Category: News

It’s Janelle Monáe’s world, and we all live in it. Jason Isbell is just glad to be along for the ride. After several clips of Monáe flashing their bare breast to the crowd went viral (as did her “Lipstick Lover” visual), social media was flooded with varying opinions. While some begged for more, others weren’t pleased with the musician. However, Isbell is confused by the backlash over Monáe’s NSFW video.

He tweeted, “Wait, there are people who don’t like Janelle’s video? Seriously I don’t know wtf you people want if it isn’t that,” adding, “There are some things we all just agree it’s awesome so we can go about our business. Like gold, diamonds, Outkast, and this video.”

Isbell isn’t the only musician impressed by the video. Cardi B uploaded (and quickly deleted) a sexual meme to give her stamp of approval.

Over the last few weeks, the musician has let it all hang out as they count down the days to the release of their forthcoming album, The Age Of Pleasure. But, eventually, the musician decided to lean into their freedom of expression nixing their designer duds at the 2023 Met Gala for a string bikini which she then wore as she danced atop a New York bar.

Monáe doesn’t care about the backlash, writing on Twitter, “Titties out for the next 15 years.” The entertainer has had quite the about-face since the “Float” singer threatened to withhold future releases after a fan joked about the Monáe former conservative black-and-white wardrobe.

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

Buffalo Trace is one of the most beloved distilleries in America. It’s also one of the most award-winning. Iconic names like Colonel E.H. Taylor, Blanton’s, Elmer T. Lee, Stagg, and Pappy Van Winkle all help that love (and hype) spread throughout the whiskey-drinking world. But as with any distillery worth its salt, there’s so much more than big names and awards to BT. Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley has been tinkering with an Experimental Collection of spirits for years now and he just dropped a brand new one.

Below, I’ll be reviewing the 26th edition of Wheatley’s Experimental Collection — a peated bourbon. Peated whiskey is traditionally a very Scottish thing but people have been playing around with peated malted barley in bourbon a little bit recently. Kings County Distillery and J. Riddle both have peated bourbons and even WhistlePig is getting in on the smoke game with their SmokeStock Whiskey.

Still, this is a very niche style of bourbon that’s in its infancy. That makes it fascinating to try. Check my review below.

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Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection Straight Bourbon Whiskey Made With Peated Malt

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $46 (.375ml bottle or half bottle)

The Whiskey:

This whiskey is made from an experimental mash bill of high-rye bourbon that replaces the classic malted barley with peated malted barley. That’s barley that’s kilned (dried to stop germination) with peat as a heat source, which imbues smoke (phenols if you want to get all sciencey about it) into the barley grains. The whiskey was distilled and barreled back in November 2012 in only six barrels. Those barrels were stored on low floors of warehouses C and D for 10 years. Over that time, 65% of that whiskey evaporated.

Finally, the whiskey was batched and proofed down before bottling before a run through a chill filter.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose opens with a mild sense of old cigar smoke in a leathery old library with a layer of vanilla pods, dark chocolate-covered marzipan, and rich and butter toffee next to deeply stewed stone fruits with a dash of woody spice.

Palate: The palate is silken and lush with a sense of gomme syrup (it’s almost velvety) that gives way to brown butter vanilla malt over salted toffee and smoky campfire burnt marshmallow with a faint whisper of smoked prune and cherry.

Finish: The end leans into the campfire smokiness as the vanilla, fruit, and marzipan fade out, leaving you with a sense of burnt sugars and vanilla tobacco pouches next to a lingering sense of burning sage, cinnamon bark, and allspice leaves that just inch into ashy bitterness.

Bottom Line:

The end of this really starts getting ashy and that can be a big turn-off for some people. I dig it in that it takes classic Kentucky bourbon and adds a whole new dimension in a subtle way that gently builds to boldness. The profile eases you into the peated smokiness.

Still, this is a really unique bourbon and feels like you really need a baseline to enjoy it. If you already dig the peat monsters of Islay and the sugar bombs of Kentucky, then this is so going to be your jam. If you’re coming in cold, this could be a very hard experience to get your head around.

Ranking:

88/100 — this is a solid B+. Overall, I enjoyed it but it also feels like there’s more to draw from this idea — it deserves further exploration.

Availability:

This is a whole hornet’s nest of an issue. This is highly allocated. Even the press release states that it’ll be available in “extremely limited quantities.” That means that the likelihood of you finding this at MSRP and not marked up to the hilt is “extremely” low to nil. Right now, retailers, bars, and restaurants are receiving their allocation. My best advice is to hit your favorite and best whiskey bar to see if they snagged one and try it there. Otherwise, you’re going to have to be a very good customer of a very good liquor store to score one of these.

And if that’s not the case, you’re going to have to pay a lot to buy one (think anything from $500 to $1,000 per bottle).

There’s a lot to sort through with Janelle Monáe’s upcoming album, The Age Of Pleasure. It’s been the talk of the music world for the past few days for multiple reasons, whether it’s the wet t-shirt teaser video, the revealing “Lipstick Lover” video, and Monáe’s NSFW flashing video (the music’s good, too, by the way).

What has so far flown relatively under the radar is the album art, which features a topless Monáe swimming underwater. Previously shared versions of the cover made use of pixellation to censor Monáe’s nipples, but today (May 12), they took to social media to share the more revealing, uncensored version. The censored version is below, but Monaé’s tweet with the uncensored, NSFW version can be found here.

In follow-up tweets, she also shared the names of the people behind the photo. She credits herself and Chuck Lightning for creative direction, Mason Rose as the photographer, Briana Garrido for production, and Joe R Perez and Free Marseille for art direction and design.

The Age Of Pleasure is out 6/9 via Wondaland Arts Society/Atlantic Records. Find more information here.

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

Kelly Clarkson has been a beloved celebrity since winning American Idol in 2002. Her fame increased with the rise of The Kelly Clarkson Show, on which she performs many covers, from The Weeknd’s “Take My Breath” to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License.” However, things behind the scenes aren’t as peachy as they seem.

In a new Rolling Stone article, employees both present and former told the publication that they are “overworked, underpaid, and that working at the show was traumatizing to their mental health,” according to writer Krystie Lee Yandoli.

A former employee said, “NBC is protecting the show because it’s their new money maker, but Kelly has no clue how unhappy her staff is.” Another former employee added, “I remember going up on the roof of the stage to cry, being like, ‘Oh, my gosh, what am I doing? Why am I putting myself through this?’”

One former employee described the show’s executive producer Alex Duda as a “monster,” saying, “I have a friend who’s an executive producer who warned me about taking this job, because apparently she has done this on every show she’s worked on.”

According to one current employee and 10 former employees, Clarkson is unaware of the toxic environment of the show, not realizing the struggles of lower-level staffers who have other jobs as babysitters, dog walkers, and Uber Eats drivers. A former employee clarified, “Kelly is fantastic. She is a person who never treats anyone with anything but dignity and is incredibly appreciative. I would be shocked if she knew. I’d be floored if she knew the staff wasn’t getting paid for two weeks of Christmas hiatus. The Kelly that I interacted with and that everyone knows would probably be pretty aghast to learn that.”

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

In March, Coca-Cola® and Warner Music Group’s WMX teamed up to introduce the Coca-Cola® Transformation Team, a talent search inspired by Coca-Cola® Move, the brand’s latest innovation that celebrates “the transformational power of music.” The entry period has since come and gone and three worthy artists were chosen: San Cha, Eduardo Marìa, and Kallitechnis.

The three were given quite the opportunity: an insightful roundtable discussion with Steve-O Carless, president of A&R for Warner Records. He sums up his philosophy, “An an artist, you want to be up to speed with how the business is forever transforming, ever evolving. When something doesn’t fit, I’ve learned you create it. I call it ‘taking the stairs,’ as opposed to waiting for the elevator.”

He also notes, “I find it disappointing when I see artists use old thinking, of what they think the record business is, to kind of set their goals. That’s a huge mistake.”

Those are both nice big-picture thoughts, but during the conversation, he got more granular as well, giving the three Coca-Cola® Transformation Team artists more specific and actionable ideas to consider. Overall, all parties involved had interesting things to say and the difference of perspectives presented strong learning opportunities, so check out the video above.

Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Amazon’s first year as the home of Thursday Night Football didn’t go especially well, in large part due to the fact that the games tended to be pretty bad. While the ratings were pretty solid, it was common to see fans complaining about the caliber of games, as the NFL wasn’t exactly putting marquee matchups on Amazon every week.

The league remedied that a bit this year, as the schedule for Thursday Night Football this time around seems to be better. Here’s what the schedule looks like this year:

While we’re still waiting to see if late season games can potentially get flexed to Thursdays, the schedule is a hit with Amazon’s top broadcaster. Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated reached out to Al Michaels to get his thoughts on the TNF slate, and he’s a big fan.

“Absolutely!” he says. “Love the way we come out of the gate. Three ‘A’ grade games. Two Aaron Rodgers games. Baltimore-Cincinnati, another good one. League did us a solid.

“I was raring to go the minute I saw the whole slate. Already thinking of story lines for each game, of which there is no shortage.”

Of course, an NFL schedule can look really good in May and, when you fast forward to the fall, it’s nowhere near as appealing due to teams being disappointments and big-name players getting hurt. But after how last year went, it’s hard to fault Michaels for feeling excited over this.

If you’ve paid attention to the beer world over the past decade or so, you know there are a lot of breweries operating in the US. At last count, well over 9,000. And while there are great options all over the country — from Vermont to Washington State — featuring endless styles of beer, you’d have a tough time finding a better state for brew, in general, and IPAs, specifically, than California. The state is home to more than 1,000 breweries on its own and San Diego is the undisputed nexus of the West Coast IPA universe.

Meaning that picking the ten best IPAs from California is no easy task. Still, we tried our very best — re-tasting the most popular, sought-after, beloved California-made IPAs to come up with this ranking. Regardless of their previous ratings, our metric was based on overall flavor and balance. Keep scrolling to see where your favorite IPA landed on this list.

10) Ballast Point Sculpin

ABV: 7%

Average Price: $14 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This popular West Coast IPA from San Diego’s Ballast Point gets its name because its hoppy sting is reminiscent of the sting of the Sculpin fish. Citrus, fruit, and a gentle bite of hops make this a memorable beer.

Tasting Notes:

A nose of light caramel malts, lime peels, grapefruit, and floral hops greet you before your first sip. The palate is all citrus peels and pine needles with a fairly aggressive, biting hoppy finish. People love this beer, but it’s a little too one-dimensional and bitter for some.

Bottom Line:

Ballast Point Sculpin is like a blueprint for a classic West Coast IPA. But with only light malts, citrus, and pine… it’s fairly muted.

9) Stone Enjoy By IPA

ABV: 9%

Average Price: $13 for a six-pack

The Beer:

The name of this popular series of beers is a reference to one when the brewery feels you should drink the beer. Brewed to be fresh and imbibed as soon as possible, depending on the bottles or cans you buy, the drink by date will be listed. The last Stone Enjoy By IPA was 04.20.23 Hazy IPA.

Tasting Notes:

Brewed with Rakau and Citra hops, this hazy IPA begins with a nose of tangerine, ripe peach, mango, caramel malts, and floral, lightly dank pine. Drinking it reveals more peach and tangerine as well as bready malts, mango, caramelized pineapple, and gentle, floral hops. It leans a little on the sweeter side and could use a bit more balance.

Bottom Line:

This is a tasty hazy IPA. It’s juicy, sweet, and loaded with tropical fruit aroma and flavor. That said, it’s just a bit one-dimensional.

8) Moonraker Dojo

ABV: 8%

Average Price: $19 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

This hazy, juicy, unfiltered New England-style IPA was brewed with a proprietary English yeast strain as well as Simcoe, Galaxy, Mosaic, and Citra hops. This creates a lightly bitter, memorable beer filled with tropical fruit flavors.

Tasting Notes:

Classic hazy IPA aromas of ripe pineapple, peach, guava, and passionfruit greet your nose prior to your first sip. The palate continues this trend with tangerine, caramelized pineapple, mango, and more peach, The finish is lightly resinous and bitter, but there’s not much of a malt backbone to be found.

Bottom Line:

It’s obvious why this hazy IPA is wildly popular. It’s hazy, juicy, and loaded with tropical fruit flavors and a nice, dank, piney finish. It could use a little more malt character though.

7) Alpine Nelson

ABV: 7%

Average Price: $14 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This beer gets its name from the liberal use of Nelson Sauvin hops. Used both on the kettle and through dry-hopping, this hop variety gives the beer pine, tropical fruit, and citrus flavors. European rye malts give this beer a well-rounded flavor profile.

Tasting Notes:

This IPA begins with aromas of caramelized pineapple, ripe peaches, mango, tangerine, and just a hint of peppery rye. This interesting start makes way for a palate of pineapple, orange peel, peach, guava, and even more rye. The finish is lightly bitter, dry, and filled with pine.

Bottom Line:

This is a well-balanced, highly drinkable IPA. The rye spice is a welcome addition and one that makes this the kind of beer you’ll go back to again and again.

6) Noble Ale Works Citra Showers

ABV: 8.8%

Average Price: $10 for a 22-ounce bottle

The Beer:

This beer gets its name because this double IPA is hopped exclusively with Citra hops. The result is a surprisingly complex beer with a ton of lemon, mango, grapefruit, and pine. This is an IPA for the citrus fans.

Tasting Notes:

The nose starts with a healthy dose of caramel malts and works its way into grapefruit, tangerine, lime peel, and tropical fruit flavors. Drinking it reveals hints of more sweet malts, grapefruit, orange zest, lemongrass, light pepper, and floral, lightly resinous hops. Subdued bitterness at the finish.

Bottom Line:

Citra hops live up to their name — it’s a hop varietal bursting with citrus aroma and flavor. The folks at Noble Ale Works use it perfectly to make a citrus-filled yet balanced IPA.

5) Kern River Citra

ABV: 8.5%

Average Price: $6 for a 16-ounce can

The Beer:

This 8.5% ABV IPA might be called Citra, but it’s not just a one-trick pony by any means. On top of being dry-hopped with Citra hops, it’s also dry-hopped with Amarillo hops. This creates a balanced IPA with a ton of citrus, tropical fruit, and dank pine tree flavors.

Tasting Notes:

A backdrop of caramel malts leads to honeydew melon, ripe pineapple, grapefruit, and orange zest aromas on the nose. The palate is centered around more sweet malts, tangerine, grapefruit, peach, melon, berries, and just a hint of acidity. The finish is dry and semisweet with little bitterness.

Bottom Line:

The use of Citra and Amarillo hops gives this beer a great balance. It also has a great malt backbone to hold everything together nicely. A very well-rounded beer.

4) Societe The Pupil

ABV: 7.5%

Average Price: $14 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This award-winning IPA is brewed with Nelson Sauvin, Citra, and Centennial hops. It’s known for its well-balanced flavor profile featuring a mix of citrus, tropical fruit flavors, and a crisp, lightly bitter finish.

Tasting Notes:

Candied orange peel, caramelized pineapple, mango, ripe melon, and just a hint of floral, piney hops. Drinking it brings forth notes of lime peel, lemongrass, honeydew melon, pineapple, mango, and a nice kick of lightly bitter pine needles at the very end. It’s not overwhelming though.

Bottom Line:

This is a very well-balanced IPA. Everything seems to be working together in perfect unity to make a fruity, dank, highly drinkable beer.

3) Russian River Pliny The Elder

ABV: 8%

Average Price: $8 for a 16.9-ounce bottle

The Beer:

One of the most sought-after beers in America, Russian River Pliny The Elder is definitely the easier to find of the Pliny duo. Brewed with Centennial, CTZ, Amarillo, and Simcoe hops, this beer is renowned for its fresh flavor and perfect balance of malts and hops.

Tasting Notes:

Classic West Coast IPA flavors of lemon zest, grapefruit, tangerine, caramel malts, and floral, herbal, piney hops start the nose off on the right foot. Drinking it reveals more grapefruit, ripe orange, lemongrass, caramel malts, and more dank pine. The finish is dry, crisp, and has a bit of hop bitterness that only adds to the overall experience.

Bottom Line:

The hops and malts selected for this beer give it a ridiculously complex flavor profile that still manages to be well-balanced. There’s a reason this beer is so popular.

2) Monkish Foggier Window

ABV: 8.1%

Average Price: $22 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

This 8.1% ABV double IPA was double dry-hopped with Nelson Sauvin, Galaxy, and Citra hops. The result is a fruity, dry, lightly bitter IPA well-suited for warm-weather drinking.

Tasting Notes:

A vibrant nose of passionfruit, mango, guava, pineapple, peach, tangerine, and literally any tropical fruit you can imagine greets you before your first sip. The palate is filled with more tropical fruit goodness, but there are also some berries, honey sweetness, and a nice hoppy, resinous bitter finish that will leave you craving more.

Bottom Line:

This beer is like a tropical fruit salad meets your favorite dank weed. It’s a perfect combination and one that we can’t get enough of.

1) Russian River Pliny The Younger

ABV: 10.25%

Average Price: Limited Availability

The Beer:

In the pantheon of California IPAs, it’s pretty tough to beat Russian River Pliny The Younger. This highly coveted, hard-to-find triple IPA is widely known as one of the most balanced, well-made American craft beers of all time. Drinkers love it for its hoppy aromas and flavors and citrus zest.

Tasting Notes:

This beer is like the textbook definition of a classic IPA. The nose is a perfect balance of resinous pine, freshly cut grass, and citrus. The palate has all of those flavors but expands on them with the addition of sweet caramel malt, tropical fruits, and candied orange peel. It all ends with a dry, resinous, dank, floral, hoppy, lightly sweet, and lightly bitter finish that leaves you wanting more.

Bottom Line:

Good luck finding a better, more balanced California IPA than Russian River Pliny The Younger. Well… also good luck finding Pliny The Younger.

It’s a kind of sad inevitability that rap fans will compare two female rappers to each other, usually in an effort to put one or the other down just as she begins to see success. It happened with Nicki Minaj and Cardi B. It’s happened in turn to Coi Leray, Doja Cat, Latto, and Megan Thee Stallion. And now, it’s happening to two of rap’s biggest it-girls of the moment: Flo Milli and Ice Spice.

When a fan account noted Ice Spice being recognized by Billboard, some fans took the opportunity to try to let the wind out of Ice’s sails by negatively comparing her to Flo Milli. “i can give u 2 flo mili verses better than her entire discography,” wrote one spiteful commenter.

Flo Milli caught wind of the comparison and took steps to shut it down. “i wish yall would stop with this tired ass narrative yall love to push about my career,” she wrote. “and stop mentioning me while trying to degrade another artist its WEIRDDD. im doing great i went from being broke to traveling the world with my talent and im only 23.. pls RELAX.”

Plenty of Flo’s fans were quick to show their support, as well.

One thing is clear: The comparisons need to stop. There’s no accounting for taste, but underselling one rapper’s career in order to demean the other serves neither side.

Last year, Bob Dylan celebrated the Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson turning 80 by singing him “Happy Birthday.” In a new Facebook post, Wilson shared how he met Dylan, and it’s as strange as you might expect.

According to Wilson, the two were both in the emergency room in Malibu when they recognized one another and ended up in conversation. They proceeded to make plans for the next day.

Here’s the full story:

“Once I was in the Malibu emergency room getting a weigh-in and this guy walked up to me. He had curly hair and was on the short side. ‘Are you Brian Wilson?’ he asked. ‘Yeah,’ I said.“ Hi,” he said. ‘I’m Bob Dylan.’ He was there because he had broken his thumb. We talked a little bit about nothing. I was a big fan of his lyrics, of course. ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ was one of the best songs, you know? And ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ and ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ and so many more. What a songwriter! I invited him over to my house for lunch the next day. That was a longer conversation. We just talked and talked about music. We talked about old songs we remembered, songs before rock and roll. We talked about ideas we had. Nice guy.”

Lightning in a Bottle, the OG boutique “transformational” festival, is aging like a fine wine (or bourbon). The mega-dance party is set to celebrate its 20th anniversary on Memorial Day Weekend, May 24-29. What’s that mean? Well, a whole lot of music and revelry at the stunning Buena Vista Lake in Southern California.

It’s sure to be, for lack of better words, electric.

Do LaB — which produces this festival, among others, and was a hit at this year’s Coachella — has come a long way since its humble, more granola origins back in 2003. But the goal is still the same: to create powerful, connection-filled experiences, centered around community and dance music. But the party has certainly expanded, with Rezz, Diplo, Sofi Tukker, Zhu, and scores more taking the stage.

Lightning in a Bottle isn’t just about the music, either. It’s a fully immersive experience. From interactive yoga and movement classes to thought-provoking talks and workshops at The Compass and Learning Kitchen, there’s something for everyone. Paul Freaking Stamets is going this year. And then you have the psychedelic stage designs that will transport you to another dimension.

Lightning in a Bottle has traveled far since that fateful first bolt ignited the world 20 years ago. It’s roared into a legendary gathering of free spirits, boundary-breakers, and music lovers. While a lot’s changed over the last two decades — particularly the fashion — the free spirit is still fully intact. Check out these photos and track the evolution of the fest from 2006 all the way to 2022.

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2022