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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 June. If you’re not trying to potentially miss out on anything, it might be a good idea to keep reading.

Friday, June 2

• The Aces — I’ve Loved You For So Long (Red Bull Records)
• American Nightmare — Dedicated to the Next World EP (Heartworm Press)
• Ashnikko — WEEDKILLER (WB/Parlophone)
• Avenged Sevenfold — Life Is But a Dream… (Warner)
• Baxter Dury — I Thought I Was Better Than You (Piccadilly Records)
• Beach Fossils — Bunny (Bayonet Records)
• Ben Folds — What Matters Most (New West Records)
• Ben Harper — WIDE OPEN LIGHT (Chrysalis Records)
• Big Time Rush — Another Life (Bought The Rights)
• Bob Dylan — Shadow Kingdom (Columbia)
• Body Type — Expired Candy (Poison City)
• Bongzilla — Dab City (Heavy Psych Sounds Records)
• Brandt Brauer Frick — Multi Faith Prayer Room (Because Music)
• Buckcherry — Vol. 10 (Round Hill Music)
• Bully — Lucky For You (Sub Pop)
• Corey Kent — Blacktop (RCA Nashville/Sony Music Nashville)
• Cowboy Junkies — Such Ferocious Beauty (Latent Recordings)
• Craig Strickland — Lost in the Rewind EP (MNRK Music Group)
• Cowboys in the Campfire — Wronger (Cobraside)
• Drew Parker — At the End of the Dirt Road EP (Warner Music Nashville)
• Foo Fighters — But Here We Are (Roswell/RCA)
• Generationals — Heatherhead (Polyvinyl)
• Gringo Star — On And On And Gone (My Anxious Mouth)
• Half Moon Run — Salt (BMG)
• Hallan — The Noise of a Firing Gun EP (Nice Swan Records)
• The Hollywood Vampires — Live In Rio (Ear Music)
• Jack Johnson — In Between Dub (Republic Records)
• Jake Shears — Last Man Dancing (Piccadilly Records)
• Jelly Roll — WHITSITT CHAPEL (BMG/Stoney Creek Records)
• John Mellencamp — Orpheus Descending (Republic Records)
• Joshua Radin — though the world will tell me so, volume 2 EP (Nettwerk)
• Juan Wauters — Wandering Rebel (Captured Tracks)
• Kenny Rogers — Life Is Like a Song (UMe)
• Lanterns on the Lake — Versions of Us (Bella Union)
• Laura Wolf — Shelf Life (Whatever’s Clever)
• Linda Gail Lewis — A Tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis (Cleopatra)
• Lonestar — Ten To 1 (Legacy Recordings)
• Louise Post — Sleepwalker (El Camino Media)
• McKinley Dixon — Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? (City Slang)
• Metro Boomin — Metro Boomin Presents Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Soundtrack from and Inspired by the Motion Picture (Sony)
• Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats — What If I EP (Stax)
• Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds — Council Skies (Sour Mash Records)
• Old Crow Medicine Show — Live At Third Man Records (Third Man Records)
• Protomartyr — Formal Growth in the Desert (Domino)
• Purr — Who Is Afraid of Blue? (ANTI-)
• Rancid — Tomorrow Never Comes (Epitaph)
• The Revivalists — Pour It Out Into the Night (Concord Records)
• The Royston Club — Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars (Modern Sky/Run On Records)
• Rival Sons — Darkfighter (Atlantic)
• Ron Pope — Inside Voices (Brooklyn Basement Records)
• RVG — Brain Worms (Fire Records)
• Ruen Brothers — Ten Paces (Yep Roc Records)
• Rufus Wainwright — Folkocracy (BMG)
• Sam Blasucci — Off My Stars (Innovative Leisure)
• SAMWOY — Awkward Party (Hidden Ship Records)
• Speakers Corner Quartet — Further Out Than The Edge (OTIH Records)
• Tanya Tucker — Sweet Western Sound (Fantasy Records)
• Terry Ohms — Rock Songs (Skybucket Records)
• Tigercub — The Perfume of Decay (Loosegroove Records)
• Toosii — Naujour (South Coast Music)
• Wicca Phase Springs Eternal — Wicca Phase Springs Eternal (Run for Cover Records/Summersteps Records)
• WITCH — Zango (Partisan Records)
• Young the Giant — Both Sides EP (Jungle Youth Publishing)

Friday, June 9

• aja monet — when poems do what they do (Secretly Canadian)
• Amaarae — Fountain Baby (Interscope)
• Andy Stack and Jay Hammond — Inter Personal (Sleepy Cat Records)
• Ane Díaz — Despechada (LaunchLeft)
• Anna St. Louis — In the Air (Woodsist)
• Bendik Giske — Bendik Giske (Smalltown Supersound)
• Benny Sings — Southern Skies (Excelsior)
• Big Blood — First Aid Kit (Ba Da Bing Records)
• The Boo Radleys — EIGHT (Boostr)
• Chase Matthew — Come Get Your Memory (Warner Music Nashville)
• Christine and the Queens — PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE (Because Music)
• Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen — Past Lives (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (A24 Music)
• Colby Acuff — Western White Pines (Sony Music)
• Conor Maynard — +11 Hours (self-released)
• Cooper Wolken — Chapters (Earth Libraries)
• Crashing Wayward — Listen! (RFK Media)
• Curtis Waters — Bad Son (BMG)
• Dead Quiet — IV (Artoffact Records)
• decker. — Ouroboros (Royal Potato Family)
• The Defiants — Drive (Frontiers Music Srl)
• Dominic Sen — Apparition (Grind Select)
• Dream Wife — Social Lubrication (Lucky Number)
• Dudu Tassa and Jonny Greenwood — Jarak Qaribak (World Circuit Records/BMG)
• Emotional Oranges — Still Emo (Avant Garden)
• Extreme — Six (earMUSIC)
• feeble little horse — Girl with Fish (Saddle Creek)
• Flawes — One Step Back, Two Steps Forward (Red Bull Records)
• Future Utopia — We Were We Still Are EP (The Orchard/70Hz)
• GELD — Currency // Castration (Relapse)
• George FitzGerald — Not As I EP (Domino)
• Hak Baker — Worlds End FM (Hak Attack Records)
• headboy — Was It What You Thought (Blitzcat Records)
• The High Water Marks — Your Next Wolf (Minty Fresh)
• J Hacha De Zola — Without A Tribe (Caballo Negro)
• Janelle Monaé — The Age of Pleasure (Atlantic Records)
• Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit — Weathervanes (Southeastern Records)
• Jayda G — Guy (Ninja Tune)
• Jeff Clarke — Locust (Bretford Records)
• Jenny Lewis — Joy’All (Blue Note/Capitol Records)
• Jess Williamson — Time Ain’t Accidental (Mexican Summer)
• Jimmy Whispers — The Search For God (Carpark Records)
• Keaton Henson — House Party (PIAS Recordings)
• King Krule — Space Heavy (XL Recordings/Matador Records)
• Lightning Dust — Nostalgia Killer (Western Vinyl)
• lophiile — The Good Days Between (Bluewerks)
• Lontalius — Life on the Edge of You (Kartel Music)
• Love and Rockets — My Sweet Twin (Beggars Arkive)
• Luke Sital-Singh — Strange Weather EP (Nettwerk)
• Maps — Counter Mixes (Mute)
• Michael David — Talking Book World EP (Cascine)
• My Morning Jacket — MMJ Live Vol. 3: Bonnaroo 2004 (Return to Thunderdome) (ATO Records)
• Niall Horan — The Show (Neon Haze Capitol)
• Nicholas Allbrook — Manganese (Sub Pop)
• Noah Kahan — Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever) (Mercury Records/Republic Records)
• Nora Stanley & Benny Bock — Assembling (Colorfield Records)
• Odonis Odonis — Icon EP (Felte Records)
• Olof Dreijer + Mt Sims — Souvenir (Rabid Records)
• Pantayo — Ang Pagdaloy (Sub Pop)
• Public Body — Big Mess (Fat Cat)
• Queen of Swords — Year 8 (Get Better Records)
• Ray Adler — II (InsideOut Music)
• Rob Grant — Lost At Sea (‎Interscope)
• Sarah Kinsley — Ascension EP (Verve Forecast/Decca Records UK)
• SB19 — PAGTATAG! EP (Sony Music Philippines)
• Sivu — Wild Horse Running (Square Leg Records)
• Squid — O Monolith (Warp)
• TEKE::TEKE — Hagata (Kill Rock Stars)
• This Is The Kit — Careful of Your Keepers (Rough Trade Records)
• The View — Exorcism of Youth (Cooking Vinyl)
• Wombo — Slab EP (Fire Talk Records)
• Youth Lagoon — Heaven Is a Junkyard (Fat Possum)
• Zylva — Poems from the Dark (Squama)

Friday, June 16

• Amnesia Scanner & Freeka Tet — STROBE.RIP (PAN)
• Asake — Work of Art (YBNL Nation/EMPIRE)
• Balmorhea — Pendant World (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Ben Chasny & Rick Tomlinson — WAVES (VOIX)
• Ben Howard — Is It? (Island Records)
• binki — Antennae EP (The Fader Label)
• Bonny Doon — Let There Be Music (ANTI‐)
• Bright Eyes — Cassadaga: A Companion EP (Dead Oceans)
• Bright Eyes — Noise Floor (Rarities 1998 — 2005): A Companion EP (Dead Oceans)
• Bright Eyes — The People’s Key: A Companion EP (Dead Oceans)
• Chocolate Hills — Yarns from the Chocolate Triangle (Cooking Vinyl)
• Cole Blue — Crushed! EP (Chess Club)
• Damian Lewis — Mission Creep (Decca)
• Deer Tick — Emotional Contracts (ATO Records)
• Django Django — Off Planet (Because Music)
• Donna Missal — Revel (ADA Worldwide)
• The Drive-By Truckers — The Complete Dirty South (New West Records)
• Ellie Dixon — In Case of Emergency EP (Decca)
• Ezra Williams — Supernumeraries (AWAL)
• Far From Saints — Far From Saints (Ignition)
• Five Finger Death Punch — Greatest Hits (Prospect Park)
• The Flaming Lips — Hypnotist EP (Warner Records)
• Gov’t Mule — Peace… Like a River (Fantasy Records)
• Gracie Addams — Good Riddance Deluxe (Interscope Records)
• Hand Habits — Sugar the Bruise (Fat Possum)
• Home is Where — the whaler (Wax Bodega)
• J.E. Sunde — Alice, Gloria and Jon (Vietnam Records)
• Jack River — Endless Summer (Nettwerk)
• Joel Hoekstra’s 13 — Crash of Life (Frontiers Music Srl)
• Killer Mike — Michael (Loma Vista)
• King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard — PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation (KGLW)
• Kool Keith — Black Elvis 2 (Mello Music Group)
• La Sécurité — Stay Safe! (Mothland)
• Lorelle Meets the Obsolete — Datura (Sonic Cathedral)
• Maisie Peters — The Good Witch (Gingerbread Man Records/Asylum)
• Max Drazen — Someday EP (Field Trip Recordings/Capitol Records)
• May Rio — French Bath (Dots Per Inch)
• Meshell Ndegeocello — The Omnichord Real Book (Blue Note Records)
• Modern Tales — Stars Align (Rose Avenue)
• Monograms — A Fine Commitment (PaperCup Music)
• Origami Angel — The Brightest Days (Counter Intuitive Records)
• Pelicanman — Planet Chernobyl (Org Music)
• Peter Lewis — Imagination (OMAD Records)
• Pickle Darling — Laundromat (Father/Daughter Records)
• PJ Harding — To Fall Asleep EP (RCA Records)
• The Poison Arrows — Crime and Soda (Solid Brass Records)
• Queens of the Stone Age — In Times New Roman… (Matador Records)
• Rodeo Boys — Home Movies (Don Giovanni Records)
• Son Volt — Day of the Doug (Transmit Sound)
• SunYears — Fetch My Soul! (Yep Roc Records)
• The Teskey Brothers — The Winding Way (Decca)
• Tom Grennan — What Ifs & Maybes (Sony)
• waterbaby — Foam EP (Sub Pop)
• Willie Jones — Something To Dance To (Sony Music Nashville)
• Youth Sector — Quarrels EP (Dance To The Radio)
• Yusuf / Cat Stevens — King of a Land (Dark Horse)

Friday, June 23

• Albert Hammond Jr. — Melodies on Hiatus (Red Bull Records)
• Amanda Shires and Bobbie Nelson — Loving You (ATO Records)
• Andy Grammer — Behind My Smile (S-Curve Records)
• Andy Hall — Squareneck Soul (Americana Vibes)
• Anna Shoemaker — Hey Anna EP (+1 Records)
• Ayron Jones — Chronicles of the Kid (Big Machine)
• Bear’s Den — First Loves EP (Communion Records)
• Big Freedia — Central City (Qween Beat)
• Cable Ties — All Her Plans (Merge Records)
• Candlebox — Live at the Neptune (Pavement Music)
• Casey Neill & The Norway Rats — Sending Up Flares (Fluff & Gravy Records)
• Coi Leray — Coi (Republic)
• Elijah Wolf — Forgiving Season (Mtn Laurel Recording Co.)
• Emily James — Grey EP (Nettwerk)
• Eric Clapton — The Definitive 24 Nights (Warner Music)
• Geese — 3D Country (Partisan Records/Play It Again Sam)
• Hause Plants — Field Trip to Coney Island EP (Spirit Goth)
• High Priest — Invocation (Magnetic Eye)
• Jason Mraz — Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride (BMG)
• JeGong — The Complex Inbetween (Pelagic Records)
• Johanna Samuels — Bystander (Jealous Butcher)
• Joyhauser — In Memoro (Terminal M)
• Kelly Clarkson — chemistry (Atlantic Records)
• Kim Petras — Feed the Beast (Republic)
• Lastlings — Perfect World (Rose Avenue)
• Lloyd Cole — On Pain (earMUSIC)
• The Lloyds — Attitude Check (Liberation Hall)
• Lunice — Open (LuckyMe)
• M. Ward — Supernatural Thing (Anti)
• Martin Frawley — The Wannabe (Trouble In Mind)
• Militarie Gun — Life Under the Gun (Loma Vista)
• Nat Myers — Yellow Peril (Easy Eye Sound)
• Nickodemus — Soul & Science (Wonderwheel)
• Pardoner — Peace Loving People (Bar/None Records)
• Portugal. the Man — Chris Black Changed My Life (Atlantic)
• Pyramaze — Bloodlines (AFM Records)
• Sabina Sciubba — Sleeping Dragon (Fluff & Gravy Records)
• Sid Simons — Beneath the Brightest Smiles (Jullian Records)
• Skating Polly — Chaos County Line (El Camino Media)
• Sleepy Gonzales — Mercy Kill EP (Light Organ Records)
• Straight No Chaser — Yacht on the Rocks (Arts Music)
• Swans — The Beggar (Young God Records)
• The Soft Moon — Exister Remixed EP (Sacred Bones)
• Tommy Prine — This Far South (Thirty Tigers)
• Trophy Eyes — Suicide and Sunshine (Hopeless Records)
• The Watson Twins — HOLLER (Bloodshot)
• Valley — Lost in Translation (Capitol Records/Universal Music Canada)
• Wallice — Mr Big Shot EP (Dirty Hit)
• Wye Oak — Every Day Like the Last (Merge)

Friday, June 30

• 49th & Main — B.O.A.T.S (Counter Records)
• Alex G — Live from Union Transfer (Domino)
• Angelo De Augustine — Toil and Trouble (Asthmatic Kitty Records)
• The Baseball Project — Grand Salami Time! (Omnivore Recordings)
• bdrmm — I Don’t Know (Rock Action)
• THE BLSSM — INFINITY H(OURS) EP (Fueled By Ramen)
• Body of Light — Bitter Reflection (Dais Records)
• Charlie Watts — Anthology (BMG)
• Frank Zappa — Funky Nothingness (Zappa/UMe)
• Grian Chatten — Chaos for the Fly (Partisan Records)
• Hayden Pedigo — The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored (Mexican Summer)
• The Hu — Rumble of Thunder: Deluxe Album (Better Noise Music)
• The Japanese House — In the End It Always Does (Dirty Hit)
• JD Pinkus & Tall Tall Trees — Ponder Machine (Shimmy-Disc)
• The Jins — It’s A Life (604 Records)
• Joanna Sternberg — I’ve Got Me (Fat Possum)
• John Carroll Kirby — Blowout (Stones Throw Records)
• Klara Lewis and Nik Colk Void — Full-On (ALTER)
• Lucinda Williams — Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart (Thirty Tigers)
• Mong Tong 夢東 — Tao Fire (Guruguru Brain)
• Pierre Kwenders — Jose Louis And The Paradox Of Love Deluxe (Arts & Crafts)
• The Pink Stones — You Know Who (Normaltown Records)
• Shady Bug — What’s the Use? EP (Exploding in Sound Records)
• Suzie True — Sentimental Scum (Get Better Records)
• Sweeping Promises — Good Living Is Coming For You (Sub Pop)
• Tiberius b — DIN EP (Zelig Music)
• tofusmell — Humor (Hardly Art)

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

Speedy Ortiz is fully back as the band just announced that their first new album in five years, called Rabbit Rabbit, is arriving this fall.

It finds Sadie Dupuis (songwriter, vocals, guitar) and Andy Molholt (guitar) joined by some longtime touring members, Audrey Zee Whitesides (bass) and Joey Doubek (drums), moved to full-time roles for the first time on a recording.

The band also shared a new single, “You S02,” on the heels of their previous “Scabs” release. This one focuses on people who don’t live up to their public perception, particularly by being union busters and other aspects.

“Mostly when I’ve met my musical heroes, they’re kind and principled people,” Dupuis said in a statement. “But occasionally someone whose work I love(d) reveals themselves to be anti-union, or anti-‘woke,’ or some other gear-grinding ugliness. That’s who I wrote ‘You S02’ about, the song’s frenzied guitar and synth solos mirroring the crazymaking intensity wafting off people who act like that.”

Check out “You S02” above. Below, find the Rabbit Rabbit cover art and tracklist.

1. “Kim Cattrall”
2. “You S02”
3. “Scabs”
4. “Plus One”
5. “Cry Cry Cry”
6. “Ballad Of Y&S”
7. “Kitty”
8. “Who’s Afraid Of The Bath”
9. “Ranch Vs. Ranch”
10. “Emergency & Me”
11. “The Sunday”
12. “Brace Thee”
13. “Ghostwriter”

Rabbit Rabbit is out 9/1 via Wax Nine. Find more information here.

Billy Joel has a lot of memories at New York City’s famous Madison Square Garden. In 2018, he performed “Born To Run” and “10th Avenue Freeze-Out” with Bruce Springsteen. Just last year he was joined by Olivia Rodrigo for “Deja Vu” and “Uptown Girl.”

Though the great times at that special location are aplenty, Joel’s residency there is coming to an end. His 150th performance there will be taking place in July 2024 and it’ll be the last of the concert series, according to The New York Times.

This was discussed at a press conference today (June 1) by Joel, Mayor Eric Adams of New York, and MSG Entertainment CEO James L. Dolan. Mayor Adams said, “There’s only one thing that’s more New York than Billy Joel — and that’s a Billy Joel concert at MSG.”

Joel is also currently on the Two Icons One Night Tour alongside Stevie Nicks, stopping through Arlington, Philly, Columbus, Kansas City, Foxborough, Baltimore, and Minneapolis.

Last year, it was also reported that a Billy Joel biopic titled Piano Man was in the making at Michael Jai White’s Jaigantic Studios. However, there was the quite big problem that the project apparently did not have the rights to Joel’s name, music, or even his likeness.

When kids look around at television shows or toys on the shelves, they instinctively look to see if there’s someone that looks like them. It’s a natural desire to want to see yourself represented in different areas of life, and for kids, play is life. Mom Niki Coffman knew that, so she decided to go out on a limb and write to Fisher-Price to gently hint at a favor.

Coffman has a 5-year-old son named Archer, whom she adopted as an infant. The mom explained to Today.com that her family is white and her son goes to a predominantly white school, so there was very little representation of Black people, let alone Black people with red hair, like Archer.

“The thing is, if you feel like, ‘you should just be grateful to have a toy,’ it’s probably because your toys did look like you. It’s probably because my princesses did look like me, and once you know someone it matters to who doesn’t have that, how could it not matter to you?” Coffman told Upworthy. “Archer identifies with all the toys with brown skin, but to have something that looks like him so that he sees himself in the world, it’s not just about a toy. It’s really about the rest of the world seeing you, too.”

So Coffman went on a mission to make sure her son felt represented in the world around him, even going as far as asking for donations of diverse books and dolls to be sent to the school.

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Coffman explained to Upworthy that they knew going into the adoption that they would have to do everything they could to make sure Archer felt represented in a white household. They stay in close contact with Archer’s first mom and his younger sister, and Coffman emphasizes that while the pre-schooler is living with her, she doesn’t think “its better than if he got to be with her [his first mom].”

The family has hard conversations about how unfair it is for Archer not to have been able to live with his first mom. But, Coffman doesn’t shy away from acknowledging his emotions and tackling the disparity of diversity in her community for her son. In fact, the mom told Upworthy that she first began writing letters to companies when Archer was just a year old, and while most don’t respond at all, some have told her they’re going to work to do better.

But after seeing how inclusive Fisher-Price Little People are, Coffman decided to write the company a thank you letter. She explained the family’s predicament and her love for how diverse the Little People collection was.

“It hasn’t always been the easiest thing to find toys & books that reflect the incredible diversity of the world we live in,” Coffman wrote. “But man, oh, man do your current Little People offerings deliver on that diversity. We were so thrilled to find Black firefighters and doctors, girls with braids & and teacher with locs.”

The mom continued her letter by explaining how important it was for non-white kids to see themselves represented. As her praise of the company’s diverse dolls continued, she threw in a tiny request.

“‘If you ever decided to design a Little Person with brown skin and red hair, please let us know,'” Coffman told Today.com about her P.S. at the end of her letter.

To the mom’s surprise, she received a reply from Gary Weber, the Vice President of Design at Fisher-Price. He told Coffman that he shared the story with everyone that works on Little People.

“You and Archer have inspired us! We know that when kids play with Little People they are playing out scenarios they see in the world around them, and feeling like they are a part of that world is critical,” Weber wrote.

The VP ended the letter by asking for the family’s address, and shortly thereafter, a surprise for Archer arrived on their doorstep. Little People that looked just like the red-headed 5-year-old wearing a perfect replica of one of Archer’s outfits. The gift even came with a colorful letter with a picture of the boy inside that was signed by the entire Little People team.

“I immediately burst into tears,” Coffman told Upworthy. “He has shown every single person we know. He carries it in his pocket, his little person, so he can show everyone that it looks just like him.”

“By having a toy that looked like him, he was really seen and that’s what was so moving about this gesture from Fisher-Price is that they really saw him,” she continued.

“There’s truly so much goodness in the world, and Gary, Dafna, and their entire team are that goodness personified,” the mom wrote on Facebook.

Maybe one day those dolls will make their way into stores so other kids can have their very own Archer figurine.

These playoffs have been mercurial. Most of the star-studded, sure thing contenders have all fallen away — some in spectacularly dull displays of confusion at their own competitive mortality, others with full-bodied attempts at making history. What remains are two title challengers that shirk comfortable prediction. Part of that has been the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets’ paths here, as both have beaten opponents in ways that range from “fluid” to “dog fight”; and part, probably the larger part, is in the way both teams are constructed.

It’s a stretch to say neither of these franchises boast big stars. Denver has an affably beguiling MVP in Nikola Jokic and the most demure lights out shooter in the league with Jamal Murray. The Heat have Jimmy Butler, a man who has become a superstar by being the biggest workaholic in the league. While it’s easy to dislike people who try too hard, Butler never has — this is just his default. Why these three certified stars are not necessarily top of mind when running down the list of the league’s biggest names has more to do with where they play than their skill-sets or personalities, though both are the reasons all three athletes play, and thrive, where they do.

Denver and Miami are made up of role-players. Chock-full of role-players, if we’re being honest. A cursory glance down either roster reveals well-rounded veterans on second- or third-chance runs, young draftees or signings brought up in those vets’ images, and players who were landed by intentional trades to match an existing system, rather than roll the dice at building around one athlete. Miami’s entire ethos, Heat Culture, comes out of the front office’s ability to find and sign under-utilized or undervalued athletes and shape them into keen Swiss Army knife-style players. The Heat also have the sun drenched draw of South Beach and some storied franchise history to back themselves up with, but have struck a balance between development and too much reliance on attracting big names like other teams at their level.

“I don’t call them role players, I call them teammates,” Butler said in his postgame presser, after Miami beat Boston to win the Eastern Conference Finals. “Your role can change any given day, especially with how many games I’ve missed — in and out of lineups, off nights, whatever you call it. We got some hoopers. We got some real deal basketball players that can score, can defend, can pass, and can win games for us.”

To Butler’s point, the catchall of role player falls short with the Heat — at least when it comes to what we might consider the traditional construction of a competitive NBA team, where a roster with two to three role players may have cut it in the past. Even the Celtics, who almost pulled the making NBA history card on the Heat, are a team comprised of high-aptitude, high-effort athletes that looked so seamless this season because of how traditional roles, and the effort entrenched in each, were able to shift. And where the Nuggets have found the most lasting, demonstrative success has been in developing their stars while understanding their limits (due to injury, ability, matchup) and developing their role players alongside them to plug gaps dynamically.

It’s egalitarian basketball, and given the success both Denver and Miami (and Boston, and Sacramento, and New York) have found with it these playoffs, it shouldn’t be a surprise when we see more teams adopting it in seasons to come.

For smaller markets alone it’s a more lasting, less reliant on the whims of the league’s biggest names way of team building. Toronto, despite all the identify crisis stuff of the past season, has found success with the model of everyone doing a little bit of everything, to the point where the team perhaps tipped too far in the positionless direction without sufficient structure to hold it all together. Oklahoma City, with such a young roster all developing along similar timelines, could find the kind of identity it’s been craving by first defining some roles for its key players and then encouraging some democratic overlap.

The key for any team is buy-in, translated in the comfort that’s clear when watching Caleb Martin dive for an out of bounds ball as decisively as he demands the ball from Butler because both realize Martin has the better shot, or the way Bruce Brown can toggle between being a guard, running the ball down the floor, and being the easy outlet for Jokic or Murray for under the basket finishes and careening dunks.

What makes the rise of role players feel less like a trend, or an anomaly fix for developing teams, is how the best teams have leaned on them to win and the inverse, where the supposed better teams didn’t and lost. The Suns traded away Mikal Bridges, an elite defender and intuitive offensive player, for Kevin Durant and looked flat against Denver through their six game series. Against the relentless, spontaneous to sloppy Heat, the Bucks had no backup option once it was clear their crisp and concise gameplay wasn’t going to hack it.

While the adoption of more role players, or role players in bigger and sustained roles, is going to catch on, it may be the only team trend that can’t be outright copied. To make it work, front offices will have to resort to trial and error and be open, to some extent, to blowing it. No team’s structure is quite the same, given roster age, contract lengths, inherent skills, how developed the development arm of the franchise, or myriad other factors. Not all front offices (or ownership groups) sit so comfortably with the idea of embarrassment, or the patience needed to back something new without immediate payoff. The line of best fit won’t and can’t be direct, but it’s going to be paved by role players.

Al Pacino, like most people, was surprised to learn that his girlfriend, 29-year-old girlfriend Noor Alfallah, is 8 months pregnant (as originally reported by TMZ). The outlet now follows up with confirmation from their sources that Pacino was “shocked” by this information because he believed himself to be incapable of impregnating anyone. TMZ’s sleuthing follows word from Showbiz 411 of a paternity test, which (to be fair) was not the most outlandish idea, considering that Pacino is 83 years old.

Then again, Pacino’s good buddy and repeated co-star, 79-year-old Robert De Niro, recently welcomed his seventh child, so strange things do happen. “Where the f*ck did this heat come from?” De Niro’s character wondered in Michael Mann’s 1995 crime drama, and the cause of another kind of “heat” is still a mystery, but yep, Alfallah did “oblige” with a paternity test, via TMZ:

Al Pacino was so certain he could not get his girlfriend or anyone else pregnant, he did not believe the baby was his at first, and got a DNA test for proof … sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ.

The 83-year-old actor, we’re told, had medical issues that would have commonly prevented a man from impregnating a woman. We’re told Al had no idea until 2 months ago that 29-year-old Noor Alfallah was pregnant, and when he found out he was “shocked.”

He seems even more shocked than the world was to learn about that (alleged) Shrek phone case. And everyone will also want to know who The Godfather is, so the weirdness probably will not stop here.

Alfallah has apparently been dating Pacino for about a year and was previously linked to Mick Jagger, now age 79, and billionaire Nicolas Berggruen, now age 61. Since news of Noor’s pregnancy broke, one of her friends spoke with Page Six to declare, “She is very positive and not an opportunist… She loves old people and these guys are fascinating.” So there you have it.

(Via TMZ, Showbiz 411 & Page Six)

The Rock is now fully back in the Fast and Furious universe. After making a surprise appearance in a Fast X end-credits scene, Dwayne Johnson has cemented his return to the vehicular series by signing on to a new standalone film centered on his character Luke Hobbs.

Granted, Johnson has already starred in the series’ first spinoff, Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, but this latest film will seemingly have The Rock going solo. Although, we wouldn’t rule out Jason Statham popping up as Deckard Shaw. This franchise has been giving Marvel a run for its money in the cameos department, so you never know who’s going to drive a car into something that cars shouldn’t drive into.

Via Variety:

Universal Pictures announced the project on Thursday. Longtime “Fast and Furious” collaborator Chris Morgan wrote the untitled film’s script. Plot details were not available, though individuals familiar with the deal said the new movie will bridge between the events of the just-released “Fast X” and the upcoming “Fast X: Part II,” which is expected in 2025.

Naturally, The Rock’s production company Seven Bucks will produce the Fast and Furious spinoff, which arrives at an interesting moment in the actor’s career. His last film, Black Adam, failed to light the box office on fire and ultimately led to an embarrassing situation for Henry Cavill, who announced he was returning as Superman only to be replaced by new DC Studios head James Gunn weeks later.

However, Gunn did meet with The Rock and the actor put out a statement saying that Black Adam will sit out Gunn’s first DCU chapter, but the door is open for his return.

(Via Variety)

In the season finale of Peacock’s Mrs. Davis, Betty Gilpin’s Nazi-fighting, AI-hating nun is thrown for a loop so dumb and so absurd – it might be the most genius twist we’ve ever seen on TV. The all-powerful algorithm that’s manipulated Gilpin’s Simon to undertake a quest for the Holy Grail originated as a beta app for Buffalo Wild Wings.

That’s right. The sports bar franchise with its signature 26 flavors of seasonings and sauces is creators’ Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez’s version of Skynet and suddenly the expiration dates (coupons) and wing-earning tasks all make sense.

The show’s final episode aired May 18th and fans are still processing how an omnipotent AI could wreak so much havoc while being so, so dumb. The revelation feels even more poignant considering the many ways in which AI is fascinating and threatening industries in the real world. Is there something to learn from the pointlessness of Mrs. Davis? Absolutely. Will that lesson take? We’re still not sure.

But we asked Gilpin to spell it out for us anyway. Ahead, we chat with the actress about her thoughts on the AI Boom, the joy of working with Jake McDorman and finding her creative sweet spot.

First of all, what the fuck?

Yeah. That’s the tee shirt.

How did you interpret the Buffalo Wild Wings twist?

I think it’s a pretty brilliant turn — you find out that it’s not some ominous, evil, pulsing other in the sky that’s going to eat us. It’s this beta app for Buffalo Wild Wings that couldn’t be simpler or stupider, and, the ominous, evil, narcissistic calls are coming from inside the house.

Damon and Tara talked to me about how AI is not very smart. Our episode titles are named by an algorithm that they created, and they are ridiculous. They’re just trying to spit back simulated humanity. And luckily for creative people everywhere, they have a really hard time doing that. So I think that they wanted it to be this reflection of it having less to do with placing the blame on the algorithm and placing more responsibility on each human’s individual desires and quests.

Did working on this show change the way you think about AI and tech in general?

A lot of what Simone is concerned about interacting with Mrs. Davis … I share similar concerns about outsourcing things to AI. Simone worries that it’s going to mess with her connection to Falafel and this central relationship that she has in her life. While I don’t have a romantic relationship with Jesus Christ in a metaphysical falafel restaurant, I do worry that interacting with AI and the internet and finding these electronic workarounds to vulnerability and risk and questioning and original thoughts — that we’re gambling with our ability to do all of those things. I don’t think that we can just take for granted that those capabilities will always be there.

And I think that right now, this race to create, to perfect these AIs, without stopping and asking, ‘Why are we doing this? What is the goal?’ is terrifying to me. And I think what makes us human and what makes TV shows enjoyable are the connections and the relationships between people. If you are eliminating the ability to reach out to another person or to explore your own psyche within yourself, if you’re just having a robot puppy screen in your pocket do all of that for you, what’s even the purpose of existing as a human race?

Fake Popes. Exploding heads. Getting stuck in the belly of a whale. What was the wildest moment on set for you?

Jake McDorman and I would catch our reflection in a car window that we were walking by and just burst out laughing because we were like, ‘We look like rejected toys. We look ridiculous, a cowboy and a nun, walking around together.’ But honestly, we were so obsessed with the world that Damon and Tara had created that we were just so fully in it, and it didn’t seem bizarre at all.

Watching it now, I’m like, ‘How did that even happen?’ Watching it feels like watching CCTV footage of the wildest mushroom trip that I ever had.

How does this show rank in terms of projects that have challenged and stretched you as an actor?

I think that there’s this creative sweet spot that all of us strive for, that you’ve matured out of being so neurotic and self-hating that you are deleting all your good ideas, but you’re not too narcissistic and solipsistic to think that every idea is good. You’re somewhere on the island between self-hate and narcissism, where you can create what you want to.

And I think that I feel that right now. I feel that I’m not doing the self-sabotage creatively that I used to be doing, in terms of feeling nervous or like I didn’t deserve to be there. But I’m trying to not sway too far the other way, which is selectively reading only positive things about myself and deleting any negative feedback. I’m just trying to stay in that sweet spot. So this really felt like the first time where I was… I don’t know. I just felt unleashed in the best way.

What’s your read on Hollywood’s fascination with AI at the moment? Is it just laziness on the part of studios and executives?

I think that the corporations who are in this race towards outsourcing creativity to AI are perhaps misinterpreting what their audience is drawn to when they tune into something or read something; that it’s not about a perfectly simulated human experience. It’s human experience. And our culture is certainly very self-focused, and it’s easy to turn to one’s phone to be transported into your own echo chamber of wish fulfillment and doom-scrolling. But I think ultimately the why of why people are drawn to good writing and good acting and good lighting and painting is the work of somebody exploring their own internal gray area and presenting it in their art.

That sort of inexplicable process is hard to soundbite and hard to explain to a corporation, but it is the why. Watching my parents in plays, I did feel often like some sort of magic was happening. I remember envisioning it like in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when Mike Teavee gets exploded into particles that float up in the ceiling. I remember when a scene was going well, when I would watch it on stage, it was like those particles were between the two actors, floating between them and over the whole audience. We were all connected by this thing that felt so impossible to describe.

That is what is conjured when you connect to something creative or someone else’s work, and I don’t think AI is capable of that. So I worry that these corporations if they’re going to build their business model on something incapable of creating magic, it’s going to hit their pockets sooner or later.

Timothy Bliefnick, the Family Feud contestant who joked (?) that he regretted marrying his wife, has been convicted of murdering his wife.

A jury found the 40-year-old guilty of first-degree murder and home invasion in the slaying of his estranged wife, Rebecca Bliefnick, in her Illinois home in February. During the trial, Rebecca’s sister, Sarah Reilly, testified that Rebecca had voiced concerns about Timothy. “If something ever happens to me, make sure the number one person of interest is Tim. I am putting this in writing that I’m fearful he will somehow harm me,” she wrote in a text, USA Today reports.

Sentencing is set for August. The New York Post has more:

Prosecutors alleged that Bliefnick used Google to research how to commit a murder before riding a bike to her house — which was about a mile away from where he was staying. He pried open the second-story window with a crowbar and shot his wife. Bliefnick’s body was found by her father on Feb. 23 after she failed to pick her kids up from school.

Timothy appeared in a Family Feud episode that was filmed in 2019 and aired in 2020. At one point, host Steve Harvey asked him, “What’s your biggest mistake you made at your wedding?” Timothy replied, “Honey, I love you, but ‘said I do.’ Not my mistake, not my mistake — I love my wife. I’m gonna get in trouble for that, aren’t I?” It was a bad joke then; it’s tragic now.

A GoFundMe has been set up for Rebecca’s three kids.

(Via USA Today and New York Post)

Joji kept his strong run going last year with Smithereens, his third album and third to reach at least the top five on the Billboard 200 chart. The album also features “Glimpse Of Us,” his first top-10 single that’s currently approaching a billion plays on Spotify, with about 931 million at the moment. So, there’s a lot for Joji fans to be excited about, and now there’s something else: He’s going on tour this fall and he’s taking some special guests with him.

He made the announcement with a comedic video featuring elderly people at a speed dating event.

The run starts with a trio of Texas shows in late September/early October before wrapping up about a month later in Orlando. Lil Toe (Ammo) and Savage Realm will join Joji on all dates, while Kenny Beats will also be on board for all but the first two.

Check out the tour dates below and find information about getting tickets here.

09/29 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center #
09/30 — Fort Worth, TX @ Dickies Arena #
10/03 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center #*
10/05 — Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center #*
10/06 — Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena #*
10/07 — Las Vegas, NV @ Michelob Ultra Arena #*
10/09 — Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena #*
10/11 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena #*
10/13 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena #*
10/14 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center #*
10/17 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena #*
10/20 — Chicago, IL @ United Center #*
10/21 — Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center #*
10/24 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena #*
10/25 — Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center #*
10/27 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center #*
10/29 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden #*
10/31 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center #*
11/01 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena #*
11/04 — Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center #*
11/06 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena #*
11/08 — Orlando, FL @ Amway Center #*

# with Lil Toe (Ammo) and Savage Realm
* with Kenny Beats