Year: 2024

Oh Coachella. Where would we be without you? Better yet, where would we be without Coachella’s beloved fest-within-a-fest — Do LaB?

Returning to Coachella 2024, Do LaB made its mark once again on the Indio Valley grounds — unveiling its brand new stage design and a slate of standout performers and surprise acts. The Do LaB stage at Coachella offers a preview of the brand’s flagship boutique festival, Lightning in a Bottle. The five-day Lightning in a Bottle experience fuses a top-tier musical lineup, immersive art installations, cause-driven educational programming, and a variety of yoga and movement programming within a sprawling lakeside venue in beautiful Buena Vista Lake, California.

It’s liberation at its finest.

So what went down on the Do LaB stage at Coachella 2024? DJ Pee .Wee, the vinyl DJ alias of prolific rapper and singer-songwriter Anderson .Paak, played a headlining surprise set; SOFI TUKKER filled the stage with an energetic midday surprise DJ set; Billie Eilish & Friends hosted a party that featured three unreleased tracks off of her forthcoming album, Hit Me Hard And Soft, plus a live performance of hit “Rack City” by Tyga; Kaskade played a second surprise set alongside Alison Wonderland; Adriatique teamed up with dance icon BLOND:ISH for a surprise back to back set; Bonobo and Barry Can’t Swim joined together for a surprise back to back performance; Alesso unveiled his new house music driven project and label BodyHi; Mia Moretti brought out close friend and surprise guest Katy Perry; DJ Snake performed a special hip-hop set; UK house exports Cloonee and Chris Lorenzo teamed up for a rowdy surprise back to back headlining set; Marc Rebillet played a surprise set with his typically improvisational and whimsical style; and more.

Take a look inside Do LaB’s insane stage programming shenanigans with this collection of photos. See you there next year.

21 Savage made a surprise appearance during Doja Cat’s headlining Coachella 2024 set, a dry run for his headlining American Dream Tour, which kicked off on Wednesday night, May 1, as his first solo North American tour in five years. (21 Savage embarked on the joint It’s All A Blur Tour with Drake last year.) The American Dream Tour is in support of 21 Savage’s January album of the same name. 21 Lil Harold, JID, and Nardo Wick are 21 Savage’s openers.

21 Savage’s American Dream Tour Setlist

21 Savage’s American Dream Tour opening night occurred at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 21 Savage’s setlist is still being loaded by fans onto setlist.fm, but as of this writing, the below is what has been logged ahead of his May 3 show at White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, Washington.

1. “No Heart” (21 Savage & Metro Boomin cover)
2. “Jimmy Cooks” (Drake cover)
3. “TOPIA TWINS” (Travis Scott cover)
4. “Who Want Smoke??” (Nardo Wick cover)
5. “Peaches & Eggplants” (Young Nudy cover)
6. “Dangerous”
7. “Creepin’” (Metro Boomin cover)
8. “Bank Account”
9. “Runnin” (21 Savage & Metro Boomin cover)
10 “10 Freaky Girls” (Metro Boomin cover)
11. “Glock In My Lap” (21 Savage & Metro Boomin cover)
12. “Rich N**** Sh*t” (21 Savage & Metro Boomin cover)
13. “Ball W/O You”
14. “Don’t Come Out The House” (Metro Boomin cover)
15. “Spin Bout U” (Drake & 21 Savage cover)
16. “A Lot”
17. “Rockstar” (Post Malone cover)
18. “Surround Sound” (JID cover)
19. “Rich Flex” (Drake & 21 Savage cover)
20. “Knife Talk” (Drake & 21 Savage cover)
21. “Redrum”

Amazon Prime’s dystopian sci-fi series Fallout premiered earlier this year, and even though season one has wrapped, there is enough content in the original game series to span several seasons of the show, meaning that we will probably see even more Kyle MacLachlan on our screens.

A second season of Fallout was ordered last month, and the team behind the show is ready to take it to the next level. “Praise be to our insanely brilliant showrunners, Geneva and Graham, to our kick-ass cast, to Todd and James and all the legends at Bethesda, and to Jen, Vernon and the amazing team at Amazon for their incredible support of this show. We can’t wait to blow up the world all over again,” executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy said in a statement.

While the new season is just shaping up, there are some clues of where the story will go, thanks to the revealing season finale. Here’s everything we know about the second season of the video game-turned-tv-series Fallout.

Plot

While the first season takes elements from the Fallout games, the story isn’t adapted from any particular installment, meaning the showrunners have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to advanding the plot.

At the end of season one, it’s revealed that unfortunately, our pal Kyle MacLachlan is not the all-American father we thought he was. His character Hank is seen escaping to New Vegas, which does appear in the popular game series.

“If anything, the show is leaning into the events [of New Vegas],” Producer and Fallout game director Todd Howard recently revealed. “Season two is gonna be featuring some of New Vegas, and we’re careful about maintaining the key events of that game and the content in it.” Howard added. In the Fallout universe, New Vegas is the backdrop for social and political power struggles amongst those living in the post-war wasteland.

Besides New Vegas, it was also revealed in the season finale that Lucy’s mom might still be alive, which would likely be explored in the upcoming season.

Cast

While the cast has not yet been confirmed, we can assume that everyone who survived season one will live on in season two. That includes Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean and Walton Goggins as the infamous Ghoul, Aaron Moten as Maximus and Kyle MacLachlan as the deceptive Hank. Moisés Aria, Sarita Choudhury, and Frances Turner are also expected to return.

Release Date

Season two has not yet begun production, but season one took about nine months to film, then another year before it actually dropped. Last month, Variety confirmed that the series has been granted $25 million in tax cuts from the state of California and also suggested that filming would begin this September. This means that we could get season two of Fallout as early as Fall 2025, but likely early 2026.

Trailer

Filming hasn’t began yet, but you can check out the teaser trailer for Fallout: New Vegas which might give you a good idea of what to expect. You can also stream the entire first season of Fallout now on Amazon Prime.

Back in October 2022, Ralph Macchio told UPROXX that conversations about more Cobra Kai on Netflix were very cognizant of the need to bring a proper and deserving end to The Karate Kid spinoff series. Of course, we then heard about how the sixth season would complete the show, but there will also be an upcoming The Karate Kid movie starring Macchio and Jackie Chan, which means that…

[wait for it]

…Cobra Kai “will never die.”

Sixth-season filming only began in January, but showrunners Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg have always pulled off a quick turnaround, so the wait will not be long, at least for the beginning of the end. July 18 will be the arrival date for the first of a three-part event with a total of 15 episodes.

Netflix has released a teaser clip with the following declaration: “The end of a legacy deserves a grand finale.” No argument there. Do you love “the smell of karate in the morning”?

Billy Zabka also shared the teaser. Oh Johnny Lawrence, you’re such a mess:

Looks like a confirmation of Kreese’s return after his grand prison escape, too.

You heard them. Cobra Kai — starring Macchio, Zabka, Martin Cove, Jacob Bertrand, Mary Mouser, Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña, Tanner Buchanan, Gianni DeCenzo, Dallas Dupree Young, Vanessa Rubio, and Peyton List — swings back into the dojo on July 18.

A lot of the things I’ve loved most throughout my life come from Japan. I’ve been playing Pokémon, Mario, and other Japanese video games since I was a kid during the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Color eras in the ’90s. I had a major anime phase in college that had me binging One Piece episodes deep into the night. I’m admittedly a recovering picky eater, but now I know you can’t go wrong with a big bowl of ramen and some gyoza on the side.

Traveling to the other side of the world to visit the home of my favorite stuff is something I’ve always thought about doing eventually. In November 2023, I turned “someday” into “today” and actually made the trip. Excluding travel days to and from Japan, my cousin and I spent a full week in the country: Three days in Tokyo, a travel day that included an afternoon in Machida, and three days in Kyoto (featuring an Osaka day trip in the middle).

Given that my cousin and I are both big-time Nintendo and Pokémon enjoyers, a significant portion of our to-do list revolved around those interests. Those plans ended up being major highlights of the trip, so now I’d like to pay it forward by sharing some of the best game-related things we did in Japan, things you should consider checking out if you’re a game lover planning a Japanese adventure of your own.

Pokémon Centers and Nintendo Stores

Running through my trip in chronological order, one of the first places I checked out was a Pokémon Center, an official store that exclusively sells Pokémon merchandise. Actually, on the trip overall, I ended up going to five of the 16 locations in Japan (according to Bulbapedia). I would say that was overkill since the stores are mostly the same, but the locations I visited were close to other attractions on my schedule anyway, so a few quick pop-ins were no problem and a natural part of my trip’s flow. (Also there’s no way I wasn’t going to visit every Pokémon Center possible.)

It’s worth checking out at least one or two of them, though: They offer exclusive merch you can’t get anywhere else, and the stores are well-designed and nicely presented, cultivating an atmosphere that made my childhood heart happy. Taking photos with the store’s giant statues (each location has different ones) is a fun touristy thing to do, too, and they’re just a neat thing to see.

The Nintendo Store experience is similar (I went to two of them), but swap out Pokémon for Mario.

Akihabara

Akihabara is always one of the first places that comes up on lists and online discussions about things for gamers to do in Tokyo: It’s a neighborhood in the city that’s best known for its many stores catering to fans of games, manga, anime, and similar interests.

My main goal for my time in Akihabara was to do some retro game shopping. Unfortunately for buyers, shop owners in the area are clearly aware that they’re in a tourist destination, so prices aren’t the cheapest. Still, it’s fun to poke around the stores and see things that you won’t often find outside of Japan.

Super Potato, with its floors of vintage merchandise and even some free-to-play arcade games, was a particular highlight. Before my trip, an acquaintance from Japan noted he found Super Potato to be similar to an early Japanese arcade; The country’s first arcades in the late ’70s and early ’80s were a little makeshift, with buildings not originally designed for gaming purposes filled with game cabinets to capitalize on the sudden popularity of titles like Space Invaders and Xevious. That was sort of the feel of the Super Potato arcade floor, so it’s worth checking out for fans of arcade culture and its history.

I didn’t buy much, but I did get inexpensive copies of Space Invaders for PC Engine (the card was small with nice art, and I wanted something little to commemorate Japanese arcade history) and Mahjong for Game Boy (to commemorate watching mahjong on TV in our hotel room).

84 Hashi

Speaking of gaming history: If you’re a fan (especially of Nintendo history), 84 (also known as “84 Hashi” or “Hashi”) is my most enthusiastic recommendation.

84 was originally a members-only cafe run by Toru Hashimoto (aka Chokan), a former Nintendo employee who contributed to games like Pokémon Red and Green, Yoshi’s Island, and many others. 84 started as a spot for Chokan’s game developer peers to hang out, and now anybody can book a tour.

It’s quite the place to look around, too. It’s an intimate space, but it’s filled with all sorts of unique memorabilia; Handwritten and signed sheet music from Koji Kondo and a Pikachu illustration signed by Game Freak employees especially caught my eye. 84 is a loving tribute to video game history from a man who is part of it, and to be surrounded by that energy makes it a special place. Having the opportunity to chat with somebody who worked on the original Pokémon games and ask what those times were like was a particular thrill.

(Nintendo Life published an informative feature about 84 in 2023 if you want to learn more.)

Serigaya Park

This one is only for hardcore Pokémon fans: Machida is where Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri grew up, and in that city is Serigaya Park. Throughout Japan, there are Poké Lids (Pokémon-themed utility hole covers), but since Machida is a key location in Pokémon history, there’s a concentration of them in Serigaya Park.

Machida is only about a 30-minute train ride from Tokyo, and it was mostly on our way from Tokyo to Kyoto (it did add about an hour of train time to the voyage). Still, it was an easy pit stop to make, especially since the park isn’t a long walk from Machida Station.

Seeing the lids was neat and the park itself was nice, but both were just an excuse to visit what is essentially the birthplace of Pokémon, which was a moving experience for me. As a young boy, Tajiri spent a lot of time studying and catching bugs, perhaps even snagging some beetles in Serigaya Park. These experiences were a primary inspiration behind Pokemon, so to spend some time in the city where those moments happened made me feel close to the history of the games I love in a way I never thought I’d get to enjoy.

If nothing else, stopping off in Machida was an opportunity for a quick glimpse at what Japan is like outside of its major cities. Whether it’s Machida or another lesser-known area, taking a step away from Japan’s most-visited places offers worthwhile perspective.

Go Kart Street Tour

Mario Kart is rooted in reality in the sense that go kart racing exists, but that’s about it. (Also, I throw dangerous items out of the car while driving.) It’s not something you can experience in real life, but I got the closest I probably ever will during my Osaka day trip.

We booked a go kart tour from Akiba Kart Osaka, and it was for real: Before heading to Japan, we actually had to get international driving permits (an easy and inexpensive process). They were necessary because this tour puts you in gas-powered karts on active city streets, free to get pancaked by the full-sized vehicles driving next to you. To make the experience more video-game-like, they also offer a selection of onesie character costumes to wear during the hour-long tour (but no Mario outfits, presumably to avoid the iron fist of Nintendo’s legal department). I was Mewtwo (come and get me, Pokémon‘s legal department).

The Akiba Kart Osaka website claimed we’d be the “center of attention” and would “taste a little bit of fame” during the tour. That initially seemed like self-promotional exaggeration, but they weren’t wrong. Passerssby really did seem to light up as they saw us driving, especially young children who were wowed by the sight of costumed tourists zooming down the street.

The tour was just good clean fun. Furthermore, especially since we were only spending one day in Osaka, it was an effective way to see a lot of the city in a short amount of time, making it an easy recommendation.

(I witnessed a similar go kart tour one day in Tokyo as well, so you might be able to find something similar to the tour I went on regardless of where your Japan travels take you.)

Unplugging

Seeing culturally significant places and other local attractions that aren’t directly game-related should be a priority for gamers. Japan’s rich history and modern culture are worth exploring on their own merits, but keeping with the theme of this article, they also offer valuable context about your favorite games. Learning more about the places where art is made and the daily lives its creators live can be eye-opening.

Specific example: When in Kyoto, my cousin pointed out how the historical buildings reminded him of Pokémon Gold and Silver; The fictional Johto region of those games was inspired by Japan’s Kansai region, which includes Kyoto. Seeing the real-life basis of a fictional world I’ve spent hours exploring since childhood made me appreciate both places so much more than I ever had before.

Kristen Stewart is returning to the world for vampires. But until like Twilight, there will be no sparkling in Flesh of the Gods, an upcoming action-horror movie directed by Mandy filmmaker Panos Cosmatos.

Set in Los Angeles in the 1980s, the film stars Stewart and Oscar Isaac as a married couple who “each evening descend from their luxury skyscraper condo and head into the city’s electric nighttime realm,” according to Variety. “When they cross paths with a mysterious and enigmatic figure known as Nameless and her hard-partying cabal, the pair are seduced into a glamorous, surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills, and violence.”

Cosmatos described Flesh of the Gods as inhibiting “the liminal realm between fantasy and nightmare. Both propulsive and hypnotic, Flesh will take you on a hot rod joy ride deep into the glittering heart of hell.” Producer Adam McKay (Anchorman, Step Brothers, etc.) added, “This director, this writer, these incredible actors, vampires, choice ’80s punk, style and attitude for miles… that’s the film we’re bringing you today. We think it’s wildly commercial and wildly artful. Our ambitions are to make a movie that ripples through popular culture, fashion, music and film. Can you tell how excited I am?”

Not as excited as me, buddy. Move over, Challengers. Flesh of the Gods is my personality now.

Flesh of the Gods does not have a release date, but filming is expected to begin later this year.

(Via Variety)

Dua Lipa will make her SNL debut on Saturday, May 4, as the host and musical guest. Lipa will perform songs from Radical Optimism, her long-awaited third studio album, arriving four years after the Grammy-winning Future Nostalgia.

When Will Dua Lipa’s New Album Radical Optimism Be On Spotify?

Radical Optimism is due out Friday, May 3, which means the album should be available to stream on Spotify (and all DSPs) beginning at 9 p.m. PST on Thursday, May 2, and and midnight EST on May 3. Lipa has released “Houdini,” “Training Season,” and “Illusion” as singles ahead of the album’s release. All three singles debuted within the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100.

“A couple years ago, a friend introduced me to the term ‘Radical Optimism,’” Lipa said in a press release upon the album’s announcement. “It’s a concept that resonated with me, and I became more curious as I started to play with it and weave it into my life. It struck me — the idea of going through chaos gracefully and feeling like you can weather any storm. At the same time, I found myself looking through the music history of psychedelia, trip hop, and Britpop. It has always felt so confidently optimistic to me, and that honesty and attitude is a feeling I took into my recording sessions.”

Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism Tracklist

1. “End Of An Era”
2. “Houdini”
3. “Training Season”
4. “These Walls”
5. “Whatcha Doing”
6. “French Exit”
7. “Illusion”
8. “Falling Forever”
9. “Anything For Love”
10. “Maria”
11. “Happy For You”

Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism Album Cover Artwork

Did you know that Sausage Party is the second highest-grossing R-rated animated film of all-time after Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train? It’s true! To be fair, there aren’t a ton of animated titles with an R rating out there, but it’s still an impressive box office achievement — especially for a movie featuring a graphic orgy between foods. The success of 2016’s Sausage Party has led to a TV spin off, Sausage Party: Foodtopia, which debuts this summer on Amazon Prime Video.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Seth Rogen-starring Sausage Party: Foodtopia, including plot details and the release date.

Plot

Sausage Party (the movie) is about a sausage named Frank who leads a group of his fellow supermarket products on “a quest to discover the truth about their existence and what really happens when they become chosen to leave the grocery store.” But it’s mostly an excuse to make dirty jokes and puns.

Set after the events of the movie, Sausage Party: Foodtopia follows Frank, Brenda, Barry, and Sammy, the characters voiced by Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera, and Edward Norton, respectively, as they try to build their own food society. Little else is known, other than there’s a scene so “unbelievably shocking” that it caught the not-easily-shocked Wiig by surprise.

Rogen told Empire that he warned the PR folks at Amazon, “You should all just start wrapping your heads around this now. You’ll probably have to talk about this a lot.” He added, “We had Kristen Wiig in picking up a few lines the other day, and I think we’ve all become desensitized to it, because we’ll just be like, ‘Roll the scene!’ and then she was like, ‘Oh my God?! This is insane!’”

Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir, who both received screenplay credit on the movie, will serve as co-showrunners, while Conrad Vernon is back as director.

Cast

Original Sausage Party cast members Seth Rogen (sausage Frank), Kristen Wiig (hot dog bun Brenda), Michael Cera (sausage Barry), David Krumholtz (lavash Kareem Abdul Lavash), and Edward Norton (bagel Sammy Bagel Jr.) are all back, while the new additions to the cast include Will Forte, Sam Richardson, Natasha Rothwell, and Yassir Lester in undisclosed roles. Bill Hader will, uh, probably not voice “Firewater” and “José Tequila” again.

Release Date

All eight episodes of Sausage Party: Foodtopia will be available on Amazon Prime Video on July 11. If only it was one week later: July 4 is the most hot dog (and sausage) day of the year.

Trailer

There’s no trailer yet, but Prime Video did release a poster for the series. Yes, there is a “hole” joke.

The Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers both had their seasons come to an end this week, as the Timberwolves polished off a sweep of the Suns and the Nuggets beat the Lakers for the eighth time in their last nine playoff games.

As always happens when teams with stated championship aspirations coming into the season lose early in the playoffs, there has been plenty of chatter about what went wrong and what comes next in L.A. and Phoenix. For both teams, a coaching change could be on the horizon, as Frank Vogel seems a likely scapegoat with the Suns and Darvin Ham has come under fire from many Lakers fans.

Coaches are often the first person to get fired because it’s much easier to change coaches than it is to overhaul a roster, or be willing to look inward as a front office at the mistakes you made. That is something that bugs Charles Barkley, especially when people in the media call for folks to get fired, and he used last night’s Inside the NBA broadcast to once again get some things off his chest about the “punks, idiots, and jackasses on other networks.”

This is at least the third time Barkley has gone after folks on ESPN for their coverage of the Lakers (and Warriors), but this time he also wants to know why GMs James Jones and Rob Pelinka aren’t facing the majority of the criticism for putting “trash ass teams” together. In Chuck’s eyes, the Suns and Lakers stink because of the players, not coaches, and if anyone in the organization deserves blame it’s the ones who build the rosters.

He is probably not wrong. It’s hard to see how just a coaching change makes either of these teams a real contender, and they both need to revisit how they’ve constructed these rosters around their stars — or, in Phoenix’s case, the stars they’ve chosen to bring in. The problem is, that’s a much harder thing to resolve, as neither team has great assets — L.A. does have more than Phoenix — and money is tight given their stars at the top. So, the coach will land a lot of the blame. That said, it’s more than fair for Chuck to call that out as scapegoating, as is his critique that many avoid pointing the blame on coaches because they want players to like them.

Last week, Kanye West announced the new release date for his and Ty Dolla Sign’s second collaborative album, Vultures 2 would be May 3. Now, with that date just a day away, fans of the mercurial producer have to contend with dueling impulses: excited anticipation for the project’s long-awaited release and skeptical dread that it’ll once again be pushed back without warning or explanation.

So, will Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign’s Vultures 2 be delayed again?

Unfortunately, there’s no real way to answer that. It isn’t like Kanye is a fountain of information these days — at least, not relevant information. For instance, one of his recent missives declared that his next project would be a porn studio (which, if true, would simply offer yet another distraction from him doing the one thing people actually seem to want him to). We know he’s been in the studio, because he added his own verse to Future and Kendrick Lamar’s “Like That” to rekindle his on-again-off-again feud with Drake. But no one asked him to do that, and it’s unclear how that has anything to do with Vultures 2.

One potential problem has been Kanye’s supposed inability to secure a distributor for his music after making antisemitic comments last year. He debated a direct-to-consumer approach, but given his spotty follow-through on projects even when he isn’t enduring the consequences of his own actions, don’t be surprised if tomorrow comes and goes without a new release.