We’re all looking for things to listen to while we’re stuck in quarantine. With digital streaming platforms, we have all of the music in the world at our fingertips, but still can’t seem to figure out exactly what we want to hear. Lucky for all of us, Geoff Rickly is here to help with Making A Mixtape, the new video offering from Uproxx’s Indie Mixtape. As the singer for the post-hardcore band Thursday, Rickly has a unique and experienced perspective on what it takes to craft an epic mixtape.

After creating a “Moody” list with Cloud Nothings and an “Energy” list with Girlpool, Rickly is joined by Gordi to examine the unique and exciting “Details” that can make a song special. With certain tracks, it can be a single image in a lyric, a synth swell, or even just a little vocal inflection that keeps you coming back for more.

Check out the new episode of Making A Mixtape above, and follow the “Energy” playlist here.

Mannequin Pussy — “Drunk II”
Better Oblivion Community Center — “Dylan Thomas”
Bon Iver — “Hey, Ma”
Gordi — “Aeroplane Bathroom”
Helado Negro — “Please Won’t Please”
Waxahatchee — “Can’t Do Much”
Porches – “Patience”
Angel Olsen – “Acrobat”

Follow us or subscribe to the Indie Mixtape newsletter to hear about future episodes.

With today’s plethora of social media platforms, it can be hard to decipher where exactly a piece of art originated. Because of this, many musicians have been accused of using artwork without an artist’s permission. Kanye West and Nas were charged with lifting artwork from a Bay Area producer in 2018. Just a few months ago, Lil Uzi Vert offered to pay money to an artist whose drawing was used as inspiration for his “That Way” cover art. Now, rapper IDK is on the other side of the debate. IDK has called out Netflix for creating a thumbnail that is suspiciously similar to one of his album covers.

IDK took to social media to slam Netflix for the thumbnail from their new series The Innocence Files. The Netflix Original series’ graphic touts a similar look to IDK’s IWASVERYBAD album cover. Addressing Netflix directly, IDK expressed his frustration. “I woke up in the middle of the night to this,” the rapper began. IDK then went on to explain the sentimental meaning behind his original album cover:

“Another big company praying on the creativity of someone who they think doesn’t have a voice and can’t do anything about. Since you all were inspired enough to to use my artwork rom IwasVeryBad, let me explain the origin of where it comes from. The dove on the back of my shoulder represents my mother (RIP) the person that I though had no love for me, the person I thought wanted me to be something outside of what I wanted to be. The person who told me ‘if you ever go to jail, don’t call me b/c I won’t pick up’. When I went to jail, forget my friends who I use to run with, forget any girls or even other family member. She was the only one that had my back during these times. And this artwork was for her.”

Read IDK’s full letter to Netflix and The Innocence Files above.

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

New York-based burger joint Shake Shack came under fire recently for gobbling up $10 million of the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program. The $349 billion program was designed to help small businesses pay their workers and keep operations going during the COVID-19 shutdown.

The program ran out of money after just two weeks, leaving many small businesses without any funding options and their workers without paychecks.

Shake Shack was able to get the loan because the program covers any company with fewer than 500 workers at a single location. Shake Shack has 8,000 people at its 189 locations.

“Few, if any restaurants in America employ more than 500 people per location,” Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti wrote in a statement. “That meant that Shake Shack — with roughly 45 employees per restaurant — could and should apply to protect as many of our employees’ jobs as possible.”

Shake Shack currently has over $104 million in cash and liquid assets.

Ruth’s Chris Steak House ($20 million), Potbelly Sandwich Shop ($10 million), and Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc ($10 million), the owners of Taco Cabana, have also been criticized for taking up large chunks of money intended for small businesses.

The public pressure caused Shake Shack to give back the $10 million dollar loan. In a statement posted to LinkedIn, Shake Shack noted that small businesses were shut out of the program and that was the fault of the government.

“Late last week, when it was announced that funding for the PPP had been exhausted, businesses across the country were understandably up in arms,” Garutti wrote. “If this act were written for small businesses, how is it possible that so many independent restaurants whose employees needed just as much help were unable to receive funding?”

It then announced it had received alternative funding and will return the $10 million to the Small Business Administration.

“We’re thankful for that and we’ve decided to immediately return the entire $10 million PPP loan we received last week to the SBA so that those restaurants who need it most can get it now,” Garutti continued.

via Lukas Richarz / Flickr

Garutti ended the statement by suggesting some positive steps that Congress can take to help all restaurants across the country.

“We urge Congress to ensure that all restaurants no matter their size have equal ability to get back on their feet and hire back their teams,” he wrote. “We are an industry of 660,000 restaurants with nearly 16 million employees.”

The lockdown has put a lot of America’s businesses in peril. So it’s our job as consumers to try and support those businesses as best we can to help them get through the crisis. Americans should take note of which ones are being ethical during the pandemic and support them as best they can.

It may have been wrong for Shake Shack to take funding that could have helped countless businesses make it through the crisis, but at least they’re owning up to their decision. Hopefully other businesses who’ve been criticized will follow suit.

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These masks are up to the task.

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The world needs more of this.

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The flirting on the Scrabble app has got to go.

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The White House’s plan for states to reopen their economies sidesteps the desperate need for greater testing, public health experts say.

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During our lifetimes, the US has always felt like it was in crisis. I talked with nine young millennials and Gen Z’ers about what the coronavirus pandemic means for their futures.

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Hugh Jackman recently revealed the inception of his faux “feud” with Ryan Reynolds, and now, they’ve pulled the figurative rug out from underneath us by declaring the whole thing moot. At least, Reynolds and Jackman have declared a temporary “cease fire,” which I never saw coming because these two enjoy ribbing each other so much. If anything can mute the memory of 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine fashioning Deadpool as a Merc With No Mouth, it’s their wonderful continued barbs, but I guess we can give up some nice things. And this ceasefire is for a good cause.

Reynolds shared the news on Twitter with a jointly (yet separately) filmed video that confirmed, yes, “our feud” is on hold, so that the pair can channel energy toward the #ALLinCHALLENGE for pandemic relief to feed frontline workers, elderly, and children. The pair will come together and run a lemonade stand for one randomly chosen bidder, and they also asked Drew Brees, Mariska Hargitay, and Peter Hermann to commit to this cause as well. If there’s really a lemonade stand, I want Mariska in on it also. And I want her to challenge Chris Meloni, and then someone should get Ice-T in on this thing.

Before we get too carried away with dream challenges, here’s the video proof in case Reynolds and Jackman forget to get along.

The #ALLinCHALLENGE has drawn quite a few celebrity supporters, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, who are offering an honest-to-god walk-on cameo for Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Is that more or less enticing than a lemonade stand run by Deadpool and Wolverine? If costumes are involved, that’s a no-brainer.