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One might think, by now, Peter Farrelly wouldn’t care about reviews. The movies he made in the ’90s with his brother, Bobby (you probably know them as “The Farrelly Brothers”), routinely irked the critical minds at the time, yet made a lot of money and have, since – namely Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, and There’s Something About Mary – are now considered comedy classics. And not to mention he’s directed a movie (Green Book) that won Best Picture. Yet, he does. And I witnessed this firsthand.

Back in 2022, I went to the premiere of The Greatest Beer Run Ever, a Vietnam-era comedy/drama starring Zac Efron, at the Toronto Film Festival – a movie I enjoyed quite a bit that got a great reception at the premiere. At the party after I was asked if I wanted to say hello to Farrelly. I’ve interviewed him numerous times now and he’s always a pleasant and gregarious raconteur, so I said yes. But this time something was certainly … off. Now, I am certainly open to the fact he just didn’t want to talk to me. (Trust me, many people fall into this category.) But, ahead in this interview, I asked about that night and, yep, turns out he had just been told about some early reviews. Farrelly seems like the kind of fellow who wears his heart on his sleeve, and he certainly was that evening.

Now, Farrelly reteams with Efron for the full-on comedy, Ricky Stanicky. In the film, a group of friends since childhood have always gotten out of all sorts of trouble by blaming everything they did on poor Ricky Stanicky. The thing is, Ricky doesn’t exist. Now, as adults, after skipping a baby shower to, instead, go to a concert in Atlantic City – saying, instead, they had to visit Ricky in the hospital – their friends and families are starting to doubt Ricky exists. So the only solution is to hire a pretty terrible actor, Rod (John Cena, who seems to be having the time of his life), to play Ricky. It turns out, Rod is really good at playing Ricky and starts enjoying the most success he’s ever had in his life, which creates a whole host of new problems.

Ahead, Peter Farrelly tells us how John Cena is the most prepared actor he’s ever worked with in his life. (Of course, the many, many actors who Farrelly has worked with come prepared, but Cena is on another level.) He explains why he takes reviews still so personally – and still remembers one specific review of There’s Something About Mary very well. He also talks about if he’d ever direct alongside his brother again. Which it sounds like, for now, the two still enjoy working together in other capacities, but like directing on their own.

Peter Farrelly: My first favorite catcher in the Major Leagues, Mike Ryan. Let’s talk.

You say that every time. Someone gave me his baseball card. I think it’s 1969 Topps. I still have it.

He wasn’t great, but we liked him because he was on the Red Sox. I think he was on the Impossible Dream Team, 1967.

I wasn’t alive then, but I’m very familiar with that team because I was born in St. Louis and they lost to the Cardinals in the World Series.

That’s correct. Yeah, that was a heartbreaker for us. I was 10 years old. That was my first year of really loving baseball. And I remember we had the transistor radios in the class and we were listening to it under our desks. The teachers were kind of looking the other way because they knew, they didn’t fight it, but you weren’t supposed to have them. Did I tell you? Stop me if I told you the one where I went to the 2004 game when the Red Sox won in St. Louis?

I’ve never heard this.

Okay. So it’s an unbelievable thing. The Red Sox win. It’s a sweep! We’re in St. Louis.

Oh, I remember.

But when we left the game, we’re loaded with Red Sox stuff. I’ve got my five-year-old son with me. We’re walking and everybody’s patting us on the back like, hey, thumbs up, smiling. They couldn’t have been nicer. They were the most generous, kind-hearted fans ever. And we’re walking towards the hotel and this car comes driving towards us. We’re stopped at the intersection about to walk and this car comes and starts cutting in front of us. And this guy is hanging out the passenger side window! And I pull Bob back and the guy goes by and he goes, “Congratulations!” It was like, oh my God, what a city. I was waiting for the worst and I got a drive-by congratulations.

It’s almost annoyingly friendly because I wish we were a little meaner to tell you the truth.

Nah, I’m telling you. I remember thinking, man, I wish Boston was like this.

No, you don’t.

But also, my whole life, everybody always said the two best baseball towns are St. Louis and Boston.

I agree with that.

And of course, I always argue it was Boston, but after that thing I was like, they deserve number one. It’s a great baseball town and they’re nice. So what’s up? How are you doing?

Well, you have a new movie out. They’ll probably get mad if we don’t talk about that.

Yeah. You can just say good things about it. We don’t have to say anything. It’ll be fine.

I know you probably knew this going in, but were you even amazed how good John Cena is in this? He is really going for it.

I’ve got to tell you, I expected a lot from him, but he blew my mind. I mean, when I saw him in Peacemaker? From the moment I saw him in that, I was like, oh my God, this guy’s funny. He commits. That was the main thing. He went for it. He wasn’t afraid to go for the joke or to embarrass himself. He went for it. But yes, he blew my mind. He’s the most prepared actor I ever worked with.

Wait, really?

He showed up on the set – and I’m not joking, this is the God’s honest truth – he showed up on the set and he had the entire script memorized, every scene. Not just the scenes we’re shooting that day. He had every scene.

I’m thinking of all the actors you’ve worked with. So he’s more prepared than Viggo Mortensen? He’s more prepared than Matt Damon? He was more prepared than anyone?

Nothing against those guys. Those guys are all incredibly well-prepared, but he takes it to an OCD level where he memorized the entire script. The entire script. I remember one day we got ahead and we shot a scene that we thought was going to take eight hours, but it took like four hours, so we would have been done for the day. But I thought, well, we could hop over to this other scene? And I came over to him and I said, “Hey, do you want to take an hour?” He goes, “I don’t need an hour.” I said, “Well, we’re going to skip to a scene like 40 pages later.” He started rattling off the dialogue.

I do wonder if with his background in wrestling, if he doesn’t know what everyone else is doing he could get hurt or die. So I wonder if that’s part of it. I think Dave Bautista also qualifies here.

Yeah, I think it is. I think you’re right. Because I’ve asked him how did this start. He did a couple of little parts and I said I’ve got to look at them. He goes, “No, no, no. Please don’t look at them. They’re just awful. I didn’t know what I was doing. And then I realized, okay, you’re a real actor, you better fucking get your shit together. Then I started working on my craft and learning how to act, and I got so much better.” It’s like Arnold Schwarzenegger, for a long time had that insecurity, because he was mocked. He was mocked when it started, but then he went so far past that.

I think that the more the chip you have on your shoulders, the better you’re going to be. I was an accounting major in college. And when I got out I was a salesman for a few years. And it wasn’t until my mid-20s that I started writing. And I went back to grad school for creative writing and I remember I was embarrassed. I was feeling so behind everybody – because they were English majors, lit majors – they knew a lot more, they’ve done a lot more, and it drove me. I remember thinking, I do not want to embarrass myself, and I worked hard. I remember weekends I’d just spend in my room reading books that I should have read in high school or college and trying to catch up. And I think that’s what these guys did.

This is your second movie with Zac Efron. Is he becoming your go-to actor, like Jim Carrey was?

Yeah, I like him a lot. He’s a great guy, by the way. I met him years ago before we ever worked together. And having hung out with him for two movies, now he’s just top-notch human being. But more than that, he’s a director’s dream. A lot of actors are in their head. They’re doing the math themselves. They’re thinking, okay, I could have done this, I should have done. And you’re talking to them and you realize they didn’t even know you there. But, by the way, it’s sometimes a great thing, because they know what they’re doing. But you’re not as part of the process.

I really enjoyed The Greatest Beer Run Ever, your prior movie with Zach. I was at the premiere at Toronto and it got a great reception. I am wondering if something went wrong with how you wanted that released? Or something else? Only because at the party I was asked if I wanted to say hello to you and you didn’t seem in a great mood. And granted, it could be just that you had to talk to me. I am fully aware of that possibility. But it seemed like that movie left the conversation quickly…

Well, it didn’t go away quickly because it was on Apple and it was number one for quite a while, and it still comes back into the top 10 over there a lot. However…

When I say went away, I don’t mean on streaming, but the zeitgeist. And I felt it should have stayed around longer because I really enjoyed it.

Well, first of all, I apologize if I…

No, no, no. You were not rude, you just seemed distracted by something.

Well, I do remember that night getting a couple of people come up to me involved in the thing and saying, “Yeah, you got a bad review here.” The reviews started to come out.

Oh, I see.

And people started telling me. And if you look at it, that did not get great reviews. I mean, the thing is, honestly, I like the audience reviews and that’s the one I trust most. I pay attention to the audience. And our movies are almost always like that.

You’re not kidding. Even going back to movies we consider comedy classics today, like Dumb and Dumber, did not get overwhelmingly positive reviews.

I remember the first review that I saw for – not the first review but the one that stuck in my brain – it was Rex Reed for There’s Something About Mary. And I swear you could look it up. “Sewage.” He wrote, this is sewage from the idiots who did Dumb and Dumber or something like that. It’s like, man.

Well, I agree you do have a history of that.

Well, yeah, we get beat up a lot, but whatever. It’s part of the process. But that night, yeah, I do remember getting a couple of people saying, “Yeah, we just read this thing. It wasn’t good.“ I said, “Really?” I was shocked, because I thought… I love that movie. I’m always shocked when people don’t love my movies. But it happens all the time. Yeah, I was getting bad news. It was creeping into the thing. And I try not to… I don’t read reviews. But people will tell you. I’m like, “Dude, I don’t read them for a reason. Don’t tell me.” “Oh, man, you got crushed by The New Yorker.” Like, “Ah, don’t tell me that.”

That’s always fun to hear.

I know.

Now that you and Bobby are directing movies separately, do you look at his and look at yours and think things like, when we were together here’s what he brought and here’s what I brought? Does it work that way?

Honestly, this is what I always feel. I swear to God. And no matter what I do without him, I think it would’ve been a little better with him. That’s what I always say. And I really do. I know he would’ve come in and he would’ve had this, that, and this. But you get to a point where you want to run the show. And I understand that he just directed a movie, by the way, that I wrote with Ricky Blitt. And it was at Paramount that comes out at Christmas with Jack Black.

Oh, yeah, I read about this. Dear Santa. It’s about a kid who accidentally writes to Satan instead of Santa.

Yeah. And Jack Black’s sensational. And by the way, that’s Bobby’s movie. I wrote it, but he’s the director. I like where we are. I still reach out. I tell him, he sends me Champions and says, “Watch it.” And I give him notes. And I send him my stuff, he gives me notes. But yeah, certainly, I like working with him. But I like working alone, too. And I think he does, too.

Do you see a time where you’ll reunite? Or are you both just happy doing it the way you’re doing it now?

Absolutely. We could definitely do it again. You know, Loudermilk is a great example. Where we were alternating directing, but a lot of times when I was directing he was there. And when he was directing I was there. But we would just alternate. Somebody would run with it and take on the whole thing, editing it, do the whole thing. But it was a great process, and we’d get to hang out in Vancouver for a while. But that was the perfect example of what we’d like to do now.

When I last spoke to him I asked what it was like to watch you go solo for the first time, then your movie wins Best Picture. He said you also have a Razzie so it all works out.

Yeah, that’s true! That’s hilarious.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Like it or not, the world can’t seem to get enough of Ice Spice. The “Think U The Sh*t (Fart)” rapper is a fixture on the music charts, and thanks to her Super Bowl LVIII commercial debut, she could very well become a go-to celebrity brand ambassador. But just as the public fawns over her, Ice Spice has a fixation of her own — Lana Del Rey.

On March 4, during a sit-down with Billboard for its “Women In Music” series, Ice Spice confessed that she’s, in fact, obsessed with Lana and her moody music. When asked about women previously featured in the series, Ice Spice paid homage to Charli XCX and Dolly Parton. But, she took a moment to fan out over her “musical north star,” Lana.

“Well, first, shout out to [Charli and Dolly]; they’re iconic, each in their own way,” she said. “I would say Lana Del Rey — I’m obsessed with her, and I feel like all of her songs are hits, even the ones that aren’t as big as the others.”

Ice Spice went on to sandwich in compliments about other artists before referencing Lana again. “Before Rihanna, too,” she said. “I have both [her and Del Rey’s] vinyls. Taylor Swift. Of course, Nicki Minaj. Drake. The list is long!”

Although Ice Spice and Del Rey haven’t collaborated yet, they have met each other on several occasions. Maybe their mutual friend, Taylor Swift, can encourage a special song from the two, especially since Ice Spice is currently working on her debut studio album, Y2K.

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

In 2023, Shallipopi and Odumodublvck emerged as two new and promising artists in afrobeats thanks to projects they released to close the year. Shallipopi dropped his Presidio La Pluto project in November, a month after Odumodublvck released his project Eziokwu. would go on to update that project with the Eziokwu (Uncut) edition that dropped in December. If you’re a fan of either, or both artists, we have good news for you: They’re going on tour together!

Today, in collaboration with Live Nation, Shallipopi and Odumodublvck announced the Nigeria’s Most Wanted Tour. The run of shows will bring both artists to North America for a total of nine dates with the tour kicking off in Minneapolis on April 27 and running for a month before concluding on May 27 in Dallas. Tickets for the Nigeria’s Most Wanted Tour go on sale via Live Nation on March 8 at 10 am local time.

Shallipopi’s Presidio La Pluto delivered highlights like “Cast” and “Thing On Things” across the 13-track effect that features Odumodublvck, Zerrydl, Tekno, and Focalistic. Odumodublvck’s Eziokwu, on the other hand, features 14 songs and appearances from Amaarae, Blaqbonez, Bloody Civilian, Wale, Fireboy DML, Reeplay, Teeze, PschyoYP, Cruel Santino, Bella Shmurda, and ECko Miles. The Eziokwu (Uncut) edition added seven more songs and additional features from Decosuave, Anit World Gangsters, Reeplay, Duncan Mighty, Boj, Nasty C, Mizzle, Teni, Masicka, and Black Sherif to the project.

You can view the dates for the Nigeria’s Most Wanted Tour below.

04/27 — Minneapolis, MN @ Uptown Theater
04/28 — Boston, MA @ Big Night Live
05/02 — New York City, NY @ Irving Plaza
05/08 — Silver Spring, MD @ The Filmore
05/12 — Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
05/18 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
05/22 — San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
05/24 — Houston, TX @ House Of Blues
05/27 — Dallas, TX @ House Of Blues

Odumodublvck’s Eziokwu (Uncut) is out now via Native Records/Def Jam Recordings. Find out more information here.

Shallipopi’s Presidio La Pluto is out now via Plutomania Records /Dapper Music & Entertainment. Find out more information here.

The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air was not only one of the defining TV shows of the ’90s, but it was the springboard Will Smith used to go from rapper to acting superstar. However, it looks like Smith actually wasn’t the only hip-hop figure considered for the role, as De La Soul was apparently in the mix, too.

On their new Apple Music show Art Official Intelligence Radio With De La Soul (as HipHopDX notes), Posdnuos and Maseo spoke with guest Queen Latifah about the show. Posdnuos noted, “A lot of people don’t know, yo: the Fresh Prince thing was offered to us.”

He continued, “They want us to do this? Russell [Simmons] was like, ‘Yo, y’all need to try out. Go out there.’ We was like, ‘Nah. We do rap and stuff.’ Honestly, we were scared. Seriously, we were scared.” He also joked, “And sh*t, I could have been Will Smith. I could have got married to Jada. Damn.”

Based on Posdnuos’ recounting of events, it’s not clear if just one of the group’s members would have been chosen for the Smith role, with the other two possibly getting other roles, or if the show would have had a different structure entirely with all three starring. Whatever the case, it’s a fun alternate reality to think about.

Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show desk on Monday for his fourth night as the new part-time host, and he had a lot to say about Donald Trump‘s latest attempt to coin a new catchphrase. While Trump has had success with phrases like “Fake News” and the “China Flu,” his recent rollout isn’t quite landing.

As always, Trump is once again obsessed with the border he promised to close after he failed to build his vaunted wall between the United States and Mexico. This time around, Trump is attempting to blame Joe Biden for a record number of migrant crossings, and during a recent rally, the former president tried to soft launch a new term combining Biden and migrant: “Bigrant.”

Stewart was not impressed. After mocking Trump that his old buddy Hannibal Lecter could thin out the immigration problem, The Daily Show host went to town on the former president’s new buzzword.

Via The Daily Beast:

“It’s a portmanteau,” Stewart said mockingly, before adding that: “I’m not completely sold on ‘bigrant.’ It really just sounds like a migrant who’s open to crossing either border.”

While Stewart acknowledged that “there are some documented migrants who are committing crimes—some of them horrific—but isn’t that true for every demographic, including natives?”

However, keeping his propensity for mocking both sides of the aisle, Stewart blasted New York City Mayor Eric Adams for initially adhering to the principles enshrined by the Statue of Liberty before turning around and saying there’s “no more room” in the city for migrants.

“What about the yearnings and the tiredness? And the tiredness of those who are doing the yearning?” Stewart quipped. “This is the terrible cycle America is caught in. Democrats—whose high-minded values and principles did not survive a contact high with reality—and Republicans—whose desire to solve the problem isn’t nearly as strong as their desire to exploit it.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

Selena Gomez has been hard at work. Between appearing on television in Only Murders In The Building and launching the Wizards Of Waverly Place reboot, running a massive beauty company, and more, she has managed to jump back in the studio to start a new album also.

Here’s what to know about it so far.

Is Selena Gomez Releasing A New Album In 2024?

It has not been officially confirmed whether Gomez’s new album will arrive in 2024, but fans have remained hopeful. Gomez has also discussed working on it during a ton of her interviews over the past year.

“The theme generally is freedom — freedom from relationships, freedom from the darkness,” she shared with Vanity Fair about what to expect.

When Will Selena Gomez’s New Album Come Out?

Right now, there is no set release date for Gomez’s new album.

Does Selena Gomez’s New Album Have A Tracklist?

Selena Gomez’s new album does not have a tracklist out at the moment.

Did Selena Gomez Release A Single For Her New Album?

So far, she has released two from her upcoming album it seems. The first one titled “Single Soon” is an independent anthem that dropped back in September of 2023. Gomez has since followed this up with “Love On,” which dropped just a few days ago.

Gomez did do a recent interview with Rolling Stone, though, where she seemed to hint at the fact that her album might go in a different direction than these singles.

“I guess it’s safe to say that ‘Single Soon’ and ‘Love On’ might not be really reflective of the project that I’m working on,” she shared. “They are in spirit, but I’m excited to explore more styles of music, and I think people will hopefully be surprised by the contrast. I like releasing songs that I love and I care about. I just released them into the world and later comes the full album.”

Will Selena Gomez’s New Album Have Features?

No features have been confirmed for Gomez’s new album.

What Is The Album Cover For Selena Gomez’s New Album?

The album cover for Gomez’s album has yet to be revealed.

Will Selena Gomez Go On Tour For Her New Album?

It’s still unclear if Gomez will tour for the new album, but as of right now, she has no upcoming shows — and likely won’t announce any until after more details about the album are available.

Jake Gyllenhaal‘s breakthrough performance was in Donnie Darko, which also starred Patrick Swayze. In a full-circle moment, Gyllenhaal is now ripping throats in a remake of one of Swayze’s best films, Road House. The actor paid tribute to his on-time screen partner in a sweet Instagram post.

“I’ve been thinking back about my time working with Patrick on Donnie Darko, and rewatching this great man in the original Road House plus so many other films. I’ve never stopped being a fan,” Gyllenhaal wrote. “He was such a talent and I continue to have so much respect and admiration for what he put out and into the world. I’ll never forget his kindness to me when I was starting out— he didn’t have to take the time, but he always did. We’ve made a different RH this time around, but hoping it’s one he would’ve had fun watching!”

If you took out the references to Road House, this post could also apply to a certain nightmarish bunny from Donnie Darko. “I’ve been thinking back about my time working with Frank the Rabbit on Donnie Darko…”

Road House, which also stars Daniela Melchior, Conor McGregor, J. D. Pardo, Arturo Castro and Billy Magnussen, comes to Amazon Prime Video (not theaters) on March 21.

(Via Instagram)

There are two kinds of good observations that a writer can make. The first kind of good observation is one the audience has also made and therefore instantly recognizes. The second kind of good observation is one the audience has also made but didn’t know that they made until the writer pointed it out to them.

I’ll give you an example. Mike Maple of the Michigan power-pop band Liquid Mike once heard a story about a local man who built a statue in his backyard called Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot. Did Paul Bunyan actually have a slingshot? I have no idea, but it’s not pertinent to the story. What’s important is that Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot became an oddball tourist attraction. It became so well-known that some high school kid decided to sneak into the local man’s backyard and chop it down.

“It just sounded like a folk tale in itself,” Maple tells me during a Zoom call from his home in Marquette last month, “that some kid could chop down this guy who’s larger-than-life. It felt like a big metaphor, so we just ran with it.”

Maple is explaining the inspiration for the title of Liquid Mike’s endearing recent album, Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot, as well as the central thematic idea that links his hooky, funny songs about small-town Midwestern life. As the band’s principal songwriter, Maple is preoccupied with both the specific peculiarities of his community in Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula and the almost-certain possibility that you can live your whole life in a place like that and not come close to mattering to the outside world. Maple writes about this predicament with dark, offbeat humor (the song “K2” is about killing time with drugs and the so-called “choking game” viral pastime) without diluting the very real fear inherent to living a lower-middle-class life in flyover country. (“The American Dream is a Michigan Hoax,” he sings on the deceptively bouncy “Mouse Trap.”)

Back to Paul Bunyan. Listening to Liquid Mike made me realize something I already knew but didn’t know I knew: Countless nowhere towns in Middle America claim Paul Bunyan as their own local myth and erect statues in his honor. I live in Minnesota, and there are multiple shrines to the giant lumberjack scattered throughout the state. The town in Wisconsin where I went to college has one, too, as does the resort community where my family vacationed last year. I could name many more examples. And, like Maple says, there’s a big metaphor here related to the big fella. When your town isn’t known for anything, glomming on to Paul Bunyan (or chopping him down) can be an identity. It might even be thing that keeps you from feeling invisible.

Have I mentioned that Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot is the most purely enjoyable rock record to come out in the early months of 2024? Barreling through 13 songs in just 26 minutes, Liquid Mike evokes mid-’90s Guided By Voices with an overlay of golden-era alt-rock radio dynamism inspired by Maple’s misspent youth listening to Weezer, Green Day, and Everclear. It’s music as engaging and unpretentious as the lyrics are witty and unsparing, in a manner that recalls another indie band with Midwest roots, The Hold Steady. (There’s song literally called “Drinking And Driving” and another song literally called “Drug Dealer.”)

Like Robert Pollard, the 27-year-old Maple had no expectations of ever reaching a wide audience. He moved to the U.P. in 2015 from his hometown of Ashland, Wisconsin in order to attend Michigan Tech. His plan was to study audio engineering, but when he learned the classes had more to do with “how to set up a theater for plays” than recording bands he pivoted to a communications degree. But once he was out of school, he landed one of the few jobs that were available in town, a mail carrier at the local post office.

The “indie rock mailman” thing is central to the band’s blue-collar, underdog narrative, though Maple isn’t sure how much longer he’s going to do the job. The critical success of 2023’s S/T and now Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot is growing their audience. (Also, the mail trucks at work “are just falling apart non-stop because they’re so old,” he says, which sounds like another potential metaphor.) Having caught their show last month at Minneapolis’ 7th Street Entry, one of their first concerts outside of Michigan, I can confirm that they will soon be (if they aren’t already) an in-demand touring act. On stage, their music is loose but relentlessly on-point, adding layers of muscle and noise to their rock-solid songs.

When I was growing up, the most famous export from the U.P. was the novelty band Da Yoopers, who were a big deal in Wisconsin and presumably Michigan in the ’80s and ’90s. Do you know them?

I’m a big Da Yoopers fan. They rock. They’re from Ishpeming, actually, which is just the next town over from Marquette. I don’t know if they coincide with “Weird” Al. But they’re very DIY. They all do it themselves. It’s pretty cool.

Are you looking to dethrone Da Yoopers as the most famous band from the U.P.?

It’s impossible. People that don’t listen to music up here know who they are. It’s crazy. Like, Joe Pera’s got that show that takes place up here. But I would guess that 60 percent of the town has no idea that he has a show that takes place here. But I would say 98 percent of people in Marquette know who Da Yoopers are.

The shtick with Da Yoopers was making fun of the U.P. accent, which just seems like an exaggerated Wisconsin accent.

And people ham it. They really like to crank it up when they’re at the bar. They start turning the accent up. But it’s not much different than a Wisconsin accent.

Do you feel like Liquid Mike has any kind of profile in Marquette? Do your neighbors know that you’re becoming known on the internet?

People at my work just figured it out. I was trying to keep it a secret for as long as I possibly could. But now they know.

How’d they find out?

Facebook. That seems to be the way things travel around up here. We haven’t had any Facebook presence for the longest time. But the Rolling Stone thing, that’s a very Facebook shareable article. And it had the word “mailman.” Then it was game over.

How do you feel about that being a narrative for the band, that you work a day job as a mailman?

I certainly didn’t invent the “musician having a day job” title. I brought it up once and I think people just kept running with it because it was a cool story, I guess. But I’m fine with it. It’s not my main selling point, I don’t think. I would hope not. But I don’t have any control over that either.

It would be different if you worked at a bank. There’s something all-American about being a mailman. You picture your own mailman and you think, “Oh, that guy would never be in a band.”

Some people hate their mailman too, so I wonder if that hits people like, “Yuck, I’m not going to listen to that.”

How did you become a mailman?

It’s just not a whole lot of shit to do up here as far as options. I just needed some money at the time. Before that, I worked at Menards and it just sucked working for that guy. But I always thought that it would be my dream job: I’ll just walk around outside for eight hours and I’ll have weekends off. It ended up being that I’m walking around for 10 hours and I don’t get weekends off. It bit me in the ass a little bit, but it’s a good job. It’s a normal-person’s job. I’m fine with that.

Guided By Voices gets brought up a lot as a reference point for Liquid Mike. You can certainly see the connection musically — like GBV, you write short, punchy songs that are catchy and lo-fi. But is GBV’s story — particularly the bit about Robert Pollard writing all of these amazing tunes while working as a schoolteacher — also an inspiration?

Yeah. I mean, that’s my favorite band for sure. But I didn’t get into that band until pretty late into college. I don’t think I would’ve gotten it, maybe, in high school. But it hit me at the right time where I was about to graduate and I was like, “Oh, you can just do this.” You just can live in obscurity and still be fine. Because I love all those records too, all the pre-Propeller stuff. I just thought that you could do it with dignity. You could just keep making music. I think that was the big thing that caught me. I do think that’s the best story in rock ‘n’ roll.

A lot of power pop bands come up when describing Liquid Mike. Weezer and Superdrag, for instance, seem like obvious touchstones. But are there influences that are less obvious that people haven’t clued in on?

I would definitely say Everclear. I mean, I grew up with XM Radio. There was no college radio for me to tune into growing up. The XM Station was as alternative as it got until I started with YouTube. I never heard that Superdrag record until people started throwing that out a lot when the self-titled record came out. And then I was like, “This is good.”

I understand that you also play in an AC/DC cover band.

I do. I love AC/DC so much. I feel like that shit kills harder up here than when Liquid Mike plays. People love the AC/DC covers.

I heard you’re the singer.

Yeah. I only can do Bon. I love Brian, but I cannot do his voice. There’s something about it where it feels like it’s even another octave upper than Bon. It’s just so squeal-y. But that was my first show I ever saw. The Black Ice tour.

One thing I responded to when I heard your music was the sense of place. You can tell immediately that you come from a specific part of the country with a unique sensibility. The fact that I come from the same place, of course, added to the appeal. I imagine that this regional identity was important to you as well.

For sure. I was scared that no one was going to get it. Because we are pretty isolated and it’s a bubble up here. But I did try to make a more personal record, at least from the writing standpoint and thematic stuff. People think about the U.P. and the first thing they think of is probably bearded dudes, like lumberjacks. I was leaning into that, but subverting it. I’ve never seen a lumberjack in my life. I remember my friend Corey — who I play in some bands with — said the most Yooped up thing he’s ever seen is a girl wearing basketball shorts in the middle of January with a Cookie Monster hat. That’s the most Yooped up shit ever. And it’s true. Low household incomes and poverty. That’s a big thing up here.

There’s a line in “Drinking And Driving” about how “400 Airbnbs will welcome you tonight.” It make me think about how a lot of these rural towns get used as vacation spots for people from bigger cities.

It’s expensive to live up here. Marquette is a college town. It’s pretty condensed. But there’s a lot of remote workers coming in, which sucks. Because it’s driving up housing. And there’s Airbnb. I think the town is finally putting a stop to it. It’s reached its Airbnb limit or something. There’s some sort of sanction in place, which is good. But I have friends that have gotten kicked out. Their landlord boots them out and it gets turned into an Airbnb that gets used four months out of the year. It’s just super whack.

A recurring theme in a lot of these songs is feeling like you’re not going to matter, that your life isn’t ever going to be significant. Are you writing about that from a place of fear or from a place of acceptance?

Definitely both. I’m terrified of death, as all good young men probably should be. But I was chill with it. I guess that’s why I made songs. Because I didn’t think anyone would ever listen to it. It was just for me, maybe, to wrap my head around it.

The song “AM” references one of my favorite films, the 1999 documentary American Movie, which has a similar theme.

Cody [Marecek, the drummer] wrote that song, actually.

Awesome.

We’re both huge fans of that movie. Maybe the story attracted me in the same way the GBV stuff did, where it’s this guy just clawing for a way out. Or clawing for self-actualization probably more so. Those are kind of the records that I always lean toward anyway. I like when people have vision and they can execute it on their own.

Are you hoping to make music your full-time career? Or do you like being a small-town mailman who makes records for fun?

I want something in the middle. I don’t think that music is going to be my main thing for a while. But I do want a more flexible day job so I can take these opportunities that are coming. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be working at the post office, I guess. It’s been really stressful lately. They got rid of a route. Everyone at the office just bitches about it all day. That’s part of the culture, to just complain all day, in a good way. But our trucks are just falling apart non-stop because they’re so old. They’re from the early ’90s. It’s just sad.

Picture this: You’re on a long international flight. Maybe you’re not sleeping that well on the plane. At one point, you look around and it sure seems like you’re seeing global music superstar Calvin Harris cracking and eating six raw eggs, but only the yolks. Perhaps you’re just overly tired and imagining things. Or, maybe you were a witness to something that Harris has revealed he actually does.

In a recent interview on BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show, Harris explained, “I was on a British Airways flight only a couple of weeks ago, and the air hostess told me she’d never seen anybody crack eggs and pour them into their mouth in their seat before. But that was me, that’s what I do.”

Ball, understandably blown away by what she was hearing, replied, “You took an egg and cracked…” Harris then cut her off, interjecting, “No, six,” which left Ball even more flabbergasted.

Harris continued, “I like to get rid of the white, so I just do the raw yolk. I find it gets rid of jet lag.”

Ball had a great follow-up question: How does Harris manage to transport a half-dozen raw eggs in his luggage without breaking them? Harris responded, “You just stick them in your bag. I’m surprised they get through security, because for me, that’s liquid. For me, that’s liquid. But it’s never ever been flagged. The albumen to me is quite runny, isn’t it?”

People have all sorts of different ways to combat jet lag (I personally used an app called Timeshifter for a recent trip to Japan #notsponsored), but if raw egg yolks get the job done, power to you, Calvin Harris.

Sydney Sweeney has been trending on X since making her SNL hosting debut (with musical guest Kacey Musgraves) for a few reasons. There’s her acting work (nun horror movie Immaculate, coming to theaters soon!), the “Hooters Waitress” sketch, and a supposed “leak” video.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of posts like “I’m sending the Sydney Sweeney leak to anyone that likes the post, check your dm after liking, comment missed if you haven’t received it” and “I will send the Sydney Sweeney leaks to anyone who likes this post, follow me so i can dm you the video.”

It should be obvious by the tone of the tweets, but: there is no Sydney Sweeney leak video. It’s random accounts — many of which are dedicated to soccer players, for some reason — trying to get people to follow or message them with the promise of… something. It’s unclear. But don’t fall for it.

In her SNL monologue, Sweeney joked about the affair rumors with her hunky Anyone But You co-star Glen Powell and the disastrous reception to Madame Web. “You might have seen me in Anyone But You or Euphoria. You definitely did not see me in Madame Web,” she said. “But I do have a new film coming out called Immaculate. I play a nun, so it’s perfect casting. But tonight, I’m excited for everyone to get to know the real me. I feel like people only see me as the girl on TV who screams, cries, and has sex. Sometimes it’s all three at the same time.” You can watch the full monologue here.