Category: Viral

The first thing I noticed was the name. “Is that… a Star Wars reference?” It is: the band Ben Quad named themselves after Episode I – The Phantom Menace podracing legend Ben Quadinaros, who had a rough time at the Boonta Eve Classic when his vehicle exploded at the starting line. But it turned out to be a fitting choice for a band name, as Ben Quad is also exploding… in popularity.

Ben Quad describe themselves as “Oklahoma post-emo and butt rock.” That’s one way of putting it. Another option is “No. 1 hot new band in town.” On their new EP, Ephemera, the group — vocalist Sam Wegrzynski, bassist Henry Shields, guitarist Edgar Viveros, and drummer Isaac Young — has gone in a heavier, more screamo-y direction. It’s their first release since signing to label Pure Noise Records, the home of fellow rippers Drug Church, Koyo, and Knocked Loose, and also their most cathartic. “We did that original screamo track as a flex,” Wegrzynski said in a band bio referring to 2022 single “You’re Part Of It” (over two million plays on Spotify), “and it then becoming our most popular song gave us the courage to go all out.”

I recently spoke to Sam and Edgar while Ben Quad were on tour with Prince Daddy & the Hyena (ahead of a Pure Noise showcase and headlining shows) about the EP, merch, emo-adjacent genres, video games, and, yes, Star Wars.

What made you decide to go in a more aggressive direction for Ephemera?

Edgar: A lot of people have been asking us that. And a lot of people have been saying like, “Hey, did the label influence you?” Literally, like two years ago, we put out a single called “You’re Part Of It” that was kind of in the same style. I was basically flexing and saying, like, hey, we can do this, too. And we like that style of music, so we just put it out. It ended up being our biggest song yet, and still is. And so I made a joke tweet that was like, hey, if this song gets 10,000 streams by the end of the week, we’ll make a whole EP out of it. And, you know, it got the 10,000 streams. People were super stoked, and then two years later, we finally put that guy out.

Now the song has something like two million streams.

Sam: Yeah, exactly. It was originally just us having fun putting out a different sound, just because we could. It’s like Edgar said, it’s music that we all enjoy in our own time. So we said, ah, screw it. Let’s make something, you know, kind of screamy, kind of fun. We had no idea that it would be our biggest one, and that this would be such an anticipated thing for our fans.

I don’t know who runs the Twitter account… Actually, who does run the Twitter account?

Edgar: It’s mostly me.

There was a recent tweet where you referred to the title track on the EP as the “proudest we’ve ever been of a song.” Besides it kicking ass, what made it a favorite?

Edgar: You know, it’s a favorite for me because I think we really pulled it out of a well that is super close to my heart. It, weirdly enough, is the song that came together the quickest. It’s the most confident we’ve ever been in our songwriting. We wrote that while we were recording in two days. And so one night I just was like, we need a fifth song. So I just cranked out the whole song structure. The next day, we did basically all the vocals in one day. I gave Isaac the song structure, and he just knocked out the drums in a single night. So it’s my favorite song, because it’s one of those things where it’s like, okay, we’re competent songwriters now, and it feels great being able to just go in a room and write something that I think is great. And, you know, everyone seems to like it.

Sam: I’m also really happy with it. I think initially that song was going to have vocal parts during the first minute of it. But I remember when Edgar wrote the guitar part in the studio, I was like, “Dude, I don’t want to sing over that. I just want to listen to that. I think singing over that is going to take away from how freaking sick these riffs are.” So, it was the first time we’ve ever done that, where we literally said, you know, we have songs with intros, but this was a whole minute of a song with absolutely no vocals. And it was a bit of a gamble, but I think it paid off. I think it speaks for itself. People are loving it.

Why did you decide on signing with Pure Noise Records?

Sam: It was really cool. We were fortunate enough to have a few different labels reaching out to us at the time and trying to, you know, get a deal going. We felt like the prettiest girl at the ball. You know, everybody was trying their best to bend the rules of the industry for us, because we’re a little more adamant. We’re not big enough to be in a position where we can ask for anything we want in contracts. But we were asking for as much as we could as far as the artist side, owning masters and all that kind of stuff. Pure Noise to us, they were so willing to do anything. I think it was nice to see that they genuinely believed in us, as opposed to believing in the image that Ben Quad could be. There were some other labels that immediately started talking about marketing and all that, which is cool, but in my head, I was like, “Oh, well, you guys just want the image right now. And you’re already thinking about how, you know, to sell the image.” We don’t even really know what our image is, you know what I mean? We’re still trying to figure out what our sound is. Pure Noise genuinely seemed like they were just down for the ride. They support us. They believe in anything that we want to do. It was crazy, you know, they hit us up before we announced the EP or anything. Obviously, no one knew that we were doing the screamo thing next, and that was the first thing we told them. They were so down. They were more than happy to help with that kind of thing. I think they were actually excited about it. I think they were kind of stoked that we were going that way. They seem like people who really do care about the band, and not just about how much the band can make them.

You mentioned figuring out your sound. Does being tagged with a genre label — typically with Ben Quad, it’s emo — ever feel constricting?

Edgar: You know what? I think, in a way, it does, but we don’t care. We’re just putting out music that we like, and regardless if people consider it screamo, emo, post-hardcore, whatever label you put on it, we’re just gonna put out what we like and whatever label people apply to us, you know, if it’s cool and trending, fuck it.

Sam: Our new stuff is getting put on the metal playlist on Spotify, and it’s like, alright!

What’s your favorite piece of Ben Quad merch that you’ve either sold yourselves or seen a fan wear?

Edgar: I think my favorite one right now is, we have this pink hoodie with “Rawr XD.” We were like, what if we lean into this scenecore thing, because we’re not a scenecore band into it. So it’s like this neon pink hoodie with a really textured monster on it that I just drew on a limb with marker, and I had someone make it into a design. And yeah, it looks cool. It looks like it comes straight out of Hot Topic. With that kind of stuff, I’m not afraid to lean on different things. Like, you know, let’s make the scenecore merch. Let’s make the emotional hardcore-style shirts. It’s all fun stuff.

Sam: I really like that one. But we did one in, like, 2019 through a scam company. We did not know it was a scam at the time, but it was. This company was reaching out to all these bands in Tulsa, Oklahoma, about doing a limited edition, one day drop of a merch item. We’d make the design and it would just be up for 24 hours. They’d do all the shipping, selling, all that stuff, using our likeness or whatever, use whatever design we gave them. Now, the shirt that came out was incredible… I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s a photo of a bunch of puppies, but they’re outlined in neon and pink and blue. A very loud shirt. And then our name is written in the most abhorrent, scribbly writing underneath it. The funny part is, we never got any money for that. The shirts did ship, but the company then completely disappeared after the shirt shipped, and nothing ever happened from that. That’s a fun one, because if I see someone wearing that, I’m like, “Oh shit, you must have lived in Oklahoma.”

Have you ever done merch with Ben Quadinaros on it?

Sam: I think we have one shirt with Quadinaros on it.

Edgar: We have a really old one that says “Ben Quadinaros” on a shirt. I think it’s like a pizza design on it. I think I have one sitting in my closet. Maybe once a year, I’ll run into someone that still has that.

“Blood For The Blood God” appears in a Rock Band DLC. If another one of your songs could be in a video game, what video game would you pick?

Edgar: It’s so easy.

Both: Fortnite.

Sam: Fortnite radio, let’s go.

You just want to see Peter Griffin flossing to one of your songs.

Edgar: I’ve been playing Fortnite every night of this tour.

I know the year isn’t over yet, but looking ahead to 2025, what are some of the things you hope to achieve?

Edgar: The goal is LP2. I think that’s the biggest goal, making a follow-up to all this. And who knows, it might be a combination of sounds. It might be its own thing. Like we said, we do our own thing, but that is going to be the biggest goal. Next goal, I think this is a continual goal, is to tour forever. Tour forever, write good music. That’s basically all we want to do.

Sam: I also want to try to dip our toes in festivals next year. We were really busy with the EP and setting up the label and, you know, finding our footing in this whole thing. And I think next year, I would love to do a festival run in the summer.

What can you say about LP2?

Edgar: I think there’s some bones here and there, but I think once we get back from tour, that’s where the real cooking is going to start.

Sam: And I’m so proud of us because we do so much writing in the studio. I think it’s easy to get distracted when you’re writing at home or when you’re trying to do anything. There’s so many things that can catch your eye and ear, and being with the boys, being with the whole band and writing together, is important.

Ephemera is out 10/25 via Pure Noise. You can find more information here.

Soon, you’ll be able to inject one of the best horror movies (and movies in general) of 2024 at home. The Substance will begin streaming on Mubi on October 31. Get your Monstro Elisasue costumes ready.

Directed and written by Coralie Fargeat, The Substance stars Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, the host of a fitness show who gets fired on her 50th birthday. Following an accident, she begins taking “The Substance,” a mysterious serum that promises a “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” version of whoever takes it. Elisabeth’s other self is Sue, played by Charli XCX fan Margaret Qualley, and they’re supposed to “switch” bodies every seven days. But things don’t go as planned. The climax is… something else.

Qualley spoke to the Los Angeles Times about training for months for The Substance. But all that weight lifting shaped her physicality in a way that she didn’t expect. “We’re representing perfect, right?” she said. “And the movie has a pretty inspired message. So I also thought it was important for that perfect to be healthy, even if it’s unrealistic. I’m fortunate that the naked stuff was at the top because throughout the five months my ass was just slowly deflating.” Moore joked, “I did admire how round Margaret’s ass was.”

You can see Mubi’s streaming announcement for The Substance post here.

When Thom Zimny was growing up in New Jersey, he would his ride bike down to the local boardwalk and listen to Bruce Springsteen. This is not an exceptional biographical detail for a guy who grew up near Asbury Park. What is exceptional is that Zimny went on to make scores of films about The Boss, with The Boss.

It started with Live In New York City, the 2001 concert film covering Springsteen’s reunion tour with The E Street Band, which Zimny edited while also working on television shows like The Wire. Four years later, he was asked to direct Wings For Wheels, a documentary about the making of Born To Run, which netted Zimny a Grammy. From there, he became Bruce’s de-facto in-house filmmaker. He went on to direct retrospective docs like The Promise: The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town along with contemporary documents such as Springsteen On Broadway (which won Zimny an Emmy) and Bruce Springsteen’s Letter To You, about the recording of the 2020 album.

After breaking in with Springsteen, Zimny went on to make films about Elvis Presley, Sylvester Stallone, and The Beach Boys. But Bruce remains his principal focus. Zimny’s latest work is Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (debuts Friday on Hulu), which follows Bruce on his recent world tour, the first for The E Street Band in six years. Zimny was initially invited to shoot rehearsals, where he watched the aging powerhouse band shaking off some rust as they worked themselves into peak fighting shape. He also observed Springsteen carefully compiling his setlist, which juxtaposed songs from his past and present to underscore an overarching narrative about the passage of time. This element was clear to me when I saw the tour in 2023, and the film confirms how mindful Springsteen was about embedding themes of mortality and familial resilience as the tour unfolded in America and Europe. Ultimately, Road Diary is a tribute to Springsteen’s connection with his stalwart band, and with the audience that welcomed him back after the pandemic shutdown.

Working with Springsteen — and having access to his vaults, which Zimny says still has lots of footage the public has never seen — would be a dream for any fan. But how exactly does Zimny’s relationship with Bruce and his operation work? I wanted to find out, so I chatted with the filmmaker over Zoom.

When you make these films, how much independence do you have? Are you determining the vision, or is that a collaboration with Springsteen and his manager Jon Landau?

The collaboration in the filmmaking process on all these, especially Road Diary, comes from this place of starting with a simple idea, which is, “you will go to the rehearsals, you’ll film the band, let’s see what we get.” That’s the start of the collaborative process. There’s not a set POV, there’s not a treatment written, there’s none of the familiar film things. It’s more like, let’s see what the footage is telling us, let’s see what stories are there. And I’m given a lot of freedom to be that fly on the wall, because in the past 24 years, there’s a lot of trust that’s been developed. And that’s a priceless thing as a filmmaker because you get access.

After a little bit of time, I put some scenes together and call Jon and Bruce and say, “I see things here.” And they’ll see details that I’m not seeing and the conversation starts and then it keeps building. But we never set out with a determined POV. I always let the film talk to me. And one of the first things I saw was that this was an E Street Band film. I got a lot of time with them to not only unpack the rehearsals, which ended up in Road Diary, but to dig into some E Street lore.

You ended up following the band on tour, but this isn’t a concert film. Was there as a moment when you realized this was going to be more of a “behind the scenes” documentary?

In the rehearsals, I observed him building a set and I knew right away that that was a detail that was emotionally interesting to me. And I knew from the very first show when I saw him play an older song, “Backstreets.”, against a new song, “Last Man Standing, that something magical happened not only to the audience, but for me as a filmmaker. And then I started to chase that. I wanted to explain it in the film, which is Bruce created a story with old and new songs. He created a story that an audience was connecting to, especially after being shut down for years. I was an emotional journey that had all these different themes, all these different arcs. So, there’s humor in the film, there’s reflection, there’s sadness. These are the things I was picking up from the live show and, if anything, the live show was cluing me into how I wanted the edit to feel.

You’ve worked on a mix of archival projects and “in the moment” movies where you’re documenting whatever it is Bruce is doing at the time. Are you basically filming everything he does at this point? Are there tours you have filmed that haven’t been turned into movies yet?

Well, there’s no official role I have. In the past 24 years, every time that he’s taking on a new chapter of new writing, new music, I’ve been able to be involved with it. I think for a long time he was afraid to film the band. But since 1999, he’s been really open to capturing all the live shows, and also open to documenting a bit of the creative process. Letter to You is the perfect example of that, giving me full rein in the studio.

Road Diary is just a completely different emotional place as a film, but it’s kind of abstractly linked to the other films.

As someone who’s a fan of Bruce and who’s written about Bruce, my impression from the outside is that in the last 10 years, it seems like he has really made an effort to separate himself from the character of Bruce Springsteen, or the image of Bruce Springsteen. His memoir felt like that, and Springsteen On Broadway has a lot of the same elements. Road Diary has a bit of that feel as well. We see the band rehearse, and they sound a little rusty at first. It isn’t the larger-than-life persona that people are used to. Do you agree with that assessment? Do you think he’s consciously stepping out from behind the curtain?

For Road Diary, I asked him to go through some photographs and let me film. We were in Red Bank at the end of one of the rehearsals and I threw them out and filmed his eyes. And in that, I was able to zone into that personal space that goes past the energy and the beauty of the rock star on stage. You are always going back and forth in Road Diary to get a sense of the man, but I don’t think any of the films ever get really close to it because there’s so many sides of him as a person.

One of the themes of your film — and this was true of the tour as well — is mortality. You mentioned the juxtaposition of “Backstreets” and “Last Man Standing,” which is a great example of how the setlist makes you feel the passage of time. When I saw the tour, I reflected on how much time Bruce has left as this arena-rock star. Do you ever foresee him transitioning to something less physically taxing, more of a set up more akin to the Broadway show?

I remember being in Europe and at one point in the middle of the show feeling exhausted, and he was still going strong. And that is what I experienced in filming all throughout America and especially Europe, this man and this band who nightly were there to give it their all. I didn’t feel anything slowed down. It’s funny, some of the times, the gestures and the looks and things I’ve seen in archival footage, I will see again in my dailies as I’m filming them with contemporary concerts.

This is their life force. I’m not speaking for Bruce, but I had to keep up with them. I was running all around that stage and trying to get every angle. You can plan for so much, but then you have to be ready for the audible, the thing that you never imagined or he comes right at you and you’re in the way. So, it’s an exciting challenge to film E Street because it’s full of an energy. It feels like a train. It really does.

You’ve made great docs about Born To Run, Darkness On The Edge Of Town, and The River. Have there been any discussions about making a film about the Nebraska/Born In The U.S.A. era?

No discussions on it. Nothing. The only thing on Nebraska is obviously the [scripted] film.

Is that something you’d want to do?

It’s an era that I completely love, but I don’t see it happening right now when there’s a scripted film happening. It’s a chapter that I find fascinating, but then again, all the different albums bring on an opportunity for great stories, whether it’s Tunnel Of Love or the Born in the U.S.A. album itself. But there’s no real conversations about making a doc at this point.

Do you pitch them ideas? Do you ever come to them and say, “I love Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., I’d love to make a film about that”?

I don’t think it falls into the formal thing of “pitch.” With Road Diary, it was a text that Bruce sent me that just said, “Come on by and film the guys.” And that was the start of the filmmaking. In other times, there’s been moments — for example, with No Nukes — where I just said, ” There’s some great footage here, let’s take a look at this.” And I put together a couple of songs and then it became a couple more songs. But I don’t sit there with a board and a pointer and say, “Next doc will be this, and this is what its POV is.” It’s just not in the spirit of our collaboration and creating things. It’s the material itself talking to one of us and saying, yeah, that’d be good. Hammersmith Odeon, Bruce brought that to me because somebody had sent him a clip and he saw an old bootleg copy of one of the songs and the next thing I knew, Sony was delivering a vault of material to my door and I put that concert together. So, it happens in this nontraditional way.

So, there’s not a dream project you have in the back of your mind where you’re like, it’d be really cool to do this someday?

I have 32 projects that I want to do in my dream space. But after these films are done, there’s a little bit of space to look at where the journey’s going. After Springsteen On Broadway, I had no idea that it would be Western Stars next. Springsteen On Broadway is shot a certain way, and Western Stars was shot completely different. Letter To You is in black and white. Each one of these films up to Road Diary take on a different language and approach, so I might have projects that I dream of or that I might want, but I also am open to the surprise of what Bruce is going to do next because I could never dream up Western Stars or Letter Yo You.

Is GloRilla pregnant? Probably not, but it really looks like it!

On Instagram last night (October 23), GloRilla shared a post featuring two photos of her showing off a large baby bump. Sharing the post on her Instagram Story, she added, “Was so sick of hiding & sucking my stomach in lol.”

However, there are multiple signs indicating this is almost certainly fake. For one, in the photos, Glo’s supposedly pregnant stomach is covered by a bodysuit, with no skin showing, making it easy to hide a pregnant belly prosthetic. Furthermore, GloRilla has been seen on multiple recent occasions with her stomach exposed and not looking at all pregnant. Here’s a photo of her performing at the BET Awards on October 8. Here’s another from her October 11 appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show. So, unless Glo’s body drastically changed over the past two weeks, Glo is just messing around and having some fun.

This all seems to stem from GloRilla’s recent song “Rain Down On Me,” which features a line implying GloRilla has a child: “Watch over my family, Lord, and watch over all of my partners / And even though he hate me, Lord, watch over my baby father.”

She later explained that she is not interested in pregnancy, although she would like to have children via a surrogate.

Lil Uzi Vert came through with a surprise yesterday (October 23) when they shared “Uzi The Earthling! (TV Show Theme),” a 30-second track modeled after a retro TV theme song. The single’s cover art seemed to suggest Uzi was teasing a follow-up to their 2020 album Eternal Atake, and indeed, that’s what’s happening: Today, Uzi officially announced Eternal Atake 2.

Uzi started by sharing the cover art on social media, along with a pre-save link. They then shared a sci-fi teaser video, which reveals that Uzi mysteriously vanished years ago. Then, we see a spaceship landing, with Uzi inside, who then undergoes some memory modifications before regaining consciousness.

The video says the album is “coming soon,” while album pages on streaming platforms indicate the project is set for release on November 1.

Notably, this comes after Uzi teased retirement in 2023, saying, “I was gonna wait ’til later to say it, but, you know, I’m dropping Luv Is Rage 3. And Luv Is Rage 3 will be my last album. […] After Luv Is Rage 3, I guess I will go on another tour. But after that, I wanna try to live a normal life.”

Check out the Eternal Atake 2 cover art below.

Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake 2 Album Cover Artwork

Eternal Atake 2 is out 11/1 via Generation Now/Atlantic Records. Find more information here.

One MusicFest is going down in Atlanta this weekend, and Cardi B was announced as one of the headliners. Well, there’s been a change of plans, as Cardi will no longer be able to perform due to a “medical emergency.”

In a post shared on social media yesterday (October 23), Cardi wrote, “I am so sad to share this news, but I’ve been in the hospital recovering from a medical emergency the last couple of days and I wont be able to perform at ONE MusicFest. It breaks my heart that I won’t get to see my fans this weekend and I really wish I could be there. Bardi Gang – thank you for understanding and I’ll be back better and stronger soon. Don’t worry. Love yall.”

Cardi has not revealed the nature of the “medical emergency” that landed her in the hospital.

Meanwhile, Cardi has been hard at work on her next album, the long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s Invasion Of Privacy. She recently said, “I’m also in LA because I have to do something pertaining the album. I know you guys are gonna be like, ‘What the f*ck, b*tch?’ But it’s something that’s gonna be done really f*cking quick. It’s just gonna be a one-two. I did it when I was pregnant, and nothing came out how I wanted it to come out, so we gotta do it again. […] Album is coming really, really soon, announcements is coming really really soon. Things are getting more done now! I’m not pregnant no more.”

One of the biggest music festivals in the world has announced its 2025 lineup. Primavera Sound 2025, held at the Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona, Spain, from June 4 to 8, will be headlined by Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Charli XCX. Other big names in the lineup include FKA Twigs, Haim, LCD Soundsystem, Jamie xx, Fontaines DC, Michael Bibi, Beach House, Idles, Clairo, Beabadoobee, Turnstile, TV On The Radio, Wet Leg, and so many more.

Elsewhere during the multi-day festival will be sets from The Dare, Floating Points, Stereolab, Yaosobi, Kelly Lee Owens, Paul Kalkbrenner, Hinds, Sturgill Simpson, Glass Beams, Black County New Roads, Kim Deal, Denzel Curry, Chat Pile, Cat Power Plays Dylan, Waxahatchee, and MJ Lenderman.

To attend Primavera Sound 2025, you can register for tickets until October 27. On October 28 at 11:00 CET, registered users will receive instructions via email to access the fan sale, which will be active for 24 hours or until supplies last. General ticket sales open on October 29 at 11:00 CET at Fever. It’s €295 ($318) for a ticket and €495 ($534) for a VIP ticket, although financing app Revolut is offering customers a deal to save 10 percent on tickets. You can find more information here.

You can watch the lineup announcement video above and check out the poster below.

Primavera Sound 2025 Poster

Sex And The City was one of the signature TV shows of the late ’90s and early 2000s, and its legacy continues today with the new series, And Just Like That…. Megan Thee Stallion, though, only just got on board, and she’s upset nobody told her sooner how great the original show is.

In an interview on The Tonight Show last night (October 23), Megan explained, “Nobody told me Sex And The City was this good. I’m pissed. Nobody said, ‘Megan, you should be watching Sex And The City. Girl, this… for the culture. You know, watch it.’”

She continued:

“I don’t even know how I stumbled upon it. I think I just kept seeing pictures of Sarah Jessica [Parker] looking pretty as f*ck. […] Her hair, her shoes, her outfits were always so beautiful. And I was like, ‘What is this show? Let me just — let me watch it. Let me get into it.’ Because nobody put me on. So I start watching the show, and I’m like… I cannot look away. I’m watching it while I’m working out. I’m watching it while I’m in glam. I’m watching it when I don’t have nothing else to do, and I’m a busy girl. I’m squeezing Sex And The City in there, and I’m asking everybody, ‘Have you seen Sex And The City?’”

Meg goes on to discuss the show further and give her thoughts on each of the main characters, so check out the video above.

Opening night of the NBA season is supposed to be a time for optimism, as teams still have the belief that this will be their year. In New Orleans, much of the excitement stems from having a new point guard in town in Dejounte Murray, who they hope can give them a different dimension and push them further into the playoff conversation in the West.

On Wednesday night, the Pelicans got their season underway with a 123-111 win over the Bulls at home in the Smoothie King Center, with Murray filling up the stat sheet with 14 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds in 30 minutes on the floor in a win that was headlined by Brandon Ingram’s 33-point outburst. However, after the game Shams Charania of ESPN reported brought word that Murray suffered what the team fears is a fractured left hand and will miss some time. Murray came out of the game with a minute to play in the fourth in a mass substitution with the rest of the starters, but at some point he took a hit to the hand that caused the injury.

The Pelicans do have a decent bit of backcourt depth and can manage a stretch without Murray, as CJ McCollum can run point and they have Jose Alvarado as a more than capable backup. Still, losing your starting point guard is never a good thing, especially considering Murray is new to the Pelicans and missing any extended time just takes away valuable reps with the rest of the team to continue building rapport and getting comfortable on the court together.

The Atlanta Hawks and the Brooklyn Nets began their respective regular seasons in Atlanta on Wednesday night. It was a close game between two teams that aren’t expected to do a ton during the 2024-25 campaign, and during the fourth quarter, one of the young building blocks for the Nets saw his night come to a premature end.

The Hawks got out and ran after a turnover, and Dyson Daniels — who the team acquired in the Dejounte Murray trade with the New Orleans Pelicans — looked like he was going to get a layup. Nic Claxton tried to challenge him, but instead of getting the ball, he ended up hitting Daniels with a clothesline that sent the young guard to the floor.

Daniels, shockingly, was not an especially huge fan of this, so he got up and immediately got into it with Claxton. Their pushing and shoving spilled into the area behind the basket, and ultimately, they were broken up. Daniels got a Flagrant 1 for escalating things, and unsurprisingly, a foul this hard meant that Claxton got a Flagrant 2 and an automatic ejection. At the time of his departure from the game, Claxton had seven points, five rebounds, a steal, and a block.