Category: News

After five years of being shuffled around various studios, the American television adaptation of Let the Right One In is finally seeing the light of day… or rather the dark of night. According to Deadline, the critically-acclaimed vampire drama has been welcomed into Showtime’s home and is currently in production for the network.

The ten-episode order and will go into production in New York City in early 2022 with Andrew Hinderaker (Penny Dreadful) aboard as the project’s showrunner and Seith Mann as the series’ director. In addition, Demián Bichir, known for his roles in The Nun, Land, and The Hateful Eight, is set to star in the series alongside Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls, The Princess and the Frog), Grace Gummer (Dr. Death, Mr. Robot), Madison Taylor Baez (Selena: The Series), Kevin Carroll (Paid in Full, Snowfall), Ian Foreman, and Jacob Buster (The Christmas Project).

Inspired by the best-selling 2004 novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist and its 2008 Swedish film adaptation, the upcoming Let the Right One In series follows Mark (Bichir) and his forever 12-year-old daughter Eleanor (Baez) as they are forced to grapple with the young girl’s vampirism. Throughout the heartbreaking drama, Mark tries his best to give his daughter a happy and safe life, going to dark and drastic lengths to provide her with the human blood she needs to live.

Let the Right One In is being developed by Tomorrow Studios, the same studio that’s been working on the series since 2015 and throughout its moves from A&E and TNT to its final location at Showtime. As of right now, there is no set release date for the series, though filming is set to begin early next year.

Connecticut cult favorites Ovlov are back again. In 2018, Ovlov memorably returned with their first album in five years, TRU. Since then, bandleader Steve Hartlett put out another album under his Stove moniker. Now, Ovlov are circling back with a new album, Buds, which is set to drop in November. Along with the news is a lead single, “Land Of Steve-O,” an upbeat, antsy track that moves along with persistent percussion and sharp guitar solos.

Here’s what Hartlett had to say about “Land Of Steve-O.”

“I wrote this song after I got in some stupid argument with my father in the car, and once we got home I decided to go for a walk but ended up walking for about 2 hours and stopping to sit on a bench at the police station in the center of Newtown, CT, where my parents raised me and still live today. I texted my friend Steve-O who I had been hanging out with a lot at the time. Basically anytime I was feeling like I wanted to hang out with someone, whether I was in need of someone to confide in or just wanted to chill, Steve-O was always down. He’s been an extremely important and close friend of mine since we met in the 6th grade when basically we both wrote down that Papa Roach was our favorite band on a personality questionnaire our teacher wrote for us in order to more easily make friends with the weirdos from all the other elementary school. The song is basically just about how good a guy I think Steve-O is.”

Listen to “Land Of Steve-O” above and find the Buds art and tracklist below.

1. “Baby Shea”
2. “Eat More”
3. “Land Of Steve-O”
4. “The Wishing Well”
5. “Strokes”
6. “Cheer Up, Chihiro”
7. “Moron Pt. 2”
8. “Feel The Pain”

Buds is out 11/19 via Exploding In Sound. Pre-order it here.

This article originally appeared on 01.22.15

Trevor Noah, one of the newest correspondents on “The Daily Show,” hails from South Africa.

As a South African now living in the U.S., he wants to set the record straight about Africa.

Noah invited his new boss and their viewers to see a different side of Africa by playing a game. You can play along too.

The instructions are simple: Guess which photo was taken in Africa and which one was in the U.S.

Round 1

Stewart gave a reasoned response:

“The beautiful highway there on the right is probably Silicon Valley. … The one on the left, clearly been shelled by rebels. I’m going to go with … Somalia, maybe?”

Answer:

Round 2

This time, Stewart was pretty confident:

“OK, this one’s easy. On the left there, that’s the Success Academy in Harlem. On the right there, we got … homeless kids. I’m going to go with, uhh, in Somalia again.”

Answer:

Stewart: “I hate this f%#king game.”

Last Round

Stewart thought he was starting to catch on:

“I get how this works now. The one on the right, that’s Detroit.”

Answer:

OK, so Africa isn’t just the giant mass of despair it’s often made out to be. But what exactly is Noah getting at?

So let’s stop paternalizing all of Africa. Our country has its own problems to deal with.

There’s more. And it’s really funny. Watch the video below:

The New Orleans Pelicans are one of the more intriguing teams in the NBA ahead of the 2021-22 season due to all the buzz surrounding Zion Williamson’s future with the franchise, as some members of his family reportedly think the best thing for him would be to go seek greener pastures. This puts plenty of pressure on general manager David Griffin to put a team out there that convinces Williamson he can win in The Big Easy, but a new piece by Christian Clark of NOLA.com indicates that Griffin is entering this season with major questions about his ability to make that happen.

One of the major issues is, apparently, that Griffin presented an ultra-optimistic approach but did not always back this up. An example came early on in his tenure, where he gave a presentation that tried to make clear that a change in the team’s culture, with words like “Family,” “Accountability,” and “Love” popping up on screen. And then, his actions did not back that up, which led to him getting a nickname from folks within the organization that was pulled straight from The Last Dance.

Then-coach Alvin Gentry told several people around him, “This is going to be great.” Within months, however, Griffin began blaming Gentry for the Pelicans’ poor start. Once, on a road trip, Griffin was approached by someone he hadn’t spoken to in weeks. Unprompted, Griffin said: “I give Alvin all the answers to the test, and he still fails.” It’s unclear whether Gentry knew of this exchange. He declined to comment.

That Griffin sometimes contradicted his own sunny vision caused a segment of team employees to actively dislike him. When “The Last Dance” documentary aired in April 2020, some staffers began referring to Griffin as “Griff Krause” in a group text. It was a reference to Jerry Krause, the NBA executive who dismantled the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls after they’d won a third straight championship.

Krause was not exactly painted as the protagonist of the ESPN series, as he was oftentimes the butt of jokes from individuals like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen throughout The Last Dance. While Krause did plenty of good in assembling those Bulls teams, his reputation was more so for breaking them apart, and getting compared to him is rarely (if ever) going to be a compliment.

After sharing the dance-ready Dua Lipa “Cold Heart” remix, Elton John is taking things in a different direction with his latest collaboration for his upcoming project, The Lockdown Sessions. “After All,” the new joint single with Charlie Puth, is a fluttering ode to believing in love, and it all started when the two musicians met by a chance encounter at an LA restaurant in March 2020.

“After All” is the result of several songwriting sessions Puth and Elton had after discovering that they live fairly close together. It’s also the first piece of new music either of them completed during lockdown. Discussing the new collaboration, John praised Puth’s talent:

“Charlie is an amazing musician; we just hit it off. He’s become a friend and a friend of the family. Our children love him and he loves them. Everyone we’ve worked with on The Lockdown Sessions I’ve really gotten closer to them, it’s quite amazing. With ‘After All,’ Charlie and I were in the studio, just the two of us. He’s got a little home set up with his keyboards, synths, and Pro Tools. I played electric piano and actually wrote the song all the way through and then Charlie wrote the lyrics pretty quickly. He’s incredibly quick, Charlie. We just had an amazing chemistry in the studio.”

Echoing John’s statement, Puth gushed about how he’s looked up to John for some time. “As a songwriter, I have admired and looked up to Elton John my entire life,” he said. “It is truly incredible how the melodies and chords seem to come to him instantly whenever he sits down at the piano. I got to witness that firsthand when we wrote this song together. He is world class and the true definition of a musical genius. Being a part of his musical journey is a dream come true.”

Listen to “After All” above.

The Lockdown Sessions is out 10/22 via Interscope. Pre-order it here.

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

A month out from releasing their debut studio album, Projector, Brooklyn DIY-ers Geese have shared the album’s title track, “Projector.” It’s a disjointed, slightly proggy cut, filled with bendy guitar-lines and room-filling percussion. It kind of sounds like if The Killers met The Dismemberment Plan, a sonic combination I never knew I needed?

Here’s what Geese’s Cameron Winter had to say of the song: “The opening riff on ‘Projector’ was the first thing we ever wrote for the record. When the song was finished, it became a jumping off point for the rest of the album. We liked it because it was something decidedly different from the music we had been writing up to that point. Though we didn’t know it then, it’s fitting that ‘Projector’ became the title track on the record; it’s the song that ushered in the album’s sound.”

Also, Geese have outlined a US tour starting in 2022, kicking off in March in Philly and wrapping up at the Bowery Ballroom in New York.

Check out “Projector” above and find the band’s tour dates below.

03/11/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brendas
03/12/2022 — Washington, DC @ DC 9
03/14/2022 — Nashville, TN @ High Watt
03/22/2022 — Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
03/23/2022 — San Diego, CA @ Casbah
03/24/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
03/25/2022 — San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
03/28/2022 — Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
03/29/2022 — Seattle, WA @ Barboza
04/02/2022 — Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club
04/04/2022 — Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
04/06/2022 — Toronto, ON @ Garrison
04/07/2022 — Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
04/16/2022 — New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom

Projector is out 10/29 via Partisan/Play It Again Sam. Pre-order it here.

Windy City natives Vic Mensa and BJ The Chicago Kid team up for “The Taste,” a nostalgic ode to summertime in the city. Throughout the soulful single, the two name-check their favorite hometown landmarks like River Oaks Center mall, Lakeshore Drive, and Navy Pier, while telling a romantic interest “you taste like Chicago.” After a pair of velvety verses and choruses, the song’s bridge breaks down into a juking beat to really emphasize the point.

Vic Mensa’s comeback in the past year has been nothing short of impressive. Beginning with the V Tape in 2020, Mensa returned to the soulful, lyrically dextrous hip-hop that first brought him to national prominence. He followed up in spring this year with I Tape, which featured his reunion with longtime brother-in-arms Chance The Rapper on “Shelter.” In July, Vic teamed up with Just Blaze for the triumphant “Victory,” which celebrated his return to form, and most recently, he performed his entire breakout mixtape INNANETAPE at Riot Fest.

“The Taste” marks the reunion of Vic and BJ, who previously worked together on V Tape‘s “Rebirth.” BJ, meanwhile, recently announced his independence and has been quietly working on a new project while appearing of projects from likes of Polo G, Common, and more.

Watch Vic Mensa and BJ The Chicago Kid’s nostalgic ‘The Taste’ video above.

Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is a big deal, as it’s not only the band’s defining song, but one of the signature songs of the ’90s overall. When Nirvana was recording the song, though, they didn’t think it was a big deal, as Dave Grohl reveals.

NME recently ran a feature where they got different artists to share their thoughts on a song from Nevermind, and for “Teen Spirit,” they got Grohl. First, he reminisced about the recording process of the song, saying:

“I remember writing ‘Teen Spirit’ in our rehearsal space, and I liked the riff that Kurt came up with because it’s percussive. Those muted, stabbing strums in between the chords really lent to the pattern of the drum riff. To be honest, at that point, we were listening to a lot of Pixies – it was Bossa Nova [era]. And we were just having fun, really. We were just coming up with new song after new song every day. Krist Novoselic, I believe, has boom box recordings of all of these — riff ideas that were never used, songs that were shaped into songs for ‘Nevermind’ (some of them).”

Then, he revealed that “Teen Spirit” wasn’t high in the band’s pecking order while making Nevermind:

“Of course, no-one had any psychic foresight to imagine that the song would go on to do what it did. We just f*ckin’ rocked it in a little rehearsal space that was like a barn. I didn’t know what the lyrics were; Kurt’s melody pattern changed every other time we played it and it wasn’t really until we got into the studio to record it that I realized the power of the song. And not just lyrically or musically, but the groove of the song – it was really powerful. I think everyone was more focused on songs like ‘In Bloom’ or ‘Lithium’ or ‘Breed’; nobody really paid too much attention to ‘Teen Spirit’ while we were recording it. We just thought it was another cool song for the record.”

Check out the full feature — which also offers insights from St. Vincent, Ronnie Vannucci of The Killers, and others — here.

Atlanta-based indie folk artist Faye Webster dropped her anticipated sophomore album I Know I’m Funny Haha this summer, which flexes her range of styles from languid steel guitar to sultry bedroom R&B. The singer recently kicked off her largely sold-out tour earlier this month. To celebrate, Webster shares a video to her only collaboration on the album, “Overslept.”

The wistful tune features vocals by Japanese artist Mei Ehara, who Webster said was a big source of inspiration for her on the album. Their joint video, which was filmed separately, sees both artists having a slow start to the day. They wake up around 1 pm and noodle around on the guitar before finally brushing their teeth and deciding to go back to bed.

Speaking about working with Ehara in a statement, Webster said she learned a lot from the singer:

“When I was writing I Know I’m Funny Haha I had a little trouble finishing this song. I felt it needed someone else to complete it. Mei Ehara was someone who I listened to literally every day last year. She taught me so much about songwriting and instrumentation, and I felt like if anyone were to be on the record, it had to be her. I wanted to do a video where Mei and I could inhabit the same world, even though we’ve never met in person.”

Watch Webster’s “Overslept” video above.

I Know I’m Funny Haha is out now via Secretly Canadian. Get it here.

If you want Bill Burr to sign your copy of his new comedy album, Bill Burr Live From Madison Square Garden, you better wear a mask. Or at least that was the original plan. “I will be definitely be wearing a mask, but I’m at the point now, I don’t care anymore,” the comedian told Seth Meyers during Tuesday’s episode of Last Night when asked whether he’ll turn away unmasked fans. “I don’t care. I don’t care if you think the world’s flat. I don’t care what you think. Just do whatever the hell you’re going to do.”

Burr hopes “the virus gets deadlier and I want it to just wipe out way more people. That’s what I’m going for.” He’s joking… but only kind of. He continued, “I think we all tried to pull in the same direction. It’s not going to happen. And we’re all sort of broken up into these pods on the internet where people just want to hear what they want to hear.” If you want to go ahead and drink “alligator plaque medicine” to cure COVID, sure, why not.

The Mandalorian guest star also pinned the blame for the pandemic on God:

“People are blaming red ties and blue ties for this whole thing. You should blame God and modern medicine, because God made people flawed and modern medicine kept them all alive. Defeated Mother Nature. That’s why there’s eight billion mouth-breathing morons on the planet, myself included… There’s a plague of people like me. So, I think it’s great that people are going to go old school and not listen to doctors and, you know, go back to doing dances or whatever the hell they’re going to do”

You can watch the entire Late Night clip above.