Year: 2022

While music has long been a part of the Tim And Eric formula, Tim Heidecker has been taking non-comedic music more seriously in recent years. In 2020, he dropped his well-received album Fear Of Death and now he’s getting ready to share another: Today, he announced High School is set for release on June 24.

Heidecker produced the album with Mac DeMarco, Eric D. Johnson (best-known for being a member of Fruit Bats, The Shins, and Bonny Light Horseman), and Drew Erickson (who just this year has worked with Lana Del Rey, Father John Misty, and Florence And The Machine). Also involved with the project is Kurt Vile, who features on a song called “Sirens Of Titan.”

This comes after Heidecker also had an impressive lineup of indie collaborators on Fear Of Death, which featured contributions from Weyes Blood, Stella Mozgawa 0f Warpaint, Brian and Michael D’Addario of The Lemon Twigs, and Jonathan Rado of Foxygen, as well as audio engineering from Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties.

Heidecker also announced a new tour, which will consist of both musical performances (alongside the Very Good Band) and stand-up comedy.

Watch the “Buddy” video above. Below, find the High School art and tracklist, as well as Heidecker’s upcoming tour dates.

1. “Buddy”
2. “Chillin’ In Alaska”
3. “Future Is Uncertain”
4. “Get Back Down To Me”
5. “I’ve Been Losing”
6. “Punch In The Gut”
7. “Stupid Kid”
8. “Sirens Of Titan” Feat. Kurt Vile
9. “What Did We Do With Our Time?”
10. “Kern River”

07/05 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Elysian
07/06 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Elysian
07/07 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Elysian
07/08 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Elysian
07/09 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Elysian
07/10 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Elysian
07/11 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Elysian
07/13 — San Francisco, CA @ Palace of Fine Arts
07/15 — Portland, OR @ The Aladdin
07/16 — Vancouver, British Columbia @ Vogue Theatre
07/17 — Seattle, WA @ The Neptune
07/20 — Minneapolis, MN @ Fitzgerald Theater
07/21 — Madison, WI @ Barrymore Theatre
07/22 — Chicago, IL @ The Vic
07/23 — Cleveland, OH @ The Agora
07/24 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian
07/25 — Toronto, Ontario @ Danforth Music Hall
07/27 — Boston, MA @ The Wilbur
07/28 — Providence, RI @ Columbus Theatre
07/29 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
07/30 — Washington, D.C. @ Capital Turnaround
07/31 — Durham, NC @ Carolina Theatre
08/01 — Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
08/03 — Houston, TX @ The Heights Theater
08/04 — Austin, TX @ The Paramount
08/05 — Dallas, TX @ The Factory Studio
08/07 — St. Charles, IA @ Hinterland Music Festival
08/08 — Kansas City, MO @ The Truman
08/09 — Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater
08/10 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union
08/12 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
08/24 — Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House

High School is out 6/24 via Spacebomb. Pre-order it here.

Final Fantasy is one of the most influential franchises ever created. The long-running JRPG franchise is credited with not only turning Square Enix into the giant publisher it is today but also popularizing an entire genre in the western parts of the world. It’s possible that without games like Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy VII we would have never seen JRPGs grow the way they did.

While no single person is responsible for the popularity of Final Fantasy, a lot of credit goes to Hironobu Sakaguchi. He is frequently credited as the creator of Final Fantasy and while he hasn’t touched the series since 2003 his influence on it can’t be understated. Even now his influence can be seen in places like Final Fantasy XIV where, despite him not actually working on the game, he has accidentally created his own clothing line.

Sakaguchi is a big fan of Final Fantasy XIV and has been tweeting about his adventures through the smash hit MMO. However, not only does he make no effort to hide his username, but he used his own name so it would be easier for players to recognize him as they go about the world.

While this is very cool for fans of the franchise, it created an accidental market inefficiency in the game when Sakaguchi would craft items. In Final Fantasy XIV, player crafted items have their name attached to them so when players would buy items from Sakaguchi they would eventually get resold at higher prices because of the name recognition He essentially created a clothing line for himself by complete accident, one that has been dubbed the “sakaGUCCI” line. Since Sakaguchi did not want to break the economy of a game he enjoys he had to find a way around it. He explained what he did in an interview with IGN and also talked about his new potential as a clothing designer.

“Pieces I craft have my name on them, so if I put them on the market they’ll get resold, destroying the game’s balanced economy… But that also means I’m handicapped by not being able to sell what I craft on the market,” he explains.

Sakaguchi’s solution is to make players bind the items to themselves. As a result, players can’t sell the item on the market, but in effect it means that the item is now priceless. Sakaguchi has been conducting giveaways in-games, with some items going to acquaintance and others going to a handful of players, allowing him to put his own unique mark on the world of Final Fantasy 14.

Indeed, Sakaguchi’s career as a fashion designer may be just beginning.

“Please, IGN,” he jokes, “help me collab with the real Gucci.”

The entire interview with IGN is a real treat to read because it lets us see how much Sakaguchi still loves the franchise he helped create despite not working on Final Fantasy anymore, and who knows maybe this is the first step towards him getting an actual Gucci collaboration some day.

Just weeks away from their third studio album Blue Water Road, Kehlani has revealed the star-studded tracklist. With the album intro “Little Story” already setting the stage for a cohesive body of work and the album’s lead single “Altar” demonstrating Kehlani’s powerful vocals, Blue Water Road is promising to be their most intimate work to date.

Earlier this month, Kehlani dropped their Justin Bieber collaboration “Up All Night,” showcasing a groovy musical chemistry between the two. Upon the album’s release, we’ll hear collaborations with LA singer Blxst, Jessie Reyez, and Syd.

Kehlani recently collaborated with Syd on “Out Loud” from her sophomore album Broken Hearts Club. The two first collaborated on “Birthday” from electronic duo Disclosure’s 2020 album, Energy.

On the album’s closing track, “Wondering/Wandering,” Kehlani shares the bill with Thundercat and Ambre, the lattermost they collaborated with on a 2016 single called “No Service In The Hills.”

Check out the tracklist below.

1. “Little Story”
2. “Any Given Sunday” Feat. Blxst
3. “Shooter Interlude”
4. “Wish I Never”
5. “Up At Night” Feat. Justin Bieber
6. “Get Me Started” Feat. Syd
7. “Everythin Interlude”
8. “More Than I Should” Feat. Jessie Reyez
9. “Altar”
10. “Melt”
11. “Tangerine”
12. “Everything”
13. “Wondering/Wandering” Feat. Thundercat and Ambre

Blue Water Road is out 4/29 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

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

Kim Kardashian has a new TV show to promote. With the premiere of The Kardashians coming to Hulu on April 14th, Kim is making the press rounds and sparking juicy details about her life (hello again never-ending Kanye West and Pete Davidson drama!) to drum up interest for the new show. Would you expect anything else? So In a recent interview on the celebrity gossip podcast Not Skinny But Not Fat, Kardashian opened up about not talking to Ye for an extended period of time following their divorce, and how Davidson was quickly on the prowl for her heart as soon as he found out she was single again.

“We went about eight months without even speaking to each other at the beginning of the divorce,” Kardashian told host Amanda Hirsch. “And then, you know, we started talking again and I went to the Donda premiere. He would still see the kids and stuff, just him and I took a minute of not talking. And I think it all, in relationships, it’ll be like that. I only hope for, I hope we are the ‘co-parenting goals’ at the end of the day.”

You gotta admire Kardashian’s optimism to want to be model parents, despite all of the very public and very messy details of their divorce, which recently included Kanye searching for legal loopholes to stall the finalization of the filing. She spoke about how fan bases and the public influence the perception of what they’re still going through, but added that, “I’m always really hopeful and he’s also an amazing dad.”

Kardashian also spent time talking about her relationship with Pete Davidson and how he was trying to get her number pretty soon after she and Kanye began their divorce process. “His story is that he had been asking around for my number,” she said. “And everyone wasn’t sure, you know, ‘Is she going through a divorce?’ And he just wanted to wait a little bit.”

Listen to the whole episode of Not Skinny But Not Fat with Kim Kardashian above.

Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.

Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week we got new albums by Jack White, Father John Misty, Orville Peck, Wet Leg and more.

While we’re at it, sign up for our newsletter to get the best new indie music delivered directly to your inbox, every Monday.

Jack White — Fear Of The Dawn

The last album we got from Jack White 2018’s eclectic Boarding House Reach. But with his latest LP Fear Of The Dawn, White both rocks harder and leans into his experimental side. Some song like “Eosophobia” and “Fear Of The Dawn” are laced with frantic guitars while other tracks like the Q-Tip collaboration “Hi-De-Ho” try out a new sound.

Father John Misty — Chloë And The Next 20th Century

Over the last decade or so, Father John Misty has carved a space for himself in indie music with cerebral ballads and tongue-in-cheek social commentaries. Now back with his fifth studio album Chloë And The Next 20th Century, FJM continues to satirize modern life while drawing inspiration from melancholic film scores.

Orville Peck — Bronco

Famed masked country singer Orville Peck officially dropped his album Bronco this week, which he released as a series of EPs. The 15-track project continues his discography of lustful country ballads, trading in sparse instrumentation for bold production and colorful percussion.

Wet Leg — Wet Leg

UK band Wet Leg proved they live up to the hype with their anticipated debut album, Wet Leg. As a whole, the album is playful and infectious, combining shimmering chords with bouncy riffs and genuinely funny lyrics.

The Linda Lindas — Growing Up

Teen (and pre-teen) rockers The Linda Lindas became ones to watch after a performance of their song “Racist, Sexist Boy” went viral. Now signed to Epitaph, The Linda Lindas release their debut album Growing Up. All ten of the cathartic tracks are a way for The Linda Lindas members to release their angst over ripping chords and catchy choruses.

Good Looks — Bummer Year

Austin-based four-piece Good Looks’ debut album Bummer Year is dreamy-yet-honest. As self-described “blue-collar bad boys being blatantly vulnerable,” the band reckon with loss and depression with twangy guitars, washed-out chords, and wistful lyrics.

Florist — “Red Bird Pt. 2”

LA-based band Florist shared the touching track “Red Bird Pt. 2” this week, a tender rumination on love, loss, and the natural world. The song officially announces Florist’s self-titled LP, which according to vocalist Emily Sprague is “an album journey very much about the celebration of the people in our lives and the massive importance of connection.”

Hovvdy — “Town”

It hasn’t been long since duo Hovvdy released their 2021 album True Love, but they’ve continued rolling out new music with the nostalgia-inducing track “Town.” The melodic track purposefully focuses on its instrumentals rather than its lyrics, with band member Charlie Martin saying, ” “With ‘Town’ I wanted the instrumental to do the heavy lifting, leaning less on storytelling.”

Charlie Hickey — “Dandelions”

Phoebe Bridgers-cosigned songwriter Charlie Hickey has proved himself one to watch with his recent singles. Now releasing the tender track “Dandelions,” Hickey delivers a thoughtful ballad over a gentle, rolling beat.

Giant Waste Of Man — “Jumpsuit”

LA indie rockers Giant Waste Of Man dropped the effortlessly breezy tune “Jumpsuit” this week, the second single following their 2019 album The Politics Of Lonely. The song starts off with warm and jaunty tones before breaking out into a shoe-gazey mix of fuzzy guitars.

Porridge Radio — “The Rip”

Following up on their 2020 Mercury Music Prize-nominated breakthrough album Every Bad, Porridge Radio has been previewing their upcoming LP Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky with a handful of rousing tracks. “The Rip” is no different, combining urgent lyrics with eerie guitar distortion and an explosive bridge to create an impactful song.

Imagine winning enough money in the lottery to be able to do pretty much anything you want. Travel the world in luxury. Buy multiple mansions and expensive cars. Hire a gourmet chef to prepare all of your meals. Yachts seem particularly popular among the uber-wealthy. With more than $200 million, there are few material wishes you couldn’t fulfill.

But what if your biggest, truest wish was to save the planet from destruction?

An anonymous Frenchman who won 200 million euros (the U.S. equivalent of approximately $218 million) in the Euromillions lottery in 2020 has chosen to use his winnings to preserve and revitalize Earth. The man, nicknamed “Guy” by French lottery group Françaises des Jeux (FDJ), has not identified himself publicly, but has created a foundation called Anyama, named after an Ivory Coast city, for the purpose of protecting the planet. He shared an open letter on the Anyama website explaining why he’s using his windfall this way.

“The Anyama endowment fund is the result of an imperious desire to act for nature and human beings that I have had for years,” he wrote (translated from French). “Above all, it is the expression of a conviction that I want to share with as many people as possible: giving makes people happy, and constitutes a tremendous lever for transforming indignation into concrete and useful actions.”

Euromillions: this winner of the 2nd biggest jackpot in history donates the money to a foundation for the planet https://ift.tt/6lWVt2ou00a0pic.twitter.com/gPoRO6RfJx

— One Line Updates (@One Line Updates)
1649317239

He explained how seeing truckloads of trees cut from the forests of Burkina Faso passing through the Ivory Coast (where he had spent several years as a child, according to Le Parisien) impacted him. He wrote that he has always only entered lotteries with “important jackpots,” specifically for the purpose of creating a charitable foundation.

“My dream has never been to acquire boats, castles or other sports cars,” he wrote, “it is to be useful and to give meaning to this money, with maximum positive impact. So that’s what I’m doing today by creating Anyama, which acts for the benefit of the common good of all, with one watchword: protect the living. This is for me the urgency of our time and most certainly of the many years to come, in the interest of future generations.”

The focus of action for the foundation revolves around the conservation of forests and revitalization of biodiversity, but also around support for human caregivers as well.

“Family caregivers are an essential link in our society,” the Anyama website reads. “Accompanying them also means protecting the living in each of us. People in a situation of dependency linked to age, illness or disability are a significant burden for caregivers. Anyama’s ‘Caregivers’ program will support projects aimed at supporting, training, relieving or welcoming family carers.”

Guy sees man and nature as one whose vulnerabilities overlap.

“Man, for years, believed he could exploit nature without taking into account his own membership in this ecosystem, freeing himself from the rules that guarantee its balance,” he wrote. “This observation obliges us to ‘pay attention to others,’ to act to protect and regenerate.”

According to Le Figaro, Guy told French newspaper Le Parisien that he has already given most of his winnings to the foundation, and that he would “progressively give almost all” of the money to it. He appears to have no desire for notoriety or recognition, saying he plans to “continue to live peacefully, in the most total discretion.”

FDJ told Agence France-Presse that it is not uncommon for winners to be generous with their lottery money, but the proportion Guy is donating to philanthropy is a “great first.”

What a refreshing approach to becoming a multimillionaire: Genuine generosity and humility, and a desire to use wealth for the betterment of humanity and our home. Congratulations, Guy. It sounds like you deserved this win.

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name … and also where women’s sports finally get the attention they deserve.

Welcome to a bar that finally has both.

At this Portland pub, the TV screens are dominated by female athletes, whether that be in gymnastics, basketball, soccer, you name it. The drinks served come from a women-owned distillery and have clever sports-themed names, like the GOAT (gin, orgeat, aperol, tangerine juice) and the Triple Axel, a nod to Tonya Harding’s signature move.

The spot is aptly named The Sports Bra. Because yes, it supports women.

According to a Unesco study, 40% of professional athletes are female. And yet, women’s sports make up only 4% of all sports coverage.

Founder, owner and sports fan Jenny Nguyen told The Guardian, “Our approach is to take that 4% that is showing and put it on blast.”

See on Instagram

Nguyen came up with the idea after watching a championship women’s game on a tiny TV—the only one in the bar—with no sound. She knew the only way she’d ever be able to watch a game with all the fanfare would be to create her own space.

Her unique establishment aims to not only shine a light on the gender imbalance of sports coverage, but to tip the scales as well.

At The Sports Bra, there’s really only one winning strategy at play: “belonging, acceptance, and celebration for all.”

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The food menu includes much more than traditional bar grub to accommodate for vegetarian, vegan and even dairy-free folks (nachos are great, but choices are better), plus you won’t be seeing a “women only” sign on the door.

Even kids are welcome, as the bar believes “exposing them to women’s sports can have lasting impacts on their understanding of equity in sports and in life.” It sounds like an oasis for the mom who just wants to eat some fried cauliflower and watch some WNBA with kids in tow.

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Five television screens are mounted on the walls, along with framed jerseys and memorabilia from various women’s teams. When there are no women’s games available to play, the TVs will simply be turned off. Again, illuminating the lack of coverage available.

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Nguyen shared that “I would love to play 24-7 women’s sports in here, but it’s just not possible.” Rather than admit defeat, however, she added, “we use that weakness as a talking point to draw attention to it.”

In making this dream a reality, Nguyen has been a team player. “It really has taken a village,” she told Oregon Live, calling her staff “the best staff on the planet.”

That village includes Nguyen’s cousin Ayu, who painted the bar’s giant sports themed mural filled with bold greens and pinks.

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In terms of concept, execution and intention, so far The Sports Bra has been a slam dunk.

See on Instagram

The bar had its grand opening on April 1, but the turnout was no joke. Crowds spilled out onto the sidewalk. Cheerleaders waved pom poms. The Kickstarter campaign had already raised $100,000 from backers. People happily waited for hours just to take a peek inside. Safe to say, they were betting on the bar’s success.

It might be the only one of its kind for now, but hopefully that will change soon. In the meantime, we’ll be cheering Nguyen and her team from the sidelines.

21-year-old indie-pop up-and-comer Jordana began busking at 13 years old on the boardwalk of her town of North Beach, Maryland. Now she’s prepping for the release of her new album Face The Wall, arriving just next month. She unveiled the single “To The Ground” today, a luscious, introspective ballad about getting older.

She opens by singing, “Accountability is something that should not be new to me,” a vulnerable confession that showcases her determination to move towards her goal of becoming more responsible. The atmosphere of the track is laid-back and glowing; the sound is similar to that of her lo-fi peers Deb Never and Chapell Roan, but it also has an alt-rock edge, like Beabadoobee on her most recent album, Fake It Flowers.

“It’s about being alone and starting from square one, not knowing how and where to start, a venture into adulthood,” Jordana explains. “With the path to growing up, it’s wanting to not ask for any help on any growth to feel accomplished and self brought up, emotionally and physically. The only help being asked for in this song is to be stripped completely and figuratively thrown to the ground to get back up.”

Listen to “To The Ground” above.

Face The Wall is out 5/20 via Grand Jury. Pre-order it here.

DJ Jazzy Jeff, Will Smith‘s friend and Grammy-winning collaborator, spoke for us all when he tweeted his thoughts on the Fresh Prince slapping Chris Rock during the Oscars.

Jazz has since expanded on his thoughts during an interview with Chicago radio station 107.5 WCGI (via People). “Don’t get it twisted that it was something he was proud of. It was a lapse in judgment, you know?” The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor said. “I think the thing that I’ve realized is I don’t know too many people that has had the least amount of lapse of judgment than him. I can name 50 times that he should’ve smacked the sh*t out of somebody and he didn’t.” Unfortunately, that 51st time was during Hollywood’s biggest night when 15 million people were watching at home.

Jazz continued:

“So, for him to have a lapse in judgment, he’s human. And I think a lot of the criticism comes from the people who don’t think people like that are human.”

Here’s a dramatic reenactment of DJ Jazzy Jeff protecting Smith from criticism:

Others (not named Billy Crystal and Jim Carrey) in the entertainment industry who have worked with Smith have also come to his defense. “To me, it’s just like, enough of it. All right, so a dramatic thing happened, but I just think we’ve got to get our priorities straight,” Bad Boys director Michael Bay said about the Slap. Would he work with Smith again? “Absolutely, 100 percent,” he replied. “He’s a very even-keeled guy.”

Chris Rock has yet to comment on the incident, and won’t until he gets paid.

(Via People)

Dan Snyder and the Washington Commanders have gone from being in trouble with the NFL, as the league investigated numerous allegations of a toxic workplace environment (ultimately leading in the firing of Jon Gruden from the Raiders due to emails to Washington executive Bruce Allen), to being in trouble with Congress, which is a far worse fate.

The Congressional Committee on Oversight and Reform began looking into the organization’s business practices recently (on top of the hostile workplace allegations), learning from a former executive that the team kept “two books” of finances to deceive the league, and on Tuesday released its findings to the Federal Trade Commission, including on the record statements from former team sales executive Jason Friedman.

You can read the report in its entirety here, but there are two findings highlighted at the top of the report that figure to be the most damning to Snyder and the organization, both in losing further trust with fans and the league itself. The first is that the team purposefully created roadblocks and made it difficult for fans to get back their refundable deposit placed for season tickets after their lease term had ended, resulting in $5 million still having not been returned as of 2016.

According to Mr. Friedman, and consistent with documents he provided to the Committee, as of July 2016 the team had unreturned security deposits for “around 2,000 accounts” belonging to customers and fans totaling “approximately $5 million.

That money was then hidden from the NFL to avoid having it count as revenue from football business, along with other NFL ticket revenue that the organization would mark as revenue from licensing fees and handling fees, so it wouldn’t end up in the league’s revenue-sharing. Friedman explained to the committee how they would do this by collecting $11 more per seat from customers than they reported to the NFL and would hide that as licensing fees for things like college football games and concerts at FedEx Field.

Well, in this particular case and other cases similar to this, $162,360 was shielded from the NFL revenue sharing program; that even though we sold $811,800 worth of tickets, we reported that sale to the NFL at a total of $721,600, leaving $162,360 of juice, of money that would just go right into the owner’s pocket and didn’t have to be exposed to the NFL revenue sharing program.
…
So our stadium has a manifest similar to a manifest that you would see for airplane seating, and each seat has a dollar amount assigned to it. In this particular case, the dollar amount assigned to each one of these seats in the manifest was $44; but in fact we collected $55 per seat from this customer, times 14,760 seats times $11 per seat equals $162,360, which that amount would then be allocated to a different type of line item in our database, a line item that was not exposed to NFL revenue sharing.

The fact that the committee sites specific emails showing this practice taking place, along with this interview from Friedman, certainly seems to provide them with a smoking gun to pin some serious financial fraud claims on the organization. From an NFL perspective, if there were anything that would get other owners to act against Snyder and try to push him out, withholding money from the rest of them certainly seems like the thing that would get their attention. You can get away with a lot of things as an NFL owner, including fostering a toxic workplace environment, but messing with the money is not on that list and it’s very possible that like Al Capone, Snyder won’t be going down for the worst things, like dreadful treatment of women and other employees within the organization, but for the NFL’s version of tax evasion, hiding money from the league’s revenue-sharing program.