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Awards shows are bullsh*t and the Oscars are the most bullsh*t of them all. But unfortunately, the Oscars do, and will probably always, matter. As much as Bradley Cooper’s best actor snub for A Star Is Born in favor of Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody feels like a personal attack against me, it was not, and I have moved on with my life (but I’m still mad). The Oscars are not life or death, and will likely never affect anyone’s personal life. The awards do make a difference in careers and what films get seen. People who are not cinephiles (aka: healthy people) are more likely to only watch films that were nominated for Academy Awards, or only those that win them, which is why Parasite’s sweep of the awards in early 2020 was so significant. Every year, we go through the same Oscars cycle. Someone who deserves it doesn’t win, or doesn’t even get nominated. The cycle repeats itself year after year. Everyone – or, at least, everyone who is obsessed with movies enough to click on this article and get this far into reading it – has that one “who deserved the Oscar but was not even nominated” performance they could discuss ad nausea on command.

Jodie Comer’s performance as Marguerite de Carrouges in the criminally underrated, understated masterpiece The Last Duel from director Sir Ridley Scott will likely become one of the most egregious Oscar snubs in the history of the award. Comer, who won an Emmy in 2019 for her performance as Villanelle on the BBC drama Killing Eve, performs her role as Marguerite de Carrouges – a victim of sexual assault who undergoes ire during the subsequent trial in 14th century France – from varying perspectives. Comer patiently plays with audience expectations by allowing her character to go through the first half of the film quietly, only existing to serve the interests of men, which is the exact way the men in the film see and treat Marguerite. It’s not until the film’s chilling final act that Comer allows Marguerite’s bottled-up anger to explode with a powerhouse performance on par with the performances earning her peers buzz for the Oscar for best actress.

The Last Duel is told in three acts, from three different perspectives. Comer is intentionally and effectively not present in the film’s first two acts because the story is first told from the perspectives of two men. Due to the film’s structure, Comer essentially plays three different versions of Margueritte. In the first act, from Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) perspective, Margueritte is a sweet, obedient, passive, loving young wife who will do anything to please her husband. Jean sees her more as a baby maker who gets him land and advances his position in his country, as well as someone who must succumb to his every emotional and physical need. Jean does not see Margueritte as a person with intelligence, feelings, or experiences and Comer plays up his perspective by making herself seem as small as he sees her. When Margueritte tells Jean she was raped, he helps in her quest for justice by asking for a duel to the death in her honor. But it’s not about her at all. It’s about him and his feud with his former friend Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver). Comer relishes in Jean’s perception of Margueritte, portraying the character as innocently and as naively as he sees her while peppering in subtle body language and facial expressions that indicate he doesn’t understand Margueritte at all.

Jacque Le Gris sees Margueritte in a completely different way than Jean, and Comer amps up the performance as Marguerite in Jacque’s eyes. Le Gris is immediately taken by her beauty and overwhelmed with wit and intelligence. Jacques has the same intentions as Jean. He still sees her as merely an object of his desire but sees something completely different at the same time. Marguerite’s kindness and ability to have a conversation convinces Jacques that the two are in love. Comer does an excellent job at depicting Jacque’s perception of her in a way that, at first, makes you feel like there could be something there even though deep down, you know it’s all in his head, which is a credit to both Comer and Driver’s performances, who act not one but two challenging rape scenes in a respectful way that does not minimize Margeurite’s traumatic experience from both character’s perspectives.

The film’s third and final act takes a significant shift and establishes Marguerite as the film’s hero. Marguerite’s story is the film’s only honest perspective. Surrounded by men telling her what to do and/or calling her a liar, she starts to assert herself. She’s fed up, and with her life at stake (literally, if Jean loses the duel, she will be burned at the stake) and with a baby on the way, there’s a fire within her now that was likely always there but is missing from the first two acts of the film because the men refused to see it because they do not see Margueritte as a human beyond their self-serving interests. Unlike her co-stars – and peers such as Spencer’s Kristen Stewart – who had historical records to base their performances on, little is known about Marguerite de Carrouges despite her being the center of this true story. Even in historical texts, the true story The Last Duel is based on centers the men.

Comer’s inevitable Oscars snub could be the result of several things. First, The Last Duel had a dismal performance at the box office when it came out in October, which soured audiences on the film even though they were unfamiliar with it. And due to the film’s intentional structure, Comer’s role, at a glance, feels less like a leading role than a supporting role. There is also the fact that Comer is more well-known in the television world, and voters might perceive her as more of a television actress who already had her moment with her Emmy win in 2019 — a horrid excuse, but something Academy voters do keep in mind.

In addition to handling sensitive material, playing three different versions of the character, and waiting patiently until the end of the film to make a profound impact, Jodie Comer had to invent a woman erased by history. The Oscar-worthy performance – which is perhaps also going unnoticed because of how effortless and natural it feels – rings true to experiences of women throughout history and of women today. Comer’s haunting and controlled performance in The Last Duel is a necessary reminder that while we have come a long way since the fourteenth century, some things remain the same because we have learned so little.

Vince Staples’ musical output is an ever-evolving thing. When he started out, his music was abrasive and almost contrarian, intentionally flying against the prevailing wind of hip-hop’s mainstream sound. However, over time, he’s mellowed out, at times flirting with a more accessible sound, most noticeably on the hyperactive FM! and the depressive sound of his 2020 self-titled album. In recent months, signs have pointed to that flirtation becoming a full-blown love affair on his long-awaited album, Ramona Park Broke My Heart, which could be the moment he goes from critical darling to fan-favorite superstar.

First, he tapped DJ Quik earlier this year to help finish the project, and now, it’s clear he’s been working with another West Coast hitmaker in Mustard. A song Vince created with the latter has appeared in the unlikeliest of places: a new Beats By Dre ad featuring tennis superstar Naomi Osaka. In the ad, Osaka is shown putting in a brand-new pair of Beats headphones on the tennis court and laying on the net like a hammock while the new song, “Magic,” plays. Judging from the party-ready vibe of the single, it sounds like Staples is actually making a play for radio and playlist love for a change and he sounds every bit as cozy on the Mustard-standard beat as Osaka looks in her makeshift hammock. Staples’ Instagram post promises more on the way, and we can’t wait.

In September, Andy Shauf announced his new album Wilds and released it a couple days later. Despite being so fresh off a batch of fresh music, Shauf returns with more new material today, this time via a pair of new serene-skewing singles, “Satan” and “Jacob Rose.”

Shauf says of “Satan”:

“When I was young, there were a few years where I wasn’t allowed to celebrate Hallowe’en. The church that I grew up in was saying that Hallowe’en was ‘The Devil’s Day’ and that it had its roots in satanic rituals. After a few years of this, my parents realized it was a bit silly to deny us our free candy and let us resume. The Christianity that I was brought up in said that believers went to heaven and non-believers went to hell. A sort of cartoon-like simplification of ancient texts. So with the lyrics of this song, I was trying to take this cartoon-like simplification of life (and death) and pair it with a cartoon-like version of this Christian hell. Where after you complete a long and disciplined life, you find yourself holding a bite-sized chocolate bar stapled to an invitation to a Hallowe’en pool party with Satan himself.”

Listen to both new songs above and check out Shauf’s upcoming tour dates below.

02/17 — Sheffield, MA @ Race Brook Lodge *
02/18 — Woodstock, NY @ Colony Cafe
02/19 — Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom *
02/20 — Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern Music Hall *
02/22 — Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle *
02/23 — Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle *
02/24 — Birmingham, AL @ Saturn *
02/25 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West *
02/26 — Orlando, FL @ The Social *
02/27 — Tallahassee, FL @ The Moon *
03/01 — Houston, TX @ Heights Theater *
03/03 — San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger *
03/04 — Ft Worth, TX @ Tulip’s *
03/05 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Tower Theatre *
03/07 — Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf *
03/08 — Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole *
03/09 — Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern *
03/11 — Los Angeles, CA @ Walt Disney Concert Hall ^
03/13 — San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 #
03/15 — Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theater #
03/16 — Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater #
03/18 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
03/19 — Denver, CO @ Gothic Theater
03/21 — Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck
03/22 — Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
03/24 — Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theater
03/25 — St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill Duck Room #
03/26 — Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar #
03/27 — Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival
03/29 — Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall #
03/30 — Washington, DC @ Black Cat #
03/31 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer #
04/01 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall
04/02 — Waverly, RI @ The United Theatre
04/03 — Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
04/18 — Düdingen, CH @ Bad Bonn #
04/19 — Lyon, FR @ Epicerie Moderne #
04/20 — Bordeaux, FR @ Krakatoa #
04/21 — Paris, FR @ Trianon #
04/22 — Rouen, FR @ Le 106 #
04/23 — Luxembourg, LU @ Kulturfabrik #
04/24 — Utrecht, NL @ Tivoli Vredenburg #
04/25 — Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown #
04/26 — Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje #
04/28 — Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen #
04/29 — Oslo, NO @ Ingensteds #
04/30 — Stockholm, SE @ Nalen Klubb #
05/02 — Hamburg, DE @ Knust #
05/03 — Berlin, DE @ Silent Green #
05/05 — Bruxelles, BE @ Les Nuits Botanique Festival #
05/06 — Cologne, DE @ Luxor #
05/07 — Genk, BE @ Little Waves Festival #
05/09 — Birmingham, UK @ The Castle & Falcon #
05/10 — Edinburgh, UK @ Summerhall #
05/11 — Glasgow, UK @ Drygate #
05/12 — Manchester, UK @ Gorilla #
05/13 — Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club #
05/14 — Bristol, UK @ Fiddlers #
05/15 — Brighton, UK @ Chalk #
05/16 — London, UK @ Shepherd’s Bush Empire #
05/18 — Belfast, UK @ Empire #
05/19 — Dublin, IE @ Button Factory #

* with Yves Jarvis
^ with Haley Heyndrickx
# with Helena Deland
~ with Cassandra Jenkins

With the Pro Bowl festivities wrapping up in Las Vegas on Sunday — unfortunately not without incident — the complete focus of the NFL world shifts to Los Angeles and the Super Bowl, now just six days away, when the Rams and Bengals will meet.

Oddsmakers place the Rams as 4.5-point favorites entering the week, with a total of 48.5 points, and those numbers have not budged much since early movement pushed the Rams up and the total down a touch. Just about everyone will have predictions for Sunday, and that includes the folks over at EA Sports, who unveiled their official Madden prediction video, featuring Marshawn Lynch playing the role of fortuneteller — and making jokes about running the ball inside the 5.

The video just shows snippets of the action, but EA Sports released the scoring details of how their official simulation got to the Bengals winning 27-24 on a last minute field goal by Evan McPherson.

In the prediction, the Bengals enter halftime down 14-7, following touchdowns by Rams running back Sony Michel and red-hot wide receiver Cooper Kupp, with Ja’Marr Chase putting up the Bengals only touchdown. At the start of the second half, the Bengals lock up on defense with cornerback Eli Apple picking off Matthew Stafford and taking it to the house to tie the game. Joe Burrow takes the lead early in the fourth quarter on a touchdown pass to Tee Higgins, but Los Angeles answers with an Odell Beckham Jr. touchdown to level the game. In the final minutes, Burrow gets his team in field goal range creating another opportunity for Evan McPherson to step up and kick the winning field goal to secure a historic victory for the Bengals franchise.

It certainly tracks for how the Bengals’ playoff run has gone so far, as they’ve been the kings of second half comebacks and have leaned on their rookie kicker to send them through on a couple of occasions already. If you’re of the mind that the Madden prediction is correct, then you like Cincy on the money line (+200) and the Over on Sunday.

Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell dominated the 2021 Razzies, but 2022 has a new set of winning losers on the way, and the nominations are doozies. For example, The Tender Bar director George Clooney is pushing for Ben Affleck to receive an Oscar nomination when those drop on Tuesday morning, but the annual non-vaunted Golden Raspberry Awards (via their YouTube page and home base) pre-rewarded him with a Worst Supporting Actor nomination his performance in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel.

In addition, Jared Leto already didn’t have a good year, given that Morbius achieved an unenviable record despite not landing in theaters yet, but as far as the Razzies go, the two-time Joker earned two House Of Gucci nominations, one for Worst Supporting Actor and another for Worst Screen Couple (noted as “Jared Leto & Either His 17-Pound Latex Face, His Geeky Clothes or His Ridiculous Accent”). Another pair of nods went to Space Jam: A New Legacy, which got singled out for both Worst Picture and Worst Actor (for LeBron James).

That’s not all, though. Did anyone even know that Bruce Willis had 8 movies come out in 2021? You probably didn’t watch any of them, but the Razzies took note and created a special category for him called “Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 movie.” Here are the titles: American Siege, Apex, Cosmic Sin, Deadlock, Fortress, Midnight in the Switchgrass (the movie that brought Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly together), Out of Death, and Survive the Game. That’s really something.

The full list of nominations can be viewed here.

(Via The Razzies)

(Spoilers from Netflix’s In From The Cold will be found below.)

Atomic Blonde and The Americans lovers will want to put In From The Cold on their list for a bang-up series full of action scenes and spy intrigue. The show stars Margarita Levieva (The Deuce, Revenge) in the perfect role to make her a household name, over a decade after she danced in Adventureland as every teenage boy’s dream, Lisa P.

It’s rad to finally see Margarita in a role that showcases not only her ability to nail action choreography but one that makes use of her fluent Russian, not to mention a show that looks poised for a second season. Before that happens, though, we need to talk about that wild twist ending that’s a perfect lay up for more Russian spy adventures.

Margarita portrays a single mom named Jenny, whose secret past as Anya Petrova (a Russian operative with a high kill count known as “The Whisper”) comes back to haunt her, big time. She’s pulled back into the life, unwittingly (or so it seems) by a former CIA operative, Chauncey, and she’s forced to go on new missions in order to keep her daughter alive. A ton of wild stuff happens (including her discovery of cameras in her eyes — eek), but the season winds down with Becca safe and Jenny/Anya now apparently in love with Chauncey before she heads outside and sledgehammers concrete to uncover a phone that still somehow has a charge. She dials in and declares, “Agent Anya Petrova. Everything is fine. It worked.”

What the hell, man? So, Anya has apparently still been an active Russian operative this whole time — and only acting like she was reluctant to come “In From The Cold,” as the title indicates — and we don’t know whether Chauncey really has her dossier or if it’s something she simply fabricated and sent to him all by herself. Over the course of this season, Anya ended up killing her own mother (to save Becca), and we saw her young-adult life where she also lived a double life as a college student. So, it’s unclear whether a Season 2 would plan on diving between timelines again, but as far as the twist goes, here’s what creator Adam Glass told Entertainment Weekly:

The only script I kept from [Levieva] was the final script because I didn’t want to change how she was playing Jenny. What I wanted to do by the end was take all the power back, which is she’s been in control the whole time and everything you’ve seen has been one giant act. She knew everything that happened and she put herself in this position. A season 2 would ask why she did this.

Glass also confirmed that he’s planned for future seasons (currently a hopeful total of three), so hopefully, we’ll get more answers in the future.

Netflix’s In From The Cold is currently streaming.

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Nicki Minaj linking up with Lil Baby, as well as Dr. Dre officially releasing his GTA Online songs. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.

Nicki Minaj and Lil Baby — “Do We Have A Problem?”

Nicki Minaj has some people she just won’t work with, but Lil Baby clearly isn’t on that list, as the pair dropped “Do We Have A Problem?” last week. To accompany the hard-hitting, synth-driven number, Minaj and Baby came through with a cinematic video, that runs for nine minutes and is inspired by Angelina Jolie’s Salt.

Dr. Dre and Eminem — “Gospel”

Late last year, Dr. Dre dropped a handful of new songs as part of GTA Online: The Contract, but the only way to hear them was through the game. Now, though, the tracks have been made available on streaming platforms, and a highlight is the Eminem collaboration “Gospel,” which also serves to drum up anticipation for the duo taking part in the upcoming Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Rosalía — “Saoko”

After sharing her Motomami cover art, on which Rosalía is completely nude save for a helmet and strategic hand placement, Rosalía dropped “Saoko,” which is heavily based on Daddy Yankee and Wisin’s 2004 track “Saoco.” Therefore, it’s driven by a reggaeton rhythm, but with Rosalía delivering rap-sung lyrics instead of the reggaeton pioneers.

Mitski — “Stay Soft”

After some personal trials, which included almost leaving music behind, Mitski returned last week with Laurel Hell, as well as a video for “Stay Soft.” Uproxx’s Caitlin White notes the song feels “like it swings between two poles, a rollicking synth-pop melody and Mitski’s always-pristine alto vocals, but even when the song hits a crescendo on the chorus, it never really opens up to anything.”

Lucy Dacus — “Kissing Lessons”

Lucy Dacus has shown on many an occasion that she’s one of music’s most engaging storytellers, a skill she showed off last week with “Kissing Lessons.” This isn’t a traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus ordeal, as it’s pretty much a straight-shot run through a tale of a formative childhood experience.

Saba — “Still” Feat. 6lack and Smino

Saba fans are eating as Few Good Things is out now and an immediate highlight is “Still,” which features 6lack and Saba’s fellow Ghetto Sage member Smino. Uproxx’s Aaron Williams notes of the song, “In Saba’s verse, the Chicago rapper touches on his love for his work and how it conflicts with his love for his significant other, while on Smino’s verse, the soulful St. Louisan offers a scintillating take on a long-lost relationship, wondering if she kept his things around. 6lack’s chorus brings things full-circle, as he contrasts his superstar lifestyle with the toll it takes on his home life.”

YG — “Scared Money” Feat. J. Cole and Moneybagg Yo

While J. Cole has an up-and-down relationship with collaborations, he’s in an up phase right now, as he and Moneybagg Yo joined YG on “Scared Money” last week. As the title suggests, the track sees the rappers discussing wealth, how they acquired it, and how they’re hanging onto it.

King Von and 21 Savage — “Don’t Play That”

It’s been a year and change since the passing of King Von, and some posthumous tracks from the rapper have emerged since then. The latest is “Don’t Play That,” on which he’s joined by 21 Savage. Uproxx’s Wongo Okon says of the song, “The track serves as another example of Von’s straight-to-the-point raps which left little to no room for any fun or games.”

Tate McRae — “She’s All I Wanna Be”

Tate McRae saw her stock rise big time as she continued her emergence as a name to watch in the pop sphere. Further evidence of that came last week with “She’s All I Wanna Be,” a propulsive pop anthem with a bit of the pop-punk edge that has been all the rage lately.

Machine Gun Kelly — “Emo Girl” Feat. Willow

Most of the time Machine Gun Kelly pops up in the news, it’s because of some sort of antic, whether it’s related to his relationship with Megan Fox or his quickly outdated tattoos. Those who aren’t paying attention to his musical output, though, are missing on some solid pop-punk. He busted out another example of that last week with “Emo Girl,” a nostalgic-sounding link-up with fellow pop-punk revivalist Willow.

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

After 23 years, China decided it was high time to censor the ending to Fight Club, and so it did just that, sparking headlines (and a Ted Cruz take) all over the globe as fans became aware of the alteration to the cult classic David Fincher film starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. In the new version, a title card cuts the movie short and reveals that the police captured Tyler Durden before he can blow up several buildings belonging to major credit card companies. He’s placed in a mental asylum and later discharged in 2012 to live a happy life.

The whole thing was very weird, and apparently, China’s biggest streaming service Tencent Video felt the same away because Fincher’s original version has been quietly restored with “no explanation of the reversal, nor who was responsible for the previous amendment to the 1999 film,” according to Variety, who cites online pressure and the negative coverage across the globe as a potential reason.

While this is an obvious win against censorship, Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk threw a wild curveball during the ordeal by actually praising the Chinese edit for being more faithful to the source material

“The irony is that the way the Chinese have changed it is they’ve aligned the ending almost exactly with the ending of the book, as opposed to [director David] Fincher’s ending, which was the more spectacular visual ending,” Palahniuk told TMZ. “So in a way, the Chinese brought the movie back to the book a little bit.”

(Via Variety)

Master Distiller Caleb Kilburn is barely north of 30 and he’s already one of the most respected distillers in Kentucky. Kilburn started on the ground floor of Kentucky Peerless Distilling back in 2014… literally. He got a job, fresh out of college, shoveling gravel from the warehouse shell that would become the new home of Kentucky Peerless Distilling on the far west end of Louisville’s famed Whiskey Row. By March of 2015, Kilburn distilled Peerless’s first batch of rye whiskey. Two years later, the awards started rolling in and haven’t stopped.

Over the past seven years, Peerless has also released award-winning bourbons from its efficient, almost cozy home base, and Kilburn‘s leadership and creativity continue to wow the industry. So I was extra keen to sit down with one of whiskey’s youngest guns to talk about making both a rye whiskey and bourbon whiskey, the differences in everything from fermentation to aging, and what defines both rye and bourbon in his thinking.

It was a free-wheeling conversation that highlights how a Master Distiller thinks and operates. We also dispel some rye myths, break down a sweet mash vs. a sour mash, and talk about what a “sour” flavor note really is. Enjoy!

Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of 2021

• The Single Best Bottle Of Whiskey From Each Of The 50 States
• The 50 Best Bourbon Whiskeys Of 2021, Ranked
• Every Winning Bourbon From Our 2021 Taste Tests, Blind Tasted And Re-Ranked
• The Best Value-Per-Dollar Bourbon Whiskeys, Ranked
• All 19 Brands From The Buffalo Trace Distillery, Ranked

What is the fundamental thing that you love about making rye whiskey?

Well, the thing I love about making rye is the end result. It is not necessarily the product, but the impression it makes on the public. When we get someone who previously maybe didn’t like rye whiskey or maybe had always heard about “harsh” or “pepper” or “spice” and they had assumed that it wasn’t for them, and then you see a twinkle in their eye when we pour them that first sample of Kentucky Peerless Rye and you can just see a light bulb go off and it completely shifts their own definition for whether or not they like rye.

It just expands their horizon and, for me, that’s the most rewarding part of making rye whiskey.

Right on. I like the expanding of horizons. So talk to me about your love of bourbon.

Well, when it comes to bourbon, I mean it is the state’s signature spirit. In fact, it’s the U.S.’s signature spirit. To be able to craft our own space among the greats and come out with what we feel is a really high-quality whiskey, it’s equally as rewarding. It doesn’t quite have as much shock and awe as when you change someone who wasn’t a rye person to a rye person. Most people who love bourbon know what they’re getting, so it is really more or less about recreating Peerlelss’ heritage in spirit form by way of bourbon.

You’re in a very unique position in that you work in a very compact facility.

Yes.

You simply don’t have a lot of room to do whatever you want and just see what happens. How do you balance out the process of making both bourbon and rye, especially when rye is what you became known for?

So really when we’re deciding how much bourbon versus how much rye to make, generally what you’re doing is forecasting what you anticipate the demand will be X number of years in the future. For us, we thought that we were going to make a good impact on rye and we thought the bourbon was going to be very popular. So we worked accordingly. We were very fortunate that prediction has turned out to be the case.

Let’s talk about some practicals of shifting from making rye to making bourbon. What’s the process in that you’re working with a few fermenting tanks that always need to be working?

The good thing, first and foremost, about us doing the sweet mashing process is there is very little carryover. When you talk about a sour mash whiskey, in contrast, you’re always using a starter from the prior batch. So, inherently, when you switch from rye to bourbon, you end up either switching to a sweet mash to start the new batch in the sour mash facility, which introduces a lot of variables, or you use the prior mash bill as the starter for the next one and you get into some real gray areas as far as the product line.

But starting with fresh ingredients every single time, as we do with a sweet mash, eliminates any crossover between the two. So there’s intrinsically a cleaner break doing a sweet mash than there would be if we were doing a sour mash. That makes us a little more nimble as far as being able to switch between products and remain consistent because the first cook of a sweet mash should be, in theory, nearly identical to the hundredth.

Whereas if you’re doing sour mash, you have to start with a piece of a prior fermentation. So if it is day one after doing bourbon, either you’re choosing to break from the sour mash and do sweet mash or you’re choosing to use the bourbon spillage to start your rye. You end up with a lot of gray areas as far as one batch to the next, to the next, to the next…

I still remember the first two-year-old rye you dropped, made with a sweet mash, which kind of came out of nowhere and was phenomenal — like blew the lid off of things twice, three times, four times as old. How do you attribute that? Was it the focus on the ingredients? Was it the focus on the atmosphere? What do you feel like was the special sauce there?

For me, I like to think of products as a chain. No one link, no one step in the process makes it strong, but any weak link can knock it all off balance. It can make it useless. So for us, we didn’t start necessarily with this horizon in mind that we want to have the “best two-year-old rye whiskey in the world.” It was, we want to make a really, really, really solid rye that is transcendent of time. It wouldn’t predicate itself based on “oh, it’s going to serve well as a young spirit” or “it’s going to serve well as an old spirit.” But rather, we just wanted to do what we felt were the right steps all along the process and to trust the process. And then what wound up happening was we created a really good rye whiskey and it held up. It obviously made its mark as a two-year-old but it won us a lot of awards as a three-year-old. And now that we are beyond the age statements into the four-plus age year range, it is not slowing down and the product’s only getting better.

As far as attributing the misconception that young spirit is often bad or why ours was actually quite palatable and quite nice, it was the collection of these different practices that we employed here at Peerless. I already introduced using sweet mash, which is where we’re going to start with fresh corn, fresh rye, fresh barley, and first-generation yeast. We’re avoiding that traditional sour mash note, producing a very sweet, very floral beer that when we distill. Which then becomes a very sweet, very floral distillate.

It’s just a different beast than a sour mash.

By not having that sour mash note in there, you don’t really have to wait for that to tame down while it’s in the barrel. So, intrinsically, it’s a lot more palatable coming off the still by virtue of it being a sweet mash.

Couple that with the fact that we use a very low barrel entry proof to really, really make an efficient extraction of caramels, vanillas, the sweet barrel characters of baking spices, and that we actually leave everything in barrels to drink, it’s just a really nice way to get a very dense flavor palate that really doesn’t have a whole lot of negatives to it.

Some people treat the barrel like it’s a cure-all where you can take distillate that may not have been quite as pure or clean as one would desire and the barrel given X number of years is just going to fix that spirit and it doesn’t really matter what you put in. That’s not a philosophy we ascribe to. We believe that if you put it in really good, it’ll come out really good.

Are you doing the same thing with the bourbon — using lower proof when filling, etc. — so that you’re getting the same type of extraction?

Yes, sir. As far as the core fundamentals of our processes here, we largely treat bourbon and rye very much the same. But it’s the results that vary differently based on the mash bill and what different steps along the process unlock. The other part that’s going to change is when we’re actually tasting the product. Once we’re at the point where we’re grading and evaluating, that’s where we really lay the groundwork for what our small-batch bourbon and rye products are going to taste, feel, and look like.

How so?

When you talk about rye whiskey, it’s very much predicated on these grasses and herbs and molasses. It’s very dark, herbal, and fun. There’s sweet grass. The notes in our rye are so complex. If you follow all the exact same processes and then show up with the bourbon mash bill instead of a rye mash bill, you end up with a much higher and brighter barrel. You end up with a little brighter sugar, more like a confectioner’s, because there isn’t quite so much herb and spice and grass from the rye grain. Now, suddenly, it allows the barrel to shine through a little more, showing a little bit more of the sweet oak, the spicy oak, the savory, mild smoke, the leather, things of that nature. Even though we can treat them very similarly through the whole process, it’s the end result and the curation through the palate that really defines the product line.

Do you notice if rye or bourbon takes better to certain placements in the warehouse? Or do you feel like it’s just a crapshoot of every barrel is going to be unique?

Yes and no. When you look at our rickhouses, both are only single-story rickhouses, so it’s not something where there are massive different climates at the bottom of the facility versus the top the way you would see in a seven- or six-story warehouse. We have maybe 16 feet separating top and bottom where those bigger warehouses may be operating with a hundred-foot difference. Because of that, there’s going to be cool, fresh air at the bottom and very hot arid air at the top. We don’t see that sort of difference.

Now that being said, even though it is a very similar climate, each barrel is going to be unique. It doesn’t matter if it’s the same mash bill, if it’s the same day of filling, if they were filled side-by-side, or if they were stored side-by-side, at the end of the day, each barrel is going to be unique and different, which is actually awesome.

It makes it really rewarding and it really takes away this notion that you can just taste one barrel and apply those tasting notes to the whole lot. Or you can say, “Okay, well we had this acceptance rate, we can just take these barrels, these barrels, these barrels and make a batch from it.” That’s not something we prescribe to. If you’re at a facility processing thousands and thousands of barrels you may be able to do that.

You have to dig in.

We actually go in and we taste every single barrel.

And who’s helping you do that?

It’ll be myself, Nick Klee, who is our morning distiller, and John Wadell, who is our kind of do-it-all gentleman who also does our single barrel program. The three of us are the palates that taste every one of these barrels and determine first off, is it ready to be a Peerless barrel? And then beyond that, is it a small batch? Is it single? Where does it fit within our portfolio? And that’s where it gets really fun.

Have you ever pulled a rye barrel that tastes like bourbon or a bourbon barrel that tastes like rye?

Absolutely. It’s not so much that it’s indistinguishable, it’s just that it does a really good impression.

What’s your process for deciding whether these unicorn barrels become single barrel releases or layered into a small batch?

We figure it out as we go. For us, the barrels of rye that are very similar to our small batch but maybe they don’t go out on any limbs — there’s nothing bad about them, they just don’t separate themselves from the pack — those are ones that we mingle. But if you did have a barrel that just was crazy different than the standard profile and it is also really technically sound — it has a beginning, middle, end, the nose, the palate, the mouthfeel, it has a very dense flavor profile — those are ones that we promote as single barrels.

Everybody finds a home, so to speak.

The only ones that haven’t, that don’t really have a home, are ones that are not mature yet. Ones that maybe haven’t turned that corner or maybe they still have a note that’s yet to develop or maybe a note that we’re hoping goes away, those are ones that’ll stay within our rickhouse for another year, and then we’ll try them again. And it’s not that the barrel’s bad, it’s just that it hasn’t had time to mature. It’s a late bloomer.

What do you think people mistake the most about rye whiskey and what would you correct that might have falsely imprinted in people’s minds about rye?

Well, there’s a lot of rye out there that follows a very narrow flavor profile. For most people, when they think of rye whiskey, not knowing how it’s made, not knowing the mash bills or the proofs or the ages or anything, they likely follow the standard sour mash 95 percent rye. That’s the one that’s barreled at a high-strength and proofed down where the main characters that come through are very spicy, very peppery, and has that sour mash note. People understand rye whiskey as a very narrow flavor profile and, as a result, if they like it, they love “all” rye whiskey in their mind. If they don’t like it, which is more predominant, they just write off the whole category saying, “Ah, that’s not for me.” It makes for very loyal rye fans and it scares a lot of people off.

The biggest thing I would say as advocacy for rye is be willing to understand that there are new horizons or different flavor profiles and different people making different whiskeys that are still very much rye. It’s still anchored as being “rye,” but maybe show off some different complexities. For instance, we have a little bit of corn in our rye mash. It produces a sweeter, more floral rye whiskey. We use our sweet mash, we use our low barrel entry proof, and, at the end of the day, we have been coined a bourbon drinker’s rye.

And it’s not so much that it tastes like a bourbon, but you get the complexity, the flavor, diversity, the depth of character that you’re used to seeing within a bourbon, but it’s rye. And so my biggest thing to tell people would be, ‘be willing to expand the horizons and revisit the category. They all don’t taste alike.’

The last question. When you say a “sour mash note,” can you explain that as a flavor profile?

The best way I could describe it: When you have a slice of sourdough bread or French bread, for instance, you know how it has that little bit of tartness within the bread, that little bit of bite if you will?

Sure.

When you have a sour mash, it’s like you’ve taken that note and you’ve applied it to a whole batch of beer. But when you go to distill it, it becomes ultra-concentrated and it can be off-putting if you distill it at too low of a proof. If you do certain things like you don’t give it enough time in the barrel, it can be off-putting. There’s a lot of really good sour mash whiskey out there and that sour mash note can be very favorable in many different scenarios. But for us, we felt that it caused us some collateral damage. If you were to do a sour mash, you have to clean up that sour, gritty note.

If you distill at a high proof to avoid concentrating that note, then what happens is a lot of the fruits, florals, grasses, herbs, the grain, things that would have been very good at that lower proof, now have been stripped out along with that sour note. So you end up removing some of the character from the whiskey that we really wanted to hold onto.

Over the years, Jason Isbell has been open about his journey with addiction. Now, he’s celebrating a major milestone on that front: he’s been sober for ten years, which he revealed on Twitter.

Last night, Isbell shared a photo of a tattoo on his right forearm, of ten tally marks, and wrote, “Ten years sober.” Ryley Walker, who has discussed his own struggles with addiction, asked, “How did you do it?” Isbell responded, “A conscious effort to be as grateful as possible, and the luck of having good people around me. Then eventually I started spending my addiction money on guitars and it got a bit easier.” Walker then offered a pat on the back, responding, “Good work homie.”

Isbell also got some kudos from David Crosby, who shared Isbell’s tweet and wrote, “Deep respect here my friend.”

In a 2020 interview with Uproxx, Isbell explained how being sober has impacted his creativity, saying, “When it came time to write Southeastern, I didn’t have anything else to do. I was sober and I didn’t have any kids and my day was my own. I had a lot of space to fill and I filled it by just sitting there writing, and working really hard on each individual lyric, and trying to make everything as perfect as I could. So when I went into the studio with that, I went in with a bomb strapped to my chest.”

In a 2019 Uproxx interview, Walker discussed what life on the road is like while sober, saying, “I have a routine now because before tour was about no routine. Tour was about, ‘Hey, let’s see what trouble we can get in. Let’s let our feet do the walking instead of our brains doing the thinking.’ I was always led by vibe. Now, the vibe is: I’m going to do this for my own benefit for once, instead of trying to impress anybody else by how much cocaine I can shove up my nose in one evening. I just go to a meeting every day. I used to look for crazy people like me in dive bars and now I look for crazy people like me in recovery meetings.”