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Katie Crutchfield Reviews Every Waxahatchee Album

Waxahatchee
Molly Matalon

When I caught up with Katie Crutchfield via Zoom earlier this week, she seemed excited to talk about the albums she has made thus far as Waxahatchee. Perhaps she was already feeling triumphant over the early reviews of Tigers Blood, the sixth Waxahatchee LP due out Friday. A sonic and thematic sequel to her acclaimed 2020 release Saint Cloud, the new record continues Crutchfield’s transition from the noisy and confessional indie rock of early Waxahatchee to the wised-up country rock of her mature “thirtysomething” period.

This pivot is obvious and, it turns out, self-conscious. Tigers Blood is another product of Crutchfield’s union with Saint Cloud producer Brad Cook, who helped the singer-songwriter assemble a supporting cast that includes MJ Lenderman (prominently featured on the instant-classic single “Right Back To It”), Spencer Tweedy, and Phil Cook.

“Honestly, the way I look at my whole catalog is pre-Brad and post-Brad,” she says. “The Brad era sits together and works together. And then the pre-Brad era, it was really one album at a time, and they weren’t really in any communication with each other.”

That might be true, but revisiting Waxahatchee’s discography uncovers one of the more fascinating evolutions in modern indie rock, tracing Crutchfield as she grew from a hard-touring musician in her early 20s to the more settled and thoughtful songwriter she is now. Those early records are still dazzling in their own way, particularly given Crutchfield’s fearless and often self-lacerating lyrics and the teetering-on-the-brink-of-collapse music. But the arc of Waxahatchee’s output has bended toward craft and steadiness, a sign that she is a music lifer who intends to go the distance artistically, professionally, and in every other sense.

American Weekend (2012)

I think I made that record right at the beginning of 2011, so I would’ve been 21. And I wrote and recorded it in a week. It was this really prolific moment. I had been in my band, P.S. Eliot, and that was just naturally feeling like it was starting to wane or fall apart. I made that record in this transitional moment, and then I sat on it for two years. It was this weird lightning-in-a-bottle thing where I feel like I had this crazy creative growth spurt. And then I held onto it for a little while and it was really just mine, and I didn’t have any plan of releasing it or doing anything with it. But then, obviously, it set a lot of things into motion once I did.

I know that album has fans and a lot of those fans have followed me. But I’m so far away from where I was when I made that record, so it feels a little tricky for me to try and embody it at this point. It’s funny, because I look at artists that have made really amazing records at that age — 20, 21, super, super young. One of my best friends, Lindsay Jordan of Snail Mail, made the album Lush when she was 19. And I’m like, she can play those songs for the rest of her life and they’ll be amazing no matter what. But when you’re looking in a mirror, it’s different.

I’m sure there are a lot of people who love American Weekend who are like, “Yeah, you can still play ‘Bathtub.’” And I’m sure that I could. But it’s so uncomfortable to put your 21-year-old skin back on. When I go back and revisit that record, there’s a tender-hearted thing that comes up for me. I really have compassion for that person. And I’m also like, “Ugh, this is so uncomfortable.”

Cerulean Salt (2013)

With American Weekend, nothing about that record was zoomed out. It was extremely zoomed in. Cerulean Salt to me is the first record I made where some through-lines for what would continue on in my work start to present themselves. I’m talking a lot about addiction, I’m talking a lot about co-dependency, and certain other things that I’ll keep revisiting on every record.

I had moved to New York when I made Cerulean Salt, but I had had this mini-breakdown there and went back to Alabama. I wrote half of Cerulean Salt right when I first got there. So there’s a lot of home in that record. American Weekend I made in my bedroom and it’s this very intimate-sounding thing. And I made a version of Cerulean Salt that’s exactly like that, but ultimately I decided to start collaborating with other people and have a band around me. By the time I made the record, I had moved to Philly, and we made it in my basement.

When I did the first Waxahatchee record, I was doing P.S. Eliot and we were super, super DIY. I booked every show we ever played. It was very underground. Deeply underground. We could go play in any city in America and pack it out, even if it was small. There was a following at that point with that band. With that first Waxahatchee record, it had grown a little bit. And then by the time Cerulean Salt came out, I was able to quit my day job and really focus on music 100 percent for the first time. But it all happened in this really organic way, so I didn’t feel overwhelmed. And that’s really just continued. With every new level-up that I’ve approached, I’ve been pretty ready for it, just because it all happened at this really healthy pace.

Ivy Tripp (2015)

That was a tricky one. Ivy Tripp and Out In The Storm were tricky in their own ways. And a lot of it has to do with who I had in the room at the time. I was in this messy relationship, and we were working on that record together, so it was tough. I felt I had tapped in with the first two records to this really specific voice that I was trying to cultivate. It was trying to tap into some emotional truth. And I really struggled to get there on Ivy Tripp. It’s a more abstract, poetic record.

I didn’t go into a studio to make a record until my fourth album. We were still doing it super DIY-style at my house, setting everything up. With Ivy Tripp, we worked on that record for a few months, just with everything set up in the house. I was really into Flying Nun bands at the time — Tall Dwarfs, The Clean, stuff like that. A big thing that we were trying to do that’s very GBV is make every song short and make them all sound different, to really run the gambit of aesthetics. “This one’s going to be a poppy piano song” and “This one’s going to be this really weird, dark indie rock song,” and “This one’s going to be all on Moog.” We were trying to make shit weird.

My intuition is always to write really simple, poppy melodies. That’s what’s always comes naturally to me. And I think there was some discomfort with that. We were like, “We got to make this interesting in some way, because it’s too simple.” So we would throw all kinds of stuff on it just to make it weird. We were full force on that tip with Ivy Tripp. I’m very happy that I’ve moved on from that. Now I embrace what the song is and we just do what we can to make it better.

Out In The Storm (2017)

That’s an outlier, because the first three records were made in the super DIY way and more or less have the same cast of characters that worked on them. Even my first record, by the time that came out, these collaborators I was working with were already in the picture. So Out In The Storm, my live band at the time played on it, and my sister played on it. And I worked with Katie Harkin — who’s a dear, dear friend of mine, a legend in her own right. She played guitar and a lot of synths.

I worked with John Agnello. It was the first time I ever made a record in a studio. I made it at Miner Street in Philly, in Fishtown. John was such a gentle landing for me, as far as working with a producer for the first time. He’s not super hands-on. He really just let me take the reins. He was just a sweetheart, and we had fun.

When I turned that record in to Merge, Mac McCaughan was like, “Katie, I think this is just the record that you have to make right now.” It struck me when he said it. And now, looking back, he was right. It’s not a sound that I was ever going to go back to. It’s just this big, loud, angry rock record. But it’s just where I was at. I had made some transitions in my life. I had ended some relationships. It sounds corny, but I was on my way to becoming the person I’m now. And I just needed to make a scorched earth record about that. That’s really what it is.

I think touring that record was really hard for me for a lot of reasons. But making the record was cathartic. It’s a little hard for me to revisit those songs. It was this thing I had to get out. And then once I got it out, I was like, I don’t need to go back to that.

Saint Cloud (2020)

I had this meeting with an astrologer who was giving me my forecast for the year, and he said there’s this one week in July 2019, where if you do something creative and big in that week, it’s going to change your life. And I looked at the week, and I swear to God, it was the week that we made Saint Cloud. I had it on my calendar to make my next record then at Sonic Ranch. I always think about that. It’s so weird and cosmic.

Honestly, with both of my last two records, those are my two favorite records I’ve ever made. I just feel like I finally figured it out, what feels correct for my songwriting. I give so much credit to Brad Cook. I feel like my friendship with him, my collaborative relationship with him, completely changed my life in so many ways. Saint Cloud was me transitioning into my 30s. I quit drinking, got sober, left Philly, took almost two years off of touring, and started dating Kevin [Morby]. I got in this new phase.

Writing the record was really hard. It was the closest for me to writer’s block. I was still writing, but it was a labor. It’s partially because I had all this anxiety from being newly sober, and I was really self-editing in a major way. Kevin was like, “I have this new friend who I think you should know, and I really think you should work with. I think you would really like him.” And that was Brad. We met and talked and then worked together on the Great Thunder EP, and I knew he was going to do the record.

The other big part of teeing that all up was I did a tour with the band Bonnie Doon, who I love, and they were playing as my backing band. I loved how it sounded so much that I threw them a couple new songs, one of them being “Can’t Do Much.” Once I heard them play that I was just like, “Oh, this is the sound. This is exactly what I want my next record to sound like.”

Tigers Blood (2024)

My first four records are riddled with clues that I was someone who was really struggling with substance issues. When I made Saint Cloud, I was a year sober, and that’s palpable in that record, even if it’s not on-the-nose talking about sobriety. With Tigers Blood, I’ve settled into that part of my life more now, and that’s probably the big through-line between the two records, how being a sober adult is affecting me five years in as opposed to one year in.

I didn’t have any aesthetic vision when I was writing the songs. With Saint Cloud, pretty early on, I knew what it was. Out In The Storm was so cold feeling, and I was like, “I want the next record to feel really, really warm.” With Tigers Blood, I was like, “Well, I still want it to feel warm.” I just didn’t have any clarity about that. I had my head down, I was just letting the songs come out, and I was like, “We’ll figure it out.”

We were just trying things, and we were like, “Well, maybe we’ll program some beats?” Very quickly, when that wasn’t working, I remember Brad saying, “Katie, I think the confident choice here is to just do what we do together and not overthink it.” And that is putting a band of people we pick that feel like the right people in the room and just playing the songs. We had to get over ourselves a little bit. I give myself some grace, because there’s a natural pressure that comes after you make a record that people really love. You feel this pressure to reinvent yourself, and so we’ve resisted that with this record.

[MJ “Jake” Lenderman] musically and just in spirit brought so much. He’s young and he’s got this fun, young energy. He just breathed some new life into my whole thing with Brad. A lot of the early demo sessions, it was just the three of us. It was really good for me at this particular point in my career to be around somebody like Jake, because he reminds me so much of myself when I was his age. He just approaches it all in this really, really cool way. There’s all this hype around him and he’s so unfazed by it. He’s got his head screwed on so straight. He just cares about the music and he cares about his friends who are making the music with him, and it’s all just very cool. It really helped me realign with some values that are essential to me as well.

The thing that really struck me about Jake when I first thought about having him on the record was his voice. Obviously, everyone really knows Jake’s guitar playing. There’s a lot of conversation about him as a guitar player. And, of course, once he got in the room, I was like, “Oh, perfect. This is the guitar sound I want on the record.” But his voice was the thing that really struck me. Because his voice is this really specific thing, and so is mine. I’m like, “If we put them together, what would that be like?” It was just a curiosity.

We jammed on probably two-thirds of the songs in this one session. “Right Back To It” was one of the last ones we did, and that’s when the energy in the room shifted. All of us were like, How this is making us feel, we really want to try and anchor the entire album around that. It was a transitional moment in the making of the record.

I think a lot about longevity. Kevin and I talk about longevity and sustainability within our larger careers a lot, especially as we age. We see people like Lucinda [Williams] or other people we really look up to still touring in their 60s, 70s, 80s even, and we’re like, “What a blessing.” Maybe that will be us. Or maybe it won’t. It’s fun to predict.

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Lil Uzi Vert, Maroon 5, And Many More Headline Milwaukee’s 2024 Summerfest Lineup

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It might surprise you to learn that one of the longest-running music festivals in America takes place every summer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Summerfest has been going on since 1968 at Henry Maier Festival Park near Lake Michigan. It has billed itself as “The World’s Largest Music Festival” by aggregate attendance since 1999 (it was a Guinness World Record!) and even though it was surpassed 15 years later, it remains one of the more popular and wildly diverse festivals in the space to this day.

Case in point: The 2024 lineup includes headliners Lil Uzi Vert, Maroon 5, AJR, Keith Urban, Tyler Childers, Illenium, Mötley Crüe, and Kane Brown (along with one mystery guest), as well as a who’s-who of music stars from country to rock to pop to rap and everything in between. If you want to see Mariah The Scientist and The Wallflowers in the same place, Summerfest is for you. Some other names that jump out in no particular order: Goo Goo Dolls, Brittany Howard, Toosii, Jamila Woods, Ken Carson, Ethel Cain, Bryson Tiller, Cold War Kids, and Living Colour.

Single-day general admission tickets are $28, while three-day tickets are currently $62. Nine-day passes are $130. That’s good value. You can find more information at summerfest.com.

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

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It’s Choose-Your-Team Time With HBO’s Warring ‘House Of The Dragon’ Season 2 Trailers

Late last year, House of the Dragon released a teaser trailer to warm the Game of Thrones audience up to a Targaryen civil war. HBO has now unveiled two full trailers, as previewed above and shown below, and it’s time to choose sides.

The heavily blonde series will return in June, and those wigs will be flying high on dragons for sure. The second season shall begin with Rhaenyra reeling from the twin tragedies of losing her father, King Viserys, and finding out that Aemond had seriously messed up while “scaring” Luc and Arrax and then somehow being dismayed when Vhagar decided to have both of them for lunch. In George R.R. Martin’s applicable book, Fire and Blood, this sets off a chain of events where Daemon and Aemond’s beef shall eventually grow climactic, but that’s not the only peak coming viewers way.

If the series rolls out like the book, heads will constantly roll, and yes, dragon fire will be plentiful, but as we know from Game of Thrones, this extended mayhem does not bode well for the House of Targaryen. This series is expected to run for four full seasons, but in the meantime, GRRM’s The Hedge Knight will debut in 2025 as the dragon meat inside the GoT/HotD sandwich.

HBO decided to tackle this war with two trailers, so here’s the Team Green and Team Black versions:

Do you want a synopsis? It’s here as well:

Westeros is on the brink of a bloody civil war with the Green and Black Councils fighting for King Aegon and Queen Rhaenyra, respectively. As each side believes theirs to be the rightful seat on the Iron Throne, the Green and Black trailers reflect those two perspectives in separate yet complementary halves of the same story. For global audiences, “All Must Choose” their side of House Targaryen as the realm fractures in season two.

House of the Dragon will return to HBO in June. Feel free to enjoy these posters, too.

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Is ‘Late Night With The Devil’ Based On A True Story?

Late Night With The Devil
Shudder

The new horror flick Late Night with the Devil starring David Dastmalchian is racking up solid reviews, including a ringing endorsement from the master of terror, Stephen King, who’s openly referred to the film as “brilliant.”

Late Night with the Devil uses a found footage concept to show an episode of a doomed late night TV show from the ’70s hosted by Dastmalchian’s character. This is a horror movie, so naturally, things go terribly wrong. (We won’t spoil what happens.) However, thanks to the attention to detail on recreating the late night episode and the story, which involves bringing the survivor of a Satanic cult onto the show, there have been questions about whether the film is based on a true story. We got you covered.

Is ‘Late Night With The Devil’ Based On A True Story?

No, Late Night with the Devil is not based on a true story. Again, without spoiling the story, there are supernatural events that occur, which are obviously not based in reality. — Or are they? (They’re not. Please don’t hide under your bed.) The film was written by writer and director team Cameron and Colin Cairnes, who wanted to mess around with the strange world of late night TV from the ’70s where anything could happen.

Here’s the official synopsis:

October 31, 1977. Johnny Carson rival Jack Delroy hosts a syndicated late night talk show ‘Night Owls’ that has long been a trusted companion to insomniacs around the country. A year after the tragic death of Jack’s wife, ratings have plummeted. Desperate to turn his fortunes around, Jack plans a Halloween special like no other, unaware that he is about to unleash evil into the living rooms of America.

Late Night with the Devil hits theaters and Shudder on March 22.

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How Much Are Tickets For Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘Hot Girl Summer Tour?’

Megan Thee Stallion 2023 Video Music Awards
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Megan Thee Stallion has a big few months coming up, as she just announced the 2024 dates for her Hot Girl Summer Tour. If you’re a hottie trying to budget for tickets, here’s what to know about how much they cost.

How Much Are Tickets For Megan Thee Stallion’s Hot Girl Summer Tour?

One X (formerly Twitter) account reported tickets were going for $34. However, a community note since attached to the post reads, “The photo in this post has been digitally altered to portray the price for floor seats to Megan Thee Stallion’s first Hot Girl Summer tour date in Minneapolis, to be substantially lower. Prices for the section in the post range from $294.50-$644.50 excluding fees and taxes.”

Other users responded with screenshots indicating that tickets are going for between $144 and $400, depending on the seats.

How To Buy Tickets For Megan Thee Stallion’s Hot Girl Summer Tour

The general on-sale begins March 22 at 10 a.m. local time. There’s also a Citi pre-sale that started on March 20, and additional pre-sales happening before the general on-sale. Visit Megan’s website for more ticket information.

Megan Thee Stallion 2024 Tour Dates: Hot Girl Summer Tour

05/14 — Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center^
05/17 — Chicago, IL @ United Center^
05/18 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena^
05/21 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden^
05/22 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center^
05/24 — Napa, CA @ BottleRock Napa Valley Festival*
05/26 — Boston, MA @ Boston Calling Festival*
05/28 — Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena^
05/30 — Memphis, TN @ FedEx Forum^
06/01 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena^
06/04 — Raleigh, NC @ PNC Arena^
06/06 — Hollywood, FL @ Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino^
06/08 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena^
06/10 — New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center^
06/11 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center^
06/13 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center^
06/14 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center^
06/16 — Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
06/17 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena^
06/19 — Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center^
06/21 — Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena^
06/22 — Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden Arena^
07/04 — Glasgow, UK @ OVO Hydro
07/05 — Manchester, UK @ Co-op Live
07/07 — Paris, FR @ Zenith
07/10 — Amsterdam, NL @ Ziggo Dome
07/11 — Cologne, DE @ Lanxess Arena
07/14 — Dublin, IE @ 3Arena
07/16 — Birmingham, UK @ Utilita Arena
07/17 — London, UK @ The O2
07/27 — Washington DC @ Broccoli City Festival

^ with GloRilla

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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The ‘Late Night With The Devil’ Directors Defended The Horror Movie’s Use Of AI-Generated Images

late night devil
ifc films

Late Night with the Devil, one of the most critically-admired horror movies of 2024 so far, is being criticized for its use of AI-generated images. “for anyone doubting late night with the devil uses AI,” one user wrote on X, along with visual proof. “very disappointing to hear about this. don’t support it. don’t pay to watch it.”

In response to the backlash, Late Night with the Devil directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes released a statement to Variety defending the film’s use of AI. “In conjunction with our amazing graphics and production design team, all of whom worked tirelessly to give this film the ’70s aesthetic we had always imagined, we experimented with AI for three still images which we edited further and ultimately appear as very brief interstitials in the film,” it reads. “We feel incredibly fortunate to have had such a talented and passionate cast, crew and producing team go above and beyond to help bring this film to life. We can’t wait for everyone to see it for themselves this weekend.”

Why do you need AI when you already have the artistic masterpiece that is star David Dastmalchian’s face?

Here is the plot synopsis:

October 31, 1977. Johnny Carson rival Jack Delroy hosts a syndicated late night talk show ‘Night Owls’ that has long been a trusted companion to insomniacs around the country. A year after the tragic death of Jack’s wife, ratings have plummeted. Desperate to turn his fortunes around, Jack plans a Halloween special like no other, unaware that he is about to unleash evil into the living rooms of America.

Late Night with the Devil comes to theaters on March 22 and begins streaming on Shudder on April 19.

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When Will Future And Metro Boomin’s ‘We Don’t Trust You’ Album Be On Apple Music?

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Future and Metro Boomin are releasing the first of their two collaboration albums in just a few hours. We Don’t Trust You was first teased back in January 2023 on social media, so the anticipation for it has been building for quite a while.

Although the album’s tracklist has yet to be released, there have been a couple of teasers, including Metro Boomin saying that Playboi Carti would appear on “Type Sh*t.” The duo also performed unreleased songs during their set at Rolling Loud California, with Travis Scott appearing on two of them. It’s unclear if these will make the record, but fans will have to wait and see when it drops tonight.

Here’s when to expect to hear it on Apple Music.

When Will Future & Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You Album Be On Apple Music?

Fans will be able to listen to Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You album on Apple Music starting at 12 a.m. ET or 9 p.m. for those on PT. Those in other time zones should follow the conversion to know when to hear it.

Their second album’s title is still unknown, but it will drop just a few weeks later in mid-April.

We Don’t Trust You is out 3/22 via Boominati/Freebandz/Republic. Find more information here.

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A Runaway Tierra Whack Balloon Causes Philadelphia Chaos In Her Bittersweet ‘Two Night’ Video

A few years ago, some Canadian professors created a hitchhiking robot and sent it abroad to study “how people interact with technology.” The ‘bot managed to make 10 days in Germany and three weeks in the Netherlands, but met its gruesome end in Philadelphia.

I don’t know if Tierra Whack had that story in mind when she conceived her oddly bittersweet “Two Night” video with Alex Da Corte, but the comparisons are there if you want to make them. In the CGI-animated video, Whack appears as a massive parade balloon floating over her hometown. However, her presence REALLY seems to irk the City of Brotherly Love, whose citizens go to extreme lengths to bring the balloon down, even going as far as injuring themselves with increasingly dangerous stunts.

The balloon is brought down in flames, and only then do the people seem to realize what they’ve lost, leaving flowers in memoriam at the site of its destruction. The video is unexpectedly moving, and its message is blaringly clear and multilayered without being completely morbid; there are bright spots of hope near the end, suggesting that Whack isn’t quite ready to give up yet, despite the song’s haunting hook.

“Two Night” appears on Tierra Whack’s new album, World Wide Whack, her first ever full-length project and first project overall since 2018’s Whack World. It’s out now via Interscope Records. Get it here.

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Teezo Touchdown Has Six Legs And An Angelic Voice In The ‘First Night’ Video With Denzel Curry, Juicy J, Cochise, And Lil B

On January 26, Cole Bennett shepherded All Is Yellow, his first-ever Lyrical Lemonade compilation album, into the world. Bennett promised a video would accompany each of the album’s 14 tracks, and the prolific director is keeping his word by slowly releasing them from the vault, including “Fly Away” in February and “Doomsday 2” earlier this month. On Wednesday, March 20, the Bennett-directed video for “First Night” with Teezo Touchdown, Juicy J, Cochise, Denzel Curry, and Lil B arrived.

As has become customary with Lyrical Lemonade videos, the “First Night” video begins with an all-yellow curtain as the backdrop. A stretched-out Teezo sits in front of it — with six legs sprawled in front of him — as he sings, “Come and let me teach you how to sing / Oh, you didn’t know that I could sing? Oh, girl, you know that I can sing The whole world know that I can sing.” Teezo ends the first verse with a request: “Somebody help me sing about me.”

That cues a trap beat to drop and Juicy J to emerge from behind a yellow curtain. Similarly to Teezo, Juicy J has cartoonishly humongous hands. Eventually, Cochise and Curry join Juicy J in the empty movie theater — spitting shameless, whiplash-inducing bars about no-strings sex and money.

In the serene outro, Lil B plays devil’s advocate: You know, one-night stands are alright / But love is the greatest / Having sex on the first night is cool / But we could wait / It’s so much love in this world / Take your time, ask questions first, let’s talk / It’s so much respect in the air / Don’t worry about it / But you could f*ck, too, if you want / But don’t feel like you got to.”

Lil B disappears behind the yellow curtain as Teezo Touchdown restarts his intro.

Watch the “First Night” video above.

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Two More Video Game Adaptations Are Coming, And One Of Them Involves Margot Robbie (As Producer)

Margot Robbie
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After making Barbie into a cinematic juggernaut, Margot Robbie has landed on her next big franchise: A movie adaptation of the wildly popular video game series The Sims.

Unlike with Barbie, Robbie will simply serve as a producer set to be written and directed by Kate Herron, who directed the critically acclaimed first season of Loki. That said, The Sims and Barbie do share an important similarity besides Robbie’s involvement. They both offer a blank canvas to craft a narrative.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Sims is a life simulation computer game where players play as an avatar that has changeable personality traits, skills and relationships, and goes through the mundane tasks of daily life like making dinner and decorating a home. The game is built on characters having goals and aspirations. They may also, depending on the game, build out one’s family.

Meanwhile, another video game adaptation is in the works at Paramount+. Although, this franchise isn’t as well known as The Sims. Michelle Yeoh and Vin Diesel have reportedly signed on to an animated series based on Ark: Survival Evolved. Their involvement rounds out a surprisingly stacked cast that also includes Russell Crowe, Gerard Butler, David Tennant, Jeffrey Wright and Elliot Page.

According to THR, the animated series is a “sweeping saga spanning eons of human history. When 21st century paleontologist Helena Walker (Madeleine Madden) finds herself resurrected on a mysterious primeval island populated by prehistoric beasts, she must learn to survive with new allies from throughout time, while trying to uncover the true nature of their strange new world.”

Both projects arrive as Amazon prepares to make a huge splash with its live-action Fallout adaptation starring Walton Goggins. That series starts streaming April 11.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)