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John Oliver knows that keeping one’s eye on the ball leads to great rewards. In 2020, however, the attainable balls are scant, which is why it’s been delightful to see Oliver getting all worked up about his “dream” come true — and even mentioning it while wearing a hoodie at the Emmys. The afterglow of statuette gold didn’t completely measure up to his ultimate quest of having a sewage plant in Danbury, Connecticut named after him, and now it’s happening.

Yes, Oliver made good on Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton’s news that the Last Week Tonight host would show up in person to accept this honor. Yes, Oliver was thrilled to cut the ribbon after the Danbury city council voted almost unanimously to officially rename the facility as the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant. Here’s the photographic proof, straight from Boughton, who called this a “great and glorious visit by Mr. John Oliver.”

Later, Oliver did throw on a suit to make things a little fancier.

The Danbury News-Times quotes Oliver’s joyful event reaction, which managed to be a profound statement:

“[T]hink about it, this place takes the worst that humanity can produce, and transforms it into something that we can live with. And now more than ever, there’s something inspirational in that, because at the end of this awful, awful year, what could be more important than evidence that, if we want to, we can come together, overcome our differences and sort our [expletive] out.”

It’s the end of a fantastic (mock) feud but the perfect tribute to the dumpster fire of 2020. Previously, Boughton called the host “full of crap.” That only prompted Oliver to want more, so he opened his wallet and made a $55,000 donation to the city. He then faux-raged in front of his HBO audience in August, “Listen, I didn’t know that I wanted my name on your sh*t factory… But now that you floated it as an option, it is all that I want.”

The local Fox 61 affiliate is reporting that, following Oliver’s $55,000 donation, other donors have piled on to the tune of $60,000 more and counting. Finally, some good news!

(Via Danbury’s News-Times & Fox 61)

Last week, Showtime made the surprise announcement that Dexter is returning for a new limited series from original showrunner Clyde Phillips. With that information out in the open, Dexter fans immediately wondered how this new story arc will address the controversial lumberjack ending, and Phillips is starting to provide some answers.

While sitting down with The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top 5 Podcast, Phillips confirmed initial reports that the revival will pick up after the season eight ending, which means that the limited series won’t be rewriting the infamous finale. “We’re not going to betray the audience and say, ‘Whoops, that was all a dream,’” Phillips said. “What happened in the first eight years happened in the first eight years.”

However, Phillips states that Dexter star Michael C. Hall wasn’t “completely satisfied” with the ending, and they now have an opportunity to “make that right.” Via NME:

“10 years, or however many years, have passed by the time this will air, and the show will reflect that time passage,” Phillips continued. “In so far as the ending of the show, this will have no resemblance to how the original finale was. It’s a great opportunity to write a second finale for our show, and Showtime was very gracious about that.”

However the limited series decides to clean up the lumberjack ending, our own Dustin Rowles writes that true Dexter fans aren’t going to be satisfied with this revival unless the serial killer character finally gets what’s coming to him. Dexter has to be caught or killed, and he also suggests a few other modifications that would please fans of the original.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Every year we seem to have the same discussion about the NBA 2K franchise and its heavy reliance on brand partners, in-game advertisements, and microtransactions. The game has become the center of the microtransaction debate as, while it’s far from the only game to have them, few are as prevalent as 2K — or are the microtransactions as impactful on gameplay and your ability to perform in the game.

There’s plenty to enjoy about the game and they’ve created a massive community that seems more than happy to overlook the fact that the game regularly asks you to sink more and more money into it, but the latest development in their commitment to brand partnerships might test the limits of that. NBA 2K21 has begun putting in unskippable ads into the load screens prior to 2K TV, as they don’t even allow you to edit your lineups while they play, as shown by this recording from Stevivor.

This has begun popping up on Xbox One, PS4, and PC and has gamers worried that the game is once again pushing the boundaries of inserting more and more monetization opportunities at the expense of the playing experience. EA Sports has tried something similar in the past with UFC 4 having ads that played, but fan backlash caused them to quickly backtrack and remove them. We’ll see if the 2K community has a similar response to these new ads prior to 2K TV.

What will be most interesting is whether they try similar things with their next-gen edition, which retails for $70 and the next-gen consoles promise to all but eliminate load times. That would make the addition of ads even more intrusive and obstruct from the gameplay experience, so we’ll see come November if that’s in the cards or not on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

(h/t Gamespot)

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

In a weird way, Sturgill Simpson might be the only musician who has come out ahead during the pandemic.

This might seem like a perverse argument given that Simpson actually caught Covid-19 in the early stages of the crisis. But consider his state of mind in early 2020, when he spoke openly in an interview with me about his misgivings regarding an upcoming arena tour with Tyler Childers in support of his bridges-burning 2019 rock album, Sound And Fury. The 42-year-old country superstar clearly was uncomfortable with his newly minted status as an arena headliner. He fretted about whether he would be able to connect with fans in the same way in such big rooms. And he also wasn’t keen on revisiting the Sound And Fury material. While he stood behind the album as an artistic statement, Simpson was wary of marinating every night in the anger and confusion that inspired those songs.

“I don’t want to be that guy,” he sighed. “I don’t ever want to be that guy again.”

Suddenly, due to a disaster that’s unprecedented in modern times, he didn’t have to be. After performing just a handful of dates, the tour was canceled, and Simpson was sent back home to his family, precisely where he preferred to be all along. It would be a sin to call this a miracle — again, Simpson had to convalesce for a time after getting sick himself — but these terrible circumstances had an undeniable upside. Bob Dylan had his motorcycle accident. Sturgill had this.

Instead of unleashing the molten lava of Sound And Fury on stunned audiences every night, Simpson engaged with fans on Instagram and hit upon an alternate musical path. After Simpson’s fanbase exceeded a donation target for his handpicked charities (the Special Forces Foundation, the Equity Alliance, and MusiCares), he pledged to put out a new album. In June, he assembled some of the finest pickers in Nashville and set about re-recording a batch of his old songs at The Butcher Shoppe, a recording studio operated by engineer David Ferguson that was once a favored laboratory for the late, great singer-songwriter John Prine. The idea was to set up and play the material live in a bluegrass style. In the end, Simpson wound up with two records worth of material and, it appears, a new lease on his creative life.

The first of these records, Cuttin’ Grass — Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions), was released on Friday and immediately made the opposite impression of Sound And Fury. To be clear, I love Simpson’s disco-metal provocation, both as music and as a defiant eff-you gesture. As is often the case with Sturgill, whose dry acerbic wit doesn’t translate as well in print as it does in person, the album’s loopy sense of humor was lost amid the wildly polarized reactions, which perhaps was inevitable given that he seemed to be intentionally baiting traditionalists with a mix of ZZ Top-style riffage and apocalyptic, anime-inspired iconography. But there’s no question that Sound And Fury arrived with negative mojo baked into the music, so much so that even the man who made it found the record difficult to sit with once he had purged himself of all that bile.

Cuttin’ Grass — Vol. 1, in contrast, feels like opening the curtains to a dark room and letting boundless sunshine chase away the troubling shadows. This is the most sublime and delightful music he’s yet made on record, and the first album to truly harness the energy and charm he has a performer on stage. While not technically a live LP, Cuttin’ Grass — Vol. 1 has all of the attributes of his concerts — the looseness, the sense of camaraderie, the good vibes — that have often been lacking on his studio albums, which can sound relatively stilted in comparison. Here, he sounds more relaxed than he ever has in a studio environment.

More than that, you can hear Simpson rediscovering his love of music on Cuttin’ Grass — Vol. 1. (This might also be related to the album coming out on his label, High Top Mountain Records, after strongly voicing his displeasure with his former corporate overlords in our interview back in February.) It’s incredible how much freer and happier he sounds here after the intense exorcisms of the Sound And Fury period. Even his vocals, which sounded like they were coming out of clenched teeth on the 2019 record, now have a warmer, more fluid quality. He is no longer voicing recriminations at unseen, unnamed enemies. He’s simply being, breathing in and out, amid the comfort of friends.

Ahead of the Sound And Fury shows, Simpson doubted that he would ever play those songs again after he fulfilled the tour obligation. True to his word, Cuttin’ Grass — Vol. 1 sticks with material from the three albums that precede it, along with four songs from his pre-fame band, Sunday Valley. But along with being a kind of de-facto greatest hits record, Cuttin’ Grass — Vol. 1 truly does feel like a reimagining of his catalogue, due in large part to the contributions of his incredible backing musicians, which include luminaries like Sierra Hull, Tim O’Brien, and Stuart Duncan, as well as Simpson’s usual drummer Miles Miller.

Coupled with Ferguson’s calming presence, these musicians provide both expert instrumental backing and easygoing fellowship that bring the best out of Simpson. The result is a record that spotlights Simpson’s strengths as a songwriter like never before, stripping away the sonic cosplay of the albums — the psychedelic cowboy, the swaggering would-be Elvis, the Kyuss-obsessed stoner rocker — to reveal the bedrock lyrical and melodic chops that exist underneath. But while it’s a kick to hear songs such as “Turtles All The Way Down,” “Water In The Well,” “Just Let Go,” and “All Around You” reduced down to their barest essentials, the most revelatory material on Cuttin’ Grass — Vol. 1 might actually date back to the Sunday Valley days, with “I Don’t Mind” and “I Wonder” making an especially strong case for Simpson’s primacy as a songwriter long before he became a neo-outlaw icon.

Speaking of outlaw cred: There is something gleefully perverse — which is to say, deeply Sturgill-esque — about making this album at this moment in time. Cuttin’ Grass — Vol. 1 is exactly the sort of down-home, deeply traditional record that many Simpson fans would have preferred to Sound And Fury, or even A Sailor’s Guide To Earth. But only after the tempest of 2020 did Simpson finally deign to make it. If you take a step back, however, the progression from country hero to hard-rock outsider to bluegrass bliss does have a sense of logic. For an iconoclast like Simpson, who never saw a straight path that seemed enticing, a spot in the morning sunshine could only be earned after a dark night of the soul. If he can get there, maybe there’s hope for the rest of us.

Cuttin’ Grass — Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions) is out now via High Top Mountain Records. Get it here.

When MLS players arrived in Orlando for the MLS Is Back bubble tournament, they did so at the same time as mass protests were erupting around the country against police violence, particularly towards the Black community. As players from across the league came together in one place, they also came together in calling for social change, as the league’s Black players formed the Black Players for Change coalition which staged a demonstration prior to the first game of the season and has led the charge within MLS to address issues of racism and representation in soccer.

On Monday, the league announced that through conversations with BPC and top stakeholders from around the league they had come up with a multi-point plan of action to address those issues through programs, initiatives, and funding. Among the initiatives from MLS include forming a Diversity Committee that will look to include people from all levels of organizations, from ownership to players to staff of clubs and academies, to create strategy for diversity and inclusion at every level of operation.

They will also look to three specific areas with their Civic Engagement, Soccer Upward Mobility, and Youth And Grassroots Community Initiatives, all of which will receive league funding to encourage community activism, providing access and exposure to increase Black representation at all levels of the club structure, and provide more opportunities for underrepresented groups at the youth and grassroots levels, for players, coaches, and referees.

The league will also partner with the National Coalition of 100 Black Women and 100 Black Men of America to provide funding to both programs as well as work with them to develop “long-term programming” in communities around the country. The league also pledged to partner with more minority-owned businesses through their Supplier Diversity Program to bring more opportunity at both a league and club level for partnerships.

MLS will also provide $1 million to Black Players for Change to allow them to continue growing their organization. All in all, it’s a strong initial plan that seems to be working in conjunction with players and staffers to address the issues they see as most prevalent and pressing both within communities and within the league itself.

Two years ago, Kurt Russell burst onto Netflix as a cooler, more rowdy version of Santa that gave a lot of folks some very intense feelings about Kris Kringle in The Christmas Chronicles. Well, now, Russell’s hot Santa is back in a sequel to the family friendly movie, and this time, he brought Mrs. Claus along for the ride.

Arriving just in time for the holidays, The Christmas Chronicles 2 picks up after the events of the first film, but this time the stakes are much higher. Judging by the new trailer, Hunky Santa will be doing more than just boosting a muscle car. He hunts snow leopards in the North Pole, busts out an even bigger musical number (while wearing shades!), and battles an evil elf who’s wielding some sort of Christmas Infinity Gauntlet? Let’s just say Santa is going big with this one and looking like a bearded snack while doing it.

Here’s the official synopsis:

It’s been two years since siblings Kate (Darby Camp) and Teddy Pierce (Judah Lewis) saved Christmas, and a lot has changed. Kate, now a cynical teenager, is reluctantly spending Christmas in Cancun with her mom’s new boyfriend and his son Jack (Jahzir Bruno). Unwilling to accept this new version of her family, Kate decides to run away. But when a mysterious, magical troublemaker named Belsnickel threatens to destroy the North Pole and end Christmas for good, Kate and Jack are unexpectedly pulled into a new adventure with Santa Claus (Kurt Russell). Written and directed by Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter) and co-starring Goldie Hawn, THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES 2 is an action-packed adventure for the whole family that’s full of heart, humor, and holiday spirit.

The Christmas Chronicles 2 sleds into Netflix on November 25.

(Via Netflix)

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

At this point, there’s little reason to rehash the prolificacy of Buffalo, New York-based indie rap label Griselda Records. It’s like rain in November or snow in January or fires in California. It just is. But there has been one aspect of their extreme efficiency that’s been a concern for some observers. While their fans rave about the group’s authenticity, their lyrical complexity, and the cohesion of their presentation from the top-down, detractors have pointed out that the similarity of their releases so far can make them sound one-note.

Since they signed their distribution deal with Shady Records, those critiques have become even more pointed; how can you expect to capitalize on the newfound mainstream exposure that comes from association with Eminem without making at least a small overture toward mainstream tastes? Even in 2020, they’ve stuck to their gun ad-libs, continuing to tap in-house producer Daringer and longtime collaborators like The Alchemist for muted soul loops, 1950s horror organs, and muffled drums, becoming something of a meme in the process.

However, the capstone on Griselda’s already outstanding 2020 is Benny The Butcher’s masterful Burden Of Proof and as it turns out, they’ve saved the best for last. Like Marvel crowning its initial run of superhero successes with The Avengers in 2012, Burden Of Proof doesn’t so much signal a course correction as a tide change, a shifting of the paradigm surrounding not only Griselda’s gritty sounds but also the waning East Coast gangsta rap genre as a whole.

That isn’t to say that the scene has been on life support or anything. In addition to the Griselda Records constellation of releases this year — beginning with Conway’s Lulu and From King To A God and including no less than three Westside Gunn projects and Armani Caesar’s eye-opening debut — 2020 has also seen warmly received releases from the likes of Griselda’s Midwestern cousins Freddie Gibbs and Boldy James. But the charts have continued to be dominated by spacey trap and more upbeat pop-rap as hip-hop’s sound has diffused across more and more musical territory from pop to rock to electronic dance music.

Benny might be the key to changing all that, with a secret weapon who has recently begun to have a breakout of his own. Hit-Boy was curiously written off by a lot of audiences because that’s the sort of thing that happens when their initial awareness of you stems from one of the biggest mega-hits of the past decade. Comparing the success of any of HB’s most successful single placements to that of “N****s In Paris” would make it look like a fall off, but if you removed that song from his discography and take a step back, he’s still lived up to his name multiple times over.

Earlier this year, rap fans were reminded just how deep the Fontana, California producer’s big bag of tricks really goes as he executive-produced comeback albums for no less than three huge names across two generations of rap stars. Big Sean’s Detroit 2, Dom Kennedy’s Rap & Roll, and Nas’ King’s Disease were all blessed by Hit-Boy, proving his versatility could only be matched by the austerity he brought to projects from three solid artists who’ve nonetheless been derided for their past efforts. After rescuing Nas from the “terrible ear for beats” critiques and revitalizing Big Sean’s flagging popularity, linking up with Benny must seem like a completely different challenge.

And yet, both artists handle it with flying colors. Benny has often been hailed by Griselda fans as the lyrical leader of the core trio even as Gunn is considered the brains of the operation. He proves why on tracks like “One Way Flight” with Freddie Gibbs and “Timeless,” where he effortlessly trades bars with the much more mainstream Lil Wayne and Big Sean. While he never strays too far from the Griselda formula topic-wise, Hit-Boy brings verve and effervescence to the proceedings, shifting Benny’s usual mode from “dirge-like” to borderline celebratory — a vibe that actually fits the content much better.

When Benny talks about going from $100 stickups to six-figure deals, Hit-Boy makes it sound like a victory, where usually you only get the menace. It’s the first time a Griselda release has mirrored the shift in their condition from underground underdogs to budding major-label stars. This is the sound that Hit-Boy first cultivated nearly a decade ago with Dom Kennedy and Big Sean, rappers who have trafficked in boastful rags-to-financial independence rhymes since early in their careers as they took stock early. Yes, they’re all great rhymers, but the story is what’ll always set great rhymers apart from great artists. And every great story needs great background music.

With Burden Of Proof, Griselda Records finally finds that last element. Now, it’s up to the group to capitalize on the moment. While they’ve proven countless times — literally, I can’t count all their releases over the last five years, let alone their entire 10-year existence — that they can absolutely dominate their lane, they’ll truly flourish when they start to experiment, trying new sounds and pushing the boundaries of what constitutes the “Griselda sound” with an expended palette that can appeal to more than just fans of murky samples and tough talk. Hip-hop is bigger and more diverse than ever and now they have proof that they can be too.

Burden Of Proof is out now via Griselda Records / EMPIRE. Get it here.

Kanye West is making more headlines for his election antics and his war against the recording industry than for his music these days but over the weekend, it seems he was inspired to return to his day job for at least a little while to share some new tunes via his Twitter. The first was “Nah Nah Nah,” a celebratory, freeform single addressing some of his 2020 shenanigans with clever pop culture references, while on Sunday, he teased an upcoming collaboration with DaBaby.

Just 12 hours later, DaBaby had already sent a verse and Kanye was so excited about it, he just had to share it with the world. The 16-second snippet he posted to Twitter found the North Carolina rapper doing his thing over a signature flute loop and driving drums, preemptively reacting to the criticism he knew he was sure to receive for working with perceived pariah Kanye. “Let me get ’em, Ye,” he snarls, “They gon’ hate on a young n**** anyway / They only coppin’ when they havin’ bills to pay / Ain’t nobody asked me how I feel today.”

And hey, he might have a point. In 2020 alone, DaBaby has been yelled at online for accidentally punching a woman who flashed her camera in his face, not switching his flow up, eating a Chik-Fil-a sandwich, and for headlining a post-pandemic concert with no masks, yet I could only find one tweet from anyone asking him how he was all year.

Say what you want about DaBaby crossing the proverbial picket line to work with agent of chaos Kanye, but maybe we could at least check on these artists’ health before berating them for every little thing — even if they do (sometimes) deserve it.

The Tennessee Titans pulled off an improbable comeback win over the Houston Texans on Sunday, erasing a 7-point lead in the final seconds of the game after Houston scored a touchdown with 1:50 to go, and ultimately winning with a touchdown in overtime.

Houston was up one on their final drive and was steadily chewing clock as they marched down the field on a Titans defense that had little in the way of answers. It felt like a game where the team with the ball last would win as the two teams combined for 78 points, and Titans head coach Mike Vrabel seemed to recognize that his biggest enemy was the clock, not the Texans.

As such, with the Texans on the Tennessee 25 and facing a 2nd and 1 situation with 3:30 to play, Vrabel trotted a 12th man out on defense on purpose, knowing he couldn’t afford to let Houston take 40 or more seconds off the clock with a running play and would need his timeouts for a potential game-winning or tying drive. As illustrated in the video below, Vrabel calmly tells his guys to stay out there and then erupts to ensure the flag gets thrown and the clock stops at 3:05, saving them a timeout and also keeping the clock from rolling.

Houston would score shortly after but the Titans had ample time to march down the field themselves and tie the game with four seconds to play — thanks in large part to the Texans failing a two-point conversion attempt to go up 9. In overtime, Tennessee had a 6-play, 82-yard touchdown drive to open the extra period to get the 42-36 win and it was, partially, the product of a savvy and timely penalty taken by Vrabel to save a timeout and stop the clock.

Between Phoebe Bridgers’ first album (2017’s Stranger In The Alps) and her latest (this year’s Punisher), she involved herself in a pair of high-profile collaborative projects. First she linked up with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus to form the Boygenius supergroup and release a self-titled EP in 2018, then she teamed with Conor Oberst as Better Oblivion Community Center to release a self-titled album the next year. Bridgers has been more focused on her solo endeavors since then, but over the weekend, she and Oberst had a bit of a Better Oblivion reunion.

Bridgers was one of many artists participating in the virtual Save Our Stages Festival, which was hosted to raise awareness for the need to support small music venues during the pandemic. In the latter half of Bridgers’ set, Oberst first joined Bridgers on the Punisher track “Halloween,” which he co-wrote and sings on. The pair then performed their Better Oblivion single “Dylan Thomas.”

Other artists who participated in Save Our Stages included Brittany Howard, Brothers Osbourne, Dave Matthews, Dillon Francis, Finneas, Foo Fighters, G-Eazy, Gus Dapperton, Jason Mraz, Kelsea Ballerini, Leon Bridges, Macklemore, Major Lazer, Marshmello and Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, The Roots, and YG.

Watch Bridgers’ full performance above.