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It’s been nearly three decades since Friends first debuted, and the titular group of quirky friends had seen a lot during their 10 years on the air. There were missing monkeys, alleged breakups, and embarrassing wedding mishaps, though there is one plot that the show’s co-creator wishes didn’t happen.

In season seven, Chandler’s mother is introduced and it is revealed that she is a trans woman. Chandler handles it poorly. Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman recently admitted that the way they handled the plotline was a “mistake.”

While speaking with The Conversation on BBC, Kauffman explains why she wishes the plot were done differently. “We kept referring to her [Chandler’s transgender parent] as ‘Chandler’s father’, even though Chandler’s father was trans,” Kauffman explains. “Pronouns were not yet something that I understood. So we didn’t refer to that character as ‘she’. That was a mistake.”

This isn’t the first time Kauffman has openly regretted certain Friends plot points. Just last week, she said she was “embarrassed” by the lack of diversity in the show. She said, “I’ve learned a lot in the last 20 years,” the writer explained. “Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It’s painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know.”

(Via Huffington Post)

There’s a good chance one of your favorite actors/actresses/pop stars appears in Amsterdam, the new film from director David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, I Heart Huckabees, Three Kings). That is, unless you’re the one person in the world who doesn’t enjoy at least one of Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Chris Rock, Zoe Saldaña, Anya Taylor-Joy, Michael Shannon, Taylor Swift, Timothy Olyphant, Alessandro Nivola, Andrea Riseborough, Mike Myers, and Robert De Niro.

Amsterdam is described as “an original crime epic about three close friends who find themselves at the center of one of the most shocking secret plots in American history.” Those friends, played by Bale, Robbie, and David Washington, are accused of killing someone, “which is not true,” Bale adds in the trailer above. Later, Robbie says, “This is all turning out to be a lot larger than any of us.”

Amsterdam is one of two films starring Bale coming out in 2022, along with Thor: Love and Thunder, while Robbie can also be seen in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (December 25) and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (July 21, 2023). As for David Washington, he leads the cast of True Love (October 6, 2023) from Rogue One director Gareth Edwards. You probably already know what Olyphant, Swift, and especially Rock have been up to.

Amsterdam opens on November 4 (it’s also worth reminding yourself of Russell’s “dark reputation”).

At the end of 2019, The Game dropped his ninth album Born 2 Rap, and claimed that he would retire from rap after the project’s release. As you’re probably aware by now, we live in a world where rappers are really bad at retiring and it was only a matter of time until The Game reclaimed his position in hip-hop. Fast-forward almost three years and the Compton native is gearing up to release his tenth album Drillmatic, and while a release date for it is unknown at the moment, The Game did reveal an interesting tidbit about the album.

The Game took to Instagram to reveal that Drillmatic will include a number of sampled Jay-Z songs and he thanked the Reasonable Doubt rapper for allowing him to use them. “S/O to S. Dot for clearing all 7 samples on #Drillmatic,” he wrote in the post. “3 more sample clearances & the AOTY belongs to me & hit-boy.”

The latter half of the message seems to explain the delays behind Drillmatic. The Game initially said the project, which is executive produced by Hit-Boy, would arrive on June 17, but it was later pushed back to July 1 which came and went without its release. The album has yet to receive a new release date, but with three samples left to clear, it shouldn’t be too long until we know when it will drop.

You can view a screenshot of The Game’s message in the post above.

In just a few months, Coldplay will celebrate the first anniversary of their ninth album, Music Of The Spheres. The project is their second space-themed concept album after 2005’s X&Y and it features a pair of songs that gave the band some special recognition. “Higher Power” was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2022 Grammys while their “My Universe” collaboration with BTS debuted at No. 1 on the singles chart to become their first chart-topping song in 13 years. While Coldplay is a bit removed from the release of Music Of The Spheres, the band looks to keep the project alive with a new video for “Biutyful.”

The new visual is led by The Weirdos, a diverse muppet alien band from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Coldplay’s sparkling song soundtracks the puppet band’s rise to fame as they go from unknowns to the most popular band on the planet, an act that’s orchestrated by their manager Bruce Cakemix. Coldplay and The Weirdos are well acquainted, as the latter band’s lead singer, Angel Moon, has been a regular on Coldplay’s current tour, singing “Biutyful” to large crowds all over the world.

The video for “Biutyful” after Coldplay’s Chris Martin delivered an impromptu performance for a group of people at a small pub.

You can watch the video for “Biutyful” above.

Coldplay is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Christine And The Queens are returning with their first album in four years. Today, he’s announced his third album, Redcar Les Adorables Etoiles.

Similar to his 2018 album, Chris, Christine will adopt a new moniker for this album. Introducing Redcar, the album will usher in a new era for Christine.

As Redcar, Christine will go by “he/him” pronouns. Earlier this year, Christine, who also goes by Chris, spoke about gender expression by way of pop music to the New York Times.

“My journey with gender has always been tumultuous,” he said. “It’s raging right now, as I’m just exploring what is beyond this. A way to express it could be switching between ‘they’ and ‘she.’ I kind of want to tear down that system that made us label genders in such a strict way. I remember talking about being pansexual in France in 2014 — it was a conversation that few opened up, and I was advised in, like, offices to maybe tone it down. I’m really trying to address it the right way now, and I’ve been sometimes pressured to give an answer. But I think the answer is to be flickery, fluid, escaping.

Check out the album artwork below.

Redcar Les Adorables Etoiles will arrive on 9/23 via Because Music. Pre-save it here.

Kanye West might not be as active on social media lately as he was earlier this year, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still lurking on the hip-hop blogs — especially when they post stories that might pertain to him. And he’s just as outspoken as he’s always been, only now he sets out to defend himself in the DMs rather than on his public feed — a much more effective strategy, truth be told.

In the latest example of Ye advocating for himself against “the hip-hop media” (actually fan blogs dedicated to reposting freely available information from social media and 2 am Google searches, apparently), Kanye reached out personally to correct a “story” posted by an account called RapThoughtsDaily. And yes, I’m using quotes derisively here and will continue to do so until people figure out the difference between legitimate journalistic outlets and 25-year-old hobbyists posting on Instagram and Twitter for “clout.”

Kanye was featured in a RapThoughtsDaily post about rappers’ performance fees, the info for which they clearly just Googled (see above) without citing any real sources to confirm. Among the rappers listed were Denzel Curry, Tyler The Creator, and Vince Staples; Kanye was given one of the largest figures at $1 million (coming in behind Young Thug at $1.5 million, which… come on. Really?). It doesn’t seem that Ye appreciated being lowballed even theoretically — the account did allow that the freely available info on Google is often way off.

He DMed the account manager to tell them to “please change this,” clarifying that “my performance fee is $8 million.” Whoever manages the account was only too happy to oblige, posting a screenshot of the conversation to the Story and updating the caption to reflect the higher figure. Of course, there’s no telling whether that figure is accurate either but at least Kanye got to see a “blog” make a correction while RapThoughtsDaily got to get a direct message from a celebrity. Everybody wins, I guess. Except for, you know, the concept of journalism in hip-hop, which is currently on life support and getting worse all the time.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is going full Alex Jones following back-to-back shootings on July 4th. During a recent video posted to her Facebook page, Greene claimed that the Highland Park shooting looks like it was “designed” to hit a “rich white neighborhood” in an effort to get Republicans on board with gun control. In other words, a “false flag” operation, which is how Jones once described the Sandy Hook shooting that’s left him facing bankruptcy after being embroiled in a lawsuit with the victims’ families.

In a revealing choice of words, Greene essentially admits that Republicans won’t take action unless something happens to a “rich white neighborhood.” She also refers to the entire month of July as “MAGA month” while pondering why there were no shootings during Pride month. Lady, this is America. There are mass shootings everyday.

Via No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen on Twitter:

Now, here’s what I have to say. I mean, two shootings on July 4th, one in a rich white neighborhood and the other at a fireworks display. It almost sounds like it’s designed to persuade Republicans to go along with more gun control. I mean, after all, remember we didn’t see that happened at all at the Pride parades in the month of June. But as soon as we hit MAGA month, as soon as we hit the month that we’re all celebrating, loving our country, we have shootings on July 4th.

In a surprising moment of self-awareness, Greene admits that this sounds like a “conspiracy theory.” However, instead of backing away from this train of thought, she doubled down.

“But what’s the definition of a right wing conspiracy theory?” Greene asked. “Well, by the way, it’s just the news that’s six months early.”

(Via No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen on Twitter)

[This post contains spoilers for Stranger Things 4]

Both things can be true: there are too many characters on Stranger Things, but the new season four characters are welcome additions to the show. OK, maybe not all of them (Jason deserved his horrible death), but take Eddie, for instance. He was a nerd father figure to Dustin, and he shredded to Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” to distract an army of demon-bats, which is an objectively cool thing to do. From a story-telling perspective, it makes sense why Eddie was killed off. But the Iron Maiden fan will be missed.

Eddie was one of a few recently-introduced faces to die in season four, along with cheerleader Chrissy and Nancy’s horny newspaper friend, but the Stranger Things creators spared another new character.

“In terms of who makes it, who lives or dies, I think there was a version where Dimitri, a.k.a. Enzo, didn’t make it,” Matt Duffer revealed to Collider about the Russian prison guard who befriends Hopper. “Then he ended up making it. But that’s [the most] radical of a departure from the original idea versus what we ended up with.”

Enzo is a fan favorite, but he’s not Stephen King’s favorite Russian character:

Yuri, Enzo, and Murray, eating peanut butter in a broken-down planes around the globe. Now there’s a spinoff idea.

(Via Collider)

It’s been five years since Alvvays released their sophomore album Antisocialites, immediately becoming one of indie rock’s most endearing acts. Following up on the honesty and quaint daydreams of their self-titled debut, it proved that Alvvays had a lot in the tank and were a special band. But nary a peep on the new music front has emanated from the Canadian quintet’s camp since then, and it’s because of an insane series of events.

While the band started writing the newly announced Blue Rev shortly after Antisocialites came out in 2017, they became a touring machine; one that simply does not write and record while they’re on tour. Then, someone broke into singer and primary songwriter Molly Rankin’s apartment, swiping a recorder that contained the band’s recent demos. The next day, the basement flooded in Alvvays’ practice/storage space and their gear was compromised. Then the pandemic hit, the Canada/US border closed , and it made it hard for all five members who live on both sides of that border to be in the same room, let alone a studio together.

But Alvvays weathered the proverbial storm and after teasing new music two weeks ago when they announced tour dates for 2022, their third album, Blue Rev, is officially due out on October 7th. The band worked with six-time Grammy-winning producer/engineer/mixer Shawn Everett (The War On Drugs, King Princess, Kacey Musgraves) in Los Angeles, and things just clicked once again. The band recorded the album straight to tape and the rest will soon be history.

With the album announcement, also comes the release of Blue Rev’s opening track, “Pharmacist,” which should no doubt quell the five year wait for new music from the pride and joy of Prince Edward Island while we await the album in full.

Listen to “Pharmacist” above and check out the Blue Rev album artwork and tracklist below.

1. “Pharmacist”
2. “Easy On Your Own?’
3. “After The Earthquake”
4. “Tom Verlaine”
5. “Pressed”
6. “Many Mirrors”
7. “Very Online Guy”
8. “Velveteen”
9. “Tile By Tile”
10. “Pomeranian Spinster”
11. “Belinda Says”
12. “Bored in Bristol”
13. “Lottery Noises”
14. “Fourth Figure”

Blue Rev is out 10/7 via Polyvinyl. Pre-order it here.

Bobby Shmurda is free. Not only from prison, but free to make and release music as an independent artist. In an interview with Variety, the “Hot Boy” rapper discussed making new music, his upcoming EP, and his time in prison. Specifically, he recalled partaking in sexual activities during prison visits.

“I got oral sex, didn’t get sex sex,” Shmurda said. “I’m too big to be doing all that other sh*t, ya understand?”

When asked how the guards and prison staff would react to these acts, Shmurda said, “Some of them wouldn’t care, they’d be like [shrugs]. Some would be like [in deep voice], “Ackquille Pollard! Chill, hold it down, son! What the f*ck you doing?! This girl right here, both of y’all get the f*ck out!”

On top of that, Shmurda revealed that he smoked weed behind bars, saying, “I ain’t got nothing else to do.”

When Shmurda released “Hot Boy” in 2014, its accompanying music video popularized the “Shmoney dance,” which went viral on platforms like YouTube and the now-defunct Vine. While in jail, Shmurda made sure to never lose his dancing groove.

“I made killers dance,” Shmurda said. “I make everybody dance with everybody,” while adding that he found inspiration in a multitude of genres.

“I’ll play all types of music: Spanish music, pop music, Jamaican music,” he said. “I do everything but country and rock. I can’t really get into country and rock too much. Pop, R&B, hip-hop, jazz, I like everything.”