Month: June 2023

While many people during the pandemic were searching for a partner on dating apps and experimenting with Zoom dates, Amber Bain — aka The Japanese House — found herself in a throuple. But in a time where the world felt like it was dissolving around her, Bain’s relationships were doing the same. Putting pen to paper and hand to synth, Bain penned her much-anticipated sophomore album In The End It Always Does, a follow-up to 2020’s 4-track EP Chewing Cotton Wood.

In The End It Always Does weaves snapshots of romantic turmoil with ruminations on trauma, identity, love, and loss. With enveloping production, Bain crafts a poignant dreamscape with her music and dances around her keyboard with expertise on songs like “Boyhood” and “Sad To Breathe.” The album also includes some excellent features, like MUNA’s Katie Gavin, who co-wrote “Morning Pages” and “One For Sorrow, Two For Joni Jones,” and Matty Healy, who provides backing vocals on “Sunshine Baby.”

To celebrate the release of In The End It Always Does, Bain sat down with Uproxx to talk Talking Heads, making a Sunday Roast, and sleeping at a motel where patrons were carrying guns (yes, really), in our latest Q&A.

What are the four words you would use to describe your music?

Gay, sad, hopeful and inward.

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

I think the ideal way of being remembered would be like how people think of Talking Heads now… kind of poppy, but kind of cool. Like a gay Talking Heads.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

San Francisco. The fans there are always batsh*t crazy and it’s a really fun show.

Who’s the person who has inspired your work the most and why?

George Daniel because I’ve been working on this project with him since the beginning. And it doesn’t sound like The Japanese House without him. I think that he’s such an integral part of the whole thing… he’s basically a band member at this point.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Do you know what? I’m really good at making a Sunday roast, and I love making a really good Sunday roast with the best people. Oftentimes, in my house, we’ll have a house roast and I think those are the best meals of my life because it’s just the coziest feeling ever, and it’s the tastiest thing. It’s my favorite thing to eat, and also the feeling surrounding it is so good. It kind of just feels like Christmas every time.

What album Do you know every word to?

Avril Lavigne’s Let Go.

What was the best concert you ever attended?

That is so difficult… my top three would probably be Fleetwood Mac, Rosalía and probably my first ever gig that I went to, which was Blondie with my mom.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

This is hard because when I feel like I can just wear a hoodie and jeans, I feel like I perform the best because I’m just so comfortable, and I can focus more on performing. When I feel a bit more styled, I feel less at home so I’ve really loved gigs where I’ve been like, “oh my god, I can’t decide what to wear.” So then I just kind of throw on a hoodie and jeans and I’m like, “cool, whatever.”

Okay, who is your favorite person to follow on Twitter and or Instagram?

I’m not really a big Twitter user, but I’ve gotten back into it because my girlfriend posts really funny tweets. So, she’s my favorite on Twitter. I’m going to expose her — it’s @breadlosing. And my favorite Instagram is probably Naomi from MUNA (@flurtcobain). Their stories are my favorite. They have such a good collection of memes.

What’s your most frequently played song in the bus on tour?

It would probably be “Know My Ting” by Ghetts or “Chalice” by Donae’o. We listen to a lot of UK Grime on the bus. Or… “Toxic” by Britney Spears.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

I googled something really weird actually. I was in the park, and there was this little bird that was going absolutely crazy. And I couldn’t figure out what kind of bird it was, and I figured out what bird it was then I just googled “Mistle Thrush acting weird.”

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Beach House’s Teen Dream.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

I don’t actually remember where it was, but it was this weird little motel and there was blood on the floor. The guests were carrying guns. There was this dog off the lead that looked like he was gonna murder us. But my FAVORITE place we’ve stayed on tour was this Airbnb in Oakland. This absolutely magical woman lives in the apartment downstairs, but she owned the whole building. And she was just a dream. I just loved her so much. And she would come upstairs every day with fresh orange juice from the garden, and I was like… “wow, this is bliss.” But overall, just being in a tour bus is really f*cking weird. You’re just kind of traveling in a coffin.

But what’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

I have one tattoo, and I got it really recently. It’s my only tattoo and it’s just the letter A because my girlfriend and I, in like the first few months of dating, decided to get them. We’re both A names — she’s called Alyssa and I’m called Amber and so we both got little A’s that she drew. We were hanging around in LA and were like “let’s just get a tattoo right now on the motorcycle.” It’s just a cute little love tattoo, and I love having it.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

Really anything dancey — I actually just really love pop, and any kind of country music. But I would say… Beyonce, Caroline Polachek, and Charli XCX.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

My dad made me a bed, but it gets better… he basically made this bed when he was in his woodworking era. And he was putting the headboard on, and he was like “this is the best bit.” And he took these weird little metal ball bearings that are magnetic, and at the top of the bed there was a hole so he put the ball in and he made like these tubular bells out of a clothes rail and as the ball rolled down this little track, it hit these bells and it played the first lullaby that he wrote for me when I was a baby. I still have it, it was very sweet.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give your 18-year-old self?

Don’t smoke. You’ll become addicted.

What’s the last show you went to?

Chappell Roan at The Garage in London.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

Eat Pray Love — anything with Julia Roberts in it I really worship.

Do you have any hidden talents?

I’m amazing at knowing not just dog breeds, but like exactly what a dog is mixed with. Like, if it’s a Whippet/Collie or a Great Dane/Staffordshire or something, I can always just know the mix. I don’t really know if that’s a hidden talent… also, I can do the worm really well.

In The End It Always Does is out now via Dirty Hit. Find more information here.

ESPN announced 20 on-air personalities would be let go on Friday as part of the company’s latest round of layoffs, with Andrew Marchand reporting the purpose of this round was to cut some of the highest-paid on-air talent to avoid any further cuts to behind the scenes employees.

As the day wore on, names began to trickle in, mostly via Marchand, first with a pair of longtime NBA on ESPN mainstays in Jeff Van Gundy and Jalen Rose, with ESPN heading into the 2023-24 season needing to revamp its lead broadcast booth and NBA Countdown desk lineup. Max Kellerman and Keyshawn Johnson, whose ESPN Radio morning show with Jay Williams had been cut recently, were also named as cuts. Kellerman’s This Just In program that he was given after being taken of First Take was being replaced with The Pat McAfee Show in the fall, while Johnson was among the high-salaried analysts on the NFL side who was now without a daily show presence after the radio show got cut.

Later in the afternoon, one of the biggest surprises of the day came when Suzy Kolber announced she was among the layoffs, posting a message to Twitter about her “good run” at ESPN over 27 years. Kolber has long been one of the faces of ESPN’s NFL coverage, doing sideline for Monday Night Football for nearly a decade before taking over as host of Monday Night Countdown in 2015, among various other roles on ESPN.

Kolber’s status as a legend at ESPN indicated how ruthless this round of cuts was at the network, while also raising eyebrows with regard to what may be to come with ESPN. Letting go some big names on the NFL side when their new, 10-year deal with the league is just beginning this fall seemed particularly odd and signaled a sizable shift in the network’s coverage of the sport.

The NFL and NBA sections weren’t the only ones impacted, as baseball writer and analyst Joon Lee likewise announced he was among those laid off after four years with the network.

Marchand also reported SportsCenter anchor Ashley Brewer was part of the layoffs. There are still a number of these layoffs yet to be made public, and based on some of the massive names being let go, it’s possible we see some more fan favorites leaving ESPN as a dreadful Friday at the network continues.

Of course there are more glass ceilings to be shattered, but a ton of notable progress has been made for women in the workplace—from actively addressing sexual harassment, to lessening the gender pay gap, to providing better maternity support and access for women to start their own businesses.

And to think, we can largely thank a mass stewardess rebellion for that.

Back in the 1930s, when the few career options available to women were domestic in nature—like teaching or secretarial roles—working as a flight attendant, aka stewardess, promised a more glamorous and exciting life. A chance to see the world, one flight at a time.

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However, the job wasn’t all perks. Airlines capitalized on advertising the stewardesses as sex objects, even using highly suggestive marketing campaigns where stewardesses would all but outright say they were available for sex work. Companies would also exclusively hire young (we’re talking 27 as the cut-off limit), unmarried, white women with specific body measurements to promote their elite luxury image.

The strategy worked—by the 1970s, there was a huge increase in ticket sales. But stewardesses were fed-up with discriminatory labor practices, and became one of the first groups to band together to push for change. Using Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, these women were able to not only transform the airline industry, but help women in other fields take-off as well.

Gleaning from books “Femininity in Flight: A History of Flight Attendants” and “The Great Stewardess Rebellion,” as well as personal accounts from the revolt, the video created by Vox below gives a quick overview of this often overlooked chapter in feminist history.

Please buckle your seatbelts.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is running for president in 2024 and his chief rival is a man who might just be campaigning from inside a prison cell next year. And yet, of the two men, it’s the guy who has an unexplainable beef with a cartoon mouse that has earned the title of the “worst presidential candidate ever seen” by a prominent member of his own party.

DeSantis graced Fox News earlier this week to share more about his plans for governing should he make it to the White House. The brave pizza defender regurgitated some of his favorite right-wing buzzwords like “woke ideology” while explaining why he’d gut the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, and maybe even the IRS. He promised to get rid of initiatives like DEI and CRT, but how he’d make paying taxes less liberal, we’re still not sure.

Unfortunately for DeSantis, no matter how many times he says the word “woke” in conversation, many Republican insiders still view him as a weak challenger to not just Trump, but President Joe Biden as well. When sharing the Fox News interview on Twitter, longtime Republican strategist Jeff Timmer — who worked on Ohio Governor John Kasich’s 2016 presidential campaign — named DeSantis the “worst presidential candidate” he’s ever seen.

“It’s like he’s been assembled from the discarded spare parts of Bobby Jindal, Bill de Blasio, Rick Perry, and Scott Walker,” Timmer wrote while quote-tweeting the video.

What DeSantis needs to do to get his own party members to like him is still a bit of a mystery. Maybe adding a couple more words to his vocabulary would help? Learning how to laugh like a human being? Getting a personality? Or growing just enough of a spine to stand up to the dehydrated human orange that’s been hurling childish nicknames your way for the past year? Just a few suggestions, Ronnie.

Vanna White has been the co-host of Wheel of Fortune since 1982. For nearly that half time, she hasn’t gotten a raise.

White is “lawyered up” for an overdue increase in her pay. TMZ reports that she won’t return to Wheel “unless she makes at least half of what Pat Sajak has been making.” White earns $3 million per season, which ain’t nothing, but it’s only one-fifth of Sajak’s alleged $15 million salary. “After 41 years as a model employee and more the face of that show than him [Pat], asking for 50 percent of what he makes seems like a no-brainer,” a source said.

Sony, we’re told, is not on board, at least not yet. One source with direct knowledge described the negotiations as “very difficult.” Our sources also say Vanna feels like the issue is bigger than her. As one source says, “She feels like it’s a statement for all women.” We’re told Vanna wants to stay on the show, but if she doesn’t get what she believes is “a minimum of what is fair,” that’s a real possibility.

Here’s an idea: give Vanna a raise, let her host the show instead of Ryan Seacrest (no offense but save some jobs for the rest of us, buddy), and get a rotating group of Muppets to turn the letters. Series-best ratings.

(Via TMZ)

America might be celebrating its birthday in the next few days, but all eyes international eyes are focused on the Netherlands. Rolling Loud Rotterdam, to be more specific. The two-day outdoor music concert is set to take place today (June 30) and tomorrow (July 1). With performances by some of the biggest names in music across the globe — including Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, and more — keeping track of the performance schedule is important.

So, here are the Rolling Loud Rotterdam set times for 2023.

Notable performances slated for today (June 30) include TiaCorine at 3:45 pm local time (on the Havana Club Stage), JID at 4:15 pm (on the Snipes Stage), Central Cee at 7:30 pm (on the Snipes Stage), Latto at 8:30 pm (on the Havana Club Stage), and Kendrick Lamar at 9:15 pm (on the Snipes Stage).

As for tomorrow (July 1), Lakeyah will perform at 3:30 pm (at Ahoy Arena), Denzel Curry will perform at 5:30 pm (on the Snipes Stage), GloRilla will perform at 6:30 pm (at Ahoy Arena), and Travis Scott will take the Snipes Stage at 9:15 pm.

The next installment of Rolling Loud will take place in Miami, Florida, between July 21 and 23. Find more information here. View the full lineup, stage assignments, and performance times below.

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

“Cash Money Records takin’ over for the ’99 and the 2000” are words every millennial knows. The reaction is darn near Pavlovian at this point. You know it’s about to go down. When Juvenile pulls up at the NPR offices to perform his long-awaited Tiny Desk Concert, the reaction is such that he performs the song not just once, but twice. As soon as he finishes, the audience clamors for more, bringing the whole band back for an encore that spills over into the crowd.

The New Orleans legend performs for nearly 30 minutes with not just keys, drums, bass, and guitar, but brings along a full-fledged second line and strings to flesh out his set, which features backup from in-house Cash Money producer Mannie Fresh (of course)”R and runs through classics like “Bling Bling,” “Ha,” “Set It Off,” “Slow Motion,” “Rodeo,” “Nolia Clap,” “I Need A Hot Girl,” “Project Chick,” and OF COURSE “Back That Azz Up.” If this don’t make you move, check your pulse.

This Tiny Desk was one of the more anticipated ones in a while, thanks to an immaculate roll out by Juvie the Great, who has certainly grasped his stature as a rap elder statesman and keeps a sense of humor about it. More artists should promote their Tiny Desk Concerts like this — it’s an honor to perform but it should also be fun for everyone. This one certainly is.

Watch Juvenile’s NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert above.

Nick Cave always has wisdom to share, whether that’s in the form of sprawling songs or thoughtful blog posts. The enigmatic musician has a new collaboration with Debbie Harry for The Task Has Overwhelmed Us, the fourth installment of “The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project” series.

It’s a gentle, piano-driven cover of “On The Other Side,” and it showcases his natural knack for tear-jerking, moving ballads. Their vocals together create beautiful, memorable harmonies, and it serves as a wonderful tribute that chooses hope over grief.

Earlier this year, Cave revealed that he’s working on a new Bad Seeds album. “My plan for this year is to make a new record with the Bad Seeds,” he wrote in a post for The Red Hand Files. “This is both good news and bad news. Good news because who doesn’t want a new Bad Seeds record? Bad news because I’ve got to write the bloody thing.”

He added, “I started the process at 9am on January 1st. It is now January 6th — nearly a week has passed and I’ve written a few things but they aren’t very good, or maybe they are, it’s difficult to tell.”

Listen to “On the Other Side” above.

Welcome to SNX DLX, your weekly roundup of the best sneakers to hit the internet. With Fourth of July looming it’s safe to assume that even if you’re a hardcore sneakerhead, you’re probably not thinking about the latest sneaker drops and instead getting preparing for an epic BBQ bash. You probably already have an outfit in mind (shoes you don’t mind getting grass-stained) and whatever you order this week won’t get to you before the holiday anyway — so what does it matter, right? Wrong!

This might be another light week, but absolute fire is dropping! A re-release of the White Infrared Jordan 7s, a Campus 80 collaboration between Adidas and BAPE, a new Action Bronson New Balance — I mean, do we even have to talk about what else is dropping? Any of those three drops could be your drop of the year! So let’s dive into this week’s best sneaker drops of the week because there are more gems to be had.

Air Jordan 7 White Infrared

Price: $200

Nike’s new White Infrared Jordan 7 combines two legendary colorways of the silhouette and creates something that is, I’m just going to say it: greater than the sum of its parts. The White Infrared sports an embroidered Jumpman logo with a 23 logo at the heel, a white leather build, and rides atop an iced-out outsole. Infrared accents add a nice splash of contrast over this super clean build.

The Air Jordan 7 White Infrared is set to drop on June 30th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $200. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT and Flight Club.

Adidas Campus 80S BAPE

Price: $150

As part of BAPE’s big 30th-anniversary campaign, they’re dropping another new collaboration with Adidas, and we think this is the best one yet. The 80S sports a contoured outsole with an all-suede upper with leather lining, an extended tongue piece, metallic gold details, and a large BAPE star logo in place of the 3-stripes on the outer.

If you’re a fan of the three-stripes, it’s still present on the inner side of the sneaker, along with the OG Campus branding. It’s a sneaker that gives you the best of both worlds and reimagines a world where the BapeSTA is an Adidas original.

The Adidas Campus 80s BAPE is set to drop on July 1st at 8:00 AM PST for a retail price of $150. Pick up a pair via the Adidas CONFIRMED app or aftermarket sites like Flight Club.

New Balance Made in USA 998 Plum with Silver

Price: $209.99

New Balance’s signature color is grey but I really think they should reconsider that because no brand does purple quite like them! Just look at this Plum With Silver 998, it’s beautiful! The sneaker sports a suede mesh and pigskin suede upper over an aged ABZROB midsole and reflective silver details on the logo and heel piece with embroidered branding at the tongue.

Just beautiful!

The New Balance Made in USA 998 Plum with Silver is set to drop on June 29th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $209.99. Pick up a pair via the New Balance webstore.

New Balance Made in USA 990v4 Plum With Silver

Price: $209.99

Personally, I think the 998 is the better drop of the week but I get that people ride hard for the 990 and fans of the V4 will be happy to see the sneaker get the purple treatment! Instead of the three-material upper, this one is simplified with a mesh build with hairy suede panels.

The sneaker rides on a lightweight foam ENCAP midsole and sports reflective details throughout.

The New Balance Made in USA 990v4 Plum with Silver is set to drop on June 29th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $209.99. Pick up a pair via the New Balance webstore.

Action Bronson x New Balance 990v6 Made in USA Lapis Lazuli

Price: $219.99

Action Bronson is back at New Balance and this new drop is even doper than the last. Featuring a pigskin build with synthetic overlays and mesh underlays, the Lapis Lazuli is built upon a 990v6 silhouette with FuelCell cushioned ENCAP midsole with reflective accents, a TPU backtab, and a colorway that combines shades of blue from navy to teal, silver, and a slightly yellowed midsole.

The Action Bronson x New Balance 990v6 Made in USA Eclipse with Popcorn is set to drop on June 30th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $219.99. Pick up a pair via the New Balance webstore.

Stüssy x Our Legacy x Converse Chuck 70 Hi

Price: TBA

Stüssy, Our Legacy, and Converse are teaming up for a new hippie dippie take on the Chuck 70 that harkens back to the sneakers lifestyle heritage as a sneaker beloved by the surf and skate crowd of California. The shoe features a hemp build dyed in Portugal using bio-friendly dies in a closed water loop cycle that helps to give the sneaker a washed-out vibe. See what I mean? Hippie shit!

The sneaker drops in three colorways, Pool Blue, Lizard Green, and Pigeon Grey with Stüssy branding at the tongue and a yin-yang symbol in place of the legendary Chuck 70 star.

The Stüssy x Our Legacy x Converse Chuck 70 Hi is set to drop on June 30th at 7:00 AM PST for an unannounced retail price. Pick up a pair at Stüssy’s webstore or Stüssy Chapter stores near you.

Disclaimer: While all of the products recommended here were chosen independently by our editorial staff, Uproxx may receive payment to direct readers to certain retail vendors who are offering these products for purchase.

If you have spent any time over the past month wondering just WTF Kanekalon is, odds are, you have been exposed to Flyana Boss’s inescapable viral single “You Wish.” At this point, it’d be kind of difficult to be online and not have been; the song, which the self-declared “weird girl” rap duo released two weeks ago, has been going crazy on just about every social media platform courtesy of their distinctive marketing strategy.

To date, Flyana Boss — consisting of best friends Bobbi Lanea of Detroit and Folayan Kunerede of Dallas — has released at least nine lyrics videos for the song in which they are seen running through seemingly random locations such as a grocery store, a local fair, McDonald’s, and, perhaps most infamously, Disney World. The fisheye lens, perfectly-timed long shot, and dynamic angle all make for a striking visual that not only gets the viewer’s attention but also invites them to try it out themselves.

It helps that Flyana Boss is a visually striking duo — pink hair, bleached eyebrows, and elf ears are all parts of the Gen Z, born-online aesthetic, and are not just recognizable but relatable to anyone who delved deeply into Tumblr or other internet subcultures in the past decade or so — and that their lyrics are flippant, fun, and deceptively clever. Think double Doja Cats or Rico Nasty in full sugar trap mode.

Take that reference to Kanekalon. A synthetic fiber developed by the Kaneka corporation, it’s been used to create dreadlock extensions of the variety sported by the rappers of Flyana Boss, connoting an inside joke that would only be caught by folks who come from one of the handful of subcultures that identify with their wear.

Meanwhile, the besties’ sense of fun is palpable through the camera — everything feels organic because you get the sense that they’re just being themselves. Spend an hour on TikTok and you’re likely to see dozens of young people like them: avid fans of Disney, anime, fantasy, and the artifacts of hyper-online pop culture like Vaporwave and the VSCO aesthetic. Their vibe is like a perfect distillation of the chaotic energy younger millennials and Zoomers embrace as par for the course.

They’re showing no signs of slowing down, either. With more “You Wish” videos going viral seemingly by the day, and scores of new fans passionately praising their cheeky, DIY approach, Flyana Boss is going places — including the Happiest Place On Earth.

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