly Dancer (Bananza),” another single from his debut album Trouble, amassed over 1 million videos using the sound.

Coi Leray’s Next Act

Call Coi Leray the “Big Trend Setter,” with her latest snippet making waves on TikTok. The Boston-bred rapper previewed the track this week and has already made several dancing videos to the sound in typical Coi Leray fashion. Featuring lyrics “only fly sh*t, wake up make deposits,” the sound is the perfect opportunity for creators to get a fit off and display the #OOTD content. Currently, the track is untitled and has less than a thousand videos tethered to the sound, but comments from fans on TikTok and Instagram predict that this could be her next big hit.

The Return of Aly & AJ

Zillennials, get ready. The 2007 hit “Potential Breakup Song” by sister duo Aly & AJ has the potential to take over your FYP. Twins and creator duo @mattisontwins used the track for their take on the Gunna-inspired “Top Off” trend, which gained popularity on the app this summer. Their video lip-syncing to the angsty pop anthem has over 4 million views, proving to be a promising trend for creators to latch onto.

Breakup Songs To Remember

Imagine if the most heart-wrenching ballad, something like Giveon’s “Heartbreak Anniversary,” dropped while you were going through a breakup? Creators and TikTok breakup song aficionados are toying with the scenario and paying homage to the greatest heartbreak-ridden anthems. Tracks like Bobby Womack’s “If You Think You’re Lonely Now,” and Deniece Williams’ “Silly,” among other oldies, are resurfacing on the app using hashtags # breakup, #breakupsong, and #heartbreak. Watch below for some to revisit some breakup classics.

Ariana’s Infamous Interview

A bit from Ariana Grande’s 2019 interview on the Zach Sang Show has users getting spicy with their videos. In the interview, Grande reveals lyrics from a demo version of her hit “Thank U, Next” where she sings, “wrote some songs about Ricky never mind he’s trash.” Although Grande did not deliver this potentially contentious rendition of the line, on TikTok, creators are using the soundbite as an opportunity to reveal the shady things they could say in various scenarios in lieu of biting their tongue. Our favorite version of the trend comes from creator @_cjkilla_ sparing a friend from the truth about their funky breath.

20 years ago, when R. Kelly was first accused of sexual misconduct after a video of him with an alleged teenager was leaked to the public, Kelly was acquitted when the girl refused to testify in 2008. Yesterday, Kelly went on trial for a new slate of child porn charges, and this time, that original victim did testify for more than four hours, at last admitting that she was the girl on the tape — and that she was just 14 years old at the time.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the now-37-year-old woman — who remained anonymous, even as she testified — explained why she decided to testify, 14 years later. “I became exhausted with living with his lies,” she said.

Testifying under the name “Jane,” she detailed her alleged grooming by Kelly, as well as the sexual encounters she had with him beginning when she was 14, including intercourse when she was 15 and along with other teen girls. She also confirmed that he had urinated on her in the video that leaked in 2002. She says that on one of the tapes, he hands her money after having sex with her so “if anybody saw the tape or if it was released for some reason, he wanted it to appear as if I was a prostitute.”

She says when the original tape leaked, Kelly pressured her family to leave the country, sending them to the Bahamas and Mexico to keep them out of sight of the press — or the police. He had her cover a tattoo of his name and coached her to lie to grand jurors (she was granted immunity to testify in this trial). She said she complied “because I was afraid to expose Robert… I also did not want that person to be me. I was ashamed.” She recalled moving in with him in Olympia Fields, where he became more controlling and physically abusive until she moved out when she was 23 or 24.

Kelly is charged with 13 counts of production of child pornography, conspiracy to produce child pornography, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Authorities also want him to hand over $1.5 million — although that much seems unlikely, as his income has been severely curtailed in the wake of the Surviving R. Kelly docuseries. Such was the damage to his fortunes that his lawyers reportedly wanted to eliminate any jurors who might have seen it, claiming they’d be biased against him. A judge denied that request, and the trial will proceed today with a cross-examination of Jane, the prosecution’s star witness.

The other witness prosecutors called was a man who purchased a house that previously belonged to Kelly. He noted features of the house that could corroborate alleged victims’ testimonies about his controlling nature, such as a button he needed to press to leave the bedroom, and cameras installed in fake smoke detectors.

Remember when Werner Herzog was on The Mandalorian? That was weird. Great! But weird. There’s been a lot of unexpected guest stars and recurring cast members on the Disney+ series, actually, including Bill Burr, Sasha Banks, and in one glorious Baby Yoda-punching episode, Jason Sudeikis and Adam Pally. But if Mandalorian producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni acquired the djinn from What We Do in the Shadows and wished for their dream guest, who would it be? The father of Star Wars himself, naturally.

“I tell you, we’ve been pretty lucky with who we’ve had,” Favreau admitted. “We’ve had everyone from Mark Hamill to Werner Herzog.” Still, Favreau said, there’s one particular person they’d love to see make a cameo: George Lucas.

Lucas has nine acting credits to his name, usually as himself (including a memorable cameo on The O.C.), but he did play a character named Baron Papanoida in Revenge of the Sith. “He’d have to be the son of Baron Papanoida or something like that,” Filoni told Entertainment Weekly with a laugh. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t even speculate on that.”

The cameo seems unlikely, considering the rocky relationship between Lucas and Disney, but “he’s been on the set when Dave’s been directing,” Favreau said. “I love watching Dave and George together. George, I have tremendous respect for. I’ve been very fortunate to have great conversations where I’ve learned a lot.”

Maybe Baby Yoda can convince Lucas to do it.

(Via EW)

Niki just unveiled Nicole, a sprawling album that ventures into an alternative pop direction while finding power in vulnerability and storytelling with songs like “Oceans & Engines” and “Before.” Now, she’s adding to the experience of the record by unleashing an accompanying film titled But I’m Letting Go.

Presented by Amazon Music, But I’m Letting Go is directed by Isaac Ravishankara and stars Niki as herself and Peter Adrian Sudarso as the character Ben with whom she has a relationship gone wrong.

“We shot the whole thing in 5 days and it was one of the coolest experiences of my life, alongside some of the best, most talented human beings I’ve ever encountered and worked with,” Niki said about the experience. “We decided to call it ‘But I’m Letting Go,’ but it’s also about two people coming together. Inspired by my own life, but somehow also about every relationship. It is truly what makes this particular album so special, and I can’t tell you how excited I am for you guys to see it.”

Director Isaac Ravishankara added, “Even though the core story of But I’m Letting Go is based on NIKI’s own life, what we set out to make was something much more universal. After all, nearly everyone has had that first love, and for most of us, it didn’t last.”

Watch the trailer above and check out the full film here.

The 2022-23 schedule for all 30 NBA teams has finally been released, and it allows fans the opportunity to start marking their calendars and planning around the can’t miss games on the schedule. While not every team shares the same goals for the 2022-23 season, they all have games where fans will be circling dates and trying to make sure they’re in the building for or at least able to watch on TV, and here we are going to highlight five such games for each team.

Here, we’ll look at the new-look Atlanta Hawks, coming off of a disappointing 2021-22 season that saw them have to claw their way to the 8-seed through the play-in just a year removed from a trip to the conference finals. The response to that step back was to make a big splash in the trade market this offseason, dealing Danilo Gallinari and a number of first round picks to the Spurs for All-Star guard Dejounte Murray, pairing Trae Young with an elite defender in the backcourt.

Atlanta hopes their remade backcourt can help them vault back into the crowded group of contenders in the East, and there will be a few games across the schedule that figure to be benchmark opportunities for the Hawks to test themselves against the league’s best. Here are five of those tilts.

October 29, 2022: at Milwaukee Bucks (8:00 p.m. ET)

The Hawks have a very soft schedule to begin the season, opening up with the Rockets, Magic, Hornets, and Pistons (twice). Realistically, Atlanta could be 4-1 or 5-0 when they face their first big test, and it is a road tilt in Milwaukee. These two teams played in the conference finals two years ago, and the Hawks actually tested the Bucks in that setting. A lot has changed, but this will be a nice measuring stick for Atlanta early in the season.

December 7, 2022: at New York Knicks (ESPN, 7:30 p.m. ET)

Madison Square Garden is always an appealing venue, and that is doubly true when Trae Young comes to town. The Hawks famously upended the Knicks in a playoff series two seasons ago, and Young was “welcomed” by the crowd in New York. That player/fan base rivalry continues, and these teams could also be competing for playoff position, particularly if the Knicks are able to add Donovan Mitchell in the coming weeks.

January 16, 2023: vs. Miami Heat (TNT, 3:30 p.m. ET)

MLK Day in Atlanta is always a strong atmosphere, and this season should be no different. This is a rematch of the 2021 playoff series between the two clubs, and it is one of only three TNT games for the Hawks this season. Trae Young will likely have a bit of extra motivation after a disastrous playoff series for him individually, and this could be a playoff preview again given the strength of the two teams.

January 18, 2023: at Dallas Mavericks (ESPN, 7:30 p.m. ET)

There isn’t quite the same fervor on all sides of the Trae Young-Luka Doncic debate these days, in large part because both teams seem to be quite happy with their superstars and the two are quite friendly off the court. Still, there is always plenty of juice behind this matchup between the players and teams, and this is the nationally televised version this season. It feels like a lifetime ago that the Hawks did a number on the Mavericks in the 2021-22 season opener, but the opportunity to see two of the game’s best offensive creators on display is highly appetizing.

February 7, 2023: at New Orleans Pelicans (TNT, 7:30 pm ET)

In February, two intriguing teams get together on a stage they don’t always receive. The Hawks visit New Orleans and, if Zion Williamson and Trae Young are on the floor, the matchup will feature two elite offensive talents. Beyond that, these are clubs battling for playoff positioning in their respective conferences, and it is a good measuring stick for both teams.