Category: Viral

If you weren’t living under a rock in the 2010s, you’re probably familiar with the phrase “live, laugh, love.” The motivational slogan was pervasive in everything from home decor to clothing, and even became a popular tattoo. It eventually became so ubiquitous that it became “cringe,” but with Chastity Belt’s upcoming fifth studio album Live Laugh Love, the Pacific Northwest-based rock band is embracing the cringe. They’re reclaiming the phrase and using it to describe how grateful they feel to still be making music together after over a decade as a band.

On the upcoming album, which drops Friday, Chastity Belt approached making music with vigor, levity, and compassion. But as a whole, the record is about celebrating their friendship and their time making music in the studio together. And that sense of playfulness can be heard in the grunge-inspired melodies throughout the album. On catchy tracks like “Hallow,” “Funny,” and “Blue,” they inject both wisdom and humor into topics like isolation, growth, and change; “Don’t get upset about it / It’s gonna pass / Tell all your friends about it / They’re gonna laugh.”

Ahead of the release of Live Laugh Love, the band sits down with Uproxx to talk Angel Olsen, medieval harmonies, and Boggle in our latest Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Julia: Spacious, introspective, subtle, intuitive.

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

Lydia: In 2050 we will all have just turned 60 and we will still be playing music together so no one will have to remember us – I do hope that they are impressed by our lasting friendship.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

Annie: Dang one person?! Impossible to pick one person. I have always been very inspired by the Fleetwood Mac. We got to see them together as a band in 2015 and it was inspiring and magical to share that experience together.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life and what was it?

Annie: I recently started eating meat after being vegetarian/vegan for nearly 20 years and the hand-torn noodle chicken soup from 101 Noodle Express in Alhambra is the most delicious and comforting food I have ever tasted.

Tell us about the best concert you’ve ever attended.

Lydia: Angel Olsen played a series of solo shows at the Tote in Melbourne. I went to two of them and it was really fascinating how different the vibe of each night was in spite of her performing almost the same set. This was one of my favorite concert experiences not just because of the beautiful music, but also because it confirmed for me how much a concert can be a collective experience.

What song never fails to make you emotional?

Gretchen: “This Woman’s Work” by Kate Bush.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

Julia: “Ab implant woman.” Just curious what they would look like.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

Julia: We stayed at this really nice ranch once and got to ride four-wheelers around their acres upon acres of property.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform and what’s the city you hope to perform in for the first time?

Gretchen: We always have really fun shows in San Francisco. I’d love to play any city in Japan!

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Gretchen: Spend less time playing sports and start playing music instead.

What’s one of your hidden talents?

Julia: I’m EXTREMELY good at Boggle. No one has ever beaten me.

If you had a million dollars to donate to charity, what cause would you support and why?

Annie: If I had a million dollars, I would divide it up and donate – directly to people seeking gender-affirming care, Palestinian families struggling to survive during an active genocide, Shout Your Abortion… It is so dark and twisted that people have to turn to raising money for themselves to have their basic needs met. Abolish billionaires forever.

What are your thoughts about AI and the future of music?

Julia: I’d love to hear an AI-generated Chastity Belt song.

You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you and the location it would be held.

Lydia: Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett, Darren Hanlon, Radiohead, and Jay Som at Gundlach Bundschu Winery in Sonoma.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on social media?

Julia: @crisis.acting. There’s some wild videos on that account, highly recommend.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

Annie: During senior year of college, we had our first show in Seattle and decided to get tattoos from the Lesbian Mayor of Seattle – Lisa Orth (amazing artist). I wanted an outline of a pentagon and she thought I said pentagram so I showed up and she had printed out a pentagram and I was ALMOST too shy and nervous to correct her.

What is your pre-show ritual?

Gretchen: We all sing/wail together in a chorus of medieval harmonies.

Who was your first celebrity crush?

Lydia: Viggo Mortensen.

You have a month off and the resources to take a dream vacation. Where are you going and who is coming with you?

Lydia: Annie, Gretchen, Julia and I hire our friend Darren Hanlon to take us on a three week tour of all his favorite places across Australia, then all five of us fly over to Bali for a week of snorkeling and recovering from our wild time in the outback.

What is your biggest fear?

Gretchen: Falling through that little gap between the tarmac and the plane when I’m boarding an airplane.

Live Laugh Love is out 3/29 via Suicide Squeeze. Find more information here.

Ari Lennox may not have enjoyed all of the attention she got as a member of J. Cole’s Dreamville Records roster, but a little commotion for one’s birthday is rarely a bad thing, right?

With that in mind, Ari drew more than her fair share of attention with her beachside birthday pics, in which she sports a chain bikini and a cover-up dress of the same material by the ocean and in a studio. The Instagram post is generating a ton of engagement and even has fans on Twitter sharing their surprisingly respectful reactions (a favorite: “she looks like she smells good”).

It’s a nice reversal of the usual invective with which the singer has been faced over the course of her career. Despite some hiccups during the “fans throwing things at artists” point of the post-pandemic live music recovery, her fortunes have turned around plenty. After going sober in 2023 (she celebrated a year sober in December), she has apparently been off-the-grid and in the studio, judging from her Instagram Story.

Hopefully, this means the newly minted 33-year-old will have new music on the way, but if nothing else, may confirm fans’ suspicions that she was missing from this year’s Dreamville Fest flyer because she’s been working on her next move. Happy birthday, Ari!

Quarterbacks are the dominant topic of conversation in the 2024 NFL Draft, as is often the case. It’s the most important position on the football field in the modern game and every team is desperate to find the guy that can turn their franchise around like what we saw in Houston with C.J. Stroud.

At the top, Caleb Williams seems like a lock to go No. 1 to Chicago, but after him there’s all kinds of rumors about what order the other three top QBs — Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, and J.J. McCarthy — will go. After that trio, there’s a bit of a gap to the next quarterbacks expected to come off the board, headlined by Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr., one of whom could be a mid-to-late first round selection depending on how the early run on QBs goes.

After that, there’s some Day 2 or Day 3 names that have created some buzz for themselves during the pre-Draft process, with Michael Pratt from Tulane earning praise and Joe Milton from Tennessee unsurprisingly shining in the workout portion of the process.

Milton, who spent three years at Michigan before another three years with the Vols, has always been a guy that looks like he should be a really good quarterback. He has prototypical size (6’5, 235 pounds) and has an absolute cannon strapped to his right shoulder. He has always wowed when allowed to turn that arm loose, and there’s no better place to do that than at Pro Day where he put on a show for scouts in Knoxville.

Please enjoy the latest episode of Joe Milton Throws Ball Far:

This is a terrific followup to his Combine showing where he clocked the fastest ball speed and the longest throws of the day to the delight of everyone in Indy.

Milton is the definition of “toolsy” and it’s impossible for football coaches not to have just enough hubris to believe they could be the one that could harness all that power and get the most out of it. He never could capture that magic fully in Ann Arbor or Knoxville over his six years of college football, having his best year in his final one at Tennessee, but if nothing else he should be able to carve out a professional career off the hope all that arm talent can somehow come together into a complete quarterbacking package — or, at the least, playing scout team and being able to mimic any of the NFL’s livest arms in practice.

Shaquille O’Neal has never been shy about calling out NBA players who disappoint him for one reason or another. In the past, Ben Simmons has drawn the Hall of Fame center’s ire, with Simmons’ playoff woes during his tenure with the Philadelphia 76ers and what happened in the aftermath of his final postseason series with the team being particularly big sore spots.

Now, Shaq is back to calling out Simmons, this time on an episode of The Big Podcast. The big fella got asked by Adam Lefkoe which NBA players he’d buy a ticket to go watch, and perhaps surprisingly, Simmons immediately popped up.

“Ben Simmons, because I would wanna learn how you could make $80 million and play 55 games,” Shaq said. “Teach me. Teach me how you could play 55 games in three seasons and get $30 million, $40 million, and get another $40 million just by saying your back hurt. Get some f*ckin Icy Hot, man up.”

Shaq did go on to give a serious answer — he, once again, made it a point to make clear that he loves Nikola Jokic — but he really did lay into Simmons with this one. Anyway, Simmons only appeared in 15 games this season, the last of which came in late February. He will not play again this year due to a pinched nerve in his lower back.

As the bad news continues to pour in for Sean “Diddy” Combs, more of the people in his orbit have been pulled into the drama surrounding the lawsuit filed by Rod “Lil Rod” Jones. According to XXL, Jones’ most recent amendment, filed on Monday, now levels a number of eyebrow-raising accusations at Yung Miami, Diddy’s rumored paramour, with whom he’s had a very public association, although both have refused to label their relationshipo as such.

Jones accuses Miami of both carrying drugs for Combs and of being a sex worker being paid a monthly retainer by Diddy, according to USA Today. Jones said Miami, real name Caresha Brownlee, was one of three women Combs kept on retainer, including wellness coach Jade Ramey and model/actress Daphne Joy. Incidentally, the latter is most notable for her connection with Curtis Jackson — better known as 50 Cent — the father of her 10-year-old son Sire. 50 has notably trolled his ex over her alleged association with Combs, which could be seen as at least part of why he’s carried on a one-sided feud with the fellow music mogul.

Jones’ lawsuit says Miami brought Combs a drug called “tuci” from Miami to Virginia via private plane when his alleged drug mule, Brendan Paul, forgot to bring it along. Tuci is also known as “pink cocaine” and is a synthetic drug made of pink food coloring, strawberry flavoring, ketamine, caffeine, and MDMA. Its effects are similar to those of ecstasy, rather than cocaine, according to drug treatment facilities such as The Willough at Naples and Avenues Recovery.

The second episode of LeBron James and JJ Redick’s “Mind the Game” podcast came out on Tuesday and featured a very interesting discussion of how to defend some of the hardest offensive actions in the NBA.

In the middle of their conversation about how you have to be so smart on the court to defend NBA offenses now, the two went off on a tangent (30:44 of the above video) started by LeBron about how watching college basketball drives them both insane. James, of course, watches more college basketball now than he probably has in his entire NBA career because his son plays at USC, and explained why it’s hard for him to watch an entire college game and that they give him anxiety just because so many things don’t make sense, particularly with how they use bigs in the post.

LeBron: The NBA is the best league in the world. That’s why it’s hard to watch my son play college basketball.

JJ: You wanna go there.

…

LeBron: It is hard watching a 40 minute college basketball game. It’s hard. I get more anxiety and I sweat more watching college basketball, especially my son now, than I’ve ever done in my life.

JJ: I still watch legitimate teams. Ranked teams. They will run a play and their best player will get the ball on the wing and they will have a non-threat big man posting up on the same side and the guard or the wing will drive into the occupied post. And I’m like, guys, it’s 2024, we can all watch YouTube. There’s a wealth of information out there. Why are we still playing this way?

LeBron: I’ve never understood why a coach will throw the ball into the post with his big with no business with the ball in the post. The only time the ball should go into the post with the big is if he’s automatically, as soon as he catches it, flattens the defense and he goes right back into a DHO uphill, roll – if he’s not a pocket passer you can’t throw it low, throw it to the rim – or it’s his job is to just shrink the defense cause his role is so dynamic. I watch college games and I see guys throw the ball in the post to guys and they’ll turn around and shoot a jump shot or a running left handed jump hook.

It really is fascinating watching men’s college basketball because it does feel at times like going back in time. The problem is not that there are some teams that play through a dominant big man and take advantage of a size mismatch inside. It’s, as LeBron and Redick explain, that there are a lot of teams that just can’t help but post up bigs that have no business being part of the offense as a post hub.

It is funny hearing LeBron talk about how he now finds himself locked in on college hoops and that it kills him a little bit inside every time he turns it on, because his brain can’t fathom why someone would consistently make the wrong reads (which is what college kids do a lot of the time) or call plays that don’t give your best players the best chance to make plays (which is what college coaches do a lot of the time).

Hot mics, man. They occasionally catch the best but usually (especially in Robert Durst’s case) the worst of people, and HBO is following up on their 2015 true-crime series, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, in which the subject essentially landed himself behind bars while talking to himself: “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

This pivotal finale moment relaunched an investigation after Durst’s long history of dodging prosecution for repeated murder allegations due to insufficient evidence. However, he did himself in and ultimately served time for killing Susan Berman, who was one of two people he killed to help cover up the 1982 death of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst. Oh, and once his inadvertent on-air confession surfaced on The Jinx, all legal hell broke loose, so finally, HBO (and the Max streamer) will show us what happened behind the scenes as director Andrew Jarecki continued digging into the most bizarre of cases. From HBO’s logline:

In Part Two, the filmmakers continue their investigation for the next eight years, uncovering hidden material, Durst’s prison calls, and interviews with witnesses who had not come forward until now.

HBO‘s The Jinx — Part Two debuts on Sunday, April 21, although it’s hard to imagine how the filmmakers could ever top that first season finale.

Noah Kahan launched a new North American leg of his We’ll All Be Here Forever Tour when he took the stage at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena last night (March 26).

With lots of dates still to go as he makes his way to major cities, fans who managed to secure tickets might also be curious about what the merch selection looks like.

Here’s what to know.

Here Is The Noah Kahan Merch Available At We’ll All Be Here Forever Tour

Kahan has a ton of merch options for fans at his 2024 tour, as seen in a video that was posted by the venue. The first of the T-shirts is tan and has a large floral design on the back, along with a lyric from “Homesick,” for $60. There’s a dark green “Stick Season” shirt, two different options of shirts with just the dates on the back, and two hoodies (brown and green) for $110. (It’s unclear if these prices will change outside of Canadian currency.)

Near the end of the video, there appears to be a blue sweatshirt, although it’s unclear how much this is. Kahan also seems to be selling CD and vinyl copies of his music.

In terms of accessories, there is a green trucker hat for $40. The tour poster this year is $50. He is also selling a colorful tote bag with his name on it for $30.

Below, find a complete video showing off Noah Kahan’s tour merch.

We are just a month out from Hovvdy‘s upcoming self-titled fifth studio album. Ahead of the release, Hovvdy has shared “Make Ya Proud,” a poignant ballad displaying pure, raw emotion.

On “Make Ya Proud,” Hovvdy members Charlie Martin and Will Taylor reflect on life, detailing that while someone can live a very fulfilling life, the time we have on earth is too damn short.

“C’mon man, you need strength / Everyone needs a little more time / God damn, don’t we all need more time? / Thanks mom, I’ll stay for a while / Help you out how I can,” Martin sings on one of the song’s verses.

According to Martin, “Make Ya Proud” is one of the most personal tracks on the upcoming album.

“This is one of a few songs on the record I wrote for my grandpa Pete, my father’s father,” Martin said in a statement. “He passed away last summer and was in many ways the backbone of that side of my family. I wrote ‘Make Ya Proud’ during that time in Mississippi, between trips to the coast to visit him in the hospital. It’s really hard to describe; but the songs are a celebration of him and how he inspired me.”

You can listen to “Make Ya Proud” above.

Hovvdy is out 4/26 via Arts And Crafts. Find more information here.

Whoopi Goldberg has been having one heck of a week on The View.

Things kicked off Monday when the entire panel apologized for speculating about Kate Middleton after Whoopi repeatedly told them to knock it off. The next day, Whoopi brought the show to a screeching halt as she confronted an audience member who was recording a Hot Topics segment with his phone. And, now, Whoopi is casually announcing that she believes aliens are among us and not the kind that make Republicans mad. We’re talking space aliens.

The revelation came as guest Kumail Nanjiani shared that he believes in aliens and thinks that they’re already circling the Earth waiting for humans to get their act together before touching down. That’s when Whoopi stepped in to say he’s only half right.

Via Decider:

When Goldberg interjected, “They’re already here,” [Sunny] Hostin asked, “Oh, they’re here already?”

Her co-host, maintaining a very serious tone, repeated, “They are already, they’ve been here for quite some time.”

Nanjiani then asked Goldberg, “You think they’re here? And what are they doing?”

The View moderator replied, “They’re watching us,” and Hostin backed her up, chiming in, “They’re talking to Whoopi,” as the studio audience laughed.

As the laughter died down, Sara Haines joked that actually Whoopi talks to ghosts, not aliens, in reference to Goldberg starring alongside Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in the classic movie Ghost.

“I got you, girl,” Haines quipped to Whoopi.

You can watch the full segment below:

(Via Decider)