Category: Viral

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.

Talky, British post-punk has been one of the definitive trends of the 2020s thus far. With bands like Squid, Black Country, New Road, and Porridge Radio at the helm of its latest wave, the clear frontrunner of this vanguard is Dry Cleaning. Featuring vocalist Florence Shaw’s post-modern, absurd lyrics about the quotidian experience and her band members’ Sonic Youth-esque arrangements, it’s easy to understand the appeal.

However, after they broke through with 2021’s New Long Leg, it was difficult to predict where they’d take their sound next. The answer: nowhere. Rather than changing up their style drastically, they are simply refining upon the pre-existing, already-great blueprint of what’s there on their second record, Stumpwork.

There’s a lot to enjoy about Dry Cleaning. For instance, the pre-released single “Gary Ashby” is about a family tortoise who’s gone missing. “Don’t Press Me” contains the line, “All I could afford was my gaming mouse / So don’t touch my gaming mouse, you rat.” On “Hot Penny Day:” “I’m not here to provide blank / They can fucking provide blank.”

Shaw delivers these lines in the most gripping deadpan imaginable, infusing her often amusing lyrics with wry disinterest. The band’s instrumentation, courtesy of guitarist Tom Dowse, bassist Lewis Maynard, and drummer Nick Buxton, serve as the perfect musical landscape for Shaw’s captivating word collages.

Shaw, Dowse, and Maynard took the time to discuss Stumpwork, how the praise surrounding New Long Leg motivated them to make another excellent record just one year later, working with producer John Parish, how Stumpwork forms its own musical identity, and more.

How does this new album differentiate itself from your debut and form its own identity?

Florence Shaw: We’re roaming around and trying out our as-yet unexplored interests. There are wider landscapes of sound on Stumpwork. It’s more romantic at times, maybe more emotional, more vulnerable. It’s also poppier in places.

Tom Dowse: When we finished recording New Long Leg, we were already starting to write again straight away. It’s almost like a continuation because we couldn’t tour. It just gave us loads of time with no real commitments other than some press, promo, and meetings every now and again, but generally, we have most of the week to ourselves. We were really given a lot of freedom. The label really didn’t tell us to do anything in particular, which was encouraging. And I think we were all committed to making another album quite quickly. John Parish, who recorded it, was up for it and he was available.

Lewis Maynard: The process of writing was similar at the start. So we did a lot of jamming and then listened back to those phone demos but then intentionally didn’t complete songs. We took them to the studio to complete them there. With New Long Leg, we played a lot of those songs live, and not too many of them changed in the final product. These new songs changed quite a bit and in ways that we didn’t expect, as well. Some we took in expecting to record them as they were, and then they changed a lot. And then we went in with others leaving loads of space for them to change. We gave ourselves a lot more time, as well. We gave ourselves double the amount of time as we did on the first record.

What were some of those unexpected changes that happened?

Dowse: Well, one of my favorite tracks is “Hot Penny Day.” For a long time, that song was literally just the middle section. We were trying to play it really slow and groovy at first. And then Lewis just started doing this wild bass part, and we wrote it from that. That was two weeks before we went to the studio. We played a bit of it to John [Parish] when we did a process of two rehearsals in Bristol, and John came and the engineer came. They listened to everything, and he’d say, “I like it, but you need to make it into something else.” Some of the songs we adjusted a bit more in the studio, so that was definitely one.

Maynard: “Conservative Hell” was something that we’ve never done, where we tried to make this free-form, jazzy section in the middle, And then it went back into the song. It just didn’t really sound like us, which is weird because there are quite wide margins of what we can sound like. But we really forced it to sound improvised, and it wasn’t. When we got to the studio, we were stuck with the structure of it. John forced Tom and me into a room, and we had to improvise and jam for a few minutes. That became half the song.

Dowse: When we were finished, John was like, “That’s the one.” And we were like, “Lunch!” Because that’s all we were thinking about. I was like, “I really wonder what’s for lunch. I hope it’s nice.” When we get back from lunch, John says, “Can you remember what you were playing?” And so we’re still fresh. Right after lunch, I went with [engineer] Joe [Jones], and he filmed me playing. I knew I’d forget because I wasn’t paying any attention. Sometimes, the best time to do things like that is when you’re not really paying attention. You just let it out.

Did you feel any pressure coming off of the excitement surrounding New Long Leg?

Shaw: Not at first. Not in the months after New Long Leg came out. We did a lot of writing for Stumpwork around that time. But then I was quite taken aback by the end-of-year lists it ended up on. I didn’t expect it. When many of those lists were published in December 2021, we were embedded at Rockfield Studios recording Stumpwork, and I did have to take a moment to control some nerves then. I was used to writing with a sense that the audience was quite niche, you see. And that was harder to imagine after that.

Dowse: We were confident from the first one because it went quite well. And we felt there was more to do. Then we were already writing the next one to address what we’d thought of the first one, things like shorter songs and poppier songs. When New Long Leg became popular, we were just about to record. It was more inspiring to go into the studio, knowing we’d done well, but we’d already written it by then.

What do you appreciate about working with John Parish?

Dowse: He’s going to get the best out of you, and he does it in different ways. For different people, he knows he can be a bit provocative. Or, sometimes, he’ll be a bit encouraging.

Maynard: He reads the room. We’ll be doing a take, and he’ll be like, “Oh, if we just have a cup of tea…” and he just knows everyone’s needs.

Dowse: But, likewise, when you’re doing a take, and you think it’s quite good, he might say, “I think we should do one more. I think the next one would be good.” He’s paying that much attention that he’s hearing every take and thinking, “I think there’s something there. The first half of that last one was better than the second half of this one,” and pastes them together, basically. So he just knows exactly what’s going on all the time.

Florence, what is your lyrical process usually like?

Shaw: I’m just trying to express myself. There is no formula, but, roughly speaking, I write lines or words or passages down when they come to me. When we get together as a band to rehearse, I’ll try some of that writing out over what Tom, Lewis, and Nick are playing. We’re all improvising together. If a line feels good, I’ll investigate and think something like, “What does this line mean to me?” Then when I have the answer I’ll look over all the writing I have with me, searching for other lines or passages of writing that also feel right, or correspond to the same emotional qualities as the first line, or reference the same subject literally or laterally. Even lines that link in some visual way.

If I can’t find anything, then I’ll make something up at the time, or try something that feels wrong (sometimes that can yield good results, too). Most of this construction work goes on during our rehearsals whilst Tom, Nick, and Lewis are playing. I’ll be sitting with all my papers out, scanning for the right bit of writing, and then when I find it, I try it out. It’s trial and error, and listening back to demo recordings later that we make on our phones is when I make decisions about what to keep in the song and what wasn’t quite right. I keep doing that until the song is finished.

What were some of your musical or non-musical influences for Stumpwork?

Shaw: I love the book Baby, I Don’t Care by the poet Chelsey Minnis, ceramics and drawings by the artist Erica Eyres, the band Audiobooks and particularly Evangeline Ling’s writing and performance. I listen to Jme if I feel uninspired. His writing is clever and funny. I was drawn to short-hand language or things written in a rush without care, like instant messages of all kinds (texts, WhatsApps, DMs). I tried at one point to write in haiku form, and at another time wrote captions for photographs, as at the time I was drawn to words that describe an image.

How does Stumpwork evolve Dry Cleaning and expand on what your band is?

Dowse: That’s basically it; we just expanded on what we are. A lot of the stuff on that record is stuff we wanted to do at the beginning of the band. I’m into ambient music, Nick is into house music, and Lewis is into funk. There are only so many hours in a day to touch on these subjects. So it’s just having more time to be able to do them.

Maynard: We realized after the first record that we’ve set a nice foundation for lots of different directions. There’s lots of little nods to certain genres, and we could start to expand on that and take it further. It just opens more doors and directions we can go. And Flo’s vocals anchor the band so nicely, it gives the instruments more scope to move, as well. We can go quite deep into a different genre and have a voice to anchor it nicely.

What do you want people to take away from listening to this record?

Dowse: That they can relate to it in their own way, really. Fill in the blanks yourself. I hope we’re not holding up the band as something that doesn’t leave any room for your imagination to interpret.

Maynard: I think we communicate honestly with the projects and how we make music, and I think that’s what people have always liked about the band. The reason behind it is that we came together as friends. It’s like a social project. There’s still that kind of honesty, and we create music to impress each other and entertain each other, and I think that comes across.

Shaw: We set out to write an optimistic record. There’s a lot of humor in what we do. That’s a big part of what Dry Cleaning is. I hope Stumpwork might encourage someone to make their own music or write about their own specific interests. That’s the kind of thing I enjoy.

Stumpwork is out 10/21 via 4AD. Pre-order it here.

Change has been difficult for many Jeopardy! fans to endure in recent years, starting with the replacement of late host Alex Trebek. That decision turned to outright scandal and has since been resolved, but even some much smaller changes have been met with online outcry and fan discussion.

Which is perhaps why those in charge of Jeopardy! recently announced they’ve changed course on a potential change that would have actually given players more money if they achieved a particular feat during the game’s run of play. Sweeping a category has long been an applause moment on the show, with the host specifically calling out the achievement of a single player getting all five questions in one category right.

And as the show tweaks things in Season 39, it has previously floated the idea of awarding a bonus to contestants who could manage the feat like Ryan did above. But after some backlash to that decision, the show has decided against it. On the October 17 edition of the Inside Jeopardy! podcast, host and Jeopardy! producer Sarah Whitcomb Foss noted that the show has decided to put that idea on ice.

“We’re not doing anything at this point,” Foss said. “There’s no [cash] bonus; nobody get upset.”

As many pointed out, while the cash bonus may be nice for players, it may actually significantly alter play strategies as well. If players are incentivized to stay in a single category and go for the cash bonus, it may actually not be in their best interests as far as actually winning the game. A player behind in the game, for example, may want to focus on higher-valued answers on the board to make up ground. Or, as has become more popular in recent years, actually hunt out Daily Doubles in spots they are more frequently appearing to wager big and take control of the game.

Interestingly, the show will apparently call out fewer ran categories moving forward now as well. Previously, if a player got all five right but not in sequential order, they would still get a mention and applause.

“We actually decided we’re not going to call out the running of a category. Not even top to bottom,” Foss explained, making clear that to get applause you have to do it with five correct answers on five straight questions. “Five for five, that’s when we’re gonna give applause and acknowledge running the category.”

In a way, this is a simplification of sorts, as it’s one more thing for the show’s host to remember, so Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings probably appreciate the move here. But it’s certainly interesting to see the long-running game show float changes and watching fans react. In this case, Jeopardy! decided it was best to keep things as they are.

[via TV Insider]

After sending the wrong person nearly 2k — $1,800 in total — Yung Joc was blocked and is now pleading with fans to help him.

The Atlanta rapper shared his embarrassing situation on Instagram Wednesday, posting a series of screenshots he sent the person begging them to return his funds.

“Hi can you please return the $1,800 that I mistakenly sent to your account via Zelle,” Yung Joc wrote via text message. “I don’t know you nor do you know me…Please do the right thing…God has a bigger blessing for you.”

After his pleas were ignored, the “It’s Goin’ Down” rapper continued to message the person, despite admitting he may be blocked anyway.

“I know you’ve blocked my number and that’s ok I just need the $1800 that was sent your account via Zelle,” Joc continues.

Following the lack of response, the rapper turned Love And Hip Hop reality star and radio host urged his fans to get involved in the issue. Joc called on his fans to try and reach out to the person.

“So I sent them a Zelle by mistake, and they won’t return my money…. can y’all please call/text them and ask them to return my lil change?” he wrote on Instagram.

While it seems some fans did try, some noted it might just be a lost cause.

“Ohh I know he ain’t went to IG for some help. Sir, at this point it’s God’s blessing to whomever you sent it to. Take this as a loss and a blessing,” one person commented.

Since the plea, the rapper has been relatively quiet on social media, and it doesn’t seem like he got his money back either.

As if the announcement of BTS Jin’s solo single wasn’t enough, there are bigger things yet to come.

Recently revealing the promotion schedule for “The Astronaut,” on Monday, there was one more thing missing on the teaser poster: A showcase. But, of course, in iconic BTS fashion, what’s a showcase without going the extra mile, or 11,850, for it? Well, that’s exactly what you would expect from Mr. Worldwide Handsome.

In what may seem the ultimate win for any successful diehard fan, Jin is set to make his debut performance of “The Astronaut” with Coldplay in a live broadcast of their show in Buenos Aires, Argentina on October 28.

In a set of promo images that features an exchange of text messages between Coldplay’s frontman Chris Martin and Jin, Martin cordially invites the eldest member of BTS to their South American show to which the Korean superstar agrees. The back and forth between the two also confirms Coldplay’s involvement in the single.

“It takes more than 40 hours to get to Argentina from Korea, so I’ll start getting ready today, ” Jin replies to Martin, followed by a “See you in Buenos Aires.”

Jin’s “The Astronaut” is slowly but surely being rolled out leading up to its release on October 28. See the promo schedule below.

Since Lil Uzi Vert teased it last year, fans have been anticipating the release of The Pink Tape. They hinted at collaborations with Grimes, Travis Scott, and Playboi Carti. At Rolling Loud Miami in the summer of 2021, they even debuted a song off the record.

They once said it would drop before Halloween of 2021: “Probably in like three weeks, before Halloween come out,” they said during a traditional Cambodian wedding (where they gifted the happy couple with cash). Then ended up delaying it.

When asked if it would arrive before Halloween, they replied, “No it’s not.” They elaborated, saying, “Then it drops next week and then it sounds like sh*t and I gotta hear it from, well not from you, but I gotta hear it from 100,000 people on the internet saying, ‘This sucks!’ So you gotta let me take my time!” A fan assured the rapper that the project would not suck and Uzi replied, “But I’m taking my time so it won’t suck.”

Luckily Lil Uzi Vert has been posting Instagram stories with updates about working on music, so hopefully, the long-awaited release is on the horizon.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Feet freak Larys Strong and nasty skank bitch Criston Cole have quickly entered the pantheon of great Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon universe villains, alongside Joffrey and… Sansa?

Twitter user @daenartist went viral this week for a tweet that reads, “One thing I love about the GoT show universe is it’s portrayals of the most heartless and cruel villains. No other show or movie makes you as invested in watching their downfall, it almost feels personal,” along with photos of Joffrey Baratheon, Ramsay Bolton, newly-crowned king Aegon II Targaryen, and Sansa Stark. Only a self-described “dany loyalist,” as @daenartist describes themselves in their Twitter bio, would call Sansa a villain.

The replies to the objectively incorrect tweet (except the Aegon II part, f*ck him) are firmly pro-Sansa, including one person who wrote, “I will defend Sansa with my LIFE. Yeah, she made some mistakes in the beginning of the show, but she was a genuinely kind hearted person and learned from her faults. She went through more than most people in the show, and ended up growing from it. Peak character development.” Another added, “You’re putting Sansa on a list with JOFFREY and RAMSAY at least put Little Finger, the Night King, Cersei… someone who’s actually… you know… a villain.”

The tweet seemingly caught the attention of Sansa actress, Sophie Turner, who shared the following context-free photo in an Instagram Story:

Hating Sansa is so 2012. Get with the times. Hate Aemond instead.

(Via ET Online)

Netflix has announced that it will soon be charging accounts for extra users (or sub-accounts, if you will) and the reason why probably won’t surprise you: password sharing. The streaming giant has long cited the ubiquitous practice as a source of lost revenue, and it appears to have found a solution that will thread the needle of clawing back subscription fees while not alienating current users.

The plan will reportedly roll out in early 2023. So if you share a Netflix account with someone who doesn’t live with you, get ready to see your bill go up. Via Endgadget:

This move is an expansion of a pilot program currently running in Latin America which charges extra fees for “extra user” subaccounts, users outside of your immediate household who use your login to access the service. Basically, every listing on the “Who’s Watching?” screen is going to cost you extra money if they don’t also live with you.

As for how much Netflix will charge for extra users, Endgadget speculates that if the streamer follows the “pilot program’s one quarter of the basic rate scheme,” the price could be about $3-4. However, that fee can be avoided by having extra users transfer their sub-account data to a new account through a migration tool offered by Netflix.

While this change may come as a shock to users who have been sharing accounts for years, the streamer has been warning that this move was coming for a while.

“We’ve landed on a thoughtful approach to monetize account sharing and we’ll begin rolling this out more broadly starting in early 2023,” Netflix announced back in April. “After listening to consumer feedback, we are going to offer the ability for sharers to manage their devices more easily and to create sub-accounts, if they want to pay for family or friends.”

(Via Endgadget)

Geena Davis is calling out another legendary male actor for bad behavior. After revealing how Bill Murray pressured her into an unwanted massage and then berated her in front of the whole cast and crew while filming 1990’s Quick Change, Davis shared another anecdote about Jack Nicholson. After filming a short but scantily clad scene as a young model in Tootsie, Davis received some friendly advice from Dustin Hoffman who warned her not to sleep with co-stars. (Ironically, Hoffman would later be accused of sexual harassment.)

“Say, ‘Well, you’re very attractive. I would love to, but it would ruin the sexual tension between us,’” Hoffman told Davis, who ended up needing that advice sooner rather than later. Via The New Yorker:

After “Tootsie,” my modelling agent took me and a couple of other actor-slash-models to Hollywood to meet casting directors. He happened to know Jack Nicholson, and every single night Jack Nicholson had dinner with us. Then one day there was a note under the door that said, “Please call Jack Nicholson at this number.” I was, like, I can’t believe it! So I said, “Hello, Mr. Nicholson. This is Geena the model. You called me?” He said, “Hey, Geena. When is it gonna happen?” I was, like, Oh, no—why didn’t I realize this is what it was going to be about? But it immediately came into my head what to say: “Uh, Jack, I would love to. You’re very attractive. But I have a feeling we’re going to work together at some point in the future, and I would hate to have ruined the sexual tension between us.”

According to Davis, the advice worked, and Nicholson realized she had clearly had some help. “He was, like, ‘Oh, man, where’d you get that?’” Davis said.

(Via The New Yorker)

The British Royals let it be known that they’re not thrilled with the impending Season 5 of The Crown from Netflix. This may or may not have been the reason that Netflix chose to delay Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s followup documentary (fittingly, Harry hasn’t seemed upset about the series at all). From the looks of this trailer, we should get ready for some seriously salty royals because the newly installed King Charles III hasn’t enjoyed the show’s portrayal of him thus far, especially when it comes to how resentful he grew over the public’s embrace of Princess Diana. And in this trailer, boy, the mistreatment of Diana (by Charles, by the family at large) puts the whole monarchy on blast, all while we see interspersed shots of him kissing Camilla Parker Bowles.

The monarchy had already made noises about a Season 5 episode, in which Charles reportedly grouses over being made to wait so long (and this was back in the 1990s) to ascend to the throne. And the Diana story gets messier this season with the show covering Charles’ push to divorce her. Fast forward to today, and Charles is already saying goodbye to a prime minister (Liz Truss held the gig for a mere six weeks), so let’s have more chaos, shall we? The trailer shows how Diana isn’t content to stay silent and even goes to the press for an infamous interview, which was an unprecedented step for the world to see. And yes, we get to see Charles rage.

In Season 5, Charles is now portrayed by Dominic West with Imelda Staunton picking up the Queen Elizabeth II role. At this point, it’s the 1990s, and she’s worked with nine prime ministers, the Soviet Union has collapsed, and the U.K. passed Hong Kong back to China. Meanwhile, the royals are struggling with the public questioning why they fund a monarchy. Here’s the juicier stuff from the synopsis:

Prince Charles (Dominic West) pressures his mother to allow him to divorce Diana (Elizabeth Debicki), presenting a constitutional crisis of the monarchy. Rumours circulate as husband and wife are seen to live increasingly separate lives and, as media scrutiny intensifies, Diana decides to take control of her own narrative, breaking with family protocol to publish a book that undermines public support for Charles and exposes the cracks in the House of Windsor.

Tensions are set to rise further as Mohamed Al Fayed (Salim Daw) arrives on the scene. Driven by his desire for acceptance of the highest order, he harnesses his self-made wealth and power to try and earn him and his son Dodi (Khalid Abdalla) a seat at the royal table.

Netflix’s The Crown returns with Season 5 on November 9. And the timing of this trailer release (amid political disaster) was not intentional:

HBO’s Barry, one of the best (and darkest and most thrilling and many other superlatives) shows on TV, is coming to an end after one more season. That’s according to NoHo Hank actor Anthony Carrigan on the Hollywood at Home with the Creative Coalition podcast. As caught by the fittingly-named Twitter user scary noho hank, the Emmy nominee was asked, “This isn’t the final season, is it?” He replied, “Yeah, it is.”

There’s no official confirmation about season four being it for Barry, but creator and star Bill Hader did tease to Vulture that there’s more story to tell — although not too much story. When asked whether he considered killing Barry in the season three finale (instead, he’s arrested), Hader replied, “Well dying, the story’s over, and I thought there was more story. There’s only so long a guy can get away with this.” He continued:

“I know I feel watching shows sometimes, ‘They’re trying to keep the thing going and now it’s getting ridiculous to keep the thing going.’ And so, I think he would get caught. He’s not Jason Bourne or Walter White. He’s not a genius. He’s a very dumb guy. And it made sense, the idea of Gene Cousineau wanting justice for Janice and then getting it by the end, but he has to go through a transformation himself to get it.”

Barry being over: bad. Henry Winkler having more time for fish pics: good.

(Via TV Insider)