The 1975 leader Matty Healy shared some surprising news recently: In a New Yorker interview published a few days ago, he revealed that Ed Sheeran asked The 1975 to open for him on tour but he declined the opportunity, saying, “I tend to say no to stuff for money. I don’t know how you can write this up without it being rude or inappropriate, but I just got offered a four-month tour next year of stadiums with the biggest singer-songwriter in the world that would’ve made me money that I’ve never even seen or heard of in my life.”
He continued, “The thing that’s stopped me just doing that is because — I don’t care. It’s not worth it. Not because I don’t like Ed Sheeran. I think he’s, in a lot of ways, a genius, and he does what he does better than anybody else. But opening up for somebody and not just being real, that’s the kind of stuff I think about.”
Now, he has clarified his comments, noting that nothing he said had to do with having any sort of disrespect for Sheeran. Yesterday (September 12), he tweeted, “just to be clear I have mad respect for Ed Sheeran and I didn’t decline sharing a stage with him I just wanted to do our own shows instead and he’s always been so nice to me personally and publicaly so don’t start a twitter thing for fun.”
just to be clear I have mad respect for Ed Sheeran and I didn’t decline sharing a stage with him I just wanted to do our own shows instead and he’s always been so nice to me personally and publicaly so don’t start a twitter thing for fun
Meanwhile, The 1975 is in the midst of promoting their recently announced album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language, which is set to drop on October 14.
As Ken Jennings gets ready to start the new season of Jeopardy! as a permanent co-host alongside Mayim Bialik, the long line of contestants he left in the dust have some mixed emotions about his new position. Known as the KJL, or Ken Jennings Losers, these group of contestants are still smarting from Jennings’ legendary run in the mid-2000s when he plowed through records and mauled everyone in his path after Jeopardy! lifted a cap on winning streaks. Now, he’s the host, and those old wounds still sting.
“When he was starting as host, my mother about lost her mind,” Merritt Hamilton Allen, KJL 122, told The Ringer. “My mother never got over her rage.”
It also didn’t help that Jennings’ epic winning run was facilitated by a significant change in how Jeopardy! handled competitors who were repeatedly dominating episodes:
Jennings’s streak was not without controversy. In its early seasons, Jeopardy! capped champions at five straight wins, at which point they were sent home with their cash total and a car. The five-day limit was lifted just a year before Jennings arrived, and some contestants—including more than a few five-day champs who were certain they could have gone on longer—cried foul. The New York Times declared Jennings “the most annoying man in game show history” and insisted he was holding poor Jeopardy! hostage, but it made no difference: On he went.
However, not every KJL is mad about Jennings’ rise to the podium. In fact, former opponent Jeff Suchard thinks the situation is a great opportunity for Jennings to make a solid gesture to the players he defeated.
“What I’m really hoping for is Ken to host a ‘Ken Jennings Losers [KJL] Tournament’ on Jeopardy!” Suchard told The Ringer. “Where they invite back the one or two dozen of his defeated opponents who really looked like they might have had a chance against him.”
LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are teaming up with Netflix for a documentary on one of the greatest basketball teams ever assembled. Last month, it was announced that the pair would executive produce a doc called The Redeem Team, which tells the story of the 2008 United States men’s basketball team.
You almost certainly know the story by now, but if not, a quick refresher: The U.S. won bronze at the 2004 Olympics, marking the first time since 1988 that the Americans failed to win gold. In response, the United States put together an incredible collection of talent for the 2008 Games in Beijing, with James and Wade being joined by guys like Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh. With head coach Mike Krzyzewski at the helm, the team won every game by double-digit points en route to a gold.
Now, we have an idea of what we can come to expect when the film hits streaming services next month, as Netflix dropped the trailer for the project on Tuesday. Unsurprisingly, The Redeem Team features behind-the-scenes footage of the squad and a number of interviews with the people involved with the team, including archival footage of interviews performed with Bryant prior to his passing in 2020.
Only a few days away until Blackpink‘s highly anticipated album Born Pink sees the light of day. But what’s a K-pop release without a string of teasers leading up to release day?
Once the clock struck midnight in Korean Standard Time (KST) — 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT our time today — Blackpink unveiled the first music video teaser to their lead single “Shut Down.” The 24-second clip kicks off with a classic symphony reminiscent of luxury brand and jewelry commercials, except viewers are welcomed to scenes with Blackpink-branded caution tape placed on top of signs and graffiti, featuring song titles and sayings from the four-piece ensemble.
It’s not until the 14-second mark where we get to hear Rosé sing a taunting line from the song (“Keep watching me shut you down”) followed by quick cuts of her, Jennie, Jisoo and Lisa in their respective characters. The three-second glimpse of the members ends off with masked-up Lisa shooting a finger gun at the camera.
“Shut Down” was written and produced by YG Entertainment’s in-house producer TEDDY, co-written by Danny Chung, R&B singer Vince, and arranged and co-produced by 24. Blackpink’s second studio album Born Pink is set to release on Friday, September 16 at midnight with eight tracks. The group will follow up their album promotions with a world tour of the same name that will kick off in Seoul, South Korea next month, North America and Europe in November, and Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand in 2023.
Japanese whisky intrinsically feels more elite. It comes from far away and tends to be pricy, before it even gets to these shores. Japanese whisky also possesses a singular level of refinement, elevating the juice, and the price, to rare heights. And while Japanese whisky is inherently tied to Scotch whisky traditions, the terroir, water, grains, yeast, and process (fermenting, distilling, and aging) are purely Japanese.
The best way to experience the beauty of Japanese whisky? Try some of the good stuff, of course.
Luckily, there’s a new set of Japanese whiskies from Suntory that allows you to sample four incredible bottles from Japan’s oldest (commercial) whisky stills at the Yamazaki Distillery. The 2022 Limited Edition Yamazaki Tsukuriwake Selection includes four bottles of the really good stuff, including a bottle of Yamazaki Puncheon, Yamazaki Peated Malt, Yamazaki Spanish Oak, and the fleeting Yamazaki Mizunara.
Naturally, you’ll pay a premium for the experience, as each bottle in the set costs $450, plus $620 to add the Mizunara bottle. And that still might be a steal, considering it totals up to $1,970, for a set of whiskies that easily cost three to five times that much each on the secondary market. What sets this set of whiskies apart is that it’s actually available in the United States this year (along with only 11 other countries worldwide).
While whiskies at this price are largely collectible bottles that end up in vaults for trades, flips, and profits, these whiskies are also incredibly drinkable. Which is why I’m cracking open each bottle and telling you what’s inside. Let’s dive in!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Scotch Whisky Posts of The Last Six Months
This is classic Yamazaki whisky. The juice is made from malt whisky that is aged in large puncheon barrels (480 liters, compared to around 200 liters for a standard barrel). The barrels were made by Suntory from American oak specifically to age this whisky.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a softness on the nose that leads toward floral honey with dried apple chips, pear skins, acacia bark, and a smidge of vanilla beans dipped in toffee with this slight hint of sour butter under it all. The palate is lush and leans into the toffee with a flake of salt in the mix as the pear stews toward a line of saffron with a buttery underbelly and more of that honey tied to a hint of dry bark. The end layers the honey and bark together with soft vanilla and pear in the background.
Bottom Line:
This is one of the easiest drinking whiskies out there. It’s so soft and supple with a clear sense of orchard fruits and honey that it’s sort of iconic. That all makes this the perfect easy sipper.
This “hidden” gem is made from heavily peated malted barley. Once barreled, those whiskies are left to mature until they hit a stellar flavor profile (not a year number). Those casks are then masterfully blended and just touched with local spring water.
Tasting Notes:
The smoke comes through like a thin line slowly inching into the sky from a cabin chimney on a rainy day next to dried fennel and caraway with a sense of whole grain toast, salted butter, and maybe some orchard bark ash. The palate starts off sweet, with grilled pineapple and salted papaya that gives way to an earthy burnt dirt vibe next to burnt orange rinds and lime leaves. The end circles back to that thin line of fireplace smoke while singed cedar and pine turn to coal and the citrus darkens towards a hint of leather and vanilla.
Bottom Line:
This is a subtle yet complex peated malt. It’s very peated but leans into so much more than that. Overall, this is a stunningly easy drinking whisky that challenges your palate into actually liking smoky whiskies if you don’t already.
This single malt is all about marrying Japanese whisky with Spanish oak. The malts are aged exclusively in oak from Northern Spain. After the flavor profile hits the exact right depth, the barrels are vatted and proofed with a dash of water for bottling.
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with a medley of sultanas, dates, prunes, dried cranberries, and maybe some candied grape before veering toward a big umami note that’s halfway between a sun-dried tomato and a dash of powdered mushroom. The palate opens with a rich sticky toffee pudding with plenty of winter spices, black tea-soaked dates, and almost creamy toffee next to orange oils and a hint of dark roasted espresso beans. The end takes on a buttery vibe as creamy dark chocolate attaches to those espresso beans and a final hint of orange sneaks in late.
Bottom Line:
This is one of my favorite pours on this list. It’s complex and comforting. It also really blooms with more creaminess, citrus, and cacao with a little water.
This is one of the most sought-after whiskies from Yamazaki. The juice spends over 12 years maturing in Mizunara casks only — this isn’t some whisky that’s “finished” in old Mizurana casks for a few months. After over a decade of mellowing, the casks are hand-picked for their excellence, vatted, and just proofed before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a sense of winter spice that meanders from woody cinnamon bark toward cloves, allspice, anise, cardamon, and even some soft nutmeg before light yet. creamy vanilla custard leads to a thin whisper of sandalwood and lavender. The palate hints at agarwood with a dash of old potpourri next to sweet cinnamon and allspice in a slightly sour mulled wine with a bit of brown sugar lurking in the background. The end leans into the woodiness of the spices with a bit more floral incense burning beneath it all.
Bottom Line:
This is so complex and well-made. I’m not in love with this whiskey — it’s too floral for me — but I can see why people adore it. It’s just a perfectly made whisky with a really unique vibe.
We have nary a single, a music video, or a teaser clip for Taylor Swift‘s upcoming 10th studio album, Midnights, however, anticipation for new music is high. Ahead of its release, Swift has shared different colored versions of the album’s compact discs, vinyls, and cassette tapes.
Today, Target has announced yet another version Midnights, which will only be available through the retailer.
The Target edition of the CD will contain three bonus tracks, two of which appear to be remixes of the standard album’s secret tracklist. Target will also a special lavender pressing of Midnights on both vinyl and compact disc.
The CD will also come with a collectible lyric booklet with exclusive photos and a unique print on the disc. The booklet will also be included in the vinyl packaging, as well as a gatefold photo, and an album sleeve with two more photos. The album will be pressed on a marble of pastel lavender purple and white. The vinyl edition will not include the bonus tracks.
This past weekend, Swift appeared at Toronto International Film Festival, where she screened her short film, the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” on 35mm film. She however, did not go into detail about the musical or visual elements of Midnights.
Midnights is out 10/21 via Republic. Pre-order it here.
Jack Harlow hasn’t been shy about sharing wild stories from his youth, from odd cartoon crushes to how his jealousy of fellow Kentuckian Bryson Tiller turned an admiring text into the working relationship that helped launch him to superstardom. Sometimes, though, he’s prone to oversharing, as he did during a recent stop on his Come Home The Kids Miss You Tour in Nashville.
In a video from the show, Harlow explains why he tells people he lost his virginity twice. It’s the sort of story that a former awkward nerd would be very proud to tell, and by all his own accounts, that’s kind of where Jack lands. The story rides the line between endearing and uncomfortable as he recounts how, after “I lost my virginity when I was 16,” he landed this dime piece who was five or six years older than me” after high school.
“It was like, welcome to the big leagues, like it was huge,” he said. “I remember I used to take this girl to my indoor soccer games and she would pick me up and take me home to my homeboys. She was sitting there watching the game and they’d be like, ‘Yo, who is that?’ I’d be like, ‘Oh her? Yeah, we have sex, you know’—like I was feeling myself and it’s true, we did.”
Tucker Carlson has a way with words. And by that, we mean he has a habit of saying a lot of them — but not really listening to what he’s saying or standing by whatever his convictions might be from one week to the next. Take, for example, January 6, 2021.
Carlson — who made no mention of the fact last night that his buddy Vladimir Putin is most definitely losing the war he waged against Ukraine, just days after he insisted that Putin was winning — was attempting to make a case for Couy Griffin of all people, who is/was a city commissioner in New Mexico, founder of Cowboys for Trump, and a January 6th insurrectionist who was recently disqualified from holding office because storming the Capitol is a violation of the 14th Amendment for public officials. Though Carlson didn’t seem interested in talking about the Constitution.
The way Carlson sees it, the judge who removed Griffin from office is the one in the wrong, and is “overturning the will of the voters” with no good reason. “Why?,” Carlson demanded to know! “Because he had dared to exercise his constitutional rights by participating in the election justice protest on January 6th.”
Election. Justice. Protest.
Carlson went on to state that “this is a full-blown political purge” and noted that “that’s not a talking point, it is not in any sense a conspiracy theory. It’s completely real.”
Also real? The fact that by illegally and forcefully entering the Capitol and being part of a traitorous insurrection that led to the deaths of at least seven people, Griffin was in violation of the 14th Amendment, which states that: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
Something tells us Tucker wouldn’t see it that way.
For years now, Taylor Swift has been dealing with a lawsuit regarding her song “Shake It Off.” In 2017, songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler filed a lawsuit accusing Taylor Swift of copyright infringement, insisting the “Shake It Off” chorus copies 3LW’s “Playas Gonna Hate” (which they wrote). That song features the lines, “Playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate.”
Rolling Stone reports that during a hearing in downtown Los Angeles yesterday (September 12), US District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald said, “The motion for reconsideration is denied. I don’t think it meets the standard for reconsideration, and even if it did, and I was approaching it again on the merits, I still think there’s a genuine issue of material fact in part because of the expert opinion.”
One of Swift and her co-defendants’ lawyers asked if he could give an oral argument before Judge Fitzgerald issued his written ruling, but was denied, with Fitzgerald saying, “I apologize there’s been the delay, but I have no intention of having oral argument.” He also noted he is “not moving the trial date” from January 17, 2023.
There was a time before Marvel movies became an entire universe when it was pretty easy to just be in one of the films without having to sign on for multiple movies and spinoffs, plus an appearance on a Disney+ show or two, and maybe a fast food tie-in if you’re lucky. So in 2010 when Sam Rockwell signed on to be the villain in Iron Man 2, there was no way to know if he’d still want to play the bad guy over a decade later…right? Well, now we know! And Rockwell wants in on more Marvel stuff!
Rockwell portrayed Justin Hammer, the cocky Hammer Industries CEO that rivaled Stark Industries in the second Iron Man installment. While Hammer has been mentioned throughout the MCU various times, the character hasn’t been brought back to the big screen, and Rockwell thinks it’s time.
The actor stopped by The Playlist’s podcast The Discourse to discuss his upcoming film See How They Run (which he stars in alongside Saoirse Ronan) and naturally, Marvel came up in conversation, specifically Thunderbolts, the villain-centric movie in the works with a 2024 release date.
When asked if he would return, Rockwell expressed interest. “Yeah, definitely. I would be into that. [Thunderbolts] sounds cool…[Hammer’s] fun, he’s a real Lex Luthor.”
The rest of the Thunderbolts cast was announced at D23 last week, and Marvel is bringing back a variety of bad guys for the film. The movie will star Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
While nothing is confirmed for Rockwell, just showing interest is a good sign. If it can work for John Krasinski, it can (maybe) work for anyone!
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