Category: News

The Pacific Northwest was a hotbed for breakout rock bands in the ’90s and early aughts. Nirvana is the obvious first pick, but there was also Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Sleater-Kinney… the list truly goes on. Since that time period, the number of exciting rock bands hailing from the area has dwindled, in part thanks to Big Tech taking over cities like Seattle. But now, there’s a new buzzy band resurrecting the gritty sound the PNW earned a reputation for: Enumclaw.

Though Enumclaw hail from the birthplace of grunge music, their upcoming debut album Save The Baby (out Friday) is peppered with a range of influences from melodic Brit pop — Enumclaw once called themselves “the best band since Oasis” — to driving pop punk and experimental art-rock acts like Yves Tumor. Celebrating the release of their debut album, Enumclaw lead singer Aramis Johnson sits down with Uproxx to talk Tyler The Creator, bad tattoos, and sleeping in a Walmart parking lot in our latest Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Guitar, drums, bass, Aramis

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

As part of a really sick era, like, “Aw when this sh*t came out they changed the game.”

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

Probably NYC, the whole “oh sh*t I’m in New York” thing hasn’t gotten old yet.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

Probably my mom. No success really matters ’till I buy moms a crib.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘N Waffles.

What album do you know every word to?

Discovery by Daft Punk.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

So far, Tyler The Creator at Climate Pledge Arena is my number one. I for sure cried.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

Being an outfitted person I can’t say there’s one perfect fit for shows. There’s so many levels to what your fit can be doing for you on stage, like you could be in some big denim, a pair of vans, and a white tee jumping around all comfy and that gets the job done but you’re just gonna be blending in with the other band dudes. I’d say the best on stage fits are practical but have some sort of wow factor.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

I just watch hood videos on Twitter so whoever be posting those.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

We got a couple but the most cooked song in the van is “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

“Mitsubishi eclipse” and I have no clue why.

What album makes for the perfect gift?

I feel like if someone gifted me Yeezus on CD I’d be really happy so I’m gonna go with that.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

It wasn’t that weird but for sure the wackest place we crashed was a Walmart parking lot deep in Ohio. We didn’t know how to pack the van yet either so I specifically remember sleeping with a hi-hat stand in my back.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

It’s pretty short, the home girl D tatted Badtz-Maru on my leg in my brother Xay’s basement room. It honestly looks kinda bad now but I feel like if you’ve never got a bad tattoo you’re not really getting the full experience.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

On the off chance I listen to the radio I put on the dance music station, they don’t be saying their names sooo whoever’s got the nice chords stays on.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

I can’t really pick just one, my whole family has been blessing me up since birth.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Skate vans half cabs.

What’s the last show you went to?

Yves Tumor.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

I’ve probably watched the first Robocop like 5 times just on TV.

What’s one of your hidden talents?

I know how to ride a unicycle.

Save The Baby is out 10/14 via Luminelle Recordings. Pre-order it here.

A landmark Supreme Court case had an interesting aside on Wednesday as Clarence Thomas marked the occasion by revealing his love of Prince. The hearing revolved around a photographer who’s suing Andy Warhol’s estate over licensing fees for a photo of the “Purple Rain” singer. Despite the consequential nature of the copyright case, Thomas couldn’t resist sharing that he was a huge fan of the legendary musician “in the ’80s.”

The moment led to a humorous exchange with fellow Justice Elana Kagan. Via Deadline:

“No longer?” interrupted Justice Elena Kagan.

The chambers erupted in laughter.

“Well,” Thomas said, as he himself chuckled, before pausing and adding, “Only on Thursday night.”

“Mmm hmmm,” Kagan replied.

According to Deadline, the case was loaded with pop culture references as lawyers for the photographer argued over what truly constitutes “fair use.” At issue is whether Warhol had the right to use a photo of Prince without permission, and it appears the courts have been divided. A district court originally sided with Warhol’s estate, but an appeals court did not. The estate then took the case to the Supreme Court where Clarence Thomas got to gush about his Prince fandom. More importantly, it could have far-reaching impacts on copyright laws.

“If petitioners’ test prevails, copyrights will be at the mercy of copycats,” the photographer’s attorney argued before the court. “Anyone could turn Darth Vader into a hero or spin-off All in the Family into the Jeffersons without paying the creators a dime.”

For the record, there’s no mention of Clarence Thomas also shouting out that he loves Star Wars, too, but maybe he said it quietly. Who knows?

(Via Deadline)

Back in the old days (before 2010), when you thought of the word “musk,” you would likely be reminded of a woodsy perfume that might be sold at a Macy’s department store counter. But when most people hear the word musk now, they think of Elon Musk. And that’s a horrible evolution of linguistics, but it is what it is.

Musk seems to know this, and he wanted to get in on the joke by entering the perfume business. Only he decided that his first offering would be a scent titled Burnt Hair (!?) that goes for $100 a pop. In terms of perfume, that’s actually not too bad! The bad part is that people allegedly bought a lot of it.

Burnt Hair went on sale yesterday, with very appealing notes of singed hair, probably (there is no actual description, just a link to spend $100). The bottles are expected to be shipped out in early 2023 (if they exist). The website boasts that you will “stand out in a crowd!” and “get noticed while walking through an airport!” which sounds like a nightmare, but maybe that’s Musk’s dream since he loves crowds so much.

The billionaire/wannabe fragrance tycoon announced on Twitter that he had sold $1 million worth of his singed hair scent. Of course, he has no way to prove this (yet) but he sure is having fun with the concept. He also described the scent as an “omnigender product,” but that could mean anything to him, a person who does not believe in pronouns.

As of right now, the link to purchase Burnt Hair from the billionaire is still up if you feel inclined to spend. Or you can just use a hair straightener from CVS on damp hair and reach the same effect.

(Via Reuters)

Colombian singer Andrés Cuervo died last week at age 40. Billboard revealed the news of his passing yesterday (October 11).

Cuervo’s publicity agency JAQUE released a statement to Billboard saying the singer died on October 9 from a heart attack. Cuervo was in his apartment in Paris when he passed. Last month, Cuervo attended New York Fashion Week where he walked down a runway for designer H.cubel. In his last Instagram post, he posted photos from the fashion show.

“Closing the runway and representing Colombia with great pride,” Cuervo wrote in Spanish in the caption.

Cuervo was born in Barranquilla, Colombia (where Shakira is also from). He would go on to become a singer and model. In his lifetime, Cuervo released three albums, including 2008’s Tras De Ti and 2013’s Este Soy Yo. Following the release of his last LP, 2015’s Historias de Amor, he achieved his first No. 1 hit on a Billboard chart. “La Receta” topped the Tropical Airplay chart later that year. In 2019, Cuervo performed “El Malo” at the Billboard Latin Music Awards.

Another one of Cuervo’s big hits was “No Pidamos Perdón” featuring fellow Colombian singer Fanny Lu. Their collaboration currently sits at No. 1 among Cuervo’s top songs on his Apple Music page. Earlier this year, he also released the singles “My Sexy Girl” and “Creo En Ti.”

If there’s one thing that everyone thinks they’re an expert on when it comes to celebrities and public figures, it’s mental health. We hear the hot takes, read the think pieces and listen to the armchair therapists out there sharing their opinions. Oftentimes those opinions are based off a very limited experience and understanding of mental health conditions. When a celebrity or other public figure is called a jerk, narcissistic or downright crazy, it adds insult to injury as no one should be labeled with such dehumanizing terms.

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It’s important to understand that no two people’s mental illness looks the same. Sure, there will be similarities between two people that experience the same mental health condition, that’s how you get the criteria needed to meet the diagnosis, but the diagnosis can affect people very differently. So an influencer or social media friend sharing their commentary on celebrities they share a diagnosis with is unfair and unhelpful. Having a mental illness only makes one an expert in how that particular mental illness affects oneself, not another person.

The same sentiment goes for therapists who don’t specialize or work with the population they’re discussing. When it comes to mental illness and fame, therapists have to ask themselves if their opinion needs to be on display for the entire world to see. The general public has little compassion for people in the public eye experiencing mental health crises. It seems that people would rather gawk and discuss what the person said or did instead of intentionally tuning out.

Accountability for poor behaviors and actions can come after the public figure has been deemed safe and of sound mind, but the accountability for the media should be in the moment. People across the globe would have no idea what a celebrity in the middle of a mental health crisis said if they didn’t have a camera and microphone in their face. People wouldn’t know what a celebrity did while in a mental health crisis if paparazzi wasn’t snapping a picture for media outlets to print and discuss. But we as consumers also have the responsibility to disengage from this type of content.

News stations, magazines and online media sources push stories they think their readers will be interested in, but are we really interested in seeing someone publicly struggle? Are we assuming that because they were able to make it to an interview they must be coherent enough to know what they’re saying? Being a celebrity with a severe mental health diagnosis is a double-edged sword because you can afford appropriate healthcare, but you also have people whose job it is to book you interviews and events and get you there. If an average person were to experience these things, would they be able to make these appearances?

It’s important to remember that public figures are still people. Their families are seeing a much fuller picture than you are and are likely unable to help in an effective way. The money to get to do the things that pop into your head at a moment’s notice is something the average person doesn’t have, so it can make the celebrity’s behavior seem much more extreme. Especially because the average person could have a fleeting thought but no means to complete it so they move on to the next thought.

Celebrities are people and people experience mental health crises. In the moments that they are unable to self-identify that there’s a problem, we should look away, because as long as we are consuming the downward spiral, we are inadvertently contributing to the behaviors.

Sometimes we talk ourselves out of our dreams and convince ourselves that we can’t do that thing because of kids, age, not enough time or some other reason. But what happens when we just go for the dream we want instead of thinking of excuses to avoid the commitment? That’s exactly what 49-year-old Ray Ruschel did, and his teammates are glad he didn’t think he was too old to try. Ruschel, a student at North Dakota State College of Science, decided to try out for the college football team even though he hadn’t played the sport since his senior year of high school.

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The backup defensive lineman is old enough to be the dad of his teammates, and that additional life experience has come in handy for the team. It’s easy to get discouraged or frustrated after a loss, and typically coaches are the ones giving the pep talk or calling out all the areas the team went wrong. But pep talks seem to be something Ruschel is really good at. When the team lost to a rival college, Ruschel stepped in to tell the team they weren’t failing by losing one game and they still had the rest of the season to qualify to make it to the playoffs.

The middle-aged lineman wasn’t always a motivational speaker to football teams. He spent nearly 20 years in the Army National Guard as well as working nights at a sugar beet factory before deciding to return to school. The school is a two-year college that offers degrees in skilled trades and healthcare, among other things. The decision to return to college would not only allow him a change to move up in his career field, but it unexpectedly gave him another chance at playing college football.

Ruschel told the AP that once he found out his college didn’t have an age limit for school sports, “Something just clicked in my head, like why not play?” The coach of the football team is one year younger than Ruschel and explained to the AP that the older player is “just a really likable guy with an ambition not to leave any stone unturned. As long as he’s here on this earth.”

When you’re over a certain age demographic, taking risks to chase after dreams can be terrifying but Ruschel is proving that it can be worth the risk. You’re never too old to go after things you want in life and with your lived experience comes a level of wisdom that you likely wouldn’t have had earlier in life.

The response to Ruschel playing football with teenagers and young adults more than half his age was one of acceptance. He told KVLY, “They’ve all been very receptive of me coming in and playing. At first, they thought I was another football coach on our first day of camp. And whenever I got in line for pads, they were like ‘wait a minute, you’re playing?’”

Ruschel explained to KVLY, “I’m having a blast playing. Out here with these young kids and actually being able to keep up! I surprise myself.” Just that sentence alone should be enough to get you to go for a dream you’ve been putting off. The lineman is proving not just to be an encouragement to his teammates but to people everywhere.

I was alive during the peak of Barney & Friends-mania, but I still find it hard to believe how much people hated that purple dinosaur. The hostility towards the unassuming kids show is the inspiration for Peacock’s I Love You, You Hate Me, which chronicles “the rise and fall of Barney the Dinosaur’s furious backlash — and what it says about the human need to hate.” The documentary also features an interview with David Joyner, who was inside the Barney suit from 1991 to 2001… and now works as a “tantric sex guru.”

“David Joyner, the body of Barney, talks about this in the film… tantric sex guru and Barney,” director Tommy Avallone told Fox News. “It’s weird in the same sentence, you know? But once you put space in between and really talk about [it], it’s not as weird as you would think in that he’s never doing any of this tantric stuff in the Barney suit.”

Kink-shaming is wrong and bad, except for when it comes to people looking to have a, um, tantric experience with Barney. They deserve some light shaming.

In I Love You, You Hate Me, Joyner (who previously discussed his second career with Vice) explains that he helps “goddesses reconnect with their sexual energy on a spiritual level,” which includes massage and meditation. “Anything beyond that, there’s no extra fee,” the “tantric massage specialist” added. Does that mean what literally everyone thinks it means? “Not necessarily,” he said. “Not all the clients have a full session.”

Avallone stressed that while many people associate Joyner’s tantra principles with sex, “that was never happening with Barney.” Instead, he relied on the “energy work and meditation” from his practice to “heighten Barney’s performance” and deliver joy. “You talk to other people from the Barney crew, and they feel like it worked,” said Avallone. “You really felt David’s heart come out of his suit.”

I Love You, You Hate Me is available on Peacock now.

(Via Fox News and EW)

Prior to announcing Blink-182’s official reunion, Mark Hoppus attended the Children’s Hospital gala in Los Angeles over the weekend. Attending the red carpet with his wife, he spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about some other exciting career moves he has in the works.

Hoppus is hopping on over to the book world, revealing that he’s in the process of writing a memoir. While it will include details about his time in Blink-182, Hoppus will also document his journey of battling a cancer diagnosis. In June 2021, Hoppus entered treatment for stage 4 lymphoma. He has since been cancer-free since last September after breaking the news on Instagram.

“I started writing a book, actually, earlier this year,” Hoppus said. “I’m not that far into it yet but I’m writing a book about my life and experience in Blink and what I’ve gone through over the past year or so.”

“We’re finalizing the deal and I’m really happy with the way that’s coming together. I’m excited to tell my story,” he continued. “I didn’t say anything about being sick for the longest time because I was so scared and overwhelmed by the whole thing.”

Blink-182 will embark on their reunion tour next year, with stops across North and South America, Europe, and Australia. A complete list of dates, along with more information, is available here. The band also are dropping a new song, “Edging,” this Friday.

Blink-182 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

(House of the Dragon spoilers will be found below.)

After a long and brutal eight episodes of suffering, despair, and maggot-infested wounds, King Viserys finally succumbed to the illness that plagued him for seemingly decades (though the timeline is a bit uncertain). Paddy Considine’s portrayal of the king was already applauded by George R. R. Martin, and it seems like he is finally ready to say goodbye to the show and the inevitable mess he caused while on his deathbed.

Considine took to Instagram to post a final goodbye to the character and the “incredible adventure” that he had while working on the series. He also gave a special shout-out to Sian Brooke (Queen Aemma Arryn) who helped allow his story to come full circle. Considine wrote:

Thank you for the kind words. I cannot reply to every comment, but I’d like to acknowledge that they haven’t been lost upon me. It was an incredible adventure where I made lots of new friends that will be with me for the rest of my life. I’d like to thank the creators for allowing me the freedom to make Viserys my own. I have never loved a character so much. I want to give massive love and respect to @brooke.sian who came in for only a few days, but changed the course of my character with her brilliant performance and commitment to the work. The impact stayed with me until my final improvised words. She unlocked the missing piece of the puzzle for me, and allowed my story to come full circle. From the moment she dies, so does Viserys. It was a love story. That’s the secret I carried with me. As sick as he gets, he never, himself, demands any cure. He quietly accepts his suffering, never forgiving himself for putting his beloved wife through such torture in her final moments. Viserys was a gift. I am so honoured he found me. Now, no more.

The actor paired his goodbye note with photos from his short but solid reign on the show. While he’s not the first character to say their goodbyes, he did play a vital role in the first half of the season, so he will be missed. Including for his brilliantly sad reaction photos.

After an NBC News report made the choice to focus on John Fetterman’s stroke recovery, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor still came out swinging at his opponent, Dr. Oz, on Wednesday morning. In a candid tweet, Fetterman continued to be upfront about his health issues, which he’s been transparent about since suffering a stroke ahead of the PA primaries in May. Fetterman has routinely called out Oz’s campaign for taking cheap shots at the near-death experience, and that’s not about to change.

“Recovering from a stroke in public isn’t easy,” Fetterman tweeted. “But in January, I’m going to be much better – and Dr. Oz will still be a fraud.”

Fetterman’s resolve arrives after NBC News aired the first in-person interview with the Senate candidate, and he required the use of closed captioning. However, that isn’t new information. Fetterman has been open that he still has lingering auditory issues from the stroke, and that it sometimes affects his speech. NBC News highlighted this difficulty by noting that “Fetterman occasionally stuttered and had trouble finding words.”

A subsequent published report took things even further by actually writing out Fetterman’s stuttering:

Fetterman, acknowledging the challenges he still faces, added: “But it gets much, much better where I take in a lot. But to be precise, I use captioning, so that’s really the maijing — that’s the major challenge. And every now and then I’ll miss a word. Every now and then. Or sometimes I’ll maybe mush two words together. But as long as I have captioning, I’m able to understand exactly what’s being asked.”

At one point, he struggled to articulate the word “empathetic” — toggling between the correct pronunciation and “emphetic” — and then pointed to that as an example of the effect of the stroke. Asked about those moments, Fetterman said searching for language is not a difficult experience.

“No, I don’t think it was hard. It was just about having to be thinking more, uh, sl, uh — slower — to just understand and that sometimes that’s kind of the processing that happens,” Fetterman said.

NBC News reporting was widely criticized by journalists who have recently interviewed Fetterman. The news organization was also taken to task for leaning into ableism.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via John Fetterman on Twitter)