Month: June 2023

The Atlanta Hawks finally traded John Collins after years of rumors around the high-flying forward, but didn’t get much in return for him. Utah absorbed most of Collins’ deal into cap space, sending only Rudy Gay and a future second round pick back for him.

It was a salary dump for the Hawks, putting them back under the luxury tax line as they get set for the offseason to begin in earnest, but they are still expected to be very active making more trades. They struck out on moving up to the 10th pick in last week’s Draft, and there have been rumors tying them to the pursuit of Pascal Siakam (thus far with no real traction). That hasn’t dissuaded them from continuing to shop around, with Adrian Wojnarowski and Jake Fischer bringing updates on Tuesday that the Hawks have basically made all of their veterans available outside of Trae Young — while looking to do another round of contract extensions for Dejounte Murray and Onyeka Okongwu.

That means De’Andre Hunter, Clint Capela, and Bogdan Bogdanovic are all on the table, with all three in the midst of longterm deals. Hunter, in particular, has found his way into a number of rumors, with Fischer reporting the Hawks had discussions with Indiana and Detroit prior to the Draft and could rekindle those talks as they look to move off of Hunter’s 4-year, $90 million extension.

The Hawks have also been active in conversations about trade opportunities for De’Andre Hunter … We’ll see if any of Atlanta’s other loose threads of trade talks, like the Hawks’ draft week negotiations with the Pistons and Pacers regarding Hunter, can regain momentum.

As for what the Hawks could get back for Hunter, it’s hard to quite figure out what his value is on a $90 million deal that’s just kicking in this year. Atlanta was hoping to see Hunter take a leap at some point, but he has more or less remained the same player he’s been since entering the league. The Hawks won’t want a Hunter deal to look like another salary dump, but it’s pretty clear there are financial pressures at play in shopping him as actively as they have been.

The mandate, per Woj, is for the Hawks to make roster improvements, but there’s not exactly a clear path to doing so with a lack of draft assets to move after sending so many to San Antonio a year ago for Murray. Still, expect the Hawks to keep making deals to try and shuffle the deck around Young, and hope that Quin Snyder can bring out a different level in the team they assemble for him this summer.

The Armed is returning with a brand new album announcement for their next record, Perfect Saviors. Welcoming fans into the new era, the band also shared the lead single, “Sport Of Form,” which is a collab with Julien Baker.

The track details the competitive human nature, with a rollercoaster of an instrumental. In the music video, Iggy Pop also makes an appearance.

“Too much information has made us dumb and confused,” vocalist Tony Wolski shared about the album in a statement. “Too many ways to connect have inadvertently led to isolation. And too much expectation has forced everyone to become a celebrity. Predictable primal dangers have given way to newer social ones. And the result is a world that is confounding and terrifying—but ultimately still beautiful. We hope this record is exactly all of that, too.”

Starting in August, The Armed will join Queens Of The Stone Age on their The End Is Nero Tour. Then, in October, they will head out on a headlining tour of their own — with the dates for this listed below. Find additional information here.

Check out The Armed’s “Sport Of Form” (feat. Julien Baker) above. Continue scrolling for the Perfect Saviors cover art and tracklist.

1. “Sport Of Measure”
2. “FKA World”
3. “Clone”
4. “Modern Vanity”
5. “Everything’s Glitter”
6. “Burned Mind”
7. “Sport Of Form”
8. “Vatican Under Construction”
9. “Liar 2”
10. “In Heaven”
11. “Public Grieving”

10/19 — Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey
10/21 — San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
10/23 — Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
10/24 — Seattle, WA @ Neumos
11/16 — Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
11/18 — Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Sound Stage
12/15 — Detroit, MI @ St. Andrew’s Hall
12/16 — Chicago, IL @ Metro

Perfect Saviors is out 8/25 via Sargent House. Find more information here.

Sean Hannity is a die-hard MAGA devotee, no doubt about it. He’s been known to wildly divert from damning Trump stories to the point where it’s beyond parody, including that time that he cut to a high-speed car chase after Fox News confirmed that then-President Trump attempted to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump is now tangling with another special counsel, Jack Smith, over those boxes of classified documents (which he allegedly mishandled for who knows what purposes) kept in the bathroom at Mar-a-Lago. On Tuesday, possible smoking-gun audio footage emerged of Trump bragging about these documents and rambling about how he can no longer declassify them: “See, as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

The ex-president in full-on braggadocio mode (which he always is, whether he’s telling the truth or not) as well while audibly shuffling papers. So, Hannity is now attempting to convince the world that maybe Trump was simply being a blowhard and making sh*t up, so maybe that will get his pal off the hook?

“That does not confirm for me whether or not specifically this document was declassified or not,” Hannity argued to his guests, including former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “Was that actually the real document, or was it a story he was telling?”

That is one high-flying, cheese-stuffed pretzel act. I’m not sure that Hannity truly believes that Fox News viewers will believe this tactic, but he sure is trying hard. And he didn’t even resort to a high-speed chase to distract everyone. That’s not progress, mind you, but it’s notable all the same.

Rappers are always competing musically, borrowing each others’ flows and competing to see who’s the best lyricist, but Lil Uzi Vert appears dead set on starting a new type of rivalry with ASAP Rocky. While on the red carpet for the 2023 BET Awards this Sunday, Uzi named a few of their inspirations for Billboard, but couldn’t resist getting in a dig at Rocky, their style inspiration.

“Mike Jones really helped me be not repetitive in a bad way,” Uzi reflected. “Kendrick [Lamar] helped me with my flow, [and] ASAP Rocky helped me with my clothes. I’m flyer than ASAP Rocky nowadays. He can’t touch me nowadays… he know I got them pieces in the corner, but shoutout to Flacko, though.”

Uzi’s style has been one of the 27-year-old rapper’s hallmarks throughout their career, drawing attention and criticism from fans for challenging gender norms and steering clear of fashion conventions and trends for a unique look. In 2019, Uzi admitted to shopping for clothes in the women’s section due to their slight stature, and Uzi’s distinctive hairstyles and facial piercings have drawn inspiration from anime and gone to eye-popping extremes. Rocky has also been considered a style icon, popularizing brands like Hood By Air and Raf Simons while remaining a fixture at the Met Gala alongside his boo Rihanna.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

After a multi-day rescue mission, it was confirmed that the Titanic-exploring submersible carrying five passengers suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” killing everyone on board, including a teenager who did not want to be there. You probably don’t need to see what happens when a human (or in this case, a human made out of nasty pig parts) in the deep sea implodes, but just in case, a newly-viral clip from a 2009 episode of MythBusters has you covered.

“In the show’s science experiment, a human-shaped mannequin was recreated from pig parts including bones, muscle, fat, skin and guts,” the New York Post explains. “It was then sunk about 300 feet underwater — where pressure is roughly nine times greater than at sea level — and its diving suit was depressurized.”

What follows is… not pretty, but “the reenactment has very little in common with the last moments of the doomed Titan sub passengers, who authorities have said were instantaneously killed at much greater depths and under much higher pressure.” It’s thought that the sub imploded in 40 milliseconds, so everyone on board “probably would have had no idea what happened,” associate professor Eric Fusil, director of the Shipbuilding Hub at the University of Adelaide in Australia, told ABC News. So, that’s comforting (?).

You can watch the (potentially disturbing) Mythbusters clip below.

(Via the New York Post)

Following years of building up anticipation, Travis Scott’s forthcoming album, Utopia, finally received an official release date. Thanks to a few high-flying advertisements displayed throughout Los Angeles, California, we now know to expect either the project or a single from the project to hit streaming platforms on July 21. Incidentally, that’s the day before his Rolling Loud Miami performance.

Both billboards point out the same string of numbers. The first display, which features stone figures, takes the shape of an analog clock point at the seven o’clock hour and just after the 20-minute mark, with the line, “Is it in the Chateau?”

The second graphic is much more straightforward, as a lock shows the numeric sequence, each number is locked in, but the space indicating the month is stuck between 7 and 8. So, fans believe it’s the rapper’s way of saying something big will happen in July and August. To theorize briefly, the album could drop in July, with a tour announcement dropping the following month — or a single release in July with the entire project to follow.

During an interview with PinUp Magazine, the entertainer spoke about the meaning behind the project’s title. “Utopia is something that people feel is so far-fetched and out of reach, some perfect state of mind. But you create it yourself. There are people who achieve utopia every day. They may not be the richest people with the dopest cribs, but it’s a utopia wherever they are, and that’s the most you can have,” said Scott.

He added, “With every album, I live in these worlds in my mind — I’m trying to show people experiences where utopian things can exist, and you can enjoy yourself and have a good time. They can create energy that spews out magical things — new cures, new buildings, new avenues for people to move forward. People need to see that utopia is real.”

After the NBA Draft came and went without a Deandre Ayton trade materializing, word came this weekend that the Suns were planning on keeping Ayton, with the party line being that they valued him greatly and were excited to see what he could do paired with their trio of stars.

That, to many, felt like both damage control with Ayton in case he did have to return and an effort to seem less desperate to move him to the rest of the league. Ayton’s value is not particularly high around the league given his max contract and questions about his desire to fit into the role that’s likely best suited for his skillset and position — which is a rim protector on defense and pick-and-roll finisher primarily on offense. Ayton seems to want a larger role and has had a propensity to get frustrated and allow his energy and effort on the defensive end wane when he isn’t getting the touches he feels he should get on offense. Those touches only figure to decrease with another high usage guard in the fold in Bradley Beal, so it’s fair to wonder if Ayton, despite being theoretically a perfectly good fit with Beal, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant, is the right center to put them with.

On Tuesday, we got our first concrete reporting on what Ayton trade talks transpired at and after the Draft, with Marc Stein bringing word that Phoenix and Dallas were in talks that advanced far enough to have a proposed swap in place, but with the Suns backing out at Dallas insisting on having JaVale McGee going back to Phoenix.

The Phoenix Suns engaged in advanced discussions to trade former No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton to the Dallas Mavericks last week during the NBA Draft before the talks stalled, league sources say. The proposed deal, sources tell The Stein Line, would have sent Ayton to Dallas for Tim Hardaway Jr., Richaun Holmes and JaVale McGee — but the Suns balked at McGee’s inclusion.

McGee’s last solid season came in Phoenix, but that was playing with Chris Paul who has made just about every center that walked through Phoenix’s doors look good in pick-and-roll. In Dallas, he looked old and struggled to get on the floor for a team that had serious frontcourt depth issues, indicating that he might simply be cooked. Still, for a team that’s having to dig deep to fill out its roster, its a bit surprising the inclusion of an expiring was enough to make them walk away, but Stein also notes it’s possible for these talks to resume. The Suns also wouldn’t get any draft capital out of the deal, but would get two rotation players to fill out depth that right now they simply don’t have.

For Dallas, they’d be banking on Ayton being the pick-and-roll partner that Luka Doncic hasn’t had yet in his career as a lob threat as a roller — with Kyrie Irving likewise benefitting from that kind of big man. The question, of course, is whether playing with Doncic and Irving would keep Ayton engaged enough to be the player they need him to be, but — again, in theory — he is the kind of big Dallas wants. For now, this is all just a “what could’ve been” scenario, but we’ll see exactly how dug in the Suns are on keeping Ayton and whether Dallas is willing to alter this deal’s structure to try and get it across the finish line at a later date.

As June comes to a close, the pop artists this week still managed to bring the heat. Between fiery tracks, dance anthems, and even some emotional stories, there’s always a range of releases to fit everyone’s mood. Over the weekend, some of the musicians on this list also delivered with their Glastonbury sets.

Continue scrolling for Uproxx’s Best New Pop from this week.

Maisie Peters — “BSC”

An abbreviation for “bat sh*t crazy,” Maisie Peters proves she isn’t afraid to throw jabs on “BSC,” a standout from her newly-released sophomore album, The Good Witch. Despite the title, here she embraces the darkness, warning someone who broke her that “I can write you out the way I wrote you in.”

The Weeknd, Jennie, Lily-Rose Depp — “One Of The Girls”

As the season finale of The Idol is approaching, the past episode saw a collaboration between The Weeknd (who plays Tedros, a cult leader) and Blackpink’s Jennie (Dyanne, a backup dancer who is becoming a pop star). “One Of The Girls” blends The Weeknd’s darker production and lyricism with Jennie’s lighter, dreamier vocals.

Kim Petras –“Claws”

Petras dropped her major label debut album, Feed The Beast, over the weekend. “One day I was in the studio, and it just all came out within 40 minutes and was this magical experience, where it really felt full circle,” she told Popsugar about “Claws,” a track about struggling to leave a toxic situation.

Carly Rae Jepsen — “Shy Boy”

Carly Rae Jepsen is seemingly kickstarting a new era with her single, “Shy Boy,” a party jam that was a perfect fit for her Glastonbury appearance over the weekend. The release follows her album, The Loneliest Time, which dropped last fall, and her theme song contribution to Hello Kitty: Super Style — that she chatted to Uproxx about here.

Quinnie — “Ribbons”

“‘Ribbons’ is about being exhausted with the time and effort it takes to present feminine, and a desire to just be,” Quinnie shared about the song. “I was inspired by Joni Mitchell’s song ‘Carey’ and the lyric ‘got me used to those clean white linens and my fancy French cologne,’ considering these motifs as markers of girlhood and feminine cleanliness.”

The Band CAMINO — “See You Later”

On The Band CAMINO’s new song “See You Later,” it tells the story about dreaming about someone who’s breaking all the hearts at a party — knowing that despite that, they’re still your person once it’s over.

Tyler Cole — “Bad Joke”

The second half of Tyler Cole’s recent two-song drop, “Bad Joke” finds him taking the role of the bad guy in a breakup. “I’m a bad joke, I’m a king in denial, I’m an angel / I’m a dream, I’m a devil with a halo / Bet I took the words right outta your mouth,” he repeats throughout the rockier instrumental.

Hayley Kiyoko – “Somewhere Between The Sand And The Stardust”

Kiyoko’s emotional new song was inspired by losing a friend who struggled with mental health — and she aims to use it as a “tribute to loving the people who choose to stay and embracing and finding peace with the memory of those who don’t.”

Rauw Alejandro, Bizarrap — “Baby Hello”

Another collaboration between Rauw Alejandro and producer Bizarrap, “Baby Hello” gives fans the first glimpse of his upcoming album, Playa Saturno. With a music video set on the moon and a banging electronic beat that picks up on the chorus, they definitely turned space into a party.

Nessa Barrett — “Lie”

Nessa Barrett dished in a statement that her latest song “Lie” is “about accepting that sometimes even though you want something, it’s not always meant to be. I hope people who listen to this feel an emotion that is hard for us to accept but need to in order to live a fulfilling life.”

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

Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.

Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week we got new music from Militarie Gun, Charly Bliss, Slowdive, Faye Webster, and more.

While we’re at it, sign up for our newsletter to get the best new indie music delivered directly to your inbox, every Monday.

Faye Webster — “But Not Kiss”

“I think it could be a really romantic song or a really anti-romantic song,” Faye Webster said of “But Not Kiss,” her first new material since 2021’s charming I Know I’m Funny Haha. This ballad captures her knack for unconventional love songs as she sings candidly of a complicated relationship: “I want to see you in my dreams but then forget / We’re meant to be but not yet.”

Palehound — “Independence Day”

Palehound opens their new single “Independence Day” with a memorable scene: “We broke up on Independence Day / Crying while the next door neighbors raged,” El Kemper sings, not sounding regretful or sad anymore, as if enough time has passed that now it can be looked at with lightheartedness. Kemper’s wisdom is speckled all over this song, especially in the inspiring hook: “Living life like writing a first draft / ‘Cause there is nothing to it if I can’t edit the past and / Even if I could it would kill me to look back.”

Slowdive — “Kisses”

Shoegaze legends Slowdive are back. They’re sharing their new album Everything Is Alive later this year, and it’s their first since their 2017 self-titled album, which famously contained the singular hit “Sugar For The Pill.” Their lead single “Kisses” has the same dreamy texture of that song, floating with a sense of peace and a catchy melody.

Charly Bliss — “You Don’t Even Know Me Anymore”

“You Don’t Even Know Me Anymore” is Charly Bliss’s first single in first years. The effervescent, sardonic track is unbothered, wanting only to move on from something that’s old news: “Here’s your leather jacket, thought it’d save me but now / I gave myself a makeover and I’m blissing out,” Eva Hendricks drawls.

Militarie Gun — Life Under The Gun

If you needed some invigorating, bombastic post-hardcore to spice up your life, thank Militarie Gun. Life Under The Gun rages with rippers like “Do It Faster” and “Seizure Of Assets” as well as more vulnerable, quiet moments like “See You Around” and “My Friends Are Having A Hard Time.”

Who Is She? — “MoviePass”

No one’s quite doing it like the Seattle supergroup Who Is She? “MoviePass” is the latest dose of their indie-rock humor, and it’s a nostalgic track: “I first got MoviePass in 2017 / It was a little red card that let you see unlimited movies for $9.95 a month,” they sing, later lamenting how it’s a “tragedy” that it didn’t last because of its “unsustainable business model.”

Koyo — “Anthem”

Long Island hardcore (abbreviated as LIHC) is alive and well thanks to Koyo. “We grow old and die off / But the best has yet to come,” Joey Chiaramonte shouts against tumultuous instrumentation and an addictive bassline. The band is an unstoppable force, and this mosh-worthy anthem is further proof.

Islands — “Life’s A Joke”

Islands have always had a specific kind of magic to their brand of indie rock, and it looks like that’ll continue on their forthcoming album And That’s Why Dolphins Lost Their Legs. Humor and sadness go hand in hand, not only in that title but also on the moving single “Life’s A Joke,” which finds levity in pain.

Snõõper — “Powerball”

Snõõper is like a musical sugar rush. Their songs are hard to keep up with, and they seem to only intensify as time passes. Their new album Super Snõõper comes in July, and “Powerball” is a predictably energetic cut that’s over before the listener can even catch their breath, but they’re still left amazed.

The Smile — “Bending Hectic”

Last year, The Smile — consisting of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, as well as the drummer Tom Skinner — shared the album A Light for Attracting Attention. They’re back with the transcendent, off-kilter song “Bending Hectic,” which encapsulates their moody texture, which sprawls out over the course of eight trance-like minutes.

During the BET Awards over the weekend, Lil Uzi Vert and his girlfriend, JT of City Girls, got into a fight. However, although it had originally been speculated that their argument started over Ice Spice, TMZ and members of JT’s team are denying that she played a role.

Fans and viewers had first believed it, given Uzi rapped “I got a nice wife, wig came off twice / She got a little afro, she looks like Ice Spice” during his performance at the awards show.

One Twitter user also made a thread about JT and Uzi at the show, claiming she got mad after he was talking to Ice. “I overheard him cussing at her too so they both be just saying outlandish sh*t it seems like but after about 20 min. She just starts ignoring his pleading and gets up and acts like she paying attention to the performances… he tried to touch her and she almost clocked him!” they wrote.

JT had also thrown her phone at him during the event, as other attendees shot videos of the tension.

In reality, there is reportedly no drama between JT and Ice — or even JT and Lil Uzi Vert. She simply had gotten upset over losing her seat during the audience moving around, according to her team, and the couple left together as normal.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.