Month: May 2023

When you spend hours and hours talking on television every day, you are inevitably going to say things that are wrong or dumb or both. It’s just part of the job and why I usually just try to shrug off wild takes as part of the game, because I know that if I were asked to talk non-stop for three hours I would do the same.

However, Tuesday morning was an absolute tour de force from Mike Greenberg, who would not stop saying things that had the rest of the Get Up! panel looking at him like he had three heads. The one that went viral was him talking about how the weather in Miami was partially to blame for the Knicks’ struggles, citing the physical heat (as opposed to the team, the Heat) as sapping their energy and wondering if that was the cause of their lethargic play.

This is a man grasping for something to explain why the Knicks have been as bad as they have been, which I can at least understand — and he keeps citing Jalen Rose as the source of this theory, which, I have a feeling something got lost in translation there. It is very funny watching the rest of the desk watch him fire off this weather theory, but this is mostly run of the mill weird sports television takesmithing.

What took Greenberg’s Tuesday run over the top was his suggestion at the 12-minute mark of the video at the top of this post, where he offers up a suggestion so terrible that the rest of the desk facepalms and laughs at how bad it is.

“That said, I’m gonna say something and duck. I don’t think I even bring LeBron and AD with me to San Francisco to be completely honest with you.”

The groans from the rest of the desk, with Alan Hahn putting his head in his hands and Tim Legler just laughing out loud is truly incredible. Greenberg says he’s being “somewhat facetious,” to which Legler responds “hopefully mostly facetious” while Hahn laughs at how bad an idea this is. Greeny then walks it back to pulling LeBron and Anthony Davis in the second quarter if they’re down, which Legler rightfully blasts noting you can’t just give this Warriors team a win and assume you’re going to take Game 6 back in L.A.

It really takes an incredibly bad take to garner this kind of response from the rest of a morning sports talk show panel, but kudos to Greeny for absolutely letting it rip and providing us with some morning comedy on Tuesday.

Not everyone is perfect all the time (besides the one person we are all thinking of), but especially actors. If you think about it, they spend half of their time pretending to be someone else, so it’s no wonder they start acting up every once in a while. But there is a delicate balance between having a bad day at work delivering dead rats to your coworkers. It’s all about moderation here!

When people think about good and wholesome actors, Tom Hanks often comes to mind, probably because he will always be Sheriff Woody in our eyes. But Hanks is the first to admit that even he can be a bit of a menace on sets. When you’ve been doing this for so long, it’s only natural that you’re going to lose it once or twice.

Hanks has been promoting his debut novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, and recently spoke to BBC about the inspiration for his fictional Hollywood-inspired book. A central plotline in the story involved a big-budget movie being put on hold due to one of the actor’s on-set outbursts. While it seems like the opposite of something Hanks would do, he admits that it’s not too far-fetched. “I have pulled every single one of those moments of behavior myself on a set,” Hanks admitted to BBC.

Even though the book is fictional, Hanks said that he is not immune to being hard to work with, especially after long days. “Not everybody is at their best every single day on a motion picture set. I’ve had tough days trying to be a professional when my life has been falling apart in more ways than one and the requirement for me that day is to be funny, charming and loving — and it’s the last way I feel.” Hanks’ recent co-star Pinocchio could not be reached for comment.

There have only been positive stories about Hanks, aside from some one-off anecdotes. Meanwhile, his son Chet is known to attract all sorts of drama and PR mishaps. Again…it’s all about balance!

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

During a recent appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Sunny Hostin outed Whoopi Goldberg as the source of the phantom fart noises that have routinely plagued airings of The View. Despite Hostin having nothing but nice things to say about her co-host, and made it a point to note she’s always the first to pick up the check, Whoopi apparently did not enjoy Hostin blowing up her spot.

While appearing on Monday morning’s episode of Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM podcast, Hostin revealed that Whoopi wasn’t thrilled at the situation.

“She didn’t like it,” Hostin told Cohen before explaining how the whole situation was a misunderstanding.

Via Page Six:

The talk show host claimed that she and the other women recently got coasters for their mugs on set. Before that, she alleged that the mugs would make a farting-esque noise whenever they moved –which is what viewers were hearing.

“And so Whoopi, in an effort to kind of cover that up, we have coasters now, was like, ‘Sorry y’all. That was me,’ and I just took her at her word,” Hostin, 54, explained.

According to Hostin, she was confronted by Whoopi after naming her as the farter.

“It just turned into this big thing and so Whoopi said, ‘Why did you tell everybody I fart all the time?’ and I was like, ‘Because you joke about farting all the time and I’m across from the table.’” Hostin said. “I can’t smell it! Whoever smelt it dealt it, so I just had no idea.”

But don’t worry, there’s no bad blood (or gas) between the two.

“Whoopi and I are very close, so she was OK,” Hostin said, putting Fartgate to bed — for now.

(Via Page Six)

While Lizzo recently performed at the 2023 Met Gala and was continuing her 2Special North American Tour, the pop star took to social media a few days ago to announce that she had to postpone a second show after getting strep throat.

“Hello Hartford, it is me. As you know, I canceled my Montreal show ’cause I was experiencing extreme flu-like symptoms,” Lizzo said in the Instagram video. “I tested for COVID and it’s negative. However, I did test positive for strep throat. Though I’m feeling stronger, my body, my throat is still extremely raw and swollen. My lymph nodes are swollen, and the doctors say that it would not be wise to sing while my throat is like this.”

“In the past, I have pushed myself because I always want to bring you guys an incredible show. And I want to bring you guys the best of me,” she added. “And I’m realizing as I mature that this is not the best of me. I need to heal so that I can be the artist that you guys deserve and maintain my body. Still hurts to swallow, still hurts to speak, but it really hurts to cancel.”

In the video’s caption, Lizzo does note that all current tickets will be honored for the new date. Her next show is intended for tonight in Baltimore.

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

It may sound hard to believe since Becky G has been in the music business since her teens, but the Latin pop sensation is about to launch her first-ever headlining tour. The Mi Casa, Tu Casa Tour will kick off this September in Boston, with tickets to go on sale starting May 12 at 10 am local time.

In a statement, Becky said, “[The] ‘Mi Casa Tu Casa Tour’ is about inviting people into an intimate experience with me. My intention is for it to be a place where we can sing, dance, laugh, and cry, all in the comfort of our shared space. I’ve never headlined my own tour before, so I really want it to feel personal and connect with my fans in that way, because we’ll build nuestra casa [our home] in every city, together.”

Becky G made her Coachella debut earlier this year, playing a medley of Selena hits along with her own to pay homage to her influences. She is also appearing at the Baja Beach Fest alongside Wisin Y Yandel, Ozuna, Don Omar, and more Latin superstars.

Check out the dates for Becky G’s Mi Casa, Tu Casa Tour below. Get more info here.

9/14 — Boston, MA @ Roadrunner
9/16 — New York, NY @ United Palace Theatre
9/17 — Tysons, VA @ Capital One Hall
9/19 — Charlotte, NC @ Ovens Auditorium
9/21 — Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
9/22 — Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live Orlando
9/23 — Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Live Hollywood
9/27 — Sugar Land, TX @ Smart Financial Centre
9/28 — Grand Prairie, TX @ Texas Trust CU Theatre
9/29 — San Antonio, TX @ Majestic Theatre
10/1 — McAllen, TX @ McAllen Performing Arts Center
10/3 — El Paso, TX @ Abraham Chavez Theatre
10/6 — San Diego, CA @ Balboa Theatre
10/7 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo
10/8 — San Jose, CA @ San Jose Center for the Performing Arts
10/14 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona State Fair

Bird Box was, at one point, Netflix‘s most-watched original film. Five years later, it’s still number three behind only Red Notice and Don’t Look Up, and one spot ahead of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Considering there’s an entire (sigh) cinematic universe being built around other Netflix titles like The Gray Man, it’s surprising that it’s taken this long for a Bird Box sequel to come out.

Even more surprising: it doesn’t star Sandra Bullock.

Bird Box Barcelona leaves behind Bullock’s mother of two and heads to Barcelona. “After a mysterious force decimates the world’s population by causing all who see it to take their lives, Sebastian and his young daughter Anna must navigate their own journey of survival through the desolate streets of Barcelona. But as they form an uneasy alliance with other survivors and make their way toward a safe haven, a threat more sinister than the unseen creatures grows,” the Netflix synopsis reads. There will still be blindfolds, as you can see in the announcement teaser above.

Bird Box Barcelona, which was written and directed by Alex and David Pastor and stars Mario Casas, Georgina Campbell, Diego Calva, Alejandra Howard, Naila Schuberth, Patrick Criado, Celia Freijeiro, Lola Dueñas, Gonzalo de Castro, Michelle Jenner, and Leonardo Sbaraglia, comes to Netflix on July 14th. Hopefully it doesn’t inspire any more dumb viral challenges.

May 9 is annually known as “Victory Day” in Russia to mark the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany. For the past two such holidays, the mood has obviously been different. Putin’s ongoing Ukraine war isn’t going the way he had hoped, and given that Russian troops have been abandoning tanks in Ukrainian cities, this has only added to the lack of available tanks to hold parades. As well, the leader (Yevgeny Prigozhin) of Putin’s privately-hired army, the Wagner Group, has been trashing Putin over an alleged refusal to supply ammo.

This actually might not be the worst omission, given that Russian troops are said to be resorting to aged ammo that carries the risk of “explod[ing] in your face.” Yet the ammo issue, along with Russia’s poor performance in the Putin-coveted city of Bakhmut, is giving Yevgeny Prigozhin more fodder to drag the Russian president. Before word of this latest verbal attack surfaced, however, CNN reported that Putin’s victory day speech was a self-pitying affair, in which he complained about “Russia being sinned against,” and only one lonely tank — an antiquated one — was there to make the former “superman” look manly:

There was only one tank: a T-34, a model made 89 years ago, before Putin was even born, raising the question of why they decided to include any tanks at all.

The level of hardware on display seemed thin: understandable perhaps for a military being mauled on a wide and relentless frontline. But again, it raises the enduring bind for the Kremlin.

They keep having to prove their strength, their might, yet have little actual might left to do it with. The exercise ends up being one of revealing weakness.

Back to the subject of the Wagner Group: mercenary leader Prigozhin slammed Putin as a “complete a**hole” and “happy grandpa,” via The Daily Beast, which details a 30-minute verbal lashing that included Prigozhin declaring Russian military leaders (rather than Ukraine) to be the “main enemy” of his soldiers. He continued to poke fun at Russian troops for their tendency to “run” away on the Ukrainian battlefield, and he declared that now was not the time for Putin to be marking any type of Victory Day. Oh boy.

(Via CNN & The Daily Beast)

The Cure’s frontman Robert Smith’s disdain for scalpers and Ticketmaster goes hand in hand. In fact, prior to announcing The Cure’s forthcoming North American tour, the band formulated a plan to combat scalpers for ruining true fans’ ability to snag a ticket. So, after hearing about a scalper-friendly bill (HB 341) that was recently passed by Louisiana lawmakers, Smith took to Twitter to speak out against it.

Initially introduced on March 29, HB 341 went on to pass in the house on April 19. In short, the bill’s abstract reads: “Provides for the resale of certain entertainment and sporting event tickets.” However, upon further inspection, the legislation could have a huge impact on event ticketing as a whole.

There’s one part in particular that raises concern for Smith. “Additionally, proposed law defines ‘nontransferable ticketing’ as prohibiting the resell or exchange of a ticket or limiting the ticket holder to exchange the ticket exclusively through means provided by the ticket issuer,” reads the bill. But it doesn’t stop there, the bill continues, “Proposed law provides that a ticket issuer may use a nontransferable ticketing system only if the ticket holder is offered to purchase the same ticket in a transferable form at the initial time of sale.”

On social media, Smith warned just how damaging this bill, should it be placed into law. “The Louisiana legislature (HB #341) is considering a resellers-backed bill to ban fan-to-fan exchanges (like the one we are using on our 2023 north american tour to try and limit/stop scalping and bots),” he tweeted. “The bill has already passed the house and is up for consideration in the state senate. There is a hearing this Wednesday morning… Louisiana lawmakers! Please don’t pass this bill! Empower the artists, not the scalpers and the bots!”

Smith closed by adding, “Commercial lobbying corrupts democracy.”

According to FastDemocracy.com, the bill will be heard for consideration by the Louisiana Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and International Affairs tomorrow, May 10, at 9 a.m.

Kevin Gates has posted some pretty dubious content on social media. While he often draws attention for interviews in which he makes outlandish claims such as saying he fasted for a month and asserting he never gets sick because he always tells the truth, his actual posts often stir up fans on the internet as well. While his intentions mostly seem to be good, it appears he doesn’t always appear to consider how such posts will be received.

That appears to be the case with his latest incident, in which he shared a childbirth video on Instagram — and unsuspecting fans found themselves exposed to some pretty graphic content they weren’t prepared for. “DO NOT LOOK AT KEVIN GATES INSTAGRAM STORY,” one fan warned. “TRUST ME.”

When he isn’t springing graphic videos on his unsuspecting fans, Gates continues to release new music at an impressive clip. Although he’s a little less than a year removed from his last full-length release, Khaza, he followed up in November with an EP, FYP, that featured Juicy J. Meanwhile, he was dropping new singles as recently as February, when he shared the video for “Breakfast.”

Kevin Gates is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Indie rock fans typically hold two contradictory beliefs about the music industry — it’s filled with clueless idiots who are somehow also evil masterminds, sublimating success from subterfuge alone. Consider the curious case of Panchiko, which allowed for the possibility of both to be true — a CD-R of their supposed 4-song demo D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L was supposedly uploaded to YouTube by a supposed 4Chan user in 2016, who supposedly found it in a Nottingham thrift store after being drawn in by the typeface and manga image on its cover. Supposedly, it was from the year 2000 and its alluringly degraded audio was supposedly the result of something called “disc rot,” a term that almost no one had heard of before, even when chillwave made audio degradation de rigueur. And supposedly, it contained no contact information besides the first names of the people who made it, and no one else claimed to have another copy.

As D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L began to circulate online and achieve an almost legendary status in spite of — and more likely, because of — its mystery, some questioned whether they were actually a major label’s astroturfed attempt at virality, or even the work of a CIA operative. As with most supposed hoaxes being debated on Discord, Reddit, and 4Chan during the 2010s, many assumed that Death Grips were involved in some way.

When the band turned out to be a couple of genial, middle-aged blokes who’d more or less quit music entirely after their demos fell on deaf ears, the actual members of Panchiko — frontman Owain, guitarist/producer Andy and “charisma/bass-ish guy” Shaun, still no last names — couldn’t help but be let down as well. “I was as disappointed as the rest of the Panchiko fans when I found out I wasn’t a member of Death Grips,” Andy quips.

In the pockets of music fandom that considers themselves “deeply online” — Rate Your Music, The Needle Drop, Album Of The Year, Reddit, and such — Panchiko’s new album Failed At Math(s) is one of 2023’s most anticipated releases. For those on the outside, Panchiko likely still remain as much of an obscurity as they were in 2000. This isn’t a situation like American Football or Duster, where a modestly successful indie artist returns after a long hiatus to a level of acclaim and influence exponentially bigger than anything they experienced in their heyday; they at least were signed to respected indie labels back in the late ’90s and its primary members continued to make widely available music in the time since.

Meanwhile, the startling dissonance between Panchiko’s public presence and sudden popularity usually leads to accusations of being an industry plant with secretly rich parents. During their original run, Panchiko’s live audience often consisted of the bar staff, other bands on the bill, and almost nobody who wasn’t being paid to be there. When they started playing real gigs at the end of 2021, they immediately did so in 400-1000 capacity rooms in the UK and the US. Spotify statistics are an imperfect metric for assessing real-life impact and almost certainly a pox on artistic discourse, but it’s a metric all the same and Panchiko currently have about 680,000 monthly listeners. For perspective, that’s somehow about 100,000 more than, say, Joyce Manor or Wednesday.

So is Panchiko a testament to meritocracy, that great music can overcome any number of obstacles to reach the audience it deserves? Or are they proof of just how much is left to chance? Just look at the first paragraph again and imagine if Panchiko had a landscape photo on its cover or if they were from Norfolk instead of Nottingham, or if a random Goodwill hunter found their demo as opposed to a true poster with a 4Chan account and a CD burner. When considering all of the bands who’ve plugged away for years without getting anywhere near as much traction, Panchiko understandably harbor a kind of survivor’s guilt. “It feels like we accidentally cheated, it is a bit weird to go from zero to 1000 in 20-odd years,” Andy explains. “There’s a bit of imposter syndrome, but it’s not even a syndrome.”

This is where Failed At Math(s) comes in, an attempt to affirm Panchiko as a legitimized, ongoing artistic endeavor rather than an internet curiosity. Though the beneficiary of nearly two decades of improved recording technology and a swell of popular demand, Failed at Math(s) makes for a logical extension of D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L — toggling between twitchy electronic pop, soaring Britrock and block-rockin’ beats, with a newfound dedication pacing and sequencing.

“I think I got into a Radiohead rut for 20 years,” Andy muses, and like many university-aged musicians in the late ’90s, Panchiko were — and still are — heavily influenced by the bionic rock of OK Computer and also recombinant UK tricksters like Super Furry Animals and Beta Band. Yet, while much of the sampledelic crate-digging of that time comes off as naive and dated in an era where genre-hopping indie artists skew more towards pop and hip-hop, Panchiko’s guileless approach unwittingly prepared them to sound ahead of the curve. The patchwork production of D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L may have been far too raw for Y2k, yet it’s perfectly in line with the early work of Alex G and Car Seat Headrest, both of whom Owain credits with rejuvenating his interest in contemporary indie rock. Similarly, though he’s self-deprecating about his previous lyrical approach — “back then it was about relationships or nobody likes you, or some people like you, that person is being a knob head” — the wandering melodies and twinkling guitars allowed Panchiko to be grandfathered as honorary Midwest emo.

Owain feels the perspective has matured on Failed At Math(s) — “Why am I here? How did I get here? I’m a bit tired…but maybe I should hope a bit more.” Still, most of Panchiko’s fanbase skews nearly half their age — kids who notice that Jenna Ortega followed them on Instagram, artists that listened to D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L in their teens. Their recent tours have been supported by 2020s cult favorites like Horse Jumper Of Love, Julie, They Are Gutting A Body Of Water, and Computer Wife, all of whom have a significant following in their own right. “They can do bigger shows than the ones they’re doing with us, but they wanted to play with us,” Owain boasts. “The drummer Dylan from Julie said, ‘I listened to this song in high school’ and I was blown away.”

Despite their success, Panchiko remain an odd proposition in the industry. They’re a band that amassed a substantial fanbase without any sort of promotion, touring, or label backing, yet they’re still a couple of Brits in their 40s who don’t seem bent on constructing a revenge fantasy to rectify their earlier failures. “I was personally quite naive at that age,” Owain explains. “Back then, if you read about the music industry, there might be a few magazines that teach you about how A&Rs and demos work. Maybe I had this belief that someone is gonna sign you and look after you, and they’re gonna go, well done!” The others agree that Panchiko were equally fueled by confidence in their art and insecurity about their ability to make something of it. “We just needed someone to give a shit,” Shaun bluntly states, and though the 30 CD-Rs they sent out were largely ignored, the band do recall getting a nibble of interest from Fierce Panda, a London-based indie that launched mid-’90s it-bands like Ash and the Bluetones and also released Coldplay’s first charting single in the UK. “They were interested but we didn’t follow up going to London, like…oh do you have to do that?” Owain laughs. “London’s 100 miles away,” Andy deadpans.

After their first US tour, Owain recalls that Panchiko were approached by a handful of indie labels, some of which were more accurately described as “offshoots of majors.” But even if only to provide a seal of approval to Failed At Math(s), the band looked at the offers and asked, “Do we even really need you?” (“Is that a bad thing to say, published?,” Owain shrugs). Yet their decision to self-release was more practical than ethical. Failed At Math(s) came together quickly – eight songs, some of which are refurbished from their Ferric Oxide: Demos 1997-2001 compilation, clocking in at less than a half hour. “It gets really messy with people having all these opinions and we only had a certain amount of time because we had to do shows,” Andy says. “So if we go down the more trad label route, it would be months and months of painful negotiation.”

Besides, Panchiko’s entire continued existence is due to the band tending to their own administrative tasks. After the online lurker-sleuths narrowed down their search to people named Owain in Nottingham, one sent a message to a defunct Facebook page that hadn’t been updated in nine years – “Hello, you’ll probably never read this, but are you the lead singer of Panchiko?’” Had Owain lived in any other city or turned off his Facebook notifications, we might still be wondering if MC Ride was somehow responsible for “Kicking Cars.” “From day one, we tried to respond to anyone who messaged us, we’re not a massive band and it’s just amazing how much you like our music. I’ve got time to talk,” Owain says. Then again, success has changed the tenor of these conversations – “we get loads of people saying, ‘Can you give Jenna Ortega a message for me?’”