Month: November 2022

One word oftentimes surfaces in reviews of Philly-based four piece Palm‘s discography: innovation. The band’s dizzying style makes it hard to pin down their genre, but they have been labeled math rock, art rock, and avant-pop. But however you describe their sound, it’s clear they push the indie rock envelope — and their third studio album Nicks And Grazes is no different.

The band, made up of members Eve Alpert, Kasra Kurt, Gerasimos Livitsanos, and Hugo Stanley, first formed in 2015 with little previous music experience and one shared goal: to re-imagine the structure of a song. Throughout the band’s catalog, you can hear varying time signatures that switch up in the same track and a patchwork of instruments. But for their Nicks And Grazes LP, Palm added an electronic edge. After spending years mastering the software Ableton, the band were able to further their experimentation. The new 13-track project features songs ranging from 50-seconds to just over 6-minutes and manages to manipulate influences like Japanese pop music and dubstep through an indie rock lens. Their song “Feathers,” for example, juxtaposes dissonant samples with Alpert’s honeyed vocals to create a soundscape that’s both jarring and inviting.

To celebrate their album’s release and current tour, Palm drummer Hugo Stanley sat down with Uproxx to talk oysters, Slint, and Wayne’s World in our latest Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Goopy, pointy, cold, warm.

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

Playful discovery music.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

Maybe Chicago or San Francisco.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work?

Each other.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

It’s impossible to answer but we just had some amazing oysters in Portland, Maine.

What album do you know every word to?

When i actually think about it, very few. Beatles’ Revolver or something.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

Maybe Slint in 2014 in Asbury Park, New Jersey or Neil Young and Patti Smith in New York a couple years earlier.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

Something baggy.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

@insportadas on Instagram.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

“Choices” by E40.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

“Guy freaks out at trumpeter.”

What album makes for the perfect gift?

John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

A bunker in a supermarket parking lot in Toronto or this crazy squat in St. Louis called Bolozone.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

I have none.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

Nirvana or Justin Bieber.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Our friend Kristine helped me move from Philly to NYC recently, that was really nice.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Listen to your body.

What’s the last show you went to?

Ours last night. Before this tour, I saw our friend Sammy Weissberg perform some of his compositions as well as the band in a West Philly basement. It was great.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

Wayne’s World.

What’s one of your hidden talents?

I don’t know if I still got it but I used to be pretty nice at pogo sticking.

Nicks And Grazes is out now via Saddle Creek. Get it here.

While discussing the emotional process of making Black Panther: Wakanda Forever following the tragic loss of Chadwick Boseman, writer/director Ryan Coogler has opened up about another struggle presented by the Marvel sequel: He didn’t know how to swim. With the film focusing on Wakanda’s epic struggle with Namor and the forces of the underwater kingdom of Taloka, several of the film’s scenes required heavy amounts of aquatic filming.

Unlike James Cameron, who kind of threw his Avatar actors in the deep end and forced them to learn how to hold their breath for minutes at a time, Coogler waded in with the cast and took swimming lessons for the first time in his mid-30s. “If the camera’s in the water, actors are in the water, I’ve got to be in there too,” Coogler told Variety as part of a larger discussion about how Black people have been historically excluded from swimming:

“A lot of us were raised to have fear of water,” the 36-year-old filmmaker told Variety, admitting his own trepidation and evoking the various reasons Black people have avoided — or ways they’ve been excluded — from pools and the ocean over the years. “I had to figure out how to swim so I could direct this movie.”

Fortunately, Coogler wasn’t alone in his struggle. While Angela Bassett and Lupita Nyong’o knew how to swim “a little bit,” the two also required instruction for Wakanda Forever‘s underwater filming. Their presence helped Coogler as he quickly became comfortable in the water and literally dove in to produce a blockbuster experience that’s been earning rave reviews.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters on November 11.

(Via Variety)

For Lourdes Leon, being Madonna’s daughter comes with its share of preconceived notions. But the 26-year-old is blazing her own path as both a model who has been a part of Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty Show and now as a recording artist who goes by Lolahol.

Some things are just ingrained in your DNA though and in her latest video for “C*ntradiction,” Lourdes (Lolahol) channels her mother’s most provocative moments. Filmed in an equestrian stable, Lourdes doesn’t leave much to the imagination donning a skimpy skin-tight string number atop a white horse. She then changes into a black corset atop a banquet table and hanging on ropes, and then a body-wrapping white tank top as she sashays in the middle of the barn. The song has a sinister beat that seems inspired by Portishead trip-hop with a pop lean. It was even mastered by Grammy winner Joe Laporta.

“C*ntradiction” is a part of Lolahol’s debut EP, Go, which came out today. Meanwhile, Madonna has been on the radar as of late following a wild appearance on The Tonight Show, coming out as gay in a strange TikTok video, and being trolled by 50 Cent who said she looks like an alien.

Go is out now via Chemical X Records.

Of 2022’s 50 best TV shows so far, as ranked by Metacritic, only one is on the Big Four of television networks: ABC’s Abbott Elementary. The rest is all streaming or cable. But Abbott Elementary isn’t just an Emmy-winning critical favorite: it’s also a huge hit. According to Deadline, the season two premiere is “now ABC’s highest-rated comedy telecast in three years,” since the Modern Family series finale.

After 35 days of multi-platform viewing, the September episode is now up to a 4.12 rating among the 18-49 demographic, according to the network. That’s 73 percent higher than the Season 1 premiere’s 2.38 rating and 623 percent higher than the episode fared in live+same day. It marks the largest delayed-viewing increase for any ABC comedy in terms of demo ratings.

Deadline also reports that “the episode has managed to collect an additional audience of 7.5 million, which is more than double its 2.9 million live+same day viewers,” meaning it’s up “10.4 million viewers across linear and digital platforms.” Abbott Elementary is a hit among both traditionalists who still watch TV live and modern cord cutters; that’s something few comedies (or any non-NCIS show, honestly) on network TV can claim.

Abbott Elementary is off this week, but it will return with a new episode on the 16th.

(Via Deadline)

It’s now clear that 2022 is not the year of cryptocurrency. NFTs have cratered in value, crypto companies continue to struggle and even a proposed merger of two major companies in an effort to keep one solvent might be evaporating as you read this. It’s kind of wild to think how quickly things have changed. It was just February when the world was awash in crypto ads, flooding the Super Bowl and billboards and basically anywhere startups could advertise that they could sell you Ethereum. Even NFTs were still a thing people talked about in mixed company.

It seems we’re a world away from that now, though. As of Tuesday, crypto trader FTX was on the brink of collapse with a competitor, Binance, on the verge of acquiring it just to keep it afloat. As the New York Times reported on Wednesday, the deal was a last-ditch effort to keep thousands of crypto investors from losing it all.

As news spread of FTX’s collapse, crypto markets took a battering, with Bitcoin and Ether both dropping more than 15 percent since Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Mr. Bankman-Fried framed the Binance takeover as a measure to ensure that FTX customers did not lose their money. But the deal is not finalized and its exact terms remain unsettled, leaving open the possibility that FTX’s hundreds of thousands of customers could lose their funds and set off another crash in crypto prices.

That deal, though, might not actually go through. As Coindesk reported later Wednesday, Binance started “strongly” considering backing out of the deal once their executives actually got a look inside FTX’s finances. Which is to say, well, they might actually be worse than first thought.

Binance’s nonbinding letter of intent for the takeover – announced Tuesday as FTX’s financial position appeared to be spiraling out of control – hinged on Binance performing due diligence. Roughly half a day into that process of reviewing FTX’s internal data and loan commitments has led Binance to strongly lean against completing the transaction, the person said.

So what does this mean? Well, if you’re investing in crypto right now, your portfolio may be at risk. News of the merger falling apart caused prices of crypto to dip further on Wednesday, and an actual liquidation of FTX would be a disaster for thousands of investors, including founder Sam Bankman-Fried. And that’s true of some major figures who invested heavily in the market and even promoted crypto back in the salad days of [checks calendar] several months ago. Like, well, Tom Brady. As Gizmodo points out, Brady had apparently invested big in crypto as part of his post-retirement plans.

Back in 2021 Tom Brady and his then wife, Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen, reportedly planted a large stake into the FTX crypto exchange, after having already announced a partnership with FTX and its CEO Sam Bankman-Fried back in 2020. As brand ambassadors, the two gained an unknown equity stake in the company in exchange for crypto, likely FTX’s native coin FTT.

Brady, that means, could be taking a bath on his investment right now, unless he offloaded his assets before things got dicey in the last few weeks. But another big name might actually have made out better than anyone else: Larry David. David, of course, got the proverbial bag in actually starring in the commercial. And the longform message of the commercial is to not “be like Larry David.” But on Wednesday, with news of a Binance/FTX merger on the ropes, plenty of folks on social media were sharing just a small clip from that very expensive commercial from just eight months earlier. Namely, the part where the Curb star was very skeptical.

While Brady definitely had some crypto from his brand ambassadorship with FTX, it doesn’t seem like David was actually saddled with the volatile currency. In a Hollywood Reporter interview with longtime David creative collaborator Jeff Schaffer after the ad debuted in February, payment methods actually came up. And though they apparently asked, everyone involved in that spot got cold hard cash for their efforts.

“We did ask about getting paid in crypto, but I don’t think they were set up for it for us, which was fine,” Schaffer said. “But we definitely did ask.”

In hindsight, it’s a very good thing that they got USD instead of whatever it is FTX may have paid them in. Otherwise, David might have been making a few frantic phone calls this week trying to get out from under what’s starting to look like a very unstable market.

Joe Berlinger continues to turn true-crime TV on its head. The Metallica: Some Kind of Monster helmer previously dramatized Ted Bundy (portrayed by Zac Efron in Extremely Evil, Shockingly Wicked and Vile) before launching the Crime Scene series of miniseries (what a set of words) on Netflix. We previously spoke to Berlinger about the spooky mysteries housed within Crime Scene: Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel. The series continued with The Times Square Killer installment, and now, The Texas Killing Fields, which is executive produced by Berlinger, is nearly upon us.

Over the course of three episodes, the season will take a similar approach to the rest of the seasons, which treat a crime scene like an actual character in the story. And do expect a based-in-fact approach to the 1980s-90s disappearance of four (individual) girls who somehow wound up dead alongside the interstate corridor in between Houston and Galveston. When the trails go cold, one father continued to seek answers, not only for his family but other families who are similarly and tragically affected. All grow frustrated by seemingly dropped balls in these Calder Road cold cases

At this time, the FBI continues to welcome any tips they might receive from people who dig into these still-unsolved murders. And as the below trailer indicates, family members have accused investigators of doing “their best to convince me that I had lost my damn mind” and mishandling/misplacing evidence. We’ll see those accusations unfold on November 29. You can see the Texas Killing Fields docuseries trailer below.

Three of Brazil’s top drag pop stars teamed up for a stellar performance. On Tuesday night (November 8), Pabllo Vittar sang “Lady Marmalade” live with Gloria Groove and Grag Queen.

Pabllo Vittar is the most-followed drag queen on Instagram with over 12.6 million followers. In her music career, Vittar has collaborated with global pop acts like Lady Gaga, Charli XCX, and Anitta. Groove is following in Vittar’s footsteps as the next big drag pop star. Earlier this year, she surpassed RuPaul to become the second most-followed drag queen on the platform. Grag Queen rose to prominence last December as the winner of RuPaul’s reality series Queen of the Universe.

On the Brazilian program Música Boa Ao Vivo, Vittar, Groove, and Grag Queen united for a special performance of “Lady Marmalade.” The trio of drag pop stars tackled the Moulin Version of the song that was sung by Christina Aguilera, Mya, Pink, and Lil Kim. During the live performance, Vittar, Groove, and Grag Queen took turns belting the heck out of the sexy anthem. With their powerhouse performances, these fierce singers proved why they’re among Brazil’s most successful artists.

Earlier this month, Vittar released the bewitching music video for her single “Ameianoite” featuring Groove. The song is a part of Vittar’s upcoming project, which is dubbed PV5 for now.

While Bruce Springsteen has appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show in the past, he’s never actually performed on the late-night staple now hosted by Jimmy Fallon. That’s about to change, as Springsteen will not only be the show’s lead guest for a takeover of sorts next week, but he’ll also be performing songs from his new album of cover songs, Only The Strong Survive.

Springsteen’s appearance on The Tonight Show will take place on three consecutive nights, from Monday, November 14 through Wednesday, November 16. He’ll also appear again on The Tonight Show’s Thanksgiving special on Thursday, November 24. According to Rolling Stone, The Boss will be performing four new songs from Only The Strong Survive. The appearances will coincide as promotional appearances for the album’s release, which is on Friday, November 11.

The late-night talk show residency is becoming an ultra-promotional event of sorts. St. Vincent recently embarked on a week-long residency on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, something Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles, and Coldplay did last year, too. The Tonight Show has featured high-profile residencies in the past from the likes of Justin Bieber and U2.

Meanwhile, Springsteen has a tour incoming in 2023 with the E-Street Band following his appearances on The Tonight Show. Although it’s been as notable for Ticketmaster’s flexible (high) pricing structure as it has been for the actual mega tour that it is.

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

In all likelihood, fans of both 21 Savage and Drake knew exactly what they were getting when the duo announced their joint album Her Loss. After all, both rappers’ brands are well established at this point. 21 is the heartbroken gangster, monotoning his way through maliciously cartoony threats while masking the R&B karaoke artist inside; Drake is the Certified Lover Boy, offering backhanded compliments and sulking through his latest split with a woman who was never good enough anyway (or the same one from 2009 – it’s kind of hard to tell).

For the most part, they both deliver on Her Loss. The title of “Pussy & Millions,” the lone track to add another voice to the mix – Travis Scott, because of course – more or less sums up the theme of the album. We’ve never come to Drake for incisive political commentary or 21 Savage for a John Oliver-esque breakdown of current events. Moreover, taking either at face value at this point feels like a fool’s errand. Drake cannot possibly be this lovelorn all the time. Likewise, if even a fraction – less than two percent of his murder talk – were true, he’d not only be deported but someone’s government would probably shoot his plane out of the sky for public safety.

Which is why the discussion surrounding this album is confusing and frustrating. It seems as though rap fans can’t make up their minds. Do they want 100 percent authenticity or literary license? Do they want artists to grow or stay in their lanes? If rappers like Drake and 21 Savage (not to mention peers like Pusha T, Westside Gunn, J. Cole, and Travis Scott) have well-established brands and consistently deliver on expectations, why do listeners just as consistently act surprised that they do?

Drake’s contradictions are clear; he’s a toxic asshole – at least, on record – who can’t help but belittle the women he romances even as he praises them for not being like the others (or woman. Again, it’s very hard to tell if he’s not just rehashing the same breakup over and over again because it sells like hotcakes). Compared to some of the rappers whose music dominated the ‘90s, he’s a sex-relations saint. But he’s also the guy who says “I blow a half a million on you hoes, I’m a feminist” in his verse in “On BS,” tongue firmly in cheek. It’s what the audience demands – despite finger-wagging from fans against this sort of rhetoric on his 2021 album Certified Lover Boy, it still sold 613,000 equivalent units in its first week. I guess rap fans are full of contradictions too.

He’s also been taking heat for a line from “Circo Loco” in which he jokes “this bitch lie ’bout gettin’ shots, but she still a stallion,” prompting an outcry for allegedly dissing Megan Thee Stallion. Now, I’m old enough to remember when Drake’s verse on J. Cole’s 2010 track “In The Morning” elicited disbelief for its “I would always ride the stallions whenever she let me” punchline because apparently a sizable portion of rap listeners had no clue that “stallion” was a slang term referring to tall, thick women in the southern US.

You’ll have to forgive my skepticism that Drake would “diss” someone he’s apparently only met once unprompted — on behalf of Tory Lanez, whom Drake has never seemed to have any love for in the first place, no less. Let’s say it is meant to be a slick punchline; I’d say it’s pretty far from his worst, let alone the worst in rap music as a whole. Obviously, 2022 is not 2012, and these kinds of jokes — delivered, as it was, in the same tongue-in-cheek mode of the album’s freewheeling rollout — are just not okay. He should know that intent doesn’t always go in hand with impact. And we the audience should also know that railing screeds that jump over the nuance of the discussion won’t have the same impact as they’re intended too, either.

So, yes, you could say it’s in poor taste, but again, on the same song, 21 Savage also says “all the opps get a bullet on some Oprah shit” on an album released within a week of Takeoff being shot to death in Houston. It’s not equivalent, but the selective outrage reads weird and dishonest, and frankly, I’m just kind of sick of being a broken record when it comes to this subject. Is it “Oochie Wally Wally” or is it “One Mic”?

The frustration comes in because this uproar means wading through online narratives rather than parsing the music for what it is and what it says. We could be discussing Drake’s tongue-twisting wordplay on “Middle Of The Ocean” or 21 Savage lifting his collaborators’ beloved “location freestyle” format on “3AM On Glenwood” and serving up one of the most hearty verses of his career. We could be dissecting the cleverness behind the project’s terrific, lawsuit-baiting marketing tactics. It’s clear from 21 calling himself “the greatest rapper from [the UK]” and Drake posting anime porn on his Instagram Story that they aren’t taking anything too seriously, let alone themselves.

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man telling the kids how it was better “back in the day,” I do feel grumpy that the outrage industrial complex has overshadowed a half-dozen notable points of reference for what should have been one of the most exciting projects of the year. It was announced by surprise, it had an amazing, hilarious rollout, and it finds its principles at the height of their powers, delivering exactly what their fans want from them. To quote another favorite, “Dope beats, dope rhymes, what more do y’all want?” All that was promised was an album-length spin-off of songs like “Knife Talk” and “Jimmy Cooks” – and that’s exactly what Her Loss is.

Her Loss is out now on OVO/Republic and Slaughter Gang/Epic. You can get it here.

When PJ Morton sings, it’s with a tenderness and warmth that truly comes from the bottom of the heart. Born Paul Morton Jr., he’s experienced enough to stand in the spotlight as an OG filled with enough soul to eject into the audience seated before him. He’s young enough to still relate with his fans – which vary in age from as young as their 20s to as old as 40, 50, and beyond – and deliver some banter to them through his performances. All this and more is easily noticeable as the New Orleans native performs in various cities on his Watch The Sun Tour. I myself was seated (and eventually standing) in Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre for a stop towards the end of this tour.

Morton opened the night with a performance of “My Peace,” the highlight record from Watch The Sun which features JoJo and Mr. Talkbox. Seated by a piano under purple and orange lighting, PJ Morton – who was also surrounded by an ensemble of musicians that elevated the performances throughout the night – had no issue in finding his groove to begin the night. While seated, he passionately played the keys, dancing his fingers effortlessly on them while soulfully singing from the heart. If he wasn’t seated, Morton was up on his feet walking back and forth on the stage sharing charismatic moments with the audience whether it be through anecdotes from his career, callbacks for certain records, and saying thank you for their past, present, and future support.

Soon enough, Morton took things back to 2019’s Paul to perform “Ready,” which had attendees of the Emerson Colonial Theatre up and out of their seats. The blast into the continue with a stop in 2017 for the euphoric “Claustrophobic” and the powerful “Sticking To My Guns” off of Gumbo. Throughout the night, we’d continue to hear records from these three albums – Gumbo, Paul, and Watch The Sun, and it became clear that PJ Morton had one job in mind: to take this crowd to church. As the son of gospel singer Paul Morton, it’s no surprise that PJ could lead a congregation into praising love, stomping their feet and clapping their hands in the name of it, and just feeling it overall.

Morton’s next turn during the night swung us back into Watch The Sun with performances of “Please Don’t Walk Away,” “So Lonely,” and “Still Believe.” At this point in the show, there were several reasons to be absolutely enthralled by the showcase at hand, and what came next was undoubtedly my favorite section of the show. For the better part of what was left of the night, the audience was permanently removed from their seats starting with Morton’s performance of “Yearning For Your Love.” He then jokingly begged fans to let him take his time as he eased into “First Began,” a crowd favorite. A sweet anecdote behind “Go Thru Your Phone” and a reminder of his Grammy win with “Say So” came next. A medley of “Alright” and “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” followed by an absolutely joyous and crowd-assisted performance of “The Benediction” and “How Deep Is Your Love” brought the night to a close. Amid that final three-track run, church was fully in session, smiles in the crowd were bright and wide, and happiness floated throughout the theatre like a cirrus cloud.

I left Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre a bigger fan of PJ Morton’s than I was when I began the night. Morton took this crowd to church and lifted us all up with love. His purity, elegance, and regal authority were just some of the things to admire about the Watch The Sun singer that night. It goes without saying that a PJ Morton show should absolutely be on your bucket list, but what is important to note is that the October night in Boston encapsulated everything Morton worked for. And that is to fill up a room with fans of his own itching to sing his songs even before he’s ready to and more than happy to clap and wave their hands all in the name of jazz, soul, gospel, and most importantly, love.