Young Nudy may have already put out his second project of 2021, Rich Shooter, but he apparently remains just as dedicated to promoting the first, Dr. Ev4l. When the album first dropped, the song “Child’s Play,” which features Nudy’s cousin 21 Savage, was tabbed as an early standout. Today, the terrifying twosome releases the video for their collaboration, teaming up to share a taunting visual component to the spooky single.
As always, when these two link up, they bring the best of each other lyrically, as they compare themselves to the doll villain from the film series “Child’s Play” is named after. Throughout a series of eerie, fog-filled night shots, the duo cruises through an abandoned junkyard, the rusting husks of the automobiles looming like tombstones over the moonlight scene.
While Nudy has geared the majority of his videos this year toward the Dr. Ev4l album, including “2Face” and the title track, he hasn’t neglected Rich Shooter. In August, he shared the surreal video for “Green Bean” shortly after the album’s release as he toured both albums at the same time, playing up the competition with a “Dr. Ev4l Vs. Rich Shooter” theme.
Watch Young Nudy’s “Child’s Play” video featuring 21 Savage above.
Sorry to all the other streaming platforms this month but HBO Max is winning the binge-watching game right now.
Their October lineup just dropped, and it’s stacked. Like, a Sopranos prequel plus a sci-fi blockbuster premiere plus a new season of TV’s most-talked-about drama kind of stacked. The Many Saints of Newark debuts first, giving us a look at a young Tony Soprano’s road to his eventual crime-boss reign before Denis Villeneuve’s Dune arrives to take us on an intergalactic adventure with some Shakespearean undertones. Speaking of, season three of Succession is just around the corner as the Roy family slowly implodes on itself while fighting for Waystar Royco’s number one spot. And Insecure’s final season rounds out the month, giving fans some much-needed closure to the Issa-Molly-Lawrence triangle.
Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) HBO and HBO Max this October.
The Many Saints of Newark, 2021 (Warner Bros. Film Premiere streaming 10/1)
Michael Gandolfini inherits the role his father made famous on HBO’s fan-favorite crime series, The Sopranos, in this prequel that follows a young Tony Soprano coming of age during a tumultuous time in his city. Gandolfini plays the soon-to-be-mob-boss, just learning the ropes from his Uncle Dickie Moltisanti as the family becomes embroiled in a gang war with far-reaching consequences.
Succession: Season 3 Premiere (HBO series streaming 10/17)
The Roy family is back and more divided than ever in the show’s highly-anticipated third season. Kendall (Jeremy Strong) has declared war on his father and Waystar Royco honcho Logan (Brian Cox), forcing family members like Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin), Tom (Matthew Macfayden), and Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) to choose sides. A couple of billionaire newcomers (played by Adrien Brody and Alexander Skarsgard) pop in to stir the pot, so expect the drama to reach Shakespearean level heights when it returns.
Dune, 2021 (Warner Bros. Film Premiere streaming 10/22)
Director Denis Villeneuve adapts this sci-fi epic, splitting it into two parts — the first of which drops this month. Timothee Chalamet plays the story’s prodigal hero, Paul Atreides, a young man gifted with supernatural abilities and burdened with the terrible responsibility of one day leading his all-powerful house. Oscar Isaac plays his father, Leto, while Rebecca Ferguson plays his mother, Jessica — a member of a powerful faction of women who also possess superhuman abilities. When a rival house declares war on the Atreides, Paul and his family must go to extreme lengths to protect the desert planet they’ve inherited and its coveted spice.
Insecure: Season 5 Premiere (HBO series streaming 10/24)
The show’s fifth and final season drops this month as Issa and Molly continue to work on mending their broken friendship as new romances emerge. Issa needs to make a decision about her future with Lawrence — and his baby mama — while Molly ponders her next moves, in her personal and professional life.
Here’s what’s coming to HBO and HBO Max this October:
Avail. 10/1 Admission, 2013 (HBO) A Royal Affair, 2012 (HBO) After the Thin Man, 1936 All The President’s Men, 1976 (HBO) American Gigolo, 1980 (HBO) American Graffiti, 1973 (HBO) Argo, 2012 (Alternate Version) (HBO) Bad Boys II, 2003 Bad Boys, 1995 Bad Words, 2013 (HBO) Ballet 422, 2014 (HBO) Being Flynn, 2012 (HBO) Best Man Down, 2013 (HBO) Beverly Hills Cop, 1984 (HBO) Beverly Hills Cop II, 1987 (HBO) Beverly Hills Cop III, 1994 (HBO) Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure, 1989 (HBO) Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey, 1991 (HBO) Billy Elliot, 2000 (HBO) Black Christmas, 2019 (HBO) Black Hawk Down, 2001 (HBO) Blades Of Glory, 2007 (HBO) Blazing Saddles, 1974 Blood Father, 2016 (HBO) Bloodsport, 1988 (HBO) Blue Crush, 2002 (HBO) Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, 2004 (HBO) Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2001 Broken City, 2013 (HBO) Caddyshack II, 1988 Cake, 2005 (HBO) Cats, 2019 (HBO) Child 44, 2015 (HBO) City of God, 2002 (HBO) Clash of Titans, 1981 Client 9: The Rise And Fall Of Eliot Spitzer, 2010 (HBO) Culpa, 2021 (HBO) Danny Collins, 2015 (HBO) David Lynch: The Art Life, 2016 Desperately Seeking Susan, 1985 (HBO) Dinner For Schmucks, 2010 (HBO) Doubt, 2008 (HBO) Down A Dark Hall, 2018 (HBO) Downhill, 2020 (HBO) Drop Zone, 1994 (HBO) Dying Young, 1991 (HBO) El Cantante, 2007 (HBO) El Profugo, 2020 (HBO) Emma., 2020 (HBO) Endless Love, 2014 (HBO) Entre Nos: The Winners 2, 2021 (HBO) Entre Nos: What She Said, 2021 (HBO) Family Matters Fifty Shades Of Black, 2016 (HBO) For A Good Time, Call…, 2012 (Alternate Version) (HBO) Full House Gangs Of New York, 2002 (HBO) Gangster Squad, 2013 (HBO) Goodbye, Mr. Chips, 1969 Hacksaw Ridge, 2016 (HBO) Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, 2008 He Said She Said, 1991 (HBO) Hearts In Atlantis, 2001 (HBO) Hitch, 2005 Hitman, 2007 (Alternate Version) (HBO) Hooper, 1978 Hostage, 2005 (HBO) House of Wax, 2005 House, 2008 (HBO) Imagine That, 2009 (HBO) Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words, 2015 J. Edgar, 2011 (HBO) Johnny English Strikes Again, 2018 (HBO) Journey to the Center of the Earth, 2008 Just Mercy, 2019 (HBO) Kill Bill: Vol. 1, 2003 (HBO) Kill Bill: Vol. 2, 2004 (HBO) Kin, 2018 (HBO) Leap Year, 2010 (HBO) LEGO DC Shazam: Magic and Monsters!, 2020 Less than Zero, 1987 (HBO) Like Water for Chocolate, 1992 (HBO) Little Man, 2006 (HBO) Lincoln, 2012 (HBO) Lottery Ticket, 2010 (HBO) M*A*S*H, 1970 (HBO) Mama, 2013 (HBO) Marathon Man, 1976 (HBO) Misery, 1990 (HBO) Monster’s Ball, 2001 (Alternate Version) (HBO) Moonrise Kingdom, 2012 (HBO) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, 1989 National Lampoon’s Vacation, 1983 Natural Born Killers, 1994 Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always, 2020 (HBO) Night Catches Us, 2010 (HBO) Orphan, 2009 Parental Guidance, 2012 (HBO) Pariah, 2011 (HBO) Police Academy, 1984 Poltergeist II: The Other Side, 1986 (HBO) Poltergeist III, 1988 (HBO) Private Parts, 1997 (HBO) Proof Of Life, 2000 (HBO) Racing Stripes, 2005 (HBO) Reservation Road, 2007 (HBO) Say Anything…, 1989 (HBO) Sergeant York, 1941 Shaft, 1971 Shall We Dance?, 2004 (HBO) She’s All That, 1999 (HBO) Sherlock Holmes And The Great Escape, 2019 (HBO) Sherlock Holmes, 2009 Shrek The Third, 2007 (HBO) Six Degrees Of Separation, 1993 (HBO) Sliver, 1993 (Alternate Version) (HBO) Snitch, 2013 (HBO) Speedway, 1968 Step by Step Stigmata, 1999 (HBO) Strange But True, 2019 (HBO) Superstar, 1999 (HBO) Super 8, 2011 (HBO) Talk To Me, 2007 (HBO) Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans, 2019 The Banger Sisters, 2002 (HBO) The Blind Side, 2009 (HBO) The Bonfire of the Vanities, 1990 The Book Of Eli, 2010 (HBO) The Campaign, 2012 (Alternate Version) (HBO) The Cider House Rules, 1999 (HBO) The Cincinnati Kid, 1965 The East, 2013 (HBO) The Eichmann Show, 2015 (HBO) The Internship, 2013 (HBO) The Invisible Man, 2020 (HBO) The Harvey Girls, 1946 The High Note, 2020 (HBO) The Hours, 2002 (HBO) The Legend Of Hercules, 2014 (HBO) The Many Saints of Newark, Warner Bros. Film Premiere, 2021 The Outsiders, 1983 The Perfect Storm, 2000 The Poseidon Adventure, 1972 (HBO) The Quarry, 2020 (HBO) The Rite, 2011 (HBO) The Running Man, 1987 (HBO) The Way Way Back, 2013 (HBO) The 15:17 To Paris, 2018 (HBO) Things We Lost In The Fire, 2007 (HBO) Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, 2005 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, 2011 (HBO) Trance, 2013 (HBO) Tully, 2018 (HBO) Twelve Monkeys, 1995 (HBO) Underwater, 2020 (HBO) Up In The Air, 2009 (HBO) Wall Street, 1987 (HBO) Warm Bodies, 2013 (HBO) Wendy, 2020 (HBO) XXX, 2002
Avail. 10/3 Simmer, 2020
Avail. 10/4 Laetitia, Limited Drama Series Finale (HBO) Niña Furia Sublet, 2020
Avail. 10/5 American Masters: Mike Nichols, 2016 American Masters: Nichols and May: Take Two El Verano Que Vivimos, 2020 Level Playing Field, Documentary Series Finale (HBO)
Avail. 10/6 Muy Gay Too Mexicano (Short), 2020 The Republic of Sarah, Season 1 Rosa (short), 2020
Avail. 10/7 15 Minutes of Shame, Max Original Series Premiere Craftopia, Max Original Season 2A Premiere The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo: Amber Ruffin / Bebe Rexha
Avail. 10/8 Voyagers, 2021 (HBO)
Avail. 10/9 Birdgirl, Season 16 To Your Eternity, Season 1 (Subtitled) (Crunchyroll Collection)
Avail. 10/10 It: Chapter 2, 2019 Nuclear Family, Documentary Series Finale (HBO) Scenes From A Marriage, Limited Series Finale (HBO)
Avail 10/11 We’re Here, Season 2 Premiere (HBO)
Avail. 10/14 Aquaman: King of Atlantis, Chapter One: Dead Sea, Max Original Series Premiere Little Ellen, Max Original Season 1B Premiere Love Spells (aka Amarres), Max Original Series Premiere Teen Titans Go!, Seasons 1-6 The Missing, (aka Os Ausentes), Max Original Series Premiere The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo: Jenna Bush Hager / Sophie Fatu Phoebe Robinson: Sorry, Harriet Tubman, Max Original Special Premiere Welcome to Utmark (aka Utmark), Max Original Series Premiere What Happened, Brittany Murphy?, Max Original Series Premiere
Avail. 10/15 In the Line of Fire, 1993 Point Break, 1991 (HBO) Tu Me Manques, 2019 (HBO)
Avail. 10/17 Succession, Season 3 Premiere (HBO)
Avail. 10/18 El Huésped Americano (aka The American Guest), Limited Drama Series Finale (HBO) Women is Losers, 2021
Avail. 10/19 Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO)
Avail. 10/20 Entre Hombres (aka Amongst Men), Limited Series Finale (HBO)
Avail. 10/21 Aquaman: King of Atlantis, Chapter Two: Primordius Reign of Superwomen, Max Original Documentary Premiere The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, 2021 The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo: Ames McNamara / Leslie Odom Jr. Tuff Money (aka Bani Negri), Max Original Series Premiere
Avail. 10/22 Dune, Warner Bros. Film Premiere, 2021
Avail. 10/24 Insecure, Season 5 Premiere (HBO)
Avail. 10/26 Maricon Perdido, Max Original Series Premiere The Mopes, Max Original Series Premiere The Truth of Dolores Vazquez (aka The Caso Wanninkhof), Max Original Series Premiere
Avail. 10/28 Aquaman: King of Atlantis, Chapter Three: Tidal Shift In The Heights, 2021 (HBO) Love Life, Max Original Season 2 Premiere A Thousand Fangs (aka Mil Colmillos), Max Original Series Premiere The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo: Dani & Dannah Lane / AJR
Avail. 10/29 Victor and Valentino, Season 2
Avail. 10/31 The Bachelorette, Season 16
What’s leaving HBO and HBO Max in October:
Leaving 10/10 Malignant, 2021
Leaving 10/11 Meatballs, 1979
Leaving 10/17 Cry Macho, 2021
Leaving 10/18 The ABCs of Back to School: A CNN/Sesame Street Town Hall for Families, 2020 Sabrina: Magic of the Red Rose, 2015
Leaving 10/20 HBO First Look: The Eyes of Tammy Faye, 2021 (HBO)
Leaving 10/25 The Artist, 2011
Leaving 10/27 The Hangover Part III, 2013
Leaving 10/28 Tracey Ullman’s Show, (HBO)
Leaving 10/31 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, 2012 (HBO) A Little Princess, 1995 (HBO) All Is Lost, 2013 (HBO) All-Star Superman, 2011 Alpha And Omega: Journey To Bear Kingdom, 2017 (HBO) Alpha And Omega: The Big Fureeze, 2016 (HBO) Antwone Fisher, 2002 (HBO) A Star Is Born, 1976 A Time To Kill, 1996 Backdraft, 1991 (HBO) Bad Education, 2004 Bandits, 2001 (HBO) Barefoot, 2014 (HBO) *Batteries Not Included, 1987 (HBO) Battleship, 2012 (HBO) Black Dynamite, 2009 Blood And Wine, 1997 (HBO) Broken Embraces, 2009 Cats & Dogs, 2001 Cesar Chavez, 2014 (HBO) Chasing Amy, 1997 (HBO) Christmas In Compton, 2012 Clerks, 1994 (HBO) Conspiracy Theory, 1997 Cool Hand Luke, 1967 Critters 4, 1992 Darkest Hour, 2017 (HBO) Dirt, 2017 Dirty Harry, 1971 Dreamcatcher, 2003 El Pacto (aka The Pact), 2018 (HBO) Empire Of The Sun, 1987 Eulogy, 2004 (HBO) Final Destination, 2000 Final Destination 2, 2003 Final Destination 3, 2006 Final Destination 5, 2011 Firewall, 2006 Flight Of The Intruder, 1991 (HBO) Flying Leathernecks, 1951 Frantic, 1988 Freaks, 1932 Ghoulies, 1985 (HBO) Ghoulies II, 1987 (HBO) Gone Baby Gone, 2007 Good Morning, Vietnam, 1987 (HBO) Gothika, 2003 Gun Crazy, 1950 High Fidelity, 2000 (HBO) House Of Wax, 2005 How To Be A Latin Lover, 2017 How To Be Single, 2016 (HBO) How To Make An American Quilt, 1995 (HBO) I’m So Excited!, 2013 Ice Age: Continental Drift, 2012 (HBO) Immigration Tango, 2011 (HBO) Irresistible, 2020 (HBO) It, 2017 (HBO) Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, 2001 (HBO) Just Before I Go, 2015 (HBO) King Kong, 1976 (HBO) Lars And The Real Girl, 2007 (HBO) Lego Dc Batman: Family Matters, 2019 Lego Dc Shazam: Magic And Monsters!, 2020 Long Gone By, 2019 (HBO) Magnum Force, 1973 Man Up, 2015 (HBO) Mccabe And Mrs. Miller, 1971 Message Erased, 2019 (HBO) Monkey Shines, 1988 (HBO) Nitro Circus: The Movie 3D, 2012 (HBO) Norbit, 2007 (HBO) One More Time, 2016 (HBO) Pajaros De Verano (aka Birds Of Passage)2019 (HBO) Pale Rider, 1985 Pepi, Luci, Bom Y Otras Chicas Del Monton, 1980 Professor Marston & The Wonder Women, 2017 Red Dawn, 1984 (HBO) Risky Business, 1983 (HBO) Santa Buddies, 2009 (HBO) Save The Last Dance, 2001 (HBO) Save The Last Dance 2, 2006 (HBO) School Dance, 2014 (HBO) Serpico, 1974 (HBO) Snow Buddies, 2008 (HBO) Something To Talk About, 1995 Space Buddies, 2009 (HBO) Spawn, 1997 Stand Up Guys, 2013 (HBO) Sudden Impact, 1983 Summer Rental, 1985 (HBO) The Bucket List, 2007 The Color Purple, 1985 The Conjuring 2, 2016 The Dead Pool, 1988 The Debt, 2011 (HBO) The Family Man, 2000 (HBO) The Final Destination, 2009 The Five-Year Engagement, 2012 (Alternate Version) (HBO) The Fugitive, 1993 The Great Caruso, 1951 The Human Voice, 2020 The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, 2009 The Kingdom, 2007 (HBO) The Last Mimzy, 2007 The Lego Batman Movie, 2017 The Sand Pebbles, 1966 (HBO) The Shack, 2017 (HBO) The Shadow, 1994 (HBO) The Skin I Live In, 2011 The Switch, 2010 The Tuxedo, 2002 (HBO) The Voices, 2015 (HBO) The Quiet Ones, 2014 (HBO) The Witches, 1990 Thirteen Ghosts, 2001 Troy, 2004 Trust Me, 2014 (HBO) Volver, 2006 Wait Until Dark, 1967 Westworld (Movie), 1973 When Harry Met Sally, 1989 Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, 1988 XXX: State Of The Union, 2005
The song immediately kicks off with a wall of sound. Washed out guitars and a driving beat accompany Strange as he sings of feeling distant from a past flame and regretting how their timing didn’t work out as he had hoped.
Speaking about the new single in a statement, Strange described his inspiration behind the track. “This is about the ones that got away,” he said. “Going back and forth in my head about relationships that could have happened, missing that it didn’t, and finally realizing I gotta let the weight of it all go.”
Listen to Strange’s “Weights” above and find the Live Forever (Deluxe) tracklist below.
1. “Jealousy”
2. “Mustang”
3. “Boomer”
4. “In A Cab”
5. “Free Kelly Rowland” Feat. Armand Hammer
6. “Stone Meadows”
7. “Flagey God”
8. “Mossblerd”
9. “Far”
10. “Fallen For You”
11. “Ghostly”
12. “Weights”
13. “Flagey God Redux”
Live Forever (Deluxe) is out 10/1 via Memory Music. Pre-order it here.
Earlier in September, Radiohead announced plans to release an LP of unreleased songs, titled Kid A Mnesia, out November 5 via XL. Along with “alternate versions and elements” of Kid A and Amnesiac album tracks and B-sides, Kid A Mnesia features two new songs: “If You Say The Word” and a previously unreleased studio recording of “Follow Me Around.” Today, the band has shared a cinematic new video for “If You Say The Word” directed by Kasper Häggström.
Though the video does not feature any band members, “If You Say The Word” does tell a thought-provoking story where suit-wearing people are rounded up in the forest, put in a giant truck, and toted over to the city, where they are handed suitcases and pointed in the direction of the nearest office building. Only the suit-wearing folk don’t seem to know what to do (one just stares at a revolving door, unsure how to proceed). Others hold their suitcases from the bottom and poke around at rolled-up newspapers. (I mean, I think we all feel this type of way about returning to the office in 2021. Amirite?)
Watch Radiohead’s “If You Say The Word” video above. Kid A Mnesia is out 11/5 via XL. Pre-order it here.
Earlier this year, a bombshell story dropped regarding the oversized role that Haralabos Voulgaris possessed within the Dallas Mavericks’ organization. While his official title was the team’s director of quantitative research and development, a report from The Athletic indicated that Voulgaris oftentimes overstepped the boundaries that came with that position, to the point that there was serious tension between himself and Luka Doncic.
While Mavs owner Mark Cuban said the story was “total bullsh*t,” it appears Voulgaris’ time with the franchise has come to an end. According to Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News, the team made the decision to not renew his contract when it expired amid its offseason-long overhaul.
Haralabos “Bob” Voulgaris and the organization have parted ways, a league source confirmed. The source stressed that Vougaris, hired in 2018 as director of quantitative research and development, was not fired. His contract expired and was not renewed by new president and general manager Nico Harrison.
Voulgaris is the latest person within the Mavericks’ organization to lose their job amid the team’s shakeup this summer. Longtime executive Donnie Nelson mutually parted ways with the franchise, while head coach Ric Carlisle opted to leave the franchise on his own accord before taking over the Indiana Pacers. In their places, the Mavs decided to hire Harrison, a former Nike executive, to run the front office and Jason Kidd to take over as head coach. It is unclear if anyone will replace Voulgaris or if his position will no longer exist in the franchise’s new front office structure.
Week 3 of the NFL season brings with it another opportunity to either stay on an early roll in fantasy or to get some redemption after a rough start. Running backs are always a premium position in fantasy, but with how few true bell cow backs there are in the NFL these days, a lot of draft success comes on guessing the split right on backfield touches for teams that tend to use two backs.
There are of course those you can trust to get the vast majority of touches, and those players are at the top of every ranking every week — your Christian McCaffrey’s and Dalvin Cook’s and Derrick Henry’s — but the first two weeks have been illustrative at times, and frustrating at others, for those trying to figure out who is going to be used most in those more egalitarian backfields.
Here, we have the Week 3 consensus projection rankings for running backs, based on the projections from four sites: ESPN, NFL, CBS, and FantasyPros.
Spencer director Pablo Larraín knew Kristen Stewart was the right choice to play Princess Diana when he heard her speak. “Once she was confident with the accent and all the sort of practical verbal issues, she became a poetic combination of herself and Diana,” he said. “She created a character who can ride illusions in a very intimate and mysterious way.” You can see that in the trailer released on Thursday by Neon.
Spencer looks like an empathetic portrait of Diana as someone who’s forced to be someone she’s not (it’s also a good companion piece to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Oprah interview). “You have to be able to do things you hate,” she’s instructed. “There has to be two of you. There’s the real one, and the one they take pictures of.” If she doesn’t play by the Royal Family’s severe rules, she worries she’ll be killed. A little something for the conspiracy-heads out there. And corgis for the rest of us.
You can watch the trailer above. Here’s the official plot synopsis:
The marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles has long since grown cold. Though rumors of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at the Queen’s Sandringham Estate. There’s eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game. But this year, things will be profoundly different. Spencer is an imagining of what might have happened during those few fateful days.
Spencer, which also stars Jack Farthing, Timothy Spall, Sean Harris, and Sally Hawkins, opens on November 5.
Sterling Shepard has been a model of consistency throughout his football career. A standout wide receiver at Oklahoma turned into a reliable option for whomever is throwing the ball for the New York Giants in a given week, Shepard has long been the kind of guy who knows how to get open and provide an outlet to his quarterback.
As he told Uproxx Sports, a lot of this stems from his desire to constantly learn, break down film, and find guys whose games have things he can take and apply to his own — “I feel like if I can steal a nugget, I can steal a nugget from anybody,” Shepard said. “It doesn’t matter the age or whatever. I just love watching routes, I love watching good route techniques.”
This sort of mentality has made him part of the Giants’ ongoing quest to build something that lets them get back to the postseason consistently. He’s a firm believer in everyone feeling a sense of accountability for what happens, and while the team sits at 0-2 on this early point of the season, he’s optimistic that there are brighter days ahead for the organization.
Earlier this week, we caught up with Shepard to discuss the Giants, Daniel Jones’ development, the Oklahoma Sooners, his partnership with Tide, and more.
What have your thoughts been on the team through two games so far this year?
I’ve been super happy with how guys have fought. It sucks that we haven’t been able to come away with some wins, especially the one last week, on Thursday. If you look at that game, we left a lot of points out there. And, you know, we just have some minor stuff that we need to correct. And I feel like we’re gonna get it on the right page.
I read some stuff that you said this offseason about how you think you have the personnel, but everything comes down to putting in the work. What did you see in the offseason that made you go, “We’re close, we just have to do that last little bit,” and then like you said, those couple of points that get left on the field suddenly become three, six, nine points that you end up picking up over the course of a game?
It comes down to the small details. That’s something that coach Judge stresses us on a daily basis. When you look at the game, it does come down to that one catch, or that one missed assignment that could happen throughout a series. Everybody has one my bad and one mess up, that really controls the outcome of the game. So, we all have to be in tune with what we need to do on every snap.
One other thing that you said was that, despite how tough last season was, you were really proud of how you guys fought, you stuck together, you kept giving yourself something to build on heading into this year. How did that mindset help this offseason? And how has that helped through two weeks so far?
You kinda can’t really look at last season, every team is different. Every team in the division is different. So, you know, we took some of the momentum, I would say, coming from the last few games of the season. We had to work to find our new identity. And I think that’s something that we’re still searching for. But but we’re super close, like I said, and I believe we’ll find out pretty soon.
How would you define that new identity you guys have been working towards?
Just a hard nosed, gritty team. That’s the way we have to play. That’s the way the Giants have been in their history. If you look at the history of the Giants, that’s how everybody has been, how teams have played, so we got a lot of hard-nosed guys, we don’t have really too many big name guys, just a lot of hard workers. So, that’s the way we have to have to play and how we have to be, and it really represents the fanbase.
The one guy I think everyone wants to talk about is Daniel. He’s a young quarterback, so he’s gonna have his good and his bad moments, but I think we saw why the team likes him last week — didn’t turn the ball, nearly 70 percent passing, the good stuff that really excites people about Daniel Jones. How close do you think he is to breaking through and consistently being that guy?
I think it doesn’t really have to do with just Daniel himself. It has to do with us, as well. I mean, we have to do our job in getting open. The offensive line has to do a good job protecting him. I think there’s a lot of things that come along with his success, we all have to do our part. There’s 10 other guys in the field that have to do their part, and as long as we’re able to do that, then Daniel’s gonna do what he did last week. We almost put up 30 points, something that some people didn’t think that we could do.
I’m getting the sense that you really believe there is a level of accountability that you’re taking a lot of pride in installing to everyone else on the team. Is that a fair thing to say?
A hundred percent. I mean, it’s not ever gonna be just on one guy.
You’re a guy who I’ve always liked watching dating back to your Oklahoma days because you’re someone who has really good technique. To the untrained eye, what is it about being able to get off the line of scrimmage, run good routes, find pockets of space in a defense that leads to a guy being able to get open so easily?
A lot that goes into that. That takes a lot of time and work, it didn’t just happen overnight. I’ve watched a lot of film, different route runners that I like and some of the techniques that they use, kind of just twist it and make it my own. Everybody has their own strong points in their game. And I feel like if you hone in on those on those strong points in your game, then yeah, you master those and then you’re able to get open. That’s what I did, I just watched a lot of film and made everything my own.
I won’t ask for all the guys that you’ve watched, but is there one guy — whether they’re in the NFL now or a retired guy, whomever it might be — who you saw a lot of stuff in their game and went, “That’s something that I can perfect and put my own twist on”?
I’m into watching older players. Like Steve Smith, somebody that’s the same stature as me, just how strong he played is something that really stood out to me, and that’s something that I wanted to really add into my game, somebody that I’ve always looked up to. I always make things my own, but yeah, that’s one guy that I really watched a lot of film.
To go in the other direction, who are some of the younger receivers in the league that really pop off the tape?
You look at the Calvin Ridleys, the Jerry Jeudys, those guys are explosive. When they stick their toe in the ground, they’re able to create separation. And just from the route technique standpoint, they’re super advanced. I love watching those guys, too. I feel like if I can steal a nugget, I can steal a nugget from anybody. It doesn’t matter the age or whatever. I just love watching routes, I love watching good route techniques.
I’d be remiss to not ask you a couple of questions about Oklahoma. I feel like in years past, the big college football conversation has always been, there’s the ‘Bama and Clemson tier, and then maybe Oklahoma is a little below that. But coming into this year, people were putting Oklahoma right up there with anybody else. What are your thoughts on the team this season?
Yeah, I mean, the first game was a little shaky. I honestly cut the game off, because I thought we were going to pull ahead pretty fast. And then, next thing I know, I look up and it is was 40-35. And I was like, aw man, so I had to cut it back on. But those are just shaking out some of the cobwebs in the first game of the season. Last week, we handled business. We just got to keep getting better week to week. It’s a young squad, so got to keep those guys on and kind of let them know how the season is gonna go. There’s gonna be ups and downs, just got to keep on pushing through.
I’m getting you right after the Nebraska game. I’m pretty sure you never got a chance to play against Nebraska, correct?
Nah, I never played against them.
But I know you’re someone who has OU in your blood, you know how serious that rivalry is. Is that something you wish you got to do when you were a player, and is that a game you want to see happening every year?
Yeah, for sure. I remember growing up and watching my dad’s highlight tapes and stuff, and a lot was against Nebraska in the ’80s. That was huge rivalry and one of the staples in college football. So yeah, I would like to see it every year. I would’ve liked to be a part of it. But we had our fair share of rivalries and we handled business.
Coach Stoops is on TV now. What are your thoughts on him as a TV guy?
Coach Stoops is gonna be great at whatever he does. He was a terrific coach, and he’s going to be terrific on TV as well. So I’m excited to listen to him and watch him.
What do you got going on with Tide?
Yeah, so I’m teaming up with Tide. They’re switching to washing in cold and the NFL’s switching to washing in cold. And I think about it all the time like, man, the NFL has to watch tons watch tons of clothes, because I look around our locker room and see how many times they have to wash our stuff. So yeah, there’s switching to washing in cold, and it really saves energy and also saves you money, which is something that I really relate to because I have children, so I’m always washing clothes and stuff like that and you can save some energy and help the environment, and also save a little change from time to time. There’s nothing ever wrong with that as well.
You mentioned a big part of that is washing in cold water is good for the environment. How important is it to you, whether it’s with something like this or just really anything, to take that platform you have as an athlete and use it to inspire people to make the sorts of small but good changes in their lives that impact everyone?
I think that’s huge. We have this platform and we are able to reach a lot of people. It can either be done for good or for bad, so this is something that is on the positive end, and something that I look forward to doing. And then, another cool thing about it is, there’s a washing machine that’s coming out, it’s a New York Giants washing machine. And people can go to Tide.com and going there and can pledge for washing in cold, and then they get a chance to win a washing machine with the New York Giants logo on it, and it also has my voice on it, which is pretty cool.
With No Time To Die set to hit theaters next month, director Cary Fukunaga opened up about putting his own spin on the iconic James Bond franchise and how he navigated adapting the super spy to modern times. In a lengthy interview on his career, including his breakout work on the first season of HBO’s True Detective, Fukunaga wanted to steer the franchise away from its misogynistic past when Sean Connery sauntered around in now-problematic mode. Via The Hollywood Reporter:
Perhaps the biggest hurdle for the film was bringing its globe-trotting lothario into Hollywood’s post-#MeToo reality. After all, No Time to Die began development in 2016, before the industry embarked on a period of self-reflection in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s downfall for predatory behavior. Though Craig’s oeuvre puts a greater emphasis on the quality of drinks than the quantity of women, the history of Bond includes casual misogyny and worse.
“Is it Thunderball or Goldfinger where, like, basically Sean Connery’s character rapes a woman?” Fukunaga asks. “She’s like ‘No, no, no,’ and he’s like, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ That wouldn’t fly today.”
Phoebe Waller-Bridge was brought onto this film to “polish” the script, but Fukunaga shoots down the notion that her job was to make Bond more “woke.” Instead, Fukunaga praised Bond producer Barbara Broccoli for wanting Waller-Bridge to strengthen the female roles and force him to interact with fully developed characters who aren’t there just to, uh, service him.
“You can’t change Bond overnight into a different person,” Fukunaga explained. “But you can definitely change the world around him and the way he has to function in that world. It’s a story about a white man as a spy in this world, but you have to be willing to lean in and do the work to make the female characters more than just contrivances.”
No Time To Die opens in theaters on October 8, 2021.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
Indie rock is the midst of an extended dour period. Each new phenom tends to be drawn to the same subject matter: anxiety, depression, romantic failure, existential doom. And then there’s Sarah Tudzin, mastermind of the lyrically irreverent and musically eclectic Illuminati Hotties. Yes, Tudzin is also concerned with matters of anxiety, depression, romantic failure, and existential doom. But she attacks these topics with plenty of absurdist humor and bubblegum pop hooks.
You can see it right away while reviewing the tracklist for the third I.H. album, Let Me Do One More, due out Oct. 1. Tudzin has a thing for a long, bizarre song titles. One of my favorites is “Joni: LA’s No. 1 Health Goth,” a delectably snotty pop-punk song about “a person who, especially in L.A. and probably just in the music scene in general, we’ve all run into in our lives,” Tudzin explained over Zoom earlier this week. She has a notes file on her phone loaded with titles like “Joni: LA’s No. 1 Health Goth” that are just waiting for a song to adorn.
Over the course of three albums, which also include her winning 2018 debut Kiss Yr. Frenemies and last year’s Free I.H.: This Is Not The One You’ve Been Waiting For, Tudzin has honed a polymath style that pushes her music into all kinds of genres, from hooky punk to introspective bedroom pop to assaultive noise. The through-line is Tudzin’s unique sensibility informed by her background as a Berklee College Of Music-trained recording engineer. As her own producer, she gives her records a slick sheen well above the normal pay grade for an indie act. And then there’s her perverse streak, which extends to inviting Big Thief’s Buck Meek — an in-demand guitarist who recently collaborated with Bob Dylan — to appear on the twangy throwback desert rocker “u v v p.” Not to play guitar, mind you, but to perform a spoken-word piece over someone else’s guitar part. (“Kind of like the biggest misuse of talent I could have possibly had,” she laughed.)
Tudzin worked on Let Me Do One More throughout 2019, and then put it on hold to knock out the quickie release Free I.H. to satisfy a contractual obligation before being allowed to exit her prior label, the beleaguered Carolinas-based indie Tiny Engines. The result is her finest work yet, refining the eccentric pop of Kiss Yr. Frenemies with the brashness of Free I.H., which for all of the weirdness of its origin was surprisingly well-received by critics and fans, garnering the best reviews of Tudzin’s career. She’s even become a reference point for the highest echelon of pop stars: When Olivia Rodrigo put out her own bratty pop-punk record, Sour, earlier this year, some cited the similarity to Illuminati Hotties and Pom Pom Squad, whose 2021 debut Death Of A Cheerleader was co-produced by Tudzin.
Tudzin talked about her recent albums, her favorite examples of indie-rock production, Olivia Rodrigo, and how she’s influenced by The Muppets in the following interview.
Given that the circumstances of the album were so strange and fraught, do you have mixed feelings in retrospect about Free I.H.?
A little. More than anything else, I was surprised at the reception and excited that people were into it. Because it was put together so chaotically, I didn’t really have time to sit back and be like, “Okay, I feel good about this project.” It wasn’t until the album had already been out in the world that I got a chance to really sit and re-listen and analyze it and I ended up being pretty proud of the work that came out. I think there’s a couple songs I would’ve loved to take further and turn into real, fully produced versions. But I think they are serving the purpose and the intent that I set out to execute them with.
In a way, do you wish Free I.H. was less good, since it was made to satisfy a contractual obligation? In a sense you did your former label a favor by giving them this acclaimed album.
[Laughs.] If people are into it, that’s awesome. That’s really the main way to keep being able to do this. I didn’t want to totally sink the ship by just releasing a pure noise record or something like that.
Did that experience with Tiny Engines in any way sour you on the industry?
You know, I think I always have been skeptical of how the industry runs. I’ve heard more horror stories at major-label levels where people get somebody really interested in them, everything crumbles, and they’re left with the remnants of whatever that is, trying to put back together their career. More than anything, I guess I was just disappointed that it could still happen at a smaller scale.
When I interviewed you in 2018, it seemed like you were still making a transition from being a person who is behind the scenes as a recording engineer and producer to the person who is out front. Do you feel like you’ve fully come to terms with that?
I feel a lot more confident on stage. I learned a lot by touring through pretty much straight from the end of 2018 through the end of 2019. I had very little time off the road. It’s something that I very much enjoy and it’s become pretty much half of my entire livelihood. But I think at my core I feel like a little nerd who likes to make sounds and be in the studio and help bring songs to their potential.
When you’re not on the road, do you work on records every day?
Yeah. Pretty much my days are split right now where I’ll either be mixing someone’s record, working on my own stuff, or producing another band’s record, which usually is a little more of an isolated thing. So I am in front of Pro Tools, I would say, 89 percent of my time off the road, which is fun. Then also I try and get out of the computer zone a little bit and write, go outside, read, kind of do stuff to further my own creative writing, non-virtual world skills.
Your records are always all over the place stylistically. I get the sense that you probably record all of these songs, and then piece them together into albums later on, rather than writing ahead of time with a specific album in mind. Is that correct?
That was definitely the case with this album. I had 25 or 30 song ideas in various forms. We’d been performing some of them live, like “MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA.” Some was just a verse and a chorus, and they stayed like that even after trying to track them and flesh them out. I was trying to whittle down little by little and decide which was the best out of that collection of songs. I feel like some still could exist in the world, but just didn’t make this album.
I’ve always admired the musicians that can make a conceptual album in the way that people make a movie, or write a long novel. But I just make songs and then service them to the best of my abilities and then create the through-line around them after that.
By the way, how do you pronounce MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA”?
I’ve been calling it “MMMOOO.”
Many of your song titles are long and bizarre. My favorite from Let Me Do One More is “Joni: LA’s No. 1 Health Goth.” Explain to me your song titling strategy.
I think the titles of Bright Eyes and Sufjan and just a former era of pop punk have informed my titling strategy subconsciously. Also, it’s just another method of expression. Sometimes you want to just name the song so people can type in the word they remember and find it. And sometimes you’re given an opportunity to tell a second side of the story, or frame the song in a way that you might not be able to have frame using just the music and lyrics. That’s the catchiest part before the music even starts. So, I love to have a title that’s just fun, and eye-catching, and that’s half the battle of gaining someone’s interest when your music is floating around the internet.
Certain producers have distinct flourishes that you can instantly recognize no matter who they work with. What are your distinct flourishes?
I really favor a detailed and powerful drum sound, as well as a very upfront intelligible vocal. With guitars, I lean on some arrangement tricks that happen in a few different types of music I’ve worked on, as well as just stacking it up in a certain way. So when all the guitars are firing off, it feels clean and powerful, like it’s serving the message of the song. I try and do that on pretty much every album I’ve worked on.
Is there an album or song that you consider a gold standard, production-wise?
Man, so many. It changes I think from project to project, for sure. I love the Bon Iver self-titled record. I think that’s some incredible production, incredible arrangements. They work with real instruments in a way that sounds surreal, which I love. But I don’t think that that’s a fair reference for all of the projects I’ve worked on. Big highlights for me lately was the Fiona Apple record [Fetch The Bolt Cutters]. I think that was pretty immaculately produced and it felt so comfortable and it did a great job of placing you in the room with her. And I would say that’s the goal with a lot of songwriter-y records, to feel like they’re right there with you.
There’s also the Low record [HEY WHAT] that recently came out, which has such crazy production. I don’t think that they want you to feel like you’re in any room.
Let’s say you have the chance to play Rick Rubin and work with a veteran artist or band as a producer for a career revitalizaiton. What would be your dream project?
I would love to make a 2021 Bikini Kill record. I think their work was so special the way it was, and it would be so cool to re-contextualize that.
Lyrically, your sense of humor really distinguishes Illuminati Hotties. It’s a little absurdist, and it can also veer into a kind of gallows humor. What influences you in that regard?
I think it’s sort of my natural voice to approach things with a sense of humor. I try to avoid cynicism, I think that there is an edge and there is sort of like a “poking holes in the plotline” element to the humor. But I do try not to be too negative. That’s just the lens through which I process a lot of stuff. When everything’s going absolutely crazy and you’re having an emotional reaction to it, it’s much more comfortable for me to take a step outside of myself and view it from a sort of cinematic, narrative, hilarious perspective, as opposed to being vulnerable and really living in those feelings. If you say stuff that’s too emo in earnest, I think it sort of pulls the rug out from what the emotion actually is.
Your music videos often have a Tim & Eric sense of comic surrealism.
That’s awesome. I love those guys. I feel like Courtney Barnett does a really good tongue-in-cheek kind of thing that when I was first starting out, I really admired, and still do. In a way some Bright Eyes and some Conor Oberst stuff kind of gets at that deep emotional content with sort of a sneer at the end of it. As well as The Muppets, I feel like are just so real and so raw and at the same time just goofing around the whole time. I feel that definitely informed my childhood. And Steve Martin. My dad loves Steve Martin, and his sense of humor is so quirky and off-kilter.
When Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour dropped earlier this year, some noted the stylistic similarities to Illuminati Hotties and Pom Pom Squad, whose debut album you co-produced. A few people even called it a rip-off. Are you aware of that discourse, and if so, what’s your opinion about it?
Well, I’ll preface this by saying I love the Olivia Rodrigo record. I wish I had a pop star like that when I was 13 or 14. Pop was so high fem if it was a female artist, and that level of pop seemed intangible to me. I feel like Olivia is your friend who’s into really cool music. And I wish that I had that when I was a kid, because that’s the people I wanted to hang around with.
I’m aware of this conversation, and also I am aware of the collective consciousness that comes with being in a creative field. I think we all pulled from a similar pool to make our records, and that’s how it came about. I feel like some of it could be complete coincidence, and some of it could be directly influenced. I know Olivia’s producer came from indie rock world, and if he’s listening to my records, I’m stoked. I would love for my music to be at a platform that is on that level and reaching that amount of people. So I’m not upset about it.
Let Me Do One More is out tomorrow on Hopeless Records. Get it here.
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