The Golden State Warriors took Game 1 of the 2022 Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, 112-87. Throughout the evening, the Inside the NBA guys were posted up outside of the Chase Center in San Francisco, which meant that Charles Barkley and Warriors fans felt the need to openly antagonize one another for several hours.
Barkley said earlier in the week that he does not like San Francisco, going as far as to call the city “hell,” so it’s not a surprise that there was some tension between the NBA Hall of Fame inductee and the Warriors faithful. At one point, the fans got on Barkley so much that he felt the need to really lay out that he wanted them to leave him alone in a NSFW way.
It would have been easy after the Warriors won for Barkley to take his foot off the gas and ease up on his dislike of the city, but Barkley is among media’s most adept haters, so as the fans chanted “Barkley sucks,” he could not help but respond.
And after the game, the city got some reinforcements when Draymond Green made his way out on set and sat at the desk it’s presumed he’ll join upon the end of his NBA career. Barkley decided to talk a little more trash about the area, at which point Green told him that his feelings about San Francisco are reciprocated by the city.
“I don’t dislike the area, I hate the area.” “The area hates you!”
Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm-and-blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B songs that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.
This past week was filled with some strong R&B and afrobeat releases. They include Davido’s “Stand Strong,” Burna Boy’s “Last Last,” Chloe’s cover of Capella Grey’s “Gyalis,” and more. There are so more releases you should take note of and you can find them below.
Arin Ray — “Gold”
After more than two years without a project, and more than four years removed from his debut album, it seems like Arin Ray is just a short time away from dropping a body of work for his patient supporters. Last month, he dropped “The Mood” with D Smoke and now he’s back with the luscious “Gold.”
Ne-Yo — “Don’t Love Me”
With his eighth album on the way, Ne-Yo is giving his fans, both new and old, more reasons to be excited about the upcoming project. It remains untitled at the moment, but it will be his first full-length since 2018’s Good Man. Until that arrives, Ne-Yo keeps us satisfied with his latest drop, “Don’t Love Me.”
Muni Long — “Pain”
Muni Long, who is fresh off signing to Def Jam, continues her strong year with her newest single, “Pain.” The record accounts for the changes she sees within her relationship and how it affects herself and her lover. It’s also a good follow-up to last month’s “Another.”
Dylan Sinclair — No Longer In The Suburbs
Three years removed from his JUNO-nominated second project Proverbs, Toronto singer Dylan Sinclair is back with his third body of work and it’s own filled with sincere R&B records that also display his growth. No Longer In The Suburbs arrives complete with eight songs and no features as Sinclair carries the weight of the project with no struggle.
Tank And The Bangas — Red Balloon
Nearly three years to the date of their 2019 second album Green Balloon, Tank And The Bangas returns with their third album Red Balloon. Hoping for the same success as their 2019 effort, which earned them a Grammy nomination, Tank And The Bangas present 15 songs with help from The Ton3s, Jamison Ross, Trombone Shorty, Lalah Hathaway, Big Freedia, and more.
Johan Lenox — WDYWTBWYGU
For his second project in less than a year, Johan Lenox strived to create an orchestrated pop epic and he did so with WDYWTBWYGU (What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up). On it, Lenox fires off 15 songs that feature collaborations with the likes of KayCyy, Ant Clemons, 070 Shake, RMR, Mr Hudson, Cousin Stizz, and more for what truly strikes as a grand and attention-grasping body of work.
Leven Kali — “Everything I Want”
Leven Kali’s last project came in 2020 with the release of Hightide. After staying low for a couple of years, the West Coast singer is slowly bringing back a wave of new music and it continues with “Everything I Want” which follows this year’s “Let It Rain” and “Eek.”
Dende — “Round Trip To Atlanta”
Texas native Dende closed 2021 with his seductive Pregnancy Pack EP. He then kicked off the year alongside Deante Hitchcock on “Neck Up” with Bairi who also appears on Pregnancy Pack. For his latest act, he rides solo and flies high for an intimate moment with a newfound lover on “Round Trip To Atlanta.”
Black Party — “Hotline”
With his upcoming album on the horizon, Arkansas-bred, Los Angeles-based singer Black Party gives fans a great treat with his new single, “Hotline.” The song is carried by Black Party’s sultry voice as he tells a lover to “pick up the phone when a real one call ya.” It’s also produced by Lido which marks the first, and definitely not the last time, that the duo will work together
Agnez Mo — “Patience”
After dropping a pair of singles in 2021, singer Agnez Mo kicked off 2022 with “Patience.” Originally a solo single, she later returned with a new version of the track which featured a verse from D Smoke. Weeks after that update, she’s back with an acoustic take of her new collaboration with D Smoke.
Skylar Stecker — “What’s Good”
Skylar Stecker’s 2021 year was highlighted by her sixth project Earth Signs. The seven-track body of work served as her third EP and first release since 2019’s Redemption. To kick off 2022, she released “What’s Good” with Tone Stith, and now she returns with an acoustic and solo take of the gentle record.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
When Mike Ziemer launched the inaugural So What Festival in 2008, social media was in its infancy. There was no Instagram for him to purchase advertisements, no TikTok to share videos, and no music streaming platforms, as Spotify hadn’t arrived to the US. By way of MySpace, word of mouth, and building a niche community in Plano, Texas, Ziemer was able to grow what began as a series of concerts in a local community center into one of the most anticipated festivals of the year.
The 2022 So What Festival marks the first iteration of the festival in three years, and its first in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in five. This year’s lineup boasts throwback artists like The Maine, Simple Plan, and Sum 41, and newer acts like Trippie Redd, Princess Nokia and 2 Chainz. With its largest and most diverse line-up yet, the festival will take place May 29-31 at Arlington’s Choctaw Stadium.
Born and raised in Huntington Beach, California, Ziemer moved to Plano at the age of 16. Though he admits he struggled to fit in with the suburban crowd, he found solace in Dallas’ music scene. In order to get into shows for free, Ziemer would interview bands for online zines. After building a presence online and within Dallas’ music community, a local band called The Perfect Ending reached out to Ziemer and asked him to manage them.
“The biggest thing that I came across was that at the time, which was 2004, there was no scene for all-ages shows,” Ziemer tells Uproxx. “You had to play in a bar, and the show would end at like eight o’clock, and none of your friends from the suburbs could go. I rented out a small room at The Plano Centre [which has since been renamed Plano Event Center], with some money that I borrowed from the guitarist of the band’s mom, and put on my first show. I paid everybody off. And there was some money left over, even after I paid her back. And I was like, ‘What do I do with this money? Like, oh, I’ve made some money. This is cool. I should do this again.’”
Ziemer would then launch a series in which he would hold monthly concerts at The Plano Centre. Those Plano Centre shows became staples for indie artists and emo kids alike, as Ziemer brought in artists and bands like The Maine, Terminal, and Jeffree Star — yes, that Jeffree Star.
During The Plano Centre concert series’ early beginnings, Ziemer and his street team would hand-deliver flyers to mailboxes in Plano, Frisco, and Richardson. As popularity for these shows grew, he and his team would deliver the flyers to even more surrounding cities, like Rowlett, Mesquite, Arlington, and Fort Worth.
In tandem with the ardent efforts of his street team and the scene kids who frequented these shows, Ziemer says MySpace was one of the biggest factors that pulled in large audiences every month.
“The ability to invite people and post bulletins and grow these insane followings on MySpace was incredible,” Ziemer says. With Facebook, you’re limited to 5,000 friends, unless you start creating new profiles. And on MySpace, I think I had 65,000 friends on there. Everything about MySpace was in order. If I post a bulletin, I’m on top. There was no weird algorithm. We spent zero dollars advertising, except for printing out flyers. The average person couldn’t just boost a post. It was all organic and word of mouth.”
In 2008, Ziemer would celebrate the concert series’ fourth anniversary with the inaugural So What Festival. Originally called South By So What, the first festival brought “just over 40 acts” to North Texas that otherwise wouldn’t get booked for SXSW, including Breathe Carolina, Memphis Mayfire, and Scary Kids Scaring Kids.
“The guy that was doing all my graphics was like, ‘Man, you have everybody everyone wants to see. You may as well call it South By So What,’” Ziemer recalls, “And I was like, ‘That’s funny, Let’s see if we can get away with it.’ We posted about it and it just became a brand. Even if you were over 21, if you wanted to go see anything that was rock or metal, it would be at a venue that could fit 500 people but there were, like, 3000 people trying to get in. The alternative was come up to Dallas to get away from all the chaos and enjoy all the bands. It wasn’t necessarily a stab at SXSW.”
While the South By So What name was all in good humor, the festival continued to grow over the years. Within two years, the festival had expanded from The Plano Centre to the Dr. Pepper Arena in Frisco. By 2011, the festival had moved to Dallas’ South Side Ballroom, then known as Palladium Ballroom, before taking place at QuikTrip Park, now known as AirHogs Stadium.
By 2016, the festival had garnered a fanbase comparable to that of SXSW.
“It got to a point where they considered us a competitor,” Ziemer says. “So when [SXSW] reached out and they were like, ‘Hey, at this point, we would like to get actual compensation from you using [‘south by’] because you’re now a competitor,’ We were just like, ‘Ok, we’re just gonna go by So What.’”
Around that time is when Ziemer had begun seeing a shift in music culture and within his audience. He would see crowds forming mosh pits at hip-hop and EDM festivals, realizing many of the individuals in these crowds were people who went to the Plano Centre shows growing up.
Having grown up in Southern California, Ziemer himself has an eclectic music taste, comprised of West Coast hip-hop and bands like Less Than Jake and NOFX. Ziemer’s own personal musical inclinations, paired with the shift taking place in the realm of music, prompted him to diversify So What’s lineup.
In 2017, for the festival’s 10th iteration, So What took place at AirHogs Stadium, as well as various venue’s in Dallas’ Deep Ellum neighborhood. On the lineup were Mayday Parade, Forever The Sickest Kids, and Every Time I Die, along with local hip-hop acts Lil Lotus and Blue The Misfit.
“Obviously, we’re not the first people to ever mix the genres together,” Ziemer says, “…but it just felt natural. Some people comment like, ‘How could you do this? This is supposed to be a metal festival,’ but I feel like those are grumpy people that aren’t going to come anyway. But the music all flows to me, especially in an era where Travis Barker is collaborating with every possible artist.”
Booking some of the newer acts feels like a full-circle moment for Ziemer, who first met 2 Chainz while his friend was working backstage at one of his concerts. He recalls being at a Rae Sremmurd show, which was the first time he saw fans form a mosh pit at a hip-hop concert. He’s also been following Blackbear’s music since he was performing under the name Mat Musto.
This eclectic lineup is expected to bring in fans from various parts of the world, which makes Ziemer all the more proud to have grown this festival in Dallas.
“Dallas is home,” Ziemer says. “I tried to deny that for a long time. I moved to Texas with spiky hair and Hurley shirts, when everyone was wearing Abercrombie. I was automatically thrown into this category of being a punk. I honestly didn’t think I would ever find my place here. I moved to LA for two years and came back. I talked about moving to New York, but this is just home.”
In a much-needed change of narrative after getting pummeled on social media by her late father’s former campaign manager, Meghan McCain is opening up about her life after The View. The TV personality turned Daily Mail columnist stopped by the Reality with The King podcast where she described leaving the daytime talk show as “kind of like having an ex-boyfriend that everyone knows you broke up with.”
According to McCain, she doesn’t watch the show particularly after the way she felt she was treated during her final season. (McCain had previously called the show a “toxic work environment.”) Via Mediaite:
“I don’t watch the show at all. It doesn’t really enter my lexicon,” she said. “I don’t watch anymore and it’s too weird. It would be too weird to watch, but, um, I don’t miss it. And I think it’s because I had such a hard time. My last season, it was a really rough time in my life.”
However, McCain surprisingly revealed that she still talks to one of her former The View co-hosts: Sunny Hostin. After gushing about how Hostin is “one of the greatest TV presences,” McCain said that she often turns to her old co-host for parenting advice because Hostin is just such a “good person.”
“She didn’t demonize me the way a lot of other people did whatever that’s worth,” McCain said about her ongoing friendship with Hostin, which is an interesting development if you know anything about their history.
Back in 2019, McCain was being plagued by behind-the-scenes leaks about her diva-like behavior on set, and according to Page Six, her team had pegged Hostin as the source of those leaks. Whether that was true or not has never been confirmed, but clearly, McCain and Hostin are on good terms now unlike Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, who couldn’t wait for McCain to leave The View for obvious reasons.
The recent rule changes regarding college athletes profiting off of their name, image, and likeness have generally caused people to lose their minds. The latest example of this came on Wednesday, when Alabama head football coach Nick Saban called out a pair of college football programs, Texas A+M and Jackson State, and one basketball program, Miami, for how they have benefitted from NIL.
Saban alleged that Jackson State “bragged” in newspapers that they paid $1 million to get No. 1 recruit Travis Hunter to go to the HBCU, while Miami has players “that are going to play basketball there for $400,000,” a reference to the NIL deal received by Kansas State transfer Nijel Pack. But the most pointed comments came when discussing A+M, a division rival led by former Saban assistant Jimbo Fisher.
“I mean, we were second in recruiting last year,” Saban said, per ESPN. “A+M was first. A+M bought every player on their team — made a deal for name, image, likeness. We didn’t buy one player, all right? But I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to sustain that in the future because more and more people are doing it. It’s tough.”
The Aggies were, indeed, the only team to finish above Alabama in 247’s team rankings last year by putting together a class filled with eight 5-star players, including four top-20 defensive line prospects. Fisher was pretty upset about all of this, so he called an emergency press conference on Thursday morning and decided to throw some haymakers in his old boss’ direction.
“Some people think they’re God,” Fisher said. “Go dig into how God did his deal, you may find out about a guy that … a lot of things you don’t want to know. We build him up to be the czar of football, go dig into his past, or anybody that’s ever coached with him. You can find out anything you wanna find out, what he does and how he does it. And it’s despicable.”
Fisher went on to defend how the Aggies put together their class and revealed that while Saban has tried contacting him in the aftermath of his comments, he refused to take the call.
Jimbo Fisher: “We never bought anybody. No rules were broken.”
Jimbo Fisher: “I just know that what we did was nothing wrong. Not done the wrong way. Nothing was promised. Nothing was a deal. And we didn’t buy any players.”
Beyond that, Fisher suggested Saban could use a smack upside the head.
Jimbo Fisher: “You can call me anything you want to call me, you don’t call me a cheat. I don’t cheat. I don’t lie. I learned that when I was a kid, if you did, your old man would’ve slapped you upside the head. Maybe somebody should have slapped him.”
The last eight years have not been easy for pop star and actress Selena Gomez, who has battled lupus, endured a kidney transplant, chemotherapy, and a bipolar disorder diagnosis, in addition to highly publicized heartbreaks. The 29-year-old left social media for four and a half years but now feels the confidence to share her story and uplift others. On Wednesday (May 18) Gomez joined First Lady Dr. Jill Biden for MTV Entertainment’s “Mental Health Is Health” initiative in collaboration with the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and nearly 30 other youth mental health advocates joined the event. Entertainment Tonight reports Gomez spoke on the benefits of discussing her struggles once she was able to understand them herself, while Dr. Biden reiterated the lasting impact the COVID-19 pandemic has on the youth to this day. This conversation preceded today’s Mental Health Action Day, where a group of nonprofits, brands, agencies, and leaders look to emphasize action within the mental health community.
Despite her hardships, Selena Gomez hasn’t been too far away from music. She appeared on the “Let Somebody Go (Ofenbach Remix)” alongside Coldplay and Ofenbach in April of this year. She also joined The Scene for Love You Like A Love Song, Come & Get It, And More released in August of 2021.
Coldplay is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
“The trolls slowed down speed that up,” Lil Durk tweeted on Tuesday. “I’m finna drop my deluxe this week I need to get pissed off real fast.” The Chicago rapper is gearing up to release the deluxe edition of his new album 7720 — an album that has already brought plenty of success his way. Not only was 7220 his first-ever album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (and return there a month later), but he also boasted that as a result of the album’s impressive streaming numbers — and his albums previous — Alamo Records renegotiated his deal for another $40 million. At the same time, some of those prior albums crossed another impressive threshold.
The trolls slowed down speed that up I’m finna drop my deluxe this week I need to get pissed off real fast
According to @chartdata on Twitter, Durk’s 2020 album The Voice has officially been certified platinum by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), which means it’s shipped/sold over 1,000,000 equivalent units. In addition, his King Von collaboration “Still Trappin” also met that benchmark, while a number of older singles collected gold certifications with 500,000 equivalent units sold. They include “How I Know” with Lil Baby, “Spin The Block” featuring Future and Young Thug, and “Stay Down” which features 6lack, bringing his total number of certifications to 12 platinum and 30 gold, according to HipHopDX.
US Certifications (@RIAA): @lildurk, The Voice Platinum (1,000,000; album).
Meanwhile, Durk isn’t taking all this success for granted. Earlier this month, he launched a new program through his Neighborhood Heroes Foundation to introduce students to HBCU opportunities.
Fox and Friends is, without a doubt, most interesting when the co-hosts clash, and this generally involves Brian Kilmeade being the most combative of all. Last time this happened, the Chris Columbus superfan ruffled feathers by suggesting that pregnant women shouldn’t be hired to do “important” jobs, and now, he’s being dressed down again by Ainsley Earhardt.
One should preface this subject by acknowledging that freshly-former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was perhaps the best person (out of many in recent memory) at the job. She was a total pro, taking down the silliest of questions without missing a beat. Anyone who follows in her footsteps is sure to meet with some rough comparisons, but Karine Jean-Pierre stepped up to give it her best shot.
Yet as this clip reveals, Kilmeade was quick to brand Jean-Pierre “awful.” And Earhardt pushed back while pointing out the gig’s toughness, especially while everyone watches.
Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt defends White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre from co-host’s brutal attack on her: “Maybe just give her a chance”. pic.twitter.com/gu52vlKOsu
“She is off to an awful start. I don’t know how she is going to keep that job,” Kilmeade groused, via Mediaite. “She didn’t know anything instinctively, was reading things off. You have to understand the issues in order to be able to answer the questions.”
“It has to be a very nerve-wracking job though,” Earhardt pointed out, to which Kilmeade responded, “she’s not prepared for it” and “would not be surprised if she does not get any better.”
Yet Earhardt urged, “Maybe just give her a chance.” Rough crowd, man.
Bottled-in-bond bourbon whiskey is often called “the good stuff.” Part of that is due to the style being a little rarer than your average small batch bourbon. Another reason is the way it’s made. The juice in bottled-in-bond bourbons need to come from one distiller, during one distilling season. After at least four years of aging, those barrels are then blended and proofed down to 100 proof, every time.
The idea is that since the barrels have to come from the same season, they’re generally the same age and have the same depth. There’s no hiding/fixing flavor notes with older or younger barrels. Here’s the thing: any barrel can be a “bottled in bond” if it fits the flavor profile of that brand’s b-i-b expression. Distilling is a big business and all warehouses are federally bonded (another rule for bonded whiskey). So if a barrel doesn’t match that flavor profile, it isn’t thrown out, it’s just blended out into another expression. If it fits, it stays a bonded whiskey.
To many, the bottled-in-bond label represents a certain kind of fidelity to the process and to the product. But does it actually taste better? To try to answer that, I thought I’d pull some bottled-in-bond bourbons from my shelf and taste them blind, to see if they really are the good stuff. And to really drive that point home, I added two ringers — Knob Creek 12 and Johnny Drum Private Stock — which both have an ABV of 50 percent, like all bonded whiskey.
The lineup today is:
Jack Daniel’s Bonded
Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond
Knob Creek 12
Johnny Drum Private Stock
Boulder Spirits Straight Bourbon Whiskey Bottled In Bond
E.H. Taylor Single Barrel Bottled In Bond
New Riff Red Turkey Weated BIB
Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Spring 2022 Edition
Do bottled in bonds really taste that much better than an average 100-proof bourbon? Let’s find out.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This is all about the vanilla cakes and cherry candies on the nose with a little bit of new leather, orange oil, and sweet wood. The palate leans into apple fritters with vanilla frosting next to plenty of wintry spices — nutmeg, clove, and cinnamon mostly. There’s a Cream of Wheat vibe on the mid-palate with brown sugar, cinnamon apples, and raisins mixed in. The finish is a bit like a Hostess Cherry Pie with a dry cedar edge.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Vanilla ice cream and salted caramel draw you in on the nose with dashes of dried apple chips and cedar bark. The taste has a floral honey sweetness with layers of Graham cracker, nutmeg, and orange zest. The mid-palate leans into the sweetness with rich toffee before the finish arrives with a mix of sticky cherry tobacco, old leather, and woody spice.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Cherry bark and dark chocolate dominate the nose with a whisper of winter spice and menthol tobacco. Blueberry and cherry pie lead the way on the palate as salted caramel and dark chocolate cut with dried chili balance things out. The finish is part green reeds and maybe even sugar cane and part rich and dark brandied cherries dipped in that chili-infused chocolate with a silky body.
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Creamy and lush eggnog with plenty of allspice and nutmeg gives way to a soft and slightly sweet cedar plank with a hint of salt. Red Hots and orange rinds lead the way in the taste as Cherry Dr. Pepper livens things up. That hot cinnamon and creamy nog round out the finish with a touch of tap water at the very end.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This is all about that hazy IPA on the nose with plenty of tropical fruit countered by rummy spices, vanilla, and oak. That tropical rum cocktail vibe continues on the palate with plenty of sticky toffee pudding, vanilla creaminess, and wet oak. Dried apricot leather and cotton candy dominate the back half of the sip as notes of dark chocolate and tobacco finish things off.
Taste 6
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Orchard wood and berry fruit leather dance on the nose with layers of old cellar beams, dry black potting soil, vanilla wafers with a touch of nougat, and buttery toffee. The palate is part of sharp cinnamon tobacco and part dark fruit leather that mingles with old leather boots, winter spices, and cedar boxes before a cotton candy sweetness hits on the mid-palate. The finish leans back towards the berry with a pie while the leather and tobacco dry out the end.
Taste 7
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Sourdough and cherry pie are dominant on the nose with hints of old leather, maybe some orange rind, and a bit of green cedar. The taste is more of that cherry pie with a cinnamon stick woodiness next to a layer of dry sweetgrass and worn leather. The cherry continues on the finish as almost tart grape and more old leather round things out.
Taste 8
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a mix of freshly fried yeast doughnuts smothered in blackberry jam with moments of dried leather, old cedar, orange blossoms, and date-rich Christmas cake. The taste follows those lines and adds in almost smoky cherrywood, more blackberry jam, lush vanilla cream, black tea, cloves, and sticky tobacco. The finish balances that pipe tobacco with old cedar and plenty of dark berry compote.
Part 2: The Ranking
Zach Johnston
8. Boulder Spirits Straight Bourbon Whiskey Bottled In Bond — Taste 5
This Colorado bourbon is a bit of an outlier. The juice is made from a mash bill of 51% corn, 44% malted barley, and only five percent rye. That makes this one almost closer to a grain whiskey from Ireland or Scotland than a standard bourbon. The whiskey ages for four years before blending, proofing, and bottling in the Rocky Mountains.
Bottom Line:
This was very young/green on the nose. The hazy IPA vibe gave it away instantly as a crafty bourbon. It was good, don’t get me wrong. It’s just not my jam.
Willett — or Kentucky Bourbon Distillers — makes this special label. As with everything at Willett, though, the cards on the aging, mash bill, and blending of this bottle are held pretty close to the chest. The juice is a marrying of varying barrels that are cut to 101 to compete with Wild Turkey. That’s about all we know.
Bottom Line:
This felt like a perfectly good cocktail bourbon. I’d also pour this into a refreshing highball, but that’s about it.
6. New Riff Red Turkey Wheated BIB — Taste 7
New Riff
ABV: 50%
Average Price: Limited Availability ($50 MSRP)
The Whiskey:
This release from craft whiskey darling, New Riff, is all about the heritage grains. The whiskey uses a 19th-century grain, Red Turkey Wheat, to create a unique whiskey. The juice is aged for five years at New Riff’s warehouse before it’s vatted, proofed ever so slightly, and bottled as-is.
Bottom Line:
This was where things get a little “same-y.” There was a lot of cherry, wood, and vanilla in this lineup and this was the most indirect of these. It’s nice but didn’t stick out, hence the lower ranking.
5. E.H. Taylor Single Barrel Bottled In Bond — Taste 6
The whiskey in this case is a 12-year-old barrel of E.H. Taylor. That whiskey was hand-picked by Chris Stapleton. It was then cut down very slightly to bottled-in-bond proof, or 100 proof, with that famously soft Kentucky limestone water.
Bottom Line:
This, again, was nice. It felt like a classic bourbon or an everyday bourbon. I wasn’t overwhelmed or awed, but I was satisfied.
This whiskey is from Jack’s bonded warehouse. The mash of 80% corn, 12% barley, and eight percent rye is twice distilled before it’s run through Jack’s very long Lincoln County process of sugar maple charcoal filtration. The spirit then goes into the barrel for at least four years — per bonded law — before it’s batched, cut down with that Jack Daniel’s limestone cave water, and bottled as-is.
Bottom Line:
This was a nice departure from the rest of the list but not quite as refined as the next three on the list. Still, this is where we get into “that’s a nice sipper” territory.
This expression has been a touchstone bottled in bond since 1939 and remains a go-to for many bourbon lovers. The juice is the classic Heaven Hill bourbon mash bill that’s left to age for an extra three years compared to Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond.
Bottom Line:
This still rules. It’s a little one-note if I’m really being overly critical. But that “one note” is a pretty nice one with a lot of clarity and depth.
This is classic Beam whiskey with a low-ish rye mash bill of 77% corn, 13% rye, and 10% malted barley. The juice is then left alone in the Beam warehouses for 12 long years. The barrels are chosen according to a specific taste and married to create this higher-proof expression.
Bottom Line:
This would have won easily today had an Old Fitz not been in the mix. This was deep, interesting, and comforting all at once. It also goes to show that Jim Beam doesn’t need to slap “bottled in bond” on the label to make this the good stuff.
1. Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Spring 2022 Edition — Taste 8
This wheated bourbon whiskey — 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley — was distilled and laid down in barrels back in 2004. The barrels were vatted after 17 years and proofed down to the bottled-in-bond standard of 100 proof and then bottled in the iconic Old Fitz decanter for a Spring 2022 release.
Bottom Line:
Not surprisingly at this price, this was in a different universe to the rest on the list and it’s kind of unfair to even rank this against them. This is one of the best bourbons of the year by a mile.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
So, I guess that’s a “no” to my question at the end of the lede. Good bourbon is good bourbon whether it’s labeled bottled in bond, small batch, or even single barrel.
Overall, Knob Creek 12 was the clear winner today. Old Fitz was walking away with the number one seed pretty much no matter what. But that Knob Creek really wowed in the blind tasting and beat out the competition easily.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
You’ll find tracks that creep into the seven- or eight-minute range on Ethel Cain’s debut album, Preacher’s Daughter. Muted sermon soundbites, the thick buzz of bees or the incessant hum of flies, and her own languid vocals build out worlds of sound that are so dreamy and dark they remind casual listeners of Lana Del Rey. But even if Cain’s singing style is languorous like Lana, a deeper excavation of her lyrics — and Cain’s own backstory — will help newcomers understand the comparison stops there. Perhaps what connects the two women is an insistence that pop can sound however they want it to; if they build a sound and stick to it, listeners will fall in line. And on those terms, Lana is a logical precursor for the rise of Cain’s sprawling sound.
Growing up in the rural town of Perry, Florida as the oldest of four, Cain’s born-again Christian background included homeschooling and threats of hell when she began to vocalize her queerness. After surviving her teen years, in part thanks to internet portals like Twitter and Tumblr, Cain formally came out as transgender at the age of 20, changing her name to Hayden Silas Anhedönia and landing on the persona of Ethel Cain shortly after. “I love overkill — I’m nothing if not dramatic,” Cain told The New York Times, who recently published a freewheeling profile that collects the artist’s personal life data into a cohesive narrative for the first time. “It’s over-the-top American melodrama, it’s Thelma & Louise and the most ridiculous, psychotic, psychedelic things.”
Cain told The Times that unveiling her new artistic persona was more akin to being possessed than an act of creation, a fitting revelation from an artist who so often deals in matters of the occult. First adopting the aliases of Atlas and White Silas for making music, there’s a renewed focus and sharpness in the work of Ethel Cain that these previous iterations lacked — so maybe the spirit world is involved. Quietly building out the world of Ethel Cain across three EPs — Carpet Bed and Golden Age in 2019, and Inbred in 2021 — her first full-length album represents a huge leap forward for the artist. Building pop out of fire and brimstone, these songs confront a loss of faith and the threat of eternal damnation within the intimacy of story-songs.
“A House In Nebraska,” one of the first tracks off the album that Cain wrote for the record, nearly reaches the eight-minute mark. Its tortured love story unfolds across brooding piano chords, building toward a maximalist, shoegaze-y crescendo with layers of buzzy electric guitar and sporadic drums. The longest track on the record, “Thoroughfare,” leans more toward the Americana side of her sounds, with harmonica and acoustic guitar morphing into the kind of warped epic that warrants a wailing guitar solo. The best song on the album, “American Teenager” gets closer to Khalid’s own American Teen than any listeners of the early EPs would’ve ever guessed, pinning a cheerleader, a dead teen soldier, and an unmoved Jesus into the kind of ethereal pop melody that made 1989 such a beloved record.
Cain told Alternative Press that Preacher’s Daughter is the first album in a “planned trilogy about three generations of a family,” dubbing that trilogy “the Ethel Cain Cinematic Universe.” She’s certainly right that her songs unspool like movies, filled with high-drama, moving dialogue, and the kind of characters you’ll think about long after each song’s inevitable climactic moment dies down. A great example of this is one of the album’s earliest singles, “Gibson Girl,” one of the most sensual and violent songs in Cain’s repertoire. Told from the perspective of a prostitute, “Gibson Girl” is more stripper anthem than Biblical kiss-off, living in that liminal space between empowerment and subjugation. You get the sense there’s no way Cain would rather have it.
And as accessible as some of the record is, it’s still not for the faint of heart — nor is it a mainstream pop release by any means. Alienating songs like “Ptloemaea” pit Ethel’s sweetly quiet vocals against walls of sound that lean into metal and harder rock, and the three-minute instrumental of “Televangelism” paints a story with piano and vocal loops instead of lyrics. Repeating motifs of generational trauma and recurring toxic cycles on “Family Tree (Intro)” and “Family Tree,” Ethel unflinchingly explores the impact that religion, guilt, and shame have — and continue to have — on so many American families. The ominous hiss of flies builds in the backdrop of the song while Cain sings about a white horse, taking down another degree of separation between herself and Taylor Swift.
Since the characters in Ethel Cain songs glow on Harleys in parking lots (“Western Nights”) and mourn the long-gone ritual of church on Sundays while staring at dead bugs (“Sun Bleached Flies”), it’s little wonder the industry that has invoked comparisons to Lana’s absent-minded Americana fetishism. But even Del Rey’s best writing has never delivered a line as poignant as “God loves you / but not enough to save you.” That’s a lyric written by someone who has escaped the worst of what worship can be, but never lost the urge to keep singing hymns to the silence. Ethel Cain’s faith won’t save you, but maybe her music will.
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