Category: Worldwide

Steady Holiday, moniker of LA musician Dre Babinski, is gearing up for the release of her third LP Take The Corners Gently. She previously previewed her intimate songwriting through last year’s tracks “Living Life” and “Tangerine.” Now offering a final sample of her forthcoming release, Babinski shares her “Love Me When I Go To Sleep” ballad alongside a heartwarming video.

Directed by Isaac Ravishankara, the visual opens with a phone call between Babinski and her grandpa, who she hasn’t been able to see due to the pandemic. She asks if he wants to hear some music and proceeds to croon the song over the phone. After she’s finished, her grandpa praises her talent. “Every word that comes out of you is music to me,” he says.

Explaining the inspiration behind the track, Babinski said it was penned before the pandemic but she decided to release it Friday to celebrate her grandpa’s 92nd birthday. “‘Love Me When I Go To Sleep’ was written pre-pandemic, so the theme of gratitude for being alive hits harder now,” she said. “I’ve never felt more fragile, and then there’s my grandpa, who turns 92 today and keeps waking up alive. There are no rules. Happy bday papa.”

Previously speaking about her upcoming album, Babinksi said: “It’s a record about the uncertainties of just being alive, which is a theme that’s always timely but hits a little different right now. I’m just excited to put something positive and easy out into the world and I hope it can be of some service.”

Watch Steady Holiday’s “Love Me When I Go To Sleep” video above.

Take The Corners Gently is out 2/12. Pre-order it here.

Donald Trump hasn’t shown his face much since a rally on the Ellipse last week sparked a coup attempt in his name at the US Capitol. According to CNN, advisors are making Trump stick to scripted video missives for his public appearances because they’re afraid he will start riffing his way into more legal trouble if he starts talking about the failed coup he sparked last week. But on his last Friday in office, it appears that the coup plans are coming to him these days.

While reporters have caught sight of people packing up and moving items out of the White House in recent days, MyPillow weirdo Mike Lindell visited Trump on Friday and photographers caught what appeared to be his notes. Which were apparently focused on somehow undoing the election of Joe Biden as president, which has been certified by congress because, well, Trump lost.

That hasn’t stopped Trump from searching high and low for a way to undo his failure to triumph in the popular vote or the electoral college, which is why the MyPillow guy was apparently invited to the White House to talk about using the Insurrection Act to steal an election.

Ignore, for a moment, the fact that this is Trump’s final Friday in office and focus on the fact that Trump is apparently still hosting advisors and friends encouraging yet another attempt to tamper with election results. Trump has been impeached for a second time, the first president to ever have that happen, because of his last attempt at insurrection that left five people dead. If if weren’t so dangerous and clearly a threat to democracy, well, it would all be very funny. In fact, it still was pretty funny, all things considered. Because there were some truly wild suggestions among those notes.

Seeing yet another pro-Trump conspiracy theory taken from the depths of the internet and brought inside the White House is really stunning, even for a presidency that’s completely shattered basically every norm established.

The final weekend of the Trump presidency will carry with it just as much uncertainty as the one that came before it. There may be pardons and a lot of other weird and potentially dangerous things ahead. But if Trump somehow tries to incite another insurrection we’ll know that, of all people, the MyPillow guy had something to do with it.

As the COVID-19 vaccine continues being rolled out across the country, people over the age of 65 are now able to get their shots — and that includes Willie Nelson. The iconic singer drove to a clinic nearby his Spicewood, Texas hometown and was all smiles as he receive his first round of the vaccine.

Nelson’s wife Annie confirmed to Rolling Stone that they were able to get vaccinated on Wednesday, saying they wanted to make sure the vaccine was available to health care workers first and foremost. “We made sure that [he] wasn’t cutting anybody — in fact, the healthcare workers were kind of angry that we had waited so long because he is 87 years old and has [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].”

Nelson confirmed that the singer’s experience getting the shot was quick and pain-free, with the exception of a sore arm. “He was bragging yesterday after he got it that he didn’t even have a sore arm,” Nelson said. “Now, today, of course, his arm is sore. We’re both just a little tired. I don’t know if we wouldn’t be tired anyway, but we’re gonna do what they said and let the vaccine do its job.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Nelson said that the singer is hopeful he can return to touring in the fall. But in the meantime, they have both been extra careful about being exposed to the virus. “Stuff doesn’t even come into the house unless it gets sterilized,” she said. “We work out three times a week to keep sane, and he sings, and that’s really helpful. Sometimes he just puts on his [SiriusXM] channel Willie’s Roadhouse and sings at the top of his lungs to his music. That’s good exercise.”

Check out a photo of Nelson getting vaccinated above.

After increased reports of financial instability and a lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, the National Rifle Organization has filed for bankruptcy. In a letter posted to the NRA’s website, Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre announced that the controversial gun group has filed chapter 11 petitions in an effort to “dump” New York and move the organization to Texas where where they can experience greater “constitutional freedoms.” In an effort to control the narrative, LaPierre attempted to get ahead of dire headlines by assuring members that the NRA is stronger than ever. Via NRA Forward:

You know that our opponents will try to seize upon this news and distort the truth. Don’t believe what you read from our enemies. The NRA is not “bankrupt” or “going out of business.” The NRA is not insolvent. We are as financially strong as we have been in years.

But they know today’s announcement makes us bigger, stronger and more prepared for the fight for freedom.

While claiming that group is not in any trouble, LaPierre made several references to the lawsuit filed by AG James, which sought to dissolve the organization “for years of self-dealing and illegal conduct” and fraud.“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” James told CNN in August.

Contrary to LaPierre’s claims, it appears the lawsuit has worked as the NRA attempts to “reorganize” in Texas. Meanwhile, the reactions on Twitter have been firing fast as folks can’t help but taunt the gun group with messages of “Thoughts and Prayers” as it faces imminent death.

(Via NRA)

The Atlanta Falcons officially entered the head coaching market this offseason following Dan Quinn’s midseason ouster after five and a half years. While they were not the first team to fill their vacancy this winter, Atlanta did eventually get its man, as the team announced on Friday afternoon that Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is going to move a little farther south.

The news comes less than a week after Smith’s Titans fell in the AFC Wild Card round to the Baltimore Ravens in a hotly-contested game. It also marks the first time that Smith, 38, will become a head coach. Prior to joining Atlanta, Smith spent the entirety of his NFL career with the Titans, joining the franchise as a quality control coach in 2011 after a stint in college ball and working his way up the ranks.

When the Green Bay Packers hired away Matt LaFleur prior to the 2019 season, Smith was promoted from tight ends coach to offensive coordinator, and under his tutelage, the Titans have boasted one of the league’s most fearsome rushing attacks behind a nasty offensive line and bruising tailback Derrick Henry. This past season, Tennessee was second in the league in rushing yards per game, tied for second in total offense, and fourth in scoring offense.

The Falcons went 4-12 this season, and while the offense was rather limp on the ground (27th in the league in rushing offense), they were able to find success through the air, as only four teams accrued more passing yards. They will need to figure out how they want to proceed on that side of the ball going forward, as starting signal caller Matt Ryan will be 36 at the start of next season with three years remaining on his contract.

Gallant released his sophomore album, Sweet Insomnia, in 2019 to critical acclaim and now, the singer is returning to usher in a new era of music. Sharing his first single of 2021, Gallant teases his forthcoming EP Neptune with a video alongside the swooning single “Comeback.”

Drawing from R&B’s heyday in the early aughts, Gallant croons his heartfelt verses over a sparking beat. The video that accompanies the single is directed by Bennett Johnson and depicts the singer pulling out all of his best moves to try to win over his woman. After she rejects his call, he begins showing up everywhere from her TV’s infomercials to her car’s dashboard bobblehead to remind her of his worth.

Speaking about his inspiration behind the single, Gallant said the lyrics were compiled from his late-night thoughts:

“I put the lyrics of ‘Comeback’ together from pages of notes I had typed up late at night and saved on my computer (and didn’t really want anyone else to read). I was having some trouble finding a spark of inspiration and at the same time, I had these small bits and pieces of early 2000s R&B floating around in my head that I could never really turn into any good ideas. When I finally locked myself in a room and told myself I couldn’t leave until I made something, I looked at all these pieces in front of me and felt like, in a weird way, they might be able to complement each other. Eventually they turned into this song full of nostalgia and longing, where you feel like you’ve been there before and are desperately trying to get back.”

Watch Gallant’s “Comeback” video above.

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

James Harden has developed something of a reputation for being a difficult teammate. His relationship with Chris Paul was chilly, to say the least, and Harden apparently didn’t take kindly to Paul’s penchant for criticism and holding his teammates accountable for their actions.

Even Russell Westbrook, a close personal friend to Harden, was reportedly appalled by the way the Rockets organization bent over backwards to accommodate Harden’s whims, an environment that led directly to his own trade request from Houston after just a single season together.

But the saga reached its nadir in recent weeks as Harden continued to try and force his eventual trade to the Nets, in the process alienating his Rockets teammates, who he described as “not good enough” in his now-infamous press conference following a blowout loss to the Lakers earlier this week.

John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins both fired back at that assessment, with Cousins calling his comments disrespectful. Harden, naturally, didn’t see it that way, as he attempted to explain in his first presser for the Nets.

“I wasn’t disrespectful to anyone.”

James Harden opens up about his recent postgame comments and departure from Rockets pic.twitter.com/LEamwbeNwc

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 15, 2021

Harden did, however, express some regret about the way the situation ended in Houston, saying broadly that some of his actions were “out of character,” but it’s not likely that there will be much reconciliation with the aggrieved parties anytime soon. The Rockets and Nets are currently headed in different directions, but both sides must be relieved to be able to put this behind them and move forward.

Skies may have looked clearer last year than in 2019 due to COVID-related lockdowns and a drop in air travel. But just because we were all locked inside, doesn’t mean our ecological problems suddenly vanished. Forests around the world continued to get cut down, protected lands continued to be threatened, and that island of plastic that’s been forming in the Pacific Ocean continued to grow.

Hawaiian blues balladeer Tavana is helping to put that into perspective with the video for his new single “Plastic Island,” which artfully combines stop motion animation with local microplastic sourced directly from the Hawaiian shores. Made in collaboration with fellow Hawaii-based musician Paul Izak, the Hawaii-based art collective Three Tree Creative, multi-dimensional artist Charles-Antonie Vallieres, and released in partnership with the Surfrider Foundation and Kokua Hawaii Foundation, “Plastic Island” is probably the coolest and most artistic display of the environment-ravaging effect of microplastics we’ve ever seen.

Alas, the incredibly creative video also acts as a bittersweet reminder that we’re slowly destroying our planet with our own waste. In fact, that was kind of the point. The video was made, in part, to raise awareness of the state’s continued efforts to battle single-use plastics, something that is increasingly becoming a problem for a state with an economy that revolves entirely around “island paradise” status.

“In the past, our beaches were comprised of natural materials like driftwood and shells,” says Lauren Blickley, the Hawaii Regional Manager at Surfrider Foundation. “Today many of these natural materials have been replaced with plastic — a material that is responsible for the large-scale pollution of our ocean and environment.”

The state is fighting back, though. In November 2020, the island of Oahu passed Bill 40, which seeks to ban single-use plastic on the island and would stand as one of the strongest bans on single-use plastic nationwide. The bill was supposed to go into effect on January 1st, but was delayed for a “90 day education period.”

Lawmakers are now facing increasing pressure from both the plastic industry and lobbyists who are attempting to delay the bill from going into effect for an additional two years. The Surfrider Foundation and its Oahu chapter are hoping to raise awareness to help ensure the bill takes effect not later than April 1st.

While the stakes are clearly high, Tavana approaches the track with a sort of laid-back plain-spoken approach that is both educational and supremely chill. “Plastic Island” opens with a cascading acoustic guitar riff that quickly dips into delta blues territory as Tavana directly addresses the origins of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, without ever getting too heavy or preachy — delivering truths with laid back lyrics like: “How did it get there, man? How could it be? It’s the plastic thrown away by you and me.”

“I think it’s wonderful when art and raising awareness for a noble cause come together so seamlessly,” Tavana told us. “I hope to continue to find ways to use my music to heal the earth.“

That quote itself embodies the vibe of the song, which is sort of like if the Bill from Schoolhouse Rock smoked a joint and started waxing poetic about ocean pollution. It’s a whimsical, fun idea but also a painful reminder that all of the cute plastic in the “Plastic Island” video was directly harvested from the beaches of Tavana’s home state. According to Forbes, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch currently covers an approximate surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Texas.

Check out the full video for Tavana’s “Plastic Island” above.

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm and blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B jams that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

Emotional Oranges — “Bonafide” Feat. Chiiild

Mystic R&B duo Emotional Oranges is entering 2021 with their sweet vibe “Bonafide,” featuring fellow Avant Garden artist Chiiild. It’s a song robust in love, guided by vulnerable words filled with soul. “Bonafied” comes ahead of EO’s forthcoming project Juicebox, which is expected to have Vince Staples in the mix.

Tone Stith — “Devotion”

Tone Stith released “Devotion” at the tail-end of 2020 and this year, he’s taking the passion-induced cut to the next level with a live performance. In the visual, the talented musician, who also happens to be one of Drake‘s faves, shows off his guitar skills and flawless vocals. Please, pay attention.

Asiahn — The Interlude EP

If there’s anyone worthy of keeping an ear out for in the R&B space it’s Asiahn and she just dropped her latest EP The Interlude, featuring her previously released single “Gucci Frames.” The five-song collection is immersed in ethereal soul as she conveys everything about the battles of love and war with her crystal-clear vocals. “It’s important that as an artist I not only sing about love,” she says in a statement on the project. “There’s more to life than just being in a relationship and falling in and out of love with others, we also have to fall in love with ourselves and discover what we like and don’t like, explore our sexuality, get drunk and have fun!”

No1-Noah — “Ridin For My Love”

After appearing on Summer Walker’s EP Life On Earth last year, R&B newcomer No1-Noah arrives with a track of his own titled “Ridin For My Love.” Noah asserts his love for the object of affection while analyzing some of his relationships from the past. The song is Noah’s first release since signing to Walker’s Ghetto Earth Records. In 2018, No1-Noah popped off with “FaceTime for 30” and has been making his presence known ever since.

Dvsn — Amusing Her Feelings

Dvsn really didn’t have to, but they did. Amusing Her Feelings is the duo’s deluxe edition of A Muse In Her Feelings, and we are here for it. It’s just four songs and they’re all great, including their previously released track “Use Somebody.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

If the Top 10 list on Netflix is to be believed, the people are desperate for more Bridgerton. But actually delivering a second season of the soapy Shondra Rhimes-produced drama may be a bit harder because of, you know, that still-ongoing pandemic.

That’s according, at least, to the show’s star. Phoebe Dynevor, who played Daphne Bridgerton, thinks actually pulling off filming safely will be significantly harder, not to mention getting the same chemistry going while wearing masks. Dynevor spoke to Deadline about all things Bridgerton and detailed why she thinks filming Season 2 in the age of novel coronavirus could be more complicated than some might think. First and foremost, of course, is the sheer size of the show’s scale regarding cast and crew.

“I can’t imagine how it would be possible to film under these circumstances. There are so many extras and so many crew members, and it’s a very intimate show. It just baffles me how we would film it under Covid rules unless there was a vaccine beforehand,” the actress explains. Producers may have more confidence, with Production Weekly suggesting Season 2 could shoot in the UK from March.

Another significant obstacle is the locations Bridgerton shot in, which included a number of lavish British mansions appropriate for the period piece. One immediately thinks of the poor soul whose job it might be to sanitize all those ornate carvings and reliefs after a long day of filming. And then there’s the idea of recreating that kind of intimacy we saw in Season 1. The interview revealed that Dynevor and co-star Regé-Jean Page had six weeks of intimacy training to get those romantic moments looking right and feeling appropriate. She noted working on another show in the past year while wearing masks for safety often made things significantly tougher.

Dynevor says this was vital to the final performance and their chemistry could not have been achieved behind the shield of a mask, which is an experience she has had while filming TV Land’s Younger in New York last year.

“When I was filming, it was masks on in rehearsals. So you don’t take them off until you say action. Or at least we didn’t. It was a really strange experience. I didn’t see my character’s new boyfriend’s face until we were filming a scene together, which was really bizzare,” she says of the shoot.

It’s unlikely anyone is interested in waiting out the pandemic, especially given the hiccups in vaccine rollout we’ve seen in these last few weeks. Time is money, even if that means significantly more money spent on health and safety protocols. There’s a lot of small details in the Deadline piece about where the show’s second season might be headed, and what role her character plays in the drama given how her storyline wrapped up in the first season. But before we get to see what may lay ahead, it has to be filmed. Which right now sounds a lot more daunting than it was for Season 1.

[via Deadline]