Category: News

It’s been nearly four years since we last checked in on the dystopian storytellers over at Black Mirror, and things sure have changed since season five. While the anthology series is known for its dark and twisty takes on modern technology and social media, the upcoming season is shaping up to be the boldest yet…if you can believe it. Creator Charlie Brooker says that viewers should expect the unexpected, which we were already expecting, so this should be even more unsuspecting. Do you follow?

Booker recently told Tudum, “Partly as a challenge, and partly to keep things fresh for both me and the viewer, I began this season by deliberately upending some of my own core assumptions about what to expect,” Brooker explained. “Consequently, this time, alongside some of the more familiar Black Mirror tropes we’ve also got a few new elements, including some I’ve previously sworn blind the show would never do, to stretch the parameters of what ‘a Black Mirror episode’ even is. The stories are all still tonally Black Mirror through-and-through — but with some crazy swings and more variety than ever before.” That’s a lot coming from the man who made us afraid to have thoughtful memories.

So queue up “On A Roll” by Ashley O and get ready for a new season of realizing that your phone is probably trying to kill you. Here’s what you need to know.

Plot

Netflix promises that this season will be the wackiest yet, and considering the stories from last season, it seems like the show will enter full chaos mode. The streamer says season six is the most “unpredictable, unclassifiable, and unexpected season” of the award-winning series, which is a lot coming from the show that showed a man having sex with a pig way back in season one. They have released a brief synopsis for every episode:

“Joan Is Awful” An average woman is stunned to discover a global streaming platform has launched a prestige TV drama adaptation of her life — in which she is portrayed by Hollywood A-lister Salma Hayek.
Directed by: Ally Pankiw
Written by: Charlie Brooker
Starring: Annie Murphy, Salma Hayek Pinault, Michael Cera, Himesh Patel, Rob Delaney, Ben Barnes

“Lock Henry” A young couple travel to a sleepy Scottish town to start work on a genteel nature documentary – but find themselves drawn to a juicy local story involving shocking events of the past.
Directed by: Sam Miller
Written by: Charlie Brooker
Starring: Samuel Blenkin, Myha’la Herrold, Daniel Portman, John Hannah, Monica Dolan

“Beyond The Sea” In an alternative 1969, two men on a perilous high-tech mission wrestle with the consequences of an unimaginable tragedy.
Directed by: John Crowley
Written by: Charlie Brooker
Starring: Aaron Paul, Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara, Auden Thornton, Rory Culkin

“Mazey Day” A troubled starlet is dogged by invasive paparazzi while dealing with the consequences of a hit-and-run incident.
Directed by: Uta Briesewitz
Written by: Charlie Brooker
Starring: Zazie Beetz, Clara Rugaard, Danny Ramirez

“Demon 79” Northern England, 1979. A meek sales assistant is told she must commit terrible acts to prevent disaster.
Directed by: Toby Haynes
Written by: Charlie Brooker and Bisha K. Ali
Starring: Anjana Vasan, Paapa Essiedu, Katherine Rose Morley, David Shields

Cast

As with every other season, each episode is standalone, which means a new set of actors for every installment. Season six features the likes of Salma Hayek Pinault, Annie Murphy, Zazie Beetz, Michael Cera, Paapa Essiedu, Josh Hartnett, Aaron Paul, Rory Culkin, and more throughout the five-episode season.

Release Date

All five episodes (or “films” as they are calling them) will drop on Netflix on June 15th.

Trailer

The full trailer was just released this week:

Pink is baring it all — and not just in her music. Yesterday (May 30), she took to Instagram to share some pictures she took over the weekend. It appears she spent Memorial Day weekend at a lake.

But unlike many of us, her camper appeared to have an outdoor shower, and it looks like she put it to good use.

The “Trustfall” singer posted a picture of herself showering, fully nude, with doodles covering the private areas. Pink suggested that the picture was taken by her husband, Carey Hart.

“Lake weekends and a new ridiculous bathing suit,” said Pink in the post’s caption, referring to another image in the carousel in which she is wearing a transparent bikini top covering her breasts.

She continued, saying, “If you haven’t showered outdoors while your husband tries to scare you every five minutes you haven’t lived!!!!!!”

Of course, Hart couldn’t get enough of the nude singer. He commented on the post with four salivating emojis.

Gwen Stefani, who coined the phrase “this sh*t is bananas” on her 2004 single “Hollaback Girl,” also approves of the selfies, and the bikini as well.

Pink is set to embark on her Summer Carnival Tour beginning in July, and it will kick off on July 24 at Rogers Center in Toronto.

On the heels of their last single, “Emotion Sickness,” Queens Of The Stone Age have returned with a new wordplay-focused offering, “Carnavoyeur,” off their upcoming album, In Times New Roman…. The song opens with an eerie, rock instrumental to introduce the dramatic vocals. It’s also complete with a psychedelic lyric video, all keeping with the tone of the track.

“Free fall from the nest, Then glide to the left / A shine catch the eye, So flow to the right / Flying high, realize, There are no more mountains to climb,” lead singer Josh Homme notes in the pre-chorus before continuing the mysterious lyrics.

“Minutes, seconds and so little time / Give your secrets away? / Well, whisper in my ear / Every living thing will die from the king of the jungle to butterfly / The only sin is waiting too long,” he adds, speaking to the finality of life — for all creatures, not just humans.

The new album marks the first full record from the band in six years, giving fans something to look forward to next month. Queens Of The Stone Age have had a difficult few years in between with the loss of Mark Lanegan and Homme’s headline-making divorce from his wife, of which he shared a recent statement about.

Check out Queens Of The Stone Age’s new song “Carnavoyeur” above.

In Times New Roman… is out 6/16 via Matador. Find more information here.

The Boston Celtics suffered a Game 7 loss in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat earlier this week. The game happened at TD Garden, and while the building was electric to start the game, things eventually unraveled as the Celtics struggled to overcome things like Jayson Tatum’s ankle injury on the opening play of the game and a scorching hot shooting night by the Heat.

Draymond Green unsurprisingly had plenty to say about the Celtics on the most recent episode of his podcast, as he expressed that the performance was proof they “are who we thought they were.” He also decided to go after the team’s fans a bit, saying that he took joy in watching them “suffer.”

“I must say, it did not hurt me to watch the Boston Celtics fans suffer,” Green said. “Those people were really rude to me last year and I like to see them suffer.”

Green continued to prod Celtics fans by bringing up Tatum’s ankle injury, saying that while Tatum isn’t the kind of guy who will make excuses for an off night, “Boston Celtics fans will make excuses, and I ain’t hearing none of that sh*t cause y’all rude and I’m happy you all lost.”

“I’m not happy JT lost, but Boston Celtics fans, especially those of you that are in that arena, I’m happy y’all lost,” Green said. “Because, like, stop being who you are. Stop being who you are — I’ve heard that before, but you know what I mean. Stop being the way that y’all are. Like, at some point you just can’t be that way. So stop doing that, and you know what that is, I don’t need to go into that.”

Green and the Golden State Warriors went up against the Celtics in the NBA Finals last year, and during the games in Boston, he was hit with some “f*ck you Draymond” chants from the opposing fans. Both he and Klay Thompson expressed that they had a problem with it, and this must have stayed on Green’s mind as he watched Game 7.

Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.

Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of May below.

Tame Impala — Lonerism (10 Year Anniversary Box Set)

Tame Impala defined psychedelic rock in the early 2010s and Kevin Parker’s sophomore effort, 2012’s Lonerism, was a big part of that. The album turns 10 this year, so it’s being reissued as a 3-LP box set that includes goodies like a 24-page booklet and previously unheard demo sessions.

Get it here.

ABBA — Ring Ring (50th Anniversary Reissue)

Before ABBA was ABBA, they were Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida. Under that name, they released their debut album, 1973’s Ring Ring. That was 50 years ago, and half a century later, the project has been pressed on vinyl for a fresh rerelease, giving a new generation the chance to experience the launch of an enduring phenomenon.

Get it here.

Sun Ra & His Arkestra — Space Is The Place: Music From The Original Soundtrack

Back in the ’70s, Sun Ra recorded the soundtrack for the movie Space Is The Place. It took decades for the soundtrack to get a proper release as an album, and now the definitive version of it is here with a new vinyl reissue. In addition to the album, this edition comes with the movie on BluRay and DVD, a tote bag, and a pizza box-style box to house everything.

Get it here.

The Exploding Hearts — Guitar Romantic (Expanded & Remastered)

The Exploding Hearts ended tragically after three of the band’s members died in a van accident. They did manage one well-received album, though: 2003’s Guitar Romantic. Third Man Records just reissued the album as an “Expanded & Remastered” edition: along with the original remastered album are a few new mixes of select songs.

Get it here.

Lucy Dacus — Historian (5th Anniversary Reissue)

It feels like Lucy Dacus has been around for forever, but her breakout sophomore album Historian only just came out five years ago in 2018. She’s taking a moment to celebrate the project with a vinyl reissue, which is pressed on vibrant red vinyl and comes with Dacus’ first draft of the album art.

Get it here.

Daft Punk — Random Access Memories (10th Anniversary Reissue)

It’s really been ten years since Daft Punk released what would end up being their final album, Random Access Memories. While the duo is no longer active, they’ve been busy with a fresh reissue. There are a lot of goodies here, including an unreleased Julian Casablancas collaboration and some demos with Pharrell.

Get it here.

Death Cab For Cutie — Transatlanticism (Vinyl Me, Please Reissue)

Transatlanticism was an iconic release for Death Cab, so it’s worth honoring 20 years later. Vinyl Me, Please is doing so with a killer reissue, which is pressed on red marble vinyl and comes with a listening notes booklet from Sean Nelson, who contributed some vocals to the album.

Get it here.

Paul Simon — Seven Psalms

Paul Simon is 81 years old and still trying different musically: His new album is totally acoustic and it’s one multi-section song that runs for 33 minutes. It’s quite the concept and one that’ll come across beautifully on a turntable.

Get it here.

John Coltrane — Coltrane’s Sound (Reissue)

The Rhino label has launched Rhino High Fidelity, a new series of high-quality vinyl pressings. They’re kicking things off big with reissues of The Cars’ self-titled 1978 debut album and John Coltrane’s 1964 release Coltrane’s Sound. The series will unveil two new installments every quarter, and all of them will be limited to 5,000 numbered copies.

Get it here.

Animal Collective — Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished (Reissue)

Animal Collective started their journey to defining experimental indie music in the 2000s with 2000’s Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished, back when it was just Avey Tare and Panda Bear. There’s a new reissue and on top of the remastered album and new artwork, there’s also A Night At Mr. Raindrop’s Holistic Supermarket, a bonus EP containing five previously unreleased bonus tracks.

Get it here.

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

With HBO’s controversial new show The Idol just days from its long-awaited premiere, the show’s star, The Weeknd (aka Abel Tesfaye), announced the release of the latest single from its accompanying soundtrack, The Idol, Vol. 1. While he didn’t reveal the song’s title, he did share the names of its guest features. Appropriately for the dark theme of the show, Playboi Carti will appear alongside the original pop idol, Madonna, on the song, which comes out on Friday, June 2, ahead of the show’s June 4 premiere.

Although the first few episodes of the show were panned at Cannes Film Festival, the show’s co-creators Tesfaye and Sam Levinson remain convinced that the controversy is only going to lead to one of the most-watched shows in HBO history. Meanwhile, Levinson and co-star Lily-Rose Depp insisted that the show is not about Britney Spears; Madonna’s presence on the soundtrack makes it clear that the series’ perspective is inspired by many pop stars over the years.

The Weeknd said that the soundtrack was inspired by artists like Prince and Pink Floyd, so it’ll be interesting to see what that’ll sound like with the artists involved. The Weeknd previously released the Future-featuring song “Double Fantasy” from the soundtrack, so perhaps that can give listeners some idea of what to expect.

Earlier this week, Tyler The Creator caused a stir when he made a cameo appearance in Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar’s grainy video for “The Hillbillies.” Clowning around with the cousins in front of the Dodger Stadium entrance, Tyler went right up to the camera to show off a button on his shirt reading “Camp Flog Gnaw 2023,” seemingly announcing the impending return of his lauded music festival for the first time since 2019. Today, that announcement has been confirmed with an official press release revealing the dates of the festival’s return to Dodger Stadium: November 11 and 12, 2023.

Camp Flog Gnaw, which had become pretty much the live version of the Tyler-inspired Pollen playlist on Spotify, was home to one of the most impressive alternative hip-hop and R&B lineups around. Featured artists in previous years have included Tyler’s inspirations and collaborators like ASAP Rocky, Billie Eilish, Brockhampton, Erykah Badu, Flatbush Zombies, HER, The Internet, Jaden Smith, Juice WRLD, Kid Cudi, Lauryn Hill, Raphael Saadiq, Solange, Summer Walker, SZA, Thundercat, Willow Smith, and Vince Staples. Even Drake made a (somewhat poorly received) surprise appearance.

However, the festival had to be canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, and since then, Tyler’s hectic schedule has kept him too busy to plan and curate the festival. Now, with a pair of Grammys under his belt, a lucrative tour in the rearview, and a little more free time on his hands, it seems he’s had the opportunity to back on Camp activity planning. Advanced sale for Camp Flog Gnaw 2023 tickets begins this Friday, June 2 at noon. You can get more information at campfloggnaw.com.

Less than a month after the Kremlin claimed that Vladimir Putin was the subject of a failed assassination attempt by drones, CNN reported that another “wave of drone strikes” hit Moscow. Ukraine denied responsibility for the attacks, and the true origins remain a mystery, although the attacks hit Putin where it might count most: a wealthy suburb, which is surely going to raise more ire from oligarchs. In fact, Russian billionaires have already been lashing out over this war and referring to Putin as “Satan,” and this won’t help matters.

As well, Putin has been dealing with weekly rounds of mockery from the head of his private army, the Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin, and now, Russian State TV talking heads are at odds on whether to keep supporting this war (as they’ve undoubtedly been told to do), but everyone seems to agree that they don’t see the war’s objective. The Daily Beast rounds up the latest conflicting panels by these talking heads, which appears to have come to a head regarding what Russian “victory” would look like. There are no winners here:

The Monday broadcast, too, featured a rare moment of brutal honesty on Russian state television, with one panelist offering up a particularly grim prophecy about Putin’s end game.

“What would victory look like? We can see it by looking at Bakhmut, the city where 70,000 people used to live, with children and kindergartens. It was simply wiped off the face of the earth. Everyone who could escape from there did just that,” former state Duma deputy Boris Nadezhdin said, appearing exasperated.

All of this rhetoric follows shortly after Putin’s sad annual “Victory Day” parade to mark the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany. This year, in in the wake of his own troops abandoning tanks in Ukraine, Putin only had one sad little tank for his big parade. Likewise, his troops have been stuck using aged ammo that could potentially “explode in your face” at any given moment. Seems like it’s long past time to hang up those boots that have been on the ground.

A final note: rumors have persisted that the Wagner Group wants overthrow Putin, yet Prigozhin recently went on record to say that it’s not true, although to be fair, he changes his tune so much that it’s hard to keep track.

(Via The Daily Beast, CNN & Business Insider)

Every month, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden makes an unranked list of his favorite music-related items released during this period — songs, albums, books, films, you name it.

1. Westerman, An Inbuilt Fault

The British soft-rock singer-songwriter Will Westerman has been putting out hooky, haunting singles since the late 2010s. But it took until 2020 for him to finally release his debut full-length album, Your Hero Is Not Dead. While I like that record, he really turned a corner with this month’s An Inbuilt Fault, which takes the central idea of his project — “What if Sting made a Bon Iver record?” — and makes it sound as smooth and strange as that description suggests. I would love for somebody to give this guy $2 million and access to the studio cats who made Gaucho so we can see what he really can do.

2. Bar Italia, Tracey Denim

The wave of post-punk bands that have poured out of the U.K. in the past several years have tended to lean on the most guttural, talk-y, and dissonant aspects of the music, like Mark E. Smith himself took a massive piss in their cereal bowls every morning. Fortunately, this London band takes an alternate route, favoring the sleek and sexy side of esoteric art rock. On Tracey Denim, I hear echoes of The Cure, early aughts Radiohead, and the underrated Baltimore indie outfit Lower Dens. A very cool record.

3. En Attendant Ana, Principia

This under-the-radar French band has the trappings of a ’60s-inspired garage-rock outfit. But because they’re French, it comes out sounding cleaner and breezier, with plenty of chiming guitars and cool bass and drum sounds. Think Alvvays but with less fuzz. This album actually dropped in February, but it didn’t come across my radar until this month. And that seems appropriate, as this is a late spring album all the way.

4. Paul Simon, Seven Psalms

After announcing his retirement from touring in 2018, this iconic singer-songwriter has mostly stayed out of the public spotlight. But now he’s back with one of his most unusual records, a 33-minute block of music that is separated into seven different movements intended to be taken in all at once. As you might expect from an 81-year-old artist, Simon has mortality on the brain, a subject that also recurs throughout later albums like 2011’s exemplary So Beautiful Or So What. On that record, he writes playfully about the afterlife. But here, his conversations with God feel extra charged, even as the music — with extrapolates his bedrock folk style with quasi-classical flourishes — remains melodic and soothing. A man who once sang sardonically of “angels in the architecture,” Simon now earnestly seeks the comfort of those heavenly creatures on Seven Psalms.

5. Tinariwen, Amatssou

The most reliable brand in Tuareg “desert rock,” Tinariwen has built an American audience by collaborating with stateside rock musicians. That continues on Amatssou, with the most crucial guest star, producer Daniel Lanois, providing the patented atmosphere that he has brought to albums by everybody from Bob Dylan to U2 to Emmylou Harris. The result is a record that can sit comfortably with the rest of their vaunted catalog while also drifting a bit from their familiar yet potent formula.

6. Mandy, Indiana, I’ve Seen A Way

These feisty Europeans — there are three Brits and one Parisian — kick up quite the foreboding blast of noise on their debut album, I’ve Seen A Way. Dance grooves and pulsating synths collide with scratchy sonics and largely intelligible vocals that nevertheless communicate a sense of exciting doom and gloom. I suspect that music coordinators for dark prestige dramas looking for a shortcut to sonically convey mental and emotional disintegration are going to have a field day with this record.

7. Mark McGuire, A Pocketful Of Rain

Originally released as a double cassette and CD-R in 2009, this underground cult favorite was recently given fresh exposure via a reissue from the small indie label Husky Pants. Best known as a member of the aughts-era electronic duo Emeralds, McGuire applies the principles of hypnotic ambient music to the guitar, creating a beguiling web of loops and repetitive riffs that take on a meditative quality over the course of several minutes. There are also very short one-minute tracks that come and go quickly while leaving a last impression. The overall album, however, like Paul Simon’s Seven Psalms, feels like it is best appreciated if taken in all at once.

8. Charlotte Cornfield, Could Have Done Anything

This month’s “this is slowly growing on me and might eventually end up overtaking music I thought I liked more” album. This low-key Canadian singer-songwriter cannily combines the usual piano and acoustic guitar instrumentation with subtle electronic touches, a testament to the deft production of Josh Kaufman. Like Kaufman’s band Bonny Light Horseman, Cornfield is skilled at building songs that start simply and then build to emotionally satisfying payoffs without seeming to build much at all. Instead, her songs unfold like flower blossoms, as if you have already heard them dozens of times before. It’s a measured, unflashy style that quietly awes the more time you spend with it.

We finally have an update on Lil Uzi Vert‘s borderline-mythical The Pink Tape. According to one of Uzi’s collaborators, it seems as though we may have to wait just a little bit longer.

Yesterday (May 30), fans on Instagram demanded an answer from Uzi’s producer, Lyle.

One fan questioned the quality of the songs, but Lyle Leduff immediately shut it down.

“songs are great,” Leduff said. “But they wanna make sure it’s right and not rush it. We all know y’all ready for it but we wanna make sure it’s a classic and not just a bunch of random songs.”

Lyle responded to another fan, assuring that The Pink Tape, and Uzi’s new music in general, will be worth the wait. He revealed that Uzi has been going hard in the studio and improving his craft day by day. There’s no telling as to when the tape may see the light of day, but it seems like Uzi is gearing up to drop their magnum opus.

“[Uzi] records 5 [songs] a day for the most part,” said Lyle. “Bruh still gets better and better. Its hard to scale down 1500+ songs to an album.”

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.