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Toro y Moi’s seventh album, Mahal, is coming out on April 29th and it promises a meld of ’60s and ’70s psychedelia with post-rock explorations of the later decades. Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear has never been one to for a conventional release, always surrounding the cycle with visuals that give insight into the artistic sphere of Toro at the time. The clip for “The Loop” has been the most telling in regards to the Mahal world, with Bear riding around San Francisco in his custom Jeepney. The mini-truck was used primarily in the Philippines to transport GIs and Bear has embraced his new method of transportation as a motif of sorts as he dives deeper into his South Asian background.

Now for the newly announced short film, Goes By So Fast, he’s sitting shotgun as funny man extraordinaire Eric André mashes down the motorway.

“Chaz, you’re my co-pilot, you always have been and you always will be,” André says in the film trailer as they drive across the Golden Gate Bridge.

The film, which premieres on April 22nd at an event at LA’s Brain Dead Studios, weaves together mixed visual media concepts, from a narrative, to trippy animations, live performance, and a documentary aspect. It’s directed by Harry Israelson (who also directed Toro Y Moi’s Live In Trona concert film) and it further builds the concept for Mahal.

“You ever get the feeling we’re all just barreling down an endless highway with no one at the wheel?” André asks in the trailer.

Buckle up y’all.

Watch the trailer for Goes By So Fast above.

Mahal is out 4/9 via Dead Oceans. Pre-order it here.

Aside from being Questlove‘s directorial debut, the Oscar-and-Grammy-winning Summer Of Soul is also an important document of a once-in-a-lifetime cultural event. Or, at least, it was. Now, thanks in part to Quest shining a light on the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival with Summer Of Soul, the festival will be returning to Marcus Garvey Park (formerly Mount Morris Park) as the Harlem Festival of Culture in 2023. According to Billboard, attendees of the original festival in ’69, after seeing the documentary, will relaunch the festival next year to pay tribute to the original while updating it for the modern era.

The founders include Harlem native Musa Jackson, the editor-in-chief of Ambassador Digital Magazine, Nikoa Evans, and Yvonne McNair. In a statement, Jackson — who appears in the documentary as a child — points out the authenticity of the new festival, which is being launched by actual residents of the historic New York neighborhood. “Being rooted, watered, and grown in this village of Harlem, I believe HFC is our moment to show the world the vibrancy of today’s Harlem — the music, the food, the look, all of it!” he writes. “The original event was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that I will never forget. With this initiative, we want to create something that evokes that same sense of pride in our community that I felt on that special day in 1969. We want to authentically encapsulate the full scope: the energy, the music, the culture. We want people to understand that this festival is being built by the people who are from, live, and work in this community.”

Summer Of Soul executive producer Joseph Patel echoed that sentiment in a statement of his own. “One of the things we hoped would happen with Summer Of Soul is that it would open the door for other stories to be told, in all their forms, especially by people from Harlem,” he said. ” I couldn’t think of a better person to charge through than Musa, whose devoted roots in the community make him the perfect person to represent for Harlem.”

Whereas the 1969 festival ran for several weeks that summer, the revamped version will be a multi-day outdoor event, with a series of related events throughout the year leading up to it. Those will begin April 15 with an open mic night tribute to the film Love Jones at the Museum Of The City Of New York. And to think, until Questlove unearthed the original Harlem Cultural Festival footage, the original event had nearly passed from memory.

Molly Shannon is known for being one of the funniest comedians, and she got her big break when she was a part of several (very male-centric) Saturday Night Live seasons in the 90s. In her new memoir Hello, Molly chronicles her life in great detail, including tragic stories about her family, sprinkled in between behind-the-scenes SNL facts.

While promoting the new book, Shannon chatted with Howard Stern, who brought up a very disturbing story from her memoir regarding actor Gary Coleman, known for his breakout role on Diff’rent Strokes.

Stern described the story as “dark,” as Shannon said she remembers meeting with an agent at a fancy hotel in the late 80s. The actress described also meeting Gary Coleman, a client of the aforementioned agent, and his “relentless” behavior at the hotel.

“I was a virgin, so I wasn’t even thinking about that,” Shannon explained after Stern asked if she had expected something from Coleman. “He held my hand, and I was like, ‘He’s so cute!’ He had a suit on.” Then things went sour once the agent left.

He’s like ticking me a little…I was trying to be polite. I’m a polite catholic girl! I’m naive about that….He was relentless. He was trying to kiss me and get on top of me, and I was like, ‘Gary, stop.’ So I’d push him off. Then I would get off the bed, then he’d bounce on the bed – jump, jump, jump – and wrap himself around me, then I would fling him off, then he got on top of me…. I was like, ‘Gary, stop!’ but I guess because of his size I didn’t feel physically threatened. I go to the bathroom, and then he grabs onto my leg … I had to kick him off. Then I go lock myself into the bathroom and then he sticks his hand under the door and said, ‘I can see you!’

Shannon eventually sprinted out of the room, admitting that she wished she stood up for herself.

While the two were laughing during the clip, it’s clear the encounter made Shannon very uncomfortable. “It’s not funny, the agent leaving you alone, it’s all so f*cked up and so sad,” Stern says after the story. You can hear the whole story in the clip above.

Conservative anger-king Ben Shapiro is trending on Twitter again, this time for being owned by a college student during a speech about gender identity.

Shapiro, who can’t seem to stop visiting college campuses and getting into it with undergrads, gave a talk at the University of North Carolina – Greensboro, where he attempted to argue that gender is a fixed state. Now, it’s pretty bold of him (a man who kind-of admitted that his wife doesn’t visibly get aroused) to pose as an expert on a topic as complex and controversial as gender identity, so obviously, a student in the crowd called him out on his lack of credentials.

The student, who claimed to be a mathematician and physicist, first argued that Shapiro’s terminology was outdated. He referenced the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders before stating, “Most of what you’re saying is based on, like, old data. ‘Gender identity disorder,’ that’s a DSM4, bro. We use the DSM 5 now for psychologists.”

Shapiro, for his part, tried to argue that the term he used was actually “gender dysphoria,” but he seemed to be missing the bigger point which is that you should never engage in a battle of words with someone younger than you. It just never ends well. And it didn’t for poor Ben.

“You sound like a bozo, bro,” the student lobbed back as Shapiro continued to try to argue. “And you get no p***y and can’t even make your wife wet, bro, so what’s good?”

In case you forgot, that last dig is a direct reference to Shapiro’s own self-own, sparked from the controversy he ignited with his spoken-word rendition of Cardi B. ft Megan Thee Stallion’s raunch single, “W.A.P.”

After backlash to his initial tweet, Shapiro claimed to be “concerned” for women who needed a “bucket and a mop” for their genitals because his “doctor wife” told him she never got that wet.

Now, did the student do enough to publicly humiliate Shaprio? Yes, but if you’d like to laugh at him a bit more, here are some digs on the timeline that accurately sum up what’s going on:

(Via Mediaite)

Wild Pink is now a bit over a year removed from the release of their most recent album, A Billion Little Lights (which Uproxx’s Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen both named one of their favorite albums of 2021 on Indiecast). Now, the John Ross-led group is back with a new six-minute single, “Q. Degraw,” which is driven by aggressive rock stomp while still featuring the group’s signature airiness.

Ross says of the song, “This song is about my experiences with some health problems and how an extremely stressful situation can sharpen your focus on what’s important in life. It’s also about how that stress can sometimes cause you to dissociate from yourself.”

He previously noted the late-2021 single “Florida” “puts a period at the end of the A Billion Little Lights sentence, in my mind,” so it would seem “Q. Degraw” perhaps kicks off a new era for the group.

Listen to “Q. Degraw” above and find Wild Pink’s upcoming tour dates below.

04/21 — Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom (Oxford Pennant Stage)
04/22 — Columbus, OH @ Big Room Bar
04/23 — Athens, OH @ Lobster Fest
04/24 — Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery
04/26 — Asbury Park, NJ @ The Saint
04/27 — Lancaster, PA @ Tellus 360
04/28 — Wilkes-Barre, PA @ Karl Hall
05/03 — Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg *
05/04 — Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg *
05/06 — Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church *
05/07 — Washington, DC @ Capital Turnaround *
05/08 — Durham, NC @ Hayti Center *
05/09 — Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle *
05/10 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West *
05/12 — Austin, TX @ Antone’s Nightclub *
05/13 — Dallas, TX @ The Texas Theatre *
05/14 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Beer City Music Hall *
05/17 — Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom *
05/18 — Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern *
05/20 — Los Angeles, CA @ First Congregational Church *
05/21 — San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 Club *
05/23 — Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater *
05/24 — Seattle, WA @ Neumos *
05/26 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge *
05/27 — Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater *
05/29 — Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Café *
05/31 — Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall *
06/02 — Detroit, MI @ El Club *
06/03 — Toronto, ON @ Great Hall *
06/04 — Montreal, QC @ L’Astral *
06/05 — Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair *

* supporting Antlers

Jamal Murray has not played in an NBA game since suffering a torn ACL on April 12, 2021. Vague rumors of a potential season debut have floated, but no firm date or concrete news has been announced.

Days ahead of the Denver Nuggets’ first-round series with the Golden State Warriors, Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said Murray’s decision as to whether he’ll play this year is “up to him.” Connelly said Murray debuting in the middle of the series is possible and that the 25-year-old guard is in the “red zone” with regard to a return.

The end of that tweet notes Murray is ahead of Michael Porter Jr. in the rehab process. Porter has not played since Nov. 6 and underwent back surgery on Dec. 1. Despite the lengthy absences of their second- and third-best players, the Nuggets won 48 games this year and earned the No. 6 seed out West. Nikola Jokic is once again a leading MVP candidate after a magical regular season.

Of course, star guard Stephen Curry’s status is in flux for Golden State. An update was announced Tuesday and there’s a chance he’s ready for Game 1. He and the Warriors will kick off their first-round matchup against Denver on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. on ABC.

For millions of Bloater-fearing gamers, HBO’s most-anticipated upcoming series isn’t the Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, or The Wire creator David Simon’s return to Baltimore, We Own This City — it’s The Last of Us.

The 2013 video game (and its polarizing-but-brilliant sequel, 2020’s The Last of Us Part II) is getting an expensive adaptation starring Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. The first image from the series looked exactly like the game, and in an interview with British GQ, Pascal sounds optimistic that fans will appreciate the show’s vision.

“There’s a very, very creative way of honoring what’s important and also preserving what is iconic to the experience of the video game, and also [to include] things that you wouldn’t necessarily expect,” he said. “And then directions that you would expect it to go, and it might not… they’re doing some really smart things, is all I can say.”

Pascal also compared HBO’s The Last of Us to The Mandalorian, where he plays Baby Yoda’s bounty hunter father figure, Din Djarin.

“It’s similar to the way Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni treat The Mandalorian, in how [creator Craig Mazin and The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann] are treating The Last of Us. It’s in good hands because they love it so much. Well, clearly Neil created the video game, but Craig loves it so much. So it really is made for the people that love it. And there’s some very intense storytelling for people who might be less familiar.”

Before long (2023), everyone will know the horror of the Rat King. I can’t wait.

(Via British GQ)

Charlie Puth stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show yesterday, where he discussed new music, shared stories of working with Elton John, and performed his viral TikTok hit, “Light Switch.”

During his performance, Puth sits at his microphone and keyboard and is joined by a live band. Neon lights flash several colors throughout the performance. Toward the end of the song, multicolored couches and chairs fly across the background screen.

Earlier on in the episode, Puth sat down with DeGeneres, recalling the first time he met John, saying, “I met [John] at Craig’s, the restaurant, and he came up to me and said, you know, ‘Hi, how are you?’ I’m like, ‘You’re Elton John.’ ‘Yes, I am. You know, your music sucked in 2019, it wasn’t good.’”

Puth described John’s comments as a “gut punch” but also “a wake-up call.” They would later collaborate on “After All” from John’s collaboration album, The Lockdown Sessions. During those writing and recording sessions, John encouraged Puth to “tell the truth” with his songwriting.

“Light Switch” precedes Puth’s upcoming album, Charlie, which is due later this year on Atlantic.

Check out the Ellen performance and interview above.

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

50 Cent has been less than happy with the current situation at Starz, where he currently produces the Power universe of television shows. He recently complained about the network’s treatment on social media, threatening to relocate his shows after being frustrated by its refusal to announce any renewals for the next few seasons of the handful of Power spinoffs currently airing. Now, after voicing his frustrations and still receiving no new information on those renewals, he says he’s had enough.

“Everybody ready to work,” he wrote in the caption of his latest Instagram post, which included a video of a mixed martial artist asking for a role in Power during a post-fight interview. “I’m trying to buy my universe back from STARZ so it goes where ever I go. Only 5 months left in my deal, and I’m not on the air for 6 months so We Out!”

In his previous posts, 50 explained his reasoning. “They renewed High Town, and FORCE is the highest-rated show they have sitting in limbo,” he argued. “If I told you how much d*mb shit I deal with over here, you would think they all went to school on a small yellow bus.”

The finale of Power Book IV: Force is set to air on April 17.

Activision Blizzard is currently going through a lawsuit over allegations that the company created a “frat boy” culture. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing brought forth the lawsuit on July 20, 2021.

Recently, a lawyer working on the lawsuit suddenly resigned her position. In a report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, the lawyer who resigned accused the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, of interfering with the lawsuit in support of Activision. Her recent resignation was a sign of protest over what she claims was an unjust firing of her boss by the governor.

Melanie Proctor, the assistant chief counsel for California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, said in an email to staff Tuesday night that she was resigning to protest the fact that her boss at the agency, Chief Counsel Janette Wipper, had been abruptly fired by the governor. Both lawyers had already stepped down from the Activision lawsuit earlier this month without explanation. A representative for the two attorneys confirmed that Proctor had resigned and Wipper was fired.

…

Proctor said in the email to staff that in recent weeks, California Governor Gavin Newsom and his office “began to interfere” with the Activision suit. “The Office of the Governor repeatedly demanded advance notice of litigation strategy and of next steps in the litigation,” Proctor wrote in the email, which was seen by Bloomberg. “As we continued to win in state court, this interference increased, mimicking the interests of Activision’s counsel.”

California’s lawsuit with Activision Blizard isn’t the only legal trouble the company faces. Not only did former employees sue the company, but the SEC has previously investigated the company for misleading shareholders. Activision Blizzard itself has also gone through a number of internal changes since the original lawsuit was filed. The company is currently being purchased by Microsoft, employees are forming a union, and CEO Bobby Kotick may step down once the the company has sold.