Category: Viral

It’s been a week since former Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner gave a disastrous interview to the New York Times to promote his upcoming book of classic rocker interviews, The Masters. Thankfully, it lingered just long enough in the news for Steven and Ian to talk about it on the pod. The guys reflect on Wenner’s legacy, why he chose to say out loud what many assumed were his feelings about women and black musicians, and what this means for the discourse overall. Also, they talk about the surprise re-emergence of Spin‘s Bob Guccione Jr. aka the guy Axl Rose threatened to beat up in “Get In The Ring.”

From there they talk about Laugh Track, the surprise new album by The National that dropped earlier this week. It’s their second LP of 2023 after First Two Pages Of Frankenstein, and it sounds a lot like that record. Steven and Ian are somewhat lukewarm on both records, though Steven believes that a very good single National album could have been made from their best material. What’s going on with this band, and have they lost the ability to self-edit?

In the mailbag, a listener takes the guys to task for talking about sports too much, and another letter writer asks an important CD-related question: jewel case or digipak?

In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks about the Grimes-like singer-songwriter Yeule while Steven recommends the Summerteeth-like rock band Slaughter Beach, Dog.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 156 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Zach Bryan is on a roll. Last month, he unveiled his self-titled album, which relentlessly climbed the charts despite his arrest in Oklahoma that caused a stir in his fan base. Now, he’s already back with new material as a pleasant surprise.

Today (September 22), he shared Boys Of Faith, an EP featuring Bon Iver on the title track and Noah Kahan on “Sarah’s Place.” It’s five songs that possess Bryan’s astonishing songwriting that listeners love him for. On “Boys Of Faith,” Bryan and Justin Vernon harmonize somberly, “But you stuck around when I was down / And I’ll owe you all my days / Them boys of faith.”

About being arrested in Oklahoma, he posted a video explaining what happened. “I get too lippy with [the cop], he brings me over to his car, and I just didn’t help my situation at all,” he said. “I felt like a child. It was ridiculous, it was immature, and I just pray everyone knows that I don’t think I’m above the law. I was just being disrespectful and I shouldn’t have been. It was my mistake.”

Stream Boys Of Faith below.

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

On Scarlet, her fourth and latest full-length album, Doja Cat sounds both supremely self assured and extremely hacked off at the same damn time. Both states appear to be the result of the last two years worth of accolades and accomplishments and an overwhelming deluge of debates about whether any of it was deserved.

Let’s get one thing out of the way right here and now; absolutely, every damn bit of it was deserved and earned by Doja, by virtue of both her talent and her hard work. But so much success these days comes with caveats; if you’re the best pop star of the nascent 2020s, you simply CAN’T be a rapper. Pretty privilege plays a part, of course. Then there is that forever looming shadow of sexism, the one that says the men in the audience are owed ownership of your sexuality (even though you never made the art for them in the first place).

Doja Cat has spent the last year systematically dismantling every one of these arguments and the majority of Scarlet is directed toward that end, as well.

I already wrote about how Doja has always been a stylistic chameleon, but since then, the wildly eclectic star has revealed more of just how trying the last few years of judgment and scrutiny have been. She has railed against so-called “stan culture,” in which obsessive followers of various pop stars wage never ending and increasingly nasty wars of words on social media on behalf of performers who rarely ask them to.

On Scarlet, she hammers home the point that this is not normal. The parasocial relationship that exists between artists and their listeners has always had ominous implications but they’ve always been sublimated, hazy, just out of sight. On social media, they’ve become unavoidable, and Doja Cat is fed up. She repeatedly lashes out at the speculators and skeptics, offering them several seats to watch the show while simultaneously shushing both their toxic banter and overfamiliarity. “Stop-callin’-me-sis body bitch, we not a kin,” she snarls on “Shutcho.” “You do not exist to me, miss, I’m not your friend.”

Meanwhile, Doja also pushed back at her own public image during this album’s rollout. While the pristine presentation is polished pop perfection has served her well in climbing her way to a successful career, she’s vented many times that it hasn’t been creatively fulfilling. I keep coming back to this point again and again in writing about this artist, but Doja is at heart a backpack rap kid. She was raised by musical influences like Little Brother and Erykah Badu. And while even the staunchest of underground rappers had been unafraid to sonically experiment, for Doja, churning out disco-pop confections like “Kiss Me More” and “Say So” must have eventually worn like an itchy Christmas sweater in early autumn.

Doja wears her influences on her sleeve here; “Often” sounds straight-up like old-school Baduizm. She tried this sort of hazy, incense-tinged thing before,way back when on 2012’s “So High,” but where she didn’t quite have the poise to make it stick then, she sounds much more natural and comfortable here. Meanwhile, songs like “Paint The Town Red” and “97” track like brighter, more futuristic versions of the murky underground rap Doja was surrounded by in the orbit of early aughts Project Blowed spin-offs created by veterans of the renowned open mic.

Scarlet is clearly the album that the snarky battle rapper inside her has wanted to make since the beginning. Her pen game has always been ferocious but here, she elevates barbed wit with specific targets in mind. On the dramatically titled “Balut,” she sneers, “You are fleeting, so you can’t copy this” – a subtle jab at haters recalling the short-lived and ill-advised Twitter feature that sought to force a Xeroxed version of competitors’ products onto its own reticent user base.

Certainly, she’s had enough speculation from concern trolls in her Instagram comments calling her tattoos demonic and theorizing about things she considers nobody’s business but her own. “Skull And Bones” addresses the rumormongers directly; “Y’all been pushin’ ‘Satan this’ and ‘Satan that,’” she mocks. “My fans is yellin’, ‘Least she rich,’ you need that pact / Lookin’ like I got some things you hate I have / And trust me, baby, God don’t play with hate like that.”

On “Agoura Hills,” Doja offers her own theory about the scandals and backlashes that have followed her since she blew up – and those who start the drama. “Boys be mad that I don’t fuck incels,” she muses. “Girls hate too, gun to their pigtail.” In Doja’s mind, it’s all the same thing: Social pressure to conform directed at someone who’s accomplished so much because she refuses to do so. “Agoura Hills” also best encapsulates where Doja is on Scarlet – it’s a love song to her man, it’s a withering diss to her haters, it’s a trolling response to critics of her identity (including herself; her white girl voice on verse one is a thing of comedic beauty).

Doja said during the rollout of the album that it was written over the course of two very different periods in her life. That’s evident in the latter half of the album, when it sounds like Doja is very much in her soft girl era. But Scarlet itself is a rejoinder to the idea that artists must be only one or two things or that their entire existences belong to the fans. They often say “I wouldn’t be here without you,” and to a certain extent, that’s true. But they also wouldn’t be where they are without the quirks and individuality that make them who they are, that draw us to them. They own that part themselves and owe it to absolutely no one else. Scarlet’s as much a reminder of that to Doja Cat as it is to us.

Scarlet is out now Kemosabe and RCA Records.

Are Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson related?

Well, they both enjoy smoking pot, which doesn’t prove anything but it gives me an excuse to remind everyone of the time that McConaughey got so high after accidentally smoking Snoop Dogg’s weed while filming Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum that he “rapped for thirteen hours straight.” But as for whether the True Detective co-stars are actually related, it’s complicated.

“In Greece a few years ago, we’re sitting around talking about how close we are and our families,” McConaughey said on the Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa podcast earlier this year. “And my mom is there, and she says, ‘Woody, I knew your dad.’ Everyone was aware of the ellipses that my mom left after ‘knew.’ It was a loaded K-N-E-W.” They discovered that Harrelson’s dad “was on furlough at the same time that my mom and dad were in their second divorce. Then there’s possible receipts and places out in West Texas where there might have been a gathering, or a meeting, or a ‘knew’ moment.”

Harrelson has been pushing for a reluctant McConaughey to take a DNA test, but, as the Interstellar actor explained, “he’s asking me to take a chance to go, ‘Wait a minute, you’re trying to tell me my dad may not be my dad after 53 years of believing that?’ I got a little more skin in the game.”

If McConaughey does go through with it, there’s only one man for the job.

“I just heard about the possibilities,” paternity test expert Maury Povich told E! News. “I mean, Matthew, I don’t know you. Woody, you’re my pal, but guess what? I would come out of retirement! We could do prime-time DNA: Maury’s back with Woody and Matthew.” He added, “Woody’s got my number. I’m ready!” McConaughey replied to the offer, “I don’t know if we’re going to be calling you to do it on your show, but I like the way you’re thinking.”

That sounds like a polite no to me.

(Via Today)

After months of teasing tracks, several name changes, and a record-setting single, Doja Cat’s latest album, Scarlet, is finally here. Given the pure hellfire, the “Attention” rapper has found herself at the center of her choice in body art, her rumored relationship, and more Doja was sure to address most of it on the project.

While the song “Skull And Bones” addresses fans’ theory that the entertainer is a satanist, on “97,” Doja shares her comments on the massive social media unfollow spree led by former fan pages. In July, she took a jab at supporters that crowned themselves “Kittenz” for the juvenile name choice. Then, she doubled down on the social media app Threads, calling out fan pages for their unhealthy, obsessive behavior. This online rant resulted in over 250,000 users unfollowing the musician on Instagram.

On “97,” which was co-written by Doja Cat, Jay Versace, and Sam Barsh and produced by Barsh and Versace, Doja confesses that she has no regrets. In fact, she encourages more to follow suit to help boost her social media analytics.

“Pull up and they smiley instead (actin’ stupid) / Like they wasn’t tryna fight me in Threads (’bout some music) / In a tweet that I’ma probably still stand by (I’m ruthless) / Keep your money, funky b*tch, ’cause I don’t play about (the rumors) / They gon’ buy it, they gon’ pirate, they gon’ play it, they consume it/ If you’re scootin’ let me know, ’cause that’s a comment, that’s a view / And that’s a rating, that’s some hating, that’s engagement I could use / And I could teach y’all how to do this, but I’d much rather be cruisin’,” rapped Doja on the track’s second verse.

Doja Cat’s relationship with supporters and social media has been extreme over the years. But based on “97,” she has realized that it’s all smoke and mirrors. Her happiness is the most important.

Listen to Doja Cat’s “97” below.

Scarlet is out now via RCA. Find more information here.

Netflix has finally dropped the first look at Squid Game: The Challenge, the new reality competition series based on the wildly popular Squid Game series. Obviously, the contestants in this version won’t compete to the death. What they will compete for, however, is the largest cash prize in TV history.

According to the teaser, 456 players will push themselves to the limit for a whopping $4.56 million. As one of the player says, “People do a whole lot worse for a whole lot less.”

Thanks to the massive popularity of the original series, contestants flocked to participate in Squid Game: The Challenge, but the production quickly became bathed in controversy. Reports started coming in that players were experiencing “inhumane conditions” and suffering “multiple injuries.” Netflix reportedly conducted a safety review and Britain’s Health and Safety Executive visited the set. No violations were found, but it was stressed that the production “properly plan for risks.”

What exactly were those players put through? Guess we’ll find out soon.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Though the reality version of ‘Squid Game‘ isn’t a matter of life or death, there’s still a lot on the line. 456 players will compete to win $4.56 million, the largest cash prize in reality television history. Through a series of games, each player will be pushed to their limits and forced to ask themselves just how far they’ll go to win, with opportunistic alliances, cutthroat strategies and timely betrayals to follow.

Squid Game: The Challenge premieres November 22 on Netflix.

Earlier this week, The National dropped a surprise new album. It’s called Laugh Track, and it arrived just five months after their previous LP released in 2023, First Two Pages Of Frankenstein. Since both records essentially draw from the same sessions, it makes sense that they have received similarly mixed reviews. To my ears, Laugh Track is somewhat more consistent, and the inclusion of “Smoke Detector” — easily the rawest and most rocking song on either record — automatically makes it feel relatively looser and jammier. But in the end Laugh Track has the same weaknesses as Frankenstein — too many celebrity guest stars, too many same-y sounding piano ballads, too much bloat.

I question whether there should have been two new National albums at all. The release of Laugh Track confirms the central issue of this band’s latter-day period: They have seemingly lost the ability to self-edit. This problem first emerged on 2019’s I Am Easy To Find, which at 16 tracks is The National’s longest album to date. Unfortunately, the material didn’t justify the size; I think that record would be at least 25 percent better if you have removed at least 25 percent of the songs. As it is, I Am Easy To Find previews the surplus of hazy, mumbly, and snail-paced mood pieces that have come to clog National records.

When I saw The National on tour in 2022, I was thrilled by the early previews of their latest material. The songs were propulsive and guitar-heavy, reiterating a core truth about this band: On the concert stage, they transcend the bookish reputation their records have earned them, injecting their songs with the energy and spirit of a proper rock ‘n’ roll outfit. (“You need to see them live” is a stereotypical rejoinder to criticism of any band, but it really is true for The National.) When Bryce Dessner told me that they were incorporating live recordings into the studio versions on their upcoming album, I was doubly psyched. It seemed like precisely the right direction to take after I Am Easy To Find.

You can hear some of that in the best songs spread across their twin 2023 records, particularly “Smoke Detector” and “Eucalyptus” from Frankenstein. But unlike their live show, The National on record has a frustrating habit of killing their own momentum.

A criticism I would make of both Frankenstein and Laugh Track is that they lack dynamism, and that is due to how they are structured. Strong songs that spotlight the band’s chemistry are frequently surrounded by murky laments that fail to drive the albums forward. The resulting whole winds up sounding soggier than it should.

But here’s the thing: I actually think there are some really great songs here. They just aren’t being showcased as well as they could be. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to perform emergency A&R for The National. I have listened to the pile of 23 songs released on their latest records, and I have crafted (or Frankenstein’ed) a solitary 12-track, 60-minute LP that I think is much better than either First Two Pages Of Frankenstein or Laugh Track.

It is my contention that this album, which I have named Frankenstein Laughs — sorry to pat myself on the back, but that’s a good-ass title — not only separates the wheat from the chaff, but also the track sequence enhances the qualities of each song while connecting them thematically, so that they equal more than their individual sums. I concede that the animating idea of Frankenstein Laughs is self-centered: I compiled the album that I envisioned The National making when I saw them on tour the last year. Or at least I got a lot closer to it. But I honestly believe it’s a better overall listening experience that does justice to the good work The National has done lately.

Let’s break down both sides of Frankenstein Laughs. Here is Side A:

“Eucalyptus”
“Tropic Morning News”
“Space Invader”
“Hornets”
“Laugh Track”
“Deep End (Paul’s In Pieces)”

The first three songs are also the best tracks from this period. The slow-burn of “Eucalyptus” sets an immediate tone, both musically and lyrically, establishing a raw “torn and frayed” vibe that supports Matt Berninger’s scenario about a busted-up relationship that will act as a through-line on Frankenstein Laughs. “Tropic Morning News” is in the catchy and upbeat “Mistaken For Strangers” slot, and “Space Invader” lands the introductory trilogy with the record’s most epic soundscape. Clearly, we are off to the races here.

We then bring things down with two beautiful songs, “Hornets” and “Laugh Track,” the latter being the only Phoebe Bridgers feature on Frankenstein Laughs. I am a Bridgers fan, but she is an ingredient that has been way overused in contemporary indie rock, like avocado or cilantro at your favorite “hip” bistro. And The National in particular have really overextended their Phoebe Bridgers usage this year. But “Laugh Track” is a very good song, and limiting Bridgers overall sweetens her particular flavoring on the track.

Finally, we close with “Deep End (Paul’s In Pieces),” a medium tempo rocker with a “Graceless” feel, an ideal conclusion for the first half of Frankenstein Laughs.

Let’s turn over to Side B:

“Smoke Detector”
“Ice Machines”
“Grease In Your Hair”
“Crumble”
“Turn Off The House”
“Send For Me”

“Smoke Detector” already seems like a pivotal number from this era. But on Laugh Track, it’s positioned as the last track, which makes it feel like an outlier rather than a song that might have otherwise been central to a different (better?) National album. On Frankenstein Laughs, I have rectified this by putting it at the literal center of the record. On my album, “Smoke Detector” is a black hole from which The National must emerge on the rest of Side B. Two fine tracks from the back half of First Two Pages Of Frankenstein, “Ice Machines” and “Grease In Your Hair,” offer some relief and signify steps toward the light. Then we arrive at the excellent Rosanne Cash duet, “Crumble,” which in this context brings us back to the same “romantic dissension” themes established by “Eucalyptus.”

Just as the opening trilogy of rockers sets a tone, the closing trilogy of introspective numbers puts a period at the end of the sentence. The spooky “Turn Off The House” is in the penultimate slot, and features some excellent drumming from Bryan Devendorf while placing us in the emptiness of a once-full home. Then comes “Send For Me,” which also closes First Two Pages Of Frankenstein but in this sequence connects with “Eucalyptus” as a denouement that hints at reconciliation without quite delivering it.

This is a well-rounded album! You get rockers followed by quieter tracks and vice versa, and it all flows like a late-night conversation that is at turns explosive and soul-searching. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, or even like a megalomaniac: I feel that I have saved The National from themselves! Or I would have, had the band asked me to do this in a real-life scenario.

If you thought the Fetterman Hoodie Scandal had already grown to ridiculous heights this week, then Fox News is now moving onto the “hold my beer” phase of the discussion. I’m honestly not sure whether even 1% of Fetterman voters expected that he would slip right into suit-wearing life in Congress, but he did give it a shot upon initial arrival. Following Fetterman’s treatment for major depression, however, he’s gone back to dressing like himself again, which appears to have caused a 180 in his energy level. He’s doing hoodies, cargo shorts, the works. And this has caused a lot of pearl clutching over “unbecoming” attire by a certain congresswoman who always dresses fancy for Capitol Hill but has been known to miss an important vote and, besides that, look at what happened a few weeks ago.

Fetterman, on the other hand, is showing up and getting the job done for the people who voted for him while rocking his tats and, yes, those hoodies. And although Congress has plenty to do, his GOP colleagues are wasting time with an irate letter to implore that the Senate’s newly relaxed dress code be abolished. On Fox News as well, they’ve been trashing Fetterman, and to ostensibly make that point hit home harder, the network had Tyrus contribute his own bashing to this mix.

Yes, that would be the tatted-up, casually dressed, former pro-wrestler Tyrus.

Tyrus proceeded to complain about Fetterman’s clothing as emblematic of the “bend of traditions” that are ruining America, and that Fetterman must not really be serious about the job if he’s dressing like this. “‘The only thing they’re asking is that you get suits, and chances are, they’re tax write-offs anyway.” he complained. Tyrus then justified his own casual dress and backwards hat.

“There’s certain rules and things and decorum – I dress the way I dress,” he declared. “And I said… if you’re going to wear your hat backwards and you’re going to come on TV and represent, you have to have your A-game every time. There has to be a reason they’re willing to accept this. Again, this is not the Senate… this is TV.”

Then came the jokes: “And he dresses like he just got out of a bad breakup. It’s not even casual. I mean, he really dresses like she left him, and he’s been watching nothing but love movies all weekend.”

Anyone who questions whether Fetterman is serious about his job can carve out a few minutes to watch the below clip. No way would this exchange have succeeded more if the dude was wearing a suit.

Meanwhile, Fox News hosts will continue to be aghast at the idea of “flannel pajamas on an airplane!”

Billie Eilish has done her part in activism. She hosts an annual event called Overheated to help raise awareness about climate change, in which musicians, activists, and experts participate in talks and panels, while the documentary Overheated airs. In 2019, she also pled fans to stop eating meat and contributing to the torture of animals.

Now, the “Happier Than Ever” singer is featured in a campaign called Artists For Action To Prevent Gun Violence. Alongside other performers such as Sheryl Crow, Peter Gabriel, Nile Rodgers, Bush, Rufus Wainwright, Sofi Tukker, Pixies, and more, she declared that she is an Artist For Action. “As much as I love the United States, I am always appalled at the ease with which anyone can get a weapon,” Gabriel states at the beginning of the video.

For a PSA in 2021, Eilish made a call to action about climate change. “This year, our global leaders are deciding the actions required on the environment and climate emergency in a critical decade for our planet,” she said. “We must stand together and speak up to save our planet. Not just for us, but for our future generations and we need urgent, urgent action now and to work together as one.”

Watch the Artists For Action video above.

On September 6, Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner released a joint statement on social media to officially announce their divorce. The news came after days of rumors of the split. For those who are unfamiliar with the previously private couple, here’s what to know about their relationship timeline.

After following each other on Instagram, the two started speaking in 2016 and eventually decided to meet. “I thought, ‘He’s gonna be such a d*ck,’” Turner previously told Elle.

“We talked for hours, and hours, and hours,” she added. “And I was, like, not bored. It wasn’t contrived. It wasn’t small talk — it was just so easy. And soon we were, like, inseparable. I went on tour with him.”

Turner would go on to appear in the Jonas Brothers music video for “Sucker” in February 2019, alongside the wives of Nick Jonas and Kevin Jonas.

In May of 2019, the two got married first in Las Vegas, complete with an Elvis impersonator and Ring Pops as rings. Still, they also opted for a standard wedding, too, hosting another in June in the south of France. Turner was 23 and Jonas was 30.

A year later, she had their first child, a daughter named Willa. They also had a second daughter in July 2022 but have kept her name out of the public eye.

Then, on September 6, Jonas filed for divorce from Turner in Miami. Things quickly soured from there: Turner sued Jonas for custody of their children, then Jonas disputed some of the claims Turner made in her lawsuit.