Last year, emo stalwarts Foxing released Draw Down The Moon, the evocative, critically-acclaimed follow-up to 2018’s Nearer My God. With the unveiling of that album, they announced an accompaniment film that was to be recorded at the Grandel Theatre in St. Louis. Today they’re back with “737 (Live At The Grandel)” from that project, coming from the album Live At The Grandel, which will be available on limited edition vinyl on July 8.
The entire album was recorded in under 48 hours in June of last year. It’s sure to be an immersive listen; the band is known for having powerful shows, where their poignant songs become even bigger and more vulnerable than the recorded versions. Talking with Uproxx about the release of Draw Down The Moon, Foxing’s Conor Murphy said, “Early on, critics like yourself or fans of ours or especially management people would always do this thing where they’d say, ‘I can’t believe I’m seeing you guys in a basement right now because you guys are gonna be an arena band.’ It really did us a disservice because everything was a failure when we’re always looking at it in the context of how successful we should be.”
Watch the captivating music video for “737 (Live At The Grandel)” above.
Live At The Grandel is out 7/8 via Hopeless Records. Pre-order it here.
College football realignment has led to a number of moves that have caused fans to raise eyebrows. Whether they seem a little weird or feature big name schools jumping from one major conference to the next, the last decade or two have featured gigantic shakeups in what conferences various universities call home.
On Thursday, we got perhaps the strangest news that we’ve gotten up to this point regarding schools joining a new conference. The two Los Angeles schools in the Pac-12, UCLA and USC, are leaving the conference to join the Big Ten, meaning they will eclipse Nebraska as the two westernmost institutions in the conference. The news comes via Jon Wilner of Pac-12 Hotline.
Source: USC and UCLA are planning to leave for the Big Ten as early as 2024. Move *has not been finalized* at the highest levels of power.
This is quite the strange alliance of schools, because while UCLA and USC are good academic institutions who field prominent athletic departments, the Big Ten accepting a pair of members this far outside of their geographic footprint is quite the move. It would mean that there will be conference games where teams (Rutgers, Maryland, etc.) will have to travel from one coast to the other, which is assuredly something the conference will need to get all sorted out — particularly for smaller, non-revenue sports.
There is no word on whether or not the conference will try to add more schools.
The Atlanta Hawks made their first major move of the offseason on Wednesday afternoon when they sent three first round picks (2023 CHA, 2025 ATL, 2027 ATL), a pick swap (2026 ATL), and Danilo Gallinari to San Antonio for All-Star guard Dejounte Murray.
The Hawks had made clear that they wanted to shake things up this offseason, but after weeks of rumblings that John Collins was going to be on his way out, the Hawks made the first big move with draft capital, not players. Atlanta is almost assuredly not done making moves, as Collins remains on the block and one would expect players like Bogdan Bogdanovic or Kevin Huerter could also be expendable now that Murray is locked in as the starting guard. While the moves they make from here are important, the man who still holds the keys for just how good the Hawks can be is Trae Young.
Adding Murray was an effort to give Young the complementary backcourt mate he’s lacked in his four years in Atlanta, an elite point of attack defender who takes pressure off of Young’s greatest weakness and a secondary playmaker to alleviate the stress placed on Young to create so much for the Hawks on offense. On defense, there’s little doubt how this works in Atlanta’s favor, as Murray, along with De’Andre Hunter and Clint Capela, give the Hawks three defenders with excellent tools in all three phases: point of attack, wing, and rim protection.
On offense, it remains to be seen what Murray’s impact will be, and the deciding factor there will be Young’s willingness to cede some of the reins to Murray and be an engaged off-ball player. Young has always carried an outrageous offensive burden in Atlanta, posting a usage rate of 33-35 percent in each of the last three seasons, and an assist percentage of 45-47 percent, meaning he’s responsible for creating nearly half of his teammates shots when he’s on the floor. That’s an incredible burden to bear, but we are soon going to learn exactly how much of that is by necessity because of roster limitations and how much of it is by design from Young himself.
Both Lloyd Pierce when he was the team’s coach and Nate McMillan have spoken about wanting Young to be better off the ball, and now, there’s no longer the excuse of not having another creator on the floor. Murray, like Young, is most comfortable operating as a pick-and-roll ball-handler, as nearly half of his usage last year in San Antonio (46.7 percent, per NBA.com) was in pick-and-roll, seventh among players to appear in more than 40 games. Young was second in that category, only behind Chris Paul at 51.3 percent, which means when the two share the floor, there’s going to need to be some give and take on display to keep them both comfortable.
Adding Murray, a career 33 percent shooter from three, and forcing him to mostly operate as a spot-up shooter would not a recipe for success for the Hawks, as teams would happily sag off of Murray at the three-point line to help on Young. That means it’s incumbent on McMillan to devise an offense that allows both to share ball-handling responsibilities to maximize their talents, with Young undoubtedly remaining the Hawks’ offensive engine. The question isn’t whether Young can succeed off the ball, but how willing he is to be an engaged threat off the ball when Murray is running things.
Last season, Young was assisted on just 14.2 percent of his two-point attempts and 22.3 percent of his threes, which are outrageously low figures, particularly given how efficient he was. Young’s greatest strength also may be the biggest weakness of his pairing with Murray. For all the comparisons Young has garnered to Stephen Curry, he tends to operate more like James Harden when he’s not on the ball, remaining far too stagnant and staying way away from the basket, where he’s less of a threat as a spot-up man despite his ability to shoot from long range. If Murray is going to succeed as a secondary ball-handler next to Young, he’s going to need Young to be the elite scoring threat he could be, drawing attention and, when defenses fall asleep, being ready to make them pay in spot-up opportunities.
That will mean more off-ball movement and engagement from Young, and the only person who can assure that happens is him. The good news for the Hawks is Young has incentive to make those changes to his game after getting thoroughly shut down by the Miami Heat in the postseason. That series showed the need to get someone like Murray, and Young has not been shy about his excitement to share the floor with someone he clearly likes and has at least some prior relationship with after All-Star this year. As a bonus, the two are Klutch clients.
Being excited about the possibilities in the summer is different from making actionable changes to how you play on the court. Young has the ability to expand his game beyond the ball-dominance he’s showed he can excel at in the past, and if the Hawks are going to get the most out of this new guard pairing, it’s on Trae to buy-in to that new role at times.
Charli XCX wasn’t about to let this summer pass without her dropping a warm-weather banger: Today, she and Tiësto link up on “Hot In It,” a dance-ready tune on which Charli sings with a confident swagger, “Tonight, I’m gon’ be rockin’ it, droppin’ it / Shake my ass, no stoppin’ it / I look hot in it, hot in it, I look hot in it.”
In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Charli said, “I was so honored when I got the call, to be honest, because I feel like we’ve been in each other’s ether for many, many years, and nothing’s ever quite happened, but I’m so happy that we waited for this song because it truly is an Anthem. And every single one of my friends, my friends from back home in Essex, my edgy, cool friends in LA, all ends of the spectrum, my mom, everybody wants to just party to this song. It’s back to my roots. It’s me saying, ‘in it’ on a track. Extremely referential. It’s huge.”
Tiësto also noted, “I was dying to work with Charli for years and like she said, it never happened. And every time I thought, ‘No, I have something’ or she sends or her team send me something and we’ve been so close to many times. So finally I can put you off my bucket list. It’s amazing. And yeah, the song came together. Yeah. Just took to the next level. The original was just a sample, low male vocal and it just didn’t sound as good. And then she re-sang everything and it sounds incredible.”
Listen to “Hot In It” above.
Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Tim Allen, who voiced Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story quadrilogy (he was “replaced” by Chris Evans for Lightyear), recently shared his thoughts on the spin-off for the first time. He could have buried it, much to the delight of the far-right, but Allen explained to Extra that “the short answer is I’ve stayed out of this ’cause it has nothing to do [with my character]. This is a whole new team that really had nothing to do with the first movies.”
The actor went on to say that he originally thought Lightyear would be “live action,” with “real humans.” But at the end of the day, “There’s really no Toy Story Buzz without Woody,” Allen said, shouting out Buzz’s enemy-turned-friend sheriff toy (voiced over the years by Tom Hanks).
Allen did say that Lightyear has a “wonderful story” (I think he meant to say a “wonderful origin story of the human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on”), but “it just doesn’t seem to have any connection to the toy. I wish there was a better connection.” Like the kind of connection Ted Cruz has with yelling at/about “lesbian toys” and Muppets.
Like Trump, Tucker Carlson appears to have a fetish for dictators. His pro-Putin diatribes have made him a bit of a celebrity in Russia, with the Kremlin ordering its state-run media outlets to feature as much of the Fox News host as it could, in order to give its viewers a very twisted view of the way “Americans” see Russia. (At a very early point in the Russia-Ukraine War, he also made it clear that he thought Ukraine should just give up.) Then there was the time he traveled to Hungary to interview prime minister Viktor Orbán. But at the moment, as Mediaite reports, Carlson’s political affections are being directed southward, as he’s been broadcasting from Rio de Janeiro, where he recently sat down with far-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro, who has been described as a brutal dictator by many—and a “chubby dictator” by at least one Brazilian media outlet—has made headlines for a variety of reasons during his three-plus-year tenure, including frequent verbal spars with [checks notes] Leonardo DiCaprio. He’s also a fierce opponent of homosexuality, same sex marriage, affirmative action, and abortion, and speaks freely on his many anti- stances. Yet Carlson put on that famously clueless tone he likes to use to express his shock that anyone would have reason to criticize this lovely chap he spoke with via a translator.
Carlson, never missing a chance to throw a potshot at his competitors, commented on how “the parallels between politics in Brazil and politics in the United States are striking to an American,” noting how Bolsonaro is “opposed by a coalition of billionaires, college professors, and CNN… What will Brazil look like if your opponent wins?” The president responded:
The media never gave me any visibility or space. Much to the contrary, they attacked me all the time throughout the campaign. If the left-wing does come back to power, to my view, they’ll never leave power and this country will follow the same path as Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Colombia. Brazil will become one more wagon on that train.
The losers will be the Brazilian population and also the left-wing itself. The left-wing voters will lose as a result.
Suck-Up Carlson only gave a taste of his interview, but promised viewers that it will be “amazing.” Then, of course, he had to editorialize and act as if the Brazilians who have suffered under Bolsonaro—and the media outlets who have criticized him for his controversial views—have got it all wrong. “This will shock you,” Tucker said. “Bolsonaro bears no resemblance whatsoever to the descriptions of Bolsonaro you have read in The New York Times. Completely different person. Seen that before?”
Not that long ago, calling Russ an “international star” would have been a stretch, but these days, the New Jersey rapper is getting as comfortable on private planes as he is in the studio. In his jet-setting new video for “Yes Sir,” Russ makes himself at home abroad as he raps in front of French landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe and strolls the streets of foreign cities while making time to take pics with fans of all nationalities before performing in sold-out arenas.
The video is the latest exhibit in Russ’ ongoing case for remaining independent as an artist, which he’s been arguing ever since completing his Columbia Records contract in 2020 (truthfully, even before that). Earlier this month, he even took his message to TMZ Live, calling record labels “obsolete.” Telling his fellow artists “you don’t need them; they’re not doing anything for you that you can’t do for yourself,” he explained why rappers have so much more control over their careers these days.
“Artists in today’s day and age, they’re their own digital marketing,” he said. “I think digital marketing is one of the biggest facades in the music industry. You get with the label and they’re like, ‘Here’s your digital team.’ And it’s like, ‘What do y’all do exactly?’”
Most recently, Russ has popped up on songs with Black Thought and Danger Mouse (“Because” with Joey Badass) and Logic (“Therapy Music“) and launched his own label, so it seems he’s doing something right.
The last album by Broken Bells was 2014’s After The Disco. The duo, which consists of Brian Burton of Danger Mouse and James Mercer of The Shins, are finally back with the long-awaited follow-up, Into The Blue. This announcement comes with the release of the lead single “We’re Not In Orbit Yet…”
The release date of the album has not been revealed yet, but details are forthcoming. “We’re Not In Orbit Yet…” has a trippy, hypnotic atmosphere, moving at an unhurried pace and imbued with ethereal vocals and synths. It stays true to the Bee Gees-meets-psychedelic-dance-rock sound of their previous material.
About After The Disco, the band had told Rolling Stone, “What people in the Fifties and Sixties thought now was gonna be like. That’s when we did the record: that’s where a lot of that came from.”
This vibe was evident on that album, and it looks like it may be seeping into this new one as well. Their devotion to old-school music has always been clear, especially when they performed “And I Love Her” by The Beatles on The Late Show with David Letterman with Ringo Starr on the drums.
Listen to “We’re Not In Orbit Yet…” above, and check out the album artwork below.
Just days before his hotly anticipated “After Hours ‘Til Dawn” tour is set to kick off, The Weeknd has announced new openers who will support him throughout the trek. Joining The Weeknd for the 19-date North America leg are Mike Dean, Snoh Aalegra, and Kaytranada, as reported by Variety.
Rapper and singer Doja Cat was originally set to open for The Weeknd on the tour. However, she is currently recovering from a tonsil surgery she underwent last month. The tour kicks off Friday, July 8 in Toronto, where Dean and Kaytranada will open. Dean will appear on all 19 dates of the North American leg. Aalegra’s will join them beginning August 11 at Mercedes Stadium in Atlanta.
“Unfortunately I have to have surgery on my tonsils ASAP. The surgery is routine but the recovery is going to take awhile due to swelling,” Doja said in a since-deleted Instagram post. “That means I have to cancel my festival run this summer as well as The Weeknd tour. I feel horrible about this but can’t wait for this to heal and get back to making music and create an experience for y’all.”
“The entire show is conceptual,” said The Weeknd’s creative director La Mar Taylor to Variety. “There is a linear story between After Hours and Dawn FM, and I think the audience will walk away with different interpretations of the show. To us, that’s the whole point.”
Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.
Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of June below.
Bartees Strange — Farm To Table
4AD
After generating a ton of buzz with his 2020 debut album Live Forever, Bartees Strange returned just earlier this month with Farm To Table, a genre-spanning album that’s full of compelling moments. As for the vinyl, there’s a cool-looking striped version (the one above) or a classic black LP. Regardless of what edition you get, the vinyl release of the album has a song, “Daily News,” that’s only available on this physical pressing. Order it now for an October ship.
Elton John — Madman Across The Water (50th Anniversary Reissue)
UMe
Elton John had a huge 1971, as he dropped a live album with 17-11-70, a soundtrack for the movie Friends, and later in the year, a proper studio album, Madman Across The Water. Now we have a 50th-anniversary edition of it and it’s a big one, as the 4-LP box set includes a 40-page booklet with introductions by John and Bernie Taupin, photos and essays, a reproduction 1971 reproduction poster, and more.
Diiv was one of the most critically respected indie groups of the 2010s and it all started with Oshin. That album turns 10 this year, which the group is celebrating with an expanded 2-LP edition. The first LP contains the regular album as we know it, while the other one has original Oshin demos and two live songs, including the previously unreleased “Yuk.”
“Out with the bangs, in with the twangs,” a clever ad for Angel Olsen’s new album reads. The country-leaning LP is one of the finer albums of the year so far and now it can be one of the finest albums in your vinyl collection, too. Unfortunately, the clear green edition pictured above is sold out as of this post, but the still-available black vinyl never goes out of style.
Los Angeles Philharmonic — Hollywood Bowl: The First 100 Years
Los Angeles Philharmonic
We’ve had the Hollywood Bowl for a hundred years now and now the Los Angeles Philharmonic has unveiled a massive 7-LP box set of performances from the storied venue, a healthy 55-recording mix that features performances from Death Cab For Cutie, The Doors, James Brown, the Philharmonic conducted by John Williams, and a bunch of others that convey how important this iconic space has been and remains. (Also, you even get a free tote bag!)
The Walkmen, sadly, are no more, but we’ll always have the music. 2008’s You & Me, one of their most beloved albums, has now gotten a deluxe new vinyl version, dubbed the Sun Studio Edition, which is fully remastered and comes with a fourth side of unreleased tracks from the time, recorded at Sun Studio for PBS.
Beach Boys — Sounds Of Summer: The Very Best Of The Beach Boys
Capitol/UMe
Artists are competing for the unofficial “song of the summer” title for 2022 right now, but if we’re talking all-time, it’s hard to beat the Beach Boys. Well, the group, which celebrates 60 years this year, so they’ve reissued their 2003 Sounds Of Summer compilation, which collects 80 songs from 1962 to 1989, making this a great catch-all option to fill a Beach Boys-sized hole in your vinyl library.
Beastie Boys — Check Your Head (30th Anniversary Reissue)
Beastie Boys
It’s been 30 years since Beastie Boys dropped the classic Check Your Head, so what better way to celebrate than with a new deluxe 4-LP edition? This limited reissue was originally released in 2009 and has been out of print for a good while, and goodies like remixes, live versions, and B-sides make it an especially desirable release.
17th anniversaries aren’t a common one to make a big deal about, but for The Kills’ second album No Wow, it’s worth it. They’ve shared a limited deluxe reissue of the 2005 album that presents two distinct versions of the album: the original and a new mix by Grammy winner Tchad Blake. Furthermore, the deluxe edition has a gold foil gatefold LP jacket, black-and-gold smoke vinyl LP, an exclusive 5×7 print, and a four-page booklet.
One of Vinyl Me, Please’s latest records of the month is the Bright Eyes classic I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. The LP was widely considered one of 2005’s best and this may be the best vinyl release of it, as the marbled red vinyl is gorgeous and it comes with a listening notes booklet.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
