Big Thief’s latest album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You from last year, was a stellar body showing just how much they had grown sonically over their last five projects. That album had 20 songs, but the group still has even more new material ready to go.
Stopping by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night (February 28), singer Adrianne Lenker, guitarist and vocalist Buck Meek, bassist Max Oleartchik, and drummer James Krivchenia decided to play an unreleased track titled “Vampire Empire” (which they’ve frequently played live over the past few months). This isn’t the first time the group has dropped an unreleased song during a filmed performance (see their 2022 Tiny Desk Concert), but this premiere just feels different.
The song itself is an emo kid’s gloomy musical dream. “Vampire Empire” is slow, dark, and depressive. Lenker, who is considered to be the group’s songwriting architect, pens a tale of longing and repressed intimacy.
Heard in the song’s third verse as Lenker sings, “I see you there rejecting all your earthly power / Protecting and dissecting ’til you’ve emptied every hour / We jumped into the pond and then come under the shower / We lay upon my pillow and you open like a flower / I wanted to see you naked, I wanted to hear you scream / I wanted to kiss your skin and your everything / I wanted to be your woman, I wanted to be your man / I wanted to be the one that you could understand,” love isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. Many times, contrary to Disney fairy tales, it is hypothermic.
Watch Big Thief’s full performance of “Vampire Empire” above.
Continuing his trend of mathematics-themed album titles, Ed Sheeran has announced the release date for his much anticipated sixth studio album, – (pronounced “Subtract“). The album arrives just two years after his album, = (pronounced “Equals“), which boasts hits like “Bad Habits” and “Shivers.”
As of now, no singles have been shared from –, however, in an Instagram post announcing the album, Sheeran revealed that – would be a bit more personal than his last.
“I wrote without thought of what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever tumbled out. And in just over a week I replaced a decade’s worth of work with my deepest darkest thoughts,” said Sheeran.
In recent months, Sheeran has experienced quite a few harrowing events, all of which are likely to be touched on throughout the album’s material.
As of now, it doesn’t appear that the album will have any features or vocal collaborations.
Artwork
You can view the official artwork for – below.
Atlantic Records
Singles
As of now, no singles from – have been released or announced, although Sheeran said he plans to debut the album’s lead single during a brief run of UK and European shows starting later this month.
Ed’s playing some UK & EU shows where you can hear the first single from Subtract. For early access to tickets, pre-order the album from the official store before 1pm GMT Tues 7th March.https://t.co/W2vnTwszLXpic.twitter.com/07SutLHdhW
After an already-record year for Rihanna, between playing the Super Bowl halftime show and announcing that she’s having another child with ASAP Rocky, it seems she still has a lot more surprises in store. Today (March 1), Puma teased that the singer’s Fenty x Puma collaboration will be making a return — through a straight-to-the-point message.
“She’s back,” Puma’s social media post read, adding, “Coming soon.”
Back in 2014, Rihanna was appointed by Puma as their Women’s Training Ambassador and Women’s Creative Director.
“It’s great to find a brand that celebrates strength and individuality,” Rihanna said back in 2014 (as Complex notes). “I couldn’t think of a more perfect partner to collaborate with as a creative director. I’m excited for you to see what Puma and I come up with.”
A few years later, she went on to appear on the runway at the Fenty Puma 2016 fashion show, in support of the popular partnership. The collection previously included sneakers, fur slides, backpacks, jackets, bodysuits, and more.
While there is not much else on information regarding Fenty x Puma’s return, fans can still purchase past items on resale spots like The Real Real and other sites. They can also expect to see Rihanna perform at the Oscars on March 12.
Craig Melvin, who has been filling in for the host, finally gave viewers a little insight into what’s going on behind the scenes. On this morning’s broadcast, after giving an update on Guthrie, Melvin provided some more details about Kotb’s buzzed about absence: “And as for Hoda, we know a lot of you have been wondering how she’s doing. We can tell you that Hoda’s okay She’s got a family health matter that she’s been dealing with, so we look forward to seeing Hoda and Savannah back at the desk real, real soon,” he explained.
Both @SavannahGuthrie and @HodaKotb are off today, with Savannah recovering from a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. As for Hoda, she is okay and handling a family health matter. We’re sending our love to them both and can’t wait to see them in the studio soon pic.twitter.com/EcfVV1zsac
Despite being off-air, Kotb has remained active on her socials, posting a collection of cryptic posts on Instagram, all revolving around “hope” and “strength” via Pinterest-approved inspirational graphics. Fans have been flooding the comments with well-wishes (and the occasional mean-spirited message from people who are impatient). Despite not appearing live, Kotb has been seen in pre-taped segments.
Hopefully, Kotb heads back to the show not only to ease the minds of her loyal followers but also because TODAY is running out of people to sit at that desk.
WARNING: Spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 3 premiere below.
Heading into the highly anticipated return of The Mandalorian, Star Wars fans were already buzzing over reports that Babu Frik, the beloved character from The Rise of Skywalker could make an appearance in the bounty-hunting series. Turns out the rumors were true, and the Season 3 premiere almost collapsed under the weight of all that cuteness.
While reconnecting with Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) on Nevarro, Mando is hoping to restore the assassin droid IG-11 (Taika Waititi) to aid him on his perilous trek to the bombed-out planet of Mandalore. However, IG-11 is in pretty bad shape after self-destructing in the Season 1 finale, so Greef introduces Mando to the best droidsmiths in the galaxy: Babu Frik and his fellow Anzellans.
After squeezing inside the tiny Anzellan workshop, Mando learns from Babu Frik that IG-11 is going to need a new memory unit, but their conversation is cut short when Baby Yoda (Or fine… “Grogu.”) decides to just go ahead and pick up Babu like a stuffed animal. It’s freaking adorable. Unfortunately, Mando has business to attend to, so he busts out his best dad voice as he tries to get Baby Yoda to let go of Babu Frik. It works momentarily, but the little green guy is determined to go back for more.
Despite The Rise of Skywalker ending the Sequel Trilogy with such a whimper that Lucasfilm has been terrified to move forward with a new Star Wars movie, Babu Frik was one of the few highlights of the film. His presence is going over huge on social media, especially when you throw in the fact that Baby Yoda freaking hugged him. It was a scene designed to melt Twitter’s heart, and it worked like gangbusters.
It will also document how the company “became embroiled in allegations including non-consensual material and trafficking on the site,” according to Netflix. “As anti-trafficking organizations seek justice for victims, can the online giant protect those from whom they profit, or is this a new wave of censorship for adult performers making consensual porn?” As one performer says in the trailer above, “They neglect to see that sex work and sex trafficking are two completely different things.”
“This documentary requires us to grapple with what sexuality and consent means when billion-dollar internet platforms thrive on user-generated content,” Money Shot: The Pornhub Story director and producer Suzanne Hillinger said. “Who has, and who should have, the power in these environments? Our hope is that this film generates important conversations about sex and consent, both on the internet and out in the world.”
Money Shot: The Pornhub Story will premiere on Netflix on March 15.
If you felt like February was light on TV show debuts, then you weren’t wrong. The solid news, however, is that March is shaping up to be a much more eventful run. Several crowd favorites are on tap for returns, including the show starring the irresistible Baby Yoda. That Pedro Pascal dude is also onboard that Disney+ series, and he’ll further be starring in the final episodes of the current The Last Of Us season. He’s enjoying his moment, so to speak.
From there, three juggernauts — Succession, Yellowjackets, and Ted Lasso — will also come back while attempting to recover from varying degrees of betrayal. There’s much more coming, too, as you’ll see below. Here are the must see shows for March 2023.
The Mandalorian: Season 3 (Disney+ series streaming 3/1)
Amid the deluge of Marvel Cinematic shows (some truly amazing ones, but it’s been a lot), it’s sometimes nice to simply count upon the ever-reliable presence of Pedro Pascal and Baby Yoda. Make no mistake, Grogu is back, and he’s stealing candy and (Force-fully) taking names, and you might wonder if it’s a wise idea to also watch the Boba Fett show before you tuck into this third round of adventures. We’ve got you covered there, and some other good news has arrived: Jon Favreau believes that The Mandalorian can keep cranking out seasons for many years to come.
Chris Rock: Selective Outrage (Netflix standup special streaming 3/4)
Chris Rock has “got to play that Tamborine,” and we ranked that special at the top of our Best Stand-Up Specials on Netflix list. Fortunately, Rock is not only back for another event, but this should be quite an experiment. Selective Outrage will stream as Netflix’s first live-streamed event at 10:00pm EST on release day. Anything could happen, as Rock already knows from hosting the Oscars. This set takes place in Maryland, and of course, you’ll be able to stream this puppy after the fact if you can’t make it live.
Perry Mason: Season 2 (HBO/HBO Max series returning 3/6)
Man, it’s good to have Matthew Rhys back as a terrifically sad-looking TV leading man again. He’s glorious in this role, taking us back to Perry’s hard-living, early-career days. This show doesn’t aim to compare to the Raymond Burr-starring series of yesteryear, and in fact, it’s an altogether different beast. This HBO projects manages to (like Peacock’s Bel-Air but by different means) transcend all of the usual trappings of “gritty” as a reinvention, and this happens by way of Team Downey, which is also doing magical things with Netflix’s Sweet Tooth. What I’m saying is this: we are living in a golden age of reinvention, and this season, Perry digs into the seedy underbelly of Hoovervilles while exploring the murder of an oil scion.
You: Season 4 Part 2 (Netflix series streaming 3/9)
Joe Goldberg has another new name, and largely a new personality, given that he’s a fake professor in London. He’s also fallen into a pit of relative despair, but the masses are still clicking, so tune in to see what the show has in store for him (he’s the one being stalked these days) after all that stalking and killing. Don’t expect too much sexy time from this season, however, because Penn Badgley has been there and done that, thank you very much.
Ted Lasso: Season 3 (Apple TV+ series streaming 3/15)
Look, Jason Sudekis and the gang have certainly heard about all of the kind-of mean backlash to Season 2, and they’re fine with this. In fact and as the above teaser reveals, they “still believe.” Not only that, but the eternally chipper AFC Richmond coach will arrive with his patented positivity brand a week ahead of darker juggernauts like Yellowjackets and Succession, but make no mistake, there are betrayals involved in all of these shows. How will Lasso follow up on Nate going full Joker? We’ll soon find out, but apparently, glitter and glue are involved.
Extrapolations: Season 1 (Apple TV+ series streaming 3/17)
Well, it snowed in Southern California in late February, so we may soon be living in a reality that resembles this omnibus series. Eight loosely related stories will unfurl to show how climate change has wreaked chaos, which we’ll need to combat while also working through our own daily concerns like work, love, family, and all the necessary stuff of being a human. This planet will keep reacting to us regardless, and this series comes from Contagion screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, who not only writes but also executive produces. Expect to see Kit Harington, Murray Bartlett, Eiza González, Tobey Maguire, Daveed Diggs, Matthew Rhys, Kerry Russell, Heather Graham, Sienna Miller, Meryl Streep, and many more appear within this tapestry.
Power Book II: Ghost: Season 3 (Stars series returning 3/17)
Not to be outdone by Taylor Sheridan’s vast assembling of many Paramount shows (both of the Yellowstone variety and not so much), 50 Cent’s Power universe continues past the original series with a whole lot of drama to clean up. That includes an accidental killing and a car accident, all with Tariq St. Patrick attempting to mop up life and leave the game. However, he will soon end up back in business, which will complete his plans to regain trust and his family. Betrayal and a R.I.C.O. investigation will do that, unfortunately.
Rabbit Hole: Season 1 (Paramount+ series streaming 3/26)
Finally, Kiefer Sutherland will be back on TV in action/intrigue mode. He stars as John Weir, a corporate espionage wizard who finds himself on the hook for a murder that he didn’t commit. This project will be one of the first major swings by the fledgling streamer (although film blockbuster mainstay) to branch out beyond the Yellowstone/Taylor Sheridan shows that are their biggest streaming draw. Putting the 24 leading man into his most powerful mode seems like a good route for success because Dad Shows tend to bring eyeballs, and few people don’t enjoy seeing Kiefer kick some ass.
Great Expectations: Season 1 (FX on Hulu series streaming 3/26)
At once, it’s worth wondering if the world asked for another adaptation of this Charles Dickens classic, but it’s also quite true that it took too long for Olivia Colman to be cast as Miss Havisham. Writer Steven Knight (Spencer, Peaky Blinders) does does the literary honors here while bringing us an updated take on Pip and how he navigates his messed up new world. In the end, we’ll likely receive a class system critique like the original project but in an unconventional way, given that Ridley Freaking Scott and Jiu-Jitsu King Tom Hardy are in producing seats here, along with many other minds from FX’s A Christmas Carol.
Succession: Season 4 (HBO series returning 3/26)
Succession‘s f-bomb dropping patriarch, Brian Cox, will only have to endure what he describes as Jeremy Strong’s “f*cking annoying” method acting for one more season, but that’s also bad news, given that people are quite emotional about this show coming to an end after one more round of betrayal-filled episodes. Will Shiv manage to be at all likable after this season, and will the di*k pic scandal carry aftereffects, considering that so much other fallout arose during the finale? We’ll soon find out, but for now, Tom is somehow king. That’s somehow fitting but also cannot last.
Yellowjackets: Season 2 (Showtime series returning 3/26 & streaming 3/24)
The show’s initial slow-burn splatter art eventually shot into the sky with a disturbing-yet-compelling exploration of the natural food chain as embodied by the mean girls of a high school soccer team. It’s very Lord Of The Flies but with Christina Ricci as the most horrifying, homicidal adult version of her character possible. She’ll be flanked by the likes of Elijah Wood, also generally terrifying, for a Citizen Detective mystery mission while, at the scene of the plane crash, it’s the dead of the winter. Things will grow grim, even more so than we’ve seen already, and we’ll see how the Antler Queen and all that cult-y stuff further shakes out. Melanie Lynskey and Juliette Lewis also return as the adult manifestations of characters who saw too much sh*t in those woods.
White House Plumbers: Season 1 (HBO series debuting 3/TBA)
Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux star as E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, respectively, and yes, those are the notorious Watergate masterminds. Veep showrunner David Mandel will guide this story into all the darkly comedic turns that one will hope for, as the leading duo inadvertently sends the Nixon presidency into a complete shambles. In other words, this story will feel right at home during the same month that Succession returns to HBO. The cast is pretty stacked, too, and includes Judy Greer, Lena Headey, Ike Barinholtz, Domhnall Gleeson, Kathleen Turner, and Kim Coates, who will hopefully bring some truly evil mustache flavor, even if we never see him on a Sons of Anarchy type ride. Anything is possible with TV magic, though.
In a post shared yesterday (February 28), Sun wrote, “In 1 week my entire life completely changed…I just know there’s a plan for it all. I’ll keep my head up + always listen to my heart, even when it feels broken [broken heart emoji] Being surrounded by love every night on tour has been an absolute blessing. I have the best friends in the entire world, thanks for always having my back. See you on stage.”
It appears Sun was blindsided by the break-up: After the break-up reports in late February, Sun’s representative told TMZ, “They were together and engaged as of 3 days ago when he left for tour so if anything has changed that’s news to him.” The publication also noted that Sun and Lavigne were seen together as recently as February, when they attended an event surrounding the 2023 Grammys together.
Lavigne has yet to publicly address the situation.
In the season three premiere of the Disney+ Star Wars show, its first episode since December 2020 (unless you count The Book of Boba Fett), Din Djarin (played by Pedro Pascal) is on a mission to find redemption in the living waters beneath the mines of Mandalore. To do so, however, he needs help from an old friend: Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), excuse me, High Magistrate Greef Karga.
The two catch up while walking around Nevarro, which is in need of a marshal (and a new IG-11 statue) to ward off pirates. “What about Marshal Dune?” Din Djarin wonders, referring to Cara Dune. “After she brought in Moff Gideon,” Karga replies, “she was recruited by special forces.” That’s the in-canon explanation for her absence, at least; in real life, Dune was played by Gina Carano, who was fired from the show (and a potential spin-off) for making “abhorrent and unacceptable” comments on social media.
“Cara was a big part and continues as a character to be part of the world,” executive producer Rick Famuyiwa told Deadline about her nonappearance. “It had to be addressed in the creative, and [Jon Favreau] took the time to think about that. It was something that was discussed as we knew it was going to have impact on the show, but at the same time, what has been at the heart of the show are the two characters — Din Djarin and Grogu — so ultimately it felt like a servicing of that, and around the Mandalorians.”
Anyway, that’s enough talk about Gina Carano. Here’s Baby Yoda hugging a Babu Frik alien.
First, Ed Sheeran launched a hot sauce line. Now, he’s readying a new album: After a bit of teasing, Sheeran announced – (aka Subtract), which is set to be the last of his mathematically-named albums following +, x, ÷, and =. The new project is set for release on May 5.
The album features 14 tracks (listed below), while the deluxe version has an additional four: “Wildflowers,” “Stoned,” “Toughest,” and “Moving.” Press materials note the project “revisits Ed’s singer/songwriter roots” and that Sheeran worked on it with The National’s Aaron Dessner after meeting through Taylor Swift. A press release also indicates that “the album’s fourteen tracks are seamlessly tied together by exquisite production from paired back, folk-leaning textures to bolder, full-band/orchestral arrangements.”
In a statement about the album, Sheeran explained how it came about after a particularly rough stretch:
“I had been working on Subtract for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be. Then at the start of 2022, a series of events changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music and art.
Writing songs is my therapy. It helps me make sense of my feelings. I wrote without thought of what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever tumbled out. And in just over a week, I replaced a decade’s worth of work with my deepest darkest thoughts.
Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumour, with no route to treatment until after the birth. My best friend Jamal, a brother to me, died suddenly and I found myself standing in court defending my integrity and career as a songwriter. I was spiralling through fear, depression and anxiety.
I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air.
As an artist I didn’t feel like I could credibly put a body of work into the world that didn’t accurately represent where I am and how I need to express myself at this point in my life. This album is purely that. It’s opening the trapdoor into my soul. For the first time I’m not trying to craft an album people will like, I’m merely putting something out that’s honest and true to where I am in my adult life.
This is last February’s diary entry and my way of making sense of it. This is Subtract.”
– is out 5/5 via Atlantic Records. Pre-order it here.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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