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We all need a little escape sometimes, and Louisville, Kentucky-based trio Wombo agree. Rather than looking to movies or video games, Wombo created their own post-punk fairy tale in the form of their new album Fairy Rust. Inspired by stories from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson, Wombo combine fantasy with the mundane to craft a 12-track project that’s pure organized chaos.

The band’s expertly executed art-rock sound is complete with droning guitars, frenetic chords, and angular melodies that make it impossible not to get up and move to. But Fairy Rust also has its slower moments. Tracks like “7 Of Cups,” which references the tarot card symbolizing imagination and wishful thinking, cranks the tempo down to a hazy, atmospheric rate. Others like “Snakey” are a bass-forward, playful study on a hero’s journey.

Ahead of the release of Fairy Rust, Wombo sat down with Uproxx to talk about the new album, sensitive skin, Joan Jett, and Keira Knightley in our latest Q&A.

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

Chaotic, organized, sad, happy.

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?

That we tried our best.

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

I don’t know yet!

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

There isn’t one singular person that I could fairly say.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Hopefully I haven’t yet eaten the best meal of my life.

What album do you know every word to?

I don’t think I know every single word to any album but Room On Fire by The Strokes comes close.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

I think the most memorable, not necessarily the best, was my very first concert, a free one at the Kentucky State Fair. It was Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and halfway through she had to sit down and they had to help her off stage by the end. Her voice sounded great though.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

Something comfortable and simple and makes me feel like myself and not distracted by anything coming loose or slipping or anything.

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

I like this comedian Servideo, especially her characters Anubis and Victoria.

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

I think my bandmates are sick of it by now, but I keep playing Blackstar by David Bowie.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

Avene Tolerance Extreme Cream. I have really sensitive dry acne prone skin and I’ve been struggling to find a moisturizer that doesn’t break me out in pimples or hives but is also moisturizing enough. Most of my google searches are skin care related. If anyone is reading this and knows some good tips/products please help.

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Anything obscure and fun you can find at your local record/thrift shop. I love Fat Rabbit here in Louisville. They always have interesting finds.

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

Our friend’s house in Philadelphia. There was a giant mobile of terrifying haunted looking dolls that made a horrible screeching noise whenever you spun it, and we slept in the room with it on the floors and couches, all piled in together, and in the night we could literally hear the noise. I enjoyed myself there. I think others in our group not so much.

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

My first tattoo was a crescent moon behind my ear (original yes) and it was a stick and poke done by a friend. After that, I’ve given myself several stick and pokes as has my boyfriend. My favorite one I’ve given myself recently is medusa on my ankle. I’ve never paid for a tattoo yet.

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

If Led Zeppelin or Heart is on 107.7 WSFR or 95.7 WQMF or any station here in Louisville, it stays put.

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

There are so many nice things I’ve had done for me by so many people. It’s hard to sum one experience up. I’ve had a lot of help and support from friends and family over the years.

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

I would warn her about her pancreas and tell her to lay off the booze and drugs.

What’s the last show you went to?

Last show was one we played for Waterfront Wednesday here in Louisville. I got to see War. My friend accidentally burned my shoulder with his cigarette while we were dancing to “Why Can’t We Be Friends.” It was a lot of fun and they were incredible.

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

Pride And Prejudice. I love Keira Knightley period pieces. Also if Pineapple Express is on, I’m watching.

What’s one of your hidden talents?

I’m not sure. I guess they are hidden pretty good.

Fairy Rust is out 7/29 via Fire Talk. Pre-order it here.

After emerging as an up-and-comer to keep an eye on in 2021, 17-year-old Glaive is having a terrific 2022 so far. He shared five new songs on a deluxe edition of his All Dogs Go To Heaven EP and teamed up with Machine Gun Kelly on “More Than Life.” Now, he’s gotten his own Spotify Singles release which features a pretty cool cover of the Death Cab For Cutie classic “I Will Follow You Into The Dark.”

The original song is of course an acoustic tune with a straightforward arrangement and a tender and reserved vocal performance from Ben Gibbard. Glaive opts for a different direction, though. Although it begins true to the original recording, he switches things up starting with the second verse, when he switches to a more fast-paced rock guitar riff and impassioned vocal performance, gradually turning up the knob on the intensity until he abruptly returns to more intimate territory for another hook. It’s one of those covers that bends the source material without breaking it, adding a compelling new dimension to the song while still properly honoring it.

In a statement, Glaive says of the recordings:

“Around the time of the recording, I was listening to a lot of Death Cab For Cutie. The idea for the cover came about when during a session one day I was tired of working on my own music but still wanted to make music. It’s one of the only songs I know how to play on guitar so I started to work through it with Ralph and Danny and Jeff and it just clicked.

The original (minnesota) is my favorite song I’ve ever made. It’s so energetic and crazy whereas the Spotify Single is a lot more thought out and beautiful. Again, I’m a sucker for acoustic guitar on a song and I’m glad it worked so well with this version.”

Listen to Glaive’s Spotify Sessions above and revisit Death Cab’s original “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” below.

HBO Max’s very good animated series Harley Quinn returns this week after a two-year break. The last time we checked in on Harley Quinn (voiced by Kaley Cuoco) and Poison Ivy (Lake Bell), they were confessing their true feelings for each other.

“You don’t think I’m chaotic, and crazy, and make a bunch of messes?” Harley asks Ivy while they’re driving away from a squad of cop cars. “No, you definitely do that,” Ivy replies. “But you’re trying to grow, and actually doing it! And that… I mean, for me, that’s what matters!” They say they love each other and kiss while crashing through the window of a church, which, #RelationshipGoals.

Harley Quinn co-showrunners Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker are aware of how invested people are in Harley and Ivy, or Harlivy, and they have no plan of breaking them up. “We still have the occasional fan reaction of ‘I don’t like Harley and Ivy together. She should get back with the Joker,’ which we’re never going to do,” Schumacker told the AV Club. “Harley and Ivy will never break up in the series as long as we have a say. That’s something that we never want to touch again.” Or else they’ll feel the wrath of Tumblr.

Harley Quinn season three premieres on HBO Max on July 28.

(Via the AV Club)

In a new featurette for its upcoming She-Hulk series for Disney+, Marvel has revealed that Tatiana Maslany‘s version of the character will have a slightly different origin story. (There’s also enough fourth wall-breaking to make Deadpool jealous.)

When she was first introduced in Marvel Comics, Jennifer Walters was the daughter of a Los Angeles County sheriff and a cousin to Bruce Banner on his mother’s side. During a visit tell his cousin about his transformation into the Hulk, Jennifer was caught in the crossfire when a local crime lord targeted her father in a shooting. In desperate need of blood, Bruce was the only match to save his cousin, but he ended up doing more than keep her alive. His blood turned her into She-Hulk, a powerful addition to the Marvel pantheon.

Here’s where the Disney+ series switches things up: In the show, Jennifer (Maslany) and Bruce (Mark Ruffalo) are in a car accident together, which skips right over the whole blood infusion part and straight up splashes her with the stuff. With Bruce’s blood entering an open wound, Jennifer becomes She-Hulk. An interesting and kind of gross tweak, but nowhere near the wild changes that Ms. Marvel experienced when she made the jump from the comics to Disney+.

Here’s the official synopsis:

She-Hulk, a new comedy series coming to Disney+, stars Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who specializes in superhuman-oriented legal cases. She-Hulk will welcome a host of Marvel characters to the series, including the Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, and the Abomination, played by Tim Roth.

She-Hulk premieres August 17 on Disney+.

Harry Styles is having himself a year. “As It Was” just got knocked off the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after spending 10 weeks on top, the most of any song this year. Harry’s House is the year’s best-selling vinyl album so far and the first 2022 album to go Platinum. Now, he has another achievement to add to his figurative trophy case: Chart Data reports “As It Was” is now the fastest solo song to hit 1 billion streams on Spotify.

“As It Was” was released on April 1, so as of today (July 27), it has been streaming for 118 days. Where does this put “As It Was” in terms of the fastest song overall, solo or otherwise, to cross a billion? It looks like it’s somehow exactly tied for that title. The last reported record-holder was The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s “Stay,” which was released on July 9, 2021 and hit a billion streams on November 4 that year, 118 days later.

This is just Styles’ latest honor, even beyond the aforementioned. Barack Obama dropped his 2022 summer playlist yesterday and among the picks was Styles’ “Music For A Sushi Restaurant.” It was also recently revealed that Texas State University will soon offer a course called “Harry Styles And The Cult Of Celebrity: Identity, The Internet, And European Pop Culture.”

Before making his superhero debut in The Boys universe, Patrick Schwarzenegger starred in a much darker show, The Staircase, alongside Collin Firth and Toni Collette. The HBO limited series told the true story of Kathleen Peterson’s tragic death and the subsequent investigation of her husband Michael and their family.

Schwarzenegger starred as one of the Peterson children, Todd, who was in his early twenties when his mother was found dead at the bottom of a staircase. Throughout the HBO retelling of the highly-publicized story, Todd undergoes a lot of physical changes as he battled drugs and alcohol abuse. Schwarzenegger told Variety that the production team had to add prosthetics to transform the actor. “He got really heavy,” Schwarzenegger admitted. “I had to wear a four-month pregnancy belly. It was weird.”

This isn’t the first time the actor had to alter his appearance. For The Terminal List, he added nearly 20 pounds of muscle to get that Navy SEAL look. “I was eating nonstop, It was fun. I had to fill out the uniform and not look like a little shrimp,” he confessed.

Next, Schwarzenegger is portraying Golden Boy in The Boys spinoff Gen V, where he will play a college student at a prestigious superhero university. He probably won’t look like a little shrimp in that show.

(Via Variety)

Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia since February, as the WNBA star was arrested for having hashish oil cartridges in her luggage after flying into Moscow, facing a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

Griner has plead guilty to the charges but has told the Russian court she brought the cartridges unintentionally, which is the start of the process to getting her trial over and sentencing done. Russia will not release her back to the United States in any sort of diplomatic arrangement until then, but the dialogue about how to get her back has escalated to a “substantial offer” being made from the Biden administration in recent weeks.

According to CNN, the administration signed off on an offer to send Viktor Bout, a Russian arms trafficker serving a 25-year sentence, back to Russia in exchange for Griner and Paul Whelan, who has been in Russian custody since 2018 on charges of espionage and, like Griner, is considered “wrongfully detained” by the U.S. government.

“We communicated a substantial offer that we believe could be successful based on a history of conversations with the Russians,” a senior administration official told CNN Wednesday. “We communicated that a number of weeks ago, in June.”

The official declined to comment on the specifics of the “substantial offer.” They said it was in Russia’s “court to be responsive to it, yet at the same time that does not leave us passive, as we continue to communicate the offer at very senior levels.”

It remains to be seen if that will be enough to secure Griner and Whelan’s release from Russia — which again cannot happen until Griner’s trial is completed — but it’s an encouraging step for the public (and Griner) to hear, as there has been a steady push from the WNBA, basketball fans, and beyond to do more to secure her release. This is the most substantial step yet, and the hope is that Russia will agree to the swap and Griner and Whelan will be able to return to U.S. soil sooner than later.

Over the past year, Detroit native Zelooperz has drawn attention as a member of Danny Brown’s Bruiser Brigade, popping up in places like The Alchemist’s This Thing Of Ours 2 (on the track “Wildstyle”), Arizona rap trio Injury Reserve’s By The Time I Get To Phoenix (on “SS San Francisco”), and on LA iconoclast Earl Sweatshirt’s Sick! (on “Vision”). He also featured on UPROXX Sessions performer Na-Kel Smith’s A Dream No Longer Deferred in 2020.

So, it’s only right that he follows in Smith’s footsteps, making his own debut on UPROXX Sessions to perform “Who U Love” from his March project, Get WeT​.​Radio. The song is a semi-tender ode to a lover, with Z insisting, “Being without you a dealbreaker, I’d rather rot.” It’s a short but sweet track that shows the Motor City rapper isn’t afraid to bare his heart.

Watch Zelooperz perform “Who U Love” on 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.

Ahead of her upcoming sophomore album, Hold The Girl, Rina Sawayama has shared the album’s title track. “Hold The Girl” opens as a slow, string-driven ballad, then, once it gets to the chorus, drums join in, along with guitars and glorious piano keys, transforming the downtempo symphony into dance-ready melodies. Toward the end of the song, Sawayama delivers an empowering key change, reminding herself to give herself the love and honor she deserves.

Sawayama wrote “Hold The Girl” while on the heels of her critically-acclaimed debut album, Sawayama.

“‘Hold The Girl’ was the first song I wrote for the record at the end of 2020–I had gone to therapy and had a revelation, so I decided to write this song…that was the start of it,” said Sawayama in a statement. “I was crying before going into the studio to write about it.”

Check out “Hold The Girl” above, and the album’s tracklist and cover art below.

1. “Minor Feelings”
2. “Hold The Girl”
3. “This Hell”
4. “Catch Me In The Air”
5. “Forgiveness”
6. “Holy (Til You Let Me Go)”
7. “Your Age”
8. “Imagining”
9. “Frankenstein”
10. “Hurricanes”
11. “Send My Love To John”
12. “Phantom”
13. “To Be Alive”

Hold The Girl is out 9/16 via Dirty Hit. Pre-save it here.

Robert Glasper is doing it all these days. He’s just come off a European Tour in support of his latest album, Black Radio III, performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival earlier this month (where he received the prestigious Miles Davis Award), and is in the midst of scoring not one, but three TV and film projects. But the biggest and most personal undertaking of them all for the four-time Grammy Award-winning pianist, producer, and composer, is the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival in Napa, CA.

Going down at the Charles Krug Winery from July 29th – 31st, Glasper is the festival’s artist in residence and curator. The lineup is an eclectic representation of jazz, hip-hop, and R&B’s inextricable ties. Where Chaka Khan, Maxwell, and Black Star are playing rare headlining sets, the lineup is as eye-popping for the creative collaboration performances like Snoop Dogg with Dinner Party (Glasper, Kamasi Washington, and Terrace Martin), The Soul Rebels with GZA & Talib Kweli, and Glasper alongside Erykah Badu, BJ The Chicago Kid, Ledisi and D Smoke — oh, and Dave Chappelle is also the weekend’s host.

We caught up with Glasper by phone to talk about the vision behind the festival, how the legacy of Miles Davis has inspired him, and how his career sees him tracing the evolution of Black music in incredible ways.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

AS: You just got back from Europe and I saw you first tour stop at Montreal Jazz Festival a couple weeks ago. Considering your work on the Everything’s Beautiful tribute album of sorts to Miles Davis, and scoring Miles Ahead, what was it like be honored with the Miles Davis Award as someone pushing jazz music forward into new realms the way Miles did?

It’s so funny how Miles Davis pops up in my life. Miles Davis is the first jazz musician that I ever heard cover pop songs. I was in junior high school and I got that record Miles Around The World where he covered Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” and he also covered Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time.” That opened my eyes a lot. It’s part of the thread of who I am in just being open and being modern and not forgetting the history, but not being held back by the history. And then you fast forward and Don Cheadle asked me to score the Miles Davis movie he did, Miles Ahead, and that was the first thing I ever scored. Then in the middle of scoring that, Sony hits me and asks me to produce a record on Miles Davis because it was going to be his 90th birthday. So they asked me to do this remix record and I told them that I would love to, but I explained to them how I wanted to do it: It can’t just be that I put some hip-hop drums under a muted trumpet and call it a day. I wanted to really dive in. That’s why it’s [Everything’s Beautiful] also one of my favorite projects too, cause the way I did it, and the way I captured more of Miles than just his trumpet. I think he’s on two songs on the whole album as far as the trumpet goes. ‘Cause the other stuff, I literally have his breath tied in with the bass drum on a song, I have him talking, clapping, whistling. I’m trying to get the elements of the whole person. You can’t narrow him down to just the trumpet. So me getting that award, it just fell into place that with Miles, he is who he is, but he’s the reason that jazz started being so open to begin with. He’s a trailblazer.

He’s always looked to blur the definition of jazz, which is kind of what you’re pushing forward now.

Exactly, it was such an honor and I’ve been playing Montreal Jazz Festival for years, so it was an honor to get that. It was also the heaviest award I’ve ever gotten [laughs] I might’ve gotten knocked over by the trophy, it’s so heavy.

Oh yeah, I saw that thing, it was like as big as your torso!

And since that was the first day of my tour, I was gone for three weeks, so I had to have them mail it to me.

Well speaking of festivals, you’ve got Blue Note Jazz Festival in Napa coming up. I think it really speaks to so much amazing collaboration between jazz and hip-hop and R&B artists. What’s been the vision behind the way you guys curated this and brought everything together?

The idea literally came from my residency at the Blue Note [in New York] every October. I’ve done it three times so far and this last October, Steve [Bensusan] and Alex [Kurland] from Blue Note, the owner and the booker, came to me and started talking about doing something outside of the residency, maybe doing a festival. They approached me and I was like, “That makes all the sense in the world.” We kept talking about it here and there and then literally this past April, we pulled the trigger on it and said, “Let’s actually do it and make it happen.” The festival is cool cause it feels like a family reunion. Everyone performing at the fest, I know them. I kinda got to handpick my own f*cking festival. It doesn’t get better than that. They’re all amazing artists and I got to handpick them and put them all together. That’s not a typical thing that an artist or musician gets to do.

Yeah, and for the more high-profile collab sets like Dinner Party and Snoop, there’s also one like Amber from Moonchild and Kiefer. Like, where the hell else can I see that?

Yeah, Amber’s my homie cause she was on my R+R=Now record. We’re all friends. And really, it’s like a pick-up game. Like when Michael Jordan did Space Jam and he got to invite all his NBA basketball player friends to play pick-up games with him while he was recording the movie. This is like my Space Jam [laughs]

It definitely feels like a version of your residency on steroids.

For sure. That’s literally where the idea burst from. We even got going with some guests that we’d had on the residency before and some that we wanted to have. I think it started with me making a list of people that I wanted at my next residency and then was like, “We should do a festival and have all these people.”

Something that struck me in Montreal and now looking at the lineup of this festival, and then looking at Black Radio — Black Radio III specifically — is that you’re really trying to tell the story of the evolution of Black music and where everything is at now. Talk a little about that and how everything is connected with the artists you’ve got playing at this festival that has your name at the very top.

A lot of people have put jazz in this box of exclusivity. Where it’s this exclusive thing that doesn’t f*ck with anybody else, any other genres. And that’s just not the case. In its conception, it’s already amuck. Jazz is mixed with classical music, blues, gospel… And later on, when you listen to certain jazz standards, they weren’t even standards, they were show tunes. They were songs people got from musicals. Like “My Favorite Things” or “All The Things You Are,” these important jazz standards, these weren’t jazz tunes. These were jazz artists reaching out into the world and bringing worldly things into the music and then they became standards. That’s kind of where I come from it. Black music is a big house and it has many genres under that roof, blues, gospel, jazz, hip-hop, R&B, you name it. I like to go room to room in this big house of Black music. Like I have a key to it all, because it’s in my DNA. I studied this music, I went on tours with some of the greatest in each genre, so I feel like I’m one of the people that can represent this thing that we call Black music. There are so many amazing artists and trailblazers, and to have them all in one festival represents so much and represents how free the music can be.

I’m hard-pressed to think if I’ve ever seen a festival lineup quite like this. What’s your hope for this weekend?

I’m hoping that this turns into an annual thing. But also, with the kinds of musicians and artists that we have, it lends itself to probably a lot of things we’ve never seen before. People sitting in with other people, cross-pollination on the stage. Most of the time on the festival stage, you go see that one artist and that’s what you see, thats what the festival is. But this one’s gonna be more cross-pollination, with a family-oriented kind of vibe. It’s smaller than most festivals on purpose. We’re trying to mirror the Blue Note residency so we wanted to keep it intimate (in festival terms) and try to mimic that feeling that you get when you’re in a small club; like the residency, with unexpected pop-up guests. I’m getting all kinds of calls from all kinds of artists on it. I’m really looking forward to it.

For tickets, visit Blue Note Jazz Fest’s site here.