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Like millions of others, Seth Meyers was up into the wee hours of Saturday morning watching House Republicans fail at the very first task they had: to name a Speaker of the House. While it was a terrible week for American democracy, it turned out to be a great week for C-SPAN. At one point, according to The New York Times, more than 1.2 million people were watching the typically hella-boring news network’s YouTube livestream of the Capitol shenanigans. The network also received a record number of downloads to its mobile app and was even a trending topic on Twitter. For Meyers, it basically became the politically aware adult’s version of porn.

“By the way, this all unfolded into the late hours of Friday night and into Saturday morning,” Meyers explained of the tense few moments in which House Republicans finally managed to come to a majority consensus and name Kevin McCarthy as SOTH. “Generally speaking, that is not the sign of a healthy democracy. Nothing good happens after midnight on a Friday. If you’re that old and you’re up after midnight on a Friday, you’re probably drunk and buying something real dumb off QVC.”

But like so many of us, Meyers could not look away at the chaos we were witnessing in real time. Which, in some ways, he thinks might just show his age. As he explained:

When I was a kid and I was up late watching TV, it used to be stuff like horror movies or Cinemax or, let’s be honest, Taxicab Confessions. Oh yeah, baby! Give me 20 minutes of an Eastern European couple in weird disco outfits coming down from cocaine and hitting on a bemused cab driver! It wasn’t much, but before the internet? It was the closest you could get to porn without finding a Penthouse Forum in the woods behind the school.

Now things are so insane that if I’m up late watching TV, it’s not softcore porn — it’s C-SPAN! Because that sh*t has been hardcore! If you were watching C-SPAN as all this unfolded, you got to see some intense and surreal images from a night that was unprecedented in American political history.

You can watch the full clip above.

English post-punk band Dry Cleaning is quickly becoming one of the most exciting acts to watch. Since breaking into music in 2017, the group — comprised of vocalist Florence Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, bassist Lewis Maynard, and drummer Nick Buxton — displayed all the signature elements of rock throughout their musical releases, including their latest album, 2022’s Stumpwork.

However, there’s one distinctive twist that sets them apart — Florence’s unique vocal delivery. Instead of the standard high-energy vocal belt heard through the genre, Florence has opted for a much more delicate approach. The band stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to display their talents with an exceptional in-studio performance. With a handful of singles to choose from on the album, including “Don’t Press Me,” “Anna Calls From The Arctic,” and “Gary Ashby,” the South Londoners choose to perform “Hot Penny Day.”

Florence nearly emotionlessly sings the introspective song, but this creative choice works so well due to the steep contrast between the song’s lyrics and her vocal cadence. Contrarily, her bandmates go full-on punk in the background with overly facial expressions and grandiose full-body physical jesters.

Watch the full “Hot Penny Day” performance above.

Stumpwork is out now via 4AD. Get it here.

It’s going to be a good year for fans of Death Cab For Cutie. Later this month, they are set to hit the road on tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their album, Transatlanticism. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the album, Give Up, from Death Cab lead vocalist Ben Gibbard’s electronic pop side project, The Postal Service.

While Give Up has become a cult classic in its own right, The Postal Service — which was comprised of Gibbard on vocals, Jenny Lewis on background vocals, and producer Jimmy Tamborello — has never reunited for a follow-up record. In a recent interview on the Kyle Meredith With… podcast, Gibbard revealed he has no plans to make a follow-up to Give Up, his reason being that the way artists produce music has evolved greatly over the past two decades.

“Anybody who’s been asking a second Postal Service record, like really ask yourself, after 20 years, do you really think that there’s gonna something we could make that could even satisfy half of the desire you have in your mind as to what this record would be like? Twenty years — a lot of technology has changed,” Gibbard said. “A lot of how we make music has changed dramatically since then. It wouldn’t be the same.”

He continued, saying, “I think often, when we think about the music that we love the most and the eras of a certain artist or a band that we love the most, we’re as much thinking about the sound. It’s not just the songs or how you were driving around in high school listening to it, wishing you could be anywhere other than the town that you’re living in — it’s the sound of it. Whatever we would make now would sound dramatically different than what we made 20 years ago, and I think it would be a disappointment even if we tried.”

This isn’t the first time Gibbard has ruled out the possibility of new music from The Postal Service. Back in 2021, he revealed to NME that while the supergroup attempted to make a follow-up record in 2004 and 2005, it just never came to fruition, and probably won’t.

“You want to never say never, but no one should be holding their breath waiting for Postal Service music coming any time soon,” Gibbard said. “We haven’t worked on anything. We stay in touch as friends, but that’s kind of the extent of it.”

The Postal Service will, however, reunite as part of the joint tour with Death Cab, which kicks off on Friday, January 27.

You can check out the full Kyle Meredith With… interview above.

Ben Gibbard and Death Cab For Cutie are Warner Music Artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lady Gaga’s 2011 hidden gem, “Bloody Mary,” first appeared on her album, Born This Way. However, over a decade later, the spooky song has seen a sudden resurgence thanks to Wednesday.

When Netflix dropped its first season of the Addams Family-inspired show, fans flocked to TikTok and made edits of the titular character — with Gaga’s song as the soundtrack.

Despite not being featured in the show itself or TikTok contributing to the chart impact, Gaga and Wednesday fans’ streaming result has proven still immensely successful for the pop star. The social media trend pushed “Bloody Mary” to debut on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 at No. 68.

In the original scene of Wednesday, the young Addams daughter (played by Jenna Ortega) dances at prom to The Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck” — which fans eventually swapped out for “Bloody Mary.” Gaga even wound up getting in on the viral dance craze in a video that’s amassed over 12 million views.

Unsurprisingly, Netflix recently announced they’d be renewing Wednesday for a second season and poked fun at the TikTok hype by even using “Bloody Mary” in the teaser reveal.

According to Luminate, Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” had 6.1 million US streams and 2,000 sold downloads between December 30 and January 5 — proving that TikTok scrollers are committing to their love for the resurgent hit.

The touring industry is exploding right now. In a blog post written earlier this year, Lorde astutely noted how basically all of the artists who couldn’t tour during the pandemic are now all hitting the stage all at once. And that massive influx of high-profile concert tours is continuing into 2023. From long-awaited concert tours to anniversary celebrations to high-profile comebacks, these are the most anticipated concert tours of 2023.

Arctic Monkeys

For the first time in nearly ten years, Arctic Monkeys released a new album. The Car, is a cinematic melodrama enacted as debonairly as possible in the way that only Alex Turner and company can. They’re set to make 22 tour stops in North America at the tail end of summer and Dublin’s Fontaines D.C. are opening for them.

Beyoncé

While Beyoncé hasn’t announced any plans to tour in support of Renaissance yet (or release any music videos from it for that matter) she dropped a $20,000 hint that a tour is coming this summer. You see, at the WACO Theater Wearable Art Gala in October, Beyoncé put up an extravagant package for the charity auction. For $20k, the package description included airline tickets and a meet and greet to, “Beyoncé’s Renaissance 2023 tour.” Shout out to the Bey Hive member who sussed out this caper.

Big Thief

In a year that saw them releasing another dynamite album in Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, Big Thief announced an active schedule of concerts across four continents. But they really made waves this past week in laying out a plan to invite teachers and students to their soundchecks along the tour. The band wants to provide young people with opportunities to engage in learning experiences around creativity, music, playing shows, and songwriting. Awesome.

Blink 182

Not only is Blink 182 back, but guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge has rejoined the band making for a full reunion tour. Delonge, drummer Travis barker, and bassist/singer Mark Hoppus are also set to headline a slew of South American festivals, as well as the When We Were Young emo nostalgia fest in Las Vegas. Oh, and a new Blink 182 album is apparently on deck as well.

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band are hitting the road in 2023 for the first time since 2017. Yet when news of the US tour dates hit, Ticketmaster’s flexible pricing model sent some seats soaring in the thousands of dollars range and fans were none too pleased. Springsteen answered the critics essentially saying that the imperfect system is what it is, but, “If there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.” They don’t call him The Boss for nothing.

Death Grips

For the first time in four years, horrorcore trailblazers Death Grips will be going out on tour. The experimental rap trio of Zach Hill, MC Ride, and Andy Morin put on an electric live show, with MC Ride an always visceral presence on the microphone.

Depeche Mode

It was a tough year for Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan and Martin Gore when longtime keyboardist Andy “Fletch” Fletcher died in May at the age of 60. But Depeche Mode are still planning on releasing their new album Memento Mori, this spring. “Fletch would have loved this album,” Gahan said. The Memento Mori World Tour begins in March in the US and only ends in August in Europe.

Ed Sheeran

With albums entitled +, =, ÷, and x Ed Sheeran is bringing the theme full circle with his North America megatour dubbed the Mathematics Tour. He’ll be playing gigantic stadium sets at venues like Houston’s NRG Stadium, Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, and Detroit’s Ford Field. Meanwhile, he has curated a diverse set of tour openers in Khalid, Maisie Peters, Russ, Rosa Linn, Cat Burns, and Dylan.

GloRilla

Hopefully, GloRilla is planning on giving her assistant a raise, because she’s going to be plenty busy with her first-ever headlining tour in 2023. The Anyways, Life’s Great Tour is tabbed as GloRilla “with friends,” so we’ll see who decides to pop up on stage with the Memphis rapper. Could one of those friends be Cardi B at some point? The pair collaborated on the track “Tomorrow 2” which hit the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2022.

Janet Jackson

When Janet Jackson announced the Together Again Tour for 2023, she also promised that “there will be new music.” Not that we really need any, considering how many #hits she’s turned out across the decades, but it definitely adds to the mystique of what the always explosive “That’s The Way Love Goes” singer does on stage. Ludacris is joining her as the opening act, cause why the heck not?

JID and Smino

Both JID and Smino dropped albums in 2022. JID’s Forever Story places him in the conversation of today’s best, while Smino’s incredibly unique Luv 4 Rent features A-List featured guests like J-Cole and Lil Uzi Vert. Now the Atlanta and St. Louis connection will come to fruition on the 32-date cross-continent Luv Is 4Ever Tour.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Are King Gizzard the most prolific band in the world right now? The Aussie psycho rockers did just drop five albums in 2022. They’ve certainly become one of the most cultiish live bands on the planet regardless. They’re June 2023 tour begins at The Caverns Underground in Tennessee and ends with a three-hour “marathon set” at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

Metallica

The pioneering metal band from San Francisco have a new album due out on April 14th called 72 Seasons and the corresponding tour will stretch far beyond 2023. Metallica will be hitting the road this year, making stops in both Europe, the US, Canada, while picking it up again for a slew of 2024 dates in Europe and all of North America including Mexico. The shows will feature them playing 2 nights in cities, with no song repeats and an in-the-round staging.

Paramore

Paramore’s much-hyped sixth album, This Is Why, is due out on February 10th and the Hayley Williams-led band have a tour ready to rock for the summertime. Beginning in May, Paramore will be touring all throughout North America and have an illustrious cast of support acts in tow in Bloc Party (whom they cite as a primary influence), Foals, The Linda Lindas, and Genesis Owusu.

The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie

Not only is The Postal Service embarking on a 20th Anniversary Tour for their cult-classic album Give Up, but it’s a double bill with Death Cab For Cutie. Ben Gibbard will be pulling double duty, but he’s the quintessential rockstar on stage and can more than handle it. And as great as Death Cab’s latest album, Asphalt Meadows, is, the vibes will surely be highest as soon as Jenny Lewis joins Gibbard on vocals for Give Up’s opening track, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.”

SZA

Sad hotties rejoice, SZA is going on tour! After an unfathomable number of teasers and delays, SZA’s new album S.O.S. finally dropped last month and she’ll be supporting it on tour with Omar Apollo as the opening act. We got a preview of SZA’s S.O.S. stage setup at Outside Lands festival 2022 in San Francisco this past summer and it’s thematic to the album to say the least.

Taylor Swift

Following the release of Midnights, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour will mark her first stadium performances in five years. By now, you’ve surely heard about how Taylor damn near broke Ticketmaster when tickets went on sale and the tour has already netted over a half billion dollars in sales. This will mark the largest run of US dates for Swift, so do what you have to do to get into the stadium. And if all else fails, maybe her cat can put you on the guest list?

The Walkmen

A decade since The Walkmen went on an “extreme hiatus,” the indie rock staples announced a comeback for 2023 with a limited number of shows in only New York City at first. The tour has since expanded to add multi-night residencies in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington D.C. in addition to New York City. This could potentially mean that Hamilton Leithauser, Peter Bauer, and company might finally have a new album by The Walkmen on the horizon. The plan will surely unfold on this long-awaited slate of live performances which begins in April.

Wizkid

Weeks after dropping his latest album, More Love Less Ego, Wizkid already started teasing a new album called SaiLess. The promise of even more new music from the world-sweeping Afrobeats star will certainly drive the interest North American Tour. Beginning in March, Wizkid will be playing arena-sized venues like Houston’s Kia Center and Kia Forum in Los Angeles.

Zach Bryan

A noted critic of Ticketmaster’s purported monopoly and the exorbitant fees that they tack on concert tickets, Zach Bryan has decided to take matters into his own hands for his upcoming tour. “I’ve decided to play a limited number of headline shows next year to which I’ve done all I can to make prices as cheap as possible and to prove to people tickets don’t have to cost $450 to see a good and honest show,” the country music rising star said on Instagram. The dates have yet to be announced but Bryan has promised them “soon” and you’ve just got to admire the stance he’s taking.

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

The new Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania trailer dropped during the NCAA College Football Playoff National Championship game, and with it, came the biggest look yet at the epic film that will force Paul Rudd‘s Ant-Man to deal with Marvel’s newest big bad: Jonathan Major’s Kang the Conqueror.

In the trailer, which will officially kick off Marvel’s Phase 5, Scott Lang (Rudd) finds himself locked in a destructive deal with Kang after he and his family are sucked into the Quantum Realm. While it’s not clear what Kang is after, he presents Scott with a tempting offer: More time. Thanks to the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame the hero lost five years with his daughter, Cassie, and he’s apparently willing to do anything to get that time back. Although, by the time the trailer ends, Scott has clearly realized he may have help start something that could destroy reality as he knows it: The Kang Dynasty.

Oh, and also M.O.D.O.K. showed up.

As for what the murderous robot is doing in his live-action MCU debut is anyone’s guess. However, the film is laying the groundwork for Marvel’s next big event(s), so it’ll be interesting to see what other seeds are being planted. Maybe even a fantastic one in the form of William Jackson Harper‘s mysterious character?

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters February 17, 2023.

Midsommar and Hereditary director Ari Aster is bringing the world a new nightmare, one that’s fraught with both beauty and genuine horror and, apparently, one man’s battle to exist in the outside world. Joaquin Phoenix takes another breather from Todd Phillips’ Joker projects to pop in as a lead in a film that’s delivered a nightmarish first trailer, along with surrealist tones and pops of color that are so vivid they might set off a color bomb in your mind. One that happens to cross generations, quite literally.

That surely doesn’t bode well for the title character, Beau, who is described as “[a] paranoid man [who] embarks on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother in this bold and ingeniously depraved new film.” As well, we see Phoenix’s character at stages both older and young, including what is suggested to be an awful childhood, and Aster sure does enjoy throwing “difficult” (to put it mildly) mothers into the mix. For anyone with a hint of paranoia, there’s bound to be some anxiety in watching Phoenix fight has way home, and it might be too early in the morning for this type of adventure.

Tone-wise, the trailer emphasizes the comedic nature of Phoenix’s nightmares, and god only knows how much of this is literal when Beau ends up being struck by a car and held by Nathan Lane. Also on the scene: Amy Ryan, and the film also stars Parker Posey, Patti LuPone, Stephen Mckinley Henderson, Hayler Squires, and Denis Ménochet of Inglorious Basterds.

Beau Is Afraid has been shrouded in secrecy until now, although some suspected that the project would relate to Aster’s Beau short film, which does potentially check out.

Beau Is Afraid arrives in theaters on April 21.

Over the weekend, Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker Of The House. It took four days and 15 votes to get here, but here we are. Now the late-night shows have gotten a hold of the news and run with it on their Monday (January 9) episodes, including The Late Show. Steven Colbert’s staff’s take on the situation made use of some choice DJ Khaled clips.

The brief segment is introduced, “And now, a summary of Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become Speaker Of The House, featuring DJ Khaled.” From there, a Khaled-style instrumental played under news clips about the McCarthy proceedings, and as the various anchors share news of each subsequent vote, a Khaled clips interjects with one of the producer’s classic catchphrases: “Another one.” The video ends with an anchor noting, “The concessions to the right that led to his victory could leave him the weakest Speaker in modern history.” To that, clip Khaled responded, “Congratulations: you played yourself.”

As for what Khaled has been up to lately, he was recently pretty happy after buying Eminem’s Nike Air Jordan 4 “Encore” sneakers. Meanwhile, looking forward, he’s one of the most-nominated hip-hop artists at the upcoming 2023 Grammy Awards.

Check out the Colbert segment above.

Back in the early 2000s, Britney Spears was the face of Pepsi after signing an $8 million deal with the soda company in 2001 and starring in ads like the iconic “Joy Of Pepsi” spot and numerous others. Since then, though, she’s spent time on the Coke side. In 2013, it was reported that Spears sold some Coca-Cola stock, while Pepsi was not in her portfolio at all. Now, she’s again representing Coke… at least in her new thirst trap.

In a video shared on Instagram last night (January 9), Spears wears a red two-piece outfit, consisting of a mini skirt and a tube top, the latter emblazoned with the Coca-Cola logo across the front. In the video (which is scored by Normani and Cardi B’s “Wild Side”), Spears dances and strikes poses for the camera.

In her caption, she explained, “Here’s me going through my closet realizing outfits I have never worn !!! I am a practical shopper but I was really surprised going through my closest and what I found !!! […] Anyways, here’s me modeling RED outfit number 1 !!! That means there are way more to go … 7 is my favorite !!! I will SHARE with you lovely people !!!”

She also wrote about the photos with Paris Hilton that recently surfaced, saying, “Also have no idea about these pics of me from a birthday party … I haven’t been to a bday party in forever !!! And as for the pics, those have to be from years ago !!!”

Revisit the aforementioned Pepsi ad below.

In January of 2022, Meek Mill teamed up with Kevin Hart and Michael Rubin to donate $15 million to 110 Philadelphia schools for the 2022-2023 school year. Now that it’s 2023, they’re supporting the city again by donating $7 million in scholarships to Philadelphia private schools.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the money will go toward scholarships at 60 “private and parochial schools in need,” helping kids from low-to-moderate incomes. It will also go toward funding laptops, tablets, and WiFi connections.

Mill and Ruby both launched the non-profit organization Reform Alliance alongside Jay-Z in 2019, which just recently posted bail for 20 women incarcerated at Philadelphia’s Riverside Correctional Facility. “The women, who were unable to afford bail, will now be able to spend the holiday season with their families and loved ones. Five women were released today and will be reunited with their families, with the goal of 15 more women being released in the coming week,” the organization wrote on Instagram.

“For families impacted by the criminal justice system, the holidays can be an extremely challenging time,” Mill wrote in a statement. “No one should have to spend the holidays in jail simply because they can’t afford bail, and no child should be without their parents during this time if we can do something about it. I’m grateful for the opportunity to help these women be with their families and loved ones during this special time of year.”

Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.