Raucous UK post-punk group Idles shared their thrashing sophomore record Joy As An Act Of Resistance in 2018. Since then, the group has maintained boisterous energy with a lively Tiny Desk performance and a gruesomely animated video for “Never Fight A Man With A Perm.” Last year, the group teased a return with a pair of singles, “I Dream Guillotine” and “Mercedes Marxist.” But, Idles shelved new music for the remainder of the year. Now, the group is ushering a new era with the spirited single “Mr. Motivator.”

The video consists of fan-submitted clips of their home workout routines. Some are fun, like a man dressed to mimic Boris Johnson. Other routines are more creepy, like a fan doing jumping jacks behind his son while sporting a full Donnie Darko rabbit suit. Both the video and the song’s title are a nod to a ’90s TV fitness coach named Mr. Motivator. The TV instructor is known for his enthusiastic motivational lines and colorful unitards.

Alongside the song’s release, Idles lead vocalist Joe Talbot said the song aims to encourage fans to get through these tough times with dance: “We want to start this journey with a means to not only encapsulate the album’s sentiment, but to encourage our audience to dance like no one is watching and plough through these dark times with a two-tonne machete of a song and the most beautiful community of scumbags ever assembled. Let’s go. All is love.”

Watch the “Mr. Motivator” video above.

Metallica’s latest whiskey — released as part of their BLACKENED label — is dropping with a commemorative box set that features a bottle of the new Batch 100, two vinyl records featuring the music that helped to age the whiskey, and a special zine featuring behind the scenes imagery of the band as well as commentary and stories about the blend’s unique aging process from Metallica drummer Laris Ulrich and Master Distiller & Blender Rob Dietrich.

Right now, two thoughts are likely swirling in your head, so we’ll answer them. Yes, Metallica does have their own entire whiskey line (and it’s pretty solid, too) and yes, we did casually mention “two vinyl records featuring that music that helped to age the whiskey.” While it’s easy to roll your eyes at the thought of a metal band-branded whiskey and dismiss it as another celebrity vanity project, considering BLACKENED is distilled using a fascinating ultrasound aging process dubbed “Black Noise Sonic Enhancement” that actually utilizes the sound of Metallica to help influence the flavor profile.

Though it sounds absurd, the whole gimmick technique is pretty legit. According to a study published in the journal of Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, spirits aged for three days using a unique ultrasound process produced spirits that were similar to brandies that had been aged for years. Ultrasound energy was found to influence both the intensity of the color as well as the total polyphenol index of the spirit treated. Pretty wild stuff.

“Being thrashed by the BLACK NOISE sonic enhancement process helps give the spirit a warm, honey amber hue,” read the official tasting notes to this expression. “Burnt caramel, oak and honey are present on the nose and moderate hints of spice upon first sip. The flavor of BLACKENED builds with notes of honey, cinnamon, allspice, clove, and mint, with unexpected hints of apricot lingering underneath. Expect a long and smooth finish with slightly creamy hints of butterscotch taffy, maple, and honey.”

The sounds that helped make BLACKENED Batch 100 were selected by BLACKENED’s in-house Master Distiller and Blender Rob Dietrich and further curated by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich and is compiled on two 12-inch vinyl picture discs that feature deep cuts from Metallica’s massive catalog — sure to please die-hard Metallica-heads.

“When I look at Rob’s Playlist, I love the selections, I love the variety, I love that he’s gone for two deeper live tracks from the Damaged Justice tour, I love seeing both the Bing & Purge and Through The Never eras represent, and he even tapped the HelpingHands album, so it’s clear he is not a part-timer!” Ulrich said in a statement.

Metallica’s BLACKENED Batch 100 boxset is available now for a suggested retail price of $149.99. Hit up the BLACKENED website for a list of official retailers where you can pick it up.

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All of these useful gems are $25 or less.

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Sleep! Be! Damned!

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“I realized it was fraud because I don’t pay for my Netflix — my sister does.”

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“The last thing that I would ever want is for summer camp to be looked back on in history — or in the fall — as part of the reason that we have a second outbreak.”

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It’s not every day you get to write about Pete Davidson, Nick Kroll, and Princess Diana in the same article, but when the opportunity presents itself, you have to take it.

Kroll was a guest on Monday’s episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, where he discussed, among other topics, his ‎Oh, Hello podcast with fellow funny-person John Mulaney. It’s very good, with an impressive collection of guests, including Sarah Koening, John “Horny for Adam Driver” Oliver, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Davidson. What is Pete Davidson, a 26-year-old from Long Island who “truly had no idea how Princess Diana died, or that she died at all,” doing on a podcast about the People’s Princess, you might be wondering? Gil Faizon (charmed, I’m sure) has an answer for that.

“What Pete did bring to the table was what it was like to be hounded by the paparazzi,” a bathrobe-wearing Kroll told Meyers, referring to Davidson’s relationship with Ariana Grande. “In a weird way, Pete was, in fact, the most useful guest on the podcast to give a sense of what it was like for Princess Diana, because I would say that SNL… I know that you’re a former cast member and writer, but they’re kind of our royalty.”

Diana was the princess of Wales, but Davidson? He’s the KING of freaking Staten Island. Easily one of the top-five boroughs in New York.

All while making her new album How I’m Feeling Now, Charli XCX has kept her fans fully involved, from constantly updating them on the record’s progress to using their creative input in songs. Now that the record is finished and out there, she has spoken about it with Music Week, revealing what the new album means for the one she was working on before it.

Charli said that she’s not sure she will continue working her pre-quarantine music because it feels old now:

“With most pop major label artists, there’s a level of extreme planning, a lot of pre-thought, pre-consideration, and set-up. That helps in so many ways for the pitch of the album, the longevity of the album and the relationship with the people you’re pitching the album to and I understand why it happens. But that doesn’t excite me that much. I’m really into the sporadic-ness of what I’m doing right now. One thing I will struggle with is, I was making a different album before quarantine and I do love a lot of those songs, but they’re going to feel so old to me if they do eventually come out. It just doesn’t inspire me to talk about songs I made a year-and-a-half ago.”

She also discussed her hopes for How I’m Feeling Now, saying, “Sales or streams or chart positions just aren’t my priority. It’s not the reason I make music. Thinking about that doesn’t make for good music. Success for this project would be to be able to look back on it as something representative of this situation we’re all in and something that felt like an audiovisual documentation of where I’m at as an artist, but also where my fan base, my LGBTQ fan base, my fellow producers and collaborators in our left-pop scene are at this point, what we were feeling and creating. I want it to feel like a time stamp, but also to still sound relevant when this is all over.”

Read more excerpts from the feature here, and read our review of How I’m Feeling Now here.

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

Billie Eilish has not been secretive about her love of The Office. The singer once said that the show is “like therapy” for her. Eilish even sampled an episode of the series in her debut album’s track “My Strange Addiction.” Last year, Eilish linked up with Dwight Schrute actor Rainn Wilson to get quizzed on some trivia about the show, and she nailed it. Now, the two have united once again, this time virtually, for another trivia session.

Wilson invited Eilish to join him on Soul Pancake’s Instagram Live as part of his series Hey There, Human. Wilson had previously hosted Eilish’s brother Finneas, but Eilish now had a chance to speak about music, how she’s coping with quarantine, and, of course, The Office.

Before getting into trivia questions, Eilish detailed how she’s been treating anxieties about the pandemic. The singer said that she was at first grateful for the time off, which she has echoed in other interviews, but has ultimately gotten back to making music: “It’s been really uninspiring to create, for me at least. I’ve talked to people who agree with me on that. At least in the beginning, I did not want to make a thing. I was not creative, I didn’t want to do anything, I didn’t want to make music, I didn’t want to write anything. Luckily, that kind of switched and I got to making some stuff.”

Eilish also offered her best advice for those struggling, which she said was practicing patience: “I think patience is really important right now. […] Especially right now, the only thing we can do is wait. The only thing that’s going on right now is time. It’s also not that hard to stay home.”

Wilson then posed a series of questions about his character in The Office after the singer admitted she’s seen the show 15 times. While Eilish aced her last trivia session with him, Wilson stumped her on a few questions this time around. Eilish correctly answered which book Jim had given Dwight to help him host a garden party, but couldn’t recall what 1,000 “truth bucks” could be redeemed for in the show.

Watch Eilish and Wilson’s chat above.