Month: October 2021

Following a pandemic-addled year when Danny Brown’s annual celebration of the many sounds of Detroit had to resort to a livestream, Bruiser Thanksgiving 8 is back for 2021, live and direct. Taking place at the Russell Industrial Complex just south of Hamtramck, the new venue is a massive spot that sports “millions of square feet” on it’s website.

Scheduled for Wednesday, November 24, the concert is curated entirely by Brown and features diverse artists from the vibrant Detroit creative scene and other up and coming acts from beyond. While this year’s lineup hasn’t been announced yet, previous editions of the event have featured artists like Joey Bada$$, Sada Baby, Lil B, ZelooperZ, TEKLIFE, JLin, JPEGMAFIA, Portage Garage Sounds, Valee and others.

A statement from the event said that “Bruiser Thanksgiving is, at its core, a celebration of multidisciplinary musicians from different generations for the fans that love them thoughtfully assembled in one space. The festival highlights the city of Detroit and the Detroit community as a creative and cultural hotspot.”

In keeping with that mindset, Bruiser Thanksgiving once again has a fundraising component to benefit InsideOut Detroit, which has helped over 65,000 young Detroiters build skills through creative writing. Always a man of the people, tickets to the Warp Records-signed left-of-center rapper’s Bruiser Thanksgiving are a very reasonably priced: $20 early bird and $25 general admission. Those are on sale no right here.

Grimes had some time on her hands today. The artist and producer, most recently in the news for her breakup with partner Elon Musk, found another way to let the world know she’s single again. “Why be Microsoft when u can be Macrohard?” she wrote in a Tweet this evening, along with photos that reveal her chest and butt. But the photos are still very Grimes, with an abstract silver backdrop and what appears to be a hairnet on her head, along with plenty of face makeup and body chains.

While Instagram has been decidedly anti-nipple in recent years, Twitter seems to have no problem with the musician baring it all. This isn’t the first time in recent memory Grimes has put herself out there in an otherworldly costume. But in that incident, she gained more attention for what she was reading than what she was wearing (although that was weird too). Even Grimes had to admit, in the end, that she didn’t just happen to be out and about reading Karl Marx, and that the photos were staged. But it’s all “Love” for the producer, who continues to respond to the bad press she gets with a certain amount of ambivalence.

Diana Taurasi is active for Game 3 of the WNBA Finals after making contact with the officials during a tense moment of Game 2, as the league decided to fine her $2,500 rather than suspend her as the league’s rule book technically states she should be.

Asked about the fine pregame, Taurasi was nonchalant.

“When Twitter speaks, the league has to make decisions, right?” Taurasi said, with her usual dose of sarcasm.

During a dust-up between Phoenix Mercury forward Sophie Cunningham and Chicago Sky wing Kahleah Copper, a referee sprung into action and stood atop the two players. Taurasi, likely seeking to clear the area and avoid further issue for her teammate, grabbed ahold of a referee and moved her to the side.

But rather than enforce the rule to the letter of the law, the WNBA determined that Taurasi would instead be fined.

“I’m used to giving donations,” Taurasi said. “I felt like it’s been a while. It’s for a good cause.”

Always the trash talker and carrying a legendary reputation for confrontation with officials, Taurasi is no stranger to controversy. However, she made quite the wave with her decision on Wednesday to touch the referee, and though she joked before Game 3 about Twitter having sway, Taurasi actually got off much lighter than the internet seemed to want.

Once again, everyone’s favorite Hannah Montana star is just bein’ Miley. The TV star/pop star/rock star has been through the wringer over the past few years, trying to figure out who she is and if that involves hip-hop or not. Luckily, her most recent album, Plastic Hearts, seems to have firmly cemented a new identity and path for the ever-changing musician, and Miley is in a good place as an artist for the moment. So, it makes sense that she’d re-open her once iconic fan site MileyWorld to fans once more, and kick off the site’s relaunch with a special gift for fans.

For all those who couldn’t make it out to her performance at Austin City Limits last weekend, well the live and uncut video is now available. The trick is that it’s only available on her fan site — which was originally established all the way back in 2007 — so fans need to head to mileyworld.com in order to watch. Just add your email for exclusives like the live performance. Meanwhile, Cyrus has new management and a new label — she signed with Columbia Records back in March — and is gearing up to release more new music. Will it be another rock album? My money is that it will be.

I don’t know about you, but every time I hear “Havana,” my mind takes me to Camila Cabello’s unforgettable opening performance at the 2019 Grammys with Ricky Martin, J. Balvin, Arturo Sandoval, and Young Thug. It’s the ultimate performance of the grandiose Cuban banger and it was a fitting choice to open Cabello’s NPR Tiny Desk (Home) dispatch from Miami that dropped today.

“This is Tiny Desk but I got a big band!” Cabello said as she got going and boy did she. Over 24 players joined the pop singer throughout the tightly-packed beachside locale. She admitted that if she sounded a bit nasally when speaking, it was because of a “tiny sinus infection.” but it wasn’t noticeable in her vocal delivery in the least bit. She totally demolished the five songs that also included “Real Friends” (from her debut album Camila), “Señorita” (with no Shawn Mendes, but with a larger than life trombone by Mayerlin Carrero), “Don’t Go Yet,” and a brand new song from her upcoming album Familia, “La Buena Vida,” which closed out the set.

She professed her love for Tiny Desk throughout and definitely pulled out every stop for this performance. “La Buena Vida” was easily the highlight here as Cabello was joined by a full-on mariachi band. She flashed her incredible range rising with the mariachi horns and violins.

The release date for Familia has not been set yet, but you can watch Cabello’s full Tiny Desk Concert above.

Squid Game is still one of the most talked-about shows in Netflix’s history (behind the controversial Chappelle special The Closer this week as the toxic fallout continues to settle across social media). Ever the opportunist, meme-making rapper Soulja Boy couldn’t help but capitalize on the show’s popularity, sampling its eerie theme music for a new single that turns its harrowing children’s game theme into fodder for another of Soulja’s call-and-response dance hooks. As he chants, “Red light, green light,” the haunting choral vocals offer a spine-tingling counterpoint to the hip-rocking 808s.

Soulja’s never one to miss an opportunity for a viral moment, as he recently spent a week trolling Kanye West after being left off the rapper’s new album Donda. In addition to bringing up Kim Kardashian-West, Kanye’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Soulja Boy also demanded an apology on behalf of Taylor Swift, which suggests that he might not be experiencing time the same way the rest of us do. Soulja’s also no stranger to controversy himself; in July, Soulja was ordered to stay away from a former assistant who sued him in January claiming sexual assault, sexual battery, and false imprisonment during her time working for him. Meanwhile, in a separate lawsuit, Soulja Boy was accused by an ex-girlfriend of domestic abuse and sexual battery as well.

While Squid Game might be Netflix’s most popular series of all time, it looks like it might have taken awhile for the U.S. to get their iconic calling cards summoning them to watch the spectacle. According to the U.S. Nielsen streaming chart (via Indie Wire), during the week of September 13 to September 19 — the week Squid Game premiered — the series’ was not one of the top ten most watched programs in the United States. Instead, a familiar and devilishly sly show stole the show with a whopping 1,5888 million minute viewed: Lucifer. Oh and here’s the complete list, just in case you gotta see this for yourself:

1. Lucifer (Netflix) – 1,588 million minutes

2. Clickbait (Netflix) – 732 million minutes

3. Sex Education (Netflix) – 595 million minutes

4. The Circle (Netflix) – 444 million minutes

5. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu) – 311 million minutes

6. Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu) – 297 million minutes

7. Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror (Netflix) – 268 million minutes

8. What If…? (Disney+) – 243 million minutes

9. LulaRich (Amazon Prime Video) – 242 million minutes

10. Money Heist (Netflix) – 224 million minutes

While just how much Netflix accounts for the Nielsen top 10 is pretty staggering, Lucifer‘s place at the top of this list actually makes a whole lot of sense considering how the show’s been dragged to hell and back (pun absolutely intended). Based on the DC Comics character created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg in the series The Sandman, Lucifer began airing on Fox to high-viewership but mixed reviews until it was ultimately canceled following its third season. Shortly after news of its cancellation got out, Netflix announced it would be picking up the series for its fourth season, much to the delight of the show’s loyal fans. In 2019, Netflix announced the show would get a fifth and final season, however, prior to the fifth season airing, Netflix reversed the decision, giving the show a sixth and final season.

All this considered, it makes sense folks tuned in to watch the season that was never intended to exist. Must still, perhaps the most interesting thing on this list is the absence of Netflix’s hit show Squid Game. While Squid Game is now a global phenomenon and Netflix’s most popular original series, it appears its initial reception in the U.S. was not nearly as record-shattering as it would ultimately go on to be. While the show did rack up 206 million minutes of viewing, it ultimately fell short of landing a spot on the top of the Nielsen US streaming chart.

But hey, don’t feel too bad for Squid Game. In addition to crashing websites, generating a ton of Emmy buzz, and a spawning real-life version of show’s dark competition, it also might be getting a second season, and if so there’s no doubt in our minds the grim and gruesome show will give even the almighty Lucifer a run for his money.

One of the players that the Orlando Magic received in its deadline day trade of Nikola Vucevic isn’t going anywhere any time soon. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Magic agreed to a contract extension with fourth-year big man Wendell Carter Jr. after having him on the roster for 22 games down the stretch last season.

Charania reports that the deal will pay Carter $50 million over the next four years, with Carter getting a fully guaranteed deal.

The seventh overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, Carter spent two and a half years as a member of the Chicago Bulls before getting traded to Orlando. While Carter put up solid numbers, he struggled with injuries in the Windy City and wasn’t always the most snug fit alongside Lauri Markkanen. Eventually, Chicago packaged Carter, Otto Porter Jr., and a pair of first-round draft picks and sent them to Orlando for Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu, and while Vucevic is part of a Bulls core that intends to push for the postseason this year, the 22-year-old Carter has established himself as piece that Orlando plans on building around going forward alongside guys like Markelle Fultz, Jonathan Isaac, and Jalen Suggs.

For his career, Carter has averaged 11 points and 8.2 rebounds in 26.5 minutes per game.

After initially blowing up on TikTok, it became clear that London producer PinkPantheress was so much more than a social media star. First of all, she opted for anonymity instead of seeking to immediately build a personal social media empire, and secondly, her songs are more complex and layered than a lot of the work found on the video-sharing platform. In the video for one of her most recent breakout singles, the lovelorn “Just For Me,” the 20-something producer stands quietly in front of a DJ booth, singing sweetly to a crowd of sad teens, who comfort each other with hugs, laptops and phones. Her restrained aesthetic stands in stark contrast to the become-a-star-at-all-costs methods that plenty of try-hard performers adopt when trying to go viral. PinkPantheress doesn’t try to go viral, at all, she simply produces music that’s such a perfect conglomeration of sounds from the last two decades, it’s practically guaranteed to rack up hundreds of thousands of plays. (“Just For Me” is quickly approaching 2 million streams)

Which isn’t to say there’s anything derivative about her sound, as exemplified on her debut mixtape, To Hell With It. On the tape, she begins to toy with her subdued style, occasionally whipping the glitchy, patchwork melodies into towering, stormy tracks that are reminiscent of Chicago’s footwork scene. “I Must Apologise” leans into this shimmering, speedy style, while “Last Valentines” mixes a shivery double-time beat with the dark drama of pop-punk emotionalism. “Just For Me” is arguably the best track on the tape, but other standouts like “Pain” and “All My Friends Know” are deliciously upbeat renditions of the most heart-wrenching phases of a breakup. “Did you ever want me? No worries if not,” PinkPantheress deadpans on the latter. “It’s just that I, I told my mom, she thinks we’re still going strong.” Very few songwriters could get at the additional embarrassment that delivering the news of a breakup to loved ones obviously incurs, but this meditative track is a candid look into the self-loathing that’s so often at the heart of a relationship’s destruction.

Though she’s often cited early 2000s pop, K-pop, and pop-punk as influences, there’s no undermining the foundation of electronic music traditions To Hell With It is built upon, and she effortlessly incorporates samples from these traditions into her work. The way PinkPantheress pulls from so many different sounds and shapes them into a cohesive whole, one that’s spiked with both nostalgia and future-yearning emotion, reminds me of J Dilla’s work as a producer and DJ more than anything else. Not to equate the earliest mixtape from an artist who barely tuned twenty with the most legendary producer in the world, but to note that her ability to see how many disparate parts could form a new whole is the same quality that the most influential producers and DJs always seem to possess. For her to be this early in the arc of her career and already working in the range she’s in is not just impressive, it’s exciting. PinkPantheress isn’t a TikTok star, she’s a producer, and we’re just lucky social media brought her to our attention so soon.

Stream To Hell With It below.

I’ll never forget my first time. It was my junior year of college, back when Facebook was just a couple of years old. I had just returned from a year abroad to tackle my senior year. Coincidentally, a friend was assigned to live in the room across the hall from me. He popped into my room and said, “Want to stop over for a cocktail and a Volcano?”

I was down for the drink but had no idea what the Volcano was. Anyway, the drink turned out to be a bit of a bait-and-switch — my friend just squeezed a lime into a tequila shot and sipped it like a martini. The Volcano, however, ended up being a revelation.

The Volcano, which celebrated its 20th birthday last year, is a tabletop vaporizer for cannabis flower. When it comes to weed gear and stoner culture, the device is regarded as an iconic crown jewel. It was designed and is manufactured by German company Storz & Bickel, which these days is owned by cannabis corporate giant Canopy Growth Corp.

“Storz &Bickel quite literally invented the vaporizer market,” Jurgen Bickel, co-founder of Storz & Bickel told me in an interview for Forbes last year. He’s right. But how has it held up over time? Leaps and bounds have been made when it comes to vaporizer technology, with one of the greatest changes being the portability of devices nowadays. The Volcano, which is intended to be stationary, needs to be plugged in to be used and also is heavy and cumbersome to carry around.

Why use that when I have a trusty PAX 3? Which is basically just a fat version of the brand’s pocket-sized vape?

Part of the answer comes from knowing how the Volcano works. There’s a chamber to deposit the ground buds, which is then affixed to a conical base. A big, deflated, clear balloon bag with an orange plastic mouthpiece on the bottom is inserted into the base, on top of the flower chamber.

All that’s left to do from there is to flip a switch, be impressed with how loud the vacuum is, and watch the balloon bag fill up translucent air within a matter of 20-30 seconds. The balloon comes off the base easily, from which, a person is expected to inhale. The idea is that a bag is good for three or four people each to take a hit. One bag for one person is also another way to do it, and a good way to ensure couch lock on the horizon.

It’s cool, kitschy, and incredibly fun. Seriously, watching that balloon inflate will give you the giggles pre-sesh, which is saying something.

Hype and charm aside, this still the best dry herb vaporizer on the market. The Volcano’s present iterations have additional bells and whistles, but not too many, lest it deviates too far from its original and near-perfect simplicity. The original dial still remains, with temperature settings between 1-10. I have found that Between 6 and 8 are the optimal temperatures — the heat intensity results in a clean, potent, and intense vape cloud with the best flavor a vaporizer can produce. In general, it’s helpful to remember that the lower the temperature, the more flavor will be preserved, but the high will also be less potent. Finding the sweet spot for your preferences is part of the fun.

Last year, Storz &Bickel released a gold Volcano for the device’s anniversary. This year, they have again deviated from the silver base to release a chic, limited-edition version of the original. Called the Onyx, it retails for $699 and features a scratch-free interior coating and matte black exterior. The Onyx Volcano also is treated with a damage-resistant powder coating to ensure longevity. After trying it about eight thousand times, I can confirm: it’s still the best vaporizer on the market, portable or not. The Onyx also comes in a “Hybrid” model, which also has an inhalation tube, akin to a hookah, in addition to the balloon and sports a digital screen for numerical temperature reading.

What other weed smoking device comes with a self-made dorky documentary?

While the presence of a tabletop vaporizer may seem like an intense foray into the land of weed gear for some people, the truth is that it should be considered a required item for anyone who smokes regularly. Firstly, vaping is healthier than any other combustion method. Secondly, the Volcano’s base is easy to store in a cabinet, closet, or under a bed — to give a few examples — and only occupies the same shelf space that a small houseplant would. The flavor is unbeatable, as far as either vapes or smoking is concerned, and Storz & Bickel has a good track record for longevity, producing well-made products that don’t often break.

It’s an investment, sure, but a worthy one. If you like to smoke.

When I think back to 2007, when my 21-year-old-self huffed out of a Volcano for the first time, I smile. That stoned college kid had no idea that, one day, weed writing would ever be a job she could have, much less that weed would ever be legal and that she’d one day be paid to vape from a Volcano to then review it. What a time to be alive.

To celebrate, I think I’ll have a hit from a balloon. What better to make me marvel at life’s strange turns?