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Olivia Wilde seems to be choosing her words very carefully while promoting Don’t Worry Darling, which arrives in theaters this weekend after what feels like several years of press tours, though it’s actually been more like a month and a half. The director/ former The OC actress was on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to promote the movie (does it really need more promo?) when the various controversies surrounding the film came up.

Though she didn’t mention the leaked video of her asking Shia LeBouf to stay with the project, she did insist they were private messages that were never supposed to be seen.”There were private messages released without context to try to make a situation look like something that it wasn’t,” Wilde explained to Colbert.

“Early on in the process of making the film, as the director, I tried to mediate a situation between people to try to see if they could work together happily,” Wilde continues, referencing LaBeouf and lead actress Florence Pugh’s alleged tension. “Once it became clear that it was not a tenable working relationship, I was given an ultimatum. I chose my actress, which, I’m very happy I did.”

When asked directly if she fired LaBeouf, the director carefully responded without actually mentioning the word “fired.” “We had to replace Shia. He is a fantastic actor, but it wasn’t going to work. When he gave me the ultimatum of him or Florence, I chose Florence, and that was him feeling he was stepping away, and me feeling like we were moving on without him. He didn’t want to be part of the production we were making in the way I like to make productions, and so he moved on, we moved on and replaced him, and ended up with a cast that I’m so proud of and a movie I’m really thrilled about.” Wilde also mentioned the “click bait” aspect of Spitgatte, also known as the most exciting 8 hours on the internet in recent memory. Maybe this movie will become a classic after all?

(Via EW)

Ser Criston didn’t expect the sex scene in House of the Dragon‘s so-called “Hot Girl Summer” episode to happen. The actor (Fabien Frankel) who played him, however, knew well in advance and even spent nearly two-thirds of a year preparing. Disrobing on camera is quite one thing, and surely, Frankel paid mind to his physical condition, but even more than that, he (and Milly Alcock) did emotional and mental prep work.

As Frankel told Entertainment Weekly, the scene was “something we talked about over seven months.” He wanted to ensure that the scene wasn’t “another gratuitous, sweat-glistening-off-their-back sex scene,” and yes, there were plenty of nuances involved. That includes Criston’s struggle to abandon his vow of chastity, which he apparently settled by the next episode while he proposed marriage to Princess Rhaenyra. Then when she rejected him in favor of her duty-bound marriage, he lost it and went ballistic, pummeling the life out of Laenor’s gay lover, Joffrey. But before that happened, Frankel wanted to ensure that the sex scene was believable and not automatically graceful because onscreen intimacy (and real-life intimacy) is awkward stuff:

“I just remember back and forth texts, back and forth phone calls, back and forth meetings between Clare, myself, Milly, and our intimacy coordinator. But particularly me, Clare, and Milly going, ‘How do we make this human?’”

From there, Frankel addressed how difficult it would have been for Ser Criston to shed that armor in a real-life scenario. “These are the things I really cared about,” Frankel said by stressing that he wanted the scene to feel authentic. “For even a world-quality squire, you’ve got 10 minutes to get the armor off… There’s no way Rhaneyra and Cole are gonna take that armor off in 10 seconds.” All that hard work went into a worthy scene, although the aftereffects weren’t so great for Westeros or the House of Targaryen.

This week, we’ll see the followup to an episode that was (rightfully or not) compared to the famed Game of Thrones “Red Wedding,” which ended with Criston and Queen Alicent forming an alliance. Ten years later, we’ll see whether that still stands.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

In 2013, Kanye West infamously launched a longstanding meme during an interview with Shade 45 radio host Sway Calloway when he exploded on the host after being questioned about his fashion ambitions. “You don’t have the answers!” he roared when Sway suggested that he produce his Yeezy clothing line independently. But today, it appears he’s changed his tune after dealing with protracted disputes with apparel manufacturing partners Adidas and Gap for the better part of the summer — and really, almost since the start of those partnerships.

In a new interview with ABC News excerpted on Good Morning America, Kanye admits, “You know what? I will go ahead and say Sway had the answer,” grinning sheepishly. “I know people on Twitter are gonna be like, ‘No!’”

Kanye declared his plans to go it alone after sending notice of intent to cut his deal with Gap short earlier this month. The deal, which was to run through to 2030, became unsatisfactory to him when he alleges the company did not follow through on its end, which he says included plans to build brick-and-mortar Yeezy stores and make his designs available in its own stores by 2021. Over the past month, he’s expressed his dissatisfaction with both Gap and Adidas in a series of needling posts on Instagram, including sharing a draft from his legal team summarizing the details of his licensing deals with both companies.

As Kanye (and Sway) are likely sure to learn soon, producing at the scale that Kanye foresees for himself isn’t quite as easy without a global partnership; perhaps, in a few years, a more humble Ye will also admit that he didn’t really have the answers either.

For fun, you can check out Kanye’s original interview with Sway below.

After teasing his new single “Star Walkin’” on his Long Live Montero Tour, Lil Nas X has officially released the track in conjunction with Riot Games as the League Of Legends Worlds anthem. A defiant, motivational track, “Star Walkin’” incorporates pop elements into a pulsating UK drill beat as Nas asserts, “They said I wouldn’t make it out alive / They told me I would never see the rise / That’s why I gotta kill ’em every time.”

The energetic track is pitch perfect for the competitive nature of League Of Legends and it’s easy to see why it was chosen — or purpose-built — to soundtrack the upcoming world championships for the game in Mexico City. Lil Nas X is scheduled to perform the song next week at the opening ceremony for Worlds and partnered with Riot Games to help create a skin for one of the game’s newest characters.

In a promo video for the partnership, Nas hilariously declares himself “President” of League, installing landline phones on all the desks with “Star Walkin’” as their ringtone. You can check that out below.

Lil Nas himself seems to be enjoying his Long Live Montero Tour, taking some of the bumps along the way in stride. When a group of protestors formed outside one of the most recent stops, he sent them pizza and joked that he fell in love with a “cute homophobic guy” who protested.

“All popular artists get caught between making records and making music,” Bruce Springsteen once observed. “If you’re lucky, sometimes it’s the same thing. When you learn to craft your music into recordings, there’s always something gained and lost.”

The Boss was referring to Nebraska, the iconic one-man folk album he put out 40 years ago this month. When he made it, Bruce thought he was recording demos for what later became his world-beating commercial blockbuster Born In The U.S.A., released two years later. But the spooky vibe of the home recordings couldn’t be replicated in the studio, so he eventually decided to release Nebraska as is. In this instance, he thought he was making music when he was actually making a record.

I thought about Bruce’s words recently as I immersed myself in the forthcoming Yankee Hotel Foxtrot box set, which drops next week. When Wilco announced the anniversary collection in April, some scoffed at the excessive largesse — 11 LPs in vinyl form or eight discs for the CD set. All of this for one album that didn’t even go platinum? On paper, this box set seemed like it might single-handedly upend the supply chain.

For people like me, however, all of the extras were justified. I’ve often said that my favorite Wilco record is a bootleg of outtakes from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. As great as the record is, the long and restless journey in search of that greatness has always been more fascinating to me, for the same reason that rock geeks have long obsessed over the making of similarly “difficult” paradigm-shifting curveballs like Pet Sounds, Tusk, and Kid A. For many months during 2000 and ’01 at The Loft, Wilco’s north side Chicago rehearsal space and studio, they ran through countless different versions of the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot songs. In the process, they touched on nearly every corner of modern music history, dabbling in classic Brill Building pop, spacey psychedelia, blistering krautrock, rustic folk, surly garage punk, bubblegum funk, John Cage-inspired dissonance, and various points in-between. (There are also the fan favorites that didn’t make the album, like “Venus Stop The Train” and “Cars Can’t Escape.”)

As a record, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a brilliantly focused mood piece. But the outtakes explode in dozens of different directions, and evince seemingly limitless possibilities. Is it possible to have too many versions of “Kamera”? Maybe, but I haven’t had my fill quite yet. And here, finally, is the mother lode.

Now that I have spent considerable time with the box set, I can confirm that this is exactly the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot I have always wanted. We’ve known for 20 years that Wilco made an amazing record. But the box set shows that they also made a lot of amazing music — some of which I value even more than the record. It’s the difference between looking at one corner of the sky and taking in an entire universe.

As one of the most acclaimed albums of the 21st century, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot also has the most repeated backstory of any rock record from the last two decades. The box set both reiterates the lore and adds to it via excellent liner notes written by rock journalist Bob Mehr, who dutifully recounts the various dramas that unfolded during the album’s protracted gestation and release — the firing of founding drummer Ken Coomer and hiring of Glenn Kotche, the friction (and drug-fueled camaraderie) between creative partners Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett, the recalcitrant record label that balked at putting out an allegedly uncommercial LP, and the unexpected resonance of the songs and album cover in the wake of 9/11.

At times, the record feels like a time capsule of the early aughts, particularly the disc that includes an entire broadcast of the radio talk show Sound Opinions from Sept. 18, 2001, the day the album was posted online seven months ahead of its commercial release. (There are also two discs devoted to a dynamite concert performed in St. Louis in 2002.) Between in-studio performances of future classics such as “War On War” and “Ashes Of American Flags,” a shell-shocked Tweedy struggles to explain the prescience of lyrics like “you have to learn how to die / if you want to want to be alive” just one week after September 11th.

How the box set augments the mythos is by re-framing the narrative about how the record came to be. In that way it feels like a delayed response to Sam Jones’ 2002 documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, which centers on Tweedy and Bennett’s disintegrating relationship and the “David vs. Goliath” conflict between Wilco and their record label, Reprise. While the latter point was central to how Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was discussed and celebrated in the moment, it now registers as a relatively minor footnote, given that Wilco swiftly signed with another label — a subsidiary of the same corporation, Warner Bros., no less! — and carried on successfully for decades afterward.

As for the former point, the scene everyone remembers from I Am Trying To Break Your Heart occurs when Bennett is trying to explain to an increasingly agitated Tweedy his reasoning for an edit at the start of “Heavy Metal Drummer.” “I just want you to understand me,” Bennett pleads, in a way that suggests he’s talking about more than just an arcane sonic detail. “Why is that so important?” an exasperated Tweedy retorts. “I don’t have to understand you all the time.” He then flees the studio and vomits in the bathroom, the most famous puke scene in rock-doc history.

In a lengthy Q&A included with the liners, Tweedy drolly notes that he invited Jones to film what happened after that scene, when he invited his friend and collaborator Jim O’Rourke to mix and essentially “save” the album. Over the years, Tweedy has made it clear that this part of making Yankee Hotel Foxtrot — which didn’t make the film — was in his view critical to the final product. With guidance from Tweedy and Kotche, O’Rourke stripped out a lot of the music and, in some cases, added different instrumental parts and even re-worked arrangements. Over time, the chaotic bombast of the Loft recordings were whittled down to a chilly and austere gem. Or, as Tweedy puts it, “It kind of became a Wilco record pared down to its essence and then Loose Fur made a record on top of it.”

There’s no question that O’Rourke was critical in turning Yankee Hotel Foxtrot into a record. But my main (perhaps unintentional?) takeaway from the box set is that Bennett was responsible for a lot of what I love about the music of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

I’m going to tread carefully here, as I am not one of those Wilco fans who gave up on the band after Bennett was dismissed. And I don’t buy into the effort — forwarded earlier this year by the flawed documentary Where Are You, Jay Bennett? — to villainize Tweedy for the ouster. All involved parties (including Bennett, based on interviews he gave before his tragic death in 2009) have insisted that the duo reached an impasse by the end of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot that made continuing together impossible. This perception is supported by Mehr’s liners, which provide the most complete and even-handed account of the album’s creation yet. (There’s also the matter of Wilco’s continued growth and consistency after Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, demonstrated once again earlier this year with the very good Cruel Country, their best LP in at least a decade.)

But what’s also undisputed is that Bennett was a musical mad scientist who could realize any brainstorm he or Tweedy dreamt up. As Tweedy concedes, “I could say ‘I want to hear it like this,’ and he had the expertise and understanding of how to do that.” Along with co-writing the bulk of the album with Tweedy, including much of the music, Bennett was pivotal for what former Wilco multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach describes as “an investigation of the songs,” in which the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot material was run through many different styles and permutations in search of a unique and indelible musical alchemy.

For Tweedy, this proved to be a frustrating process. “I wanted to make something I hadn’t heard before,” he explains, and too much of what Wilco was doing sounded like “a really good rock band.” On that count, I must agree, though I don’t consider it an insult. Wilco was in fact a fantastic rock band at the time, and listening to them push, pull, stretch, and even exhaust themselves in order to create a masterpiece is frequently an exhilarating experience.

On the CD version, four out of the eight discs are composed of outtakes, amounting to about 60 tracks. Again, that’s probably overkill for a casual listener. But for fans, it’s a treasure trove. Some of the takes are absolutely bonkers — “Ashes Of American Flags” laced with an Igor Stravinsky sample, a rapid-fire countrified “War On War” with souped-up banjo picking, a caterwauling “Radio Cure” that sounds like a Brian Wilson nervous breakdown from the Smile era.

Other tracks head in the opposite direction from that sort of maximalism. An early performance of “Jesus, Etc.” slinks like a vintage Al Green ballad. A stunning solo take on “Radio Cure” hits like Leonard Cohen’s “The Stranger Song” via Big Star’s Third. An especially funky “I’m The Man Who Loves You” veers into steamy swamp rock. “Hummingbird” (later released on A Ghost Is Born) is remade as a drone-psych jam. But even when a radical arrangement or over-the-top overdub doesn’t land, it’s always worth hearing, if only because the pervading spirit of “we’ll try anything!” is so infectious and inspiring.

Taking all of this in, I think it’s possible (and even necessary) to hold two thoughts in your head: 1) The stuff that didn’t make Yankee Hotel Foxtrot did not fit on the record; 2) The stuff that didn’t make Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is some of the greatest music Wilco has ever made.

It’s helpful to consider Yankee Hotel Foxtrot the record and the music on this box set as connected but separate entities. One is a clear and concise statement of purpose. The other is sprawling and excessive. Both are fantastic, but I know which one I’ll be listening to more in the years ahead. In the liners, Tweedy says, “I needed to find some experimental music with a bigger heart. That’s what I was looking for my whole life.” Me too. With the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot box set, I’ve found it.

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

After last week’s episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law revealed Daredevil’s helmet, Marvel fans lit Twitter on fire with anticipation for Charlie Cox finally returning, in costume, as Ol’ Hornhead. However, those same Marvel fans were in for a shock when they streamed this week’s Episode 6. After getting their hopes up for a Daredevil cameo, the blind lawyer turned vigilante was nowhere to be seen.

In fairness, She-Hulk has never revealed when a fully costumed Daredevil will make his official MCU debut. Fans just assumed that last week’s Easter egg was confirmation that Cox would show up in Episode 6. However, the writers of She-Hulk are a savvy bunch who have been one step ahead of Twitter, and they dropped an ice-cold burn in one of the show’s fourth wall-breaking moments.

“Yes, it’s a self-contained wedding episode,” Tatiana Maslany‘s Jen Walters says to the camera when it becomes clear that She-Hulk is going out of town and not having a rooftop team-up teased in the trailers. “And if you think this is happening at an inconvenient time, you’re right. ‘Cause that’s how weddings always are. But I’m gonna look great, so let’s go.”

Needless to say, Marvel fans expecting to finally see Daredevil weren’t exactly thrilled, but as you can tell by the reactions below, they (mostly) realize they only have themselves to blame for getting their hopes up. They’re still here for the show messing with them, as it does.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law streams new episodes every Thursday on Disney+.

It’s possible that no one had a bigger year than world-dominating star Harry Styles. His LP Harry’s House was the first platinum album of 2022, and its lead single “As It Was” surpassed a billion streams and broke a record for having the most stints at No. 1.

This all led to him doing a 15-night residency at New York’s famous Madison Square Garden. Last night, September 21, was his final show and it was emotional for everyone involved. A banner was raised to the rafters in his honor, which made him tear up as he spoke: “I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart to each and every single one of you here tonight this will not… that’s insane.”

“Selling out 15 consecutive nights at Madison Square Garden is a massive accomplishment and reinforces Harry Styles as one of the most impactful artists of his generation,” Jim Dolan, executive chairman and CEO of MSG Entertainment, said in a statement. “It is a testament to Harry and his fans that a banner celebrating this remarkable achievement will hang from the rafters alongside some of the most legendary artists and athletes in history. Harry has already headlined The World’s Most Famous Arena several times in his skyrocketing career, and we’re honored that MSG was Harry’s House for these 15 incredible nights.”

After dropping videos for singles “54321” and “Code” with Moneybagg Yo, Migos member Offset announced the release date for the as-yet-untitled solo album he’s been working on this year. On Wednesday afternoon (September 21), he tweeted a date, 11/11/22, then, perhaps feeling that was a little too cryptic, followed up a few minutes later with “Album!!!!!!!!” making sure his fans and followers knew what he was talking about.

Offset has been promoting his solo turn for some time, first teasing new music in May as Migos’ other two members, Quavo and Takeoff, released their first track as a duo. He continued to tease the solo project in August and earlier this month, performed both new singles on The Tonight Show. And while no member of Migos has made mention of any serious rift between the band of brothers (or rather, cousins and a nephew), toward the end of August, Offset took legal action against the trio’s record label, Quality Control Music, over allegedly claiming ownership of his solo releases, suggesting that his real issue might be with the group’s business partners.

For now, it’s up in the air whether Migos will reunite as the three-headed monster that stomped through the music scene with hit after hit. ‘Til we know more, we can still look forward to two new projects from the group’s members. Quavo and Takeoff’s album, Only Built For Infinity Links, is due October 7, and Offset’s album is due November 11.

Unlike Ned Stark losing his head in the ninth episode of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon skipping forward 10 years in episode six isn’t exactly a spoiler. The cast and crew have been up front about it, to give people time to prepare for seeing the last of Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, who play the younger versions of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, respectively (Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke will take over). I’m still not ready, but at least we still have Matt Smith, who is so damn good on the show.

The actor appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he discussed the upcoming decade-forward jump on House of the Dragon — and how it should be the show’s last. “Once we make the jump, we’re in,” Smith said. “I’m pretty sure from then on there’s not any big huge time jumps, particularly next season and the one after.”

House of the Dragon has a three- or four-season plan, so Smith is probably not being a sneaky little liar here. But if he is, this is the last time I trust an incestual prince in a bad wig. That’ll be tough, too. You can’t walk outside without running into of them these days.

You can listen to the podcast below.

(Via Screenrant)

It’s no longer “Rush Hour,” it’s officially “Crush hour.”

The Korean R&B singer’s comeback to the music scene kicked off earlier today (September 22) with his new single “Rush Hour” featuring BTS’ lead rapper J-Hope. The funk and soul track, written and composed by Crush himself, was also co-written by the BTS member and hip-hop artist PENEMECO. It’s been two years since Crush’s last release as the crooner went on to fulfill his mandatory service in the Korean military.

The music video, on the other hand, is quite reminiscent of a funky West Side Story-like musical production, where Crush is the main character and J-Hope is the supporting act. The lyrics by Crush emphasize the themes of his return to music: “It’s been 2 whole years of this/Held my tongue for way too long/Set my destination to the studio, ‘cause I can/This is Crush hour get out the way.” While J-Hope’s rap rides along on the theme of celebrating the singer’s comeback (“Y’all trippin’, whole lotta freaks/And now, [it’s] Crush hour/ Imma just follow his lead..”) J-Hope also incorporates some BTS choreography midway through the song.

As part of his return, the “Rush Hour” singer made an appearance on IU’s Palette (a show J-Hope recently guested on) where he performed his single and with an exclusive interview. To make things more special, J-Hope took things a step further and surprised Crush by sending him flowers and chocolate on set.