While just about every media company nowadays yearns for its own cinematic universe, not everyone is as committed to the idea as Hasbro seems to be. While Snake Eyes lukewarm reception at the box office earlier this year might have seemed reason for the toy company to take a breather and rethink their media strategy, the company’s third quarter earnings call earlier today revealed Hasbro has very different plans.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hasbro has announced it is currently working on developing a whopping 30 Hasbro properties into “potential film and TV content,” with established brands such as Transformers set to be featured in “new films, animated series, and other projects.” This new, entertainment-driven content plan comes just two weeks after the death of longtime Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, and is reportedly an extension of the late business man-turned-movie producer’s plan to turn the company into a “power player in entertainment and games.”
On the call, interim CEO Rich Stoddart called Goldner a “true visionary” who “changed the game completely [and] believed in the power of a story” before praising Goldern’s “Brand Blueprint” strategy for Hasbro and confirming the company would continue to strive for solid footing in the film and television industries. Stoddart said under his temporary leadership, Hasbro will “supercharge the blueprint and build on the company’s strong momentum,” and “the commitment and belief in the brand blueprint as the strategy going forward is greater than it has ever been.”
In the meantime, however, Hasbro has confirmed the search for a new CEO is “well underway,” stating their board has “always has been actively engaged in succession planning” which, while morbid, makes sense considering Goldner’s struggle with cancer. As far as quarter three earnings go, Hasbro reported they were driven entirely by its entertainment and gaming divisions, as its consumer products division struggled with “supply chain disruption, including limited capacity and port congestion.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hasbro’s entertainment division, led by Entertainment One, brought in $327 million for the company, a 76 percent increase from last year. The results were apparently delivered thanks to “The Rookie and Yellowjackets, as well as the debut of My Little Pony: A New Generation on Netflix and kids fare Peppa Pig and PJ Masks.”
While it’s currently unknown what IPs Hasbro intends to turn into major motion pictures and series, the company famously owns Transformers, G.I. Joe, Power Rangers, Rom the Space Knight, Micronauts, M.A.S.K., Monopoly, Furby, Nerf, Twister, and My Little Pony, meaning some of their 3o intended films and series could very well be related to those franchises.
With concerts from musicians like Camila Cabello, J Balvin, and Young Thug, NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series has leaned into sharing performances from today’s top stars as well as breaking artists. NPR Music used to hold each session in their Washington, DC office, but since the pandemic, they’ve been asking musicians to get creative with an at-home setup. Ed Sheeran definitely understood the assignment and took over a regal reading room for his NPR Tiny Desk concert.
The singer fulfilled the series’ requirement of including a desk in the shot, using a vintage writing desk as both decoration and a place to set his acoustic guitar. Sheeran took the opportunity to promote his upcoming album = (aka Equals) which is set to drop this Friday, by performing his recent singles “Shivers,” “Visiting Hours,” and “Bad Habits.” But he also parsed through his catalog to give a rendition of one of his 2014 tracks from his x album, “Make It Rain.”
Ahead of Sheeran’s Tiny Desk concert, the singer revealed he just tested positive for COVID-19. He noted that he’s self-isolating and following government protocols, but that also means SNL is reportedly scrambling to find a musician to fill his November 6 performance slot.
Watch Sheeran’s NPR Tiny Desk concert above.
= is out 10/29 via Asylum/Atlantic. Pre-order it here.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Pop and hip-hop songs have proved popular among TikTok’s biggest stars, but now teen influencers on the app have the opportunity to make dances to some hits from the older generation. Led Zeppelin just joined TikTok, meaning fans now have access to the classic rock band’s catalog on the app.
According to a report from Consequence Of Sound, Zeppelin just struck a deal with TikTok which resulted in their music being available on the app. That means fans now have use to over 100 of their songs in videos, including music from eight studio albums and three live LPs.
Zeppelin made the announcement by posting a short, animated clip to their page using one of their tracks. The first song they chose to share was, of course, one of their classics. No, it wasn’t “Stairway To Heaven.” Instead, the group shared a clip of their and recognizable thunderous screams in hook of their track “Immigrant Song.” The sound has already been used in hundreds of videos on the app, but is expected to see a boost in popularity thanks to the band’s official account.
Zeppelin is far from the only classic rock band to join the popular app. Earlier this month, The Beatles approved 36 of their songs for use on the platform, including the tracks “Get Back,” “Across the Universe,” and “Let It Be.” Both The Beatles and Zeppelin’s addition to the app comes in time for #Rocktober, a month-long celebration of classic rock musicians and their iconic hits on the app.
Getting people who don’t suffer from anxiety issues to understand them is hard.
People have tried countless metaphors and methods to describe what panic and anxiety is like. But putting it into the context of a living nightmare, haunted house style, is one of the more effective ways I’ve ever seen it done.
Brenna Twohy delivered the riveting poetic analogy recently in Oakland, starting out by going off about some funny “Goosebumps” plots. It’s lovely, funny, sweet, and relatable, and it’s totally worth the short time to watch.
Here are some of the quick highlights:
Just like an R.L. Stine book, anxiety can play tricks on your mind.
Panic is a poltergeist.
“When I tell you that panic is a stubborn phantom, that she will grab onto me and not let go for months.”
And the truth of how hard it can be to find someone who wants to sign up for your baggage.
When curious people try to show interest in your haunted head, it can seem more like voyeurism.
“When you say ‘tell me about the bad days’ it sounds like all the neighborhood kids daring each other to ring the doorbell.”
But there’s more where that came from, and she ends on a hopeful note. She’s really pretty brilliant.
Feeling like she nailed it? Your friends may appreciate her take on it, too.
Preparations pro athletes take before games are usually private — treatments from the training staff, a quiet moment alone in the locker room with their headphones on, methodically taking the same shot again and again in a warmup while the pre-game clock ticks down. The routine and order of each thing becomes ritualistic over time. For NBA and WNBA players, though, there’s another pregame ritual that’s become just as important, and unlike these other habits, wholeheartedly visible.
Tunnel looks, or the act of dressing for the 30-second walk from the player’s entrance of an arena to the locker room, has spawned its own voracious following and subculture in the world of basketball. The practice has its own dedicated pros, like P.J. Tucker, Diamond DeShields, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and the undisputed originator of turning a low-lit and otherwise barren concrete runway into an event, Russell Westbrook. For some players, dressing for the tunnel is an opportunity to show off a new outfit. For others, it’s an art, an amuse bouche to set the tone for the particular flavor of game ahead they’re hoping to have. For fans, it’s another way to see and understand their favorite players, an off-court glimpse amplified by chroniclers like League Fits and SLAM’s All-Drip teams. Team social accounts have largely started to get in on the action, too, sharing pregame slideshows of their players arriving.
None have gone so far to embrace the practice as the Detroit Pistons. In early 2020, with its players often requesting arrival photos from the team’s game photographers, the Pistons creative team saw an opportunity. Gavin Rhoades, who had a position with Detroit previously, shifted into the role of lifestyle photographer, capturing tunnel looks and candid moments at events around the city. For a franchise that has been as long intertwined in the culture and identity of the place it calls home, the move was a natural one.
“For the Pistons, being a lifestyle brand and being intrigued both on the court, but also off the court, it’s important that we stay on the cusp of innovation,” Pistons VP of Brand and Marketing Strategy Tyrel Kirkham tells Dime. That innovation, Kirkham recognizes, typically starts by figuring out what’s important and interesting to the team’s players.
“Oftentimes it’s sitting down with them and understanding what their interests are, and then we can cultivate concepts based on their likes, and dislikes — we’ll do our best to avoid,” he says with a chuckle. “And that’s part of the open dialogue that we have with our players, with our coaches, obviously our city, embracing a lot of the things that are represented there as well.”
Detroit has never shied away from doing things differently. The franchise has previously brought in comedy writers like C.J. Toledano, previously with Jimmy Fallon and Bleacher Report and current founder of creative studio Follow Through, to write and produce its in-house entertainment, and recently named Big Sean as Director of Innovation.
“The brands that succeed in sports are the ones that figure out a way to showcase both the lifestyle and sport component of the brand,” Kirkham says, while also acknowledging that authenticity is crucial, especially when Detroit’s players “live and breathe fashion, the arts, music, entertainment.”
Understanding the best spot to capture a person stepping off an elevator or with the faint glow of the court’s lights behind them is one thing. But authenticity and the intimacy that goes along with it was just as crucial in Rhoades role of familiarizing himself with players outside of the arena. Part of the reason Rhoades was promoted into his role was because he’d already worked around the players in close quarters, as a locker room attendant and later a camera operator, essentially learning how to be close without being in a guy’s face.
“The beauty of it is that he builds a one-on-one relationship with each of our athletes. And we know he can tag along for family events, or a community event that they’re doing,” Kirkham says of the trust Rhoades has forged with players. “Or if Jerami Grant is interested in fashion, we have our guy there to capture the content on the runway. It really is just a beautiful relationship, and the commitment that we have to showcasing our players.”
For Frank Jackson, who is entering into his second season with Detroit, establishing a relationship with his teammates and Pistons creative staff comes from a quiet and deliberate place of authenticity, based on curiosity and creativity.
“As soon as I met [Rhoades], we had so much in common just from the camera he was shooting on, it was dope. I asked him what it was and then from there our friendship kind of took off,” Jackson recalls. “A lot of people think basketball is very one-dimensional and it’s just all basketball. And we are, in a sense, and that’s our work, but there’s a lot of other things that guys are interested in. And I think [the team] does a great job of capturing different moods or different things that guys are into.”
For a long time in Detroit, the story hasn’t, or couldn’t yet, be about basketball. Since the last championship banner was lifted in 2004, the Pistons have been on a perpetual rollercoaster of abandoned rebuilds and perceived relegation. In a league where relevancy is right or wrongly predicated on winning or being part of the conversation, Detroit, from the outside, had neither. It wasn’t anything new for Pistons fans or the team, and while external conversations around dynasties, league parity, and super teams raged on, Detroit hunkered down to wait for the noise of these storms to eventually tire out, sustaining itself with an ingrained sense of pride.
This capacity for turning inward and keeping up the work has been the gritty, determined marrow to any winning iteration of a Pistons team, and it’s been borrowed from the city that’s been the innovator of so much in American history, from music to food to the industrialized economy. When you put that all together, it makes sense that this current Detroit team, even with the fanfare of the number one pick in Cade Cunningham, is altogether without pretension. This is a working team.
When asked if the storied history of the franchise guides its approach to the future, Kirkham agrees that the Pistons have a “strong foundation and the historical relevance that many teams would die for,” but he and his team see that as a launching pad when looking forward to this next-generation team and the new fans the Pistons hope to attract.
“There are some intentional things that you see, when we’re talking about the past, when you can marry a Rick Mahorn to a Isaiah Stewart, or a Ben Wallace to an Isaiah Stewart, so you can get the lineage and see that it’s built on that blue collar, hardworking, we’re gonna hustle different mindset,” Kirkham says. “However, we want to also never lose focus of this young core that we’re building with Jerami Grant, Cade Cunningham, Killian Hayes, with Saddiq Bey, with Isaiah Stewart and the rest of our young, hungry and ambitious team.”
That young roster is going to communicate much differently than any of its Pistons predecessors, and largely does it through their phones and social media, but Kirkham and his team are able to keep up via a team-wide app that streamlines everything from the tunnel to special events. Green Fly, a hybrid mini social and photo sharing network, allows Pistons players to search for photos of themselves from the never-ending trove of snaps, whether in-game or off the floor. Players can also make requests through the app of Pistons team photographers to capture them at future events, certain times, or even specific plays on the floor.
Even players like Bey, who has no social media presence, is an avid user of Green Fly, sharing photos with family and friends and avidly making requests. It’s another way that, from the outside, we occasionally lose the sense that a pro athlete doesn’t mark occasions in their lives the same way as we do: by taking a picture of themselves in the moment, to have proof that it happened.
Kirkham shared a story that Cory Joseph, who was traveling when he joined the team last March, set up his Green Fly account on the road and watched as photos from his first two games poured in. Joseph immediately reached out to Rhoades to say that he’d never had anything like that at his disposal in his previous stops.
“And for us, that’s the ultimate compliment that we are providing a real service to our players,” Kirkham stresses.
For Jackson, having a photographer knitted into the inner workings of the team’s day-to-day has offered another positive outlet.
“It gives me a breath of fresh air in a sense, in that work environment, to allow just another viewpoint, or another take on the day,” Jackson says over the phone post practice, “So it’s been fun to have him around and to be able to bounce ideas off of each other.”
Jackson, who GQ coined the “Most Stylish NBA Player You’ve Never Heard Of,” is as low-key and considerate over the phone as he is with his eye for fashion. Born in D.C. and later going to high school in a small city south of Salt Lake City, Jackson got an early knack for editing his outfits into better versions by using the same anchor pieces and mixing up what he paired them with.
“Growing up as a kid, I did my summer shopping and that had to last me the whole school year, even into the future school years and whatnot. So it was always fun to me to, you know, all you need is really a couple pieces and you can mix and match and do a lot of creative things,” Jackson says.
Browse through Jackson’s mix of candid and curated Instagram photo dumps and you’ll see the same pair of perfectly worn-in orange tab Levis 505s paired with a soft vintage t-shirt and leather loafers in one slide, cowboy boots the next.
“I’m a big believer in wearing your clothes and re-wearing them,” Jackson says with a soft chuckle, noting that it was getting hand-me-downs from older cousins or friends that turned him on to vintage. “I feel like worn clothing or worn anything, like when you wear it in, it fits the best.”
Jackson is also half of the lifestyle brand Rare Roses, and has his own ambitions in photography, saying that it would be a dream to put together a large-format photo book some day, including some of the many photos he’s saved since joining the Pistons. While there is absolutely no confusion between the delineation of working and his creative pursuits, there is something unique that the team has offered to players like Jackson, who end up with a much more vibrant and engaging experience being in an environment that values their off-court interests as much as on-court capabilities.
For the Pistons, there is value added in being a franchise that sees creative additions not only as a way to make players happy and set itself apart, but also the tangible assist Kirkham, Rhoades, and their team offer to a player’s personal branding, charity and foundational work, and career ambitions after basketball.
“It intrigues me,” Jackson says, of Rhoades role with the team. “That’s something low-key I would even want to do,” noting that it’s a job that didn’t necessarily exist even five years ago, at least in the capacity that the Pistons have utilized it.
What stands out about the Pistons having, essentially, a lifestyle photographer on retainer, or the team’s use of a tool like Green Fly for no other purpose than to make it easy for players to save photos they like, or many of the team’s creative-driven initiatives, is that they are internal. There is the brand building element, which Kirkham is honest about, but the reason these things don’t feel gimmicky is because they aren’t. They are also just considerate, nice extras, things that often get overlooked in the well-oiled mechanics of a professional team.
“We obviously care about wins, but let’s control the things that we can control. And so much of that is creating the cool factor, being in the moment when it matters most and being proud of what we do,” Kirkham says. “And Detroit has that mindset, as it is the Detroit versus everybody mindset. It is the D-Up mindset of the continual rising of the city. And that’s the way I want the brand to follow.”
Like a lot of what Detroit is about, there’s a for-us, by-us mentality behind everything that shines, almost stubbornly, through. The purpose is in the preparedness, to look inward and project out past that, a lot like dressing for the tunnel. It’s in this vein that, as Kirkham talks about the way he sees the Pistons growing forward, folding the franchise’s history into its future, his voice is rhythmic in its resolve, even when his words skew poetic.
“As an organization, that’s the way we approach our craft daily,” he says. “We know that when the wins do occur, at mountaintop, brand meets winning. It’s going to be another beautiful day and harken back to the ’89, ’90 or ’04 era. We just want to make sure we’re ready.”
On Sunday, Rolling Stone published a bombshell report in which several people who participated in the January 6th protests at the Capitol admitted they participated in “dozens” of meetings with members of Congress and White House staffers, who promised them that then-president Donald Trump could issue them a “blanket pardon” should they get into any trouble with authorities. Unsurprisingly, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert were among the officials cited with being a part of these pre-coup briefings, along with Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks. Now, as Raw Story notes, Brooks—taking a page from Trump’s book—is denying that he had anything to do with the events of January 6th or any planning leading up to them… though he couldn’t say that his staffers were totally innocent.
In a since-deleted video posted by Ali Alexander, Raw Story noted that the noted far-right activist and ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer admitted that: “I was the person who came up with the Jan. 6 idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks, and Congressman Andy Biggs. We four schemed up on putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting so that—who we couldn’t lobby—we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body hearing our loud roar from outside.”
On Monday, CNN’s Melanie Zanona spoke with Brooks, who claimed that he had “no involvement” in the events of January 6th, but wouldn’t swear that others in his office might not have played a role. “I don’t know if my staff did,” he added, “but if they did I’d be proud of them for helping to put together a rally lawful under the First Amendment at the ellipse to protest voter fraud & election theft.”
Rep. Mo Brooks told me he had “no involvement” in planning the Jan 6 rally but said:
“I don’t know if my staff did.. but if they did I’d be proud of them for helping to put together a rally lawful under the First Amendment at the ellipse to protest voter fraud & election theft.”
Way to throw your staff under the bus with a smile! What makes the whole ‘I didn’t know anything but members of my staff might have, and if they did, then good for them’ rhetoric slightly less believable is the fact that Brooks opted to wear full body armor when he spoke at Trump’s rally just ahead of the insurrection of January 6th.
During the climactic final battle in Avengers: Endgame, pretty much every single Marvel hero is on hand to battle Thanos to cap off a wild, decade-long experience that led to the moment. As the Avengers fight to gain control of the Infinity Gauntlet, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man finds himself in need of assistance, which results in Marvel’s female heroes coming together for an ultimate girl-power scene that has been a constant source of contention since Endgame dominated theaters in Summer 2019.
While some fans loved that the female moment — the “A-Force scene” as it is affectionally called — signaled a more inclusive future for the MCU that doesn’t focus on heroes played by Chrises, others felt the scene was “pandering,” which was a concern that Marvel Studios also had following test screening results.
According to the mammoth new book, The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, test audiences were not huge fans of the lady Avengers moment, so executive producer Trinh Tran got to work retooling the scene to make it feel more organic. Via CBR:
“In earlier cuts, Tran admits, ’When we started screen-testing it, there was a little concern for ‘Does it come off [as]pandering?’ Are we going to get people saying, ‘Oh you’re just putting that scene in there just to put the scene in there. Does it actually have a story to tell with the rest of the narrative?’ That was always a concern in the back of our heads.’”
Tran was adamant that the scene remain in the film, so cutting it was never an option. Instead, Marvel Studios shot additional scenes featuring the same female characters in smaller groups, so when the group shot occurred, it had already been set up, making it flow more naturally.
Of course, going by some online responses, Marvel still didn’t massage the scene enough to avoid feeling too on-the-nose, but then again, when does the internet agree on anything? Also, if we’re splitting hairs here, we’re talking about a film series where a raccoon shoots a machine gun next to a Norse god, so subtlety isn’t exactly on the menu. Nor should it be. Be big and loud and just do it all.
JoJo Siwa, the Dance Moms contestant-turned-YouTube personality with over 12 million subscribers, was named one of Time‘s most influential people in the world in 2020. “JoJo Siwa is a ray of sunshine in a world that seems scary right now. As a parent, you want your kids to admire positive figures. There’s no one more positive than JoJo,” Kim Kardashian wrote for the magazine. “You just can’t help but smile when you see her rainbow ponytail.” But the 18-year-old has since ditched her trademark all-rainbow-everything style for a more haunting look, at least for one night.
On Monday’s horror-themed episode of Dancing with the Stars, Siwa performed a routine set to “Anything Goes” by District 78 ft. Patrice Covington with her dance partner, Jenna Johnson (the first same-sex couple in the show’s history), while dressed as Pennywise. Yes, the clown from It. It’s weird as heck, but Siwa and Johnson are talented dancers and earned a perfect 10 out of 10 score from the judges.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: more dance routines should end with a popular children’s entertainer pulling someone’s arm off while dressed as an evil clown. Is that too much to ask? You can watch the Dancing with the Stars clip above.
Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.
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My Morning Jacket – My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket are back with the jammiest record of their career, which is also a recipe for their most interesting release in years. In a recent interview with Steven Hyden, Jim James revealed that he hadn’t been actively engaged with My Morning Jacket for much of the 2010’s, but he felt more locked in on the band’s new self-titled album. The attention pays off, and My Morning Jacket just might be the record that revitalizes the veteran indie rockers.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – B-Sides & Rarities (Part II)
After dropping the first volume of a massive archival project, Nick Cave is back with the second. B-Sides & Rarities (Part II) was compiled by Cave alongside longtime collaborator Warren Ellis, and comprises rarities, outtakes, covers & B-sides spanning from 2006’s Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! to Ghosteen. Together, both volumes show another side of Nick Cave’s creative process that is both revealing and enveloping.
Wet – Letter Blue
After a few years of flux that had members leave then return, as well as finding a new label home, New York indie-pop trio Wet are back with an excellent new record. Letter Blue is what Adrian Spinelli calls for Uproxx “Wet’s most diverse offering yet. Zutrau’s hallmark emotional pop lyricism is as sharp as ever.”
Super American – SUP
Listening to the new album Buffalo, NY punks Super American, it’s hard to believe the band is solely a duo. The songs on SUP feel so fleshed-out, there has to be more going on than just two people. But alas, the album features none other than multi-instrumentalists Matt Cox and Patrick Feeley, delivering a collection of massive pop-punk tracks that juxtapose the miracle of being alive with the constant sense of nagging fear.
Bedouine – Waysides
Azniv Korkejian sat in the co-producer chair alongside Gus Seyffert (Beck, Sia) for her third album under the name Bedouine. On Waysides, Bedouine delivers what Adrian Spinelli calls for Uproxx “downright gorgeous folk music for day dreamers and lovers alike.” The release of the album couldn’t be timed more perfectly, to throw on during a solipsistic fall walk.
Helado Negro – Far In
Two years after dropping his acclaimed 2019 effort This Is How You Smile, Roberto Carlos Lange is back with a brand new album. Announced earlier this year, Far In features collaborators like Jen Wasner of Flock of Dimes, Kacy Hill, Buscabulla, and Benamin and is another excellent addition to Lange’s prolific catalogue.
Parquet Courts – Sympathy For Life
On their seventh album, Parquet Courts once again prove their lasting consistency. Sympathy For Life was born out of unstructured jam sessions that were eventually distilled into more straightforward songs, and the freewheeling experimentation can be heard throughout its eleven tracks. Sometimes, it’s nice to hear a band get out of their head and just let loose, and Sympathy For Life does just that.
Hand Habits – Fun House
“Meg Duffy is considered one of the best guitarists working in contemporary indie rock, but the music they make as Hand Habits is less about solos than exploring the textural possibilities of the instrument,” Steven Hyden wrote in a recent issue of the Indie Mixtape newsletter. Duffy pushes these textural boundaries throughout Fun. House, the latest effort Hand Habits. It’s a fully enveloping LP, one that will reveal new sonic layers upon every listen.
Trace Mountains – House Of Confusion
After garnering quite a bit of attention with their 2020 debut, Lost In The Country, former LVL UP member Dave Benton is back with another new record under the name Trace Mountains. House Of Confusion is a declarative sonic step forward from the debut, but still “feels like a throwback to the rustic ‘out in the country’ acts of the classic-rock era,” according to Steven Hyden called in a recent issue of the Indie Mixtape newsletter.
Tonstartssbandht – Petunia
If you were a diehard Mac DeMarco fan in the mid-2010’s like me, then you’re definitely familiar with Florida duo Tonstartssbandht, who lended their vocalist Andy White to DeMarco’s band for a stint. With 17 records to their name in under 15 years, Tonstartssbandht have now unleashed Petunia, an experimental jam record that feels like it could be a breakthrough. Chock full of 12-string guitars and impressive vocal harmonies, Petunia sounds like “a jammier Radiohead,” wrote Steven Hyden in a recent issue of the Indie Mixtape newsletter.
Angel Du$t – YAK: A Collection Of Truck Songs
Baltimore outfit Angel Du$t have revealed their Jekyll and Hyde — 2016’s Rock The Fuck On Forever was a straight-ahead hardcore LP, while 2019’s Pretty Buff was an acoustic-forward power-pop effort. Now, the two sides of the band have met somewhere in the middle on the new album YAK: A Collection Of Truck Songs. Sometimes, the full spectrum of the band’s abilities are showcased within the span of one song, which makes for a thrilling and provocative listen.
Clinic – Fantasy Island
For the better part of two decades, Liverpool outfit Clinic have been pumping out some of the coolest, most inventive alternative music available. Now, the duo has delivered their ninth studio album, Fantasy Island. As the title indicates, the LP is chock full of literary references, with twelve tracks that explore time, music, and entertainment atop funky bass tracks and drum machines.
Mom Jeans – “Circus Clowns”
Mom Jeans are one of the most talked-about bands in the indie-emo scene. Given the quality of the two singles we’ve heard from the forthcoming album Sweet Tooth, it’s not surprising that people are buzzing about this band and “Circus Clowns” sets a high bar for the remainder of the album.
Ovlov – “The Wishing Well”
With their new album Buds set for release in November, Connecticut rockers Ovlov have shared another new single. “The Wishing Well” is what Derrick Rossignol describes for Uproxx as sounding “like a not-too-distant relative of early-2000s Death Cab For Cutie,” and deals with varying responses to mental health issues.
Anjimile – “Stranger”
Giver/Taker, last year’s full-length debut from Anjimile, was one of the year’s best albums and catapulted them into a deal with 4AD. Now, Anjimile has returned with more resources at their back in the form of “Stranger,” which kicks off with what Carolyn Droke calls for Uproxx “the emotive strumming of an acoustic guitar as Anjimile’s captivating voice floats in. The instrumentals swirl between nostalgic piano keys and boisterous horns, mimicking the tumult that’s detailed in the song’s lyrics.”
Dan Campbell – “Flight No. 5”
Early in the pandemic, The Wonder Years’ frontman Dan Campbell started taking commissions for original songs, for the first time looking to tell other people’s stories instead of his own (or ones he conjured up for his Aaron West character study project). The resulting LP Other People’s Lives is both startling and comforting in its delivery, and “Flight No. 5” is our first taste of what we can expect as Campbell provides a unique glimpse into the lives of strangers.
Ryan Pollie – “On The Nose”
Ryan Pollie’s new album Stars is set for a mid-December release, and he has shared a first look at the record in the form of “On The Nose.” Inspired by the parties that take over the parking lots outside of Dead & Co. shows during the summer, “On The Nose” is an engaging track about growing up and taking summers for granted.
Camp Trash – “Weird Florida”
Camp Trash’s brand of emo is instantly exciting and boasts incredible vocal melodies that make you want to sing along, even when you’re by yourself in your room (like I am right now). “Weird Florida” is a diatribe against my personal least favorite state in the union, and is supposedly the first proper taste of the forthcoming Camp Trash full-length due next year on Count Your Lucky Stars.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Now that Megan Thee Stallion‘s got four Grammys to her name, her next accomplishment is set to be a college degree. The rapper has been taking classes at Southern Texas University and this semester, she’s slated to graduate with a degree in health administration. To celebrate her impending degree, Megan added some bling her graduation cap, but it wouldn’t be complete without her signature catchphrase.
The rapper shared photos of her sparkling hat on Instagram, showing that it reads “Real hot girl sh*t” in block letters. “2021 finna graduate collegeeee taking my graduation pics today,” she wrote in the post’s caption. “I can’t wait for y’all to see.” Of course, no look of Megan’s would be complete without a matching set of acrylic nails, which feature TSU’s letters and even a metal tassel.
Previously speaking about her degree in an interview with People last June, Megan said she is inspired to finish her degree not only for herself, but also for her late mother and grandmother. “I want to get my degree because I really want my mom to be proud,” she said. “She saw me going to school before she passed.” Megan added, “I want my big mama to be proud. She saw me going to school before she passed. My grandmother that’s still alive used to be a teacher, so she’s on my butt about finishing school. I’m doing it for me, but I’m also doing it for the women in my family who made me who I am today.”
Check out photos of Megan’s handiwork above.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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