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Zach Bryan soared to a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 with his self-titled album last week, and he will continue riding that high. Per Billboard on Sunday, September 10, Zach Bryan maintains its No. 1 spot on the chart dated September 16, with 115,000 equivalent US album units in the week ending on September 7.

“I Remember Everything,” a single from Bryan’s self-titled triumph, also delivered Bryan and Kacey Musgraves their first-ever No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week.

Bryan would probably rather forget how the rest of the week played out.

On Thursday night, September 7, TMZ reported that Bryan had been arrested in Vinita, Oklahoma, and “booked on an obstruction of investigation charge.” As soon as the news broke, more or less, Bryan addressed the confounding situation on X (formerly known as Twitter).

“Today I had an incident with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol,” he wrote. “Emotions got the best of me and I was out of line in the things I said. I support law enforcement as much as anyone can, I was just frustrated in the moment, it was unlike me and I apologize. They brought me to jail, and there is a mug shot of me floating around. Prayers we can all move on from this and prayers people know I’m just trying the best I can, I love you guys and I am truly sorry to the officers.”

On Friday, September 8, Bryan posted a five-minute video to explain exactly what happened and take full accountability because he “was an idiot” and “for the sake of transparency”:

Spotify used Bryan’s mugshot as the cover art for its “Outlaw” playlist, but Bryan’s self-titled album topping the Billboard 200 for a second consecutive week, in historic fashion, might help soothe his embarrassment.

“It is the first rock effort to spend its first two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in seven years — since the Suicide Squad soundtrack logged its first two weeks at No. 1 (Aug. 27-Sept. 3, 2016 charts),” Billboard‘s Keith Caulfield additionally relayed. “It’s the first Americana/folk project to spend its first two weeks at No. 1 since Chris Stapleton’s Traveller also ruled in its first two frames in 2015 (Nov. 21 and 28).”

Per a press release, Bryan will release his self-titled album in CD and vinyl formats on October 13. Those offerings are available for pre-order here.

Zach Bryan is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Olivia Rodrigo add to her growing legacy and the “WAP” duo make their return. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.

Olivia Rodrigo — “All-American B*tch”

Rodrigo has proven herself to be more than a one-album wonder with Guts, which, like its predecessor, is off to a scorching start. She continues to be the leading pop star inhabiting the rock space, like on “All-American B*tch,” which has Avril Lavigne-like pop-punk hooks sandwiched between more delicate verses.

Cardi B — “Bongos” Feat. Megan Thee Stallion

Three years after “WAP,” Cardi and Meg have reunited for “Bongos.” Cardi thinks it’s not exactly a “WAP” repeat when it comes to lyrical raunchiness, but it’s not exactly PG either, with lines like, “N****, eat this ass like a plum / This p*ssy tight like a nun / Better chew it up like it’s gum / Then wipe your mouth when you done.”

James Blake — “Tell Me”

Blake recently said of his new album Playing Robots Into Heaven, “I know this sounds weird, but this album was easy to make. It’s like I’m picking up where I left off years ago.” Indeed, the album is a return to Blake’s electronic roots and less so indebted to the piano-balled balladry he’s gotten into in recent years.

Young Nudy — “Peaches & Eggplants (Remix)” Feat. Latto and Sexyy Red

Young Nudy had himself a summer hit with “Peaches & Eggplants,” and now he’s keeping the momentum going into fall with a new remix. He got Latto and Sexyy Red to hop on the just-unveiled version, and they grab onto the title’s theme with some raunchy verses.

Sampha — “Only”

Sampha has been around for years now, and yet he’s only on his sophomore album. That project is highly anticipated and now it’s officially announced. Lahai, as the LP is called, was previewed last week with “Only,” which shows off his distinctive and smooth vocals on a dynamic track.

Tinashe — “Uh Huh”

Tinashe kept it short and sweet on her latest project, BB/ANG3L, which features a mere seven tracks. What it doesn’t feature are… features, as Tinashe goes it alone here, like on the slow-burning “Uh Huh.”

Goose — “Travelers I”

These days, jam bands are something of a lost art, but Goose are one of the leaders of the contemporary scene. They just gave fans an unexpected treat last week with Autumn Crossing, which features a 17-minute trio of songs dubbed the “Travelers-Elmeg Suite.”

Allison Russell — “Eve Was Black”

After establishing herself as an Americana favorite with 2021’s Outside Child, Russell is back with her second solo album, The Returner. Included in the tracklist are exemplary cuts like the jaunty and thought-provoking “Eve Was Black.”

Flyana Boss — “You Wish (Remix)” with Missy Elliott and Kaliii

“You Wish” has dominated feeds lately and now it’s been given a facelift courtesy of a remix featuring Kaliii and Missy Elliott. Uproxx’s Aaron Williams notes of the social media favorite, “Just when it seemed like the hit had run its course — literally — the self-proclaimed ‘weird Black girl’ duo finds their second wind, taking a victory lap with a remix featuring both a peer in fellow Atlanta hitmaker Kaliii and the original weird Black girl, Missy Elliott.”

d4vd — “Rehab”

d4vd just dropped The Lost Petals, but in a recent Uproxx interview, he indicated he’s already looking ahead, saying, “I’m not very sentimental, but I really do enjoy the evolution of self rather than the fruits that come from it. I feel like the best goal for me is just to be a better me. So, 2024 is all about evolution. I feel like it’s gonna be very evident in the music, the visuals, and the creative surrounding everything. It’s going to be next level.”

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

In the past 20 years, as labels’ priorities shifted, the budgets for artists’ music videos fell a lot from their heyday. In the ’90s and 2000s, artists seemingly regularly spent $1 million or more to create videos for their singles, but without music video countdown shows helping to drive sales, it just doesn’t seem worth it to invest so much in something that won’t been seen by nearly as many people.

That is, unless you’re Cardi B, who told iHeartRadio’s Angela Yee she spent over $2 million to make the video for her new song “Bongos” with Megan Thee Stallion. However, as it turned out, that wasn’t originally the plan; Cardi just made the best of a less-than-ideal situation. While she wanted to shoot the video out of the United States — likely somewhere in the Caribbean, judging from the imagery that made it in — hurricane season forced a pivot to Malibu, California.

The new location required more precautions to keep things under wraps. As Cardi explained, “Malibu always [has] paparazzi and everything so we hired about 20 guards, 15 guards just guarding the whole area.” She also says that the production employed geofencing, which creates a perimeter around an area that can send an alert when cellular activity — like posting photos or videos online — is detected. “Stuff like that costs a lot of money,” Cardi said. The discussion begins around the 16-minute mark below.

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

One of the worst uses of artificial intelligence is heartless recreations of a director’s style, like the Wes Anderson fake trailers or Tim Burton-ized Disney movies. The actual Tim Burton is not a fan, either.

“They had AI do my versions of Disney characters!” the director told the Independent. “I can’t describe the feeling it gives you. It reminded me of when other cultures say, ‘Don’t take my picture because it is taking away your soul.” Burton said some of the AI-generated images were technically “very good,” but “what it does is it sucks something from you. It takes something from your soul or psyche; that is very disturbing, especially if it has to do with you. It’s like a robot taking your humanity, your soul.”

Anderson has also spoken out against the AI bastardization of his work. “I’ve only been exposed to it verbally. I haven’t seen any of it. Obviously, it’s easy for me to go to the right web page and see it,” the Asteroid City director said. “At some point, I’m sure I’ll go in there and see. But I’ve never seen a TikTok, for instance, of anything. I’m not going to start with me.” Anderson then offered some advice more people should take: “I choose not to really engage.”

(Via the Independent)

You don’t need to have been homeschooled to connect with sentiments of social anxiety and self-loathing within “Ballad Of A Homeschooled Girl” from Olivia Rodrigo’s impressive sophomore album, Guts. But Rodrigo is nothing if not Gen Z’s predominant pop-punk auteur, writing from writhing personal experience.

“I am a homeschool kid, so I’m so used to being in my house on my laptop, but with my parents,” Rodrigo told Glamour UK in May 2020 when asked about the COVID-19 lockdown. “So I’ve kind of been preparing for this moment for a while, and I feel very fortunate to be able to say that I’m in a really good place. My screen time on my phone is just horrendous. It’s awful the amount of time that I spend on there, but I have been pretty productive. I am catching up on schoolwork, and I challenged myself before the quarantine started to write a song every day of the quarantine, and I haven’t missed a day yet. They’re not always great, but I think that’s a fun, creative challenge that I’ve been doing.”

Later in the same interview, Rodrigo drew a parallel between her homeschooling and filming Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, saying (in part), “I always say that I never had a normal high school experience. I’ve always been homeschooled because I’ve been working. So this is kind of like my high school experience, and these are my high school best friends. It’s an experience that I’m going to remember forever.”

Guts arrived last Friday, September 8, but her fans are seasoned veterans at sleuthing for traces of real life in her songs — dating back to her unprecedented January 2021 debut single “Drivers License” and continuing with Guts tracks “Vampire,” “Bad Idea Right?,” and “The Grudge.”

Mike Lindell is facing a number of financially devastating lawsuits thanks to his rampant spreading of election fraud theories, none of which have been proven to be true. One of those legal actions is from former Dominion Voting Systems employee Eric Coomer, who Lindell falsely accused of being on an “Antifa conference call” to steal votes from Donald Trump. To the surprise of no one, Lindell has been belligerent during the entire deposition process.

According to newly released videos and transcripts, Lindell paused one of the depositions so he could go on Steve Bannon’s podcast and shill MyPillow products. He even used the fact that he was being deposed to try and boost sales from Bannon’s audience of MAGA listeners.

Via Insider:

“Well, Steve, I’m in the middle of a deposition for a big attack on MyPillow right now, and it’s disgusting,” Lindell told Bannon during the episode, before telling listeners they could get a discount on pillows with the promo code “WARROOM” for the company’s 20th-anniversary sale.

“We have the MyPillow beds — the best beds in history,” Lindell continued. “You haven’t even heard about ’em yet.”

“Mike Lindell, you’re a patriot and a hero,” Bannon responded. “Go back into your deposition and give them hell. Give them hell from the War Room.”

When Lindell wasn’t taking calls or recording podcasts in the middle of the deposition, he reportedly insulted Coomer so many times that his lawyers petitioned the judge to sanction the MyPillow CEO for his belligerent behavior.

According to Insider, Lindell ranted so much that one of the court reporters who was transcribing the deposition refused to show up for work the next day.

(Via Insider)

Back when the WGA strike became official (in early May), Drew Barrymore dropped out of hosting the MTV Movie and TV awards “in solidarity with the strike.” At the time, she added, “I have listened to the writers, and in order to truly respect them.” Now that the strike is entering its fifth month, however, Barrymore has decided that it’s time to bring back her daytime talk show, aptly titled The Drew Barrymore Show. Don’t look for the host to reprise her M3GAN impersonation or anything like that, though, because Drew plans to steer clear of covering any movies or TV in accordance with the SAG-AFTRA strike.

It’s all a bit confusing, but Drew explained on Instagram that she hadn’t planned on shutting down her show, given that it ended its season in late April, when the writers’ strike was not yet in motion. Now, she says that the show will return because “this is bigger than just me.” That could suggest that Drew is concerned about her staffers going without paychecks, although I could be reading into that. Meanwhile, Drew insists that the show will be compliant:

“I own this choice. We are in compliance with not discussing or promoting film and television that is struck of any kind. We launched live in a global pandemic. Our show was built for sensitive times and has only functioned through what the real world is going through in real time.”

WGA East, however, disagrees. In a tweet that was retweeted by WGA West, the union made their thoughts clear on how “[a]ny writing on ‘The Drew Barrymore Show’ is in violation of WGA strike rules.”

Back during the 2007 WGA strike, multiple late-night series (including The Tonight Show and The Daily Show) came back “early,” albeit with “scriptless” shows, and David Letterman’s show came back after negotiating an independent contract to allow their writers to work.

It remains unclear whether Drew will be paying non-WGA writers (who decide to cross the picket lines), or if she plans on completely ad-libbing her monologue, but the show is now in essentially non-navigated territory, considering its usual subject matter. Drew won’t even be able to elaborate upon why she really thinks that her Scream character somehow survived, since she’s committed to not discussing movies and TV. She won’t be able to host guests in that realm either, so it remains a mystery on how the show will fill its time slot, but I guess we’ll find out when The Drew Barrymore Show returns on September 18.

Zach Bryan is on top of the world right now: Last week, his and Kacey Musgraves’ “I Remember Everything” became the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, the first chart-topper for both artists. Bryan’s self-titled album is No. 1, too, on the Billboard 200. It hasn’t all been perfect, though, as he was also just arrested in Oklahoma on a obstruction of investigation charge.

That resulted in a mugshot that has made the rounds online, and when Spotify saw it, they knew exactly what they had to do: use the image for the cover art of the “Outlaw” country music playlist. The earliest reports of the art change (like this one from Billboard) surfaced on September 8.

While Spotify is having fun with the situation, Bryan was apologetic. In a video after his arrest, he explained, “I was an idiot today, and my decisions did not reflect who I was as a person. I just want to make that clear. I should’ve been smarter about it. […] I get too lippy with [the police officer], he brings me over to his car, and I just didn’t help my situation at all. I felt like a child. It was ridiculous, it was immature, and I just pray everyone knows that I don’t think I’m above the law. I was just being disrespectful and I shouldn’t have been. It was my mistake.”

Zach Bryan is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Whether she’s dressing up as a worm, Fiona from Shrek, or a flesh-eating alien, Heidi Klum is the queen of Halloween. But with great costumes comes great responsibility, and the model is feeling it this year.

“It’s going to be extra. It’s going to be really extra. I have had sleepless nights over it, you know me,” Klum told the Daily Mail about her 2023 Halloween costume. “I have to admit, I love it. And then my gut, I feel like it’s going to be good.” She also discussed her worm costume from last year.

The America’s Got Talent judge went on to describe how her “team” had expressed more-than-mild ambivalence about the notion of her doing a “worm” costume. “They were like, ‘A worm, really?’ They kind of wanted me to think of a plan B and a plan C, but I’m not like that. For me, it is plan A,” Heidi insisted.

Klum continued, “If you are thinking of all different other things, then it’s not going to be a success or it’s not going to be that major.” Her team told her, “Think of something different. This is crazy. And the worm is crazy,” but in a world full of Barbie and Ken costumes, sometimes it’s best to be a worm.

(Via the Daily Mail)

Ed Sheeran will release his Autumn Variations album on September 29, and his Mathematics Tour schedule experienced some unexpected variance over the weekend.

Sheeran was due to perform at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Saturday, September 9, but as show time approached, he informed fans that it was “impossible to go forward with the show” because of “a safety issue.”

“I can’t believe I’m typing this but there’s been some challenges encountered during the load in of our Vegas show,” Sheeran wrote on Instagram. “It’s impossible to go forward with the show. I’m so sorry. I know everyone has travelled in for this and I wish I could change it. The gig will be postponed to Saturday October 28th and all purchased tickets will be valid for that date. I’m so, so sorry x”

Shortly thereafter, Sheeran posted a screenshot of a news article reporting on the causation his of postponement — “a flooring problem was flagged” while setting up staging — alongside an even lengthier caption, which can be read below:

“A little bit more context on the cancellation yesterday. It was a safety issue, and we really tried to do the best we could to make the show happen but I’m not gonna risk the safety of my fans for anything.

I really am gutted, this was very much out of my control but I do take full responsibility for everyone that was put out from the cancellation. Of course refunds are available at point of purchase, and there is a rescheduled show October the 28th if people still want to come, I promise it will be special. Nothing will take away from the effort people went to to get to Vegas though and I’m sorry it wasn’t communicated sooner to the people waiting outside. We really thought the show was going to happen up until the very last moment but it just couldn’t for safety reasons. Sorry again to everyone affected, and hopefully see you in October x”

While Sheeran clearly felt badly about the ordeal, he didn’t wallow in it. Instead, he crashed an unsuspecting couple’s wedding. He acoustically serenaded them with an unreleased track apparently titled “Magical” from Autumn Variations inside A Little White Chapel in Vegas.

See the sweet moment below, and keep track of Sheeran’s remaining North American dates for his Mathematics Tour and overlapping Subtract Tour here.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.