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Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison quickly became one of the buzziest indie songwriters with her 2018 debut, existing at the nexus of ’90s indie, alt-rock, and 2010s DIY music. On this week’s Indiecast episode, hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen discuss her new album, Sometimes, Forever, and debate whether it’s an instant Album Of The Year contender or if it missed the mark.

Along with discussing Soccer Mommy, Indiecast talks about news from arguably the two biggest names in music: Beyoncé and Drake. Both celebrities announced new albums just hours apart from each other, with Drake’s house-leaning Honestly, Nevermind debuting the next day.

In the Recommendation Corner this week, Ian tells listeners to check out Candy, a Richmond, VA metalcore band who have leveled up their music in recent years. Steven shouts out Kentucky songwriter S.G. Goodman, whose sophomore album Teeth Marks is out now.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 94 below, 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.

Earlier this year, pop punk queen Avril Lavigne released her seventh studio album Love Sux, a return to form. Today, she covered Adele’s “Hello” for the Spotify Singles series and unveiled a stripped-down version of her song “Love Sux.” The rendition of Adele’s hit is emotive and powerful, and the new version of “Love Sux” is even more poignant than the original version.

“I love Adele’s song ‘Hello’ and have been dying to do a cover of it,” the singer said. “The ‘Spotify Singles’ sessions were a fun opportunity to finally do this cover as well as reimagine my own song ‘Love Sux’ as an acoustic version.”

The star recently got engaged to the artist Mod Sun. About the proposal, she explained, “We were in Paris on a boat in the Seine River. We had a violin player, champagne, and roses. It felt like time stood still, and it was just the two of us in the moment.” She added, “I knew we had a very strong unstoppable connection from the first week of writing and working together in the studio. Immediately. He made every day better. It was like I had known him forever. As time went on, things kept getting better, and it felt incredibly natural.”

Listen to the Spotify Singles recordings below.

The first reactions are in for Thor: Love and Thunder, Chris Hemsworth‘s fourth turn as the God of Thunder and director Taika Waititi‘s second entry after shaking up the character with Thor: Ragnarok. This time around, Natalie Portman rejoins the series thanks to Waititi promising the actress that she’ll have a “less boring time” as the Mighty Thor. Christian Bale also joins the cast as the villainous Gorr the God Butcher, and his performance is being favorably compared to Danny Devito’s Penguin in Batman Returns.

On top of the all-star cast bringing it, Love and Thunder apparently goes heavy on the Guns n’ Roses, and the critics are here for the Dad Rock vibes.

“THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is the greatest MCU movie, or, for that matter, any movie ever made because it has a direct reference to COCKTAIL (that part not a joke) and in my own pantheon of references, those are the rules I set long ago so I must abide by them,” Uproxx‘s Mike Ryan tweeted. “(Also I have no doubt this will be Axl Rose’s favorite movie of all time because I can only assume he got points for how many GnR songs show up.)”

“If you, like me, take delight in watching Christian Bale slurp up the scenery while gobbing out that black ink Danny DeVito had in Batman Returns, then #ThorLoveAndThunder is for you,” The Ringer‘s Joanna Robinson wrote.

“Holy shit. #ThorLoveandThunder is the perfect blend of Taika at his best with comedy and a punch to the gut all in one,” The Mary Sue‘s Rachel Leishman tweeted. “I left this movie emotionally satisfied while also sobbing and just perfection. We stan a dad rock soundtrack. In the words of my new favorite characters: AHH.”

“#ThorLoveAndThunder is electric!” Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff wrote. “A wacky, high energy delight with a cast full of aces crushing one scene after the next. LOADS of laughs (my face legit hurts), menace of Christian Bale’s Gorr is chilling, but most of all loved that it’s a film brimming with good vibes & heart.”

“#ThorLoveAndThunder is like what I imagine living in the mind of Taika Waititi might be like,” io9’s Germain Lussier tweeted. “It’s wild, funny, a little all over the place in the middle but by the end it all comes together in a surprising, touching, satisfying way. So much Guns n Roses too. So much.”

You can see more Thor: Love and Thunder reactions below:

Thor: Love and Thunder rocks into theaters on July 8.

[This post contains spoilers for Stranger Things 4]

The most talked-about episode of Stranger Things season four is also among the show’s finest episodes. IMDb users voted “Dear Billy,” the episode where Sadie Sink’s Max is nearly killed by Vecna before being saved by her friends (and Kate Bush), the show’s second best episode with a 9.5 rating, behind only “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” (9.7). But unlike the midseason finale, “Dear Billy” could break an Emmys record.

“Dear Billy” has been submitted for seven Emmys categories: Outstanding Directing (Shawn Levy), Outstanding Guest Actor (A Nightmare on Elm Street legend Robert Englund), Outstanding Stunts, Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing, Outstanding Music Supervision, Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup, and Outstanding Cinematography. If the episode wins all seven awards, “it will set a new record as the most awarded episode in Emmy history,” according to Gold Derby. The current record of six is held by “Battle of the Bastards” from Game of Thrones and the pilot episode of Boardwalk Empire.

It takes sky-high production values for an episode to rack up that many wins, and Stranger Things is indeed a lavish production, though the show as a whole has yet to win six or more awards for a single season, let alone for a single episode.

Stranger Things has won seven Emmys total, all in the technical categories, so seven Emmys for a single episode is a tough ask. But even tougher is trying to understand why Sink apparently wasn’t submitted for her performance in “Dear Billy”. She’ll remember the snub, all too well.

(Via Gold Derby)

(Spoilers for Season 3 of The Boys will be found below.)

At long last, The Boys is streaming Season 3, Episode 6, known officially (and fondly) as the “Herogasm” episode. This, as the name suggests, involves a wide array of mature content because an entire damn orgy’s going during the latter half of the episode. Antony Starr’s Homelander, actual villain that he is (and solo performer extraordinaire), doesn’t really get involved in the party, but he is at the center of the metaphorical Herogasm at the end of the episode. He’s fully clothed, but that’s no less thrilling for the audience.

First, though, let’s give a necessary mention to The Deep’s sexy time, and it’s no wonder that Chace Crawford wondered if he’d work again following what happens this season. Let’s just say that his tan lines showed up from a rear view while the front view involved a very affectionate octopus. And Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) most decidedly did not have a good time. First, his favorite jacket got ruined, and then it really got ruined.

From there, yes, there was an orgy (that ended in an explosion) with plenty of nudity while good times happened and nudity while the participants were shell-shocked and/or dead. The real climax of the episode, though, involved a fight scene between Homelander and a trio who teamed up to take him down. That would be Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and the Compound V-infused Butcher (Karl Urban) and naked Hughie (Jack Quaid). This turned into what some viewed as an Infinity War of sorts, but many declared this as the “real” Herogasm, and overall, people called this the best episode of the show so far. This, in turn, made for one of the best episodes in recent TV history.

Yep, this is the trio that no one knew that they needed.

Homelander ended up getting away at the end, but he’s sustained bruises — not only the ones that we can see, but deep inside of his pitch-black soul. And surely, he’s going to be even more off the hook going forward.

Meanwhile, poor Starlight (Erin Moriarty). No one on earth could blame her for seizing upon this opportunity to become Annie January again.

The Boys‘ “Herogasm” is currently streaming on Amazon.

Earlier this month, Billie Eilish debuted a new song, “TV,” live. One standout lyric is a clear reference to the media sensation surrounding the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial amid news that the Supreme Court could potentially overturn Roe v. Wade: “The internet’s gone wild watching movie stars on trial / While they’re overturning Roe v. Wade.”

Now, in a new NME profile, Eilish has expanded on that line, sharing how truly frustrated the situation made her. She said:

“I was in this state of depression, losing my own rights to my own body, and then I’d go on the internet and it would be people giving their take on this trial. Who f*cking gives a f*ck? Women are losing rights for their bodies, so why are we talking about celebrities’ divorce trials? Who gives a sh*t? Let them figure it out on their own. The internet bothers the sh*t out of me sometimes.”

She also explained her decision to debut “TV” on stage, saying, “I just wanted to go back to my roots: to put a little guitar song back out, and feel like how I used to. I was just missing that feeling and missed doing a song that no one had heard yet.”

Check out the full feature here.

Back in April, the rumor mill was churning, specifically as it related to a possible engagement between Phoebe Bridgers and Paul Mescal, with Bridgers reportedly calling him her fiancé at a Coachella party. Bridgers herself hasn’t really spoken about those rumors, although she has now as part of a new profile from The Guardian.

She didn’t offer much clarity, though: When the topic was brought up, Bridgers, with a “grin,” said, “F*ck the f*cking tabloids to hell, that’s what I’ll say about that!”

Meanwhile, she also spoke about both she and Mescal reaching a higher level of fame during the initial COVID-19 lockdowns, saying,”It’s so nice to have that in common with somebody, because it just makes no sense.” With “a happy squirm,” Bridgers also talked about writing “Sidelines” with Mescal in mind: “Writing about my relationship with only good sh*t, because that’s all I feel, is hard, but it makes it easy when you’re actually having those feelings.”

She also touched on attending this year’s Met Gala (her first) with Mescal by her side, saying, “They literally sewed me into [my dress]. It was terrifying, in a very fun way. […] It’s like the weirdest, most elitist prom.”

Check out the full feature here.

The news that Lady Gaga is in talks to play Harley Quinn in Joker 2… which is a musical… was met with confusion and delight. But it left me with one big question: what about the other Harley Quinn? No, not the next Margot Robbie movie (that’s also important, but she’s busy with Barbie, which could go down as the greatest movie of all-time), but HBO Max’s animated series, Harley Quinn.

Harley Quinn is “so much better than you think it will be when you read ‘Harley Quinn animated series,’ even if you’re the type of person who gets excited about phrases like that already,” our own Brian Grubb once opined. I couldn’t agree more. (No offense to Tom Hardy, but James Adomian’s Bane is the definitive Bane.) Season two premiered in April 2020, approximately 17 years ago, but it’s coming back for a new season soon.

As in, next month soon. IGN reports:

Harley Quinn is back, arriving on HBO Max this July. The hit animated series starring Kaley Cuoco as the iconic Harley Quinn doesn’t have a confirmed release date just yet – but it will be back at some point in July, according to a Warner Media press release.

You can catch up with the first two seasons on HBO Max, or at least watch a best-of Bane supercut.

(Via IGN)

It would be fair to assume Roddy Ricch has a chip on his shoulder after the mixed reactions to his December 2021 album Live Life Fast. There was much anticipation for the follow-up to his strong 2019 debut Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial and his confident foreshadowing in interviews of what to prepare for from his sophomore LP only added to the expectations. Six months later, he’s back with the high-energy, three-song EP The Big Three.

The project includes production from Mustard, London On Ds Track, Sonic and Wasa. He quickly teased the next iteration of the Feed Tha Streets series before testing some snippets that were met very harshly as well. Now, six months later, the “High Fashion” artist is back with a three-song EP titled The Big Three with production Mustard, London On Da Track, Sonic and Wasa on this outing for the “The Box” spitter.

Though Roddy hasn’t officially released any solo music in the six months between Live Life Fast and Please Excuse Me, he maintained a presence with features on Post Malone’s Twelve Carat Toothache, Ella Mai’s Heart On My Sleeve, and Gunna’s DS4ever.
The Big Three is out now via Atlantic. Listen to it here.

Verzuz made its return tonight with its previously announced matchup between 2000s R&B favorites Mario and Omarion. The battle was a bit different from the past ones we’ve seen on the platform over the past two years. In addition to it being a live event from Los Angeles, Mario and Omarion’s battle also featured an undercard that placed Ray J and Bobby V in a battle against Sammie and Pleasure P. If you expected things to go smoothly throughout the night, we’re here to tell you that was far from the case, and it started long before Mario and Omarion took the stage.

Ray J and Bobby V’s battle against Sammie and Pleasure P featured plenty of moments that sent social media into a frenzy. There was Ray J being quite off-key as he sang his fan-favorite “One Wish.” Then, Bobby V, Sammie, and Pleasure P joined forces to sing “One Wish” on-key. Then Ray told the trio that they were “just mad y’all don’t own y’all hits.” Sammie also declared that there “wouldn’t be no Bobby V without Sammie” and he also referred to Ray J as “Brandy’s brother.”

Now, if you thought things would be much smoother during Omarion and Mario’s battle, we’re here to tell you that was also not the case. Mario repeated told Omarion and his guestsm, which included Jeremih, Tank, and more, that they sounded off-key. Omarion tried to clown Mario for not being on the Millenium Tour, but Mario said he didn’t “wanna be in that raggedy sh*t.” To make things even more out of control, Omarion and his brother O’Ryan attempted to seduce (?) the crowd by eating a large slice of watermelon on stage.

All in all, as you can see in the above videos, this Verzuz was nothing short of chaotic and entertaining.

However, if you’d like to be entertained further, you can see more moments and reactions from tonight’s Verzuz below.