Indefatigable rock veterans My Morning Jacket are readying to release their latest album, Is, which they announced last month. They shared the lush “Time Waited” in January, and today, they go in a more rocking direction on “Squid Ink.”
Jim James says of the new song:
“The idea behind ‘Squid Ink’ is that certain people carry a negativity that fills the room like a squid shooting ink into the water. It’s about trying to get out of those murky waters by believing in yourself, and when Patrick and I were jamming I got the idea to sing part of the chorus really low — almost like putting a beard on the face of the vocal.”
“I like how the word is indicates a sense of presence in the now — there’s no logic or rationale behind this record; it just is. All these songs came into existence out of an attempt to connect with something beyond the human experiment, which for me is one of the most beautiful things about music — that connection with something larger than us, yet something we are all equally a part of.”
Watch the “Squid Ink” video above.
Is is out 3/21 via ATO Records. Find more information here.
Among them was the Raptors acquiring Brandon Ingram, as Toronto took a big swing to bring in the former All-Star wing to pair with Scottie Barnes. That trade, in particular, has not been discussed much in the week since the deadline, largely because the Raptors are near the bottom of the East and Ingram hasn’t played yet as he continues to recover from an ankle sprain that’s had him sidelined since December. Still, it was a considerable move from a Raptors team that signaled they aren’t planning on staying in the rebuilding phase after this year, but there was one order of business still to get done.
Ingram was set to be a free agent this summer and has been looking for a long-term, big money extension for some time. New Orleans was not willing to give him the kind of deal he was looking for, but the Raptors trading for him indicated they would be. Sure enough, on Tuesday we learned that Ingram and the Raptors were in agreement on a 3-year, $120 million extension with a player option on the final year, per Shams Charania.
It’s a large commitment by the Raptors and gives Ingram control over the final year of the deal, giving him both security and the ability to go after another lucrative contract before he turns 30 if he thrives in his new home in Toronto. While some wondered if the Raptors had to pay this much now for Ingram when few teams had space this summer, there is no world you can make that trade and not lock him into an extension immediately — also, trying to play hardball immediately isn’t the best way to get him excited about joining your team.
There are real questions about Ingram’s fit alongside Scottie Barnes. He tends to operate in the midrange and their shot charts are eerily similar, which begs the question of how well they can coexist — and we’ve already seen things get cluttered with Barnes and other talented wings when Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby were in town. However, the Raptors clearly have a vision for the partnership and a belief that they can complement each other well. We will have to wait until later in the season to see that in action, but even before Ingram steps foot on an NBA floor in a Raptors uniform, he has a deal to stay there through at least 2027.
This year, on top of the annual performances during the All-Star events at Chase Center, the NBA is putting on a three-day concert series at Pier 48 (tickets available here). Here, you can find all of the musical acts performing at NBA All-Star Weekend each day and where you can see them — there are also going to be dozens of brand activations, parties, and concerts throughout the weekend, like Chance the Rapper headlining TNT’s American Express Road Show.
FRIDAY, FEB. 14
Zedd, Flo Rida, and NAV at Pier 48
The NBA’s concert series will kick off with sets by NAV and Flo Rida, with Zedd giving the headliner performance at Pier 48 on Friday night.
LaRussell at Rising Stars
The Bay Area rapper will perform an original song during introductions for the Rising Stars Game on Friday night at Chase Center (6 p.m. PT).
SATURDAY, FEB. 15
Noah Kahan and Gary Clark Jr. at Pier 48
The second night of the NBA’s concert series will feature Gary Clark Jr. and Noah Kahan headlining at Pier 48.
H.E.R.
H.E.R. will join Andre Iguodala on stage to welcome fans to All-Star Saturday Night (5 p.m. PT).
GELO (aka LiAngelo Ball
GELO will perform his hit “Tweaker” for the first time live on television prior to the Three-Point Contest at All-Star Saturday Night in the Chase Center (5 p.m. PT).
PJ Morton and Goapele
Morton will perform the national anthem and also will join Goapele for “Lift Every Voice And Sing” prior to the HBCU Classic at Oakland Arena (2 p.m. PT).
SUNDAY, FEB. 17
The Chainsmokers and 2 Chainz
The final night of the NBA concert series at Pier 48 will feature a set by 2 Chainz prior to the final headliner of the weekend, The Chainsmokers.
DJ Cassidy, E-40, Too Short, Saweetie, and En Vogue
While there’s not a halftime anymore in the new All-Star format, between games in the mini-tournament there will be a performance of DJ Cassidy’s Pass The Mic Live with E-40, Too Short, Saweetie, and En Vogue celebrating the Bay’s music legacy (5 p.m. PT).
Raphael Saadiq
Saadiq will make a special performance during the NBA All-Star introductions prior to Sunday’s games (5 p.m. PT).
Dennis R. Rodriguez and Alessia Cara
The national anthem prior to Sunday’s game will be performed by L.A. firefighter Dennis Rodriguez, with fellow firefighters presenting the colors, while Alessia Cara will perform the Canadian national anthem.
Wes Anderson’s next movie, The Phoenician Scheme, has been quietly underway for years, so it comes as a pleasant surprise that the Moonrise Kingdom and The Royal Tenenbaums filmmaker’s next wonderfully weird project will arrive within months. Considering the usual drip-drip of information and speculation for most anticipated movies these days, silence followed by a sudden announcement feels like a sooner-than-expected arrival, and we’ll take it. Because if this movie rolls out with a vibe like every other Anderson movie, the project should be a balm during our current times.
With The Phoenician Scheme, Anderson has returned to his frequent Focus Features stomping grounds, and the studio set a limited release date of May 30 with wide release to follow on June 6. According to Deadline, the film was co-written by frequent Anderson collaborator Roman Coppola and revolves around “tells the story of a family and a family business.”
Variety reports that Benecio del Toro leads the cast (as Zsa-zsa Korda, a ridiculously wealthy man) and several frequent faces from other Anderson projects are onboard. Those include Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Tom Hanks, Rupert Friend, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Additionally, Mia Threapleton portrays Korda’s daughter with Cera as her tutor. The cast will be rounded out by Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, Hope Davis, and Richard Ayoade.
That list leaves a rather large Bill Murray-shaped hole, given that he is a frequent Anderson teammate, so is he involved? Well in early 2024, Deadline reported that the nine-times Anderson cast member joined the project alongside del Toro and Cera. However, Murray’s name does not appear in the list of names detailed in current coverage of this project, although a recent Entertainment Weekly article (which quotes Murrayregarding recent controversies) does mention his involvement in The Phoenician Scheme, so until Murray or Anderson declares differently, the jury remains out there.
The 2025 Grammys were stacked, with one of the standout moments being The Weeknd ending his boycott and returning to give a performance of “Cry For Me.” He’s not finished with the song yet, as today (February 11), he released a new video for the Hurry Up Tomorrow highlight.
In the latest from his apparent farewell era, The Weeknd is primarily a shadowy figure amid abstract imagery (aside from some vivid imagery of crying stuff other than tears). HE sings on the chorus, “And I hope you cry for me like I cry for you / Every night for you, take it easy on me, baby / ‘Cause I tried with you, saw my life with you / End of time with you, now we’re strangers.”
This is coming off a big past few days for The Weeknd, even aside from the Grammys. It was announced this past weekend that Hurry Up Tomorrowdebuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making it his fifth chart-topper, earning the largest week for any album since Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department thanks to 490,500 equivalent album units. Meanwhile, the nominations for the Juno Awards (essentially Canada’s Grammys) were announced today, and The Weeknd earned four nods.
For as long as I can remember, NBA fans have been wishing for a 1-on-1 tournament at All-Star Weekend. Seeing the best players in the world go head-to-head has felt like a pipe dream though, as there has never been any indication it’s been seriously considered — even as the league has seemingly tried everything to shake up the All-Star format.
Among the biggest reasons we’ve never seen it is star players not wanting to get embarrassed, as a 1-on-1 game (which are usually short) creates the opportunity to get absolutely dusted. If a player goes cold at the wrong time or runs up on someone who is hot and just can’t miss, you can get run off the floor quickly. That could, in theory, be detrimental to their brand, which is apparently too much to put at stake.
And yet, in the first year of its existence, Unrivaled got a bunch of the best women’s basketball players on the planet to sign up for their 1-on-1 tournament. It’s the format basketball fans have been begging to see, and on Monday, the first round delivered a very fun opening night of action — even with some injury withdrawals that shortened the first round to just 8 games.
The games are quick — playing make-it-take-it and scoring by 2’s and 3’s with a target score of 11 can go very fast — and guards and bigs were all thrown into the bracket together, with fan-voting determining the seeding, which created some fascinating matchups. The format seems to benefit guards, as having to take the ball out past the three-point line with a 7-second shot clock doesn’t give bigs a ton of time to go to work on the block. That said, bigs who have a face-up game were able to leverage their size advantage and get some wins as well. The games being to 11 (meaning 5 buckets was enough to win if you hit a couple threes) kept the tension high and led to some shocking upsets, most notably Breanna Stewart getting blanked by Aaliyah Edwards, 12-0.
That part — a major star getting worked by a young up-and-comer — is particularly important because it is the situation that so many players are terrified of, but it’s also great for the game. Stewie took it on the chin and congratulated Edwards (her Unrivaled teammate on the Mist), and it was a star-making performance for Edwards, who spent last year toiling away in relative obscurity on the Washington Mystics as a rookie, where she was not even the focal point on her own team. This gave her a stage to show her complete skillset, and she took full advantage, putting Stewie in the blender on offense and putting the clamps on defensively.
It will take a lot more than a 12-0 loss in a 1-on-1 tournament to put a dent in Stewart’s legacy. She just won another championship with the Liberty and her place among one of the all-time greats is cemented, and while there is some chatter wondering if she’s lost a step, she’ll have a chance to answer that in due time as she and the Liberty go for a repeat campaign in 2025. For Edwards though, that performance against a great is enough to put her on the radar of fans who might not have been all that familiar with her game. The sixth overall pick from last year’s draft certainly isn’t an unknown having starred at UConn, but she was also definitely not the most-discussed player from her rookie class and had an up-and-down campaign in Washington. Beating Breanna Stewart, and doing so in dominant fashion, is the kind of thing that draws broader attention.
This is the real value of a 1-on-1 tournament for the sport as a whole, as it provides a unique stage for players who may play various roles to show different skills. Being great at 1-on-1 requires a different skillset than being great at 5-on-5 (or 3-on-3, in Unrivaled’s case), but it’s also the form of basketball everyone is familiar with and everyone understands. There’s no off-ball action or sets being drawn up, it is just self-creation and survival. That lends itself to entertainment, and Unrivaled has steered into that. Everyone plays 1-on-1, and with a $200,000 prize for the winner, there are enough stakes to add some juice to the proceedings.
As the second round gets set to begin (Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. ET on truTV), we should see even more intensity as we inch closer to that prize money. The seven second round games (Edwards will get a bye after Marina Mabrey and Kate Martin were both scratches from the first round) feature some extremely fun matchups like Arike Ogunbowale vs. Skylar Diggins-Smith and Courtney Williams vs. Rhyne Howard and presents further opportunity for young players to make a statement, most notably Rickea Jackson who will go toe-to-toe with the league’s top dog, Napheesa Collier.
In Year 2, I could see some adjustments being made to the tournament format, perhaps extending games to 15 instead of 11 to give more of an opportunity for runs on both sides, but the first year already feels like a success from the outside after one round. Hopefully the players enjoy it as well and we continue to get buy-in, because it gives fans something they’ve been asking to see for a long time. Perhaps eventually players in other leagues will follow suit and sign up for some 1-on-1 once they see a loss isn’t the end of the world, but in the meantime, it helps Unrivaled stand out and gives players a stage to show their full skillset as playmakers.
Do you know how we knew Kendrick Lamar absolutely killed his Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show, you know, aside from the fact that we have eyes and ears? Because people on the internet are still talking and arguing about it. It provoked conversation, which you can’t say for every Super Bowl Halftime show. That’s a sign of good art. But it isn’t just the set pieces, the Sam Jackson appearance, the SZA cameo, and the significance of the Serena Williams crip walk that is being talked about, many people are also pointing to K-Dot’s fit.
Dude rocked frayed flared jeans on one of America’s biggest stages. That simple act surely justified every fashion decision of that one person in your life who has kept riding for flared jeans through the skinny jeans and now baggy jeans era. Will this signal a return to flared jeans in men’s fashion? If that’s the case, take a page from Kendrick and get the right size, because one of the reasons Kendrick was able to make it work is because they are the perfect length to float above the midsole of his kicks imperceptibly. That’s an important detail!
YouTube
What we love about Kendrick’s Super Bowl fit is how it calls back to classic golden age of hip-hop street style — jeans, a leather jacket, cap, chain — but elevates the look with some significant designer pieces. Take the flared jeans, they aren’t just an old hand-me-down pair of Lee Jeans, they’re $1,300 medium-wash Flared Surf Jeans by French luxury brand Celine (buy them here), meticulously made in Japan (the holy land of great denim).
Celine
If you want the jacket, you’re out of luck. K-Dot’s letterman is a custom piece by London menswear designer Martine Rose. Unfortunately, the brand doesn’t have anything in its current outerwear lineup that looks close to what Kendrick wore. The shoes on the other hand are a lot easier to pick up. Kendrick was rocking a pair of Nike Air DT Max ’96 sneakers in black and white (specifically this Colorado Away colorway, buy them here.), popularized by football coach and former player Deion Sanders.
Goat
The specific colorway Kendrick wore was part of Nike’s 2024 season, so you can still pick up the sneakers easily at retail price, even on the aftermarket.
We’ve had some great men’s fashion moments so far this year, and as much as we love Kendrick’s fit, we still have to give the best-dressed honors to Jeremy Strong.
Following the indie success of Transatlanticism, Death Cab For Cutie signed with a major label and released their first platinum-selling album, Plans. That was 20 years ago, so to celebrate the anniversary, Ben Gibbard & Co. are playing the album in its entirety in three cities: Seattle, Chicago, and Brooklyn.
“Plans is an album that changed the trajectory of Death Cab For Cutie forever — it was our major label debut, it went platinum, and earned us our first Grammy nominations,” Gibbard said in a statement. “We are only playing a few shows in its honor as we’re currently working on our next studio album, but we would be remiss to not take the opportunity to celebrate the 20th anniversary in some fashion.”
Pre-sale tickets will be available on Thursday, February 13, at 10 a.m. local time and will go on sale on Friday, February 14, at 10 a.m. local time for Seattle and Brooklyn and 9 a.m. CT for Chicago. You can find out more information here.
Check out the Plans 20th anniversary tour dates below.
Death Cab For Cutie 2025 Tour Dates: Plans Tour
08/02 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena *
08/05 — Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre *
08/08 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount ^
08/10 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount ^
* with Nation Of Language
^ with The American Analog Set
Canadian post-punk favorites Preoccupations haven’t been away for too long, as their latest album, Arrangements, came out in late 2022. Regardless, they’re back: Today (February 11), the band announced their fifth album, Ill At Ease, and shared the single “Focus.”
The band’s Matt Flegel says of the new song, “Focus…or the lack thereof. Shame and regret: waking up with it, not being able to sleep because of it, and finally falling asleep and having nightmares about it. I put myself a thousand years in the future with these same feelings. While having so many better things to be worried about, as the world falls apart, still finding it impossible to look past meaningless misgivings.”
He also says of the album:
“The well of dark things to write about seemingly has not dried up, and lyrically, it’s where I still tend to draw from. Draining all my anxieties into a song is often the only way I can get through a day. Some songs exist in a world with barren plains of burnt earth, covered in a dust of shame, dread, death, where all the things I love are things that kill me. Some come from the perspective of another distant world, looking skyward into a science fiction ocean of space, solitude, slight hope. Sometimes I’m looking around at the world that we live in now with incredulity, hilariously dissatisfied with how it’s all turned out, and assuming that it can’t be long before it’s all over. Some songs are just a reflection of me looking down at my feet while I trudge along wondering what I’m doing with myself, and if the ground is going to fall out from underneath me at any given moment.”
Listen to “Focus” above. Below, find the Ill At Ease album art and tracklist, as well as Preoccupations’ upcoming tour dates.
05/22 — Montréal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB
05/23 — Ottawa, ON @ The 27 Club
05/24 — Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
05/27 — Detroit, MI @ Lager House
05/31 — Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle
06/01 — Minneapolis, @ MN 7th St Entry
06/04 — Calgary, AB @ Commonwealth
06/06 — Vancouver, BC @ Wise Hall
06/07 — Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s
06/08 — Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
06/10 — San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
06/12 — Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
06/13 — San Diego, CA @ Casbah
06/17 — Austin, TX @ Parish
06/18 — Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves
06/20 — Nashville, TN @ The Blue Room-Third Man Records
06/21 — Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade(Purgatory)
06/22 — Raleigh, NC @ Kings
06/24 — Washington, DC @ Songbyrd Record Cafe
06/25 — Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
06/27 — New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
06/29 — Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Upstairs
Ill At Ease is out 5/9 via Born Losers Records. Find more information here.
It was a bit of a wait, but we finally have a premiere date for Power Book III: Raising Kananseason four. STARZ revealed the date earlier this month, confirming that a new round of episodes will kick off on March 7. Now, the network has returned with an exciting trailer for the upcoming season. It captures Kanan (MeKai Curtis) approaching a turning point in his life where he will have to define the meaning of family for himself going forward. In addition to that, we see clips that capture the growing tension between Kanan and his mother Raq (Patina Miller), the return of Unique (Joey Badass) who seeks revenge on Raq and her family, and much more.
Season four of Power Book III: Raising Kanan is sure to be a thrilling one as it will build on the exciting drama that we saw in season three. There, viewers witnessed the shocking deaths of Ronnie and Detective Howard as while as the rise of Kanan as a sole player in the New York drug world, rather than one living in his mother’s shadow.
Ahead of the season four premiere, check out a synopsis of what viewers can expect in the upcoming episodes below.
In the riveting fourth season, slates have seemingly been wiped clean for Kanan, Raq, and the rest of the Thomas family in pursuit of a fresh start. However in the eye of the storm, one very dangerous obstacle looms large, Unique is alive. Unique makes a volatile and violent return, as he hunts to upend the lives of the Thomas family. Amidst the chaos, the Thomas family faces a truth that can no longer be denied: You are who you are. Although you may be capable of change, the fundamentals remain the same, and sooner or later, you will be forced to confront the inescapable reality of your inherent nature. In season four, whether the family chooses to reject or embrace the truth may be the difference between life and death.
Watch the new trailer for season four Power Book III: Raising Kanan in the video above.
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