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The Brooklyn Nets are going to look quite different next year. Two major reasons for this are the impending departures of Kevin Durant, who requested a trade, and Kyrie Irving, who reportedly is not long for the team either in light of Durant’s decision. On Friday morning, we learned of another stalwart from the last few seasons who is likewise on his way out of town.

According to Malika Andrews of ESPN, Bruce Brown is switching conferences. Brown is headed to Denver, where he will join the Nuggets on a 2-year deal that will pay him in excess of $13 million.

A former second round draft pick for the Detroit Pistons, Brown should bring some defensive tenacity on the perimeter for a Nuggets team that is gearing up to make a run for a championship next year due to the impending returns from injury of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. While it is unclear how the team’s starting lineup will shake out, Brown is a snug fit alongside those two and two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, and if he continues to shoot the ball as well as he did last season, putting him on the floor with Aaron Gordon should not be an issue.

Brown has turned into a reliable two-way option for the Nets over the course of his career, and the 2021-22 campaign was the best of his career up to this point. Brown appeared in 72 games and had a role in the starting lineup in 45 of them, and averaged nine points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.7 blocks in 24.6 minutes per game. He shot 50.6 percent from the field and 40.4 percent from three.

The New York Knicks made a splash in the center market on the first day of free agency when the team convinced Isaiah Hartenstein to make the trip from coast to coast and leave the Los Angeles Clippers. In the immediate aftermath, questions popped up about what this meant for the future of Mitchell Robinson, as the rim protecting center was on the unrestricted free agent market.

As it turns out, it doesn’t mean much of anything, as Robinson will return to the only city he’s called home during his NBA career. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Robinson and the Knicks came to terms on a 4-year contract extension that will pay him $60 million over the life of the deal.

A former second-round draft pick, Robinson has turned into an important piece of the puzzle for Tom Thibodeau. He’s carved out a role as the team’s starting center over each of the last few years, and when he has been able to play — something he did more than ever before during the 2021-22 campaign — Robinson is among the best shot blockers in the NBA.

Robinson averaged 8.5 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game for the Knicks on 76.1 percent shooting (48.6 percent from the line) in 72 games in 2021-22.

Keeping track of all the new albums coming out in a given month is a big job, but we’re up for it: Below is a comprehensive list of the major releases you can look forward to in July. If you’re not trying to potentially miss out on anything, it might be a good idea to keep reading.

Friday, July 1

• Alex Crispin — Alex Crispin (Cobblers)
• Carlos Truly — Not Mine (Bayonet Records)
• Chief State — Waiting For Your Colours (Mutant League Record)
• The Deer Hunter — Antimai (Triple Crown Records)
• Fresh — Raise Hell (Get Better Records)
• GoGo Penguin — Between Two Waves EP (XXIM Records)
• Guided By Voices — Tremblers And Goggles By Rank (Rockathon Records)
• Gwenno — Tresor (Heavenly)
• Imagine Dragons — Mercury — Acts 1 & 2 (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope Records)
• Lotic — Sparkling Water EP (Houndstooth)
• Medicine Singers — Medicine Singers (Joyful Noise Recordings)
• Mice Parade — Lapapọ (Bubble Core Records)
• Momma — Household Name (Polyvinyl Record Co.)
• Moor Mother — Jazz Codes (ANTI-)
• Naima Bock — Giant Palm (Sub Pop)
• Naomi Alligator — Double Knot (Carpark Records)
• Neighbor Lady — For The Birds (Park The Van)
• Nonconnah — Don’t Go Down To Lonesome Holler (Ernest Jenning Record Co.)
• Paolo Nutini — Last Night In The Bittersweet (Atlantic Records)
• Randy Holden — Population III (RidingEasy Records)
• Tedeschi Trucks Band — I Am The Moon: II. Ascension (Fantasy Records)
• Various Artists — Minions: The Rise Of Gru (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Decca Records)

Friday, July 8

• Aespa — The 2nd Mini Album EP (Warner Records)
• AJ Lambert — Dirt Soda (Dead Oceans)
• Alice Cohen — Moonrising (Styles Upon Styles)
• Apollo Brown — This Must Be the Place (Mello Music Group)
• D’Arcangelo — Arium (A Colourful Storm)
• Delicate Steve — After Hours (ANTI‐)
• The Faim — Talk Talk (BMG)
• James Bay — Leap (Republic Records)
• James Righton — Jim, I’m Still Here (DEEWEE)
• Journey — Freedom (Bertelsmann Music Group)
• Katy J Pearson — Sound of the Morning (Heavenly Recordings)
• Laura Veirs — Found Light (Raven Marching Band Records)
• Metric — Formentera (Metric Music International)
• Miki Ratsula — made for them EP (Nettwerk)
• Mush — Down Tools (Memphis Industries)
• Neil Young — Toast (Reprise)
• NoSo — Stay Proud Of Me (Partisan Records)
• Party Dozen — The Real Work (Temporary Residence Limited)
• Renforshort — Dear Amelia (Interscope)
• Richie Furay — In The Country (Renew Records/BMG)
• Spiral Stairs — Medley Attack!! (Amazing Grease)
• Sydney Rose — You Never Met Me EP (Public Consumption)
• Vancouver Sleep Clinic — Fallen Paradise (Believe)
• Viagra Boys — Cave World (Year0001)
• Wet — Pink Room EP (Secretly Canadian)

Friday, July 15

• …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead — XI: Bleed Here Now (Dine Alone Records)
• The A’s — Fruit (Psychic Hotline)
• Alan Parsons — From The New World (Frontiers Music Srl)
• Alex Dupree — Thieves (Keeled Scales)
• Alexander 23 — Aftershock (Interscope Records)
• Arlo McKinley — This Mess We’re In (Oh Boy Records)
• Arroyo Low — 2020 (Bodan Kuma)
• Arp — New Pleasures (Mexican Summer)
• The Ballroom Thieves — Clouds (Nettwerk Records)
• Beabadoobee — Beatopia (Dirty Hit)
• Ben Shemie and the Molinari String Quartet — Desiderata (Joyful Noise/Backward Music)
• Chicago — Born For This Moment (BMG)
• Christina Perri — A Lighter Shade Of Blue (New Elektra)
• Elf Power — Artificial Countrysides (Yep Roc Records)
• Gabríel Ólaf — Solon Islandus (Decca Records)
• God Is An Astronaut — The Beginning Of The End (Revive Records)
• Gordi — Inhuman EP (Jagjaguwar)
• Interpol — The Other Side of Make-Believe (Matador)
• J-Hope — Jack In The Box (Big Hit Music)
• JayWood — Slingshot (Captured Tracks)
• Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp — 18 (Deuce Music)
• Jonah Tolchin — Lava Lamp (Yep Roc Records)
• Josiah — We Lay On Cold Stone (Blues Funeral Recordings)
• Katalyst, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad — Katalyst JID013 (Jazz Is Dead)
• Launder — Happening (Ghostly International)
• Lera Lynn — Something More Than Love (Ruby Range Records)
• Lizzo — Special (Atlantic Records)
• Lil Silva — Yesterday Is Heavy (Nowhere Music Ltd)
• Mabel — About Last Night… (Polydor Records)
• Noah Cyrus — The Hardest Part (Columbia Records)
• Rachel Bobbitt — The Ceiling Could Collapse EP (Fantasy Records)
• Ronnie Foster — Reboot (Blue Note Records)
• Steve Lacy — Gemini Rights (RCA)
• Superorganism — World Wide Pop (Domino)
• Third Eye Blind — A Collection (Elektra Records)
• Travie McCoy — Never Slept Better (Hopeless Records)
• Ty Herndon — Jacob (Pivotal Records)
• Wil Carlisle — Peculiar, Missouri (Free Dirt Records)
• Wylderness — Big Plans For A Blue World (Succulent Recordings)

Friday, July 22

• Alex The Astronaut — How To Grow A Sunflower Underwater (Nettwerk Music Group)
• Anthony Green — Boom (Born Losers Records)
• Beach Bunny — Emotional Creature (Mom + Pop)
• Ben Harper — Bloodline Maintenance (Chrysalis Records)
• Chineke Orchestra — Bob Marley & The Chineke! Orchestra (Island Records/UMe)
• Cuco — Fantasy Gateway (Interscope)
• Francisco Martin — Manic EP (19 Recordings)
• The Heavy Heavy — Life and Life Only EP (ATO Records)
• Jack White — Entering Heaven Alive (Third Man Records)
• Joe Pug — Nation of Heat | Revisited (Nation of Heat Records)
• John Moreland — Birds In The Ceiling (Old Omens)
• Nebula — Transmissions from Mothership Earth (Heavy Psych Sounds)
• Nicolle Galyon — firstborn (Songs & Daughters)
• Nina Nastasia — Riderless Horse (Temporary Residence Limited)
• Odesza — The Last Goodbye (Foreign Family Collective/Ninja Tune)
• Oh Wonder — 22 Make (Island Records)
• Peach Fuzz — Can Mary Dood the Moon? EP (Psychic Hotline)
• Pool Kids — Pool Kids (Skeletal Lightning)
• RZA — RZA Presents: Bobby Digital and The Pit of Snakes (Z2 Comics)
• The Sadies — Colder Streams (Yep Roc Records)
• Sam Prekop and John McEntire — Sons Of (Thrill Jockey Records)
• Sean Nicholas Savage — Shine (Arbutus)
• She & Him — Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson (Fantasy Records)
• Spacemoth — No Past No Future (Wax Nine)
• Sports Team — Gulp! (Island Records)
• Thor Harris — Doom Dub II (Joyful Noise Recordings)
• Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs — When the Lights Go (Nice Age)
• Traams — Personal Best (FatCat Records)
• Ty Segall — Hello, Hi (Drag City)
• ZZ Top — Raw (BMG Rights Management)

Friday, July 29

• Amanda Shires — Take It Like a Man (ATO Records)
• Andrew Tuttle — Fleeting Adventure (Mistletone Records)
• Beach Rats — Rat Beat (Epitaph Records)
• Dance Gavin Dance — Jackpot Juicer (Rise Records)
• DC Gore — All These Things (Domino)
• Death Bells — Between Here & Everywhere (Dais Records)
• Deaton Chris Anthony — Sid The Kid (Dirty Hit)
• Friendship — Love The Stranger (Merge Records)
• Hayley Kiyoko — Panorama (Atlantic Records)
• Jemima Coulter — Grace After A Party (Hand In Hive)
• Josh Rouse — Going Places (Yep Roc Records)
• Joyce Manor — At Some Point You Stop (Epitaph)
• King Princess — Hold On Baby (Zelig Records/Columbia Records)
• Lava La Rue — Hi-Fidelity EP (Marathon Artists)
• The Lord — Forest Nocturne ((RED) Southern Lord)
• Maggie Rogers — Surrender (Capitol Records)
• Matt Nathanson — Boston Accent (acrobat)
• Of Montreal — Freewave Lucifer fck (Polyvinyl Record Co.)
• Nav — Demons Protected By Angels (XO Records)
• Patrick Holland — You’re The Boss (Sinderlyn)
• Phony — At Some Point You Stop (Phony Industries)
• Sam Prekop and John McEntire — Sons Of (Thrill Jockey Records)
• Stick to Your Guns — Spectre (Pure Noise Records)
• Suicideboys — Sing Me A Lullaby My Sweet Temptation (G*59 Records)
• Tallies — Patina (Kanine Records)
• Tedeschi Trucks Band — I Am The Moon: III. The Fall ( Fantasy Records)
• Whiskey Myers — Tornillo (Wiggy Thump Records)
• Wilder Maker — Male Models (Western Vinyl)
• Wombo — Fairy Rust (Fire Talk)

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

Keanu Reeves is a certified mensch. He acts respectful around his fans; he supports Tibet; and he gives up his seat on the subway. Even grandmas love him. So do his co-workers, including singer Rina Sawayama, who joined the cast of John Wick: Chapter 4.

Sawayama told Metro what it’s like to work with Reeves. “The process of getting into character was awesome though and having someone like Keanu really on your side, looking after you and making sure you’re alright felt great,” she said. “Keanu just has such an ordinariness about him – he’s really down to earth, he’s someone who is so chilled and lovely – just great to hang out with like he’s a family member.”

The “Catch Me in the Air” singer described Reeves as having a “great presence” and recalled a story about training with him. “My favorite memory is looking over to him while we were both training in the same gym and being like, ‘F*ck!’ That was one of my faves – [training] was just so brutal! I loved sharing that moment with him. We were both like, ‘This is horrible.’ But I can’t compare to what he’s done. He’s in the whole movie and I am in a portion of the movie. I don’t know how he does it. He does all his own stunts!”

John Wick: Chapter 4 comes out on March 24, 2023.

(Via Metro)

Just when you thought that Vladimir Putin receiving one U.S. lawmaker’s support would be the only significant Marjorie Taylor Greene news to slip out this week, she’s dropped a squeaker before the holiday weekend. It’s also worth noting, before we jump into this, that Greene’s known linguistic screwups. She recently accused Nancy Pelosi of running the “Gazpacho Police,” and she claimed that Bill Gates used a “peach tree dish” to make “fake meat.”

Now, Greene has moved on to questioning the death of Michael Stenger, the Senate sergeant-of-arms who became the former Senate sergeant-of-arms on January 7, 2021, following criticism over his handling of security during the insurrection. As NBC News reports, Stenger was found dead earlier this week, although his death his not considered suspicious by authorities. Fox News further reported that Stenger died of cancer (at age 71), but that hasn’t stopped the QAnon crowd from making sh*t up because they believe he knew something, and that someone wanted to take care of him before his Jan. 6 hearing testimony.

QAnon head cheerleader Marjorie Taylor Greene is on board with this wildly dangerous conspiracy theory. In a video posted by federal lawyer Ron Filipkowski, Greene used the made-up word “suicided” as well as the term “Sudden Adult Death Syndrome” to plant seeds of how a 71-year-old man, reported to have cancer, couldn’t have simply died:

“He has died mysteriously and we don’t know anything about his death. We know that he died on June 27. We know that he was 71 years old. But we have no report of why he died. Did he have a heart condition? Was it Sudden Adult Death Syndrome? Did he have cancer? Did he have some other medical issue that tragically led to his death? Did he commit suicide? Was he suicided? We have no idea. We do know that we’re concerned about this… We think the public deserves to have answers.”

As Filipkowski points out, the term “suicided” is, in fact, a made-up word that’s tied to conspiracy theories surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s jail-cell death. Marge’s suggestion here is that Stenger knew something that Democrats didn’t want the world to know.

Let’s just say that the head-scratching has commenced in earnest out there. People are hung up on why Greene’s conspiracy theory-riddled mind not only tossed out “suicided” but also this thing called SADS that’s also surfaced in Covid-related conspiracy theories.

And here’s the next progression, apparently. TGIF!

Each week, Indiecast talks about new indie music and hashes out trends. But which albums released this year deserved more attention? In this week’s episode, hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen walk through their favorite underrated releases so far in 2022.

In terms of news this week, Indiecast goes all in with The 1975 discourse after the band officially announced their upcoming album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language. Steven and Ian also share their thoughts on Muna tattooing their Pitchfork score and reactions to Alien Ant Farm’s “Smooth Criminal” cover resurfacing.

The Recommendation Corner this week has Ian giving props to Short Fictions’ power pop-leaning Every Moment Of Every Day while Steven shouts out Guided By Voices’ new project.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 95 below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

In case it wasn’t clear that the hype for the Stranger Things 4 finale is through the roof, Netflix completely crashed within minutes of Volume 2 hitting the platform. The mammoth sized episodes and their ginormous runtimes became available early Friday morning, and they apparently tore their own hole through Netflix, pulling the streaming giant into an Upside Down of errors and outages.

Via Variety:

According to global uptime-monitoring site Downdetector.com, user reports of problems with Netflix spiked around 3 a.m. ET — when “Stranger Things 4” Volume 2 went live. Complaints about errors with Netflix peaked at nearly 13,000 at the top of the hour, before the situation seemed to be resolved within a half hour.

Of course, this shouldn’t come as a total surprise as the fourth season has been shattering Netflix records along with catapulting Kate Bush‘s “Running Up That Hill” to the top of pop charts nearly 40 years afters its release. After a lukewarm reception to Stranger Things 3, the series took an epic swing this time around, and people have been showing up in droves to see the Hawkins crew face off against their most powerful foe yet, the psychic dark wizard Vecna.

Stranger Things 4 Volume 1 ended on one heck of a cliffhanger, but fortunately, fans only had to wait a month for the conclusion that the Duffer Brothers have touted as much “darker” than anything seen on the show before. There’s also talk of bleak outcomes for some of the characters, so if you haven’t started streaming yet, maybe stay off social media to avoid spoilers.

Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

(Via Variety)

The Cleveland Cavaliers enjoyed a large step forward as an organization in 2021-22, racking up 44 wins after most projected the team to fall well short of postseason contention. Much of that success can be tracked to impressive performances from Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen and budding star big man Evan Mobley, but the Cavaliers also received meaningful contributions from veteran guard Ricky Rubio during the first half of the season.

Rubio then suffered a torn ACL, costing him the remainder of the season, but the Cavaliers and Rubio will reportedly continue a fruitful partnership with a new contract in free agency.

Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports brings word that Rubio will stick around Cleveland on a three-year deal worth $18.4 million.

In 34 games last season, Rubio averaged 13.1 points, 6.6 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game, providing a steadying influence for a young team. He suffered the aforementioned torn ACL in late December, meaning that Rubio will likely be out, or at least limited, for opening night of the 2022-23 campaign. Still, the decision to retain Rubio makes sense from Cleveland’s side as a veteran that can back up Garland while also playing with him in certain lineup constructions.

At this stage, the 31-year-old Rubio projects as a role player, but this is an appropriate contract for that level of piece. It remains to be seen what the Cavaliers might do with restricted free agent guard Collin Sexton, but Rubio should bring a quality option as soon as he returns from injury.

The soundtrack to Minions: The Rise Of Gru is out today, which has Phoebe Bridgers covering The Carpenters, HER covering Sly And The Family Stone, St. Vincent covering Lipps Inc., Kali Uchis covering Stan Getz And João Gilberto, and Tame Impala and Diana Ross contributing a new song.

Along with these gems, there’s also Thundercat taking on “Fly Like An Eagle,” originally by Steve Miller Band. The idiosyncratic musician does what one would expect — he makes the song weirder and woozier. It’s full of sparkling synths and warped bass, but his vocals are clean, guiding the track forward. It ends by slowly fading away into echoes.

Last month, he shared a collaboration with Gorillaz for “Cracker Island,” about which the Gorillaz virtual band member 2D said, “It’s nice to be back, I’m well into our new tune, it brings back weird and scary memories of stuff that hasn’t happened yet.” The narrative of the tune was explained as “the world’s biggest virtual band have relocated to Silverlake, California where it turns out that the answer to life’s question — the one truth to fix the world — is to invite fans to join ‘The Last Cult,’ with Murdoc as its self-appointed Great Leader.”

Listen to Thundercat’s cover of “Fly Like An Eagle” above.

Over the course of her career, Charli XCX has taken a lot of twists and turns. In the early 2010s, she had three top-10 singles in the US with “Boom Clap,” Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” and the No. 1 “Fancy” with Iggy Azalea. Then, she pursued more experimental sounds with the albums Charli and How I’m Feeling Now. This year saw her get back into a more straightforward pop lane with Crash, which was her first No. 1 album in the UK and first top-10 album in the US.

Through it all, Charli believes she’s seen as a “sort of fringe-pop artist” and thinks the reason why could have to do with how often she switches lanes. In a new V Magazine interview, Charli says:

“I think I’m very obsessed and inspired with the idea of contrast and throwing someone off the scent. I think it’s a blessing and a curse. It’s like as soon as people think they have me all figured out, I kind of like to flip the script on them. Maybe it’s why I’m still seen as a sort of fringe-pop artist in a way — never someone right in the middle of the club. I’ve always been an outsider––at school, in music, sort of at parties. I’m in the mix, but I’m not the epicenter because I’m constantly moving too fast and evolving possibly in ways of contradicting myself. But it’s what makes me challenging as an artist and also to myself. I need to change to be inspired. And so I imagine whatever’s next will be contrasting to what’s going on now.”

Read the full feature here.

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