Month: November 2023

Sean “Diddy” Combs has stepped down from his role as Chairman of Revolt, the media company he co-founded in 2013, after being accused of rape and abuse by his ex-girlfriend Cassie.

This story is being updated.

Even though the summer of Barbie is long gone, Margot Robbie is still a Barbie of the people, and hopefully, she will continue to share tidbits for years to come. She is still basking in her Barbie-ness, after all.

Robbie was recently asked about her favorite scene from the film, which was a tough question because every single scene is good. But she tried anyway! “It’s tricky because watching it on screen is one thing, but being there for the scene was a different thing,” the actress told Entertainment Tonight at the 2023 Gotham Awards, though she was able to pinpoint a particular moment she wasn’t expecting. “It was one line that Ryan improvised on the day. When he yells out ‘sublime.’ I wasn’t prepared for that, that wasn’t in the script and to this day, that makes me laugh,” Robbie said.

Gerwig confirmed earlier this year that the take was one of many random lines that Gosling had shouted, but “SUBLIME” was the one that stuck. She told Variety, “Ryan had the idea of [Ken] having a private moment that she [Barbie] can hear. Because, of course, there’s no walls or privacy in Barbie Land. And then I will give myself credit, I came up with ‘sublime.’ I kept thinking, what’s the funniest word? I kept going back to ‘sublime.’ It’s the oddest word,” she added. Surely there are odder words, like cacophony or fettuccini but you have to save some for other movies.

The director also confirmed that there were many other weird lines that Gosling tried. “But I let him do lots of things, because, why not? He did some very long sentences that he screamed. One was ‘Finally! My rainbow after the storm!’” Maybe one day we will get the Gerwig cut with some of the long-lost footage that the world needs to see.

(Via ET)

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 Brittany Howard, Björk, Guided By Voices, My Morning Jacket, 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.

Tozcos – Infernal

From Adolescents to T.S.O.L., Orange County was a punk rock haven in the late seventies and early eighties. Tozcos, a hardcore four-piece formed in 2013, are in conversation not only with hardcore’s lineage in Orange County, but they’re also forging their own path within its current punk landscape. Tozcos’ sophomore album, Infernal, is an urgent missive on what the band describes on their Bandcamp page as the “perception of ourselves and the world around us.” That may be ambiguous, but Infernal feels tactile and immediate. Highlights like the incendiary centerpiece “Regeneracion,” the headbang-worthy breakdown in the middle of “Ojos Muertos,” and K Lo’s nimble basslines on lead single “Presos” foreground a largely underground band. Diving into Tozcos’ smoldering inferno is like stumbling upon a hidden punk heaven.

Dylan Baldi – On The Way To Vesuvius

Cloud Nothings are perhaps best known for their brand of inflammatory, punk-inflected indie rock. When frontman Dylan Baldi screams “I thought I would be more than this” in the classic Attack On Memory cut “Wasted Days,” the combination of punishing drums and excoriating guitars underline the ferocity. Baldi, on his surprise-released new EP, On The Way To Vesuvius, eschews aggression in lieu of meandering noise experiments. Meeting the middle point between drone, noise rock, and ambient, Baldi’s solo EP is an engaging exercise in textural sonics. The fuzzy haze of “Morning Rounder” and the sputtering distortion all over “Hazy Summer Alley With Flowers” pinpoint Baldi as a talented instrumentalist, someone with an ability to elicit a wide gamut of sounds out of just a few instruments.

Brittany Howard – “Red Flags”

Brittany Howard toes a fine line between indie rock, funk, and gospel. On her 2019 solo debut album, Jaime, she worked with virtuosic musicians like jazz-fusion drummer Nate Smith and Alabama Shakes bassist Zac Cockrell, creating memorable tunes like “Goat Head” and “13th Century Metal.” She has been painstakingly quiet ever since, but Howard will return with her formidable sophomore record, What Now, early next year. On the hypnotic grooves of “What Now” and the syncopated rhythms dotting “Red Flags,” the Shakes’ frontwoman makes another compelling case for her inarguable prowess.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – “Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You”

Earlier this year, Will Oldham, the indie-folk singer-songwriter also known as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, released the tender and enchanting Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, his first solo album since 2019. Now, he’s sharing the title track, which didn’t appear on the album proper. It’s exactly six minutes long, yet there are only a handful of words. Each one hits like a hammer, but they’re sung as gently as a lullaby: “See, keeping secrets will destroy you / And how can I grow old / If I don’t know?”

Björk and Rosalía – “Oral”

Björk’s latest single, a team-up with Spanish pop behemoth Rosalía and producer Sega Bodega, was excavated from the depths of her catalog. Between the releases for Homogenic and Vespertine, the Icelandic auteur wrote “Oral,” but she could never find a suitable home for it. Now, however, it’s finally seeing the light of day. Nothing is arbitrary for Björk, though; the single’s release fights against factory fish farming, which has polluted Iceland’s idyllic fjords. The track’s sweeping sense of yearning feels prescient, as the dueling vocalists remain optimistic about the environmental future without yielding to status quo complacency.

Guided By Voices – Nowhere To Go But Up

These dudes simply do not stop. Looking at a list of Guided By Voices’ discography will almost certainly induce an acute case of sensory overload. Robert Pollard and his crew have already dropped two full-length albums this year: La La Land and Welshpool Frillies. That’s on top of hosting a weekend-long celebration for the 40th anniversary of the group in Dayton, Ohio, inviting friends like Built To Spill, Dinosaur Jr, and Wednesday along for the fun. With Nowhere To Go But Up, Guided By Voices pull off their 2023 LP hat trick. The album title succinctly sums up the band’s trajectory. Here’s to another fruitful decade of GBV.

The Japanese House – ITEIAD Sessions

As The Japanese House, Amber Bain crafts sleek, elastic synth-pop that marries syncopated grooves, introspective contemplation, and snappy hooks. That was largely the case with this summer’s In The End It Always Does, The Japanese House’s second album. ITEIAD Sessions mostly discards the shiny production for something more humanistic. Featuring an ABBA cover and live versions of several cuts from her latest LP, Bain’s new EP adds another layer of depth to her nuanced songs of heartbreak.

Body/Negative – “Sleepy”

Bruce Springsteen initially recorded Nebraska with the intent of taking his mournful, sparse demos to the E Street Band. As the legend goes, he instead opted for the demos themselves for their dark yet alluring intimacy. Body/Negative, the project of multi-instrumentalist Andy Schiaffino, mainly recorded their third album, Everett, on a tape recorder, and its small scale makes its sprawling textures feel vast by contrast. “Sleepy,” a collaboration with Midwife and the album’s final single, is a microcosm of Schiaffino’s delicate compositions. Piano notes ring out across empty space like stars dotting a galaxy, the spaces in between carrying just as much weight as the melody itself.

Health – “Demigods”

Rat Wars, the forthcoming fifth album from industrial rockers Health, anoints the Los Angeles trio as leaders of the subgenre’s latest wave. With an ear for immersive sonics, mechanistic grit, and heavy-hitting breakdowns, Health know exactly what they’re doing. The nearly six-minute epic “Demigods” encompasses all three of those modes, as the band shifts from a reverb-drenched intro to a crunchy guitar progression with pummeling drums, only to revert back to an atmospheric section with Jake Duzsik’s airy vocals. As an album opener, “Demigods” perfectly encapsulates Health’s multitudes.

My Morning Jacket — Happy Holiday!

The holiday season is just around the corner, and indie fans will likely be bumping Christmas music from artists like Sufjan Stevens and Low. Add My Morning Jacket to that list, as the Louisville band released a physical version of Happy Holiday!. It includes the five original tracks from the 2013 digital version and three new songs; there’s even a “snow version” of Circuital cut “Wonderful (The Way I Feel).” On these nine jolly tunes, Jim James and co. transform into My Merry Jacket.

While the festival season is still a few months away from kicking off, Coachella comes faster than most might expect — as tickets go on sale quickly and attendees prepare to head out to the Californian desert.

Here’s everything to know for Coachella 2024.

When Is Coachella 2024?

Coachella 2024 is being held across two weekends in April. The first will be Friday, April 12 through Sunday, April 14. The second weekend will keep the same lineup and run from Friday, April 19 through Sunday, April 21.

Who Is Headlining Coachella 2024?

The headliners for Coachella 2024 have not been announced yet, and will likely be revealed with the full lineup. Fans on Reddit had started discussing possible options, with Dua Lipa being a consideration, as she would have a new album coming soon. Other guesses have been Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Rage Against The Machine, Shakira, SZA, and more.

Where Is Coachella 2024?

Coachella 2024 will take place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.

Is Coachella 2024 Sold Out?

Right now, Coachella 2024 tickets are sold out — and have been for a few months. According to the website, fans can join a waitlist for either weekend to get tickets.

How Much Are Coachella 2024 Tickets?

General Admission for Coachella 2024 started at $499, plus fees, for either weekend. The prices then increased by tiered GA sales, depending on when you purchased, with the highest being $599 to start. VIP passes started at $1069, according to Consequence.

After an extended hiatus and a last-minute delay, Nicki Minaj’s high-anticipated fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2, is nearly here. With the success of her record “Barbie World” with Ice Spice, which earned her a Grammy nomination, the momentum is on Minaj’s side.

During a sit-down with Vogue, Nicki Minaj hinted that the project would be her most personal work. “When I look back at a lot of my music, I’m like, Oh, my God, where was the me in it? So for this album, I went back to the old game plan,” said Minaj.

Here’s everything you need to know about Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2, including the release date, tracklist, artwork, tour details, and more.

Release Date

Pink Friday 2 is out 12/8 via Republic. Find more information here.

Tracklist

The official tracklist has not yet been revealed.

Features

As the public waits for the release of the official tracklist, rumors of guest features have begun to circulate across social media. Some names thrown into the mix are Remy Ma and Metro Boomin. Nicki Minaj previously confirmed Drake would contribute to the album.

Artwork

You can see the Pink Friday 2 artwork below. Nicki Minaj has given fans a plethora of cover options for the vinyl releases.

Singles

So far, Nicki Minaj has rolled out two singles from Pink Friday 2, including “Bahm Bahm” and “Last Time I Saw You.” Before announcing the album, Minaj released songs “Super Freaky Girl” and “Red Ruby Da Sleeze.” Fans hope each of those tracks will appear on the project.

Tour

On November 17, Nicki Minaj confirmed that to support the album, she will embark on a world tour. Currently, the Pink Friday 2 World Tour schedule hasn’t been shared with the general public. But Minaj did confirm that the run will kick off in 2024. The RVSP webpage listed several North American and international stops, including Brooklyn, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Montreal, Philadelphia, Toronto, Vancouver, Netherlands, Germany, and France. In addition to the Pink Friday 2 World Tour, Minaj is slated to headline Rolling Loud California 2024.

Yesterday (November 27), the racketeering trial against Young Thug officially began with the Fulton County District Attorney’s prosecutor delivering their opening statement. Young Thug is charged with violating the Georgia state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and engaging in criminal street gang activity. According to the state, Thug is the leader of a violent street gang, YSL, which has been responsible for dozens of crimes including murder and armed robbery.

However, Thug’s defense attorney, Brian Steel, has argued that the state’s case is flimsy and based on a literal reading of the rapper’s song lyrics with no benefit of the doubt for creative license. According to the New York Times, Steel said, “Despite the unthinkable oppressive, impoverished and cruel conditions of his upbringing, [Thug] has been able to cultivate his creative genius to lawfully and ethically attain phenomenal worldwide success.”

Steel is a veteran defense attorney who runs a firm alongside his wife, Colette, after spending the earliest part of his career as a public defender. Earlier this year, Steel tried unsuccessfully to get Thug granted bond, calling his life in jail “torture.”

So far, Steel has already tried for a mistrial, noting that Assistant DA Adriane Love showed evidence during her opening statements that had already been banned from the case. While Judge Ural Glanville rejected that proposal, he did admonish the prosecutor for including the off-limits material.

If convicted, Young Thug could be sentenced to up to 120 years in prison (although it would likely be much less).

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

If you like holiday-themed slashers, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Out in theaters now is Thanksgiving, Eli Roth’s feature based on a fake trailer from Grindhouse, and It’s a Wonderful Knife, a parody of It’s a Wonderful Life from director Tyler MacIntyre. Fox News recently took some time off from whining about Starbucks cups, or whatever, to complain about the films.

“Even Christmas is being profane,” Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo told host Laura Ingraham during Monday’s episode of The Ingraham Angle, according to the Daily Beast. “If you’ve been to the movies lately — I made the mistake of going over the weekend — there are two holiday slashers on the big screen. I saw these posters at the cineplex. I thought they were a joke. They’re not. They’re real.”

Arroyo didn’t specify which movie he saw at the “cineplex” (I’m surprised he didn’t call movies “talkies”), but it probably wasn’t Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.

Thanksgiving and It’s a Wonderful Knife are comedies as much as they are horror movies, but guess who wasn’t laughing.

Arroyo, who hosts a news program on the Catholic television network EWTN, didn’t find anything funny about them. “This is an emblem, Laura, of our cultural decay: when you can’t even make uplifting or joyous movies around the holidays,” he preached, as Fox News shifts into its annual, breathless coverage of the supposed War on Christmas. “You have to extend killing, mutilation, maiming, and death.”

Unlike in the Bible, which is famously death free. The clip of Arroyo’s meltdown caught the attention of It’s a Wonderful Knife writer Michael Kennedy, who wrote, “IT’S A WONDERFUL KNIFE has caused moral decay! Thanks for the free press, FOX NEWS! IAWK drops on @Shudder @AMCPlus and VOD this Friday!” He added, “In a seriousness, you have no idea how proud this makes me. Our queer little horror movie is full of love and joy and I hope more people watch it because of these emotionally and mentally inept charlatans.”

You can see the video below, as well as reactions.

(Via the Daily Beast)

Earlier this month, a Grammy-winning superstar took a bold left turn. Nobody saw it coming, and many were confounded by the move. But this person successfully challenged convention and upended previous notions of his work. And in the end, one could not help but admire his flouting of commercial expectations. Because he was, as always, his own idiosyncratic self.

I am referring, of course, to Garth Brooks and the packaging of his latest studio album, Time Traveler, inside of a seven-CD box set sold exclusively at Bass Pro Shops locations.

Perhaps you are unaware that the best-selling solo artist in American pop music history has made his new record available at only 177 stores (including 82 combination Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s) known for selling hunting and fishing gear. If that is the case, I will refer you to this Billboard interview published the day before the box set (titled The Limited Series) was released on November 7. Last year, Garth played the chain retailer’s 50th anniversary party and he struck up a friendship with CEO Johnny Morris. “He talked to me about water conservation,” the singer-songwriter explained. Garth naturally drew a parallel between the fight to preserve fresh water and the plight of veteran country stars who are resistant to streaming music platforms. “And he said ‘Well, what can we do about that?’ and I said, ‘I’m looking for a partner for my last limited box set’ [and] he was sweet enough to step up.”

And that was that. A perfectly logical and practical collaboration concerning the 17th studio LP by a man who has sold more than 170 million records worldwide was forged.

I think I heard about the “Garth Brooks + Bass Pro Shops” union when it was announced, but I quickly forgot about it. It mostly registered as another one of those stupid music industry “synergy” stories that frequently come across my timeline, in which a world-famous musician teams up with a highly successful corporate brand to once again prove that Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping was barely a satire. I paid “Garth Brooks is selling his new album at Bass Pro Shops” as much mind as this month’s story about Snoop Dogg “giving up smoke” in order to promote a new partnership with a smokeless fire pit company. This is just the way of the world. Rocks are hard. Water is wet. Popular music in 2023 is embarrassing and undignified.

The Assignment

Flash forward to one week before Thanksgiving. My editor sends me an article over Slack expressing wonderment over how Time Traveler has virtually no digital footprint. The music is scarcely available on YouTube, it says. Very few people are tweeting about it. Notices from professional critics are negligible. Not even the author of the article appeared to have actually heard Time Traveler. It was almost as if the new Garth Brooks album (for the aggressively online, at least) did not exist.

“Maybe I should review this?” I Slacked back.

My editor was pleased. It was the very response he had Jedi mind-tricked me into giving him. But as I pondered the particulars of the situation, I began to feel as though I had a responsibility to review this album. First of all, while I am not a Garth Brooks super fan, I have dabbled amiably in his work. Like anyone who has stepped foot inside of a small-town Middle American bar since 1990, I have heard and enjoyed “Friends In Low Places.” And if I were ever called upon to be a talking head in a Garth Brooks documentary, I could bluff my way through a discussion about No Fences. Second, I am a vocal fan of the CD format. I am surrounded by stacks of the things in my office, and they number in the thousands. Meanwhile many of my colleagues in the media don’t even have the hardware to play a CD. Which is probably why the author of that article my editor sent me wrote about Time Traveler like it was printed in Sanskrit and buried at the bottom of the Dead Sea.

And then there is the matter of geography. The vast majority of music critics reside in either New York City or Los Angeles, and neither metropolis is located anywhere near a Bass Pro Shops location. Whereas I live in a western suburb of Minneapolis, a town where Garth at his peak once performed nine consecutive sold-out arena shows. (There is even a song set in Minneapolis on his new album. More on that later.) I swiftly discovered via Google Maps that there was a combination Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s a mere 20-minute drive from my house. I picked up the phone and dialed the store to confirm that the box set was in stock. A man with the voice of a basset hound answered. The box set was in stock! My access to the bottom of the Dead Sea was secured.

For the first time in my life, living in the Midwest was a professional advantage. My mind reeled at this shocking reversal of fortune — this was like the latest Christopher Nolan film screening exclusively at my neighborhood Kwik Trip store. I felt compelled to seize the moment.

The Purchase

A few days after my call to the basset hound-voiced man, I pulled up to my local Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s. If you have never been to this place, picture the biggest log cabin you have ever seen. A log cabin the size of a football field. The kind of log cabin that Taylor Sheridan probably owns. That’s what it looks like on the outside. On the inside, modern country music plays over the P.A. An arsenal of guns and ammo is available at discount prices. The selection of flannel shirts is voluminous and impressive. And the staff is hyper-proficient and extremely Caucasian. It’s like Red State: The Store.

For the record, selling an album strictly at a sporting goods outlet is not the craziest business decision Garth Brooks has ever made. Not even close to the craziest, really. The first, obviously, was the whole Chris Gaines thing. The second was his decision in 2014 to launch his own digital music service, GhostTunes, to compete with iTunes. After he inevitably shuttered the service three years later, Amazon became Garth’s only online retailer. Look up “Friends In Low Prices” on Spotify or Apple Music and (aside from a live bootleg recorded in Germany in 1995) you’ll come up empty.

Upon entering Cabela’s, I was met by Robert, who had the business-casual look of a store manager. I asked him where I could find the Garth Brooks box set, and he motioned to his right. Any fears I had that The Limited Series might sell out a few days before Black Friday were instantly put to rest. Here was a display with eight shelves of Garth, each with three rows stacked nine long-boxes high. As I walked over to the plastic-covered wall of music I could see Garth’s picture on every one — he was wearing a white button-down over a salmon-colored v-neck shirt, along with the de rigueur cowboy hat, shades, blue jeans, and significant belt buckle. The logo for Bass Pro Shops loomed prominently behind him. The Limited Series title was emblazoned on faux-prestigious fake gold plating.

“Would you like me to take your picture?” Robert asked, gesturing toward the life-sized photo of Garth standing next to the plastic-covered wall of music.

“No,” I replied, with a slightly defensive edge. Replaying the exchange later in my mind, I realized that my reflexive reaction to Robert’s question was based on the assumption that he was making fun of me for buying a seven-disc Garth Brooks box set. And I surmised that this response surely stemmed from years of conditioning from judgmental clerks in record stores. But this was not a normal record store — or a record store at all. As far as music goes, Cabela’s only sells seven-disc Garth Brooks box sets. Robert was not making fun of me. He was being sincere. I wonder how many people he had previously photographed with that life-sized Garth photo.

As Robert guided me to the cash register, he explained in a low conspiratorial tone that while the box set retails for $29.99, I could have it for $19.99 if I signed up for a Cabela’s Club credit card. But that’s not all: When you sign up for a Cabela’s Club credit card, you are gifted 20 free dollars to go toward your first purchase. Which meant that I could have this box set … for absolutely nothing. Plus, they were also going to throw in a Cabela’s hat and stainless steel multi-tool (with sheath!), free of charge.

Suddenly, I could see why Bass Pro Shops wanted in on the Garth Brooks business. It wasn’t because Johnny Morris envisioned a vital link between water conservation and the restoration of compact discs. The man was hawking credit cards. And it was a good racket.

The pitch shouldn’t have worked on me. I made my editor promise ahead of time that I could expense my purchase. I didn’t need to hand over my driver’s license and Social Security number to get this box set for free. But Robert’s kind but firm demeanor immediately overwhelmed me. My mind flashed to my previous Garth Brooks assignment, when I covered the first concert of his post-retirement comeback nine years ago at an arena outside of Chicago. I interviewed a nice middle-aged couple about why they liked Garth Brooks, and they didn’t say he was a great songwriter or that he was an incredible singer or that he was a charismatic and sexy performer. They didn’t say that because Garth Brooks is not any of those things. He is rightly perceived as the most average superstar in modern popular music history.

Here’s what they did say: “He’s a reasonably priced ticket.” And that summed up his appeal as well as the 3,000-word thinkpiece I proceeded to write. People buy into Garth Brooks because he’s always a good deal. And good deals are hard to resist, even when the product being offered is something you don’t need or particularly want. But Garth’s prices are reasonable. He has the best customer service. And he’s very convenient. He’s like Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s, only with less wood siding.

The Album

The “good deal” aspect of Garth Brooks goes hand-in-hand with his other defining attribute: His obsession with statistics. Media outsiders flummoxed by the idea of the most popular country singer of the last 30 years selling his latest album in this manner fail to understand that he’s a world-class stats padder. He’s like an athlete who excels in garbage time. Call him the James Harden of country music.

The previous Limited Series box sets, released with Walmart in 1998 and 2005, resold Garth’s catalogue at a low price point. Fans purchased cheap CDs, and Garth pumped up his RIAA figures. This latest (and allegedly final) box set places Time Traveler with his other post-retirement releases: 2014’s Man Against Machine, 2016’s Gunslinger, 2018’s Triple Live and 2020’s Fun. (If you’re a fan who kept up with those albums — and feel obliged to complete your collection with Time Traveler — the box set is less of a good deal.) The Triple Live record is the most egregiously padded of the bunch, with three CDs that run a scant 35 minutes each. It could have conceivably been called Double Live (or Double Live II, since Garth already has a live album called Double Live), but for stats purposes that would mean only counting it as two units per item sold as opposed to three.

I wonder if Garth is only interested in his statistics at this point when it comes to recorded music. There has been a decided “post-album” vibe to his recent media spots. For instance, when he appeared last week on CBS Sunday Morning looking like a beefier remix of late-period Eminem, the focus was on his new Nashville night spot, the Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky Tonk, and the resumption of his Las Vegas residency. Time Traveler was mentioned exactly zero times, even though it came out just 12 days prior.

Which is a shame, because Time Traveler is a lot better than a Garth Brooks album released exclusively to Bass Pro Shops in 2023 has any right to be. Now, as this record has a minimal digital footprint, I could write anything about Time Traveler without fear of being called out or contradicted. I could say that it includes a bluegrass cover of Skrillex’s “Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites.” I could claim that Garth has finally embraced the ska revival. I could insist that his experimentation with a sexy Pepé Le Pew-style French accent represents a bold artistic reinvention. But I won’t do that. Because I have a responsibility to review this record.

And here is my review: The title is a literal description of the album. If not for a cameo by Kelly Clarkson, it could have come out in 1994. The inclusion of 2002’s American Idol winner is the only (slight) nod to modernity on Time Traveler, which otherwise is rife with broadly strummed guitars and weeping fiddles and unapologetic sentimentality. Garth pays tribute to old-fashioned country music “that I’d played all day when my brother died.” He jams with Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn and covers a David Allan Coe song about a hitchhiker who is picked up by the reanimated corpse of Hank Williams, Sr. In “St. Paul/Minneapolis (A True Story),” he writes about meeting a woman in the Twin Cities, forging an instant connection, and harboring lifelong (platonic) love for her. It is, like all of Garth’s best songs, shamelessly corny and highly affecting because it is shamelessly corny.

Garth, who once unironically referred to himself in a 1994 Playboy interview as “America’s guy,” made his bones by marketing himself to an audience that the rest of the pop world assumed would disappear if you simply ignored them. In the 1990s, that meant citizens of flyover country who were turned off by the anger and rebellion of grunge and gangsta rap. In the ’20s, apparently, it means Luddites who like music but pride themselves on being aggressively not online. This puts Garth increasingly out of step with mainstream country listeners, who in 2023 are now streaming songs at unprecedented levels after years of lagging behind the constituencies for rock and rap. But like Andre 3000 with his flute album, Garth Brooks has the capital (financial, cultural, etc.) to not care about the pop-music trends that concern lesser stars. What does he care about? Perpetuating a system in which he once excelled, even if it means marginalizing himself as a display item perched between blaze-orange jackets and fuzzy wool hats.

Garth Brooks not only is committed to selling his new music on CD, but he put Time Traveler out on a Tuesday, just like they did back when Ropin’ The Wind was outselling Nirvana and Michael Jackson by leaps and bounds 32 years ago. No artist thrived in the ’90s like Garth did. He thrived so much that he commenced a 13-year retirement in 2001 to avoid a post-’90s existence. In a way, he’s still putting off that reality. Why wouldn’t he? If you were Garth Brooks, you would also pretend that the ’90s never ended.

Jesse Watters wants everyone to know that he was bitten in the crotch by an alleged Democrat’s dog over the Thanksgiving holiday. During his Monday night show, the Fox News host shared an anecdote about a run-in he had with a woman on a nature trail that apparently ended with Watters taking a bite to the groin and his hand.

“We’re on a tight part of the trail and I notice the dog’s all wet, and she’s like, ‘Oh, this is my dog, you know, kind of wet, he just swam in the pond,’” Watters said via The Daily Beast. “I’m thinking this is kind of crazy. You’re letting your dog swim in a pond—37 degrees in a nature preserve? That’s my first clue. Second clue: the woman’s kind of struggling to hold the dog on the leash.”

That’s when things went south.

“The dog comes by, and I’m trying to back up, just give her a little room. Dog bites me. Twice. Nips my groin and takes a chunk out of my hand,” Watters said before making the camera zoom in on his hand, which had some sort of mark. “Thank God she bit me. She didn’t bite someone litigious like Judge Jeanine [Pirro].”

Naturally, Watters couldn’t resist making the situation yet another example of evil liberals terrorizing their conservative betters.

“I could tell she was a Democrat because when I pulled into the preserve in my car, there was a Subaru Outback. Dead giveaway,” Watters said. “Plus, she didn’t recognize me.”

However, Watters’ latest canine fiasco probably has nothing to do with politics and more to do with the mounting evidence that dogs (like a lot of humans) just don’t like him. A few weeks ago the Fox News personality revealed that he “got rid of” his own dog because it “didn’t work out.” He then refused to elaborate to his co-hosts why he deprived the poor pooch of a home.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Uproxx cover star Tate McRae is just a few days away from the release of her album, Think Later.

“Writing this whole thing was one of the most stressful, exciting, nerve racking, and fun things I’ve ever gone through,” she previously shared on Instagram. “For the first time in my life I lived this year a little less with my head and a little more with my intuition – and I rlly hope u guys can feel that through the music.”

Here’s everything to know about McRae’s record.

Release Date

Think Later is out 12/8 via RCA Records. Find more information here.

Tracklist

Right now, McRae’s tracklist for Think Later is still unconfirmed. She did tease some of the order in an Instagram post, but the rest will remain a surprise for now.

Features

McRae doesn’t appear to have any features on Think Later, but that could change with the eventual tracklist reveal or a song remix.

Artwork

View McRae’s Think Later artwork below.

Singles

So far, McRae has dropped two singles from Think Later: “Greedy” and “Exes.”

Tour Dates

04/17/2024 — Dublin, IE @ Olympia Theatre
04/18/2024 — Dublin, IE @ Olympia Theatre
04/20/2024 — Glasgow, UK @ Glasgow Academy
04/22/2024 — London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
04/24/2024 — Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo Manchester
04/26/2024 — Wolverhampton, UK @ The Civic At The Halls
04/28/2024 — Cologne, DE @ Palladium
04/29/2024 — Amsterdam, NL @ AFAS Live
04/30/2024 — Antwerp, BE @ Lotto Arena
05/02/2024 — Stockholm, SE @ Annexet
05/03/2024 — Oslo, NO @ Spektrum
05/04/2024 — Copenhagen, DK @ Falkonersalen
05/06/2024 — Hamburg, DE @ Sporthalle
05/07/2024 — Berlin, DE @ Verti Music Hall
05/08/2024 — Prague, CZ @ Forum Karlin
05/10/2024 — Warsaw, PL @ COS Torwar
05/12/2024 — Zurich, CH @ Halle 622
05/13/2024 — Vienna, AT @ Gasometer
05/14/2024 — Munich, DE @ Zenith
05/16/2024 — Milan, IT @ Fabrique
05/17/2024 — Paris, FR @ Zenith
05/20/2024 — Barcelona, ES @ Sant Jordi Club
05/21/2024 — Madrid, ES @ Palacio Vistalegre
05/22/2024 — Lisbon, PT @ Coliseu de Lisboa
07/05/2024 — Calgary, AB @ Hometown Show*
07/07/2024 — Woodinville, WA @ Chateau Ste Michelle
07/09/2024 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
07/11/2024 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre
07/14/2024 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre
07/17/2024 — Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park
07/19/2024 — Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall
07/20/2024 — Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
07/21/2024 — Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP
07/24/2024 — Cincinnati, OH @ The Andrew J Brady Music Center
07/27/2024 — Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage
07/28/2024 — Sterling Heights, MI @ Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre
07/30/2024 — Saint Louis, MO @ Saint Louis Music Park
08/01/2024 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory
08/06/2024 — Nashville, TN @ Ascend Amphitheater
08/07/2024 — Indianapolis, IN @ Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park
08/09/2024 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway
08/13/2024 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
08/14/2024 — Philadelphia, PA @ Skyline Stage at Mann
08/16/2024 — Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater
08/17/2024 — Atlanta, GA @ Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park
08/22/2024 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden**
11/08/2024 — Perth, AU @ Red Hill Auditorium
11/10/2024 — Brisbane, AU @ Riverstage
11/12/2024 — Sydney, AU @ Hordern Pavilion
11/15/2024 — Adelaide, AU @ AEC Theatre
11/17/2024 — Melbourne, AU @ Margaret Court Arena
11/19/2024 — Auckland, NZ @ Spark Arena
11/21/2024 — Wellington, NZ @ TSB Arena

* Venue TBA
** Additional support TBA