Month: April 2021

When John Prine passed away a little over a year ago, the folk artist left behind a legendary catalog of work and an innumerable amount of artists he touched and influenced. One of those is Sturgill Simpson, who today has shared a cover of Prine’s “Paradise.” Simpson’s rendition of the song will appear on an upcoming tribute album, Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs Of John Prine, Vol. 2, which is set for release on October 8.

Simpson shared a statement about Prine, saying, “For myself along with many others, he was a mentor. He was very giving with his time and wisdom, and we were all grateful to get to know him.”

In a Late Show interview from November 2020, Simpson told Stephen Colbert (who himself once performed “Paradise” with Prine, on The Colbert Report in 2013) about how he first met Prine while mixing his 2016 album A Sailor’s Guide To Earth at the studio Prine owned, saying, “I was pretty in the zone, head down at the board, and I guess I took a break, hit the space bar, and when I turned around, John was sitting in a chair in these plaid pants, just kind of looking. I had no idea how long he’d been sitting there. I hit vapor lock. I kind of freaked out — you come face-to-face with your hero.” Prine then invited Simpson out to dinner and from there, a friendship blossomed.

Listen to Simpson cover Prine’s “Paradise” above.

Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs Of John Prine, Vol. 2 is out 10/8 via Oh Boy. Pre-order it here.

Sturgill Simpson is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The cult of family is real, sometimes pushing us to defend batshit opinions and awkward behaviors. But how far would you go for family? When I spoke with The Mosquito Coast star and producer Justin Theroux recently, I joked that I wouldn’t follow some members of my family into a Costco, but for the clan around his character, Allie Fox, the answer might well be into oblivion. Which is part of the allure of the series whose first two episodes are available to stream on Apple TV+.

As Fox, a “radical idealist” with a strong aversion to consumerism, pop culture, and authority, Theroux plays a well-meaning but helter-skelter husband and father who takes his family on the run with him. Outside influences are considered instantly hostile or dangerous, and they’re in a kind of trouble that isn’t easily navigated. But he also might represent a kind of trouble that can’t be easily navigated — a patriarch with magnetism and mania at the center of him.

The series is based on the popular novel of the same name that was written by Theroux’s uncle, Paul Theroux, giving him interesting insight into the pieces of his own family that migrated into the DNA of the character. We spoke about that, Theroux’s fascination with cults, and whether second-guessing in comedy means the Tropic Thunder and Zoolnader 2 writer might not be interested in continuing to tackle comedy and satire.

But first, let’s rate the room. Last time I spoke with Theroux, it was in person on a junket for Lady And The Tramp. There were sandwiches that other people paid for (the best kind), I met some cool dogs (all dogs are cool), and Theroux briefly serenaded Tessa Thompson and I with a few notes from, I think Aladdin. This time, we communicated through screens, with Theroux beaming in while he sat, comfortably and luxuriously, in front of a very large fireplace in what looked like a log cabin while wearing a chunky sweater. A kind of arresting site that was so perfect I thought it was a Zoom background until, about five minutes in, his beloved dog walked past, momentarily distracting me. Because, again, all dogs are cool.

I gotta get out of the house.

Look at you, what is this, a ski lodge? Very nice.

[Laughs] I know. Doesn’t it look like that, like a Swiss chalet or something?

Lovely, lovely. So, there’s obviously such a unique relationship between you and this material since your uncle wrote the book it’s based on. What are the challenges of knowing the material that well and what are the benefits?

The challenges are just the normal challenges, which is being slightly nervous about having to create a character that I hope people find interesting. So that’s that. Uniquely, it’s the first time I’ve been in a situation where I knew, obviously, the author and also the people that the source material is sort of based on. The character Allie Fox is based largely, or in part, I should say, on my grandfather, my uncles, and even Paul himself, frankly. And so, that’s the one sort of absolutely unique thing that I can bring to it, which is that I knew these people and I know these people and that can inform the character. And that was kind of thrilling. I mean, they’re sort of Easter eggs that only my family might enjoy, but hopefully, they make the character more three-dimensional

I guess, how detailed of a process is that? Obviously, you’re going off and creating a character yourself. Are you checking certain things with them, or are you just pulling from just institutional knowledge?

I mean, no one likes to believe they’re the one being imitated, so I wouldn’t call them and be like, “Hey, how would you say this?” Also, my grandfather is dead [Laughs]. But it’s just institutional knowledge that I have of my family history. I did do a lot of checking in with Paul for other elements of the character that are unrelated and questions that I had and really picking his brain as to the reason for writing this character in the first place.

The character obviously has very defined feelings on consumerism and he doesn’t trust authority for legitimate reasons. What are your attitudes on that? Any feelings against tech and kind of the intrusion of tech?

No. I mean, I think we all have our own opinions on how much tech intrudes into our own lives. I think the ship has sailed on sort of getting it completely out of our lives altogether. What I really saw in Allie was his opinions are really just a feature of the character. They’re not necessarily my own, although I share some of them. One of the things that I love about him is that he’s chock-full of opinions. He’s the kind of guy that would be a wonderful dinner guest, but you wouldn’t necessarily want to live with him, or, frankly, be him. He’s done something miraculous as we meet him, which is, he’s essentially pulled his family off the grid. I mean, think of the kids that he’s raising. They have no references to pop culture, they don’t have television, they don’t have movies, they don’t even go to school. So they’re sort of a blank canvas for him to instill his own belief systems.

Apart from him being, in a way, all they’ve ever known, why do you think they follow him? I’m curious what it is about the character you think that makes him someone worth following into danger?

That’s a good question. I think we meet these two particular kids at that very particular age, especially Dina, where she’s just shy of a couple of years of being able to fly the coop herself. So when you were a closed circuit, like they are, you don’t really have much of a choice. Later on, you have a little more agency over your person and where it goes. But at this point, this particular point that we meet them, they don’t necessarily have that. And even Dina flees it at a certain point. And then I think eventually, it just becomes sort of a trust exercise. “Okay. Dad, let’s see. I’ll follow you down this rabbit hole.”

Also, I think Allie is incredibly persuasive. In one of the conversations I had with Paul, we talked about inspirations for the character. And he said at the time he wrote this, the big news of the period, right before he sat down, was the Jim Jones mass suicide in the jungle. And he said, “Allie’s by no means a direct comparison.” But he said, “I was fascinated by someone who’s essentially benevolent.” Starts off that way initially, a small-town preacher in the Midwest, who goes to San Francisco and has a very inclusive flock and makes this move to the jungles. It’s Jonestown.” And then cut to, they’re all drinking cyanide and killing themselves for him. There is an element of the cult of family, and Allie has a grain of cult leader in him, I think, where he can be persuasive, or at least hopefully it comes across that way.

It does. Is that a particular interest of yours, that level of magnetism? I know you’ve played sort of a cult leader before in Wanderlust.

[Laughs] Yeah, totally. Absolutely. That’s the forward-leaning comedic cult leader. But yes, for sure. Definitely. I’m fascinated by cults. I mean, I think a lot of people are. You can extrapolate. So like I’m the cult of my dog that I love, or I’m under her spell. It can show itself in many areas; politics, obviously, religion, of course.

Speaking of comedy, I so loved you in that, and also in The Ten. Is that a world that you’re looking to actively still live in and write in? Obviously, Tropic Thunder is another example. Is that something that’s a focus or are you more focused on more serious storytelling right now?

I mean, at the moment I’m more focused on this and probably will be for a bit. I have a couple of scripts that I’d like to push out into the world at some point. But as we all know, it’s getting harder and harder to write… Or at least the kind of comedy that I like. There’s a lot of second-guessing going on. But I don’t know. I mean, it’s interesting to see a lot of comedy people sort of moving into thriller, horror, just other genres. I can’t name, aside from Barb and Star, a comedy that I’ve loved in a long time. It seems like they’re just evaporating.

Obviously, there’s been some reaction after the fact to the Robert Downey Jr. role in Tropic Thunder, or Simple Jack, things like that. Is that part of what keeps you from wanting to fully embrace comedy still?

No. I mean, look, I’ve done that, so I don’t need to do that [in]particular…

When you mention the second-guessing. Is that…

For sure. Yeah. I mean, obviously, I don’t know if… I stand by that movie because the point of, I think, good satire is to point out, in hopefully funny ways, the failings or the ironies of things. So the Robert Downey character was purely [a] reaction to, in our fictional world, of a studio that didn’t have enough imagination to cast an African-American actor in that role. [Laughs] That’s the joke. The whole point is pointing out the lack of diversity in Hollywood. So I stand by it, although I don’t think I’d get the chance to do it again.

You can stream the first two episodes of ‘The Mosquito Coast’ on Apple TV+ with new episodes dropping Fridays.

Toronto rapper Smiley takes on the challenge of fitness training in the video for his new single “In My Zone.” Playing the role of a personal trainer, he teaches a class, giving a motivational speech at his whiteboard before hitting the stationary bikes for a sweat-centric back half of the video. The emphasis on exercise follows an early scene in which Smiley and his friends take over a 1950s style diner.

Smiley — also known as Smiley_61st — caught a huge break in 2018, despite being unsigned, when Drake posted lyrics from his song “Intro” on Instagram. In 2020, Smiley followed up with YYZ – LAX, a seven-song EP led by the singles “90210” and “YYZ-LAX.” “In My Zone” is Smiley’s first song of 2021, implying that he might be working on a full-length body of work to finally capitalize on the attention he received from Drake’s co-sign.

Fans who checked out Smiley’s music thanks to Drake’s Instagram video (which has since been deleted) discovered an artist who raps in a lethargic, slurred tone about life in the streets of Toronto. His hazy flow is paired with an enthusiastic charm — which pops out at the end of the “In My Zone” video via a handful of outtakes — that draws in listeners as much as his lyrics and unique flow.

Watch Smiley’s “In My Zone” video above.

Smiley is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon have written one (very good) movie together. It’s called The Big Sick, and it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars. Not bad! Nanjiani, newly ripped for Marvel’s Eternals (out this November), and Gordon have announced their next collaboration, but if the married couple get nominated for an another Oscar, it will be in the Adapted Screenplay category.

The Little America co-creators are writing the adaptation of The Doubtful Guest, based on Edward Gorey’s book of the same name. “The story of the book is set in a turn-of-the-century manor and follows a mysterious, mischievous creature — in this case, a penguin-like thing — whose unannounced and unwelcome arrival at a family’s home brings trouble and chaos,” the Wrap reports. Andy Muschietti (It) is attached as director:

“The Doubtful Guest” was Gorey’s third book, and its artwork and story continued the late author’s tradition of surrealist and absurd storytelling combined with nonsense writing and verse. And though the illustrated short contains only 14 pages, each with an image and an odd rhyming couplet, the film is being developed as a live-action feature.

I am unfamiliar with this book, but if The Big Sick star Ray Romano doesn’t play the “penguin-like thing,” I will be very disappointed.

(Via the Wrap)

(SPOILERS for Invincible, including the season finale, will be found below.)

Invincible fared well on Amazon Prime this season with weekly episode drops, which helped to build momentum, of course, for the gore-filled series from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. More streaming shows should do this weekly thing! (Please.) The format also let the audience mull over how almost everyone (other than the title character) seemed to know that Omni-Man/Nolan Grayson (J.K. Simmons) killed the Guardians of the Globe in cold blood. His son, Invincible/Mark (Stephen Yeun), managed to remain blissfully clueless about his dad’s secretly villainous ways, but that information came out during the finale episode, “Where I Really Come From.” Following Omni-Man’s disclosure to Mark, Father attempted to convince Son to help him assimilate Earth into the Viltrum Empire. Well, Mark’s inherently good and damn well refused to do so, so dad lost his sh*t and all hell broke loose.

The episode threw forth an ungodly amount of blood and carnage, and the saddest thing about it all is that this wasn’t even collateral damage from a superhero trying to save the world, The Avengers-style. That type of damage causes enough fallout when it’s accidental or unavoidable, but Omni-Man does not place any value upon life, human or otherwise. As he pulverized Mark for refusing to join the Viltrum cause, Omni-Man almost gleefully killed an untold number of people. He even furiously pushed Mark through an entire subway train full of people, transforming passengers into pools of blood. It’s obviously the type of violence that not even The Boys could pull off, and Omni-Man nearly had Invincible at death’s door before — wait for it — he grew a conscience, realized that he loved Mark too much to kill him, and fled the scene.

Actually, he fled the planet. Where did he go? No one knows. Global Defense Agency director Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins) believes that Omni-Man went somewhere far away, and he’s no doubt still alive. Nonetheless, Stedman puts out official word that Omni-Man is dead, and Deborah Grayson (Sandra Oh) is left to process what she learned her husband say over Mark’s headpiece: That her husband considered her to be worthless and a mere pawn in his scheme to raise a human child to help him turn Earth over to the Viltrumites. Mark’s hesitating to become his father’s replacement, and that’s where the season ends.

Yet where the hell did Omni-Man go?

Already, Amazon has announced two more seasons of Invincible, given that the show’s wildly popular, and Kirkman has been out there teasing more TWD stars as additions to the cast. Also, yes, there’s now a new mystery about Omni-Man’s whereabouts, and there’s no way to flat-out pinpoint where he went, but Kirkman’s own source material says a lot.

In short, we can expect to see Omni-Man again. In the comics, he and Mark don’t see each other for a year until an emotional reunion occurs. In the meantime, Omni-Man had flown away in a flurry of mixed emotions, and he decides that Earth is now a lost cause for Viltrum Empire recruitment (since Mark stood firm and then made Omni-Man feel actual feelings). As such, he almost arbitrarily decides to land on another planet, Thraxa, and he figures this will be a much easier civilization to conquer. That’s especially the case since Omni-Man suggested that he wasted seventeen years raising Mark to help him surrender Earth, whereas Thraxans hold a drastically reduced lifespan (less than a year), and since Omni-Man is thousands of years old, he easily becomes their ruler.

Whether or not this means that Omni-Man will mostly absent from Season 2 remains to be seen. In the comics, he eventually sends for Mark, who arrives on Thraxa and attempts to convince Dad to return to Earth. That tactic is not successful, although that’s definitely not the end of Omni-Man. Instead, we find that Mark’s emotional revelations during their climactic fight changed Omni-Man, and he’s now hoping that his new son can be saved from the Viltrumites. This leads to a whole set of new arcs for Omni-Man that send him hurling throughout the rest of Kirkman’s comic book series. For the moment, though? He’s probably hanging out on Thraxa while Earth struggles to move on from the damage he wrought. Quite nimbly, the first season tucked a powerful family drama into a rip-roaring, superpowered adventure that doesn’t look to be coming to an end anytime soon.

The first ‘Invincible’ season is available to stream on Amazon Prime.

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — Listen to me

While my first impulse in all of this is to cut the Oscars some slack because they were trying some new stuff during a weird time for all of us and because they opened with about 90 seconds of Regina King strutting into the ceremony like we were watching the opening of Ocean’s 14, the fact of the matter is that it was not great. One of the problems was that there was nowhere to go but down after that perfect opening. That’s a good problem to have, though. And bless them for taking it out of a ballroom and making it feel like a cool lounge where seemingly mismatched celebrities hang out in booths because that’s how you get things like Daniel Kaluuya sitting across from Glenn Close and encouraging her to do Da Butt in a ball gown on national television. But it still ended up dragging and being kind of boring, just like it does every year. Which is a shame, because there’s no reason this can’t be fun.

Luckily, I have some ideas. Some of them are, I think, good, like “go back to having a host if only to have someone keeping things on track” and “keep the show to two hours flat by cutting out at least half of the bits and segments.” But that’s no fun. And I do not actually care about any of this, if I’m being honest, nor am I paid well enough — or, like, at all — by the producers of the show to start caring. So, let’s not do that. Let’s do something else instead. Let’s come up with some very bad and impractical ideas that would add anarchy and whimsy to the proceedings in a way that is as silly as it is unreasonable. Let’s be, to put as fine a point on this as we can, a bunch of unhelpful goofballs.

Here are three terrible ideas to fix the Oscars.

— Everyone comes to the Oscars and stays in their cars. I’m talking about an entire drive-in movie situation. Just a huge empty lot filled with celebrities wearing formal attire inside cars they own or have rented for the evening. When someone wins, they put their car in drive and swing around through a drive-thru window to pick up their trophy. In my dream scenario, the window is staffed by teens who do not want to be there, if only for interactions at the speaker where Oscar winners have to loudly repeat their name into the speaking two or three times before they pull around to the window. (“MARTIN… SCORSESE. BEST… DIRECTOR.”)

The other twist here: There’s a traffic light at the end of the drive-thru where the winners have to wait before making a left turn to get back to their parking spots, and they have to give the speech inside the car while waiting for the light to change. The speech ends the instant it does. (“And I couldn’t have done this without m-… oh crap, it’s green, gotta run.”) If they pull away from the window and catch the green right away, no speech, or they can shout whatever they can out the window as they screech through the intersection. I want Helen Mirren to win and lay down rubber as she peels out, holding the trophy out the window with her left hand. This would be excellent television.

— We keep everything exactly the same with one small twist: After someone wins and takes the trophy back to their seat, they have to defend it from the other nominees, who have the right, if they so choose, to try and take the trophy through subterfuge or misdirection for the duration of the ceremony. Whoever possesses it at the end gets to take it home. It would be so great. There could be a roving correspondent in the crowd updating the audience at home on the situation. “Breaking news: During the commercial break, Daniel Day-Lewis dressed up as a cocktail server — fully in character, really quite impressive — and swiped the Best Actor trophy from Timothee Chalamet, who has now donned a fake mustache and was last seen in the rafters strapping himself into some sort of spelunking gear.” And so on.

Are there problems with this idea? Sure. Would it kind of defeat the purpose of voting and even giving a great performance in the first place if, say, Emma Stone can swap out your real trophy with a gold-plated one filled with chocolate while you run to the bathroom? Perhaps. But, most importantly, would I enjoy it? Folks, I really, truly would.

— Everyone has to take a zip line to the stage to collect their trophy when they win. Nothing else changes. We just add a zip line. It would make the Lifetime Achievement award a riveting moment every year. I bet Jane Fonda would love it, though.

I will stop here only because too much idiocy in any one place is dangerous, but please know I could go on. My original draft of this section had a note I do not remember writing that just said “Blimps?” If I ever figure out where I was headed with that one, I will be in touch. It could be a while, though. I just pictured a scenario in the drive-thru idea where Harrison Ford and Angela Bassett get into a fender-bender coming into the ceremony and continue arguing loudly through the monologue, just barely audible in the background. I’m going to be cranking away on that one in my brain for a couple days, at least.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — Betty is so freaking good, please watch Betty

This is the trailer for the second season of Betty. I bring it to your attention for many reasons but, mostly, I bring it to your attention because the first season of Betty was awesome. It was so good. I did not expect it to be my jam in such a substantial way either. It is a show about teenage girls who live in New York and skateboard, whereas I am a man in his 30s who lives in Pennsylvania and does not skateboard. I had almost zero frame of reference going in. That’s the thing about good television, though. It tells stories about humans and the way they share human experiences even if they have very little in common on the surface. And, if we’re being fair, I suspect most people who watched The Sopranos were not or had not previously been members of the New Jersey mob. I know I was not. As far as any of you know.

Betty also featured one of my favorite characters in recent memory: Kirt, a queer teen skater who loved to scuffle and smoke pot and who at one point adopted a rat as a pet. Kirt rules.

So, yes, please dive in and watch the first season of Betty if you have not. It’s funny and moving and cool and it can maybe expand your horizons a bit, too, assuming you are not a female skateboard teen who lives in New York. It’s also only six episodes, three hours total. You could watch the whole season in the time it takes you to watch one Marvel movie on cable this weekend. You should do that. Betty is so good.

And while I’m on the subject of television trailers and things that are good, please watch this trailer for the upcoming television series Physical starring Rose Byrne.

And please read this description of the show.

Sheila Rubin (Rose Byrne) is a quietly tormented housewife in ’80s San Diego, who behind closed door battles extreme personal demons and a vicious inner voice. But things change when she discovers aerobics, sparking a journey toward empowerment and success.

And please remember how good Rose Byrne was in Spy, a very good movie. Watch that again, too. Watch Betty and Spy. This was a really good chat we just had.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — Did you know that Elisabeth Shue was almost decapitated by a helicopter in 1988?

I could sit here and explain to you exactly how and why The Sun came to write a story about a 35-year-old anecdote from the set of the movie Cocktail starring Tom Cruise and Elisabeth Shue, but, like, why? Why would I do that? You can click the link and read all the backstory if you want on your own time. The Rundown is not a place you should be going to for context. The Rundown is a place you go for stories about Tom Cruise tackling Elisabeth Shue to prevent her from getting decapitated by a helicopter. That is, in a nutshell, exactly what we are doing here on a Friday.

We go now to the Cocktail set, where Cruise and Shue have just exited the aforementioned helicopter.

The actress was unaware of the protocol when getting out of a helicopter, as the rotor blades still furiously turn even after the pilot has turned off the engine.

And so she starts running in the general direction of the rear of the chopper, toward the blades in the back, which are spinning so fast as to render them invisible.

But Tom – who even in 1987 was a fully trained chopper and jet pilot – averted the danger by rugby tackling her to the floor, avoiding certain instant death for Elisabeth.

Things I like about this sentence:

• The fact that The Sun felt the need to note that Tom was a fully trained helicopter and airplane pilot
• The fact that The Sun used “rugby tackled” because American football means nothing to them, which is good because “rugby tackled” makes this all objectively funnier
• The fact that The Sun used “certain instant death” at the end because that sounds like the title of a crappy Jean Claude Van Damme movie from the same year this story takes place, one I would have watched 25 times on like Spike TV in the early- to mid-2000s.

Moving on.

The post was seen by writer Mike Timm, who sent it onto Mission Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie – who is currently filming the seventh installment with Tom.

Mike told Bill: “I sent this post to Christopher McQuarrie, who’s working with Tom on MI. He loved the story and, of course, Tom confirmed it.”

Take a second and picture this conversation. Just a second. Because I just pictured Christopher McQuarrie, director of the Mission: Impossible movies, asking Tom Cruise if he once saved Elisabeth Shue from getting decapitated by a helicopter, and then I pictured Tom Cruise saying “Yes” very earnestly and without a drop of irony, and buddy, that made me laugh.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — I have changed my mind and think reality shows are good now

We move from the set of the 1988 movie Cocktail to present-day China, where, courtesy of writer Sarah Jeong, chaos is afoot. Things started out simple enough. A man from Russia signed up for a talent contest where the winners form a new boy band. But then, oh my. Then things got really quite funny.

Mr Vladislav Ivanov, a 27-year-old from Vladivostok, was kicked out of Produce Camp 2021 last Saturday (April 24). Viewers had ignored his pleas to leave and backed him all the way to the final.

Mr Ivanov, who speaks fluent Mandarin, originally joined the show as a Chinese teacher.

But he said he was invited to sign on as a contestant after the directors noticed his good looks.

It’s hard to choose a favorite part of this blockquote. On one hand, I do enjoy the thing where this guy is apparently so good-looking that producers begged him to appear on the show, which is a relatable thing that has happened to all of us. On the other hand, I need to know more about this “pleas to leave” situation.

He appeared to regret his decision almost immediately, but could not leave without breaching his contract.

His lack of enthusiasm played out in half-hearted singing, rapping and dancing alongside the other, more eager contestants.

Well, guess what: I love it. Not necessarily the part about him being contractually bound to a situation he hated. That I love somewhat less. But the other part? The part about him half-heartedly sleepwalking through performances in the hopes of getting sent home in a way that wouldn’t result in him getting dragged into court for violating said contract? That part is the good stuff.

We continue.

Performing under the stage name Lelush, he urged the public to vote him out, saying he did not want to be among the 11 winners of the show, who are contractually obliged to form a boy band.

“Don’t love me, you’ll get no results,” he said on one episode.

But viewers took to his dour persona and kept him in the running for nearly three months.

“Don’t love me, you’ll get no results.” It’s beautiful. And of course it backfired. Every boy band needs a bad boy, one who flouts the rules and sneers and wears a leather jacket. This is Boy Band 101. And it doesn’t get more bad boy than “don’t love me, you’ll get no results.” He would have had better luck if he went the other way and pretended to want it more than anything else in the world. No one likes a try-hard.

“Don’t let him quit,” one viewer commented on a video of a dejected-looking Mr Ivanov performing a Russian rap.

“Sisters, vote for him! Let him 996!” another fan commented, using the Chinese slang for the gruelling work schedule that afflicts many young employees, especially in digital start-ups.

The unlikely star made it to the final episode of the show on Saturday, where he failed to earn enough votes to join the boy band.

“Sisters, vote for him.” “Don’t let him quit.” It’s perfect. And it had a happy ending because managed to escape before getting roped into touring the world with a band he never wanted to be in. I hope he cuts a solo album now and becomes the biggest star in China. I hope he starts a worldwide trend of pop stars pretending to not care at all, just lazily frowning through choreography and mumbling lyrics to songs they act like they hate and posing for photoshoots where they roll their eyes and maybe don’t even face the camera. This would be fun for me.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — My favorite paragraph of the week

Craig Jenkins of Vulture interviewed Ghostface Killah this week. Maybe “interviewed” is the wrong word. What he did was more set Ghostface Killah up to tell a bunch of stories, which is probably even better, because it led to Ghostface saying all of this about his appearance as a DJ on the film When In Rome starring Josh Duhamel and Kristen Bell.

I was scared to death when I did [2010’s] When in Rome. A lot of people was in there [Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel], and I’d never really been around a lot of people trying to get into a part [the role of a DJ]. I had to do it over and over and over and over and over and over because I kept messing up lines. It was a line where they had me say [“Our host and curator Beth Martin is getting engaged?”], and I kept fucking up. At that time, I wasn’t used to saying “curator” and stuff like that. Never really heard of it back then. People was waiting for me because I had to stop the music, and they just looking at me, and then I say my line, but I kept messing it up in front of a hundred people. It was like that commercial where somebody’s like, “Yo! Time for a Snickers.” It was one of those.

I wish I could open this story up and live inside it for a long weekend. I’ll bring the GIF at the top of the section — from the music video for “Gravel Pit,” which takes place inside a Flinstones-style rock quarry and, at one point, features a dinosaur eating an evil ninja, because the Wu-Tang Clan has never once disappointed anyone — with me and hang it on the wall. No calls or emails. I’m on vacation.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at brian.grubb@uproxx.com (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Amanda:

This week’s episode of 9-1-1 featured a kid’s party in which a mom is impaled onto a Pin the Tail on the Donkey board by springs from a trampoline (BTW, bravo for that, 9-1-1.) The show has already given us a bounce house floating off a cliff at yet another children’s party.

So, the question is: What party game/piece of party equipment will the show weaponize next? Lawn darts seem too easy an answer, as do clowns. Maybe someone getting their head stuck underwater during an apple bobbing contest? Or a pinata that you think will cause an emergency when one guest accidentally slugs another with a bat, but really the pinata itself is made of repurposed firecrackers and explodes?

What say you, Brian?

The first thing I need you to know here is that this is true. All of that happened in the cold open of this week’s 9-1-1. The lady was a mommy blogger and influencer type who was filming every inch of her poor, miserable kid’s party to satisfy the sponsors who donated all the stuff to it, and, at one point, as the son was bouncing on a rickety trampoline, a few of the old rusty springs shot off and flew through the air like missions into and through her abdomen and extremities before affixing her entire torso to a Pin the Tail on the Donkey board. It was incredible. I’m at the point now where I watch this show and 9-1-1 Lonestar in about 30 minutes total the next day by fast-forwarding through all the talky parts on a hunt for calamity. It’s probably not what the producers are hoping for. I feel okay about it. Anyway, look.

Just a fabulous television show that somehow airs on network television every Monday night.

To answer your question, Amanda, I feel like a swimming pool has to be involved somehow. Like a pool-party-related emergency. Possibly involving a diving board. Or maybe a water park. Yes, let’s go with “a child’s birthday party at a water park.” The tricky thing here is that 9-1-1 is so good at this that I don’t know if I can even create something wild enough. Again, this show had children float away inside an inflatable bounce house. So while part of my brain is thinking, like, “a man gets stuck in a water slide but the bored teenage employee at the top isn’t paying attention and keeps sending people down and we end up with a 25-person logjam inside a sweltering plastic tube that has to be disassembled via helicopter, possibly after two or more people have an amusement park food-related attack of violent flatulence,” another part of my brain wonders if that’s even enough.

I’m happy to leave this to the experts.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Australia:

Police searching for the “Big Bird Bandits” who allegedly stole a “Sesame Street” costume from an Australian circus have arrested and charged two men.

I’ll be honest here: I was not expecting the turn that sentence took. The thing where the Big Bird Bandits stole the costume was one thing. But I gasped when I got to “from an Australian circus.” I… I think I love these guys. I kind of want to stop reading here so I don’t ruin it. But let’s press on in the interest of… I don’t know, let’s say… journalism?

The “Sesame Street” costume was dumped back at the circus by an electricity box, with an apology note in the beak, South Australia Police said.
“We are so sorry!!! We had no idea what we were doing, or what our actions would cause” the note read.
“We were just having a rough time and were trying to cheer ourselfs (sic) up.
“We had a great time with Mr Bird. He’s a great guy and no harm came to our friend. Sorry to be such a big birden (sic).
“Sincerely, the Big Bird Bandits.”

RELEASE THEM

RELEASE MY SWEET BOYS

RELEASE THE BIG BIRD BANDITS

THEY’RE NOT HURTING ANYONE

THEY’RE JUST HAVING FUN

IT’S BEEN A WEIRD YEAR FOR ALL OF US

RELEASE THEM

Two men aged 26 and 22 were on Friday charged with theft and being unlawfully on premises, police said. The men have been granted bail and will appear at Adelaide Magistrates Court on 30 June.

JUDGE: … and now the opening statement from the defense.

LAWYER: Thank you, Your Honor. Our opening statement is this: Come on.

JUDGE: Excuse me.

LAWYER: Come onnnnnnnnn.

JUDGE: [strokes chin, bangs gavel] I’m swayed by your argument. Case dismissed.

Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.

Whatever you might be into, each April brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of April below.

Toro Y Moi — Underneath The Pine (10th Anniversary Reissue)

Toro y Moi was a defining chillwave act in the early 2010s and 2011’s Underneath The Pine was a pivotal release of the era. The album celebrates its tenth anniversary this year and the occasion has been marked with the first-ever colored vinyl edition of the record. On top of that, some orders also come with a thematically appropriate pine tree seed matchbook.

Get it here.

Spiritualized — Lazer Guided Melodies (Reissue)

Spiritualized and Fat Possum Records are embarking on The Spaceman Reissue Program, which will consist of definitive vinyl reissues of the first four Spiritualized albums and which began this month with Lazer Guided Melodies. The band’s Jason Pierce reflected on making the album, saying, “We recorded the tracks in the studio near my flat which was a place where they predominantly recorded advertising jingles and it’s where we made all the Spacemen 3 records, but then the recordings were taken to Battery Studios in London, to explore a more professional way of making music… Once I approached that way of doing things I opened up a whole world and I was astounded that somebody could take those tracks and turn it into the record it became…”

Get it here.

PJ Harvey — Uh Huh Her and Uh Huh Her — Demos (Reissues)

It’s a good time to be a PJ Harvey fan, as she has spent the past few months busting out a seemingly endless series of vinyl rereleases. The latest is Uh Huh Her, which is accompanied by Uh Huh Her — Demos, a collection of unreleased tracks that is also available on CD and digital formats.

Get Uh Huh Her here. Get Uh Huh Her — Demos here.

Young Thug — So Much Fun (Vinyl Me, Please Reissue)

Young Thug is fresh off the release of a new project, and now there’s also an opportunity to look back with a fresh vinyl rerelease (pressed on gorgeous translucent green vinyl) via Vinyl Me, Please. Beyond Thugger, Vinyl Me, Please has a strong lineup of albums for May, which also features Darkside’s Psychic and Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds In Country Music.

Get it here.

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band — The Ultimate Collection

It didn’t take long after The Beatles broke up for John Lennon to kick off his solo career, as both things happened in the same year. 1970 saw the release of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and now the album is being re-shared with a stunning and expansive new box set, which features, aside from new mixes, a whopping 87 previously unheard recordings on the CD and digital aspect, plus a book, postcards, and stickets. The vinyl piece of the set collects some of the most notable outtakes with a fresh mix of the classic album for a 2LP collection, which is also available on its own.

Get it here.

The Mars Volta — La Realidad De Los Sueños

Uproxx’s Martin Rickman wrote of the expansive new box set from The Mars Volta, “It’s a fitting monument to a band that never purported itself to be boring or accessible. Just looking at a The Mars Volta album cover, or even just peering at a tracklisting or their song lengths, gives that away. One album is based on a cursed Ouija board that is now allegedly broken and buried. Bixler-Zavala often switches between languages, and creates his own words mid-song. Rodríguez-López presents a challenging production style to both listeners and his own musicians (who sometimes don’t know which project they’re recording their isolated tracks for). One song (in five parts) off Frances The Mute clocks in at over 32 minutes. ”

Get it here.

Shakey Graves — Roll The Bones X

Shakey Graves (real name Alejandro Rose-Garcia) is a real DIY success story: His self-released debut album Roll The Bones picked up steam on Bandcamp, where it was exclusively released. Now the 2011 album has gotten a rerelease titled Roll The Bones X, and on top of the base album, there’s also a 15-track LP titled Odds + Ends, which features, well, odds and ends from the era.

Get it here.

Eve — Scorpion (Reissue)

Eve was a hip-hop pioneer of the late ’90s and early ’00s, and now her landmark sophomore album Scorpion is getting a shiny new rerelease, pressed on lovely red and black vinyl. Eve says of the reissue, “It’s crazy it’s been 20 years since Scorpion dropped! I remember the whole process of putting that album together, so many great moments and working with amazing artists and producers and of course winning a Grammy! And tracks that have lasted the test of time musically… Perfect time for a re-release.”

Get it here.

Travis — Good Feeling (Reissue)

Scottish group Travis has some clout with American music fans (maybe you remember the music videos they made with Ben Stiller and Demetri Martin), but across the pond, they were a defining Britpop group of the ’90s and ’00s. They got off to a hot start with their 1997 debut album Good Feeling, and this vinyl reissue is an accurate re-creation of the original release, featuring the classic sleeve and a faithful replication of the original packaging.

Get it here.

Joni Mitchell — The Reprise Albums (Box Set)

This box set is a wonderful way to start a journey into Joni Mitchell vinyl, as it includes her first four albums: Song To A Seagull (originally released in 1968), Clouds (1969), Ladies Of The Canyon (1970), and Blue (1971). Even the cover art of this reissue is special, as it features a previously unseen self-portrait Mitchell painted around the time these albums came out.

Get it here.

Saba — Pray For Me (VMP 100 Reissue)

Vinyl Me, Please have now offered an Essential Record Of The Month for 100 months, with prompted the vinyl subscription platform’s “VMP 100” series of reissues. They have a strong roster of releases coming as part of the series: Gorillaz’s Demon Days; Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix; Outkast’s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik; Queens Of The Stone Age’s Songs For The Deaf; Queen’s A Night At The Opera; Outkast’s Stankonia; Spiritualized’s Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space; Saba’s Care For Me; Al Green’s Call Me; and Miles Davis & John Coltrane’s The Final Tour: Paris, March 21, 1960.

Get it here.

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

The Las Vegas Raiders have a bit of a reputation during the NFL Draft for reaching to take the guy they want, regardless of when Roger Goodell takes the stage to read their selection. This year, that meant the team took Alex Leatherwood with the No. 17 pick. Leatherwood, an offensive lineman out of Alabama, was a decorated player in college, but was viewed as more of a day two prospect among prognosticators.

There are two bits of good news here for Raiders fans who might roll their eyes at the team going forward with a perceived reach. One is that Leatherwood was really good in Tuscaloosa, earning unanimous All-American nods in 2020 and winning the Outland Trophy, given annually to the nation’s best interior lineman. The other is that Leatherwood is a delightful character off the field, as evidenced by the following bit of information in bullet point No. 4.

It is unclear exactly which memes Leatherwood relies on most as he gets points across, and Alex, if you are reading this, please feel free to reach out so we can discuss. Anyway, he also has extremely strong takes on dogs vs. cats, the latter of which he believes are “demons.”

Alabama had a record-tying night on Thursday, as six players were selected in the first round of the Draft. There will be plenty of debate as to who the most fun of those players is on the field, but off of it, Leatherwood seems to have the field lapped for now.

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.

“I get intrusive thoughts like cutting my hands off, like jumping in front of a bus,” Girl In Red — the musical project of Norwegian singer-songwriter Marie Ulven — sings in her latest single, the Finneas O’Connell-produced “Serotonin.” She adds, “I’m running low on serotonin, chemical imbalance got me twisting things, stabilize with medicine, but there’s no depth to these feelings.”

The 22-year-old indie rock/lo-fi pop artist has been open about her life with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and brought her experiences with life, love, and growing up to the forefront for her forthcoming debut album, If I Could Make It Go Quiet, out today (April 30). Produced by herself and Matias Telléz, the LP largely confronts the “mean voices” in her head, while also attempting to accept the ebbs and flows of her maturing mind, body, and soul. (“I hate the way my brain is wired…” she admits on the thumping, choral “Rue.” “I try to get it off my mind, to leave it all behind, don’t wanna make it worse.”) The project’s release date was delayed during the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave Ulven the chance to dive even deeper to unpack her feelings regarding solitude (the ironically spacious “Apartment 402”), physical love (the painfully honest “Hornylovesickmess”), and mental self-awareness (“Serotonin”).

“I’ve been going through so many different emotional changes within relationships, whether it’s my friends, or how I treat people, and how I am as a person,” she explains over Zoom from Norway of the “emotional recap” If I Could Make It Go Quiet purveys. “I’ve become more self-aware [this year] and realized that I’m full of flaws, and I’m just so many things.”

But don’t get it twisted: this honesty is not new. Ulven amassed a global following after the success of her 2018 breakout single, the guitar-driven and genuine “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend.” Her candid melodies — which come equipped with vulnerable, straightforward lyricism — are bolstered by captivating instrumentals she often self-produces and arranges. Her words often tackle her journey through growing pains, mental health, and her experiences as a queer person. Girl In Red’s emotional authenticity is likely a byproduct of being a Gen Z’er, where much of her fanbase resides, resulting in supporters who feel seen, heard, and understood by her messages.

As a young millennial (not much older than Ulven, but you know… any age gap is quite the gap), I praise the frankness she and her generation possess, before admitting that I wish I were more open about my emotional needs and struggles while growing up. The difference, she notes? “[You] not having the Internet in those defining years of being a teenager really separates it.” Bingo, Marie.

Uproxx caught up with Ulven for a lovely chat days before the release of her album, where we discussed not only the emotional process of crafting her debut LP, but self-discovery and self-love during quarantine.

Let’s get into If I Could Make It Go Quiet…are you nervous? Because it’s your first, first album. What are some of the reasonings for those nerves, you think?

I’ve never put out an album before, also I sometimes forget that people actually think that I know what I’m doing. When I get reviews from shows and stuff, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know what I’m doing. They’re going to like perceive it as I know what I’m doing…’ Does that even make any sense?

It does. And I think you have every right to be nervous in that way, especially since, you know, we’re all going through something nowadays. And this album confronts a lot of those voices you might have inside your head regarding how you feel about yourself, how you feel about love and life. What do you think has been the biggest emotional change you’ve experienced this year, and how have you been able to really thrust that experience into this project?

Oh, I’ve had so many. But it’s really this weird, overall feeling of coming to terms with being a human has been really hard for me, and learning that I’m just a human and that I have this body that anything can happen to. It’s like ‘Marie’ — like the me, and my body, and my head. And then, this emotional thing of being like… the fact that I’m just going to die. I’ve just been thinking so much and trying to accept the fact that I’m not a mortal, which is really hard to accept for me.

We’re kind of feeling those sorts of things in real-time together, especially during this time. I’m sure it was incredibly cathartic to just let all that out.

It’s really cathartic doing something you really love, and I’ve really loved being in the studio and making music. When you kind of get into that flow and you start feeling really good? I love that. [It’s] a lot of hard work as well. Sometimes, I just had squeeze the words out of me, so it’s definitely been, it’s been a roller coaster. So, when people would be asking me about my process and stuff, I’m like, ‘I’m just vibin’.’ I’m just like, ‘I don’t know how to explain the process, I’m just like ‘hit record and vibe.’

I really hope [this album] matters and that it does something for someone, and that people can apply it to their own lives and take it in. [I hope] they think back in, like, five years time, and be like, ‘Oh, this music was really important to me in this time,’ and that they are taken back to this time of their lives and remember feelings. That’s the best part about music — looking back and seeing what it did for you.

Also on the album, there’s the topic of love: loving somebody, loving yourself. “Serotonin” is incredibly straightforward when it comes to those innermost thoughts [about loving yourself]. And what I appreciate about your music is that it’s honest, there’s no holds barred. Do you ever have a fear about coming forward when it comes to those intrusive thoughts that you have?

For that song particularly, I wrote it and I was like, ’wow, I had a lot of stuff I had to get out…’ So many people have their own perception of what it’s like dealing with different things. I’ve definitely had the thought of people not validating my experiences, or people not seeing this experience as something that’s song-worthy or whatever. I’ve definitely had those doubts, especially for [“Serotonin”]. I’ve never actually felt that way before that song, but you know, most comments have been great. Obviously there are people who are going to be like, ‘yo…this is too straightforward.’ But, I had so many therapists and people who work with OCD patients reach out. It is a very misunderstood disorder, and I’ve had people reach out to me and be like, ‘This is so important that you’re making this.’ I’m really proud, I just pulled through and did it.

As for love, I kind of feel like [the album tackles] a lot of unrequited love, and a lot of misunderstandings, but also very much realizing that I am a lot. It’s not all about what this other person did to me, it’s really about putting myself in other people’s shoes as well. So, “Midnight Love” is me not being someone’s booty call… I’m the booty caller. I’m writing from my booty call’s perspective… Oh my God. (laughs) Anyway, I’m also reflecting on what my actions do. In the song that’s just called “(.)”… it’s just a full stop. I’m heartbroken, but I’m also like ‘I could have done more to actually make this work.’ So, it’s not all about ‘I feel sorry for me,’ it’s also like, ‘I need to speak up about my feelings and I need to be more clear, I need to communicate.’

You’re still growing, still maturing and still trying to understand yourself. Growing pains come with so much nonsense and they hurt terribly sometimes. How do you continue to nurture your emotions and show yourself self-love while you’re on this journey?

That’s been really hard, and I kind of tap into that also on this record. During my song “Body And Mind,” I have lyrics about how “practicing self-love is something I don’t really know… I suppose I cannot live like this anymore,” which is about me realizing that I actually don’t love myself. I’ve loved myself before, but in this last year and a half, I’ve kind of grown to not love myself, and that’s been very painful. I really don’t wish that upon anyone ever, because it’s a very hard feeling to describe. I remember when I was younger, I couldn’t relate to when people said, ‘Oh my God, I hate myself.’ I was like, ‘How is that even possible?’ My friends also don’t understand what I mean when I say it because they’ve never done it, but it’s really painful.

So what I do now is try and do stuff that makes me happy. I hang out with my dog! She makes me happy. I try to shut down my inner voice — I’ve said that the rudest person I’ve ever met is myself. My inner voice is the rudest person I’ve ever talked to. So, I’m just really trying to do stuff that I like, and hang out with people that reinforce good things. And I try not to find stuff that reinforces all the bad stuff I taught myself.

I feel like I’ve kind of tried to do the very same thing on my own journey. I don’t dislike myself — I’ve just disliked the things that I’ve had to go through. They’re all making me a stronger person, but it’s like, ‘why, why, why?’

That’s so hard, too! You can say that to yourself, ‘it’s gonna make me stronger person,’ But it’s so hard to keep reminding yourself of that when you’re in the middle of it all. It’s kinda like when you know that you should be fully honest with someone, but it’s also really hard when you’re standing in front of that person. And then that person is asking you that question, you just don’t want to answer.

Exactly, we just have to stay positive. Plus, the world’s kind of trying to open up a little bit, so that could help. What are some of the plans or hopes that you have for 2021 and beyond as we push towards a little bit more of a brighter future?

I definitely kind of want to catch up on some stuff that I feel like I maybe missed out on last year that I want to do. I got some impulses last year to travel to certain places and go dancing and places, but, you know, I just couldn’t do anything with those impulses. This year — if I can — I wanna be with my friends and I really want to nurture all my friendships. Like, two years ago, I was hella depressed, and I was like, ‘I don’t need any friends. I just need to be making music. And I just need to be creating art all by myself. People who hang out with friends, what are you doing with your time? You need to create art.’ I was literally in this crazy bubble of depression, and just thinking that anything that was fun was bad. But now I’m like, no, fun is iconic. It’s so healthy to have fun! I want to go back on the road. I want to find a way to deal with touring that doesn’t kill me fully. I just want to hug my fans. I just want to be the best I can be. I just want to be warm and welcoming.

If I Could Make It Go Quiet is out now via AWAL. Get it here.

While 2019 was a quiet year for him, 21 Savage arrived in 2020 to make plenty of noise in the music world and deliver music his fans waited so long for, that being his Savage Mode II joint album with Metro Boomin. The sequel to their 2016 mixtape quickly became a year-end favorite among their supporters. It also help bring 21 Savage back into the spotlight, a trend that continues with his latest single, “Spiral.” The track arrives as a part of the upcoming Saw spinoff, Spiral: From The Book Of Saw, and was recently used for the film’s trailer which was released at the end of March.

After the trailer for the movie arrived, Variety reported that 21 Savage was enlisted to executive produce the soundtrack for Spiral: From The Book Of Saw. The film, which arrives on May 14, is produced by and stars Chris Rock who stands beside Samuel L. Jackson as a father-son duo who must face a Jigsaw copycat killer. The horror film is a perfect body of work for 21 Savage to provide music for. The Atlanta rapper has made a name for himself through spooky and menacing tracks that often err into the gruesome side of life and detail the nighttime dealing he experienced at various points in his life.

Before this, 21 Savage dropped a video for “Glock In My Lap,” joined YBN Nahmir for their “Opp Stoppa” track, and impressed R&B fans with his vocals during Keyshia Cole and Ashanti’s Verzuz.

Press play on “Spiral” in the video above.