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After the huge success of WWE’s Clash at the Castle last year in Wales, WWE announced on Thursday that it is bringing its first premium live event back to London for the first time in two decades with Money in the Bank on July 1.

“The O2 is one of the world’s premier venues and the perfect home for Money In The Bank. We are excited to bring one of our ‘Big 5’ events to the UK and look forward to welcoming the WWE Universe to London on July 1,” said Dan Ventrelle, EVP, Talent at WWE, in the release.

The announcement comes after the success of Clash at the Castle in September 2022, where 60,000 fans packed into Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, for the first major stadium event to be held in the United Kingdom in more than 30 years. WWE’s first major return to the UK since 1992 was historic, breaking numerous records including the most-watched international premium live event in WWE history, with the largest European gate ever and the best-selling merchandise for a non-WrestleMania event.

Ahead of Clash at the Castle, WWE’s Drew McIntyre told Uproxx Sports he believed in the potential of WWE hosting another premium event in the UK down the road, calling that event “phase one”

“Once the world gets to see this show, the incredible visuals, I think it’s going to lead to a SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and potentially a WrestleMania down the line,” McIntyre said before his match with Roman Reigns. “I’m so happy that it’s been so well received. For me personally, obviously, the UK is a special one.”

2022 was an unusual year for music. Despite more records being released than ever before, there were only a handful of new hits; Billboard recorded only a dozen new No. 1 singles, while only new 23 albums reached the top of the Billboard 200. Those numbers reflected a dip from prior years, thanks to many of the songs and albums that topped the charts reigning for weeks at a time.

Meanwhile, the Recording Industry Association of America recently welcomed its “class of 2022” — the artists who earned their first Gold or Platinum certification last year. Among the 39 performers are TikTok favorites like Armani White, Bella Poarch, and GAYLE, while runaway success GloRilla stayed “F.N.F.” all the way to her own first certification. International artists also broke in a big way stateside with Afrobeats crooners Fireboy DML and Rema joining K-pop girl group TWICE in racking up the plaques.

A Gold certification denotes 500,000 units sold, while a Platinum record has sold 1,000,000 units. In the streaming era, one album sale is calculated as 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video song streams, which also counts as 10 track sales. In order for a qualifying track or album to be certified, often a label must request certification, so technically there might be one or two songs out there that qualify but were not certified. You can see the full list of singles courtesy of RIAA’s Twitter account below.

The health and status of Damar Hamlin has been at the front of mind for the sports world since he collapsed on the field during Monday Night Football and went into cardiac arrest. The Bills defensive back had his heartbeat restored on the field after receiving CPR and has been in critical condition at the UC Medical Center in Cincinnati since Monday night.

Hamlin was moved from 100 percent oxygen to 50 percent oxygen recently, a sign of some improvement in his condition, and Thursday brought another positive update on his condition from the Bills. The team released a statement on Thursday morning indicating that he has continued to make “steady progress” in his recovery and has showed signs of being neurologically intact.

The agency that represents Hamlin also offered its own statement, referring to his progress as “substantial improvement” overnight.

Hamlin opened his eyes on Wednesday night and has been able to grip the hands of loved ones in the hospital, per reports, as he shows signs of improvement while remaining in critical condition.

Hopefully Hamlin will continue to improve and, in the coming days and weeks, can become more fully responsive and be moved out of the ICU. For now, we will welcome the positive update on what was one of the most terrifying moments in professional sports history, and offer continued support to Hamlin and his family.

When Miley Cyrus shared her New Year’s resolution with Hoda Kotb last week, she failed to mention that she planned to rock her fans’ collective world before the first week of January concluded. Yet, here we are. During her Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party NBC special on Saturday, December 31, Cyrus subtly revealed that her new single, “Flowers,” is dropping on January 13 — Liam Hemsworth’s birthday, for those who care. Today, January 5, we received even more exciting news.

Cyrus, it would appear, is not making vague statements about her past relationship with Hemsworth; she’s rolling out an album that is described in a press release as “her love letter to LA,” recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Kid Harpoon, Greg Kurstin, Mike Will Made-It, and Tyler Johnson. Endless Summer Vacation, Cyrus’ eighth studio album and first since 2020’s rocking Plastic Hearts, is due out March 10. Cyrus officially announced it with a trippy teaser trailer.

The video begins with Cyrus lounging in a pool, surrounded by palm trees under the sun, and progressively shows glimpses of the album’s cover art.

“We met each other on the neon dingy, past the manta rays and palm trees,” she narrates. “Glowing creatures beamed down from great heights. Electric eels and red venom. In the sky, we could see the riders on horseback. On comets. Coming toward us, kicking up with laughter. My friend, Big Twitchy, rode the boat to the light. Surfed the north break. We danced until there was nothing left. Just me and Twitchy, ’cause that’s all we knew.”

The Endless Summer Vacation tease slots seamlessly within the snippets of “Flowers” that Cyrus has already shared across her socials, including the presumed hook, “I can love me better than you can.”

Fans have been on high alert since December. Mysterious posters spotted in different cities promised, “New Year, New Miley.” Cyrus amplified the posters’ significance on December 19 by acknowledging them and adding a countdown clock to her official website. Now, everyone can safely circle March 10 on their calendars.

In the meantime, “Flowers” is available to pre-save here.

See album’s cover below, photographed by Brianna Capozzi and “fully executed by Miley without visual effects.”

Endless Summer Vacation is out 3/10 via Columbia. Pre-order it here.

Welcome to another installment of Ask A Music Critic! And thanks to everyone who has sent me questions. Please keep them coming at [email protected].

Last year you wrote an article asking whether Foo Fighters would (or could) continue without Taylor Hawkins. Now the band has confirmed that they will carry on and apparently tour in 2023. What do you think about this decision, and who should replace him? — Jerry from Minneapolis

As I wrote in the aftermath of Taylor Hawkins’ death last April, I don’t think there is a “right” choice in terms of a band carrying on after a tragedy of this magnitude. If moving forward feels right in the Foos camp — or even just in Dave Grohl’s mind — then it’s the right choice. If a fan can’t conceive of Foo Fighters without Taylor Hawkins, they have every right to check out at this point. But if it’s your band, it’s your decision, not the public’s. To me, it’s that simple.

I will say that I’m not surprised. The logistics at play aren’t hard to figure out. Foo Fighters are the rare contemporary rock band that can play stadiums. Grohl is the most famous rock star of his generation. His band conceivably has another 20 years of albums and tours ahead of it. And that might be a conservative estimate — Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are in their 80s, and they hardly missed a beat with the Rolling Stones’ most recent tour after losing their iconic drummer, Charlie Watts. By that metric, Foo Fighters are still squarely in their prime. In stadium-rock years, they’re still young pups!

When they staged the Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts this summer, it felt like a necessary public gesture providing the closure they needed to get here. I hope that doesn’t come across as cold or cynical — what made those shows (particularly the one in London) so memorable is that they were a sincere and appropriate recognition of Hawkins’ place in the band as well as a reflection of his infectious personality. For all of the obvious emotion on display, the overall mood was celebratory. What might have been a maudlin affair instead was an uplifting and even fun homage to Hawkins’ record collection, a virtual “Classic Rock: The Concert”-style party. The capper of course was Shane Hawkins’ instant-classic performance on “My Hero,” a legendary arena-rock event for the ages, a “passing-the-torch” moment so perfect that it felt scripted and yet somehow it wasn’t.

So: What now? Fans have been speculating this week on Hawkins’ replacement, and unsurprisingly the chatter has centered on session-drummer extraordinaire Josh Freese, who played at the tribute concert. The problem with Freese is that he has played in seemingly every aging legacy rock band, from Devo (his current gig) to Guns N’ Roses to The Replacements to Nine Inch Nails to Paramore. Would the ultimate free-agent timekeeper ever commit to one band? Based on his history, I find it hard to believe.

In my column from last year, I suggested a rotating cast of famous friends guesting behind the kit — including ringers like Chad Smith, Stephen Perkins, and Stewart Copeland — but that’s not really a tenable long-term solution. And then there’s the biggest dark horse of them all, the band’s original drummer, the jilted William Goldsmith. Now there’s a fun thought experiment! Justice for Goldsmith 26 years after The Colour And The Shape! Alas, there’s zero chance of it happening, as all parties have moved on.

The most logical choice is probably Rufus Taylor of The Darkness and Queen + Adam Lambert. Taylor also performed at the tribute concerts, and he seems like a natural hire given his preexisting relationship with Hawkins and the rest of the band. There’s no question in my mind that fans would accept him. If Hawkins himself had a vote, I suspect that he would find being replaced by Roger Taylor’s son extremely cool. For those reasons, if I had to bet, I would put my money on Rufus.

But he’s not my ultimate choice. Let’s say Dave Grohl called me up and said, “Hey Steve, who should I hire to be my new drummer?” Here is what I would say: “Dave, I think you should pick the best drummer available. A person who has elevated every album he has ever played on. A guy who can pack an arena full of people who only want to see him pound the hell out of a snare. A dude who kept time on some of the most beloved rock songs of the last 30 years. One of the very greatest drummers of all time. Dave, you should hire … yourself!”

Will that happen? I doubt it. But speaking as someone who doesn’t have a vote: Dave Grohl is always the guy I want playing drums in any band. Why not the Foos? Would anyone really rather him play guitar? Especially in a band that already has two other guitar players?

I was saddened this week by the death of Jeremiah Green of Modest Mouse from cancer at the age of 45. I enjoyed the oral history you recently put together of The Lonesome Crowded West. On Twitter you called him one of the all-time great indie-rock drummers. What made Green an all-time great? — Lorraine from Chicago

I regret not talking to Jeremiah Green for that oral history. Aside from Calvin Johnson, he was the only pivotal figure from the making of that record I wasn’t able to interview. It wasn’t for lack of trying — I was actually scheduled to speak with him a few times, but he kept backing out via Modest Mouse’s publicist. I was told he was sick, though not given any further details. I assumed it was the flu or possibly Covid, but obviously it was far more serious.

It’s sad when any person dies, but Green was only six months older than I am. And in my mind, when I listen to those classic Modest Mouse records from the ’90s, he’s still the gangly teenager who plays with an aggressively vicious swing. Either way, Jeremiah Green was a young man. He should have had many years and a lot more music ahead of him. I feel terrible for his friends and family. My thoughts are with them at this time.

Modest Mouse typically is framed as a vehicle for Isaac Brock’s songwriting. But when I revisited The Lonesome Crowded West for my oral history, what most blew me away was the chemistry between Brock and the rhythm section composed of Green and bassist Eric Judy. Their smoking interplay places the record outside the modern continuum of indie rock. For all of their limitations as individual players, those guys complemented each other perfectly as a unit. And you just don’t hear that as much now, when it’s common for a singer-songwriter to come to prominence with home-recorded music and then hire a band when it’s time to tour. The original Modest Mouse in contrast had an arc more akin to a classic-rock act, in that they played together for countless hours before anyone heard or cared about their music. It’s that very honed-to-excellence instrumental prowess that makes an album like The Lonesome Crowded West sound as timeless as it does.

Brock himself put it best in my column: “Jeremy and Eric didn’t fucking need me. They could lock in and do things pretty great whether I was there or not. And that’s helpful because then when I was involved — and obviously I was fucking involved — I could get pretty squirrely with what I did because those guys were so locked in. I didn’t even have to be in tune some of the time. As long as it sounded like they were doing the right thing, if I steered way out of the lane, it was going to be fine.”

As for what specifically made Green such a great drummer, he had that quality that all brilliant musicians have: His feel is instantly recognizable. Play a short snippet of one of his grooves and you know right away that it’s him. The drum pattern from “Truckers Atlas” is as distinctively Jeremiah Green as the opening lick from “When The Levee Breaks” is distinctively John Bonham. Couple that with the degree of difficulty that comes with playing in Modest Mouse — Green’s job was to create rhythms that could simultaneously convey the mania of Brock’s lyrics and melodies while also supplying a coherent foundation that made people want to dance. As Brock suggested, Green and Judy often supplied the most musical and even catchiest parts of Modest Mouse songs. They weren’t merely accompanying their lead singer and guitarist; they actually made sense of the music for the audience.

Foo Fighters are moving forward without their drummer. Can Modest Mouse? That’s a question I can’t even begin to ponder right now.

Eight years ago next week, TV history was made. In the season four premiere of HBO’s Girls, Desi (played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who’s now on The Bear) performed anilingus on Marnie (Allison Williams). The scene inspired headlines like “Let’s Talk About the Marnie Butt Munching” and “ICYMI, There Was Ass Motorboating on Girls Last Night” (we were guilty of playing up the shock value, too), but there’s one headline in particular that still stands out to Williams, all these years later.

“I remember that headline very clearly,” Williams told Vulture, referring to a Barstool headline about getting her salad “tossed.” If that scene happened in 2022, “if I was on a show that was that predictably Monday-morning think piece–y, the pressure of that would be really overwhelming in a way that it wasn’t then,” she said. “I didn’t know anything else.” (If anything, the butt-eating scene is an inspiration to current HBO programming.)

In the years since the episode, Williams has weaponized her “good white person” image in Get Out, as well as The Perfection and the murder doll masterpiece M3GAN. “It has just kind of happened,” she told Syfy about her pivot to horror. “But, it has also been a choice from role to role, story to story, theme to theme. I would say that Get Out certainly set me on the path of seeing this genre differently. I am really scared when I watch horror movies, so I didn’t ever really consider this genre to be one that could feel like home to me because I can’t stomach most of the movies that exist under this banner.”

M3GAN opens this Friday.

(Via Vulture)

Last year, one of the most-discussed shows was Hulu’s new series The Bear, an intense eight-episode drama taking place in a restaurant kitchen. Ayo Edebiri, who plays one of the chefs alongside Jeremy Allen White, talked about her experience actually working in restaurants in her appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night (January 4), and one memorable anecdote she touched on was when Beyoncé and Jay-Z came in.

She explained:

“I worked at ABC Kitchen and that’s a place where a lot of celebs go when in New York. Beyoncé came in once. We all know… she’s a big one. She did the Super Bowl, remember? She came in with Jay-Z and I was doing reservations that night, which meant that I had to stay in the reservations office. So I’m on the phone, but I’m like, Beyoncé’s in the building. So I kept coming up and being like, ‘Does anyone want to ask about any reservations or anything,’ just to try to get a peek at Beyoncé.”

Colbert asked, “Did you get a shot?” She answered, “Not even a strand of hair. Didn’t even see an eyelash of Beyoncé.” Though it must’ve been disappointing, she’s come a far way since then and hopefully will get another chance soon.

Watch her full interview above; find the Beyoncé story starting at 4:26.

Laura Ingraham invited author Steve Almond onto her show to discuss the Damar Hamlin situation and how the NFL needs to do a better job protecting players. However, Almond switched things up by pointing out how Ingraham’s workplace, Fox News, has been accused of acting as egregiously when it comes to covering up problems like, for example, sexual harassment. Almond argued that, allegedly like Fox News, the NFL would only make a move to enhance player safety if there’s an economic incentive.

“It’s like at Fox News when you have hosts who are allegedly sexually harassing people,” Almond said. “Fox News throws money at that to make that PR problem go away.”

After Ingraham chided him for his “cute little move,” Almond pushed the boundaries even further by mocking Fox News for stirring up fears of a “woke mob.” Via The Daily Beast:

Ingraham interjected that she is not “trying to scare the viewers,” and that the sport is “not about politics.”

“Oh, I think that’s your entire economic model,” Almond responded. “Your entire economic model is to scare your viewers. That’s your whole gig.”

However, Almond finally hit a nerve when he brought up the time that Ingraham was forced to apologize for mocking Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, which caused a flustered Ingraham to cut Almond’s mic.

“A couple of years ago when you taunted a survivor of the Parkland mass shooting, you apologized only because advertisers withdrew from your show,” Almond said before being booted.

“Nice try, little buddy,” Ingraham said while knowing Almond couldn’t respond. “This is what they always do.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

One of UFC President Dana White’s biggest detractors is officially joining the organization’s biggest competition. Jake Paul announced on Thursday that he is joining the Professional Fighters League as a fighter and an equity owner.

Paul joins the PFL as the head of fighter advocacy, per the New York Times, and has committed pursue MMA while continuing boxing, where he’s racked up a 6-0 record, including a recent win over 47-year-old Anderson Silva. Paul’s introduction to the PFL is not in the traditional sense of joining a weight division, rather the newly-formed Super Fight division, where fighters will earn at least 50 percent of the pay-per-view revenue, with bouts distributed by ESPN and the streaming service DAZN, per the report.

This division is in direct competition for some of the UFC’s top stars, coming off the back of fighters like Jorge Masvidal demanding more than 18 percent of UFC PPV revenues in recent years.

Paul plans to make a splash upon joining the PFL, challenging Nate Diaz to a boxing match followed by an MMA fight in 2023. In joining the PFL’s Super Fight division alongside two-time PFL champion and Olympic gold medalist, Kayla Harrison, the PFL is clearly looking to turn the sport of MMA on its head.

Takeoff was fatally shot in the early hours of November 1 while attending a private event with Quavo at 810 Billiards & Bowling in Houston. The Atlanta rapper, best known as a member of the Migos, was 28. In the two months since, Houston Police have slowly pieced together what led to the tragedy.

Ultimately, on December 1, 33-year-old Patrick Xavier Clark was arrested and charged him with murder, with bond reportedly set at $2 million. Clark requested a bond reduction to $1 million, which was successful, though his subsequent request was not.

This morning, January 5, Houston’s KHOU is reporting that Clark posted $1 million bond last night and was released from prison. The Houston CBS affiliate cited court records.

According to an affidavit that surfaced in December, Quavo was participating in a dice game outside the venue when an argument broke out and shots were fired. Takeoff has been identified as an innocent bystander at separate points along the investigation.

Late Wednesday night, January 4, Quavo released a song dedicated to Takeoff, his nephew and musical collaborator. Titled “Without Out,” the somber track is simple in delivery but carries a heavy, heartbreaking message. “Tears rolling down my eyes / Can’t tell you how many times I cried / Days ain’t the same without you,” Quavo sings before recounting better days with Takeoff and wishing he “had a time machine, just so you can take a ride with me.”