You are surely aware of how things got strange for Russia (and Vladimir Putin’s place as president) over the weekend. Late last week, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Putin’s private mercenary army (the Wagner Group), went HAM and accused Russian leadership of lying about its reasons for invading Ukraine. On Saturday, Prigozhin decided that he’d had enough of being angry about his soldiers being turned into hamburger meat on the battlefield. So, he rounded up his mercenaries and attempted a coup.
It still remains clear exactly what happened to make this a failed coup, but Prigozhin did lead an armed uprising and seized a key Russian military base, but he stopped before reaching Moscow. Now, Prigozhin has agreed to be exiled in Belarus, and he’s reportedly at the only available hotel where no one can jump out of windows, meaning that he won’t join the list of former Putin associates who have mysteriously fallen from great heights over the years.
Whether Prigozhin manages to stay alive, one can only guess. However, U.S. officials declared surprise over how quickly the matter began and deescalated over the weekend. Meanwhile, Majorie Taylor Greene dreamed up a conspiracy theory to accuse Biden of being behind the uprising, and a few Fox News hosts echoed a similar point. Here’s Fox Business host Maria Baritromo at her Fox News weekend gig, Sunday Morning Futures, where she, too, went into conspiracy-theory mode. In Baritromo’s mind, this uprising must have been intended as a distraction from Hunter Biden’s legal woes:
Bartiromo: The mainstream media has an excuse not to cover it. They’re covering everything about Russia and The Wagner Group as if it matters to the US right now pic.twitter.com/5nVpYy4sVe
“The White House wanted to give the media something else to cover and this is the M.O. This is the way they do things…. I said, ‘Wow, what a blockbuster WhatsApp message. I’m sure there will be an enormous story over the weekend that the White House will be pushing to take the story off the front page,’ and sure enough, we’ve got the State Department drumming up the drama that took place over the weekend in Russia. So I don’t know if it’s going to break through.”
Additionally, Rachel Campos-Duffy accused the U.S. of playing some sort of role in orchestrating the uprising, too. On that note, it’s worth mentioning that, way back in March, Brian Kilmeade shut down Campos-Duffy’s claim that the U.S. had provoked Russia to invade Ukraine.
In Russia, Putin appears to have shut down his Wagner Group nemesis’ uprising for the moment. However, an uprising by one’s own private army is not a good look no matter how it’s painted. The Russian president only recently admitted that Russia is performing abysmally, so perhaps more fireworks are on the way. Either that, or Putin has already retreated to his pickle-filled luxury hideout to lick his wounds.
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 Nicki Minaj continue her relentless streak of dropping new music and The Weeknd doing the exact same thing. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.
Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice — “Barbie World (With Aqua)”
The Barbz have been eating lately, as it seems like Minaj has a new song out every week. Last week yielded one that’s a pretty full-circle moment for the rapper: She officially entered the Barbie universe by linking up with Ice Spice on “Barbie World,” a fiery new take on the classic “Barbie Girl,” made for the upcoming Barbie movie.
The Weeknd, Jennie, and Lily-Rose Depp — “One Of The Girls”
Much like Minaj, The Weeknd has been a busy bee lately, sharing new songs from The Idol on a weekly schedule alongside the show. Part of last week’s dispatch was “One Of The Girls,” on which he, Blackpink’s Jennie, and Lily-Rose Depp go in on a very Weekend-esque atmospheric slow-burner.
Dominic Fike — “Mama’s Boy”
We’re now a couple weeks away from Sunburn, Dominic Fike’s new album (which has a heightened level of anticipation after he increased his foothold in the pop culture consciousness with a memorable role in Euphoria. His latest preview of the LP is “Mama’s Boy,” which Uproxx’s Danielle Chelosky describes as “an off-kilter, sputtering journey that offers an immersive atmosphere.”
GloRilla — “Put It On Da Floor (GloMix)”
Big week for GloRilla! She was named to the esteemed 2023 XXL Freshman Class and shortly after shared “Put It On Da Floor (GloMix).” The video sees her load up the plate set by Latto’s “Put It On Da Floor,” delivering a freestyle that sees GloRilla confidently and deservedly celebrating just how well she’s been doing.
Juice WRLD and Cordae — “Doomsday”
There’s apparently something left in the pool of posthumous Juice WRLD material to work with, as the late rapper just popped up on another new song. This time, it’s the Cordae team-up “Doomsday.” Notably, in the video, Juice WRLD appears via AI, and while that might taste sour to some, it’s well-executed and Juice WRLD was close with both Cordae and video director Cole Bennett.
Young Thug — “Parade On Cleveland” Feat. Drake
Gunna recently dropped a new album, then last week, we saw the other side of the coin when Young Thug unveiled a project of his own, Business Is Business. He and Drake team up for “Parade On Cleveland,” and on the track, Thug keeps his head up regarding being behind bars: “Hands down / Yeah, the big dog coming back / Think you good?…Pants down, you smoking crack.”
Coi Leray — “Get Loud”
Earlier this month, Leray let it known that she’d like to team up with hip-hop’s best women rappers for an all-star collaboration, which would ideally be the first No. 1 hip-hop song of the year. Even if that doesn’t end up coming to fruition, Leray represents the rap ladies well on her new album Coi. “Get Loud” is an in-your-face highlight, which features a guest appearance from soccer star Trinity Rodman in the video.
Maisie Peters — “Run”
Peters’ debut album, 2021’s You Signed Up For This, made her a star in her native UK. Now it’s time to see if her just-released second album, The Good Witch, can expand her reach. It oughta with songs like “Run,” a rundown of dating red flags presented in a kinetic, propulsive pop package.
Militarie Gun — “Life Under The Gun”
Militarie Gun recently told Uproxx of the road to their new album, Life Under The Gun, “We had all these songs written and demoed for the third time before we ever played a show. If we were impatient, we could’ve released All Roads Lead To The Gun earlier and went straight into releasing these songs before we ever started touring, but we knew how good the songs were so it was easy for us to have restraint
Peso Pluma — “Lady Gaga”
Peso Pluma, a major name in modern Mexican music, recently told Uproxx, “I’ve listened to Lady Gaga, but we really named the song that because there’s a verse that says that she wears sunglasses on her face like Lady Gaga. I remember Lady Gaga wore extravagant sunglasses at different types of galas. Like exotic [sunglasses]. It’s an exotic corrido and that’s why we called it ‘Lady Gaga.’”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
If you know anything about these Australian rockers, you’re probably aware that they don’t normally make metal albums about witches and dragons and shit. Of course, they don’t “normally” make any kind of album. Focusing on the prolificacy and eclecticism of King Gizzard is a trope of every interview profile and record review ever written about them. But it’s also impossible to avoid. It would be like writing about Lee Harvey Oswald and not centering on his unfortunate run-in with John F. Kennedy. In the case of PetroDragonic Apocalypse, the album marks a dramatic shift from the bounty of music — five LPs in all — the Giz put out in 2022, which generally had a jammier edge. That jazzy, crunchy, and party-friendly sensibility have made them darlings among music fans who sit at the nexus of loving both the Grateful Dead and garage-punk indie rock. (Which is a much larger audience than the media might have you believe.)
But King Gizzard is nothing if not unpredictable, and PetroDragonic Apocalypse represents a deliberate zag from last year’s zig. Though it’s not unprecedented in the band’s overall body of work: 2019’s Infest The Rats’ Next, their 15th LP for those keeping score, was their first foray into heavy music. After that record, they pivoted hard again with 2021’s Butterfly 3000, a collection of poppy electronic songs.
For newcomers — and even relatively casual admirers like myself — staying on top of this band’s myriad musical adventures can seem like a full-time job. To help make sense of (part) of King Gizzard’s sprawling catalog, I recently did a Zoom call with founding member Joey Walker during a break in their recent U.S. tour, which wrapped last week ahead of a run of dates in Europe that begin in late July.
12 Bar Bruise (2012)
There were these bizarre proto-Gizzard shows that we were doing in maybe 2010, where we had this revolving lineup of members and friends. Anyone who wanted to play and could play. In 2011, the lineup became cemented. We weren’t necessarily hitting the road, because the shows were just on the east coast of Australia. But we were playing as much as we could.
As the first full-length album, it was the first iteration of us doing anything like that. We were just stabbing around in the dark a bit, in terms of process. The notion of even going to a studio was still really novel. It was ultra exciting. I mean, Stu was definitely spearheading that whole thing. It felt like he was leading the way, and it just materialized.
There were heaps of overdubs that were recorded like a voice memo on an iPhone. I think we recorded a lot of the vocals on a 10-watt PV solid state piece of crap amp. Stu did a lot of the vocals on that. But in terms of recording the beds — the main drums, bass, guitar elements of the album — we went into a studio. And then after the fact, we went in and mixed it in that same studio in Melbourne.
It’s one of our most cohesive albums, I think, in terms of the sound. We wear our influences on our sleeves on that one. There’s some big old nods to The Osees and that garage scuzzy rock thing that was happening then. It might have been a bit of a blip on the radar, that garage rock thing that the Osees were leading at the time. But to us, it felt like the be-all-and-end-all. It was the center of the universe, that world. It was the first of many versions of that, just dipping our toes into what it’s like to be in a band. We were still working out dynamics interpersonally, and what roles we had to fill.
Eyes Like The Sky (2012)
There’s a song on 12 Bar Bruise called “Sam Cherry’s Last Shot,” which is spaghetti western sounding surf rock song. We were all in our early 20s and trying to be like Nick Cave. I’d just dress up like Nick Cave or Warren Ellis, and go to parties, and walk around trying to wear a suit or something like that. And I remember I was reading Blood Meridian, that Cormac McCarthy book, and I got an excerpt of an audiobook on YouTube. And I played that over “Sam Cherry’s Last Shot.”
That was the inception of being like, “Fuck, we should maybe investigate this.” One thing led to another, and Ambrose [Kenny Smith’s] dad, Broderick, who unfortunately just passed away, but he is this Australian music icon from the ’60s and ’70s. He was in a blues boogie band called Carson, which was deeply influential on us in the early days. The Australian take on American-style rock boogie thing. He’s also a writer, constantly doing stuff, and he had this audiobook that we scored. Once we knew what it was going to be, it came together quite quickly. Like a lot of albums, we were feeling around in the dark for some form of concept or some form of parameter. Once those are dialed in, the album comes together really quickly. We’re really efficient at that these days.
Float Along — Fill Your Lungs (2013)
At that time it was pure naivety. Not knowing, no plan for the future, no idea as to what we’d be, or if we’d make another album. It was quite a haphazard sense of what would happen. We’d only been a band for 18 months or something, and it was just like, “What the fuck is this?”
It was well and truly more than a few albums in when I felt like, “Oh, okay, maybe this is a thing that we’ll keep doing, moving on to something that’s exciting to us.” But [at first], I was just assuming that we would be doing that garage rock type of record again. After that was Float Along, which is less cohesive. It was us experimenting, going down a bit more of a psychedelic path.
I was in awe of Stu’s ability to just throw something out there and move forward and commit to whatever that was. I was a lot more pedantic. I would overthink it, like, “Oh, this sounds too much like that.” Whereas he just never had that neurological setup in his brain. It didn’t feel like he thought twice about that type of stuff. He used to say, “It’s just a song, it’s not the first or last thing you will ever do. If it’s a shit song, just make another one.”
Quarters! (2015)
My natural way of thinking back in the early days was, “OK, cool, that’s an album. Let’s breathe for a second.” But Stu was like, “Let’s keep going.”
We weren’t really jamming anywhere near close to the degree we are right now on stage. But on I’m Your Mind Fuzz, which I think preceded Quarters! there’s some little moments, like “Slow Jam 1,” which go into a little bit into that territory of what became Quarters! So it’s like, “Oh, cool, that’s fun. Let’s do that.” That was definitely the first iteration of us trying to jam in an improvised way. The album recordings were products of live-take jams, and then we would stitch it all together.
As for “the 10-minute-10-second thing” with all four tracks, it was like, “Oh, we have a couple of long-form songs.” And for whatever reason, they were all around nine minutes. “The River” went for 10 minutes, and then another one went for 10 minutes. And then Stu was like, “I reckon we can get all of these songs the exact same length.” So all of a sudden the concept just materializes. And then you’re like, “Okay, the four songs, they all go from the same time. Quarters!, obviously.” There’s a little bit more foresight or calculation that we employ these days, but back then it just capitalizing on happy accidents.
Nonagon Infinity (2016)
“Robot Stop” and “Gamma Knife” were the first time we were properly starting to fuck with odd time signatures in a way that was at the core of what the album felt like, or was a thing that we were building the album around. And playing with motif — referencing melodies or ideas or words that happened more than once throughout the album.
Stu came up with an idea: “Imagine if it ends in the same way it starts, so you can just have it on loop, and they’d just link up.” And that was pretty much it. It was just like, “Fuck, let’s make this album, the whole album, on loop.” And then once we had that, we titled the album Nonagon Infinity. The blending of all the songs, and linking stuff together, that was the first time we really worked on doing that. When it was finished, I was like, “Fuck, how did we do that?”
For a lot of people, it is an entry point into the band, or the first time they heard the band. We were all ultra proud of it. What we were as a band and our identity started to come a bit more into the clear for us.
Murder Of The Universe (2017)
Stu and I in particular are fairly big sci-fi heads. There’s a book that had a huge impact on me, a lesser-known Philip K. Dick — I think it was his last book — called Valis. I picked that up on tour in the early days. I think we were in Chicago. I’d read A Scanner Darkly and some of the classics. But I got Valis, and it literally fucked me up. It’s actually this semi-autobiographical account of Philip K. Dick, when he was completely fucked up on acid and psychedelics for a long period of time. He was living in an altered reality, and the world around him was oblivious to that. He has this theophany, this religious experience, that ends up being this alien. Anyway, it sounds crazy, but I feel like a lot of etymology of Gizzard lore has come from that book, especially with my writing.
Infest The Rat’s Nest (2019)
Infest The Rats’ Nest was 100 percent like, We’re going to make a heavy album. That was me, Stu and Cavs, the drummer. Us three are the only people in the band that grew up listening to heavy music. By now we had weaponized the genre-jumping thing. It’s just what we’re defined by. But if we were going to do a heavy record, we wanted it to do it our way and be confident about it. As soon as we started doing it and committing to it, we also had a lot more of an idea of our sound, a King Gizzard sound. We felt confident enough to commit, and be like, “Oh, we’ll make it our own.” Even though you can hear all of the influences that went into it — obviously Metallica and Slayer and Tool. Tool is huge for Stu, myself, and Cavs. I was probably 13-years-old when Lateralus came out, and I remember I was just insanely obsessed with it. Had no idea what a time signature was. I remember just playing along to what I now know are fairly complex guitar riffs, and I feel like that actually was quite an important thing in terms of my development.
But yeah, that was a completely and utterly calculated experiment. We were just fucking throwing shit at the wall in that respect.
Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, And Lava (2022)
Part of the concept was just going through all of the modes of the major scale. All of the song titles start with the first letter of each mode of the major scale. The first track “Mycelium,” it sounds like this almost reggae or African-type thing, because it’s played with a major scale. And then as it moves through the songs, or the scales, they grow just due to the simple nature of what notes you’re playing. They can sound more dissonant, or more dark. Before we even jammed, it was like, “This jam is going to be in the Phrygian scale,” which is very metal sounding. So just due to its very nature, you know it’s going to have a Soviet marching feel. It could only go one way, just due to just the nature of the notes you were using.
PetroDragonic Apocalypse (2023)
After making the Ice, Death, Planets album, and making Changes, those are meandering, jammy kinds of albums, and the temperament of them is a lot more placid. I think often we’ll just be like, “Fuck, we need to expel some energy or something.” But even though sonically it is vastly different, the actual process of how we made Petro is similar to how he made those albums. Especially the Ice, Death record, it’s, that was a product of all of us jamming, stitching the jams together, and then creating the song out of that. And then writing lyrics as a collective. Then we were like, “Fuck, I reckon that would work really, really well if we tried to do a metal version of that.” So that’s where we went with that. When I look back on the recording, the Petro record, it felt so sunny. It was just so fun to do that stuff. I see Petro as a playful, tongue firmly planted in cheek album.
We made that Butterfly 3000 record, which is purely electronic, and we haven’t really had enough time or wherewithal to incorporate a lot of that style into the live show. So more of the electronic stuff, I feel like are we’re going to do that and jam it moving forward. Therefore it’s about trying to work out a way in which we can do that. What gear do we get? How do we fucking implement a MIDI so we can all be in time?
We’ve just started doing that on this tour, and I’ve got my modular synthesizer. I feel like that’s going to start to really penetrate how we play live. And it’s cool for me, because I’ve always played guitar my whole life, but dance music and electronic music kind of is my jam the most. That’s what I listen to. The other guys never did at all. I would kind of be the butt of some jokes, like, “Fucking hell, go listen to your doof-music and shit.” But I feel like it’s just inevitable. If you like music, you might dismiss electronic music, but eventually, it’s like jazz. If you actually give it the time, or you experience it in the right context, it’s undeniably some of the purest form of music. So the other guys are starting to be excited by that.
I definitely know we won’t make a reggae album. But you also never know. I fucking love that shit. And we have rap songs now. So nothing is sacred in this band.
For years, people have been asking Damian Lillard about his future with the Blazers and, for years, he has insisted he wants to stay in Portland for the rest of his career.
Since then, there have been seemingly daily updates on Dame, ranging from “he did not contact the Blazers front office on Draft night” to “he really likes Miami but still wants to make it work with Portland.” He can’t be traded until the second week of July because of when he signed his extension last year, which likely means two more weeks of this posturing until something more concrete comes of it. That is bad news for all of us who are very tired of hearing about the passive-aggressive dealings behind the scenes, and you can count ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins among those who is tired of seeing Dame’s name on the rundown each day.
“At this point… I’m tired of talking about [the trade rumors]… I’m starting to think that he’s trolling… This relationship has ran it’s course when it comes down to Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers.”
When you’ve lost Perk, a man whose commitment to hot takes is astounding, it says something. Perk is an analyst who will overreact to a small sample or a slight shift with the best of them, but even he cannot handle the constant Dame non-update updates.
His point about this likely coming down to when Portland pulls the plug is likely correct, as Lillard clearly doesn’t want to be the one to issue a trade request. He can push buttons and make it clear what he wants, but he’s dug in too often for too long to want to be the side that breaks first. The Blazers, however, can take a look at the reality of the situation which, as Perk notes, is that this isn’t a roster that’s just an upgrade or two away from being a contender, and help make that decision for Dame, understanding what he wants out of a trade and move on from there. It certainly seems like the team has already made their choice with their draft day moves, but it’s possible there’s one more thing up their sleeve to start free agency.
Again, we’re likely going to get another week-plus of this same cycle until the Blazers either make a splashy move that few around the league see as being available to them, or Lillard becomes trade eligible and the two sides finally part ways. You can count Perk out of those discussions, if he has it his way, but I’m sure he’ll be back next week being asked the same things and only growing more exasperated.
“I got one heel on, one heel off. OK. I’m not gonna cry this year. Shout out to God,” Latto said in her speech. “He be doin’ his big one on me! Shout out to all the other women in the category. All the women who paved the way for this to even be possible. This category is going crazy this year. Oh! Shout out to some women who I think should have been in the category. Doechii, I love you, baby. Maiya The Don, Flo Milli, Mello Buckzz, TiaCorine. Shout out to all the women. We killin’ it.”
She continued, “This is the year of the female. Year of women. Hopefully, we gon’ see an all-female tour, you feel me? Very soon. Keep killin’ it. Mama, I love you. And thank you to my man.”
The unbridled celebration continued online, as Latto posted a video of her shaking her head and squealing in utter excitement. “Put it on da floor, b*tch!” she said to the camera while stomping her foot (now wearing pink slippers). “Put it on the mothaf*ckin’ floor, b*tch! Put it on da floor, b*tch!”
Though they don’t get much chance to share the screen so far this season onThe Righteous Gemstones, there’s a two sides of the same coin effect when it comes to John Goodman’s Eli Gemstone and Walton Goggins’ Baby Billy that’s been made even clearer as the show has gone on. Specifically, after Baby Billy found a higher value in family, reconnecting with his adult son at the end of last season with another child on the way. Family is, above all other things, at the heart of the show. Even if it threatens to jeopardize the family business, undo careful planning, and bring chaos to the Gemstones’ doorway (and nearby highways).
Uproxx spoke with Goodman and Goggins about the importance of family to these characters, how looming mortality is driving Eli’s actions, and how a sense of self continues to propel Baby Billy. We also discuss that amazing season 3 introduction to Goggins’ character last night, getting a little insight into how what he calls a “psychological montage” and “quasi-music video” came to be. Naturally, we talk a little Justified at the end while also discussing the thrill of sharing TV and movies with the ones you love and the larger pop culture community.
John, last season, there was some action thrown in and a lot of the stuff with Eric Roberts. This season, it has seemed like you’re more deeply connecting with the family side. Can you talk about that change a little?
John Goodman: Yeah, he’s alienated his sister’s family. He thought he was doing them a favor and he did not. They got some bad information and they resent him, mightily. I think they resented him anyway because he was successful and they had no claim on success. They didn’t want it. They preferred the way that they lived, but there was resentment there nonetheless. It’s trying to deal with that in a rational and sane manner and not getting any response in a rational and sane manner that makes for humor. It’s pretty funny when you have to deal with insane people and that’s pretty much my job as Eli is just dealing with crazy people.
Is it the fact that he’s retired and he has less to do that focuses him more on that or is it more of a sort of thing where he’s glimpsing mortality, getting older?
Goodman: Yeah, there’s a lot of, you don’t want to lay down for your dirt nap with your family mad at you. It takes a lot of guts and a lot of internal forgiveness to try to help these people and you have to humble yourself and make amends for the things he screwed up. He is just trying to get this all down. He’s done nothing but hard work his whole life and he wants to slow down. He wants to but he keeps getting sucked into adventures.
Walton, obviously your character went through a little bit of that last season where you reconnected with your son. When we pick up this season with his return in episode three, how changed is Baby Billy? Is he committed to being a great father, a great family man?
Walton Goggins: Yeah, I think he’s laid all that pain down. I think he got what he was looking for, which was forgiveness from his son. This season he is deeply in love with his child and his child that’s on the way, but more importantly, his wife. He respects her and loves her and cares for her. He’s as conniving as ever and desperately wants to succeed and he’s an idea man. He always has something going on. And to get to just stay in that lane and to be singularly focused on one thing was an anomaly for him and for me as an actor. I just absolutely loved it. There wasn’t a lot of heavy emotional lifting for Baby Billy this season and it fulfilled a dream that I’ve always had, which is at least hosting a television show, even if he ripped off Family Feud to do it. It’s so bananas, it’s so crazy.
This feels par for the course for him, wanting to get onto a bigger stage. The game show, like you mentioned, is part of that. But is this about him wanting to make sure that he can always provide for his family or is it more still the ego and just making sure that he has his share of the spotlight?
Goggins: No, man, I think it’s both. I think you just hit on it. I think that in a more kind of obtuse way, he’s experiencing the same thing that Eli is experiencing and he understands that he’s getting older and there’s not a lot of time left to do the things that he wants to do. And so, yeah, that’s a part of it, his family. But also he feels like his star can shine brighter and he can be used differently. I think he’s right, to be quite honest with you. And so this was the latest attempt at that and you have to watch it to see how it all plays out. But it’s pretty great, man.
I’m just thinking about the first glimpse of you this season where he’s having this great musical moment by the pool. It’s such an amazing costume. I’m curious about your role in that and just how powerful it is for you to be just dressed like that. How does that sort of drive the performance?
Goggins: Sarah Trost was the wardrobe designer for the two seasons ofVice Principals and the first two seasons of the Gemstones. She’s someone that I trust implicitly but they brought on a new wardrobe designer this year, Christina Flannery, because Sarah had a conflict. I did a movie called Them That Followwith her (Flannery), and she’s extraordinary in what she was able to do on that movie. So I turned myself over to them. And the very first day I got down there and I saw what she had in mind, even though I had an idea of what the clam shell was, I saw a drawing of it. Just the outfit itself made me feel like Elvis. It was extraordinary. What she did, stepping into those shoes was I think one of the greatest achievements I’ve seen on a show in a very long time. These are very big shoes to fill and she did it without a hitch. She stepped right in and the day that we were filming that episode they brought this clamshell out and I put it on, it went to places that I had no idea it was going to go.
Danny (McBride) directed that episode and he had ideas for this and turned it into a quasi-music video and the way that Baby Billy sees himself, it’s like a psychological montage, if you will. I just thought it was brilliant, man. I had no idea that it was going to go that way. Once we got there and he was telling me how he wanted to block it and how he wanted to do it, and we had all of these extras and then all of a sudden it just turned into a typical day on The Righteous Gemstones or a Rough House production, which is one of imagination and joy and hard work.
Not that Eli doesn’t look sharp, but any envy for the costumes that Walton gets to wear?
Goodman: Not one millimeter.
Goggins: Come on, John.
Come on, man. He’s tremendous in the clamshell.
Goodman: I would, but it just ain’t my style. And they don’t make those big. When you go to the big and tall shops, they’re just out.
(Laughs) Are you dutiful viewers of the show? I’ve talked to some other people (from other shows) where it’s like, “Eh, sometimes I don’t want to watch myself.” What about you guys?
Goodman: I like to watch it. I don’t like watching myself. I always have notes, but I like watching what everybody else is doing. Because I’m a big fan of everybody on the show and they crack me up, so that’s why I watch.
If an older movie of yours comes on, will you sit and watch?
Goodman: It depends. I don’t mind them as much as I used to. There’s stuff I see in there that I just want to do over and that’s gone. But there are some that I would rather not see, but I don’t mind it.
What about you, Walton?
Goggins: Yeah, I watch this show because I love it. Like John said, to see what everybody else is doing. And it makes me laugh. But my thing is I won’t watch this show with my wife or friends. I watch it alone and I really won’t watch anything that I’ve done with anyone else. I’ve only ever seen most things one time. If something comes on, no, I’ll turn it off or I’ll just kind of skip it. Although I am finally at a place with my kid, I did watch The Apostle, I watched parts of The Apostle. That came on and it was like, what? That was 30 years ago, almost 28 years ago. But I did finally start watching some things that I’ve done with my son because he’s 12 now. And the pandemic really started his cinephilic experience and we’ve gone all over the map from this to this and including Kobayashi and Samurai Rebellion. I’ve taken him all over the map and he really loves movies and really gets them. I have just kind of started watching things with him and it’s very exciting. I just showed him Kill Bill because he is a big, big karate guy. Just so that he gets an introduction to Quentin and then I’ll probably show him Hateful Eight next and that’s exciting. I’m excited about seeing some of this shit because I’m watching it with him for as long as he can take it without wanting to vomit or get cringe-y.
Might be weird, but are you looking forward to watching Justified City Primeval and seeing where that goes?
Goggins: Oh, I am very much looking forward to it. No, it’s not weird at all. I’m excited to see Raylan Givens again and Boyd Holbrook. I’m such a big fan of his and Michael Dinner and Dave Andron and Graham Yost, that’s my family. Like The Righteous Gemstones is my family. Look, John Goodman has a lot of families and if you’ve been around for a long time, yeah, I got a lot of families too. And so, is it bittersweet? I mean, of course. Boyd Crowder is still very, very close to me, but it was not the time for either one of those things to meet, but I’ll be watching it all the way to the bitter end. How about yourself? Will you be watching it to the end?
Oh, a hundred percent. I was a late adopter. I did not watch the show full through until about a year ago and I just couldn’t stop myself. Stayed up till three in the morning watching five episodes a night. Very much looking forward to these.
Goggins: Got to, you got to watch every one of these, man. Got to.
I love this show too. I’ve been with this show since the start. I just watched the first five of this season. I’d like to slow it down a little. I like to watch it with everybody else.
Goodman: It’s fun to watch with other people.
Yeah, it’s that kind of thing, the weekly rollout. It’s nice to just see people talking about it and have those conversations. I like that more than the binge.
Goggins: I mean, not that you’re asking this question, I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but because the three of us are here, HBO does it right, man. I think binge television is over. Personally for me, my household that is, we’re not doing it and maybe we’ll save up a couple of weeks or whatever, do a couple of episodes, but I have so missed the anticipation and the anxiety in my gut and the excitement and the joy and that’s what we’re doing with our kid. It’s like, buddy, it’s good, isn’t it? You want to watch the next one? Well, we got to wait a week to do it. I love it.
I think it (the weakening of the binge model) was a side effect of the pandemic. I think we all needed that communal kind of ability to talk about a show, that water cooler feeling wherever it takes place. I think that’s what we’re getting now.
Goodman: This weekend was a prime example, man, watching that last Succession.
And Barry and Ted Lasso. But now all the competition’s cleared. Now you guys are top of the heap, so you got that.
Goggins: The top, the very top! Standing on the top of the hill!
I haven’t watched the end. I hope this isn’t like a series finale. I hope you guys are with us for a couple more seasons. You got the crown now. Stick with it is all I’m saying.
Goodman: Yeah.
[A brief moment of silence]
Goggins: (Laughs) I’m not giving anything away! Crickets.
‘The Righteous Gemstones’ airs Sundays on HBO and MAX.
The 1975’s Matty Healy has become a bit of a controversial figure in recent times, whether it’s for supposedly dating Taylor Swift or all the wild stuff he does on stage. Among those who are tired of him is Rina Sawayama, which she made clear at Glastonbury this weekend.
While introducing “STFU!” during her set, she told the crowd, “I wrote this because I was sick and tired of these micro-aggressions. So tonight, this goes out to a white man that watches Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters! I’ve had enough!”
Rina Sawayama calls out Matty Healy before playing her song ‘STFU!’ at Glastonbury:
“I wrote this because I was sick & tired of these micro-aggressions. This goes out to a white man that watches Ghetto Gaggers & mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters. I’ve had… pic.twitter.com/t68NanCXyl
While she didn’t mention Healy by name, the information she cited narrows it down pretty clearly.
As for what Sawayama is talking about: In a February episode of The Adam Friedland Show, after Healy mentioned Ice Spice, the hosts tried to guess her ethnicity, while mocking accents of Hawaiian, Inuit, and Chinese people. While Healy didn’t participate, he did laugh along. Meanwhile, Sawayama is signed to Dirty Hit, the record label of which The 1975’s members are shareholders.
Last month, Healy noted of reactions to his controversies, “It doesn’t actually matter. Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, ‘What’s wrong, darling,’ and they go, ‘It’s just this thing with Matty Healy.’ That doesn’t happen.” In April, he apologized to Ice Spice on stage, saying, “I don’t want anything like that misconstrued to be mean. I’m not… I hate… I don’t mind being a bit of a joker. […] It’s OK for me to be, like, a trickster or whatever, but I don’t want to be perceived as, like, being barmy. Because honestly, I just love you guys, and I love doing this.”
The Flash stumbled out of the gate for its opening weekend, and the situation did not improve going into the Ezra Miller film’s second weekend. Despite the prominent return of Michael Keaton’s Batman, which was heavily featured in trailers and TV spots, The Flash saw a 72% drop in box office. There hasn’t been a drop that big since Morbius, which took a 75% hit going into its second weekend.
As for the overall box office winners, there was more bad news for The Flash. The speedster film just barely beat the new Jennifer Lawrence comedy, No Hard Feelings, to come in third place. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse took the top spot with Pixar’s Elemental coming in second.
The news for DC and Warner Bros.’ big-budget superhero pic The Flash — which opened last weekend opposite Elemental to a sobering $55.1 million — grew worse as it fell off 72 percent to $15.3 million for a domestic cume of $87.6 million. Unlike Elemental, The Flash received poor exit scores. (The studio had hoped for a decline of 55 percent.) Insiders concede the film, starring Ezra Miller, is a huge miss and is being rejected by audiences on a wholesale basis.
The hits keep on coming. The Flash is also underperforming overseas. According to THR, the film earned “$26.6 million in its second weekend from 76 markets for a foreign cume of $123.3 million and $210.9 million globally.”
Jon Hamm got married to actress Anna Osceola this weekend at Anderson Canyon in Big Sur, where the retreat portion of the Mad Men series finale was filmed. The pair, who met on the set of the AMC series (she played pigtailed Clementine in the final episode), walked down the aisle to “You Only Live Twice” from the Bond movie of the same name. The wedding was attended by Larry David, Paul Rudd, and Tina Fey, among other celebrity pals.
The actor married Anna Osceola Saturday after getting engaged last year … and after dating for two years. They’d actually met on the set of Mad Men in 2015… and apparently circled back with each other after Jon split with his longtime partner, Jennifer Westfeldt.
TMZ reports that there were Mad Men-themed cocktails at the wedding, which is kind of missing the point of the show. But at the same time, it would be fun to order a Lane’s Rum Punch at Jon Hamm’s wedding.
”It’s only been in the last couple of years, me kind of sitting down and really thinking about all that stuff, that’s made the relationship that I’m in now even more meaningful and opened up the possibility of things like being married, having kids, defining a new version of happiness, life, wellness,” Hamm told Howard Stern in 2022. “It sounds hokey and whatever, but it’s real and it’s — for what of a better word — it’s what I’m working for.”
Instead of promoting her freshly released album, Coi, Leray layered a tribute within the tribute by rocking a black-and-white two-piece set boasting names of several other power women rappers such as Bia, Cardi B, Dej Loaf, Doechii, Doja Cat, Gangsta Boo, GloRilla, Ice Spice, Latto, Lola Brooke, Missy Elliott, Saweetie, and more still.
Coi Leray rocks outfit with Female rappers names on it to the #BETAwards
In addition to Leray, Busta’s tribute performance included accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award from Swizz Beatz and running through verses from “MOP’s ‘Ante Up’ and A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Scenario’ remixes, his verse from Chris Brown’s ‘Look At Me Now,’ and his hits ‘Break Ya Neck,’ ‘Give It To Me,’ ‘New York Sh*t,’ ‘Touch It,’ and ‘Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See,’ … [and] finished with his new song with BIA, ‘Beach Ball’ and a tribute to his Jamaican roots,” as recapped by Uproxx’s Aaron Williams.
Leray was nominated for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, which Latto claimed, while “Players” was up for BET Her, which Beyoncé won with “Break My Soul.”
Watch the full tribute performance above, and Rhymes’ acceptance speech below.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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: Courtesy of BET 
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