Year: 2022

This year’s South By Southwest festival just wrapped up a few days ago, and like usual, it was a chance for up-and-coming artists to play some shows and get their names out there. That said, while SXSW is great for those reasons, it’s really more of a marketing opportunity for artists than it is a money-making venture. Now, following the festival, some artists who performed are revealing how much money they managed to earn (or lose) during the week.

Asheville, North Carolina group Wednesday kicked off the conversation by sharing a list of their earnings and expenses for SXSW this year. To summarize, they made $2,084, had $2,182.39 in expenses, and walked away with a loss of $98.39. They noted, “Just for transparencies sake & cause I feel comfortable posting this: here is why it is so hard for bands to go to SX !! This is b4 paying 10% $ to the booking agent and not including food expenses. Combination of staying in COVID safe places and gas prices is p devastating.”

In subsequent tweets, they continued:

“& we are technically a band that is ‘doing very well’ at the moment!! It’s even harder for bands who are more in the DIY side of things who went to SX. I ain’t complaining abt doing my dream job, but do wanna show why being paid fairly from streaming would make a difference.

Also wanna add SX is a special circumstance and we had a gr8 time! Regardless we did get COVID and lost money. A reminder that music is simply an industry that is very inaccessible to people without a safety net of time/money. Very relieved that we are close to being able to live off our music cause working in retail and doing music full time was not sustainable for me forever. Def a good idea as always to support any bands that are struggling rn if you’re a fan and have the means!”

This prompted other performers to chime in with how they fared, like Secretly Canadian artist Le Ren, who replied, “I just did my calcs and my band m8 and I are walking away with a cool $300 each (CAD so around $230 USD).” Philadelphia group The Stone Eye noted, “Ya’ll gotta do some DoorDash/instacart on your days off. We payed for our 3 night, $70 a night stay in Raleigh that way.”

That perspective got some mixed reactions. Colin Caulfield of Diiv replied, “Horrible advice. A day off almost always = a long drive.” Drew Kennedy responded, “Respect.” Remember Sports (formerly Sports) added, not specifically of The Stone Eye’s tweet but in general, “Unbelievable how much useless unsolicited advice has appeared in these comments lmao at y’all.”

Other users wondered why merch sales weren’t included in Wednesday’s figures and the band responded. “The only place we sold merch at SX was a house show. There’s not a ton of opportunity to sell merch at showcases cause the schedules are so packed they want you in and out.”

Later, the band concluded in a tweet thread:

“Here’s the last thing I’m gonna say about the SX tweet. Touring the cheapest way isn’t always touring the ‘right’ way if it makes it unsustainable for you physically/mentally. Two bands were at the Airbnb for 5 days. We played 7 shows total, got paid for 1.

For the bands that say the numbers make you afraid to tour: the point was to highlight how inaccessible being a musician has become. I hope its easier for more people to be touring musicians if they want to in the future! But it’ll take a rethinking of how we engage with music.. Through streaming or whatever.

We’ve been touring for 5 years, working/being in school when we’re home and barely breaking even. If there was anyway we could make it easier for people to live off of music, imagine how much more music we’d be able to listen to!! I’m not gonna engage with any comments on here for my own sake… but idk that’s all I got to say about it.”

Three years ago, Let’s Eat Grandma had to cancelled their US tour as it was in progress when the boyfriend of the duo’s Jenny Hollingworth passed away after a battle with cancer. It was a tragedy felt throughout the indie world and it’s been a wonderful to have Let’s Eat Grandma back making pop music after an understandable grief-stricken hiatus. Today, they’ve announced their return to the stage via a full US and UK tour in support of their upcoming album, Two Ribbons, out on April 29th.

They’ve also shared the powerful new single and video for “Levitation.” Hollingworth and Rosa Walton’s ebullient see-saw vocals are at their finest. The chorus hits with a mighty peak as they sing, “Shooting stars in your direction, as I’m losing grip on my reflection… Everything feels so amazing when our bodies fly like levitation.”

Walton said in a statement, “It’s about feeling all over the place, escaping to your imagination and being in a disorientating and surreal mental state, which can be both scary and elevating somehow — everything feels more creative and things look brighter. You’re with someone you’re close to, trying to reach out and connect to them, and even though you’re both struggling, you’re able to find comfort in one another, and have an absurdly funny yet meaningful time together. You begin to see some hope in your future again after a time when you’d started to lose sight of that.”

Songs from Two Ribbons thus far — like “Happy New Year” and the title track — has been emotional, inspiring and cathartic for both the band and listeners alike. “Levitation” raises the stakes.

Watch the video for “Levitation” above and check out Let’s Eat Grandma’s full tour dates below.

04/30 — Edinburgh, UK @ Stag and Dagger Festival
05/01 — Glasgow, UK @ Stag and Dagger Festival
07/24 — Southwold, UK @ Latitude Festival
10/06 — Cardiff, UK @ Clwb for Bach
10/07 — Manchester, UK @ Yes (Pink Room)
10/08 — Leeds, UK @ Belgrrave MusicHall
10/13 — Newcastle, UK @ Cluny
10/14 — Nottingham, UK @ Metronome
10/15 — Birmingham, UK @ Space 54
10/16 — Cambridge, UK @ Mash
10/18 — Bristol, UK @ Thekla
10/19 — London, UK @ Koko
10/21 — Brighton, UK @ Patterns
10/22 — Norwich, UK @ Epic
11/01 — Washington, DC @ Union Stage
11/02 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry
11/04 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall
11/05 — Boston, MA @ Sinclair
11/07 — Montreal, QB @ La Sala Rosa
11/08 — Toronto, CA @ The Axis Club
11/10 — Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
11/11 — Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
11/12 — Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
11/14 — Denver, CO @ Bluebird
11/16 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
11/18 — Seattle, WA @ Crocodile
11/19 — Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore Cabaret
11/20 — Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
11/22 — San Francisco, CA @ Independent
11/23 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theatre

Two Ribbons is out 4/29 via Transgressive Records. Pre-order it here.

In Wednesday’s big surprise, Harry Styles announced the release of his third album, Harry’s House. Due out on May 2oth, the title is pretty clearly an homage to Joni Mitchell’s 1975 song, “Harry’s House/Centerpiece,” from the album The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. Styles, has been especially enamored with the ’60s and ’70s hippie movement and flower power ephemera as of late: His Love On Tour has a Summer Of Love aesthetic and his skincare line, Pleasing, launched the “Shroom Bloom” collection with Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood as its model. So his affinity for Mitchell, who also thrived in that era, makes sense.

But how would Mitchell respond to the former One Direction star’s homage to her work? Would she react like Courtney Love, who slammed Olivia Rodrigo’s callback to Hole’s Live Through This album cover with her Sour prom concert film press photos? Or would she be flattered and honored that Styles showed love to a lesser known, yet still gorgeous Mitchell classic? “Love the title,” Mitchell said in a quote retweet of Styles’ album announcement.

It’s a sweet seal of approval from the Canadian folk legend. She even later tweeted the opening lyrics from “Harry’s House/Centerpiece,” further cementing how touched she felt by Styles’ gesture.

Harry’s House is due 5/20 via Columbia Records. Pre-save it here.

Releasing her epic debut album, Fake It Flowers, in 2020, Beabadoobee’s star has just continued to rise with every new release. After going viral off the strength of the very first track she ever wrote, “Coffee,” which was sampled in the chorus for Canadian artist Powfu’s “Death Bed,” she’s slowly but surely built her own sound following up that moment of internet attention. Bea, aka Beatrice Kristi Laus, went on to record an EP with The 1975 last year called Our Extended Play, and landed an Uproxx cover story over the look.

Now, Laus let fans know she’s gearing up to release a new album that “sounds very 2006,” and today we’ve got the first taste of that glam-rock sound. “Talk” is a preview of her next album, Beatopia, which will be out July 15 via Dirty Hit. In the meantime she’ll also be opening up for Halsey on select tour dates, and then later tour on her own in support of this second album.

“I wrote ‘Talk’ just after my first album,” Bea said in a press release. “I was obsessed with Tuesday because I thought it was the best night to go out, not too much chaos but just enough to have a good time. Generally, it’s about doing things that aren’t necessarily healthy or great for you, but you can’t help indulging. It’s like that unavoidable feeling that you get. You can’t get rid of it, and you know it’s bad, but you love it really, and its whatever, so you do it anyways.”

Check out the new song above and look out for Beatopia dropping this July.

Late last year, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis announced a tour behind their joint album, Carnage, and that’s not the only project these longtime collaborators have planned for 2022. Aside from the other recent album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Ghosteen, which came out in 2019, the pair have now announced a new documentary called This Much I Know To Be True in early 2022, and the film will explore the long creative relationship between the two. The film was directed by the Andrew Dominik and shot in 2021 in in London and Brighton and seeks to “document the duo’s first performances of the albums and will feature a special appearance by close friend and long-term collaborator, Marianne Faithfull.”

In an earlier released clip from the film, Cave ponders self-identity, and also plays “Lavender Fields,” a track off Carnage. Today, the duo have released yet another preview of the doc, this time in the form of a more official trailer. You can check that out above. And it’s worth noting, for anyone who watched the 2016 Nick Cave doc, One More Time With Feeling, which was also shot by Dominik, this film acts as sort of a follow-up to that initial project.

The film will be released May 11 and tickets are available here.

The Miami Heat suffered their second consecutive loss on Wednesday night in rather embarrassing fashion, as after dropping a game to the Harden-less and Embiid-less Sixers, they lost to the Warriors who were resting Steph, Klay, and Draymond.

The low point was a timeout in the midst of a 19-0 run from Golden State to open the third quarter in which Udonis Haslem had to be physically restrained from Jimmy Butler, while coach Erik Spoelstra was also hot with his star player. That moment was, unsurprisingly, a focal point during and after the game. Spoelstra’s press conference opened with a question about that huddle and at first joked that it was everyone trying to make dinner plans, before brushing it off as a competitive group letting out some anger and frustration with back-to-back games with poor play.

Kyle Lowry also shrugged the incident off as “passion” and, like Spoelstra, insisted it was just competitive guys being frustrated at their rough patch — and noting that he and the Heat’s top stars simply needed to play better.

This was always what they were going to say after, but this wasn’t your normal bench argument. Jimmy very clearly said something that had to have crossed a line, because the reaction from Spoelstra — “you want me to f**king fight you?” — and Haslem — “I’ll beat your ass.” — is not exactly something you see often (also, PJ Tucker’s face indicates Butler said something pretty wild).

What’s most important is how the Heat handle adversity come playoff time, because these types of moments don’t exactly tell the story of a team that will do particularly well if they lose a couple games during a series. That has to change in the next few weeks if the Heat are going to compete for a championship, as it’s one thing for there to be passion and competitive fire but another for the coach to be so mad at something a player said that he’s coming after him and flinging folders of papers onto the court.

A few days ago, Latto stopped by Big Boy’s Neighborhood for an interview to promote her upcoming album 777. It was here that she revealed that a male artist on her album made it “difficult to clear” their guest verse because she did not answer an Instagram DM from them. It’s presumed that this male artist was shooting their shot with Latto with the Instagram message. After her comments, people on social media tried their best to guess who the artist in question was, but as of today, Latto has yet to give confirmation on who they are. Instead, she expressed some regret for speaking out against the shady male collaborator.

It came during an interview on The Breakfast Club, where Latto explained why she was regretting her initial comments. “My intentions was not to, like, make this a whole thing,” she said on the show. “I just was looking at it as, like, I’m a new female rapper in the game. I wish somebody could have gave me some insight about how this stuff really goes.” She added, “You hear, like, ‘Oh, female rappers have it harder.’ But I really wanted to give a little insight as to what specifically makes it harder for a female rapper. I didn’t want it to distract from the music or anything so I kind of wish, in a way, I didn’t say that.”

Latto continued, “I’m not here to raise nobody. “I’m just speaking on, like, it’s what I go through. And I think I’m allowed to do that to a certain extent. Social media is trying to turn it into this thing that’s like, oh, I’m ‘trying to clout chase’ or silence my experiences. I think it’s hard to know when you should and shouldn’t speak up.”

After Latto unveiled the tracklist for 777, many fans concluded that the male collaborator in question was Kodak Black, who has a past that includes sexual assault allegations and highly inappropriate comments. In a tweet, Kodak denied that it was him that Latto was referring to, and during her appearance on The Breakfast Club, Latto was asked directly if it was Kodak she was talking about.

“I don’t wanna say who it was,” she replied. “I just feel like…it’s gonna distract from the music and my intentions is not to get anyone dragged or anything. I just wanted to speak from, like, what do I deal with? I don’t specifically want someone to, you know, get dragged.”

You can watch Latto’s full interview on The Breakfast Club above.

777 is out 3/25 via RCA. You can pre-save it here.

Kodak Black is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Dr. Oz’s bizarre decision to abandon a lucrative television career as a questionable health adviser to rebrand as a Trump clone continues to blow up in his face. Not only is he lagging in the polls, he’s now been booted from yet another prize gig. As per CNN, President Joe Biden has belatedly asked the one born Mehmet Oz to resign from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition or be fired. He refused, which likely means he’s been fired.

Oz was one of two Trump-appointed members of the council to be asked to leave or be booted. The other was Herschel Walker, the former NFL player, ex-MMA fighter, and current biological evolution understander. Both Oz and Walker are running as Republican candidates for Senate, Oz in Pennsylvania, Walker in Georgia. Trump has formally endorsed Walker, while Oz at least has the blessing of Melania.

The letter Oz received from Biden’s assistant was short and sweet. Four sentences long, including a curt “Thank you,” it gave no reason for the requested resignation, simply asking for him to quit “by close of business today.” If he failed to do so, it read, his position would be “terminated effective 6:00 pm tonight.”

Did Oz comply? Not publicly, at least.

“Clearly, Joe Biden can’t be around anyone who doesn’t completely fall in line with his fear-mongering authoritarian one-size-fits-all COVID handling,” Oz steamed on Twitter. “I am proud of my service and will not resign.”

Either Oz made good on his word or he quietly resigned. Either way, he’s out of another job. Meanwhile, in a Fox News survey of PA GOP voters from two weeks prior, Oz was trailing nine points behind fellow Republican candidate David McCormick. Even if he clinched the nomination, he’d still have to face off against the state’s lieutenant governor John Fetterman, who’s both very popular and much more social media savvy. But for them to duke it out, Oz would have to actually get the nom.

Oz’s campaign has struggled to connect with Republican voters, despite him parroting Trumpian talking points. He’s also spouted nonsense about the pandemic that has overwhelmingly targeted Republican voters, despite being a licensed medical practitioner. He even appears to have lost Oprah, the person who made his name. Hope it was worth it!

(Via CNN)

The Phoenix Suns trailed by 13 points at halftime in Minnesota on Wednesday night, but as has been the case all season for the team with the NBA’s best record, when closing time arrived their opponents had no answers for them, as they outscored Minnesota 42-28 in the fourth quarter on their way to a 125-116 win.

On this particular night, it was Deandre Ayton carrying the torch for Phoenix, as he set a career-high with 35 points (and 14 rebounds), capping things off with a three-pointer that served as the proverbial dagger.

Devin Booker also had a strong night, chipping in 28 points and seven assists, with one of those coming on one of the most outrageous passes you will see all season late in the fourth. It is so absurd that it leads to a very genuine question: Did he actually mean to do that?

Booker got double-teamed about 20 feet from the basket and the backside help stepped down to take away a lob to Ayton, which led to Booker firing the ball high into the air, kissing it off the glass and into the waiting arms of Mikal Bridges for an open layup.

I have yet to decide fully for myself if this was a purposeful off-the-backboard pass from 20 feet out or if Booker was simply trying to throw the ball down there somewhere knowing he had Ayton and Bridges, but put a bit too much on it and got lucky. Normally, I’d be convinced it’s the latter, but they play it off so cooly that I almost lean towards it being on purpose. Whatever is the truth, it was a big play for the Suns to keep the Wolves at a distance and they should absolutely tell people that was the plan all along.

Back in January, Cardi B was awarded nearly $4 million in damages after she sued blogger Tasha K back in 2019 for making multiple false statements about her. Tasha accused Cardi of having herpes, using a beer bottle as a sex toy when she was an exotic dancer, working as a prostitute, and abusing cocaine, all of which Cardi said was extremely false. A jury sided with Cardi as they found Tasha K guilty of “defamation of character, invasion of privacy through portrayal in a false light, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” While many thought the case was over, Tasha K is ready to put up another fight.

HipHopDX (which sites Radar Online) reports that Tasha K’s legal team formally filed a notice of appeal on March 17. The move comes after Tasha K admitted that she did not have the nearly $4 million in damages that the court said she had to pay Cardi. “Don’t ask me for the money. I ain’t got it,” she said. “But listen, we have business and things in place that takes care of things like this. Now, of course, the appellate court and the supreme court is in process right now.”

Furthermore, after the jury gave Cardi B the win, Tasha K took to her YouTube channel to announce that she would not give up just yet. “I know ya’ll maybe think this is over, but no, this is just the beginning,” she said. “I will spend as many years as I can to protect our right to voice our opinions. […] This trial was purely sympathy and payola to protect corporate interests, and we intend to take this all the way to the Supreme Court if need be.”

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.