Category: News

Last year, Seth MacFarlane signed a $200 million overall deal with NBCUniversal, ending his long relationship with 20th Century Fox Television. The Family Guy creator is no fan of Fox or, specifically, Fox News. “Tucker Carlson’s latest opinion piece once again makes me wish Family Guy was on any other network. Look, Fox, we both know this marriage isn’t working anymore. The sex is only once a year, I don’t get along with your mother, and well… I’ve been having an affair with NBC,” he tweeted.

Unfortunately for MacFarlane (although fortunately for his bank account), Family Guy isn’t going anywhere, but his sci-fi series The Orville has moved from Fox to Hulu, which he called an “absolute thrill” at the season three premiere this week.

“I want to say, it is an absolute thrill to not be on the Fox network. We never really belonged there. And they’ve curated a specific brand now. Between Beat Shazam, Name That Tune, and Don’t Forget the Lyrics!, Fox has really captured the demo of people who have no idea what song they’re listening to,” he joked. Macfarlane added that when he looks at Fox’s ratings, “I gotta hand it to them: It takes a special talent to pander to the lowest common denominator without actually getting them as an audience. That takes talent! But hey, we’re here on Hulu, thank God.”

Like someone who puts butter on a Pop Tart, Macfarlane feels so frickin’ good.

The Orville: New Horizons premieres on Hulu on June 2.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

WARNING: Spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi below.

To keep the Star Wars Celebration vibes going, Disney+ dropped the first two episodes of the highly-anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi series earlier than usual on Thursday night, and the maneuver paid off big time. The Ewan McGregor-fronted series immediately started trending thanks to a very surprising character reveal that has fans simultaneously tearing up and smiling with glee. We’re talking, of course, about Leia Organa.

All during Obi-Wan‘s announcement and development, there was zero mention of Leia appearing in the show, and kudos to Lucasfilm for making fans think Luke would be the focus of the show. To be clear, this isn’t some fan service cameo. Leia is an integral part of the series. She’s featured prominently in both of Obi-Wan‘s first two episodes, and despite fan theories about Kumail Nanjiani to the contrary, Leia’s presence is what kicks off the show’s story.

On top to being a welcome surprise, Star Wars fans were here for Bird Box actress Vivien Lyra Blair‘s performance that managed to meld together elements of Padme, Anakin, and Carrie Fisher‘s iconic strength and wit. As you can see by the reactions below, seeing little Leia interact with Obi-Wan and hold her own against larger foes brought out all of the feels. Plus, those outfits that were adorable callbacks to the original trilogy? C’mon.

The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are now streaming on Disney+.

In recent days, Rolling Stones leader Mick Jagger has taken to speaking on the new generation of artists. He compared Harry Styles to himself (not favorably) recently, but a few weeks before that, he offered some praise for Machine Gun Kelly, saying, “In rock music, you need energy and there have not been a lot of new rock singers around. Now there are a few: You have Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly. That kind of post-punk vibe makes me think there is still a bit of life in rock and roll.”

Well, MGK was on The Tonight Show yesterday and during his chat with Jimmy Fallon, he offered a reaction to the compliment.

Kelly noted he heard the news “on a bad day” and continued, “It was a day… I’m polarizing to people for some reason, so there was a lot of… you can just feel a lot of hate coming at you sometimes. I just remember, I was feeling it that morning, and then I read that quote, and then I just said… ‘I didn’t say it.’”

Elsewhere during the show, Kelly and Fallon did a “Mad Lib Theater” segment, so check that out below and watch the interview above.

Rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert loves guns. That might be the understatement of the year, given that she proudly posts family photos of all her sons brandishing firearms. She’s also the owner of Shooters Grill (and her employees have had plenty of dish to say about her management style), and she began her freshman (and possibly only) term by vowing to carry her Glock while strutting through the halls of Congress.

Boebert also famously railed against Nancy Pelosi for installing gun detectors at the U.S. Capitol following the insurrection, and she was triggered when SNL did a parody sketch about her gun obsession. She, of course, has responded to the Texas school shooting by sparring with AOC in a means to defend the Second Amendment at all costs to life and limb, and let’s just say that Boebert dragged out her most nonsensical argument yet while speaking to Sean Hannity about the evils of laws on gun restrictions.

“When 9/11 happened, we didn’t ban planes,” Boebert declared on Fox News. Also during the segment, she (counterintuitively) argued that more guns would have protected the 19 Ulvade schoolchildren who were killed by an 18-year-old gunman who had no problem buying two assault rifles: “This is my equalizer. I need a way to protect myself and my children.”

Boebert’s position is that teachers should be armed and schools should essentially become a military fortress, so that civilians can waltz around with AR-15s for freedom. Let’s just say that people had a ball while pointing out that 9/11 changed the entire structure of the airline industry. It also spawned a new government agency and an entirely new way of experiencing airport security. It’s created an entirely new set of restrictions that continue even today, and that was to prevent another tragedy that took about the same number of lives that guns do each month in the U.S. Yep, might be the “dumbest” thing that Boebert has ever said in public, according to Twitter.

The Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway brings it home.

A few days ago, Ed Sheeran announced a tour edition of his most recent album = (Equals), which dropped nine months ago. Since the release, he’s recruited Taylor Swift for a remix of “The Joker And The Queen” and then called on Lil Baby for a new take of “2Step.”

This new edition of = is out today, with the brand new songs “I Will Remember You” and “Welcome To The World,” along with two previously unreleased tracks “One Life” and “Penguins” that were both featured in the 2019 film Yesterday. It also features the aforementioned remixes that came after the initial record release, as well as his collaboration with Fireboy DML for “Peru” and with Bring Me The Horizon for “Bad Habits.” The latter crossover surprised everyone, despite Sheeran’s interest in heavy music: “I was really into death metal as a kid. I listened to Cradle Of Filth and Slipknot and all that stuff,” he said last summer.

“Released the Tour Edition of ‘=’ today,” Sheeran said in a statement. “9 extra tracks, including 2 brand new ones and 2 you might have heard in a film called Yesterday. I hope you love these songs as much as I do x.”

Listen to the new songs above and below.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

When Japandroids released their sophomore album Celebration Rock in 2012, fans and critics alike weren’t expecting such a strong follow-up to their revered debut album, Post-Nothing. Now revisiting Celebration Rock ten years later, Indiecast hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen reflect on the album’s legacy and how Japandroids successfully embraced old school rock clichés.

Speaking of veteran indie musicians, Wilco released their new album Cruel Country this week. It’s an album the band essentially recorded live and has quickly become one of Hyden’s favorite Wilco projects in the last 10 years. Perhaps the most talked-about song this week was Sky Ferriera’s “Don’t Forget,” which marked her second single in nine years. Elsewhere in the episode, Indiecast talk standout movie soundtracks and yet another Conor Oberst mishap.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian spotlights Sweet Pill’s new album Where The Heart Is. Steven gives a shout out to Dehd‘s fourth album Blue Skies, which shows the band’s progression to polished songwriting.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 90 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.

Over the years, Harry Styles has been a regular presence on James Corden’s The Late Late Show, so it’s only fitting that he pops up at least one more time before Corden leaves the program next year. Styles dropped by the show last night for a segment in which he and Corden shot a video for Harry’s House highlight “Daylight” on strict budget and time constraints.

In the introduction of the segment, Corden explained the situation: He and Styles had three hours and $300 (not factoring in the cost of the Late Late Show camera crew following them around and the editors who cut the final video together, it would seem) to make a video in Brooklyn. They didn’t have any locations or ideas set up beforehand. First, they tried to get into somebody’s home to film, which was surprisingly a challenge for those two famous faces: The first person they tried asking was heading out the door, while the second just flat-out refused.

They eventually found four women (one of whom happened to have a bunch of Styles- and One Direction-emblazoned items in their room) who offered their shared home for the cause. Throughout production, Styles offered some disparaging quips, like, “I was in a Christopher Nolan movie,” and, “Should we just scrap it and just do, like, just a ‘Carpool Karaoke?’” Despite that, though, Corden, Styles, and the folks who they recruited to help actually pulled through with a totally passable and fun music video.

Watch the “Daylight” video and the making-of segment above.

A day after his emotional monologue about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 people dead, including 19 kids, Jimmy Kimmel focused his anger on Ted Cruz.

“He’s such an interesting character,” the late-night host said during the monologue of Thursday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I mean, his need for attention is so powerful, he’s been everywhere this week, doing interviews, pontificating in that little ‘I care’ voice that he puts on defending this disturbing allegiance these guys have to semi-automatic weapons, which Ted says aren’t the problem. The problem, according to Ted Cruz, is that schools need to be more like prisons.” The GOP is desperately trying to frame what happened in Uvalde (and Buffalo, and Newtown, and…) as not a gun problem, but “a door problem,” Kimmel said. “Get rid of the doors. Makes total sense.”

He continued, “Maybe we should only have an exit door on schools, so no one can come in. They’ll see the sign, they’ll turn right around. There will be no problems at all. And Ted knows a lot about doors. You know, doors are what he leaves his dog to look out of when it gets cold and he sneaks off to Cancun like Cruz-ella de Vil.” (Poor Snowflake.)

Kimmel called Cruz’s solution to America’s gun epidemic a “stupid fake idea. Listen, Ted, I know you’d rather spend your days doing impressions of The Simpsons and googling stepmom porn, but at some point you might have to get down to it and do your job, and doors ain’t it.” You can watch the Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue above.

Here’s the thing with Brazilian bossa nova standards: They were pretty much written with the idea in mind that other artists should be encouraged to put their own spin on them. Take the ubiquitous “The Girl From Ipanema,” a song that’s been re-interpreted time and time again by countless artists, and it still sounds lovely more than 50 years later, no matter who’s singing it. “Desafinado” is another classic that also appeared on Stan Getz and João Gilberto’s timeless 1964 album Getz/Gilberto, and it still beams with the soul of the Brazilian shores in 2022. It’s precisely that tune which Colombian-American Latinx R&B songstress Kali Uchis has just taken on for a cover and it sounds sublime.

Uchis sings the Portuguese original song in English, over a built-in seaside sway and groovy saxophone. Close your eyes and it might as well feel like you’re on a Rio De Janeiro beach, with Kali Uchis serenading you as you sip on caipirinhas. The tune is taken from the soundtrack to Minions: The Rise Of Gru, which comes out on July 1st (the same day as the film) and was produced and curated by Jack Antonoff. Also appearing on the fairly loaded soundtrack, are St. Vincent, Thundercat, Tierra Whack, Brittany Howard and uh… Diana Ross featuring Tame Impala? Facts only.

Listen to Uchis’ cover of “Desafinado” above.

Minions: The Rise Of Gru (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is out 7/1 via Decca Records. Pre-order it here.

The last time we received a project from Dallas native Kaash Paige was back in 2020 with Teenage Fever. The 13-track project delivered collaborations from Don Toliver, Ssgkobe, 42 Dugg, K Camp, and Isaiah Rashad for what amounted to a strong debut from the young singer. After Teenage Fever, Paige laid low for a bit as her 2021 year was a quiet one. However, after Uproxx caught up with her at New York’s Rolling Loud festival, she hinted at a pretty eventful 2022 year. “It’s my time and everybody’s gonna know Kaash Paige,” she said at the time. “It’ll be a lot of crazy music that’s dropping [at the] top of the year.”

The music that Paige spoke of is slowly rolling in with her latest release being a collaboration with Lil Tjay. “24 Hrs” strikes as a sultry and slow tempo record that warns their respective lovers of a night of steaming intimacy after they’ve returned to town. The track arrives with an accompanying music video that captures Paige and Tjay in an abandoned and dimly-lit facility as they’re entertained by the very women they plan to end the night with.

“24 Hrs” drops after Paige kicked off her 2022 year with “Girlfriend” while recently teamed up with French Montana in the video for their “Bag Season” collaboration.

You can watch the video for “24 Hrs” above.

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