A full decade has passed since the Grand Theft Auto world pushed out a fresh Rockstar Games edition, and it’s (finally) almost time for GTA 6. Rockstar Games still hasn’t revealed an exact release date for the game, but trailer time will soon be upon us.
Rockstar Games has announced that the earlier predicted December mark was definitely on the nose. In fact, the trailer will materialize on December 5 at 9:00am EST.
The feast for the senses will both sate some thirst and probably compound existing gamer cravings at the same time. Why? Further questions exist, including whether GTA 6 will exist on PS4 and if PC users are out of luck for a day-one release on their platform of choice. And yup, the holiday season is also upon us, which makes these questions even more interesting.
All of this follows news of an in-the-works GTA TV series, Vice City, which might be linked to 50 Cent, who apparently hinted at its existence a few months ago. Word on the streaming street is that the show will surface on Paramount+, which won’t simply be the place with an impressive back catalogue movie and a zillion Taylor Sheridan shows anymore.
As well, that source code leak of the past can finally erased as a bad memory. Fingers crossed for a release date soon.
The first time I saw Daniel Donato play live, he already seemed like an arena star. It didn’t matter that the show, which took place in late October, actually occurred inside a sold-out, 600-person capacity club in St. Paul, Minnesota. Donato treated his environs like Madison Square Garden, starting with his insistence on playing for three hours over two sets without a headliner.
“When I first started playing down on Broadway, it used to be four sets,” Donato tells me over Zoom a few days later. The 28-year-old Nashville native is referring to his past life as a teenaged guitar prodigy who regularly gigged at the iconic downtown honky-tonk Robert’s Western World. Back then, he played for four hours a night, four days a week.
“I ended up seeing that our community just really wanted to have as much of us as they can,” he said of his current following. “Openers just get in the way of what we do.”
Befitting a guy raised in the cradle of the country-music industry, Donato plays blazing licks on a Fender Telecaster that recall the twangy highs of classic records by Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. But Donato’s growing fanbase doesn’t derive from the country audience. Rather, his star is rising on the jam-band circuit — he’s performed with Bill Kreutzmann’s Grateful Dead side project Billy And The Kids, toured with the improvisational roots outfit Greensky Bluegrass, and garnered praise from Trey Anastasio of Phish. At the show I saw, Donato alternated between sharp leads that nodded to old-school Bakersfield country and crunchier solos targeted at the spinners in the audience. It’s a potent mix of tradition and spontaneity that echoes one of the scene’s brightest young stars, Billy Strings, who has similarly married bluegrass virtuosity with a Dead-friendly sensibility on the way to becoming a top touring attraction.
That’s what Donato would like you think at any rate. During our interview, his ambition was palpable and unwavering. He referred often to the phrase “Cosmic Country,” which is both the name of his backing band and a catch-all brand for the vibe he’s trying to propagate. It’s a feeling pitched between the retro country associated with Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton and the “conversational music” (his term) of the jam world. It comes across with uncommon clarity on Donato’s latest album, Reflector, which dropped in mid-November. Working with producer Vance Powell, whose work with Anastasio and Stapleton made him an ideal collaborator, Donato was able to convey the expansiveness of his live show without taking focus away from his songwriting, which is reminiscent of the pioneering country-rock records made in the late ’60s by L.A. bands like the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. (Gram Parsons’ “Cosmic American Music” is an obvious grandparent of Donato’s “Cosmic Country.”)
The thing that immediately drew me to your music is the classic twangy tone of your Fender Telecaster. I am a sucker for that sound.
It’s the sound of America, even just on the value level. Leo [Fender] was an entrepreneur who came from an immigrant family, and he had this vision, and he had a talent and a work ethic to get it done. When that happened, it was at the time of industrialization and America was setting up the economy to be fruitful enough to where people could go and start enjoying art, and they could create new kinds of music. And that sound of the entire early part of what Fender was doing created the American sound in a lot of ways. Granted, we’re in a way different spot today then we were in 1954, for better or worse.
It’s a simple tool that can do a lot of complex things when it’s in the right hands. And that’s what I love about it. There’s really no buffer between your skill and your vision in that instrument. You could go ahead and sound like Joe Strummer. You could sound like Bruce Springsteen. But if you really have more sophisticated and nuanced ideas, you could sound like Danny Gatton or James Burton or Don Rich or Roy Nichols.
How much do your shows vary from night to night? The gig I saw seemed to have a lot of improvisation.
A lot of people try to set it up where they step in the same grove every night. But that’s illusory. You’re lying to yourself. You have to embrace the chaos of the reality that every night everything is different, so you might as well have that be part of the vehicle that forms your trip. So every night we play is truly very, very, very different than the night before. That’s part of what keeps it alive for people. Now, granted, there’s forms and patterns that are constant just like anyone’s life. But there’s so many variables and elements that make it so different from day to day that it becomes a living real thing.
I’m just so grateful that I have a band where everybody that’s with me on stage is willing to go along with that. Not everyone is. Especially when you live in Nashville. A lot of people just want to get a gig where it’s the same every night, and they play for 75 minutes, and they go back to the hotel. They don’t have to think about it too much.
One thing I find interesting about you is that you are part of this country music world, and you’re also part of the jam world, and those worlds superficially at least seem completely different. Like you said, Nashville is predicated on this fairly rigid musical system that’s the opposite of what jam bands embrace. Do you feel like you fit in anywhere?
We have just our own channel, really. And I’d rather have my own channel than be on somebody else’s channel.
I don’t think even 10 years ago we would’ve been able to do what we’re doing. But ever since streaming became a thing, it’s eliminated any middle man that’s necessary to get us to our demographic. We can just go straight to people that love what we do. And it turns out that there’s a great audience for that. It’s people that like traditional, old-time American music who are also into exploring within conversational music.
You grew up playing in Don Kelley’s house band at Nashville’s Robert’s Western World. How did that experience inform your own music?
It turned me on to a whole vision for my life. And it also endowed me with an insight into a songbook that is just unmatched. It’s just such a wealth of melody and chord progressions and lyrics and stories and values. I went and saw that band every week for about three years. And I would give Don my business card, and I told him, “If you ever need a guitar player, I know all the songs.” It was 100-plus songs. One day he called me, and I ended up getting the gig. And I did 464 shows with him.
We would play four hours a night, four days a week, and I only missed two shows out of my whole stint with him there. So that was kind of my college experience. It taught me all the basic elements that I needed to go ahead and create a live experience that is transcendent and meaningful, not something that is gimmicky or self-assertive. Something that’s really serving of the music and really focused on the listener. That was always the value with Don’s band. The musicianship had to be top-notch every night. There was just no other way to do it.
The strength of Reflector is that you represent what the band does live, but it also works as a record. That’s a needle that many jam-oriented acts aren’t able to thread.
That was one of the things that Trey Anastasio complimented me on. He was like, “Congratulations on making a record that people could actually listen to.” I think it was three things. The first thing was us as a band, we had played all those songs many times, so the songs told us exactly what they wanted and what they didn’t want. The second thing was that everybody in the band has already made a bunch of records. I used to be a session guitarist before I started touring all the time. I was playing on people’s albums all the time. I was doing sometimes five or six albums in a week.
And then the third thing was our producer, Vance Powell. Vance is the perfect guy for a band that is like what we are. Vance has done records with Nashville session bands that don’t ever tour. They’re just made up of session players that stay at home and make records. But he also makes records with bands that are consistent in the studio and on tour together. So he really knew how to communicate with us and how to get the best of our personalities integrated into the sound and have it come alive on our performances.
You’re obviously a great guitar player, and you play a lot of solos in your live shows. But you’re also clearly invested in songwriting. How do you balance those things? Because I can imagine that a segment of your audience cares most about seeing you shred.
With country music, everybody knows that it’s about the story. And that’s the thing I think that keeps us tied into folk/country/Americana or whatever word you want to use. That gives us the bandwidth to have room for really solid stories that have an emotional reality that is real for anybody who has the ears to listen. That’s the downside and downfall and demise for a lot of jam bands, which is they end up just sounding like suburban funk music. Without a story, you have nothing that you can meet people with. Any song that anybody comes and sees us play, that song can also be played acoustically. It’s just a pure storytelling format. I think that comes from my time at Robert’s and listening to all these Tom T. Hall songs and John Prine songs and Johnny Cash songs and Jimmie Rodgers songs.
That was also a focus for the Grateful Dead — you can jam those songs and you can also play them on an acoustic guitar, and they work in either format.
I think it’s really necessary, especially if you’re trying to create something that is really meaningful for people. Something that they can take home after they come and see you, and it has absolutely nothing to do with you afterwards, which is my favorite thing. My favorite thing is when none of us are really the focus of what’s going on, and it’s really just about the music. That’s really the best part, when it’s the least self-assertive.
I’ve spoken with other artists in the jam world about breaking out of that scene, and how challenging it can be. Is that something you think about?
I think about it every day. We just by happenstance happen to fall into the jam world right now. Every step that we do along the way, I try to make it an inclusive experience for everybody, not just somebody who likes jam-band music.
I see a lot of bands that are in the same stage of their career as us right now. A lot of bands that are in sprinters, sleeping in shitty hotels, and eating terrible food every day. Playing venues with tequila limes all over the stage and angry sound guys that have been working there for 10 years. Without naming any names, I see a lot of bands that are set up to not really ever “transcend the scene,” quote, unquote. And that seems like kind of a dismal future. A lot of people don’t think about what happens after the sheen wears off of your newness. But I’ve been doing this for half my life. I can see a couple of chess moves ahead, and I try to set ourselves up for success in that way.
I would say the biggest thing is to just serve the song and serve the story. A lot of jam bands, they don’t serve the song, and they don’t serve the story. They just serve the jam, and that’s not really where it’s at for any of us in this band.
In a word association game with the prompt “Nickelback,” a common first response might be “hate.” The Canadian band is tremendously successful, but for years now, they’ve been a group that many just see as cool to dislike and make fun of. That’s not SZA, though, as she considers herself a fan.
During a conversation with Variety about what SZA has been listening to lately, she said, “The other day, you know what I pulled up? Creed, Nickelback, Train ‘Drops of Jupiter,’ just a whole bunch of that…” The interviewer facepalmed at this point and after some laughter, SZA continued, “I know, I know! Wait, you know what’s crazy? Do white people hate Creed and Nickelback?”
The interviewer gave a, “Well…,” and SZA continued, “Why? Black people love them! They rock! That sh*t is bomb! Why do you all hate it so much? That voice…”
The interviewer replied, “They’re just kind of cliché. Did you know one of Nickelback’s producers is now working with Morgan Wallen?” SZA continued:
“OK, I don’t know if that’s where I was headed in the realm of, ‘Yay, I was listening to Creed and Nickelback the other day in childhood nostalgia!’ [laughs] But I like Creed so much — ‘Higher?’ Why are you hating on it? Have you ever felt more inspired and uplifted in your life? I’m in the car and I’m blasting ‘Higher,’ I feel like it’s a gospel song. The vocals are going crazy and it’s also somehow slightly romantic, it just feels so fun. Because even if it’s cliche, he’s so f*cking dead-ass! I will be a Creed fan forever. Like, it started just on a whim in the shower, ‘Oh, let’s play this,’ and then it became a week of Creed and Nickelback [laughs].”
Keeping track of all the new albums coming out in a given month is a big job, but we’re up for it: Below is a comprehensive list of the major releases you can look forward to in December. If you’re not trying to potentially miss out on anything, it might be a good idea to keep reading.
Friday, December 1
Alicia Keys — The Diary of Alicia Keys 20 (J Records)
At the 2023 Grammys, Beyoncé became the most awarded musician in the ceremony’s history. One of those coveted wins was historic all on its own. The “My House” singer’s latest album, Renaissance, got a win for Dance/Electronica Album, making her the first Black woman and second Black person to take home the gramophone.
The supporting Renaissance World Tour also contributed to another award win for Beyoncé during the 2023 Billboard Music Awards. Now, the complimentary concert film is set to break box office records. According to Pitchfork, live renditions of songs from Beyoncé’s Dangerously In Love, B’Day Deluxe, I Am… Sasha Fierce, Homecoming, The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack, and, of course, Renaissance made it into the final motion picture. View the songs featured in Beyoncé’s new Renaissance concert Movie below.
Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé Setlist
1. “Dangerously in Love 2”
2. “Flaws and All”
3. “I’m That Girl”
4. “Cozy”
5. “Alien Superstar”
6. “Lift Off”
7. “Cuff It”
8. “Energy”
9. “Break My Soul” (original and “The Queens” remix)
10. “Formation”
11. “Diva”
12. “Run the World (Girls)”
13. “My Power”
14. “Black Parade”
15. “Savage” Feat. Megan Thee Stallion
16. “Partition”
17. “Church Girl”
18. “Get Me Bodied”
19. “Before I Let Go” (Maze cover)
20. “Crazy in Love”
21. “River Deep, Mountain High” (Tina Turner tribute)
22. “Love Hangover” (Diana Ross Intermission)
23. “Plastic Off the Sofa”
24. “Virgo’s Groove”
25. “Naughty Girl” (“Love To Love You Baby” by Donna Summer medley)
26. “Move”
27. “Heated”
28. “Kitty Kat”
29. “Thique”
30. “All Up in Your Mind”
31. “Drunk in Love”
32. “America Has a Problem” Feat. Kendrick Lamar
33. “Pure/Honey”
34. “Summer Renaissance”
Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé is in theaters now. Find more information here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
There is nothing “mediocre” about Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s one of the best movies of the 2010s, and one of the best action movies of all-time. Directed by George Miller, Fury Road follows the titular Max, played by Tom Hardy, who begrudgingly teams up with Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) to take down the water-hoarding Immortal Joe (Immortan Joe). Also, Nicholas Hoult is there as a chrome paint-huffing War Boy who drives like a maniac. It’s great.
If you somehow haven’t seen Mad Max: Fury Road or you want to rewatch it for the 12th time, there’s a way to see it ahead of the prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the trailer for which was released yesterday. Fury Road is available to stream on Max (fitting) as of December 1st, as well as Tubi.
Here’s more on Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga:
As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, comes out on May 24, 2024.
“Doja’s well-versed in the online chatter about her, and systematically dismantles every complaint in her Scarlet Tour set, which is presented in five acts and finds her confronting both the haters and the unhinged alter ego her latest album is titled after,” Williams wrote on November 3, following Doja’s show at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California.
Doja Cat is her own online critic right now. On Thursday night, November 30, The Scarlet Tour rolled through Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Afterward, the multi-platinum-certified artist express frustration on her Instagram Story.
“I’m so f*ckin sorry,” Doja cat wrote atop a photo of either broken-up bread or a broken-up chip. “New Jersey I don’t know what the f*ck that was. I’m really not happy with my energy tonight.”
@dojacat on Instagram
The night before, November 29, was an entirely different story. Doja was very happy with her show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. She posted an Instagram carousel alongside the caption, “best night award goes to brooklyn [gold medal emoji].”
There are seven remaining dates on Doja Cat’s The Scarlet Tour, with the next show scheduled for Saturday, December 2, at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. It will wrap at United Center in Chicago, Illinois on December 13. See all dates here.
It’s the calm before the storm on the show this week — Steven and Ian are working on their year-end albums lists ahead of the big reveal in early December, so in the meantime they decided to answer to some listener questions. But before that, Ian shared the shocking news that he watched The Last Waltz for the first time over the Thanksgiving break. What did Ian think of this foundational film in Steven’s life? Naturally, he gravitated to Van Morrison’s purple suit. The guys also commenced a brief Bookcast segment to talk about the hellacious new book about southern fraternities (and how they coincide with southern rap), Among The Bros by Max Marshall.
In the mailbag, Steven and Ian address topics as diverse as Gen Z’s obsession with personal listening statistics, whether an artist sounding a lot like another artist is a distraction, the value (or not) of demos being added to reissues and box sets, and a “yay or nay” verdict on Belle And Sebastian.
In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks up the latest from Quannic and Steven recommends the extremely long in the works new album by Peter Gabriel.
New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 166 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.
It’s all but official that Donald Trump will be the Republican candidate for president in 2024. Less certain is who will be his running mate. It won’t be Mike Pence, obviously, but possible sold-their-soul-to-the-devil candidates include Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kari Lake, and… George Santos?
That’s who Jimmy Kimmel thinks it should be, at least.
The House Ethics Committee alleges that a $50,000 campaign donation was deposited into Santos’ personal accounts, with the funds then being used to “pay down personal credit card bills and other debt” and make unrelated purchases — reportedly including on OnlyFans, a subscription-based social media platform most commonly used for pornography. The campaign donation also allegedly funded meals, parking, items from Sephora, and — in one case — a $4,127.80 purchase at luxury brand Hermès, according to the House Ethics report.
Returning to Santos’ 2024 vow, Kimmel said, “Wow, the coveted George Santos endorsement. Trump must be ecstatic. I think maybe we found his running mate. Wouldn’t that be great?”
You can watch the Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue above.
December is here to admit that Hollywood has had a rough year, and 2024 should be much better (more House of the Dragon is coming, obviously). However, 2023 is not done with us yet. There’s still more TV on the way, and that includes several returning shows (the latest in 50 Cent’s Power universe, more Slow Horses, Dr. Death, Reacher, and so on) while those November debuts (including Invincible and Lawmen: Bass Reeves) keep kicking through the rest of their seasons.
Meanwhile, Percy Jackson and the Olympians takes a swing at the small screen, and two marathon-esque shows — The Crown and Letterkenny — will come to a close this month.
Here are the must see shows for December.
Slow Horses: Season 3 (Apple TV+ series streaming 12/1)
If you enjoy Gary Oldman farts, then this series has something for you. Beyond that highlight, this series showcases the failed spymastering of Jackson Lamb (Oldman) and his group full of British intelligence f*ck-ups. Olivia Cooke (in case you need a fix of her before House of the Dragon returns) and Jack Lowden co-star, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll move past their collective “slow horse” reputation through a series of crises. Yet mainly, it’s nice to see an espionage-focused dark comedy show that puts a fresh, and bumbling, spin on the Slough House series of novels (Season 3 is based upon the Real Tigers book) by Mick Herronthe as well as the genre as a whole with all those super Krasinski-spies running rampant on streaming.
Power Book III: Raising Kanan: Season 3 (Starz series streaming 12/1)
Do you need to watch Power before watching Power Book III: Raising Kanan? We’ve got you covered on that question, and this season of revolves around an existential crisis for everyone in the Thomas family. 50 Cent’s executive producing endeavors never miss with his audience, who will be tuning in to watch these characters search for redemption and freedom, all while looking to redefine themselves while also realizing “the most terrifying secret of all,” according to the show’s most current synopsis.
Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie Peacock (Peacock film streaming 12/8)
Alright, so this is technically a film, but it’s essentially going to be a longish episode for those who have missed Tony Shalhoub’s OCD-afflicted homicide-detective-turned consultant. This time, the case is incredibly personal and happens to involve Molly, the beloved and about-to-be-married stepdaughter of Monk. Sadly, this involves a bungee-jumping debacle, and Monk must confront yet another massive fear of his beyond the whole germ thing.
The Crown: Season 6 Part 2 (Netflix series streaming 12/14)
(No trailer exists for Part 2 yet, so here’s ^^^ Diana again.) The final season of this royal soap opera is winding down its latter half. The story will partially focus upon the courtship of Prince William and Duchess Kate after they met at university. Charles will marry his former mistress, Camilla, and Diana will move on as well. Sadly, the world already knows how a car chase between the paparazzi and Diana/Dodi Fayed ended. Thus, the Queen will enjoy her Golden Jubilee while looking towards succession.
Reacher: Season 2 (Amazon Prime series streaming 12/15)
Good news for dads and possibly you, too. Lee Child’s bestselling novels came to more vivid life in this series (starring the 6’2″ Alan Ritchson) as opposed to the Tom Cruise movie, and Amazon was quick to greenlight a followup season, in which Reacher re-teams with three former colleagues, including Karla Dixon, Frances Neagley, and David O’Donnell. Together, they continue to dive into a high-stakes mystery full of betrayal and revelations, and lest you think that Reacher is all brains and no brain, well, think again. He’s loyal and fierce to defend those who fight against him, and he and the 110th will strike back with all possible force in this second round of episodes.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Season 1 (Disney+ series streaming 12/20)
The movie series didn’t continue through all five Rick Riordan books (only The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters), but perhaps this series will swing through the entirety of the beloved novels. Riordan’s confidence in the series (he famously did not appreciate the movies’ take on his source material) and his presence as writer certainly sounds promising. As readers know, this show will follow a 12-year-old demigod who gets accused of stealing Zeus’ favorite lightning bolt. That leads to a quest to actually find that bolt and put Olympus back on track.
Dr. Death: Season 2 (Peacock series streaming 12/21)
Joshua Jackson’s unsettling physician steps out of the limelight in favor of a new “Dr. Death” portrayed by Edgar Ramirez. The show continues to follow the Wonder podcast and moves into the story of “Miracle Man” Paolo Macchiarini, who harbors dark secrets that have remained under wraps until an investigative journalist, Benita Alexander (Mandy Moore), begins to suspect that something is up. She, unfortunately, gets involved with Macchiarini in more ways than one before bringing truths to life.
Letterkenny: Season 12 (Crave series streaming on Hulu 12/26)
This series doesn’t exactly lend itself towards easy description, so perhaps that’s why Miss Katy is here with the announcement video, which might distract you from the desire for any narrative at all. This final season of the Canadian comedy (from star and creator Jared Keeso) returns to the realm of the the hicks, the skids and the hockey players. The very short description promises/threatens “a comedy night at Modean’s, a country music hit, the Degens’ bad influence, a new nightclub, and an encore at the Ag Hall. And that’s just for starters.” Oh, and don’t forget about Michelle Mylett’s Miss Katy.
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