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Big Thief member Max Oleartchik hails from Tel Aviv, Israel, so a few days ago, the band announced they had scheduled a couple performances in the city. That news was met with backlash given the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict and today, the band decided to cancel the concerts. Barby, the venue where Big Thief was set to perform, is far from pleased.

The venue actually broke the news of the canceled shows via a Facebook post, hours before Big Thief made the reveal themselves. In the post (translated to English via Facebook), the venue had some harsh words for the band, saying the cancelation “just made me sad for you bunch of miserable spineless musicians who are afraid of their own shadow.” It goes on to say, “Apparently you won’t enter the pages of history as influencing artists with agendas as artists of the past were. Be another band that comes and passes from the world like everyone else. I wish you all the evil in the world just as you did to your fans in Israel.”

Furthermore, The Observatorial reports fans who bought tickets to the concerts received a message from the venue that reads, “Big Thief’s show has been canceled because they are cowards.”

In their statement this morning, the band wrote, “Our intent in wanting to play the shows in Tel Aviv, where Max was born, raised, and currently lives, stemmed from a simple belief that music can heal. We now recognize that the shows we had booked do not honor that sentiment. We are sorry to those we hurt with the recklessness and naivete of our original statement on laving in Israel and we hope those who were planning to attend the shows understand our choice to cancel them.”

Read the full translated post from Barby below.

“Pay attention! Big Tip canceled their show in Israel!!!

We didn’t call, we didn’t ask, there wasn’t a producer who contacted and bought the show. This came from them, a request to perform in Israel, and that’s after being canceled due to Corona. The bds have been with us for 20 years he hasn’t changed since the last time they were in Israel. You as a whole have changed, you grew up, you became a Grammy nominees, recommended portals in the world music scene, obviously you have more to lose!!! The Nazi fear boycotts on Instagram just made you fold/scare some paid protesters outside the hall in Europe got your managers pick up their knees ‘and the solution’ let’s skip to israel let’s give up our audience where it’s less important. I’m not asking you to lie on the fence for us or fight our wars. It’s just a small and legitimate thing. I *demand* an end to the hypocrisy! And there are plenty! The world is far from being perfect and in that israel the injustices have existed for centuries and the naive or innocent man who would think that everything will be solved due to threats fears or boycotts actually your cancellation you just made me sad for you bunch of miserable spineless musicians who are afraid of their own shadow. Apparently you won’t enter the pages of history as influencing artists with agendas as artists of the past were. Be another band that comes and passes from the world like everyone else. I wish you all the evil in the world just as you did to your fans in Israel and hope that when you went up like this you will come down and become another passing episode. I learned that I have nothing but my country family and my people and no motherf*cker will break it we will end in blessing with israel live strong and no ripple will break it. And for you dear public, you will find the vehicles to love that know how to respect and appreciate the person and not despise him for making the composition Big Tip!

Cancellations will be made automatically within 14 days to your credit card.”

Boston-based indie-rock trio Pet Fox, whose members have clocked time in Ovlov, Grass Is Green, and Palehound, are sharing their new LP A Face In Your Life next week, and they’re back with one more single before the full release.

Following the fickle “Checked Out” and intense “Only Warning,” this new track “It Won’t Last” is, despite its pessimistic title, textured with hope, at least sonically with its jangly, upbeat atmosphere. In typical Pet Fox fashion, it feels like a majority of the two-minute song is a build-up for the massive outro, which is brief but as powerful as a punch. It’s another stunning preview that proves that the record is worth keeping an eye on.

“‘It Won’t Last’ is another quick track with minimal vocals,” vocalist/guitarist Theo Hartlett said about “It Won’t Last.” “This song is about letting your feelings get the best of you in both the best and worst ways. Sometimes I wake up in an incredibly good mood and ride that wave all day, but some days it’s quite the opposite and I must decide for myself if I’m going to dwell on the bad or do something to try to turn things around.”

Listen to “It Won’t Last” above.

A Face In Your Life is out 6/17 via Exploding In Sound Records. Pre-order it here.

When Pharrell Williams announced the lineup for his upcoming Something In The Water Festival back in April, the flyer touted that he’d be joined by some “phriends” and “some people we can’t announce.” Now, with the festival’s Juneteenth weekend dates looming on the calendar, Pharrell apparently can announce just who his “phriends” are — and while they’re certainly exciting, they’re hardly surprising. Pharrell will be joined by a who’s-who of his former (and current) collaborators, including Clipse, Justin Timberlake, NORE, Q-Tip, SZA, and more.

Of course, Clipse, JT, and NORE are obvious picks. As part of The Neptunes with Chad Hugo, Pharrell had a hand in some of those acts’ biggest hits of the 2000s, including Clipse’s breakout single “Grindin’” and their first album, Lord Willin’, Justin Timberlake’s solo debut Justified, which included bangers like “Senorita,” “Rock Your Body” and “Like I Love You,” and NORE’s “Superthug” and “Nothin’.” Meanwhile, Q-Tip was always a production mentor of Pharrell’s, and Pharrell was even in an A Tribe Called Quest-inspired rap trio with Timbaland and Magoo in 1991 called Surrounded By Idiots (some of their demos are floating around the internet to this day and are worth a listen). And of course, Pharrell produced SZA’s fan-favorite CTRL cut “Supermodel.”

The rest of the festival’s roster is absolutely stacked as well; you can check that out below and get more info on Something In The Water here.

Although it’s already been a fairly robust year for pop releases, with Harry Styles, FKA Twigs, and even Charli XCX all blessing their fans with new albums, there’s still plenty more coming down the docket in 2022. Here’s our picks for some of the best pop records that are heading our way this summer.

Muna, MUNA

Release date: June 24

SILK. CHIFFON. Ever since Muna got dropped by their old label and scooped up by Phoebe Bridgers and her Saddest Factory, things have finally been going right for the queer female trio. Their collaboration with Bridgers, “Silk Chiffon,” included a star-studded video featuring internet sweetheart Caleb Hearon, and the song itself was instantly beloved. They followed that initial lowkey hit up with a return to glitchy form, “Anything But Me,” and the slow burner “Kind Of Girl.” With both a fourth single, “Home By Now,” and yet another new song, “Sometimes” — a Britney Spears cover, no less — appearing in the queer film, Fire Island, their third album is shaping up to be a major one.

Conan Gray, Superache

Release date: June 24

Like plenty of artists who slated a big album drop for 2020, Conan Gray was robbed of the fanfare that should’ve surrounded his debut, Kid Krow — even if his fans still made it a massive success anyway. Now, the rising king of pop is gearing up to release his sophomore album, coming off a huge performance at Coachella 2022, and he’s shared quite a few tracks leading up to the record’s release. Criminally, “Overdrive” doesn’t show up on the tracklist, but other, slower favorites like “Yours,” “People Watching,” and “Astronomy” are all included.

Burna Boy, Love, Damini

Release date: July 2

One of the best things about pop and hip-hop during the last few years is the prevalence of Caribbean and African styles of music making its way into the mainstream. Whether you give credit to Drake or not for bringing in the sounds of the diaspora, the success of afrobeats with American audiences is pretty compelling — and Nigerian artist Burna Boy is one of those at the forefront. In 2021, Burna Boy even took home the Best Global Music Album Grammy (!), for his 2020 release, Twice As Tall, so there’s big expectations on his next project. Unfazed, Burna went on to sell out Madison Square Garden and announce the follow-up, Love, Damini, will be out on July 2, the musician’s 31st birthday.

Beabadoobee, Beatopia

Release date: July 15

Uproxx cover star Beabadoobee is one of the most prolific new artists in the game. Though she’s technically more on the indie rock side of things — and writes, plays, and performs all her own music — these songs are so catchy that she slots comfortably alongside plenty of fellow pop stars. After collaborating with The 1975 on Our Extended Play in 2021, Bea is now gearing up to release a follow-up to her own debut, Fake It Flowers, which dropped in 2020. Early singles like “Talk,” “See You Soon,” and “Lovesong” indicate that the UK artist is doubling down on her grunge-bubblegum sound, with plenty of room for softer moments alongside the heavier stuff.

Lizzo, Special

Release date: July 15

Even though it’s only been three years since Cuz I Love You dropped, the fact that there’s been a whole damn pandemic in between Lizzo albums almost sounds like a Lizzo lyric. “About Damn Time” does the honors instead, a disco throwback that sums up how everyone is feeling about hitting the dance floor after two years or more indoors. Lizzo performed her new hit, along with the album’s title track, “Special,” on Saturday Night Live earlier this year, cementing her status in the upper echelon of musicians doing it right now. Though she’s yet to release the studio version of “Special,” or share the full tracklist for Special, her record is still the one plenty of people are looking forward to the most this summer.

Noah Cyrus, The Hardest Part

Release date: July 15

If you haven’t been keeping up with Noah Cyrus, now might be the time to start. She’s so much more than just the younger sister of Miley Cyrus, and has been proving that by slowly but surely building a stack of bluesy, pop-country tracks that veer much more left field than the early work of her superstar sister. But Noah has a distinct vision of who she wants to be, so much so that Miley even joined her to live duet on a 2020 release, “I Got So High That I Saw Jesus.” That kind of big sister cosign is only coming when both siblings are sure their own artistic identities are firmly established. Noah recently announced her debut album, The Hardest Part, would be out in July, and preceding singles “I Burned LA Down” and “Mr. Percocet” are even more promising than her earlier work.

Maggie Rogers, Surrender

Release date: July 29

Maggie Rogers is back! After the success of her debut album, Heard It In A Past Life, which came complete with the Pharrell co-signed hit, “Alaska,” Rogers made it clear to fans that she wouldn’t be rushing whatever came next. In that same vein, a record titled Surrender is very fitting. Apparently, Rogers moved back to Maine and holed up somewhere on the remote coast to write this one during the pandemic. The first new music we’ve heard, “That’s Where I Am” is a tense departure from her earlier sound, so this project might be a bit heavier than her past work. For an artist still at the start of her career, mixing things up is the right move.

Lauv, All 4 Nothing

Release date: August 5

Yet another artist who had their debut record scheduled for release in 2020, Lauv is a totally independent pop star who still has his finger on the pulse of what makes a huge mainstream hit. Whether you know him from “I Like Me Better” fame, his insanely catchy Anne-Marie collab, “Fuck, I’m Lonely,” or streaming the entirety of ~How I’m Feeling~, a follow-up from this hittmaker is always welcome. Slated for release on August 5, early singles like “All 4 Nothing (I’m So In Love)” and “26” prove he hasn’t lost this edge.

Julia Jacklin, Pre Pleasure

Release date: August 26

More on the indie side of the spectrum, Australian artist Julia Jacklin’s mesmerizing voice kicks her over into pop territory via sheer listenability. Pre Pleasure is slated for release in late August, and marks the third album Jacklin has released so far. Jacklin described the lead-off single, “Lydia Wears A Cross,” as “about a lot of things but mainly being a seven-year-old old Jesus Christ superstar fanatic attending catholic school trying to figure out which way is up.” If that doesn’t sell you on it immediately, I don’t know what will.

Rina Sawayama, Hold The Girl

Release date: September

Rina Sawayama has been cropping up on songs with other artists recently, like her “Beg For You” collab with Charli XCX, and the dramatic “Follow Me” with Pabllo Vittar, but now she’s readying her own release. Hold The Girl is Rina’s second album, the follow-up to her stunning debut record, Sawayama, and to call it highly anticipated is an understatement. The album’s lead single, “This Hell,” directly confronts the religious backlash against queer folks, unleashing a retaliation banger that skewers right wing protestors and paparazzi alike. If the rest of Hold The Girl keeps the faith like “This Hell,” it’s on track to be one of the best pop albums of the entire year.

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

Back in September 2021, Britney Spears revealed she and Sam Asghari were engaged. Now, it appears they’ve taken the next step on that journey, as the two are reportedly set to get married today. TMZ first reported the news and Billboard later noted “a source” confirmed the report with them. Neither Spears nor Asghari have said anything about the wedding on social media.

TMZ describes the ceremony as “intimate,” noting the couple is set to wed “in front of a very exclusive and small guest list of about 100 people.” Spears’ father Jamie, mother Lynne, and sister Jamie Lynn are apparently not attending the wedding, but her brother Bryan is expected to be there. It’s also not yet clear who will be giving Spears away at the altar.

There were previously rumors that the two had already gotten married, as in April, Spears was putting emphasis on referring to Asghari as her “husband” in Instagram posts.

This comes after Spears revealed in May she had a miscarriage. She wrote at the time, “This is a devastating time for any parent. Perhaps we should have waited to announce until we were further along. However we were overly excited to share the good news. Our love for each other is our strength. We will continue trying to expand our beautiful family.”

Michael Keaton has opened up about the career advice he received from Jack Nicholson while the two were hard at work filming Tim Burton’s Batman in London. Obviously, the film became a mammoth blockbuster, lighting the magic on the comic book movie boom that’s in full swing today. But at the time, Keaton and Nicholson had no idea how Batman was going to turn out. It very easily could’ve been a massive flop.

During a riveting roundtable discussion for The Hollywood Reporter, Keaton revealed to fellow actors Samuel L. Jackson, Brian Cox, Oscar Isaac, Tom Hiddleston, and newcomer Quincy Isaiah that Nicholson pulled him aside one day and told Keaton to take a ride with him. While driving around London, Nicholson offered Keaton his advice on how to navigate his career should Batman become a hit, which it did:

So, we’re in the car and he’s talking about the movie. And we all knew it was a huge risk, and if it goes down, [I’d be] going down in flames and that’s going to be a big, hard recovery. But I also knew if it worked, it could change my landscape. So Jack says, “Keats, if this thing’s a hit, you can go out and do four or five flops and not even worry about it.” And maybe it wasn’t four or five, but it used to be you got away with three and it didn’t matter. Not now, man. You’ve got one miss, which is f*cked up.

While Keaton naturally appreciated Nicholson’s advice and getting some one-on-one time with the legendary actor, Keaton later revealed during the roundtable talk that saying, “I’m just going to cruise on this one,” isn’t in him.

“First of all, it’s impossible,” Keaton told the group. “You get there and the work’s the same, man. Even if you’re going to do a 15-second ad for Vaseline, you say, ‘OK, man, I’m all in.’ Because for that minute, I don’t know how to not be all in, not because I’m so f*cking groovy, because I probably have a fear of lying down, of going, ‘Well, don’t be a dick. Do the work.’ You know what I mean? Every time I think I’m going to cruise on this one, I can’t. You can fight it all you want, but it’s in you somewhere.”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Tove Lo stopped by Late Night With Seth Meyers last night to perform her latest single, “No One Dies From Love.” Joined by a backing band, Lo donned a shiny, metallic unitard.

Creating futuristic elements with her wardrobe and her minimalistically dressed backing band, Lo delivers a chilling, heartbreak anthem over a rolling synth-and-drum-driven beat. “No One Dies From Love” is the lead single from Lo’s upcoming fifth studio album. When describing the single, Lo said in an accompanying statement that the song is about “when you’re with someone for a long time and it ends all of a sudden, it’s like a part of you has died. This person is now a stranger to you. All of the memories are tainted. For the first part of the breakup, you believe you’re not supposed to feel good about anything you had together. What I believe I do best is ‘heartbreak you can dance to.’ The song is that.”

Lo’s fifth studio album is set to be released on her own label, Pretty Swede. In a recent interview with Notion, Lo shared some of her troubles with labels in the past.

“I mean the first 8 years after high school when no producers or labels wanted to work with me felt like an uphill battle,” Lo said, “but that’s part of the journey.”

Check out the performance above.

Federal prosecutors have recommended more than 25 years in prison for disgraced singer R. Kelly, according to legal filings obtained by The New York Post. In September 2021, Kelly was convicted of racketeering and eight violations of the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting people across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on June 29, and the US Attorney’s Office said that the harsh sentence was needed to “protect the public” from Kelly, who has been accused of around 30 years’ worth of sexual misbehavior, much of it involving minors.

“In light of the seriousness of the offenses, the need for specific deterrence and the need to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant… the government respectfully submits that a sentence in excess of 25 years is warranted,” read the filing. “He continued his crimes and avoided punishment for them for almost 30 years and must now be held to account.”

Kelly’s trial in New York didn’t go well for the singer, as multiple witnesses described horrible abuse of both male and female victims, while Kelly’s defense was reportedly unable to produce one of its own witnesses. Meanwhile, he still faces a separate trial for child pornography in his hometown, Chicago, later this year. Kelly plans to appeal his New York conviction with the help of Bill Cosby’s former lawyer, who will also defend him in the Chicago trial.

Kelly Clarkson has established herself as the queen of covers in recent years thanks to carving out time on The Kelly Clarkson Show for hr “Kellyoke” segment, which sees her delivering renditions of popular songs. Just yesterday, she sang The Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s “Save Your Tears.” Now, though, Clarkson has taken it to the next level with her new Kellyoke EP.

The EP differs from the Kelly Clarkson Show performances in two key ways: While on-show renditions are shortened versions of the songs for the sake of time, the EP sees Clarkson covering the full-length songs. Also, while the show performances are of course live, the Kellyoke EP is made up of studio recordings.

As for what’s included here, the tracklist consists of Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou,” The Weeknd’s “Call Out My Name,” Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever,” Whitney Houston’s “Queen Of The Night,” Shaed’s “Trampoline,” and Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees.”

Clarkson has been particularly fond off covering both The Weeknd and Radiohead on her show. She delivered a particularly notable rendition of the latter’s “Exit Music (For A Film)” last month, a performance that put Clarkson’s still-exemplary vocals front and center.

Listen to Clarkson’s rendition of “Fake Plastic Trees” above and stream the full Kellyoke EP below.

Earlier this week, SZA said she would be releasing unreleased songs from 2017 to celebrate the five-year anniversary of her instant-classic LP Ctrl. Today, she unveiled those tracks: “2AM,” “Miles,” “Percolator,” “Tread Carefully,” “Awkward,” “Jodie,” and a new version of the album’s Travis Scott collaboration “Love Galore.”

SZA also made a tweet today teasing even more music. She wrote: “What isn’t on deluxe maybe on SoundCloud as well tomorrow? Deciding . Spring cleaning old thoughts .” She then made a clarifying tweet after: “Everything made in 2014-2016 /17… not new lol to be absolutely clear .”

She also quote-tweeted a tweet from the Twitter account Chart Data, which reported that Ctrl has “spent 5 full years on the Billboard 200. It has never left the chart.” She wrote: “Thank y’all and thank GOD .”

Meanwhile, the singer also confirmed at the Met Gala that her new album is finished. When speaking with Vogue, she said, “The album’s finally ready to go — more than I’ve ever felt before. So this summer, it’ll be a SZA summer.” She also recently opened up about her relationship with social media: “Get off the internet. The internet is demonic,” she wrote on her Instagram Story. “I deleted my TikTok for mental health awareness month. I encourage everyone to delete anything anyone and everything that doesn’t serve you. Bless.”

Steam the deluxe version of Ctrl below.