Category: News

With just one album and an EP under their belts, Greta Van Fleet have already made a major impact. Now with a Grammy Award added to their list of accolades, the rock revivalists have been teasing their next full-length release with a handful of singles. This week, they’ve returned to forge their own path with the electrifying track “Broken Bells.”

The main theme of the new single, according to band member Sam Kiszka, is societal expectations. “’Broken Bells’ is what the fetter of society does to impact a pure and innocent soul. Our intention is to remove the obligation of generational synthetic expectations; break down these walls and not build new ones,” Kiszka said.

Echoing Sam’s statement, vocalist vocalist Josh Kiszka continued to say that the group grew a lot during the album writing process. “There was a lot of self-evolution happening during the writing of this album that was prompted by experiences I had, experiences we all had,” he said. “Certainly after this, we’ve grown in so many ways. This album has taught us a lot, about life in general, about ourselves, about all of us, about the world we live in.”

Listen to “Broken Bells” above.

The Battle At Garden’s Gate is out 4/16 via Lava/Republic. Pre-order it here.

Australian songwriter Julia Stone first made a name for herself by releasing duets with her brother Angus back in the 2010’s. Stone later pivoted to her solo career with two albums, her latest being the 2012 release By The Horns. Now, nine years later, Julia Stone is gearing up for her third LP. The singer shared the powerful track “Fire In Me” Friday, while also announcing her upcoming album Sixty Summers.

The project, which was sporadically recorded between 2015 and 2019, sees Stone’s music venturing into new, moonlit pop territory. “Fire In Me” illustrates this shift, coupling striking lyrics with pounding instrumentation. Of the song, Stone says: “For me, ‘Fire In Me’ was about creating a feeling of pure energy. I love the feeling when the music sounds like what the lyrics mean.”

“Fire In Me” follows a handful of singles Stone has released to preview Sixty Summers, which was co-produced by Annie Clark of St. Vincent. She previously shared her Matt Berninger-featuring single “We All Have,” which was a delicate reflection on self worth and mental health. Before that, Stone debuted the tracks “Break” and “Dance.”

Listen to “Fire In Me” above and find Stone’s Sixty Summers tracklist below.

1. “Break”
2. “Sixty Summers”
3. “We All Have” (feat. Matt Berninger)
4. “Substance”
5. “Dance”
6. “Free”
7. “Who”
8. “Fire In Me”
9. “Easy”
10. “Queen”
11. “Heron”
12. “Unreal”
13. “I Am No One”
14. “Dance” (French Version)

Sixty Summers is out 4/30. Pre-order it here.

The NBA has seen its fair share of great passers over the years. When you think of legendary assist men, there are a few names that immediately come to mind: Pistol Pete Maravich, Magic Johnson, Jason Williams, LeBron James, John Stockton, Steve Nash, and so on and so forth.

They all have a few things in common: The ability to see the court in a way others simply can’t, a knack for anticipating what’s going to happen two or three seconds before they do, and the ice-cold self-confidence to try something out that most players would never dream of.

Now, we can safely add Luka Doncic to the list of all-time great passing wizards after this unbelievable assist against the Blazers on Friday night. Go ahead and take a moment. You may need to play it back a few times before you can fully process what actually happened here.

LUKAVISION pic.twitter.com/MIoOxj7NR2

— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) March 20, 2021

After weaving his way into the lane against Robert Covington, Luka appeared to raise up for a contested mid-range jumper, but in a split second while he was still aloft, effortlessly flipped a pass backward over his head to a waiting Tim Hardaway Jr., who knocked down the open three.

It’s not a stretch to say this might be the best pass of his young career, which has already been filled with highlight-reel of unbelievable assists. On a night when the NBA was set to be overshadowed by the NCAA Tournament, Luka reminded us what the next level looks like.

Addison Rae first rose to fame when the dancing videos she posted on TikTok in 2019 began to take off. Now, the 20-year-old boasts 78 million followers on the platform and was named the highest-earning TikTok star of 2020 by Forbes. While she continues to post TikToks and tend to her new makeup brand, Rae is now pivoting to focus on her music career with her debut single, “Obsessed.”

Rae’s buoyant track “Obsessed” arrived alongside a heavily choreographed video Friday. The song itself is a fluttering affirmation of self worth, with Rae singing about how she’s as obsessed with herself as her crush. “You say you’re obsessed with me / So I took a second / And I said, ‘Me too,’” she sings.

Speaking about her pivot from dancing to singing in an interview with Rolling Stone, Addison Rae said:

“I was always just overly interested in it, and I didn’t know why. I knew I was a dancer, I knew I loved to dance to music, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with music. Going through high school and college, I always wanted to branch out and start singing and expressing that whole love for music in a different way. […] I think now it’s about exploring that and fully submerging myself in that art. I fully want to give myself every chance to be a part of it, understand it, and really appreciate the art of it. It’s been what I’ve eaten, slept, and breathed for the last year.”

Watch Addison Rae’s “Obsessed” video above.

With the men’s and women’s NCAA tournament kicking off this weekend in their respective bubble-type environments, there was a great deal of excitement in the college basketball world. But that excitement quickly turned sour when it emerged that there was a gross disparity in the quality of the women’s facilities in San Antonio compared to their male counterparts in Indianapolis.

A photo showing the women’s weight room went viral on Thursday, sparking widespread backlash, as their meager equipment paled in comparison to the full workout facilities that the men were afforded. The NCAA subsequently released a statement claiming that there was lack of space for those accommodations, an argument that was quickly rebuffed by Oregon’s Sedona Prince, who took to TikTok to show video evidence of unused space.

Amid the backlash, several sporting goods companies have pledged to donate equipment to the women in San Antonio, including Dick’s Sporting Goods, Tonal, and Orangetheory.

@NCAA Our teammates have worked quickly to get truckloads of fitness equipment ready to send to the women’s @ncaawbb @marchmadness bubble – we are standing by to deliver it and have your facility outfitted within hours! Let’s make this happen. pic.twitter.com/6QJJjrrDgx

— DICK’S Sporting Goods (@DICKS) March 19, 2021

. @sedonaprince_ This is ridiculous. Let’s one up them. We’re sending 10 Tonal Smart Gyms that will arrive in San Antonio tomorrow for all of the players. Please DM us for next steps.

Good luck to all of the @marchmadness teams! https://t.co/3JqLO4SQ1t

— Tonal (@tonal) March 19, 2021

Orangetheory will make its studios available for private sessions with any team, or we will bring water rowers and a full range of floor and weight equipment to any central location. We want to help. DM & tell us how. @sabrina_i2 @CoachWillRU @mollyhc @ChantelJennings @AJ_McCord pic.twitter.com/bwAKExq1FA

— Orangetheory Fitness (@orangetheory) March 19, 2021

These are incredible gestures on the part of these businesses to step up and do the right thing, but it speaks to just how far we still have to go to reach some semblance of equality, not just in sports, but in the world at large.

It’s hard to imagine there being a bigger upset during the 2021 NCAA Tournament than Oral Roberts shocking Ohio State on Friday afternoon. The Summit League champions needed overtime to get the job done, but despite being 16.5-point underdogs, the Golden Eagles managed to pick up a 75-72 win to become the ninth 15-seed in Tournament history to knock off a No. 2.

In the immediate aftermath, plenty of people decided to get jokes off at the Buckeyes’ expense, something that invariably happens whenever a loss of this magnitude happens in the Tournament. It took a minute for Kevin Harlan to get in on the fun, but his time to shine came during Oklahoma State’s win over Liberty a little later in the day.

Harlan read a recap of the day’s events and found a subtle way to get in on the fun. See if you can catch it at first glance:

Did you notice it? Go back and watch once again, we’ll regroup in a second.

[twiddles thumbs for a sec]

As anyone who has ever interacted with any Buckeye fan knows, the school likes to refer to itself as THE Ohio State University. Harlan, deciding to have a little fun with this, shouted out THE Oral Roberts University for their win. We have a feeling that Golden Eagles fans are going to run with this one for a while, and well, we can’t blame them.

Ever since R&B sister duo Chloe x Halle released their breathtaking sophomore Ungodly Hour, the two have taken the music industry by storm. They’ve graced countless late-night talk shows with captivating performances, and were even nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best R&B Song, Best Traditional R&B Performance, and Best R&B Performance. Though they didn’t end up taking home any awards, it still gave the young singers a healthy signal boost. Now returning with new music, the sister duo share a moving cover of “Georgia On My Mind.”

Chloe x Halle’s rendition of the classic ballad puts their powerful vocals on full display. The song was originally recorded to feature in an ESPN commercial ahead of the Masters Tournament, which takes place in Georgia.

In a statement, Chloe x Halle shared their excitement about the cover: “We are happy to be given the opportunity to record our version of the timeless ‘Georgia On My Mind’ for the Masters Tournament.”

Ahead of the release of “Georgia On My Mind,” Chloe x Halle decided to revisit some of their old music. Because they still can’t tour behind Ungodly Hour, the sister duo decided to revamp it instead. Offering a new take on a deluxe album, Chloe x Halle dropped the “Chrome Edition” of Ungodly Hour, which featured two news songs.

Listen to Chloe x Halle’s “Georgia On My Mind” cover above.

If you have four hours to spare, this weekend might be a good time to compare the original Justice League to Zack Snyder’s extended cut of the film that just premiered on HBO Max. There’s a lot to discuss about what changed and all the footage that was added, including some reshoots that early critics have said just doesn’t look right. But the first thing people have seemed to notice about Zack Snyder’s Justice League is that the R-rated film is considerably more violent than the original.

According to Snyder, though, that’s entirely the point. According to the extended cut’s director (spoilers ahead), the added blood and gore highlight the thematic differences about his sense that the film’s heroes are god-like saviors of mortal man. But there’s also an essence of his “creative freedom” in making an R-rated superhero movie that he felt he needed to explore.

Variety shared quotes from Snyder and highlighted a difference many saw in the two films: a scene where Wonder Woman foils a bank robbery now has the bad guys hitting a wall hard, with noticeable blood left on the wall and some more overt signs of serious injury to those involved.

Snyder wanted to push the envelope. “It’s a pure exercise in creative freedom,” the director told Variety this week about the Snyder cut of “Justice League.” Similar to the “Ultimate Edition” of Snyder’s 2016 film “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” which was also R-rated for a digital and home video release only, Snyder says knowing his film would be streaming on HBO Max freed him from having to make his “Justice League” work for a PG-13 rating.

“Let’s just do it the exact way we would if there was no ratings board,” he said of his team’s thinking. “Let’s not use any second guessing. Let’s just do it the way we think is the coolest. That was the philosophical approach.”

That scene in particular sparked a debate on social media about whether it was right for the character to have killed anyone in the first place, with its defenders saying Wonder Woman isn’t on the Batman character arc of not killing. In any event, it seems there are some serious reasons for Snyder to include more blood and gore beyond it just looking cooler in a movie.

“I always feel that the consequence is important to me, that there’s real stakes,” Snyder said. “It still is abstract, you know. These are gods fighting men. Which is also part of the point. We can’t really fight them. Humans can’t really fight them.”

Vanity Fair had a much longer analysis of the big differences with the two cuts, including a lengthy explanation of the film’s now-extended epilogue. Interestingly, there are some limitations that DC ended up putting on Snyder, not in the level of violence but who could appear in the film, especially in the epilogue. But as far as blood on the walls, it’s clear that Snyder got what he wanted in his four-hour epic.

In the last few weeks, everyone from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to toilet paper brand Charmin have been talking about NFTs. NFTs, which stand for Non-fungible tokens, are a way for creators to make a profit off their digital content using blockchain technology. Several musicians have already gotten a jump start on the trend, and Rico Nasty is now the latest.

On Friday, Rico Nasty announced that she’ll be teaming up with her “OHFR?” video creator Don Allen III to sell artwork from the video as an NFT. Not only will the owner of the NFT get to boast ownership of the clip, but they’ll also receive the authenticated physical hammer seen in the video, signed by the rapper herself.

Rico Nasty isn’t the first musician to join the NFT marketplace. Grimes was one of the first to sell her artwork as an NFT, raking in $6 million in just one day. Diplo, Halsey, and Post Malone have also recently sold NFTs.

The NFT will be made available for bidding on SuperRare starting March 22 at 9 am EST, followed up by a conversation with Rico Nasty on Clubhouse. Join the discussion here and watch Rico Nasty’s “OHFR?” video above.

Nightmare Vacation is out now via Atlantic/Sugar Trap. Get it here.

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

Wheel of Fortune highlights are always hit and miss, but this one is decidedly feel-good in every way. The syndicated game show is often in the news for flubs or major mistakes from contestants and even its host, but Thursday’s episode saw a contestant win big and donate the money to a good cause.

Scott Kollbrenner was the big winner on Thursday, taking home $45,000 and getting a spot in the bonus round to win even more. What happened next was good enough to have the show set off confetti cannons, so you know it was a good day at the wheel.

Let’s see if you can play along with Scott here, who did a nice job of revealing a good set of letters here to get it right on the first guess.

Scott nailed “flowing white gown” right away, and the $100,000 card caused the confetti to fall for a bit of celebration. But the good vibes weren’t done there, as he later told the show that he planned to donate whatever he won after taxes to some very good causes.

Kollbrenner appeared on Good Morning America on Friday to explain why he decided to donate the money, saying it was a decision he made even before he had a prize purse to give away.

“It’s been a dark time, and when I went on the show I was doing it for the fun of it,” he said. “And I said to my wife as I went on ‘If I do OK here, anything I get let’s give it to charity. We’re very fortunate, let’s see if we can’t support some others who aren’t as fortunate as we are.’”

It’s a lovely gesture for sure, and one that will be remembered in show lore for some time. Interestingly, he said only people working on the show and his wife knew that he planned to donate the money, so everyone else in his life was in for a big surprise when they saw the confetti fall when the show finally aired.