Category: Worldwide

Spillage Village’s upcoming album Spilligion is coming out this month after the group released the video for its lead single “End Of Daze” at the beginning of June. The Atlanta-based group — consisting of 6lack, Earthgang, Hollywood JB, JID, Jurdan Bryant, and Mereba — last released a full-length project in 2016. This time around, they’ve added new members Deanté Hitchcock and Benji, and they’ve got some impressive backing from J. Cole’s Dreamville Records after the group featured prominently on the Revenge Of The Dreamers III compilation.

Since their last album, 2016’s Bears Like This Too Much, the collective has seen a marked rise in their individual profiles — especially for core members 6lack, Earthgang, and JID. Of course, 6lack released the critically-hailed Free 6lack in 2016, following up with East Atlanta Love Letter in 2018 and most recently delivering the 6pc Hot EP all while preparing his highly-anticipated third album.

Meanwhile, JID received massive praise for his 2017 debut The Never Story and its 2018 followup DiCaprio 2, making him one of Dreamville’s biggest standouts. He’s since toured practically non-stop, only taking a break for vocal cord recovery. Finally, Earthgang’s Rags, Robots, and Royalty trilogy of EPs brought attention to their debut album Mirrorland, which they’ve been promoting with creative videos throughout the pandemic and subsequent precautionary lockdown.

Other members like Deanté Hitchcock and Mereba released solo albums of their own — Better and The Jungle Is The Only Way Out, respectively — but fans have long wondered whether the group would ever return to recording as a whole. Today, they got their answer, along with the imminent release date: September 25.

Check out the official announcement from Dreamville Records above.

While filming Mission: Impossible 7 in Europe, director Christopher McQuarrie has been sharing travel photos on Instagram to give his followers some natural scenery to enjoy. There’s just one small problem. They’re now convinced each picturesque scene will be the target of one of Tom Cruise‘s wild, death-defying stunts. Case in point, on Thursday, McQuarrie posted a photo of a scenic waterfall:

On any other Instagram account, this would be a run of the mill pic from somebody’s vacation. But when you know that Cruise is in the mix, and filming another Mission: Impossible, then the possibilities are endless. Within minutes, McQuarrie fans like YouTube filmmaker Patrick H. Willems were already going to town wondering what insanity Cruise is going to do these rapids.

The comments on McQuarrie’s Instagram post are loaded to the gills with similar suggestions. However, the director shouldn’t be surprised, and he kind of set a precedent for these sort of reactions. Earlier in the week, McQuarrie shared this photo of Cruise standing next to a massive motorcycle ramp that looks big enough to launch the actor into the stratosphere.

On top of that, Cruise and McQuarrie found themselves in hot water after local media outlets began accusing the production of planning to blow up an historic bridge. While McQuarrie was able to defuse the situation by confirming that the bridge was not a national monument and that he had local officials’ blessing, the secret is out. Mission: Impossible 7 might be out here blowing up bridges that may or may not have Tom Cruise on them. Couple that with his unyielding pursuit of being the first Hollywood actor to rocket himself into space to film his next movie, and you really can’t blame fans for seeing an innocent photo and wondering how Cruise will use it to risk his life. The guy has a brand.

(Via Christopher McQuarrie on Instagram)

Maybe it’s because I haven’t been to a movie theater since March (shoutout to The Hunt, ugh), but the release of the Dune trailer is a capital-e Event. It’s because of the cast, including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling, Javier Bardem, and Jason Momoa (I need to know how he got the “With” credit). It’s because of the director, Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. It’s because of the source material, Frank Herbert’s novel of the same, and David Lynch’s “half-satisfied” adaptation. And it’s because of the sandworms, which make a last-second appearance in the trailer above.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence — a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential — only those who conquer their fear will survive.

Dune opens on December 18. Merry Christmas?

Earlier this year, Rick Moranis decided to officially end his retirement with a new Honey, I Shrunk The Kids movie (after sitting out multiple Ghostbusters opportunities), but given that the announcement dropped in February, those wheels probably aren’t turning too swiftly. Ryan Reynolds knows how to seize an opportunity, so he decided to nab Moranis for a sorta-preview event in the form of a Mint Mobile ad. The cellular company is one of Reynolds’ many investments, and he recently launched the “world’s most affordable” (and short-lived) streaming service to that end.

Now, we can take a look at Reynolds hanging out with Moranis while they promote Mint Mobile’s new unlimited plan. Reynolds uses their onscreen time to liken Moranis prolonged disappearance from the public eye to the cell company’s lack of an unlimited option. Until now.

Yes, it’s awkward, and intentionally so, but it’s good to see the 1980s mainstay, and fans of Spaceballs in particular should enjoy the absurdity of him making a return in this fashion. However, Reynolds is savvy enough in most cases, other than, you know, that plantation wedding, which he truly now knows was a “giant f*cking mistake.” It’s a nice way to tide over people who still hold a place in their heart for Rick Moranis, until he joins with Josh Gad, who will play his son (who also, you know, shrinks his kids) in the eventual Honey, I Shrunk The Kids followup.

Wiz Khalifa turned 33 years old yesterday and to celebrate, he dropped some music in the form of his Big Pimpin mixtape. Wiz must have been feeling young again despite getting a year older because he released the tape in a throwback fashion: Directly to digital mixtape site DatPiff, which was pivotal in his early come-up as it hosted early tapes like Kush & Orange Juice and Taylor Allderdice.

Big Pimpin contains 17 tracks (including three skits), with production by Harry Fraud, Mufasa, and Tai. It also includes guest appearances from Wiz’s Taylor Gang cohorts Chevy Woods, Saxlrose, and Young Deji, as well as a reunion with longtime partner-in-rhyme (and smoking), Curren$y, who comes through on the hazy “Prove It” to catch a vibe or two. The duo last collaborated on their 2019 album 2009, which commemorated ten years since their first joint mixtape, How Fly.

In other Wiz Khalifa news, the Pittsburgher is delving into the food service industry this autumn with HotBox By Wiz, a delivery-only restaurant operating in partnership with DoorDash, Grubhub, Postmates, and Uber Eats in his hometown, as well as Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C., among other cities.

Listen to Wiz and Curren$y’s “Prove It” above.

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

The 2019-20 college basketball season was one of the first major sports cancelations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While some conference tournaments took place, a number were unable to reach their conclusions and, ultimately, the sport’s crown jewel was canceled, marking the first year since the NCAA Tournament’s inception that it was unable to take place.

Trying to map out next college basketball season — which appears likely to take place in some form or fashion despite the pandemic still happening — is next to impossible, but coaches from the ACC have an idea. According to multiple media reports, they would like if all 353 teams in Division I college hoops make the Tournament next season.

As Forde explained, this wouldn’t exactly mean that we have one gigantic bracket. Instead, conference tournaments would serve as the “first rounds” of the Tournament before the round of 64/68 takes place.

Having said this, adopting a tournament where every college team is eligible to play one another is a wonderful idea. This is a common thing in European soccer with tournaments like England’s FA Cup, where every team from every level of English football participates. It gives the occasional Cinderella story, but the coolest element is usually watching the biggest teams in the sport have to go to small pitches in every corner of England — could you imagine Duke having to travel to, say, Bucknell?

This, of course, is a much more feasible idea for when a pandemic isn’t happening. But in the interim, the idea of playing a gigantic tournament appears to have piqued the interest of the coaches from perhaps the sport’s most prominent conference.

AMC is announcing that The Walking Dead is coming to an end. The show will conclude after a two-year eleventh season that will span 24 episodes in all. With six more season 10 episodes coming this year and next, that means that there are still 30 episodes remaining. The series will conclude in late 2022.

In other words, there is still plenty of The Walking Dead left, and even when the series leaves the air, The Walking Dead will continue on with a spin-off focused on the popular Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) characters. That series will debut in early 2023, and Angela Kang — who currently runs The Walking Dead — will also run the spin-off.

Moreover, there will be no shortage of The Walking Dead, as AMC also also greenlight Tales of the Walking Dead, an episodic anthology from Scott Gimple with individual episodes or arcs of episodes focused on new or existing characters, backstories or other stand-alone experiences. Moreover, no plans have been announced ending Fear the Walking Dead, while the limited series, The Walking Dead: The World Beyond, will also run for two seasons.

AMC doesn’t say as much, but it’s likely that the end of The Walking Dead and The World Beyond will be capped with the Rick Grimes movies. It all makes some sense in the grand scheme, because Robert Kirkman’s source material will run out soon. My guess is that The Walking Dead and the Rick Grimes movie will essentially use up the remaining source material, while the Carol and Daryl spin-off will allow the universe to reset, so to speak, with two (and possibly more existing characters to go along with a fresh new cast.

In other words, The Walking Dead may be leaving us in two years, but The Walking Dead universe will be around for a long time to come.

Gorillaz have been releasing tracks from their Song Machine project gradually, revealing the guest on their next song shortly before the track drops. Now, though, a bunch of their upcoming collaborators have been unveiled.

This news comes via a tracklist for a deluxe compilation of the songs, Song Machine, Season One (Deluxe). The tracklist popped up on the Record Store Day website, but has since been removed (an archived version of the page can be found here). Featured artists that had not yet been announced include Elton John, 6lack (those two on the same track), St. Vincent, Beck, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Jpegmafia, Earthgang, Goldlink, and others.

A blurb about the album from the page reads:

“Song Machine, Season One is Gorillaz’ newest concept which started in January 2020, releasing brand new material episodically – as and when it happens – and has continued throughout the year. The ongoing and ever-evolving process has seen our favourite characters joined by an expanding roster of collaborators captured live in Kong Studios and beyond. The result is an expansive collection of 17 tracks embracing a myriad of sounds, styles, genres and attitudes from a breath-taking line-up of guest artists including Beck, Elton John, Fatoumata Diawara, Georgia, Kano, Leee John, Octavian, Peter Hook, Robert Smith, Roxani Arias, ScHoolboy Q, Slaves, Slowthai, St Vincent and 6LACK, as well as CHAI, EARTHGANG, Goldlink, Joan As Police Woman, JPEGMAFIA, Moonchild Sanelly, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Skepta and Tony Allen.”

Find the Song Machine, Season One (Deluxe) art and tracklist below.

1. “Strange Timez” Feat. Robert Smith
2. “The Valley Of The Pagans” Feat. Beck
3. “The Lost Chord” Feat. Leee John
4. “Pac-Man” Feat. Schoolboy Q
5. “Chalk Tablet Towers” Feat. St. Vincent
6. “The Pink Phantom” Feat. Elton John & 6lack
7. “Aries” Feat. Peter Hook and Georgia
8. “Friday 13th” Feat. Octavian
9. “Dead Butterflies” Feat. Kano & Rosani Arias
10. “Désolé [Extended Version]” Feat. Fatoumata Diawara
11. “Momentary Bliss” Feat. Slowthai and Slaves
12. “Opium” Feat. Earthgang
13. “Simplicity” Feat. Joan As Police Woman
14. “Severed Head” Feat. Goldlink and Unknown Mortal Orchestra
15. “With Love to An Ex” Feat. Moonchild Sanelly
16. “MLS” Feat. Jpegmafia and Chai
17. “How Far?” Feat. Tony Allen and Skepta

Song Machine, Season One (Deluxe) is out 10/23 via Parlophone.

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

The Far Field, Future Islands’ 2017 album, did well for the Baltimore-based group. It didn’t yield a viral Letterman moment like its predecessor, 2014’s Singles, but that’s a tall order. It was rock-solid nonetheless: It was their second album to chart on the Billboard 200 and critics reacted positively to it.

Looking back, though, the band has their issues with it, which they’ve addressed on their upcoming record, As Long As You Are.

As has become increasingly common in this new frontier of a world, the band — Samuel T. Herring, William Cashion, Gerrit Welmers, and Michael Lowry — hopped on a Zoom call, this time with Uproxx for an interview about the new album. During the conversation, they explained how they did things differently this time around: They worked together more than they have in the past, they didn’t let producers dictate their sound, and they didn’t give themselves a deadline, allowing the album to reach its final form on its own schedule.

Since the pandemic limits what a band like Future Islands can do in the lead-up to a new album, Herring says this chat is part of an effort “to be more helpful with things that our management takes care of” and “just being more present” in the promotional process. While everybody was on the call, Herring’s bandmates filled him in on how Baltimore is bouncing back from COVID-19: Like other places, restaurants are opening back up, but concert venues are still far away from resuming operations.

The vocalist was out of the loop as he has been in Sweden spending time with a loved one after pandemic-prompted travel restrictions kept them apart for a while. He’ll be back in the states soon, though: On the As Long As You Are release day (October 9), Future Islands will host the “A Stream Of You And Me” livestream performance. It will be their 1,236th show as a band during their 12-year history, but their only one of this year. That makes 2020 the only year of the band’s existence that they haven’t had a proper tour, which is a major bummer given how they come alive on stage, in a way that no other band really does (watch that Letterman performance if you didn’t click the first time).

Regardless, they still have an album on the way, and that’s worth celebrating. Ahead of its release, the band took time to talk with Uproxx about As Long As You Are, their dream oddball concert environment, and what pop star they’d be keen to do a Taylor Swift/Aaron Dessner-style collaboration with.

The new album is going to be your first in three years. When you guys were promoting The Far Field, the world was a much different place than it is now. How does this album lead-up feel compared to your previous ones?

Samuel T. Herring: There’s a lot less traveling and contact with the guys. This [Zoom] is how we meet now. We’re trying to do other things to promote the record. We’re doing a lot of press right now, which I think is good, just to talk about things. It keeps the four of us connected. It’s always interesting.

Sometimes you don’t really figure out what an album is until you’re done with it, and then you learn even more through the process of going through the press again and talking about things and really discovering the roots of certain songs. I was just going through the demos for the album and realizing, “Oh, that’s how that song was written,” and these kinds of things.

It’s all interesting. We were supposed to be in Japan a week ago and we missed some shows in Mexico already this year. I guess we were supposed to be going on tour any day now, or maybe we were supposed to be on tour right now. It’s really changed a lot of things.

Will, Mike, and Gerrit, you guys did an interview recently, and in it, you said that you actually mixed the album over Zoom. What challenges did that offer and were there actually any positives to doing it that way?

William Cashion: I think it was a blessing in disguise. If we’re all in the same room working on a mix, I have a tendency to just shout out, “Wait, let’s try this thing.” There’s not really any space there to think about things. The way we did it was when we were sent a rough first pass of the mix by Steve Wright, who we mixed the record with. We had his mix for a few days and then we would jump on a Zoom, and there’s a program called Audiomovers that allows us to connect his studio board. We would hear it live from the board in real time and in really high quality.

I think it just gave us a lot of space to really think about what the song needed. It wasn’t painful as we thought it was going to be. It was good. I think we realized that we could mix like that again in the future if we need to. Sam has been living in Sweden lately, so we know now that we could do the mixing process with him there if we needed to.

In that same interview, one of you said that you were not pleased with a few things about the previous album. What were those things and how have you addressed them with the new record?

Herring: I definitely wanted to see the guys creating on their own a bit more. For this album, there’s ideas that are William ideas and there’s ideas that are Gerrit ideas. Then there’s an idea that William and Mike worked together, and then there’s songs that came from the four of us jamming.

In the end, some things just worked out really well. They worked out with Steve doing a great job of working with us, really listening to our ideas, helping us find our ideas. Steve really listened to what we had to say and helped us create what we think we’re supposed to sound like, instead of in the past, even with Singles and The Far Field, when we were working with producers who had ideas about how they wanted to hear it and how they heard Future Islands. Sometimes when you work with people like that, they’re trying to create something really great, but it’s easy for the artist to get lost in that process.

This one was really about us capturing our vision and how we heard things and taking the time to do that. The Far Field was just so rushed that we didn’t want to have that happen again, that there was a deadline that decided when the album was done. We wanted to decide when the album was done.

Sam and Will, you guys stay active outside of the band with Sam’s rap stuff and Will’s ambient stuff. Do influences from those sides of your musical lives find their ways into the new album, or are those just totally their own thing for you guys?

Cashion: I was working on my solo record alongside As Long As You Are. When we would take breaks from working on the Future Islands stuff, I would book studio time actually at the same studio with Steve, working on overdubs and mixing that record. There were some things that I learned about the process and about production that we would apply here and there. It just makes sense to be like, “I learned this thing, let’s try this thing on the song. Let’s see if it works.” I think definitely it had an influence on it in an indirect way.

Herring: I did a song with DJ Shadow [“Our Pathetic Age“], right at the beginning of 2019. It was the most involved back and forth I’ve ever had with writing song lyrics, where I wrote a version and then I sent it to him, he was like, “Not really feeling it.” So I wrote a whole new version and then he was like, “I like these little things, so push that.” And then I wrote another version and then he’s like, “It’s getting better. Now push this.” And then I wrote another version.

Basically, I was losing my mind on the first two or three revisions. By the fourth and fifth, I was completely resigned, in a positive way, to being like, “My job is to help him find his song. This isn’t about me. I need to strip away my ego about, ‘I feel hurt because you don’t like this,’ but being like, ‘Okay, I’m going to help you. If you like these things, I’m going to push these things and then I’ll try to find other things. Do you like this? Do you like this?’ And keep bringing things.” When he was like, “This is great,” that felt really rewarding. Through that process of giving and stripping away, it really taught me a lot about the process of writing.

The most important thing he taught me was not to be afraid to completely throw away a song if need be. Maybe I write something that I completely love, but then maybe the guys won’t like it. In the past, I would maybe pout, like, “Oh, come on. I want that song so bad.” But now it’s like, “No, it’s fine.” These things are all a part of the exercise of music. The most important thing that, for me, in the writing process and working with the guys with this record, is really being able to feel free to experiment and let go again if that’s what it comes to. It’s all beneficial to just writing and pushing yourself. Just exploring is really beautiful.

I think also with the rap stuff, it’s pushed me into some more political places that I haven’t gone with Future Islands too much. When I’m doing solo rap stuff, I can say whatever I want. That’s the raw ego unabashed, like, “This is actually how I feel,” because it’s not reflecting on the guys.

Speaking of being more open to collaborating, I’m sure you saw that Aaron Dessner had a big hand in Taylor Swift’s new album [Folklore]. Do you guys have any thoughts about what big pop star you could work well with?

Herring: I like this question! Who do you got, Gerrit?

Gerrit Welmers: I don’t know. I feel like I’m pretty out of touch with the pop world. Who’s a pop star right now?

Herring: There’s probably a lot of stuff we don’t know. We could write a jam with Rihanna any day.

Cashion: I was going to say Rihanna. Rihanna or Cardi B would be dope.

Herring: Oh yeah, that would be dope. Let’s get both of them on a track. Can you hook us up, Derrick?

I don’t think my contacts list is as deep as you might think, unfortunately.

Herring: [laughs] Rihanna’s voice makes sense, I think we could bounce off each other a little bit. Maybe I’ll sit this one out and you guys can make a track for Rihanna or Cardi B. I’ll chill over there.

Michael Lowry: Is Solange a pop star? It would be cool. I really dug Seat At The Table and that tour. We did a bunch of shows with them. We were sort of following each other for a while and her tour was amazing. I think it would be cool to do stuff with her. Or SZA. I feel like SZA has a cool voice, too.

This one’s for Sam: I saw on Twitter recently that somebody sent you a photo of their wedding rings and they had your lyrics engraved on them. How does it feel that your words resonate with people that deeply, and do you have a favorite lyric off of the new album?

Herring: It’s definitely amazing to see our music reach people in those ways and become a part of people’s lives. It leaves you a little stunned and it’s really beautiful. We’ve been getting pictures of people’s tattoos for years and you’re like, “Oh man, I hope that you like us forever. Hope you don’t change your mind.” I’ll never forget the first time somebody got a tattoo, it was years ago. It was a song from our first band [Art Lord & The Self-Portraits]. That stuff is really amazing, to be able to become a part of people’s lives and a part of people’s stories. That’s one of the things that keep us doing it.

There’s so many great lines on the new album. I’d probably take something off of “Glada.” There’s a bunch of lines in that one: “New canopies arise from the crumbling frameworks, the remnants of fire, and you came as you are.” And, “They said heaven’s a mystery unless you’re a star, unless you have a crown, but they’re wrong.”

There’s a line in that song that is from a dream I had years ago. I was in an astrology class and we were in a planetarium, and the teacher was speaking. When the class was over, everybody cleared out, but I went down to ask the teacher a question. I don’t remember what I asked him, but his answer was, “We are the prey that we seek in the dark.” And it always stayed with me in this weird way. I was just like, “What is it?” That’s the line: “You came from the stars and you said, ‘We are the prey that we seek in the dark.’” We are the prey, bro. [laughs].

You tweeted at Elon Musk in 2018 and you told him that your biggest dream was to be the first band in space. It’s funny, because now would be the perfect time for a concert in space given that you can’t get on an Earth stage now. Space is about as socially distant as you can get. Aside from space, what’s your dream unconventional concert environment?

Lowry: Underwater, in a sea lab or something. Just find the deepest spot and get James Cameron to sink us. Get him to film it. We could even have us going to the stage in those big suits, jumping off an aircraft carrier or something and just sinking to the bottom, then turning the thing and then going in and rocking out.

Cashion: We got asked about doing a show at a dream location for some television show that was filming a couple of years ago. One of the places that we said was Antarctica. The idea was that they were going to fly us or get us and a film crew down there and we’d perform, basically just for the cameras in Antarctica. I think that would be pretty wicked.

Herring: For real?

Cashion Well, that was one of the places that we talked about. Obviously it never came to fruition.

Herring: Oh, okay. I was like, ‘Why didn’t anybody tell me about this?’ [laughs]

As Long As You Are is out October 9 via 4AD. Get it here.

Considering how poorly-received Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 was when it hit consoles back in 2015, there was a whole lot of anticipation over what the latest release in the iconic skateboarding gaming series would end up looking like. Since hitting consoles last week, the reception to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 — a re-release of the first two editions of the series — couldn’t have gone much better, as gamers have heaped widespread praise on the game.

It also apparently hasn’t taken long for some folks to get really, really good at it. An example of this hit the Twitterverse in the early hours of Wednesday morning, when one gamer went through a 2-minute run in The Warehouse and threw down an insane score of more than 10 million points.

The funny thing here is that points were left on the table — if they did not bail at the very end of the run, which came on the heels of a huge combo and resulted in about 3.8 million points, the possibility for one more gigantic combo after the clock hit 0 would have been on the table. Still, this is far more impressive than anything I have done in The Warehouse (my high score’s around 850,000), so upon finishing this sentence, I am going to try and see if I can get within five million of that.