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At long last, Sampha has finally shared the release date for his sophomore album, Lahai. Marking his first album in seven years, Lahai will be released later this fall.

Ahead of the album, Sampha has shared a new song, “Only,” a genre-defying song detailing the mysterious inner workings of Sampha’s mind. Equally as enigmatic is the song’s accompanying music video, which features Sampha opening a book and traveling through a mythical universe.

Though Sampha has been away from the spotlight for a while, he looks forward to making a return to music. In a recent interview with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, Sampha described the mixed feelings he’s been experiencing as his Lahai album is rolling out.

“It’s such a weird thing, sometimes it feels more like a dream when it’s actually out there in the world and the collective consciousness is making sense of it,” He said. “It’s a strange thing, but it’s lovely, it’s beautiful, and I’m into it. For me and just artists, we move on quite quickly, so sometimes seeing it, getting it out, it feels like the final stage of being able to move on with this.”

You can see the video for “Only” above.

Lahai is out 10/20 via Young. Find more information here.

Back in 2015, late Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant presented Taylor Swift with a special championship-style banner to honor her 16 sold-out shows at the Crypto.com Arena (then called Staples Center). She had been on her 1989 Tour at the time. Although she has not performed at the venue since, opting instead for SoFi Stadium to meet the demand, it marked a significant moment for the pop star.

However, in 2020, the proof of her special achievement was placed in storage, as the Lakers needed room to hang a banner for their 17th championship, according to Bleacher Report. The Clippers and Kings also hid it, after fans made jokes about her having more banners than them, per Bleacher Report.

According to The Messenger, the arena does eventually have plans to put it back up. However, they are reportedly waiting until the Los Angeles Clippers leave to move to a different venue. (They are moving to the Intuit Dome near SoFi Stadium next year.) Crypto.com Arena is also being remodeled.

“We are going to look for a place to display it on the main concourse,” Crypto.com Arena’s President Lee Zeidman told the publication. “We want to make it a photo-op where fans can take a picture with it.”

“It’s folded up and locked away in a room here at the arena where we store other things,” he added, making sure that Swifties know that it is still safe and exists.

Here’s hoping it will return soon.

Donald Trump wants to Make America Respect the Queen Again.

The former president, who loves getting arrested, Diet Coke, and his family in that order, appeared on Hugh Hewitt’s conservative radio show The Hugh Hewitt Show on Wednesday. After a question about the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Sexes, for some reason, Trump was asked if he would do an on-camera conversation with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who “don’t like you much,” the host added, helpfully.

“Well, I don’t know that they don’t like me,” a sleepy-sounding Trump replied. “I said that I don’t think they are very appropriate what they’re saying, what they’re doing, and I didn’t like the way she dealt with the Queen. I became very friendly with the Queen. She was an incredible woman. At 95, she was so sharp. She was 100 percent. When you watch Biden, you say this is a different planet.”

Trump thinks Harry and Markle, who stepped down from their royal duties in 2020 for a life of not making podcasts, treated Queen Elizabeth with “great disrespect, and I didn’t like it. And I didn’t like the idea that they were getting U.S. security when they came over here. No, I think it’s not a good situation going on with the two of them, but I didn’t know that they don’t like me. Somebody mentioned it might be possible. They wouldn’t be the only ones.”

Hewitt: But I mean, that would get ratings, wouldn’t it?

Trump: Oh, if you want to set it up, let’s set it up. Let’s go do something. I’ll, I’d love to debate her. I would love it. I disagree so much with what…

On a scale of 1 to 10, how pissed is Piers Morgan about Trump not asking him to set up a debate with Markle? I’d say at least 12.

(Via The Recount)

Can anyone unseat saddest beer drinker and accidental text-message tweeter Ted Cruz in Texas? His enduring position as senator says much more about the state’s adherence to being red than anything else. Yet rivals keep lining up in an attempt to knock the Cancun Crusader down a few pegs. Beto O’Rourke couldn’t quite get there last time Ted was up for reelection, but can Colin Allred do the trick?

Never say never. Former Tennessee Titans player Colin Allred, who is currently representing Texas’ 32nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, believes that he’s got a shot. And he’s not alone, at least from the looks of a poll (commissioned by the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation and ABC affiliate station WFAA) that was taken in May of this year. The fact that this poll took place so early in this senatorial rivalry might not bode too well for Ted, if people are that eager to see him go, but Allred managed to trail Ted by only single digits (40% as opposed to 47%).

Newsweek noted another early poll from the University of Texas at Tyler, that showed Allred rising as well. This will, at the very least, make Ted sweat a little bit, perhaps even more than when he grew positively incandescent over the Barbie movie. Yet Ted wants everyone to know that he’s not impressed by Colin Allred, who tweeted about an appearance in Corpus Christi. In Ted’s mind, however, only “Six people in Corpus….” would support his rival.

It’s not exactly the most original swing of course, but I gotta wonder if Ted is actually letting it slip that he’s worried. He hasn’t run for office since his Cancun debacle, which could actually come back to bite him in the tush after he left his constituents to freeze while he jetted off to a tropical paradise. Whereas Allred is holding himself out as “a Senator who will find real solutions to issues we face every day.” Those issues includes ice storms, presumably.

When All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster singer Zach Bryan sold tickets to a tour earlier this year, he used the AXS platform to do so. He’s since announced the The Quittin Time Tour for 2024, and he revealed yesterday (September 5) that tickets would be sold through Ticketmaster. He didn’t seem happy about that fact, though, as he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Everyone complained about AXS last year. Using all ticketing sites this year. All my homies still do hate Ticketmaster but hard to realize one guy can’t change the whole system. It is intentionally broken and I’ll continue to feel absolutely horrible about the cost of tickets in an unfair market.”

Well, tickets went on sale today, and just as Bryan seemingly feared, fans are facing issues with Ticketmaster, so much so that Bryan and Ticketmaster are both trending topics on X.

Naturally, a lot of users shared similar jokes: One person wrote, “i love zach bryan but these ticket prices aren’t very ‘all my homies hate ticketmaster’ of him,” while another said, “Wtf happened to All My Homies Hating Ticketmaster. This Zach Bryan presale is ROUGH.”

As for the specific problems people are encountering, some are complaining about high prices, while others are having trouble with actually securing tickets due to a lot of traffic on the site.

Zach Bryan is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

This year marks a big one for Death Cab For Cutie. In 2003, the band released their fourth studio album, Transatlanticism, which proved to be a breakthrough album for them. Two decades after the fact, Death Cab has embarked on a special tour commemorating this special album.

The tour kicked off last night (September 5) at The Anthem in Washington DC, where Death Cab performed the album in its entirety (per setlist.fm). Later in the night, Death Cab’s lead vocalist Ben Gibbard performed as his side project, The Postal Service, in a special commemorative concert for the Give Up album, which was also released in 2003.

The tour for both albums will continue throughout the United States into October.

You can see the setlist for Death Cab For Cutie’s set, as well as the remaining tour dates below.

1. “The New Year”
2. “Lightness”
3. “Title And Registration”
4. “Expo ’86”
5. “The Sound Of Settling”
6. “Tiny Vessels”
7. “Transatlaticism”
8. “Passenger Seat”
9. “Death Of An Interior Decorator”
10. “We Looked Like Giants”
11. “A Lack Of Color”

09/08/2023 — Portland, ME @ Cross Insurance Arena
09/09/2023 — Kingston, RI @ The Ryan Center
09/10/2023 — New Haven, CT @ Westville Music Bowl
09/12/2023 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall At Fenway
09/13/2023 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall At Fenway
09/14/2023 — Washington, DC @ Merriweather Post Pavilion
09/17/2023 — Detroit, MI @ Meadow Brook Amphitheater
09/19/2023 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
09/20/2023 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
09/21/2023 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Mann Center
09/24/2023 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory
09/26/2023 — Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
09/27/2023 — Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
10/03/2023 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre
10/04/2023 — Las Vegas, NV @ The Theater At Virgin Hotels
10/06/2023 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
10/07/2023 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
10/09/2023 — Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre
10/10/2023 — Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre
10/11/2023 — Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre
10/13/2023 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
10/15/2023 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl

Death Cab For Cutie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Back in April, Universal Music Group issued a takedown notice after an AI-generated song imitating Drake and The Weeknd went viral on YouTube, but that somehow isn’t stopping the song from being considered for a Grammy Award. The song’s creator, an anonymous internet denizen going by “Ghostwriter,” has submitted the song to the Recording Academy, and it sounds like it’ll be taken seriously despite its dubious provenance.

The song, “Heart On My Sleeve,” used approximations of the two performers to sing a mopey breakup ballad supposedly about Selena Gomez (who was previously romantically involved with The Weeknd). It also generated plenty of criticism online from detractors who believed that its popularity undermined the creativity and individuality of the artists invoked. As one Twitter user put it, “The first immediate thing that stands out is that so much of this AI music is going after rap/hip hop and that’s how you can tell the people behind it have contempt for it.”

Apparently, that contempt extends to the Recording Academy (because of course it does). The Academy CEO, Harvey Mason, Jr., told The New York Times, “As far as the creative side, it’s absolutely eligible because it was written by a human.” I’m not so sure that’s the case (one generative AI “writes” Drake songs based on prompts provided by users after scraping existing Drake songs for cues), but Drake himself generally seems to frown on the illegal use of his likeness (or, in this case, his voice) for AI-generated songs, so that would be enough for me to disqualify this thing from contention — but I’m not an Academy member (yet) so, what do I know?

The Academy announced that AI-generated songs would be eligible in June, provided the songs were actually written by people, but despite later clarifications, it’s unclear how exactly the Academy intends to verify authorship.

The top of the 2024 NFL Draft is loaded with talent at premium positions. While there are guys at spots like wide receiver (Marvin Harrison Jr.), offensive tackle (Olu Fashanu, Joe Alt), and edge rusher (Jared Verse, Dallas Turner) who NFL teams would covet, everyone is looking for a quarterback, and in 2024, USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye are leading the pack at the position.

Williams, in particular, is viewed as a potentially franchise-changing talent, as the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner has spent his collegiate career coached by Lincoln Riley and has shown he has the arm, the legs, and the playmaking ability that NFL teams want in a quarterback. But in a recent piece by Sam Schube of GQ, Williams’ father, Carl, made clear that there’s no guarantee that he’ll make the jump to the NFL next year, citing the caliber of teams that usually end up picking No. 1 overall.

“The funky thing about the NFL draft process is, he’d almost be better off not being drafted than being drafted first. The system is completely backwards,” he says. “The way the system is constructed, you go to the worst possible situation. The worst possible team, the worst organization in the league—because of their desire for parity—gets the first pick. So it’s the gift and the curse. I mean, I’ve talked to Archie Manning—his career was shot because he went to a horrible organization. I’ve talked to Lincoln [Riley], and Kyler [Murray] struggled because of where he was drafted. Baker [Mayfield] struggled mightily because of where he was drafted. The organizations matter.” And there’s a break-in-case-of-emergency option that Carl is keeping in mind. “He’s got two shots at the apple,” he says. “So if there’s not a good situation, the truth is, he can come back to school.”

It’s a curious quote, in large part because it’s not like the team drafting No. 1 overall in 2025 projects to be a markedly better situation than the team drafting No. 1 overall in 2024. But the most interesting part comes when he brings up Riley’s analysis of why Murray has struggled in Arizona, as the Cardinals could very well be the team drafting first next year, whether that’s via their own pick or the first-round pick they’ll receive from the Houston Texans. (Additionally, recently-fired Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury is a senior offensive analyst for the Trojans.)

While the team would need to figure out what to do with Murray in that situation — he’s going to miss time this season due to his ongoing recovery from a knee injury, and he’s in the early days of a gigantic contract extension he signed last year — if they have the top pick, it stands to reason that Williams will be the overwhelming favorite to get selected. Now, it is worth mentioning that plenty of sports dads have said things that do not come to fruition over the years, and the most likely option in that scenario is that Williams goes No. 1 overall to the Cardinals. But at the very least, it’s interesting that someone in his circle is opening the door for a return to college in 2024 in an effort to avoid a bad situation in the NFL.

Last night at Washington DC’s The Anthem, The Postal Service made their grand return for their first concert performance since 2013. The reunion tour finds the group celebrating the 20th anniversary of their 2003 album, Give Up.

Given that Ben Gibbard is also part of The Postal Service, the tour is also a joint run with Death Cab For Cutie — giving tribute to their other album from that same year, Transatlanticism.

“I know for a fact I will never have a year again like 2003,” Gibbard previously said. “The Postal Service record came out, Transatlanticism came out. These two records will be on my tombstone, and I’m totally fine with that. I’ve never had a more creatively inspired year.”

For fans who are planning to catch the stacked tour at one of the upcoming stops, as the two bands are set to play in Boston, NYC, and other North American cities, you might be wondering what songs The Postal Service will be playing.

Thankfully, we have you covered. Continue scrolling for their opening night setlist, according to setlist.fm.

1. “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight”
2. “Such Great Heights”
3. “Sleeping In”
4. “Nothing Better”
5. “Recycled Air”
6. “Clark Gable”
7. “We Will Become Silhouettes”
8. “This Place Is A Prison”
9. “Brand New Colony”
10. “Natural Anthem”
11. “Such Great Heights” (Ben & Jenny only, Ben on acoustic guitar)
12. “Enjoy the Silence” (Depeche Mode cover) (with Death Cab For Cutie)

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In a rare move for Brian Kilmeade, the Fox & Friends host actually took aim at a Republican and dragged Congressman Matt Gaetz over his continued attempts to impeach Joe Biden.

Thanks to a lack of compelling evidence to connect the president to his son Hunter Biden‘s business dealings, Republican efforts to bring articles of impeachment have lost steam, but not without lack of trying. The GOP has doggedly tried to find something, anything, to nail Biden, but they keep coming up short despite demands. However, Gaetz has refused to back down and has even gone so far as to threaten replacing Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House to get the impeachment vote moving.

After co-host Ainsley Earhardt brought up Gaetz’s threat, Kilmeade tore into the Florida congressman. Via Raw Story:

“Who would he put there?” he asked. “[House Majority Leader] Steve Scalise, who’s dealing with blood cancer right now? Is there anybody else?”

“Matt Gaetz is just speaking into the wind,” Kilmeade added dismissively. “Have Matt Gaetz pick up the phone and call some moderate Republicans and see if he can switch to his side. McCarthy would be more than happy to let him do that.”

Earhardt backed up Kilmeade’s remark by noting that the GOP would obviously jump at a chance to impeach Biden if there was actually some evidence.

“Don’t you think that Republicans would be for this if there is more information, if they can get to the bottom, if [Rep. James Comer] can get proof and he can get to the bottom of that, then Republicans would be all for it?” Earhardt said. “But they definitely need that proof in order to start an impeachment.”

(Via Raw Story)