Finding a special bottle of bourbon has never been easier. There are scores of refined, fascinating expressions on the market these days. We’re talking about “value” bottles, affordable bottles, indie bottles, splurges… we could go on. The category is expanding rapidly in multiple directions. Now it seems that the “brand collab” era of bourbon might be upon us — with a crossover bottle that almost sounds like a terrible idea but might actually be a little genius.
“This special batch of bourbon is rich and complex yet smooth and balanced in taste,” explains Buffalo Trace’s head distiller Harlan Wheatley in a short video. “Enjoy some the next time you visit Buffalo Wild Wings.”
The juice from in the bottle is a special bottling from single barrels hand-picked by Wheatley himself, who’s been winning awards for his whiskey prowess at Buffalo Trace for over two decades. And according to Forbes, the bottle will carry “an age statement of eight years” — a very solid level of aging for a bottle sold at a chain restaurant.
The roll-out — which is being called Buffalo Wild Wings Trace — is very limited. Only those lucky enough to live near a BWW in Florida, Georgia, Colorado, Nevada, and California will be able to snag a bottle (or a dram or two at the bar) until supplies run out. After that, don’t be surprised if you see bottles show up on the secondary market with a sizeable price increase.
Wings lovers and bourbon aficionados are both famously passionate fanbases, after all.
In a new interview with GQ, Compton rapper Roddy Ricch discusses his precipitous rise, how quarantine has affected his life, and why he won’t be releasing a followup to his No.1 debut anytime soon. The latter, he says, is because he wants his next album to be a “full-blown masterpiece,” which means he’s waiting for the right moment to release it.
Of his quarantine activities, Roddy says he’s spent the past few months bingeing the 50 Cent-produced drama For Life, about a wrongfully incarcerated man who studies law in prison and successfully appeals his own case, then becomes a lawyer once freed. He also calls Don’t Let Go the best movie he’s seen during quarantine.
When it comes to his music, though, he says his routine remains unaffected: “Maybe I make a little less music but I feel like for me right now less is more,” he admits. “I could work for two or three days and make fifty songs. And then I’ll step away for like a week… Spending more time figuring out how I feel and figuring out different things around me.”
But he says this quality over quantity approach means he probably won’t be putting anything out for a while. “Could I drop a new album right now?” he ponders. “Yes. Will I? No.” He argues it’s not a question of readiness, but “more about the timing. I really just drop when I feel like it. The next album is going to be a full blown masterpiece. A real idea. A real body of work.”
Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.
This week saw Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion take over the internet and Bon Iver link up with a legend. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the best new music of the week below.
Cardi B — “WAP” Feat. Megan Thee Stallion
Cardi is no stranger to dominating online conversation, and her NSFW “WAP” video with Megan Thee Stallion once again put her at the center of the internet. There’s no overstating the level of conversation the song prompted, from backlash to Kylie Jenner’s involvement (and the wish that Betty White replaced her) to politicians not feeling the track (a minority opinion).
Juice WRLD and The Weeknd — “Smile”
Back in September, Juice WRLD declared on Twitter, “Me and The Weeknd would make a diamond record…” Well, the two hooked up last week for “Smile,” and while it remains to be seen if the song reaches that height, at the very least, it brings out the best in both artists.
Bon Iver — “AUATC”
Justin Vernon has a lengthy contact list full of esteemed collaborators, and now he has added one of the biggest in rock history: Bruce Springsteen contributes to Bon Iver’s latest, although you’ll have to pay attention to hear his backing vocals on “AUATC.”
Aminé — Limbo
Uproxx’s Aaron Williams writes of Aminé’s latest, “The Portland performer is the definition of an artist who genuinely cares about his craft, putting in the time, the work, and the patience to deliver a concise statement that goes against the grain. The title of Limbo may not be a reference to the party game, but the album sets the bar for an album that will have an impact long after those first-week streams are tallied up.”
Popcaan — Fixtape
Drake has been popping up on various efforts throughout 2020 and he continues his trend of surprise appearances on Popcaan’s new project. He gives a couple of assists to his regular collaborator on Fixtape, making appearances on both “Twist & Turn” (alongside Partynextdoor) and “All I Need.”
NLE Choppa — Top Shotta
Hip-hop is full of young stars right now, and one of the brightest is NLE Choppa, who just delivered his debut album. He’s already made some powerful friends in the industry, as the record features Lil Baby, Roddy Ricch, Chief Keef, and others.
Chika — “U Should”
Chika is in the midst of a rise (she appears to have a Snoop Dogg collaboration on the way), and her ascent continues with “U Should.” She really shoots her shot on the new track, a guitar- and orchestration-led song that’s a refreshing hip-hop palate cleanser.
IDK, JID, Kenny Mason, and DJ Scheme — “Cereal”
IDK hasn’t let up since his 2019 debut album, as he has continued releasing new music in 2020. The latest is “Cereal,” a collab with JID, Kenny Mason, and DJ Scheme that serves as the latest joint effort with JID, as the two previously worked together on IDK’s “Porno” from last year.
Beabadoobee — “Sorry”
Beabadoobee is only 20 years and has just a pair of EPs under her belt, but she’s built up tremendous buzz in recent years, and there is much excitement surrounding her upcoming debut album. Her latest preview of it is “Sorry,” a thunderous alt-rocker that starts slow before ramping up into guitar-driven catharsis.
Victoria Monét — Jaguar
Monét is well-known for her work with artists like Ariana Grande, but now she is ready to step out on her own. After years in the industry, Monét has released her debut album and let her Grammy-winning talents shine under her own name.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The final episode of FX’s The Americans belongs among the greatest series finales ever, if only for the U2 scene alone. The final scene is an all-timer, too, with Philip and Elizabeth, played by the great Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, wondering if “we would’ve met” had they stayed in Russia instead of becoming sexy spies in America. We’ll never know, but we do what Rhys thinks happened to them after the show ended.
“They’re in this kind of kind of Moscow flat arguing. Or they’re walking down the street and they see Martha,” he told GQ. “I think basically they both became kind of alcoholics, and they just bickered about all the missions that went wrong, and why they went wrong, and whose fault it was because they don’t have anything better to do. And then Elizabeth keeps accusing Philip of being in love with Martha. And he’s like, ‘I don’t! I don’t love her, I never loved her.’ And Philip always wants to speak English. And Elizabeth’s like, ‘SPEAK RUSSIAN!’” That is the [champion of misery Matthew Rhys face] of answers.
On a less depressing note, Peter Falk, a.k.a. TV’s Columbo, once picked up Rhys (who appeared in the last-ever episode of Columbo) at the airport.
“I always pride myself on working hard at dialect and accents. And Peter Falk, said, ‘I want [your character] to be a Cockney from London.’ So I worked on my Cockney accent. And he picked me up at LAX — Peter Falk picked me up when I landed at LAX. Unbelievable. In his Range Rover. Walked into arrivals. It still blows me away.
I want a The End of the Tour-style show about this encounter. Three seasons, minimum.
A little more than 100 years ago — after the Spanish Flu pandemic shut theaters down nationwide, wreaking havoc on the industry — some movie studios swooped in and bought up theaters chains. In turn, the studios that owned those theater chains only showed their own movies, which gave studios like Paramount too much control, since they ran both the product and its distribution. Then in 1948, the Supreme Court ruled in a 7-1 decision that studios could no longer own movie theaters under United States antitrust law. The “Paramount Decrees” effectively put an end to the old Hollywood studio system.
On Friday, after 70 years, federal judge U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres terminated the Paramount decrees, essentially allowing studios to come in and buy up theater chains again during the most financially difficult time for movie theaters since the 1918 Pandemic. Effectively, it means that studios can now once again buy theater chains, although there is a two-year sunset termination provision.
What does that mean in a theoretical sense? It means that a movie studio like Disney or Universal — or more likely a streamer like Netflix or Amazon — could buy up a theater chain and, theoretically, prioritize their own movies. What will it mean in actual practice? That remains to be seen, in large part because most studios aren’t even interested in owning theater chains now; they’re more interested in strengthening their own streaming platforms, increasingly where we consume more of our media. In fact, a federal judge overturned the Paramount Decrees because the industry has changed so much in 71 years, shifting lately toward streaming platforms. The threat that the Paramount decrees were designed to prevent no longer seems to exist or — as the federal judge ruled — to the extent that those threats remain, existing antitrust laws can take care of it (that is debatable, of course, since existing antitrust laws have done nothing to prevent companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple from dominating their particular fields).
In either respect, it is unlikely that a movie studio like Disney or Universal will pursue a theater chain, simply because theater chains may not be a great long-term investments at the moment because of streaming services created by Disney and Universal. Netflix, meanwhile, says it has no interest in pursuing a theater chain, because it falls outside of its expertise. AMC Theaters, however, has been in conversations with Amazon about a potential purchase, but the Paramount Decrees never applied to Amazon, anyway.
In other words, parts of the Paramount decrees were mostly symbolic. However, there were other provision in the Paramount decrees that have been repealed that could have major effect, namely the restrictions on block booking that will be lifted in two years. What does that mean? Before the Paramount decrees, studios could force movie theaters to take a block of their movies together. In other words, Universal Pictures could say to AMC theaters that it would not get rights to screen the next Fast and Furious movie unless AMC theaters also agreed to screen Dolittle. Studios would package movies, and in many cases, theaters had to accept the entire package in order to have the rights to the one surefire hit.
The federal judge in this case, however, ruled that block booking is no longer a threat: “There also are many other movie distribution platforms, like television, the internet and DVDs, that did not exist in the 1930s and ‘40s. Given these significant changes in the market, there is less danger that a block booking licensing agreement would create a barrier to entry that would foreclose independent movie distributors from sufficient access to the market.”
It’s worth noting, however, that just because a judge says that something is no longer a threat, that doesn’t mean it’s actually no longer a threat. In two years, Amazon could buy AMC theaters, and then Sony the next year, and only screen Sony and Amazon movies in those theaters, while Disney makes Regal cinemas screen Pirates of the Caribbean 8: Johnny Depp Has Legal Bills in exchange for the right to screen Avengers Endgame: For Real, This Time. In two years’ time, the industry could change dramatically.
In his memoir, A Very Punchable Face, released last month, SNL’s “Weekend Update” host Colin Jost joked that one of the questions he’s asked the most is, “Who is the worst SNL host?” It is not a question he answers in the book, nor is it one he will answer to strangers. There is a lot of SNL lore about who the all-time worst host is, however, and a number of names have been bandied about over the years, including Milton Berle, Justin Bieber (according to Bill Hader), Paris Hilton, Chevy Chase, and — of course — Donald Trump.
But the name most associated with worst host ever on SNL is always invariably Steven Seagal, who hosted in April 1991, and who Lorne Michaels himself once said was the worst host ever on the sketch show. Lorne Michaels described the week in which Seagal hosted as “just a really hard week.” Apparently, Seagal ignored the cue cards and made up his own monologue. The episode was so bad that Seagal was reportedly banned from ever appearing on the show again.
Former SNL cast member David Spade was at SNL when Seagal hosted, and on this week’s episode of Rob Lowe’s Literally! podcast, Spade both conceded that Seagal was terrible, but also slightly defended the ’80s and ’90s action star.
“I have to defend him a little bit,” Spade told Lowe in the podcast. “I think maybe his one-inch ponytail was a little too tight that night. He was friendly to me. The only thing he did, is that he tightened up that night, which is what a lot of hosts do. ” He continued:
“You have to sort of trust these 30 people you don’t know,” Spade continued. “A lot of people think we’re there to make fun of them. But if we’re getting you on the show to host, we all want it to work. And if you make fun of yourself — this is where it gets tricky — it will benefit you. And we promise you. And if you don’t, and if you fight it too much — that was [Seagal]. He was too cool and he had his image [to maintain]. He couldn’t be relatable. He wouldn’t do kung-fu fighting as a cold open, or a monologue.
“We had something [in the monologue] where he throws in kicks or something, and it would have been amazing. And I think we walked up and get kicked and fall down. He said he would do it, but he just ‘talked it.’ He wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t play at all, and then in the other sketches, he was fighting us.
“A lot of [hosts], you have to go through their people when you just want to grab someone and say, ‘Hey, what about this idea?’ And some people [like Seagal] still make you go through their people.”
In other words, it sounds like, Steven Seagal took himself too seriously to appear on a sketch show and make fun of himself, so instead of playing along and mocking himself, he fought against the writing, both before the show and during. Ultimately, that’s what made him even worse than Paris Hilton, who was at least willing to make fun of herself, just not fully capable of executing it.
Announcing her To Feel Alive EP a few months ago, Kali Uchis wrote, “can’t give you my album yet, but i recorded some demos in my room for u.” The release came out a few days after that, and now it appears she is making some headway on that album. She and Rico Nasty released their collaboration “Aquí Yo Mando” last week, which may or may not be a preview of Uchis’ upcoming studio effort. Whatever the case may be, the pair have now given the song a new visual, which debuted this morning.
In the video, the two appear to have pulled off some sort of caper, as the pair stand in a modern office room at the Mando Corporation, above a main who is on the floor, unconscious and a bit bloody. From there, the two take a bit of a victory lap and dancing and performing the song in a security room.
Rico has had a busy 2020 as well. She hopped on IDK And Friends 2 and she has contributed to some soundtracks like year, landing songs on Insecure and Scoob!.
Watch the “Aquí Yo Mando” video above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Nearly two years ago, we found out that Chris Rock would be the unlikely star of Fargo‘s fourth season. Time is even weirder than a flat circle lately, though, and after a pandemic-related delay, we’re finally gonna see Rock in Fargo, along with Timothy Olyphant (picking up his lawman hat again as Dick “Deafy” Wickware) and Jason Schwartzman, everyone with very Fargo-appropriate character names. The show’s setting is moving both time and place (1950s Kansas City), and we’ve got a premiere date: Sunday, September 27.
Rock (as seen in the show’s trailer) shall portray the leader of an African-American crime family, Loy Cannon, who’s battling for his share of the American dream against Jason Schwartzman’s rising crime boss, Josto Fadda. The Italian mafia has its tentacles all up in the city, and a very tenuous truce goes sideways with loyalties tested. This season promises not only the violence and bloodshed that we’re used to from Fargo but also high drama involved with the intertwining of immigration, assimilation, and power.
Come for the offbeat crime drama of Fargo, but stay for the fantastic names, like Detective Odis Weff (Jack Huston), Oraetta Mayflower (Jessie Buckley), Ebal Violante (Francesco Acquaroli), Constant Calamita (Gaetano Bruno), Antoon Dumini (Sean Fortunato), Patrick “Rabbi” Milligan (Ben Whishaw), and Ethelrida Pearl Smutny (E’myri Crutchfield). Oh, and crime bosses who give their sons names like Satchel and Zero.
The last time we checked in with Tomi Lahren, the conservative pundit was mocking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which spectacularly backfired on her, and getting called out by rapper YG for criticizing protestors. Over the weekend, she took her Fox Nation shtick to a smartphone, where she called out “all men” for being “trash” in a video rant.
“This is a PSA for all the men out there and all the boys who think they’re men, but they’re actually boys,” she said, merely warming up for the good stuff. “This is going to be the summer of canceling boys.” It’s like Don Henley once sang, my love for you will still be strong after the boys of summer have been canceled. “Now from my own personal experiences and the experiences of all of my friends, which range in age from 24 to 36, we’ve all got issues,” she continued. “I will say this, all of my friends are attractive, all of my friends are successful, all of my friends have something going on…” You get the idea. Lahren never says “all of my friends are white,” but it’s implied:
Calling herself a “woman of value,” and applying that tag to her friends, Lahren tongue-lashed the games men play and the fact that they’re not appreciative of women like her. “It will be a cold day in hell before I chase a man,” said Lahren, who moved from Los Angeles to Nashville last spring after calling off her engagement to soccer player and one-time California 33rd District Congressional candidate Brandon Fricke.
Don’t be offended (or as she would put it, “triggered”) by Lahren calling all men “trash.” Save that anger for her filming a vertical video. It’s 2020, we should know better.
What is the most important part of a video game? Story? Graphics? A purpose? If you answered any of these, then Fall Guys might not be for you. But if you yelled out “FUN,” the PlayStation 4 release is perfect. In an era where so many games are trying to wow us with what they are capable of, very few fall back on the idea of simplicity as a way to be successful.
For Fall Guys, it takes the idea that simple is best and has resulted in one of my favorite video game experiences in 2020. The concept is very easy: You are on a game show with 59 other contestants, competing in five rounds of challenges. Whoever is the last one standing at the end of the fifth round is the winner. The game loosely creates a thin universe by claiming this is all a TV show, but in reality, it’s just a bunch of different colored marshmallow figures running around chaotically trying to complete objectives while the world does whatever it can to take you down.
What you do in the five rounds is random, and there are a variety of different game modes. Some are a race to the finish, while others have you score soccer balls into nets, steal tails off other players, try to stay on a giant cylinder and not fall off, or just survive as long as possible so you aren’t the last person to fall in the goo at the bottom. You may play the same map and mode a few times, but the order is always different and that helps keep games fresh. It also keeps you coming back for more with a bit of random excitement to see what you could possibly get next. As you play through the different modes, the hope is that you might be able to get a little bit farther if you get lucky this time around.
The controls are simple. Move, jump, dive, and grab. The control itself is a little cumbersome, but you can tell it is by design. You have just enough control over yourself and your movements, but the movement is just finicky enough that it never feels precise. It’s clear this is not a game meant to challenge your platforming skills and reward victory to the best, most precise jumping skills. Randomness is constantly at play, and sometimes seems to take over altogether. There will be many “I SWEAR I COULD MAKE THAT JUMP” and “I’M STUCK AGAINST 20 OTHER PEOPLE” moments that will leave you enraged and also maybe in tears, hopefully from laughter.
Also, whoever decided to add the ability to grab other players is either a maniacal genius or a sadist, because it has brought out the absolute worst of mankind. Other players will grab you to pull you back so they can get ahead. They will grab you to make you fall to your doom and be eliminated. They will stand at the end of the course and wait for players to come by so they can grab them and make them lose. Of course, it doesn’t always work out for them because of how janky the controls are. Sometimes, they will successfully grab you, and other times they will be hiding behind a propeller trying to push people off into the abyss only to make themselves fall over and cost them the round. I witnessed the latter, and it was sweet karmic justice.
It doesn’t take very long to understand what is going on, and that is to the game’s benefit. This is the kind of game where getting into the action quickly is a big part of what makes it so sticky. As rounds go on, players are eliminated in relatively large bunches. You’ll run through these Wipeout-style obstacle courses, and speed is important here, too. Take too long and you will eventually be eliminated and forced to go back to the title screen and start this weird battle royale-style game all over again. There are plenty of players on the servers right now, though, which means finding games almost instantly is not a problem.
There is an incredible dopamine effect in playing Fall Guys, and I’m not sure when it will end. Thanks to the number of people who get eliminated every round, along with some luck, you will sneak your way into later rounds fairly often. So even when you do get eliminated, there is an overwhelming feeling that if you just play a little more you might finally win it all and take the crown. Of course, to do that you will have to get through the rest of the players, and not everyone is nice.
Its simplicity and quick fun, win or lose, makes Fall Guys is brilliant. It’s pure, stupid fun and chaos incarnate in a video game. I don’t know how long the good times with this are going to last because the 60 player knockout round is the only mode in the entire game, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, even if a grab or two ruins my chances at fake TV glory.
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