Category: News

Internet rule number one: Never read the comments. Internet rule number two: do not randomly share your thoughts on a woman’s appearance (or anyone’s, really) in the comments. These rules are not mutually exclusive. In an article for Medium with the headline, “#IStandWithStarlight?: The betrayal of Erin Moriarty by The Boys ‘fans’” self-proclaimed The Boys enthusiast butcherscanary wrote about the sexist harassment that Erin Moritary, who plays Starlight on the Prime Video series, faces on social media.

“For Erin Moriarty, a tale as old as time in both the industry and world of fandom repeats itself: unsolicited commentary on her appearance,” they wrote. “Even bullying feels like too lighter term when every post and pose is bombarded with hypercriticism and speculation, when you have to search out the good, or even just the neutral, because the negative is so cruelly overwhelming.”

Moritary shared the article on Instagram, writing, “I do feel silenced. I do feel dehumanized. I do feel paralyzed. I’ve put blood, sweat, and tears into this role (over & over & over again), I’ve grown UP in this character’s shoes (*emphasis on grown up – we change & evolve mentally AND physically). So with that I say: a) thank you to @butcherscanary b) this does break my heart.” She continued:

I’ve opened up a vein for this role and this kind of trolling is exactly what this role (Annie) would speak out against and c) everyone’s going through their own battle(s); let’s not add to that. I will never intentionally (and ESPECIALLY) publicly add to yours. This has only strengthened my empathy muscle and to anyone who comes at me: I see you, I I don’t hate you, I only empathize and forgive.

You can read Moriarty’s post here.

(Via Medium)

Before I write anything else about Doug Martsch, I want to state for the record that, yes, he is aware of the meme conflating his band, the long-running indie-rock institution Built To Spill, with the mega-successful K-pop group BTS. And — like so many other middle-aged guys who like indie rock — he also enjoys making his own Built To Spill/BTS jokes.

“Even I get fooled,” he says during a recent Zoom call. “I’m looking at my Apple newsfeed and see something about us, and then, aw! Always disappointed.”

While the 52-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist might experience the occasional letdown over, say, not having his own McDonald’s meal, he does feel satisfaction regarding Built To Spill enduring as one of the great legacy indie bands of the ’90s. As their peers have navigated various break-ups, reunions, and other miscellaneous peaks and valleys, Built To Spill have chugged steadily along, putting out consistently strong albums and touring regularly. By design, Martsch — who started Built To Spill in 1992 after exiting his former band, the pioneering Idaho group Treepeople — has been the only constant in that time. Playing with different people has kept the project fresh, he says, though the band’s jammy, shambling guitar pop sound has remained remarkably distinctive and influential no matter the constantly changing lineups.

Not that Martsch agrees with that assessment.

“To my mind, nothing sounds like classic Built to Spill,” he says. “But I think that’s just the way that artists have a so fully different interpretation of what they’re doing. To me, every song’s an anomaly.”

I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree — the new Built To Spill record out Friday, When The Wind Forgets Your Name, sounds like, well, classic Built To Spill, with the rustic melodies and wigged-out solos that fans have come to love. Ahead of the album’s release, I asked Martsch to look back at the other Built To Spill records to chart his path to the latest LP.

Ultimate Alternative Wavers (1993)

It was originally a bunch of songs that I had written to take Treepeople in a different direction. Then I left that band, and we just messed around at a friend’s studio. It was really exciting to experiment and record ourselves. We didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t have any engineering skills, but we engineered it ourselves.

I didn’t know where I was going to be in a year. At the time that I made the record, I was living in Caldwell, Idaho while my girlfriend at the time was finishing college. She was planning on going to graduate school somewhere else, like Montana or Colorado. My idea was that I would make this record and then call the project Built to Spill, and then when I moved to wherever we moved to, I could maybe find some people there and still call it Built to Spill. That’s part of the reason why the rotating lineup concept was part of the band. From the get-go I was going to be needing to play with some different people.

A friend of mine found a letter in an alley in Portland, and we printed the letter inside the record. This girl wrote to a friend of hers and she made up that term in the title. She’s talking about how crazy her friends and she are, and how wild they are and how they call themselves the ultimate alternative wavers.

There’s Nothing Wrong With Love (1994)

When I was a teenager, punk rock was starting to happen. There was a hardcore scene, bands touring, and people putting on shows. The hardcore scene, I didn’t really care much about the music. There was a couple things I liked — State Of Confusion, a Boise band, I loved more than anything. They were a hardcore band, but most hardcore I didn’t care much for. But I did like the SST stuff, where they took punk rock and also had some pop and classic rock sensibilities. They had melodies, and it was more musical. But it still had a punk rock kind of “do it yourself” feel. That was the stuff that appealed to me — Butthole Surfers and Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies, all that kind of stuff. It really resonated with me and that was the kind of music I wanted to make.

With There’s Nothing Wrong With Love, my friend Chris Takino put it out, and it was really heartbreaking that he didn’t put out our first record, too. This horrible person, Daniel House from C/Z Records, put it out, because at the time Chris Takino did not have his record deal and all I had going for me was this C/Z guy. Fortunately, Chris stepped in right before I was about to sell my soul to this guy just to get a tape machine out of him. I would’ve been so ripped off and had such a depressing musical career if Chris Takino hadn’t stepped in and signed us for the second record.

I don’t pick what kind of music I make or play. It just comes out from fooling around on a guitar. For that record, I just started writing a bunch of poppy songs. It was a little bit of a reaction to what was happening in music, where grunge was really taking off with Nirvana and all that stuff. It’s a lot of clean guitars and it’s not grungy at all. It doesn’t sound tough. There’s no attitude to it. It’s just kind of sweet and straightforward. It’s nicely recorded — it was the first record with Phil Ek. There might be a little bit of delays on some guitars, but no vocals or drums or guitars or bass or anything have any reverb to make it sound like it’s in a room. It’s all dry-sounding.

I was really super in love at that time. I think that might have influenced me. I was in a happy place in my life. There’s Nothing Wrong With Love, really, it’s about love.

Perfect From Now On (1997)

I signed to Warner Bros. and I was a little [wary]. Nirvana happened and all these grunge things were happening, and I wasn’t into any of it. I didn’t really enjoy any of that music. I also didn’t like the idea of our stuff being played on the radio a bunch, and I didn’t want us to have a hit. I was a little nervous that we might accidentally have a hit, and that our music would be shoved into people’s faces. I really didn’t feel comfortable or confident about that. I felt like our music was more of something that you listen to by yourself or your friends turn you onto it and you make your own decision about whether you like it or not. At this point, I’m fine with shit being shoved in anyone’s face, but at that time I wasn’t. I didn’t have that in me. So, I made the songs a little long and un-radio friendly. I wanted to have a lot of people listen to it, but I wanted it to be really organically done, the way that I learned about music when I was a teenager, through your friend telling you it was cool, not the radio playing it.

I was listening to more Beatles. I had a drummer, and I was going to play everything else myself. I worked on it for a little bit and just didn’t really feel like it was grooving. There is one song on that record, “Made-Up Dreams,” from that session. I can’t remember what the rest sounded like, to be honest. I don’t remember what I didn’t like about it. It might actually have been a really nice record with Peter [Lansdowne] and me. I might have just been so insecure about taking on such a big task and being on this label. I might have just chickened out a little bit.

Then I did it with Brett [Netson] and Scott [Plouf], and then the tapes got damaged. What happened was, we put the tape on, did some overdubs, and there was a little bit of powder on the tape machine, some tape residue. It might have been something with the calibration of the machine. It might have been so minute that it didn’t affect things, but we didn’t want to take a chance of working on this stuff and then it might be damaged.

Neither of those versions got too far into it. I feel like it was a couple weeks of work each time. But at that time that was a lot. Before then I’d make a record in a week or a few days. Now we were going to nice studios and paying producers and having a big budget with Warner Bros. It was really difficult to get used to the idea of, “OK, I just wasted all that money.” $20,000 down the drain just sounded like a nightmare to me at the time. But Calvin Johnson told me that, eventually, the music is what’s going to be remembered and that money’s not going to matter. So, we did it a third time.

The third time was a charm. It really was. It was better than the second time, because I’d shown those guys the songs and we rehearsed them in a hurry, and so we did a lot better job on every song. We just played them better, recorded them better, just everything about the performances and recording was much, much improved, so it worked out fine.

Keep It Like A Secret (1999)

After Perfect From Now On, I did not want to make another record of long songs. Those long songs are really hard to work on. Back in the day when you worked on tape, it was really tricky to record and to mix, and really a pain in the ass. I didn’t want to deal with that so I tried to keep the songs a little simpler on the next record.

This was the first record where a lot of the songs were written together. The other albums, I just brought every song in and showed them to the band. After we made Perfect From Now On, I was like, “I love playing with you guys.” They were like, “We love it, too. Let’s keep this going.” Part of that was saying, “Let’s collaborate.” I was listening to bands that I thought were making really interesting music together, like Modest Mouse. In the early days, they were very collaborative. Jeremiah [Green] and Eric [Judy] were contributing a lot. It wasn’t just Isaac [Brock]’s songs. It was jams that were creating the songs. We did a bunch of that. A lot of the stuff on that album comes from jams. And then I would be the one that would go through the jams and figure out what’s good and turn the jams into songs.

I grew up with bands that had lead guitar players and guitar solos. J. Mascis was really big for me, and Neil Young, too. Just melodic guitar playing. I never really had the greatest tone and skills at all. I’m not fast. There’s a lot of regular guitar things that anyone knows how to do that I don’t know how to do at all. I’m just using one or two fingers, and trying to find little melodies that sound nice. The fact that I became considered a great guitar player is totally weird to me. It’s just melodies and a little bit of imagination, I guess, but I’m not very good at guitar playing.

Ancient Melodies Of The Future (2001)

A weird record. When we finished Keep It Like A Secret, I lost interest in alternative music. I was done with it. Didn’t really want to hear it anymore. I started listening to old blues and learning how to play slide guitar. I’d make up these little riffs, little exercise riffs, and those eventually turned into the songs on the solo record, Now You Know. Songs like “You Are” and “Happiness” are just my blues songs that went over to Built to Spill.

At the time of making that record, I really wasn’t into making a record. I wasn’t very excited about rock music, and that’s why there’s a bunch of keyboards on the record. I showed the songs to the guys in a hurry. I wrote all the songs and showed them to them and didn’t really work on them a bunch.

I would’ve waited, but I thought that I had a contractual obligation to put a record out in a certain amount of time. I found out later that I really didn’t need to do that, that we had a little bit of leeway with that stuff. Then we started making records every six years after that. But it’s a little bit of a rush job and my heart wasn’t 100 percent into it. I feel good about some of it. I feel like some of it could be a lot cooler.

You In Reverse (2006)

I felt like we were a really good five-piece band at that point. There’s a lot of Jim [Roth]’s stuff. A lot of riffs that are Jim’s, just from jams. I remember going through lots and lots of jams to come up with songs. It was really a fun record to make. I’m really proud of it. I feel like it had a little more classic sound to it, or something less modern.

To my mind, nothing sounds like classic Built to Spill. To me “Goin’ Against Your Mind” is an anomaly. I feel like none of our songs are like that, but I think that’s just the way that artists have a fully different interpretation of what they’re doing. To me, every song’s an anomaly. I don’t feel like there’s anything that’s a quintessential Built to Spill song to me.

We changed producers to try something different. I always felt really confident working with Phil Ek, because he dug what we were doing. I had a lot of issues with confidence as a young person, because I was not a good guitar player. I was not a good singer. I was not trained. I didn’t know really what I was doing at all. I liked what I was doing, but I was constantly surprised that other people dug it. When I found someone that liked it, I was psyched. I didn’t think we sucked, but I knew it wasn’t for everyone. Just the fact that he was into it really was a lot, and it really felt like he was on our side and was doing everything he could to make it good and knew what my strengths were. I loved working with him. Those records that he produced are our most popular records to this day. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. We owe a lot of our career to his production.

We made You in Reverse, the first record without Phil Ek, with this guy, Steve Lobdell. He was not a fan of our music. It took me that long to have enough confidence to work with a producer who didn’t really give a shit about me. He liked me fine and he liked our music OK. I don’t think he hated it, but he wasn’t into it the way that Phil was. It was more just doing his job and getting paid.

There Is No Enemy (2009)

Netson played on every record, practically. On the first record Netson plays, he plays on Perfect From Now On, he plays on You In Reverse, but he wasn’t in the band any of that time. He always just came in to the studio and laid down some stuff. On There Is No Enemy, he was part of the band. He was writing his guitar parts while we wrote the songs, and Jim was doing the same thing. I’d bring the songs to practice and they’d just bring them to life in these really cool ways.

We tried to record it live, but as cool as it was, what everyone was doing, it just doesn’t work. It’s just not that dynamic for an album, so we had to go back and ended up making it more of a studio record. We worked with this guy, Dave Trumfio, producing it, and we let him mix it by himself a little bit and then just didn’t love it. I ended up mixing it almost by myself, because he was busy at the time and we needed to get it done. For some reason we had no automation. We had the console and they rented another little console and I was running around on two boards, me and an engineer, mixing it live. It was fun, and kind of nerve-wracking. But, yeah, I like that record.

Untethered Moon (2015)

Well, that’s the record where Brett and Scott quit the band. As far as I know, it was amicable. They both were just done with it. They’d done it for a long time. I don’t really know exactly why they didn’t want to do it. Scott hasn’t played drums since then. Brett, he has another band, Sick Wish, with his son playing drums and a couple other guys his son’s age on guitar, keyboard, or bass. Depends on what songs they’re doing.

We went on as a five-piece with Jason [Albertini] and Steve [Gere], and then I wanted to make that record as a three-piece with just me and Jason and Steve. Lots of jamming, lots of things that I brought in. I loved playing with those guys. They’re both so incredible. And we had Sam Coomes produce it. He’s played on a bunch of our records. I like his aesthetic and I just like being around him. It’s just a really calming presence.

When The Wind Forgets Your Name (2022)

A couple of these songs tried to be on records before. Most of them are pretty old, and a couple of them are really old. We probably could have made this record a year or two after Untethered Moon, but we didn’t have a label. We were about to record when I let [Jason and Steve] go and started playing with the Brazilians [Le Almeida and João Casaes of the band Oruã]. They recorded basic tracks, went back to Brazil, and we had plans to get together again to produce the record, and then everyone got stuck. I ended up just finishing it mostly by myself. I sent some stuff. We sent stuff back and forth a tiny bit. I worked with this engineer in Boise, Josh Lewis, for just a few days to make sure that I wasn’t totally on the wrong track sonically, just a young person that could hear stuff that I couldn’t hear.

The first thing I did when I stopped playing with Jason and Steve was reach out to Melanie [Radford], who I’d seen play in her band, Marshall Poole, a Boise band, a couple years earlier. I’d seen them one time, but she just blew my mind. She was the first person I thought would be awesome to play with. Then Theresa [Esguerra] was playing in a band, Prism Bitch, who was on tour with Built To Spill. After a few weeks of playing with them, I became a big fan of her drumming. That was it. People are really digging them. They have a lot of soul and a lot of joy when they’re playing. My feeling when I’m playing with them is I’m not even thinking about them. I’m able to just 100 percent just think about what I’m doing. They’re just a perfect foundation for me to do whatever I want to do.

I had no idea I was going to have a career in music when I was a young person. I loved doing it and just always wanted to keep being creative and playing shows and being around my friends. Everything about it I love, going on tour. Just the fact that I get to keep doing this and it’s still fun and people give a shit about it, it’s so crazy to me.

I’m older than the Beatles were when I was in high school. When I was in high school, the Beatles were 40 or something and I was like, “They’re old.” Of course we’re classic rock. We have been for a long time.

On March 25, Foo Fighters were supposed to perform a concert in Bogotá, Colombia. However, shortly before the band was set to go on, Taylor Hawkins died. Chic was enlisted as the opening act for that show, and now the band’s Nile Rodgers remembers being told about Hawkins’ passing just before he was going to take the stage.

CBS Mornings got some backstage interviews with artists who performed at the Hawkins tribute concert in London this past weekend and Rodgers said of learning about Hawkins’ death, “We could feel that something was wrong. So my stage manager pulls me aside and said, ‘Taylor has passed away.’ So this was our best way of making it up and our best way of saying to Taylor, ‘Goodbye, we love you,’ and to Dave [Grohl], who I adore.”

He also said of Hawkins, “There are those few drummers who really can sing and play and they’re really in the pocket, and Taylor had that vibe. He had a lot of personality coming from him.”

At the tribute concert, Rodgers was one of the first performers, taking the stage right after Liam Gallagher opened the show, joining Foo Fighters for a couple of Oasis songs. Rodgers, Chris Chaney, and Omar Hakim performed two David Bowie covers: “Let’s Dance” with John Homme and “Modern Love” with Gaz Coombes.

Check out the CBS Mornings segment above.

For various reasons, Kanye West is currently feuding with Adidas. Azealia Banks has some thoughts on this and they’re not favorable towards West.

In a series of Instagram Story posts shared last night, Banks says she’s “kind of nauseated by all this name dropping” and accused West of being a culture vulture, writing, “u dead ass stole ur whole interest in fashion from Dee & Ricky. U tried stealing death grips sound and failed miserably… U brought a stolen render of an airplane to the Oval Office. Crackheads had leather jogging pants in 1981. If everyone can just *steal* ur sh*t Maybe it’s time to realize you don’t really HAVE anything. Addidas wasn’t going to make u billionaire and not keep rights to the name of the shoe. Just be realistic and stop trying to paint the white people you traded out plenty of black investors for — for your obsession with white approval.”

She then addressed West’s wealth, continuing:

“Real rich people want no one to know they have money. They’re not interested in fame or celebrity. You’re gonna f*ck around and lose it all again. And let me guess, blame that on racism too? Everytime u wanna brag about being the richest black man in other black mens faces, remember they you will never be the richest MAN , because ur still black [crying laughing emoji]. For every Kanye billionaire west there are 30 richer white billionaires who made their fortunes designing the traps u walk right into.”

Banks also attests that Ye has treated Teyana Taylor poorly, writing, “Please Stop riding white dick and use the same power u used to get that white girl Lana an h&m campaign on Teyana and make her a wealthy black woman? Teyana was ur little boo for a second and she was 19. You made ALOT of promises to that girl but all you’ve done is think I care about ‘fade’ a beat u sent me in 2012 that I told u fierce was better than. When you can be open to urself about how u f*cked teyana over via contract just because Kim was jealous. You will realize that you’ve been so busy criticizing women and STEALING ART FROM EVERYONE, bullying your own daughter… That u deserve to be stolen from.”

In another Story shared hours later, she added, “Rap dudes will always band together in stupidity. As if anyone in the world will boycott adidas because group of men who can’t stop calling themselves ’n****s’ say so. No one boycotted RZA for letting a white dude spit on me, you all actually boycotted me for being a victim! Lol Black women should never stand in solidarity with men who go out of their ways to disrespect black women. If anything it’s great they want to boycott… adidas should replace Kanye with a black female designer. The fact this n**** whines SO much like a damn wet cat is enough to deem all Kanye west fashion projects f*cking lame. Who wants to dress like a crybaby who hasn’t had a hot song in over ten years?”

Find Banks’ posts below.

The fact that Kanye knew since 2018 that addidas took the name ‘Yeezy.’ I know this because when I designed all that sh*t I had to call it ‘yzy’ And is crying now is a beg. I have been begging him to read books since 2011. He refuses.

I’m also really kind of nauseated by all this name dropping. Big deal kanye I know that guys at Anderson Horowitz too can you Please Stop riding white dick and use the same power u used to get that white girl Lana an h&m campaign on Teyana and make her a wealthy black woman?

Teyana was ur little boo for a second and she was 19. You made ALOT of promises to that girl but all you’ve done is think I care about ‘fade’ a beat u sent me in 2012 that I told u fierce was better than.

When you can be open to urself about how u f*cked teyana over via contract just because Kim was jealous. You will realize that you’ve been so busy criticizing women and STEALING ART FROM EVERYONE, bullying your own daughter… That u deserve to be stolen from.

Like u dead ass stole ur whole interest in fashion from Dee & Ricky. U tried stealing death grips sound and failed miserably… U brought a stolen render of an airplane to the Oval Office. Crackheads had leather jogging pants in 1981. If everyone can just *steal* ur sh*t Maybe it’s time to realize you don’t really HAVE anything.

Addidas wasn’t going to make u billionaire and not keep rights to the name of the shoe. Just be realistic and stop trying to paint the white people you traded out plenty of black investors for — for your obsession with white approval.

Real rich people want no one to know they have money. They’re not interested in fame or celebrity. You’re gonna f*ck around and lose it all again. And let me guess, blame that on racism too?

Everytime u wanna brag about being the richest black man in other black mens faces, remember they you will never be the richest MAN , because ur still black [crying laughing emoji]. For every Kanye billionaire west there are 30 richer white billionaires who made their fortunes designing the traps u walk right into.

I also hope you know how insignificant your fortune is on a cultural level : a black man selling sneakers ……. None of the white n****s u dick ride think that is the fortune. It’s a stereotype beyond measure.

You must know, that EVERYTHING is Kanye’s fault.

Like u went bankrupt after watch the throne tour because Jayz had Versace towels and (quite enjoyable — I must say) spread of foods/drinks/merch decor in his green room. While u had chicken bones, empty bottles of henny and variety boxes of wise chips from Costco in ur green room.

You bought a dope fiend AND A DUDE a birkin before I’ve even seen teyana post some flowers from you on her damn birthday. Like you spent teyana’s pr/video budgets on hanging out with a white girl who literally turned around and was proud for ‘hustling you for a USED bag, a wet n wild eyeliner and a hot plate of food,’ [crying laughing emojis].”

“Rap dudes will always band together in stupidity. As if anyone in the world will boycott adidas because group of men who can’t stop calling themselves ’n****s’ say so. No one boycotted RZA for letting a white dude spit on me, you all actually boycotted me for being a victim! Lol Black women should never stand in solidarity with men who go out of their ways to disrespect black women. If anything it’s great they want to boycott… adidas should replace Kanye with a black female designer The fact this n**** whines SO much like a damn wet cat is enough to deem all Kanye west fashion projects f*cking lame. Who wants to dress like a crybaby who hasn’t had a hot song in over ten years?”

For the second time in three years, the Las Vegas Aces will play for a WNBA championship. After winning the Commissioner’s Cup back in July, the Aces are now in a position to take home their second trophy this season after going into Seattle and beating the Storm, 97-92, in what will go down as the final game of Sue Bird’s legendary career.

The Aces looked like they were ready to punch their ticket to the Finals, scoring the game’s first six points without much resistance. This opening punch woke the Storm up, though, as the team was able to rip off a 17-3 run in the immediate aftermath, thanks in large part to the play of Breanna Stewart. The two-time WNBA Finals MVP went for 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting and caught fire by hitting all three of her attempts from deep.

Still, Seattle was only able to take a 23-29 lead into the second quarter, with Kelsey Plum’s 10 points helping to fend off the barrage from Stewart.

Stewart didn’t exactly slow down in the second quarter. She continued to get herself look after look, attacking the Aces defense whenever she got the opportunity and making them pay. By the time the two teams went into the locker room for halftime, Stewart led all scorers with 26 points on 9-for-12 shooting with all five her her attempts from three being successful.

A pair of issues for Seattle, however, were the team’s inability to get anyone beyond Steward and Jewell Loyd (12 points, 4-for-6 shooting) going from the field — every other player on the Storm combined to score nine points. They also struggled mightily from the charity stripe, connecting on only seven of their 12 free throw attempts. All that mixed with some balanced scoring and hot shooting from the field by the Aces — the team shot 19-for-34 (55.9 percent) and 5-for-11 (45.5 percent) from three — meant the home team only took a 47-44 lead into the half.

It did not take long for that lead to disappear. The Aces were brilliant on both ends of the floor in the third, and after taking the lead on a Chelsea Gray three a little more than two minutes into the period, it became awfully hard for Seattle to get it back. Gray was relentless in the third, scoring nine points and picking up a pair of assists, all while making the Storm defense look uncomfortable as the team went up, 66-59 after three.

With the season and Bird’s career both on the line, Seattle made several pushes and kept coming within one possession, but each time, Las Vegas had an answer, like this insane shot Gray hit to beat the shot clock.

And then, the breakthrough came with less than three minutes left in the game. Gabby Williams went up for a layup with the Storm down by two, made it, and got fouled by A’ja Wilson, which sent her to the line. She’d go on to convert … right before Jackie Young came right back down for the Aces and converted an and-one of her own.

The teams continued to trade buckets down the stretch, and as she’s done all postseason long, Gray took her game to another level. After she buried a three, Las Vegas forced a miss, got the ball into her hands, let her go to work, and saw their faith paid off.

Gray led the way for the Aces with 31 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists, while Wilson pitched in 23 points, 13 rebounds, and three blocks. Young’s 18 points and Plum’s 15 rounded things out for the team. The 1-2 punch of Stewart (42 points, seven rebounds, three blocks) and Loyd (29 points) nearly got Seattle across the finish line, but ultimately, it just was not enough. Bird, in her final game, had eight points and eight assists.

Las Vegas will now wait to see if they’ll take on the Connecticut Sun or the Chicago Sky, the latter of whom they beat to win the Commissioner’s Cup, in the WNBA Finals. Those two teams played earlier in the evening and will need a Game 5 to determine who moves on — that game will take place on Thursday night in Chicago at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

Earlier this year, 2nd Grade — the goup consisting of members from Remember Sports, Free Cake For Every Creature, and Friendship — reissued their mixtape Wish You Were Here Tour. The band is already back with more material; they’re set to unveil their album Easy Listening later this month, and the jangly new single “Me & My Blue Angels” is out today.

“I wrote ‘Me & My Blue Angels’ about my band, but really it goes out to anyone who you trust 100% to have your back when the sh*t hits the fan,” said bandleader Peter Gill in a statement. “As a kid I would go to the air show in Brunswick, Maine and be awed by the sights and sounds of stunt planes overhead performing dangerous aerial fugues in tight formation. The melody and overall composition here are meant to emulate the force, grace, grandiosity, and technical precision of the Blue Angels’ flight paths.”

Though the song starts off with dark, deep chords, it immediately leads into a light, colorful sonic landscape. Gill’s vocals are optimistic and soft. At less than three minutes, the song doesn’t overstay its welcome. It is, in fact, easy listening. Check it out below.

Easy Listening is out 9/30 via Double Double Whammy. Pre-order it here.

Danny DeVito was suitably freaked out this summer when the right-leaning, Trump-heavy Supreme Court upended a flurry of human rights. Now it’s the GOP’s turn to be freaked out by DeVito. On Monday, a Republican congressman had a complete meltdown over the actor and filmmaker’s latest show. Why? Because it’s about the devil.

Mike Johnson, a representative from Louisiana, took to Facebook to denounce Little Demon, the new FXX animated sitcom about a women (Aubrey Plaza) who was impregnated by Satan himself (DeVito) and gave birth to a daughter who happens to be the Antichrist (Lucy DeVito, his actual daughter). It’s a family affair and isn’t that heartwarming? But Johnson didn’t think so.

The lawmaker was casually watching a college football game Sunday night when he caught the trailer for the show. Yep, it was just a trailer. But that was enough to ruin his entire evening.

“I couldn’t get to the remote fast enough to shield my 11-year-old from the preview, and I wonder how many other children were exposed to it—and how many millions more will tune in to the new series, owned and marketed by DISNEY,” Johnson fumed in a lengthy post. “The trailer included dark images of Hell, demons, and satanic imagery, and an explanation that the main character is… the Antichrist(!).”

Johnson concluded that “Disney and FX have decided to embrace and market what is clearly evil.” He then quoted the Book of Peter.

Danny DeVito himself had a similarly intense reaction to the pilot itself, although his take was decidedly more positive. He spent the premiere live-tweeting it, which led to much confusion, although his tweets might be even better out-of-context. Between that and an easily wigged-out member of the party whose fearless leader might be going to jail, this is some great free advertising for what sounds like a fun new show.

(Via HuffPost)

Sunday evening’s matchup between the Florida State Seminoles and LSU Tigers in New Orleans provided a wild amount of entertainment for both die-hard and more casual college football observers. The game featured an utterly ludicrous finish, with Florida State fumbling the ball near the goal line, LSU completing a 99-yard drive to score at the buzzer, and the Tigers missing a game-tying extra point attempt to lose in epic fashion. Following the game, much was made of a prominent win for Florida State, but perhaps more attention was paid to LSU’s defeat in head coach Brian Kelly’s debut on the sideline.

That leads to yet another bizarre moment in Kelly’s early tenure, which occurred during a press conference on Tuesday. Kelly prodded a member of the media for arriving late to the press conference, and that member of the media corps pushed back with a quip about how she would perhaps be more likely be on time if LSU won.

The reporter was later identified as Leah Vann of The Advocate, who later let Kelly off the hook to some degree by sharing that she apologized and he was “super chill” in response.

Even in the moment, Kelly did not blow up after Vann’s comment and, to put it candidly, it would not be difficult to form a list of college football coaches who might have been more prickly in the face of that remark from a reporter. At the same time, it’s another weird moment surrounding Kelly, who famously used a bizarre southern accent after being hired in Baton Rouge, and the questions about his cultural fit with LSU likely won’t be dying down any time soon.

The Connecticut Sun set a positive tone in the WNBA Semifinals, toppling the Chicago Sky on the road in Game 1. However, Connecticut lost the next two games, including a home tilt in Game 3. That mini-skid left the Sun one game away from potential elimination.

On Tuesday evening, the Sun responded in kind, zooming to a double-digit lead in the early going and holding off the Sky for a 104-80 victory that set up a Game 5 in Chicago. The Sky took control immediately, using a 22-6 opening run that included eight straight points. Chicago turned the ball over four times in the first five minutes, with Connecticut making nine of its first 14 shots from the floor.

Connecticut’s 16-point lead was slashed to a 30-22 margin by the end of the first quarter, and it felt as if Chicago may be leveling the playing field after the early barrage. Between quarters, Sky standout Kahleah Cooper expressed frustration, and almost bewilderment, about the slow start with the opportunity to advance to the WNBA Finals.

Alyssa Thomas was a huge factor for the Sun in the early going, scoring 11 points and grabbing six rebounds in the opening period, but the Sky managed to cut the deficit to as few as five points at 38-33. Almost on cue, Connecticut used a 10-2 run to break away and, after a brief period of stabilization by Chicago, the Sun closed the first half on another 10-3 run that was punctuated by a buzzer-beater from DiJonai Carrington to give the Sun a 17-point halftime lead.

Connecticut shot 59.5 percent from the floor in the first half, and the team’s defense forced nine turnovers that led directly to 14 points. While the margin was not insurmountable for the visiting Sky, the big run necessary to close the gap never materialized. Chicago was unable to mount a push early in the third quarter, and a late-quarter flurry pushed Connecticut into an even more favorable position.

In the final seconds of the third quarter, DeWanna Bonner buried a three-pointer with two seconds remaining and Odyssey Sims ended the quarter with a steal and a bucket before the buzzer to put Connecticut up by 22 points.

From there, the Sun were never again in serious danger, extending the lead to a 93-66 and seemingly slamming the door for good. With Candace Parker returning to the game, the Sky produced a run of 11 consecutive points, forcing Connecticut into a timeout with fewer than five minutes remaining. The home team immediately converted a three-pointer on the first possession, though, and that quieted any remaining murmurs of a potential comeback.

It was a balanced and impressive effort from the Sun on both ends of the floor. Connecticut flummoxed Chicago on the defensive end, forcing 15 turnovers and holding the Sky to only three offensive rebounds. On offense, the Sun shot 57 percent from the floor and 16-for-20 at the free throw line, with seven players scoring at least nine points each.

For the Sky, the message will likely be to forget this game and, in particular, the lopsided margin. Chicago hosts Game 5 on Thursday, and that home-court advantage could prove useful on the biggest stage. Still, Connecticut likely gained confidence with this complete performance in a must-win spot, and all eyes will be on the series finale with a trip to the WNBA Finals on the line in less than 48 hours.

People have been speculating for a while about whether Adele is engaged to super-agent Rich Paul, who she’s been dating for a little over a year. They first appeared together in the public eye last July while sitting courtside for the 2021 NBA Finals. In May of this year, she revealed that the two of them moved in together. Today, she posted some photos on Instagram, and one caught fans’ eyes and have them wondering if she and Paul are secretly married.

After posting some selfies with her new Emmy award, she included a picture of the award itself. In the background, one can see a customized game of Rummikub with a label that reads “The Paul’s.” It caused conversation about the state of their relationship to be stirred up again, with many excitedly jumping to conclusions. One user commented: “‘The Paul’s’ is you married?!”, which got likes from many other curious fans dying to know the truth.

When asked last month if she was married, Adele repeatedly said insisted she wasn’t engaged. Instead she said, “I’m just in loooove! I’m happy as I’ll ever be. I might as well be married.” In another conversation with the journalist, she gave a more straightforward answer: “I’m not engaged,” she said. “I just love high-end jewelry, boy!”