GoneTrending

Five-piece shoegazers Smut are big on nostalgia. That becomes more than clear while spinning their latest album How The Light Felt, a smoldering project underscored throwback influences like Gorillaz, Oasis, and Massive Attack.

Diving deeper, it’s understandable why Smut leaned into the sentimentality on their sophomore album. The band, composed of vocalist Tay Roebuck, guitarist Andrew Min, bassist/synthist Bell Cenower, guitarist/synthist Sam Ruschman, and drummer Aidan O’Connor, have been through a lot. Roebuck immersed herself in music following the tragic passing of her sister in 2017, pouring a range of complicated emotions like grief and acceptance into music. Songs like “After Silver Leaves” and “Let Me Hate” combine the ethereal quality of a bands like Cocteau Twins with the upbeat wistfulness of Alvvays.

As a whole, How The Light Felt is ten yearning and dreamy tracks that evoke the comfort of seeing fog dissipate on an unseasonably warm autumn day. It’s intimate, heartfelt, and keeps looking forward to what the band has in store next. Celebrating the release of How The Light Felt, Smut sat down with Uproxx to talk The Killers, a Morrissey tattoo, and Death Cab For Cutie giving them depression in our latest Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Cenower: Hot people being sad

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

Roebuck: I’d like them to think we were a historic band. Have we done anything to deserve that title? Not yet, but I do think we could get there. We just have to invent a new genre of music or make the next anthemic song for baseball games. Maybe an iconic Christmas song? Easy.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

Roebuck: Right now it would have to be Chicago. We haven’t lived here very long and already feel so welcome. It’s a city full of talent and enthusiasm and we’ve discovered so many great local bands by playing shows here. I don’t think we’ve had a bad band on a Chicago bill yet!

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

Roebuck: Personally, I’d say my family. They are not an influence on the sound but I grew up in an environment where my dad’s side of the family are all natural singers. And my parents both kind of figured me and my sisters could make it in anything we tried to do, I think even beyond the “you can do anything you set your mind to” speech. They truly know in their hearts that we can do big exciting things and growing up with that kind of… ego embedded in yourself is step one to making it. You have to have an unrealistic level of belief in yourself.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Ruschman: Gotta give it up to that fresh piece of halibut I had in North Carolina one time.

What album do you know every word to?

Cenower: Honestly, probably quite a few. But my very first CD that I bought was Transatlanticism by Death Cab For Cutie and I will never ever lose those lyrics. I’ve been listening to that album since I was like, 9 years old. I think that album gave me depression. One of my favorite albums of all time.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

Cenower: April 28, 2007. My first concert ever. The Killers at Madison Square Garden on their Sam’s Town tour. I was freshly 13 years old, a super fan, and in the fan club (The Killers Victims…yup), and somehow won a contest to see the band soundcheck. So my mom took off early from work to chaperone me, a completely starstruck tweenager, at a rock and roll soundcheck. I was so embarrassed because I thought Brandon Flowers would think I was a child for having my mom there and wouldn’t fall in love with me (I recognize now that he would have perceived that either way. I didn’t stand a chance). My mom did teach me what a vomitorium is which was cool, but I didn’t appreciate her expansive vocabulary at the time. Later that night I went to the concert with my family, seats so ridiculously far back in the nosebleeds, and I passionately screamed along to all the songs so hard that I completely lost my voice for like a week. The Killers were the first band that made me want to be a musician. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to experience that sort of pure joy again. It remains one of the best nights of my life, period.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

Roebuck: Whatever is most comfortable. We’ve tried and dressed up on occasion but, personally, if I’m wearing something loose and (usually) black I can move around and perform better because that underlying layer of self-consciousness is gone. I’d like to look hot or cool but I’d rather sound great without overthinking how people perceive me. I’m too anxious to handle looking and sounding good.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

Roebuck: Bell and Andrew both love @sana_ssnn who is an artist they’ve bought prints from. Also our friend @shelleyuckotter has amazing art, I think we all have her early doodles framed in our houses.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

Roebuck: It changes every tour, except for maybe the stuff Bell puts on. She likes what she likes so with that in mind I think I’ve heard “Cool Water” by Marty Robbins more than any other song in my life. She plays a lot of honky tonk when we hit the desert. Or the plains. Or the south.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

Roebuck: “women’s steel armor chestplate” on the shopping tab. I couldn’t afford it.

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Roebuck: I want to say… How The Light Felt. We all have different tastes but we do all like the album we made, it’s fun for the whole family.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

Roebuck: There have been so many, I’m not sure what to pick. One place we haven’t talked about much was a favor of a friend, but when we got to the house it was almost completely empty and full of leaves? There was a mattress in one room (also covered in leaves) and we didn’t question it because we were tired and had a huge drive the next day. But I’m not fully sure if anyone actually lived there.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

Cenower: The story of my first tattoo is humiliating so I’ll talk about my two favorites. The first is my freaking sick Morrissey tattoo that pulls from the song “I Am Hated For Loving” — it literally just says “hated for loving” in an old London font armband. I do love the song but it’s also always resonated with me lyrically. It’s a song about accepting how you feel like you don’t belong anywhere, but it’s okay because you belong to yourself. A little corny but close to my sentimental bleeding heart. My other favorite tattoo, on the subject of bleeding hearts, is my Smut tattoo. It’s a take on the classic “Mom” heart tattoo, but the heart is barbed wire and instead of Mom it says Smut. I think it is sort of the mirror of my Mozzer tattoo — I got the Smut tattoo because I love being in this band and it’s one of the few times in my life I’ve really felt a strong sense of belonging.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

Roebuck: I do not have a car, Aidan and Sam do! They listen to NPR, I think? I like that new Momma record. When I hear it on Spotify at work, I’m happy.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Cenower: Like, 5 years ago my boyfriend threw me a surprise birthday party. And last year Tay threw me a semi-surprise birthday party. I’m a real simp for birthdays! Always makes a girl feel really special.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Roebuck: Don’t date that guy, move straight to Cincinnati and seek out a man named Andrew Min. He will know what to do.

What’s the last show you went to?

Ruschman: Saw my friends in S.C.A.B. play in Chicago after joining them on their tour of the regional Chicago delights (deep dish). Great tunes and energy!

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

Ruschman: Wayne’s World 1 or 2. If there happens to be a double feature I’m clearing my schedule for the rest of the day.

What’s one of your hidden talents?

Roebuck: I can put my feet behind my head, I used to be able to do that and walk around using my hands but I think I’d hurt myself if I tried it now. I’m also pretty good at remembering almost every jingle I’ve ever heard.

How The Light Felt is out now via Bayonet. Get it here.

At the 94th Annual Academy Awards ceremony this past March, composer Hans Zimmer received his second ever Oscar in the Best Original Score category for his work on Dune. The first time he won the award was back in 1994 for The Lion King, he’s received twelve Academy Award nominations overall, and Zimmer is generally considered to be among the greatest film score composers of all time. He’s composed iconic scores for films like Gladiator, The Dark Knight, The Last Samurai, The Da Vinci Code, Blade Runner 2049, Inception, and so many more.

Yet, Zimmer has always been coy when naming what he considers to be his masterwork. Now in a video posted to his TikTok account, he finally spilled the beans on his choice for the best film score of his career.

“People always ask me what’s my favorite score and I keep avoiding answering the question,” Zimmer began. “And how about I don’t avoid it this time? I’m going to tell you that the first, the favorite score that I’ve ever written, I think, is Interstellar.”

His work on Interstellar was indeed among his twelve Oscar nominations, but it definitely came as a surprise pick. It represents one of the many times that Zimmer has worked with director Christopher Nolan and it certainly won’t be the last. That raised an interesting point for Zimmer: After delivering his answer, in a moment of inspiration of sorts, the man behind well over a hundred film scores added a postscript to his response with a big smile: “Or, I haven’t written my favorite score yet. So, maybe that’s the better answer.”

Salads in fast food are a dying species. Ever since the pandemic forced most national fast food chains to simplify their menus, salads, along with a few interesting sides, got the axe. It’s a real shame for people who are still trying to eat relatively healthy or at the very least balanced while relying on the convenience that fast food provides. McDonald’s, Burger King, and Arby’s — three chains which, admittedly, are not known for their salads — don’t even offer a single side salad anymore. Zero!

Will they ever return? We honestly don’t know, it’s been nearly three years since the start of the pandemic and while we’re still very much living through it, it’s not like these big chains haven’t introduced new menu items since 2020, so we think the fast food salad as a concept just might be dying. Produce in a starring role demands a level of freshness that… gulp… fast food can’t always meet.

But the salad isn’t dead yet! So to help you out we’re shouting out the #1 best salad order at all the big fast food chains (that still have ’em). One note before we dive in though, for this roundup we aren’t necessarily singling out the healthiest salads on the market, just the best tasting — keep that in mind if you’re on a strict diet.

Boston Market — Caesar Salad

Tasting Notes:

Boston Market isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think “I want a good salad,” and trust those instincts because this Caesar Salad isn’t so much good as it’s just Boston Market’s only salad option. But hey, at least they have one! Like Arby’s, this is an establishment you frequent when you want meat and heavy carbs. I mean, they have gravy on the menu for Christ’s sake!

This Caesar features a bed of romaine lettuce topped with garlicky croutons, caesar dressing, and some chops of rotisserie chicken. The chicken looks disturbingly naked but it’s actually very good, it’s tender, juicy, and packs that classic rotisserie flavor. The weak part of this salad is unsurprising — the lettuce. It’s all texture no flavor.

The Bottom Line:

We’re happy Boston Market has a salad and it might be a great thing to add as an addition to your meal if you need a nice palate cleanser, but as a standalone meal, this is going to leave you wanting.

Find your nearest Boston Market here.

Chick-fil-A — Spicy Southwest Salad

Tasting Notes:

Chick-fil-A has a lot of great salads on the menu including a killer Cob and a Market Fresh salad with fresh fruit, but my taste buds always lean towards spice, so we’re giving the spot to the Spicy Southwest Salad.

This salad features a base of mixed greens with grape tomatoes, Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese, roasted corn, black beans, sweet red bell peppers, chili lime pumpkin seeds, tortilla strips, and the star of the show, poblano chilies. It’s a medley of fresh sweet, peppery, and spicy flavors that never get boring and manage to come across as satisfying even before you get to the meat. And let’s talk about the meat!

You get a choice of a spicy or non-spicy grilled filet, spicy or regular chicken strips, a spicy, regular, or grilled breast filet, and fried or regular nuggets. We say go with the nuggets to get the most tender bites of chicken, and you can do so without sacrificing any of the spice thanks to the poblano chilis.

The Bottom Line:

Not only Chick-fil-A’s best salad but probably the greatest salad in all of fast food.

Find your nearest Chick-fil-A here.

Chipotle — Best Salad Bowl Build

Tasting Notes:

I’ve thought a lot about how to make the best Chipotle bowl because… well I did a whole investigation on the best build, coming up with three different variations so I’m pretty confident this is the best way to eat a salad at Chipotle. First things first, forget the salad, it sucks, instead start with a Burrito Bowl which is nearly identical to a salad anyway.

Here is how to make it:

Pinto beans, white rice, barbacoa, fajitas, tomatillo red salsa, cheese, lettuce (because it’s a salad remember?), guacamole, and a squirt of Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce (which is located near the straws and lids for some reason). Bam, that’s it, nothing more nothing less.

Each forkful is a bouquet of spicy, smokey, earthy, and sweet flavors with powerful aromatics that tickle the tongue as much as the tastebuds. The barbacoa is simply the juiciest and most tender meat you’re going to get on any salad and features notes of oregano and clove which pair nicely with the cumin-heavy pinto beans.

The Bottom Line:

Did I say Chick-fil-A has the best fast food salad? I take that back, nothing packs more flavor than this.

Find your nearest Chipotle here.

Dairy Queen — Crispy Chicken Strips Salad

Tasting Notes:

We just spent two entries talking about incredible fast food salads and now here we are at Dairy Queen. This is certainly a salad, whether or not it’s one you want to order depends on if you’re totally fine with mediocrity. Back when every fast food chain had numerous salad options something like the Crispy Chicken Strips Salad didn’t surprise us, but now that most fast food menus have been simplified we’re left wondering why this still exists.

It’s fine, not bad by any means but not worth ordering. Built on a bed of flavorless iceberg lettuce, this salad features bits of DQ’s fried chicken tenders, diced tomatoes, bacon, and a few shreds of cheddar cheese. Each individual ingredient, aside from the lettuce, is fine enough but the flavors never really come together in the right way.

The Bottom Line:

Eat it if they mess up and give you a salad for free for some reason. But certainly don’t order it — you might as well eat your money.

Find your nearest Dairy Queen here.

Del Taco — Taco Salad With Grilled Chicken

Tasting Notes:

Del Taco is putting a little too much effort into their salads. I say that because this Taco Salad with Grilled Chicken has all the makings of something delicious: fresh grated and nutty cheddar cheese, house-made pico de Gallo, fresh cilantro, sour cream, tortilla strips, and fresh guacamole. Only, it fails to deliver.

How did they manage to get all of these great ingredients together and fail to deliver? It makes no sense. The lettuce is bad, it has a dirt flavor to it, the guacamole has far too much onion, the sour cream doesn’t need to be there, the tortilla chips are stale, and the tomatoes are watery and unripened. The only thing going for this salad is the chicken and the cheese, which would probably taste way better between a tortilla. At least then you’d be saving some money.

The Bottom Line:

We know, it looks great but trust us — it’s not worth your time or money.

Find your nearest Del Taco here.

El Pollo Loco — Double Chicken Avocado Salad

Tasting Notes:

Now we’re talking! Take note Del Taco, this is how you make a salad. Built on a bed of spring mix, this salad sports a double serving of fire-grilled chicken, fresh slices of ripened avocado, corn, pico de Gallo, and crumbles of cotija cheese.

The chicken imparts a nice charred flavor to the whole thing making it taste satisfyingly savory with the Pico de Gallo adding a subtle hit of spice while the corn adds some texture. I wish there was more avocado here because it adds a nice buttery and savory quality to the chicken which makes this salad wonderfully satisfying.

The Bottom Line:

One of the best salads your money could buy and easily amongst El Pollo Loco’s best dishes, and that’s saying something! If you’re looking for a salad that is going to be filling and still deliver on flavor, you can’t go wrong with this one.

Find your nearest El Pollo Loco here.

Jack in the Box — Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad

Tasting Notes:

I don’t know what’s going on at Jack in the Box, but I don’t like it. Even before the pandemic, Jack in the Box has slowly been changing and dropping things from their menu and in the process, they’ve gone from a delicious fast food option to Burger King levels of bad.

This Southwest Chicken sandwich used to be amazing, and then JiB changed its chicken recipe and now the fried chicken, which used to top this salad, is inedible. This means now we have to settle for grilled chicken which is also terrible — it’s dry and flavorless. The lettuce is watery garbage, the grape tomatoes are also watery refuse, the cheddar cheese isn’t good, and the black beans are too dry and hard. The only thing going for it is the roasted corn and creamy southwest dressing.

The fact that this is the BEST salad at Jack in the Box shows you just how bad things have gotten.

The Bottom Line:

This used to be delicious but if you haven’t had it in five years, be warned — it’s changed and for the worse.

Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.

Panera — Citrus Asian Crunch Salad

Tasting Notes:

I’m always bouncing between what my favorite Panera salad is so forgive me if this isn’t yours, but my pick is the Citrus Asian Crunch Salad with Chicken, come see me in a month and see how I feel! This salad features a bed of romaine lettuce, which normally would garner an eye roll from me, but it’s super-changed with a mix of broccoli, green cabbage, carrots, and kale, which is way better than what you’ll usually find in a fast food salad.

Aside from the mix of veggies, the salad has a few springs of fresh cilantro, a handful of edamame, carrots, teriyaki drizzle, pickled red onions, and seared chicken thigh all tied together with a tangerine soy ginger dressing, is your mouth-watering yet?

There isn’t a single element of this salad that tastes boring, the use of chicken thigh is ingenious, giving this salad the juiciest chicken of any fast food salad, while pickled red onions infuse a lot of natural sweetness with a bit of tangy savory notes, while crispy fried carrots add a fantastic mouthfeel to the whole thing.

The Bottom Line:

A salad that never gets boring from the first forkful to the last.

Find your nearest Panera here.

Taco Bell — Veggie Power Menu Bowl

Tasting Notes:

This isn’t technically a salad but it’s as good as you’re going to get at Taco Bell, and you know what? It’s not bad. It’s obviously heavily influenced by Chipotle and features a mix of Spanish rice, black beans guacamole, lettuce with avocado ranch sauce, sour cream, tomatoes, and cheese. Despite being meatless, it’s very satisfying thanks to that combination of tomato-heavy rice and black beans and for an additional charge, you can easily add chicken or ground beef to the mix.

My major issue is the distribution, it feels all off, there is far too much rice here when there should be an equal distribution of rice and beans. In addition to that, the mouthfeel isn’t quite right either, it’s a bit too mushy, and it desperately needs some sort of crunch added to the mix. Luckily Taco Bell gives you all the tools you’ll need to get this power bowl in better shape.

Our suggestion is to add jalapeño peppers, chicken, and a three-cheese blend.

The Bottom Line:

It’s halfway decent and with a few tweaks, you’ll actually have a meal worth eating on your hands.

Find your nearest Taco Bell here.

Wendy’s — Apple Pecan Salad

Tasting Notes:

If you’re a Wendy’s fan already this shouldn’t come as a surprise to you — Wendy’s makes a damn good salad. Several of them in fact, our favorite is the Apple Pecan. Featuring a mix of sweet red and sour green apples, this salad also sports pecans, cranberries, blue cheese crumbles, and your choice of Wendy’s spicy, homestyle, or grilled chicken chopped on top using the same filet that makes the sandwiches so good.

Obviously, you’re going to want to go with the spicy style, which will infuse your meal with some cayenne-pepper-backed heat which serves as an interesting contrast to the sweet and tart qualities. To up the sweetness factor, Wendy’s pairs this salad with a pomegranate vinaigrette with adds more depth of flavor to the mix and complements the already sweet and tart flavor profile.

The Bottom Line:

Don’t sleep on Wendy’s salads, they’re as good as anything else on the menu. But definitely start with this one!

Find your nearest Wendy’s here.

If (when?) Donald Trump ever gets carted off to prison as a result of any one of the many investigations he’s currently under, Mike Lindell is going to have to go back to hawking his sh*tty pillows full-time. Because in his desperate desire to stay “in” with “the president,” he hasn’t stopped to take the temperature of the room. If he did, he might have noticed that Ron DeSantis, a.k.a. Ron DeSanctimonious, is the GOP’s current golden boy. And he probably wouldn’t suggest that there were “anomalies” in Florida’s recent gubernatorial election.

On Tuesday, Lindell — on his own Lindell TV, of course, because what network would want to risk a billion-dollar lawsuit by letting him on the air — the Pillow Man announced that “I am going after Dade County in the 2022 election.”

You’ll want to watch the video for yourself, because Mike and his sidekick Brandon have worked out a sort of “Who’s On First?” routine, but made it about “Florida” and “Hispanics.” But Lindell, who’s got all that cyber and stuff, ya know, thinks it’s kind of suspicious that DeSantis — who won a whopping 59.4 percent of the vote in the Sunshine State — won Miami-Dade County, too.

“For me, I look at deviations everybody,” Lindell said to the half-dozen or so people possibly watching. Or likely wondering why the guy who thought those slippers were a good idea is talking politics at all.

But Lindell explained, with a sly little knock at Democrats along the way:

That’s a deviation! I don’t believe it. So I just want to show everybody… just like how we always tell you about Democrats, where they stole their elections. Just like they did that nice lady in Georgia that got zero votes in her own precinct.

I want to find out, in Dade County, what happened there? Because it’s a deviation from norm, you know. So it’s very much a deviation.

Yes, a deviation. Or what some of us here on planet Earth call a “flip.” But that’s certainly one way to make Donald proud.

After posting last week about hoping to find her missing friends, Silvana Estrada mourned their tragic deaths in a heartfelt post today (December 21). Jorge and Andrés Tirado, who were close to the Mexican singer-songwriter, were found murdered at their home on Sunday in Mexico City.

Estrada had a breakthrough year with the release of her third album, Marchita. Back in October, she performed “Se Me Ocurre” as a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Last month, Estrada won Best New Artist in a tie with Angela Alvarez at the Latin Grammy Awards. On Friday, she posted in her Instagram Stories about looking for her friends, the Tirado brothers, who were last seen that day. Jorge worked in music and he was the manager of singer Augusto Bracho. His younger brother, Andrés, was a budding actor and a graduate from the University Theater Center of the National Autonomous University Of Mexico (UNAM).

On Sunday, the Mexican authorities reported that the Tirado brothers were murdered along with their uncle, José Luis Gonzáles. Their bodies were found beaten, gagged, and strangled in a home that they shared with their uncle. José González’s wife Margarita Ochoa was also found beaten but she survived her injuries. Three people who the family lived with were arrested for their murders. El Pais is reporting that the family was murdered after refusing to hand over the deed to their home to the other tenants who are now in police custody.

Following the news of their murders, Estrada shared her memories with Jorge in a heartfelt post on Instagram. The post included her photos with Jorge and a video of him dancing happily.

“I love you, Jorge,” Estrada wrote. “You were my brother, my friend, and my family. I’m honored to know that we built a friendship so strong that even now I still embrace your love. I will honor the miracle of your life Jorge, the miracle of having been a part of it, the miracle that your brother also became my brother, and that this sick, miserable, and brutal world was bright and beautiful because of you. Nothing will ever be the same without you guys.”

The Knicks will lose their 2025 second round pick as the result of the NBA’s tampering investigation into the team’s pursuit of Jalen Brunson this summer.

For months, the New York Knicks were connected to Jalen Brunson as a potential free agent target. The then-Mavs guard had grown up around the Knicks organization as his father, Rick Brunson, played for the team and was repped by now-Knicks president Leon Rose — and Brunson’s agent is Rose’s son.

However, it wasn’t until this offseason that it started to seem as though Brunson might really walk from the Mavs, as all signs until June had indicated they would meet whatever the asking price was. One of the first eyebrow raising moments was when the Knicks hired Rick Brunson as an assistant coach as he rejoined Tom Thibodeau’s staff after stints with him in Chicago and Minnesota. Then, reports began leaking out that the Knicks were prepared to offer Jalen Brunson more than the Mavs had set aside for his contract, and the tide steadily shifted to the expectation leading into the start of free agency being Brunson joining New York.

There were efforts to throw the league off of the tampering trail, such as reports of Brunson holding meetings in New York with the Knicks, Mavs, and Heat — only for those to be canceled once free agency started. Then, the agreement that had been reported was delayed for a few hours after free agency started. All told, the Knicks will happily pay the price of a future second rounder for Brunson, as he has been terrific for New York and has been a big part of their current 8-game win streak. As for the rest of the league, we now know the answer to whether your father can tamper with you, as that is apparently a “yes” albeit for a fairly minimal penalty.

United States senator and self-proclaimed masculinity expert Josh Hawley stopped by Tucker Carlson‘s show this week to rage about his favorite topic: porn. Namely, how American men are watching too much of it, and Hawley wants them to stop because they should be making babies instead. You know, because it’s that easy.

While ranting to Carlson, Hawley blamed liberals for training men to withdraw into easily obtained pornography when there’s clearly a vast sea of waiting and available women for them to impregnate. All these wayward men have to do is talk to them, and boom, let the baby-making begin. It’s practically foolproof. Via Mediaite:

Somebody’s got to be honest and tell the truth to these young men, and the truth is that the porn industry is selling them a total lie, and the truth is American society needs them. We need them to step up. We need them to go get married and have families and be responsible husbands and fathers. This society is impoverished because too many young men are too despairing or too check out on social media or porn to be doing what we need them to do as a country.

Of course, this topic is just a further extension of Hawley’s obsession with masculinity. The Missouri senator wrote an upcoming book on how today’s modern man aren’t the virile, strapping men of yore, which people found particularly rich coming from the guy who was caught on video running out of the Capitol building on January 6 after pumping his fist in support of the insurrectionist crowd.

Did porn and video games make Senator Hawley a coward or is it a natural talent he was born with? Inquiring minds want to know.

(Via Mediaite)

UPROXX Sessions is back with a new performance from Bronx rapper, DreamDoll. At just 30 years old, the emcee responsible for viral hits like “Ah Ah Ah,” has collaborated with industry titans like French Montana and Rick Ross, and was a cast member on hit reality TV shows Love & Hip Hop: New York and Bad Girls Club. She recently got candid about being just “one song away” from her career breakthrough in an interview with Power 106 Los Angeles, and we’re hoping her Sessions performance aids in that quantum leap.

Today she graces the bathroom set with “Misunderstood” from her new mixtape Life In Plastic 3. The track and the Doll’s performance are emotionally-charged efforts. Her Sessions set positions her as an introvert with introspective lyricism, unafraid to be vulnerable in the nearly 3-minute track. Taking a page from the past, DreamDoll closes her performance pondering whether she is a “misfit or just misunderstood,” supported by an interpolation of Nina Simone’s classic “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.”

Watch DreamDoll perform “Misunderstood” for UPROXX Sessions above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Country pop star Shania Twain opened up in a new interview for People about her experience posing topless for the cover art of her single, “Waking Up Dreaming.” In the photo, she wears a traditional cowboy hat and some colorful boots, but was tame enough of a photo to exist on Instagram.

“I think the best fashion is confidence, and whatever you wear — if you’re wearing it with that, it’s fashionable,” Twain said. “I am a woman in my late 50s, and I don’t need to hide behind the clothes. I can’t even tell you how good it felt to do nude shooting. I was just so unashamed of my new body, you know, as a woman that is well into my menopause. I’m not even emotional about it; I just feel OK about it. It’s really liberating.”

“I hit this wall and was like, ‘Whoa, my confidence is regressing. My courage is dulling. Why am I allowing this?’” she added. “Frig that. I am not regressing… I’m not going to be shy about it. I want to be courageous about it, and I want to share that courage in the artwork that I am directing.”

Twain’s next album, Queen Of Me (which will feature “Waking Up Dreaming”), drops on February 3.

Dabo Swinney is a different breed of cat. Clemson’s two-time national championship winning head football coach isn’t unique in how he’s a man of unshakeable faith, but there is next to no one in college sports who is able to bring everything back to his faith in literally every situation quite as well as William Christopher Swinney.

Well, folks, today is the start of the Early Signing Period, which allows high school recruits to sign their Letters of Intent before February’s National Signing Day. One topic that has popped up a lot in recent days (and weeks, and months, and years) is the impact NIL rules have on recruiting, and if you have not seen this yet, I have a hunch you will not be surprised in the direction Swinney takes.

“For me, we built this program on NIL,” Swinney said, a smirk creeping up on his face as he is absolutely about to go for this. “We really did. And it’s probably different than what you’re thinking, though: We built this program in God’s Name, Image, and Likeness. And that’s how I look at it.”

This was so predictable that a few Twitter users made jokes that were awfully similar to this months ago.

Clemson signed the No. 12 class in the country this year, per their 247Sports Composite ranking.