Year: 2022

Over the weekend, Pearl Jam seemingly responded to some criticism from Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx, but the story actually starts a few days ago.

In late January, in an interview with The New York Times Magazine, Eddie Vedder expressed his disdain for Mötley Crüe, saying, “You know, I used to work in San Diego loading gear at a club. I’d end up being at shows that I wouldn’t have chosen to go to — bands that monopolized late-’80s MTV. The metal bands that — I’m trying to be nice — I despised. ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ and Mötley Crüe: [expletive] you. I hated it. I hated how it made the fellas look. I hated how it made the women look. It felt so vacuous.”

A couple days ago, Sixx caught wind of the Vedder quote and took to Twitter to respond, writing, “Made me laugh today reading how much the singer in Pearl Jam hated @MotleyCrue. Now considering that they’re one of the most boring bands in history it’s kind of a compliment isn’t it?”

A fan responded with a joke about Pearl Jam’s music being boring enough to put babies to sleep, to which Sixx replied, “Or just sing to the baby with marbles In your mouth…Very zen.” Then, in response to a user who didn’t love Sixx’s Pearl Jam criticism, he tweeted, “You’ll be fine. Remember there were zillions of brown haired bands for brown haired fans…..Go find them. You will know them by the bored look on their face”

Pearl Jam latched onto Sixx calling their fans “bored” and used it against him yesterday, when they shared a 40-second video from one of their concerts, which shows an excited and participatory crowd that doesn’t seem to include any bored folks. “We [love] our bored fans,” the band wrote alongside the clip.

If that kind of live environment looks fun, Vedder is actually in the midst of a solo tour right now.

In the waning days of Donald Trump’s presidency, he still made time (despite the mounting pandemic) to sing the praises of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. He actually tweeted to deny reports that the dictator was ailing and added, “Never underestimate him!” It was the latest in a weird saga that included Trump claiming to have received a series of “love letters” between the two world leaders. Bob Woodward’s Rage book reported how dozens of these letters existed, and now, the Washington Post further confirms their existence, given that they were in a pile of documents seized from Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida.

That’s wild, of course, given that Trump bragged about those letters for years, going back to a 2018 rally in West Virginia, where he called the letters “beautiful.” From WaPo, yup, these letters totally exist, and “boxes” of the correspondence exist, among the other documents that Trump chose to cart off to Mar-A-Lago, rather than turn them into the National Archives and Records Administration as required, since these are officially “Presidential records,” as defined by the Presidential Records Act.

What’s even more disturbing, however, is that the “love letters” were only some of the recovered documents, which also apparently included documents related to the January 6 failed MAGA coup. Those documents were reportedly put into the hands of the House Select Committee on Jan. 6, according to Axios. In other words, the “love letters” are highly amusing, but Trump carted a whole lot of presidential business away to his private residence after leaving office.

Previously, the Washington Post also relayed how (via Bob Woodward’s Rage book) Trump was so excited about Kim respecting him, and that Trump bragged about how “Kim ‘tells me everything,’ including a graphic account of Kim having his uncle killed.”

(Via Washington Post & Axios)

“Hi, I’m Johnny Knoxville, welcome to the number one movie in the country.”

Jackass Forever made underwater fart history to the top of the box office this weekend after earning $23.5 million on a reported $10 million budget. It’s only the second time since early December that a movie other than Spider-Man: No Way Home finished in first place; the other was Scream. This is a win for everyone who enjoys the theatrical experience, full frontal male nudity (SO much nudity), and guys named Poopies.

Ticket buyers were overwhelmingly male at 68%, while 25% were over the age of 35 and 67% were between 18 and 34. “In a business that doesn’t surprise all that often, it’s sure nice to know that surprises — good ones — can still happen,” says Chris Aronson, Paramount’s president of domestic distribution. “I was heartened by the percentage of moviegoers over 35. Who knew?”

Jackass Forever has an 85 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 49 percent for 2002’s Jackass, 64 percent for 2006’s Jackass: Number Two, and 66 percent for 2010’s Jackass 3. That’s what we call societal growth, folks.

In a glowing review, our own Vince Mancini wrote, “Did we really need for this Jackass to be the ‘best Jackass ever?’ This merely reveals the basic truth that Jackass is still Jackass‘s only competition. I was more than content for the new Jackass to merely be what Jackass has always been: a good hang.”

What was your favorite Jackass Forever stunt? I’m partial to “Vomitron.”

(Via Variety)

HomeState, the LA-area TexMex joint known for their popular “Band Taco” benefit partnerships with Southern California groups like Chicano Batman and Tijuana Panthers, just launched a new creation with the pride of Fort Worth, Texas, Leon Bridges. It makes sense, considering owner Briana Valdez grew up in Texas and launched her Los Angeles taco, queso, and margarita emporiums to share the flavors of the lone star state with Angeleños.

Known as “The Ft. Worth,” Bridges’ taco is made with spicy achiote chicken, Beeler’s bacon, lettuce, pico de gallo, tomatillo ranch, and pickled jalapeños, on a flour tortilla. $1.25 of each taco sold goes directly to two organizations: CASA LA, which advocates for children and families in LA County’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and The Big Good, a North Texas-based organization started by Bridges, that supports educational and professional opportunities for the community.

“I was super excited to create a taco that reminds me of my hometown Fort Worth, and be able to raise funds for The Big Good to boot,” Bridges said in a statement. “I hope people pull up with my taco, queso, and margs and just vibe.”

“The Ft. Worth” is available at all four HomeState locations in the Los Angeles area now until the end of April.

When Spotify employees clock into work on Monday morning, they’re going to have a bold letter to digest from CEO Daniel Ek. In a message sent to the entire “Spotify Team” on Sunday, Ek addressed the mounting controversy surrounding The Joe Rogan Experience. This began when Neil Young decided to pull his music from the platform on January 24th, citing the COVID vaccine misinformation that Rogan regularly purveys on his show. Other artists soon followed suit, including India.Arie, who cited Rogan’s problematic language surrounding race and posted a damning clip on her Instagram Story three days ago, of multiple instances where Rogan used a racial slur on his show.

“I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer,” Ek said in his letter, which was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but canceling voices is a slippery slope. Looking at the issue more broadly, it’s critical thinking and open debate that powers real and necessary progress.”

Ek also tried to illustrate that Spotify is not the publisher of The Joe Rogan Experience, but are merely the exclusive license holders — a license that Spotify acquired for that $100 million figure that keeps popping up. He referred to the notion that people assume that the streaming platform is the publisher of the show as merely the “perception” of it, which gave his lengthy letter an odd public relations feel, as if he’s being open with a divided staff about a damage control situation. “…I’ve been wrestling with how this perception squares with our values,” he said.

To that point, the most impactful portion of the letter was Ek pledging $100 million to elevate creators from historically marginalized groups. “If we believe in having an open platform as a core value of the company, then we must also believe in elevating all types of creators, including those from underrepresented communities and a diversity of backgrounds,” he said. “I am committing to an incremental investment of $100 million for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups.”

Rogan has apologized for using a racial slur and is in a damage control situation of sorts himself. Especially considering Spotify has already pulled 70 of his episodes, presumably for containing inappropriate language. Ek also addressed this and more in his letter, which you can read in full below.

“Spotify Team,

There are no words I can say to adequately convey how deeply sorry I am for the way The Joe Rogan Experience controversy continues to impact each of you. Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful — I want to make clear that they do not represent the values of this company. I know this situation leaves many of you feeling drained, frustrated and unheard.

I think it’s important you’re aware that we’ve had conversations with Joe and his team about some of the content in his show, including his history of using some racially insensitive language. Following these discussions and his own reflections, he chose to remove a number of episodes from Spotify. He also issued his own apology over the weekend.

While I strongly condemn what Joe has said and I agree with his decision to remove past episodes from our platform, I realize some will want more. And I want to make one point very clear — I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer. We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but canceling voices is a slippery slope. Looking at the issue more broadly, it’s critical thinking and open debate that powers real and necessary progress.

Another criticism that I continue to hear from many of you is that it’s not just about The Joe Rogan Experience on Spotify; it comes down to our direct relationship with him. In last week’s Town Hall, I outlined to you that we are not the publisher of JRE. But perception due to our exclusive license implies otherwise. So I’ve been wrestling with how this perception squares with our values.

If we believe in having an open platform as a core value of the company, then we must also believe in elevating all types of creators, including those from underrepresented communities and a diversity of backgrounds. We’ve been doing a great deal of work in this area already but I think we can do even more. So I am committing to an incremental investment of $100 million for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups. This will dramatically increase our efforts in these areas. While some might want us to pursue a different path, I believe that more speech on more issues can be highly effective in improving the status quo and enhancing the conversation altogether.

I deeply regret that you are carrying so much of this burden. I also want to be transparent in setting the expectation that in order to achieve our goal of becoming the global audio platform, these kinds of disputes will be inevitable. For me, I come back to centering on our mission of unlocking the potential of human creativity and enabling more than a billion people to enjoy the work of what we think will be more than 50 million creators. That mission makes these clashes worth the effort.

I’ve told you several times over the last week, but I think it’s critical we listen carefully to one another and consider how we can and should do better. I’ve spent this time having lots of conversations with people inside and outside of Spotify — some have been supportive while others have been incredibly hard, but all of them have made me think.

One of the things I am thinking about is what additional steps we can take to further balance creator expression with user safety. I’ve asked our teams to expand the number of outside experts we consult with on these efforts and look forward to sharing more details.

Your passion for this company and our mission has made a difference in the lives of so many listeners and creators around the world. I hope you won’t lose sight of that. It’s that ability to focus and improve Spotify even on some of our toughest days that has helped us build the platform we have. We have a clear opportunity to learn and grow together from this challenge and I am ready to meet it head on.

I know it is difficult to have these conversations play out so publicly, and I continue to encourage you to reach out to your leaders, your HR partners or me directly if you need support or resources for yourself or your team.

Daniel.”

Nothing says “Happy Valentine’s Day!” Like a nice doughnut. We guess. Maybe?

Okay, perhaps doughnuts aren’t the first pastry that comes to mind when you think about February 14th, but that didn’t stop Krispy Kreme from unloading a whole line of heart-shaped Valentine’s Day themed doughnuts in celebration of the day, and you know what? We’re not mad at it. We’ve never needed a reason to eat a doughnut before. Heart-shaped, star-shaped, a giant doughnut in the shape of a turkey for Thanksgiving — whatever, fuck it, we’re always down for fried dough.

Obviously, we’re not alone:

For a limited time, Krispy Kreme is offering the four adorable heart-shaped doughnuts that you can purchase alone or as a dozen, sold in a valentine card-themed box. But before you drop down the big bucks on a box and send them to your valentine, you’re probably going to want to know if they’re any good. So we tried all four of them to see whether grabbing the dozen is the move, or you’re better off just sticking with the best of the bunch.

Here are our thoughts on each doughnut, from worst to best. Let’s dunk!

Bee Mine

Is it possible for a doughnut to be too sweet? Had I been asked this question before I tried Krispy Kreme’s Bee Mine doughnut, I would’ve confidently said ‘no,’ but after tasting this… I’m not so sure. I think this might be too sweet, fam.

I know you don’t want to hear that because I mean look at this doughnut, it’s fucking adorable. I get that, but it’s too much. The Bee Mine is filled with strawberry cream filling and topped with thick candy-like red icing. Artificial strawberry on its own is sweet enough as it is, but when mixed with Krispy Kreme’s ultra-sweet ‘Kreme’ filling it becomes way too overwhelming.

Of the whole lineup, this was my least favorite — as adorable as it is. It’s sickly sweet.

The Bottom Line:

Love bombing in food form. It’s just too much.

My Batter Half

As the name would suggest, this doughnut has a birthday cake-like quality to it courtesy of a healthy injection of cake batter filling. However, unlike the Bee Mine, the My Batter Half’s simpler flavors are more complimentary.

The pink-icing-cake-batter-filling combo does bring a lot of sweetness to the palate, but the texture of the red, pink, and white heart sprinkles does a lot to keep the experience from tasting too overwhelming like the Bee Mine. Yes, the sprinkles are sweetened too, obviously, but the added texture kind of mutes the intensity of the cream filling’s sugariness.

The Bottom Line:

A step up from the Bee Mine, but a little too sweet for this Goldilocks’s palate.

Cookies To My Kreme

Goddamn, this is good. This doughnut single-handedly makes the whole concept of these themed-doughnuts work. Featuring a white icing glaze with a chocolate drizzle and cookies and cream filling, this doughnut takes everything good from the previous two doughnuts and actually makes it work.

It’s got texture, thanks to a mix of soft and hard sugar sprinkles as well as the tiny granules of Oreo-like cookies in the house-made cream filling, which also helps to deliver the sweetness offered in the other two cream-filled doughnuts.

The Bottom Line:

If you (or your Valentine) are all about the cream-filled doughnuts this one is going to offer you the best experience. It has a great texture and a nice balance of sweet flavors that take you through notes of cream, cookie, and chocolate.

Beary Best Valentine

Here we are at the top. Now, I might be a bit biased on this one because I prefer non-cream-filled doughnuts to their cream-filled counterparts but hear me out, this is the ideal way to experience the best of both worlds.

Instead of injecting this heart-shaped, bear-faced doughnut with sweet cream, Krispy Kreme opted to place dollops on the face of the doughnut. This allows you to perfectly distribute how much cream you want in every bite, or, you know just remove the cream entirely.

I’m not sure why throughout this line of new flavors Krispy Kreme felt like going light on the chocolate (and the sprinkles) but I think that was a major misstep. Valentine’s Day and chocolate are synonymous, so why is this the only doughnut that delivers on the flavor?

The Bottom Line:

Skip the dozen, just buy one of these. It is by far the best Valentine’s Day doughnut that Krispy Kreme stocks.

Find your nearest Krispy Kreme here.

While the west coast is patiently waiting for the end of Billie Eilish’s new tour behind Happier Than Ever, since that’s when she’ll finally make it to The Forum for a three-night stint, at least there’s photos and videos on the internet to hold us over. Earlier this weekend, Billie actually halted her show completely to check on a fan who needed an inhaler, and seemingly shaded Travis Scott and the gruesome aftermath of Astroworld in the process.

But, for the most part, Billie shows look like they’re packed to the brim with fans who have been waiting all pandemic long to see their favorite — and she looks happier and healthier on stage than she ever has, too. This tour features a monster setlist that combines some of her earliest hits with songs from her When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? era, and of course, rounds it all out with her latest Happier Than Ever.

Kicking off the tour in New Orleans, Billie was sporting her signature matching baggy tops and shorts for a comfy stage look that lets her jump around and be free while performing. Check out some photos from her first show of the tour below, and keep an eye out for more happenings as the dates unfold.

The NFL world (outside of the Rams and Bengals) have spent the week in Las Vegas for Pro Bowl festivities this week, culminating in the game that took place Sunday afternoon.

In the NFC’s 41-35 loss to the AFC, Saints running back Alvin Kamara had four catches for 23 yards, but found himself in the news on Sunday night for off-field reasons. Kamara was arrested and booked on Sunday night for “battery resulting in substantial bodily harm” stemming from an incident that took place over the weekend after police were called to the hospital to speak with a person reported being battered at a Vegas nightclub. The investigation led to Kamara being identified as the suspect and he was booked on Sunday, with the investigation still ongoing per Las Vegas Metropolitan police.

The 3500 block of Las Vegas Boulevard is Caesar’s Palace, but for now there are no other details regarding the incident and what occurred beyond what is in the police statement. One would expect a statement of some kind to come from Kamara or his representation in the next day or so, but until then (or we get a more detailed police account of the incident at the nightclub) we will have to wait.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Euphoria will be found below.)

The latest episode of Euphoria zones in on Rue Bennett’s drug addiction and the aftermath of an intervention sparked by Jules, Elliot, and Rue’s mother and sister. They also disposed of the suitcase filled with drugs that Rue had in her room causing her to enter a brutal stage of withdrawal. For the remainder of the episode, we see Rue run away from her mom to avoid a trip back to rehab. We also see Rue go to great lengths to get money, or things worth a lot of money, in order to end her withdrawal symptoms.

What Drug Is Rue Addicted To On ‘Euphoria?’

While Rue has experimented with a number of drugs, it’s opiates that she regularly struggles with. For example and for much of season two, we see Rue regularly consume opiates and cocaine by herself and with Elliot. After she received the luggage of drugs from Laurie, who is quite the unorthodox drug dealer, Rue’s palette of drugs expands to include fentanyl, which she took in the form of a patch at the end of last week’s episode. This week, Rue’s withdrawal is seemingly cured the moment after she makes a visit to Laurie. There, Rue receives intravenous morphine which sparks a very vivid flashback of her with her late father.

HBO’s ‘Euphoria’ airs on Sundays at 9:00pm EST.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Euphoria will be found below.)

Rue Bennett’s relapse and drug addiction are the focus of this week’s episode on Euphoria. After orchestrating a deal that grants her a suitcase filled with drugs to sell, her drug use takes a huge spike. However, all of it comes to a screeching halt when Rue’s mom finds out about the suitcase and disposes of it, causing Rue to go a painful bout with withdrawal. The latest episode of Euphoria also expands on the love triangle between Nate, Maddy, and Cassie.

Just like last week’s episode, which featured songs by Sinead O’Conner, Baby Keem, Montell Jordan, Faith Evans, and more, this week on of Euphoria also featured a great selection of songs. The aforementioned events in this week’s episode are soundtracked by carefully curated songs that help to accentuate the emotions behind each scene.

What Songs Were In ‘Euphoria’ S2E5?

The standout songs on this week’s episode were Labrinth’s “Understand Me” and Sharon Cash’s “Fever.” The former was used during a pair of scenes where someone was in pursuit of Rue. The first is when Rue jumps out of her mom’s car and runs across traffic in order to avoid a trip back to rehab. The second time came in the second half of the episode when Rue is running away from a crew of police officers after she robbed a house for jewelry and cash. The robbery itself was soundtracked by Sharon Cash’s “Fever.”

The soundtrack for this week’s episode also includes Labrinth’s “We All Knew” and Albert Hammond’s “It Never Rains In Southern California.” This week’s episode also comes with the great news that Euphoria has been renewed for a third season.

HBO’s ‘Euphoria’ airs on Sundays at 9:00pm EST.