Year: 2024

In early February, Conan Gray joked to Rolling Stone that his career “is over” due to Universal Music Group pulling its entire roster’s discographies from TikTok. Gray’s forthcoming third studio album, Found Heaven, will likely reiterate the former Uproxx cover star’s continued relevance. Plus, who needs TikTok when you can just stage a multi-leg tour?

On Monday morning, March 4, Gray announced Found Heaven On Tour. The 16-country trek will begin with four Australian dates in July, followed by a North American leg throughout September and October. It will conclude with a short European and UK leg in early November, with the finale set for OVO Arena Wembley in London. Maisie Peters, another former Uproxx cover star, will open on the North American leg, while Between Friends will support Gray in Europe.

When Do Conan Gray’s Found Heaven On Tour Tickets Go On Sale?

As per press release, fans can apply for access here to a pre-sale scheduled to begin on Wednesday, March 6, at 10 a.m. local time. There will be several other pre-sales. For example, Verizon customers will enjoy an exclusive pre-sale for select shows via Verizon Up. That pre-sale is set for Tuesday, March 5, at 10 a.m. local time until Thursday, March 7, at 10 a.m. local time. The general sale is scheduled for Friday, March 8, at 10 a.m. local time. Find more ticketing information here.

Conan Gray 2024 Tour Dates: Found Heaven On Tour

07/11 — Melbourne, Australia @ John Cain Arena
07/13 — Brisbane, Australia @ Fortitude Music Hall
07/17 — Sydney, Australia @ ICC Sydney Theatre
07/19 — Adelaide, Australia @ Spin Off Festival
09/19 — Minneapolis, MN @ Armory *
09/21 — Sterling Heights, MI @ Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at *Freedom Hill *
09/23 — Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage *
09/25 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway *
09/30 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden *
10/01 — Philadelphia, PA @ Highmark Skyline Stage at the Mann *
10/03 — Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater *
10/04 — Atlanta, GA @ Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park *
10/06 — Indianapolis, IN @ Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park *
10/11 — Las Vegas, NV @ Chelsea Theater at Cosmopolitan *
10/13 — Portland, OR @ Alaska Airlines’ Theater of the Clouds *
10/15 — Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater *
10/17 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium *
10/18 — Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum *
10/20 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre *
10/23 — Sugar Land, TX @ Smart Financial Centre *
10/25 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center ATX *
10/26 — Fort Worth, TX @ Dickies Arena *
11/02 — Amsterdam, The Netherlands @ AFAS Live #
11/04 — Brussels, Belgium @ Forest National #
11/05 — Paris, France @ Zénith Paris la Villette #
11/07 — Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo #
11/10 — London, UK @ OVO Arena Wembley #

* with Maisie Peters
# with Between Friends

Conan Gray’s Found Heaven On Tour Poster

Found Heaven is out 4/5 via Republic Records. Find more information here.

Conan Gray has been crushing it with his new ’80s-inspired era, which he revealed in January will culminate in Found Heaven, a new album. The LP is about a month away now, as it’s currently set for release on April 5. A few months after that, the former Uproxx cover star will embark on a tour he just announced today (March 4): Found Heaven On Tour.

The trek starts with a run of Australian shows in July before taking to North America in September and October, then wrapping up with European and UK concerts in November. Fellow former Uproxx cover star Maisie Peters will support on the North American dates, while Between Friends will open in Europe and the UK.

The general on-sale for tickets starts March 8 at 10 a.m. local time. Before that, there’s a pre-sale starting March 6 at 10 a.m. local time, and fans can sign up for that here. There’s also a pre-sale exclusive to Verizon customers that goes from March 5 at 10 a.m. local time to March 7 at 10 p.m. local time. Find more information about that here.

Find Gray’s upcoming tour dates below.

Conan Gray 2024 Tour Dates: Found Heaven On Tour

07/11 — Melbourne, Australia @ John Cain Arena
07/13 — Brisbane, Australia @ Fortitude Music Hall
07/17 — Sydney, Australia @ ICC Sydney Theatre
07/19 — Adelaide, Australia @ Spin Off Festival
09/19 — Minneapolis, MN @ Armory *
09/21 — Sterling Heights, MI @ Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill *
09/23 — Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage *
09/25 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway *
09/30 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden *
10/01 — Philadelphia, PA @ Highmark Skyline Stage at the Mann *
10/03 — Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater *
10/04 — Atlanta, GA @ Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park *
10/06 — Indianapolis, IN @ Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park *
10/11 — Las Vegas, NV @ Chelsea Theater at Cosmopolitan *
10/13 — Portland, OR @ Alaska Airlines’ Theater of the Clouds *
10/15 — Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater *
10/17 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium *
10/18 — Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum *
10/20 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre *
10/23 — Sugar Land, TX @ Smart Financial Centre *
10/25 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center ATX *
10/26 — Fort Worth, TX @ Dickies Arena *
11/02 — Amsterdam, The Netherlands @ AFAS Live #
11/04 — Brussels, Belgium @ Forest National #
11/05 — Paris, France @ Zénith Paris la Villette #
11/07 — Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo #
11/10 — London, UK @ OVO Arena Wembley #

* with Maisie Peters
# with Between Friends

Conan Gray’s Found Heaven On Tour Poster

Found Heaven is out 4/5 via Republic Records. Find more information here.

Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure nightmares.

Last month, the world was equal parts delighted and horrified by “Willy’s Chocolate Experience,” which was billed as “a journey filled with delicious treats, enchanting adventures, and moments worth capturing.” Instead, guests of the Glasgow, Scotland-based event paid over $40 to be shuffled through a warehouse where they encountered sad-looking Oompa Loompas (who read AI-generated scripts) and an original character named The Unknown. You can read all about it here, or maybe wait and see the film.

Bloody Disgusting reports that Willy’s Chocolate Experience breakout The Unknown is the inspiration for an upcoming horror movie, set to be quickly released later this year (so you know it’s good). The film follows “a renowned illustrator and his wife who are haunted by the tragic death of their son, Charlie. Desperate to escape their grief, the couple leave the world behind for the remote Scottish Highlands – where an unknowable evil awaits them.”

The company [Kaledonia Pictures] tells Bloody Disgusting. “We are excited to begin production and look forward to sharing more with you as soon as possible. We are actually only a few miles from the event, so it is quite surreal to see Glasgow all over social media, worldwide.”

Felicia better reprise her role as The Unknown. It’s the only way to make this quick Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey-style cash grab worth it.

Hugh Grant has the chance to do the funniest thing.

(Via Bloody Disgusting)

Last year, the The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon viewers got slightly worked up by their generally unwashed hero taking a bath, although overall, that show skewed toward asexual (“chaste” seems like the wrong word despite a nun’s apparent interest). And that — let’s get real — is consistent with Norman Reedus’ character despite his talents with a rocket launcher.

“Asexual” definitely is not the vibe for The Ones Who Live, given that this series showcases the long-awaited reunion between Rick Grimes and Michonne. As shown above, viewers have caught glimpses of Rick’s dreams about being able to court Michonne in a “normal” world without walkers and the CRM afoot, ruining all the romance. The series has nabbed incredible ratings thus far, and the same is sure to be reported of this Sunday’s episode, in which Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira prove that they’ve still got that chemistry.

Actually, what transpired is on par with the pair’s first original-series hookup, which ended with Jesus walking in on the butt-naked couple, which was a fun moment in fan reactions when Twitter was still also fun. Well, Twitter got some spice back after watching Rick and Michonne steal an opportunity to make out while the CRM wasn’t looking. Yes, there was moaning involved.

Can you blame them? These two have some pent-up frustration to work out and can barely find a moment without surveilling eyes ruining their mojo. Of course, people got hot and bothered while watching: “[I]f Rick and Michonne are moaning like this now imagine when they’re actually ALONE ALONE.” And good for them because you gotta find a little joy in this world.

AMC’s The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live airs on Sunday nights.

On February 8, Mattel announced Barbie The Movie: In Concert was scheduled for July 27 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California. The show will feature an all-woman, majority women-of-color orchestra The Barbie Land Sinfonietta, led by executive producer and orchestrator Macy Schmidt, accompanying a screening of Barbie.

This morning, March 4, Live Nation and Mattel revealed that the July 27 date is actually just one of 37 dates on a North American summer Barbie The Movie: In Concert tour. As per a press release, “The record-smashing film will be projected onto a giant LED screen above The Barbie Land Sinfonietta as they perform the film’s award-winning score.”

“Music lends so much heart and excitement to the Barbie film; between the stunning and clever orchestral score and the upbeat iconic pop soundtrack, music is carrying us through the story,” Schmidt said in a statement. “On top of getting to experience the film unlike ever before, Barbie The Movie: In Concert audiences will have the privilege of watching some of the world’s best musicians come together and do what they do best.”

Schmidt continued, “Throughout this entire process, I’ve been so inspired by Mattel’s genuine commitment to everything this film stands for. I am particularly excited to be partnering with Mattel as I have long been inspired by Barbie’s purpose statement: ‘To inspire the limitless potential in every girl.’ It couldn’t be more aligned to have an all-women orchestra performing this film, bringing its message to life onstage.”

Citi cardmembers will enjoy a pre-sale beginning on Tuesday, March 5, at 10 a.m. local time. The press release confirmed that “additional pre-sales” will occur ahead of the general public on-sale on Friday, March 8, at 10 a.m. local time.

Barbie The Movie: In Concert Tour Dates

07/02 — Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
07/03 — Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
07/05 — Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park
07/06 — Camden, NJ @ Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
07/07 — Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live
07/08 — Virginia Beach, VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
07/09 — Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
07/10 — Burgettstown, PA @ The Pavilion at Star Lake
07/12 — Milwaukee, WI @ American Family Insurance Amphitheatre
07/13 — St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
07/14 — Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center
07/15 — Kansas City, MO @ Starlight Theater
07/17 — Denver, CO @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre
07/18 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
07/20 — Ridgefield, WA @ RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
07/21 — Auburn, WA @ White River Amphitheatre
07/25 — Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
07/26 — Wheatland, CA @ Toyota Amphitheater
07/27 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
07/28 — Chula Vista, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
07/30 — Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
07/31 — Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater
08/02 — Houston, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
08/03 — Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion
08/04 — Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP
08/06 — Birmingham, AL @ Oak Mountain Amphitheatre
08/07 — Nashville, TN @ Ascend Amphitheater
08/08 — Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
08/09 — Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
08/10 — Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre
08/11 — Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage
08/12 — Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center
08/14 — Darien Lake, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater
08/15 — Hartford, CT @ The XFINITY Theatre
08/16 — Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center
08/17 — Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
08/18 — Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater

Barbie The Movie: In Concert Tour Poster

The Barbie soundtrack is a Warner Music release. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Justin Timberlake is on the comeback trail, announcing his new album Everything I Thought It Was nearly six years after his last full-length release, Man Of The Woods. Time will tell if the time away has returned some of the goodwill he’d lost when that album was misconstrued as a country album thanks to its less-than-stellar marketing, but Timberlake has made one big stride toward getting it back.

Sharing the tracklist today via Spotify’s Twitter account, JT revealed that the album will contain his long-awaited official reunion with *NSYNC, the boy band with whom he started his musical career. While they did appear together in the film Trolls Band Together, which made light of fan wishes for their reunion in its plot about a boy band teaming up to save one of its kidnapped members, “Better Place,” the song they made for the soundtrack, was considered to be a one-off.

Other features on the album include Nigerian afrobeats star Fireboy DML and Houston rapper Tobe Nwigwe. Everything I Thought It Was is due March 15, 2024 via RCA Records. Find more information here.

Justin Timberlake’s Everything I Thought It Was Tracklist

01. “Memphis”
02. “F**kin’ Up The Disco”
03. “No Angels”
04. “Play”
05. “Technicolor”
06. “Droown”
07. “Liar” Feat. Fireboy DML
08. “Infinity Sex”
09. “Love & War”
10. “Sanctified” Feat. Tobe Nwigwe
11. “My Favorite Drug”
12. “Flame”
13. “Imagination”
14. “What Lovers Do”
15. “Selfish”
16. “Alone”
17. “Paradise” Feat. *NSYNC
18. “Conditions”

As “superhero fatigue” becomes a frequently used phrase following several comic book movie bombs in 2023, Chris Evans has stepped forward to defend the genre. The actor famously played Captain America during the golden years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and despite repeatedly expressing his resolve to leave his star-spangled shield in the past, Evans stepped up to defend his old stomping grounds.

While appearing at Emerald City Comic Con over the weekend, Evans offered his frank assessment of the superhero genre and how hard it is to make a superhero film that works. The actor specifically targeted the notion that they’re “easy to make,” which he can attest is not the case.

“Comic book movies in general, for whatever reason, don’t always get the credit that I think they deserve,” Evans said via Total Film. “I think they’re these big, giant movies, there’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen. But I think the empirical evidence is in: they’re not easy to make. If it was easier, there’d be a lot more good ones.”

Evans also made sure to note that he’s been in some bad comic book movies including his early Marvel days as the Human Torch in Fantastic Four.

“I’m not throwing shade! I’ve been a part of a few that missed. It happens!” Evans said. “Making a movie is tough. It’s tough. More cooks in the kitchen doesn’t make it easier. The Russo brothers have really done some great work. I don’t want to highlight specific films in the Marvel catalog, but some of them are phenomenal, just really objectively, independently great movies, and I think they deserve a little more credit.”

(Via Total Film)

At this point, it’s rare to see something that feels truly new in the NBA. For every player that’s entered the league with the “unicorn” tag, someone has followed close in line to make their skillset feel less unique.

Victor Wembanyama, though, feels different. He was dubbed a generational prospect — the best since LeBron James — and that somehow undersold him. The Spurs put training wheels on him through the first third of the season, allowing him to grow more comfortable with life in the NBA. But since the calendar flipped to 2024, he has been unleashed as the centerpiece of everything when on the court (while still held under 30 minutes per game on average) and manages to do things almost every single night that leaves people shaking their head in disbelief.

When I asked Jayson Tatum what separates good players from great players during our conversation over All-Star weekend, he explained that consistency allows you to take a leap into the league’s upper echelon. The NBA is full of the best basketball players to ever walk the planet and they’re all capable of a big night at any given time, but the great ones are able to give you that night after night.

I’ve thought about that a lot as we’ve watched Wembanyama spread his wings over the past couple months. It’s not just that he’s capable of doling out the league’s first 5×5 since 2019, it’s that he threatens to do so on a terrifyingly regular basis. It’s not that he’s capable of a triple double with blocks (the first since 2021), it’s that he has 17 games with five or more blocks this season. This includes five of the last six, with that sixth game featuring only four blocks.

Since the start of January, Wembanyama is averaging 23.0 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.7 blocks, and 1.4 steals per game in just 27.9 minutes a night. In that stretch, he’s had one truly bad game (15 points, one rebound in 22 minutes against Orlando) and a couple middling ones over the course of 27 outings. The rest, with pretty much every team focusing their efforts on him, have been sensational. That is the mark of a special player, and something we rarely see from a guy at this age on a team that is as rough around the edges as the Spurs.

On Sunday night in a win over the Pacers, Wembanyama put up another rather hysterical stat line with 31 points (11-for-17 shooting, 3-for-4 from three), 12 rebounds, six assists, and six blocks in 31 minutes of action. He did all of these things in this game:

1. Used his comical reach to throw down a poster dunk on Jalen Smith.

2. Used that same comical reach to get an absurd block on Obi Toppin.

3. Flashed the passing skills with a pair of silly looks to teammates — a no-look off of some outrageous handles for a man his size, then a wrap-around pass taking advantage of his preposterously long arms.

4. Hit back-to-back ridiculously smooth looking three-pointers off the dribble in the third quarter to end a Pacers run.

5. Capped it all off by flipping the ball in for an and-1 that helped seal the win.

You can put together a compilation like this from just about every Wembanyama game over the last two months, which just isn’t normal. It’s not only that he is capable of doing things no one else can thanks to his combination of length, quickness, handle, shooting skill, and fluidity. It’s that he’s already putting his otherworldly tools together to do those things every night, rather than just showing flashes and glimpses of potential here and there.

What’s maybe most terrifying about Wembanyama is, as my colleague Bill DiFilippo noted to me on Sunday, this should be the worst he will be at basketball for more than a decade. Right now, we’re watching a young man who’s scratching the surface of his potential while playing at an extremely high level, and doing so with very little in the way of a trustworthy supporting cast. The Spurs are the worst three-point shooting team in the league and only have one truly competent point guard on the roster in Tre Jones (who, it must be said, has been done an excellent job since entering the team’s starting lineup at the start of January, which, uncoincidentally, is when Wembanyama started to really break out). That raises the degree of difficulty significantly for Wembanyama on offense, but he’s still managing to put up big nights on a regular basis.

He’s starting to grow increasingly comfortable shooting the ball from deep (36.6 percent since the start of January) and is clearly building confidence in his scoring and creation ability every night. The big question everyone had for him was how he’d handle physical bigs given his thin frame, but he’s already proven to be adept at absorbing contact and using his length to still get the ball up to the rim even when he gets bodied away from it. On the other end, he is already one of the best defenders in the NBA without any question, and has room to grow as he learns some of the tricks of the trade and gets more reps to learn tendencies.

Nothing about Wembanyama and his skillset makes sense, but that’s also what makes him such a fascinating player. He’s everything he was supposed to be and somehow more as a rookie, and could very well fulfill on the promise of being the best player in the NBA sooner rather than later. That will require the Spurs to return to the top of the Western Conference, and while that feels a long way away right now, we’re already seeing that things can move very quickly with Wemby.

Donald Trump‘s brain is definitely not turning into slurry. Over the weekend, the 77-year-old had several verbal slip-ups during campaign speeches in North Carolina and Virginia, including confusing Barack Obama for Joe Biden (not the first time), pronouncing “Venezuela” in a way it’s never been pronounced before, and calling the country of Argentina a “great guy.” All in all, MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski counted 32 instances “where he mispronounced words, got confused, mixed up names, forgot names, and babbled insane nonsense.” (To be fair, Biden isn’t doing much better.)

Trump’s mental stability has slipped a lot even since 2020, according to his former former communications director, Alyssa Farah Griffin.

“I have said this before, he is not as sharp as he was in 2016 and not even a sharp as he was in 2020. For some reason, that doesn’t necessarily come across to voters the same way,” she said on CNN on Monday, according to Raw Story. “But Donald Trump is not the strongest fighter that Republicans could have right now and it’s remarkable how much voters don’t see the age as also an issue because he is only three-and-a-half years younger than President Joe Biden, but there’s something about the way they carry themselves that is just seen very differently.”

Farah Griffin added that while Trump has never been Mr. Articulate, he’s “gotten worse. It hasn’t gotten better. He’s not nearly as sharp as he was.” The folks on Morning Joe agree with her:

(Via Raw Story)

This past New Music Friday, Schoolboy Q released his first album in nearly five years, Blue Lips. The long-awaited follow-up to 2019’s Crash Talk, Blue Lips contained guest appearances from Ab-Soul, AZ Chike, Childish Major, Freddie Gibbs, Jozzy, Rico Nasty, and more. Prior to its release, Q dropped one single, “Yeern 101,” as well as teasers of several other tracks from the album, and although it’s still early, the album has already drawn major praise from critics and fans as a satisfying comeback for the South Central rapper.

It’s been so well-received so far, you may be wondering if there’s more new music on the horizon for the TDE star, particularly in the form of a deluxe re-release, which has become a standard for the music business as a whole.

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like Schoolboy isn’t a big fan of the format, so the answer is most likely a “no.” “Labels & artist kinda killed da deluxe,” he told a fan on Twitter. “it’s a scam.. no way I’m adding 3-4 songs to my album a week after it drop. I work 2 Hard on my craft for a extra 2k in sales. nobody cares.”

To be fair, the man’s got a point. During the big music industry slowdown during 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became common practice for artists — especially rappers — to follow-up new releases with “deluxe” editions adding a handful of new songs in the hopes of juicing streams. In some cases, a whole album’s worth of new tracks were added. While the strategy was seen as a useful middle ground to save resources from promoting EPs or mixtapes to keep artists’ buzz alive between albums, it’s rarely produced very many viable tracks or huge bumps in streaming numbers.

Perhaps Schoolboy’s decision to avoid chasing the trend will benefit him in the long run, giving fans time to actually anticipate his next release.