Month: October 2022

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Quavo and Takeoff add a new wrinkle to the ongoing Migos drama and Alvvays dropping what may go down as one of the year’s best indie albums. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters. Also find our Uproxx HQ Spotify playlist, which is updated weekly with the best new music, at the end of this post.

Quavo and Takeoff — “Messy”

It sure looks like Migos is continuing as a sans-Offset two-man group: Last week, they dropped Only Built For Infinity Links, their first album as a duo (which is credited to themselves, not Migos). A particularly eyebrow-raising track from the LP is “Messy,” on which Quavo appears to address rumors of an affair between Offset and Saweetie: “B*tch f*cked my dog behind my back but I ain’t stressing / You wanted the gang you should’ve just said that, we would’ve blessed you.”

Alvvays — “Velveteen”

Alvvays have a hit on their hands with the just-released new album Blue Rev (it’s the most well-received album in their discography, per Metacritic). In his review, Uproxx’s Steven Hyden calls “Velveteen” “one of the album’s best songs” and notes, “Alvvays even take on the arena synth-rock sheen of another past collaborator of [producer Shawn] Everett’s, The Killers, with unprecedented swagger. ”

Carly Rae Jepsen — “The Loneliest Time” Feat. Rufus Wainwright

Carly Rae Jepsen has been making top-tier pop for well over a decade now, and more of it is set to arrive soon with her upcoming album, The Loneliest Time. The title track is, ironically, the only song on the album with a credited feature: fellow Canadian favorite Rufus Wainwright. The song dropped last week and it’s an upbeat duet with a fun arrangement and energy.

Jazmine Sullivan — “Stand Up”

Till, a new biopic about civil rights leader Mamie Till-Mobley, is in theaters now and Jazmine Sullivan played a part in bringing the movie to life. Her contribution comes via soundtrack cut “Stand Up,” a soulful and moving track that mirrors the movie’s theme of perseverance in the face of adversity.

Willow — “Ur A Stranger”

We’re fresh off a Willow weekend: Shortly after releasing her new album Coping Mechanism, she was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. One of the songs she played was the single she dropped to accompany the album’s release: “Ur A Stranger,” an intense track carried by metallic guitar riffs and Willow’s impassioned vocals.

Charlie Puth — “Loser”

In the lead-up to Charlie, Charlie Puth has made it a point to express as clearly as possible how vulnerable his new album is. Indeed, a number of individual tracks make that case, like “Loser,” which Uproxx’s Megan Armstrong describes in her Charlie review as being “soaked in self-loathing and blame for someone leaving.”

Fred Again.. — “Kammy (Like I Do)”

UK producer Fred Again… has been on a roll as of late, with Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9, 2022), his third album since early 2021, dropping at the end of the month. He previewed it last week with “Kammy (Like I Do),” a dance-ready number he says is “about diving further and further down into something that alienates you from everyone around you.”

Kali — “Bout U”

This summer, Kali was included in XXL’s Freshman Class Of 2022 and for good reason. She continued to live up to the hype last week with “Bout U,” and Uproxx’s Danielle Chelosky notes “the track has a booming bass on top of which Kali repeats the title with an addictively infectious melody in her signature whisper-rap voice for which listeners love her.”

Gryffin and Tinashe — “Scandalous”

After his 2019 debut album Gravity (which topped the US dance charts), Gryffin has a new LP, Alive, set to drop this year. On the latest single, “Scandalous,” he gets Tinashe to take the vocal reigns, with her singing cooperating with the catchy and thumping instrumental to move the kinetic song forward.

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie — “B.R.O. (Better Ride Out)” Feat. Roddy Ricch

It’s been nearly three years since Artist 2.0, but A Boogie has a new LP on the way at last. Me Vs. Myself drops in about a month and it sees him reuniting with regular collaborator Roddy Ricch on “B.R.O. (Better Ride Out),” on which both take time to reflect on and appreciate the friendships they feel so blessed to have.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

There’s plenty of Jeopardy! for fans to absorb these days, and trivia fans are loving the return to new episodes after the traditional summer break. Season 39 is well underway this fall, and with it comes new episodes of the syndicated game show along with a Celebrity tournament hosted by Mayim Bialik.

The show, of course, officially has two hosts in Bialik and Jeopardy! GOAT Ken Jennings. And in a joint interview with Good Morning America, the two talked about the new season and the added wrinkles of having two different people at the helm of the same show. Jennings and Bialik say they have settled into co-hosting duties nicely, with Bialik noting that it “it doesn’t really feel different” this year despite their roles being official.

In fact, Jennings said there’s an underrated positive to officially having two hosts. Via ABC News and GMA:

“One of the nice things about having two hosts is the focus is a little less on who is the iconic host of ‘Jeopardy!’ And it’s really more about ‘Jeopardy!’ as a game,” Jennings said. “Some nights it’s gonna be me. Some nights it’s gonna be Mayim. But it’s always ‘Jeopardy!’”

Of course, that hasn’t stopped superfans from comparing and contrasting their performances. But the quote does speak to something late host Alex Trebek often said about Jeopardy! itself: the focus should be on the contestants, not who is actually hosting. And while the drama around who will host — and how that got decided in the first place — was great for generating buzz about the show, it was far from positive at times. As Bialik noted in the interview, both hosts are on the same page about what the show should be about: the people actually giving answers in the form of questions.

“I think for both of us, we feel like we’re really ushering in what Alex facilitated so beautifully, which is, again, highlighting contestants and the show that people know and love,” Bialik said. “I think for me and Ken, we do love the purity and the fun ‘Jeopardy!’ has been and will continue to be.”

That unified approach is welcome news to fans who want to focus more on the game than who is running it. The full interview has some fun moments from the new season, as well as some mistakes the two have made. But so far, everything seems to be going smoothly in the Alex Trebek Studio. Which is certainly a big change after a very tumultuous year or so on set.

[via ABC News]

When Jack Daniel’s drops a new whiskey, it’s a pretty big deal. The world’s best-selling whiskey brand is known for its super reliable Old No. 7 black label Tennessee whiskey, which is better than you remember it. But Jack Daniel’s as a whiskey brand is much more than just Old No. 7. There are dozens of expressions released by the brand that touch on everything from single malt to barrel finishes to Tennessee rye whisky, which is a truly underrated arm of the JD game.

The two latter aspects are what we’re focusing on today. Jack just released two brand new Tennessee rye expressions that have special barrel finishes. The whiskeys were selected by the wife and husband team Lexie Phillips (Assistant Distiller and Master Taster) and Josh Phillips (Taster) as a duo. So they’re meant to be enjoyed side by side, so to speak. The actual juice comes in a half-bottle hip flask and will be available at the distillery and in select Tennessee retailers and bars. That makes this whiskey pretty damn special albeit fleeting.

Still, Jack’s rye whiskey is one of the better ryes in the whiskey game. Their standard Tennessee rye — which is the base of these two new drops — is subtle and delicious with a great body for cocktails, especially Manhattans, Sazeracs, and old fashioneds. A more refined version of that whiskey is very exciting, so let’s dive in and see what’s in these bottles.

Also Read: The Top Five Rye Whiskey from the Last Six Months on UPROXX

• All 19 Brands From The Buffalo Trace Distillery, Ranked
• The Single Best Bottle Of Whiskey From Each Of The 50 States
• The 50 Best Rye Whiskeys Of 2021, Ranked
• We Tasted Rye Whiskeys Blind To See If Any Of Them Could Beat Willett
• The 100 Best Whiskeys Our Head Drinks Writer Tasted In 2021

Jack Daniel’s Distillery Series Straight Tennessee Rye Whiskey Finished in High Toast Maple Barrels

ABV: 50.5%

Average Price: $42 (375ml bottle)

The Whiskey:

The whiskey is created with a mash of 70 percent rye, 18 percent corn, and 12 percent malted barley. After sugar maple charcoal filtration, that rye is aged for four years in new oak before going into a high-toast, no-char maple wood barrel for another year of rest. Finally, the whiskey is batched from those maple barrels and proofed down for bottling.

Tasting Notes:

Sweet notes of rum-raisin, creamed honey, walnut-laden banana bread, sweet cinnamon, fresh nutmeg, brown butter, and sticky maple syrup mingle on the nose with a whisper of sour mash and pine bark. The palate dances through notes of cherry hand pies covered in powdered sugar icing next to dark chocolate and pecan nut clusters with a hint of vanilla seeds, poppy seed pound cake, and a little fresh wood paneling next to fresh leather and a hint of salted caramel ice cream in a waffle cone. The end is super soft and slowly meanders through the poppy seed pound cake, vanilla, and soft and very subtle threads of cedar bark.

Bottom Line:

This is really nice whiskey. There’s a lovely sweetness to the body of the pour that is inviting and fresh, even convivial. It makes you feel warm inside and puts a smile on your face. Drinking it neat was a pleasure as well with almost zero alcohol burn.

Ranking:

91/100 — This is an excellent rye whiskey.

Jack Daniel’s Distillery Series Straight Tennessee Rye Whiskey Finished in High Toast Oak Barrels

ABV: 50.5%

Average Price: $42 (375ml bottle)

The Whiskey:

This is the same rye as standard Jack Daniel’s, 70/18/12 rye/corn/malted barley. In this case, the hot juice was charcoal filtered and then loaded into new oak for five-year rest. Then the whiskey was re-barreled into new high-toast, no-char oak barrels for nearly three more years of mellowing. Finally, the best barrels were batched, proofed, and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

The nose bursts forth with pine tar and cedar kindling next to hints of garam masala, bitter dark cacao powder, blackstrap molasses, deep-fried poblano, and a whisper of dark chocolate cream pie cut with darkly roasted instant coffee powder. Cinnamon cookies lead to salted caramel cut with clove and star anise next to a hint of Red Delicious apple core and skins before dark chocolate and molasses kick it with a slight hint of rum-raisin. The finish sweetens with a hint of that cherry pie filling vibe from Jack rye next to a mild sense of spicy ginger snaps and cinnamon scones.

Bottom Line:

This is a nice rye. I’m sort of on the fence compared to how sweet and lush the last one was.

That said, I tried this again with a little water and it really bloomed in the glass with a sense of rich and creamy toffee next to creamy espresso and dark chocolate pudding with a hint of marzipan.

Ranking:

85/100 — This is solid rye but I feel like I need to play with it a bit more to get a handle on the flavors in a cocktail context.

Michael Moore may be most widely known as a best-selling author and the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind 2002’s Bowling for Columbine, but he’s also got a pretty impressive record as a political prognosticator. In July 2016, when most people were still laughing off Donald Trump’s presidential nomination as a joke and assuming that Hillary Clinton had the election in the bag, Moore was trying to warn everyone of what was on the horizon when he laid out his treatise on “5 Reasons Why Trump Will Win.”

Damn you, Michael!

Now, as Salon reports, the Flint, Michigan native has offered up yet another prediction — this one far less terrifying: While political pundits around the world are worried that Democrats will struggle in the upcoming midterms, Moore is again going in the opposite direction. Beginning in late September, Moore began publishing a series of posts to his Substack that he has titled “Mike’s Midterm Tsunami of Truth.” (As of this posting, he’s up to post number 13 on the topic.) His theory? Come November 8, “the tens of millions of us who have had enough, are going to descend upon the polls en masse — a literal overwhelming, unprecedented tsunami of voters — and nonviolently, legally, and without mercy remove every last stinking traitor to our Democracy.” (Which sounds much better than “Trump will win.”)

In the lead-up to Election Day, Moore is using each day to post a new reason why he believes Dems will show up in 2020. Among the dozen-plus reasons he’s given so far?

• “The reason we’re going to win in November is because the other side is a bunch of losers. Big losers. Bad losers. Sore losers.”
• The idea that Trump is a real threat is an illusion. He’s a bully — and is “about to be indicted.”
• “No damn Democrat is going to screw this up for us again!” (That one was specifically in response to Joe Biden’s dwindling popularity, but Moore believes the current president is “irrelevant.”)
• “The vast majority of Americans are repulsed by fascism.” And the fact that nearly 150 Republicans sided with the January 6th insurrectionists in voting to overturn the results of the totally legitimate 2020 presidential election is clearly a fascist move.
• And: women.

Ultimately, writes Sophia A. McClennen for Salon:

Framing the upcoming vote as a mass uprising of nonviolent civil resistance is exactly Moore’s plan. As he explains, his goal isn’t just to offer the public another version of the truth; it is also to call out the problems with media coverage. Much of what many in the media are telling you is patently false and just plain wrong,” he writes. “They are simply regurgitating old narratives and stale scripts. They are either too overworked or too lazy or too white and too male to open their eyes and see the liberal/ left/progressive/working class and female uprising that is right now underway.”

(Via Salon)

Bad Bunny continues to make history with his blockbuster album Un Verano Sin Ti. On Sunday (October 9), Billboard revealed that the LP is spending a 13th non-consecutive at No. 1 on the albums chart dated October 15.

With a 13th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, Bad Bunny is tying the record for the most weeks at the summit in the last 10 years. Un Verano Sin Ti is now tied with Drake’s Views and Disney’s Frozen soundtrack, which both logged 13th non-consecutive weeks at the top of the albums chart. The last LP to spend more weeks at No. 1 on the chart was Adele’s 21, which spent 24 non-consecutive weeks at the summit between 2011 and 2012.

Over the weekend, the Puerto Rican superstar was also spotted supporting his collaborator Mora’s concert.

On October 1, Bad Bunny wrapped the US leg of his World’s Hottest Tour. Before the arena tour picks up again in Latin America on October 21, he is enjoying some downtime in between shows. On October 8, Bad Bunny was a surprise guest at Mora’s concert in Puerto Rico. Mora has co-written a few of Bad Bunny’s biggest hits like “Dákiti,” “La Difícil,” and he featured on “Una Vez.” Bad Bunny jumped on the remix of Mora’s hit “Volando” last year. They performed it together live at Mora’s show alongside Panamanian singer Sech.

Kids have a habit of picking things up pretty quickly. Usually it’s things you wish they wouldn’t have learned, like mimicking your frustrated swear words. But sometimes a skill comes in pretty handy, such as for 8-year-old Garrett Brown, who recently saved the life of his classmate at Lakeview Elementary School in Norman, Oklahoma. Garrett was sitting at the lunch table eating with his friends when a boy started to choke on his chicken nuggets, which prompted Garrett to perform the Heimlich maneuver.

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You may be wondering where Garrett learned the Heimlich maneuver and the answer is pretty simple: his dad. Garrett told Local 10 News, “My dad taught me whenever I was choking and so, he taught me how to do it in case anybody else was doing it.” It’s a good thing Garrett absorbed that life lesson, because it certainly came in handy this school year. The entire situation seems so surreal. According to Good Morning America, the kids were in the cafeteria excitedly chatting away because it was chicken nugget day. The cafeteria only had one monitor at that time and she was on the other side of the room when the incident took place.

When the classmate, Cashton York, began to choke, the kids at the table started yelling for the teacher that was monitoring the cafeteria, but before she could make it across the room, Garrett had jumped into action. The 8-year-old took the skill his father taught him and immediately rushed behind Cashton to administer the two thrusts that caused the chicken nugget to fly out of his mouth.

The whole ordeal left adults impressed at this young child’s fast thinking and applied skill. It was so unbelievable that it happened, Jordan Nguyen, the teacher who was monitoring the cafeteria, told GMA, “When it was done, we all took a breath and thought, ‘Did that just happen? Was that for real? Did this really just happen?’ And we had to go back and watch the security footage just to be sure that ‘Oh, that is what happened. Oh, my goodness. It was pretty mind-blowing.”

Can you blame them for rolling back the tape? What an amazing thing to witness, and the school felt the same way. Recently Garrett was presented with a “Hero Award” from Lakeview Elementary. Cashton’s mom, Tiffany Smith, told KOCO News, “There are not enough words to be grateful for saving him.”

It really goes to show how having basic knowledge of life-saving skills can help save a life in unexpected circumstances. The school was so impressed by Garrett’s actions that the teachers have started taking classes on basic life skills. But the school isn’t stopping there, it will soon be teaching these basic life skills/first aid classes to students in the school—on a kid-friendly level, of course. Nguyen explained to GMA, “That way, if they are out somewhere or if they’re home alone, or if they’re home with their siblings and something does happen, they’ll know what to do.”

By knowing this handy life-saving skill, Garrett is changing the way his school operates, though hopefully there’s not another need for a student to use a skill like that. These basic skills classes will help the students feel more prepared for emergencies and, let’s face it, everyone could use classes like these.

(House of the Dragon spoilers ahead.)

There have been a lot of changes for the House of the Dragon clan. After numerous time jumps and cast changes, we are starting to see just how bonkers this family is. And it’s only the beginning!

At the end of the most recent episode, Viserys’ body has finally succumbed to his zombie-like illness (what was he even sick with, anyway?) but not before he unintentionally stirred up some more drama in the form of a significant misunderstanding. While speaking with Alicent, Viserys, in all his drugged-up glory, confuses Alicent for Rhaenyra, who he was speaking with the night before.

“His dream. The Song of Ice and Fire. It is true. What he saw in the north. The Prince That Was Promised,” Viserys said to Alicent, thinking it was Rhaenyra. “To unite the realm. Against the cold and the dark. It is you. You are the one. You must do this. You must do this,” Viserys adds. But Alicent just hears the words “Aegon” and “The Prince Who Was Promised” and assumes that Aegon is who Viserys was talking about. Only… he was not!

“The intention was that she genuinely thought he was telling her that her son was going to be the heir,” director Geeta Patel told The Hollywood Reporter of the pivotal moment. “The only way to get even close to achieving that was to feel the vulnerability and innocence in Alicent. We had to feel less of the conniving and more of the girl that we grew up with in episode one. The fact that you were even confused makes me feel good because I felt like that was such a high bar for us coming out of Miguel’s [episode seven] when she was hanging out with Larys in the last scene,” Patel explained.

So, while Alicent thinks that The Prince Who Was Promise is Aegon, that isn’t the case after all. Viserys seem to imply that Rhanenyra is the one who must unite the land (the king did confirm her as his heir earlier in the episode), but of course, things can never be that easy, right? So who is the Prince Who Was Promised?

There are a few theories, though many believe that the real Prince is Jon Snow, which connects the two storylines House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones. On the other hand, Viserys thought he was talking to Rhaenyra, and he said that she is the one at the center of this big, centuries-long prophecy. Still, after Alicent’s misunderstanding, it doesn’t seem like there will be another big happy family reunion anytime soon. Though that’s probably for the best!

(Via Decider)

The Brenaissance is upon us with Brendan Fraser not only growing emotional over his Venice standing ovation but also becoming visibly moved at news that people are rooting for him. While we await Fraser’s performances in The Whale and (further down the line) Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, there’s plenty of him on the way in HBO Max’s Doom Patrol Season 4. The show will return amid plenty of Warner Bros. Discovery upheaval, and that’s fantastic news, given the show’s cult following and stellar cast, including Matt Bomer as Negative Man and Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane (and her 64 incarnations). And towering above them all is the voice of the Encino Man star, unseen but very much heard (and felt) in one of the most layered voice roles ever.

This Season 4 teaser plays down the dramatic tones of Fraser’s Cliff Steele (and his tragic race-car driver origin story) and chooses to feature his free-wheeling exclamations to herald the return of the DC misfit superheroes. We do receive a “what the yeehaw f–” and a “Daddy’s home, sh*tlickers,” and Fraser fans will not complain. It’s a role where he gets to be angry and harsh and alternately soft and caring. That’s part of the show’s beauty: we get to know these scarred heroes who never wanted their superhuman talents in the first place, but they’re making the best (and worst) of them, and they’ve banded together as an unbreakable freak-force who might save this world:

Part support group, part Super Hero team, the Doom Patrol is a band of superpowered freaks who fight for a world that wants nothing to do with them. Season Four opens with the team unexpectedly traveling to the future to find an unwelcome surprise. Faced with their imminent demise, the Doom Patrol must decide once and for all which is more important: their own happiness or the fate of the world?

Doom Patrol returns to HBO Max on December 8.

Jessie Reyez opened for a portion of her longtime friend Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever World Tour and featured on Kehlani’s Blue Water Road earlier this year, but it’s officially Yessie season now. The Canadian supernova dropped her new album in mid-September, featuring the rueful single “Mutual Friend.” Next up? The Yessie Tour.

Reyez will kickstart her 31-date North American tour this Thursday (October 13) in Miami at The Oasis Wynwood. The trek boasts sold-out dates in Phoenix (October 23), Los Angeles (October 24), Denver (November 3), Chicago (November 8 & 9), Charlotte (November 16), and her hometown Toronto (November 28). A second date was added at Toronto’s HISTORY on November 30. The North American leg will wrap at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom on December 4.

The four-time Juno winner unveiled her UK and European dates last month, beginning in Oslo, Norway, on January 16, 2023, and wrapping at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on January 31. Full dates and available tickets can be found on Reyez’s official website.

Yessie is the follow-up to Reyez’s Grammy-nominated 2020 debut album Before Love Came To Kill Us. The album was welcomed into the world with a star-studded release party, attended by the likes of Drake, Diddy, Yung Miami, Diplo, Ty Dolla Sign, and Uproxx’s October cover star Cordae.

Reyez also recently gave an impressive “El Tiny” performance as part of NPR Tiny Desk’s celebration of Latinx Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15. Watch it below.

This Friday, October 14, Lil Baby is set to release his third studio album, It’s Only Me after a rollout campaign that included the singles “Right On,” “In A Minute,” “Frozen,” and “Detox.” The Atlanta rapper also shared the album’s cover image last month, which features an illustrated rendering of the popular hip-hop Mount Rushmore meme in which all four faces belong to Baby himself — a clever response to last summer’s fan protest of his inclusion over such Atlanta rap mainstays as Ludacris, Outkast, T.I., and more. The album is 23 songs with seven features, and he doesn’t plan on releasing a deluxe version.

Lil Baby kicked off the rollout for It’s Only Me this spring with the cryptic tweet, “It’s Gone Be A Nastyyyy Summer.” He also posted on Instagram, “This Summer Mine.” Since then, not only did he release a steady stream of his own singles but he also appeared as a featured artist in songs from the likes of Ed Sheeran (“2Step“), Future (“Like Me“), 42 Dugg (“U-Digg“), Nav (“Never Sleep“), and DJ Khaled (“Staying Alive” with Drake and “Big Time” with Future). He also dropped the documentary Untrapped: The Story Of Lil Baby detailing his rise to stardom, received an ASCAP songwriting award and a humanitarian award from the Black Music Action Coalition, and features in new ads for Call Of Duty and Beats By Dre.

It’s Only Me is out 10/14 via Quality Control/UMG.