Month: September 2023

The 1975 kicked off the first date of their Still At Their Very Best Tour in Sacramento last night (September 26). After a series of controversies tied to lead singer Matty Healy, including getting banned from Malaysia and starting a Twitter feud with Lucy Dacus, there had been fans noticing that the ticket prices had dropped.

While the band is still set to tour the UK and Europe next year, Healy addressed the crowd with an announcement near the end of the show, regarding the status of The 1975 going forward. “It’s wonderful you’re all here,” he said. “After this tour, we will be going on an indefinite hiatus with shows, so it’s wonderful to have you guys with us tonight. Thank you so much.”

However, the news comes after rumors of tension within the band. A few months ago, when The 1975 played Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival, Healy decided to protest the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies by speaking out and kissing another member, Ross Macdonald, on stage. The festival was then promptly canceled and the organizer was seeking about $2.69 million in damages.

Given the high sum, it’s likely that the rest of the members would be divided and upset about having to pay. Still, some fans think The 1975 is just taking time to rest and work on the next album.

Right now, their final show date is in Amsterdam on March 24. A complete list of dates and ticketing information can be found here.

L’Rain unveiled “New Year’s UnResolution” in June, then announced her new album I Killed Your Dog and shared the single “Pet Rock” in August. “I’m exploring heartbreak like many of us do,” she wrote on Instagram. Now she’s back with another preview called “r(EMOTE).”

“r(EMOTE)” is a beautiful, hallucinatory journey with enchanting synthesizers and a feeling of drifting forward, not unlike the textures Daniel Lopatin conjures with Oneohtrix Point Never, who’s credited on the album for track list sequencing.

“On this song ‘r(EMOTE)’ I’m wondering how long it takes to forget someone you’re close to,” Taja Cheek said in a statement. “This theme is present throughout the album as I reflect on living through moments of heartbreak, not just romantic, but the dissolution of friendships and other close relationships. As always in the world of L’Rain, the specifics are hidden from public view but I leave listeners with a lot of big feelings and an invitation to examine their own life experiences through my particular lens.”

The sonic landscape is vast and inspiring, her vocals send a rippling wave through the atmosphere as she repeats over and over, “Maybe one day / Maybe one day…” It’s a sprawling glimpse into the exciting album to come.

Listen to “r(EMOTE)” above.

I Killed Your Dog is out 10/13 via Mexican Summer. Find more information here.

A couple days ago, on September 25, Britney Spears continued posting videos on Instagram of herself dancing. This time, though, she was wielding knives as she showed off her moves. Some saw this as a cause for concern, but as Spears noted in the post’s caption, “I started playing in the kitchen with knives today !!! Don’t worry they are NOT real knives !!! Halloween is soon !!!”

As TMZ notes, though, in a video from Spears’ very next post, she is seen wearing a bandage on her forearm and with a cut on her thigh, perhaps as a result of her knife dance. Whatever the case may be, Spears wants people to chill out about the whole thing, and she’s explained the motivation behind the video.

In the caption of another dancing video (knife-free this time) shared yesterday, Spears wrote, “Lighten up about the knives I’m copying Shakira !!!”

As some fans suspected, Spears was indeed copying Shakira’s recent performance at the 2023 Video Music Awards, during which Shakira danced while holding knives. After Spears’ knife video, one fan commented, “I remember when all these ppl who are sharing their concerns about Britney’s post that she’s dancing with knives were deeply worried about Shakira when she danced with knives. Oh wait, that didn’t happen!!!”

Keanu Reeves and Alexandra Grant are a notoriously private couple, but she recently gave a rare insight into their relationship.

“The good news about falling in love as an adult is that I had built my own career by the time that my relationship had begun,” the visual artist, who has been dating the John Wick star for four years, told People at the Los Angeles Beverly Arts Icon Awards. “I feel very confident in the relationship on the red carpet. I feel confident on it alone.”

Grant admitted that “in a moment of frustration in my life, I once said, ‘Sometimes I feel like a Maserati stuck in traffic,’ that I have this big engine, but, for a variety of reasons, that I couldn’t ever go. And I know a lot of people feel frustrated in their lives, that they’re not able to run their engine.”

Unlike this movie I saw about a bus that had to speed around a city. I think it was called The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down.

But what Grant loves about Reeves is that “we’re pushing each other to build new roads. Seeing the other person’s problem-solving is inspiring, like, ‘Oh, well, okay, this one, that’s a cul-de-sac. How do I try this other thing?’ He’s such an inspiration to me. He’s so creative, he’s so kind. He works so hard.”

This grandmother agrees.

(Via People)

At least when it comes to celebrity gossip, Travis Kelce just had the biggest game of his career this past weekend, since Taylor Swift, who he is rumored to be dating, was in attendance to watch his Kansas City Chiefs demolish the Chicago Bears 41-10. Swifties are dying for more information about the supposed relationship, and fortunately for them, Travis and his brother, fellow NFL player Jason Kelce, have a podcast, New Heights. So, of course, Swift came up during a new episode that released today (September 27).

At around 34 minutes into the episode, Jason brought up Swift attending the Chiefs game and joked, “How does it feel that Taylor Swift has finally put you on the map?” Travis laughed and responded, “Shout out to Taylor for pullin’ up; that was pretty ballsy, that was pretty ballsy, yeah. I just thought it was awesome how everybody in the suite had nothing but great things to say about her, you know? The friends, the family. She looked amazing, everybody was talking about her in a great light, and on top of that, the day went perfect for Chiefs fans, of course. We script it all, ladies and gentlemen. It was just impressive. It was impressive.”

He was particularly impressed by Swift’s enthusiasm for the game, saying, “To see the slow-motion chest bumps, to see the high-fives with mom, to see how, you know, Chiefs kingdom was all excited that she was there, that sh*t was absolutely hysterical, and it was definitely a game I’ll remember, that’s for damn sure. And then we just slid off in the getaway car at the end, took my Chevelle to the game and… yeah. […] Shout out to Taylor for coming through and seeing me rock the stadium.”

They then got into Travis’ increased jersey sales and Bill Belichick’s take on the Swift situation before Jason asked if there’s anything Travis would like to say about the relationship rumors. Travis said:

“Well 1: I know I brought all this attention to me, right? I’m the one that was… I did the whole friendship bracelet thing and, you know, told everybody how butthurt I was that I didn’t get to meet Taylor. You miss 100 percent of [the shots] you don’t take, baby.

So yeah, I think it’s… what’s real is that, you know, it is my personal life, and I want to respect both of our lives. She’s not in the media as much as I am, doing this show every single week and having fun during the NFL season on other guys’ shows, like the [Pat] McAfee show and any other show that I go on from here on out, you know. Like you said on that Thursday night game, I’m enjoying life and I sure as hell enjoyed this weekend, so everything moving forward, I think me talking about sports […] will have to be kind of where I keep it.”

Check out the full New Heights episode above.

Sexyy Red is everywhere right now. She’s toured with Drake. beside some of rap’s biggest names like Latto and Lil Durk for remixes. She’s been spotted on the sideline for New York Jets and Penn State football games. She’s even stopped by our studio for UPROXX Sessions. At this point, if there’s a place to be, you can expect Sexyy Red to be there. That’s why it’s no surprise that the St. Louis rapper has found her way onto the soundtrack for Rap Sh!t season two. For a match made in heavy, Sexyy checks in with her new single “No Panties” which is the first single from the upcoming soundtrack.

“No Panties” is as raunchy of a track as we’ve ever heard from Sexyy Red and it fits the personality of Rap Sh!t to a tee. The lively track is one that Sexyy Red uses to flex her sexual prowess and show how she prepares for a rowdy night on the town.

The soundtrack for Rap Sh!t season two, which is titled Rap Shit S2: The Mixtape, will arrive on November 3 and include contributions from the show’s lead characters Shawna and Mia as well as Rico Nasty, Kaliii, Maiya The Don, Enchanting, Cam & China, and more.

You can listen to “No Panties” in the video above.

Rap Shit S2: The Mixtape is out 11/3 via Raedio/Def Jam.

‘Rap Sh!t’ season two premieres November 9 on Max. Season one is now available to stream on the platform

Airplane!, the beloved parody of disaster movies, is basically a perfect movie. But what if instead of starring Robert Hays as the pilot with a fear of flying, it starred a pre-late night host David Letterman? Would that have made it even better? Or actually worse? According to Letterman himself, probably the latter.

As per Entertainment Weekly, a new book about the blockbuster, Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True History of Airplane!, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the directorial debuts of David Zucker, Jim Abraham, and future Ghost director Jerry Zucker, collectively known as ZAZ. They reveal that Letterman — back when he was a sardonic Tonight Show regular but not yet the star of Late Night with David Letterman — did a screen test for the role of Ted Striker. He struck out.

“I get out there, and they had set up a cockpit for the aircraft with chairs,” Letterman recalled. “I had a chair, and there was another chair where the copilot would be. We did the scene once, and then they came in and gave me some notes, and then we did it maybe two more times. And I kept saying all along, ‘I can’t act, I can’t act, I can’t act,’ and then one of them came to me after the audition and said, ‘You’re right: you can’t act!’”

Letterman had acted before. He was a cast member on The Mary Tyler Moore Hour and appeared on an episode of Mork & Mindy. But save his stint as a toy monkey salesman in Cabin Boy (and voicing a roadie in Beavis and Butt-head Do America, albeit under a pseudonym), all his “acting” roles in movies and shows has been as himself.

As it happens, mere days before Airplane! was released in the summer of 1980, NBC debuted The David Letterman Show, their first show with the future late night star. That program, however, was a morning show, and despite winning two Emmys, it was cancelled after only three months. But, well, you know, he did pretty okay for himself.

(Via EW)

Last month, Sun June announced Bad Dream Jaguar, their follow-up to 2022’s sprawling Somewhere. The group shared the dreamy lead single “Get Enough,” as well as “Easy Violence” and “John Prine.” Now they’re back with another taste of the highly anticipated record.

“Mixed Bag” is an endearing, cinematic ballad inspired by Tom Petty. Read the band’s statement about it:

“In some ways this song allowed us to reflect and become more aware of how dumb our arguments are. ‘You were searching for a reason to be mad,’ and ‘I know every single fight we’ve ever had,’ are accusations and boasts that made us laugh. Each chorus expands on the last, as we acknowledge the ways we’re repeating the past but try to keep score regardless.

We recorded Mixed Bag both in Texas and North Carolina — Dan Duszynski, Alli Rogers, Danny Reisch, Max Lorenson, and Chad Doriocourt all had a hand in trying to shape this into a dusty Petty-esque song. The song is about struggling to stay hopeful about the future, but we hope the bop outweighs the sadness.

For the video, we asked Vanessa Pla to help capture some of the rural outskirts of Austin on Super 8 film. We took inspiration from some old 1940s PSAs and Texas corporate films. She and her crew found themselves in the middle of cow pastures off of brand new highways, face to face with some friendly longhorns.”

Listen to “Mixed Bag” above.

Bad Dream Jaguar is out 10/20 via Run For Cover. Find more information here.

Julian Lennon, son of Beatle John Lennon and his first wife, Cynthia, had a candid, two-hour conversation with Bill Maher on a recent episode of his “Club Random” podcast. During their intimate talk, Julian discussed his complicated feelings about being the subject of one of The Beatles’ most famous songs, “Hey Jude.”

“Hey Jude” was written by Paul McCartney while driving to the Lennons’ house to comfort them after John Lennon left Cynthia for Yoko Ono in 1968. The song is credited to the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership, which by ‘68 mainly had splintered.

The song was initially called “Hey Jules,” but McCartney changed the name to Jude because he thought it was “a bit less specific.”

When asked about being the subject of such a popular song, Julian Lennon had his reservations.

“I’m thankful for the song without question. The other real thing is that people don’t really understand that that’s a stark and dark reminder of actually what happened with the fact that dad walked out, walked away, left mum and I,” Lennon told Maher.

“You know, that was a point of complete change and complete disruption and complete darkness and sadness. I mean, I was only 3, but I recognized something was up, you know,” Lennon continued. “Yeah, it was heartbreaking, heartbreaking. So, it’s a reminder of that time and that place. So, I get both sides of it, but a lot of people don’t necessarily understand there’s a dark, you know, the yin and the yang of that song.”

As a massive Beatles fan, Maher failed to realize the song’s impact on Lennon’s life. “I feel stupid not seeing that before you had to explain it to me, but I get it,” Maher said.

Republicans sure don’t like American cities these days. Conservative commentators have been trying to paint the nation’s metropolises as postapocalyptic hellscapes that have relapsed to 1970s conditions. They usually go after New York City, despite it being probably the safest it’s ever been in its 400-year history. On Monday, Fox News took on Seattle, but instead of finding a frightened populace desperate to escape soaring crime rates, they found…well, the opposite.

In a segment flagged by dedicated Media Matters far right watchdog Kat Abu (and caught by The Daily Beast), The Five aired what they hoped would be a scintillating man-on-the-street segment about Washington State’s biggest city, which easily riled-up co-host Jeanine Pirro called a “progressive hellscape.” But Pirro was gobsmacked that residents told reporter Johnny Belisario that, no, it’s pretty nice there.

One man Belisario found informed him he’s “never seen any crime in Seattle.” Instead he’s seen “fun and laughter and laughter and fun.”

One woman said she straight-up didn’t believe the crime statistics Belisario had fed her. When Belisario tried to convince her that people were getting carjacked and robbed left and right, she said she’s “never heard of anyone getting robbed.” She added that “people don’t just come up and try to rob you.”

When Belisario claimed he saw people “shooting up on the way down here,” the woman replied, “Oh, did you? Okay. And they were bothering you?” When he said he was in a car, she mocked him: “Oh no, you were in a car! They were hurting you so bad!”

While this woman spoke, the chyron tried to gin up outrage with the words “residents in blue cities are embracing the decay” — the decay which they tell them isn’t happening.

Another tried to explain how they could right the societal ills they claim are destroying Seattle and other cities: “Crime is a social issue that could be solved by giving people their basic needs.”

After the segment, the Five talking heads weighed in. Pirro was especially appalled.

“The arrogance and the ignorance of Seattle residents that Johnny interviewed is shocking. I mean, how could they be clueless?”

Jesse Watters claimed they were simply in “denial” that their place of residence had fallen on hard times. “And if you look at the demographics of the city, it’s understandable. It’s a very highly educated city—very white, very LGBTQ, very secular. And they all believe in the same thing, which is [that] criminalizing crime is racist.”

Per data published by the Seattle Police Department, violent and property crime did rise 4% in 2022 from the previous year, with violent crime at a 15-year high. But according to residents, it’s not the end-of-the-world situation Fox News hosts claim it is.

In other news, Republicans have a new reason to have the Big Apple: A New York judge ruled Monday that Trump and his Trump Organization cronies, including his two eldest sons, were guilty of fraud, which means the former president’s days doing business in his hometown are probably finito.

(Via Kat Abu and The Daily Beast)