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Twitch’s “Fairy Modmother” has been around for almost a year now, first showing up in April of 2021 to help brighten up streamers’ days with some gift subs and bits. A campaign followed in June when they were again donating subs and bits to streamers to help celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride. But, the biggest wave of gifts from the Fairy Modmother was yet to come, sweeping across Twitch as they gave away hundreds, if not thousands of dollars worth of bits while spreading some general, “non-denominational holiday cheer” in the chat.

The reactions from the streamers have been varied but consistently filled with joy and, of course, surprise. A quick search of “fairy modmother” on Twitter will show you what we’re talking about.

Tom DesLongchamp, the multi-disciplined artist (seriously, check out his work), animator, and voice of the Fairy Modmother (as well as a streamer in his own right) tells Uproxx that, in a rare turn of events, Twitch came to him with the initial idea for this character. DesLongchamp originally had a slew of designs, all incredibly detailed and meticulously thought-out but, as he tells us, those first ideas were a little all over the place. “I tried making them different animals — making them human was really weird.” Jessica Phoenix, DesLongchamp’s wife, is an illustrator herself and suggested making the character into a sort of bean. “The original sketch of Fairy Modmother had a sort-of cowboy hat and cowboy boots, so they asked that the boots be rollerskates, and I changed the hat to a headset,” he adds while reflecting on the several small pieces that come together to create the character’s look.

DesLongchamp uses his own voice in all videos the Modmother appears in, but finds it to be a fun challenge to get into the character. He also likes that it seems “a little odd” for his voice to come from the Fairy Modmother. And he loves seeing videos of streamers getting visited by Fairy Modmother and their reactions. “It makes me happy,” he says. “It’s thrilling to make work that meets people in this way.”

It’s clear that a lot of careful thought went into what the Fairy Modmother would mean to streamers, viewers, and the Twitch community as a whole.

“We wanted an entity that represented giving, kindness and surprise,” Mary Kish, Director of Community Marketing at Twitch tells us, adding, “Truly, a Fairy Godmother is all these things. A bit of wordplay and you got yourself a Fairy Modmother.”Kish is one member of the team responsible for the creation of this program

From the beginning, the Fairy Modmother was about giving back to the community of streamers that provide the endless amount of content that is live-streamed and stored on the site. As Kish puts it, “When a streamer goes live, they are creating entertainment and a safe place for viewers to sit back, relax and enjoy. That deserves recognition always and we wanted to find an extra special way of acknowledging this from Twitch.” At the same time, Kish tells us that they wanted the effort to feel unique to the platform. And to do that, they needed an artist of unique talents.

“We knew we wanted a creator on Twitch to play the role, and Tom (DesLongchamp)’s stream provided the perfect inspiration. He’s incredibly talented and his animations gave us limitless opportunities and imagination with the character,” says Kish. “If we wanted them to fly, they could fly, if they manifested kittens made out of bits, fabulous. The sky’s the limit. Tom was amazing to create with […] We ended with a roller skate-wearing, bean-shaped, winged fairy with a heart of gold. No regrets.”

All of this joy and goodwill didn’t mean that this project wasn’t without its roadblocks. “The Fairy Modmother was actually timed out a few times!,” Kish tells us when discussing early challenges around setting up the giveaway and winning the trust of suspicious streamers. “One of the ways we combatted this was to ensure that if someone clicks through the homepage of the Fairy Modmother, it can be confirmed that they are indeed a legit Twitch character,” Kish says.

Despite a few bumps along the way, everyone seems to be united in satisfaction over the reception the Modmother has had since their launch, especially for the ways that it has largely been used to give back to often-underlooked communities. “It has been an absolute joy. I have seen creators cry, sing songs, give their dogs treats, and dance in happiness because of this character,” Kish says. “We wanted to create a character who does something positive, no strings attached, just a simple way to say ‘Thank you’.”

Mission accomplished — the streaming community has no doubt heard of the Fairy Modmother and what they’re doing to spread cheer and positivity to the Twitch streamers that have already gotten a Modmother visit of their own. But what about the future? When we asked, Kish told us, “The Fairy Modmother should be hanging around some creators in the Sports Category pretty soon! We don’t always tweet their visits, sometimes a Modmother just appears for the greater good and leaves! They have also been known to visit creators sometimes on their partner anniversaries and birthdays! Just for fun!” Be sure to keep an eye on the Sports category in the near future to potentially see some of the Modmother’s magic in action for yourself someday soon.

You just knew that when the Red Hot Chili Peppers came back with their first album in six years that everything about it had to be massive. When Unlimited Love comes out on April 1st, it’ll mark the return of both guitarist John Frusciante and producer Rick Rubin, after both being away from the band for over a decade. Their accompanying album tour (in stadiums, of course) kicks off in June will feature an insane list of supporting acts in Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, ASAP Rocky, Beck, Haim, King Princess, St. Vincent, The Strokes, and Thundercat. Now, their new single “Poster Child” sees the band at their absolute funkiest.

Flea’s bass groove runs a parallel wavelength alongside Frusciante’s guitar licks as Anthony Kiedis is his usual tongue-twisting self, singing “I thought I won the lottery, the numbers never thought of me. Ramones had a lobotomy, so spin me like a pottery.” The song brims with an oceanic breeze, ready for a drop top ride down the Pacific Coast Highway. It follows the previously released lead single “Black Summer” and comes along with a trippy animated video that the band debuted on their Facebook page.

Listen to “Poster Child” above.

Unlimited Love is out 4/1 via Warner. Pre-order it here.

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

Former co-host of The View turned Daily Mail columnist Meghan McCain began trending on social media this week as people rushed to roast the conservative commentator for a questionable remark. Yes, again. This time, it was regarding a tweet in which McCain took issue with a report from The Hill that the White House is considering sending Vice President Kamala Harris to Poland as a show of solidarity during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to a source, “The vice president has a smaller footprint and is historically more nimble.”

McCain, who has repeatedly criticized Harris in the past, was not a fan of the move. “Please for the love of God, send a serious person instead,” McCain tweeted.

McCain’s attack on Harris did not go over well on Twitter, where she was still trending on Friday afternoon as people questioned McCain’s political experience… as well as fitting in a few jabs about her wild hairstyles during her last season on The View.

It also didn’t take long for people to start pointing out the GOP elephant in the room. Namely, that her father, John McCain, chose Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate in 2008, and well, Palin has never exactly been known for keen intellect. Not to mention the fact that she had been the governor of Alaska for barely two years and actually quit before her term was over.

So, you know, glass houses, throwing stones, etc.

(Via Meghan McCain on Twitter)

Thank goodness because FX’s Atlanta is finally on the brink of returning after a four-year hiatus. That means that we’ll soon see Donald Glover’s brainchild bring its unique brand of surreal back to the small screen. The fourth season’s trailer gets intense, given that the core four — Earn (Donald Glover), Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), and Van (Zazie Beetz) — are maneuvering through unfriendly surroundings during a European tour. This has included some real-life mirroring with the cast experiencing racial profiling while abroad, although that’s something that they took in stride.

Hopefully, we’ll see Nutella sandwich man appear out of the blue, but the question on a lot of people’s minds is this: Why did the show have such a long break after Season 2 debuted on March 1, 2018?

It’s easy to chalk much of the delay up to the pandemic, and yep, that’s definitely something that slowed down production for nearly every show out there, but one must recall that we were still waiting on Season 3 arrival news back in January 2020. That’s when FX chief John Landgraf revealed that we’d see two more seasons of the show, and at the time, the plan was for 18 episodes to arrive with Season 3.

As for why it took nearly two years for that update, well, one can only chalk that up to Donald Glover being so in-demand, given his Star Wars detour and, of course, his musical career. Likewise, Lakeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz, and Brian Tyree Henry have all been keeping quite busy as well, and it’s just damn hard to get in-demand stars in one place for an extended period of time. Yet they did it, and soon enough, we’ll reap those benefits.

Atlanta returns on March 24. Whew!

Uproxx takes a look at some great travel ideas that’ll connect for the whole family this spring.

Band Of Horses are having a big year so far. They’ve unveiled Things Are Great today, their first album in six years that was announced in October and had been penned almost entirely before the pandemic even began. After being delayed from January to March due to vinyl factory issues that have been affecting lots of indie bands, the record is finally out now with plenty of acclaim. The lead single that came with the initial announcement last fall was the hopeful, jangly “Crutch,” and last night they brought it to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to celebrate the unveiling of Things Are Great.

Previously, Ben Bridwell said that the song “[started] with something from my real life. Obviously ‘Crutch’ means some of the things that I was dependent on. My relationship for one. I think I wanted to say, ‘I’ve got a crush on you,’ and I thought it was funny how relationships also feel like crutches. I feel like everybody has had a time when nothing goes right and you still have to carry on. I think that feeling hits you in this song even if you don’t know what the specifics are.”

Watch their performance of “Crutch” above.

The world of American soccer broadcasting delivered some big news earlier this week when Turner Sports and the U.S. Soccer Federation announced a partnership to bring USMNT and USWNT games to the network. According to a release, the agreement “will make TNT/TBS and HBO Max the exclusive English-language home to more than 20 Women’s and Men’s National Team matches each year” starting in 2023.

It’s not Turner’s first foray into footy — the broadcaster previously was home to the Champions League — but this is an opportunity for them to showcase the teams ahead of a number of huge international tournaments. And to celebrate, the network’s most prominent group of sports broadcasters, the Inside the NBA guys, were all given jerseys during Thursday night’s slate of games.

Charles Barkley, in particular, was excited to get his hands on a U.S. Soccer jersey, although it comes with a catch: he wants everyone to understand this is a USWNT shirt with his name on it.

“I just wanna make this perfectly clear: this is a women’s jersey,” Barkley said. “Cause the American men team sucks. They do, they do. Shout out to the women for finally getting equal pay. So, I’m glad to be wearing this female jersey, cause the men suck. The men gotta do better, man. The men gotta do better. We’re the United States of America, we should not be bad at any sport.”

The American women are, of course, the most decorated team in the sport, winning four World Cups and producing a number of the best players to ever step on the pitch — as of this writing, the women are the top team in the world per FIFA’s rankings. As for the men, while they are a decent side, they certainly are not as dominant on the world stage as the women. The team infamously missed the World Cup in 2018, and while they are currently ranked 13th in the world by FIFA, they have yet to secure a spot in the 2022 World Cup.

The good news for the men is that it’s more likely they make it than they don’t, as they currently sit in second place in CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying and should be able to secure at least fourth place and a spot in an inter-confederation playoff game against a team from Oceania that they’d be favored to beat. The bad news is that, uh, well, it was more likely than not that they’d make it enter the final qualifying window in 2018, too, and weird things can happen in those sorts of environments. And besides, even if they do make it to the World Cup, it seems like they still have a long way to go before they earn Barkley’s respect.

(Via Insider)

If the coming vibe shift brings us into a period where indie sleaze rules supreme, Charli XCX stands to take the throne at the top of the pops, finally. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from someone who cites their formative influences as Britney Spears and the Ed Banger Records, with a special nod to French singer/rapper/D.J. Uffie. Her penchant for classic ’00s pop star costumes and living life in the club was never the aesthetic with which Millennials, with their sober curious lives and plant parent memes, could get down. It seems like she was made for the days when bands’ fans discovered their new favorite artist on Makeoutclub, and parties only got started at 2 a.m.

Charli has long invited people into her world when they click, choosing left-of-center personalities and women the pop industrial complex doesn’t seem to know what to do with. There’s one constant in Charli’s career, however: collaborations. Specifically with women, many of whom could be classified as difficult, unlikable, or simply subversive of the male gaze. 

Those collaborations started from a place of “girl power” inspired feminism. Her first major hit came courtesy of a feature on Icona Pop’s 2012 interpretation of her song, “I Love It.” It was a hit on the internet, which meant something totally different then, that got a lift in 2013 when Girls featured the song in a debaucherous club scene. Charli would later say she didn’t even know what she meant by the lyrics to the song, which, everyone knows, is the hallmark of a great Euro-pop dance hit. And that she didn’t feel as if it were hers because she was excluded from the promotion and touring around the single when it took off. 

Her profile only grew when “Fancy,” a co-write in which she wrote and sang the hook alongside Iggy Azalea, became 2014’s song of the summer. The track was criticized as another feminist anthem and a homage to materialism and white women’s bougieness. This doubleheader set her up to reach pop stardom, but she opted to venture down a path of subversiveness that kept her authentically grounded in producing the kind of music she wanted to make. Now, on the precipice of releasing her final album with Atlantic Records, Charli faces criticism for singles that her fans deem too mainstream. One of which, “Beg for You,” is a collaboration with Rina Sawayma.  Charli told EW the song is an “interpolation” of the kind of song a pop star would make with a major label — specifically a song recorded by Swedish pop singer September (whose real name is Petra Maryland) from 2007. Besides being a fascinating piece of Swedish pop production from a bygone pop era, the song was a meme on Twitter in 2018 — bringing it back into the internet and perhaps to Charli’s attention.

But circa 2014, Charli was going through something of an identity crisis. Her 2013 album, True Romance, was critically lauded but commercially under-performed. On 2014’s Sucker, Charli seemed to reach for mainstream pop stardom, landing only one charting song: the sappy but enjoyable “Boom Clap.” “The music I’ve been writing recently, it’s definitely some of the most pop stuff I’ve ever written,” Charli told the LA Times in a 2014 interview. “But it’s not coming from a totally innocent, naive mind. It’s coming from someone who’s very aware.” The awareness she references is to her place in the music industry.

From the 2016 Vroom Vroom EP on, Charli began associating with producers from the PC Music Collective and building up a stable of women she collaborated with. There is a clear trend among the singers: pop’s eccentrics, many of whom also eschewed making obvious hits to explore their creative paths. 2017’s Pop 2 opens with a track featuring Carly Rae Jepsen, whose 2012 phenomenon “Call Me Maybe” and pivot away from pop princess stardom echoes Charli’s search for musical authenticity. There are songs with Caroline Polachek, the former Chairlift singer who shed her indie-pop roots to explore a PC Music pop-art path of her own. Sky Ferreira, another artist who was pushed towards a traditional approach and opted to make her own kind of music, shows up. Charli’s admiration for all things Scandinavian comes through in collaborations with Tove Lo, ALMA, and MØ. Christine And The Queens (aka Héloïse Adélaïde Letissier) appears more than a few times; an artist who has a huge European audience but is too complicated for the top of the pops. Rita Ora, Brooke Candy, Kim Petras, and CupcakKe are also repeat collaborators and artists classified as difficult women; they’re frequently the targets of internet hate, misconceptions, and all the insults usually hurled at ambitious women. And that’s only to name a few.

Under the auspices of her label, Vroom Vroom Records, the first artist Charli signed was CuckooLander, the project of her touring bassist. In 2019, she signed Nasty Cherry, an all-girl band she put together and created a Netflix series around. “My vision is that they become the biggest band in the world, a band I would have wanted to listen to and have been inspired by when I was 15,” Charli told Rolling Stone. 

That’s not even to mention two of Charli’s most prolific partnerships. One was with SOPHIE, the PC Music producer whose influence loomed large on Charli’s work until she died in 2021. “There are very few artists who make me feel something up my core and make me wanna cry,” Charli told Vogue in 2019. “Justice and Uffie made me feel something when I was 14, and I didn’t really have that feeling again until I met SOPHIE. I felt this rush of: F*ck, this is the coolest sh*t I have ever heard.” The other is with Noonie Boo, a Swedish songwriter and producer who has co-written numerous songs with Charli, among multiple other left-of-center (and a few front and center) pop acts. “There are a lot of songwriters out there who, even though they’re extremely talented, they are sometimes very keen on pushing their own agenda,” Charli said in a 2020 interview with Red Bull. “[…] I’ve definitely been in rooms where I experimented with new songwriters, and I can’t get a word in edgewise. You know how much I talk, and that’s really hard for me […] Noonie is somebody who is so supportive of the artist’s vision.”

Their collaboration brings us to the Crash era, Charli’s latest — Boa co-wrote the single “New Shapes,” which features Christine And The Queens and Caroline Polachek. Like many songs Charli has teased from the album, it is about sex — inspired by her long-term relationship — and steps away from the futuristic, challenging pop of her past in favor of embracing something more easily digestible.

Charli’s ultimate pop era seems to maximize everything: her exploration of art, her profile, and the profiles of the women around her, which was probably her endgame all along. 

Crash is out 3/18 via Atlantic. Pre-order it here.

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

Yesterday was Camila Cabello’s 25th birthday and she really made it count. She kicked things off by revealing the release date of her upcoming album Familia (out April 8), and later, she released her new Ed Sheeran collaboration “Bam Bam.” Also yesterday, she gave the song its television debut with a Late Late Show performance.

She also sat down for an interview on the program and said of the meaning of the song, “It’s something that my mom has always said to me. […] The song is about the cycles of falling in love, falling out of love; life has its ups and downs. You gotta roll with the punches, you gotta keep dancing.” She also noted of working with Sheeran on it, “It was great. I’ve been such a huge fan of Ed’s for such a long time and it was such a full-circle moment, getting to be in the studio [with him].

Meanwhile, Nathan Lane, the episode’s other guest alongside Cabello, is starring with Megan Thee Stallion and others in the upcoming movie F*cking Identical Twins. He described the film by taking a dig at Sam Elliott, who recently expressed dissatisfaction with Power Of The Dog and its “allusions of homosexuality.” Lane said, “It’s the gayest movie ever made. Sam Elliott could never see this film. If Power Of The Dog upset him, this would kill him. It’s a satirical, absurdist, R-rated queer musical based on The Parent Trap.”

Watch Cabello’s “Bam Bam” performance and other Late Late Show clips above and below.

Familia is out 4/8 via Epic. Pre-order it here.

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

New documentary footage shared with The Washington Post has given insight into the chaos surrounding the Jan. 6th insurrection and one of the main Trump advisors/supporters who had a pivotal role in it.

Roger Stone, a longtime ally of the former president and a political lobbyist with ties to Nixon, invited a documentary crew to film him over the course of two years — a time period that overlapped with the Stop the Steal campaign and the riots on Capitol Hill. Stone, who was instrumental in getting Trump elected and who’s already been the subject of one documentary, secretly advised the president during his final days in office, drafting up something he called the “Stone Plan” that would ensure blanket presidential pardons for Trump’s closest allies before President Joe Biden took office. Stone — who was scheduled to attend the president’s rally early on Jan. 6th but backed out at the last minute after VIP accommodations couldn’t be met — wanted Trump to issue pardons for a number of associates including members of Congress like Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, his friends in the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers movements, Capitol Hill insurrectionists, and imprisoned mobsters.

According to The Post, Stone’s pardon plan was ultimately thwarted by White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

“Clearly, Cipollone f—ed everybody,” Stone told another friend in prison in footage reviewed by the paper. In a text message he wrote later that same day, Stone told another Trump supporter, “See you in prison.”

Though Stone denied any involvement in the Jan. 6th insurrection, he attended a rally the night before urging protestors to prepare for a fight, and his game plan to instill doubt in the 2020 Presidential Election results was the foundation for Trump’s Stop The Steal campaign. Despite all of that, Trump refused to issue pardons to his friend and instead, chose to pardon Steve Bannon — something filmmakers said enraged Stone and prompted him to publicly threaten both Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“In two weeks he’s moving to Miami,” Stone was caught ranting while hooked up to a mic for the documentary. He was referring to Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s planned move to Florida after the election was certified. “He’s going to get a beating. He needs to have a beating. And needs to be told, ‘This time we’re just beating you. Next time we’re killing you.’ ” When an associate realized Stone was still being recorded he urged him to say he was just joking to which Stone replied, “No, no, it isn’t joking. Not joking. It’s not a joke.”

Later Stone would turn on Trump himself, raging about how he’d betrayed his friends and disgraced the movement saying Trump was, “the greatest single mistake in American history.” He then referenced the ongoing federal investigation in New York.

“A good, long sentence in prison will give him a chance to think about it, because the Southern District is coming for him, and he did nothing,” Stone said.

And, despite issuing public support for another Trump presidential campaign a few months later, on Inauguration Day Stone laughed at the idea his old friend could win again. “Run again! You’ll get your f—ing brains beat in,” he said.

(Via The Washington Post)