Month: September 2023

The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie have been playing shows together on their joint tour — honoring their respective albums, Give Up, and Transatlanticism, both turning twenty years old. And it turns out they have even more surprises in store. The two bands are opening a special exhibit in Seattle titled Everything Looks Closer From Far Away: The Exhibit.

According to a press release, the exhibit’s title is a reference to The Postal Service’s hit song, “Such Great Heights,” but will serve as a tribute to both records. It is listed as a “pop culture time capsule” that will feature “murals, artifacts, large-scale installations, an in-depth timeline of both records and more,” according to 105.7 The Point.

It opens on September 29 at the KEXP Gathering Space, and will run for a month, closing on October 29. The exhibit will be open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

The two bands will be playing sold-out shows in Seattle on October 6 and 7, leaving open the possibility for them to drop by. Or, for fans arriving from out of town, attending the special exhibit would be perfect to add into any sightseeing plans.

The anniversary tour officially concludes on October 19 in Los Angeles. A complete list of dates and remaining tickets can be found here.

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

Finally, Jon Hamm can go back to his midwestern roots in the best way: throwing on a cowboy hat and eating some bacon in a small-town diner where everyone looks mad at him. This is what Minnesota is for!

Hamm is starring in the fifth season of the acclaimed anthology series Fargo, and today FX dropped a teaser that gives us a first look at Hamm as the ruthless sheriff Roy Tillman. He is the self-proclaimed “hard man for hard times,” and times sure do seem hard over there. Here is the official synopsis for season five:

The latest installment of Fargo is set in Minnesota and North Dakota, 2019. After an unexpected series of events lands “Dorothy ‘Dot’ Lyon” (Juno Temple) in hot water with the authorities, this seemingly typical Midwestern housewife is suddenly plunged back into a life she thought she had left behind.

The Mad Men actor will star as Sheriff Tillman, the midwestern sheriff who is looking to poke some holes in Dot’s story and get to the bottom of her sketchy past. The cast also includes Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ted Lasso’s Juno Temple, Stranger Things’ Joe Keery, New Girls’ Lamore Morris, and Dave Foley. Also starring is Hamm’s fancy belt:

Fargo premieres 11/21 on FX. Check out the teaser trailer above.

Beginning this Friday, September 29 through Saturday, September 30, electronic dance music fans will call Concord, North Carolina home. The Breakaway Music Festival’s 2023 Carolina installment will feature live performances and DJ sets by Grammy Award winner Flume, Dom Dolla, and Austin Millz. Continue reading for the official set times for Breakaway Music Festival 2023.

Other notable entertainers listed on the bill include Porter Robinson, Blond:ish, Bonnie x Clyde, Kaleena Zanders, Adventure Club, Snakehips, Alison Wonderland, Elderbrook, and Chris Lorenzo.

The graphic uploaded to the event’s official Instagram page shows that performances will be split amongst two areas (the main stage and the launch pad). Headliners Porter Robinson, Dom Dolla, Flume, and Alison Wonderland will play on the main stage. Meanwhile, Adventure Club, Snakehips, and Chris Lorenzo will hold down the launch pad space.

Breakaway Music Festival 2023 Carolina will take place on Friday, September 29 and Saturday, September 30. The two-day event will be held at the zMax Dragway at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Limited VIP and general admission tickets are still available for Breakaway Music Festival 2023 Carolina. Find more information here.

Set times are subject to change. For up-to-date information regarding the performance schedule, be sure to subscribe to the event’s official newsletter. Find more information here.

For the first time since the news of Angus Cloud’s death broke, Euphoria creator Sam Levinson has opened up about his attempts to get the young actor help for his substance abuse problems. In a sprawling interview with PEOPLE, Levinson recalled the day he called Cloud into his office and leveled with him about the actor’s drug use.

“I looked him in the eye and I knew that he wasn’t doing well,” an emotional Levinson said about the first time he got Cloud into rehab. “At the same time I’ve been in these situations before where you’re trying to get someone clean. And I just said to him, ‘I love working with you and we’ve got this amazing season planned and stuff, but I need you to be sober because I got to be able to rely on you.’”

Cloud did the 30-day stint in rehab and returned to Euphoria while continuing to work with an outpatient program. But Levinson could already see the efforts weren’t working.

“I could always feel that he didn’t want [sobriety] as much as we all wanted it for him,” Levinson said. “That’s where it gets tricky because the whole world can want it for you. But he didn’t want it. It’s just the self-destructive side of addiction and it outweighs everything. But you can’t give up on people. I wasn’t going to let anyone give up on him.”

After an intervention and another trip to rehab didn’t do the trick, Levinson had a four hour talk about how Cloud needed to be sober for Season 3 or he wouldn’t be allowed on set. It was a difficult decision because Levinson also felt it was “safer” for Cloud to be at work.

“No, no, I’m good. I’m good,” Levinson recalled Cloud telling him. “I could tell, at that time, it was like he wasn’t interested. He wasn’t going to do anything, and yeah, he didn’t want it.”

Unfortunately, Levinson was correct. Cloud continued to use drugs until his death in July 2023.

(Via PEOPLE)

Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s book sure is making MAGA world angry. Rudy Giuliani flipped out over allegations that he groped Hutchinson with “frozen fingers,” and Hutchinson found herself bluntly shutting down Matt Gaetz’s claims that they had a romance. Hutchinson also reported that MyPillow guru and conspiracy theorist extraordinaire Mike Lindell was allowed to freely wander the White House without an escort.

What’s next? Trump’s constant smoke-and-mirrors about his supposedly healthy lifestyle, which he has also countered with a steady stream of taco bowls and fried chicken. Via Raw Story, Hutchinson wrote about how irritated Trump was after a lunch with Liz Cheney and Steve Scalise, and in the process, she revealed that Trump ate small lunches whenever guests were around, and after they left, he’d raid the kitchen for a “real” meal. He also reportedly complained about personal-space invaders while acting that way himself:

“I was prepared to be reprimanded for having invited Liz, ready to take the blame and a told-you-so from Mark. The president was eating a second (his real) lunch and looked cross,” she writes, indicating Trump ate a smaller first lunch with the members.

“Mark asked if everything had gone okay, and the president immediately started to complain — not about Liz, but about Steve, who he said had tried to dominate the conversation. Steve had been acting like an ‘obsessed fan’ with no concept of personal space,” the story continues. “’He kept bringing his chair closer to me, and getting too close to my face when he spoke, like he doesn’t know I can hear him fine,’ the president said. He stressed several times that he did not want to be put in that situation again.”

This is, of course, the same guy who self-reported his weight during a jail booking, and everyone knew he was full of it. Also, this has little to do, underneath it all, with weight struggles but more about Trump’s habit of lying like he’s drinking Diet Coke. Speaking of which, you know he must have raided the kitchen and guzzled that stuff at least a few dozen times to fuel himself for late-night Twitter tirades. Hutchinson’s book really keeps on giving.

(Via Raw Story)

While Flyana Boss proved the power of manifestation with their breakout hit “You Wish,” the best friend rap duo’s latest release just states the facts. “Bitch Imma Star” sees Folayan and Bobbi flexing on their exes while owning their newfound notoriety (it also finds Bobbi rhyming “arthritis” and “hippopotamus” and making it work, which is just more proof that these girls are the best thing to happen to hip-hop since 2020 at least). It’s another track that makes it clear they’re just having fun and not taking things too seriously, which is what has been earning them fans at a breakneck pace.

As they’ve been enjoying the success of their breakout, they’ve also been living out its lyrics, finding themselves practically actually swimming in new brand deals. They made a joking reference to this with a “brand plug” in their “You Wish” video, but they also recorded a new commercial jingle for Pizza Hut, so it seems like Bobbi had a point when she wrote that fan-favorite bar. The girls are currently on tour with Janelle Monáe and recently got a co-sign from Missy Elliott, so it sounds like they really are stars now.

You can listen to “Bitch Imma Star” above.

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

It will be a celebrity send-off for Pat Sajak’s final take on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune! The fourth season of the special edition gameshow will begin airing on September 27 and consist of 10 episodes where the slew of famous contestants will compete for a $1 million prize that will go to their chosen charity. Previous contestants included Ken Jennings, Jack Black, and Snoop Dogg, so you never know what you’re going to get here.

The upcoming season will include Ted Lasso‘s Brendan Hunt, Good Burger’s Kel Mitchell, and a whole bunch of NFL players looking to prove that they know how to spell. Here is the complete list:

Brendan Hunt (Ted Lasso)
Debbie Gibson
Roy Wood, Jr. (The Daily Show)
Luiz Guzman (Wednesday)
Kel Mitchell (All That, Dancing With the Stars)
Kim Fields (The Facts of Life, The Upshaws)
Penn Jillette (magician)
Noah Mills (NCIS Hawai’i)
Melissa Villasenor (Saturday Night Live)
Danielle Pinnock (Ghosts)
Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias (Mr. Iglesias)
Tim Gunn (Making the Cut)
Natasha Leggero (Chelsea Lately, Another Period)
Kyle Brandt (Days of Our Lives)
Marcellus Wiley (former NFL player, sportscaster)
Rashad Jennings (former NFL player)
Jared Allen (former NFL player)

The fourth season will be Sajak’s last, though Vanna White will step in to host the celebrity tournament in the future. Maybe one day Sajak will return to compete for himself and show everyone how it’s really done.

Celebrity Wheel of Fortune airs on ABC on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.

(Via Yahoo!)

The 2023 WNBA MVP race was one of the most hotly contested in recent memory, as Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, and Alyssa Thomas all made tremendous cases for themselves as being the best player in the league.

Ultimately, the panel of voters selected Stewart in her first season with the New York Liberty as this year’s MVP, edging out Wilson and Thomas in the voting after a season in which she averaged 23.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.6 blocks, and 1.5 steals per game for the 2-seeded Liberty.

It is the second MVP win for Stewart in her career, as she took home the 2018 MVP award while with the Seattle Storm. This year’s award certainly comes with a bit more debate as all three of Stewart, Wilson, and Thomas put forth MVP-caliber seasons. For Thomas, the argument was her all-around dominance for the Sun, helping them earn the 3-seed in the league by averaging 15.5 points, 9.9 rebounds, 7.9 assists, and 1.8 steals per game. For Wilson, her case to take home back-to-back MVPs (and her third overall) was very similar to Stewart’s, averaging 22.8 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game, leading the Aces once again to the WNBA’s best record.

Ultimately, Stewart ended up narrowly beating out those two, despite Thomas actually getting the most first place votes (23), but Stewart finished with more overall points (446) than Thomas (439) and Wilson (436) in one of the tightest awards races in league history.

There will be plenty of debate about whether the voters got it right, and it will only add fuel to the current WNBA semifinal between Stewart’s Liberty and Thomas’ Sun, with Connecticut taking Game 1 and stealing homecourt in the series.

Britney Spears recently had fans talking after her latest Instagram dance video featured some unique objects. In the clip, Spears wields two knives as she twirls around. “I started playing in the kitchen with knives today !!!” Spears originally captioned the video before adding, “Don’t worry they are NOT real knives !!! Halloween is soon.”

Initially, many were concerned as they looked very real. Some have pointed out that Spears might have taken inspiration from Shakira’s recent performance at the 2023 Video Music Awards, where she did choreography while holding two knives.

“The way Britney watched Shakira’s Vanguard performance and decided to have a mother off,” one user posted.

“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,” another added. “Oh wait, that didn’t happen!!!”

Spears has had a wild year, after her separation from Sam Ashgari. Still, she is keeping things moving, gearing up for the release of her memoir, The Woman In Me. Her 2002 movie, Crossroads, is also getting a re-release in theaters to celebrate — and giving newer Spears fans a chance to catch it.

Check out Spears’ knife dance above.

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 Faye Webster, Blink-182, Zach Bryan, Bleachers, 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.

Squirrel Flower — “Intheskatepark”

Squirrel Flower made it clear with her colossal single “Full Time Job” that her new album, Tomorrow’s Fire, is going to be one of the most compelling indie rock records of the year. Somehow, the newest track “Intheskatepark” is as hypnotic, anchored by wonderfully reverb-drenched guitars and a mesmeric melody.

Blue Smiley — “Coma”

Like Spirit Of The Beehive or even some of Alex G’s weirder material, Blue Smiley’s appeal is the collage-like texture of their songs, how they feel like an attack on the senses. Their new single “Coma” is a burst of energy, buzzing and vibrating and erupting, taking twists and turns that can’t be expected.

Bad History Month — “Winter Window”

Taken from their forthcoming album God Is Luck, Bad History Month’s “Winter Window” sprawls unpredictably and jarringly. “Most of this album is improvised,” Sean Sprecher said in a statement, finding freedom in letting go and painting emotive scenes: “Then I walk into the night alone / Slow, steady snowflakes sifting sweetly through the streetlights.”

Thank You, I’m Sorry — “Mirror”

Thank You, I’m Sorry’s new song “Mirror” starts off with heavy, reverb-laden guitars before launching into a poppier, Blink-182-like sound. It sounds like it’s from an early 2000s coming-of-age film, but also retains a sense of uniqueness: “Is this just growing up? / A constant state of over-analysis / And if that’s what this is / I’m not into it,” Colleen Dow sings.

Blink-182 — “One More Time”

Speaking of Blink-182, they’re back with “One More Time.” With Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus trading off verses, it feels like we’re back in 2001. It’s a serious track — like “Stay Together For The Kids” or “Adam’s Song” — and references Travis Barker’s plane crash in 2008: “I wish they told us, it shouldn’t take a sickness / Or airplanes falling out the sky.”

Faye Webster — “Lifetime”

Faye Webster is loved for peaceful, upbeat ballads that balance melancholy with levity. The songs often feel weightless. Her new single “Lifetime” feels more evocative than usual, shedding humor for intensity and earnestness as she expresses unfiltered love with few words: “With no conversation / I understand you verbatim.”

Bleachers — “Modern Girl”

Fall Out Boy revived and updated Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” and now Bleachers’ new song “Modern Girl” sounds like a nod to the classic hit as Jack Antonoff opens it up with a sing-rap: “Friday night, killer queens / Hop a train, on the scene / All the band is in the wild / Don’t you dare touch the dial.” It’s a celebration, a feel-good anthem.

Alex Lahey — “Newsreader”

Alex Lahey’s “Newsreader” is an unorthodox, apocalyptic love song. “I’m in love with the newsreader / But I only see her when she’s on the clock,” she lulls over acoustic guitar. It builds, with car crashes and finance news, until she concludes: “The world is such a f*cked up place / And it changes every single day / I hope she’s gonna be ok.”

Bar Italia — “My Little Tony”

Bart Italia shared their beautifully strange album Tracey Denim in May, and they’re already returning with another called The Twits in November. “My Little Tony” is a clamorous eruption with lyrics as mischievous as the guitars: “Your pretentious ways / Make me die a little / Don’t you see you’ve lost your touch?”

Zach Bryan — Boys Of Faith

Getting arrested in Oklahoma will not stop Zach Bryan from dropping an EP. Not only is it a surprise, but it features Bon Iver and Noah Kahan. Bryan and Justin Vernon’s harmonies on “Boys Of Faith” are something you never knew you needed; all five songs show off Bryan’s astonishing songwriting.

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