Month: July 2023

The New York Jets have been one of the busiest teams in the NFL this offseason, and now, football fans are going to get an all-access look at how they plan on turning that hype into success. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the league and NFL Films have selected the Jets as the team that will appear on Hard Knocks this season, marking the first time since 2010 that the team will be featured on the HBO show.

As Schefter noted, the league’s rules about who could appear on Hard Knocks meant that only the Jets, Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, and Washington Commanders are eligible to be on the show. It’s unsurprisingly that the Jets would pique the interest in all the various decision-makers here on the heels of an offseason in which the team made a high-profile trade to acquire Aaron Rodgers from the Green Bay Packers. Beyond that, New York has put together an extremely Rodgers-friendly team, as it decided to make former Packers offensive coordinator and recently-fired Denver Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett its OC, while it went out and acquired a trio of former Packers in Adrian Amos, Randall Cobb, and Allen Lazard.

The Jets are coming off of a 7-10 campaign, and are in the midst of a lengthy postseason drought — the team has not made it to the playoffs since 2010. Despite their acquisition of Rodgers, New York still faces a stiff test to break that drought this year, as the AFC East features a pair of other teams in the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins with legitimate aspirations of making the playoffs this year.

Sky Ferreira is an enigma. The indie pop singer first rose to fame with the help of Tumblr’s heyday in 2012. Her moody, synth-forward ballads struck a chord with a generation of people who relied on the online blogging outlet to direct their teenage angst. But following her debut 2013 album Night Time, My Time, Ferreira was rarely heard from again, save for a handful of one-off singles over the years. Rumors of a new album circulate on a near-yearly basis to no avail, the most recent being sparked by her 2022 track “Don’t Forget.” So when the singer announced a handful of shows in July, it reignited the possibility of a new album in 2023. And while Ferreira continues to be elusive, her fans are anything but. They show out in droves to support the singer whether there’s a promise of new music or not.

The crowd who came out to see Ferreira perform at The Vermont in Los Angeles on Sunday, July 9 was hopeful for any hint at new music, myself included. Fans excitedly trickled into the 1,200-capacity venue, large enough to draw a big crowd but small enough to still feel intimate, ready to see an artist many had been listening to for over a decade.

True to her reputation, Ferreira made fans wait nearly 30 minutes after she was supposed to take the stage. In the meantime, the crowd was buzzing with anticipation. Maybe a little too much anticipation at times, since I was able to get a great view of a fight that broke out in the middle of the crowd as we waited. But finally, the dark stage was illuminated by dim lights as her band funneled in. Ferreira made her dramatic entrance by slowly descending a staircase onto the stage, outfitted in a black floor-length duster jacket and opaque black sunglasses. She appeared as an apparition among the dim lights and rising smoke, a fitting image to accompany her haunting music.

Quelling the screaming audience, Ferreira immediately launched into a rendition of her grungy pop hit “Boys.” She followed it with “24 Hours,” which she ended with an a-capella delivery to allow the crowd to harmonize with her. Her newest track “Don’t Forget” was next, which someone in the front was ironically filming with their Nintendo DS. Because of her relatively small discography, Ferreira was able to perform nearly every one of her songs — two covers included — and had the crowd exalted with tracks like “Heavy Metal Heart,” “Lost In My Bedroom,” and “You’re Not The One.”

Ferreira didn’t address the crowd until four songs in, when she quietly thanked everyone for coming. The one time she did interact with the crowd was also the only hint she gave about the possibility of new music. Someone in the front row yelled a question about when her album will drop. She responded with, “What? Oh, sorry,” and slightly shook her head with a laugh. I interpreted the non-answer as Ferreira’s way of saying “not any time soon.” She did end up performing the unreleased song “All My Lovers Die,” which has become a staple in her live set, but didn’t give any indication as to when (or if) it will have an official release date.

It was rare for Ferreira to speak to the crowd at all throughout the show. She never introduced her band and didn’t have an encore, instead opting to play the entire way through her set list and mumble a quiet “sorry” into the microphone when she had to restart a few songs. Ferreira did give an introduction to her 2012 EP opener “Sad Dream,” which she said she hadn’t performed live in eight years. The rendition of “Sad Dream” had her appearing visibly distressed; She walked off stage and finished the song facing the back wall. She appeared to wipe away tears from her face as fans screamed words of encouragement.

Ferreira ended the concert with her oldest (and most popular) hit “Everything Is Embarrassing,” sending the crowd home satisfied, even without the promise of new music. Walking back to my car, I overheard a group of longtime fans hypothesizing why performing “Sad Dream” made Ferreira upset. “She puts so much pressure on herself,” one of them said. The other agreed with: “She needs to know we don’t need her to be perfect!” It showed how her understanding and undemanding Ferreira’s audience is. But more than anything it was a reminder that, no matter how long it takes Ferreira to release her next album, her fans will be waiting with open arms.

Matt Damon got surprisingly candid during a junket interview for Oppenheimer. While calling the experience of working on the Christopher Nolan film comparable to starring in the Steven Spielberg classic, Saving Private Ryan, Damon opened up about what it’s like to star in a film that’s going in the opposite direction a.k.a. a box office bomb.

“Without naming any particular movies… sometimes you find yourself in a movie that you know, perhaps, might not be what you had hoped it would be, and you’re still making it,” Damon told Jake’s Takes before revealing the toll it took on him as not just an actor, but a father and husband. “And I remember halfway through production and you’ve still got months to go and you’ve taken your family somewhere, you know, and you’ve inconvenienced them, and I remember my wife pulling me up because I fell into a depression about like, what have I done?”

However, Damon credits his wife, Luciana Barosso, for helping him through the ordeal and getting him to a place where he realized his job is to just do the work.

Via Variety:

“I do pride myself, in a large part because of her, at being a professional actor and what being a professional actor means is you go and you do the 15-hour day and give it absolutely everything, even in what you know is going to be a losing effort. And if you can do that with the best possible attitude, then you’re a pro, and she really helped me with that.”

While Damon didn’t name the doomed film or even offer any hints, Variety notes that the actor has spoken before about filming 2016’s The Great Wall, which he knew was headed for trouble as he was making it.

“I was like, this is exactly how disasters happen,” Damon told Marc Maron’s WTF podcast in 2021. “It doesn’t cohere. It doesn’t work as a movie.”

You can see Damon’s getting candid at the 10:45 mark below:

(Via Variety)

Jack Harlow dropped by Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas earlier this week to greet his wax figure for the first time. In a video posted by the museum, Harlow was shocked by the uncanny nature of the results.

His figure is seen wearing a white suit and tie, an extravagant Rolex watch, and even holding a serious diamond chain in his folded hands. Harlow walks around admiring the lookalike.

“That is crazy,” he said in the clip. “Is this mine? Everything just looks like he’s about to come to life. It’s good. He’s cut. I just wanna knock his ass over, you know?”

“I was worried I was gonna sit here and be like, ‘OK, this is funny cause it’s like an attempt,’ but it looks just like me,’” Harlow added.

Over the past few months, the Kentucky-raised rapper has been busy. At the end of April, Harlow dropped his new album, Jackman, and has also released some music videos tied to it. The following month, he acted in Hulu’s remake of White Men Can’t Jump.

Check out the video of Jack Harlow meeting Jack Harlow (wax version) above.

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

Taylor Swift‘s The Eras Tour has proven to be memorable for fans, and as the tour is now expected to continue into 2024, the “Karma” hitmaker plans to make the Eras era one to remember.

Viral “abcdefu” singer Gayle has been one of Swift’s supporting acts on many of the tour’s stops. In an interview with People, she revealed that Swift gifted every one of her supporting acts and crew members gold necklaces with “The Eras Tour” engraved onto them.

“She is like a big sister to me,” Gayle said of Swift. “When you’re in music, there’s so many unknowns and there’s so many stresses. I’m a perfectionist, and not everything is going to be perfect all the time. There’s definitely been times where I’ve been able to talk about my insecurities and my fears and she’s been a very comforting person. She’s been such a light in my life.”

Gayle has long been a fan of Swift’s. Swift was partly Gayle’s inspiration to move to Nashville to pursue music.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I just aspired to be as good of a writer as her and work as hard as she does,” Gayle said. “I’ve just tried my best to do those things and she’s always been such an inspiration to me.”

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

Chris Christie spent Tuesday slamming Donald Trump for failing to deliver on his fabled border wall, and the former president, as always, rose to the bait.

While appearing in a Fox News Tonight interview with Piers Morgan, Christie blasted Trump for not following through on any of his campaign promises like repealing Obamacare or building a wall between the United States and Mexico that Mexico would pay for. President Business was very big on touting that last part, and Christie didn’t hold back on the harsh reality of what really happened.

“He didn’t build the wall in Mexico,” Christie said via The Daily Beast. “He built 47 miles of wall and guess what—we paid for every nickel of it, we don’t have the first peso from Mexico.”

Christie’s border crack to Morgan was actually his second time roasting Trump over the border wall. Earlier in the day, the former New Jersey governor told MSNBC, “I could’ve built (with) my hands more than 47 miles,” according to The Wrap.

Like clockwork, Trump started raging at Christie on Truth Social:

Sloppy Chris Christie, who is polling at 1% and left his State, New Jersey, with an Approval Rating of 9% (the WORST number in State History), was interviewed on FoxNews (of course!) and stated that I only built 47 miles of Border Wall, knowing that the actual number is 463 Miles, as reported by the Department of Homeland Security. This does not include many Miles that we fixed or renovated, or areas that I got Mexico to secure. BEST BORDER EVER! He also lied about Russia & many other subjects!

But Trump wasn’t finished. He fired off another post attacking Christie and tossed in a few barbs at Ron DeSantis as well. The GOP candidates can’t beat Trump in the polls, but they can get under his skin.

“Sloppy Chris Christie is thrashing about, doing and saying anything to stay relevant,” Trump frothed. “He desperately wanted to join the Trump Administration, but I said ‘NO!’ In 2016, he spent most of his time away from New Jersey in order to campaign for President, much like Ron DeSanctimonious is doing now to Florida. Chris ended up getting run out of New Hampshire, where he had almost no vote or popularity. They knew him well – CHRIS CHRISTIE IS A TOTAL LOSER!”

(Via The Daily Beast, The Wrap)

Fans waiting with bated breath for news of Playboi Carti’s next tour can finally exhale; the genre-bending, mystery-shrouded rapper has announced the dates for his upcoming Antagonist Tour. The Antagonist Tour is set to kick off in September, with Carti joined by his Opium Collective compadres Destroy Lonely, Homixide Gang, and Ken Carson. Pre-sale is set to begin on July 12 at noon local time, followed by the general sale on July 14 at noon. You can get more info here.

Carti last released a full-length album in 2020, Whole Lotta Red. Since then, he’s teased a few potential projects, including a follow-up album titled simply Music, a possible joint album with longtime collaborator Lil Uzi Vert, and another joint project with rising star YoungBoy Never Broke Again. Unfortunately, it also turned out he had one other thing in common with NBA YoungBoy: A pretty sh*tty disposition toward women. He was arrested in December last year for felony aggravated assault for allegedly choking his pregnant girlfriend.

Anyway, you can see the tour dates below.

09/06/2023 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
09/08/2023 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Delta Center
09/09/2023 — Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden Arena
09/12/2023 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
09/13/2023 — Portland, OR @ Veterans Memorial Coliseum
09/15/2023 — Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
09/16/2023 — San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center*~
09/17/2023 — San Diego, CA @ Pechanga Arena San Diego
09/20/2023 — Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena
09/23/2023 — Glendale, AZ @ Desert Diamond Arena
09/26/2023 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
09/27/2023 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
09/28/2023 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
09/30/2023 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center
10/01/2023 — Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
10/02/2023 — Chicago, IL @ United Center*
10/04/2023 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
10/05/2023 — Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center
10/06/2023 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
10/07/2023 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
10/09/2023 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
10/11/2023 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
10/13/2023 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
10/14/2023 — Indianapolis, IN @ Gainbridge Fieldhouse
10/15/2023 — Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
10/17/2023 — Raleigh, NC @ PNC Arena
10/18/2023 — Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
10/20/2023 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
11/19/2023 — Dublin, IE @ 3Arena
11/21/2023 — Manchester, UK @ AO Arena
11/22/2023 — London, UK @ The O2
11/24/2023 — Brussels, BE @ Forest National
11/25/2023 — Amsterdam, NL @ Ziggo Dome
11/27/2023 — Milan, IT @ Mediolanum Forum
11/29/2023 — Cologne, DE @ Lanxess Arena
11/30/2023 — Berlin, DE @ Mercedes-Benz Arena
12/02/2023 — Paris, FR @ AccorHotels Arena
12/04/2023 — Copenhagen, DK @ Royal Arena

*Destroy Lonely will not be supporting the San Francisco and Chicago tour stops.
~Ken Carson will not be supporting the Chicago tour stop.

Ed Sheeran performed at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 8. There were no reports of issues with Sheeran’s performance, but a number of people (17, to be exact) were transported to the hospital for various reasons, including heat-related issues, falls, cardiac arrest, and seizure.

A press release from Pittsburgh’s Public Safety department reads, “Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS personnel working during the Ed Sheeran concert received 37 calls for service, with 17 transports to the hospital. The transports were for heat-related issues, some falls, one seizure, and two cardiac arrest patients. A worker tearing down the setup inside the stadium went into cardiac arrest on the floor. With the quick actions by numerous crews, the patient was treated and transported to AGH [Allegheny General Hospital]. When leaving the facility, one of the paramedics from an outside agency also went into cardiac arrest on Art Rooney Ave. Again, with the quick response by numerous crews and agencies, the patient was resuscitated after receiving several shocks and was transported to AGH.”

On the 8th, temperatures in Pittsburgh were as high as 87 degrees, per The Weather Channel.

Meanwhile, Sheeran recently had to improvise when Khalid, his tour opener, got in a car crash and was unable to perform. He opened for himself one night before recruiting John Mayer and Little Big Town to open for him.

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

Vladimir Putin’s cosmetology/ghost train has been stealing plenty of focus in Russia-focused headlines. However, there’s also the curious matter of the military uprising (led by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin) that swallowed up a weekend and then disappeared into the ether like it ain’t no thing. Uncharacteristically, Prigozhin was (supposedly) allowed to live in exile after disrespecting Putin in the ultimate way. That endgame wouldn’t make sense when Putin foes fall out of skyscrapers (and meet equally absurd deaths) on the regular.

Twists continue to emerge, and this includes a take from a retired U.S. general who points out how little he believes recent accounts that Putin and Prigozhin actually held a meeting after the failed uprising (which is also rumored to have been in search of backpack-sized nukes from the Cold War era). Robert Adams spoke with ABC to express his doubts that Prigozhin is even still alive, and here’s what he said about the claimed meeting:

“Well, first, I’d be surprised if we actually see proof of life that Putin met with Prigozhin, and I think it’s highly staged. And my personal assessment is that I doubt we’ll see Prigozhin ever again publicly. I think he’ll either be put in hiding or sent to prison or dealt with some other way, but I doubt we’ll ever see him again.”

One wonders how correct he is and if anyone should believe other reports about Prigozhin supposedly coming out to admit that he “went crazy” could be the Russian propaganda machine already at work. It’s a bit rusty, that machine, because it failed to cover up Putin being heckled in Ukraine, but there’s more.

A new Financial Times piece floats the possibility that Putin isn’t calling the shots anymore, and people might not be really quaking in their boots over him. Rather, the opposite Russian elites might now act as a “Collective Putin” while the real one skunks away out of fear and shame. Hmm:

The Kremlin’s response to the recent mutiny of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary boss, forces us to reconsider this picture. It was not Putin but the “collective Putin” (a mystical figure including, among others, Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus) that decided the outcome of the crisis. Putin the individual was irate and humiliated by Wagner’s betrayal and went on TV threatening “to be harsh”. But the “collective Putin” concluded that it would be wiser to negotiate with the rebels and find an exit strategy.

All of it is food for thought, and it’s rather amusing to think of a “Collective Putin” being kind of like “We’re All Negan,” only much more pathetic for Putin. However, there’s nothing truly worth laughing at when it comes to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, other than the fact that he’s obsessing over cabbage for some reason.

(Via ABC News & Financial Times)

Mark Ronson, the producer behind the Barbie movie soundtrack, is now opening up about the film in a new interview with Vanity Fair. Specifically, he speaks to Ryan Gosling’s performance as Ken, as a scene of the actor singing “I’m Just Ken” surfaced this week.

“I’m just Ken,” Gosling sings to Margot Robbie’s Barbie character. “Where I see love, she sees a friend. What will it take for her to see the man behind the tan and fight for me?”

Ronson is amused by it all, saying, “You really fall in love with this hapless but immediately sympathetic figure.”

As the brains behind the words of the song, Ronson also laughed upon coming up with the “I’m just Ken / Anywhere else, I’d be a ten” line that didn’t take long to think of.

“It felt a little bit emo, like, ‘This poor guy. He’s so hot, but can’t get the time of day,’” he shared.

“He really got [that] it had to walk this line of not being funny or parody,” Ronson added. “But obviously, the song is also kind of ridiculous at times. So he was really amazing, and when he really did start hitting the big notes, I was like, ‘This dude is a vocal powerhouse!’”

As an early preview from Barbie, check out Ryan Gosling performing “I’m Just Ken” above.