Month: June 2023

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE – God bless everyone at this show

The Righteous Gemstones has been back on television for two weeks — three episodes, thanks to a two-part premiere — and it has already done more than most shows do in an entire season. There was the thing last week where the last 10 minutes of the second episode featured a very silly shoe-throwing fiasco followed immediately by a car chase that would fit into any big-budget action movie. There was a wildly explicit painting of Judy and BJ just hanging in the background of a scene that had to be seen to be believed. And there was also, at the beginning of this week’s episode… this.

I could give you all the facts here. I could flood you with background information about a Bible-themed luxury resort called Zion’s Landing and the backstory of why Gemstone in-law Baby Billy Freeman is there performing a poolside rendition of an old gospel song called “Payday” and all of it. And I will in a minute. But first, let’s all stop and appreciate the fact that we have a television show where Walton Goggins just pops up in a baby blue clam outfit to sing us a song. That’s not nothing.

But yes, we can dig in a little, too. With, to start, this chat at IndieWire with the show’s music supervisor Joseph Stephen where we learn more about what a delightful man Walton Goggins is.

“We had him do a variety of takes. One that was maybe a little more reserved, one that kind of went for it a little more. What we ended up going with was the middle of that road,” Stephens said. “But Walton is a consummate professional with all this stuff. All the vocal demands that we put on him for the show, he always comes very prepared, and he’s at the ready to do it however we propose. He came in and knocked it out. It’s all great and we don’t really need much after we get a few.”

And also this chat with Goggins himself, conducted by Uproxx’s own Jason Tabrys, where we learned… okay, this is just more of Walton Goggins being a wonderful man who is up for anything and loves heaping praise on costume designers.

Just the outfit itself made me feel like Elvis. It was extraordinary. What she did, stepping into those shoes was I think one of the greatest achievements I’ve seen on a show in a very long time. These are very big shoes to fill and she did it without a hitch. She stepped right in and the day that we were filming that episode they brought this clamshell out and I put it on, it went to places that I had no idea it was going to go.

Two things are worth noting here. Maybe three.

The first is that it’s just really cool. Think about Walton Goggins. Think about his career. He played a crooked cop in The Shield and a charismatic outlaw on Justified and had really created a cool little niche for himself as cable television’s primo charming villain. Then he just started doing comedy. He did Vice Principals, which was great, but now he’s taking it to another level completely. Look at how silly he’s being. He does this for us. For Danny McBride, too, but mostly for us. He’s a good man. Please do not forget this. Ever.

The second thing is that this is now at least the third time Danny McBride has made him sing. The most notable one is still the pickle-in-the-mouth “Misbehavin’” earworm from the first season of this show, but please do not ever forget when he whispered a little ditty called “Busted by Lee Russell.”

And okay, yes, the third thing: I really do need everyone to recognize that his character is currently trying to get a game show off the ground titled “Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers” that is just a religious-themed ripoff of Family Feud, and that everyone on the show recognizes this and pluralizes Family Feud for no reason while talking about it. “Family Feuds.” It’s such a perfect and stupid little touch and it makes me very happy.

As does this screencap from the same episode.

We really are just very, very blessed.

ITEM NUMBER TWO – It’s the most wonderful time of the year

It brings me great pleasure to report exclusively that Henry Winkler is on his fishing trip. Maybe “exclusively” is a stretch. He kind of told everybody on Twitter earlier this week. I suppose this is closer to the opposite of an exclusive report, in that everyone in the world received the same information. Or at least everyone who follows Henry Winkler on Twitter. Which should be everyone in the world. The man is a treasure.

His fish pictures are my favorite, though. I had the opportunity to interview him a few years ago when he was out promoting Barry and I told him as much straight to his lovely face. I’m just going to go ahead and blockquote that exchange again, if only because, like… I don’t know. I try not to take it for granted that I have a job where I can tell Henry Winkler that I like his fish pictures. Here we go.

I have followed you on Twitter for years now. I consider you to be one of my favorite people on that website. You’re a lovely man, and you’re better at Twitter than most people I know. It seems like almost every summer you go on a fishing trip and you post these pictures of yourself with the fish.

Yes.

It is one of my favorite things that happens on Twitter, because, you know Twitter, it’s like a stream of “everyone’s miserable, everyone’s angry, everyone’s upset”… and then blammo, there’s Henry Winkler holding a fish. It makes me so happy.

Thank you.

Look at this guy.

Look how much fun he’s having.

Have you ever seen anything so pure?

GIVE HENRY WINKLER A TRAVEL SHOW

Beautiful. Lovely. Perfect. And if that’s all it was, if this was just a week of Henry Winkler breaking up the whining and doomsdaying on my Twitter feed with pictures of himself where he has a fish in his hands and a massive smile on his face, I mean, great. One of my favorite weeks of the whole year.

BUT

THEN

A TWIST

A CELEBRITY CAMEO

JIMMY KIMMEL IS FISHING WITH HENRY WINKLER IN IDAHO

I gasped when I saw this. Part of that is because, like, Henry Winkler is out here hosting celebrity fishing trips. But a bigger part of it is because this brings us one step closer to something else I talked to Henry Winkler about in that interview a few years ago.

Have you ever considered hosting a fishing show where you and another guest go out on the boat together, and it’s like a podcast, but it’s just a super-relaxing half-hour of you and another celebrity telling Hollywood stories while you’re fishing?

Well, let me tell you, I love that idea. I have never done that, but I love that.

My gift to you. If you ever want to do it, I would watch the hell out of that show.

Thank you so much, really.

Please. Please give me this. I’ve been very good.

I’ve been pretty good.

I’ve been good enough.

ITEM NUMBER THREE – Guys, let’s go stay in the Barbie house

Okay. Listen. I need you all to focus. As part of the promotional push for the new Barbie movie (which feels like it’s been going on for a calendar year now), a real-life Barbie dream house is available on AirBnB. It’s a whole thing. You can’t just, like, rent it, though. You have to win it in a drawing. Variety has all the details. You can click on that link and look at them if you want. I’m more interested in the actual AirBnB page for it, which someone wrote in character as Ken, who is pitching this all as his house.

Look at this.

I’ve decked out the place with a little more…well, me! I’m more than just beach! My cowboy stuff is great. And horses! Guitars, games and more. And of course, rollerblades, because I literally go nowhere without them. Now, guests can live it up Ken-style for a neon night in Barbie Land – six-pack not included.

– During your stay, you will have the opportunity to live in technicolor by:
– Taking a spin through my awesome wardrobe to find your best beach fit. Look out Barbie, I’ve got quite the closet too!
– Channeling your inner cowboy and learning a line dance or two on my outdoor disco dance floor or performing a sunset serenade on my guitar
– Challenging your fellow guests to a “beach off” with plenty of sunbathing and chillaxing by the infinity pool
– Taking home a piece of my Kendom with your very own set of yellow-and-pink Impala skates and surfboard

Hard to pinpoint what my favorite thing is here. It might be the casual use of “chillaxing.” It might be the sentence “I’m more than just beach,” which is fascinating and kind of sad and tells me more about Ken than 20,000 words of user-submitted Wikipedia rambling. It might be all of it.

I vote we all enter this contest. And if you win, you can take me. It won’t be weird. Just a couple strangers hanging out in a life-size neon pink house made for a children’s doll and redecorated for a special event by that doll’s smooth-groined boyfriend. It’ll be fun.

Come on.

Think about it.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR –“Somebody’s still got to wake up the next day and make beef”

Sometimes my brain does this thing where it latches onto a phrase or sentence and refuses to let it go. It’s almost always harmless and almost always annoying and it happened again this week while I was reading this interview with the man who runs Mr. Beef in Chicago, the sandwich shop that inspired The Bear, who is also a lifelong friend of the show’s creator. Which is nice. The story, I mean. Not the thing that’s stuck in my head.

Here’s the chunk of the interview in question, where he confesses he hasn’t watched the show at all yet and probably will never start.

Still, Zucchero hasn’t watched a single episode of “The Bear,” and probably won’t ever. It’s not for lack of interest or support — he just can’t afford to lose sight of the restaurant that’s been feeding Chicago for six decades, since his father acquired the original Mr. Beef in 1979.

“Somebody’s still got to wake up the next day and make beef,” Zucchero says. “The only thing I’ve ever known in my life is that restaurant.”

“Somebody’s still got to wake up the next day and make beef.”

“Somebody’s still got to wake up the next day and make beef.”

“Somebody’s still got to wake up the next day and make beef.”

“Somebody’s still got to wake up the next day and make beef.”

“Somebody’s still got to wake up the next day and make beef.”

“Somebody’s still got to wake up the next day and make beef.”

I’m fine.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE – I do not think I would enjoy puking hot sauce

Jennifer Lawrence was on Hot Ones last week. You might have heard about this, or at least maybe you saw one of the many screencaps people made of her melting down into a puddle after eating the spiciest of the wings. It was a good time. It is always impressive to me that Jennifer Lawrence remains this charming and likable despite being both beautiful and talented. That’s a tricky dance, in a few ways. One is that people are jealous and crappy and love knocking others down. Another is that people who are very beautiful and very talented do not always develop what you and I would call “a personality,” only because they do not have to. It’s cool that she’s like this. Jennifer Lawrence is a pretty good egg.

She was fun on the show, too, even though her mouth and body did not appear to be having fun. Look at what she said to Andy Cohen about the whole thing earlier this week.

“I passionately threw up after. Violently,” she told host Andy Cohen. “I made it upstairs to my suite. My holding suite.”

“We shot at the Four Seasons downstairs,” she said. “My stomach gave me, like, eight minutes to get upstairs and then she…. She…” Lawrence let out a surprised guffaw, seemingly impressed at her stomach’s aggressive reaction to ingesting so much hot sauce.

Okay, quick story…

Back when I was in college, I dared a buddy of mine to drink a whole bottle of A1 Bold & Spicy Steak Sauce. He said no. I offered him one dollar. He said no again. I offered him two dollars. He said yes. This is the free market at work. It is also a good explanation of what college is. It is a few things.

Anyway, maybe 10 minutes later he ran off to the bathroom and threw up and came back with the following report: “It felt like I puked a lightning bolt.”

The point of this story is that, as of today, I suspect Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence can relate.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From David:

About an hour ago I was checking the weather and everyone was talking about the air quality from the Canadian wildfire and I stopped reading for a second and suddenly thought “Smog Alert would be a good fake name.”

I feel like this is something I should tell you.

This is absolutely something you should tell me. I can see this person in my head very clearly right now. Little pointy goatee, stubby cigar in his mouth, huge sunglasses, the whole deal. Kind of like a Street Fighter character but more wiry than jacked. Absolutely a member of a team of mercenaries that parachutes into dangerous situations under the cover of night.

He’s a loose cannon but he gets results.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Pennsylvania!

Those at Kutztown University this summer found themselves receiving a bizarre alert: an “aggressive” cow was loose in the borough and on the nearby campus.

AGGRESSIVE COW

In an alert titled “Avoid North Campus: Aggressive Cow – DO NOT APPROACH,” KUPD said the cow seemed scared and unfamiliar with its surroundings.

“All should stay away from cow. The animal is not safe to approach,” the alert said.

Okay, here’s what I need you all to know about Pennsylvania, the state I have lived in for my entire life: It is weird. Just fantastically strange. Because at its east and west ends it has cities that share very little in common (Pittsburgh: steel town, factories, more of a Midwest city in spirit; Philadelphia: East coast I-95 city, maniacs, lunatics, proud of it, Go Birds, etc.), but just about the whole area in between is rural farm country. I say this with love because I grew up out there. So you can have, say, reports about dirtbike races on the streets of Philadelphia after an Eagles win right next to stories about, well, yeah, aggressive cows terrorizing a college campus.

In summary, Pennsylvania is a land of contrasts.

The department sent a follow-up email shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday, saying the cow was last seen in Fleetwood, and though it had not yet been secured, it was no longer a threat to the Kutztown campus.

Well, phew. I’m glad to hear that all of this was settl-…

Officials said an “aggressive cow” that was first spotted around town and on campus Sunday has returned.

AGGRESSIVE COW II

YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE SAFE

YOU MADE A BIG… MISTEAK

At one point, Kutztown University Police had the cow in their sights in the area of Lytle Hall, but the animal ran into a field by the school’s water tower and went back into the surrounding woods.

I love this guy. I have this image in my head of the campus cops bumbling and slipping and falling as the cow runs circles around them. I honestly think I would watch a live feed of this for hours at a time. It would be my favorite show.

University officials want to get the word out that the cow is still around, still considered aggressive and to warn students and residents not to approach the animal if spotted.

A crew has been out checking the area Wednesday morning but there have been no sightings of the cow yet today.

COW CREW

COMING TO CBS THIS FALL

STARRING… OH… LET’S SAY WALTON GOGGINS AND HENRY WINKLER

LOOK AT THAT

FULL CIRCLE

WE DID IT

Following the success of their (really good) documentary on Arnold Schwarzenegger, Netflix will produce a career-spanning doc about the guy he tricked into starring in Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot. After decades of action dominance following some early Oscar nominations, Sylvester Stallone is primed for the documentary spotlight.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Thom Zimmy (Springsteen on Broadway) is directing Sly for release on the streaming platform in November.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“For nearly 50 years, Sylvester Stallone has entertained millions with iconic characters and blockbuster franchises, from Rocky to Rambo to The Expendables. This retrospective documentary offers an intimate look at the Oscar-nominated actor-writer-director-producer, paralleling his inspirational underdog-story with the indelible characters he has brought to life.”

The man’s definitely earned it. Plus, this promises a string of potential documentaries and docuseries about action stars. Hopefully, Netflix brings us Dolph, Wesley, and Linda after this.

In the past few years, Stallone has either closed the book on or handed off some of his most iconic characters, including Rambo and Rocky, all while shifting into a dual track of projects: ensemble roles in blockbuster projects and a starring gig in Taylor Sheridan’s Tulsa King. In all of these, he’s leaned into an elder statesman role where he gets to be witty, charming, and as goofy as he wants to be.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

Asap Rocky isn’t the only fashion killer in hip-hop. Lil Uzi Vert has gone on the record to declare their flyness. But on their new track “Endless Fashion” featuring Nicki Minaj, their designer obsession sores to new heights. As one of the breakout tracks from Lil Uzi Vert’s new album, Pink Tape, the rappers continue their magically collaborative streak.

On the track produced by Bugz Ronin, the pair boasts about their designer buds. In the second verse, Minaj flaunts her exclusive access to revered designers, rapping, “Ayo, even if my name was Natalie, none these b*tches still couldn’t chin-check me / That’s word to Chanel, it ain’t nothin’ to see, bitches on TV channelin’ me / Harajuku Barbie, Roman Zolanski, from Red Ruby to Chun-Li / I put door knocker earrings in Fendi, then stamped the trench coat Burberry.”

But before she closes her verse, there are a few more brands she wants to highlight, rapping, “I was really in the field with Karl Lager’ (Oop), now it’s Heaven campaigns / Check-in with Dapper Dan when I’m in Harlem / My n****s’ll blow like Virgil.”

Lil Uzi Vert joins in to shout out their favorite labels rapping, “These rappers can’t dress, yeah, they just be hatin’ / I never ratted, but got all the statements / Stopped wearing Kapital ’cause it got basic / I still wear Kapital, Uzi, stop fakin’ / I used to wear more Number (N)ine than Asians / I mix the Greg Lauren, purple label.”

Fashion and music go hand in hand. Lil Uzi Vert and Nicki Minaj are just the latest to highlight the symbiotic relationship.

Pink Tape is out now via Generation Now/Atlantic Records. Find more information here.

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

Sex and the City was no stranger to crazy sex scenes and showcasing kinks not often seen in pop culture (shout out to Roger Sterling wanting Carrie Bradshaw to pee on him), but one R-rated moment was too much — and too gross.

On Thursday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live, star Cynthia Nixon, who played attorney Miranda Hobbes on Sex and the City and its horror show spin-off And Just Like That, told host Andy Cohen, “Miranda dated a really hot detective who she was very intimidated by, he was really out of her league, so she got wildly drunk.” The basic plot made it to air, but “they cut the sex scene where she’s really, really drunk and then vomits all over him.”

Earlier this month, Nixon opened up about being “fairly game” for filming revealing sex scenes in the franchise. “I feel like I was always fairly game for it,” Nixon said. “It’s just one of the main subjects of the show is sex — people having sex and people having great sex and people having terrible sex and people having hilarious sex.”

But no puke sex (terrible band name). However, if you want to watch a sex comedy where someone pukes, you freak, check out No Hard Feelings.

You can watch the Watch What Happens Live clip above.

(Via ET Online)

Happy 52nd day of the WGA strike! As is tradition, this is the day that a popular actor in a massive budget superhero show asserts some solidarity by telling the studios to figure out something genuinely equitable. Tomorrow’s traditional gift is tin, followed by lace.

Speaking with Inverse, Anthony Mackie had some sharp words about the potential Screen Actors Guild (SAG) strike, which would add actors to the picket line. The current SAG contract expires at midnight tonight (June 30th), but it’s possible that SAG will authorize an extension if talks are productive.

“It’s a shit show if we go on strike,” Mackie said, adding that the only remedy is studios striking a fair deal. “They’re going to have to. Unless they get a bunch of fucking YouTubers to make Avengers 5!”

“Once the studios went public and were bought out by major companies, we were fucked,” the new Captain America said. “It’s no longer about art. It’s no longer about interesting, fun work. It’s about end-of-the-quarter profit sharing. It’s about shareholders. So you’re literally just raping and pillaging the industry. It’s cannibalism.”

Mackie is currently filming Marvel‘s Captain America: Brave New World for a summer 2024 release. In the upcoming film, he takes over from Steve Rogers as the new Cap while Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) takes over as Falcon.

(via Inverse)

Human bobblehead and meatball Ron DeSantis might be the most awkward presidential candidate we’ve seen in a long time (and that’s saying something after Jeb Bush). His recent campaign trail moves have also been downright cringeworthy, including moments with a sweaty dress shirt and him allegedly bussing in supporters to beef up his (pitiful) presence in Iowa.

Don’t even get us started on his food thing. There’s that reported habit he has of eating pudding with his fingers, which DeSantis has denied, albeit while debuting his unsettling laugh, so one can imagine that eating pizza the “right” way might not come naturally to him. But DeSantis presumably wanted to capitalize upon right-wing claims that “[l]eftists and extremists are trying to ban pizza ovens” due to a proposed rule change on carbon emissions, which would present hiccups for less than 100 pizzerias in NYC. Still, Republicans are still mad about their gas stoves, so accusing Democrats of wanting to take away pizza will only aid their cause.

So, DeSantis hustled up to Manhattan, where he sat down with Fox News’ Tucker-Carlson-hour replacement Jesse Watters at Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria on 6th Avenue. Getty photographers were on the scene and captured the whole disturbing affair, in which DeSantis looks as though he may have never enjoyed a slice in his life. Is that possible? Well, he had to make room for pudding, so stranger things have happened. Witness:

Nope, this was surely not at all rehearsed. Maybe this video clip will help.

Ugh, the video made it worse. Well, at least you aren’t craving pizza on a Friday? Gotta save a few calories for the Fourth of July cookout.

ESPN went through another round of layoffs on Friday, this time with 20 of their highest paid on-air personalities being let go. Word of the layoffs came from Andrew Marchand of the New York Post in the morning, and a slow trickle of names began to emerge.

Two of the longtime faces of the company’s NBA coverage are apparently among the group that had been let go, as Jeff Van Gundy is out as lead game analyst, while Jalen Rose is being let go from his role on NBA Countdown and appearances on the network’s various morning shows, per Marchand. Rose had been at ESPN for over a decade, including 10 years on the Countdown desk where he has been a constant presence while various hosts and other analysts have changed around him.

Now, however, with Jalen & Jacoby ending earlier this year and Rose having a more limited role with the company, his large annual salary made him a target for cuts. Marchand notes the network is high on some of their newer analysts like Kendrick Perkins, JJ Redick, and Richard Jefferson, who figure to be in the mix for Countdown — the latter two of whom are also potential replacements for Van Gundy on game broadcasts.

Rose has been doing sports media for two decades as he was one of the first to begin doing media work while still playing in the NBA, before transitioning full-time to the TV and podcasting world. He figures to have a variety of opportunities from other networks, and may wait to see how this next round of NBA broadcasting contract negotiations go before settling in on a new home for his NBA work.

It turns out not everyone had as enthusiastic a response to Drake‘s book of poetry as DJ Khaled did (and even his was a little noncommital). After Complex got a few full-time poets to review the book, Drake learned that he wasn’t being taken quite as seriously as perhaps he’d hoped.

With a title like Titles Ruin Everything, you’d think he’s in on the joke, but as New York Times bestselling author Hanif Abdurraqib pointed out, it’s kind of hard to tell. “None of these strike me as poems, because they’re not even attempting to push against any unknown in order to offer something revelatory or at least somewhat beautiful,” he says in the piece.

“Some of these are so absurd that they’re actually funny,” he continues. “But it’s hard to tell if he also understands that they’re bending into absurdist humor, and understands that there will be people who find it profound. Or if he’s convinced himself of the profundity. Really, it’s kind of just a book of puns. Silly lil’ jokes. It is a struggle for me to tell how in on the joke he is… I’m not personally offended by anything that masquerades as poetry, because it happens so often in every possible arena of entertainment and consumption, but this is essentially a coffee table book of one-line jokes.”

Houston poet laureate Aris Kian echoed Hanif’s thoughts, musing, “Drake’s poems operate within an excess of white space, a reduced set of images and limited punctuation. The tools of tension, breath and play are only explored through the typical two-line set up/punchline format.”

Of course, if any of this ruffled Drake’s feathers, he seems reluctant to show it. In his Instagram Story, he posted a response of sorts with a meme calling the critics “Randomly angry poets” (despite, y’know, the author calling them to ask their opinions and neither seeming all that angry) and shrugging off their criticism. Of course, this could just be a case of Drake coping with receiving pushback on yet another of his creative endeavors — even if it is, as one of my colleagues put it in Slack, “not poetry, it’s merch.”

Lil Uzi Vert just unleashed Pink Tape. With 26 tracks, an unexpected cover of System Of A Down’s “Chop Suey,” and features from Nicki Minaj, Bring Me The Horizon, Don Toliver, and more, it’s a must-listen. However, the most exciting collaboration on the album might be “Aye” with Travis Scott.

“Aye” is sure to be a hit as a live performance. The track is invigorating all the way through: “I put them diamonds my teeth (Aye) / Might put somе diamonds my nose (Aye) / Aye, I put them diamonds my teeth (Aye) / Might put some diamonds my nosе (Aye, huh?).” The two rappers together bring a lot of energy to the table.

The unveiling of this song is a relief for fans of the “Sicko Mode” performer, whose highly anticipated new album Utopia still doesn’t have an official release date. However, billboards recently intimated that the album might be arriving on July 21. The ongoing delay is a result of the 2021 Astroworld tragedy, which he will not face charges for: “He never encouraged people to do anything that resulted in other people being hurt… Travis is not responsible,” his lawyer Kent Schaffer said. There were 10 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

Listen to “Aye” above.

Pink Tape is out now via Atlantic Records. Get it here.

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

Every month, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden makes an unranked list of his favorite music-related items released during this period — songs, albums, books, films, you name it.

1. Jason Isbell, Weathervanes

It should go without saying that there are some real tearjerkers on this record. If the fractured relationship at the heart of “King Of Oklahoma” doesn’t get you, the school shooting lament “Save The World” will. Or maybe you will be able to hold out until the gut-punch that is “White Beretta.” But while the emotional haymakers are potent, Weathervanes leavens the devastation with some of the breeziest and loose-limbed music of Isbell’s career. After 2020’s very good but fraught Reunions, this album positively breathes with an ease and confidence that signals a potentially fruitful middle age for one of our best singer-songwriters.

2. Feeble Little Horse, Girl With Fish

I am happy to report that 2023 has been an excellent year for young rock bands that set deadpan-funny lyrics to heavy, woozy, and grunged-up guitars. Girl With Fish is among the latest entries in this crop, and it immediately landed on my favorite albums of the half-year list. I am doubly happy to report that this Pittsburgh-based act signals another promising trend — they come from a great local scene situated outside the NYC/LA axis. Might regionalism be making a comeback in indie-rock circles? I can only hope!

3. Queens Of The Stone Age, In Times New Roman

It seems impossible that these guys will ever touch the sleazy majesty of their first three records. But on In Times New Roman, Josh Homme manages to reconnect with the weird stoner vibes of Queens’ self-titled 1998 debut, which is an upgrade from the “slightly left-of-center Foo Fighters” sound that marked 2017’s Villains. Given the turmoil in Homme’s personal life of late, you might expect the songs to have a more mournful vibe. But musically speaking, this is the most flat-out fun music he’s put out in a minute.

4. Ratboys, “It’s Alive”

Earlier this month this winning Chicago band announced a new album, The Window, due in August. I’ll have more to say about that later this summer, but for now I have to shout out the lovably crunchy single “It’s Alive,” which spotlights what Ratboys do well — delectable guitar tones, perfect ’90s alt-girl vocals, infectious choruses.

5, Slaughter Beach, Dog, “Strange Weather”

This rootsy outfit from ex-Modern Baseball member Jake Ewald has been steadily moving closer to dad-rock nirvana since launching nearly a decade ago. On this recent single, Ewald just might achieve it. Over a leisurely mid-tempo stroll that layers vintage guitar and keyboard sounds, he affects his best approximation of a mid-period Wilco barbecue jam, like an outtake from Sky Blue Sky that Jeff Tweedy somehow has kept under wraps until now.

6. Bonny Doon, Let There Be Music

Speaking of dad-rock nirvana, this low-key Michigan band finally released the follow-up to 2018’s Longwave this month. For a while they were sidetracked as the backing band for Waxahatchee on her excellent 2020 album Saint Cloud and the accompanying tour. But on Let There Be Music, Bonny Doon picks up pretty much where Longwave left off, with a mellow barrage of simple, strummy songs that sound like they were recorded on a boat dock outside of northwoods cabin at dusk in the summertime.

7. Militarie Gun, Life Under The Gun

At some point, hardcore bands stopped sounding like hardcore bands and started sounding like rock bands who were played nonstop on KROQ in 1998. For some people, this might register as a sellout. For others, including me, it sounds like an improvement. On their debut album, Militarie Gun bring plenty of volume and attitude, but what makes Life Under The Gun are the type of undeniable bubble-grunge hooks that sound smuggled from a Third Eye Blind record.

8. Bruce Hornsby & The Range, “The Show Goes On” (from The Bear Season Two soundtrack)

Like a lot of people, I happily binged this month on the latest season of this FX dramedy, which happens to have one of the most distinctive soundtracks on television. Anyone who thought that The Bear might change gears from the dad-rock sounds of Season One were immediately informed otherwise at the very start of Season Two, with this needle drop from Hornsby’s (excellent!) 1988 album Scenes From The Southside. As much as I love the writing and the cast of The Bear, this musical aspect — which informs the characters and helps to shape the show’s world — makes watching the show feel to me like doing a late-night deep dive for musical favorites on YouTube with a serious buzz on.