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The Sandman author Neil Gaiman previously let it be known that he gives “zero f*cks” about people who troll casting announcements. That group may or may not take issue with the casting of Lucifer, who will be portrayed in live-action mode by Game Of Thrones‘ Gwendoline Christie (while still being voiced in the ongoing Audible version by Michael Sheen, so we’ve got dueling Lucifers). Netflix previously revealed this news in a slew of casting announcements before offering a first look at Tom Sturridge in motion as Morpheus/Dream, who was understandably irritated as hell and vengeful after being captured and imprisoned for decades.

Now, the streaming platform’s Geeked Week has given up a peek of Morpheus interacting with Lucifer, who is (of course) an entire realm away from Brienne of Tarth. Nice wings at around the 1:40 mark above.

Netflix describes the long-awaited series as follows: “The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic — and human — mistakes he’s made during his vast existence.” Well, Christie as Lucifer should be great fun, and she’s not the only Westeros-familiar actor in this project. Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister) will portray Roderick Burgess (who mistakenly captured Dream in the first place), and fans can expect appearances by Boyd Holbrook, Asim Chaudhry, Vivienne Acheampong, Sanjeev Bhaskar, and many dozens more.

The Sandman will arrive sometime (?) in 2022.

Instant ramen is a staple in homes all over the world. The modern iteration of the dish — created by legendary food inventor Momofuku Ando in Japan — was initially a luxury item, being way more expensive than fresh noodles back in the 1950s. Eventually, the price dropped to pennies and instant ramen (often simply called “Top Ramen” in the US, because that’s the most ubiquitous brand or Maggi Noodles in the UK for the same reason) became the cornerstone of kitchens large and small from Jakarta to Juneau. And while cracking open a bag, pouring everything into a bowl, and covering that bowl with boiling water is the easiest way to prepare the dish, there are about a million things you can do to jazz it up — whether you’re in the dorm or your own kitted-out kitchen.

When the assignment to prepare and stress test ramen hacks came across my desk, I got pretty excited. I’ve been adding American cheese, leftover meats, and onions or garlic to my instant ramen since the 1990s. But I really upped my ramen game after living in Indonesia for a year. I was lucky enough to live with someone who could really work some magic with a simple pack of IndoMie, and I carry that knowledge with me to this day (more on that later).

So, I scoured the internet and social media and found five “hacks” that felt intriguing enough to actually try. A quick note, a lot of the “hacks” out there are simply “add some leftover meat and herbs to your bowl of ramen.” And, sure, that’s fine but I needed to go deeper than just pairing last night’s leftover roast chicken breast or an egg with my noodle and season packs. So I searched for “hacks” that actually changed the texture and structure of the dish. Yes, there are add-ons as part of that, but this is about elevation and not just addition.

The instant ramen hacks are:

• Butter Ramen
• Kewpie Mayo Ramen
• Roy Choi Instant Ramen
• Dry/Fried Ramen
• Make-Your-Own-Base Ramen

Let’s get into it!

5 Instant Ramen Hacks, Ranked

5. Butter Ramen

The Recipe:

This is the easiest of the “hacks” out there. Simply add some butter to the pot when you make the ramen to amp up the texture of the soup.

• 1 pack of instant ramen w/seasoning pack
• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 cups boiling water

Method:

• Add the boiling water and ramen to the small pot. Briskly boil for about one minute.
• Add the seasoning pack and butter while boiling for another minute, or until noodles are fully cooked.
• Pour into a waiting bowl and serve.

Bottom Line:

This was pretty good. The butter did add a nice textural element but only just.

Is It Worth Doing?

Nah. I mean, it’s fine but not that much different. And if you’re going to add a fat to your ramen, why not an sesame, peanut, or chili oil? I get those won’t bring the same creamy texture as butter (that was barely there), but they’ll certainly taste better.

4. Kewpie Mayo Ramen

The Recipe:

This seems to be one of the more popular “hacks” all over social media at the moment. It’s more than just adding some kewpie mayo though (again, adding fat seems like a no-brainer). This is adding minced garlic and egg with that mayo and creating a slurry of sorts to really transform your seasoning packet into something totally different.

• 1 pack of instant ramen w/seasoning pack
• 1 tbsp. kewpie mayo
• 1 medium egg
• 1 tsp. finely minced garlic
• 2 cups boiling water

Method:

This might be the hardest visual to get past. You go from the above to this below as the first step. It … does not look appetizing. Anyway…

• Add the ramen and boiling water to a small pot and boil for about one minute.
• In the meantime, add the mayo, seasoning pack, egg, and garlic to a waiting bowl. Use chopsticks or a fork to blend the mix together until well emulsified.
• After the noodles have cooked for about two minutes, pour about one-half cup of the ramen noodle water into the slurry in the bowl. Use the chopsticks or fork to quickly combine/cook the slurry into a base sauce. You have to work fast so as not to scramble the egg — you’re basically tempering the egg with this process.
• Lastly, pour the rest of the ramen and water into the bowl and mix until the noodles are fully coated and a creamy soup base forms.
• Garnish and serve immediately.

Bottom Line:

This was way better than it looked at that first stage. It’s creamy and an umami bomb. It’s pretty rich and overall an elevated instant ramen experience.

Is It Worth Doing?

This got to be a little much around the second half of the bowl. It was still good but of the five bowls we tried (between four people for lunch), this was the only bowl that was not emptied. Still, if you’re looking for elevated instant ramen that’ll really fill you up, this is the play.

3. Roy Choi Instant Ramen

The Recipe:

When I read that Roy Choi did this back in his 2013 Tasting Table interview, I felt like I’d found a long-lost brother. As mentioned above, I’ve been doing something akin to this since the 1990s. Choi’s version is more advanced since he’s, you know, a trained chef and I was a teenager, but this is amped-up instant ramen for the ages.

• 1 pack of instant ramen w/seasoning pack
• 2 slices of American cheese
• 1 green onion (whites and greens separated)
• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 medium egg
• Sesame seed for garnish
• 2 1/2 cups boiling water

Method:

• Add the 2 1/2 cups of boiling water and ramen to a small pot. Boil for two minutes.
• Add the flavoring pack, whites of the green onion, and butter and stir together while cooking for another minute or two.
• Drop in the egg and turn off the heat, use chopsticks or small tongs to fold the ramen noodles over the egg to “cover” it. Let sit for at least two minutes so that the egg poaches.
• Gently pour the ramen into a waiting bowl. Layer the cheese over the noodles and garnish with sesame seeds and the greens of a green onion.
• Let rest for a minute or so to let the cheese get melty and serve.

Bottom Line:

Cheesy ramen? Yes and thank you! But it’s the egg that’s the star of the show with this one. It gets this barely-set jammy nature that works wonders as a little protein surprise when you’re pulling your ramen up to your mouth. Basically, this is what the butter “hack” above wishes it was.

Also, I realized too late I was out of sesame seeds, hence you don’t see them. But… I like sesame seeds, so… I’m sure it would have added a little something.

Is It Worth Doing?

Absolutely. You’re taking a little more time by poaching the egg slowly in the ramen noodles, but it’s 100 percent worth it. That said, this still feels more added to than elevated. There is a creamy texture thanks to the butter and cheese but it’s not too wildly different. Still, come on, this is great.

2. Dry/Fried Ramen

The Recipe:

This is touted as “Kylie Jenner’s Instant Ramen Viral Tiktok Hack” all over the internet. I think 275 million people in Indonesia would beg to differ. Granted, I wasn’t introduced to this style of instant ramen until I lived there, but this is a touchstone of home and street cooking in Indo. So, I’m going to give you the recipe I learned in Jakarta which, frankly, makes Jenner’s “hack” about a million times better.

• 1 pack of instant ramen w/seasoning pack
• 1 medium egg
• 1 tbsp. sambal olek (or any hot sauce)
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 tbsp. green onion (white part only)
• 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 tsp. fish sauce
• 4 bok choi leaves, thinly sliced on the vertical
• 4 Thai basil leaves, thinly sliced on the vertical
• 2 cups boiling water

Method:

• Add the boiling water and instant ramen with the seasoning pack to a small pot and boil for two minutes.
• In the meantime, add the butter, about 1/4 cup of the ramen noodle water, sambal olek, minced garlic, green onion whites, oyster sauce, fish sauce, and egg to a hot non-stick frying pan (medium-sized) on high heat.
• As soon as the egg hits the pan, use chopsticks to start scrambling the egg while mixing the sauce. You should get a very small curd scramble and a sauce that’s about the consistency of an Italian Sunday gravy (Bolognese sauce).
• Dump the noodles into a colander to strain, toss a few times to get some of the water off the noodles, and dump them right into the frying pan. Use chopsticks to roll the noodles through the sauce so that they’re completely coated and let fry for a minute or two.
• Kill the heat and add the bok choi and Thai basil. Use chopsticks to roll the noodles around, allowing the greens to fold into the noodles.
• Use chopsticks to slide the ramen into a waiting bowl. Garnish with the greens from the green onion and some sesame seeds (or ground peanuts) and serve.

Bottom Line:

This took me back. It’s so good and satisfying. You get little bits of fried scrambled egg with a truly spicy and umami-bomb sauce. It’s also fast. This took exactly five minutes from start to finish (with a mise en place already set up).

Is It Worth Doing?

I’ll put it this way, this is the bowl everyone fought over and wanted seconds of. Still, you don’t quite get the depth of the next one with this crowd-pleaser. That said, I made this again for breakfast the next day with my leftover mise. It was a great way to start the day.

1. “Make-Your-Own-Base” Instant Ramen

The Recipe:

The “make-your-own-base” instant ramen seems antithetical (how can it be “instant” if I’m making soup base?). But in the end, this is the best way to truly elevate any instant ramen pack to the stratosphere and beyond. And it really only takes about six minutes instead of three. Trust me, I’ve been doing this for a very long time.

• 1 pack of instant ramen
• 1 1/2 cup stock (I used beef)
• 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. mirin
• 1 tsp. fish sauce
• 1 tsp. red Thai chili paste
• 1 tsp. green onions white
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp. white pepper
• Juice of one lime
• 4 bok choi leaves, thinly sliced on the vertical
• 4 Thai basil leaves, thinly sliced on the vertical
• Chili oil
• 2 cups boiling water

Method:

• Add the stock, oyster sauce, soy sauce, mirin, fish sauce, red chili paste, green onion, garlic, white pepper, and lime juice to a small pot and bring to a rolling simmer. Use chopsticks to stir so that the chili paste integrates into the soup base. Allow to simmer for about five minutes.
• In the meantime, pour the boiling water over the instant ramen and boil for two to three minutes.
• Strain the ramen in a colander and place them in a waiting bowl. Place the bok choi and Thai basil over the noodles.
• Pour the simmering soup base over the noodles and greens and use chopsticks to fold the noodles around once or twice in the soup base.
• Garnish with green onion tops, sesame seed, and about a teaspoon of chili oil. Serve.

Bottom Line:

This was delicious. The soup base was funky, sweet, spicy, full of umami greatness, and just a little sour. There were dimensions at play that you’ll never find in a seasoning pack; and that’s why this wins this ranking, hands down. You just can’t beat making your own, quick soup base.

Is It Worth Doing?

Yes! Granted this doubles your cooking time from around three minutes to five or six minutes (if you have everything ready), but it’s beyond worth it. There’s nothing that comes close to having the same complexity as this on this list. This is the truest and boldest “elevation” you can do to instant ramen noodles, because it becomes “real ramen made with dried noodles.”

Final Thoughts

I have a whole drawer full of instant ramen soup packs. I rarely use them since making your own quick base is such an easy play. It’s so bright and spicy and, well, delicious and you barely have to put in more effort (once you’ve sliced some veg that is). In fact, I’d wager that once you start dialing in your own quick soup base, you won’t go back to the packs either. That said, it also takes a lot of ingredients to rebuild the flavors in a good instant ramen seasoning pack (so there’s some level of upfront investment).

Still, as much as I dig making my own soup base, frying up some ramen is the comfort food I long for. It’s fast and delicious and hits a nostalgic button for me. It’s, again, pretty fast to make. Even with slicing and dicing, you’re still looking at ten minutes or less from fridge to plate. While that’s not “instant,” it’s fast enough for the quality of the meal you’re getting from a humble packet of instant ramen noodles.

Kehlani just recently released their new album Blue Water Road, the follow-up to the 2020 LP It Was Good Until It Wasn’t. Though the album conveys a chapter of serenity and happiness for Kehlani, the promotion cycle was quite the opposite with uncomfortable interviews leading to their decision to no longer do interviews anymore.

The “Nights Like This” singer, though, has just announced that they will be heading out on the road this summer to promote the album, starting in Raleigh, North Carolina at the end of July and closing in Honolulu, Hawaii in October. Check out the full dates below, which all feature Rico Nasty and Destin Conrad as openers.

07/30 – Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater
08/01 – Miami, FL @ FPL Solar Amphitheater
08/03 – Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy
08/05 – Charlotte, NC @ Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre
08/07 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem
08/09 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
08/12 – Boston, MA @ Leader Bank Pavilion
08/13 – Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
08/15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Skyline Stage @ The Mann Center
08/16 – Pittsburgh, PA @ UPMC Events Center
08/17 – Cincinnati, OH @ The Andrew J Brady Music Center
08/19 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory
08/22 – Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre
08/24 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage!
08/26 – Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
08/28 – Indianapolis, IN @ TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park
08/30 – Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center
09/01 – Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater
09/03 – Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom
09/06 – Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
09/09 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Chelsea @ The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
09/10 – Los Angeles, CA @ YouTube Theater
09/14 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Federal Theatre
09/15 – San Diego, CA @ Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre
09/17 – Portland, OR @ Theater of the Clouds @ Moda Center
09/18 – Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater
09/21 – Vancouver, BC @ PNE Forum!
09/30 – Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
10/21 – Honolulu, HI @ Waikiki Shell

Find ticket information here.

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

As focus shifts from James Harden’s Game 6 stinker in Philadelphia to his future with the Sixers, the stench on the past 24 months of Harden’s career is pungent. He hasn’t been productive since suffering a hamstring injury last March against, coincidentally, the Houston Rockets. Since then, he’s been intermittently unfit, out entirely, or just plain bad.

Before jetting off to the east coast last winter, Harden already had a reputation for flaming out in playoff games; that he didn’t show up when his Houston teams needed him. He had several high-profile playoff failures, including in the 2012 Finals with Oklahoma City and two separate 2-for-11 elimination games in 2015 and 2017. And Harden burned through high-profile teammates such as Dwight Howard and Chris Paul in search of someone who would, seemingly, help him elevate the play of the team while also letting him do whatever he pleased.

It has often gotten ugly when a teammate didn’t check those boxes. A source told Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo! Sports just before Paul was traded that “Chris doesn’t respect James’ standing in the league, and James doesn’t respect the work Chris has put in to this point.” The same type of falling-out happened between Harden and Kevin Durant this year in Brooklyn, where Durant reportedly questioned Harden’s dedication to being in great physical shape and Harden believed that to be, according to ESPN, “grating and self-righteous.”

The problem is Philadelphia’s now. There’s no indication Harden has a poor relationship with Joel Embiid, though Embiid did tell reporters postgame that it’s unrealistic for anyone to expect Harden to rediscover the MVP form he left behind in Houston. After reportedly failing to file paperwork on time on his $47.4 million player option for 2022-23 after the trade to Philly (which he can still pick up this offseason), Harden is up for a contract worth as much as $223 million over four years. Harden and longtime partner in crime Daryl Morey will spend the summer hashing that out, but where does it leave our relationship with Harden?

It’s no exaggeration to say Harden revolutionized basketball. Many have been called a one-man offense, but rarely was it meant so literally as when Harden dazzled as a Rocket. During his MVP season in 2017-18, Harden created 1.22 points per possession on 10 isolation tries per game. The next year, it was 1.11 on 16 such possessions per game. By themselves, those numbers would easily vault a team into at least the top 10 in offense. Coming in the halfcourt, Harden’s brilliance elevated Houston in a situation when NBA offenses typically get worse.

Watching Harden in those years felt impossible. Here was a guy who looked like an NFL fullback taking and making shots nobody in the history of the game had ever dreamt of, bending the officials to his will like nobody since Shaq, and looping miracle passes across court for his open teammates. Harden’s skill set felt at once like a 2K MyPlayer with too much VC spent on him and the future of basketball.

Harden and Houston pushed the Warriors dynasty to the brink in 2018, and only an injury to Paul and a historically cold-shooting second half at the worst possible time stole a trip to the NBA Finals from them. The next season, an untimely meeting with Golden State in the second round led to an early exit for the Rockets and the end of the Harden-Paul era.

Harden’s numbers were mostly very good in both series. He averaged 29-6-6 (and two steals!) in 2018, though he wasn’t very efficient and struggled with turnovers. Still, he posted 32 points in Game 7, including a 5-for-7 fourth quarter with 10 points. In 2019, Harden averaged 35-7-6 against Golden State, including 35 in a narrow Game 6 loss as the Rockets’ defense broke down.

As Harden’s performance has waned, it’s become impressively easy to clown him. Everyone with a Twitter account got a joke off at his expense after the Sixers’ second-round exit. But if this is the beginning of the end for Harden, it’s not only a lost opportunity for Embiid and the Sixers, but a remarkable disappointment for anyone who loves basketball.

Many have compared Harden to Karl Malone, another MVP who was less than his best when the stakes were highest. Malone was memorably below par in Game 6 of both the 1997 and 1998 Finals. But even Malone had the longevity to become the No. 2 scorer in the history of the league, winning two MVPs and becoming an All-NBA pick 14 times. Harden has half that many, and it’s hard to imagine more coming.

Maybe a better comparison is Patrick Ewing, who was also among the first of his kind as a talent and produced as much as anyone in the NBA for a half-decade. But Ewing’s Knicks were really only title contenders for four years, from 1991-95. Ewing’s dropoff wasn’t as sudden as Harden’s may be, but Ewing’s status as an MVP candidate and championship centerpiece faded after 1995, at age 33, and never returned.

Today, Ewing isn’t talked about much in debates over NBA history and GOATs. For all the greatness he displayed over a Hall of Fame career, on a national scale, he may be most remembered for a missed layup in 1995 against the Pacers, or for the fact that the Knicks made the Finals again in 1999 after he got injured.

After all the teammate beefs, playoff flameouts, and forced trades, Harden may ultimately occupy a similar place in NBA lore. He had as much game-breaking talent as anyone, and didn’t do enough with it to hang in the conversation with the best to ever play. Watching Harden now, it’s obvious that peak is behind him. Long criticized for dominating the ball, Harden in and after Game 6 against the Heat was passive, then blamed it on the ball just not coming back to him.

For years, many rooted for this. Harden’s style of play, particular his lack of defensive effort and aggressive pursuit of drawing fouls on offense, frustrated NBA fans outside of Houston to no end. But the league is at its best when everyone reaches their peak and gets to face off for mastery over the league.

Harden had a chance to be that type of guy. For all of two years, he was. Now, he’s mostly only associated with what he could have been, what he never was, and what he failed to achieve. There’s still time to change that in Philadelphia or somewhere else, but it will be as a much different athlete than Harden was in his prime, and as the sidekick or role player to someone much better than him.

Tiffany Haddish is already a well-established actress, comedian, and now, author, but soon, she is looking to take over the music world as well. The star has been spotted in the studio with other veteran stars like Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg. In a new interview with TMZ to discuss her children’s book, Layla, the Last Black Unicorn, she also discussed her plans for her music, which she says she originally wanted to only put in her movie projects until she found that sync licensing for previously released music is much more lucrative.

When the show’s hosts asked about whether or not Haddish has been able to work with Beyonce, she played “coy,” as they described. “We’ll see what God has in store,” she replied. “That would be amazing, wouldn’t it?” She admitted that she “would love” to do a song with Beyonce, but since she’s “only seen her at parties,” don’t hold your breath for a T-Haddish featuring Beyonce track anytime soon. Predicting her music’s release, she said, “My goal is to make the music and put it in my movies and TV shows… if I put my music in it, I’m in it… but I just heard yesterday that if I release the music on the airwaves — put it out there for purchase — then when I put it in my show they gotta pay me like $35,000 or something like that. I guess I’m a drop that sh*t today!” However, she did admit she didn’t want to compete with Kendrick Lamar, who just released his new album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.

You can watch Tiffany Haddish’s interview above.

In a fiery rant on Monday morning episodes of The View, co-host Ana Navarro said its time to “name names and point fingers” when it comes to right wing politicians and TV personalities who have enabled the “Great Replacement theory” that led to the white supremacist mass shooting in Buffalo over the weekend. Navarro then proceeded to do exactly that by name-checking Tucker Carlson, Fox News, and Elise Stefanik for their part in the rhetoric that led to the tragic event.

“Tucker Carlson mentioned the great replacement theory or some version of that more than 400 times on his show since 2016 according to The New York Times,” Navarro said. “Elise Stefanik bought ads on Facebook, and it’s not just them. It’s other hosts of Fox News. It’s other Republican leaders, and they need to be called out.”

But Navarro was just warming up. She dragged everyone from advertisers to staffers to voters who are enabling the promotion of the racist theory that there’s a conspiracy to have immigrants and other racial minorities “replace” white Americans. Via Mediaite:

“And listen, if you are an advertiser, advertising on that station, you are part of the problem. If you sit on the board and are trying to be a civilized person, Paul Ryan, my friends, I’m talking to you. You are part of the problem. If you are a Republican donor tweeting about how bad you feel about this, but you’re donating to people like Elise Stefanik, you are part of the problem,” Navarro passionately argued. “If you are a staffer working for them, you are part of the problem. If you are voting for them, you are part of the problem.”

As The View audience applauded, Navarro floated a replacement theory of her own. “We should replace all these people peddling hate and making financial and political gain from spreading racism. We should replace them with the people who hold up American values.”

(Via Mediaite)

Former Oasis leaders Noel and Liam Gallagher have a famously contentious relationship, which caused the band’s break-up in 2009. It’s a regular occurrence to see one brother saying something unflattering about the other in the media, although they established a company together last year. Despite that, it’s been about a decade since the two have actually seen each other in person.

In a new Esquire interview, Liam said, “The last time I saw Noel was at a football match about ten years ago. It’s a shame, isn’t it?” In a perhaps-related quote, he added, “The good times outweigh the bad times. I think it’s best to just leave it at that.”

He also noted he has some regrets about Oasis’ break-up, saying he thinks the band could have done more before they called it quits. He said, “Everyone goes on about us being the biggest. There were plenty of places where we could’ve been bigger. We were the biggest thing in England. And we were pretty big in Japan. But we weren’t that big in America, not at all. We never played stadiums in Spain. There was a lot more work to be done, so we shouldn’t have split up, because we could have made more records. It’s a shame. I’m talking about Oasis. I like to think Oasis will get back together, but not this week.”

Check out the full feature here.

Just when you thought that we had enough music festivals announced for 2022, San Francisco’s brand new Portola Music Festival has splashed onto the circuit with an incredibly diverse lineup of marquee electronic-leaning dance, pop, and hip-hop crossover acts. This is a seriously stacked lineup with big names at the top like Flume, The Chemical Brothers, Jamie xx, and a #rare performance from MIA.

Pier 80 is the grounds for the inaugural edition of the Goldenvoice-produced two-day festival on September 24th and 25th. Also appearing on the very well-curated bill are acts like Kaytranada, Jungle, Charli XCX, The Avalanches, Caribou, Toro y Moi, James Blake, Four Tet + Floating Points, Caroline Polachek, PinkPantheress, DJ Shadow, Lane 8, Yaeji, Slowthai, The Blessed Madonna, Justin Martin, and more. While late to the party, this is a legit unbelievable lineup.

And while the festival takes place nowhere near San Francisco’s Garden District known as the “Portola,” it’s actually named after the short-lived Portola Festival of 1909, which celebrated San Francisco’s re-opening following the great fire of 1906. Back then, the festival was built around a parade down Market Street. It then disappeared in 1913 for 35 years before re-establishing itself as a series of Mardi Gras-style parades in 1948, and then fading into the abyss in 1950. Now we have a full-on dance party in a refurbished warehouse and tents on a historic pier. Sure.

Check out the lineup poster below and tickets go on sale on Friday, May 20th, here.

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

Sally Rooney’s second book-to-show adaptation came out yesterday, with the long-awaited Conversations With Friends premiering on Hulu. The notoriously schmaltzy series had none other than Phoebe Bridgers contribute a song called “Sidelines,” which is about being so in love that you’re no longer afraid of death. Bridgers is a longtime fan of Rooney and probably would not have met her fiancé Paul Mescal if he hadn’t been cast in Rooney’s Normal People adaptation series.

Today, the Punisher star unveiled the music video for that song “Sidelines,” and it features a lot of cinematic scenes from the show. It’s like a montage of intimate moments between different characters — Frances and Bobbi, Fances and Nick, Nick and Melissa, plus some pretty sunsets and Bridgers herself singing gently in the studio.

The actor who plays Nick is Joe Alwyn, boyfriend of Taylor Swift, who Bridgers is also a fan of. She recently praised Folklore‘s “Betty”: “I like when songwriters make you decide what’s so sad about this person. It’s kind of not the movie version of a love story. You have a crush on someone and then you hook up with someone else because your feelings for them overwhelm you? That’s so f*cking sad. I think it’s genius. And then we kind of don’t really know what happens at the end of it,” she said.

Watch the video for “Sidelines” above.

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.

Patrick Carney doesn’t want to come across like an asshole today. One half of The Black Keys for the past 20+ years, he has just landed in Los Angeles from his home in Nashville ahead of the band’s show at The Troubadour in West Hollywood to celebrate the release of their latest album, Dropout Boogie. With a 500-person capacity, The Troubadour gig represents a massive underplay for The Black Keys, who could easily fill an arena for this purpose. And while Carney and his creative partner Dan Auerbach appreciate the untouched ’60s and ’70s classicism of The Troub, it’s not without its challenges.

“It’s actually a headache when we do this sh*t because we’ve been a band for so long, we’ve got so many friends in these cities that I just have to be an asshole to all my friends and tell them they can’t come,” Carney says on a call.

Fortunately for people who can’t make it through the door, the band has a full US tour scheduled this summer in support of Dropout Boogie. The band’s 11th album, it arrives exactly 20 years after the Akron, Ohio duo’s basement-recorded debut, The Big Come Up. The pair have become one of the most recognizable rock bands through the years, staying famously insular, save for the presence of producer Danger Mouse on four of their albums. But for Dropout Boogie, things were different. Carney and Auerbach welcomed new faces into the fold of Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, and the result is an album that embraces the band’s longtime blues influences like never before. We caught up with Carney to talk about it all.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

So the Dropout Boogie release is within a day of the 20 year anniversary of your first album, The Big Come Up, and this album really reminds me of that first one, more so than any other Black Keys release.

I agree with that, yeah.

Were you thinking about that a lot when you worked on these songs? Did that play into it at all?

Not really, because I’ve never really had too many 20th anniversaries of anything. Even in my high school class, we were so cynical that we canceled our 20th reunion because no one wanted to go. But just thinking, while we’re making it like, “Oh yeah, we started this band like 20 years ago…” One thing that I was sure of going into making the record, was that I wanted the drums to sound a little bit more f*cked up. Closer to some sonic stuff that we were doing on Brothers. And I guess if you listen to the first record, it just sounds really bizarre, in a cool way. But the last song [“Didn’t I Love You”] on the new record definitely feels like something that would’ve come out of the basement.

Totally.

I guess it’s like a poetic statement putting that song last, because it finishes a 20-year cycle which kind of demonstrates the overall aesthetic or even the point of the band. We edited some stuff off of the front of that, and a little bit of stuff at the end, but really what you hear is us just kind of tumbling in and out of a song. And that’s the take, it’s the first take.

There’s definitely a rawness about these songs that I hadn’t heard on a Black Keys record for a while. Is it from that first take approach that you guys did with a lot of songs on this album?

Well, we’ve always been the first take type of band. But after Brothers, we went in the studio with Danger Mouse to make what became El Camino. He had this idea that we should make some stuff that was faster, because my typical operating frequency for rhythm is like Wu-Tang Clan speed, 95 BPM or something. It’s like a no-go zone for rock and roll because it’s really good for a big riff, but it’s hard for other types of stuff. And I never really understood that, but Brian (Danger Mouse) was like, “Yeah, we should go a little faster.” So when we started making El Camino, it was the first time I realized that, “Okay, I gotta play drums.” And I gotta keep the beat straight. It can’t swing as hard.

And one of the bad aspects of that, was it got way in my head for close to a decade of like, “Okay, I should really worry about playing in time to this click, or to this beat, or what I think it should be?” When previous to that, up through Brothers it was just like, “I should just let things sway however I play it. You know? So on this record I really got back to that mentality of just letting it swing. And not worrying so much about keeping the tempo where it needs to be, if it’s going to be there it’s going to flow. Because of that — at least for me — it feels like it has a little bit more of a laid-back kind of loose groove to it.

Yeah, yeah. I definitely hear that in a lot of songs. Like on “How Long,” that one really has a laid-back, loose feel to it.

That’s another first take, that song.

In the last few years, you guys have really embraced the blues. And that’s always been present in your music, but it’s just so evident now. I think about how Delta Kream was a straight homage to Mississippi Hill Country Blues musicians like Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside that have inspired you from the beginning. Can you talk a little bit about just fully embracing the blues in these last two albums?

When we first started the band, we were almost a North Mississippi Hill Country blues tribute act. We were just really into the Kimbrough and R.L. stuff, and we bonded so heavily over that. Then when we were making that first record, we started trying to figure out how to write songs and we kind of got swept up in that kind of garage rock revivalists press thing that was happening in 2002-2003. The first time we opened up an alt-weekly and read someone described us as like “Blues Hammer 2.0” or something. We were 23-year-old kids. And we were like, “F*ck that. We cannot tell people we’re a blues band.” And we kind of ran away from that as fast as we could. Definitely did not embrace it. We didn’t want to get the stigma of that. And I still don’t think we’re a blues band, I think we’re a rock and roll band and we moved into the territory.

But we just got more comfortable embracing the things that we like, and not shying away from talking about them and shining the light on these musicians who inspired us so much. It outweighs getting called “blues hammer.” We can take it now, but I think it was a confusing time around 2002 where The White Stripes were being called a blues band. We just ran away from it and eventually ended up coming out as this arena band. Then before this, Dan and I took some time off. We hung out once or twice during 2016 and 17. We spent very little time around each other for those two years.

Was that by design? Because you guys were both producing projects for other people.

We just f*cked off and did our own thing. We were busy. I was starting a family, I had just gotten remarried. And then when it came time to make another Keys record, I left the ball in Dan’s court: “Whenever you’re ready let me know.” And he hit me up in 2018, and I guess really the last couple years has been us figuring out how to have a healthy relationship again; one that’s enjoyable. We both started associating each other’s presence with us grinding really hard. Like 2010 through 2014, we did three tours that were all over a hundred dates. So I think we figured it out. And I think the crowning kind of moment of our relationship, figuring it out, was the making of Delta Kream. It was an accidental undertaking where Dan was making a record for Easy Eye with this artist named Robert Finley and it was like, “Oh yeah, this is how it should f*cking feel. This is what it should feel like for us.”

And then in 2021 we both were kind of chomping at the bit to get back to work and once we got in the studio to make this record things just really started clicking. By the time we finished it in November, we felt the opposite of that usual creatively drained feeling. We’ve been continuing to work the whole time since we finished. So we’re deep into another record already.

You brought in other people to help you in the process for the first time in the process of Dropout Boogie. How was that different? Did that kind of help bridge this gap that you guys had?

Yeah, I mean in the past when we worked with Danger Mouse, the band would essentially become a three-piece for those times that he was there. And it was a true democracy where if one person didn’t like something we would move on. For better or worse. And I think part of the situation with Dan when we made Let’s Rock, was us figuring out not just how to get along or just what it felt like to be around each other, but also like, “What’s it like to be creative without Danger Mouse there?” So making Let’s Rock was at times sort of tense.

By the time we made this record, I felt comfortable enough to know that if I added something while Dan was taking his kid to soccer or vice versa, if one of us didn’t like it, we would just say something. It wasn’t a big deal. It sounds like a little thing, but when you’re in a band for 20 years, it could be a big thing. I’ve heard that Metallica can’t even be critical to each other about their parts anymore. They have a hard time even critiquing each other. But for Dan and I, we learned really productive ways to talk to each other about what we’re working on. And I think Dan’s Easy Eye work and doing all of those records he’s made, it’s got him more in the zone of co-writing with different people. He’s figured out ways to spark something when he’s not feeling 100% sure where to come at it.

So how did bringing in songwriters in Angelo Petraglia and Greg Cartwright help?

With “Wild Child,” we had the music, the whole song was just basically done but not the vocals, and Dan was like, “I’m not really sure what we should do?” So when we brought in Greg, it was like “Boom. Oh my God, we should have been doing this for the last 20 years!” It was f*cking insane. It was just so natural. And I’m watching Dan get so inspired and watching him… feel less like the burden of work is just sitting there. And of a record where the music is done, but the vocals aren’t. Now it becomes an actually exciting thing because we could just pick and choose who we want to come into the studio to take a listen and see if they have anything, any perspective. And it’s funny because it’s what we both do when we’re both producing records outside of the Keys, but we never applied that to our band. So it’s the first time that we’re actually, in a way, producing our own band, fully.

The guitar on “Good Love” super stood out to me. And then lo and behold, that was the Billy Gibbons track. What was it like having freakin’ ZZ Top playing guitar on your track?

Well, it’s crazy because definitely during the pandemic, especially when sports weren’t happening, I just went down the rabbit hole of watching real nerdy guitar stuff. One of the videos I remember watching was someone talking about Billy Gibbons. How he gets his guitar sound and how he uses these special strings, very light strings, etc… So here we are in the studio, months later after I watched that video, and Dan gets a text from, I think Rick Rubin, saying, “Hey, Billy’s in town. You guys should hang.” So we invite Billy over and we ask if he wants to jam. He picks up this guitar. It’s a Gibson Trini Lopez, a Dave Grohl guitar. Like the exact opposite type of guitar that he normally plays. He wanted to play this particular guitar because it used to belong to Mississippi Fred McDowell.

He plugged it in and instantly, it sounded exactly like ZZ Top. It was different amps, a different guitar, just the only common factor was Billy’s hands and Billy’s brain. It’s why being a singer is such a cool thing, because you’re instantly recognizable. Your voice is instantly distinct. But being a musician, being able to get your own singular voice out of an instrument is so rare. And when it happens, when you can hear someone play an instrument like, “Oh sh*t! That’s so and so playing guitar, or playing drums. That’s the goal. And to see Billy do it and realizing he was doing some very simplistic sh*t, and it was so him. He can just play with two notes, and it would sound amazing.

If there’s a through-line in the songs that you guys write, it’s this dive bar yarn. Always making sense of what went wrong in a relationship and how to move on. Brothers was amazing in that sense and now I hear songs on this album like “How Long” and “It Ain’t Over” that are very much in the same spirit. What is it that draws The Black Keys to this?

I think it’s just our experience. It’s what happens when you’re a co-dependent musician. You’re going to end up taking a while to learn your lesson. It takes a while to figure out what you want. I’ve been married three times, I got that true rock star Wikipedia page developing there. But in reality, it just took me a long time to figure it out. My first wife was one of those stories. That’s what Brothers was all written basically based around my breakup with someone I was with for 10 years.

It’s about when you realize that you can’t be with someone after you thought that was who you were going to spend the rest of your life with. And then you realize that there’s this whole other world. Then you rush into your next thing because you’re just trying to prove to yourself that you’re not a piece of sh*t. And then of course, that’s always a bad idea too. I guess that’s why they say that third time’s the charm. But relationships and marriages are never easy. At least the good ones. I think if you find yourself in a challenging relationship, a lot of times it’s because you’re dealing with people who are vocal about what they want, and not being complacent. So you’re going to have endless material there.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that I just got married on Saturday.

Oh, dude. Congratulations! Think about the record Johnny Depp should have been writing rather than sitting there. He had the record ready to go.

Oh, man. If they only had a studio set up in that courtroom, huh?

Jesus Christ.

Dropout Boogie is out now via Nonesuch Records. Hear it here.

The Black Keys are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.