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All The Best New Music From This Week That You Need To Hear

Keeping up with the best new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Noname chiming in on an unexpected feud and Phoebe Bridgers returning to her solo roots. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the best new music this week below.

Noname — “Song 33”

Noname found herself the unsuspecting target of a surprise J. Cole song. So, she returned the favor by going after him on a surprise track of her own, “Song 33,” on which she all but calls the rapper out by name. Although the song is some of the best new music this week, Noname said after dropping it that she’s “not proud” of what she did.

Phoebe Bridgers — Punisher

Another surprise: Phoebe Bridgers released her new album, Punisher, a day early. She’s done pushing it, though, because, like a lot of people, Bridgers is tired of how things are going in the world right now.

John Legend — Bigger Love

John Legend has been an impactful voice in light of all that’s going on, and now he has also put that voice to use musically. He recruited an intimate but effective roster of guests for the new record, including Jhené Aiko, Rapsody, and Gary Clark Jr. There’s also a bit of Dr. Dre on there thanks to a sample on “Actions.”

Teyana Taylor — The Album

Teyana Taylor decided to drop her album, The Album, as a celebration of Juneteenth, saying, “I’ve always been about us being celebrated and celebrating my culture and my people. For everything to happen, from my album getting delayed and it falls perfectly on Juneteenth, yes, it’s a celebration.”

Anderson .Paak — “Lockdown”

It’s a frustrating time for a lot of people in this country, which .Paak conveys on his latest, “Lockdown.” .Paak doesn’t limit himself to just the Black Lives Matter movement here, though, as he discusses the coronavirus pandemic and other issues people are facing today.

BTS — “Stay With Gold”

BTS’ upcoming Japanese-language album is mostly translated versions of songs from Map Of The Soul: 7, but there are a couple new songs. They shared one of them last week, and thankfully, “Stay Gold” treads similar water to their hip-hop-influenced pop gems of recent years.

The Killers — “My Own Soul’s Warning”

The Killers have so far teased a huge-sounding album with Imploding The Mirage, a trend they continued on “My Own Soul’s Warning.” The track boasts more than a shade of epic ’80s rock influence, of which there is hopefully more on the upcoming record.

Saweetie — “Tap In”

Saweetie has sampled an early-2000s classic or two in her day, and she has done so again on the first single from her debut album, “Tap In.” Flipping Too Short’s 2006 hit “Blow The Whistle,” “Tap In” is an upbeat tune for as fun a summer as will be possible in the coming months.

Sault — Untitled (Black Is)

Sault’s new album is one made for these trying times. They say of the record, “We present our first ‘Untitled’ album to mark a moment in time where we as Black People, and of Black Origin are fighting for our lives. RIP George Floyd and all those who have suffered from police brutality and systemic racism. Change is happening… We are focused.”

Bob Dylan — Rough And Rowdy Ways

Bob Dylan is nearing 80 years old, and since the ’60s, he’s been pumping out music at a consistent rate. He added to his storied discography with Rough And Rowdy Ways, which he introduced with the 17-minute lead single “Murder Most Foul.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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John Oliver Joyously Mocked Donald Trump’s Sad Attendance At His Disastrous Tulsa Rally

It’s more than fair to say that Donald Trump’s return to the campaign train this weekend in Tulsa went disastrously. It was Fyre Fest 2.0, basically, with who knows how many lingering aftereffects to be seen. Not only did POTUS urge people to pack into a 19,000 seat arena during the middle of a pandemic, but he used that opportunity to show off his water-drinking skills to a little over 6,000 people. Trump’s lack of attendance, despite campaign manager Brad Parscale insisting that unparalleled demand (over 1 million people) existed for these tickets, can only be regarded as a flop, and the “walk of shame” videos out there show that Trump’s sails were at least temporarily deflated. And John Oliver was predictably thrilled to see this happen.

“There’s absolutely no one in the room with me right now, although interestingly that’s still somehow only slightly fewer people than were at president Trump’s Oklahoma rally last night, which was half empty despite his campaign claiming a million people had requested tickets.”

Here’s a clip of that tidbit, which was only a brief blip in the entire Last Week Tonight episode, but Oliver enjoyed himself so much, it’s worth viewing.

As noted, even Pink “dunked” on Trump, as did Cardi B. And The Wiggles trended for the same reason, as you can see below, since all three acts outdid the president at the same venue.

Oliver soon grew serious though. Watch his deep dive on the alarming spike of COVID-19 clusters in U.S. prisons below.

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A City Painted Over A Black Lives Matter Street Mural As Protests Continue


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‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’ Trailer Will Speak To Anyone Who Still Has Their Ex’s Shirt

Christopher Nolan’s Tenet was originally scheduled to be the first new wide release movie in theaters this summer, but after it got pushed back to July 31, that honor now belongs to Unhinged. But considering the Russell Crowe road-rage thriller is more of a documentary than a feature-length film, let’s say it’s The Broken Hearts Gallery.

Produced by Selena Gomez, the romantic-comedy stars Blockers, Hala, and Bad Education standout Geraldine Viswanathan as an “emotional hoarder” who opens a pop-up gallery for “the items love has left behind.” The Broken Hearts Gallery also stars Dacre Montgomery, unrecognizable without his “Billy from Stranger Things” haircut.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

What if you saved a souvenir from every relationship you’ve ever been in? The Broken Hearts Gallery follows the always unique Lucy (Geraldine Viswanathan), a 20-something art gallery assistant living in New York City, who also happens to be an emotional hoarder. After she gets dumped by her latest boyfriend, Lucy is inspired to create The Broken Heart Gallery, a pop-up space for the items love has left behind. Word of the gallery spreads, encouraging a movement and a fresh start for all the romantics out there, including Lucy herself.

The Broken Hearts Gallery, which also stars Utkarsh Ambudkar, Molly Gordon, Suki Waterhouse, Phillipa Soo, Arturo Castro, and Bernadette Peters, opens on July 17.

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Sun Star Jonquel Jones Will Not Play This WNBA Season Due To ‘Serious Health Concerns’

The WNBA announced its return to play plan last week, with a 22-game season set to take place at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. The big question that remains for the WNBA is how many of its stars will be willing to participate given the health concerns of many, coupled with those that believe playing would distract from the Black Lives Matter movement.

The latter has led the Atlanta Dream’s Renee Montgomery to follow in the footsteps of Maya Moore and announce her intentions of sitting out the season to work on social justice reform. The Las Vegas Aces new star Angel McCoughtry, on the other hand, has announced she will be playing, while petitioning the league to allow players to wear the names of victims of police brutality on the backs of their uniforms.

Shortly after McCoughtry announced she would be playing, a major star announced she would not, as the Connecticut Sun released the news that star Jonquel Jones, who finished third in MVP voting a year ago while leading the Sun to the Finals, would not be playing this season due to health concerns.

“After careful thought and consideration I’ve decided to forego the upcoming WNBA season and use this time to focus on personal, social, and familial growth,” said Jones. “This was one of the toughest decisions I’ve made but the resurgence and unknown aspects of COVID -19 have raised serious health concerns that I do not feel comfortable competing in. I’d like to thank the Connecticut Sun organization, my teammates and fans for their unwavering support and understanding. While I won’t be competing this year I’m looking forward to lacing up with my teammates in 2021 and continuing the pursuit for a WNBA championship. Wishing the entire league and everyone involved a healthy and enjoyable season. Go Sun!”

As Jones notes, the recent spike in cases in Florida — with little indication there will be any statewide precautions taken to try and limit the spread once again — coupled with the unknown of long-term complications from the disease has led her to choose to sit out the season. It is a more than understandable concern, and while surely a difficult decision to make, it’s one that is commendable. Sun GM and head coach Curt Miller said the organization supports Jones’ decision fully and looks forward to welcoming her back in 2021.

Jones was spectacular last season, averaging 14.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per game for the Sun, upping those averages to 17.9 points and 10.4 boards per game in the playoffs as the Sun fell just shy of a championship to the Mystics in a thrilling Finals. With the addition of DeWanna Bonner this offseason, the Sun figured to have a dominant frontcourt and were among the title favorites, but with Jones now opting out, their path gets much more difficult.

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Swizz Beats Apologizes To Drake After Calling Him Out Over The Weekend

A recently-leaked track drew the ire of producer Swizz Beats over the weekend, who now says he was ‘in the wrong space’ after making disparaging comments about Drake on Busta Rhymes’ Zone Radio podcast. The record in question circulated briefly online via an anonymous SoundCloud profile and featured Busta and Drake rhyming over a beat by late Detroit producer J Dilla.

On Saturday, Swizz expressed his discontent with Drake, who apparently didn’t want to put out the song “Stay Down,” which he and Busta had worked on years prior. Busta tried to defuse the situation, saying that the collaboration was more about Drake wanting to rap over Dilla beats — Drake is a big fan, shouting him out on Thank Me Later and freestyling over beats from Dilla on past mixtapes. Busta previously told Rolling Stone when the track was in the works, but it never landed on a Drake album and Drake apparently never gave approval to Busta to release the track.

During the interview Swizz’s irritation was evident, despite his insistence that he had nothing personal against Drake. “It’s cool,” he said. “That’s a little kid. That’s a guy. That’s a little guy… It’s no personal things. If it was personal we’d shoot your plane out the sky.” Elsewhere in the interview, he said, “At the end of the day, n****s is pussy for real. What’s up? Pop off. Let’s go.”

However, on Sunday, Swizz apologized via his Instagram Story, explaining that he had been drinking and was in “the wrong space” during the interview. While Drake himself kept quiet, his OVO affiliate and longtime friend Chubbs shared his view of the situation on Instagram as well, writing, “We don’t need no apology. It’s clear you don’t like us so act that same way when you see us.”

Check out video of Swizz issuing his apology above.

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Gordi Faces Her New Reality With Fearlessness In Her Evocative ‘Extraordinary Life’ Video

Australian singer Gordi is gearing up for the release of her sophomore album Our Two Skins, which is due this Friday. Ahead of its debut, the singer opted to give fans one more preview of the record with the track “Extraordinary Life” along with a touching video.

In tandem with the song’s release, Gordi said the track’s inspiration came to her while she was in the shower:

“I was standing in a shower in a hostel in Ghent at 2am towards the end of 2017 and I started humming. I began recording the demo in stairwells across Europe while I was on tour with Asgeir and in most of the demo vocals you can hear distant chatter in Icelandic. For all the turmoil and anguish described in the record, this song just sits in pure joy. I like the idea that the ultimate gesture of love is to make someone feel exceptional; like they deserve an extraordinary life.”

About the video, Gordi said it was filmed at the beginning of the pandemic’s outbreak: “As the pandemic was taking off in March of this year, I flew to Bangkok to shoot a video for ‘Aeroplane Bathroom.’ We decided while we were there that we’d cram in another video so we just shot wherever we went – the grand piano in the lobby of our hotel, on public transport, at the local markets. On our last day there we went to a water theme park and I had to go down the slippery slide nine times. I get really bad motion sickness so I felt like absolute shit at the end of making this.”

Watch “Extraordinary Life” above.

Our Two Skins is out 6/26 via Jagjaguwar. Pre-order it here.

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Jon Stewart Jokes About Why He Should Have Fired Steve Carell After His ‘The Daily Show’ Debut

It’s been a year of reunions for Steve Carell. He teamed up with The Office co-creator Greg Daniels for Netflix’s Space Force and he’ll soon star in Irresistible, written and directed by former-The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, out this Friday. The political-comedy, about a Democratic political strategist (Carell) who launches a campaign to help a retired Marine colonel run for mayor in a right-wing Wisconsin town, is the first time the Oscar nominee has worked with Stewart since he departed the Comedy Central series in 2005, although if Stewart had his way, he would have fired Carell years earlier.

After Extra host Billy Bush remarked how talented Carell is, Stewart jokingly replied, “I said that to him every day. I said, ‘If I would have known just what a talented actor you are, I would have fired you from The Daily Show like a month in and said, ‘Just go, go do that.’” Carell started on The Daily Show in 1999, and although he was already known to comedy nerds due to his involvement with The Dana Carvey Show, it wouldn’t be until 2003, the year Bruce Almighty came out, that he would break through into the mainstream. Then came Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and mega-hit The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and that was the end of Steve Carell on The Daily Show.

Stewart continued:

“He’s really something. What was so nice for me, I wrote it for him, with him in mind, and when I would get in the edit room and watch it, he’d given me so many nuanced options to play with in edit that I never saw when I was on set, mostly because I was drunk, but his range of everything is remarkable.”

Irresistible is available through video on demand on June 26.

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Angel McCoughtry Wants The WNBA To Let Players Wear Names Of Victims Of Police Brutality On Jerseys

As the NBA and WNBA prepare for returns to the court later this summer in Orlando and Bradenton, Florida, respectively, there are a pair of chief concerns of players getting ready to play in the two bubbles. One is health and safety, wanting the leagues to take more precautions, namely with outside employees from Disney and IMG Academy, to ensure they are subject to similar testing protocols to try and ensure the bubbles stay bubbles.

Another is concern that a return to the court will distract from the Black Lives Matter movement that continues to see protests nationwide against police brutality and systemic racism, which players from the NBA and WNBA have been extremely active in, either with feet on the ground or in using their platform to speak out. Some have expressed a desire to skip the bubble to keep focus on the movement, with Renee Montgomery of the Atlanta Dream recently announcing she will sit out the season to work on social justice reform as Maya Moore has done the past two seasons.

Others see the return as an opportunity to boost their platform to speak out on injustice and issues facing the Black community, provided the league offers their full support in elevating those voices. On Monday, WNBA star Angel McCoughtry, now of the Las Vegas Aces, announced on Instagram she was starting a petition to get the WNBA to allow players to wear the first and last names of people killed or injured by police brutality on their jerseys in place of their names, mocking up examples with Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

McCoughtry made it clear she was planning to play this season and continuing to fight social injustice, while announcing her petition to the league, which you can sign here.

I am currently working with the @lvaces and @wnba to use our voices, our uniforms, and our sport to continue to impact and create real change. I am creating a petition (LINK IN BIO) to allow players the ability to put the FIRST & LAST NAME of HUMAN BEINGS that who have been injured or KILLED in incidents involving POLICE BRUTALITY! ⠀ ⠀

Silence is an ally for EVIL and when sports resume WE WILL NOT BE SILENT.

The WNBA had previously stated “the WNBA 2020 season will include a devoted platform led by the players that will aim to support and strengthen both the league and teams’ reach and impact on social justice matters,” and this certainly seems like an opportunity for the league to follow through on that promise. One of the ongoing discussions has been how to allow players voices to be heard during games when the attention is the greatest, and this is certainly a step in that direction. There’s also precedent for such a move, after the Premier League restarted this weekend with players all wearing uniforms with Black Lives Matter written in place of their name.

This would go a step further, placing the names of victims of police brutality on uniforms and it seems like something that should be a pretty easy decision for the WNBA, which has a great history of supporting its players in speaking out for social justice and human rights.

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‘The Witcher’ Has Signaled Its Upcoming Return To Filming In The Most Fitting Way Possible

Toss a coin to Netflix as they start to map out The Witcher‘s return to production. Eager viewers began clamoring for a second season immediately after the series launched in a crowd-pleasing way, but all TV and film productions worldwide have been on pause since March amid the pandemic. Studios are now feeling out the process of a safe return to filming, and news of cast member Kristofer Hijvu (Game Of Thrones‘ Tormund) testing positive for COVID-19 will only heighten the palpable need for precautions. Still, The Witcher is finding its way back toward the valley of plenty.

The announcement of the show’s return to production was made in the most Jaskier-Dandelion way possible, of course, with a so-bad-it’s-good poem that could have only been authored by the so-called humble bard:

I’m dusting off my lute and quill,
I have some news, some mead to spill:
After all the months we’ve been apart
It’s time for production to restart.
The Witcher and his bard – who’s flawless,
Will reunite on set 17 August.

Joey Batey will never escape this character, correct? And good luck on getting that earworm of a song out of your head anytime today. As people are aware, Geralt of Rivia can’t be beat, but the question remains: how many bathtub scenes will we see in Season 2? If the number’s on par with the first batch of episodes, fans of the loner monster hunter (and all the books and video games) shall be pleased.

This season carries a few more bonuses: (1) Geralt’s mentor and father figure, Vesemir, will be portrayed by Killing Eve‘s Kim Bodnia; (2) Far fewer timeline shenanigans are to be expected, which shall be a welcome change. That second point feels like a natural progression with Geralt and Yiri finally crossing paths in the season finale, but I can’t even begin to guess where Yennifer will fit into the entire equation. She and Geralt seem doomed as lovers, but one never knows what story tweaks shall arrive. As long as Jaskier’s back for good, the magic can happen, although The Witcher‘s official return date remains up in the air.