Category: Worldwide

No one can be good at everything, and Marc Maron is no exception. Sure, he can make people laugh until their stomachs hurt while delivering his stand-up take on the “Rapture,” and it’s hard imagine anyone else pulling off his GLOW role. Maron also delivered a wonderful performance alongside Andrea Riseborough in the (unexpectedly controversial) To Leslie (now on Netflix) and of course, he’s never afraid to get a little profane on his WTF podcast.

At one point in time, however, Maron went for an SNL gig, and it didn’t work out. He moved on and didn’t know that hearing the “why” aspect would be useful, but he felt a lot better once that information came directly from Lorne Michaels. On a previous WTF episode, Michaels explained that he met with Maron because he has an original voice, and “I think you were ready.” However, “I learned early on that if you bring people in and there’s no real spot for them.” Then Michaels elaborated with a comparison to David Spade’s rough SNL onboarding. Via Entertainment Weekly:

“Writers will always go to whoever came through for them on the last show … Unless you play some other kind of part, or unless you bring some other kind of voice that’s clear and can withstand those first five or six shows when the audience is less than friendly.”

Following this discussion, Maron expressed how much of a “great experience” he had during the chat. “Not only did I get closure, not only did I — by this point, I didn’t even know if I needed it, but it was great to have it.” He added that Michaels is a “great guy,” and considering that the co-creator has been cranking out SNL magic (with a hiatus from 1980-85) since 1975, he clearly knows how that magic is best made. And Maron went on to carve out a very popular and enduring podcast (and much more) while enjoying long-term success in his own right.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Rashad Jennings had a fine career as an NFL running back. He rushed for 3,772 yards over eight seasons and made nearly $10 million. Not bad for a seventh round pick. Jennings also won a season of Dancing with the Stars and appeared on Guy Fieri’s Guy’s Grocery Games – Game Day Super Teams. He’s a success by any measure — except as a Wheel of Fortune contestant.

During a recent all former-NFL players episode of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, Jennings faced a puzzle with all but one letter on the board: “Driving to Reno with _uentin Tarantino.” Instead of filling in the blank with a “Q,” he guessed “P,” as in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood director Puentin Tarantino. Jennings is used to being booed — he played for the New York Giants, after all — but he probably didn’t expect the Wheel of Fortune studio audience to groan at his guess.

Jennings explained what the heck was going through his mind during Monday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. “Well, what happened was, I was wrong,” he explained to host Jimmy Kimmel. “I had one of them things you like to call a brain fart, and it happened at the most inopportune time.” Jennings (who is starting a podcast about the experience) is a fan of Tarantino’s movies, but “when that happened and not having the first letter I was just like, uhhhh, brain fart. As soon as it popped up I knew.”

If I was a Wheel of Fortune contestant in that high-pressure situation, I might also forget my favorite Tarantino movie, which is obviously Kill Dill.

You can watch the Kimmel clip above.

Today (October 24), Green Day announced that they have a new album titled Saviors on the way. In spirit, they also shared the first single, “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” which had been teased on social media last night and played during their recent concerts.

The release includes a spooky music video, just in time for Halloween. The band keeps rocking on in the middle of a zombie invasion, and the B&W style adds to the eerie, chaotic energy. However, at the end, some zombie hunters try to fight back.

“Saviors is an invitation into Green Day’s brain, their collective spirit as a band, and an understanding of friendship, culture, and legacy of the last 30 plus years,” the band shared on Instagram. “It’s raw and emotional. Funny and disturbing. It’s a laugh at the pain, weep in the happiness kind of record.”

They then go on to share a list of things that the album will be about: “Power pop, punk, rock, indie triumph. disease, war, inequality, influencers, yoga retreats, alt-right, dating apps, masks, MENTAL HEALTH, climate change, oligarchs, social media division, free weed, fentanyl, fragility.”

Check out Green Day’s “The American Dream Is Killing Me” above.

Saviors is out 1/19/2024 via Reprise Records. Find more information here.

Green Day is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

With his latest album, For All The Dogs, Drake has accomplished a feat only one other man has. Drake matched Michael Jackson’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits record, thanks to his collaboration with J. Cole, “First Person Shooter.” While a lot of that has to do with streaming, that’s still a pretty impressive accomplishment considering just how much there is to stream these days. Here’s a look back at all of Drake’s Hot 100 No. 1s, which have helped him fascinate the world for well over a decade.

“What’s My Name?” — Rihanna Feat. Drake, 2010

Drake’s first two No. 1 hits came courtesy of his collaborations with Rihanna. The first was a result of Rihanna’s Loud single “What’s Might Name?” which lasted for one week at the position.

“Work” — Rihanna Feat. Drake, 2016

Rihanna’s dancehall-inflected Anti single recaptured the magic of their prior collaborations and improved on the formula, spending nine weeks at No. 1.

“One Dance” Feat. Wizkid & Kyla, 2016

“One Dance,” from Drake’s 2016 album Views, spent 10 weeks at No. 1 and was Drake’s first chart-topper as lead artist.

“God’s Plan,” 2018

Until “God’s Plan,” Drake’s Scorpion standout, the one knock against him was that he did not have any No. 1s as a solo artist. This record not only shattered that last obstacle but also started him on his history-making run in earnest — he’s had a No. 1 in every year since.

“Nice For What,” 2018

Another Scorpion single, “Nice For What,” spent 11 weeks at No. 1, making it his best-performing single ever. It not only replaced “God’s Plan” but it was also later supplanted by another Drake single — in fact, the next one on this list.

“In My Feelings,” 2018

“In My Feelings” replaced “Nice For What” in July, giving Drake three No. 1 hits in 2018. It only fell short of its predecessor’s record by one week, fueled by a viral dance craze that presaged all the TikTokery to follow.

“Toosie Slide,” 2020

Drake’s obvious bid for TikTok trending status low-key worked. For a throwaway from the mixtape Dark Lane Demo Tapes, it certainly outkicked its coverage, although it only spent one week at No. 1.

“What’s Next,” 2021

Another non-album single, “What’s Next” appears on Drake’s Scary Hours EP and appeared at the top spot on the Hot 100 for one week.

“Way 2 Sexy” Feat. Future & Young Thug, 2021

In 2021, Drake returned with Certified Lover Boy, an album that wasn’t beloved but still managed to garner a one-week No. 1 — likely as a result of this goofy video.

“Wait For U” — Future Feat. Drake & Tems, 2022

In 2022, Drake again landed at No. 1 by virtue of a feature appearance — this time, with his new toxic twin Future. This song also has the distinction of making singer Tems the first African artist to debut at No. 1.

“Jimmy Cooks” Feat. 21 Savage, 2022

The song that kicked off Drake and 21’s productive partnership, “Jimmy Cooks” was the only traditional rap song on Honestly, Nevermind, which likely lent to its popularity among fans who were thrown by Drake’s seemingly sudden swing into dance music.

“Slime You Out” Feat. SZA, 2023

Drake’s first-ever collaboration with SZA might not have been popular among peers and critics, but it was with their fans, debuting at No. 1 on release and later appearing on Drake’s eighth studio album For All The Dogs.

“First Person Shooter” Feat. J. Cole, 2023

Drake and J. Cole’s fifth collaboration resulted in Drake’s 13th No. 1, tying Michael Jackson’s record, and J. Cole’s first, throttling one of the negative narratives about his career to date.

Based on her blissful glow when spotted with her rumored boyfriend, Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift is making it clear all about moving on to better things (sorry, not sorry, Matty Healy) — or revamp them, such as her mission to re-record her past albums, which is still a full-time venture. Thankfully, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is nearly here. So, here’s when the album will be available on Apple Music.

According to the upload schedule, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) will be publicly accessible to subscribers of the streaming platform beginning at midnight Pacific and 9 p.m. Eastern on Friday, October 27.

When Swift announced the drop, she took to her official Instagram page to share a touching note. “The ‘1989’ album changed my life in countless ways, and it fills me with such excitement to announce that my version of it will be out October 27. To be perfectly honest, this is my most FAVORITE re-record I’ve ever done because the five from the vault tracks are so insane. I can’t believe they were ever left behind. But not for long,” wrote the singer.

View the tracklist for 1989 (Taylor’s Version) below.

1. “Welcome To New York (Taylor’s Version)”
2. “Blank Space (Taylor’s Version)”
3. “Style (Taylor’s Version)”
4. “Out Of The Woods (Taylor’s Version)”
5. “All You Had To Do Was Stay (Taylor’s Version)”
6. “Shake It Off (Taylor’s Version)”
7. “I Wish You Would (Taylor’s Version)”
8. “Bad Blood (Taylor’s Version)”
9. “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)”
10. “How You Get The Girl (Taylor’s Version)”
11. “This Love (Taylor’s Version)”
12. “I Know Places (Taylor’s Version)”
13. “Clean (Taylor’s Version)”
14. “Wonderland (Taylor’s Version)”
15. “You Are In Love (Taylor’s Version)”
16. “New Romantics (Taylor’s Version)”
17. “Slut! (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”
18. “Say Don’t Go (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”
19. “Now That We Don’t Talk (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”
20. “Suburban Legends (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”
21. “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”
22. “Sweeter Than Fiction (Taylor’s Version)” (“Tangerine Edition” bonus track)

1989 (Taylor’s Version) is out 10/27 via Republic Records. Find more information here.

Despite former board member Jann Wenner’s disgusting remarks, the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony is tuned to be a true headbanger. In May, the inductees class, which features Kate Bush, Rage Against The Machine, the late George Michael, Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, and the Spinners, was announced. Shortly after, the live entertainment for the broadcast was unveiled, but today (October 24), that list has grown. Here is the complete list of performers for the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction.

Inductees Nelson, Crow, and Missy have confirmed they’ll hit the stage. In addition to their sets, Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Dave Matthews, HER, New Edition, St. Vincent, Stevie Nicks, Adam Levine, Carrie Underwood, Common, Ice-T, LL Cool J, Miguel, Queen Latifah, and Sia will perform.

Outside of the performances and inductions, several impactful musicians will be acknowledged during the ceremony, including Chaka Khan, Al Kooper, and Bernie Taupin, who will be awarded the Musical Excellence Award. At the same time, DJ Kool Herc and Link Wray will be bestowed with the Musical Influence Award. Lastly, the Soul Train host Don Cornelius will posthumously receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony will be held on November 3 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. For the first time in the ceremony’s history, it will be broadcast live on Disney+. Find more information here.

The Los Angeles Lakers have LeBron James on their basketball team, which means one thing: They need to compete for a championship this year. Even beyond the whole “he wants to join whatever team has his son (or maybe sons!)” thing, arguably the greatest basketball player to ever live will turn 39 in December, and while he was very good last season, we saw some signs of his age, like the foot injury that impacted him down the stretch of the regular season and during the playoffs.

The Lakers did an excellent job retooling on the fly last year during the regular season, built up a stout defense, and made a run to the Western Conference Finals. Now, it’s time for the team to make the next step, and the question is simple: can they do that?

Biggest Question: Did They Do Enough This Summer?

LeBron is LeBron, even if Father Time ends up catching up to him a little bit more this year now that he is officially the oldest player in the NBA. Anthony Davis is Anthony Davis, and James has made abundantly clear that he wants to hand the reins totally off to him and let the Lakers be his team. As long as those two are able to play and be good, effective NBA players, teams are not going to have a good time playing against Los Angeles.

The question, as always, is going to be the pieces around them. We have a pretty good sense of how some guys are going to fit: Austin Reaves is a legitimate third option and someone whose ability to score and make plays fits awfully well alongside those two. For his offensive limitations, Jarred Vanderbilt’s defense and ability to get hustle points on offense is a nice fit. D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura aren’t perfect players, but their ability to score gives the team a much-needed boost on offense.

That’s a good, albeit not perfect, group of five or six players — that core got swept in the Western Conference Finals by the eventual champion Denver Nuggets. The goal going into the summer, beyond making sure guys in that group got contract extensions, was to build even further. Can Christian Wood finally put together a full season of effective basketball on both ends of the floor? Is Gabe Vincent able to repeat his commandeering performance in the playoffs with the Miami Heat? What does Jaxson Hayes look like on this team? What about Taurean Prince? Can any of their young guys, particularly Max Christie and 2023 first-round pick Jalen Hood-Schifino, give them anything?

The expectations are, and always will be, extremely high in L.A. James and Davis will take them as far as they can on their own, but if the team is going to do anything more than that, it’s going to require all these other pieces playing to the absolute best of their ability.

X-Factor: Rui Hachimura

Honestly, you can take any of those non-LeBron or AD guys and put them in here. Hachimura is the one I’m going to highlight just because the absolute best version of himself — someone who is lethal on catch-and-shoot threes, is capable of creating his own shot, is willing to rebound and, as we saw against the Nuggets when he would match up with Nikola Jokic, use his size to battle with bigger offensive players. Just spelling it out like that, Hachimura is the perfect player to put alongside the two guys around whom the entire team is built.

The problem: He’s not that guy all the time, or at least hasn’t shown the ability to be that guy on a night in, night out basis. Even the start of his stint with the Lakers didn’t go especially well — Hachimura averaged 9.6 points in 22.4 minutes per game while shooting 48.5 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from three. For the Lakers to get where they want to go, he has to be better than that. Not necessarily the guy he was in the playoffs (I do not think Hachimura is going to hit 48.7 percent of his threes this season), but a consistent, reliable third or fourth option would go a really long way towards helping Los Angeles get to where it wants to go. But again, that applies to everyone on the Lakers beyond their top-2. If they can have their rotation and the roles everyone will fill all figured out come, say, the start of December, that would be gigantic.

Now is the time to binge every episode of Big Mouth since its seventh star-studded season just dropped, but also because the upcoming eighth season will be its last. They’ve gotta make it to 10th grade somehow!

Back in 2020 when the 4th season of the series was set to premiere, Big Mouth co-creator Andrew Goldberg announced that the voice of Missy would be recast. Missy was previously voiced by Jenny Slate, who felt the need to step down and allow a Black actress to come on board. This was midway through production, so half of season four is voiced by Slate, while the rest is Ayo Edebiri.

Goldberg stated, “Jenny came to the realization that it was past time for her to step down. We supported her, and we had this big conversation with our Black writers and a few Black performers. [They] all agreed that they loved what Jenny had done and appreciated the character that she had created, but that the right thing to do was to make space for a Black actor to play the part.” This is when the team hired Edebiri.

Edebiri was already working in the Big Mouth writer’s room at the time, so the decision was easy. Goldberg explained, “With Ayo, it was very special for us. She was a writer on season five of Big Mouth, so she was already part of the family. She is also new and young. She was in college when she first saw Big Mouth and became attached emotionally to Missy.” Now, Edebiri will finish up playing Missy through the show’s eight season, set to air next year on Netflix.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Travis Scott’s Utopia: Circus Maximus Tour is underway, and set to roll into Phoenix for two dates at the Footprint Center. If you’ve got tickets or are planning to scoop some for resale, you might be interested in parking information for the show — especially if you want to arrive early enough to catch the opening acts (or pull up just in time to watch Travis hit the stage).

According to the Footprint Center’s official website:

There are several parking garages and lots within walking distance of Footprint Center. The venue’s attached five-story, 700-space parking structure provides the most convenient parking available to our suite holders, premium-seat owners, as well as limited space available to the general public. The parking structure is open daily 6 am to 6 pm, Monday through Friday, in addition to being open for all events held at the Footprint Center.

There’s also a garage on Jefferson Street, just a block east. Footprint’s site has directions to the main garage from North Phoenix/Scottsdale, East Phoenix, Glendale, and East Valley/Tempe. Footprint Center Parking reportedly averages $15 – $20.

Uproxx has more information about Travis Scott’s Utopia: Circus Maximus Tour, including how long it is, available merch, and his setlist (as well as opener Teezo Touchdown’s).

Sofia Coppola has accomplished so much — writing and directing The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, and Marie Antoinette; appearing in all three Godfather films; guest starring as herself on What We Do in the Shadows — that she forgot she was in one of the biggest movies of all-time.

The director was speaking with Rolling Stone about her new film, the Priscilla Presley biopic Priscilla, when her role as one of Padmé Amidala’s handmaidens in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace came up. “I forgot about that,” she replied. Keira Knightley can relate.

Coppola also revealed that she was considered to direct the final Twilight movie, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2. “We had one meeting, and it never went anywhere. I thought the whole imprinting-werewolf thing was weird. The baby. Too weird!” she said. Poor Renesmee, poor poor hideous Renesmee. Coppola continued, “But part of the earlier Twilight could be done in an interesting way. I thought it’d be fun to do a teen-vampire romance, but the last one gets really far out.” That’s why it’s the best Twilight movie (mostly for one insane scene), but it would have been an odd fit for Coppola.

Priscilla, which stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi as Priscilla and Elvis, opens in theaters on October 27th.

(Via Rolling Stone)