Category: Worldwide

Last week, we were delighted to learn that James Gandolfini was a huge fan of Dookie, Green Day’s 1994 breakout album that has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, including one copy to The Sopranos star on vinyl. He would play the album in his trailer, but as co-star and Talking Sopranos host Michael Imperioli explained in a follow-up interview with Stereogum, that was only the tip of Gandolfini’s love of “Basket Case.”

“Gandolfini would also sing ‘Basket Case’ and make up his own lyrics about HBO and the writers and producers of The Sopranos,” Imperioli said. “Usually when he was feeling overworked and overexposed, and his lyrics would reflect that. Some of the more musical crew members would add a verse or two. Great fun.” The actor later added, “He also named his dog dookie and used it in his email address.” So in case you were wondering who [email protected] belongs to, there’s your answer.

It’s a lot of fun to imagine Gandolfini coming up with The Sopranos-specific parodies of “Basket Case.” Here’s one: “I went to a shrink / To analyze my dreams / Melfi says it’s my ma that’s bringing me down.” Feel free to come up with your own.

And as always: [Tony Soprano voice] “Dookie.”

(Via Stereogum)

Every team has now played seven games of their 22-game regular season schedule, which means that we are starting to get a grip on which teams are real contenders and which have some more work to do. The Seattle Storm sit at the top of the league standings, buoyed by the performances of Breanna Stewart and company in Sue Bird’s absence. Somewhat surprisingly, the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky round out the top three teams so far while the Connecticut Sun are still at the back of the pack with a 1-6 record.
Here’s what we learned from all the action in week two in the WNBA.

1. There are no more winless teams in the Wubble!

The Connecticut Sun and New York Liberty each finally nabbed their first win of the season this week, defeating the Dallas Wings and Washington Mystics, respectively. Against the young Dallas team, members of the Sun not named DeWanna Bonner or Alyssa Thomas finally showed that they could contribute points. Four of the starters finished with double-digit scoring totals, and sophomore guard Natisha Hiedeman impressed after starting for the second straight game, scoring a career-high 14 points on 5-9 shooting, as well as earning two rebounds and four assists.

The Liberty were clearly not happy with ESPN’s (understandable) decision to take their games off national TV, because they put on a show Friday night, defeating the defending champions. Shots finally started falling for the Liberty after struggling on offense earlier in the season and veterans Amanda Zahui B. and Layshia Clarendon led the way for their team. After the game, it was really sweet to see how much the win meant to the team in their post-game celebrations with first-year head coach Walt Hopkins.

Unfortunately, both teams followed up their wins with a loss to the Chicago Sky and Las Vegas Aces, respectively.

2. The ROY race is heating up

If you happened to be scrolling through Twitter on Thursday night, then you just might have noticed the plethora of Chennedy Carter content that made the rounds as the rookie stole the show in the Dream’s narrow loss to Seattle. The 21-year-old point guard scored a career-high 35 points on 17 shots while earning seven assists and two rebounds. Carter, a.k.a “Hollywood,” is taking her role as Atlanta’s floor leader in stride, and is already in the record books after becoming the youngest player in WNBA history to score 30+ points in a game.

Dallas big Satou Sabally is another young gun that has looked at home in her first season, averaging 11.6 points, two assists and 6.3 rebounds per game compared with Carter’s 19.4 points, 4.3 assists and 2.7 rebounds per contest. But if you thought this year’s ROY race was a two-horse contest following Sabrina Ionescu’s injury, you’d be wrong.

The Lynx have sort of flown under the radar this season, but guard Crystal Dangerfield has had some strong performances and should definitely be in the mix. The 16th overall pick is averaging 9.8 points, 2.7 assists and two rebounds and is surely making some teams regret passing on her in the first round of the 2020 WNBA Draft when she makes plays like this mind boggling maze of a run through the Sparks’ tight defense.

3. Aces-Sparks was a very fun Western Conference match-up

Friday’s match-up between the Las Vegas and Los Angeles Sparks was a very fun, early look at two Western Conference teams with title aspirations. Though the Aces are missing key players in Liz Cambage and Kelsey Plum this year, A’ja Wilson and Angel McCoughtry have had some key performances, with the former looking like a very real candidate for MVP. Against the Sparks, Wilson and McCoughtry combined for 50 points in a 86-82 victory which also saw sophomore guard Jackie Young put up 15 points, four assists and three rebounds. In Sunday’s tight win against the Liberty, Wilson was crucial in crunchtime and went off for 31 points on 10-of-17 shooting along with three blocks, five rebounds and two assists.

For the Sparks, Candace Parker and Seimone Augustus have been unreal. Parker has put up a double-double in each of her last five games, finishing one assist shy of a triple-double in Sunday’s win over the Lynx, while the 36-year-old Augustus had 13 points off the bench on Sunday. With the likes of Parker, Augustus, Nneka Ogwumike, Sydney Wiese, Chelsea Gray, Te’a Cooper and more, L.A. looks poised for a title run this year, but still needs to find some more consistency.

The WNBA’s playoff format means that the top eight teams — regardless of conference — qualify for the playoffs, which last four rounds. So, depending on how things go this season, we could have a WNBA Finals matchup between two Western Conference teams. While the Aces have looked good so far, my money’s on a Sparks vs. Storm star-studded showdown, which would be epic.

4. The Phoenix Mercury don’t look like title contenders

The Phoenix Mercury came into this season with a lot of hype surrounding their three formidable stars, Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Skylar Diggins-Smith. But two weeks in, they don’t look like title contenders. Thankfully, Taurasi’s recent back injury does not appear to be related to her 2019 one that required surgery, but it does underscore Phoenix’s biggest problem: a lack of depth on offense. The Mercury are currently sixth in the standings with a 4-3 overall record, and have struggled to create in all of their seven games so far. Don’t let Saturday’s relatively close final score fool you — Phoenix was outscored by Seattle by 20 points in the first three quarters of the 74-68 loss. This season, they are attempting a mere 66.3 shots per game, the second-lowest in the league.

Shatori Kimbrough-Walker and Bria Hartley have performed brightly at times this season, but Hartley is now sidelined with a sore Achilles tendon. The team is overly reliant on Taurasi to create opportunities for them, and with her out for the foreseeable future they need to adjust before they fall out of contention.

5. Injuries are beginning to be a problem for teams

Speaking of injuries to Taurasi and Hartley, we are really seeing this season’s condensed schedule take a toll on the players. Rookie sensation Sabrina Ionescu went down with a grade three ankle sprain on July 31 and is expected to miss at least a month of action after flying back to New York for treatment. Fellow guard Kia Nurse also suffered an ankle sprain during the team’s opening game against the Dallas Wings, but seems to have recovered. For the Sparks, Nneka Ogwumike missed some time due to a hamstring injury, but was able to suit up in Sunday’s win over the Lynx.

The injury bug has impacted Indiana in a major way, with Victoria Vivians, Teira McCowan, Kathleen Doyle, Natalie Achonwa and even assistant coach April Schillings all out at one point. And we have already begun to see some load management take place for the Storm, with Sue Bird sitting the past four games after suffering a bone bruise in her knee. While Seattle can make up for Bird’s absence with the likes of Breanna Stewart, Jordin Canada and Jewell Lloyd, not every team can afford not playing their franchise player.

Netflix continues to drop closets full of content upon us, and they’re aiming (as one does) for the stars with Away, a Hilary Swank-starring series about space travel. The Oscar winner’s playing an astronaut traveling to Mars, and this series promises to be epic, but the trailer appears to be focusing more on the emotional. Still, heading to Mars seems like a grand vacation right about now to most of us on Earth, so maybe this show will strike a chord.

Here’s more on Swank’s character:

Emma Green is an American astronaut and former Navy pilot. She is the commander of the first mission to Mars. She is a headstrong, empathetic and highly intelligent astronaut and leader. She is married to Matt Logan, a chief engineer at NASA. Emma and Matt have a 15-year-old daughter, Lex,

Personal sacrifices will abound for Emma while her family will also feel the effects of her extended voyage, but c’mon, presumably, this trip is worth it. It’s not every day that mom gets to go to Mars, and nowhere in Netflix’s promotional material does Elon Musk’s name appear, so that’s something. And to be fair, his name (and presence) are all up in that Tom Cruise space production, so this one’s up to the Oscar-winning Swank to pull off with assists from Josh Charles and Talitha Bateman, who portray her family.

Away will stream on September 4.

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.

Buffalo Wild Wings (where they make some very solid chicken) has teamed up with Buffalo Trace Distillery (where they make superb bourbons) for a special release of Single Barrel Select Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.

“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.

(Via Forbes)

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.”

For more, read the full GQ interview here.

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

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.

(Spoilers for The Americans will be found below.)

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.

(Via GQ)

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.

(Via Deadline)

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.

Source: Literally! with Rob Lowe

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.