Category: News

North Carolina rapper 10Cellphones drops by the UPROXX office for an exuberant performance of his bone-bruising track “Lean,” which dropped last year and became his calling card, accumulating a half million views on YouTube with no promotion. The beat is built around a muscular piano loop and a titanic bass drop, over which 10C spits an exorbitant array of gun-related threats.

The short track works as an attention-grabbing introduction to the burgeoning SoundCloud favorite, as he prepares the follow-up to his self-released 2019 full-length 10. He’s remained active on YouTube, dropping the self-shot videos for tracks like “Stick Up,” “Air Bender,” “Take Risks,” and “Scared Of Me,” all within just the last month. He appears to be making the most of his quarantine, showing off a DIY hustle that could very well help him make the jump from the underground to the mainstream.

Watch 10Cellphones’ “Lean” performance for UPROXX Sessions above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s new performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too..

Yes, every American should be forced to watch David Byrne’s American Utopia.

I’m hesitant to start with the film’s (which opens this year’s Toronto International Film Festival) most striking moment. Only because what makes it so striking is how most of the production, directed with a masterstroke by Spike Lee, just feels so full of joy. But it’s near the end, when Byrne performs Janelle Monáe’s “Hell You Talmbout” (which he makes clear was done with 100 percent encouragement from Monáe), which results in Byrne (and his phenomenal band) saying the names of the far too many Black people who were killed by police. What’s really striking is Byrne stopped performing in February of this year, so it’s impossible to watch without thinking, my god, there are so many more since then, before a graphic is added to honor George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many many more. It’s a powerful moment in what is one of the best concert films I’ve seen in a long time.

But that’s the thing, right? David Byrne is kind of known for his genius when it comes to live performances on film. Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense is the echelon of concert films, and Byrne, trying to capture the essence of his recent Broadway show, enlisted Spike Lee. Byrne has a knack for picking the right directors for these projects. (Well, when he’s not directing himself, as he did with 1986’s True Stories.)

One of my biggest recent regrets is not seeing Byrne’s stage show in person. It’s one of those things that I just always thought I’d have time to do later, then never did. (Though, I sort of came close when I got to see Byrne live, from the audience, as the musical performer on SNL right before the whole world shut down. Which was fantastic, but two songs does not give this show justice.) I even had the whole night planned out in my head, with some pre and post drinks at one of my favorite bars in New York City, Jimmy’s Corner, which was right across the street. (Jimmy’s Corner was owned by boxing legend Jimmy Glenn, who was always there hanging out, with a friendly word for whoever came in. Glenn, sadly, died from Covid-19 in May.)

Though, in retrospect, maybe not. Because what Byrne and Lee have brought us is so exhilarating as a film, maybe this is the way it has to be seen. True, I don’t have much of a choice now. And, yes, I’m trying to make myself feel better that I could have seen this live and for some reason didn’t. But this is what we have now as the historical record – and what a historical record it is.

Early in the show Bryne give a monologue about how we grow dumber as we get older. As he puts it, “a plateau of stupidity.” Or, at least, the human brain loses the cognitive connections that a child’s brain is born with. As we get older, we just lose the connections we don’t use or need. I have no idea if this is true, but I’ll take Byrne’s word for it because there are sure a lot of adults doing a lot of stupid things of late. Most of the show is a stunning, live performance of Byrne’s 2018 album American Utopia, with a few classic Talking Heads songs sprinkled in – in just the right places and done in a way that fits perfectly with the confines of the show.

Two points here: First, Byrne relays a story in which there was some doubt that the band is actually playing live, and that flawlessly, on every track every night, which he strenuously and effectively dispels. Second, it’s still kind of funny to see the audience burst out of their seats anytime a Talking Heads song is played, just like any other concert. “Oh, ‘Burning Down the House’! Oh yeah, I know this one!”

There’s something whimsical and magical about the whole thing. It is designed to make the viewer feel good. It almost feels like being in an elementary school class, learning some nice and sweet lessons from this nice man. Obviously, Byrne’s speech at the beginning about the human brain is there for a reason. He’s not telling you to think like a kid. But by pointing all this out, it subconsciously makes us do just that. And in between the nice songs, he gives is a lesson that only 20 percent of people vote in local elections. Going as far to point out 20 percent of his audience, then telling the rest that the 20 percent are making all the decisions for them and their families. It’s both infuriating and delicate.

And, again, that’s why it hits like such a hammer by the time we get to “Hell You Talmbout.” By that point, our brains have almost been temporarily rewired to use those connections we may have lost, which causes a visceral reaction that’s different and hard to explain. Though, what a year for Spike Lee. Between Da 5 Bloods and David Byrne’s American Utopia, a good argument could be made that 2020 turned out to be not just one of his finest years as a filmmaker, but a year we desperately needed his voice. And, through fate, here it is. And what he did was make a concert film for the ages.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Ellen DeGeneres has ousted multiple top producers in the wake of revelations of a “toxic” workplace behind the scenes of her long-running daytime talk show. Howard Stern thinks that Ellen should simply embrace being a “prick,” and Steve Harvey believes she should “walk away” (while also siding with the host), but Ellen has vowed to address the studio-bound accusations on-air when her show returns on September 21. However, more accusations are coming down the pipeline from one of Ellen’s ex-household staffers, who spoke with the Daily Mail with a laundry list of complaints.

Page Six reports that an Ellen rep has already denied these claims as “absolutely not true” as reported by Daily Mail, which published claims from the ex-housekeeper that Ellen would “lay traps” (like a stray match) to make sure her home was thoroughly cleaned. The former household staffer also claimed that Ellen enjoys terminating people, and here’s more:

“She was going to torture you and you were just going to sit there and listen to it because you were being paid. Ellen was the worst person that I’ve ever met in my life. She takes pleasure in firing people… I was told that she had a very high turnover and that I should stay under the radar as much as possible, avoid as much direct contact with Ellen as possible. Working there was described as being more like a boot camp.”

The anonymous staffer added that she felt constantly “on the verge of tears” because Ellen would allegedly be upset about “a salt shaker out of place or a light switch left on.” The accuser suggested that such behavior might be worse at home due to people’s guards being down out of the public eye. Yet as stated above, an Ellen rep has categorically denied all of these claims. There’s also no word of Ellen planning to address this household-related matter when her show returns in late September, but the “toxic” workplace accusations have been placed on the on-air table by the host herself.

(Via Daily Mail, USA Today, Deadline & Page Six)

Just a few weeks shy of its release, Hulu has delivered a trailer for its upcoming horror anthology series Monsterland. Starring Kelly Marie Tran, Kaityln Dever, Mike Colter, Taylor Schilling, and others, the show promises “encounters with mermaids, fallen angels, and other strange beasts which drive broken people to desperate acts.”

Based on the short story collection North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud, Monsterland hopes to differentiate itself from other anthology series like Hulu’s Castle Rock. In a recent interview, showrunner Laura Mays (Succession, Preacher) explained how the episodes will be self-contained, but also contain a recurring character that will “weave them all together.” As for what drove her to adapt the short story collection, Mays said it spoke to her “because it was deeply personal, character-based horror.”

Via Bloody Disgusting:

“We adapted the stories that felt the most current, relevant, and that we were most connected to; three episodes in ‘Monsterland’ are direct adaptations of Nathan’s stories, and the others are inspired by the collection,” she reveals. “Whenever I’m adapting a story, I always go back to the story a million times, reading it over and over, reminding myself of what is at the core of it. Of course, some of the story will understandably morph and change as you translate a work of fiction into television. But if you keep the heart of the story intact, then you’ve done your job.”

Dever (Booksmart) will kick off the series in the first episode as a struggling waitress who meets a mysterious, brooding stranger that challenges her to change her reality. Tran (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) will appear in the second episode “Iron River, MI” where she plays Lauren, a young woman who returns to her home town to get married but is still haunted by the disappearance of her childhood best friend.

Monsterland premieres October 2 on Hulu.

(Via Hulu)

One of the most legendary stories about Willie Nelson is that he once smoked weed on the roof of the White House. This was during the Jimmy Carter administration, and in the new documentary Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, the former POTUS himself addresses the tale.

The film was released yesterday, and as the Los Angeles Times notes, in it, Carter was asked about Nelson’s story. He laughed and revealed one of his own sons actually joined the musician in his rooftop smoke session: “[Nelson] says that his companion that shared the pot with him was one of the servants at the White House. That is not exactly true. It actually was one of my sons.”

The POTUS’ son, Chip Carter, confirmed the story, which began on September 13, 1980 during a Nelson performance at the White House. Chip said, “In the break I said, ‘Let’s go upstairs.’ We just kept going up ’til we got to the roof, where we leaned against the flagpole at the top of the place and lit one up.’ If you know Washington, the White House is the hub of the spokes — the way it was designed. Most of the avenues run into the White House. You could sit up and could see all the traffic coming right at you. It’s a nice place up there.”

Watch a trailer for Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President below.

If you had Scream on the brain after seeing the Ghostface masks in the Hubie Halloween trailer, today’s your lucky day: Neve Campbell will reprise her role as Sidney Prescott in the fifth Scream movie. She joins original cast members Courteney Cox and David Arquette (who’s suddenly everywhere with the release of You Cannot Kill David Arquette) in the reboot, directed by Ready or Not‘s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.

Bloody Disgusting broke the news about Campbell, who said in a statement, “After spending time speaking with [filmmaking group] Radio Silence, they have shown such love, respect, and admiration for Wes Craven and all that he’s created in the Scream franchise. I am beyond excited to step back into the role of Sidney Prescott and return to Woodsboro.” Campbell has appeared in all four Scream movies to date:

Radio Silence said in a statement today, “We’re pinching ourselves! It’s hard to express how much the character Sidney Prescott shaped our love of movies and to have the chance to work with Neve is truly a dream come true. It just wouldn’t be a Scream movie without Neve and we’re so excited and honored to join her in Woodsboro.”

OK, Campbell, Cox, and Arquette are back, but what about Matthew Lillard? Bring back Lillard! And Drew Barrymore. I don’t know how that would work (considering, y’know…) unless Scream 5 is a prequel. A Screamquel, if you will. You will not? That’s fair.

(Via Bloody Disgusting)

Since the band’s inception, Pearl Jam have been active in pushing fans to exercise their right to vote. In 1992, two years after the group formed, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame band hosted the free Drop In The Park concert in Seattle where they registered thousands of new voters. They did something similar in 2018 when they performed in Montana and additionally registered thousands of their fans to vote. Now, Pearl Jam is launching a new initiative that helps fans secure a mail-in ballot for the upcoming November election.

The PJ Votes 2020 initiative makes it easy for fans to sign up to vote by mail in the coming months. Pearl Jam’s plan is simple, they want fans to vote by mail, encourage three friends to do the same, and not wait to sign up for a mail-in ballot. Citizens can either register to vote on Pearl Jam’s website or by texting “PJVotes” to 52886.

Speaking about the new initiative, Eddie Vedder said, “We believe America is at its best when every voice is heard. This is the most important election in our nation’s history. Our democracy is at risk. Your vote is your voice, and it’s time to use it. Join us by voting by mail — something our band has been doing for almost three decades, since we began touring in 1992. It’s safe, it’s easy, and it’s secure.”

Bassist Jeff Ament echoed Vedder’s statement: “Voting freely and easily is our ultimate right as citizens of these United States. It’s a hard-fought gift from our foremothers and forefathers.”

Find more information about the PJ Votes initiative here.

Trying to map out what the 2020-21 NBA season will look like is tricky, if only because no one has any idea when it is going to start. Beyond the fact that it is believed that there will be CBA negotiations this offseason, the unprecedented situation the league finds itself in by wrapping up its postseason in October means there is no real road map to follow.

Previous reports indicated that the NBA wanted to tip things off in early-December, although that has been extremely fluid, with a range of dates from early-December to March being mentioned at one point or another. Now, the league has a slightly better idea of when it hopes to start things up.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the league informed its Board of Governors that the earliest possible start date for the year would be Christmas Day 2020.

There have been calls for years for the league to let the NFL and college football have the spotlight in autumn and turn Christmas Day into its start date for years, but of course, things are far different now than they would be under normal circumstances. This does not mean that the league would target Dec. 25 to start — one report indicated that it would be willing to wait until March if that’s when they could get fans into arenas safely due to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments — but at the very least, it provides clarity on one of the outstanding issues that the league was facing as next season approached.

Today, September 10, is World Suicide Prevention Day, and Demi Lovato and Marshmello have decided to help promote the cause with a new single, “OK Not To Be OK.”

The track goes from melancholy to joyful in the hook, on which Lovato sings, “When you’re high on emotion / And you’re losing your focus / And you feel too exhausted to pray / Don’t get lost in the moment / Or give up when you’re closest / All you need is somebody to say / It’s okay not to be okay.”

Sharing the track, Lovato wrote, “Take a moment today to check in with yourself and your loved ones.”

Marshmello spoke about the track with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and discussed releasing the song on World Suicide Prevention Day:

“I think it’s just such an important subject. I think a lot of people, about negative feelings and negative thoughts that are affecting them are kind of scared to bring it up, scared to talk about it. When in reality, they’re scared because maybe the person won’t relate or the person won’t understand, when in reality most of time the person that you could bring it up to, will most likely has felt like this or will understand or can relate as well. So I think it’s very important to talk about it.”

He also discussed how he and Lovato came to work together, saying:

“I met Demi, I think four years ago. I actually played a party or something for her a while back and before I went on. It was at a hotel in LA, and I went upstairs and met her before and all that stuff. And so we’ve known each other since then. So this collaboration has… because we would always say, ‘Hi at award shows and all that… so this collaboration has kind of been just in the works, I would say, since we met about four years ago.

[…] So she did the song and then I got it, and it was just kind of piano and that’s about it. And so then I was like, ‘How can I create an instrumental, instruments, that compliment the emotion of the song?’ So in the beginning it’s very slow and stuff, so I made the instrumental very slow. And then during the hook, which is the resolve of the song, I kind of picked it up with the energy and it’s kind of like a little dance tune.

I think that was a huge driving force in making the song, as well, as there was only one way the song could be. And so I spent a long time trying to find that exact moment where I was like, ‘Oh, OK, this is exactly how the song should sound. This is how it makes me feel.’ So it was just kind of like emotion turned to music in a way.”

Ahead of the track, Lovato announced a partnership with online therapy platform Talkspace, writing on Instagram, “So proud to announce my partnership with @talkspace. In case you aren’t familiar, Talkspace is an online therapy platform that will connect you with a licensed therapist from the comfort of your phone. Therapy has saved my life in so many ways, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. There’s so much going on in the world right now, so we need to be taking care of ourselves and those around us. Talkspace is such an incredible organization and I can’t wait to share more info soon.”

Watch the “OK Not To Be OK” video above.

In the beginning of September, a 20-year-old Bay Area native launched her own podcast. This is a tale as old as time in the San Francisco tech bubble, and for most people in their early twenties, undertaking a project like a podcast would be enough to keep them busy. But for Maia — aka musician and digital creative Mxmtoon — her new venture is just one of many undertakings she is currently pursuing. Though she plans to release a podcast episode every single day for the next year starting September 14, Maia will also release her second EP of the year on October 1, all while keeping up with her 750K+ Instagram followers, an audience of over 2 million on TikTok, and almost 400K on Twitter. If there’s any corner of the internet where Maia can’t command attention, it doesn’t exist yet.

These kinds of numbers are no small feat for an artist who has remained completely independent, and is interested in building her career from the ground up as an organic expression of her own life, not a polished representation someone else thought would sell records. The same perspective can be applied to her podcast, which is Maia’s take on a single moment from that day in history that she personally finds interesting. Dubbed 365 Days With Mxmtoon, the year-long podcast is a joint effort with The Talkhouse, a media platform built for artists to express themselves. Maia is a half-Chinese, half-white musician who self-describes in the intro to her podcast as a “singer, songwriter, dreamer, ukulele player… and a huge history nerd.” She also identifies as bisexual and is very open — not only about her own sexuality — but her liberal politics and voicing support for helping uplift the historically marginalized, including the Black Lives Matter movement. That history nerd identity, though, is what shows up the most in her podcast.

“365 Days With Mxmtoon was born out of the fact that beyond just music, I really enjoy helping people learn about our world,” Maia explained when we spoke on the phone earlier this month about her plans for the fall. “It’s a podcast about what happened on specific days in history, exploring what else might’ve happened in the music industry, and also even going into my own life to help people have a greater sense of who I am as well. Hopefully it will encourage people to stay curious about the things that happened in the past that brings us to the present.”

Podcast aside, 2020 has been a huge year for Mxmtoon, who released her debut album, The Masquerade, just last year. Something of a mix between Imogen Heap’s heady, layered pop and Frankie Cosmos’ twee, tender songwriting, Mxmtoon’s early songs amassed the kind of devoted audience that will remain interested in an artist for their entire career. Following up an initial EP, Plum Blossoms, in 2018, Maia wasted no time putting out new music after her first full-length came out; earlier this year in April she released dawn, a seven-track EP designed to precede this fall’s follow-up EP, Dusk. Taken together, the two EPs function as a second album for the already-prolific young artist, who is still intent on experimenting with her sound, different collaborators, and various forms of self-expression.

“I’m excited for everyone to hear Dusk, and I really want to know the reaction because I think a lot of the songs are definitely different, even genre-wise,” she said. “There’s a lot of instrumentation that’s familiar but then also some sounds I haven’t quite gotten a chance to try until this EP. Merrill Garbus (of Tune-Yards) also produced a handful of songs on Dusk. She’s local to where I live, Oakland, California, so proximity-wise and sonically, it made sense to work with her. She’s just incredible and one of the kindest people I’ve ever come across when in the music industry.”

Aside from Garbus, another big indie-pop name appears as a guest on Dusk — none other than cult favorite Carly Rae Jepsen. She’s the only featured guest on the EP, and working with her for the track “Ok On Your Own” is what Maia calls “a crazy happening.” This pop collaboration recently followed up another of Dusk’s early singles, “Bon Iver,” a song that’s half yearning love song, half homage to the acclaimed songwriter-producer that is Justin Vernon.

“Working with Carly was a shot in the dark, she came up just because she’s such an influential singer and amazing advocate,” Maia said. “I’m such a huge fan of her, and it was amazing that she was open to it. I got to call her and I was like ‘you know what, you’re Carly Rae Jepsen, you can take it and run with it, just cut vocals however you want to.’ As for ‘Bon Iver,’ he’s so influential in the music industry and that project is something that’s been very inspirational to me.”

Though she started off writing songs on a ukulele alone in her parent’s guest room, in just a few years Mxmtoon has graduated to work alongside indie-pop powerhouses like Tune-Yards and Carly Rae Jepsen. As she continues to expand her creative field with more social media videos, new music, and the forthcoming podcast, her hope for music specifically is just to keep exploring her own side without settling or being put into any kind of box.

“I just released my first album last year, so coming off that I thought I would take a breather and see what other sounds I like for my project,” she said. “Giving myself the opportunity to make two EPs that were related to each other but could also stand alone as separate projects helped me open up avenues in terms of what kind of production and what sort of songwriting I wanted to do. I really wanted to give myself the opportunity to explore my sound a little bit more. It gave me a sense of freedom and relaxation to not have to make a flawless second album or anything.”

And while Dusk may not be a second album, it’s about as close to flawless as a pop EP released in 2020 has come. Look for it out very soon on October 1, and pre-order it here. Also keep an eye out for her new podcast, 365 Days With Mxmtoon beginning in just a few days on September 14.