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As the controversy over Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” surfaced, it was reported that the song had reached the top of the iTunes chart. Given the state of the song downloads market in 2023, though, that’s a relatively inconsequential distinction in the big picture. However, it was revealed yesterday (July 24) that Aldean’s song did actually manage an impressive No. 2 debut on the more significant Billboard Hot 100 chart.

After that news broke, Aldean shared a video thanking his fans. Aldean wrote alongside the clip on social media, “Thank u guys. Ready to see u back out there this weekend!”

The 90-second video includes clips from his recent shows and ends with him addressing his audience from the stage, saying, “So somebody asked me, ‘Hey man, do you think you’re going to play this song tonight?’ The answer was simple. The people have spoken and you guys spoke very, very loudly this week.”

He also said on stage recently, “I gotta tell you guys, man: it’s been a long-ass week. It’s been a long week, and I’ve seen a lot of stuff. I’ve seen a lot of stuff suggesting I’m this, suggesting I’m that. Hey, here’s the thing, here’s one thing I feel: I feel like everybody’s entitled to their opinion. You can think something all you want to, it doesn’t mean it’s true, right? What I am is a proud American. I’m proud to be from here. I love our country, I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this bullsh*t started happening to us. I love my country, I love my family, and I will do anything to protect that, I can tell you that right now.”

The fundamental principle of rock music is to rebel against the system. That’s an ideology pioneers Lol Tolhurst (of The Cure), Budgie (Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures), and Jacknife Lee have upheld throughout their careers. On their joint single, “Los Angeles,” with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, the trio pushed that creative practice even further.

The group described the single as: “A journey into the dark heart of contemporary LaLaLand, the city of its birth, a place of limitless possibility, yet also a diseased and consumptive hell-on-earth.” However, it’s much more than that. “Los Angeles” is a punk rocker’s guide to providing social commentary.

Within the record, the musicians take aim at several societal issues plaguing the city, including the infrastructure, gun violence, and lack of support for the younger generations, amongst other topics. The opening verse is a jarring reality check, as they sing, “Los Angeles eats its children / Los Angeles eats it young / Los Angeles you don’t need water / Los Angeles just needs guns.”

Director John Liwag heightens the musicians’ sense of desperation in the official video. The mini-film features young people attempting to carve out a piece of joy for themselves amidst the chaos.

“Los Angeles” will appear on the collective’s upcoming album by the same name later this year.

Watch the full video for “Los Angeles” above.

Los Angeles is out 11/3 via Play It Again Sam. Find more information here.

Lately, Offset’s fashion choices have paid homage to the late Michael Jackson. However, the “2 Live” rapper decided to channel another music icon in the teaser clip for his upcoming single. Offset put his sense of humor on full display as Jamie Lee Curtis attempted to get him to address rumors that his marriage to Cardi B was on the rocks.

In the promotional clip uploaded to Twitter, the Oscar-award-winning actress steps into the role of a news anchor digging for dirt on the couple’s relationship. However, with Offset dressed as the Godfather of Soul, the late James Brown, that proved to be trickier than expected.

“Your fans are saying that there’s a lot of drama between you and your beautiful wife, Cardi B,” said Curtis. Instead of going with the flow of the conversation, Offset busted into laughter before he stated, “Let’s talk about music.”

Offset’s hilarious video snippet is a callback to a 1988 interview Brown participated in after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife, Adrienne Rodriguez.

In a now-deleted Instagram post, Offset accused his wife, Cardi B, of cheating. Cardi B quickly took to Twitter to refute the allegations. During a recorded Twitter Space, Cardi B sang Keyshia Cole’s 2005 song “I Should’ve Cheated.” Then she said, “Don’t pay attention to that country man, y’all. Don’t pay attention to the country man. I’m f*cking Cardi B, n****. I think sometimes, motherf*ckers forget I’m Cardi B. If I was giving this p*ssy to anybody, it would be out. I’m just not anybody. I can’t f*ckin’ no regular degular shmegular because they gon’ tell the world. I can’t f*ck nobody in the industry ’cause they gon’ tell, too.”

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

The fundamental principle of rock music is to rebel against the system. That’s an ideology pioneers Lol Tolhurst (of The Cure), Budgie (Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures), and Jacknife Lee have upheld throughout their careers. On their joint single, “Los Angeles,” with James Murphy, the trio pushed that creative practice even further.

The group described the single as: “A journey into the dark heart of contemporary LaLaLand, the city of its birth, a place of limitless possibility, yet also a diseased and consumptive hell-on-earth.” However, it’s much more than that. “Los Angeles” is a punk rocker’s guide to providing social commentary.

Within the record, the musicians take aim at several societal issues plaguing the city, including the infrastructure, gun violence, and lack of support for the younger generations, amongst other topics. The opening verse is a jarring reality check, as they sing, “Los Angeles eats its children / Los Angeles eats it young / Los Angeles you don’t need water / Los Angeles just needs guns.”

Director John Liwag heightens the musicians’ sense of desperation in the official video. The mini-film features young people attempting to carve out a piece of joy for themselves amidst the chaos.

“Los Angeles” will appear on the collective’s upcoming album by the same name later this year.

Watch the full video for “Los Angeles” above.

Los Angeles is out 11/3 via Play It Again Sam. Find more information here.

Two weeks ago, SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood’s actors guild, joined the WGA on the picket lines. It will likely be a long battle with studio execs, who have bristled at things like paying their workers a decent wage, upping residuals, and ensuring that AI doesn’t take their jobs. Those involved need some help. And lo and behold, among those coming to the rescue are Dwayne Johnson.

As per Variety, guild president Courtney B. Vance and executive director Cyd Wilson recently drafted a letter to the 2,700 highest paid members, asking them to donate to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. First set up in the early days of the pandemic, the non-profit works to provide aid to the union’s 160,000 members. In the letter, they said they usually rely on donations to help those struggling.

“But when we hit a crisis like this and we’re going to spend millions and millions of dollars in financial assistance,” the letter read, “this is when we need our high profile talent who can afford it, who are in a situation to help others.”

It didn’t take long for Johnson to reach out to Vance and offer a “historic” sum, the size of which is not being made public.

“It was a love fest. It’s like, ‘Man, you’re stepping up in a way that is allowing others to know the dire necessity of it,’” Vance told Variety of the call. “This is him saying, ‘In such a time as this, I’m here and I’m not going anywhere, whatever you need me to do.’ And that sends a huge message to other folks to do the same thing.”

SAG-AFTRA Foundation grants deliver up to $1,500 per member, though that sum can go up to $6,000 in cases of medical emergencies.

Johnson has always seemed like a nice guy, though even he’s not immune to bouts of depression. He’s also one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors, who’s even getting his own Fast and Furious spinoff. So good for him for helping out those trying to eke by while those even richer and more powerful than they are get booed in public.

(Via Variety)

Romy’s highly-anticipated debut solo album, Mid Air, is slated to be released in just a few weeks. Back in April, she shared the project’s euphoric lead single, “Enjoy Your Life.” Now, Romy is looking to switch things up with her latest track, “The Sea.” Co-produced by Fred Again.., it’s a rough rolling tide of emotions.

On the record, Romy recounts a rocky love that, despite all her efforts, she could not make better. She sings, “I fell in love by the sea / Oh, that girl has a power over mе / My heart burned a thousand degrees / Whеn she told me she was leaving / I left my heart on the beach / No, in love there are no guarantees” — words that paint a picture of this turbulent romance.

In the video for the song, director Mollie Mills does a stellar job mirroring those deep pockets of instability. “I loosely referenced Louise Bourgeois’ sculpture ‘The Couple,’ which actualizes that soul-rupturing entanglement of falling in love — and this is what we wanted to feel in these seascape scenes,” said Mills regarding their approach to the video.

Mills added, “This light, blissful, euphoric togetherness that happens alongside these memory slices of euro-heaven. There’s a power that can live in the simplicity of these domestic moments between two queer bodies, too — when I think back to the loves of summers past.”

Watch the full video for “The Sea” above.

Mid Air is out 9/8 via Young. Find more information here.

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

Donald Trump used to love getting his name in the papers. Perhaps he still does. He’s one of his history’s greatest narcissists, so any press is good press. Too bad so many of them are unflattering or gloomy or riddled with mockery. His coverage is so bad that one of his lawyers, who has yet to grow sick of her client, is trying to make lemonade from the endless supply of lemons given to her.

As per Mediaite, Alina Habba, who’s been representing Trump through the most legally fraught period of his long, rocky career, went on Newsmax to speak with guest host Matt Gaetz. (No, it’s not great that an elected official works for a far right news network, nor that he also gets into movie premieres.) Gaetz asked Habba about a recent Daily Beast report about former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik cooperating with special counsel Jack Smith, who’s handling two separate Trump cases.

Habba said she couldn’t “get into any details.” But she did use the occasion to take a swipe out news outlets for reporting on things that make her client look bad. She hatched a strange conspiracy theory, which included a bizarre accusation:

Every headline that comes out in media — I don’t even know if I would recognize The Daily Beast as a valuable media source — but The Daily Beast, you know, they come out with these leaks and, you know, I read a little bit more reputable newspapers, but listen, they come out with this for a reason, and everything is done in specific timing. Headlines are done for election interference. Watch.

We know that Hunter’s associate was supposed to come out and testify on Monday, I heard now he may not be doing so, but watch, they’ll come after Trump again around the same time so that, again, they say, ‘Look at the shiny ball, guys. Don’t look over here. We don’t want you to see it. We wanna give you another headline.’

Conspiracy theories are popular among the MAGA crowd. Just ask the big guy himself. But suggesting that the Deep State, or whatever Habba is referring to, is in cahoots with reporters to make Trump look bad — when his followers already don’t read news that isn’t skewed MAGA-ward — is out there even for them.

(Via Mediaite)

When you’ve earned the stamp of approval from a former United States president, there isn’t much left to do. Still, somehow Ethel Cain manages to keep herself busy. For her latest single, “Famous Last Words,” Cain partnered with Matthew Williams’ collaborative project 1017 Alyx 9SM to bring the haunted track to life.

The song was initially released last year on the heels of the 2022 film Bones And All, starring Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell. Now, the belated video for the song is finally seeing the light of day, thanks to Cain and co-director Silken Weinberg. The pair used the dark overtones of the film to transform the “Famous Last Words” video into a pastiche of a horror film, in which Cain emerges even more haunted than her usual self.

In past releases, including the cover art for her song “Morning Elvis” with Florence + The Machine, Cain has incorporated horror elements. But as she rubs blood around her upper body, as he does here, Cain has reached new scream queen heights.

Cain has more goodies to share beyond the video. Beginning in October, she will hit the road again on the Blood Stained Blonde Tour, this time with a much lighter schedule to avoid the medical complications she faced before.

Listen to “Famous Last Words (An Ode to Eaters)” above.

View the full schedule for Ethel Cain’s Blood Stained Blonde Tour below. Tickets go on sale Friday, July 28. Find more information here.

10/03 — Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground *
10/04 — Portland, ME @ State Theatre *
10/05 — Hudson, NY @ Basilica Hudson ^
10/09 — Omaha, NE @ Slowdown &
10/11 — New Orleans, LA @ Toulouse Theatre +
10/20 — Big Sur @ Henry Miller Library
10/23 — San Francisco, CA @ Castro Theatre %

* — with 9Million
^ — with Skullcrusher
& — with Midwife
+ — with Wulven
% — with King Woman

On Friday, far right pundit Ben Shapiro did what many people did that day: He went to go see Barbie. Alas, he didn’t go because he was stoked to see that Ryan Gosling musical number. He went to hate-watch it, all so he could record a deranged, 43-minute video takedown about how it triggered him. Speaking of that musical number, Shapiro showed up at the theater wearing one of the outfits Gosling rocks in it. Now he’s claiming that was pure coincidence.

On Monday, after his epic video earned him widespread mockery, Shaprio went on his show to offer a clarification in his usual nasal, Micromachine Man on speed voice. He brought up an NBC News piece headlined “The Internet is Roasting Ben Shapiro for Hate-watching ‘Barbie’ — While Dressed Like Ken.”

“Apparently being dressed like Ken now amounts to you wear black jeans and a black shirt,” Shapiro explained with rapid-fire delivery that’s a pain to transcribe.

Shapiro also addressed people dragging him, an adult male pushing 40, setting a Barbie doll ablaze at the video’s start, to which he had an interesting comparison.

“The reaction to me burning a Barbie car, with a Barbie and Ken in it, is like when someone burns a Quran in Sweden,” he said. “It’s totally crazy. Like, wow, guys, wow.”

He also laughed about getting death threats. “I’m not kidding you,” he said. “There are people on Twitter who are literally tweeting out about, like, ‘Can we do something about this Shapiro?’ Like, over a Barbie movie?”

Yes, it sure is strange that people are getting so worked up about a movie with a possibly record amount of pink. But it also tells women to stand up to tyrannical men, so maybe that’s the reason the far right’s so worked up.

As Adele sang in her beloved song “Someone Like You,” sometimes relationships last in love. But sometimes, they hurt instead. Steve Lacy’s Grammy Award-winning album, Gemini Rights, explores the latter at great length, especially on his track “Helmet.” To celebrate the LP’s one-year anniversary, Lacy belatedly dropped the official video for the track.

The video, directed by Aus Taylor, is an in-depth look at healing from a toxic romantic breakup. As Lacy struggles to regain his footing, he aimlessly wanders around his bedroom, searching for something to distract him from the pain. However, he quickly learned that the world doesn’t stop revolving just because he’s sad.

At one point he sings, “I tried to play pretend / Try not to see the end (ah) / But I couldn’t see you the way you saw me / Now I can feel the waste on me / I tried my best to be worth all your while / You just gotta let me go as I’m tryna let go of you.” It’s his way of saying that ending the relationship was for the best.

Throughout the “Helmet” video, viewers are reminded just how introspective Lacy’s work is — an attribute that made people fall in love with him in the first place.

Watch the full video for “Helmet” above.

Gemini Rights is out now via RCA Records. Find more information here.