Month: January 2023

A week-plus into 2023, the precursor to festival season has begun: festival lineup announcement season. Today (January 10), one of North America’s premiere annual events, Bonnaroo, has unveiled its lineup.

The fest runs from June 15 to 18 in Manchester, Tennessee, and leading the opening day on Thursday the 15th are Zeds Dead and Liquid Stranger. Heading up the first full day on Friday the 16th is Kendrick Lamar, while Odesza headlines on Saturday the 17th and Foo Fighters close out the event with a headlining slot on Sunday the 18th.

Aside from those acts, other highlights from the lineup include Lil Nas X, Paramore, Marcus Mumford, Pixies, My Morning Jacket, JID, Jenny Lewis, Baby Keem, Vulfpeck, Three 6 Mafia, Korn, Fleet Foxes, Sylvan Esso, Rina Sawayama, Alex G, Muna, Black MIDI, 070 Shake, Big Freedia, Petey, Dehd, Griz, Portugal The Man, Noah Kahan, Subtronics, AGI, Sampa The Great, Tyler Childers, Louis The Child, Yung Gravy, Remi Wold, Cory Wong, and The Beths. On top of that, the Superjam, Outeroo lineup, late-night sets, and more are set to be announced later.

Check out the lineup poster above. Information about Bonnaroo tickets is available on the festival website.

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

Welcome to the first Best New Pop roundup of 2023. After a (hopefully) long and lovely holiday for everyone reading this, music releases are returning from their short breaks, too. Lots of major artists including Olivia Rodrigo, Kali Uchis, and many more are teasing their eventual appearances on our weekly list. Meanwhile, other rising stars like Gracie Abrams have announced new albums and tours. There is a lot to look forward to in this new year.

For now, here’s this week’s list of some new pop jams that we’re extremely grateful for.

NewJeans — “OMG”

The K-Pop girl group NewJeans have already become a major force, amassing over 18 million streams on their brand new single, “OMG,” so far.

“I was really hoping that he will come through,” Hanni and Danielle sing on the chorus. The band, who previously released their first EP last summer, are continuing to raise the bar — not even a full two weeks into 2023.

Skrillex feat. PinkPantheress & Trippie Redd — “Way Back”

Another collaboration between Skrillex and PinkPantheress, “Way Back” also sees Trippie Redd joining the mix as he tackles the opening verse. As a teaser from the DJ’s first new album in almost a decade, it brilliantly utilizes PinkPantheress’ uniquely captivating vocals.

Shania Twain — “Giddy Up!”

A bonafide country song from the Canadian icon, Twain’s new song, “Giddy Up!” will instantly be stuck in listeners’ heads with a catchy instrumental, layered chants, and just a ton of carefree energy.

Mckenna Grace — “Ugly Crier”

Grace’s “Ugly Crier” opens with a dreamy-but-emotional retelling of those around her dealing with problems before bursting into a pop-punk-influenced track. However, she pulled the song’s inspiration from a personal experience of feeling like an outsider.

“I wrote this song after I went to this Hollywood party with a bunch of celebrities and felt completely out of place,” Grace said via Broadway World. It serves as the lead single ahead of her debut EP.

Sigala, MNEK — “Radio”

Before releasing their upbeat EDM collaboration, “Radio,” DJ Sigala had wanted to work with MNEK as a vocalist on a track for a long time. The result proved to work out, as MNEK apparently wrote the disco-meets-2000s inspired song in 20 minutes, according to RetroPop.

Juliana Tucker — “The Great Indoors”

“‘The Great Indoors’ is about finding comfort in solitude and learning how to look within ourselves for happiness rather than finding it elsewhere,” Tucker shared about the emotional ballad. “It’s a song for anyone who lives life for themselves rather than living life to please someone else.”

Caye — “A Door”

Caye brings the chill vibes on “A Door,” which he both wrote and produced. As he describes, the song’s intention is for listeners to take some space to meditate on the world around them — which the calming nature of the instrumental allows. It appears on his forthcoming February debut album, We Love, that also will drop just before a headlining tour.

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

Rappers continue to be really bad at retiring. Logic, who announced his own retirement in 2020 with No Pressure, has since released two albums and two mixtapes, and recently announced his third is on the way. College Park follows 2022’s Vinyl Days and looks to continue the Maryland rapper’s tradition of packing his projects the brim with appearances from famous supporters. In this case, he dropped an Boondocks-style animated teaser to reveal the album’s title and guestlist, which includes RZA, Redman, Joey Badass, Norah Jones, and even Seth MacFarlane, creator of the long-running animated sitcom Family Guy.

When Logic first announced his retirement, he explained in a video interview, “I just wanted to retire because I’m over it man. Not even in a negative way, I’m just over it. I love music and I’m gonna continue to make music on my own. I can’t not just make music. It’s a journal for me. It’s how I express myself. It’s how I heal, but with Logic, I’m stepping away.” Of course, that retirement only lasted a few months; he quickly broke his silence in January 2021 — albeit in a roundabout way — with the mixtape Planetory Destruction, released under an alter ego, Doctor Destruction. He followed up with the YS Collection Vol. 1 compilation showcasing the roster he’d put together for his label, Visionary, then dropped the mixtape Bobby Tarantino III a few months later. Just ahead of the new year, he returned with a freestyle, asserting that for him, rap is “not a contest.” Whether that’s true or not, it seems he just can’t leave the game alone.

Watch the College Park trailer above.

Kim Kardashian has been known to benefit from publicity (both good and bad), which might be the understatement of the year. She’s been accused of smoke and mirrors since emerging into public life, way before she studied for the bar exam and also went through some stuff with Kanye West. It’s not a diss to say that her entire career heavily depends upon appearances, and back in the day (a full decade ago, actually), TMZ originally reported on a “flour bombing” incident that ended up being blamed on a reported sympathizer of PETA.

PETA, for its part, denied any responsibility when Christina Cho allegedly doused Kim (who may or may not have been wearing leather pants at the time) with flour while she was promoting a Kim K. perfume. E! Online relayed Kim’s response, which included, “That probably is the craziest, unexpected, weird thing that’s happened to me.” At the time, Kardashian sisters Khloe and Kourtney also stepped up to defend Kim on social media. Alas, this was allegedly a ruse. Via The Daily Beast, a former PR rep is dishing:

Sheeraz Hasan, a PR expert who used to work for Kardashian, claims the whole thing was staged. Hasan, who first worked with the reality star in 2005, said he and Kardashian discussed that she was “willing to get flour bombed” before the event to promote her True Reflection perfume in West Hollywood. “You’re going to be fine, you’re going to be safe, but we’re going to create a media moment,” Hasan said he told Kardashian at the time, according to the British Channel 4 documentary The Kardashians: Billion Dollar Dynasty. “Are the team in on it? Of course, they’re in on it,” Hasan added.

However, the New York Post has spoken with “sources” who claim that “Kim was never aware of the move,” if it was a move at all. And this story ultimately ends up being fluffy and inconsequential, but it possibly inspired future flour bombers and maybe even the sugar bombing (which did result in an arrest) of Adam Levine. So strange, man.

(Via TMZ, The Daily Beast, New York Post)

Like millions of others, Seth Meyers was up into the wee hours of Saturday morning watching House Republicans fail at the very first task they had: to name a Speaker of the House. While it was a terrible week for American democracy, it turned out to be a great week for C-SPAN. At one point, according to The New York Times, more than 1.2 million people were watching the typically hella-boring news network’s YouTube livestream of the Capitol shenanigans. The network also received a record number of downloads to its mobile app and was even a trending topic on Twitter. For Meyers, it basically became the politically aware adult’s version of porn.

“By the way, this all unfolded into the late hours of Friday night and into Saturday morning,” Meyers explained of the tense few moments in which House Republicans finally managed to come to a majority consensus and name Kevin McCarthy as SOTH. “Generally speaking, that is not the sign of a healthy democracy. Nothing good happens after midnight on a Friday. If you’re that old and you’re up after midnight on a Friday, you’re probably drunk and buying something real dumb off QVC.”

But like so many of us, Meyers could not look away at the chaos we were witnessing in real time. Which, in some ways, he thinks might just show his age. As he explained:

When I was a kid and I was up late watching TV, it used to be stuff like horror movies or Cinemax or, let’s be honest, Taxicab Confessions. Oh yeah, baby! Give me 20 minutes of an Eastern European couple in weird disco outfits coming down from cocaine and hitting on a bemused cab driver! It wasn’t much, but before the internet? It was the closest you could get to porn without finding a Penthouse Forum in the woods behind the school.

Now things are so insane that if I’m up late watching TV, it’s not softcore porn — it’s C-SPAN! Because that sh*t has been hardcore! If you were watching C-SPAN as all this unfolded, you got to see some intense and surreal images from a night that was unprecedented in American political history.

You can watch the full clip above.

English post-punk band Dry Cleaning is quickly becoming one of the most exciting acts to watch. Since breaking into music in 2017, the group — comprised of vocalist Florence Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, bassist Lewis Maynard, and drummer Nick Buxton — displayed all the signature elements of rock throughout their musical releases, including their latest album, 2022’s Stumpwork.

However, there’s one distinctive twist that sets them apart — Florence’s unique vocal delivery. Instead of the standard high-energy vocal belt heard through the genre, Florence has opted for a much more delicate approach. The band stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to display their talents with an exceptional in-studio performance. With a handful of singles to choose from on the album, including “Don’t Press Me,” “Anna Calls From The Arctic,” and “Gary Ashby,” the South Londoners choose to perform “Hot Penny Day.”

Florence nearly emotionlessly sings the introspective song, but this creative choice works so well due to the steep contrast between the song’s lyrics and her vocal cadence. Contrarily, her bandmates go full-on punk in the background with overly facial expressions and grandiose full-body physical jesters.

Watch the full “Hot Penny Day” performance above.

Stumpwork is out now via 4AD. Get it here.

It’s going to be a good year for fans of Death Cab For Cutie. Later this month, they are set to hit the road on tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their album, Transatlanticism. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the album, Give Up, from Death Cab lead vocalist Ben Gibbard’s electronic pop side project, The Postal Service.

While Give Up has become a cult classic in its own right, The Postal Service — which was comprised of Gibbard on vocals, Jenny Lewis on background vocals, and producer Jimmy Tamborello — has never reunited for a follow-up record. In a recent interview on the Kyle Meredith With… podcast, Gibbard revealed he has no plans to make a follow-up to Give Up, his reason being that the way artists produce music has evolved greatly over the past two decades.

“Anybody who’s been asking a second Postal Service record, like really ask yourself, after 20 years, do you really think that there’s gonna something we could make that could even satisfy half of the desire you have in your mind as to what this record would be like? Twenty years — a lot of technology has changed,” Gibbard said. “A lot of how we make music has changed dramatically since then. It wouldn’t be the same.”

He continued, saying, “I think often, when we think about the music that we love the most and the eras of a certain artist or a band that we love the most, we’re as much thinking about the sound. It’s not just the songs or how you were driving around in high school listening to it, wishing you could be anywhere other than the town that you’re living in — it’s the sound of it. Whatever we would make now would sound dramatically different than what we made 20 years ago, and I think it would be a disappointment even if we tried.”

This isn’t the first time Gibbard has ruled out the possibility of new music from The Postal Service. Back in 2021, he revealed to NME that while the supergroup attempted to make a follow-up record in 2004 and 2005, it just never came to fruition, and probably won’t.

“You want to never say never, but no one should be holding their breath waiting for Postal Service music coming any time soon,” Gibbard said. “We haven’t worked on anything. We stay in touch as friends, but that’s kind of the extent of it.”

The Postal Service will, however, reunite as part of the joint tour with Death Cab, which kicks off on Friday, January 27.

You can check out the full Kyle Meredith With… interview above.

Ben Gibbard and Death Cab For Cutie are Warner Music Artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lady Gaga’s 2011 hidden gem, “Bloody Mary,” first appeared on her album, Born This Way. However, over a decade later, the spooky song has seen a sudden resurgence thanks to Wednesday.

When Netflix dropped its first season of the Addams Family-inspired show, fans flocked to TikTok and made edits of the titular character — with Gaga’s song as the soundtrack.

Despite not being featured in the show itself or TikTok contributing to the chart impact, Gaga and Wednesday fans’ streaming result has proven still immensely successful for the pop star. The social media trend pushed “Bloody Mary” to debut on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 at No. 68.

In the original scene of Wednesday, the young Addams daughter (played by Jenna Ortega) dances at prom to The Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck” — which fans eventually swapped out for “Bloody Mary.” Gaga even wound up getting in on the viral dance craze in a video that’s amassed over 12 million views.

Unsurprisingly, Netflix recently announced they’d be renewing Wednesday for a second season and poked fun at the TikTok hype by even using “Bloody Mary” in the teaser reveal.

According to Luminate, Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” had 6.1 million US streams and 2,000 sold downloads between December 30 and January 5 — proving that TikTok scrollers are committing to their love for the resurgent hit.

The touring industry is exploding right now. In a blog post written earlier this year, Lorde astutely noted how basically all of the artists who couldn’t tour during the pandemic are now all hitting the stage all at once. And that massive influx of high-profile concert tours is continuing into 2023. From long-awaited concert tours to anniversary celebrations to high-profile comebacks, these are the most anticipated concert tours of 2023.

Arctic Monkeys

For the first time in nearly ten years, Arctic Monkeys released a new album. The Car, is a cinematic melodrama enacted as debonairly as possible in the way that only Alex Turner and company can. They’re set to make 22 tour stops in North America at the tail end of summer and Dublin’s Fontaines D.C. are opening for them.

Beyoncé

While Beyoncé hasn’t announced any plans to tour in support of Renaissance yet (or release any music videos from it for that matter) she dropped a $20,000 hint that a tour is coming this summer. You see, at the WACO Theater Wearable Art Gala in October, Beyoncé put up an extravagant package for the charity auction. For $20k, the package description included airline tickets and a meet and greet to, “Beyoncé’s Renaissance 2023 tour.” Shout out to the Bey Hive member who sussed out this caper.

Big Thief

In a year that saw them releasing another dynamite album in Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, Big Thief announced an active schedule of concerts across four continents. But they really made waves this past week in laying out a plan to invite teachers and students to their soundchecks along the tour. The band wants to provide young people with opportunities to engage in learning experiences around creativity, music, playing shows, and songwriting. Awesome.

Blink 182

Not only is Blink 182 back, but guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge has rejoined the band making for a full reunion tour. Delonge, drummer Travis barker, and bassist/singer Mark Hoppus are also set to headline a slew of South American festivals, as well as the When We Were Young emo nostalgia fest in Las Vegas. Oh, and a new Blink 182 album is apparently on deck as well.

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band are hitting the road in 2023 for the first time since 2017. Yet when news of the US tour dates hit, Ticketmaster’s flexible pricing model sent some seats soaring in the thousands of dollars range and fans were none too pleased. Springsteen answered the critics essentially saying that the imperfect system is what it is, but, “If there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.” They don’t call him The Boss for nothing.

Death Grips

For the first time in four years, horrorcore trailblazers Death Grips will be going out on tour. The experimental rap trio of Zach Hill, MC Ride, and Andy Morin put on an electric live show, with MC Ride an always visceral presence on the microphone.

Depeche Mode

It was a tough year for Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan and Martin Gore when longtime keyboardist Andy “Fletch” Fletcher died in May at the age of 60. But Depeche Mode are still planning on releasing their new album Memento Mori, this spring. “Fletch would have loved this album,” Gahan said. The Memento Mori World Tour begins in March in the US and only ends in August in Europe.

Ed Sheeran

With albums entitled +, =, ÷, and x Ed Sheeran is bringing the theme full circle with his North America megatour dubbed the Mathematics Tour. He’ll be playing gigantic stadium sets at venues like Houston’s NRG Stadium, Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, and Detroit’s Ford Field. Meanwhile, he has curated a diverse set of tour openers in Khalid, Maisie Peters, Russ, Rosa Linn, Cat Burns, and Dylan.

GloRilla

Hopefully, GloRilla is planning on giving her assistant a raise, because she’s going to be plenty busy with her first-ever headlining tour in 2023. The Anyways, Life’s Great Tour is tabbed as GloRilla “with friends,” so we’ll see who decides to pop up on stage with the Memphis rapper. Could one of those friends be Cardi B at some point? The pair collaborated on the track “Tomorrow 2” which hit the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2022.

Janet Jackson

When Janet Jackson announced the Together Again Tour for 2023, she also promised that “there will be new music.” Not that we really need any, considering how many #hits she’s turned out across the decades, but it definitely adds to the mystique of what the always explosive “That’s The Way Love Goes” singer does on stage. Ludacris is joining her as the opening act, cause why the heck not?

JID and Smino

Both JID and Smino dropped albums in 2022. JID’s Forever Story places him in the conversation of today’s best, while Smino’s incredibly unique Luv 4 Rent features A-List featured guests like J-Cole and Lil Uzi Vert. Now the Atlanta and St. Louis connection will come to fruition on the 32-date cross-continent Luv Is 4Ever Tour.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Are King Gizzard the most prolific band in the world right now? The Aussie psycho rockers did just drop five albums in 2022. They’ve certainly become one of the most cultiish live bands on the planet regardless. They’re June 2023 tour begins at The Caverns Underground in Tennessee and ends with a three-hour “marathon set” at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

Metallica

The pioneering metal band from San Francisco have a new album due out on April 14th called 72 Seasons and the corresponding tour will stretch far beyond 2023. Metallica will be hitting the road this year, making stops in both Europe, the US, Canada, while picking it up again for a slew of 2024 dates in Europe and all of North America including Mexico. The shows will feature them playing 2 nights in cities, with no song repeats and an in-the-round staging.

Paramore

Paramore’s much-hyped sixth album, This Is Why, is due out on February 10th and the Hayley Williams-led band have a tour ready to rock for the summertime. Beginning in May, Paramore will be touring all throughout North America and have an illustrious cast of support acts in tow in Bloc Party (whom they cite as a primary influence), Foals, The Linda Lindas, and Genesis Owusu.

The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie

Not only is The Postal Service embarking on a 20th Anniversary Tour for their cult-classic album Give Up, but it’s a double bill with Death Cab For Cutie. Ben Gibbard will be pulling double duty, but he’s the quintessential rockstar on stage and can more than handle it. And as great as Death Cab’s latest album, Asphalt Meadows, is, the vibes will surely be highest as soon as Jenny Lewis joins Gibbard on vocals for Give Up’s opening track, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.”

SZA

Sad hotties rejoice, SZA is going on tour! After an unfathomable number of teasers and delays, SZA’s new album S.O.S. finally dropped last month and she’ll be supporting it on tour with Omar Apollo as the opening act. We got a preview of SZA’s S.O.S. stage setup at Outside Lands festival 2022 in San Francisco this past summer and it’s thematic to the album to say the least.

Taylor Swift

Following the release of Midnights, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour will mark her first stadium performances in five years. By now, you’ve surely heard about how Taylor damn near broke Ticketmaster when tickets went on sale and the tour has already netted over a half billion dollars in sales. This will mark the largest run of US dates for Swift, so do what you have to do to get into the stadium. And if all else fails, maybe her cat can put you on the guest list?

The Walkmen

A decade since The Walkmen went on an “extreme hiatus,” the indie rock staples announced a comeback for 2023 with a limited number of shows in only New York City at first. The tour has since expanded to add multi-night residencies in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington D.C. in addition to New York City. This could potentially mean that Hamilton Leithauser, Peter Bauer, and company might finally have a new album by The Walkmen on the horizon. The plan will surely unfold on this long-awaited slate of live performances which begins in April.

Wizkid

Weeks after dropping his latest album, More Love Less Ego, Wizkid already started teasing a new album called SaiLess. The promise of even more new music from the world-sweeping Afrobeats star will certainly drive the interest North American Tour. Beginning in March, Wizkid will be playing arena-sized venues like Houston’s Kia Center and Kia Forum in Los Angeles.

Zach Bryan

A noted critic of Ticketmaster’s purported monopoly and the exorbitant fees that they tack on concert tickets, Zach Bryan has decided to take matters into his own hands for his upcoming tour. “I’ve decided to play a limited number of headline shows next year to which I’ve done all I can to make prices as cheap as possible and to prove to people tickets don’t have to cost $450 to see a good and honest show,” the country music rising star said on Instagram. The dates have yet to be announced but Bryan has promised them “soon” and you’ve just got to admire the stance he’s taking.

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

The new Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania trailer dropped during the NCAA College Football Playoff National Championship game, and with it, came the biggest look yet at the epic film that will force Paul Rudd‘s Ant-Man to deal with Marvel’s newest big bad: Jonathan Major’s Kang the Conqueror.

In the trailer, which will officially kick off Marvel’s Phase 5, Scott Lang (Rudd) finds himself locked in a destructive deal with Kang after he and his family are sucked into the Quantum Realm. While it’s not clear what Kang is after, he presents Scott with a tempting offer: More time. Thanks to the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame the hero lost five years with his daughter, Cassie, and he’s apparently willing to do anything to get that time back. Although, by the time the trailer ends, Scott has clearly realized he may have help start something that could destroy reality as he knows it: The Kang Dynasty.

Oh, and also M.O.D.O.K. showed up.

As for what the murderous robot is doing in his live-action MCU debut is anyone’s guess. However, the film is laying the groundwork for Marvel’s next big event(s), so it’ll be interesting to see what other seeds are being planted. Maybe even a fantastic one in the form of William Jackson Harper‘s mysterious character?

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters February 17, 2023.