When we think of an overnight success, TikTok takeovers and viral dance videos come to mind. Country breakout Dasha has those — her breakup banger “Austin” put everyone’s For You Page in a chokehold just a few months ago — but her chart-topping ascension has a few plot twists you might not expect.
In the latest episode of How I Blew Up, the California native and Nashville transplant maps out her weird and winding journey to the stage. It’s a story that starts with a childhood poetry contest entry before getting sidetracked by a pandemic, a genre switch-up, and a messy ex.
“It’s always been about songwriting for me,” she says, “It’s always been about three chords and the truth.”
Learning guitar at a young age, studying everything from opera to improv, Dasha’s endgame has always been music, but when Covid hit in 2020, she dropped oout of college, ditching the Zoom classes she’d been taking as a songwriting major to get some more real life experience. In LA, she was labeled a pop star, a designation that just didn’t sit right with her lyrical soul. “I felt almost icky,” she recalls of dropping her first album, an alt-pop entry that dropped in early 2023. “This is not me. I’m going back to my roots. I’m going back to country music.”
A genre switch, a cross-country move, and one masterfully-planned social media roll-out later, Dasha is now gracing late night talk shows and performing at music festivals like Austin City Limits. Raw, vulnerable, and fearless in her songwriting, her debut country album, What Happens Now, effortlessly blends her natural talent for penning a killer hooks with playful melodies that merge her two worlds, creating a brand of contemporary country that could convince almost anyone to dust off their boots and attempt her TikTok patented line dance.
Check out the full video above for more of Dasha’s story.
Man, it can be brutal out there. So, for Halloween, Olivia Rodrigo decided to lighten things up a bit. Yesterday (October 31), the “So American” singer decided to spend the ghoulish night handing out sweet treats. But she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have some fun while doing so.
In an adorable clip for Jimmy Kimmel Live, Rodrigo decided to prank trick-or-treaters alongside Guillermo. As the video begins, Guillermo, sporting a Rodrigo costume, answers the doors for kids seeking the goodies. Taken by surprise over his get-up, the children skeptically look on, but nothing will stop them for their candy mission. As they let their guards down, the actual Rodrigo appears to heighten the prank.
Throughout the clip, each group of trick-or-treaters has a uniquely hilarious reaction to Olivia’s presence. One young lady burst into “happy tears.” Others are rendered speechless, to the point where Olivia nearly requested medical assistance. Another ironically demanded to see Olivia’s driver’s license. Another group of innocent girls just flat-out screamed, and considering that is Olivia’s thing, she simply joined in.
Elsewhere for the holiday, Olivia Rodrigo enjoy the occasion by dressing as Elphaba (viewable here). Although it wasn’t quite as extravagant as Janelle Monáe or Heidi Klum’s ET costumes, Wicked lovers enjoyed it nonetheless.
Watch the full video of Rodrigo pranking trick-or-treaters on Jimmy Kimmel Live! above.
Sabrina Carpenter had Halloween off from her ongoing Short N’ Sweet tour, but she took time to celebrate the holiday during her October 30 show, at Dallas’ American Airlines Center. Last year, Carpenter dressed up as “the love of ur life,” but this year, she went with some more concrete looks.
In case you’ve missed it, on tour, Carpenter has taken to wrapping herself in a towel before revealing an outfit. Well, on the 30th, the reveal was a sequined Playboy bunny costume, as Entertainment Weekly notes. Later, she shared a TikTok video of her in the costume, lip-syncing to a clip of the Anna Faris movie The House Bunny.
Speaking of the spooky season, there’s supposedly a “Sabrina Carpenter Curse” out there in the sports world. In short (n’ sweet), earlier this month, it was noticed that the last two times Carpenter wore a jersey for a specific team, that team went on to lose their next game.
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 November. If you’re not trying to potentially miss out on anything, it might be a good idea to keep reading.
Friday, November 1
Alice Costelloe — When It’s Time EP (Al Costelloe)
BABYMONSTER — DRIP (Yg Entertainment)
Beardfish — Songs For Beating Hearts (InsideOutMusic)
Carpenters — Christmas Once More (UMR)
Chase Atlantic — Lost in Heaven (Fearless Records)
Contour — Take Off from Mercy (Mexican Summer)
The Cure — Songs of a Lost World (Universal)
Fionn Regan — O Avalanche (Nettwerk)
The Fleshtones — It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves) (Yep Roc Records)
Hayla — Dusk (Restless Minds Music)
Henrik Appel — Shadows (PNKSLM Recordings)
IDK — BRAVADO INTiMO (.idk.)
Illiterate Light — Arches (Thirty Tigers)
Jacquees — Baby Making (Cash Money Records)
Jennifer Castle — Camelot (Paradise of Bachelors/Solstice Radio)
Jeremie Albino — Our Time in the Sun (Easy Eye Sound)
Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler –brent iii (UMG)
Jimmy Fallon — Holiday Seasoning (Republic Records)
Johnny Delaware — Para Llevar (Normaltown Records)
Lil Zay Osama — The Streets Calling My Name, Pt. 2 (Warner Records)
Week 9 of the NFL season is here, and that means the halfway point of the campaign has arrived. Eight weeks are in the books. Eight weeks are still to come. And here we are in the middle.
In this space, the first half of the season was not at all kind on the whole, but we did post a winning record in Week 8. Perhaps that is a sign of things to come. At least I will tell myself that until Week 9.
Before getting to the five-pack of selections, let’s take stock.
Week 8: 3-2
2024 Season: 14-25-1
Come get these winners.
TEASER: Cleveland Browns (+7.5) over Los Angeles Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals (-1) over Las Vegas Raiders – Widely Available
We’re going back to the Jameis train after an outright win a week ago. I do like the Browns as a standalone investment at +1.5, but the teaser is even more appealing against a low-octane Chargers offense in a game with a very modest total. On the other side, the Bengals burned us a week ago, but this is a good spot for Cincinnati at home in what amounts to a virtual must-win.
New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers OVER 43.5 points – Widely Available
Jacksonville Jaguars (+7.5) over Philadelphia Eagles – Widely Available
The Eagles have won three in a row and all is right with the world again, right? Well, I don’t quite buy it yet. Jacksonville isn’t very good, which I will acknowledge, but the Jags have played at a much higher level in recent weeks, including in Week 8 against Green Bay. I like this above 7.
Green Bay Packers (+2.5) over Detroit Lions – Widely Available
In the interest of transparency, I nabbed this at 3 earlier in the week, but that line is gone now outside of opportunities to buy the half-point. Alas, I still like it at 2.5. Detroit has the best point differential in the league and things are rolling, but I’m a bit skeptical of the Lions defensively right now and, perhaps more importantly, this is the first trip outdoors for Jared Goff and the offense this season.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+9) over Kansas City Chiefs – BetMGM
The Bucs are very banged-up, which is part of why this line is where it is. With that said, I think Tampa Bay is the side against a Chiefs offense that is still figuring things out. Kansas City is unbeaten and rightly so, but the Chiefs haven’t exactly dominated from an ATS perspective when laying more than a touchdown. We were right against them in Week 8. Going back to the well here.
Spooky season treated the streaming world well in October, and now, it’s time to dream pumpkins as pie while plotting what you will watch while eating them. Luckily, several incredible series return this month with new offerings worth noticing, too. Here are the must-see shows for November:
The Day of the Jackal: Season 1 (Peacock series debuting 11/7)
Can there be too many espionage-fueled shows for audiences? We will soon find out if there’s an appetite for a series that follows the same subject matter of the 1970s action thriller movie. Recent Broadway Cabaret Emcee Eddie Redmayne takes on the lone-assassin role of the Jackal, whose unparalleled run of lucrative hits meets more than its match when Latasha Lynch’s British intelligence officer is hot on his trail.
Outer Banks: Season 4 Part 2 (Netflix series returning 11/7)
The Pogues won’t stop with the treasure hunting, and they remain back-in-time after attempting a “normal” existence in the OBX. This, of course, isn’t successful and the hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure proved to be too tempting with new foes now ratcheting up the pressure with some The Walking Dead flavor to boot. Don’t worry, a Zombie John B. is not going to happen, but perhaps if a Season 5 renewal is announced, that curiosity could be satisfied. Sure, this is not that kind of show, but never say never.
Arcane: League of Legends: Season 2 (Netflix series streaming 11/9)
Those audience members who are eagerly awaiting more of Prime Video/Amazon’s Fallout will want to pencil in Ella Purnell’s other excellent video-game TV series will return with its characters exploring more darkness. Choice and spiraling consequences are afoot with Netflix declining to reveal too much about the upcoming chapter, which is kind-of nice for a change to cultivate some mystery.
Cross: Season 1 (Amazon series premiering 11/14)
Watch out, Reacher. Alan Ritchson’s newest Dad TV colleague on Prime Video/Amazon isn’t as tall or buff, but elite D.C. forensic psychologist Alex Cross can climb inside heads of defendants after other detectives have floundered. This series is inspired by the infamous James Patterson character yet isn’t based upon any particular Alex Cross novel, and Patterson is thrilled with the first season. Amazon seems to feel the same way by already renewing for a second season.
Silo: Season 2 (Apple TV+ series returning 11/15)
Rebecca Ferguson’s action-packed, sci-fi show returns for more showrunning prowess from Graham Yost. This season, onscreen events will be divided between Juliette’s home silo, where the sh*t is hitting the proverbial fan, and the “dead” silo where she has taken refuge after exile, but she’s not alone. Nor has her memory faded from her old stomping grounds, where people are starting to really demand answers. Remember the generator sequence of the first season? Expect to feel that tension several fold with Ferguson owning every moment.
Cobra Kai: Season 6 Part 2 (Netflix series streaming 11/15)
This streaming service sure does love its split seasons lately, but this supersized season punctuates in the right places. Miyagi-do and Kreese’s newest version of Cobra Kai will face off at the Sekai Taikai worldwide tournament, and hilariously, they suddenly have other incredible dojos to fight because karate still exists outside of the Valley. Will Miguel, Robby, and Samantha be able to defeat the entire globe on their own while Daniel and Johnny are inevitably at each other’s throats? Adults are such a bummer, man, and old rivalries somehow never die, much like Cobra Kai.
Dune: Prophecy: Season 1 (HBO series streaming on Max 11/17)
This prequel will take place long before Paul Atreides rode a sandworm (and WBD rolled out two successful movies) when a sisterhood couldn’t even imagine Duncan Idaho existed. Alright, that last detail was only meant to be fun, but this show will detail how the aforementioned sisterhood, Bene Gesserit, will show the audience a new side of Frank Herbert’s epic brainchild. Dune: Prophecy follows the Sisterhood of Dune book penned by Brian Herbert (son of Frank) and Kevin J. Anderson and launches around 10,000 years before the blockbuster movies began. A war has destroyed technology as this civilization has known it, and with that, the worldbuilding can begin anew.
Landman: Season 1 (Paramount+ series premiering 11/17)
Taylor Sheridan does not know how to rest, and he’s now taking on an oil-and-fire soaked industry in Texas. Billy Bob Thornton will, according to Paramount+, lead “an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.” The cast includes Jon Hamm, Demi Moore, Ali Larter, and Michael Pena, and the story is inspired by Texas Monthly‘s Boomtown podcast that dives into the Fort Worth-based oil industry that still makes and breaks fortunes in our contemporary times.
Based On A True Story: Season 2 (Peacock series returning 11/21)
Kaley Cuoco’s post-The Flight Attendant TV dominance includes the continuation of this pulpy spin on the current true-crime crush of content. Chris Messina returns as co-lead, and together their Ava and Nathan characters are not only easing into parenthood but also unable to stop finding themselves drawn into murder investigations. Tom Bateman is on hand to make the audience (and Ava) question his every move and possible involvement in this new smattering of violent crime after this spoofy series proved to be as popular as the genre that made its existence possible.
The Madness: Limited (Netflix series debuting 11/20)
Colman Domingo, enough said. The newly Oscar nominated actor has been stealing TV screens on Euphoria and Fear The Walking Dead (where he was phenomenal) for several years, and now, he will star in this series about a political consultant who sets out to become a renowned novelist but finds himself framed for murder in the Poconos. Soon enough, he’s pulled into a global conspiracy while also touching base with friends and family. Sounds complicated, but Colman Domingo can pull off any role. Watch him.
“Great minds think alike,” as the oft-quoted saying goes, and when it comes to Halloween costumes, perhaps the two greatest minds are Heidi Klum and Janelle Monáe. Year after year, both entertainers go above and beyond with their Halloween costumes, and in 2024, they were on the exact same page: They both went as ET.
Monáe showed off their take on The Jennifer Hudson Show, and their blanket-wrapped version, a spitting image of the movie character, had blinking eyes in the costume head and a light-up finger and heart and everything.
Klum showed off her interpretation at her annual Halloween party yesterday, and it was similarly impressive. The New York Times notes the costume featured a “motorized headpiece with a movable mouth and eyes, controlled remotely by a member of Ms. Klum’s team.” They also noted that given the difficulty of getting in and out of the costume, Klum opted to wear an adult diaper. She said, “Maybe I never need to use the diaper, but at least that way I don’t have to think about it.”
Here is Klum’s ET (with a bonus Questlove appearance):
Getty Image
In a recent Hollywood Reporter interview, Monáe revealed they have “a fairy Halloween mother” who helps fund their costumes, saying, “My job is to make people believe in their imagination. That is a job, that is my purpose. Imagination inspires nations. It is important to the committee of imagineers that I go out and I do that good work. There’s a fund that is set aside to make people believe in art, and again, believe in performance art. What I’m doing is performance art, and it is drawing attention to the need for money in the arts, for more grants for schools. We must tap into the imaginations of our kids. These are the people that are going to be the innovators of the future. I’m so happy to have support of people that believe in performance art and believe in me as the person to get that message out.”
Ahead of his Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, Tyler The Creator performed in Boston on Halloween for a special “30 Minutes Of Chromakopia” concert. It’s exactly what it sounds like: 30 minutes of the former Odd Future member’s new album, Chromakopia. During the show, the “Sticky” rapper addressed certain Taylor Swift fans trying to “cancel” him over old lyrics after he (briefly) dethroned her on the global Spotify Top Artists chart.
“I got Swifties all mad at me with their racist ass,” he said. “Bringing up old lyrics, b*tch, go listen to ‘Tron Cat,’ I don’t give a f*ck. They gonna bring out the old me.”
Tyler has brought up Swift multiple times in his songs. On “Fish,” from 2011’s Goblin, he rapped, “B*tches running ’round down, p*ssy take a trip / Make her strip, got my d*ck harder than the unzip / Tyler swiftly slips his d*ck inside of Taylor Swift’s slit / Round trip in that p*ssy, here comes a ticket.” Earlier in the album, on “Nightmare,” he goes, “Love? I don’t get none, that’s why I’m so hostile to the kids that get some / My father called me to tell me he loved me / I’d have a better chance of gettin’ Taylor Swift to f*ck me.”
To see the dates for Tyler The Creator’s Chromakopia tour, head here.
November has officially begun, and this particular November is a big month for Shawn Mendes fans, as the singer is set to release his album Shawn on the 15th. As part of the ramp-up, he has shared a new song today (November 1), “Heart Of Gold.”
Mendes says of the song in a statement, “Grief is a really, really difficult thing to deal with and a huge part of what has helped me has been celebrating that person. I would just like to dedicate this song to anyone out there who has lost someone — some who has passed or someone who’s alive — whichever way. This is for them.”
Meanwhile, Mendes recently addressed his sexuality, saying, “Since I was really young, there’s been this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it for so long. And I think it’s kind of silly, because I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it’s so hard to just put into boxes. It always felt like such an intrusion on something very personal to me, something that I was figuring out in myself, something that I had yet to discover, and still have yet to discover. […] The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone.”
Watch the “Heart Of Gold” video above.
Shawn is out 11/15 via Island Records. Find more information here.
Steven and Ian open today’s episode with a quick Sportscast about the World Series and the Yankees fan who almost ripped Mookie Betts’ arm off (0:00). Bad fans is actually an overarching theme of the show — the guys start with the upcoming election, and whether we’re headed for a wave of anti-PC entertainment if Trump wins (5:20). Then they address this week’s music-critic controversy involving a bad review of the new Halsey album, and the predictable freakout from chronically online fans (17:35).
After that, they check in on the Fantasy Albums Draft and talk about the latest from Mount Eerie as well as Phil Elverum’s career with The Microphones (25:45). Then they do a “Scene Report” segment on recent concerts by Knocked Loose and Drive-By Truckers (34:16).
In the mailbag, the guys are asked about “time and place” bands, i.e. acts that were set up to make one perfect album and nothing else (42:30). Finally, in Recommendation Corner, Ian talks about the emo band Ben Quad while Steven endorses Philly power band 2nd Grade (49:40).
New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 213 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.
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