Category: News

There’ve been a lot of changes at CNN in the last year, when the news network found themselves under new management. But perhaps the most controversial decision was this: on-air talent is no longer allowed to booze it up while on television. Granted, that doesn’t come up often. The biggest time it does is on New Year’s Eve, where it’s become a tradition for Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper to knock back a few — or more than that — before the big ball drops. No more. The two had to ring in 2023 stone cold sober. And Cohen, at least, was no happy camper.

It was the first proper NYC New Year’s in three years, with packed crowds who didn’t have to worry about some deadly new COVID strain. Still, Cohen and Cooper had to report from Times Square without help from alcohol. Instead they downed mystery drinks. One was a pickle shot. Another was a glass of buttermilk. But it was a shot of apple cider vinegar that broke them, leaving them choking, miserable, and in need of a real drink.

It was Cohen that broke the hardest. “I NEED TEQUILA! HONESTLY!” he shouted after yet another unpleasurable — and unalcoholic — beverage.

The pair weren’t the only ones unhappy to celebrate New Year’s sober. At one point they were joined remotely by Kevin Hart, who felt bad for them. “I can’t believe this right now! Watching you guys, and you are completely sober! What is happening? What is happening right now?” Hart railed. “You guys can’t say anything about it, but I can! I can say things about it! This is absolute bullsh*t! I don’t like it one bit!”

Cohen and Cooper have tended to make waves with their New Year’s Eve coverage, with Cohen in particular getting tanked and spouting some very drunky things he has to apologize for later. At least he doesn’t need a drink to make news.

(Via Mediaite)

The Giants dominated the Colts on Sunday to clinch their first playoff berth since 2016, but the story coming out of the 38-10 romp of Indianapolis wasn’t so much about New York’s quality of play, but the celebration from rookie Kayvon Thibodeaux after a late second quarter sack of Nick Foles led to the veteran QB leaving the game with a rib injury.

Thibodeaux sacked Foles and began doing snow angels on the ground next to him immediately while Foles writhed in pain until the trainers came out. It was a rather incredible visual, in part because of how long Thibodeaux laid there doing snow angels (on a day where it wasn’t even snowing) next to the clearly injured Foles. Afterwards, there were plenty of people not happy with the rookie’s antics, and unsurprisingly Colts coach Jeff Saturday can be counted among those who was upset with the celebration.

On Monday, Saturday called the celebration “tasteless” and “just trash” and wished his offensive line had done more to protect and stick up for Foles (which, to be clear, should’ve started with blocking Thibodeaux).

The general consensus is that Thibodeaux’s celebration was a bit much, particularly continuing going after he seemingly glanced over and saw Foles still there in pain, but hopefully this can be the end of the discourse and all parties involved can move on (with Foles hopefully able to recover, although Sam Ehlinger will start the final game of the year for the Colts).

Earth, Wind & Fire drummer Fred White has died at 67. Verdine White, his brother and bandmate, shared the news on Instagram on Sunday, January 1. A cause of death has not been publicly revealed at the time of this writing. The band’s official Instagram account also confirmed the news.

Here is Verdine White’s full Instagram tribute:

“Dearest Family Friends and Fans…..

Our family is saddened today
With the loss of an amazing and talented family member,
Our beloved brother Frederick Eugene ‘Freddie’ White.

He joins our brothers Maurice, Monte and Ronald in heaven and is now drumming with the angels! Child protégé, member of the EWF ORIGINAL 9, with gold records at the young age of 16 years old! He was brother number 4 in the family lineup.

But more than that at home and beyond he was the wonderful bro that was always entertaining and delightfully mischievous! And we could always count on him to make a seemingly bad situation more light hearted!

He will live in our hearts forever, rest in power beloved Freddie!! We thank you all for your love, blessings and support at this time. Soar high baby bro, we love you to the shining [stars] and back!”There was an outpouring of support in the comments section. Lenny Kravitz wrote, “Sending my love and deepest condolences to you and the family. I was blessed to have been in his presence and blessed to have been influenced by him. A true king. Rest in power.” Questlove, Jimmy Jam, Dule Hill, and Loni Love were among others sending their love.

Brothers Verdine and Maurice White, the latter of whom died in 2016, founded Earth, Wind & Fire in 1970. Fred joined the band in 1974 (as noted by Entertainment Weekly), after having proven his drumming chops outside of the family with the likes of Donny Hathaway. Before leaving the group in the ’80s, White contributed to enduring Earth, Wind & Fire hits “September” and “Shining Star.”

The group was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. In December 2019, Earth, Wind & Fire were recognized by the Kennedy Center Honors. Ahead of the ceremony, Verdine, Philip Bailey and Ralph Johnson reflected on their iconic journey to that point with CBS Mornings. Watch the interview below.

K-pop’s chart-topping “monster rookies” NewJeans kicked off the year with their first comeback earlier today (January 2).

Releasing their already hyped-up and highly anticipated single-album OMG, the ADOR quintet drops the music video alongside the lead single of the same name. Compared to their pre-release single “Ditto” (released December 19, 2022) that takes inspiration from Jersey Club, “OMG” is more hip-hop and R&B focused with elements of trap mixed in.

The storyline is said to be connected with “Ditto” as you can see the members dressed in the same uniforms in later scenes of “OMG.” The new single delivers a message of being lovesick and the intense feelings that can cause delusional thoughts about falling in love. (Hence, the music video begins with all five members in a psych ward.) Throughout the music video, we see each member having their own storyline to which how they got to where they are now, but it is up to the viewer on how to interpret the whole visual, and also how it connects to “Ditto.” (See both comment sections for both music videos as Bunnies, their fans, create theories around NewJeans’ concept.)

Already getting praised left and right, and ranking high on Korean music charts, NewJeans’ new single-album release is predicted to be another chart-topper where both “Ditto” and “OMG” will go against each other for the No. 1 spot on weekly music shows. (This has happened with their debut single “Attention” and supporting track “Hype Boy” from their first self-titled EP.)

NewJeans is a group under ADOR (a subsidiary label of HYBE Labels) that debuted last July 2022. The group consists of five members Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein.

Keeping track of all the new albums coming out in a given month is a big job, but we’re up for it: Below is a comprehensive list of the major releases you can look forward to in January. If you’re not trying to potentially miss out on anything, it might be a good idea to keep reading.

Friday, January 6

• Anti-Flag — Lies They Tell Out Children (Spinefarm Records)
• Iggy Pop — Every Loser (Gold Tooth Records)
• Kathleen — Live From Highland Park EP (Warner Records)

Friday, January 13

• Banners — I Wish I Was Flawless, I’m Not EP (Nettwerk)
• Billy Nomates — CACTI (Invada Records)
• Circa Waves — Never Going Under (Lower Third/[PIAS])
• Crooks & Nannies — No Fun EP (Grand Jury Music)
• feeble little horse — Hayday (Julia’s War Recordings)
• James Yorkston, Nina Persson, And The Second Hand Orchestra – The Great White Sea Eagle (Domino)
• Joesef — Permanent Damage (AWAL)
• Joshua Radin — though the world will tell me so, volume one EP (Nettwerk)
• Juni Habel — Carvings (Ba Da Bing)
• Leila Moss — Internal Working Model (Bella Union)
• Margo Price — Strays (Loma Vista Recordings)
• MOLLY — Picturesque (Sonic Cathedral)
• Rozi Plain — PRIZE (Memphis Industries)
• The Subways — Uncertain Joys (Alcopop! Records)
• Velvet Negroni — Bulli (4AD)
• Ville Vale — Neon Noir (MG/Spinefarm)

Friday, January 20

• abracadabra — shapes & colors (Melodic)
• The Bad Ends — The Power And The Glory (New West Records)
• Beauty Pill — Blue Period (Ernest Jenning Record Co)
• Brainiac — Predator Nominate EP (Touch & Go Records)
• The C.I.A.– Surgery Channel (In The Red)
• Celestial Wizard — Winds Of The Cosmos (Scarlet Records)
• Dave Rowntree — Radio Songs (Cooking Vinyl)
• Fran — Leaving (Fire Talk Records)
• Glyders — Maria’s Hunt (Redeye)
• Guided By Voices — La La Land (GBV Inc Records)
• Half Life — Like A Jungle (Club Inferno)
• J.T. IV — The Future (Drag City)
• Jadu Heart — Derealised (VLF Records)
• John Cale — Mercy (Double Six Records)
• Kali Malone — Does Spring Hide Its Joy (Ideologic Organ)
• Ladytron — City Of Angels (Cooking Vinyl)
• Lukas Graham — 4 (The Pink Album) (Warner Records)
• Måneskin — Rush! (Epic Records)
• The MOSS — Insomnia EP (S-Curve/Hollywood Records)
• The Murder Capital — Gigi’s Recovery (Human Season Records)
• New Found Glory — Make The Most Of It (Revelation Records)
• Oddisee — To What End (Outer Note Label)
• Siv Jakobsen — Gardening (The Nordic Mellow)
• Spice World — There’s No I In Spice World (Virgin)
• We Are Scientists — Lobes (Masterswan Recordings)

Friday, January 27

• The Arcs — Electrophonic Chronic (Easy Eye Sound)
• Ava Max — Diamonds & Dancefloors (Atlantic Records)
• Dhafer Youssef — Streets Of Minarets (Back Beat Edition)
• Electric Mob — 2 Make U Cry & Dance (Frontiers Music S.r.l)
• Elle King — Come Get Your Wife (Sony Music Nashville)
• Fucked Up — One Day (Merge)
• H.C. McEntire — Every Acre (Merge)
• Half Gringa — Ancestral Home EP (self-released)
• Heavy Blanket — Moon Is (Redeye)
• Joe Henry — All The Eye Can See (Earmusic)
• Jonah Yano — Portrait Of A Dog (Innovative Leisure)
• khai dreams — Absolute Heartbreak (AWAL Recordings)
• Kimbra — A Reckoning (Inertia Music)
• King Tuff — Smalltown Stardust (Sub Pop)
• Meg Baird — Furling (Drag City)
• The Mother Hips — When We Disappear (Blue Rose Music)
• Oozing Wound — We Cater To Cowards (Thrill Jockey)
• Quinn XCII — The People’s Champ (Republic Records)
• R. Ring — War Poems, We Rested (Don Giovanni Records)
• Sam Smith — Gloria (Capitol Records)
• Samia — Honey (Grand Jury Music)
• SG Lewis — AudioLust & HigherLove (EMI Records/Virgin Music Australia.)
• TOMORROW X TOGETHER — The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION EP (BigHit Music))
• Tor Lundvall — There Must Be Someone (Dais Records)
• Tyler Hubbard — Tyler Hubbard (EMI Nashville)
• White Reaper — Asking for A Ride (Elektra)
• Widows Gold — Love Drops (Missing Piece Records/Communion)
• You Me At Six — Truth Decay (Rise Records)

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

For those people who didn’t get to kickoff 2023 on a “bien cabrón” note, as Bad Bunny sings, he is extending the time window. On New Year’s Day, the Puerto Rican superstar posted on TikTok that he is giving his fans three more years to celebrate the right way.

Bad Bunny predicted good times ahead in his 2021 hit “Yonaguni.” In the moody reggaeton track, he sings, “Pa’ que ante’ que se acabe el año tú me de’ un beso y empezar el 2023 bien cabrón contigo y un blunt.” The lyrics in English translate to: “So that before the year ends you give me a kiss and to start 2023 f*cking good with you and a blunt.” The lyric about starting off 2023 “bien cabrón” went viral on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. It’s a pretty popular caption in people’s posts across social media about ringing in the New Year.

In his first post on TikTok of 2023, Bad Bunny posted a video altering the “Yonaguni” lyric. As he wakes up, he says, “What was it?” Bad Bunny then sings, “And to start 2026 f**king good with you and a blunt.” In the caption of the post, he added, “And there you have it, I give you three more years. Happy 2023.”

This might be only form of new music we get from Bad Bunny this year as he said that he will be taking a break following the blockbuster success of his Un Verano Sin Ti album.

For the first couple years of its existence, HBO Max was arguably the best streamer. They had DC stuff, yes, but that was just the start. They had a deep archive of movies, stretching to the infancy of cinema. They had Studio Ghibli. They had selections from TCM and the Criterion Collection. And they had possibly the most famous Warner Bros. product of them all: Looney Tunes. They still have most of this, but as 2022 came to a close, suddenly half of the latter went AWOL.

As per /Film, HBO Max quietly removed 256 of the 511 “classic” Looney Tunes shorts that had been part of their coffers. The service organized the shorts as “seasons,” with “Season 1” comprised of the earliest shorts, from 1930 to 1936, and everything else sectioned by year. Mere days after Christmas, though, anything after “Season 15” — from 1951 on — was no longer present.

That means some of the most famous Looney Tunes cartoons — Duck Amuck, For Scent-imental Reasons, What’s Opera, Doc?, etc. — were suddenly no longer online. (Many of them still live on the cartoon streamer Boomerang.) There are still plenty of all-timers, including Rabbit of Seville, Long-Haired Hare, and the first Wile E. Coyote-Roadrunner entry, The Fast and the Furry-ous. But those who paid money to have easy access to over three decades of some of the greatest comedic cartoons no longer have that luxury.

The move is another reason to worry about HBO Max, as well as Warner Bros. Discovery in general. Since the company was taken over by David Zaslav, it’s been thrown into turmoil, with shows abruptly cancelled and nearly completed movies sadistically shelved. What is Zaslav’s game plan? That’s unclear, but if it was to make customers unhappy, he seems to be succeeding beyond his wildest imagination.

(Via /Film)

Who’s at fault for the Midterms’ failed “red wave”? There’s a lot of blame to go around, but many have pointed a finger in the direction of Donald J. Trump. The former president, who has never gotten over losing his re-election, threw his weight behind many candidates, almost all of whom either underperformed or flamed out. Did that cause Trump to do what he’s never done before, namely take a cold, hard look at himself? Of course not. Indeed, some two months later he’s blaming someone else: the people that helped get him elected in the first place.

On New Year’s Day, rather than engage in self-reflection, as many do, Trump took to his rinky-dink Twitter clone to come after the hardcore anti-abortion sect.

“It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the MidTerms. I was 233-20! It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters,” Trump wrote. “Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, & just plain disappeared, not to be seen again.”

He concluded with a cryptic attack on one of his least favorite Republicans, writing, “Plus, Mitch stupid $’s!”

Trump and the anti-abortion crowd have always had an awkward relationship. Fully aware of the big guy’s checkered personal life, they supported him anyway, knowing he’d help end safe and legal abortions. Trump gladly took their help. But as 2023 began, the détente is clearly over.

Later this month, Mexican pop group RBD will be reuniting minus one member: Alfonso “Poncho” Herrera. In an interview on Friday (December 30), the Ozark star shared his reaction to the RBD’s reunion and why he won’t be joining his five ex-bandmates.

Last month, RBD broke the Latinx internet with the band’s announcement of its 2023 reunion. Anahí, Dulce María, Christian Chávez, Christopher von Uckermann, and Maite Perroni will reunite in the group that blew up from the Mexican telenovela Rebelde. Herrera is the only member who opted not to return for the reunion.

Herrera also skipped out on RBD’s brief 2020 reunion that included Anahí, Chávez, von Uckermann, and Perroni. Since leaving RBD in 2009, he has focused full-time on his acting career in the Mexico and the US. Herrera has starred in shows like Netflix’s Sense8, Fox’s short-lived The Exorcist, Queen Of The South, and most recently Ozark. While walking through an airport, Herrera was asked about why he decided not to return to RBD.

“Because I’m going to be working, friends,” Herrera said in Spanish. “The only thing I can say is that it’s going to be a very successful project and I wish them all the success in the world.”

Herrera also mentioned that he hasn’t forgotten the kickstart that RBD gave his career. “I am happy to have been part of such a successful project,” he added. “I am grateful and I will continue to be grateful. I am simply happy for the projects I have right now and I believe that one thing does not conflict with the other, because in the end my past made me who I am right now, at this moment.”

Though RBD hasn’t said if a reunion tour will happen yet, Herrera seemingly confirmed the news during the interview. “The fans are going to be enjoy this concert that I suppose will be visiting all of Latin America,” he said. RBD’s reunion without Herrera will be taking place on January 19. Fans can sign up at soyrebelde.world for more information.

Rainn Wilson recently changed his name to Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson to raise awareness around our environmental crisis, but he’s still got some Dwight Schrute in him.

Logic’s Instagram account has been very active over the last few days, including an announcement that he’s expecting his second child and giving $100 to winners of impromptu rock, paper, scissors games he hosted on the street. Sandwiched between that is a video of Wilson producing beats in Logic’s home studio.

“Look who stopped by to cook some beets,” Logic captioned the video. In the video, Logic says, “My man is making beats, and he’s really snappin’.” The Office fans will immediately understand the play on words.

Also over the weekend, Wilson shared on his own Instagram that he finished editing his book, Soul Boom: Why We Need A Spiritual Revolution, which is due on April 25, 2023 via Hachette Go.

“I hit quite a milestone. I have finished going through my galley proofs and correcting them. It’s an exacting process. With a fine-tooth comb. Pouring through the old PDF, looking for any tweaks and last-minute changes you want to make. There’s the book,” Wilson said in the Instagram video. “I’ve been working on this thing for about three and a half years. Kind of my big COVID project. Comes out in April and sparks what I hope will be a much-needed conversation about reinventing — reimagining — spirituality in our personal lives and in our society itself.”

Would anybody say no to Logic, the first rapper with a No. 1 bestselling novel, and Wilson, also a bestselling author, co-authoring a book?