GoneTrending

May 9 is annually known as “Victory Day” in Russia to mark the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany. For the past two such holidays, the mood has obviously been different. Putin’s ongoing Ukraine war isn’t going the way he had hoped, and given that Russian troops have been abandoning tanks in Ukrainian cities, this has only added to the lack of available tanks to hold parades. As well, the leader (Yevgeny Prigozhin) of Putin’s privately-hired army, the Wagner Group, has been trashing Putin over an alleged refusal to supply ammo.

This actually might not be the worst omission, given that Russian troops are said to be resorting to aged ammo that carries the risk of “explod[ing] in your face.” Yet the ammo issue, along with Russia’s poor performance in the Putin-coveted city of Bakhmut, is giving Yevgeny Prigozhin more fodder to drag the Russian president. Before word of this latest verbal attack surfaced, however, CNN reported that Putin’s victory day speech was a self-pitying affair, in which he complained about “Russia being sinned against,” and only one lonely tank — an antiquated one — was there to make the former “superman” look manly:

There was only one tank: a T-34, a model made 89 years ago, before Putin was even born, raising the question of why they decided to include any tanks at all.

The level of hardware on display seemed thin: understandable perhaps for a military being mauled on a wide and relentless frontline. But again, it raises the enduring bind for the Kremlin.

They keep having to prove their strength, their might, yet have little actual might left to do it with. The exercise ends up being one of revealing weakness.

Back to the subject of the Wagner Group: mercenary leader Prigozhin slammed Putin as a “complete a**hole” and “happy grandpa,” via The Daily Beast, which details a 30-minute verbal lashing that included Prigozhin declaring Russian military leaders (rather than Ukraine) to be the “main enemy” of his soldiers. He continued to poke fun at Russian troops for their tendency to “run” away on the Ukrainian battlefield, and he declared that now was not the time for Putin to be marking any type of Victory Day. Oh boy.

(Via CNN & The Daily Beast)

The Cure’s frontman Robert Smith’s disdain for scalpers and Ticketmaster goes hand in hand. In fact, prior to announcing The Cure’s forthcoming North American tour, the band formulated a plan to combat scalpers for ruining true fans’ ability to snag a ticket. So, after hearing about a scalper-friendly bill (HB 341) that was recently passed by Louisiana lawmakers, Smith took to Twitter to speak out against it.

Initially introduced on March 29, HB 341 went on to pass in the house on April 19. In short, the bill’s abstract reads: “Provides for the resale of certain entertainment and sporting event tickets.” However, upon further inspection, the legislation could have a huge impact on event ticketing as a whole.

There’s one part in particular that raises concern for Smith. “Additionally, proposed law defines ‘nontransferable ticketing’ as prohibiting the resell or exchange of a ticket or limiting the ticket holder to exchange the ticket exclusively through means provided by the ticket issuer,” reads the bill. But it doesn’t stop there, the bill continues, “Proposed law provides that a ticket issuer may use a nontransferable ticketing system only if the ticket holder is offered to purchase the same ticket in a transferable form at the initial time of sale.”

On social media, Smith warned just how damaging this bill, should it be placed into law. “The Louisiana legislature (HB #341) is considering a resellers-backed bill to ban fan-to-fan exchanges (like the one we are using on our 2023 north american tour to try and limit/stop scalping and bots),” he tweeted. “The bill has already passed the house and is up for consideration in the state senate. There is a hearing this Wednesday morning… Louisiana lawmakers! Please don’t pass this bill! Empower the artists, not the scalpers and the bots!”

Smith closed by adding, “Commercial lobbying corrupts democracy.”

According to FastDemocracy.com, the bill will be heard for consideration by the Louisiana Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and International Affairs tomorrow, May 10, at 9 a.m.

Kevin Gates has posted some pretty dubious content on social media. While he often draws attention for interviews in which he makes outlandish claims such as saying he fasted for a month and asserting he never gets sick because he always tells the truth, his actual posts often stir up fans on the internet as well. While his intentions mostly seem to be good, it appears he doesn’t always appear to consider how such posts will be received.

That appears to be the case with his latest incident, in which he shared a childbirth video on Instagram — and unsuspecting fans found themselves exposed to some pretty graphic content they weren’t prepared for. “DO NOT LOOK AT KEVIN GATES INSTAGRAM STORY,” one fan warned. “TRUST ME.”

When he isn’t springing graphic videos on his unsuspecting fans, Gates continues to release new music at an impressive clip. Although he’s a little less than a year removed from his last full-length release, Khaza, he followed up in November with an EP, FYP, that featured Juicy J. Meanwhile, he was dropping new singles as recently as February, when he shared the video for “Breakfast.”

Kevin Gates is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Indie rock fans typically hold two contradictory beliefs about the music industry — it’s filled with clueless idiots who are somehow also evil masterminds, sublimating success from subterfuge alone. Consider the curious case of Panchiko, which allowed for the possibility of both to be true — a CD-R of their supposed 4-song demo D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L was supposedly uploaded to YouTube by a supposed 4Chan user in 2016, who supposedly found it in a Nottingham thrift store after being drawn in by the typeface and manga image on its cover. Supposedly, it was from the year 2000 and its alluringly degraded audio was supposedly the result of something called “disc rot,” a term that almost no one had heard of before, even when chillwave made audio degradation de rigueur. And supposedly, it contained no contact information besides the first names of the people who made it, and no one else claimed to have another copy.

As D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L began to circulate online and achieve an almost legendary status in spite of — and more likely, because of — its mystery, some questioned whether they were actually a major label’s astroturfed attempt at virality, or even the work of a CIA operative. As with most supposed hoaxes being debated on Discord, Reddit, and 4Chan during the 2010s, many assumed that Death Grips were involved in some way.

When the band turned out to be a couple of genial, middle-aged blokes who’d more or less quit music entirely after their demos fell on deaf ears, the actual members of Panchiko — frontman Owain, guitarist/producer Andy and “charisma/bass-ish guy” Shaun, still no last names — couldn’t help but be let down as well. “I was as disappointed as the rest of the Panchiko fans when I found out I wasn’t a member of Death Grips,” Andy quips.

In the pockets of music fandom that considers themselves “deeply online” — Rate Your Music, The Needle Drop, Album Of The Year, Reddit, and such — Panchiko’s new album Failed At Math(s) is one of 2023’s most anticipated releases. For those on the outside, Panchiko likely still remain as much of an obscurity as they were in 2000. This isn’t a situation like American Football or Duster, where a modestly successful indie artist returns after a long hiatus to a level of acclaim and influence exponentially bigger than anything they experienced in their heyday; they at least were signed to respected indie labels back in the late ’90s and its primary members continued to make widely available music in the time since.

Meanwhile, the startling dissonance between Panchiko’s public presence and sudden popularity usually leads to accusations of being an industry plant with secretly rich parents. During their original run, Panchiko’s live audience often consisted of the bar staff, other bands on the bill, and almost nobody who wasn’t being paid to be there. When they started playing real gigs at the end of 2021, they immediately did so in 400-1000 capacity rooms in the UK and the US. Spotify statistics are an imperfect metric for assessing real-life impact and almost certainly a pox on artistic discourse, but it’s a metric all the same and Panchiko currently have about 680,000 monthly listeners. For perspective, that’s somehow about 100,000 more than, say, Joyce Manor or Wednesday.

So is Panchiko a testament to meritocracy, that great music can overcome any number of obstacles to reach the audience it deserves? Or are they proof of just how much is left to chance? Just look at the first paragraph again and imagine if Panchiko had a landscape photo on its cover or if they were from Norfolk instead of Nottingham, or if a random Goodwill hunter found their demo as opposed to a true poster with a 4Chan account and a CD burner. When considering all of the bands who’ve plugged away for years without getting anywhere near as much traction, Panchiko understandably harbor a kind of survivor’s guilt. “It feels like we accidentally cheated, it is a bit weird to go from zero to 1000 in 20-odd years,” Andy explains. “There’s a bit of imposter syndrome, but it’s not even a syndrome.”

This is where Failed At Math(s) comes in, an attempt to affirm Panchiko as a legitimized, ongoing artistic endeavor rather than an internet curiosity. Though the beneficiary of nearly two decades of improved recording technology and a swell of popular demand, Failed at Math(s) makes for a logical extension of D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L — toggling between twitchy electronic pop, soaring Britrock and block-rockin’ beats, with a newfound dedication pacing and sequencing.

“I think I got into a Radiohead rut for 20 years,” Andy muses, and like many university-aged musicians in the late ’90s, Panchiko were — and still are — heavily influenced by the bionic rock of OK Computer and also recombinant UK tricksters like Super Furry Animals and Beta Band. Yet, while much of the sampledelic crate-digging of that time comes off as naive and dated in an era where genre-hopping indie artists skew more towards pop and hip-hop, Panchiko’s guileless approach unwittingly prepared them to sound ahead of the curve. The patchwork production of D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L may have been far too raw for Y2k, yet it’s perfectly in line with the early work of Alex G and Car Seat Headrest, both of whom Owain credits with rejuvenating his interest in contemporary indie rock. Similarly, though he’s self-deprecating about his previous lyrical approach — “back then it was about relationships or nobody likes you, or some people like you, that person is being a knob head” — the wandering melodies and twinkling guitars allowed Panchiko to be grandfathered as honorary Midwest emo.

Owain feels the perspective has matured on Failed At Math(s) — “Why am I here? How did I get here? I’m a bit tired…but maybe I should hope a bit more.” Still, most of Panchiko’s fanbase skews nearly half their age — kids who notice that Jenna Ortega followed them on Instagram, artists that listened to D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L in their teens. Their recent tours have been supported by 2020s cult favorites like Horse Jumper Of Love, Julie, They Are Gutting A Body Of Water, and Computer Wife, all of whom have a significant following in their own right. “They can do bigger shows than the ones they’re doing with us, but they wanted to play with us,” Owain boasts. “The drummer Dylan from Julie said, ‘I listened to this song in high school’ and I was blown away.”

Despite their success, Panchiko remain an odd proposition in the industry. They’re a band that amassed a substantial fanbase without any sort of promotion, touring, or label backing, yet they’re still a couple of Brits in their 40s who don’t seem bent on constructing a revenge fantasy to rectify their earlier failures. “I was personally quite naive at that age,” Owain explains. “Back then, if you read about the music industry, there might be a few magazines that teach you about how A&Rs and demos work. Maybe I had this belief that someone is gonna sign you and look after you, and they’re gonna go, well done!” The others agree that Panchiko were equally fueled by confidence in their art and insecurity about their ability to make something of it. “We just needed someone to give a shit,” Shaun bluntly states, and though the 30 CD-Rs they sent out were largely ignored, the band do recall getting a nibble of interest from Fierce Panda, a London-based indie that launched mid-’90s it-bands like Ash and the Bluetones and also released Coldplay’s first charting single in the UK. “They were interested but we didn’t follow up going to London, like…oh do you have to do that?” Owain laughs. “London’s 100 miles away,” Andy deadpans.

After their first US tour, Owain recalls that Panchiko were approached by a handful of indie labels, some of which were more accurately described as “offshoots of majors.” But even if only to provide a seal of approval to Failed At Math(s), the band looked at the offers and asked, “Do we even really need you?” (“Is that a bad thing to say, published?,” Owain shrugs). Yet their decision to self-release was more practical than ethical. Failed At Math(s) came together quickly – eight songs, some of which are refurbished from their Ferric Oxide: Demos 1997-2001 compilation, clocking in at less than a half hour. “It gets really messy with people having all these opinions and we only had a certain amount of time because we had to do shows,” Andy says. “So if we go down the more trad label route, it would be months and months of painful negotiation.”

Besides, Panchiko’s entire continued existence is due to the band tending to their own administrative tasks. After the online lurker-sleuths narrowed down their search to people named Owain in Nottingham, one sent a message to a defunct Facebook page that hadn’t been updated in nine years – “Hello, you’ll probably never read this, but are you the lead singer of Panchiko?’” Had Owain lived in any other city or turned off his Facebook notifications, we might still be wondering if MC Ride was somehow responsible for “Kicking Cars.” “From day one, we tried to respond to anyone who messaged us, we’re not a massive band and it’s just amazing how much you like our music. I’ve got time to talk,” Owain says. Then again, success has changed the tenor of these conversations – “we get loads of people saying, ‘Can you give Jenna Ortega a message for me?’”

Ed Sheeran, just days after releasing his new album – (Subtract), sat down with the record’s producer, Aaron Dessner of The National, for an interview on Amazon Music. It also had a sweet and funny preview that Sheeran posted to Twitter.

“The large portion of that album didn’t really take that long,” Sheeran said. “I’d say Aaron spent of a hell of a long time producing it, though.”

“Trying to keep it minimal and doing what was right for the songs, ’cause the songs are very emotional and fragile,” Dessner responded. “But we wanted to create a world.”

“For me, it’s lovely hearing songs come to life that we’ve written,” Sheeran continued. “We would obviously do them, record them, and then, I’d go off and just be like, ‘I trust Aaron. They’re gonna sound good.’ I don’t think I had any notes either. You just sent them and I was like, ‘Great!’”

Then, Dessner comedically corrects Sheeran’s recollection of events. “You would have notes. You probably don’t remember,” he added, putting it on par with the “Actually, Ellen, that’s not true” meme from Dakota Johnson.

“They’d be very specific and very helpful,” Dessner continued. “Like, ‘What if you dropped the bass drum on beat four?’” Sheeran cheerfully replied with an “Oh, yeah” as the memories all flooded back.

Check out the short clip from Sheeran and Dessner’s interview above.

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

After HBO pulled off an astounding feat — a masterful Deadwood movie that delivered the exquisitely profane finale that the series deserved — it was only a matter of time before FX decided to pull the trigger on a followup series for everyone’s favorite Wild West lawman, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. As such, we’re finally going to receive more of Raylan’s hat, eight years after it bid farewell to Boyd Crowder (in a scene that I still believe inspired a key Narcos: Mexico conversation), and its owner reminisced about digging coal. Raylan then did more of the unthinkable by getting out of Harlan alive and swaggering back to Florida, where he hopefully enjoyed a lot of ice cream.

Ahead of Justified: City Primeval (based upon more Elmore Leonard goodness), it’s obviously worth looking back at the series proper. However, there’s a reality that we must acknowledge. A full rewatch would be ideal, but I don’t have to remind you that TV series are in plentiful supply right now. Heck, Justified showrunner Graham Yost is currently promoting his newest show, Apple TV+’s Silo (which you might also enjoy). No matter what you are watching lately, you’re likely watching a lot of it, and I’ll operate under the assumption that you possess little TV catch-up time. So, if you only have time to revisit one episode before City Primeval arrives, make it “Long in the Tooth.”

Yes, it’s the “crazy dentist” episode of Season 1. Let’s talk it out.

This isn’t technically a bottle episode, although it has the same bonuses in my eyes. The show took Raylan (along with Rachel) out of the hollers of Kentucky and dropped him into Los Angeles for a one-shot story. There, we learned more about his lawman past from a carryover case. We received plenty of dynamic development and telling dialogue, along with seeing how people perceived Raylan, and how he accepted this information and reacted accordingly. We also saw how he handled failures and settled scores, and this primes us for the many conflicts to come in Justified‘s future seasons.

Additionally, this episode threads a few needles that reassure me how Raylan Givens’ ways should be fine, dandy, and not too problematic in 2023.

The Man, The Myth

Alan Ruck guest-starred as Rollie Pike, a fugitive who’s somehow transformed himself into a legit dentist with a fake name, Peter Oldham. All was going swimmingly with him for years. He was presumably a great dentist and waved away money in exchange for tamales. Yet on one fateful day, he snapped, pulling the gold fillings out of a rude and belligerent patient’s mouth in the parking lot. This splashed him all over CNN, and soon enough, the Marshals Service caught wind, and Art sent Raylan (with Rachel in the lead, at Art’s directive) to fetch Rollie, a cartel money launderer who once ducked out the door after Raylan trusted him to stay put.

Rollie was still on the scene when Raylan arrived, and his reaction — and almost fanboy gasp of recognition while uttering his almost-idol’s name — was unmistakeable. There’s respect amid the cat-and-mouse game, and it’s almost as though he has spotted a god. The mobsters who are on Rollie’s tail likewise spoke about Raylan in mythical terms. The legend was real, but this episode did poke fun at Raylan’s self-constructed image. That swagger might look natural, and it was, but the hat sent a message. It’s a statement that Rachel commented upon as well, which we’ll discuss in a moment.

Once the story moved to the border, we got to witness some wonderful banter between fugitive and Marshal (something that we later saw with the famous fried-chicken episode, “Blowback”). And there’s some mutual understanding, too, or at least, Raylan tried to understand why Rollie transformed into a dentist.

“You’re gonna laugh.” “That’s your biggest concern right now?”

The two joked as though witness protection was still an option, and Rollie weighed his options before choosing to be killed by a sniper, rather than lead a miserable life. Yet we also received a wonderful story about how Rollie’s time with Raylan (along with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) had actually inspired him to become a dentist and help people. Yet unlike Raylan, Rollie happened to do so on the other end of the law.

Bonus: This episode gave us an early mention of Raylan’s ice-cream fixation as the reason why Rollie could initially give him the shaft.

The Lawman

Look at this gunslinger stance. It embodies everything that bubbles up from Justified‘s themes. And as Art later summed up in Season 2, Raylan is a “lousy Marshal but a good lawman.” That is to say, Raylan always eventually takes out the bad guys, but he’s likely going to break some rules and disobey authority to get there. He has no hesitation in shooting first, and in this scene, he took out those two goons who referenced the very first scene of the series: he’s “the cowboy marshal who did Tommy Bucks.” Heck, these guys were so busy gawking over Raylan to even notice that he slid into their backseat earlier in the episode before merrily chit-chatting about Tommy Bucks with them.

This border scene, though, was the show’s first real illustration — through a longer scene buildup than we saw with Tommy Bucks — that Raylan is no bullsh*tter. He does not make idle threats, either. As soon as one mobster even began to take a step forward, ignoring his warning, Raylan took him out. He drew so fast that the camera wouldn’t have had time to show him shooting, even if the production had chosen to do so. One of the goons then showed a glimmer of respect with a “you sure did rough me up here, Marshal” before succumbing to his wound.

This would put the series into a potentially grey area, if Raylan wasn’t truly dealing with reprehensible characters. And it’s perhaps the only reason why Justified hasn’t aged poorly. Raylan also does not punch down during his lawman dealings. He does not pick on the disenfranchised. Thus, his actions, as the title suggests, are generally “justified” as interpreted by the show.

And The Telling Dragging Of Raylan:

This is where I want to point out that Justified was slightly ahead of its time in dragging the hell out of the white cop who gets away with everything. The roasting was done playfully here with Rachel letting Raylan (who wasn’t thrilled about her leading this case) know how aware she was of his privilege. Could she get away with wearing a hat like that? No way, and she called him out for busting into the Lexington field office like he owned the joint:

“You did cut to the front of the line.”

“You ever consider that I happen to be good at the job?”

“And you being a tall, good-looking white man with a sh*tload of swagger, that has nothing to do with it?”

In the end, Rachel did try that hat on, as seen above. It didn’t fit, though.

A full decade later, this scene was echoed in Law & Order: Organized Crime, where Chris Meloni’s cop with a checkered past received similar comeuppance from his Black female partner. The conversation was damn near identical in sentiment, although Elliot Stabler has been much more of a problematic, loose-cannon presence than Raylan Givens. Stabler’s past use of excessive use of force was never as cut-and-dried/good-evil as Raylan’s adventures.

The way that Justified walks that fine balance gives me faith that City Primeval won’t have to change anything about Raylan for him to maneuver (within the setting of Detroit) in 2023. It’s almost time to head into another “garden of a**holes.”

Justified: City Primeval will debut on FX sometime this summer.

Austin City Limits Festival returns this year with headliners Kendrick Lamar, Foo Fighters, and Mumford & Sons, along with a lineup that includes some of the biggest names in music. The 1975, Alanis Morrissette, Shania Twain, and Hozier fill out the big print on this year’s flyer, while the rest of the roster runs the gamut from hip-hop to pop to rock, with dreamy singers like Kali Uchis and Lil Yachty, unapologetic rappers such as Coi Leray, GloRilla, and Little Simz, and genre-benders like Rina Sawayama taking the stage October 6-8 and 13-15. A message from ACL’s Twitter touts that this year’s ticket price will include all fees and shipping costs upfront so fans know what they’re getting without a Ticketmaster-style jump scare at checkout.

Austin City Limits’ latest lineup continues its tradition of diverse but stacked artist curation; last year, the festival was headlined by Lil Nas X, Paramore, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and SZA. This year’s fest will also be available to stream on Hulu thanks to a partnership with C3 Presents that will stream the 2023 events of ACL, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza on the popular platform. In a statement, C3 Presents co-founder Charlie Walker said, “The demand for live music is at an all-time high and the live experience has never been more connected to digital. By expanding our partnership with Hulu, even more fans will be able to tune into each of these incredible festival experiences in real-time and enjoy live performances from their favorite artists with the fans on-site.”

You can get more information about this year’s ACL Festival here.

Lil Yachty is hitting the road beginning this fall to support his latest album, Let’s Start Here. Since its release, the “Strike” musician has received praise from fans and other musicians for its innovative approach. The 14-track project even debuted atop the music charts. Now, supporters have the opportunity to the album live as Lil Yachty just revealed his Field Trip Global Tour kicking off this fall.

Yachty has shared how difficult planning the tour has been, but so far, it looks like everything worked itself out. Launching in Washington, DC on September 21, the Field Trip Global Tour has quite a massive schedule. Currently billed as a 39-date run, Lil Yachty will make his way around North America before hitting Europe in mid-October. At this time, no supporting or opening acts have been revealed; however, ticket sales are currently live.

Beginning at 10 a.m. local time today (May 9) in North America and at 1 p.m. BST in Europe, fans with access to Lil Yachty’s artist presale were able to snag tickets over the next few days. While general ticket sales begin on Friday, May 12, at the same time.

Check out the dates for Yachty’s Field Trip Tour below and find more information here.

09/21 — Washington, DC @ Echostage
09/22 — New York, NY @ SummerStage in Central Park
09/24 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
09/25 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
09/27 — Montreal, QC @ MTELUS
09/29 — Wallingford, CT @ The Dome at Oakdale
10/01 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian Theatre
10/02 — Toronto, ON @ HISTORY
10/04 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte
10/08 — Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
10/09 — Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works
10/11 — New Orleans, LA @ The Fillmore
10/15 — Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
10/17 — San Diego, CA @ SOMA
10/21 — Vancouver, BC @ UBC – Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre
10/22 — Portland, OR @ McMenamins Crystal Ballroom
10/26 — Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas
10/27 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
10/29 — Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
10/31 — St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
11/02 — Minneapolis, MN @ Fillmore
11/04 — Madison, WI @ The Sylvee
11/05 — Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore
11/22 — Oslo, NO @ Sentrum Scene
11/24 — Stockholm, SE @ Fryhuset
11/25 — Copenhagen, DK @ KB Hallen
11/27 — Berlin, DE @ Columbiahalle
11/28 — Cologne, DE @ Palladium
11/30 — Manchester, UK @ O2 Victoria Warehouse
12/01 — London, UK @ OVO Wembley Arena
12/03 — Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy
12/04 — Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy
12/06 — Paris, FR @ Salle Pleyel
12/08 — Tilburg, NL @ Poppodium013
12/10 — Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
12/12 — Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz
12/14 — Milan, IT @ Fabrique
12/16 — Zurich, CH @ Komplex 457
12/17 — Vienna, AT @ Gasometer

Piers Morgan just delivered a hot take for the ages. Despite the latest episode of Succession sparking demand for Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen to score Emmy nominations for their brutal balcony fight scene, Morgan thinks the show is lacking after shockingly killing off Logan Roy only three episodes into the final season.

In an oddly worded tweet, Morgan praised Brian Cox as the show’s “hot sizzling meat” and complained that the hit HBO series is suffering without him.

“Succession without Logan Roy sucks,” Morgan tweeted. “Got to Ep 7 and really struggling to maintain interest. It’s become vegan TV … missing the hot sizzling meat.”

Naturally, Morgan’s tweets was quickly pounced on by Succession fans who have been enjoying the new dynamic that Logan’s absence brings to the final season. With the media mogul gone, Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Snook) have been forced to fill their father’s shoes, and it’s been a disaster every step of the way.

The three can’t stop betraying each other through self-serving backroom deals, tenuous alliances, and in the case of Kendall, a deep-ceded penchant for self-betrayal. The dramatic tension has been peak Succession, and fans wasted no time calling out Morgan for crying about a lack of “hot meat.”

You can see Morgan get roasted for his bad Succession take below:

(Via Piers Morgan on Twitter)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is scoring big numbers at the box office and mostly positive reviews with critics. If there’s been one criticism, or word of warning, it’s that the movie is pretty damn dark — and PETA, for one, appreciates that.

As The Wrap reports, PETA is praising James Gunn for offering an uncensored look at the cruelties of animal testing via some pretty disturbing scenes that show us Rocket Raccoon’s backstory. Via senior VP Lisa Lange, the animal rights organization offered a statement to the media about the latest chapter in the MCU:

“Through Rocket, James Gunn has put a face, a name, and a personality on the millions of vulnerable animals being cycled through laboratories as we speak. PETA is celebrating this as the best animal rights film of the year for helping audiences see animals as individuals and suggesting that just because we can experiment on them doesn’t mean that we should.”

As disturbing as the scenes in question are to some viewers, they’re integral to the plot of the movie, which traces Rocket’s road to becoming a Guardian.

“The flashbacks build to a climax where Rocket confronts the abusive scientist who is both responsible for putting him on the road to becoming a hero and putting him and his friends through unspeakable pain, resolving in the end to prevent other animals that he was once just like from suffering the same fate,” writes The Wrap’s Jeremy Fuster, adding that: “It’s an ending that PETA praises for “reminding viewers that all animals deserve a life of freedom under the open sky rather than confinement to laboratory cages.”

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is in theaters now.