Month: September 2024

When Mike Flanagan opted to adapt Stephen King’s short story The Life Of Chuck, to the big screen, King himself wasn’t even sure if it would work. “His initial responses to me were a little like, ‘Oh, okay. Yeah. If you think that’s a movie…,’” Flanagan told Vanity Fair. Flanagan was so dedicated, he decided to produce the film independent of a studio, and thus The Life Of Chuck really came to life — thanks to a particularly impressive dance sequence.

In The Life Of Chuck, Flanagan tells the story of Chuck in reverse chronological order, and it is revealed that dancing is a huge part of the accountant’s life ahead of his retirement. This made it important for the movie, too, which is why Flanagan was set on getting noted good dancer Tom Hiddleston involved.

Flanagan was shown a clip of Hiddleston’s lively moves which prompted him to cast the actor instead of someone unknown. “He had a completely unfiltered joy on his face,” Flanagan told the outlet. “He was a good dancer, but that wasn’t what struck me. I wasn’t amazed by the technique so much as the degree of happiness that was radiating off of him. The look on his face made me smile the same way I smiled reading that particular portion of the book.”

Hiddleston didn’t just waltz onto set, he was dedicated to his dancing role, and took months to prepare. “I had to learn in six weeks the full regime of any dance training. We did jazz, swing, salsa, cha-cha, the Charleston, bossa nova, polka, quickstep, samba. We were trying to tip our hat to anything that might have influenced Chuck,” he added. “It might’ve had a bit of Gene Kelly or Fred and Ginger. Certainly moonwalking—Stephen King is very specific about the moonwalk.” Hiddleston has really improved since that fateful night of dancing that led to a relationship with Taylor Swift.

In the end, Hiddleston’s hard work paid off. “I burned holes in my shoes,” Hiddleston says. “I was dancing out on the asphalt in Alabama, and by the time we’d finished, you could see my socks through the soles.” Just another reason to invest in a Mama Mia threequel.

Flanagan has previously called the film “a tenacious little miracle of a movie from the start,” and even King had kinder words after he saw a cut of the film. Dancing really can heal the world…maybe.

The Life Of Chuck premieres at TIFF on September 6th.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Lady Gaga has spent much of this year teasing her upcoming seventh album. In January, she shared photos of herself in the studio. In May, her Gaga Chromatica Ball concert film confirmed an album with the message, “LG7 GAGA RETURNS.” While in Paris for the Olympics, Gaga played some samples of new music.

Through it all, one thing we haven’t gotten is an indication of when we can expect the album cycle to begin. Finally, there’s news on that front: Gaga is planning to release the project’s first single in October.

Today (September 3), Gaga posted a photo of a printed itinerary written in a mix of English and Italian. It says:

“VFF Itinerario per Madame Lady Gaga
Tuesday 03 September: WB welcome dinner
Wednesday 04 September: FAD World Premiere & Press Conference
6:20pm CEST: Red Carpet
Thursday 05 September: FAD European Press Junket

Date Importanti
04 October: Joker: Folie à Deux in theaters
XX October: LG7 first single”

Given that the upcoming song is being referred to as the “first single” in the final item on that Joker: Folie à Deux-heavy agenda, it would seem Gaga’s recent Bruno Mars collaboration “Die With A Smile” is a standalone single and not part of the forthcoming album.

There was a bit of drama with the slate of new album releases from August 23. Sabrina Carpenter dropped her album Short N’ Sweet the same day Travis Scott re-released his mixtape Days Before Rodeo, and it looked like Carpenter had Scott’s feud with Nicki Minaj on the brain.

It turns out both projects had just about an equal chance to top the latest Billboard 200 chart (dated September 7), and the race was incredibly close. Now, we know who won: Billboard announced today (September 3) that Short N’ Sweet is No. 1.

It claimed the title thanks to 362,000 equivalent album units in the US during the week ending August 29. Days Before Rodeo was very, very close behind with “a little over 361,000” units. So, there was a difference of about a thousand, or less than 1 percent, between the two projects’ unit numbers.

Short N’ Sweet is Carpenter’s first No. 1 album, beating her previous best performer Emails I Can’t Send, which peaked at No. 23. This follows “Please Please Please” becoming Carpenter’s first No. 1 single on the Hot 100.

In other Carpenter news, she killed (and kissed) Jenna Ortego in her “Taste” video, was all over Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, and had maybe her best “Nonsense” outro yet on Chicken Shop Date.

Imagine Dragons is taking one small step for man, one giant leap for broadcasting songs from the Moon.

Last year, the Las Vegas-based trio of Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon, and Ben McKee recorded a song, “Children Of The Sky,” for the open-world video game Starfield. The track hasn’t been played during Imagine Dragons’ Loom World Tour yet, because the band was saving it for a special occasion.

Billboard reports that “Children Of The Sky” will make its live debut at the band’s Hollywood Bowl show on October 27 featuring the Los Angeles Film Orchestra and composer Inon Zur. The song will then be “transmitted back to Earth from the surface of the Moon as part of Lonestar’s Freedom Mission flying with Intuitive Machines to the South Lunar Pole in early 2025.”

“Our goal is to inspire the next generation of kids to be excited about the future of space and technology, which is why we chose ‘Children of the Sky’ as the first song in history to be broadcast from the Moon,” Ryan Micheletti, an investor in Lonestar through The Veteran Fund, said in a statement.

Imagine Dragons themselves will not be on the Moon, although they could probably afford a trip up there.

You can buy tickets for the Hollywood Bowl concert here and listen to “Children Of The Sky” (non-Moon edition) below.

Beyoncé’s fanbase is notorious for their intensity but also for their sensitivity. If they even think Cowboy Carter has been insulted, they’ll lash out without hesitation.

Which might be why Timeless producer Kaytranda did some preemptive damage control before his recent comments about Drake and Beyoncé could be taken out of context. So, what did Kaytranada say about Beyoncé that had the Beyhive so riled up?

In a recent interview with Vulture, the producer recounted his experience nearly producing for Drake. Elsewhere in the interview, Kaytranda also revealed why a similar opportunity to produce for Beyoncé never panned out.

After crafting a remix of Beyoncé’s Renaissance song “Cuff It,” Kaytra said he withheld the remix from streaming after being lowballed on a payment offer by Beyoncé’s team, which he called, “less money than what much smaller artists have paid.” He also noted that Bey would have retained “all the rights to the song.” “Sometimes, people don’t see your worth and how important you are. I know what I mean to people.”

Some Beyoncé fans felt this was disparaging to the original artist, and were quick to let Kaytranada know, prompting him to write a post on Twitter clarifying his statement. “Mannnn I didn’t drag her that’s just what happened,” he wrote, in the since-deleted post. “The remix didn’t get a release and it is what it is but later that year I opened [for] her on tour AND on her Bday on top of that. Now what? I love that girl & y’all ain’t gonna make me look like I ain’t rocking with her.”

Nobody has a better front-row perspective to the growth and development of pop music — and how it affects pop culture — than DJs. As the party controllers, they are the ones who set the vibes, yes, but they also get to see trends as they play out in real time. Sometimes, they’re even the ones sparking those trends.

In much the same way, so much of American culture has come from the Black experience: jazz, rock & roll, hip-hop, and dance music all started in music halls and underground venues catering to a Black American clientele that was often barred from more mainstream spaces.

One of the spaces that Black folks were kept out of was higher education. And so, as we found juke joints and empty rec rooms to develop jazz and launch hip-hop, Historically Black Colleges and Universities became cultural hot spots, where new movements in politics and art were nurtured and primed to change the course of American history.

In looking to gain some new insights and perspectives on how HBCUs have impacted America’s various party scenes, there was no better resource to turn to than LA native DJ R-Tistic. A veteran of the DJ scene, playing everything from local weekly residencies to corporate gigs to Coachella, R-Tistic has seen every kind of party imaginable. And, as a graduate of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University — also known as Florida A&M or FAMU — he’s got the unique experience of seeing how Black student life can have an outsized impact on social and cultural standards, even hundreds of miles away.

Can you tell me a little bit about what your experience at FAMU was like and how that has informed your approach to your craft today?

I didn’t start DJing until I got there and I was… Plugging in my laptop. Initially I didn’t even plan to be a DJ. It was more so, it just happened throughout time. But I would say it influences it in so many ways because the main thing is that everybody’s coming from somewhere different. So at that time, this is the mid-2000s, when I feel like everybody’s music was so different. You can argue and say that it’s still different sounds now, but overall we know it’s a lot more similar. Back then, St. Louis had Chingy and J-Kwon and Nelly versus LA having Snoop and Game. And even The Bay sounded different from LA back then.

My first time doing a New Orleans party, they were like, “But you from LA. You don’t know our real music. All you know is Lil Wayne. We wanna hear Webbie.” At a HBCU, I think everybody comes in as a freshman kind of arrogant because it’s like, you coming from whatever city you came from. You think your city’s the best. I got there playing Bad Azz and Eastsidaz and Suga Free, and they’re like, “Why you playing this happy music?” Harlem dudes are playing all Dipset. And even Harlem and Brooklyn going at it, talking about Dipset versus Jay-Z or the Philly dudes and D Bloc. So I feel like it was just the fact that we had so many different styles, and we got to really meet people and see how they reacted to it.

I remember it was a group called Dude ‘n Nem, they had a song called “Watch My Feet.”

Juke, juke, juke, juke!

I would’ve had no idea what it was. It would’ve sounded foreign to my ears if I was just in LA hearing it because I was out there, and I heard, “Bang, bang, bang, skeet, skeet, skeet, and let me bang.” It made sense when I heard it. So it’s just the fact that you hear so many different varieties [at HBCUs].

I think over time, as the blogosphere moved in, that replaced that in-person experience.

In some ways it did. It is still different because even when I go back now, you’ll still hear more regional music. For FAMU specifically, it’s different only in that because of the cost of everything, I don’t think there’s as many out-of-state students as it used to be when I was there. Whenever I go to the Hood clubs out there now just to check in, I do hear a lot more of the southern music and just Florida music than I hear the other sounds. The blog area and social media and streaming, it did kind of homogenize things to an extent, but you still will get a different variety.

A lot of those artists had sounds that didn’t match where they were from. Even Kendrick. People argue now that “Not Like Us” is his first LA song. [Writer’s Note: Those people are SUPER wrong.] I get what they mean because “Swimming Pools” and those songs did not have a traditional West Coast sound. I think they grew up in the era where they didn’t really have as much of a direct connection to that regional sound. So they made music that appealed based on what they grew up watching on 106 & Park versus what was really local.

How did the melting pot aspect of going to an HBCU help those artists break through, then?

We had a showcase called “Rep Your City,” where each city had their own two minutes to play their regional song and do a dance. So Chicago did “Bang Bang Bang Skeet Skeet.” We might’ve did a “Wrong Idea” or something like that. We crip up. The Bay had a little hyphy moment. Everybody had their own little moments. And some people got booed. They booed us just because it was like, “What is this LA music?”

A lot of folks are still stuck in whatever their region is into. Freshman year, everybody gravitates toward what city they’re from, and that’s your whole identity. So I think that, that flattening happens at HBCUs because after a couple of years you start meeting friends from different places.

I always wondered what kind of role the HBCU college scene played in accelerating or even in breaking things. Because a lot of times people would come back from school, and they would know what song was about to hit even before it hit on a national level. It almost feels like that’s the spot where everything starts. As much as we talk about “Black people generate culture in America,” I feel like that’s the microcosm.

Yeah, for sure. I remember bringing K-Wang back to LA in ’02, ’03 first time I heard it and I couldn’t dance to it, but people just liked the beat. And then I didn’t hear it to get in LA until ’08. And now it’s crazy because it’s a whole line dance to it. I think a lot of times it did accelerate things, because I remember even in high school when my boy, his older brother was at Morehouse, and he told me, he was like, “Hey, Jay-Z got a song with Twista called, ‘Is That Your Bitch?’ And Missy’s on there too.”

I had a homie who went to Clark, and once he got to Clark, all he liked was Atlanta music. So he got back, he was playing Bone Crusher and Drama and Pastor Troy in LA. I realized that a lot of the major DJs around the country are from HBCUs, from Young Guru to Drama and Cannon and Jae Murphy.

There’s been talk of whether HBCUs are still relevant. Politically, there have been a lot of arguments against HBCUs that have gotten louder. What do you see as the primary benefit beyond music, beyond anything else, of having HBCUs as not just learning institutions, but as cultural centers, as places that are for us in the climate that we currently exist in?

It’s an argument that I feel like anybody who even questions why they exist, they’re already going to be turned off and not really open to hearing the true answer. One argument is always that the real world isn’t all Black, but nobody white would ever tell somebody white to not go to Harvard or Yale or any other school that’s 70% or 90% white. “Don’t go there because that’s not diverse.” You never hear that.

For us going into the real world, it made no difference. Once I graduated, I realized that it made no difference because the only difference between us and other folks is when it comes to cultural references. That means we might have a joke about The Wood, they might have a joke about Breakfast Club. But even with that, we can watch a movie. We can learn “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

It’s more so them just realizing that Black students might not have the same advantages to begin with. So I had classes where the actual professor called me one night at 1:00 AM on a Thursday, like, “Hey Ron, you didn’t turn in these four assignments. Hey, if you don’t turn those in, you might not pass.”

And that’s 1:00 AM on Thursday. I spent until 7:00 AM working on that and turned it in. And it’s like that type of experience wouldn’t happen at a white school at all. I doubt it would. Maybe it would, but I doubt that because it was a Black teacher who felt like I was his nephew.

Right. He was trying to get you through the class, graduated from the school, so that you’re in a position where, okay, if you’re going to sink or swim, but at least get you on that platform first.

Get on that platform. Yeah.

The autumn album slate is taking shape. Becky G announced her forthcoming album, Encuentros, alongside the single “COMO DIABLOS.” FLO will finally drop their debut LP Access All Areas in November, and “Bending My Rules” is a formidable appetizer. Jamie xx also offered up a taste from his looming In Waves album.

Check that out and more in Uproxx’s Best New Pop Music roundup below.

Becky G — “COMO DIABLOS”

Becky G coupled her Encuentros album announcement with the release of “COMO DIABLOS,” an emotionally charged single about a painful heartbreak. Becky G told Rolling Stone that Encuentros is “Esquinas at night,” referencing her LP from last September. That vibe bleeds through in the Leo Aguirre-directed “COMO DIABLOS” video filmed in Monterrey, Mexico. “It’s about how internalizing your emotions turns into this power that’s inward, but also how that translates outward,” Becky G told Rolling Stone. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be an anger that is explosive, but it can still have this vibration that causes the ground to shake.” Encuentros is due out on October 10.

LE SSERAFIM — “Crazy”

In late February, LE SSERAFIM dropped “Easy,” which became the rising K-pop girl group’s first-career charter on the Billboard Hot 100. CRAZY, their fourth mini album out now, could produce a few more Hot 100 hits. The five-track project includes the BloodPop-produced “1-800-hot-n-fun,” which LE SSERAFIM debuted at Coachella, but “Crazy” is the standout track. The Nu Kim-directed video is captivating, with impressive choreography to accentuate tech house beats. You’d also be hard-pressed to find a more Instagram-ready hook than “All the girls are girling girling.”

FLO — “Bending My Rules”

To be clear, “Bending My Rules” finds FLO firmly in their slow jam R&B bag. It qualifies as pop because FLO possesses undeniable mass appeal. The track released shortly after the award-winning British trio announced Access All Areas, their debut LP, will arrive this November. Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer, and Stella Quaresma have never sounded better than on “Bending My Rules,” effortlessly delivering pristine harmonies and smooth vocal runs. “‘Bending My Rules’ is such a captivating song and a softer side of FLO,” the band said in a statement, as per Stereogum. “It shows our vulnerability, and it speaks to our current relationships with our boyfriends. It’s hard to be a baddie and a lover girl, but sometimes you just have to Bend Your Rules.”

Jamie xx Feat. Kelsey Lu, John Glacier & Panda Bear — “Dafodil”

Jamie xx will release his In Waves album on September 20, and “Dafodil” holds a special place on the tracklist. “‘Dafodil’ was one of the first pieces of music that I made for this album,” the English DJ and producer wrote on Instagram. “It was actually the song that made me realize I could finally make another album. I am forever grateful to Kelsey Lu, with whom this song began as voice notes about a hazy night we both remembered. Thank you to John Glacier and Panda Bear whose voices perfectly evoke the unique feeling of summer nights in London.” The dynamic track is mesmerizing and further solidifies Jamie xx as a limitless experimenter.

AleXa — “Joy Of Missing Out”

Nobody can question AleXa’s versatility. “Joy Of Missing Out,” AleXa’s fourth English-language song of 2024, is a far cry from K-pop, but the Oklahoma native seems right at home in a pop-punk palette. “I, myself, am an extrovert, but I’m the only one in my friend group,” AleXa said in a statement. “This song goes out to all those who’d rather party by themselves than get lost in the crowd.” Incidentally, “Joy Of Missing Out” shows why AleXa never has to worry about getting lost in any crowd.

Zedd Feat. John Mayer — “Automatic Yes”

On August 30, Zedd released Telos, his first LP since 2015’s True Colors. Before the 10-track album arrived in full, Zedd dropped “Out Of Time” featuring Bea Miller and “Lucky” featuring Remi Wolf. Both songs showcased Zedd’s world-class ability to mold soundscapes best suited for any kind of vocalist, and “Automatic Yes” featuring John Mayer multiplies that notion. Dance-pop and more soulful beats blend seamlessly. The drop is set up by Mayer softly singing, “I don’t wanna be the same mistake you make again / Yes, I’m gonna keep my promise / but if you ever ask me, it’s an / Automatic, automatic yes, yes, yes, I wanna.” Maybe the highest compliment to Zedd is that “Automatic Yes” could easily live on a John Mayer album.

Coco & Clair Clair — “My Girl”

Coco & Clair Clair are back with Girl, their nine-track album encompassing the Atlanta-bred duo’s affinity for unconventional risks — lyrically and sonically. It pays off with “My Girl.” “‘My Girl’ is an ode to your best friend, the girls you meet in the bathroom at the club, your idol, whoever it is that makes you feel on top of the world and like nobody can f*ck with you,” Coco and Clair said in a statement. “We’re not worrying about other people anymore. Let’s go out, have fun, and let the beat rock.” Coco & Clair Clair will do precisely that on their 21-date headlining North American tour, beginning on October 1 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.

James Bay — “Easy Distraction”

“Easy Distraction” was co-written by James Bay and The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, and it’s all I need to hear to know I’d like for James Bay and Brandon Flowers to write more songs together. The upbeat single finds Bay in a familiar pocket: Pouring his guts out atop anthemic, soaring instrumentals. “The song is about realizing too late that someone means so much to you, but you still want to show them and let them know,” the three-time Grammy nominee said in a statement. “It’s exploring how, in the face of adversity, we can still reach out; we can still connect.” “Easy Distraction” follows folksy, rollicking “Up All Night” with Noah Kahan and The Lumineers as singles from Bay’s forthcoming fourth LP, Changes All The Time, due out on October 4.

Greyson Chance — “Meet Me Outside”

Greyson Chance has been ramping up his output in recent months with “Rearview Mirror,” “Haymaker,” and now “Meet Me Outside.” The acoustic single is beautifully wistful. Chance displays vocal range injected with raw emotion, singing, “And all of those white picket fences were built to protect you from me / Why can’t you see? / I’ll never meet your parents / I’ll never drink their wine / They’ll never hang up a frame with our picture inside / We’ll never walk down the aisle / And maybe that’s alright / So I’ll keep the car running baby / Meet me outside.” Chance explained the inspiration behind the song here.

Daydreamers — “Don’t Delete My Number”

Daydreamers selflessly made the perfect summer outro in “Don’t Delete My Number,” which hinges upon the harsh reconciliation of knowing a blissful romance had to end with the summer but wishing it could last forever. “Don’t delete my number / Because I still remember this summer,” Riley sings in the refrain. The British alt-pop band’s lead vocalist added in a statement, “To me, Daydreamers is ‘sad euphoria.’ The lyrics will tear your heart out, but the music is euphoric.”

There is nothing quite exhilarating as getting a clue right when you’re watching Jeopardy, but imagine how it feels to actually be there in person? It would probably be very stressful, actually. With all of those lights, hard topics, and the constant suspenseful jungle, it’s no wonder former contestants are speaking about just how hard the game can be, and that’s aside from Ken Jennings’ jokes.

Jeopardy! contestant and frequent Tournament of Champions competitor Sam Kavanaugh told The U.S. Sun that the game is more difficult than fans believe. “The thing that generally surprises people the most is just how much of an endurance game it is,” he explained. Enduring Jennings can be hard enough, but when thousands of dollars are on the line, the stakes are even higher.

Kavanaugh revealed that there are multiple episodes shot in one day, which makes the whole thing draining. “You tape five episodes, sometimes up to seven episodes a day… I did seven. It is exhausting,” he said. Taping for each episode takes about 45 minutes to one hour.

It might not be the NFL, but it’s definitely demanding. Kavanaugh added, “It is the most tiring. I played physical sports as a kid – and I’ve never been as tired as after a day of taping.” Hopefully he does some thumb stretches to prepare his buzzer finger.

This might prove the longstanding theory that Ken Jennings actually lives in a little tent behind the clue board that he can be on-set as easily as possible to get started early with the long day ahead. He is dedicated!

(Via The US Sun)

When Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus took the franchise back to claustrophobic basis, select theaters caught a peek at this new Alien: Earth teaser. The brief yet terrifying look at a Xenomporph from FX’s upcoming TV series, which will arrive next year, only on Hulu.

Clearly, the confines of a spaceship present the classic “no one can hear you scream” dilemma, but the suggestion of this teaser is that this telltale secondary mouth will be making that horror known in a very different setting. Additionally, the medium of television will have fewer confines than finite feature films, so audiences should prepare for an abundance of new narrative possibilities for the next offering from the Alien franchise.

FX has released the following logline:

When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s highly anticipated TV series “Alien: Earth” from creator Noah Hawley.

The series stars Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, and Timothy Olyphant. The cast also includes Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, and Moe Bar-El.

Alien: Earth will touch down in 2025.

In The Substance, Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a former Oscar-winning actress who now hosts a daytime fitness show. But when Elisabeth is fired by a buffoonish executive (Dennis Quaid, father of Hollywood’s best nepo baby boy), she injects herself with something called “The Substance” to become the “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” version of herself, Sue, played by Margaret Qualley (another good nepo kid). Gore and nudity ensues.

Lots of nudity.

In a spoiler-heavy profile, Qualley told the Los Angeles Times that she trained for months for The Substance. But all that weight lifting shaped her physicality in a way that she didn’t expect. “We’re representing perfect, right?” the Kinds of Kindness actress said. “And the movie has a pretty inspired message. So I also thought it was important for that perfect to be healthy, even if it’s unrealistic. I’m fortunate that the naked stuff was at the top because throughout the five months my ass was just slowly deflating.”

Moore joked, “I did admire how round Margaret’s ass was.”

Qualley, a trained ballerina, also discussed her elaborate dance sequence in the body horror movie. “It’s more of a challenge than I realized, pretending to feel hot when you don’t feel hot,” she said. “I practiced that dance incessantly, every day, until we shot it because it’s so far outside of the way my body moves. But I really enjoyed pushing myself to figure it out.”

Directed by Coralie Fargeat, The Substance opens on September 20.

(Via the Los Angeles Times)