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Soccer Mommy is one of the most promising indie acts out now. The Nashville singer, real name Sophie Allison, blends soft rock and pop music elements to create irresistible tracks. Unfortunately, shortly after releasing her breakout sophomore album, Color Theory, in February 2020, a global pandemic shut the world down. However, the guitarist refused to let that slow down her momentum. Instead, the vocalist found a way to make it work while on lockdown, starting with an at-home NPR Tiny Desk performance the following month.

Now, nearly three since that self-produced session, Sophie has finally made her in-person debut at NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series. The rocker stopped by to play songs from that album as well as her latest album, Sometimes, Forever, including “Shotgun,” “Circle The Drain,” “Newdemo,” and “Still Clean.”

Joined by guitarist Julian Powell, keyboardist Rodrigo Avendano, bassist Nickolas Widener, and drum machiner Rollum Haas, Soccer Mommy delivers the performance fans have been patiently waiting for.

After the opening track, Sophie takes the time to address the crowd and recall back to her first appearance, “Thanks, y’all. Thank you for coming. I know those who will be watching this video can’t see that there are people here, but there are,” excitedly adding, “We’re finally doin’ it. ”

“[The band] was actually talking about it earlier. We were the first, or I guess it was just me, the first in-home tiny desk and the first [appearance] to be canceled as well,” said Sophie, “I think that was the first session-type thing I did as well. I did it on my iPhone because I didn’t have any of the gadgets people acquired over the pandemic for home videoing, but it was awesome. I’m happy to finally be home doing this.”

Watch the full performance above.

There shall be no Scooby Doo in HBO Max’s Velma, the Velma Dinkley origin series created by Mindy Kaling. The show is following in the footsteps of review-bombed shows like Amazon’s The Boys (because people were mad about the weekly release schedule) and Netflix’s Masters Of The Universe: Revelation (because people couldn’t stand it when Kevin Smith dared to sideline He-Man). Both shows went on to further streaming success, and no one can fully predict whether that’s in the cards for Velma, but rumor has it that the show will score a Season 2.

Let’s back up a moment. Velma follows on the heels of the 2022 HBO Max film (Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!) that canonized Velma as lesbian. Kaling has clarified that Velma and Daphne do kiss in this show, and admittedly, the episodes that have aired so far are, well, frenetic. That doesn’t seem to be what the hate is about, though. Angry peeps aren’t thrilled about the characters’ personalities being rewritten (including Velma being edgier and of South Asian descent). Also, the absence of Scoob is being held out as a downside and a blessing in disguise.

The complaints (see below) are rather vicious, as are the numbers. Over at Rotten Tomatoes, the aggregate critical score (57%) isn’t great, but the audience score is sitting at 6% with nearly 6,000 non-fans adding hate-watch voices:

Here’s a sampling of the dissent from Rotten Tomatoes’ audience side of the score:

– This tv show is disgustung . How dare they used the scoobydoo cartoon ,one of the best cartoons of all the times amd manged to create something so horrenduos ..? Horrible,i dont have words to describe this disgraceful show

– The substances that the writers were on when they decided to make the characters unlikable a-holes are certainly not in the periodic table

– A dishonest, hateful show — that does a complete and utter disservice to the source material. Avoid to maintain any integrity you might have.

– A hateful self-insert that assassinates characters who have brought laughter to folks for decades. What were they thinking? I guess the silver lining is that they didn’t screw up Scoob while they (Mindy K) were at it.

– Made account here just to leave this review

The complainers undoubtedly hope to work some magic in the form of a cancellation, but Comic Book did some sleuthing, and the Entertainment Identifier Registry points towards more Velma.

News of season two came to light this week when the Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR) updated its entries. The catalog now lists Velma season two as in the works under HBO Max and Warner Bros. The entry goes on to suggest season two will consist of 11 episodes, but other than that, few details are known about the project.

Velma premiered on January 12 with episodes planned through February 9. We’ll see if that second season materializes, and people will surely have something to say about the result.

Everyone knows about Aubrey Plaza’s signature dark humor that is so out there that you honestly can’t tell if she is kidding or not. But there is an alternate timeline where Plaza became a Saturday Night Live cast member in the early 2000s, which would have been interesting, to say the least. It’s hard to imagine Plaza standing on the stage and hugging Seth Meyers after another week of absurd impressions, and maybe somewhere out there, that timeline exists.

But Plaza did get her start there, though it was as an intern in the design department. Plaza recently told Jimmy Fallon about her experience on the infamous late-night show. “They loved me because I did not care about set design at all,” the actress told Fallon on The Tonight Show. “They wanted an intern that had no interest in learning what they did because they were moody bastards,” Plaza joked, adding that she was there in 2004 right after Fallon exited the show. “I replaced you, Jimmy.”

When it came to being a cast member, Plaza has less success. The actress admitted that she did audition for the show, but it fell flat. “I didn’t make it to the big, Lorne [Michaels] audition, the famous final audition, but I did a preliminary first-round showcase at UCB,” Plaza revealed.

“I did some characters. I remember one character I did was kind of like a Puerto Rican news reporter that was always trying to make all of the news stories like sexy, even if they were horrific news stories. I was just trying to like sex up the news or something.” Perhaps her character clashed too much with Bill Hader’s frustrated newscaster bit.

Plaza also had another character, in which she would assign different celebrities types of tails. “I was a pill-popping housewife that had my own talk show, called ‘Celebri-tails,’ where I would just name celebrities and name what kind of tail they would have if they were –if they had a tail. Like, I would say, like, ‘ Lindsay Lohan would have a bushy squirrel’s tail.’ Or, like, ‘ Bill Clinton would have, like, a polar bear’s nub.’ Or ‘Oprah Winfrey would have a dragon’s (tail)’” she laughed, adding. “I mean, I didn’t get on the show.”

She didn’t get on the show at the time, but Plaza is set to host this weekend with musical guest Sam Smith. “Now I’m gonna host it. So my master plan worked!” Check out the clip above, and see Plaza host SNL this weekend.

Dolly Parton previously revealed that her next album, Rock Star, will include covers of Led Zeppelin, Prince, The Rolling Stones, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and more legendary acts. Now, the country star has also shared some of the names that are joining her on the record.

During a recent appearance on The View, Parton shared that Pink and Brandi Carlile will be helping her tackle The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” — and there’s even more superstar surprises in store.

“But we got great artists like Paul McCartney is singing with me, and we got Stevie Nicks — we just finished our song last night — we got John Fogerty, and we’ve got Steve Perry and Steven Tyler,” Parton said. “I’m even gonna have Cher on. I’ve been getting a song for her, we’ve been trying to get the right thing together, but that’s gonna be a big thrill I think.”

She felt inspired to do a full rock album after her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, which she felt like she had to earn.

“I’m having a lot of the rock stars that I met that night be on the album with me,” she continued. “I’m doing my best to get [Mick Jagger] on, but I did his song anyway.”

This Friday, Parton is also appearing on a Diane Warren-written new song, “Gonna Be You,” alongside Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper, and more.

Watch Parton discuss her new album, Rock Star, on The View above.

This past summer, Noel Gallagher was treated to an entire restaurant singing his Oasis hit “Wonderwall” to him. Recently, though, he had a far more humbling experience out in public, when he was talking with somebody who didn’t recognize him.

In a recent Absolute Radio interview, Gallagher explained, “Every Thursday you can catch me in the West End – not on stage, usually in the Firehouse, talking nonsense to somebody, anyone who will listen. […] Somebody asked me in the Firehouse the other night, ‘What do you do?’ And I was like… I didn’t know what to say. Well, I didn’t know what to say because I’d never been asked before, ‘What do you do?’ I was like, ‘Really?’”

He then framed his face with his hands and sang a snippet of Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back In Anger.”

Gallagher continued, “[The girl said], ‘So what is it you do,’ and I was like, ‘I change people’s lives for the better.’ She was like, ‘Oh, what: you’re in the medical profession?’ I was like, ‘Of sorts.’ […] I was gobsmacked. I was like, ‘Look, Google it, love. Just put in ‘Noel Gallagher,’ ‘High Flying Birds,’ ‘Oasis.’ Put in ‘Liam Gallagher,’ you’ll probably see a picture of me.”

Watch Gallagher tell the story in the video above.

Steven Spielberg is, by far, the highest-grossing director of all-time. His movies have made over $10 billion at the worldwide box office (James Cameron is in second place — for now — with $8.2 billion), but The Fablemans didn’t do much to help the total.

Spielberg’s most recent (and personal, and good and weird) film was never going to rival the financial might of Jurassic Park or Jaws, but it’s still a disappointment that the Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director only made $20 million at the box office, half its reported budget. It also says a lot about the “state of moviegoing,” as the Washington Post reporter Steven Zeitchik put it, that the contestants on Tuesday’s episode of Jeopardy! had apparently never even heard it.

The category was “Summing Up the Spielberg Movie.” The clue for $1,000: “Young cinema lover Sammy represents cinema lover Steven Spielberg.” Contestant Katie thought it was Hugo, which is a decent guess. Especially compared to fellow contestant Vince thinking it was 8mm, a movie directed by Joel Schumacher. They did better with the other clues, including “Soldier Matt Damon needs rescuing; wait, Vin Diesel’s in the film, too?!” (Saving Private Ryan) and “Making Whoopi age several decades” (which is a very funny way to describe The Color Purple).

Maybe the contestants would have nailed the $1,000 clue if the category was about Spielberg’s non-union Mexican equivalent, Señor Spielbergo.

Taylor Swift is used to having hits. She has one on top of the charts right now: On the latest Billboard Hot 100, Midnights highlight “Anti-Hero” is No. 1 for an eighth week. That makes it the biggest single of Swift’s career, at least in terms of total weeks spent at No. 1. It turns out, though, that despite releasing the track as Midnights‘ lead single, Swift didn’t think it’d be a chart-topper.

In an Instagram Story commenting on Swift’s continued presence atop the Hot 100 yesterday (January 17), the song’s co-writer and co-producer Jack Antonoff explained, “remembering right before anti hero came out taylor saying its her favorite song lyrically and thats why its first single but its a strange and personal one and we shouldn’t expect it to ever go number 1….. anti hero 8th week at 1.. insane ..”

In an Instagram post of her own from October 2022, Swift wrote of her and Antonoff’s work on the album, “Midnights is a wild ride of an album and I couldn’t be happier that my co-pilot on this adventure was @jackantonoff. He’s my friend for life (presumptuous I know but I stand by it) and we’ve been making music together for nearly a decade HOWEVER… this is our first album we’ve done with just the two of us as main collaborators.”

Selena Gomez has announced that she will be dropping a new album soon, so fans are going crazy. The singer recently talked about her latest project — her first in nearly three years — on Instagram Tuesday. After a fan commented under a recent post from Gomez, a fan asked the former Disney star when her next album would be coming, and the “Good For You” songstress had no problem letting them know it would be coming sooner than they thought.

“Oh, it’s coming,” she wrote.

Gomez’s last album, Rare, came out in 2020, spawning two chart-toppers titled “Lose You to Love Me” and “Look at Her Now.”

No other information about the project, including the name, possible features, or release date, has been released by Gomez or her camp.

When she’s not making catchy tunes, the singer and actress keeps herself busy acting on Hulu’s Only Murders In The Building. The comedy-drama series’ third season is currently underway. Gomez recently shared a video on social media, showing the cast behind the scenes as they were filming, also revealing that Meryl Streep is expected to join the stacked cast.

Life seems to be going well for the star. She even has a new beau in her life. Gomez and Drew Taggart from the Chainsmokers were recently spotted getting cozy on a date at a bowling alley.

Fenne Lily has announced a new album called Big Picture, her follow-up to 2020’s hypnotic Breach. She unleashed the lead single “Lights Light Up,” today, a sprawling indie earworm with mesmerizing chords and stunning vocals that preview a contemplative, immersive record.

“I’d never really written about love in the present tense before this, but even though I was still in love and not thinking about the end, there was something else going on subconsciously that led to a song about moving on before the moving on had begun,” Fenne said about the song in a statement. “When it came time to record, the band and I had been playing it live for a while and it’d become something joyful and positive, but when I started recording vocals, the lyrics made me cry. By that point the song was over a year old and I thought those wounds had healed but I guess it hurt to admit I’d been letting go of something while still trying to hold on.”

The LP is co-produced by Brad Cook and features guitar work from Christian Lee Hutson and vocals from Katy Kirby. It was also mixed by Melina Duterte of Jay Som.

Listen to “Lights Light Up” above.

Find the album tracklist and artwork below.

1. “Map Of Japan”
2. “Dawncolored Horse”
3. “Lights Light Up”
4. “2+2”
5. “Superglued”
6. “Henry”
7. “Pick”
8. “In My Own Time”
9. “Red Deer Day”
10. “Half Finished”

Big Picture arrives 4/14 via Dead Oceans. Pre-order it here.

Steven Spielberg got his start in television. His first paid gig was directing an episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. His first professional film was Duel, a TV movie. He directed the pilot for Columbo, ferchrissakes. None of those jobs are featured in the semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans, but TV was his first home, yet he hasn’t directed for the small screen since helming two episodes of his anthology series Amazing Stories back in the mid-‘80s. Not that he wouldn’t mind returning. In fact, he recently admitted he would have loved to have directed one of the more beloved limited series of the last few years.

During an appearance on the podcast Smartless (as caught by The Playlist), Spielberg — who’s executive produced his share of big shows, including Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, SeaQuest DSV, Band of Brothers, and the new Halo — talked about almost going back to directing television. In fact, one of his biggest hits of the last decade or so began as a TV series.

“I was willing to do Lincoln as a six-hour [show] because I couldn’t raise all the financing for it,” Spielberg revealed. “No one believed in it…I went around town and everyone turned me down.” He wasn’t sure if he could have gotten Daniel Day-Lewis to do six hours of TV, but he was “on the brink” of asking him.

It’s absurd that anyone would have turned down, although maybe it’s less strange that people haven’t confronted him, big-time director of blockbuster big screen motion pictures, to do a lot for a smaller budget. But he has it in him.

“I do have an appetite for long-form, and someday, I will direct a long-form series,” Spielberg said. He even named a show he would have done had anyone bothered to ask. “I mean, if someone would have brought me Mare of Easttown, I would have done that.”

No offense to the person who did direct it, Craig Zobel, though, with Spielberg adding, “That was a beautifully directed story.”

What would a Spielberg-directed Mare of Easttown looked like? Would he have been able to draw upon spending part of his childhood in Jersey to handle a show set outside of Philly? Would it have still spawned a top shelf SNL parody?

Anyway, some hot shot TV honcho get Spielberg on the horn and get him back to directing TV. Anyone who’s seen the Columbo pilot or Duel knows he doesn’t need a billion bucks or even lots of time to make something look a beaut.

(Via The Playlist)