New Zealand four-piece The Beths shared their ardent sophomore record Jump Rope Gazers back in July. Ahead of the album’s release, the group shared a handful of videos to songs like “Out Of Sight,” “I’m Not Getting Excited,” “Dying To Believe,” and the album’s title track. Now, getting together once again, The Beths share a lighthearted video to their song “Mars, The God Of War.”
Directed by Callum Devlin and Annabel Kean, the “Mars, The God Of War” video depicts The Beths attempting to pull off a complicated heist. The band dons fake mustaches and dark sunglasses as cover before eventually getting themselves into trouble.
In a statement about the video, The Beths’ vocalist Liz Stokes said the playfulness of the visual reflects everyone’s giddy excitement about New Zealand being fully re-opened. “The video has a really silly energy that everyone really embraced,” Stokes said. “With NZ being COVID-free, there’s a real palpable joy and euphoria in being able to get together and make something. We feel very lucky and Sports Team smashed it out of the park once again.”
Directors Devlin and Kean added:
“As well as being genius musicians, in our minds The Beths are defined by being a committed, intelligent and extremely efficient team, and have turned the collaborative inner workings of an indie rock band into an art in itself. We wanted to explore that side of the band in the ultimate team-up genre; a high stakes twist laden heist movie. Obviously. Also, we seem to find the idea of The Beths entering into a life of crime frankly hilarious. We love working with The Beths. No band is more committed to exhausting every possible gag out of a situation. We initially plotted out the entire film, but decided to abandon it in favour of making as gag-dense a video as possible, if that makes sense.”
Watch The Beths’ “Mars, The God Of War” video above.
Jump Rope Gazers is out now via Carpark Records. Get it here.
James Cameron has a reputation for pushing his actors to their physical limits, but he found a willing participant in Sigourney Weaver, who has detailed the intense underwater training she endured for Avatar 2. The long-awaited sequel will center on the aquatic portions of the fictional planet of Pandora, which required Weaver to prep for months with elite military divers, who taught the 70-year-old actress how to hold her breath for up to six minutes.
“I had some concerns,” Weaver told The New York Times. “But that’s what the training was for. And I really wanted to do it. I didn’t want anyone to think, ‘Oh, she’s old, she can’t do this.’”
On top of learning how to conserve her oxygen, Weaver also had to work on her underwater acting, which required stifling reflexes that would show up on camera. Via IndieWire:
“Weaver and other members of the cast had to learn not to squint or clamp their mouths shut — both natural reactions when you’re submerged — during take after take in a gigantic water tank. She had weights around her waist and professional divers who sped her back to the surface for air at brief, regular intervals.”
While the work sounds grueling, Weaver embraced the challenge and says it’s important to her to never tell herself she can’t do something. “Let me at it! And we’ll see,” she tells the Times. Kate Winslet will also appear in the underwater film, but she’s already had plenty of practice with Cameron’s aquatic filming style while working on Titanic. The director once boasted that Winslet was so good at her training that she could hold her breath for seven minutes. Granted, that’s a minute longer than Weaver, but both actors’ underwater skills are equally impressive especially when you factor in the no-squinting part. Nothing about that is easy.
That includes Eric Trump, who shared an obviously edited photo of Ice Cube and 50 Cent (who appears to be voting for Trump after learning about Joe Biden’s tax plan) wearing Trump 2020 hats. In the original photo, Ice Cube is actually wearing a Big3 hat, while 50 sports a New York Yankees cap. Ice Cube wasn’t the biggest fan of the doctored image, as he shared Trump’s tweet (which has since been deleted) and commented, “N**** please…”
There is a lot going on here. Whether it’s @IceCube realizing he is being used, his clap back. @EricTrump getting tagged with “Manipulated Media.” The fact it is actually true. LOL pic.twitter.com/avWTBdsyBu
— Hercules Mulligan’s back b/c that energy is needed (@johnvmoore) October 20, 2020
In a recent CNN interview, Ice Cube defended his work with the Trump administration, saying, “Your lead-ins are a little misleading. The Platinum Plan is not my plan. I came up with Contract With Black America [CWBA]. I didn’t run to work with any campaign. Both campaigns contacted me. Both campaigns wanted to talk to me about the Contract With Black America … I didn’t run to nobody, so that was real misleading to me. You said I ran over to the Trump team instead of the Biden team and that’s just not true. I’m willing to work with both teams. I’m just working with whoever is willing to work with me.”
Gamers are never shy about voicing their gripes with what they play, something that is especially true with NBA 2K. While things like microtransactions or gameplay oftentimes draw the ire of those who play the game, the latest ruffled feathers came with a series of unskippable ads that appear in NBA 2K21‘s load screen before 2K TV starts up that presented a hurdle for those who wanted to set lineups and do other pregame adjustments.
The whole thing made those who play the game pretty bummed, especially because 2K is a game that has been defined by finding ways to get a little more money out of those who already drop serious coin to pick up a copy — the current-generation version of this year’s game, for instance, retailed for $59.99, while the next-generation version will start at $10 more. But in a statement released by NBA 2K on Tuesday afternoon, the company announced that while “ads have been integrated into 2KTV segments” in recent years, these in particular “are not meant to run as part of the pre-game introduction.” And as a result of the response from those who play the game, this will be remedied soon.
Several big-name stars served up some of the best new pop music this week. Justin Bieber teamed up with Benny Blanco for a reflective single, Lana Del Rey offered a preview of her next album, and Demi Lovato questioned the president’s actions in a politically-charged track.
From Chance The Rapper to Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber has been staying busy with collaborations following the release of his comeback record Changes. Now, Bieber is getting introspective about his life in the limelight on honest track “Lonely.” Throughout the single, Bieber details growing up in the media but still feeling like no one knows the real him.
Lana Del Rey — “Let Me Love You Like A Woman”
With “Let Me Love You Like A Woman,” Lana Del Rey offered her first solo single of the year. The lovelorn piano ballad previews the singer’s upcoming anticipated record Chemtrails Over The Country Club and follows the release of her poetry book Violet Bend Backward Over The Grass.
Demi Lovato — “Commander In Chief”
Demi Lovato used her voice to encourage her fans to vote with the moving single “Commander In Chief.” Speaking about the track in a statement, Lovato said: “It’s very important for me that I get to use my platform for something much bigger than just singing. There’s been so many times where I wanted to write the president a letter or sit down with him and ask him these questions. And then I thought, I don’t really actually want to do that, and I think one way that I could do that is writing a song and releasing it for the whole world to hear, and then he has to answer those questions to everybody and not just me.”
Conan Gray x Lauv — “Fake”
Two breakout pop stars, Conan Gray and Lauv, teamed up for the buoyant collaboration “Fake” this week. “We wrote ‘Fake’ the first time I met Conan and it’s one of my fav songs ever,” Lauv said. Gray added: “Lauv and I wrote ‘Fake’ while we were just hanging and ranting about those two faced people everybody knows. Those people who say one thing and do the other, people who constantly talk trash about their own friends. We wanted to make something fun you can scream in the car to, a song to flip a bird at those types of people.”
Major Lazer — “QueLoQue” Feat. Paloma Mami
This week, Major Lazer offered another taste for their upcoming record Music Is The Weapon with the hip-shaking tune “QueLoQue.” In a statement about the track, collaborator Paloma Mami expressed what made them love the track: “‘QueLoQue’ has been in the works for a while now and I’m so happy to finally be able to share it with you all! It has a fire energy to it with some elements of old school reggaeton and mixing it with that electronic touch from Major Lazer.”
Claud — “Gold”
Claud has gained a cult following through a handful of singles and EPs and now, the singer is the latest signee of Phoebe Bridgers’ newly-minted label Saddest Factory. Sharing a new single this week, Claud said: “‘Gold’ is about contradictions; an instructor attempting to teach a class of monsters proper manners so they can assimilate; a relationship getting so tired and so old that even gold starts to rust (which isn’t scientifically possible).”
James Blake — “Before”
This week, James Blake gave only one day’s notice before sharing his four-track EP, Before. The effort’s title track sets the stage for the remainder of the project, starting slow before deconstructing into a thumping beat.
Omar Apollo — “Hey Boy” Feat. Kali Uchis
Omar Apollo released his highly-anticipated record Apolonio this week and with it came the soothing Kali Uchis collaboration “Hey Boy.” The song is the shortest on the entire record, clocking in at just under two minutes, but it’s soothing tones make up for the abbreviated length as watery guitar tones simmer underneath Apollo and Uchis’ harmonies.
Dorian Electra — “My Agenda” Feat. Village People and Pussy Riot
Hyperpop producer Dorian Electra released their intoxicating record My Agenda this week and its title track boasted collaborations from renowned artists. Speaking to how the collaborators exist in heteronormative spaces, Electra said Village People “have infiltrated straight mainstream society with some of the gayest music in history. You’ve got people at football games, bar mitzvahs, hetero-ass weddings doing this ‘YMCA.’”
Tayla Parx — “Residue”
Tayla Parx is gearing up for the release of her album Coping Mechanisms in November and offered up another preview with the infectious single “Reside.” “It’s about one of those moments when you try to get somebody off your brain or heart,” Parx said in a statement. “You’re confessing, ‘I’m trying to get rid of you,’ which is another one of my unhealthy coping mechanisms. In certain cases, you’re being avoidant and acting like it was never there versus finding solutions to the problem head-on.”
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Back in September, Shawn Mendes teased something big. A few weeks later, the singer followed-up with a couple of exciting announcements. Not only was Mendes ushering in a new era of music, but he had also been working with Netflix on a documentary. Mendes’ In Wonder documentary trailer was released Tuesday and it offers a glimpse of the singer speaking to his career and inspirations.
Mendes’ In Wonder documentary followed his extensive 2019 tour which boasted over 100 different shows. Throughout the preview, Mendes speaks to his struggles as a touring musician, as well as offers insight into his headspace on stage:
“You first get on the stage and ego comes rushing in. And it goes, ‘Don’t mess up.’ And then about 30 seconds in you go, ‘Oh yeah, I’m just a guy who loves music. Time to surrender.’ […] We’re on an 104-show tour and it’s pretty intense all the time. But this isn’t the story of a famous musician. This is a story about a guy growing up. I used to be like, ‘My idols were born legendary.’ But that’s just not the truth. If I tell the world I’m just a normal human, are they going to stop coming to the shows? Maybe I should pretend that I’m Superman for just a little longer.”
From the looks of it, the documentary will also touch on the budding relationship between Mendes and Camila Cabello. The two first met in 2014 when they were both just starting on their music career, but made things official in 2019 after they collaborated on the hit track “Señorita.”
Watch Mendes’ official In Wonder trailer above.
In Wonder premieres 11/23 on Netflix. Watch it here.
I am, generally speaking, not a fan of celebrities interviewing each other. Zendaya isn’t going to ask Tom Cruise hard-hitting questions about his personal life; they’re going to chat about process, and craft services, and vacationing in Italy, and other famous people stuff. It’s usually boring. I will, however, make an exception for Marilyn Manson interviewing Nicolas Cage. They’re fascinating oddballs who, if given the chance, will discuss talking crows, snakeskin jackets, mummy’s hands, and Werner Herzog.
Do yourself a favor and read Manson’s conversation with Cage in Interview magazine (the headline begins “C*ck!”), if only for the section where the National Treasure star discusses the last time he gambled. “The last time I gambled was about 30 years ago. I was in the Bahamas, and I walked into a casino and felt like I had my mojo with me, like nothing could go wrong,” he said. Cage wasn’t wrong: within 20 minutes of playing roulette, he turned $200 into $20,000, so he “went and found an orphanage in the Bahamas, met all the kids and the headmistress, and said, ‘This is for you.’ I put the 20 grand in her hand, walked away, and never gambled again, because if I did, it would ruin the power of that moment.”
Did this actually happen? Did Nicolas Cage donate $20,000 to an orphanage in the Bahamas, where he would later buy a private island? Put it this way. My man once said, “What is an octopus, $80? You’re not going to go into dire straits buying an octopus. The dinosaur skull was an unfortunate thing, because I did spend $276,000 on that.”
Nilüfer Yanya made a splash with her 2019 debut album Miss Universe, and now she’s ready to follow it up. Today, the singer-songwriter announced a new EP, Feeling Lucky?, and shared a video for the first track from it, “Crash.”
The simple clip for the rocking tune has Yanya performing the song as a flight attendant. Yanya said of the song and video:
“The video for ‘Crash’ takes place on a flight. Last year, doing a lot of touring I found myself becoming more and more anxious each time I boarded a plane, something which was new for me as I’ve never had a fear of flying. With each flight we took, it felt like the turbulence was getting worse and I was convinced my luck was due to run out. I didn’t write ‘Crash’ about being on an aeroplane but I really like it visually as an embodiment of the song.”
She also said of the EP as a whole, “One of the songs had the theme of luck in it as a concept, but then I realized they all do. That got me thinking about luck in general; good and bad. Things out of our control and things in control of us, how often we put acts and happenings down to the fortune of good luck or bad luck when things exceed our expectations or don’t go according to plan.”
Watch the “Crash” video above and find the Feeling Lucky? art and tracklist below.
ATO
1. “Crash”
2. “Same Damn Luck”
3. “Day 7.5093”
Feeling Lucky? is out 12/11 via ATO. Pre-order it here.
While Among Us was first released back in 2018, it has become quite popular in recent months during the COVID-19 pandemic. The game, a delightful murder mystery saga that takes place in a spaceship with up to 10 players, has given folks who are spending more time than usual at home a chance to enjoy some time with one another virtually.
Part of its recent popularity can be attributed to how streamers have taken to the game, oftentimes hopping onto Twitch with friends and making events out of getting a group of people together, even as they’re all dispersed around the globe. Apparently, this has caught the attention of New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and on Tuesday, she decided she wanted to get in on all the fun.
Anyone want to play Among Us with me on Twitch to get out the vote? (I’ve never played but it looks like a lot of fun)
In the aftermath, a number of individuals — streamers, fellow politicians, retired Major League outfielder Hunter Pence — used social media to make it clear they’d like to get in on a game with the first-term representative from The Bronx.
The outpouring of interest apparently got the job done because Ocasio-Cortez — who was already in the process of making a Twitch account — apparently started making preparations to get in on the Among Us craze.
There’s no word on whether Ocasio-Cortez’s stream will only be used for Among Us, or if we’d get ventures into things like Jackbox or Fortnite. Regardless, we’ll have to wait and see if streaming on Twitch becomes a widespread thing among elected officials, because if it does, it stands to reason that particularly contentious games of 2K between members of the Senate will inevitably get brought up during debates on the floor of the Capitol.
Matthew McConaughey’s endless summer of the aughts was the stuff of legends. In between shirtless runs on the beach, he squeezed in a perpetual stream of romcoms, or perhaps it was the other way around. Even though he’s been crushing it as a dramatic actor for several years (Including Dallas Buyers Club, True Detective, and so on), his romcoms will never fade away, even if they faded into each other. In his new memoir, Greenlights, McConaughey details why he did so many fluff movies, and why he had to quit them.
It all started so innocently. McConaughey wrote (via Us Weekly) that these films were his “only consistent box-office hits,” which is why he kept finding them tossed his way. How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Failure To Launch, Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past, Fool’s Gold — the box-office hits kept coming, and as McConaughey explained things, he was happy with obliging for awhile.
“The romantic comedies remained my only consistent box office hits, which made them my only consistent incoming offers,” the Wolf of Wall Street actor wrote. “For me personally, I enjoyed being able to give people a nitty-minute breezy romantic getaway from the stress of their lives where they didn’t have to think about anything, just watch the boy chase the girl, fall down, then get up and finally get her. I had taken the baton from Hugh Grant, and I ran with it.”
There’s nothing wrong with some frivolity, but eventually, things grew monotonous, even though, as McConaughey continued, “I enjoyed making romantic comedies, and their paychecks rented the houses on the beach I ran shirtless on.” So, he eventually had to shut down the fun, and after a $14.5 million offer arrived in 2010, McConaughey realized that he’d gone too far. “If I couldn’t do what I wanted,” he concluded. “I wasn’t going to do what I didn’t, no matter the price.” And as the rest of the story goes, McConaughey’s been alright, alright, alright ever since.
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