Category: News

“And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time” could be a way to describe William Shatner’s wait to actually head into space (at age 90) after his (for all practical purposes) lifelong run as forever Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame. And on this fine Wednesday morning, William Shatner actually made good on his reputation by blasting into space (for real) on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ anatomically-shaped rocket. The pop-culture institution and three other passengers finally ended up on the New Shepard vessel, in which they glided into the very edge of space before making a safe touchdown on planet Earth.

Following Shatner’s return to civilization, CNN reports that he grew very emotional after his sub-orbital journey (which included a few minutes of weightlessness). He told Jeff Bezos, “What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine.” And it seems that Shatner fans, as well, are feeling similarly. In fact, this day has seen Shatner’s late 1970s Saturn Awards rendition of Elton John’s “Rocketman” go viral. Decades later, the clip’s still as funny and bizarre as ever while featuring a smoking, tuxedo-adorned Shatner — multiple versions of him, even — doing the spoken-word thing. Can we consider this “singing”? Probably not. “Dancing,” though? For sure.

The clip began to heavily circulate during blast-off time, and for good reason.

Congrats to William Shatner, and welcome back to civilization.

Dave Chappelle may well be in hot water over his latest Netflix special at the moment, but his influence remains as strong as ever. Just take a look at J. Cole’s “Mt. Rushmore of Rap” display from his Off-Season tour currently crossing the nation. The cheeky statue takes just as much inspiration from Chappelle’s Show as it does from the Twitter meme it references, borrowing one of the hilarious bits from Dave’s parodic Making The Band sketch. Just like Chappelle’s exaggerated version of Jamaican rapper Dylan’s top 5 rappers of all time, Cole’s Mt. Rushmore consists of just one name/face.

J. Cole’s.

As you can see, the cheeky display, which flashes during his set, consists of just four photos of Cole at different stages of his career (remember when he had the bald fade? Time flies!). The screenshot above comes courtesy of Vibe‘s recap of the Dallas tour stop by Eric Diep, who caught the moment and posted it to Twitter for posterity.

The jokey Mt. Rushmore is illuminating after Cole’s “Heaven’s EP” freestyle in which he compares himself to contemporaries Drake and Kendrick Lamar, ranking himself third behind them. However, on the first night of his tour, Drake popped out to refute Cole’s statement, calling him “one of the greatest rappers to ever touch a mic.”

Coldplay and Ed Sheeran are some of the biggest musicians in the UK right now, and seeing since both have albums set to drop in coming weeks, they decided to join together for a fun surprise. Coldplay was performing a show in London’s venue Shepherd’s Bush Empire to promote their next LP Music Of The Spheres when they brought Sheeran out to the stage as a surprise guest.

The surprise visit by Sheeran came just after Coldplay launched into a performance of their popular track “Fix You.” About halfway through Coldplay’s rendition of the hit song, Sheeran casually walked onto the stage with an acoustic guitar, completely unannounced. The crowd absolutely lost it as Sheeran took over lead vocal duties from Chris Martin.

After shocking fans with his surprise visit, Coldplay decided to honor the guest singer by performing one of his recent singles. They opted for the track “Shivers” from his forthcoming album =, with both Martin and Sheeran rocking out on an acoustic guitar and harmonizing the chorus.

Watch Sheeran and Coldplay perform “Shivers” and “Fix You” above.

Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres is out 10/15 via Parlophone. Pre-order it here.

Ed Sheeran’s = is out 10/29 via Asylum. Pre-order it here.

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

In breaking news that you’d need to be an idiot to not have figured out on your own already: We consumed a lot of alcohol—and TV content—in the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. (No judgments if you’re still doing it; the pandemic is still in full swing, unfortunately.)

As Deadline reports, scientists at UCLA decided to confirm what we already know—and further make us feel ashamed for the sloth-like habits we’ve developed—by digging into just what Americans were doing in the early days of COVID, as restaurants, entertainment venues, and many workplaces began to close up shop. According to Dr. Liwei Chen, an associate professor of epidemiology at UCLA Fielding School and lead author of the study, which was published in the Swiss journal Nutrients on Tuesday:

“We found that regulations to restrict non-essential activities and stay-at-home orders during the pandemic have had profoundly negative impacts on multiple lifestyle behaviors in American adults. As bad as these changes have been for all Americans, they disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S., who already bear a higher disease burden from COVID-19.”

While the amount of exercise time people engaged in decreased by 31.2 percent, their screen time increased by a whopping 60.4 percent. Alcohol consumption also saw a marked spike—people drank 23.2 percent more—and smoking increased by nine percent. The only positive trend was the decrease in fast food consumption: That number dropped from 1.41 times per week to .96 (though shuttered businesses and loss of income could have something to do with that number, which doesn’t make it much of a silver lining).

As the study specifically looked at the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Jian Li—a co-author of the study who also works with the Fielding School’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Health—says more research is necessary to determine whether these bad habits “persisted as the pandemic continued, and whether individual’s quality of life and health well-being are subsequently affected.”

According to Deadline, Li concluded that “it is clear that resources and support that can help people maintain healthy lifestyles, during the pandemic and afterwards, are urgently needed.”

No sh*t!

(Via Deadline)

In theory, the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers can remedy their single-biggest problem in the lead-up to the 2021-22 NBA season by trading Kyrie Irving for Ben Simmons. The former can’t play with the team until he receives a COVID-19 vaccine, the latter doesn’t want to be in Philly anymore, and both players would be sensational fits on their new teams.

There is just one problem: Sam Amick of The Athletic reports the Sixers have no interest in making this deal. According to Amick, the Sixers are not convinced that getting Irving and Joel Embiid on the floor together would work out any better than Embiid and Simmons.

One thing is for sure — at least for now. While an Irving trade for Ben Simmons with Philadelphia is seen by some as an easy solution to both teams’ problems, sources with knowledge of the 76ers’ view said there is no interest in Irving at the moment. From management on down, it seems there is an unsurprising level of skepticism about that pairing working out any better than the Joel Embiid-Simmons duo that is zombified at the moment.

From a basketball perspective, pairing Embiid with the kind of perimeter scorer and creator that Irving is makes a ton of sense. Embiid’s never really played with someone quite like him, and it would be hard not to get excited about that possibility. But there have been rumblings that Irving, should he get traded, would retire, and it’s understandable that any of the other 29 teams would be concerned about acquiring him given that fact.

About a year and a half after the release of her album Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers is finally able to take her album on the road. She’s been performing across the country at venues and festivals, like ACL, which recently cut the sound off during her set. Though she’s still on tour, the singer was still able to stop by Jimmy Kimmel Live! to give an otherworldly performance of her Punisher track “Moon Song.”

This time around, Bridgers chose not to wear her signature skeleton costume, which she has sported in several of her performances. Instead, the singer fully leaned into the “Moon Song” aesthetic by building the set to look like a space station on the moon. She and her backup musician were dressed in reflective NASA suits and stood in front of faux space ships.

During her set, Bridgers was accompanied by just one other musician, violin player Rob Moose, who contributed to several songs on Punisher. What Bridgers lacked in instruments, the singer made up for with her room-filling vocals. Backed by the frantic chords of Moose’s violin, the singer belted a tender reflection on a complicated but meaningful relationship.

Watch Bridgers’ “Moon Song” performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! above.

Punisher is out now via Dead Oceans. Get it here.

After a series of delays and growing concerns about his age, William Shatner has officially gone where no TV actor has gone before: outer space. The iconic actor, best known as Star Trek‘s Captain Kirk, left the Earth on Wednesday morning aboard the second launch of Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin capsule. Minutes later, Shatner was back on solid ground where he was visibly emotional from the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

After emerging from the capsule with his fellow astronauts, Shatner was greeted by Bezos, who stood by as the actor pontificated on the space flight.

“I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened. It’s extraordinary, extraordinary. I hope I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it. It’s so much larger than me and life,” Shatner told Bezos via CNN. “What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine. It hasn’t got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death.”

Clearly moved by seeing the vastness of space, Shatner continued to expound on the experience to Bezos, who wanted to hear every word of it as the crew celebrated around them.

“You look down, there’s the blue down there and the black up there … there is Mother Earth and comfort, and there is, is there death? I don’t know, but is that death? Is that the way death is?” Shatner said. “It was so moving; this experience, it was something unbelievable.”

(Via CNN)

LeBron James and Anthony Davis both played in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 111-99 preseason loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. Neither guy played a ton, they both did a solid job as they’re working off the rust that might have built up this past offseason, and it is still the preseason, so neither dude seemed particularly bummed about how things went after the game, in part because their focus was on something else: Squid Game.

James and Davis both spoke to the media, with James going first. After his time at the podium came to an end, Davis started walking up, and the pair had a quick conversation about Netflix’s smash hit series that is the most-watched show in the company’s history. While there are obviously spoilers in the below video, the biggest takeaway was that James did not like how it ended.

This sentiment was shared by another NBA player, Miles Bridges of the Charlotte Hornets.

It is very funny how visibly upset James is over the final episode of a television show. Then again, people really got into the first season of Squid Game, so it makes sense that even LeBron James would have such a strong reaction to how it ended.

Coldplay is now just a couple days away from releasing Music Of The Spheres, which will be the band’s ninth album. The way Chris Martin sees it, the new album could actually end up being one of the band’s final releases.

Speaking with Absolute Radio’s Andy Bush in an interview set to air on October 15, Martin said he thinks Coldplay will stop making albums after their 12th one. Martin said (via The Independent), “I think that in a few albums’ time, we will finish making albums. This is not a joke. This is true. I think after 12, that will be the end of our catalogue, but I think we will always want to play live together. So, I think in the way that the [Rolling] Stones do, it will be so cool if we can still be touring in our late 70s. That will be wonderful, if anybody wants to come.”

Coldplay has typically released a new album every two or three years since their 2000 debut Parachutes. So, doing the math, the band’s 12th and perhaps final album could drop — assuming the band continues releasing projects at the same rate they have been — at some point between 2028 and 2031.

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

Buffalo, NY’s Super American sounds like it has more than just two members. On their new album SUP, multi-instrumentalists Matt Cox and Patrick Feeley deliver a collection of massive pop-punk tracks that juxtapose the miracle of being alive with the constant sense of nagging fear. It’s confrontational, vulnerable, and driving ten tracks that will surely elevate Super American to the next level of the indie punk scene.

To celebrate the new album, Cox and Feeley sat down to talk wearing cowboy outfits on stage, the best TNT dramas, and more in the latest Indie Mixtape 20 Q&A.

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

Dense, Studious, Deliberate, Sexy

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?

Hopefully, it just makes them feel something. I know that’s vague but art is so subjective. So, any sort of feeling would be great.

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

Nothing like playing at home here in Buffalo, but over the years we have really enjoyed playing in Dallas, Cleveland, and NYC.

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

As much as I’d love to pick an individual, the honest answer is it’s really the collective of all my friends. They’re the reason I really even started, and they’re the force of encouragement to keep me going when it feels easier to quit. I don’t want to let them down. I’ve pretty much had the same group of my friends my whole life, and our interests vary drastically, so that positive, comradic (is that a word?) energy, is in some weird way, an extended “member of the band”. Amongst the chaos of life, they’ve been been a constant for me, and I love them forever for that. That stuff is what really gets me fired up.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Loco Pez in Fishtown.

What album do you know every word to?

Enema Of The State. I have my Bachelor’s in blink-182.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

Wow, tough. I hate to butcher your question but this is a tie, between “coolest” and “best”. So. I’m going to actually lean on my first concert — which was MEST, Something Corporate, and Good Charlotte and Buffalo State in the gym in 2002 as the coolest. The best concert I’ve ever consumed was a few years ago when my girlfriend and I went to Chicago to see Whitney play at Thalia Hall on Valentine’s Day. Talk about being humbled.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

Best outfit on stage I’d say is whatever is going to make the artist feel most confident in their expression. But the best outfit I’ve ever seen while performing is West Seneca’s own Danny McCormick’s cowboy outfit he wore when we played Audiotree a few years ago. Yeehaw.

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

The Bang Energy CEO.

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

Typically the driver picks — but we all really vibe with the same stuff. Sometimes its nice to get off the beaten path of guitars while on tour, so we’ll listen to all kinds of stuff. When we’re bored or need a boost in morale, sometimes we’ll make prank phone calls or listen to Wheeler Walker Jr.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

“Deer and golden retriever friends 11 years”

What album makes for the perfect gift?

SUP by Super American.

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

One time we stayed at a random place in NYC — a mystery semi finished basement. There was zero prior context provided on the environment, so I was a little thrown off when it ended up being 4 stone walls covered in a variety of wigs.

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

My first tattoo, I was technically still underage so I used a fake ID and went and got a matching tattoo with my cousin at a skeptical (yet legal) location. I didn’t have any money, so he paid for it. My favorite tattoo, not that I’m actually a fan of any of them, is a tattoo I got in California that was inspired by Flea’s “Go Lakers” handwritten tattoo. Instead, I got “TRIBAL TAT” written and really begged the artist to do it freehand, but understandably so, he was unwilling. So we met in the middle and found a text that made both sides happy. Now I can say, I do in fact, have a tribal tattoo.

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

In this very moment, it’s Limp Bizkit, Little Simz, and Petey.

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

A few years ago, Pat bought me a 2001 Ford Taurus Hatchback. It’s actually on the SUP cover, but mine was a sexy baby blue. Now I drive a BMW, but that will be best the best car I’ve ever had.

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

Ouch. To get a grip, relax, shut my mouth, and realize I don’t know everything.

What’s the last show you went to?

We saw Hot Mulligan, Piebald, and the legend himself, Neetchy at both Riverworks and Black Dots in Buffalo.

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

I’m a real sucker for the TNT era, so it might be a deadlock between Twister and Armageddon. I love and live for cable TV.

What would you cook if Obama were coming to your house for dinner?

To start, it’s chicken wing dip with restaurant-style Tostitos. As the entree, we are having a 16oz ribeye — and on the side, twice-baked potatoes, asparagus, and side salad (dealer’s choice). For dessert, I will DoorDash McFlurry’s.

SUP is out October 22 via Wax Bodega. Pre-order it here.