Pop Culture

Protesters gather in support of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike at Sunset Bronson Studios on May 4, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.Courtesy of Gilbert Flores via Getty Images  A breakdown of the writers’ demands, the conditions that created them, and what this means for your favorite shows (and showrunners).  By Eric Thurm May

In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on May 5, 2023: The Smashing Pumpkins, ATUM The Smashing Pumpkins are back with their twelfth studio album, ATUM: A Rock Opera in Three Acts. Billed as a sequel to the band’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Will Westerman, who performs music under his last name, sang in choirs and played saxophone as a child before teaching himself how to play guitar at 15. The South London-born, Athens, Greece-based singer-songwriter started putting out singles in 2016 and made his label debut on Blue Flowers with 2017’s Call and Response EP, which was followed by

New York City band Bush Tetras have announced their first new LP in 11 years. It’s titled They Live in My Head, and it lands July 28 via Wharf Cat. Listen to the lead single ‘Things I Put Together’ below, and scroll down for the album’s cover art and tracklist. The band began working on

Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy in Succession. The title of the Succession series finale offers some clues about the ending.Courtesy of David M. Russell for HBO The final episode of the series is once again named for a line in John Berryman’s “Dream Song 29.” By Esther Zuckerman May 3, 2023 Succession loves a good literary

Fontaines D.C. vocalist Grian Chatten has announced his debut solo LP: Chaos for the Fly is out June 30 via Partisan Records. New single ‘Fairlies’, which follows earlier offering ‘The Score’, arrives today along with a video animated by Callum Scott-Dyson. Check it out below and scroll down for the album’s cover art and tracklist.

Jinwoo Chong’s Flux is the kind of twisty, time-bending novel that slips out of your hands and leaves you guessing at every corner, and its ambition makes it surprising to be just a debut. Our three main characters, Bo, Brandon, and Blue, exist within different lifetimes but are all connected by grief — Bo loses

Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya’s Dune: Part 2 finally has a new trailer.Courtesy of Niko Tavernise for Warner Bros Pictures Franchise newcomers Florence Pugh and a jarringly bald Austin Butler also get their closeups in the latest preview  of the hotly anticipated sequel. By William Goodman May 3, 2023 During last week’s CinemaCon event, Dune director Denis Villeneuve

Amaarae has revealed that her new album, Fountain Baby, will be released on June 9 via Interscope. The follow-up to 2020’s The Angel You Don’t Know was led by the single ‘Reckless and Sweet’, and now the Ghanaian-American musician has shared a new track from it, ‘Co-Star’. It arrives alongside a music video directed by Lauren

The Hives have announced their first new LP in over a decade. The follow-up to 2012’s Lex Hives is called The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, and it’s set to arrive on August 11 via FUGA. Lead single ‘Bogus Operand is accompanied by an Aube Perrie-directed video, which you can check out below. “There’s no maturity

The five songs on Become, the new EP Beach House released for Record Store Day that is now available across digital platforms, clearly belong in the same universe as the duo’s 2022 album Once Twice Melody. They’re all lifted from the same sessions, and at one point, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally felt like they created their own

Photograph: HBO; Collage: Gabe Conte As Hugo and Karolina, Fisher Stevens and Dagmara Dominczyk are quietly one of the funniest duos on Succession. By Caroline Reilly May 2, 2023 A series of small ecosystems make up the Waystar Royco C-suite on HBO’s Succession; groupings of individuals bound by trust, loyalty, fear, and blackmail. There are of course,

Angel Du$t shave dropped two new songs, ‘Very Aggressive’ and ‘Love Slam’. The two-track single was produced by bandleader Justice Tripp, engineered by Paul Mercer, mixed by Steve Wright, and mastered by Tony Eichler. ‘Very Aggressive’ also features a guest appearance from Citizen singer Mat Kerekes. Take a listen below. “This was the first time

Desire will be supporting Metronomy on a number of dates this month, and to celebrate the occasion, the duo has shared a cover of their song ‘I Have Seen Enough’. The track originally appeared on Metronomy’s 2022 LP Small World. The Los Angeles-based artist Glüme, who is also opening on the tour, has tackled the

Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo has returned with a new song under his given name, a collaboration with Mac DeMarco called ‘Nudista Mundial ’89’. The track, which was recorded at DeMarco’s studio, comes paired with a music video inspired by the ’80s adult video game Leisure Suit Larry and animated by Johnny Woods. Check it out

Shiv’s (Sarah Snook) actions have been increasingly unpredictable for the last three episodes of Succession.Courtesy of David M. Russell for HBO.  In the final season of Succession, Logan Roy’s only daughter has been more erratic and unpredictable than ever. By Esther Zuckerman April 30, 2023 The past two episodes of Succession posed a number of intriguing questions as

Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins

Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, John Turturro and Britt Lower star in Severance—but it might be a while before we see them return in season 2. Defiant Jazz’, (Season 1, ep. 107, aired March 25, 2022). photo: Atsushi Nishijima /©Apple TV+ / Courtesy Everett CollectionCourtesy of Atsushi Nishijima for Apple TV via Everett Collection There’s still

Harrison Ford returns as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones in the Dial of Destiny, which just got the rare Steven Spielberg stamp of approval.Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures via Everett Collection  “I thought I was the only one who knew how to make one of these.” By Grant Rindner April 28, 2023 As

Beach House have digitally released their new Record Store Day EP, Become, with a physical release to follow on May 19 via Sub Pop. The 5-track collection was produced by Beach House, with mixing by Alan Moulder, Trevor Spencer, and Caesar Edmunds. It was mastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound. Stream

Photographs: Getty Images, Netflix; Collage: Gabe Conte Mazino was the Netflix series’s breakout star as Yeun’s endearing little brother. By Evan Ross Katz April 28, 2023 Moments after they’d wrapped their final scene together on the set of Netflix’s Beef, Ali Wong took Young Mazino’s hands and looked him dead in the eyes. “You can have

The Knife’s Olof Dreijer has announced a new collaborative album with Mt. Sims titled Souvenir, a collection of five steel drum tracks. It’s set for release on June 9 via Rabid, and its first single, ‘Hybrid Fruit’, is out today. Check it out and find the album’s cover artwork and tracklist below. Souvenir began after

In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on April 28, 2023: The National, First Two Pages of Frankenstein The National have returned with their ninth studio album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, via 4AD. The follow-up to 2019’s I Am Easy to Find was previewed by

Is there something you like doing more than anything else? This pastime or hobby could be anything, such as reading, watching movies, doing crafts, sports, recording a podcast, geocaching… the list is endless. Everyone likes different things, and it’s highly likely that there will be at least one activity you would choose to do over

Illustration by Michael Houtz; photographs by Getty Images Henry Rollins created the archetype of the extremely jacked hardcore frontman, and new-school bands like Turnstile are pumping iron to follow suit. By Luke Ottenhof April 27, 2023 Brendan Yates and Daniel Fang of the hardcore band Turnstile had crossed paths at shows growing up in Maryland’s

Kassa Overall has shared a new single, ‘The Lava Is Calm’, which features trumpeter Theo Croker. It’s taken from Overall’s forthcoming album ANIMALS, which has so far been previewed with the tracks ‘Ready to Ball’ and ‘Make My Way Back Home’. Listen to ‘The Lava Is Calm’ below. “I was thinking about lava because it

Foyer Red have shared another single from their upcoming debut LP, Yarn the Hours Away. ‘Pocket’, which follows early cuts ‘Etc’, ‘Plumbers Unite!’, and ‘Gorgeous’, arrives with an accompanying video directed by Dewey Pileggi. Check it out below. “This song was by all means a wild card for the album,” singer Elana Riordan explained in