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It’s crazy to think that in just five years, the Beyond and Impossible Burgers have gone from mere eco-conscious curiosities to fast food menu staples as the two brands continue to fight for dominance in the American fast-food space. In 2020, Beyond Meat has developed a considerable edge over Impossible Foods as the brand has become to go-to meat 2.0 choice of the majority of chains, but from a flavor standpoint?

We’re a little more convinced of Impossible’s meat-mimicking power over Beyond’s tech. Though we fully recognize that that is totally in the hands of who is preparing the thing. For instance, Umami Burger’s Impossible Burger and the Impossible Whopper couldn’t taste more different. That’s good news because both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are now more available at grocery stores than they’ve ever been, allowing you to put your own culinary stamp on a plant-based burger if fast food isn’t your thing.

Regardless, we’ve got you covered if you’re enjoying more meals at home (due to COVID-19, this is all of us) with an updated list of all the markets and online stores, as well as nationwide fast-food joints holding both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. Now let’s get out there and eat some plants!

A&W

A&W’s Beyond Burger was once a Canadian exclusive but is now available in the states at select locations nationwide. It’s probably not the tastiest Beyond Burger, but hey, now you can swig down some quality root beer while you eat a plant-based burger, and really, what more can you ask for?

Bareburger

Bareburger has a whole mess of Beyond Burgers and is by far the only burger chain on this list that is giving plant-based meat the spotlight it deserves. That standouts are The Original, a quarter-pound burger with American cheese, onions, pickles, and special sauce. The Golden State features gouda, green leaf lettuce, red onions, organic ketchup, and tomatoes. The Duchess has gouda, caramelized onions, wild mushrooms, baby kale, tomatoes, and organic garlic aioli. Then there are five other burgers you can dive into.

Bareburger is the burger joint to hit up for all your well-dressed plant-based needs.

Blaze Pizza

Pizza is probably the easiest food to eat while totally avoiding meat. So, while we certainly didn’t need a vegan spicy chorizo topping option at Blaze Pizza, we’ll take it!

BurgerFi

BurgerFi offers the best of both worlds, allowing you to have Beyond Meat in any of their burgers or a BurgerFi Veggie Patty for those looking for a more earthy taste. BurgerFi also offers Angus and Wagyu beef patties, in case you feel like dipping into the dark side for a bit.

Burger King

Ahh, the Impossible Whopper. Not only have we tasted this thing, but we’ve examined how it stacks up against its meat counterpart, the Original Burger King Whopper. Our verdict was that the burgers were essentially interchangeable. So if you’re looking to reduce your carbon footprint, this is an easy pick for any Burger King fan.

Carl’s Jr.

Carl’s Jr. was one of the first big chains to embrace Beyond Meat with their Beyond Famous Star and Beyond BBQ Cheeseburger. Since those early days, Carl’s Jr. has also put together a Beyond Sausage Burrito and Beyond Sausage Egg and Cheese, making sure all your plant-based needs are covered through breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

The Cheesecake Factory

Just when you thought the Cheesecake Factory menu was overdone, they decided to add yet another item to their “A Song of Ice and Fire” sized list of offerings. Are Game of Thrones references officially dated? The Cheesecake Factory Impossible Burger has been sold nationwide since August of 2018. Why they didn’t take this opportunity to introduce the Impossible Meatcake we’ll never understand. But we’re holding our breath in anticipation!

Chronic Taco

Chronic Taco has a Beyond Beef Crumble that can be ordered in any one of their tacos, burritos, or bowls. They also serve a potato taco which is a delicious and traditional Mexican-food option that edges out the Beyond in my humble opinion. The Beyond Beef Crumble is vegan-friendly, gluten and soy-free, and packs a whopping 55 grams of protein and only 3 grams of fat. Now, you’ll just have to convince your friends to eat at a place called Chronic Taco.

Del Taco

Del Taco now serves Beyond Meat tacos at all 580 of their locations across the country. We’ve tried it. It certainly tastes meat-ish! Order a taco, burrito, or nachos and substitute Beyond Meat for real meat. Pro-tip: Order a Beyond Meat soft taco, fill that baby up with some crinkle-cut fries and you’ve got yourself a flavor bomb!

Disney Parks

Disney World serves “grilled vegetarian burgers” park-wide and at several restaurants operating on the premises. Whether you’re grabbing an Impossible burger at the House of Blues or a more generic variation somewhere in the Epcot Center, the world of Disney has got us covered in terms of plant-based burgers. They’ll probably be the most expensive plant-based burgers you’ll ever buy, which will pair nicely with your expensive churro.

Doghaus

Doghaus saw the war plant-based meat wars and decided, “Nah, we ain’t picking sides.” As far as we can tell, Doghaus is the only chain to serve both meat 2.0 brands, thanks to their Impossible Burger and Beyond Sausage Dog. It’s the best of both worlds in the Doghaus.

Dunkin’

Originally a Manhattan exclusive, the Dunkin’ Beyond Sausage breakfast sandwich is now available nationwide. It looks almost identical to a regular breakfast sausage sandwich, only the meat is made from plants! How neat. Accompanying the Beyond Sausage patty are egg and aged white cheddar cheese, so, sorry vegans!

Fatburger

If you’re a big Fatburger fan, you probably already know that they’re selling an Impossible Fatburger. The Impossible Fatburger is currently available at every Fatburger location in America with some locations even carrying vegan Daiya cheese. Bump that Daiya access to all locations Fatburger and you may just win the plant-based burger war!

Hard Rock Cafe

Since December of last year, the Hard Rock Cafe has been serving the Impossible Burger at all 40 company-owned locations in the United States. What tastes better than an Impossible Burger with double cheese and a giant fried onion ring inside of it? Don’t answer that, because the answer is “a beef burger with double cheese and a giant friend onion ring.” But the planet is in trouble, so it might not be a bad idea to start thinking of ways you can help.

Little Caesars

Little Caesars is trying out a Supreme Pizza made in collaboration with Impossible Meats. The Impossible Supreme Pizza consists of caramelized onions, mushrooms, green pepper, and Impossible Sausage, which the meat 2.0 company made especially for Little Caesars.

Blaze Pizza, take note, this is how you go meatless!

This has yet to roll out nationwide, but Little Caesars CEO David Scrivano indicated to Cheddar that a nationwide rollout is likely after the test markets responded well. Currently, this is only available at test markets in Yakima, Washington, Fort Meyers, Florida, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Luna Grill

Texas and California Mediterranean chain restaurant Luna Grill has a Beyond Burger served with grilled red onions, shredded kale, diced tomatoes, and a mouth-water spicy feta cheese sauce. Delicious!

McDonald’s

Okay, what gives McDonald’s? Americans often gaze at the international menu offerings from McDonald’s with envy but this is just taking it too far. The Big Vegan TS is currently only available in the fast-food chain’s German market with no plans to expand to the US. While that’s pretty disappointing, we doubt it means we’ll never get a meat 2.0 Big Mac stateside, considering the Big Vegan TS is manufactured by Nestlé which leaves the door wide open for Impossible or Beyond Meats to come sweeping in to rescue us.

Qdoba

Qdoba now sells Impossible Tacos and Bowls at all 730 of its locations. I’d argue that the meat 2.0 tacos are actually considerably better than the burgers. So if you’ve been burned by an Impossible or Beyond burger in the past, consider giving the tacos a try.

Red Robin

Red Robin first introduced their Impossible Burger on April Fools’ Day of this year. Why any company does anything on April Fools’ Day is beyond us, but the Red Robin Impossible Burger is no joke. The best part about the chain’s approach is that you could swap in the Impossible Burger patty to any of Red Robin’s gourmet burgers. That’s dope and an approach we’d like to see more chains take up in regards to the meat substitute.

Shake Shack

The Shake Shack ’Shroom Burger consists of a portobello mushroom cap with Muenster and cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and Shack Sauce. While it’s not quite an Impossible or Beyond meat, it still deserves some mention. The ‘Shroom Burger is by no means bad, they’re actually pretty tasty but they don’t exactly satiate that meat craving like an Impossible or Beyond Burger might. Still, Mushrooms do have a meaty texture with lots of umami, so it’s almost there.

Shake Shack also has a Veggie burger that is exclusive through their app but only from limited locations. So we aren’t counting it. Get it together Shake Shack!

Subway

The Beyond Meatball Marinara Sub has everything you love about the classic Subway sandwich only with a ball of plant-based meat instead of, you know, meat. Packed with 24 grams of protein per six inches, the Beyond Meatball Marinara Sub will leave you just as satisfied as it’s hearty meatball counterpart, all while slightly reducing your own carbon footprint. That’s a win-win.

TGI Fridays

Since January 2018 people have been “thanking God” that TGI Fridays has a Beyond Burger. Bad joke? Just stop your criticism and eat your Beyond burger. At over 469 participating locations nationwide, you could substitute the beef patty in any TGI Fridays burger for Beyond Meat.

Umami Burger

Umami Burger was one of the first burger spots to offer up an Impossible Burger and the small chain currently has three different iterations of the burger on their menu. With the Impossible Trufflemaker, you get an all-vegan bun, miso mustard sauce, charred green chili salsa, truffle fondue, truffle aioli, port wine, a truffle glaze, curly lettuce, and tomato. If that doesn’t make your mouth water and fill you with ideas of eating way less meat, we don’t know what will.

Or perhaps the Impossible Vegan BBQ is more your speed, with an espresso rub, smokey bbq sauce, and thinly sliced jalapeño with the aforementioned miso mustard and charred green chili salsa. With ingredients like that the meat doesn’t even matter!

Veggie Grill

If you’re already living a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, you probably already know all about Veggie Grill. If you’re new or interested in becoming vegan or vegetarian, welcome to your new McDonald’s. Veggie Grill is a fast-casual vegan restaurant, their entire menu is vegan friendly and they have plenty of plant-based meat products on their menu, from Beyond Cheesesteak Sandwiches to chopped Chickin’ salads.

Wahl Burger

Wahl Burger, the only burger chain partly owned by a member of the Funky Bunch, proudly serves a quarter-pound Impossible Burger with smoked cheddar cheese, lettuce, caramelized onions, Paul’s signature Wahl sauce, and some housemade chili-spiced tomatoes. It’s such a good vibration, it’s such a sweet sensation.

White Castle

White Castle has been selling an Impossible version of their 2×2 inch slider at participating locations nationwide for about a year now. Since every stoner’s favorite East Coast burger chain was such an early adopter of Impossible, it has given the company some time to start experimenting with the slider. This past April, White Castle introduced the BBQ Impossible Slider, and though we haven’t had one we imagine it’s now even harder for meat 2.0 skeptics to tell the difference.

Yard House

America’s favorite sports bar chain, Yard House, is home to the unimaginatively named “Beyond Burger,” featuring pickles, vegan mozzarella, red onions, tomato, arugula, smashed avocado, and a slaw made from mixed field greens tossed in balsamic vinaigrette atop a fresh-baked onion bun. Nice call on the arugula over something like butter lettuce, but we’re still feeling salty over the name.

All The Markets Selling Beyond and Impossible Meat

If you love yourself a plant-based burger so much that you’re looking to swap out meat for a Beyond or Impossible product permanently, you’ll be pleased to know that they have this stuff in markets too! With sausage, chicken, and taco meat plant-based products, swapping out meat for something altogether better for the environment is now easier than ever.

In terms of availability, Beyond is absolutely mopping the floor with Impossible, with availability at 26 grocery stores chains across the country compared to Impossible’s presence in just three. This is a large disparity that’ll leave Impossible fans vulnerable to being swooped up by Beyond’s convenience. Step it up Impossible Foods!

Beyond Meat products can be found at ACME, Albertsons, Food Lion, Giant, Hannaford, Harris Teeter, Central Market, Hy-Vee, Jewel-Osco, Kroger, Pavilions, Ralphs, Safeway, ShopRite, Sprouts Farmers Market, Stater Bros Market, Target, Vons, Walmart, and Whole Foods

Impossible Foods can be found at Fairway Market, Gelson’s, and Wegmans.

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods also have online stores where shoppers can order exclusive products and have them delivered right to their door.

Bobby Sessions has been leading his own revolution for the past two years. The Dallas native has already delivered two installations in RVLTN series and currently preparing the release of the third EP in the series. Days after sharing the upcoming EP’s third single, “Reparations,” Sessions returns with the video for the song. Heading to a small rural community, Sessions preaches about ownership within the Black community. “He don’t own not a single thing / White man this, White man that,” he raps on the song. “Gucci down from head to toe / White man kicks, White man hat.”

The name Bobby Sessions may be familiar to some because the Dallas native landed a writing credit on fellow Texan Megan Thee Stallion’s chart-topping single, “Savage.” However, Sessions’ career dates back a few years with the rapper signing to Def Jam in 2018. Following the deal, Sessions shared the first installation in the RVLTN series with RVLTN (Chapter 1): The Divided States of AmeriKKKa, a project that also sported a feature from Killer Mike. Later that year, he returned with the series’ second installation RVLTN (Chapter 2): The Art Of Resistance. On a more recent note, Sessions shared his latest EP, The Revolution, which spawned six tracks and features from Keite Young and ZYAH.

Press play on the “Reparations” video above.

RVLTN 3: The Price of Freedom is out 09/11 via Def Jam.

When an actor or actress describes themselves as feeling like a “prisoner” to a television show, it’s usually because they have or want a successful movie career, like when Hustlers and Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu tweeted that she was “so upset right now that I’m literally crying” when Fresh Off the Boat was renewed for a sixth season. Riverdale‘s Lili Reinhart has a different reason for feeling like a “prisoner,” though.

In an interview with Nylon, Reinhart (who was also in Hustlers with Wu) was candid about having to return to the Riverdale set in Canada while the coronavirus is still killing thousands every week. She and the rest of the cast have to finish shooting the final three episodes of season four (“Five months later, we’re all going to be tan, maybe a little bit thicker. I certainly am”) before jumping straight into season five:

It means that once she gets back to Vancouver and quarantines for two weeks, she’ll be required to stay there, with no breaks, until Christmas. Reinhart, understandably, is conflicted about the return. “I genuinely feel like a prisoner, going back to work, because I cannot leave Canada. That doesn’t feel good. You can’t go home for Thanksgiving, can’t visit your family. No one can come visit you unless they quarantine for two weeks. It just feels f*cked.”

Reinhart had a better time starring in Chemical Hearts, her popular Netflix movie that she also produced. “I loved every second of being an executive producer,” she said. “I had one of the best times of my life filming it, because I was so happy and in my element working on something that I was so passionate about, and so invested in.” Unlike filming another season of the Hot Archie show in Canada during a pandemic in the winter.

(Via Nylon)

Rapper/singer Bryson Tiller hasn’t released a solo project since 2017’s True To Self, but the wait for new material from the Kentucky crooner may soon be on the way. A day after teasing fans with a meme about his wealth of unreleased songs — which set his name trending on Twitter and exasperated listeners to no end — he shared one of those songs in the form of “Inhale,” a downtempo, sultry ballad based on samples from the Waiting To Exhale soundtrack.

Opening up with an interpolation of Mary J. Blige’s “Not Gon’ Cry” and closing with “All Night Long” from SWV, Bryson expertly threads the needle between satiating fans’ hunger for new music and leaving them wanting more with a single verse in the middle of the song. He followed up almost immediately with a video for the song, which finds a contemplative looking Tiller interacting with a gorgeous leading lady and referencing Salvador Dalí’s famous melting clocks.

Tiller hasn’t had to force himself to be too productive in the years since True To Self thanks largely to a few high-profile feature placements that helped make him one of the lowest-key big stars in music. First there was 2017’s “Wild Thoughts” with Rihanna and DJ Khaled, then “Playing Games” with Summer Walker, Wale’s “Love… (Her Fault),” and finally, Kyle’s “The Sun” with Raphael Saadiq — the most recent release. It looks like he’s ready to step back into the solo spotlight and this time, he’s given fans ample time to miss him.

Watch Bryson Tiller’s “Inhale” video above.

There have been rumors in recent days that Travis Scott and McDonald’s were working on something. Now, both parties have come together today to confirm that the rumors are true.

This morning, the food chain tweeted two emojis: a cactus and a cheeseburger. Given the Cactus Jack reference, that was basically confirmation of the link-up, although Scott made it official a few minutes later by sharing an image of the Cactus Jack logo made with McDonald’s fries, which also featured the logos from both entities and the date of September 8.

McDonald’s US chief marketing officer Morgan Flatley wrote in a internal memo that leaked recently, “From his impossible-to-get Nike sneaker line, to a cereal collab with General Mills that sold out in 30 seconds, to a record-setting virtual concert series inside Fortnite, Travis Scott is the definition of big in culture. Beyond this, he is a true fan of McDonald’s and our craveable, iconic food. He will resonate and spark excitement with our youthful multicultural customers, and has a few surprises to delight our crew and ensure they are part of the excitement.”

Neither party has confirmed what the collaboration will entail. However, previous rumors said there will be merch, and it looks like Scott could be getting his own menu item, The Travis Scott Meal, as well.

Eternals, as of last week, is officially the new title of the Marvel Studios/Disney film previously known as The Eternals. The “the” might not mean much to everyone, but it sure means a lot to The Suicide Squad director James Gunn, who was thrilled to see that “[m]y friends at @MarvelStudios did me the favor and gave me the ‘The.’” Now that this issue is settled, we can go back to talking about the Eternals story, which is being teased by director Chloé Zhao and Marvel chief Kevin Feige at Hollywood Reporter.

Of chief interest is how (while Thor: Ragnarok‘s Valkryie is still waiting to have a queen in Thor: Love and Thunder) Eternals will sprint ahead to include Marvel’s first openly gay superhero. Haaz Sleiman previously revealed this his character will be married to gay superhero Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), and the film will include a same-sex kiss. Zhao’s Eternals will present the relationship as integral to the story, rather than making it feel tacked-on, and Feige is on board with that approach. He also wants to get to a point where inclusion happens so much in Marvel movies that it’s not necessarily big news:

An LGBTQ relationship in the film “was always sort of inherent in the story and the makeup of the different types of Eternals,” says Feige. “I think it is extremely well done, and I look forward to that level of inclusion in our future movies being less of a topic.”

He makes a fair point, and Zhao (Songs My Brothers Taught Me and the upcoming Nomadland, which is already hearing Oscar chatter) seems very confident in how the subject slides right into her movie. She also added that Marvel Studios gave her complete creative freedom with this project. “I shot exactly the way I wanted to shoot,” she says. “On location. A lot of magic hour. Three-hundred-sixty degrees on the same camera as I did on Nomadland” She calls the level of deference to her judgment “surreal” and adds, “I’m still waiting for the shoe to drop. It hasn’t. I think I got lucky in that Marvel wants to take risks and do something different.”

Eternals, which also stars Gemma Chan, Kumail Nanjiani, Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, and Kit Harington, is currently scheduled for February 12, 2021.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Fans have been craving a new album from Rihanna since 2016’s Anti, so much so that their obsession has become a running joke. Rihanna has been mostly tight-lipped about her upcoming ninth record, but now an honest-to-goodness snippet of it may have been revealed via a collaborator.

Skyler Grey took to Instagram to preview a reggae-influenced song that she and Diplo wrote for Rihanna. Grey, who co-wrote Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love The Way You Lie,” said, “I was working with Diplo on a song for Rihanna. Wrote this with a guy named Hymn. […] This was when Rihanna was supposedly doing some kind of reggae album. I don’t know if she’s still making a reggae album or what, but this is a song we did for it. I don’t have the whole song, I’m just going to play you a piece of it, and it probably won’t sound great because it’s an iPhone recording of the speakers.” She then played over a minute of the song, which indeed sounds like a combination of reggae and Rihanna’s brand of pop.

Rihanna has had fun joking about her fans’ desire for new music in recent years, like when she trolled an uncanny lookalike last month.

Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn are contemplating a potentially huge step in their long, full relationship, which already includes eight years as Sylvan Esso, four years as a married couple, and just a few months as owners of a new recording studio and upcoming third album, Free Love. They might, later today, purchase a golf cart together. Its chief purpose will be hauling trash, but the way they discuss it — joyfully, whimsically, determinedly — speaks to their partnership. Life and work are fully intertwined for Sylvan Esso — make breakfast, make a song, make the bed, make a video, make out, make some calls — which suits them just fine. “It’s all one thing,” says Meath. “We’re Dr. Bronner-ing over here.”

“And every conversation we have,” agrees Sanborn, “is about all of the things.”

It’s all sorts of idyllic and adorable, though apparently the secret to finding happiness involves constant low-level conflict. But Sylvan Esso even manage to fight cute, referring to their electro-indie-folk-pop songs over the years as “small arguments.” It’s a feature of their creative partnership, they claim, not a bug. Without it, they’d never find the balance between strange and straight, simple and surprisingly complex, that defines their best songs, and that affords them adoring hordes from the mainstream fields of Coachella to the heady woods of the Eaux Claires Festival.

“Arguing is so underrated,” says Sanborn. “As a Midwesterner, I think I avoided confrontation. I really appreciate Amelia bringing it into my life. We have to say when we don’t like stuff, because it forces you to defend your idea. And on top of that, our original band goal was exclusively to make music that both of us liked. And that inherently means we’re going to argue about stupid shit.”

“I’m so thankful that we get to argue all the time and there’s no fear,” agrees Meath. “You almost have to prove it to yourself, instead of it being an intuition. You have to put into words what you’re reaching for. Everything that we’ve made when we weren’t arguing felt frictionless.”

“There was a point at the beginning of this new record where I had a little crisis of confidence, and the way I figured out what I was doing is that I had stopped arguing with her,” Sanborn says. “I had stopped saying if I didn’t like something. And it was just making everything bad.”

They sound like a couple who’ve graduated from therapy with such incredible results that I suggest they might find work during the pandemic as part-time counselors, to which Sanborn replies, “We would ruin so many lives.” Meath laughs and adds, “I’d just say, ‘You know what you should do? Start a fight. It sounds like your husband’s being a little bitch.’”

With their checks and balances fully in place after two albums, Sylvan Esso found themselves with a newly abundant sense of confidence heading into Free Love. The world had fully validated their colorful, layered 2017 album What Now with bigger, wilder audiences and even a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album. But it was actually a smaller, six-date tour they dubbed WITH that fully pushed Meath and Sanborn into the comfort of their own skins. They recruited eight other players to flesh out their sound — heretofore Sanborn on electronics, Meath on vocals, and nothing else — into something familiar but boldly different.

“We actually got to the place that you always say about yourself: I just want to make something that I think is good. I feel like we actually got there this time,” says Sanborn. “The WITH tour was the final nail in the coffin. I was able to see our band from the outside, almost, for the first time. It gave me this huge sense of confidence in what we’re doing. If the two of us make something, it will be the band. The band is just this byproduct of how much we like hanging out.”

“I think I had an impostor syndrome thing, where I thought I had to maintain this vigilance around the band so that it didn’t lose its integrity,” Meath adds. “And of course that leads to the assumption that I’m faking it. The amazing thing that WITH gave us is like, oh, it’s not fragile. You can toss it to somebody and they understand what it is. You can’t break it.”

That confidence manifested fully in Free Love, which is weirder at times than anything they’ve done before — distorted vocals on “Train,” a noticeable reduction in drums overall — and decidedly more intimate. Slinky dancefloor bangers like “Ferris Wheel” butt up against catchy personal remembrances like “Ring,” which explicitly addresses Sylvan Esso’s real-life love story. It’s no coincidence that a song like that goes hand in hand with other personal revelations from this year: Meath and Sanborn’s marriage was an open secret until now, easily sussed out but never publicly acknowledged. Same goes for Meath’s bisexuality, which she announced via Twitter in typically enthusiastic fashion in June: “Happy pride everyone! I’m bisexual! … I’m queer as hell! I like everyone! Being bi is a joy!”

The tweet, while spur of the moment, was a long time coming, and what pushed her over the edge was a confidence-boosting picture: “You know you have a photo that’s taken of you every six months where you’re like, ‘I look like a monster!’ This was the opposite. I looked like an amazing goddess with the ass of a beautiful pony,” she laughs. “The photo with the beautiful rainbow background… It was Pride, and I’d been talking about it with Nick and my friends. Any hesitation, honestly, was being like, if I come out, will I be claiming space where other people’s voices are more necessary to be heard? And I might be wrong, but I made the decision to do it because I hadn’t heard about somebody who was in an outwardly heteronormative situation talking about how they’re queer. Bisexuality disappears the minute you’re with any partner. What I’m trying not to do is just relax into vagary and silence, which is where I feel safest. Vagary and silence is what led us into the terrifying situation we’re in right now, so I’m trying to be articulate all the time.”

On her reticence to publicize their relationship, Meath and Sanborn worried that “married band Sylvan Esso” would dominate the narrative, and they were probably right. The cliché of a genius producer and his talented singer-muse is nearly as well worn as the idea of a “girl band,” and usually just as wrong. It would have been an easy hook, but Sylvan Esso has never been about easy hooks, personally or musically.

“The minute you see women who write songs and work with their partners talk about it, all of a sudden every time they do an interview it’s only about what it’s like to be in love with the person that you work with,” Meath says. “It was a fight against my own misogyny in that I was so fearful of having to deal with it that I just wanted to skip right over it. In interviews, it would make me so upset because it made me feel like something had been stolen from me, which is strange, because Nick and I are together, and that’s the truth. I didn’t want to interact with the grey area of the fact that I’m a queer person in a heteronormative situation, and I sing and write the lyrics to the songs and Nick started predominantly as the producer and arranger, which is so fucking storybook that it’s annoying.”

Hand in hand with that admission, Meath has asserted her position in Sylvan Esso as not just co-songwriter with Sanborn, but also co-producer. Sanborn has been telling her all along that she’s a producer, but it took a conversation with Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards to convince Meath that her contributions — “sitting and thinking and listening,” as she puts it, more than the direct twiddling of knobs — was, in fact, producing. Now, instead of bringing each other finished halves of songs — him the beats, her the vocals and melody — everything is done together. “Alone time has pretty much disappeared,” says Sanborn.

It shows in the songs of Free Love, which are more intimate and cohesive than ever before. It’s only a half-hour, but lends itself to repeated listens — and not just because it starts with the words “What if end was begin?” and ends with the admonition to “Play it again.” It’s paced perfectly, pulling back into its quieter shell before bounding out again. At the center is “Free,” which Meath describes as “the best song I’ve ever written, lyrically.” In it, she wrestles with the illusion of self accompanied by almost no instrumentation, whisper-singing in your ear like some sort of ASMR confession. If that weren’t naked enough, it starts with an off-the-cuff “I love you,” the kind of studio chatter usually excised from the finished product. But here, it makes sense.

“It’s part of the song,” she says. “It’s exactly what the song is about. You can kind of hear me say it to Nick and know that what I’m actually saying is, ‘Shut up.’ It’s about being a public personality in some ways, but it applies to anyone who has ever let themselves love or be loved. There’s a part of you that, even in the depths of true intimacy, can never be touched. And that’s so sad, that you’re still alone, but also amazing that no matter what you can keep smooshing and smooshing your face against someone else’s face, and you’re just you.”

Meath and Sanborn can’t wait to bring their lonely songs to huge groups of sweaty dancers, but like everyone else, they’re stuck inside. In their case, it’s a town — Durham, North Carolina — filled with like-minded bands (Wye Oak, Landlady, Young Bull, Hiss Golden Messenger, the list goes on), some of whom have been stopping over for socially distanced “wine time” on the acreage that houses Sylvan Esso’s new studio. They’ve got distant gigs booked but don’t feel right announcing them with the world still in flux.

“Believe me, there is nothing I want more than to be in a room full of thousands of people playing our music on a gigantic sound system,” says Sanborn.

“Dude, playing ‘Make it Easy’?” answers Meath, referring to the cyborg anthem that closes Free Love. “We’re going to be able to get the audience to sing ‘It’s playing now’ with me? At which point I’m going to fucking cry so hard. I’m gonna cry so hard I’m gonna turn into a water mutant. I’m gonna Alex Mack.”

Free Love is out on September 25 via Loma Vista. Get it here.

The Brooklyn Nets have a new head coach, and it’s hard to imagine the team making a more surprising hire. Marc Stein of the New York Times reported that the Nets would make Hall of Fame guard Steve Nash a head coach for the first time, which was soon confirmed by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Wojnarowski included the details that Jacque Vaughn, who coached the team admirably during the NBA’s Orlando Bubble, would stay on as an assistant at a hefty price tag, while the Nets’ brain trust did what it could to convince Nash to make the leap to coaching over the last few weeks.

And shortly after reports began circulating, Brooklyn made the news official.

While Nash has some experience in basketball operations, having served as a consultant for the Golden State Warriors team when, as Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports pointed out, Durant was in town, this is quite the leap. He’s going from that, along with a handful of off-court duties like serving as a basketball/soccer analyst for Turner, to the head coach of a team that has legitimate NBA title aspirations once Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are 100 percent healthy. Keeping Vaughn around should help ease that transition, as he knows this team, but the former two-time MVP will be at the helm in what might be the most out of left field head coaching hire we’ve seen in some time.

Harley Quinn recently made its way from DC Universe, the streaming service used exclusively by Twitter users with #SnyderCut in their bios, to HBO Max, where it’s hopefully a huge hit. It’s a really good show! One of the best of 2020. It’s funny, it’s silly, it’s weird, it’s violent and lewd, there’s a talking shark, and in one episode, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy plot to escape Bane’s Peña Duro North Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility, a.k.a. “The Pit,” on George Lopez’s helicopter while the comedian is doing a stand-up set for Killer Croc and other ne’er-do-wells. It’s a whole thing. You should watch, because if you don’t, Harley Quinn might not return for a third season.

On Wednesday night, The Suicide Squad director James Gunn tweeted, “Our dog barks at any animal that comes on TV. Including this animated hyena on @dcharleyquinn. The hyena is a still image. (Show is great btw),” along with a video of his dog barking at said hyena. Harley Quinn showrunner Patrick Schumacker responded to Gunn, thanking him for the shoutout. “Thanks for amplifying the show!” he wrote. “Will the much sought after James Gunn Bump help get us a season 3? (Seriously, have you heard anything? I have no idea.).” Gunn has no idea, but he did throw his support behind a renewal.

“Let’s hope. Everyone watch Harley Quinn on @hbomax and help get them a well-deserved season three! @dcharleyquinn,” Gunn tweeted.

Most fan campaigns are bad, but this is a good one. You + watching Harley Quinn on HBO Max = another season of Bane yelling about “splosions” and Andy Daly as Two-Face and Harley and Poison Ivy’s blooming romance. It’s that simple.