Insomniac Spider-Man from the video games? He’s in there. Web-Slinger, a.k.a. Cowboy Spider-Man? You better believe it. Spider-Popsicle? That’s right. We won’t be able to count them all until Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is on streaming, but one of the more obvious cameos was Donald Glover, not as Spider-Man, but as the human version of Miles Morales’ uncle, Aaron. It was a fun nod to the actor’s role in the MCU’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, as well as the #donald4spiderman campaign that made it all the way to Community.
“It was shot at a studio in New York,” co-director Kemp Powers told Variety about how the Glover scene came together. “Chris Miller flew to be there in person, and Phil Lord and I were on the video feed giving direction. We got it in at the 11th hour. As a matter of fact, even in audience preview screenings, it was a little cardboard cutout of Donald Glover.”
Co-director Joaquim Dos Santos added, “We knew it was still going to land, though, because the idea of it still got people geeked. That’s when you know you have something.”
Jenny Lewis did a recent interview with Rolling Stone ahead of her next solo album, Joy’All. During it, she spoke about everything from the record’s creation to touring with Harry Styles.
Lewis also was asked about her thoughts on heading out for The Postal Service’s upcoming anniversary tour — and if a Rilo Kiley reunion would ever happen. Fans might have a little more hope based on her answer.
“I’m open to it, for sure,” she responded. “It just has to be the right alchemy and the right timing. I think we owe it to each other to play those songs again, because that’s the magic of being in a band. It’s just the four people in a room and the energy that creates.”
In 2020, Rilo Kiley released their rare 1999 self-titled album on streaming services, giving all fans a chance to hear the songs.
She added her thoughts on where Rilo Kiley might fit in on the current state of the festival circuit.
“I mean, I don’t think we’d be headlining,” Lewis noted. “Maybe seven years ago. Not at Coachella now. We’d probably be on the second stage… The first couple years of Coachella, I was there. I played eight of them over the years, and the last time I went was for Sunday Service.”
“By [2019], the festival had shifted,” she continued. “It was all LED screens. You’re like, ‘Whoa. This is where I saw Leonard Cohen play and Jimmy Eat World. [Now] it’s Ariana Grande,’ which is great and fun, but it’s a different festival. Is there an older person’s festival that my bands would play at?”
Joy’All is out 6/9 via Blue Note/Capitol Records. Find more information here.
Are those people correct? Before I attempt to answer that question, let’s review the three tiers of Foo Fighters albums.
Now, these tiers have been determined by me, and my assessments of each record’s merits is obviously subjective. However, I would argue that these tiers are very close to being objectively true, as Foo Fighters are a band in which the good work is extremely well delineated from the decent and mediocre work. (Obvious opposite examples are bands like The National, Spoon and Yo La Tengo that have four or five albums that could be credibly classified as “best.” Foo Fighters have three at the most, and probably only two and possibly just one.)
Here are the Foo tiers, with the corresponding albums listed in chronological order:
TIER 1 FOOS
Foo Fighters (1995) The Colour And The Shape (1997) There Is Nothing Left To Lose (1999)
TIER 2 FOOS
One By One (2002) In Your Honor (2005) Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007) Wasting Light (2011)
TIER 3 FOOS
Sonic Highways (2014) Concrete And Gold (2017) Medicine At Midnight (2021)
Two notes about these tiers. One, Wasting Light almost went into Tier 1, so while I listed the albums within each tier chronologically that one should, in terms of quality, be put at the very top of Tier 2. (Or perhaps on an island between Tiers 1 and 2.)
Two, I am obviously making the case that each era of the Foos — late ’90s, the aughts and early ’10, and the ’10s into the early ’20s — is slightly worse than the one that preceded it. I suspect a contingent of hard-core fans will vehemently disagree with this, and accuse me of constructing the tiers in the laziest fashion imaginable. But I can defend the tiers by explaining how I see the arc of the Foo Fighters’ career — and why But Here We Are bucks the trend and belongs with the band’s best work in Tier 1.
When I look at the albums in Tier 1, there are all, in some sense, reboot records. Foo Fighters is a reboot from Nirvana. This is hard to remember now, but Dave Grohl was the least famous person coming out of that band — at the time Krist Novoselic was Kurt Cobain’s acknowledged sidekick, and Pat Smear already had a pedigree with The Germs. And there was also very little precedent for a drummer who heretofore did not sing lead or contribute much in the way of songs to his previous band establishing a meaningful solo career. That Foo Fighters sounds relatively low-key and unassuming compared with the later albums is not incidental. While the debut became a surprise hit, it doesn’t seem like it was made to be a hit. That’s a big part of its charm.
With The Colour And The Shape, Foo Fighters rebooted again, this time from a one-man side project to a full-on alt-rock juggernaut. Then, with There Is Nothing Left To Lose, there was yet another reboot, this time as a pared-back three-person lineup. (Grohl was also reeling from a recent divorce.) Both records produced deathless radio singles, but they were also melancholy and introspective. Dave Grohl hadn’t developed his “Mayor Of Rock” persona yet, because his band wasn’t stable enough for him to have that kind of confidence. Instead, the vibe of the Foos was very much captured by the title of their third record. Grohl’s professional life by then had already been rocked by the shocking death of a bandmate, so he responded like a man playing with house money. There really was nothing left to lose.
In the aughts and beyond, however, Foo Fighters settled into being one of the world’s preeminent stadium-conquering bands. And Grohl gradually became preoccupied with “representing” rock music as best he could at the center of culture. Their music grew broader, more bombastic and bludgeoning, and less melodic. In time, the albums started to blend together. They felt like adjuncts to other projects: concert tours, HBO TV shows, comedic horror movies, best-selling memoirs. But because Foo Fighters were very successful at being this version of Foo Fighters, there was little reason to think it would ever change.
Enter But Here We Are, their first reboot album since There Is Nothing Left To Lose, and the only Foo Fighters record made under more trying circumstances than the self-titled debut. Here’s where I’ll join my fellow critics in praising it as their best work since the late ’90s. I’m a little concerned about overstating how good this album is because I’m frankly shocked by how much I like it, given my indifference toward the Foos’ work over the past dozen or so years. But I think it deserves the accolades.
Going in to But Here We Are, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Clearly the loss of Hawkins was going to be a focal point, but there was little reason to expect that Grohl would be forthcoming about his feelings. For a guy who made a documentary series and wrote a book covering portions of his personal background, Grohl has tended to be guarded as a public figure. He lets us know what he wants us to know, and very little else. We know he’s a likable and charming guy, but that public image is only skin deep. That might very well be a defense mechanism for one of the world’s most famous rock stars who now is adjacent to two of the most infamous rock-star deaths of the last 30 years. But it has sometimes made his music feel more like collections of “rock song” signifiers than personal expressions.
However, this new album, obviously, is very personal. It’s natural to put But Here We Are under the same microscope that critics put Foo Fighters after Kurt Cobain’s passing. Only this time, you barely have to squint to notice lyrical allusions to Hawkins. “I’m just waiting to be rescued / bring me back to life,” Grohl sings in the chorus of the opening track, “Rescued.” On the second song, “Under You,” he’s even more direct: “Someone said I’ll never see your face again / Part of me just can’t believe it’s true / Pictures of us sharing songs and cigarettes / This is how I’ll always picture you.”
It’s not just that Grohl writes about Hawkins with unusual (for him) candidness. It’s how he writes about him. When I found myself feeling more moved than I expected by But Here We Are, I noticed it was because these songs of grief are written like they’re about romantic breakups. “I gave you my heart / but here we are,” he hollers on the title track, effectively delivering one of those classically insistent, do-or-die Foo Fighters choruses. On the album’s best cut, “The Glass,” Grohl sighs over a power-pop bounce, “I found a version of love, and just like that / I was left to live without it.” Later on the song “Nothing At All,” over a quasi-new wave reggae rhythm that evokes The Police, he says that this love has “put me into your locket / and pulled me off of the ledge.” You realize by the end of the album that Grohl isn’t merely singing about a bandmate, he’s mourning a soulmate. And that raises the stakes. In the heartbreaking album closer “Rest,” he envisions a reunion fit for the love of your life: “In the warm Virginia sun, there I will find you.”
This emotional resonance is the obvious selling point for But Here We Are. But the album’s secret weapon is the music, which offers an unexpectedly breezy counterpoint to the heavy lyrics. In a pre-release statement, the band likened the album to the homey 1995 self-titled LP. But I think it more closely resembles their most melodic and Beatlesque record, There Is Nothing Left To Lose, which perhaps not coincidentally is the album where Grohl and Hawkins sealed their bond as the band’s core. You hear the moody, jangly beauty of Lose most clearly on “Show Me How,” which includes a harmony vocal by Grohl’s daughter Violet that sounds almost identical to Phoebe Bridgers. (I actually assumed it was Bridgers during the first few listens, given that Bridgers seems to guest on every big album these days.)
The miracle of But Here We Are is that while it’s the Foo Fighters record made under the most duress, it’s also the rare instance where Dave Grohl isn’t trying too hard to make something “more” or “bigger” than just another Foo Fighters album. Even “The Teacher,” the penultimate 10-minute epic that’s really five or six tracks squeezed into one, doesn’t aim for mythic status as a world-changing face-melter. It just sounds like a guy working through one of the worst times of his life. It’s Dave, for once, showing us how hard it is to be Dave. And while it’s sad, it’s also refreshingly down-to-earth and human.
For two years, the professional golf world has been battling each other over the breakaway Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour poaching away some top talent from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour).
Golfers who left for LIV were banned from the PGA Tour, leading to lawsuits filed by some former players and the tours against each other. It has all been very messy, but ever since this year’s Masters, there has seemingly been a cooling of tensions between the LIV world and the PGA and DP World Tours. Brooks Koepka contending at Augusta and then winning the PGA Championship only further complicated matters within the rift, as the majors (which aren’t under the umbrella of the PGA Tour) had allowed all qualified parties to continue competing. With the Ryder Cup upcoming, where LIV golfers likely weren’t going to be selected but Koepka was going to qualify on points just off of his major success, there was some impetus on all sides to figure out how to coexist.
The result was a stunning announcement on Tuesday morning that the three entities were merging with one another to bring LIV Golf’s team concept under the umbrella of the two Tours, with the Saudi Public Investment Fund remaining as the lead stakeholder.
The PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) today announced a landmark agreement to unify the game of golf, on a global basis. The parties have signed an agreement that combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players.
There were a number of reasons for the various Tours to all look to reach this agreement, and that was laid out in one of the early paragraphs of the release where part of the agreement includes dropping all legal action against each other. None of the Tours wanted to go deep into discovery on lawsuits, and this will allow them to drop all of that and move forward.
Notably, today’s announcement will be followed by a mutually agreed end to all pending litigation between the participating parties. Further, the three organizations will work cooperatively and in good faith to establish a fair and objective process for any players who desire to re-apply for membership with the PGA TOUR or the DP World Tour following the completion of the 2023 season and for determining fair criteria and terms of re-admission, consistent with each Tour’s policies.
On the LIV side, it gives them a better chance of continuing to exist long-term, as there have been rumblings some players are not exactly thrilled with the situation and were going to be exploring how to return to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour whenever their contracts ran up. This allows them to do that, but also seems to ensure LIV won’t completely fade away — and might be able to land a TV deal that isn’t on the CW — in the near future.
From a golf perspective, this brings all the best players in the world closer to playing against each other again, which we’ve seen in the majors has been something we’ve been missing. That said, the PGA Tour going into business with the PIF will only raise questions about how involved the Saudis will be in PGA Tour business, with it being very difficult for the Tour to shrug off given one of the main points of attack on LIV has been the human rights atrocities committed by the Saudis and how blatant LIV Golf was as a sportswashing attempt — especially given the announcement includes this nugget: “PIF’s Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will join the PGA TOUR Policy Board.”
Those questions won’t just come from the outside, as many PGA Tour players were apparently blindsided by the announcement.
Hearing from multiple PGA Tour players that they had absolutely zero heads up on this before the announcement was made on social.
Given how outspoken some PGA Tour players were against LIV Golf for the reasons of where the money was coming from, there may be some internal blowback coming the Tour’s way.
Young Thug’s brother Unfoonk has been sentenced to nine years in prison for violating the terms of his probation, according to Rolling Stone via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Unfoonk, whose real name is Quantavious Grier, pled guilty to violating Georgia’s RICO Act and theft by receiving stolen property in December and was granted release with time served. He was given 10 years probation in lieu of 12 years in prison.
However, on May 4, he was arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, violating his probation. Some of the other terms included not associating with any other suspected member of the alleged YSL gang/record label, 750 hours of community service, and a 10 am to 6 pm curfew. During the sentencing hearing on Monday (June 5), Judge Ural Glanville noted Unfoonk hadn’t begun his community service or paid his probation fees: $141.08. He’s quoted in Rolling Stone‘s report saying:
“The issues I find aggravating in this particular circumstance are several. You got arrested with a gun within six months of you being placed on probation. All you had to do was complete your probation and do what you were supposed to do. Instead, you were out riding around with a gun in your car.”
Unfoonk was among a dozen alleged YSL co-conspirators to accept a plea deal in exchange for his release, including Gunna. All of them maintain that their Alford pleas do not constitute “snitching” — although the hip-hop community at large appears to disagree.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Prince Harry has delivered a scathing testimony against Piers Morgan in the trial that accuses the British journalist of allegedly being aware of the phone hacking of celebrities, politicians, and royal family members during his time as editor for The Daily Mirror. Harry also accused Morgan of allegedly launching an “intimidation” campaign against both he and Meghan Markle in hopes they would stop pursuing the phone hacking accusations.
Harry’s written testimony was delivered to the London High Court and notably blasts Morgan over the torment of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, during the time before her tragic death. Morgan has denied any knowledge of phones being hacked during his roughly nine year run as editor of The Daily Mirror.
“The thought of Piers Morgan and his band of journalists earwigging into my mother’s private and sensitive messages (in the same way as they have me) and then having given her a ‘nightmare time’ three months prior to her death in Paris, makes me feel physically sick,” Prince Harry said.
Harry went on to rebuke Morgan’s alleged campaign to get the royal couple to abandon the phone hacking case.
“Unfortunately, as a consequence of me bringing my Mirror Group claim, both myself and my wife have been subjected to a barrage of horrific personal attacks and intimidation from Piers Morgan,” Harry wrote. Unfortunately for Morgan, Harry has now become the first senior member of the royal family to be cross-examined in court since the 19th century.
What happens in Las Vegas stays there. Well, unless it occurs on the stage of iHeartRadio’s annual music festival. iHeartRadio Music Festival 2023 will return to T-Mobile Arena on Friday, September 22, and Saturday, September 23. At the top of the lineup for this year’s festivities are rap bad boy, Lil Wayne, rock legends Foo Fighters, Emmy Award-winning talk show host Kelly Clarkson, and Fall Out Boy.
Other acts slated to perform at the festival include Kane Brown, Lenny Kravitz, Miguel, Public Enemy, Sheryl Crow, Tim McGraw, TLC, and Thirty Seconds To Mars. The organizers have hinted on the event’s official flyer that there are still more featured performers to be announced at a later date.
Last year’s event featured appearances from Megan Thee Stallion, Halsey, and Luke Combs. If the festival follows its yearly tradition, fans who cannot attend in person might be able to rewatch it when it airs on television the following month.
The Capital One presale for iHeart Radio Music Festival 2023 begins on Wednesday, June 14, at 10 a.m. PT. The general public ticket sale will start on Friday, June 16, at 11 a.m. PT. Find more information here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast is finding continued success with her massive New York Times bestselling memoir, Crying In H Mart.
Now, it has a new co-sign from none other than BTS’ Jungkook. He had expressed his love for Zauner’s work during a recent WeVerse live broadcast.
“Michelle Zauner explores what it means to cook your feelings,” he said. “In the book, she uses the lens of food and cooking to explore her Korean identity after she loses her mother to cancer.”
Jungkook shared on his Weverse live that he bought the book “Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner” @Jbrekkie
“Michelle Zauner explores what it means to cook your feelings. In the book, she uses the lens of food and cooking to explore her Korean identity after she loses her mother… pic.twitter.com/HlTAsT7X6s
Zauner then reacted to the photo of the pop star reading her book on social media. “Excuse me Jung Kook has bought a copy of Crying in H Mart!!!!!,” she wrote on her Instagram Story.
Over the past few months, she embarked on a book tour across the US, in support of both becoming a bestseller and her paperback version hitting stores back in March. However, pretty soon, it will become an even bigger title: The book is currently in the process of being adapted into a film, with The White Lotus‘ Will Sharpe directing the project. Recently, an open casting call was announced for an 18- to 25-year-old Korean American to play the role of Zauner.
Fans interested in reading before hit hits the big screen can find a copy here.
In a video interview with Billboard‘s Tetris Kelly, Sivan spoke about what it was like working with Jennie and how their initial meeting went. He said:
“Jennie is so, so lovely. You know, the first day I met her, I’ll never forget. We were just making casual conversation, I think I was asking her about her travel plans. I was like, ‘Where did you come from?’ And she was like, ‘Oh, I flew in from’ wherever. And I was like, ‘Oh nice, what were you doing over there?’ And she was like, ‘Well, I’m in a band, so we were…’ And I was like, ‘Girl, I know. Like, literally the entire planet knows that you’re in a band [laughs].’”
He also noted of promoting the show, “I mean, it was really fun. I know a few creative directors, I’ve dated a few. So I know them really well. I am also fully that person. I catch myself now. Like, you know, on the press tour, for example, [Lily-Rose Depp is] just like looking unbelievable at all times, of course. And so I’m like, you know, like the gay best friend. It’s like taking a million pictures of her all the time. I think that is just like a very natural role for me to slip into.”
The Shameless alumni are doing just fine these days, and of course, Jeremy Allen White has busted out of the crop with The Bear, which will return on June 22. The actress who portrayed Fiona Gallagher ain’t doing so bad, either. Emmy Rossum realized her dream project with Angelyne, and she’s appearing in The Crowded Room as Tom Holland’s mom, but she has explained why this kinda makes sense despite only a 10-year-age gap.
As well, Rossum feels fondly about her old Chicago stomping grounds in Shameless, and she fielded a question (from Cleveland.com) on whether Fiona would visit “Lip… at his Italian beef shop in Chicago.” That would be quite the crossover, and now I want it to happen. Rossum declared that she’s hopeful that a visit would happen if Lip was actually Carmy, but as for White, “I’m so proud and happy for him.” However, she’s feeling great about where Fiona must actually be these days.
Naturally, Fiona would still be into real-estate investments, according to Emmy. She is now “probably owning some condos in Miami.” From there: “She’s on the beach having a, you know, hot-girl summer. She’s good.”
Man, let’s hope so. And let’s hope that Fiona managed to stay single for more than 10 minutes. She ended up with some real doozies, and it says a lot that Jimmy/Steve actually looked like a dream compared to a few of them. Still, I’m here for Real Estate Fiona and will secretly root for a one-season revival/”hot-girl summer” spinoff. Admit it, you’d watch that, too.
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