Sable is one of the most talked-about upcoming games of this year’s Summer Game Fest and E3, and of course, it has a musical connection in Japanese Breakfast, who provides the game’s soundtrack. A new trailer for the game debuted during E3 over the weekend, and it’s soundtrack by a lovely new song called “Better The Mask.”
The game is set to launch on September 23 (on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC), and Japanese Breakfast’s soundtrack will be released on the same day. In case you missed it, Zauner performed another Sable soundtrack cut, “Glider,” at Summer Game Fest on Friday.
In a recent interview, Japanese Breakfast’s Mauner told Uproxx about her approach to creating the soundtrack, saying, “It’s a coming-of-age story, so my influences were super different for it. I was thinking a lot about Alan Menken and how he crafts this universal feeling and a song that everyone can relate to. That was actually a really lovely experience for me and took me to a very different place in my songwriting, because I feel like so much of what I do for Japanese Breakfast is rooted in specific detail. I was doing these broad strokes of human feeling, like, what’s it like to feel uncertain about the future? Or coming of age, or discovering what path do you want to pursue? Instead of filling it with all these kind of little details, you have to sort of do these broad strokes but also make it compelling. So that was really fun for me.”
She spoke more about the soundtrack during that conversation, so check it out here. Also take a look at our other recent (but more music-focused) interview with Zauner here.
It’s very rare (if at all) that I cover National *Fill In the Blank* Day. However, today is special — it’s National Bourbon Day! As a writer covering the beloved brown spirit, this is the one day I cherish because it was bourbon (bourbon from Texas, specifically) that catapulted me into the world of booze.
I’m not the only one celebrating today. George Dickel has marked the holiday by launching their newest expression from Cascade Hollow Distillery, Dickel Bourbon, which has been quietly maturing in their rickhouses for eight long years. Cascade Hollow Distilling Co.’s General Manager and Master Distiller Nicole Austin broke down how the iconic Tennessee whiskey got into bourbon over Zoom last week.
“We had other whiskeys that didn’t fit the [Tennessee whiskey] character at all,” Austin told me. “Instead, they reminded me of what you’d expect from a lovely bourbon with vanilla, stone fruit, almond, toffee, an oak presence, and a little bit of spice. Rather than blending those notes away, behind the curtain of those really big and bold Tennessee whiskey barrels, it felt natural and appropriate to give them their own bottle to shine.”
After Austin tried up to 4,000 samples across the span of several years, Dickel Bourbon was born.
Technically speaking, since all Tennessee whiskey starts off as bourbon and most of George Dickel’s portfolio meets the qualifications to be called bourbon, it makes pretty natural sense that Dickel would shift into the market by labeling one of their expressions as such. Especially as bourbon growth continues to soar.
“It’s my hope that Dickel Bourbon is the everyday pour for people who really appreciate nice whiskey,” Austin said. “That’s why it’s at that price point — because I want people to feel they can reach for this.”
I was one of the first to try Dickel Bourbon before it hits select markets today. Check out my notes below!
The makers of George Dickel, Cascade Hollow Distilling Co., have been around for 150 years. Dickel Bourbon has a mash bill of 84 percent corn, eight percent rye, and eight percent malted barley, like other expressions in the George Dickel lineup. So, in truth, this is really a story about blending. Austin selected barrels that tasted like “classic bourbon” and rather than blending those qualities out of them to fit the Dickel “Tennesse Whiskey” tasting notes, she leaned in by designing this expression.
Same mash, same Lincoln County filtration process, same Dickel stills, same barrels, same rickhouses — but by blending toward a specific flavor profile, you get distinct notes.
Tasting Notes:
The nose consists of every bit of detail I love about traditional bourbon: sweet notes of vanilla and caramel share a beautiful moment with oak. Upon the first sip, my palate is greeted with ripened dark cherry, orange peel, and rich caramel. In fact, the taste reminds me of the Goetze’s caramel chews I used to indulge in as a child, but without being overly sweet. The finish fades quickly with a “love bite” of spice at the back of the palate.
The Bottle:
The bottle is a classic Dickel bottle. The lined ridges on the body help with the grip and have a slightly old-school feel. The long neck has become one of Dickel’s signatures. The color scheme of light cream and brown helps bring a more bourbon-y vibe to the bottle as well.
Bottom Line:
Austin’s final words to me truly resonated with my overall tasting experience: “Your bar is not a museum. It’s for enjoying. Grab a bottle and enjoy it.” This is to say that this is a workhorse in a good way, I enjoyed my pour neat and in a classic Old Fashioned.
Rating:
82/100 — This bourbon serves as a great introduction to the spirit for newcomers and a solid workhorse for whiskey aficionados.
Alicia Silverstone has been famous for a long time. She made her film debut in 1993’s The Crush (for which she won the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance over the little kid in Free Willy and Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List — the MTV Movie Awards are wild) and appeared in Aerosmith’s iconic “Cryin’” music video before becoming a household for her role in 1995’s Clueless. From there, she played Batgirl in Batman & Robin, was nominated a Golden Globe (not for Batman & Robin, alas), and she’s very good on Netflix’s delightful The Baby-Sitters Club series.
I bring up Silverstone’s career highlights because although she starred in one of the greatest teen movies of all-time, it turns out that we’ve been pronouncing her name incorrectly. Not the Silverstone part, that’s hard to screw up, but “Alicia.” In a recent TikTok video, the Masters of the Universe: Revelation voice actress answered a viral prompt, “Tell me what your name is and then tell me what people mispronounce it as.”
Silverstone appears in the clip dressed in black saying, “My name is Ali-SEE-yuh… Not Alee-Sha,” she told her followers while shrugging with a smile and the caption, “Just an FYI.” She also commented under the post saying, “It doesn’t bother me though! But my sweet mama didn’t like it… so for her… get it right! Ali-SEE-yuh,” mentioning her mother Didi Silverstone.
Will I remember to correct her name pronounce correctly?
Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.
This week saw Megan Thee Stallion complete her regeneration and Lorde show herself for the first time in a long time. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.
Megan Thee Stallion got a taste of controversy with her Cardi B collaboration “WAP.” Based on her new “Thot Sh*t” video, it appears she enjoyed ticking off the more conservative-minded among us: In her first post-“period of regeneration” visual, she relentlessly goes after a senator who threw shade her way.
Doja Cat — “Need To Know”
Planet Her is nearly here and so far, Doja Cat’s fictional planet seems a lot different than Earth. That’s especially true in the extraterrestrial visual for the hard-hitting track “Need To Know.” Despite its clear quality, Doja has actually downplayed the song, saying a few days before its release that it “isn’t even the next single,” declaring it to be “just some sh*t before the next more important single comes out for you to enjoy.”
Lorde — “Solar Power”
After sharing the leggy and cheeky cover art heard ’round the world, Lorde officially made her musical return with “Solar Power.” For those who heard the track and think it sounds like a certain Primal Scream highlight, Lorde would agree. She later confirmed the song is the title track from her next album, which she described as “sexy, playful, feral, and free” and a “celebration of the natural world.”
Clairo — “Blouse”
“Solar Power” had features from Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo, and on the same day, Lorde returned the favor. As “Solar Power” was released, so to was Clairo’s “Blouse,” on which Lorde provides vocals. The single (which was produced by Jack Antonoff) is intimate, lush, and the first look at Clairo’s next album, Sling (which Antonoff also produced).
Migos — “Having Our Way” Feat. Drake
It had been three years (aka an eternity in terms of the speed of the modern music industry) since a new Migos album, but that changed last week with Culture III. The trio has impressed with tracks like the Drake-featuring “Having Our Way” and the Jay-Z favorite “Avalanche.” Elsewhere on the album, they also got features from Cardi B, Justin Bieber, Future, Juice WRLD, and Pop Smoke.
Polo G — “For The Love Of New York” Feat. Nicki Minaj
“Rapstar,” Polo G’s hit No. 1 single, is the obvious, well, star of Hall Of Fame, but it definitely not the only highlight. For example, he teams up with Nicki Minaj on the reggae-influenced “For The Love Of New York.” Minaj is far from the only star guest on Hall Of Fame, as it also features appearances from The Kid Laroi, Lil Durk, Lil Wayne, G Herbo, Rod Wave, DaBaby, Young Thug, Roddy Ricch, Pop Smoke, and Fivio Foreign.
Ava Max — “Everytime I Cry”
2020 brought the rise of a pop star with Ava Max dropping her album Heaven & Hell and now she’s back with new material. Her latest is “Everytime I Cry,” which comes across like a club-ready version of Florence And The Machine (with all due respect to Florence and her club-readiness). Max noted that this song doesn’t actually signify a new era from her just yet, as she called it a “continuation” of her Heaven & Hell album.
Saint Jhn — “Just For Me” Feat. SZA
There are a ton of stars set to appear in the new Space Jam movie and that is true of the soundtrack as well. The latest cut from the OST to drop is “Just For Me,” a joyous collaboration between Saint Jhn and SZA. It’s not the only standout from the Space Jam soundtrack thus far, as Lil Baby and Kirk Franklin came through with another in May.
A song with Ludacris, Usher, and Snoop Dogg would have been earth-shattering in the early 2000s. Here in 2021, it’s still pretty neat to see the trio guest on a new remix of Justin Bieber’s “Peaches,” which gets a fun and nostalgic boost thanks to its esteemed guests.
Illuminati Hotties — “Pool Hopping”
Illuminati Hotties’ Sarah Tudzin says of her band’s latest, “This track is for when it’s hot, you’re crushing on someone new, and your adventure senses are tingling.” Indeed, “Pool Hopping” a fine upbeat slice of pop-rock to ring in the summer, akin to something like a modern version of The Go-Go’s classic 1982 album Vacation.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Now that Lil Dicky has achieved critical acclaim and truly impressive ratings for his FXX comedy show Dave, one would think he’d hang up his mic to focus on all the success that switching to comedy has brought — especially since he says he hates performing. In a new interview with GQ, Dave himself explains why he not only hates touring but the very idea of concerts in general.
“Nothing gives me more anxiety than the idea of doing karaoke in front of my friends,” he says. “But also, you should know I hate concerts. I don’t like going to concerts. I don’t know why people go to concerts. I can’t relate to the activity of wanting to stand for two hours amongst other people and hear music that’s not at the quality that you’d hear when you listen with your headphones.”
However, despite feeling this anxiety, he says he’s about 75% done with a new album, which will be less comedy-focused than his older material, which he now finds “embarrassing.” “When I initially started, there was probably more of a desperation to just have something get attention, just so I could get noticed,” he says. “Which is probably not the right way to make music. Now I feel like I have more pride in the art of songwriting and making good songs.”
Of course, he’s got the show to finish, with the second season premiering this Wednesday, June 16 at 10 pm. You can catch up before then on Hulu.
Congresswoman Val Demings (a former Orlando police chief who had no difficulty lighting up a bloviating Jim Jordan) recently announced that she’d be running for Marco Rubio’s Senate seat, which is quite a turn when it initially looked like his toughest competition would be Ivanka Trump. Rubio appeared ruffled when previously quizzed on Ivanka, but he’s playing it cool — at least in a pre-recorded video — when it comes to Demings. Can he truly maintain a calm demeanor after Fox News reported that this might be the most expensive Senate race of all time? After all, Demings apparently raised $1 million in the first 24 hours after announcing her candidacy.
Let’s find out how Rubio’s feeling: the guy who tweets about terrorism in an utterly tone-deaf way is attempting to brand Demings as a radical. In the below video, Rubio claims that he’s excited about this race because “it’s going to offer the people of Florida a very clear difference.” He then went on to brand Demings as “a do-nothing House member” (who favors “Marxist” policies) while he sang his own praises: “By comparison, one nonpartisan group ranked me the most effective Republican in the entire Senate.”
Rubio then bragged about being sanctioned by China, and Rubio tweeted the video with a caption to call his opponent “a far left extremist.”
In response, well, Demings didn’t waste words on Rubio (there will be time for that later). Instead, she simply tweeted a photo of herself wearing police regalia and giving a side-eye of sorts.
Calling someone with a 27-year career in law enforcement a “far-left extremist” probably isn’t the most effective argument from a party that wants to put itself forth as with a law-and-order agenda. Demings had no difficulty in telling Jim Jordan that he “know[s] nothing” when it comes to actual police practices and how they handle civil unrest, and it looks like we should see some entertaining future debates between Demings and Rubio.
Like many mega-successful pop stars, Ed Sheeran had an interest in music and entertainment from a young ago. Now, we’ve gotten a look at one of the earliest performance videos of Sheeran: a home video of him as a 15-year-old, acting and singing in a high school production of Grease.
A video of the production, which runs for nearly two hours, is being put up for auction by Omega Auctions on June 29, and ahead of then, they shared a three-minute clip, in which Sheeran (playing the role of Roger) sings “Mooning.”
Auctioneer Paul Fairweather says, “Over the last year or so we’ve seen an exponential increase in interest for memorabilia and collectables relating to contemporary artists, especially Ed Sheeran. We sold a rare early CD title for £50,000 [about $70,000] in September of last year and since then, the enquiries and consignments have been non-stop. The footage is a great watch and we think it definitely gives a hint as to Ed’s star potential.”
Meanwhile, Sheeran still appears to enjoy getting into character: In promotional photos and clips for his upcoming single “Bad Habits,” Sheeran has gone full vampire.
Check out the Grease video above.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
After being relentlessly dragged on Sunday for telling attendees at the Young Women’s Leadership Summit that she never lied while serving as Donald Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany has responded to the mountain of social media reactions pointing out that she absolutely stretched the truth for Trump, and often.
“Haters will hate!” McEnany tweeted on Sunday evening in a very fitting and Trumpian response.
While speaking at the conservative conference sponsored by Turning Point USA on Sunday, McEnany recalled her first day as press secretary when she was asked by a reporter “Will you pledge to never lie to us from the podium?” Via Newsweek:
“And I said without hesitation, ‘No,’” McEnany described Sunday, relaying her May 2020 press conference response to the reporter. “And I never did. As a woman of faith, as a mother of baby Blake, as a person who meticulously prepared at some of the world’s hardest institutions, I never lied. I sourced my information.”
McEnany’s words earned her a round of applause from the conservative audience, but once social media caught wind of her claim, it was a whole different ball game. During her short time as Trump’s fourth press secretary, McEnany was routinely called out for spreading falsehoods. (CNN’s Jake Tapper routinely debunked McEnany’s lies.) Even Republicans got fed-up with her outlandish claims.
Following the 2020 election, McEnany has been a key player in pushing the “Big Lie” than Trump actually won, and she’s also been dabbling with QAnon conspiracy theories. In February 2020, she peddled a vile conspiracy theory that essentially accused President Joe Biden of being a pedophile. Those kind of claims don’t just go away because you’re a mom who goes to church.
SPOILERS for Fear the Walking Dead‘s Season 6 will be found below.
Welcome to the zombie apocalypse’s nuclear apocalypse!
A literal nuclear bomb exploded in Texas on this week’s Fear the Walking Dead sixth season finale. If you Google it, you’ll find a number of different answers about how far the radiation fallout extends from a blast radius, but I suspect that it doesn’t matter. The science in Fear the Walking Dead is clearly plot-dependent. How big is the blast radius? In the finale, it was big enough to decimate Dakota, but elsewhere, it sent a violent cloud of dust forceful enough to shake an 18-wheeler and leave a nearby zombie smoldering, yet it did not hurt the people underneath the 18-wheeler. It also caused a building to rumble violently, but it didn’t shatter the windows through which characters were gazing. It leveled a house, but four characters were apparently able to survive in the cellar beneath it. Meanwhile, it lit up the sky, but a helicopter was apparently capable of navigating through the blast radius.
Fear the Walking Dead has had a very fine season — a remarkable one in fact — until the last two episodes, when the series abandoned what made it so successful: small, intimate stories centered on a limited number of characters. The season’s final episode brought most of the characters back together, scattered them within 20-minutes of each other, told a huge story involving nuclear destruction, and threw logic out the window.
With that said, the story itself is very simple. It picks up where last week’s episode left off. A nuclear bomb with ten warheads has been launched into the atmosphere. It’s expected to fall back down to Earth in about 20 minutes, and so each of the characters has around one-third of an hour to figure out how they want to spend the remainder of their lives.
With a decision that recalled the ridiculous beer balloon from a few seasons ago, Dwight and Sherry decide they want to spend their final minutes before the bomb falls drinking beer and eating pretzels together. They break into a home they believe is abandoned and find two warm beers (no pretzels, alas), only to discover that it’s inhabited by a couple who were kicked out of their storm cellar by a couple of End-Is-the-Beginningers. Dwight and Sherry decide to do something good with their last moments and remove the bad guys from the cellar. They shoot one of the guys in the leg so that he has no choice to but lie there and watch the nuclear bomb fall. The couple, meanwhile, asks Sherry and Dwight to come into their cellar with them, where they will presumably ride out the radiation fallout.
John Dorie, Sr., and June inexplicably use their final 20 minutes to track down Teddy and Dakota, not to kill Teddy, mind you, but to forgive Dakota and ask her to come with them (Where? That’s unclear). They find, however, that pervy, serial killer Teddy had planned to take Dakota down into a bunker and ride it out there until it was safe to resurface, at which point Teddy was going to launch the remaining nuclear missiles. Dakota isn’t keen on that plan and feels used by Teddy, so she shoots him dead (in anticlimactic fashion) and is incinerated in the nuclear blast (John Dorie, Sr. and June, however, manage to get into Teddy’s fallout shelter).
The show’s most expendable characters — Daniel, the Rabbi, Charlie, Sarah, Wes, and Luciana — allow Rollie to drive them to the fallout shelter where Alicia is being held, or so they believe. Riley gives them a fake location, and Rollie — in the episode’s most inexplicable twist — drives them out into the middle of nowhere because he had at some point somehow aligned with the End is the Beginning-ers. Daniel, however, sniffs it out and kills Rollie. Meanwhile, he directs them toward coordinates he overheard on the radio, where Althea (who we haven’t seen since episode 11) arrives with Isabelle and a CRM helicopter and flies them all away before the bomb kills them all. Where are they going? Ten years into the future and the second season of The World Beyond? (Possibly, but unlikely.)
Strand — the Loki of Fear the Walking Dead — has the most devilishly delightful subplot. He finds a building inhabited by a history professor, and sells himself as a good-guy hero, at least until the bomb goes off. When the bomb doesn’t kill them, however, Strand goes full Strand and confesses his true nature. “I’m a man who has thrown men to the wolves when necessary,” he says. “I’m a backroom dealer, a grifter, a shark … Why? Survival. I’ve done it all my life, and despite the critics, I’m still here.”
It’s not great writing, but Colman Domingo doesn’t need great writing. He can sell any line he is given. Whatever AMC is paying him, they should double it. Strand is also clearly positioning himself as next season’s primary villain, and I don’t hate it.
The most affecting (but also the most preposterous) subplot involves Morgan and Grace, who finally confess their love for one another. They remain inside of the submarine and decide to take their own lives rather than suffer the effects of radiation poisoning. However, seconds before Morgan pulls the trigger, he hears the sound of a baby crying outside the submarine. It’s Rachel’s baby, named after Morgan. In the cold open, a car falls on Rachel’s leg while she is trying to change a tire, so she decides to put her baby in her baby backpack, kill herself, and let her dog, Rutherford, lead them to people. The dog leads them to Morgan and Grace, who put down zombie Rachel and decide, on the spot, to start a family together with baby Morgan. They are outside the submarine when the bomb goes off, and they hide under the shell of an 18-wheeler.
If Grace is afraid of what radiation poisoning might do to them from inside the submarine, God knows what it will do to them in the open air. Maybe Grace plans on getting pregnant again so that the baby can absorb all the radiation. Otherwise, it’s completely nonsensical to think they will live long with that much exposure. I have no idea what Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg are thinking, except that they’ll punt and figure it out next season. There is no cure for radiation poisoning, but then again, Grace survived it once already.
If the plot demands it, then it shall be.
Meanwhile, despite the overstuffed cast and the use of an actual nuclear bomb, the only two major characters who die are the villains, Teddy and Dakota. The series passed up the perfect opportunity, unfortunately, to thin the ranks of Fear. The biggest question that remains, however, is this: Where the hell is Wendell?
AMC
The seventh season of Fear the Walking Dead is currently filming and will return this fall.
Electronic dance musician Kelly Lee Owens announced today that her European tour dates this fall are canceled, citing the coronavirus. “The main reason is of course the ongoing pandemic,” the Welsh singer/producer wrote on Twitter. “That plus the anxiety of dealing with individual countries in a post-Brexit touring world and the extra fees etc that come with that.”
She continued, “Both of these things combined have thrown up a huge amount of anxiety for me. I don’t cancel things lightly, but I have to look after myself […] This past year has been disappointing for me, as it means everything to play to you guys, and to never have played [2020 album] Inner Song even once yet is super painful.”
Owens’ newly announced North American tour dates have not been affected. Check out the full list of those tour dates here.
While the rate of coronavirus infections throughout Europe has continued to drop dramatically, per The Guardian, the World Health Organization (WHO) projected that the continent could see another wave of the disease in the autumn due to the highly transmissible Delta variant. According to WHO’s Europe director, the Delta variant has shown some resistance to the coronavirus vaccines.
Countries such as France and Germany are easing travel restrictions for those who are fully vaccinated this summer, but WHO warns that such easing could be reversed if infection rates show signs of rebounding.
For this reason, musicians like Owens are cautiously returning to live music on a short-term, month-by-month basis. Read Owens’ full statement above.
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