Category: News

In early February 2024, Beyoncé rocked the music world by releasing a surprise new album of country tunes. The album, Renaissance: Act II, includes a song called “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which shot up the country charts—with a few bumps along the way—and landed Queen Bey at the No.1 spot.

As the first Black female artist to have a song hit No. 1 on Billboard’s country music charts, Beyoncé once again proved her popularity, versatility and ability to break barriers without missing a beat. In one fell swoop, she got people who had zero interest in country music to give it a second look, forced country music fans to broaden their own ideas about what country music looks like and prompted conversations about bending and blending musical genres and styles.

And she inspired the Gardiner Brothers to add yet another element to the mix—Irish stepdance.

In a TikTok that’s been viewed over 17 million times, the Gardiner Brothers don cowboy hats while they step in time to “Texas Hold ‘Em,” much to the delight of viewers everywhere.

Watch:

@gardinerbrothers

Beyoncé 🤝 Irish dancing #beyonce #countrymusic

Michael and Matthew Gardiner are professional Irish-American stepdancers and choreographers who have gained international fame with their award-winning performances. They’ve also built a following of millions on social media with videos like this one, where they dance to popular songs, usually in an outdoor environment.

The melding of Irish dance with country music sung by a Black American female artist may seem unlikely, but it could be viewed merely as country music coming back to its roots. After all, country music has its roots in the ballad tradition of the Irish, English and Scottish settlers in the Appalachian region of the U.S. And despite modern country music’s struggle to break free from “music for white people” stereotypes, it has roots in African-American traditions as well. For instance, the banjo, which has long been used in bluegrass and country music, was created by enslaved Africans and their descendents during the colonial era, according to The Smithsonian.

People are loving the blending of genres and culture that the TikTok exemplifies.

“Never thought I’d see Irish step dancing while Beyoncé sings country,” wrote on commenter. “My life is complete. ♥️”

“So happy Beyoncé dropped this song and exposed my timeline to diversified talent 👏🏽👏🏽,” wrote another.

“Beyoncé brought the world together with this song 😭,” offered another person.

“Ayeeee Irish Dancing has entered the BeyHive chatroom… WELCOME!! 🔥🔥🔥” exclaimed another.

“I don’t think I can explain how many of my interests are intersecting here,” wrote one commenter, reflecting what several others shared as well.

The Beyoncé/Gardiner Brothers combo and the reactions to it are a good reminder that none of us fit into one box of interest or identity. We’re all an eclectic mix of tastes and styles, so we can almost always find a way to connect with others over something we enjoy. What better way to be reminded of that fact than through an unexpected mashup that blends the magic of music with the delight of dance? Truly, the arts are a powerful uniting force we should utilize more often.

And for an extra bit of fun, the Gardiner Brothers also shared their bloopers from filming the video. Turns out stepping in the rain isn’t as easy as they make it look.

Beyoncé Bloopers #texasholdem #gardinerbrothers

@gardinerbrothers

Beyoncé Bloopers #texasholdem #gardinerbrothers

This article originally appeared on 2.26.24

When viral marketing hits, it really hits. Such is the case for Neon’s Longlegs, which brought back Blair Witch Project levels of viral success by revealing as little as possible through a rash of unpleasant imagery. Withholding the specter of Nic Cage as a serial killer certainly helped, and the movie quickly broke the opening record for Neon, which has released not only Oscar-winning fare like Parasite but, more recently, Sydney Sweeney’s Immaculate.

If you missed opening weekend and then opted for Twisters over the past weekend, you might be wondering if it’s worth waiting for streaming, and when the Osgood Perkins’-directed movie will arrive in that format.

When Will Longlegs Come Out On Streaming?

The “when” of this question isn’t public knowledge yet, but the “where” is solid. As Deadline reported back in 2017, Neon entered a long-term licensing agreement with Hulu, which is where the indie distributor’s titles do stream exclusively once the theatrical window closes.

Since Longlegs only arrived in theaters on July 12, there will likely be a substantial wait ahead. Sweeney’s Immaculate, for example, released in March and hasn’t begun streaming on Hulu yet, but there’s a decent chance that the Halloween or Thanksgiving season will be the magical time. Because maybe this holiday season will have an extra splash of cheer when Satan invades this year’s party mindset.

As a consolation prize, that unsettling phone message is still available if you cannot wait and still can’t make it to the theater. But seriously, go watch Longlegs.

After releasing his new album Samurai, Lupe Fiasco will make like Zatoichi** and take his skills on the road for a national tour. Rather than worrying about potentially feuding with Kendrick Lamar or squabbling with Kid Cudi, the Chicago rapper is focusing on his own journey, which kicks off October 3 in New York.

Tickets for the tour go on sale on Friday, July 26th at 10 AM local time. You can find more information about Lupe’s Samurai Tour here. See below for the full run of tour dates.

** For those who aren’t into 60-year-old Japanese film franchises, Zatoichi is the titular character of a long-running film series. His classic identifying characteristics are: He’s blind, he’s really good with a sword, and he wanders. They’re fun movies.

Lupe Fiasco Samurai Tour Dates

10/03 — New York, NY @ Terminal 5
10/04 — Hartford, CT @ The Webster
10/05 –Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
10/06 –Boston, MA @ Royale
10/10 — Columbus, OH @ Columbus Athenaeum
10/11 — Cleveland, OH @ TempleLive Cleveland Masonic
10/18 — Fort Collins, CO @ Washington’s FoCo
10/19 — Denver, CO @ Summit
10/24 — Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up
10/25 — Ventura, CA @ Ventura Music Hall
10/26 — Pomona, CA @ Fox Theater Pomona
11/09 — St. Louis, MO @ The Factory at The District
11/10 — Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed
11/14 — Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
11/15 — Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
11/16 — Washington, D.C. @ The Howard Theatre
11/21 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
11/22 — Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst
11/24 — Los Angeles, @ The Novo

Samurai is out now via 1st & 15th and The Orchard. You can find more information here.

Earlier this month, some Kendrick Lamar fans inserted themselves into the Drake beef by releasing an online video game based on the “Not Like Us” diss track. The game, inspired by the piñata scene from the song’s video, is basically a take on whack-a-mole but with OVO owls.

Now, a Drake fan has fired back with Family Matters: The Game, which can be played in your browser, here.

Once you start the game, on-screen text reads, “Kendrick just opened his mouth, someone go feed him a Grammy right now. Tap the Grammy to feed Kenny. Don’t miss or he’ll be sad.” From there, the gameplay is simple: A moving arrow determines where the Grammy will be thrown when you click/tap, but a pixel art rendering of Lamar is also moving side-to-side. If you miss, Lamar grimaces and makes a sad sound as a tear runs down his face.

The theme of the game is a reference to the “Family Matters” lyric, “Kendrick just opened his mouth, someone go hand him a Grammy right now.”

The beef has not only reached the realm of video games, but now it’s Jeopardy!-famous, too: It was just featured as a clue on the game show, in a category focused on famous rap feuds.

Last Friday, customers at Third Man Records stores in Detroit, Nashville, and London received a free 12-inch vinyl record with their purchases. The LP was packaged in an all-white sleeve with only the words “No Name” printed on the cover. No artist was credited, and no songs were listed. Only the A and B sides were given titles — “Heaven And Hell” and “Black And Blue,” respectively. Within hours, it was revealed that the vinyl was actually Jack White’s sixth solo album, after which Third Man encouraged fans to rip the songs and share them online.

If this is the first you’re hearing of this news, it’s through no fault of your own. After all, there’s all this (waves hands) happening in the country. But there is also the much smaller matter of Jack White’s solo career. The man has been mired in an extended musical midlife crisis for the better part of a decade now. Boarding House Reach, Fear Of The Dawn, Entering Heaven Alive — these are hardly records that have set the world on fire. And I say that as one of the lonely critics who actually stood up for those albums, though admittedly my praise was qualified. Famously a hardcore Bob Dylan devotee, White has experienced his own “’80s Dylan period” in the late aughts and early ’20s, in which the iconic ex-White Stripe has responded to middle age by halfheartedly embracing modern technology and steering his music away from the primal garage-rock simplicity that has long defined him. While I appreciate White’s recent work more than most, I must confess that I find it more fascinating than, well, enjoyable. Even White himself has at times appeared disinterested in new Jack White music — during the album cycle for Fear Of The Dawn, he said he stopped making music for a time and instead focused on one of his other pastimes, building furniture.

When word spread of the new “surprise” Jack White record last week, I can’t say I was especially intrigued. A vinyl-only release literally given away to customers? My assumption was that it would be even more convoluted and scattershot than Boarding House Reach or Fear Of The Dawn, only this time with somehow less cultural relevancy. Instantly forgettable, in other words. But then a friend slipped me a Google Drive link over the weekend, with the promising if seemingly credulous disclaimer that it was “his best solo album.” Huh, I thought. Am I going to fall for this? I downloaded the files, imported them to my Apple Music account, and pressed play. And I have kept pushing play ever since.

“No Name,” as we’ll call it, isn’t exactly Jack White’s best solo record. (I still ride for Blunderbuss, his solo debut from 2012, a quasi-Blood On The Tracks about the end of The White Stripes and White’s conflicted emotions about his prodigal partner Meg White.) But it’s the record that people who still check out new Jack White albums in 2024 have been waiting for. And it might even by the album that brings estranged listeners back into the fold. Simply put: It’s Jack White in a room with his crackerjack band, playing extremely loud, on a collection of riff-y rock songs that sound like they were written five minutes before they were recorded. It’s raw, it’s direct, and — this is a compliment — it’s not all that thought out. But the adjective that most applies hasn’t appeared in a Jack White album review since possibly the mid-aughts: Great. “No Name” is actually pretty damn great.

Take “Track 8” — none of the songs have titles, though some listeners have made guesses for the YouTube streams — which opens with a quick count-off before a galloping drum wallop enters along with a staccato guitar riff that can only be described as “unabashedly Zeppelinesque.” After about 100 seconds of that, White rips out a solo that can only be described as “unabashedly Jack White-esque,” a strangled squeak that sounds like a dolphin choking on a fuzz pedal. (Again, complimentary.)

The rest of “No Name” finds White operating on a similar sort of muscle memory. Sometimes, he borrows from himself – the relentless stop-start riffage of “Track 3” evokes “The Hardest Button To Button,” and the testy punk rock of “Track 11” bears more than a passing resemblance to “Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine.” But overall, “No Name” indulges in the sorts of classic rock moves that White normally reserves for side projects like The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, though with 65 percent less slickness. When he’s not leaning hard into the Jimmy Page-worshiping side of his musical personality, like the “straight from side one of Led Zeppelin II” closer “Track 13,” he’s tipping a cap to other Page worshipers. (Like “Track 5,” which cribs from the riff for Heart’s “Barracuda.”)

Have you noticed how often I have used the word “riff”? I so rarely get to use that word in reviews anymore. If nothing else, “No Name” confirms that White remains a modern master of catchy and kinetic guitar parts, if and when he decides that he wants to be. And that’s actually valuable real estate to occupy in a musical landscape where so few bands are interested in writing memorable guitar licks. Once the backbone of rock music, simple but indestructible riffs have given way to plucked acoustic guitars, gloomy synths, cinematic strings, and countless other atmospherics. And yet public appetite for new riffs remains. It’s not as if our international fan populations for athletic competitions can subsist only on “Seven Nation Army” forever.

If “No Name” had been given a proper release, I suspect unsympathetic critics would have described it as “low stakes.” But for Jack White, it feels like the opposite of that. This is an artist who needs to remind the world of his greatness. Recent attempts at resetting the modern musical canon have given him short shrift. The recent Apple 100 list — an imperfect metric, I know, but also a much-discussed and visible barometer — didn’t include a single White Stripes record. (The tiny cohort of 21st century rock bands instead included The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys.) The more comprehensive Rolling Stone Top 500 albums list from 2022 managed to squeeze the consensus choice for best White Stripes record, 2003’s Elephant, in at No. 449. But that’s still pretty underwhelming for a band — not that long ago! — rightly considered one of the best in the world.

In that context, “No Name” feels like an uncommon act of humility from White. I doubt that this artist, who has never been short of bravado or hubris, is unaware of how good this album is. But like a lot of artists his age, he might feel unsure that the audience is there to appreciate what he’s produced. So, allow me to make a case for “No Name” in the same raw and direct terms that this record operates musically: You know those other recent Jack White solo records? Those are the ones that should have been given away for free. “No Name” meanwhile is worth all the money in the bank.

Severance is the crown jewel in Apple TV+’s (underrated) library of shows. It’s also very expensive. Bloomberg reports that every episode in season two of the Emmy-winning series costs roughly $20 million, “making it one of the most expensive projects on TV.” That’s as much as House of the Dragon, but Severance doesn’t have any dragons (yet?) — why is the budget so high?

According to Forbes, Severance executive producer Ben Stiller planned to make a movie for Amazon between season one and two, and he asked House of Cards creator and Andor writer Beau Willimon to assist with the upcoming season and possibly even oversee season three. But “plans for the Amazon movie fell apart… Stiller decided to remain in charge of Severance (alongside [creator Dan] Erickson). Apple ended up paying Willimon millions to contribute to a few episodes.” The WGA and SAG strikes cost a pretty penny, too.

The company is now in the middle of discussions about future seasons of Severance. Apple can’t wait to make more of the show, but management has a request for Stiller and the show’s studio, Fifth Season. They need to bring down the cost.

At least Severance (which finally returns in 2025) is a bargain compared to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

(Via Bloomberg)

It’s a big week for comic book movies. For awhile there, this was seemingly true every week, but the rate of Marvel and DC movies has (mercifully) slowed down. Or as James Gunn put it, “They’ve gotten too generic.” However, there’s nothing generic about Deadpool & Wolverine, which hits theaters on Thursday, and Joker: Folie à Deux, which doesn’t come out until October, but Warner Bros. just released a new trailer for the Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga film.

Here’s the official logline: “Joker: Folie à Deux finds Arthur Fleck institutionalized at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that’s always been inside him.”

You can watch the trailer above.

There should be no doubting Lady Gaga’s talent as an actress, not after A Star is Born, but she really stepped up for the Joker sequel. “She’s going to blow your mind,” said casting director Francine Maisler. “I saw it and I was really surprised. I mean, we all knew what she could do in A Star is Born, but I thought, ‘Oh, well, that’s kind of in her wheelhouse.’ Something she could do and just be real. But this… Man, she’s good. Joaquin blows your mind, but that she could keep up with him, and be real — and not just wiped off the screen by what that role is and what the performance is — shows she’s good.”

Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker: Folie à Deux opens in theaters on October 4.

Last night (July 22), Kamala Harris made her first official visit to her presidential campaign headquarters. When she did so, she walked out to Beyoncé’s Lemonade song “Freedom.” Tons of musicians have gotten mad at Donald Trump for using their music at his public showings, but Harris apparently did things by the book and got Beyoncé on her side.

CNN reports that “a source close to Harris” told them Harris’ team “got approval from Beyoncé’s representatives to use the song throughout her presidential campaign,” and that Beyoncé “gave quick approval to Harris’ campaign” to use the track “just hours before she walked out to the song.”

As of yet, Beyoncé has not officially endorsed Harris’ presidential campaign.

This comes shortly after Charli XCX did give her explicit endorsement, tweeting, “kamala IS brat,” in reference to her new album Brat. From there, Harris’ team knew what to do: As part of re-branding the Biden-Harris campaign social media pages, they used a Brat-themed banner image, which left the folks at CNN deeply confused.

Harris previously said in a statement, “On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country. I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.”

M. Night Shyamalan’s most childhood trauma-inducing film is Signs, but Drake is probably more traumatized by The Sixth Sense.

Kendrick Lamar referenced the 1999 film in two diss tracks against Drake. On “Euphoria,” he rapped, “Am I battlin’ ghost or AI? / N*gga feelin’ like Joel Osteen / Funny, he was in a film called A.I. / And my sixth sense tellin’ me to off him.” (He meant Haley Joel Osment, who was a good sport about the whole thing.) Lamar also begins his No. 1 hit “Not Like Us” with “I see dead people.”

While promoting his new The Eras Tour-inspired film Trap, Shyamalan was asked about the feud. “We kind of lightly know each other, and I did know [he was a fan],” the director said of Lamar on the Way Up With Angela Yee podcast, according to Billboard. “He’s very gracious with me, and I love him.”

Shyamalan first learned about The Sixth Sense lyric from someone he works with. “The first song ends with it. So someone in the office was like, ‘Oh, Kendrick just dropped something and it references one of your [movies].’ I was like, ‘Oh, cool.’ That was before everything blew up,” he explained.

If the feud with Drake continues, Kendrick should start referencing some of M. Night’s other films. Let’s see what he can do with Lady In The Water.

Deadpool & Wolverine comes out on July 26, and for much of the lead-up, there have been rumors that Taylor Swift has a surprise appearance in the movie. Well, now Ryan Reynolds himself has addressed the situation, on The Tonight Show yesterday (July 22).

Jimmy Fallon brought up the “rumors all about all these insane cameos that may or may not be in the movie,” to which Reynolds said, “We don’t really have cameos as much as surprises.” Fallon then tried to squeeze some info out of Reynolds, saying in a hushed voice, “Taylor Swift.” Reynolds responded, “I wish. Taylor… you know, if I ever stop, she’d make a good Deadpool. She’s funny. Funny. Funny!”

He continued, “I would say that the folks that do show up in the movie, that somehow — I have no idea how we’ve managed to keep it secret, given the internet and all this stuff, ’cause somehow it hasn’t come out — I would say that they’re more surprises, because they have beginnings, middles, and ends. It’s not just like a, ‘Hey, there’s the person,’ and we move on: They’re there for a reason.”

So, either Swift truly isn’t in the movie, or Reynolds is denying it to preserve the secret (and it wouldn’t hurt the bottom line if some speculative Swifties bought movie tickets with the hope of seeing Swift).

Watch the interview clip above.