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Although Kurt Cobain was only 27 when he died, he accomplished a lot in his few years by becoming a generational music icon as the leader of Nirvana. Still, given that he died in 1994, he missed out on a lot of modern technologies.

This is something Helen Mirren apparently thinks about a lot.

In a new interview with Evening Standard, Mirren said:

“I always say, it’s so sad that Kurt Cobain died when he did, because he never got to see GPS. It’s the most wonderful thing, my little blue spot walking down the street. I just find it completely magical and unbelievable.”

Technically speaking, the US Department Of Defense launched GPS in 1978 and it was made available for civilian use in 1983, so GPS was around before Cobain’s 1994 death. But, Cobain certainly did miss out on what Mirren is more specifically referring to: widespread use of GPS navigation on modern smartphones.

This actually isn’t Mirren’s first time discussing the modern technologies Cobain didn’t get the chance to fully experience: In a 2014 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Mirren said while discussing aging, “You either die young or get old. There’s no other way. I didn’t want to die young. Look at Kurt Cobain — he hardly even saw a computer! The digital stuff that’s going on is so exciting. I’m just so curious about what happens next.”

Lil Durk was arrested and charged in a murder-for-hire plot, CBS News and ABC7 Chicago report. Reports say the Chicago rapper was arrested in Florida by US Marshals last night (October 24).

Per TMZ, the case is regarding the August 2022 shooting that resulted in the death of Quando Rondo’s cousin, as Rondo was suspected to be involved in the 2020 death of Durk associate King Von.

As Chicago’s WGN9 reports, Durk’s arrest follows the arrest of five other men in connection to the case: Kavon London Grant, Deandre Dontrell Wilson, Keith Jones, David Brian Lindsey, and Asa Houston. The unsealed indictment reveals they face charges including “conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, committing murder-for-hire resulting in death, as well as the use of, carry and discharge of firearms and a machinegun in the furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death.” The five are alleged to have ties to Durk’s group Only The Family (OTF), and The Chicago Tribune notes they could face the death penalty if convicted on those charges.

The indictment claims that following Von’s death, an unnamed OTF member offered money and “lucrative music opportunities” to anybody who would kill Rondo. The indictment also alleges OTF members used an OTF-associated credit card to fly the five defendants to California to look for Rondo.

In 2022, Durk had 2019 attempted murder charges dropped. He said at the time, “I have nothing to hide. I have nothing to run from.”

Steven and Ian open this week’s episode with some Halloween discourse, which unexpectedly dips into some Kindergarten Cop discourse. Then they turn to the Fantasy Albums Draft, which includes two new releases on Steven’s team, Soccer Mommy’s Evergreen and Laura Marling’s Patterns In Repeat. They also talk about the careers of both artists, and the state of 2010s era singer-songwriters in the mid-2020s. They also discuss the upcoming Tyler The Creator record, which drops on Monday, and the benefits of putting out music during the week rather than right before the weekend. From there, they talk about the recent Bon Iver EP Sable, which is the most straightforward music he’s ever made, and his influence on contemporary artists.

In the mailbag, they address a listener question about cover songs. How many is too many? Does Vampire Weekend tip into “too many territory” on their current tour?

In Recommendation Corner, Ian stumps for electronic artist Kelly Lee Owens and Steven talks up the Nashville trio Styrofoam Winos.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 212 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 X (formerly Twitter) for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Charles Barkley has never been shy about how little he’ll follow the NBA during the offseason. It leads to Barkley receiving a ton of criticism — and to be clear, there is certainly something to the most prominent pundit in the league not diving into the nitty-gritty of the league that closely — but at the same time, the Inside the NBA folks have found a way to turn this into a popular segment early in the year: Who He Play For?

If you are unaware of the rules, Barkley gets presented a player and has to name their team. It usually goes horribly, and on Thursday night, it went horribly, as The Chuckster went 1-for-5.

Here’s how things went down:

Taj Gibson

Team: Charlotte Hornets
Chuck’s guess: New Jersey Nets

Talen Horton-Tucker

Team: Chicago Bulls
Chuck’s guess: Utah Jazz

Patty Mills

Team: Utah Jazz
Chuck’s guess: Utah Jazz

Doug McDermott

Team: Sacramento Kings
Chuck’s guess: Detroit Pistons

Garrett Temple

Team: Toronto Raptors
Chuck’s guess: Portland Trail Blazers

Of course, it’s possible this is the last time we see Who He Play For?, as Turner does not have NBA broadcasting rights after this year and it’s unclear what Inside will look like going forward, even though Barkley has committed to remaining with the network. If this is, indeed, the final time we’ll see the game, we’re just glad Chuck got to guess what team Garrett Temple plays for one final time.

Fame ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Halsey shares her thoughts on the subject on her wistful new song, “Only Living Girl In LA.” In it, she wonders, “If I ever left behind my body / Do you think they’d laugh at how I died? / Or take a photo of my family in the lobby? / The ceremony’s small in size… / ’Cause I don’t know if I could sell out my own funeral / At least, not at this point in time.”

Her words are extra poignant in the wake of the death of former One Direction member Liam Payne, after photos of his body were shared by TMZ, sparking a backlash among fans. In “Only Living Girl In LA,” Halsey ponders the public’s appetite for lurid stories about their favorite celebrities, and how quickly the audience can jump from one topic to the next, making artists feel lost and inadequate in the wake.

It’s an appropriate concept for an album called The Great Impersonator, which Halsey released today after sharing similarly introspective singles such as “I Never Loved You,” “Ego,” and “Lonely Is The Muse.” The singer previously said she thought the album “would be the last one I ever made” due to a lupus diagnosis and the resulting health problems, including a recent seizure.

You can listen to “Only Living Girl In LA” above.

The Great Impersonator is out now via Columbia Records. Find more information here.

Listeners better heed the words of Summer Walker‘s gracious new single, “Heart Of A Woman.” The throwback-sounding R&B ballad warns a fella who’s been slipping that the “only thing that’s saving you is the heart of a woman.” The graciously minded new track will appear on Summer’s upcoming third album, Finally Over It, and in keeping with the theme, it sounds less confrontational than her past output. Instead, she’s exasperated, fed up, and resigned — which is, to all you younger cats out there, never a good thing, trust me.

Walker has been teasing a new project for the past few weeks, updating streamers with the title of her upcoming third album, while leaving fans to guess at just how “over it” she really was, until finally revealing the “Finally” part on October 11, along with the announcement for “Heart Of A Woman.” Although Walker has yet to reveal the release date for the upcoming album, it’s already one of the most anticipated new music releases of the year, thanks to the warm reception of her prior releases, Over It and Still Over It. They both set new records in terms of R&B and with the excitement for number three reaching all-time highs, you can bet Finally Over It will make just as much of a splash.

You can listen to “Heart Of A Woman” above.

It should come as no surprise that Texas native Megan Thee Stallion has repurposed her home state’s unofficial slogan for her latest single. In fact, the only surprise is that it took so long for her to make “Bigger In Texas,” considering how much pride she has for her hometown, Houston, and the surrounding territory.

“Bigger In Texas” arrives along with 10 other all-new songs as part of her new album, Megan: Act II. Also included on the new project are a remix of her social media favorite, “Mamushi,” featuring K-pop girl group Twice, and the previously released RM collaboration, “Neva Play.” And while fans weren’t sure about the new collection’s artwork, they’ll almost certainly eat up new collaborations with Flo Milli (“Roc Steady”) and Spiritbox (“TYG”).

The new version of Megan follows a productive year for Thee Stallion, who independently released the original Megan as she completed her Hot Girl Summer Tour along with GloRilla. She also collaborated with Glo a couple of times, first on “Wanna Be,” then on its remix with Cardi B, and most recently on “How I Look,” leading to calls for the duo to consider a collaboration album — calls they appear ready to oblige. Meg also teamed up with Latto and Flo Milli on their “Sunday Service” remix. All that in just 2024 makes you wonder just how much she’ll be able to get done in 2025.

You can watch the “Bigger In Texas” video above.

Megan: Act II is out now via Hot Girl Productions. Find more information here.

Jack Antonoff has been popping up in some unexpected places these days. There’s the production work he did alongside Michelle Zauner for Marvel’s Agatha All ALong on Japanese Breakfast’s pop version of the show’s signature song “ The Ballad Of The Witches’ Road,” there’s the re-imagined version of his band Bleachers’ debut album, and of course, there’s the studio shot with Taylor Swift and frequent Kendrick Lamar collaborator Sounwave. But his latest output finds him on the Great White Way, playing musical director to a new adaptation of Romeo + Juliet starring Rachel Zegler.

Zegler sings and Antonoff plays on the first single from the cast recording, “Man Of The House.” From its opening chords, it’s very clearly an Antonoff production, with slow and steady keys building to a soaring, cheap seat-pleasing ballad. It’ll certainly be fascinating to see how it fits into the show, with Zegler’s Juliet singing it to Kit Connor’s Romeo (I think).

Romeo + Juliet opened at Circle in the Square Theatre tonight, October 24th, and is set to run through February 16th for a strictly limited 20-week engagement — although, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it get an extended run with a new cast after the uber-busy Zegler and Harrington move on. You can find more information about the show here.

Listen to Rachel Zegler and Jack Antonoff’s “Man Of The House” above.

After teasing her new song, “Disease,” earlier this week, Lady Gaga has released the paranoid new song, which follows her Bruno Mars collaboration “Die With A Smile,” and sees her back on track for the rollout to her upcoming seventh album after a detour to promote Joker: Folie À Deux (and its accompanying soundtrack).

Lady Gaga has adapted remarkably well to the “conspiracy theory” era of album marketing, kicking off the rollout for “Disease” by hiding clues in the tracklists of her past releases. By updating the titles of seven songs from Chromatica with lowercase letters, she spelled out the title of the new single, giving fans an epic Easter egg hunt to pique their curiosity and stoke their enthusiasm.

Gaga’s had a busy year so far; while she focused mainly on preparing for the media blitz for Joker, she also found time to rehearse for a huge, elaborate performance at the Summer Olympics in Paris and bring back her Jazz & Piano residency in Las Vegas (which, technically, probably helped out a lot with the Joker soundtrack, which also saw her cover plenty of standards). Now, with her anti-Harley Quinn in the rearview, perhaps her anticipated album will be arriving sooner than later.

You can watch Lady Gaga’s “Disease” video above.

The days of calling Addison Rae a “TikTok star” before any of her other talents are rapidly coming to an end. The release of her new single “Aquamarine” should speed along her acceptance as a true-blue pop star. The song, which arrived today with a gritty but glittery music video, displays her sensibilities, which borrow clubby production from the late 1990s (think “Ray Of Light”-era Cher) and combines them with ethereal vocals (picture prime Enya) for a dance floor burner that evokes the time of the singer’s birth. In the video, she struts the streets of Paris, after a cigarette break, dancing the night away with moves choreographed by veteran dancer Danielle Polanco.

Rae kicked off her musical career in earnest in 2021, with the release of “Obsessed,” which saw her pivot from dancing to singing with a more traditional pop angle. Then, last August, she delved into spacier production styles alongside Charli XCX on “2 Die 4,” reuniting with Charli on the latter’s remix of “Von Dutch” from Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat.

In the meantime, Rae continued to make waves as she branched out from the video-based social media service to signing a multi-picture deal with Netflix.

You can watch the video for Addison Rae’s new single “Aquamarine” above.