J. Cole must know a good taxidermist. Who else would cut off three SoundCloud rapper’s heads and mount them on a wall with gold plates reading, “Your Favorite Rapper,” “This Could Be You” and “Ask For A Feature?” An insane person in the surrealist world of the “Middle Child” video, …
Read More »On the Charts: Ariana Grande's 'Thank U, Next' Holds Number One
On this week’s Billboard 200, Ariana Grande‘s Thank U, Next claimed Number One for the second straight week, while a decade-old Drake mixtape debuted in the Top Five. Grande’s latest LP sold 151,000 total albums in its second week at Number One, with the bulk of that total, 124,000 copies, …
Read More »Watch Sara Bareilles Narrate Passionate Dance in 'Fire' Video
Sara Bareilles latest single “Fire” gets passionate contemporary dance choreography set to it for its video. The singer-songwriter’s new album Amidst the Chaos will be released on April 5th. While Bareilles sings the track in front of a large, open flame, a pair of dancers perform a romantic, explosive number …
Read More »'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Recap: Dirty Tricks
A review of this week’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “The Honeypot,” coming up just as soon as I wear a single Windsor knot… If the Nine-Nine cast weren’t already overpopulated, Chelsea Peretti’s departure might have been an opportunity to bring in a new regular civilian aide character to shake up some of …
Read More »Were the 2019 Grammys Actually…. Good?
The Grammys still have a long way to go — just ask pretty much any current hip-hop artist, or have a chat with Ariana Grande, who skipped music’s biggest night. But considered as pure spectacle, the overstuffed 2019 awards ceremony was the most entertaining “of the post-LL Cool J era,” …
Read More »Stephen Malkmus Gets Animated in Trippy 'Rushing the Acid Frat' Video
Stephen Malkmus‘ new album, Groove Denied, has some weird and cool electro-pop leanings, but it’s also got a handful of the chill guitar jams the former Pavement frontman is best known for. “Rushing the Acid Frat” is one of the best songs in the latter category, and now it’s got …
Read More »NRA Country's Great American Blowout Fails to Stir the Masses
By the time Lee Brice took the stage in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, it would have been nearly impossible to tell that this early-February country music concert wasn’t sponsored by a beer company or a local promoter, but rather by the National Rifle Association. While the concert — featuring Brice, Easton Corbin …
Read More »Robert Rodriguez: How We Made 'Alita: Battle Angel'
When Robert Rodriguez first saw James Cameron‘s “art reel” for a live-action version of Yukito Kishiro’s comic Battle Angel Alita in 2005, he recalls his jaw hitting the floor. “I’ve known Jim since before Desperado,” the director says over the phone, referencing his 1995 postmodern-Western/action movie. “I remember visiting him …
Read More »The Internet is a Pop Star's Game, and Slayyyter is Winning
The rulebook for would-be pop stars has changed drastically over the last decade. As social media has largely replaced tabloids, new artists in search of a certain kind of fame have been forced to stir up their own controversy instead of relying on headlines or paparazzi photos to do the …
Read More »Why Does Paul Manafort Keep Lying About Russia?
WASHINGTON —Paul Manafort, the ostrich-jacket-wearing lobbyist and former campaign chairman for President Trump, took another hit in federal court on Wednesday. Judge Amy Berman Jackson found that Manafort lied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team on multiple topics, including his interactions with a former associate in Ukraine with reported …
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