This week, Steve and Ian are getting ready for festival season. Pitchfork Festival is finally here, featuring sets from Dogleg, Oso Oso, and Bartees Strange and marking the tripling of the fest’s notorious “token DIY/emo” acts. This year, festival season arrives in the fall, which leads into a question from a listener asking which albums are indicative of the changing of the leaves for our two hosts.
This week’s episode is centered around Minnesota trio Low, who has been regularly releasing music over the last 30 years or so. Recently, Low’s consistent catalogue was starting to feel like they were tapering off, but their thirteenth studio album, Hey What, has them back in the saddle for their best collection of songs in recent memory. Perhaps this is the result of the prominence of the vocals on this album — where the voices were frequently buried amid the glitchy instrumentation on previous efforts, Hey What has the dual vocalists front and center, often cutting through the musical mayhem behind them.
In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian is plugging 2012, the new album from Pittsburgh band Brightside. Meanwhile, Steve wants to bring your attention to the forthcoming album from Irish post-punk band Silverbacks.
New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 56 on Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.
Rifle-Republican Lauren Boebert (R-CO) never ceases to amaze over how willing she is to step in it on Twitter. From her praise of the Taliban to really odd Siri questions and rude pronoun discussions, she never manages to sound, well, like an empathetic human being. The backlash to her tweets remains consistently fierce, yet Boebert either doesn’t look at her notifications, or she doesn’t mind. Well, she actually did delete her tweeted thoughts that confused Samuel Adams with John Adams, but that was an exception.
For the most part, Boebert is like the Energizer Bunny Who Does Not Care, and she’s all kinds of upset about the fencing around the U.S. Capitol. That protective wiring, obviously, is a response to the January 6 insurrection and a preventative measure ahead of the September 18 right-wing rally that has Capitol Police to reveal how they’ve bracing for violence, but Boebert remains incredibly offended at the thought of fencing.
“Open Borders Nancy Pelosi is getting ready to put the Capitol Fence back up,” the Shooters Grill owner tweeted. “Nothing says ‘The People’s House’ quite like razor wire.”
Open Borders Nancy Pelosi is getting ready to put the Capitol Fence back up.
Nothing says “The People’s House” quite like razor wire.
This tweet coincided with a tweet from Marina Zimmerman, a Colorado “blue-collar conservative” candidate, who tweeted about how strange it is that Boebert is angry about preventative measures at the U.S. Capitol. Zimmerman then suggested that “#BoebertELee” (so named for the Confederate General, Robert E. Lee) should trend as a new Boebert nickname.
My opponent Lauren Boebert is actually mad that Congress is taking preemptive measures to protect Republican and Democrat lawmakers to ensure that her martyrs don’t turn the Sep 18th protests into another Jan 6.
Let’s see if we can get this new nickname trending. #BoebertELee
— Marina Zimmerman for Congress (@Marina4Colorado) September 9, 2021
Well, the suggestion worked like a charm. Jokes about “the Battle of Shooters Grill” began to circulate like wildfire, along with tweets that aimed to point out to Boebert that the wiring is in place “so your fellow Confederates can’t kill more cops.” And with that, people were off to the Twitter races.
We noticed #BoebertELee is trending. That’s the tweet.
Maybe that’s because all of your insurrectionist friends are coming back on the 18th & we all remember what you did on January 6th, #BoebertELeehttps://t.co/NcEySPEW6N
For the last four NFL seasons, we’ve picked games in this space and, well, the 2021 season is here. We’re back for another run. Week 1 is already underway at the time of this post, but Sunday and Monday bring every football handicapper’s dream of a full slate. For those unfamiliar, our central tenet is to find value, often in zigging when others zag. That usually leads to underdogs (and Unders when we veer into the totals market), and it sometimes presents hideous situations where you simply have to hold your nose.
With that quick introduction out of the way, let’s take a peek back at our record in 2020.
The Bills are very popular and likely very good. The Steelers ended last season with a giant thud and there are questions about their offense. Naturally, we’re taking Pittsburgh. Mike Tomlin is fantastic as an underdog, sporting a 40-21-3 record against the spread when getting points, and I do trust Pittsburgh’s defense. Buffalo is rightly favored, but this number is a touch high in what could become a slugfest.
Arizona Cardinals (+3) over Tennessee Titans
I’ll admit, the Cardinals have been kryptonite at times in this space, but we’re doing it again. Arizona is undervalued in the market in my view, and old pal Kliff Kingsbury has done his best work as an underdog on the road. Moreover, this is a bit of a fade of Tennessee, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.
New York Giants (+3) over Denver Broncos
Denver’s defense could be quite good and I’ve always been supportive of Teddy Bridgewater. I still think this number is too high for the Broncos as a road favorite. New York should at least be frisky defensively and, with a total in the low 40’s, the full field goal is nice to have.
New Orleans Saints (+3.5) over Green Bay Packers
At one point in the offseason, the Saints were a field goal favorite in this game. A lot has changed since then, including the venue of the contest, which has been moved to Jacksonville. New Orleans is easy to sleep on without Drew Brees but, um, the drop-off from Brees to Jameis Winston may be nil, and the Saints are still pretty loaded from a roster standpoint. I get why the Packers are favored, but more than a field goal? Give me the candy.
Las Vegas Raiders (+4) over Baltimore Ravens
This is hideous, but it’s right. Baltimore is the better team, but they are down a starting cornerback and their top two running backs. Las Vegas can score (12-3-1 to the Over last season), and should be able to hang around in front of their home faithful. Play the number, not the teams.
So far, Ed Sheeran has shared a couple singles to usher in his new = era: “Bad Habits” and “Visiting Hours.” Today, he returns with a third, “Shivers,” which comes with a surreal video co-starring actress AnnaSophia Robb.
The clip begins with the two bashfully encountering each other in a diner before entering into a variety of surreal and mostly awkward courtship scenarios, from Sheeran riding a train with Robb’s face on the front of it, Thomas The Tank Engine style. There are also moments where Sheeran finds himself in what can only be an Elton John tribute.
It was also announced this morning that Sheeran will be performing the new single at the VMAs this Sunday.
Sheeran previously said of his upcoming album, “= (Equals) is a really personal record and one that means a lot to me. My life changed greatly over the past few years — I got married, became a father, experienced loss, and I reflect on these topics over the course of the album. I see it as my coming-of-age record, and I can’t wait to share this next chapter with you.”
Watch the “Shivers” video above.
= is out 10/29 via Atlantic Records. Pre-order it here.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Years ago, I spoke to Seth Rogen and Zac Efron while working the red carpet for the premiere of Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. I don’t remember anything about the interview (I probably asked a hard-hitting question about High School Musical), but I do remember how blindly white Rogen’s teeth were. It was all I could focus on. That’s what I imagine it’s like to be around Donald Trump, except instead of pearly whites, it’s orange goop.
On the first episode of the One Decision podcast hosted by journalist Michelle Kosinski and former MI6 chief Richard Dearlove, Alyssa Farah, who worked as White House Director of Strategic Communications for the Trump administration, revealed that the former-president “usually would” apply his own makeup. You don’t say…
“You don’t touch the Donald Trump face,” Farah added.
Trump was even so impressed by a particularly flattering mirror that he had it schlepped to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “We always have roughly the same mirror that we have backstage, but there was one time we were backstage, and for whatever reason, he particularly liked the mirror, I guess the way it was positioned,” Farah recalled. “He turns to me, he says, ‘Look at this. This is a skinny mirror,’ he says,” she continued. “Take this back to the White House,’” Trump told her. “We used it [at] every event.”
When Jimmy Kimmel heard about this news, he joked, “Of course he does his own makeup. Look at this makeup. If a professional did this, they would be fired ― out of a cannon.” The Jimmy Kimmel Live host added, “I would pay a lot of money to watch Donald Trump do a makeup tutorial on YouTube. He can make it his next pay-per-view event.” You can watch that clip here.
On Thursday, crowds gathered in Richmond, Virginia to watch as the Robert E. Lee Monument—the nation’s largest confederate statue—was removed after more than 130 years of looming over the city. Onlookers cheered and celebrated the removal of the 12-ton reminder of America’s racist past (ok, and present), which Seth Meyers understands.
“Anyone who loves America should be watching this scene and celebrating along with the crowd. A monument to a traitor for an evil cause, the cause of slavery [and] white supremacy, and who tried to destroy the United States has finally been taken down. But you’ll never guess who had a slightly different take on things…”
That person, of course, was former president Donald Trump, who has a knack for vocalizing every idiotic thought and bad take that finds its way into his wee brain. When he randomly opted to share his thoughts (which no one asked for) about the removal of a statue that was essentially a celebration of slavery and white supremacy, he did not disappoint. As The Hill reported, Trump issued a statement in which he called the removal of the racist statue a “complete desecration.”
He went on:
“Our culture is being destroyed and our history and heritage, both good and bad, are being extinguished by the Radical Left, and we can’t let that happen! If only we had Robert E. Lee to command our troops in Afghanistan, that disaster would have ended in a complete and total victory many years ago. What an embarrassment we are suffering because we don’t have the genius of a Robert E. Lee!”
“What an embarrassment” are definitely three words that come to mind. Meyers, not for the first time, pointed out Trump’s total lack of knowledge of American history:
“Seriously, what do you mean it would have ended in victory if Lee was in charge? He lost! He’s famous for losing! But ah yes, if only Robert E. Lee had been in charge in Afghanistan then surely he would’ve said something inspirational like, ‘Is that a missile? All I have is a bayonet and I’m glued to my horse—get me out of here…’
Of course, I wouldn’t recommend taking history lessons from a guy who, among other things, praised Nazis, sowed an insurrection where rioters carried the Confederate flag, thought Frederick Douglass was still alive, didn’t know why the Civil War happened in the first place, and thought there were airports during the Revolutionary War.”
Don’t be surprised if that very same statue somehow finds its way to Mar-a-Lago.
You can watch the full segment above; the Trump chatter begins around the 6:25 mark.
Today marks the release of Kacey Musgraves’ anticipated new album, Star-Crossed. It’s a high-profile release, enough so that she got a spot on The Late Show last night as an interview guest. During her chat with Stephen Colbert, she explained how the new album is about being “f*cked celestially.”
Colbert took interest in the album title and asked what Musgraves means with her use of the term, and she responded, “It’s ill-fated. You are doomed by the stars. You are f*cked celestially.” She continued, “There is a roller coaster of emotion on the record and the film that we made. It is kind of a wild ride.”
Elsewhere during the chat, Musgraves discussed her relationship with Willie Nelson and how that connection allowed her the opportunity to get her grandfather a special gift. Describing one Christmas, Musgraves said, “I handed him a little wad of cash and I was like, ‘Here you go.’ He was like, ‘What is this for?’ I was like, ‘It’s the buy-in for Willie Nelson’s poker game, so good luck.’” Her grandfather fared well — he “kicked Willie Nelson’s ass,” as Musgraves put it.
Meanwhile, at multiple points during the conversation, Colbert teased that Musgraves will return to The Late Show in October for a musical performance, so that’s something to look forward to.
Watch Musgraves’ appearance on The Late Show above.
Star-Crossed is out now via Interscope Records/UMG Nashville. Get it here.
Summer has come and (almost) gone this year with no true summer celebration. Yet there’s some wonderful news on the horizon: Netflix hasn’t ceased to supply us with plenty of motivation to stay home and enjoy quality original TV series and movies on our streaming devices. This week, the services gets both naughty and nice, although the former certainly outweighs the latter with entertainment being the end goal.
That goal has been duly met. Tom Ellis takes a final turn as the Neil Gaiman-created Lucifer, which pairs procedural appeal with supernatural shenanigans. A female-led action film follows with one of the Birds of Prey stars taking a solo turn. Two sports documentaries and two reality competition shows follow, along with a few mystery thriller films, and that’s only if you’re not still distracted by the devil’s departure. Lucifer shall be sorely missed, and with that acknowledged, let’s hit “play” and get this ball rolling.
Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) the streaming platform this week.
Lucifer: The Final Season (Netflix series streaming 9/10)
The Devil is back for one last dance-of-a-rodeo in Season 6, and naturally, Lucifer Morningstar is still a total pain in the tush, and you’ll love him for it. Fortunately, he’s no longer attempting to be a detective, but here’s the complicating detail: Lucifer is now God, and he’s not sure that he wants to do the job. It’s so much more fun to be naughty, after all, yet if Lucifer doesn’t get with the new program, he’s liable to trigger the apocalypse of all apocalypses. This is one last, fan-requested hurrah for a Netflix-resurrected series, and Neil Gaiman’s creation will live on in fans’ hearts and, most likely, their pants as well. (Also, I must say this: dump the bad man, Chloe!)
Granted, this movie sounds a whole lot like Crank (those infamous Jason Statham flicks), but it’s got Mary Elizabeth Winstead kicking enormous ass, so are we really complaining about derivative stories here? Nope. Here, Winstead stars as the title character, who’s taking revenge upon a criminal organization after being poisoned and only having 24 hours to live. Woody Harrelson’s also on board here, and let’s hope that Kate gains some vengeance against her killers before the clock expires.
Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali (Netflix film streaming 9/8)
This documentary shines light on the friendship of the iconic twin-figures of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, whose extraordinary friendship (and falling out) reverberated throughout the 20th century. Kenya Baris and director Marcus A. Clarke celebrate the legendary bond in question with the help of family members and luminaries including Cornel West and Al Sharpton. In the end, their positions within the Nation of Islam’s leadership sees ups and downs and, overall, a legendary retelling of what went down.
Metal Shop Masters (Netflix series streaming 9/10)
Finally, we’ve got the welder-focused reality-competition series . There’s fire and fierceness between welding legends who are building futuristic vehicles and the coolest grills of all time, and yeah, they’ve totally got both heat and hustle. This might be the greatest reality show of all time (or not).
Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space (Netflix limited series streaming 9/6)
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon missions have seen some typical setbacks with some atypical ones (the pandemic, obviously), but on September 15, they’ll launch off on the Inspiration 4 mission, and this limited series is here to help people prepare to observe the three-day orbit trip. They’ll travel higher than the International Space Station, and this marks a new era of civilian space exploration. And yep, Musk is on the scene.
UNTOLD: Breaking Point (Netflix film streaming 9/7)
The destigmatization of anxiety is the name of the (sports) game here when it comes to the story of tennis figure Mardy Fish. From his quasi-humble days at the Saddlebrook academy to his rivalry with Andy Roddick to his near-miss with success (while gazing toward John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, and Andre Agassi), this documentary-series installment digs deep into how the formerly number-one ranked American male tennis player evaporated from the public eye. These days, Fish serves at the US Davis Cup and, on a daily basis, hopes to help other athletes who struggle with similar mental health issues to come together and crush stigmas.
This sounds a bit like The Grey but focused on a hiking trip, and instead of wolves, there’s a mysterious shooter tracking five male buddies who only wanted to get away for a bachelor-party weekend. This sort of thing is what Vegas is for, guys.
The Circle: Season 3 (Netflix series streaming 9/10)
Get ready for yet another round of eight contestants who wield social media platforms in order to beat each other out while also flirting and befriending and hating and conquering each other while possibly catfishing each other. $100,000 is on the line, as well as the title of top influencer. Let the most fake among them win!
This Stockholm-centered film is a love story and a coming-of-age tale between two high schoolers in the same class but in vastly different social, cultural, and economic circles.
Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:
Avail. 9/6 Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space
Avail. 9/7 Kid Cosmic: Season 2 Octonauts: Above & Beyond
On the Verge
Untold: Breaking Point
Avail. 9/8 The Circle: Season 3 Into the Night: Season 2 JJ+E
Avail. 9/9 Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali
The Women and the Murderer
Avail. 9/10 Firedrake the Silver Dragon
Kate
Lucifer: The Final Season
Metal Shop Masters
Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series
Prey
Yowamushi Pedal
Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road
Avail. 9/13 Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space
And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:
Leaving 9/14
Pawn Stars: Season 2
Leaving 9/15 Angry Birds: Seasons 1-2 As Above, So Below
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Texas Governor Greg Abbott isn’t a complicated man. He’s just your garden variety sexist Republican lawmaker who has gone mad with power and decided that he has the power, and the right, to say what millions of women he neither knows nor cares about do with their bodies. But who knew he was such a fan or irony?
Less than a month after testing positive for COVID-19 while in the midst of banning mask mandates… which would help ensure that more people don’t test positive for COVID-19, the wily governor is showing his ironic side yet again. On Thursday evening, he made it known that he is no fan of President Joe Biden’s new vaccine mandates, and even went so far as to argue that the rules the prez has set forth violate Texans’—gulp!—“right to choose.”
Biden’s vaccine mandate is an assault on private businesses.
I issued an Executive Order protecting Texans’ right to choose whether they get the COVID vaccine & added it to the special session agenda.
That’s right: Abbott, the man behind Texas’ controversial abortion ban, which goes against federal law and a landmark Supreme Court decision that was made nearly half-a-century ago that ensures women the right to choose whether to carry a pregnancy to term, is complaining about Biden taking away people’s right to choose… It didn’t take long for people to start piling on.
First up was Minnesota rep. Ilhan Omar, who just flat-out dubbed him a hypocrite:
Don’t pretend like you believe in the right to choose, you hypocrite. https://t.co/csyYuQk4W5
And as for actor/activist Patricia Arquette? She thinks that instead of filing executive orders to exempt his state from the president’s vaccine mandates, Abbott should be more worried about the state’s many untested rape kits so that he can actually make good on his ridiculous promise to “eliminate” rape from the state.
Why don’t you chose to process the rest of the thousands of untested rape kits you got laying around. With the DNA of rapists so the police can get arrested by the police!
While some may want music at a more steady rate from the TDE singer, for what it’s worth, SZA has been more active in the past twelve months than she’s been in years prior. It all started last fall when she made her return with “Hit Different” alongside Ty Dolla Sign. SZA kept things rolling with the release of “Good Days” and even teased a few songs that he supported can expect in the future. While the new music is all well and good, her fans’ true desire is a new album. For the time being, they’ll have to keep their patience intact for the TDE act’s sophomore album, but they can enjoy a new single from her in the meantime.
SZA arrives with “The Anonymous Ones,” a pop-friendly track that finds the singer singing for those who often find themselves stuck in the shadows of the world, a place she admits she resides in at times. The single appears on the soundtrack for the upcoming film, Dear Evan Hansen, which follows a high school senior who suffers from social anxiety through a journey of self-discovery and acceptance following the tragic suicide of a classmate.
The new song comes after she released “random thoughts” in the form of three songs last month, those being “I Hate You,” “Joni,” and “Nightbird.” Summer Walker also confirmed that SZA will appear on her upcoming album.
You can listen to SZA’s “The Anonymous Ones” in the video above.
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