This Saturday will mark a week since DMX was admitted into a White Plains hospital after a reported drug overdose that resulted in a heart attack. Unfortunately since his hospitalization, the rapper’s family and friends have not been given the peace of mind to spend uninterrupted time with DMX as they’ve been forced to deny and clarify multiple reports on his condition. On Thursday night, they were forced to do this once again as social media reports announced that the rapper passed away at the age of 50. Many of the posts were deleted minutes after they were shared, but it was far too late as the initial news traveled far and fast in a short time.
As a result, the rapper’s manager, Steve Rifikind, who is also the co-founder of Loud Records, took to Instagram to deny the reports about DMX’s death and beg that people stop spreading rumors about the rapper’s condition. “Everybody please stop with posting these rumors, DMX is still alive,” he said in a video posted to his Instagram page. “Yes, he is on life support, but please, it’s not helping anybody by having them see these false rumors. Let the family relax for a night, you will be hearing a statement from the family some time tomorrow. I’ve been with DMX for the past three years, so the only thing I ask is just stop with the rumors. He is still alive and he is on life support. Thank you.”
The false reports came from a number of accounts. One example was from actress Luenell who shared a pair of posts to her Instagram posts, both of which are now-deleted. The first said, “It is over my friend is gone (sad face emoji)… Soar w/ the (dove emoji)… Join the best that ever did it… RIP… DMX.” The second, which seem to clarify the previous post, said, “When your spirit leaves and your organs fail you. The body becomes just a shell. One becomes wrapped in the Lords arms. That what “I” call gone. Im sorry to all. #DMX.” Fashion account @saint also shared a tweet, writing, “BREAKING: DMX has passed away at the age of 50.” That post was also deleted.
On Thursday, Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show spent time talking about a sex scandal of an elected US congressman. Actually, no, he didn’t mention Matt Gaetz’s growing sex scandal that on Thursday saw new reports of Venmo transactions to an alleged sex trafficker. That didn’t make the cut.
What Carlson did cover was cosigning the white replacement theory that often motivates deadly attacks against minorities. He also had on a guest to discuss a Hunter Biden story in the Daily Mail that detailed some shady things that apparently didn’t make the cut of his memoir. Included in that report is talk about him making videos of having sex with prostitutes, complete with some photos that Carlson showed during prime time on a cable news channel.
You can watch the segment here, if you want, or perhaps if you’re struggling to imagine that actually airing before the mods went to sleep for the night. But it did, and there were, uh, a LOT of reactions to that Hunter Biden image showing up on Fox News. For a variety of reasons, such as the dog being spotlighted in the image, or the giant Pokemon Squirtle watching the pixelated action in the background.
i don’t know what’s the funniest bit about this
– the fact that boomers are seeing hunter porn – the threesome – the god damn dog – the guest that looks like a teenager – tucker’s smug dumbass reaction – or the god damn Squirtle plushie https://t.co/atFokWoqiB
But there were also a lot of Pokemon fans who were wondering why Squirtle was trending on Twitter. They were, to say the least, a bit surprised when they found out the reason everyone’s favorite water Pokemon starter was getting some newfound attention.
HBO‘s The Nevers arrives as a tough show to review for a few reasons: (1) The show lands with many of the (frankly appealing) pluses that one would expect from the showrunner of Firefly, Dollhouse, and the Buffy series; and (2) The series finds itself saddled with the baggage of the guy who created those same beloved series. Sadly, there’s no way to separate those two statements because Joss Whedon’s particular quirks, his sensibilities, and his favorite tropes run throughout the first four episodes screened for critics. Imagine attempting to take the Ryan Murphy factor out of a Ryan Murphy show, you know? The same arguably goes for Vince Gilligan, Shonda Rhimes, Matthew Weiner, and Aaron Sorkin. Each has a style and an aesthetic and a tonal beat that’s rather distinctive, so it’s hard to separate these artists from their work. In the case of Whedon, that spells a very awkward situation for an expansive series (and his first premium cable outing) that likely could have been his jubilant return to TV.
Whedon, however, stepped down (last fall) from The Nevers as showrunner — while citing exhaustion and the difficulty of running a show during a pandemic — after production on the first half-season that will air in the coming weeks. His move arrived amid mounting allegations about his previous on-set behavior (on Buffy, Angel, and Justice League) by multiple actors, who have described him as “toxic” and “hostile,” along with “abusive” and “unprofessional.” New showrunner Philippa Goslett finished post-production on The Nevers and shall carry the show forward. Whether the series will continue to feel Whedon-esque or morph into a different creature (if that’s even possible because he practically injected his DNA into it) remains to be seen.
Right now, it sure feels like a Whedon joint. This places the show at a crossroads even before it’s launched, even if the man himself has left the building. That is to say, Whedon (who created and wrote the pilot, which he directed, along with a few other episodes) played his greatest hits here, given the callbacks to his previous works. Those signature touches lead The Nevers to delight in genre-bending (like Firefly doing the Western thing in space) and transporting us to an unfamiliar world (in this case, supernaturally-affected Victorian England) with plenty of steampunk-loving, sci-fi-obsessed touches for fans to dig. We’ve also got a leading lady, Laura Donnelly, who’s pushing back against period-drama conventions (much like Buffy ripping apart horror tropes) by being a corset-sporting butt-kicker. (Also, Whedon had nothing to do with creating the Black Widow pose, but it’s really hard to look at this still and not think about how he directed — and handled lady-stuff in a not-fantastic way within — The Avengers.)
HBO
Donnelly (who is poised to breakout after her Outlander turn) portrays Amalia True, who’s tasked with running an orphanage-type establishment for The Touched, a largely female bunch who acquired superpowers (called “Turns”) as the result of a mysterious, celestial-bound event that went down a few years ago. All of that is well and good, and the premise is a captivating one, lending itself to a massive cast of ensemble characters — their Turns range from the ability to see energy (as with Amalia’s right-hand woman, Penance, portrayed by Ann Skelly) or spontaneously heal or hurl fireballs or speak in nearly limitless languages or simply be, like, a giant — that aim to fill out a comic book-like side of the story. Yet of these superpowers feel superfluous, and rather unnecessary to main plot threads. Then there’s all of the side stories, like a serial killer (Amy Manson, who will remind people of a Buffy character) with a villainous following; and a few grumpy detective and brothel offshoots, all on top of the Victorian period-drama stuff with social repercussions like classism, genderism, and many other -isms, which the show aims to subvert but (so far) takes a Cliff Notes approach. Also and damn, The Nevers feel mighty congested.
In short, The Nevers is a lot (the principal cast includes a few dozen actors), and it’s trying to do a ton of things while only doing a few of them well. Telltale Whedon dialogue? Check. Elaborate sets, costuming, and (mostly) slick special effects? Got that too, and it’s all happening for what is essentially an X-Men-like establishment going up against forces who wish to annihilate The Touched’s existence. The predominant class of wealthy white men fear variants and deviants and immigrants and, most of all, women with a scrap of power. Again, though, the mutant-tangential play on X-Men is derivative of Whedon’s previous body of work (he wrote The Astonishing X-Men comic series), so The Nevers keeps on feeling like Whedon’s self-erected altar to himself.
Tough stuff, really. The show attempts to wrap its arms around too much, and for whatever reason, the initial driving creative force didn’t follow through, even before his departure. Too many threads and offshoots exist, lots of underdeveloped characters linger, and the show’s filled with plot holes. Much of this could be remedied, but is there enough goodwill for Whedon so that people will stick around and wait? And with him out of the picture, will people who still have goodwill for him even want to stick around? These things could be as simple as giving a better reason why Amalia kicks butt. Her “turn” is that she can see a few seconds into the future, but this does not explain her agile moves. Amalia ain’t the MCU’s The Taskmaster, who’s able to mimic the moves of his prior opponents. We’re simply supposed to accept that Amalia can do these things. And even this logical gap could be forgiven due to good intentions — Whedon likes to see women kick butt — but the problem is this: those intentions feel hollow these days.
There’s a seeming emptiness within the former showrunner’s painstakingly cultivated reputation as a feminist, which has fallen to pieces in recent years with much of the Justice League cast voicing concerns with his on-set demeanor. Meanwhile, both Laura Donnelly and Ann Skelly have defended their experiences with Whedon on this project; it is worth noting that the guy has not been disciplined or charged for alleged misbehavior.
Yet it rubs the wrong way that Whedon resurrected his butt-kicking-female thing shortly before Angel and Buffy star Charisma Carpenter gave negative accounts of how he treated her behind the scenes. All of this judginess on my behalf might seem to be too much. After all, lots of downright criminal people do create art that’s embraced by the masses despite their wrongdoings. Yet my gut feeling is this: yes, there are instances where one can separate the artist from his work, yet The Nevers feels so quintessentially “Whedon” that it’s nearly impossible to not think of him during most moments. Add that to him leaving the show that carries his undeniable fingerprints, and things look rough.
That’s especially the case since The Nevers could have been HBO’s next Game of Thrones-style event series. Not that HBO is hurting, since several recent limited series have been big audience and critical hits. This might have been a contender with a showrunner who’s fully in the zone to wrap their arms around this massive clock of a show, with all its moving parts. That sounds very Watchmen, I know, but it’s not. Instead, we’ve got a dodgy clock that’s not running properly but still happens to be correct twice per day. There’s a lot of fun to be had with The Nevers, but it’s still an untidy fiasco with a steampunk elephant lurking in the wings.
HBO’s ‘The Nevers’ premieres the first of six episodes Sunday, April 11 at 9 pm EST. The final six episodes of the season will air later this year.
In the world of grocery store shopping, there are only two types of olive oil consumers. Either you always reach for that one reliable bottle that fits into a price point you’re comfortable with, or you endlessly cycle through different bottles in an attempt to find a brand that stands out. The problem is that since you likely only keep a single bottle in your pantry at any one time — if you have more, la-ti-da, Mr. or Ms. Chef! — you never actually remember to note the differences between brands. Meaning that your olive oil experience varies plenty, but it takes years of random selections to lock in on a brand you love enough to actually seek out.
To save you some time, I decided to bite the bullet and buy up all the Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) at my three local grocery stores, then taste it at the same time. Blind! Would I be able to recognize their differences at all? Would I just write “earthy” or “grassy” for every single tasting note? Would the whole experiment prove that my palate isn’t sophisticated enough to be considered a fried chicken sandwich and french fry expert after all?
To embark on this task, I cut up some sourdough bread.
Dane Rivera
Then I had my lovely assistant (my girlfriend, who insisted that I give her an official title) pour a smidgen of oil from different random bottles onto three plates at a time. I did it this way because I don’t have a lot of dishes.
*Insert “glamourous internet food writer” joke here*
Dane Rivera
After dabbing the oil with bread, I quickly wrote down my tasting notes, assigned each EVOO a rating from one to five, drank some lemon water to cleanse the palate, and moved on to another randomized set of three until we ran through each bottle. After tasting each oil, the bottles were revealed and I immediately did another non-blind run-through to double-check my findings, and rank them in order.
For what it’s worth, this took waaaaaaaaaay too long and resulted in me consuming a disgusting amount of oil and bread in a single sitting. I don’t recommend anyone engage in such a thing. Instead, read this ranking, pick a few that sound good, then save yourself some time and money next time you’re at the grocer.
Pastene’s EVOO is a blend of oils from Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece with a deep green color and a noticeable olive aroma.
Tasting Notes
Totally unremarkable, with a very thick consistency and a blunt, slightly acrid green olive flavor. It feels like a great kitchen workhorse, something you can use liberally without worrying about burning through the bottle too quickly.
Best Application
Use it for cooking, greasing a baking dish, or to add extra oil into the pan. It’s perfectly passable but not something you want to eat raw with some bread or drizzled on a salad.
Star features a blend of oils from Spain, Tunisia, Greece, Portugal, and Argentina, it’s a brand I have on hand often, so having to position it so low in the ranking hurts my soul.
Tasting Notes
Light on the nose and buttery across the palate but ultimately forgettable. This oil just fizzles out on the tongue into nothingness. It’s palatable and much more pleasing than Pastene, but ultimately it’s a take it or leave it oil. You’ll only take it because you have nothing else.
Best Application
Brush it on your iron pan before you ready dinner — the smell and flavor doesn’t linger at all. Use it when you’re looking for an oil with a nuetral (if unremarkable) flavor.
Trader Joe’s Med Blend features oils from Italy and Tunisia and my jaw hung wide when I realized how low it ranked. I didn’t have any experience with Trader Joe’s EVOO before this, but I just expected more from the brand.
Tasting Notes
The oil presents itself with a light-almost-yellow color and features a blunt, woody flavor that practically attacks the tongue with bitterness. As it lingers on the palate, Trader Joe’s Med Blend mellows out a little, but the initial taste feels like an attack.
Best Application
Toss a spoonful into some light homemade tomato sauce for a pizza, but beyond that… not stellar.
Sprouts Extra Virgin Olive Oil is sourced entirely from Spain and is non-GMO Project Verified. Sprouts is beloved by food obsessives, so I had high hopes for this particular oil.
Tasting Notes
Extremely light with a very neutral flavor that settles into a pleasing vegetal aftertaste. The flavor lingers with delicate herbaceous notes, it really settles quite well on the palate despite its boring initial taste.
Best Application
This is a great oil for drizzling atop a salad or mixing with balsamic vinegar for a complex bread dip. Ultimately, its lack of any notable flavors on its initial taste keeps it comfortably in the mid-tier of our test.
Oleamea’s Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is an award-winning oil from Turkey and made from early harvest Memecik olives cold-pressed four hours after being picked from the tree. That sure sounds fancy, so let’s see how the flavor lives up.
Tasting Notes
Delicate, with subtle green olive notes with a nutty almost almond-like finish. It’s great, but incredibly light, which makes us want to use more. Careful with this one, it’s too expensive to burn through quickly but you’re always going to feel like you’re not using enough.
Best Application
Its subtle flavor makes it a great option for olive oil-based chocolate cakes or for stir-frying vegetables.
Carapelli’s Olive Oil is sourced from Italy, Greece, Spain Portugal, and Tunisia and is made without a filtering process, which is said to increase the vegetal qualities of the oil.
Tasting Notes
That unfiltered production process is definitely noticeable here. This is a much fruitier oil, with notes of dirty artichoke and over-ripened green olives that settle into a woodsy walnut aftertaste. That sounds delicious, but… it comes on a bit too strong.
Best Application
This is a decent all-purpose cooking oil. Drizzle it on your stir fry, finish a salad, or mix it in a fresh sauce — it’ll get the job done. That said, it’s far from the best.
Unlike Trader Joe’s Mediterranean blend, the Trader Giotto’s President’s Reserve is sourced entirely from Italy. It’s a significant step up from the chain’s other blend and more in line with what we’ve come to expect from the grocer.
Tasting Notes
Very fruit-forward with notes of green apple and fresh-cut grass on the nose and an earthy dried grass and white pepper finish. There is a complexity here that the Mediterranean blend is severely lacking. This one really takes you on a journey.
Best Application
Great with bread or for preparing a pan for a grilled cheese on sourdough. I found myself continuously dipping into this one because of how well it paired with the sourdough loaf.
This was where things turned and the oils started to become really notable.
Yes, I’m well aware that Bertoli is ranked way too high and it’s something I’m incredibly self-conscious about. I’d really like to chalk up my initial impressions to taste bud fatigue, but this oil was from the first round. It’s made using oil sourced from *deep breath* Argentina, Chile, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Peru, and Tunisia.
The rule with EVOO is that single source is always best. Not in Bertolli’s case.
Tasting Notes
Please don’t shame me. While Bertoli is incredibly thick and oil-y, the taste is a bouquet of flavors, from fresh pine to the more fruity qualities of green olives to nutty pine nuts to a warm hay-like note on the finish. It certainly tastes like it’s made from oil from a bunch of different regions, but in my experience, it wasn’t a bad thing.
Best Application
Use it on anything and everything, Bertoli is dirt cheap.
6. Casa Hualdo — Cornicabra Extra Virgin Olive Oil
All of Casa Hualdo’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil’s are sourced entirely in different regions of Spain. For our review, we went with the Cornicabra, which hails from the Castilla La Mancha region of central Spain.
Tasting Notes
Cornicabra is listed as Casa Hualdo’s “Robust” blend and it certainly lives up to that descriptor. The taste hits hard here, with notes of grass and green apple. The finish has a nice buttery quality to it that makes it a natural pair with savory dishes.
Best Application
Use it on meats, over oven-roasted potatoes, or anything where you actually want the olive oil to be a feature of the dish. This is a blend meant to be tasted.
Great flavor and low price point — that’s a serious win.
5. Oleamea — Private Select Organic Extra Virgil Olive Oil
Like Oleamea’s Everyday olive oil, the Private Select is sourced entirely from Turkey. We’re a little salty about this brand because the black label Private Select is so much better than the Everyday blend, and the bottles are often paired together.
Why not just produce the better oil?
Tasting Notes
Very light with a subtle, grassy taste with an almost medicinal quality about it. Notes of crisp white tea and spring flowers with a bright finish that settles into a neutral aftertaste that never overstays its welcome. Far more complex than the brand’s white label blend.
Best Application
Drizzle it across a selection of fine cheese with some crackers. Best enjoyed raw to take in all of the complex flavors.
Pasolivo’s Tuscan Extra Virgil Olive Oil is, unsurprisingly, sourced from Tuscany. The oil presents itself with a rich green hue that looks highly appetizing.
Tasting Notes
Incredibly robust with an extremely grassy initial flavor that settles into a round, cracked pepper finish. It has a warm and subtle floral aftertaste that really feels leagues above the oils that rank lower than it on this list.
Best Application
Roasted potatoes and seared meat. Mix it with some balsamic vinegar and you’ve got yourself a deep and complex salad dressing that brings your deep leafy greens to life.
Cut 1886 is made using olives from the Bel Lavoro olive orchards in Santa Barbara California. The bottle we sampled was from Batch #3, harvested in October of last year and bottled in January.
Tasting Notes
Highly grassy with a medium body and a fruit-forward flavor of pear, fresh cucumber, and stone fruits that settle into a warm and earthy finish with notes of nuts and crushed pepper. This is very complex olive oil, the flavors are constantly changing as they mingle on the palate. It has an almost robust quality to it, but it never gets too loud or noticeable.
Best Application
This makes for a great oil to dress a salad or to awaken the flavors of a hot pasta dish that needs some life injected into it.
A great candidate for a fancy pizza with homemade sauce. Drizzle it on the crust before baking to produce a delicious golden-brown crust.
2. California Olive Ranch — 100% California Extra Virgin Olive Oil
California Olive Ranch is made from cold-pressed oils sourced from California. I’ve always been curious about this brand (I guess I just like the label), so I’m happy to see it rank so highly in this blind ranking,
Tasting Notes
Incredibly light and delicate with subtle vegetal notes of green olive, grass, and fresh artichoke, with an aftertaste that settles into its green olive attributes without being overpowering. This was by far the least buttery and freshest tasting olive oil of the whole batch.
Best Application
Use it on everything, it’s incredibly versatile and flavorful for its price point.
Oleavanti’s Ehden Grove extra virgin olive oil is made using a blend of Souri and Aayrouni olives harvested from Zgharta Northern Lebanon. Although I’d say almost every bottle of extra virgin olive oil on this list is delicious, this is the one that truly stood apart from the others as something special.
It was a 2020 International Olive Oil Contest silver medal winner in 2020. We don’t know what that means, but it sure sounds prestigious.
Tasting Notes
Highly complex with robust notes of dried herbs on the nose, those flavors give way to fresh pear, toasted almond, and baked apple with a heavy green olive finish.
Best Application
Drizzle it on your meats, use it as a base for a sauce, dip bread in it… whatever you want. But slow down and appreciate this stuff. This is by far the best olive oil I’ve ever tasted, and I just tasted 14 bottles in a single day!
Zack Snyder has talked plenty in recent weeks about his vision for what became a four-plus hour Justice League epic on HBO Max set in the DC Universe. And now the original screenwriter for that project is speaking out about what happened to his film back in 2017.
Chris Terrio wrote the first treatment for Justice League before Snyder left the project and it was finished up by Joss Whedon. And given his alienation from the DC Universe in the years that followed, it’s perhaps no surprise that he’s not exactly thrilled by the film and the reaction it got upon its release.
In a lengthy interview with Vanity Fair, he called the cut of the movie he wrote “an act of vandalism” and detailed the lengths he went to try getting his name off the script when he found out what had been done to it without Snyder at the helm.
“The 2017 theatrical cut was an act of vandalism,” Terrio told Vanity Fair. “Zack may be too much of a gentleman to say that, but I’m not.”
The interview has lots of details about his frustrations, both with Justice League and Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, a movie he did work on at Ben Affleck’s behest. He hates the name of that one, for starters, and said the things he couldn’t control made him want to hit eject on his named involvement with the big DC Universe projects.
When the Snyders left the project, that was effectively the end of your involvement. Is that right?
That’s right. I would only hear occasional reports about the reshoot. I didn’t realize how much of the film was going to be changed—or vandalized, in my opinion. It became clear as I spoke to various actors that it was a wholesale dismantling of what had been there before. I did not hear from anyone who said it was a pleasant experience.
…
When did you watch his version of Justice League?
I was in L.A. at the time working on Star Wars [The Rise of Skywalker]. I was on the west side of Los Angeles working with J.J. [Abrams] at the time, and I drove to the studio and I sat down and watched it a couple of weeks before release. I immediately called my lawyer and said, “I want to take my name off the film.” [The lawyer] then called Warner Bros. and told them that I wanted to do that.
Ray Fisher, who certainly had his own issues with Whedon and the resulting 2017 version of Justice League, called Thursday “a day for truth” in his reaction to the piece on Twitter.
“Today is a day for truth.”
I got to witness firsthand the care and consideration that Chris Terrio puts into every character and every word on the page.
Others, however, were less willing to give Terrio the benefit of doubt and were critical of his thoughts on social media in the hours after the interview dropped. Considering the cosigning from Fisher, though, it’s clear that many in the film’s orbit are much happier with a world where the Snyder Cut finally did see the light of day. And Terrio speaking out, though fairly angrily for several reasons, does give us a much fuller picture of just what went down with the DC Universe and why it’s been such a rocky ride.
Former All-Star guard Victor Oladipo has struggled since joining the Miami Heat, shooting just 31 percent from the floor in three appearances following a pre-deadline deal with the Houston Rockets. However, the 28-year-old enjoyed his best performance in a Heat uniform on Thursday evening, scoring 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting and grabbing three steals in a nationally televised matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Along the way, Oladipo even flashed some intriguing athleticism with an impressive dunk.
However, the optimism was short-lived, as the former Indiana Pacers shooting guard seemingly tweaked his right knee during the fourth quarter and exited to the locker room with the trainer shortly after.
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) April 9, 2021
Oladipo seemingly felt the knee issue while in the air, rather than on the landing, as he almost braces himself for the descent from the rim. At this early juncture, the Heat have not released any kind of statement on Oladipo’s status, but he has battled injury issues for multiple seasons.
After a breakout season in 2017-18, Oladipo played just 36 games in 2018-19 and 19 games in 2019-20 while with the Pacers. He has been more durable this season, appearing in 32 games with three different teams, but this potential hiccup would not be ideal for either Oladipo or the Heat.
Miami has eyes on a potential follow-up to their NBA Finals run in 2020, with Oladipo looking to improve his stock ahead of unrestricted free agency. For now, both sides can simply hope that this latest tweak isn’t serious in nature.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about My Morning Jacket.
There are at least three reasons for this. The first is the 20th anniversary of their second album, At Dawn, which is this week. While it was preceded by their 1999 debut, The Tennessee Fire, At Dawn in many ways feels like the actual first MMJ record. Just the title alone evokes something essential about the MMJ ethos — it suggests the start of a journey, bathed in gorgeous yellow light, toward an uncertain but exciting destination. This is conveyed musically on At Dawn by a heart-busting, reverb-drenched sprawl that would come to define them, as well as numerous classics that remain fixtures of their setlists.
Oh yes, setlists. This leads me to the second reason why MMJ is on my brain lately: This is one of the most talented live rock bands of the last 25 years, and I desperately yearn to see extremely gifted rock bands in concert right now. This is true, of course, because of the pandemic. But also because we’re in the midst of early spring, and My Morning Jacket is always a band I put on once the snow melts away and I’m able to hang outside again. (Spring is the third reason I’m fixated on MMJ right now.)
Here are the 30 songs I consider to be My Morning Jacket’s best. Oh shit run … toward these great jams!
30. “Xmas Curtain”
The early years of My Morning Jacket’s career coincide with the “return of rock!” hubbub of the early aughts, when NYC bands like The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs commanded much of the music media’s attention. MMJ existed in a parallel narrative — like the big-city acts, they drew on the traditions of 1970s rock, only they were a genuine Southern rock band rather than proponents of vintage post-punk cosplay. MMJ was also progressive, in that they took the blueprint of beard-y, high-lonesome, twangy guitar music and dared to reimagine it for a new age. A song like “Xmas Curtain,” from their second album At Dawn — released about four months before Is This It — has the grit of prime era Skynyrd and Allman Brothers, but it places them in a new technological and philosophical context. It’s not so much a revival of those bands as it is a continuation, logically extending their music into previously uncharted territory. The equal weight put on tradition and innovation immediately set MMJ apart — no matter how brainy or experimental they get on their best albums, the music never loses its gut-level power or down-home sensibility. At a time when critics were tripping over themselves to credit The Strokes with “saving” rock ‘n’ roll, My Morning Jacket felt like a classic rock band that was somehow magically transported to a strange and futuristic era.
29. “Phone Went West”
Important disclaimer: Every My Morning Jacket song sounds better live. By “better” I mean louder, clearer, more aggressive, more emotional, tighter (but also looser), heavier, drunker, sweeter, and “more invincible” sounding, if that makes sense. However, instead of going through the very tedious (but potentially fun!) process of isolating specific best live versions for each track, I am going to refer to the studio versions almost all of the time. (There will be exceptions in special cases.) But just for the record: When I listen to MMJ, I typically play their excellent 2006 live LP, Okonokos, or I reach for bootleg recordings of their justly legendary Bonnaroo appearances in 2004, 2006, and 2008. I wish I had a bootleg of the first time I saw MMJ, which was at Gabe’s Oasis in Iowa City back in 2002. At Dawn had already been out for a year, but MMJ weren’t stars yet. (They were opening for Guided By Voices at the time.) The most memorable part of MMJ’s set was when they played an extremely sludgy cover of Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath” that made my head feel like it was hit by a baseball bat. (It was a very small room and MMJ was crushingly, thrillingly loud.) They also played “One Big Holiday” before It Still Moves came out. Unfortunately, I can’t confirm if they also played “Phone Went West” because I consumed about 18 whiskeys during the set.
28. “I Will Sing You Songs”
My Morning Jacket is sometimes labeled a jam band, which isn’t really accurate, aside from the argument I just made about their live recordings outclassing their studio work. But it’s also not inaccurate. It reminds me of something Jim James said to me in 2008: “I’m not a hippie, and I’m not not a hippie.” The point, I think, is that James and his bandmates specialize in making beautiful head music like “I Will Sing You Songs” that can make you feel as if you are hallucinating if you play them loud enough on headphones. But MMJ also doesn’t belong to a specific scene — they have that very southern skepticism about being a joiner and sublimating your own will and personality in order to conform to some group. “I Will Sing You Songs” is an indie rock song. But it’s also a country song. And a jammy song. It also has a Marvin Gaye circa Here My Dear vibe. It is, in other words, thoroughly My Morning Jacket.
27. “Lay Low”
At Dawn and It Still Moves are the first two studio albums I would hand to someone who had never heard My Morning Jacket. But the record where it all comes together is 2005’s Z, which codified the aesthetic — i.e. “Radiohead Except American And With Long, Blustery Guitar Solos” — that eventually made them headliners at Madison Square Garden. This song nails that idea more squarely than any other track on Z. The back half might as well have been beamed in from side two of (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd).
26. “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream, Part 1”
If Z is the peak, 2008’s Evil Urges is the crash, a bad vibes record in which James strained against the “Southern rock” label that had been forced upon him. The result is an album that both tries too hard to be “different” (like the awkward Prince homage “Highly Suspicious”) while also attempting to pander to the adult alternative radio format (the bland MMJ by numbers of “I’m Amazed”). Looking back on Evil Urges in 2015, James confessed to me, “That was probably the least fun record we made.” And yet, I know that if you were to ask 10 My Morning Jacket fans about this record, at least three of them would rave about it. And I kind of know what they mean. Evil Urges is MMJ at their darkest and least coherent, and generally I’m a fan of those kinds of records. It’s their Goats Head Soup, their Pop, their Congratulations. The best example of MMJ working in this vein is this minor-key synth-pop jam, which sounds like a deeply hungover wake for the triumphant long hairs who made the previous four records.
25. “Circuital”
The title track from their “we’re back on track after Evil Urges” record from 2011. (Circuital is their All That You Can’t Leave Behind.) The problem with the album overall is that James’ heart doesn’t always seem fully into the idea of making guitar anthems that will go down great at Red Rocks. But the song “Circuital” is a real call to arms that earns the soaring solo at the climax.
24. “Compound Fracture”
My thoughts on My Morning Jacket’s post-Z career are colored by that interview I did with James upon the release of The Waterfall in 2015. Like Circuital, the album was promoted as yet another comeback for the band, though it ultimately led to an even longer wait between albums than there was between The Waterfall and its predecessor. At the time that we spoke, James seemed sad and a little worn out with MMJ. “I feel like I’ve paid a really heavy cost, a really heavy physical health cost, for the years of touring and how physical I’ve been onstage,” he said. “We’ve worked really hard, and maybe it hasn’t been a fair deal. I actually feel a little bit [ripped off].” That sense of weariness comes through on the album, though the bouncy “Compound Fracture” is an exception to that, cutting through the gloom with one of James’ most effervescent melodies.
23. “Run It”
When promoting The Waterfall, James mentioned a second album that the band recorded at the same time. In that 2015 interview, he said he intended to put it out eventually, but “I don’t want to put it out as, like, The WaterfallII or anything like that.” Flash forward five years and My Morning Jacket finally put it out as … The Waterfall II. I actually like the sequel a bit more, especially the Bill Withers-like folk-soul number “Run It,” which features some great playing by keyboardist Bo Koster.
22. “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)”
Jim James originally wrote this for a Muppets-related project and it was rejected, so it ended up instead on Circuital. (My Morning Jacket did appear on a Muppets album that year with a recording of this 1977 song.) The worst that can be said of “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” is that it’s not quite as good as “The Rainbow Connection.” However, I’m pretty sure that I would still get similarly choked up if I heard Kermit The Frog sing, “I’m going where there ain’t no police.”
21. “What A Wonderful Man”
With Z, My Morning Jacket essentially became a new band, turning over its early lineup and re-emerging as a slicker, more arena-friendly outfit. You can hear that focus and muscle come through loud and clear on MMJ’s first “Wonderful” song, one of several rafter-shaking bangers from Z. According to the lyric, the man in question is also “sensible” and “sensuous,” both of which fall comfortably under the “wonderful” umbrella. This track also includes a great description of discovering an album as good as Z for the first time: “From the driver’s seat in the dark / He popped a tape in the dash of his car / And when the singer started to scream / I knew exactly what he meant.”
20. “Anytime”
Yet another rafter-shaker from Z. For a band less contrarian than My Morning Jacket, this song would have been a model to replicate on several subsequent, Z-biting records. If you squint your eyes — or, I guess, your ears? — you could almost mistake this for Coldplay. (I mean this as a compliment!) It’s just an incredibly well-crafted and exciting contemporary radio rock song that is expressly designed to make the listener feel uplifted. (You can understand why Cameron Crowe decided to put MMJ in a movie playing “Free Bird” around this time.) But, right or wrong, James seemed to lose interest in writing songs like this on future My Morning Jacket albums.
19. “Off The Record”
A song that absolutely should not work based on how it looks on paper — white Louisville rock band plays a song about communication breakdowns with a reggae shuffle. And yet in the actual execution, “Off The Record” is MMJ at their most infectious and light-hearted, even as the frisky spy-movie guitar riff melts away into an ambient jam in the song’s back half. It sounds like “D’Yer Mak’er” if it had been performed by the French electronic duo Air.
18. “Lowdown”
Reverb was the essential discovery of Jim James’ early career. Imagining My Morning Jacket without reverb is hearing Jimi Hendrix without feedback. It’s what makes a song like “Lowdown” sound like a spiritual invocation emanating from a transistor radio, or a Pink Floyd space jam with the authentic emotional chaos of a Motown ballad.
17. “Heartbreakin’ Man”
James came across reverb accidentally. According to legend, it resulted from him recording in a grain silo. But he told me a different story. “We were recording on a four-track and practicing in the garage, and it was always dry. It just sounded horrible and I didn’t really enjoy it,” James said. “Then one day someone left the reverb on the amp turned all the way up, and when I sang it came out coated in this magic. I was like, Whoa! Oh my god! From that point on, I loved singing.” The first MMJ record, The Tennessee Fire, is the one most “coated in this magic,” though James was also writing affecting songs like “Heartbreakin’ Man” that justified the effect.
16. “War Begun”
This song guts me precisely because it doesn’t apply the “voice of god” treatment to James’ voice. It just sounds like a young, wounded, and confused kid pouring his heart out over a quiet guitar and a booming drum kit. The unadorned starkness of James’ voice on “War Begun” is so powerful that for years I didn’t realize that the lyrics are a dystopian sci-fi novel: “I belong to a race of robots / Drownin’ out my one / Anytime your war gets out of hand / I’ll take it on / Stolen as the war.”
15. “Evelyn Is Not Real”
This, weirdly, is the first MMJ song I remember hearing. I don’t often see it pop up in conversations about their best songs, but I’ve long had a soft spot for it. The first time I heard “Evelyn Is Not Real” it made me imagine Built To Spill covering “Wicked Game,” and that sexy/guitar solo-y vibe still holds true for me. Also, special shoutout to original guitarist Johnny Quaid, who “takes it” upon James’ command with incredible, boozy panache.
14. “Masterplan”
Z is the best MMJ studio album, but It Still Moves is probably my personal favorite. The culmination of their murky, mysterious “backwoods” era, It Still Moves benefits from an atmosphere that teeters between the shadowy malevolence of At Dawn and the brawnier and more party-friendly verve of Z. Like the grizzly bear on its cover, this album is both majestic and frightening, often beautiful at a distance but you better keep your distance or else you might not make it out alive. “Masterplan” is the album’s most bear-like song, massive and lumbering and quite gorgeous but also on the verge of baring its claws by the time that surly guitar solo slowly creeps up.
13. “Dancefloors”
This song, on the other hand, is pure party material. If “Masterplan” is MMJ’s floating through the Dark Side Of The Moon dimension of their personality, “Dancefloors” is full-on Exile On Main St.-style rock ‘n’ roll. “Dancefloors, headlights, in my blood there’s gasoline / For an urban boy on a dirty tour I never felt so clean.”
12. “Bermuda Highway”
Part of the mystery of early MMJ comes from the sonic smearing effect of reverb; the other part comes from James’ inscrutable lyrics. Take “Bermuda Highway,” which features one of his loveliest and most soul-searching melodies, as well as this lyric: “Your ass it draws me in / Like a Bermuda highway.” However, when you listen to it, it sounds more like, “Yer ahh draw me-ah, like a bermahhiwaaaa.” It’s a beautiful, profound warble designed to communicate deep, ineffable emotions that can’t be articulated with conventional language. What I’m saying is don’t Google the lyrics to “Bermuda Highway,” literally make up any other series of sounds that you believe could make dolphins weep.
11. “Mahgeetah”
Sometimes when Jim James tries to be obscure he does it in a really obvious way, like writing a love song for his Flying V called “Mahgeetah” when everyone really knows he means “My Guitar.” As it stands, his is the second weepiest guitar after George Harrison’s.
10. “Steam Engine” (Live At Red Rocks 2019 version)
I’m breaking my self-imposed rule about not including live versions because I must single out this epic 27-minute (!) rendition of one of MMJ’s most reliable jam vehicles. One of my big regrets of recent years is that I didn’t follow through on an impulse to drive 12 hours in the summer of 2019 to see My Morning Jacket at Red Rocks. You know what the definition of “epic” is? Driving 12 hours to see My Morning Jacket at Red Rocks. And I blew it. So I play this version of “Steam Engine” to remind myself not to squander future opportunities for epic musical experiences in the post-pandemic world.
9. “It Beats 4 U” (Okonokos version)
I just broke my own rule again. I realize this is a slippery slope. I understand that at the very start of this list I conceded that every song I’m writing about here sounds superior live. Which means singling out live versions of specific tracks should require me to do that for every track. However, in the case of “It Beats 4 U,” I simply must say, “This is a crucial exception.” And it’s an exception because of the final 70 seconds, where James starts yodeling into the night sky like a damn banshee while Two-Tone Tommy and Patrick Hallahan pound out an ancient tribal rhythm. I simply can’t go back to the (perfectly great and powerful!) studio cut on Z after hearing that.
8. “Wordless Chorus”
There was an annoying ongoing critical conceit in the aughts in which music writers kept on describing excellent bands from the United States as “the American Radiohead.” This happened first with Wilco after Yankee Hotel Foxtrot — hey look, I’m guilty as hell! — and then with My Morning Jacket during the Z era. I suspect that the first track on Z, “Wordless Chorus,” is responsible for about 90 percent of that talk. It represents the peak of the electro-Americana hybrid that James would spend the rest of his career trying to refine. (The experimentation of Evil Urges, for one, starts here.) In that sense, “Wordless Chorus” could be viewed as the end of MMJ’s more overt rock period, and the beginning of a less consistent era for MMJ and James’ subsequent solo career. But I prefer to think of “Wordless Chorus” as him nailing an idea right at the jump, no matter the less successful attempts that followed.
7. “Dondante”
The popularity of Z inevitably caused MMJ’s original hardcore fans to bristle a bit. And some of that grumbling, to be honest, was justified. (Not long after this album cycle for Z, Spin magazine described the members of MMJ as “looking like … the metrosexuals in Maroon 5.”) But Z didn’t fully abandon the enigmatic and mighty yawp of At Dawn and It Still Moves. After running through a series of engaging and zippy rock songs, the album ends with one of MMJ’s greatest slow burners, spinning a long-winded jam that runs nearly eight minutes on record and many more minutes on stage. The lyrics pay tribute to a former bandmate of James’ who passed away in the early aughts, but the anguish is best expressed (as it always is in MMJ songs) via his reverb-y howl and the slow-motion guitar solo that lurks like a wave of feedback from Neil Young’s “ditch” era.
6. “At Dawn”
Yes, I also like staring at the sunrise after being up all night and still feeling extremely stoned.
5. “Run Thru”
In their review of Okonokos, Pitchfork describes “Run Thru” as a “silly” song and singles out this specific lyric for derision: “Oh shit run.” Actually, I believe it is pronounced, “Ohhhh shiiiiiiiiit ruuuuuuuuuuun!!!!!” And it’s also the single greatest line in MMJ history. Oh, and one more thing: If you hear that guitar riff and in that moment don’t fully relate to “Ohhhh shiiiiiiiiit ruuuuuuuuuuun!!!!!” you are probably a cop.
4. “The Way That He Sings”
The unique ability to make things that look silly on paper feel extremely important when they are bounding through your ears and brain is the key to all enterally great rock ‘n’ roll. What makes My Morning Jacket special in their generation is that they are the rare 21st century band who can make a rock song feel like a larger-than-life journey that will leave you feeling transformed. There is no ironic distance. There is no self-defeating acknowledgement that “bands simply don’t matter anymore.” There is just guileless belief in the journey. This, perhaps, is an illusion, and like any illusion, it will fall apart if you attempt to dissect it. The whole must be greater than its parts. In “The Way That He Sings,” you can hear all of the spare elements that make up this band – reverb, the mantra-like vocal hook, country guitar licks, heavy snare, icy synths, James Jamerson bass — but the whole sounds like a sacred prayer.
3. “Gideon”
Here’s how you can tell if you are a My Morning Jacket fan: At the 2:02 mark of this song, Jim James starts screaming over guitar and keyboard arpeggios. And then he screams even louder. And then he screams even louder. If this makes you feel exhilarated, you are my people and I vow to help you out the next time you have to move. If this makes you feel nothing, why in the hell are you still reading?
2. “Golden”
I don’t know if Jim James is a genius, but he did once write a song that sounds like how the first warm and sunny Saturday afternoon in spring feels. And for that he will always have my loyalty.
1. “One Big Holiday”
I love a lot of the NYC bands that I mentioned earlier who came out around the same time as My Morning Jacket. But those groups are drawing on archetypes that will never feel relatable to me. Those myths about cool-as-hell musicians inventing arty punk while looking like supermodels in a decadent metropolis. I enjoy the music produced from those myths in the same way I’m fascinated by science fiction. I’m dazzled but when the ride is over I know I’m being dumped back in a much different reality. “One Big Holiday,” on the other hand, sounds like drunk and eager Middle Americans who know they will never be cool so instead they decide to merge The Joshua Tree with Bachman-Turner Overdrive. That is my reality.
Lil Nas X has been the talk of both the entertainment and style worlds for the past couple of weeks. He ruled the former as a result of his “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” single, one that left fans divided due to its depictions of hell in its music video. Despite this, the song debuted at No. 1 on the singles chart this past week.
As for the style world, his “Satan Shoes” collaboration with MSCHF, which was a customized Nike Air Max 97 pair, brought even more controversy for more than the pentagram and single drop of human blood that was featured on the sneaker. MSCHF also earned themselves a lawsuit from Nike based on trademark infringement and trademark dilution claims, among other accusations. Now, more than a week after Nike filed the lawsuit, both parties have come to an agreement on the matter according to Billboard.
Nike and MSCHF’s settlement reportedly doesn’t see either party losing or gaining anything significant. The terms of it require MSCHF to ask all consumers of the “Satan Shoes” — as well as the “Jesus Shoes” that the company released years ago — to voluntarily return the sneakers for a full refund. A statement from Nike also notes that any purchaser who experiences a “product issue, defect, or health concern” as a result of keeping either pair should not reach out to them, but rather MSCHF.
The full statement from Nike on the settlement can be read below.
On March 29th, Nike filed a lawsuit against MSCHF over its release of Satan Shoes, which used a Nike Air Max 97 as the base. MSCHF also previously released Jesus Shoes, which used a Nike Air Max 97 as the base. In both cases, MSCHF altered these shoes without Nike’s authorization. Nike had nothing to do with the Satan Shoes or the Jesus Shoes.
Today, April 8th, Nike and MSCHF have agreed to settle the lawsuit.
As part of the settlement, Nike has asked MSCHF, and MSCHF has agreed, to initiate a voluntary recall to buy back any Satan Shoes and Jesus Shoes for their original retail prices, in order to remove them from circulation.
If any purchasers were confused, or if they otherwise want to return their shoes, they may do so for a full refund. Purchasers who choose not to return their shoes and later encounter a product issue, defect, or health concern should contact MSCHF, not Nike.
The parties are pleased to put this dispute behind them.
In late March, Major League Baseball released a memo to its 30 teams detailing a plan to utilize Statcast data to analyze baseballs with an eye toward curbing the use of foreign substances from pitchers across the league. This comes as a result of the spin rate revolution, with part of the analysis focusing on changes from the career baselines of pitchers and how much they may change. With that as the backdrop, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer has been open about conducting “experiments” of his own, designed to increase spin rate, and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Bauer is perhaps the player to be investigated by MLB following its March decree.
Rosenthal notes that Bauer’s last start, which took place against the Oakland A’s on Thursday, featured umpires taking “multiple balls he threw during the game” and sending them to the league office for “further inspection.” The reporting also indicates that “the ball had visible markings and were sticky,” though it makes sure to point out that “even if the balls Bauer threw are found to have contained foreign substances, it remains to be seen whether the league can prove he was responsible for their application, or whether any punishment imposed by commissioner Rob Manfred would stand.”
Part of the uncertainty is that Bauer’s potential issues are not directly tied to Statcast analysis of his spin rate, but rather that the baseball were “brought to the umpires’ attention.” It should be said that doctoring the baseball is already illegal under MLB rules, so it’s not as if Bauer is in the clear, but this is a layered situation.
Bauer was already a controversial figure before signing a new contract that pays him $40 million this season, but that only increases the spotlight on him, especially as he joins the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. It will be quite interesting to see what this investigation uncovers and, on top of that, it seems to be well within the bounds of possibility that Bauer could publicly comment on the proceedings in a way that could draw even more attention.
Giveon is undoubtedly one of the brightest and most talented faces in the latest class of R&B artists. It’s a title he claimed in 2020 thanks the release of his Take Time and When It’s All Said And Done EPs. Even though they were both highlights of last year’s R&B releases, Giveon continues to ensure that both projects receive additional shine in 2021.
The latest example of this comes with the Long Beach singer’s daytime TV debut on Ellen. It’s here that he delivered a slow-burning performance of “Heartbreak Anniversary.” Backed by a guitar and pianist, Giveon let his baritone vocals fly for the passionate performance.
The performance comes after Giveon earned his first No. 1 single thanks to his contribution to Justin Bieber’s “Peaches” track, which also saw a guest appearance from Daniel Caesar. The achievement was one of a few highlight moments that occurred this year for the Long Beach native. He also took his talents to NPR’s Tiny Desk for a dazzling set that included performances of “The Beach” and “Stuck On You.” He’s also just weeks removed from the release of When It’s All Said And Done… Take Time, which combined his 2020 EPs into one project with the addition of “All To Me.”
You can watch the “Heartbreak Anniversary” performance above.
When It’s All Said And Done… Take Time is out now via Not So Fast/Epic Records. Get it here.
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