Category: News

In May, when reports of Roe v. Wade potentially being overturned started to surface, Phoebe Bridgers shared that she had an abortion herself in 2021, writing, “I had an abortion in October of last year while I was on tour. I went to planned parenthood where they gave me the abortion pill. It was easy. Everyone deserves that kind of access.”

Now, in a new interview with The Guardian, she has spoken more about it, saying the process “wasn’t f*cking emotional at all.” (The interview was published this morning, shortly before the Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade.)

Bridgers said:

“I’ve always found comfort in talking to people in passing — when someone’s mom says, ‘I had an abortion when I was a teen.’ It normalized it for me. I was, ‘All right, it’s time to throw my hat into that pool’… That’s not a phrase, I just made that up. But I didn’t think about it, really, at all. […]

As a white, upper-middle-class woman from California, even if it were to be overturned, I will always have access. I have a friend who went to medical school — every time I need a doctor, I say, ‘Do you have someone that you recommend?’ So I would just go, ‘Hey, where do I go for the thing? Wink-wink.’ The people with access will always have access. What pisses me off is that we’re not talking about me. It’s so easy: I played in Texas the same week, and then I went home and was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Made the appointment. It was 12 hours of my life.”

She also noted she was bothered by “people with good intentions saying, ‘Don’t say it was easy for you to make that decision – it was clearly really emotional.’” She continued, “And I wasn’t f*cking emotional at all. Hormonally crazy! But I don’t think you should assign ‘it tore me up’ to me. No! I don’t think about it as a baby, of course not.”

Read the full feature here.

Billie Eilish may be one of the youngest stars to break into stardom as of late, but she’s definitely one of the wisest. The “Bad Guy” singer has always been vocal about her qualms with the music industry, like when she was reluctant to accept her Grammy because of the accusations of unfair voting and a toxic culture at the organization. In a new interview with NME, she discussed the lack of representation for women at music festivals.

“It’s so cool to be a young woman and headline festivals, because it’s so male-dominated,” she said. “I went through a rough patch in 2017 and 2018, feeling hopeless about the future of women in music. I would see these line-ups for festivals and it was all dudes. And it was all artists I liked, but it was just like, ‘When will women be involved?’”

She added: “Women have to have a million back-up dancers and a million costume changes and their hair done, and crazy costumes and stage set-up. I love male performers, but they barely have to do shit to have a show that people like, and women are expected to have the biggest show. I’m tired of feeling like we have to do that to feel adequate. If you want to do that, then that’s so great, but I remember thinking that I would never be able to headline anything because of those expectations.”

If you engage with pop culture on any level at all, you likely know that there’s a new Minions movie on the way. While your reception of this news largely depends on how you feel about the Minions as characters — and whether or not you have kids, the determining factor in how likely you are to end up in a movie theater to see the little yellow creatures on July 1 — there is one universal good that comes with the new film: Its soundtrack.

For whatever reason, the Despicable Me cinematic universe has always had absolutely stellar music. While some of that music gets run into the ground — even Pharrell got sick of “Happy” — Illumination, the studio behind Gru and his gibberish-speaking allies, undoubtedly churns out banger after banger for their films from covers to original songs.

This is, in part, because they secure some great collaborators for them. While Pharrell worked on the soundtrack for Despicable Me 2, the soundtrack for Minions: The Rise Of Gru is produced by Jack Antonoff, featuring contemporary artists covering 1970s soul, funk, and pop hits. The latest one to surface is a cover of Sly And The Family Stone’s signature hit “Dance To The Music” performed by the multitalented HER.

Listen to HER’s cover of Sly And The Family Stone’s “Dance To The Music” above. The full soundtrack, which also features Brittany Howard, Brockhampton, Caroline Polachek, Diana Ross, Gary Clark Jr., Jackson Wang, Kali Uchis, RZA, St. Vincent, Tierra Whack, and Thundercat, is also out on 7/1 via Decca and Verve.

Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison quickly became one of the buzziest indie songwriters with her 2018 debut, existing at the nexus of ’90s indie, alt-rock, and 2010s DIY music. On this week’s Indiecast episode, hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen discuss her new album, Sometimes, Forever, and debate whether it’s an instant Album Of The Year contender or if it missed the mark.

Along with discussing Soccer Mommy, Indiecast talks about news from arguably the two biggest names in music: Beyoncé and Drake. Both celebrities announced new albums just hours apart from each other, with Drake’s house-leaning Honestly, Nevermind debuting the next day.

In the Recommendation Corner this week, Ian tells listeners to check out Candy, a Richmond, VA metalcore band who have leveled up their music in recent years. Steven shouts out Kentucky songwriter S.G. Goodman, whose sophomore album Teeth Marks is out now.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 94 below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Earlier this year, pop punk queen Avril Lavigne released her seventh studio album Love Sux, a return to form. Today, she covered Adele’s “Hello” for the Spotify Singles series and unveiled a stripped-down version of her song “Love Sux.” The rendition of Adele’s hit is emotive and powerful, and the new version of “Love Sux” is even more poignant than the original version.

“I love Adele’s song ‘Hello’ and have been dying to do a cover of it,” the singer said. “The ‘Spotify Singles’ sessions were a fun opportunity to finally do this cover as well as reimagine my own song ‘Love Sux’ as an acoustic version.”

The star recently got engaged to the artist Mod Sun. About the proposal, she explained, “We were in Paris on a boat in the Seine River. We had a violin player, champagne, and roses. It felt like time stood still, and it was just the two of us in the moment.” She added, “I knew we had a very strong unstoppable connection from the first week of writing and working together in the studio. Immediately. He made every day better. It was like I had known him forever. As time went on, things kept getting better, and it felt incredibly natural.”

Listen to the Spotify Singles recordings below.

The first reactions are in for Thor: Love and Thunder, Chris Hemsworth‘s fourth turn as the God of Thunder and director Taika Waititi‘s second entry after shaking up the character with Thor: Ragnarok. This time around, Natalie Portman rejoins the series thanks to Waititi promising the actress that she’ll have a “less boring time” as the Mighty Thor. Christian Bale also joins the cast as the villainous Gorr the God Butcher, and his performance is being favorably compared to Danny Devito’s Penguin in Batman Returns.

On top of the all-star cast bringing it, Love and Thunder apparently goes heavy on the Guns n’ Roses, and the critics are here for the Dad Rock vibes.

“THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is the greatest MCU movie, or, for that matter, any movie ever made because it has a direct reference to COCKTAIL (that part not a joke) and in my own pantheon of references, those are the rules I set long ago so I must abide by them,” Uproxx‘s Mike Ryan tweeted. “(Also I have no doubt this will be Axl Rose’s favorite movie of all time because I can only assume he got points for how many GnR songs show up.)”

“If you, like me, take delight in watching Christian Bale slurp up the scenery while gobbing out that black ink Danny DeVito had in Batman Returns, then #ThorLoveAndThunder is for you,” The Ringer‘s Joanna Robinson wrote.

“Holy shit. #ThorLoveandThunder is the perfect blend of Taika at his best with comedy and a punch to the gut all in one,” The Mary Sue‘s Rachel Leishman tweeted. “I left this movie emotionally satisfied while also sobbing and just perfection. We stan a dad rock soundtrack. In the words of my new favorite characters: AHH.”

“#ThorLoveAndThunder is electric!” Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff wrote. “A wacky, high energy delight with a cast full of aces crushing one scene after the next. LOADS of laughs (my face legit hurts), menace of Christian Bale’s Gorr is chilling, but most of all loved that it’s a film brimming with good vibes & heart.”

“#ThorLoveAndThunder is like what I imagine living in the mind of Taika Waititi might be like,” io9’s Germain Lussier tweeted. “It’s wild, funny, a little all over the place in the middle but by the end it all comes together in a surprising, touching, satisfying way. So much Guns n Roses too. So much.”

You can see more Thor: Love and Thunder reactions below:

Thor: Love and Thunder rocks into theaters on July 8.

[This post contains spoilers for Stranger Things 4]

The most talked-about episode of Stranger Things season four is also among the show’s finest episodes. IMDb users voted “Dear Billy,” the episode where Sadie Sink’s Max is nearly killed by Vecna before being saved by her friends (and Kate Bush), the show’s second best episode with a 9.5 rating, behind only “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” (9.7). But unlike the midseason finale, “Dear Billy” could break an Emmys record.

“Dear Billy” has been submitted for seven Emmys categories: Outstanding Directing (Shawn Levy), Outstanding Guest Actor (A Nightmare on Elm Street legend Robert Englund), Outstanding Stunts, Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing, Outstanding Music Supervision, Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup, and Outstanding Cinematography. If the episode wins all seven awards, “it will set a new record as the most awarded episode in Emmy history,” according to Gold Derby. The current record of six is held by “Battle of the Bastards” from Game of Thrones and the pilot episode of Boardwalk Empire.

It takes sky-high production values for an episode to rack up that many wins, and Stranger Things is indeed a lavish production, though the show as a whole has yet to win six or more awards for a single season, let alone for a single episode.

Stranger Things has won seven Emmys total, all in the technical categories, so seven Emmys for a single episode is a tough ask. But even tougher is trying to understand why Sink apparently wasn’t submitted for her performance in “Dear Billy”. She’ll remember the snub, all too well.

(Via Gold Derby)

(Spoilers for Season 3 of The Boys will be found below.)

At long last, The Boys is streaming Season 3, Episode 6, known officially (and fondly) as the “Herogasm” episode. This, as the name suggests, involves a wide array of mature content because an entire damn orgy’s going during the latter half of the episode. Antony Starr’s Homelander, actual villain that he is (and solo performer extraordinaire), doesn’t really get involved in the party, but he is at the center of the metaphorical Herogasm at the end of the episode. He’s fully clothed, but that’s no less thrilling for the audience.

First, though, let’s give a necessary mention to The Deep’s sexy time, and it’s no wonder that Chace Crawford wondered if he’d work again following what happens this season. Let’s just say that his tan lines showed up from a rear view while the front view involved a very affectionate octopus. And Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) most decidedly did not have a good time. First, his favorite jacket got ruined, and then it really got ruined.

From there, yes, there was an orgy (that ended in an explosion) with plenty of nudity while good times happened and nudity while the participants were shell-shocked and/or dead. The real climax of the episode, though, involved a fight scene between Homelander and a trio who teamed up to take him down. That would be Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and the Compound V-infused Butcher (Karl Urban) and naked Hughie (Jack Quaid). This turned into what some viewed as an Infinity War of sorts, but many declared this as the “real” Herogasm, and overall, people called this the best episode of the show so far. This, in turn, made for one of the best episodes in recent TV history.

Yep, this is the trio that no one knew that they needed.

Homelander ended up getting away at the end, but he’s sustained bruises — not only the ones that we can see, but deep inside of his pitch-black soul. And surely, he’s going to be even more off the hook going forward.

Meanwhile, poor Starlight (Erin Moriarty). No one on earth could blame her for seizing upon this opportunity to become Annie January again.

The Boys‘ “Herogasm” is currently streaming on Amazon.

Earlier this month, Billie Eilish debuted a new song, “TV,” live. One standout lyric is a clear reference to the media sensation surrounding the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial amid news that the Supreme Court could potentially overturn Roe v. Wade: “The internet’s gone wild watching movie stars on trial / While they’re overturning Roe v. Wade.”

Now, in a new NME profile, Eilish has expanded on that line, sharing how truly frustrated the situation made her. She said:

“I was in this state of depression, losing my own rights to my own body, and then I’d go on the internet and it would be people giving their take on this trial. Who f*cking gives a f*ck? Women are losing rights for their bodies, so why are we talking about celebrities’ divorce trials? Who gives a sh*t? Let them figure it out on their own. The internet bothers the sh*t out of me sometimes.”

She also explained her decision to debut “TV” on stage, saying, “I just wanted to go back to my roots: to put a little guitar song back out, and feel like how I used to. I was just missing that feeling and missed doing a song that no one had heard yet.”

Check out the full feature here.

Back in April, the rumor mill was churning, specifically as it related to a possible engagement between Phoebe Bridgers and Paul Mescal, with Bridgers reportedly calling him her fiancé at a Coachella party. Bridgers herself hasn’t really spoken about those rumors, although she has now as part of a new profile from The Guardian.

She didn’t offer much clarity, though: When the topic was brought up, Bridgers, with a “grin,” said, “F*ck the f*cking tabloids to hell, that’s what I’ll say about that!”

Meanwhile, she also spoke about both she and Mescal reaching a higher level of fame during the initial COVID-19 lockdowns, saying,”It’s so nice to have that in common with somebody, because it just makes no sense.” With “a happy squirm,” Bridgers also talked about writing “Sidelines” with Mescal in mind: “Writing about my relationship with only good sh*t, because that’s all I feel, is hard, but it makes it easy when you’re actually having those feelings.”

She also touched on attending this year’s Met Gala (her first) with Mescal by her side, saying, “They literally sewed me into [my dress]. It was terrifying, in a very fun way. […] It’s like the weirdest, most elitist prom.”

Check out the full feature here.