This full list of nominees for this year’s American Music Awards was unveiled this morning, and you may notice something peculiar while looking at the list as it appears on the AMAs website: Controversial country star Morgan Wallen earned two nominations — Favorite Male Country Artist and Favorite Country Album for Dangerous: The Double Album — but both of his listings include asterisks. That’s because, despite his nominations, Wallen is banned from attending this year’s ceremony (which airs November 21 on ABC).
A note at the bottom of the AMAs nominations page, attributed to MRC Live & Alternative, reads:
“Unique among awards shows, American Music Awards (AMA) nominees are determined by performance on the Billboard Charts and are not chosen by a voting committee or membership organization. AMA nominees are based on key fan interactions with music (including streaming, album sales, song sales, radio airplay, social engagement), tracked by Billboard and its data partner MRC Data. The AMA winners are voted entirely by fans.
Morgan Wallen is a nominee this year based on charting. As his conduct does not align with our core values, we will not be including him on the show in any capacity (performing, presenting, accepting).
We plan to evaluate his progress in doing meaningful work as an ally to the Black community and will consider his participation in future shows.”
The “core values” hyperlink leads to a page on MRC Live & Alternative’s website titled “Our Commitment To Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.” It reads in part, “MRC is an anti-racist organization committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our company, on our platforms, in our products and with our partners. As an entertainment company we believe the best stories are told through diverse and authentic voices and representation in front of and behind the camera. […] Our differences make us a vibrant and successful company and we strongly encourage our partners to adhere to our stated values as part of our expectations of doing business with one another.”
Joy Ride is the perfect watch for those of us who enjoy comedy but are maybe a little disillusioned with “the stand-up special” as an artform. Is a full hour of filmed stand-up really the gold standard of comedic talent?
“I don’t care how brilliant the comedian is, there’s a fatigue that sets in at about 40, 45 minutes,” says Bobcat Goldthwait, a comedian who frequently performs for longer than that.
In Joy Ride, Goldthwait, comedian-turned-novelty-80s-actor-turned-filmmaker, and his friend, comedian and Simpsons writer Dana Gould, take the stage together, cracking jokes, telling stories, and riffing. This is intercut with footage of them on the road, and mixed with period footage from their early lives, early careers, and things they reference in the act. It all adds up to an enjoyable and breezy watch, at just over 70 minutes.
Partly it’s a live podcast, partly it’s a throwback to comedy duos that used to be so popular, and partly it’s the documentary answer to The Trip, if Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon didn’t eat fine food or do Michael Caine impressions. If instead maybe they just drove through bad weather and got into car crashes in between discussions about Robin Williams meeting Koko the Gorilla and hating Jerry Seinfeld.
Oh yes, we do get into that feud. Turns out, Bobcat Goldthwait’s was the bleeped name in an episode of Seinfeld’s Netflix show, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, with guest Bridgett Everett. Goldthwait had directed Everett in Love You More and Misfits & Monsters, and Everett’s mere mention of him in front of Seinfeld prompted Seinfeld to muse , “He used to rail against comedians because they weren’t as wild and dangerous as he was. ‘Cause he sucked! He wasn’t funny. And that’s why he didn’t get anywhere. That’s why he had to do that stupid f—ing voice. ‘Cause you have no f—ing act!”
Goldthwait had indeed ragged on Seinfeld in the nineties, so Seinfeld’s rant didn’t exactly come out of nowhere. “I was very vicious, let’s not kid ourselves,” Goldthwait now says of his earlier Seinfeld bashing. “But I thought it was over, because I was friendly with one of his managers. Maybe I should’ve reached out or something.”
But as long as we’re back on the subject… “You know that show where millionaires dissect comedy until it’s not funny anymore?” Goldthwait asks of Comedians In Cars. “It’s like, ‘hey, you know what the average Joe can relate to? You in a half million dollar car.’ That just tears my cock off. Go f*ck yourself.”
Goldthwait reasons that he had mostly stopped celebrity bashing in his act, because he didn’t like the way it made him feel (not to mention Sylvester Stallone threatening to eat his heart). Evolving into more of a storyteller in the years since, he nonetheless says that there are good reasons for Seinfeld to drop the beef.
“As soon as he [brought me up], people were trying to figure out who he’s talking about. And then they Google my name and Jerry Seinfeld, and it just goes to clips of me talking about him banging teenage girls and being a Scientologist enthusiast.”
As Nathan Rabin has pointed out, where you side on the Seinfeld/Goldthwait feud sort of comes down to whether you believe that a comedian’s “goal” is to be rich and successful, or to connect with people. For what it’s worth, I think there’s some truth to what Seinfeld was saying. I do enjoy Goldthwait more as a storyteller than I did as an avant-garde stand-up comic. Yet I’m firmly Team Goldthwait in the matter, because when he talks, onstage and off, he has an almost uncanny ability to make you feel like you’re just listening to a friend tell a story. It rarely feels like you’re experiencing “a performance” (even though, of course, you are). He’s an engaging personality in a way that you can’t grade purely on laffs volume.
This is the second time I’ve interviewed Goldthwait (the first when he was promoting Call Me Lucky, his documentary about his friend Barry Crimmins, who I also interviewed before his death in 2018), and it always just feels like we’re friends shooting the shit, despite never having met the man outside of the context of promotional interviews. I tend to think that’s simply Goldthwait’s gift. It’s the same feeling you get from watching Dana Gould and Bobcat ruminate and reminisce with each other onstage in Joy Ride. In some ways it seems to be the feeling Seinfeld himself was trying to create in Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. And yeah, maybe it is easier to relate without all the fancy cars.
Joy Ride hits select theaters and OnDemand platforms October 29th. I spoke to Bobcat and Dana via Zoom this past week.
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I see you’ve got that picture of Barry behind you.
BOBCAT GOLDTHWAIT: Yeah, I’m doing a narrative version of Call Me Lucky with Judd Apatow. Been working on it awhile. It’s very hard because I want it to be a good movie, and I want it to be honest, and I also don’t want to be haunted by a drunk ghost. That’s the reality of it.
Is it going to be with him testifying in Congress and stuff like that?
BOBCAT: Yeah, there’s that, but what’s probably made it harder is I’ve been trying to tackle a bigger slice of him. But I do agree, I think biopics that are a specific chunk of time are more interesting than cradle-to-the-grave biopics.
[Dana Gould shows up to the Zoom]
DANA: Hey, sorry about that.
All right. So what made you guys want to do this tour as a duo?
BOBCAT: Well, we just liked the idea of doing rock clubs together, and we wanted to see how it worked. If it would work. What happened was is we would come out, and we would goof around, and see who was going to headline that evening by flipping a coin, but we both quickly learned that people were enjoying the part of Dana and I dicking around on stage together more than our actual stand-up. I’m really happy when there’s some genuine ad-libs that are going on, but I couldn’t have done this any earlier in my career because I could not have handled someone else getting all the focus at any point on stage. I would’ve been in full on Jerry Lewis overdrive.
Aside from the clash of egos not allowing one of you guys to go first, did it take some pressure off not having to remember a set?
BOBCAT: Yeah. It’s so funny, too. Like, now Dana will remember something I said and he’ll try to tee it up for me, and I just look at him like a stroke victim, and I don’t know what he’s talking about.
DANA: “Know what, Bob? These baseball players sure have funny names.”
BOBCAT: “Yeah. Actually, I haven’t noticed. I don’t follow baseball…”
DANA: It is true, I agree with Bob that this wouldn’t have worked 10 years ago, but we’re both at a place in our careers and in our maturity where laughter, there’s not a finite amount. If you get some, it doesn’t mean there’s less for me. We can really just enjoy it. You know, the term “word jazz” gets thrown around a lot…
Comedy duos, it seemed like there used to be a lot of them, but now, I can’t think of any that aren’t twin siblings. Do you think there’s a reason that the comedy duo has–
DANA: (laughing) That’s really true! It’s funny you say that, because Jason Skylar lives literally five houses down the street.
BOBCAT: Are you sure it’s Jason?
DANA: Yes, and I wasn’t for a long time.
BOBCAT: I worked with the Lucas brothers, and I would make a note on which one had the red piping in his hat that day, and I never called him by the wrong name. Then the last time I saw him I did, and I wanted to die.
Do you think the duo is going to come back?
BOBCAT: Well, you know I have a huge soft spot for that kind of stuff, like Martin and Lewis, and Hope and Crosby. I think the closest we’ve had, it’s been years, but The Mighty Boosh. That was really that traditional thing where it’s two guys that love each other, one guy’s clueless and fun, and drives the other guy nuts. I was always looking for that. Briefly, David Bowie and myself talked about doing an act. Even a couple years later, I would’ve done it. But when he wanted to do it, he was like, “Okay. I started looking into the small venues,” and by that he meant like 2,000 seat halls. They would’ve killed me.
DANA: I always get the call after Bowie passes. “Tin Machine? No. No, I can just fill in.”
It seems like with this, you get to do the things you like about stand-up without necessarily having to do traditional stand-up. What is your relationship to the medium? Were there ever times where you disliked it or wondered if it was worth it?
DANA: Oh yes. The goal of the tour was the other 23 hours. It was, I hate traveling alone, living alone. Especially when Bob and I were adults. We have romantic partners, children. I’m very socialized. And being alone for all that time is a drag. I was like, “Hey, we can be alone together. This is great.” The stage act grew out of that necessity, I think.
BOBCAT: Yeah and also just to get out of comedy clubs. Because these are rock venues, so these people came to see us. They weren’t there because it was a date night or it was a Groupon or whatever. And the two of us together, the draw’s a little better. The two of us together, we’re this little unit. The shows would start running to two to two and a half hours, and we would leave it all out there.
I don’t know that I would necessarily want to watch two hours of a straight comedy special, or that I would want to watch a whole thing about just a road trip, but because you mixed all these things, with the historical footage and the stage footage– yeah, I liked it a lot.
BOBCAT: I don’t care how brilliant the comedian is, there’s a fatigue that sets in at about 40 minutes, 45 minutes, no matter how great the act is. I think because there’s a bit of a narrative, and that hopefully we allude to that. But I was going to say no comedian, but you know what’s funny? I saw Andy Kaufman when I was a teenager, and there was no fatigue because he kept peeling the onion back. He came out speaking jibberish, and then he’s doing the Elvis, and then he’s doing a version of himself, and then he’s wrestling. There was no fatigue, you’re going “Oh, he just cried playing bongos. Oh, now we’re wrestling women. Wait, now we’re all putting our arms around each other and singing… Oh, Howdy Doody’s here.” It was mental.
So Bobcat, why didn’t you like Dana at first? And when did it change?
BOBCAT: You are what you hate, or as Mel Brook says, “You are what you mock.” To really get down to it, I grew up with Tom Kenny[comedian and voice of Spongebob], who I’ve known since I was six years old. I think he’s the funniest person I’ve ever met. And Dana was influenced by Tommy, so–
DANA: Yeah. In a big way, Bob lived in Boston with our two friends, Tom Kenny and Dan Spencer. And then Bob moved to San Francisco and I moved to Boston and became friends with Dan and Tom. Absolutely at that age, 18, 19 years old, I absorbed some of Tom’s personality. Shamelessly, by the way. I wouldn’t have liked me either if I was Bob.
BOBCAT: My bullshit thing was, in my head, I felt like I was defending Tom Kenny somehow, but the reality is Tom Kenny didn’t have a problem. The real subconscious reason I believe was that I didn’t like the part of me that was derivative of Tom. And so I attacked Dana. The other thing is is I’ve never been a person that’s “on” offstage. I’ve always been punch the clock funny. I like watching my friends be funny, and I like laughing with my friends, but when people are always on, I just have a problem with it. And Dana was very needy then, and Dana would be on.
Was it also that you’d moved away, and [Dana] had replaced you in the friend group somehow?
BOBCAT: Yes.
DANA: What’s so funny about that is I thought that’s what it always was. Now I’m like, “Oh, it was something else?”
Oh yeah, actually it was just your personality.
DANA: And also, not to belabor a well-made point, I grew up in a very, very small town, and I literally didn’t really meet people that I didn’t know already until I left my hometown and went to college. That was right around the time that Bob met me. I was 18, 19, but emotionally, I was probably 13 or 14, just by dint of my upbringing. I’ve said this so many times, but I meet people that knew me before I was 30, and I’m just like, “I’m really, really sorry.” And it wasn’t long after that but we were at a show at Largo, and I think that there was a sense of like, “Oh, he’s changed. I’m going to talk to him.”
BOBCAT: Dana changed, but my thing was do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy? I had a Rolodex of resentments towards everybody. “Oh, this guy. Well, he did this and that, and that’s why I don’t like him.” But at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself do I want to be right and isolated and bitter, or do I want to have loved ones and friends?
You guys talked about teeing each other up for bits during the show. I was trying to figure out, is Bobcat hating Jerry Seinfeld a bit that Dana was trying to tee you up for, or is that just a thing that he likes to goad you into talking about?
DANA: Neither!
BOBCAT: So that clip of him on that show where millionaires dissect comedy until it’s not funny anymore [Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee], and are shocked when marginalized people are offended by something that they say? It’s like, “hey, you know what the average Joe can relate to? You in a half a million dollar car.” That just tears my cock off. Go fuck yourself.
DANA: Give him a minute, he’ll warm up.
BOBCAT: But truly, I can honestly say this and I know no one’s going to believe it, but I really don’t hate Jerry Seinfeld. It’s worse than that: I don’t care about Jerry Seinfeld. When I watched him say that stuff, it was like the RCA dog looking into the speaker with my head cocked sideways. See, 20, 25 years ago, I would say a lot of vicious things about the guy, and… I mean, I was very vicious, let’s not kid ourselves. But I thought it was over, because I was friendly with one of his managers who’s a real mensch.
Maybe I should’ve reached out or something, but then, he did that thing, and then he’s saying in an interview later that that was his favorite part of the season. And he’s like, “You tell him I said that.” In the past I felt like I had to stop celebrity bashing in my act because I didn’t like how it made me feel. That’s really how I became more of a storyteller. But the funny thing is, it’s like I’m this retired gunslinger. Seinfeld shows up in town, and he’s like, “Goldthwait!” And I’m like, “I’m out of this game, man.” “Goldthwait, I want to talk to you! I’m going to embarrass my friend Bridgett until you come out!” And I go, “Okay.” I take the .45s down, and I’m like, “Man, you really don’t want to do this.”
The reason he shouldn’t do it is that as soon as he did that, people were trying to figure out who he’s talking about and then they Google my name and Jerry Seinfeld, and it just goes to clips of me talking about him banging teenage girls and being a Scientologist enthusiast.
You talked about not wanting to talk about celebrities anymore. Is that a hard thing to manage? Because when you talk about them in an act, you’re relating to the audience and it’s just you and them, and that’s one thing. But then when that clip is available everywhere always and that person that you’re talking about can see it, it becomes another thing.
BOBCAT: I learned right away that whatever I said got back to people. The first HBO special I had, I was in my manager’s office, I kept getting calls from Sylvester Stallone saying he was going to kill me. Actually, he said he was going to rip my heart out. But I remember my daughter had been born, and they’re finishing the edit on the HBO special, and I’m on a payphone going back and forth seeing my daughter because she was in the hospital for awhile, and they wanted to know if I wanted to cut this stuff out about Stallone. I talked to Robin [Williams] about it, and Robin’s going, “Oh no, B. I do jokes about Stallone all the time. I do him doing Shakespeare. It’s fine.” Like yeah, but it’s the difference between doing Stallone doing Shakespeare and calling him a draft dodger. But Robin and I would sit there with legal pads, and we would come up with ideas, and he would go, “Oh, that’s too dark. That’s for your pile. I can’t say that. People will hate me.”
Dana, are there any celebrities or comedians that you would like to take this opportunity to start a beef with?
DANA: Oh yeah, that’d be great. Jerry Lewis. No. It’s like what Bob said, I don’t care. I know I have a lot of friends, and I’m not talking about Bob here, that are very much monitoring the “comedy civil war,” of the bro comics versus the whatever. I have three kids, and a whole other career as a writer, and I wish I had the time to keep up with Joe Rogan. I honestly could not care less.
BOBCAT: But when you’re bashing other comedians, I should say what you’re really saying is, “They’re famous, they’re making more money than me, and I’m awesome and I should be.” That’s the subtext there. But as far as Jerry, I can try to figure out what originally got me. I think it was just because he was so condescending when I moved to LA. I would like to think that I’m pointing out his hypocrisy, or the fact that he’s just so mainstream or whatever, but the reality is, the guy was just a dick to me when I met him. That was it. I think I just put him in that Rolodex I was talking about earlier.
DANA: It’s funny, a lot of these things, they go back to the smallest personal thing. It’s the small humiliations.
Well, they told me I had 30, and I don’t want to screw up the rest of your guys’ schedule.
DANA: Oh, yeah. We have other things. You’re right. Let me look at what the other thing is. Hang on one second… Oh, yeah. Shit, I’m late. I’m late. I do have to go. I’m sorry.
I appreciate it.
DANA: I’m doing an unrelated interview with Beaver Hunt magazine.
Well that’s a much more important publication.
BOBCAT: Who books that?
I’ll ask you [Bobcat] one last thing, which is, if I remember correctly, you got through this entire movie without discussing cancel culture once. How you were able to manage that?
BOBCAT: Well, I’ll speak about me. I’ve always said what I wanted to say on stage, and people got pissed off, and I either addressed it, apologized for it, or doubled down. That’s the job. Cancel culture reminds me of back in the day when every city had their version of a shock jock who basically were very derivative of Stern, and all of them were always at odds with the FCC or at odds with another radio show that was very similar to theirs. And the more they attacked that, the more their fan base grew and defended them. Nobody’s freedom of speech is in jeopardy, I just think now marginalized groups have a tiny bit of a voice. I think there’s people who aren’t used to anyone saying, “Hey, I don’t feel really cool about that.” Like I said, I’m not obsessed with Jerry Seinfeld, but someone had asked me this question, and he thought I was talking about him, but I guess it applies. He makes some gay joke, and then when people were upset by it, that was so foreign and shocking to him. Say what you want. And if people get upset, you should send them a thank you note because it helps promote your thing.
Do you think part of it is that our brains are not built to handle the level of feedback that is now possible?
BOBCAT: Yeah, I think that’s crazy. Ego surfing is so dangerous. Falling down some rabbit hole when I’m reading somebody’s opinion on me that wouldn’t pay money to come see me. Social media is set up in a way that lies and anger get amplified, fighting gets amplified. It’s like that thing the other day about Facebook, it’s like, “Wait, so this platform that was started by some Ivy League bros to rate women’s tits and faces didn’t have the betterment of mankind behind it?” Oh, what a shock. It started from a shitty place and it went downhill from there.
‘Joy Ride’ hits select theaters and OnDemand platforms October 29th. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.
“Like Deon Sanders said, ‘You look good, feel good, you play good, they pay good.’”
That’s been WNBA veteran Ty Young’s guiding philosophy when it’s came to her kicks game ever since she stepped onto the court. The league’s certified Sneaker Queen has always seen her style as an extension of her athletic skill, a way to separate herself from the pack, to bring more attention to the game, and, above all else, a guarantee she’d deliver come game time. That “look good, feel good, play good” mentality saw her rise through the ranks, as a first-ever draft pick for the Atlanta Dream and then as a disrupting defensive force for teams like the Chicago Sky and the Las Vegas Aces.
She’s spent 12 years watching the WNBA grow, evolve, and experiment, and she’s led plenty of that change herself, especially when it comes to the league’s style. While some of her contemporaries are just now rocking designer kicks and choice fits that land them on sports fashion blogs, Young’s been running the game for much longer, polishing her look and defining her brand – often by what she’s wearing on her feet.
But, before she was crowned the WNBA’s “sultan of swag,” Young was just a kid trying to keep up with her older siblings. She hails from the same North Carolina town as Michael Jordan and played ball at the Laney High School, where both of their jerseys hang in the rafters. Jordan supplies the school’s team with gear every season, but for Young, her love of sneakers was inspired by some good-natured sibling rivalry.
“It was almost like a family thing,” she tells Dime. “I was the baby, but seeing my oldest siblings getting these dope sneakers … back then they were wearing Air Force 1, Jordans, Air Max — that just became the norm for me, because I wanted to be like my brother and sister.”
Young’s always favored a classic shoe. She gravitates towards retro and vintage designs in cream colorways. She got flack for it back in the day.
“I’ve never been into the kicks that everyone is talking about, I started off wanting kicks that were different,” she says. “I would get picked on at times because I would wear some kicks that I thought was fly, but maybe everyone else didn’t.”
But that same originality and confidence in her style are what elevated her game and her brand when she graduated, first to college, then the WNBA. Young needed to navigate some tricky waters as a sneakerhead in the league when she first broke through — back then, players were regulated to black or white kicks, though they could also rock their team colors if they could find a court shoe in them. As the men’s side began experimenting with fashion more – transforming tunnel walks into catwalks and dropping serious cash on the latest designer kicks – Young saw the women’s side evolve.
“It became a part of the fashion, a part of the game, a part of the attention that we were getting,” she recalls. “Even now, people are looking forward to seeing what kind of kicks players are wearing.”
She took full advantage of that shift.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a blog or social media account dedicated to covering the league’s best looks that doesn’t have at least one, if not half a dozen, pics of Young’s impressive shoe game. She’s invited fans and journalists into her closet, a dedicated room in her Georgia home that houses seemingly endless pairs of Jordans, Kamikazes, Nikes, and more, all resting on custom-built shelves. She likes to dip into that space on her days off, rearranging her 600+ pairs of kicks whenever the mood strikes. For now, they’re color coordinated and organized by style. There are Iversons on one wall, designer wear on another. And, because she recently signed for a shoe deal with Reebok, you’ll find plenty of the brand’s more retro selects on her shelves.
“It has changed my sneaker game,” Young tells us of the new partnership. “People are hitting me up on social media like, ‘Hey, you just made me go cop on Reeboks. I haven’t worn them in years.’ It’s almost the same for me. I haven’t worn them in years either, but now it’s a thing.”
She’s got her favorites, ones that signal where her shoe game is at right now. When Young was fresh out of school, she wore “anything” — LeBrons, Jordans, those heavy Charles Barkleys. When she started playing league ball, she realized she had to make some fundamental changes to her shoe game too.
“I had become this defensive player. I couldn’t wear those heavy sneakers chasing people like Deanna Nolan and Diana Taurasi around the court,” she says with a laugh. “So it became a point where I was still looking for fly kicks, but kicks that weren’t as heavy in the weight, so it would be more comfortable, and I could move a little bit better.”
That emphasis on utility and comfort is what drives her shoe choices now, too.
“So it’s this Club C model that Reebok has,” Young answers when I ask which sneaker is her go-to right now. “I have double pairs in a lot of them because I love that shoe. It’s an OG style, and I can dress it up or dress it down.”
Young recently retired from the league, in part, to focus on her fashion endeavors. She’s got an apparel line, TY1 Gear, that she launched during her time with the Chicago Sky after fans complained it was impossible to get cool merch with her name and number on it.
“It started with just t-shirts with my logo, where fans could have something that would support me and represent me,” she explains.
Now the brand has grown to include everything from hoodies and hats to socks and, yes, eventually shoes. As for her Reebok deal, Young’s shifting away from the expected course once again, forgoing athletic kicks for more everyday wear.
“There hasn’t been a basketball shoe because I just feel like that’s what a lot of athletes are getting, especially ones that are signed with sneaker deals,” she says. “For my brand, I like to do a casual shoe because it’s something different, but it’s still something that resonates with me, and who I am. I’m into fashion. I’m into style. So if I can get a PE made with Reebok, and then have a lifestyle shoe made for my brand, I think that’s just awesome.”
And she’s proud that her legacy might be reaching beyond the court as well. For Young, earning that Sneaker Queen title just means there’s a better chance that more women in the WNBA will get some much-needed respect thrown their way when it comes to their own shoe collections.
“I still think there’s a long way to go,” she says. “There are a lot of women sneakerheads out here. And some, you may not know because they don’t post their sneakers all the time, or they don’t wear them all the time, but they still have love for them and still have a nice collection. I think now though we’re starting to give women the love and the notoriety of being sneakerheads.”
Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.
Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of October below.
Mouse Rat — The Awesome Album
Dualtone/Entertainment 720
Mouse Rat is one of the most beloved bands to ever come out of Pawnee, Indiana, and now the Parks And Recreation group has an actual album out. Furthermore, it’s available on vinyl and features hits like “5,000 Candles In The Wind (Bye, Bye Li’l Sebastian)” and “The Pit.” Even if Chris Pratt isn’t super on board with the project, this is an essential release for all vinyl-collecting Parks And Rec stans.
Superchunk — Here’s To Shutting Up (20th Anniversary Reissue)
Merge
Superchunk had an extremely prolific stretch in the ’90s and early ’00s, and during the latter half of that window came 2001’s Here’s To Shutting Up, which turns 20 years old this year. So, to commemorate the anniversary, the band gave it a spiffy new reissue. Included in all editions (CD, vinyl, and limited edition orange swirl vinyl) come with Bestial Warning, a bonus CD that features 13 previously unreleased demos.
Tipitina’s Record Club has a fascinating proposition for all lovers of New Orleans music: Join the club and every two months, you’ll get an exclusive release, whether it’s something fresh or a rarity that’s been out of print for decades. The current release is the self-titled album from New Orleans R&B icon Ernie K-Doe, with this edition representing the album’s first reissue since 1972.
R.E.M. — New Adventures In Hi-Fi (25th Anniversary Reissue)
Craft Recordings
25 years ago, R.E.M. released New Adventures In Hi-Hi, the band’s most recently released Platinum-certified album and, for many, an underrated classic So, Michael Stipe and company have opted to reissue the project, and there’s a lot here to sink your teeth into. The 2-LP vinyl edition is pressed on 180-gram vinyl replicates the original gatefold packaging, making this release about as close to the original as you can get today.
The Beatles don’t really need much introducing and neither does Let It Be, one of the group’s most iconic albums. Now it has gotten a massive reissue in a number of different editions, and within those are goodies like the newly remastered album, a 105-page hardcover book (with a foreword from Paul McCartney), and more that make this perhaps the most comprehensive edition of Let It Be, all offered in beautiful packaging.
It was a big month for vinyl reissues, and that’s true for Wye Oak, too, as their album Civilian turns ten years old this year. They’re marking the occasion with Civilian + Cut All The Wires: 2009–2011, which, as the title suggests, encapsulates more than just the album. Most excitingly, there’s also an entire lost album of unreleased tracks and demos from the era.
Mac Miller’s albums don’t tell the full story of his career, as he released a bunch of mixtapes, too. A lot of those aren’t easily available due to the challenges of bringing mixtapes to a state of commercial viability, but one of his classic releases, Faces, is now available. While there are some changes from the original online release, the 3-LP vinyl edition is nothing to scoff at.
People love the movie Drive for a variety of reasons, and one of those is the soundtrack, which is anchored by Cliff Martinez’s score but also features music from Chromatics and other artists. Now it has a tenth-anniversary vinyl edition, which is pressed on stunning “neon noir splatter” vinyl, making this Drive OST a conversation-starter fit for any vinyl library.
The Rolling Stones — Tattoo You (40th Anniversary Edition)
Polydor/Interscope/UMe
The Rolling Stones has been pumping out music for a long time, and now they’re looking back at a beloved release, 1981’s Tattoo You, with a new vinyl reissue. The newly remastered collection includes nine previously unreleased songs from the era, which were newly enhanced and completed by the band with new vocals, guitar parts, and other loose ends tied up.
We often highlight a Vinyl Me, Please reissue in this column, sometimes even two. They absolutely knocked it out of the park with their slate of November releases, though, so we’re going with three: Usher’s Confessions, Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury, and Gram Parsons’ Grievous Angel. As usual, all come freshly remastered, pressed on beautiful vinyl, and with some sort of worthwhile extras that give VMP releases the extra oomph they always seem to deliver.
Get Usher’s Confessionshere. Get Clipse’s Hell Hath No Furyhere. Get Gram Parsons’ Grievous Angelhere.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Most celebrity memoirs are, let’s face it, not very good. There’s too much self-mythologizing and not enough dirt. Brian Cox is bringing the dirt. In his memoir, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, the Succession actor is not afraid to name names.
About his The Glimmer Man co-star Steven Seagal, Cox wrote, “Steven Seagal is as ludicrous in real life as he appears on screen. He radiates a studied serenity, as though he’s on a higher plane to the rest of us, and while he’s certainly on a different plane, no doubt about that, it’s probably not a higher one.” He said he finds Quentin Tarantino’s movies to be “meretricious” and “all surface,” adding, “Plot mechanics in place of depth. Style where there should be substance. I walked out of Pulp Fiction.” That being said, if Tarantino called Cox with an offer to be in Kill Bill: Vol. 3 or whatever, “I’d do it.”
“Personable though I’m sure he is, is so overblown, so overrated. I mean, Edward Scissorhands. Let’s face it, if you come on with hands like that and pale, scarred-face make-up, you don’t have to do anything. And he didn’t. And subsequently, he’s done even less.”
Cox isn’t amusingly grumpy about every actor, though: he called Keanu Reeves a “seeker” who has “actually become rather good over the years” and referred to the late Alan Rickman as “one of the sweetest, kindest, nicest, and most incredibly smart men I’ve ever met.” As someone who has seen Super Troopers approximately 47 times, I hope he has nice things to say about Farva, too.
In an interview with Esquire UK, Cox explained his decision to write the memoir (he expects to never “hear from some people again”). “Some people do memoirs far, far too young. Why are you doing your memoir now when you’re only 32? There’s no life! Getting to where I’ve got to, you’re looking more at the end than the beginning, and you have to just be as honest as you can be without causing offense,” Cox said. “If I was going to be tough with people I had to be equally tough with myself, and not be vainglorious, in order to create a balance.”
A new animated film about sneaker culture has added some all-star level voice talent, according to Deadline. Sneaks is being produced by Laurence Fishburne, who also has a voice role, and has a star-studded cast featuring the voices of NBA player Chris Paul, Grammy winners Ella Mai and Roddy Ricch, and five-time Grammy nominee Swae Lee. In addition, LA hitmaker Mustard is signed on as the music producer.
The film revolves around a lost pair of sneakers trying to find their “sole mate” in New York City. Mai plays an oxford, Macy Gray plays a stiletto, and Swae Lee plays a “gifted young athlete” as they try to help out and stop a pair of villains, the forger played by Roddy Ricch and an evil collector played by Fishburne. Meanwhile, Chris Paul will voice himself, hosting a sneaker convention. To ensure the authenticity of the sneaker culture seen throughout the film, the legendary Bobbito Garcia serves as an advisor.
Fishburne offered this quote: “Our film will illuminate and pay homage to the forever growing and popular sneaker culture that continues to inspire and be inspired by musicians, athletes, and artists alike, and I’m thrilled by the cast and crew who have decided to join us on the journey.” Mustard said, I really see the music in this film as a crucial part of the storytelling. As the first family animated feature film to be steeped in sneaker culture, I am honored to draw from my expertise as a producer and artist, and my love of sneakers, to create moments that really connect. The added bonus is that this is a film that I’ll be able to enjoy with my family and kids.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Texas favorites Spoon are in the midst of one of the longest between-album gaps of their career: Hot Thoughts came out in early 2017, making it well over four years old now. Well, the drought is about to end: The band’s tenth album, Lucifer On The Sofa, is set for release on February 11, 2022. Alongside that announcement, the band shared the single “The Hardest Cut,” a pure rocker driven by a forward-moving and upbeat riff.
“‘The Hardest Cut’ was the first song that Alex [Fischel, keys and guitar] and I wrote when we moved back to Texas to work on this album. He had some chords and then I came up with this sort of drop D riff that we called ‘the Texas riff,’ because that’s what it sounded like to us. We called the song ‘Texas Riff’ for a while, until I got some words to it. I always wanted to have a Spoon song that had the vibe of ‘Run Run Run’ by The Who. So it was the combination of three things; Alex’s chords, my riff, and ‘Run Run Run.’ And then we had it — ‘The Hardest Cut.’”
He also said of the album more broadly, “It’s a record we decided we wanted to make when we were touring the last one. We toured Hot Thoughts longer and with more shows than any other album we’ve ever done, which is saying a lot. While we were out there, we kept discovering that we were playing the songs from the last album better on the road than they were on the record. So the idea was to take that energy that you get from playing songs live and being on the road and hashing out the songs, using that energy first. So you’re not starting with a demo and building on it; you’re actually getting in a room and experiencing that sound together and working from there. You’re not figuring out the song as you record it: You figure it out, then you record it. That was a big part of it. […] It’s just fun — a record for some good times.”
Watch the “The Hardest Cut” video above and find the Lucifer On The Sofa art and tracklist below.
Matador Records
1. “Held”
2. “The Hardest Cut”
3. “The Devil & Mister Jones”
4. “Wild”
5. “My Babe”
6. “Feels Alright”
7. “On The Radio”
8. “Astral Jacket”
9. “Satellite”
10. “Lucifer On The Sofa”
Lucifer On The Sofa is out 2/11/2022 via Matador Records. Pre-order it here.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
What we have here is an old-school erotic thriller — think Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction — with White Lotus star Sydney Sweeney as one half of a curious couple who spends a not-insignificant amount of time spying on their exhibitionist-type neighbors. Things get weird and twisted and steamy, as they do in these kinds of movies, which were super popular in the 1980s and 1990s and have since just about disappeared. Might be worth it to give it a try, but think about closing your own blinds first. Watch it on Amazon Prime.
Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff finally gets a proper send-off in this actioner that aims to go back-to-basics but succeeds more on a personal level. The film fills in plenty of blanks following the events of Captain America: Civil War, but more importantly, we receive butt-kicking ladies in well-choreographed fight scenes and an emotionally resonant story that introduces us to the inner Natasha, as witnessed by Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova. She’s perhaps the only person in the world who’s allowed to tease Natasha, and their dynamic (and the chemistry between Scarlett and Florence) rules. The film also allows David Harbour to perform grunt-filled face work with a wild accent while the ladies swirl around him in hand-to-hand combat. It’s a winner. And it’s now available to subscribers with no extra fee. Watch it on Disney+.
The Velvet Underground is one of the most influential bands of all-time. But unlike other iconic 1960s groups like, say, the Beatles, there’s not a ton of footage of Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Moe Tucker performing. To get around this, director Todd Haynes has made a documentary that captures the “idea” of the VU rather than a Wikipedia summary. Don’t walk, but “run run run” to watch The Velvet Underground! Watch it on Apple TV+.
James Wan, he of the Saw and Insidious and Conjuring movies, is back with a new horror film. This one focuses on a woman who has terrifying visions of brutal murders, which are ruining her life a little (as terrifying visions of brutal murders will do) and are also –surprise — actually happening in the real world (which is bad). None of it sounds like a good time for her. For you, though? Maybe. Watch it on Netflix.
Good news: The Muppets are back. Everyone’s favorite collection of fuzzy rascals take to Disney+ with a new spooky Halloween story about a haunted mansion. The Haunted Mansion, if we’re being technical. It might be a nice opportunity to fall down a Muppet rabbit hole again. There’s never a bad time to watch The Great Muppet Caper, after all. Watch it on Disney+.
The Sopranos are back. Kind of. The Sopranos are kind of back. Series creator David Chase’s long-rumored, long-awaited prequel movie about New Jersey’s most famous fictional crime family is finally here. What do we got? Well, for one, we’ve got Michael Gandolfini filling the role of a Tony Soprano and playing a younger version of the character his father made famous. We’ve also got a bunch more Moltisantis and 1960-70s fashion all against the backdrop of the 1967 riots in Newark. There’s a lot going here. You’ll probably want to check it out, if only to bask in a little nostalgia for a while. Watch it on HBO Max
The dark spirits compel us to remind you that Megan Fox has a horror-comedy coming to Netflix this week. It’s likely this reminder is retribution for how terribly we treated Fox’s other terrific horror entry, Jennifer’s Body. Will this one be as good? Who knows? It looks promising enough though, with Fox and Sydney Sweeney hamming it up as two LA-based Goth queens who mix a bit of human blood into their green smoothies. Lucy Fry and Debbie Ryan take up the most screen-time, playing a pair of hard-partying undead millennials that look to be the worst Uber passengers you’ll ever meet. It’s a wild noir-infused romp through the city that doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously. Watch it on Netflix.
The spooky business all gets rebooted here, with the franchise focusing in on a collection of teens, one of whom is on a mission to discover what happened to her mother. Does she uncover a secret? Is the secret described in the preview materials as “a terriying truth”? Buddy, you know it is. We’ve all see enough of these movies to know that. But it doesn’t make them any less fun. Watch it on Paramount+.
Netflix bet on dead with Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, and that bet apparently paid off handsomely, which is a good thing because there’s already a prequel in the can. Matthias Schweighöfer returns to the franchise as Dieter, a then-bank teller who’s recruited by Nathalie Emmanuel (who promises “a life less ordinary”) to begin his heisting career. Of course, this prequel isn’t entirely devoid of zombies, but the focus is on those safes, which are cracking. Watch it on Netflix.
Halloween Kills is a direct sequel to 2018’s Halloween, which was a sequel to 1978’s Halloween that ignored all the previous sequels in the franchise. It’s confusing, but really, all you need to know is that it’s a Halloween movie with Jamie Lee Curtis, “The Shape,” and an eerie score from John Carpenter. ’Tis the season (to watch horror movies). Watch it on Peacock
At long last, Dune is here. Denis Villeneuve’s science-fiction epic starring everyone you like (including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, and Jason Momoa) should probably be seen on the biggest screen possible. But it’ll still look darn good at home. Watch it on HBO Max.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
Eli Roth has so much going on over at Discovery+ this month (following his recent real-life horror/Shark-Week film on the streamer) that one has to wonder… is he running the joint? It’s a valid question, but more to the point, he’s teaming up with Ghost Adventures host Zak Bagans for this scripted anthology series, in which they illuminate nine of the world’s most cursed artifacts. These relics are actually in display in Bagans’ Vegas museum, but here, you’ll get the historic commentary in addition to having the pants scared off of you.
10. (tie) I Know What You Did Last Summer (Amazon Prime)
AMAZON
Sure, you remember the 1997 film and perhaps you’re aware that that was based upon the 1973 novel by Lois Duncan, but this Amazon Studios collaboration with Sony Pictures Television wants you to relive the nightmare once more. Obviously, this version doesn’t have Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, or Freddie Prinze, but these teens seem more twisted by nature than the O.G. bunch, so perhaps that will add some shading to justify reviving their shared dark secret as they aim to survive. Watch it on Amazon Prime.
Need to shake up your food game? Join the club. Chef David Chang teams up with director Morgan Nevill for six episodes that follow seismic changes in the way we eat. There’s a global perspective, and expect to see robots and lab-grown food and more surprising paths to tastiness. Watch it on Hulu.
Margaret Qualley (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood) stars in this heartbreaking adaptation of Stephanie Land’s New York Times best-selling memoir, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive. This will, clearly, be a difficult watch, but Qualley’s raw portrayal (of a woman who flees an abusive relationship to go through exceedingly difficult times to break the cycle for her daughter) yields a burgeoning star. Watch it on Netflix. Watch it on Netflix.
We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: Apple TV+ is winning the space race. This latest drama from the streamer imagines an alien invasion of Earth as told from different perspectives of people on different continents around the world. Sam Neill is one of those – he plays a small-town sheriff on the verge of retirement when these other-worldly guests arrive. X-Men producer Simon Kinberg is behind the series, so expect the show to have some terrific visuals and compelling storylines. Watch it on Apple TV+.
Well, well, well. Guillermo turned out to be a vampire killer, which sure as heck came as a surprise to Nandor, Nadja, and Laszlo, and Colin. The four Staten Island roommates must figure out how to handle this conundrum, along with tackling the other challenges of this season. Those include dealing with wellness cults and gym culture, along with gargoyles, werewolves who play kickball, casinos, and more. In other words, this is still one of the funniest shows on TV. Watch it on FX and Hulu.
Lizzy Caplan and Christian Slater star in this adult animated comedy show that revolves around a shadow government that’s all up in global conspiracies. There are secret societies and orgies and shapeshifters and psychic mushrooms, along with an idealistic agent who hopes that she can make a difference in a world filled with unhinged characters. Watch it on Netflix.
If you find yourself commiserating with Penn Badgley’s obsessive serial killer Joe Goldberg when You’s third season drops this week, don’t take it personally. Relocating to a small town and having to interact with mommy bloggers and uber-masculine tech-daddies sounds like hell, sure, but it’s what he deserves. The show’s latest installment picks up where season two left off — with Joe and his new wife Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti at her best here) moving to the suburbs and trying to curb the worst of their shared homicidal tendencies. A new baby, new romantic distractions, anti-vaxxers, feminist wine retreats, and bro trips that end rather bloody all threaten their planned quiet life. And really, no amount of couple’s therapy can save a marriage when one spouse is constantly fantasizing about murdering the other. Happily ever after just isn’t in the cards for these two — but more dead bodies piling up in their basement certainly is. Watch it on Netflix.
Netflix’s most popular show in, well, ever continues to burn up the discourse, and internet bandwidth all over the world. It’s been a while since we had a full-on phenomenon like this one. Get in there if you haven’t yet, or maybe get in there again if you have, if part to enjoy (?) all the class-based cynicism and murderous children’s games, and in part so you have something to talk about with your family during the quickly-approaching holiday season. Watch it on Netflix.
Love Life ended up being the HBO Max original show to launch the service, and a new anthologized story is upon us with Anna Kendrick’s Darby passing the baton to a new unlucky-in-love protagonist, Marcus, who will be portrayed by William Jackson Harper (i.e., Jacked Chidi in The Good Place). Darby’s still in the show a little bit, but she got married, so this is all about Marcus finding himself launched from a long-term relationship and into the hell hole known as the dating world. Godspeed, Marcus. Watch it on HBO Max.
It’s a mitzvah in a world like this to turn the other cheek, bite the tongue, and generally disregard the impoliteness, ridiculousness, and stupidity of others. But wow, what a lift. Perhaps that’s why it’s so freeing to see Larry David and a cavalcade of stars and familiar faces push against the minutiae of polite culture with serial honesty. Who else could reject someone’s plea to pray for a sick relative without getting stabbed or mock the fakery of gazing deeply into someone’s eyes during a toast when all you want to do is freaking eat? Larry is no hero. He’s an asshole, but he’s our asshole and he’s back for another round of Curb. Watch it on HBO.
Everyone’s favorite collection of monsters is back, once again, this time for a slightly delayed third season. Things left off with the Roy family in turmoil, as always, although this time from friendly fire, thanks to noted screw-up and amateur rapper Kendall making a big move. The new season should get ugly in the best possible way, so hop on board week-to-week if you’re already a fan or load up a binge and get caught up to see what everyone’s yammering about all fall. Watch it on HBO Max.
Gwyneth Paltrow stopped by Red Table Talk to promote her new Netflix series, Sex, Love & goop, on Wednesday. Or at least that was the initial plan because things took a turn when Jada Pinkett Smith once again started airing her issues with husband Will Smith. Although, to Jada’s credit, she did keep the discussion on topic because her grievances were about sex, and how it’s not going so well after being married for so long. Via E! Online:
“It’s hard,” Jada said. “The thing Will and I talk about a lot is the journey. We started in this at a very young age, you know, 22 years old. That’s why the accountability part really hit for me because I think you expect your partner to know [what you need], especially when it comes to sex. It’s like, ‘Well, if you love me, you should know. If you love me, you should read my mind.’ That’s a huge pitfall.”
As for Paltrow, she didn’t add much to the conversation except to say, “Isn’t it weird, though? It’s like someone doesn’t read your mind and we feel crushed.”
However, Paltrow should’ve been prepared for the Red Table Talk experience to veer into awkward amounts of tea spilling about Will and Jada’s marriage. Soon after the episode hit, people started losing their minds on social media over the fact that, once again, Jada was airing Will’s dirty laundry. She quickly became a trending topic thanks to an avalanche of hilarious reactions, which you can see below.
Will just be chillin out, maxin, relaxin all cool and then here comes Jada https://t.co/htrTkJq2te
Jada Pinkett Smith: I DESPISE my husband Will with the burning passion of a thousand burning suns, he has a small penis, he’s annoying, we cheat on eachother, he isn’t Tupac, he’s bad at sex and I didn’t like Hitch https://t.co/kNvqUgtDNf
Will & Jada just need to go their separate ways. They’ve been married for 25 years. Their kids are grown. They had a good run. Now Will can go be with Margot and Jada can go be with 2Pac’s ghost and everybody can be happy.
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