Month: July 2023

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 Palehound, Claud, Strange Ranger, The Front Bottoms, 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.

Palehound — Eye On The Bat

Using only four words, Palehound mastermind El Kemper described Eye On The Bat: “Anxious, horny, empathetic, emo.” This formula has been working for Palehound for years, and it’s especially warm and inviting on this new record. Opener “Good Sex” is as vivid and poetic as a film scene; closer “Fadin’” is a bittersweet ballad that leaves the listener in their feelings. From complicated familial ties to moments of intense intimacy, Eye On The Bat is a headfirst dive into the complexity of relationships with others as well with oneself.

Claud — Supermodels

Claud’s highly anticipated sophomore album Supermodels is here, not without a music video starring Paul Rudd to accompany it. The album is predictably confessional and delicate, staying true to the charm that fans loved on their debut Super Monster. “Glass Wall” provides a rewarding blip of nostalgic rock, bleeding into the emotional “It’s Not About You.”

The Front Bottoms — “Emotional”

So far, the singles from The Front Bottoms’ forthcoming album You Are Who You Hang Out With have been reminiscent of their early, stripped-down material. This new single, characteristically titled “Emotional,” shows a new direction, forward-looking and ambitious. Autotune and unfiltered hooks — “Ask if I’m emotional / F*ck yeah” — make for a memorable anthem.

Cherry Glazzer — “Soft Like A Flower”

“Soft Like A Flower” by Cherry Glazzer is some of their best stuff yet. The grungy, brooding track has a perfect hook accompanied by addictive guitars: “I like you killing me,” Clementine Creevy drawls. It’s a cathartic, nostalgic whirlwind of alt-rock that successfully lingers in the listener’s head well past its ending.

Snõõper — Super Snõõper

Snõõper are known for rapid-fire, playful punk. Based in Nashville, TN, the band shared their new album Super Snõõper, which contains 14 tracks that clock in at a little over 20 minutes. They don’t waste any time, and the songs fit aside one another in perfectly orchestrated chaos. With absurd lyrics and unforgettable bassline, Super Snõõper is a refreshing dose of mayhem.

Another Michael — “Angel” & “Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down”

To follow 2021’s enchanting debut New Music And Big Pop, Another Michael are releasing not one, but two albums, Wishes To Fulfill coming in September and Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down arriving early next year. The singles “Angel” and “Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down” are shimmering glimpses into what’s to come. The latter track is heartfelt piano ballad whose vulnerability feels colossal.

Spellling — “Cherry” & “Under The Sun”

Eerie artist Spellling — real name Chrystia Cabral — received recognition for her idiosyncratic 2021 masterwork The Turning Wheel, and these new songs “Cherry” and “Under The Sun” prove she hasn’t lost her haunted appeal. “Cherry” twinkles and broods and builds with unsettling whispers, growing into an evil anthem, sounding like a scene from a horror movie.

Strange Ranger — “Wide Awake”

The Strange Ranger singles from their forthcoming album Pure Music have been dreamlike and sporadic. “Wide Awake” is a skittish, atmospheric experience with hypnotic vocals. The band’s Isaac Eiger said in a statement: “I was thinking about these flashes of memory that stick in your head forever. Bursts of senses that return every now and again but don’t lead anywhere beyond themselves like a GIF in your brain.” The song captures this bizarre sensation, packed with sounds that are almost tangible and colorful.

Taking Meds — “Outside”

New York-based band Taking Meds have a new album called Dial M For Meds arriving in September, and “Outside” is a taste. The pop-punk anthem may call to mind The Menzingers or Iron Chic; the anthemic riffs are aplenty, and the hooks might make you laugh: “Workwear and fisheye lens / Bleached hair and hash oil pens.”

Mutual Benefit — “Little Ways”

The magic of Mutual Benefit’s sweet ballad “Little Ways” is subtle and becomes more apparent with each listen. Buoyed by soft guitars, the song is uplifting and hopeful: “I thought of picking the weeds that sprouted / Between a row of flowers when I wasn’t looking there / But they do what they can in a hostile land / And I can’t help but admire all their thorns.” With a music video featuring turtles and mushrooms, “Little Ways” is a nice moment of gratitude.

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

Two of Compton’s finest are not only linking up for an album, but they’re also heading out on tour. Tyga and YG announced their joint album during Tyga’s performance at Rolling Loud LA earlier this year, and since then, there’s been a steady stream of hood-certified new singles, including “Platinum” and “West Coast Weekend.”

Now, they’ve announced the routing for their Str8 To The Club Tour, on which they’ll be joined by YG’s rumored boo, Saweetie. Sounds like a winning lineup. And look, I can’t speak for the venues outside of California, but they’ve clearly dodged the “why are artists canceling tours” conversation with this routing. Leave it to Compton to know where the money resides. I don’t know about the club, but clearly, the California Hispanic community still messes with Tyga despite his “Ay Caramba” faux pas.

Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday, July 21 at 10 am local time at www.str8totheklub.com.

09/21 — Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
09/22 — San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center
09/23 — Las Vegas, NV @ Thomas & Mack Center
09/27 — Glendale, AZ @ @ Desert Diamond Arena
09/28 — Tucson, AZ @ Tucson Arena
09/29 — Ontario, CA @ Toyota Arena
10/4 — Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
10/5 — Vancouver, BC @ PNE Forum
10/6 – Vancouver, BC @ PNE Forum
10/7 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center
10/10 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
10/12 — Dallas, TX @ The Factory in Deep Ellum
10/14 — San Diego, CA @ Pechanga Arena San Diego
11/22 – Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum

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

Tom Cruise has climbed a skyscraper, clung to the side of an airplane, and ridden a motorcycle off a cliff. But there’s been few underwater sequences in the Mission: Impossible franchise. In fact, as far as I can remember, there’s only been one. But it’s a doozy. In Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is tasked by Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) to… something something about an underwater vault and switching a security profile? It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that the scene rules — and that Cruise holds his breath underwater for six minutes, a then-record for a feature film.

“I had to prove to everyone that it was actually safe,” Cruise said at the time of the film’s release. “Not only is it safe, but it’s better that I know how to hold my breath, because I’m going to be very relaxed. No one’s going to have to rush in, no one has to panic.” It was a remarkable achievement, but the hyper-specific record has since been broken by Kate Winslet in Avatar: The Way of Water (if anyone knows how to deal with water in a James Cameron film, it’s her). The Oscar winner held her breath for seven minutes and 47 seconds.

Winslet’s message to Cruise after setting the record: “Poor Tom.”

She continued, “I mean, I don’t know Tom at all – I’ve never met him in my life – but I’m sure he’s getting very fed up of hearing this story of how I broke his record.” Winslet was joking, but this is no laughing matter for Cruise. You know he wants the record back. So, if much of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two takes place underwater, as I’m guessing it will considering (mini-spoiler) where Part One leaves off, will he have the chance?

Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie told Collider that much of Dead Reckoning Part Two was shot ahead of the double strike, “except for the biggest set piece, the central set piece of the film, which is massive and unlike anything we’ve done, and, I think, unlike anything you’ve seen.”

The underwater scene in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation was filmed in a man-made tank. Could a natural body of water be next? It’s dangerous, it’s stupid, it’s expensive. It’s exactly the kind of stunt Tom Cruise was born to do.

If prices have to go up, this is the best case scenario.

According to Variety, Peacock is raising prices on its Premium service by $1 to $5.99 a month, but let’s just call it 6 bucks and forget the psychological trickery. Likewise, Peacock Premium Plus is going up $2 to $11.99 a month. Their Premium service includes ads, and the Premium Plus is mostly ad-free.

So, prices going up is bad, but things are also growing exponentially for Peacock and their audience. Over three years of existing, the streamer has added 80,000 hours of content, but they plan to add 100,000 more in the next year alone. Subscribers will also get the chance to see Universal movies at home during a specific release window for an individual rental-style fee.

Peacock currently has 22 million subscribers (a 60% jump since last year), but it’s also deep in the hole. Its projected to hit losses of $3 billion for NBCUniversal this year, so it’s little wonder they’re trying to claw some money back at what may be the tail end of the initial growth phase.

Unlike other streaming services that are more well-established, Peacock has found a sweet spot creating interesting shows like Poker Face, Bupkis, and Yellowstone that create a lot of buzz and loyal fans. Maybe they’ll be willing to shell out $12 a year to maintain access to their faves.

(via Variety)

With Oppenheimer set to explode into theaters, Christopher Nolan fans are no doubt curious about how the runtime for his latest historical epic starring Cillian Murphy as the film’s titular physicist. We got you covered.

Oppenheimer will clock in at exactly three hours, or 180 minutes if you want to get technical. Here’s the official synopsis for the film that will center on the father of the atomic bomb:

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX®-shot epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.

The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. Oscar® winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

In addition to the already considerable star power of Murphy, Blunt, Damon, and Downey Jr., the film will also star Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, and Kenneth Branagh.

Oppenheimer marks Nolan’s first R-rated film since 2002’s Insomnia, so be prepared for some saucy content involving the film’s title character. As for what that means, don’t expect an answer from Murphy. “I’m under strict instructions not to give away anything,” he recently told The Guardian.

Oppenheimer drops into theaters on July 21.

Selena Gomez treated fans to a special new TikTok yesterday, where she gave an at-home performance of her song “Lose You To Love Me” on the piano.

“This isnt the greatest i know so i hope no one minds me turning the comments off for my head but this was the best, most sincere moments with lose you to love me,” Gomez captioned the video.

“Making of… me getting to know myself,” she also wrote in the video as an added piece of text.

While fans couldn’t share their thoughts in the TikTok comments, they did take to Twitter to praise her vulnerability. “is the way she sounds good but y’all always find a way to discredit her for no reason…” one user wrote.

Others have pointed out that the video was reportedly first recorded back in 2019 during the making of the song.

“This song was inspired by many things that have happened in my life since releasing my last album,” Gomez previously said in a statement at the time of the track’s release. “I thought it was important to share the music, as I know many can relate to the fact that the road to self-discovery generally comes through the scars in one’s life.”

Check out Gomez performing “Lose You To Love Me” above.

Vladimir Putin has a lot on his mind these days. He’s still trying to clean up the mess from that mutiny of the Wagner Group leader, and Russia’s been sending over replacement troops with such speed that some of them are so untrained that they cannot repair their own broken-down equipment. Add this to the reported use of aged ammo that can “explode in your face,” and it’s safe to say that Putin is still losing troops at a dizzying speed. They have lost lives so rapidly, in fact, that they’ve been compared to hamburger meat.

Putin might be numb to it all by now? Or he might not be listening while fellow officials brief him on dead troops. As The Daily Beast relays, Putin offered a non-comforting response to Governor of Irkutsk Oblast Igor Kobzev, who relayed news about slaughter on the Ukraine battlefield. The Daily Beast viewed a Kremlin transcript, which described how Kobzev praised 192 troops who had recently died for Russia. And Putin, strangely, wished them “hello”:

[Kobzev] somberly shared an anecdote about a “Hero of Russia” who was killed in Mariupol early last year. “He covered a grenade with his body, thereby saving his fellow soldiers,” he said, adding that “for us they are all heroes, they are in our memory, in our hearts.” “Putin, not even bothering to look up from a photograph he was eyeing, muttered simply, “”Tell them I said hello.” Absolutely,” Kobzev said.

Not ideal! One wonders what happened here. Was Putin distracted and missed the gravity of this discussion? There’s no telling yet, but we could possibly see a Kremlin clarification/statement come out, given that this apparently sourced from their own transcript.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Kid Cudi has worn many hats over the course of his career — rapper, actor, writer, and tattoo enthusiast. However, an image recently circulated online featuring a tattoo, which Cudi is denying belongs to him.

The tattoo appears to be a creation of the iOS Emoji keyboard, featuring a set of “frequently used” emojis. A Twitter user posted a picture of the tattoo, and captioned it, saying, “Kid cudi just got the worst tattoo in the world.”

Cudi shared the tweet and instantly shut down this claim.

“This is not me lame,” he said, with a crying emoji next to the statement.

While Cudi (and hopefully anyone in their right mind) didn’t actually get a tattoo of the Emoji keyboard, the multihyphenate did recently get a tattoo of the KAWS-designed Moon Man cartoon which is featured on the boxset featuring Cudi’s Man On The Moon album trilogy.

Recently, Cudi’s animated film Entergalactic, which accompanies his 10th studio album also titled Entergalactic, was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.

Cudi took to Twitter to celebrate this remarkable feat, and particularly showed love to his frequent collaborator and friend, Travis Scott.

“Love to all the homies that hit me and showed love about the emmy nom,” he said. “Trav hit me first before anyone sayin congrats. It feels good to know I got real homies, real family out here that support me always.”

Work on the live-action Snow White remake is underway, and some photos from the production have caused some drama online. The images, published by The Daily Mail last week, indicated that the roles of the seven dwarves will all, except for one, be played by average-sized people.

This ignited criticism over the movie’s casting and revived questioning about Rachel Zegler portraying the traditionally fair-skinned Snow White character. In particular, Ben Shapiro took exception to Zegler’s casting, saying in part, “[The word ‘white’] is literally in her name. That’s why she has her name. So I guess just to like, screw with people, they’re casting… Rachel Zegler’s a very talented person. It’s weird casting, you might say.”

Now, Halle Bailey, who herself faced some criticism when she was cast as Ariel in the remake of The Little Mermaid, showed support for Zegler.

Sharing some childhood photo of herself wearing various princess outfits, Zegler tweeted on July 15, “extremely appreciative of the love i feel from those defending me online, but please don’t tag me in the nonsensical discourse about my casting. i really, truly do not want to see it. so i leave you w these photos! i hope every child knows they can be a princess no matter what.”

Bailey quote-tweeted the post and added, “we love you so much [heart emoji] truly the perfect princess.” Zegler responded, “my sweetest girl [heart emoji] i love you always.”

After a steady string of non-stop films, Matt Damon had promised his wife in couples therapy that he would start taking some time off. However, the actor managed to secure a caveat that he honestly didn’t expect to pan out: If acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan came calling, Damon would get a pass to work with him. Well, Nolan did reach out to Damon for Oppenheimer, and here we are.

“This is going to sound made up, but it’s actually true,” Damon told Entertainment Weekly before explaining why he included “the Nolan exemption” in his promise to his wife:

“I had — not to get too personal — negotiated extensively with my wife that I was taking time off. I had been in Interstellar, and then Chris put me on ice for a couple of movies, so I wasn’t in the rotation, but I actually negotiated in couples therapy ­— this is a true story — the one caveat to my taking time off was if Chris Nolan called. This is without knowing whether or not he was working on anything, because he never tells you. He just calls you out of the blue. And so, it was a moment in my household.”

Lest anyone thinks Damon is dismissive of his wife, he recently credited her for pulling him out of funk while he was filming a movie he knew was going going to be bad halfway through production.

“She just said, ‘We’re here now,’” Damon told Jake’s Takes. “You know, and it was like… 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.”

Oppenheimer drops into theaters on July 21.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)