The Wiggles had themselves a bit of a viral moment earlier this year when they covered Tame Impala’s “Elephant” while mashing it up with their own “Fruit Salad.” The children’s music group apparently decided they’re really into covers, because next year, they’re releasing a whole album of them.
ReWiggled is set to drop on March 11, 2021, and it’s a two-part affair. The first side features artists like Stella Donnelly, The Chats, and the Melbourne Ska Orchestra covering songs by The Wiggles, while the second side sees the group performing songs by artists like Rihanna, AC/DC, Blondie, James Brown, and The Rolling Stones. They shared a preview EP of the album today and it features their renditions of “Elephant” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a famously over-the-top song that is perfect for the cartoony style of The Wiggles.
They also shared an announcement video, so find that above and check out the ReWiggled art and tracklist below.
The Wiggles
1. DZ Deathrays — “Hot Potato” (The Wiggles cover)
2. Spacey Jane — “D.O.R.O.T.H.Y (My Favourite Dinosaur)” (The Wiggles cover)
3. Stella Donnelly — “Ba Ba Da Bicycle Ride” (The Wiggles cover)
4. The Chats — “Can You (Point Your Fingers And Do the Twist?)” (The Wiggles cover)
5. Emily Wurramara — “Dressing Up” (The Wiggles cover)
6. Polish Club — “Apples & Bananas” (The Wiggles cover)
7. Donny Benet — “Sicily (I Want to Go)” (The Wiggles cover)
8. San Cisco — “H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.” (The Wiggles cover)
9. Custard — “Do The Propeller!” (The Wiggles cover)
10. Emma Donovan & the Putbacks — “Say The Dance, Do The Dance” (The Wiggles cover)
11. Dami Im — “Big Red Car” (The Wiggles cover)
12. Luca Brasi — “The Shimmie Shake” (The Wiggles cover)
13. Melbourne Ska Orchestra — “We’re All Fruit Salad!” (The Wiggles cover)
14. The Wiggles — “Elephant” (Tame Impala cover)
15. The Wiggles — “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Queen cover)
16. The Wiggles — “Umbrella” (Rihanna cover)
17. The Wiggles — “Thunderstruck” (AC/DC cover)
18. The Wiggles — “Pub Feed” (The Chats cover)
19. The Wiggles — “Sunday Girl” (Blondie cover)
20. The Wiggles — “Get On The Good Foot” (James Brown cover)
21. The Wiggles — “Praise You” (Fatboy Slim cover)
22. The Wiggles — “Brand New Key” (Melanie cover)
23. The Wiggles — “She’s A Rainbow” (The Rolling Stones cover)
24. The Wiggles — “Live It Up” (Mental As Anything cover)
25. The Wiggles — “Shipping Up To Boston” (Dropkick Murphys cover)
ReWiggled is out 3/11/2022 via The Wiggles. Pre-order it here.
Château Miraval is a large villa in Correns, France that is co-owned by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and it has a rich musical history. French pianist and composer Jacques Loussier used to town the place and while he was there, he built a recording studio, which was known at the time as Studio Miraval. The studio was part of a number of noteworthy releases; Perhaps most notably, Pink Floyd held sessions for The Wall there. Other artists who have made use of the space include AC/DC, The Cure, Sade, and The Cranberries, among others.
Muse’s 2006 album Black Holes And Revelations was one of the last projects recorded in the studio before it was shut down. Now, though, Pitt and French producer Damien Quintard are bringing the facility back as Miraval Studios, which is set to reopen in the summer of 2022. Press materials note, “Pitt and Quintard will reopen the completely redesigned and updated Miraval Studios for the future, honoring the past while pushing forward a new take on recording, amid a breathtaking vista sure to nurture all manner of creative expression.”
The space is also described:
“In addition to the original gear on which so many classic albums were recorded, the studio is built around a desk designed by Pitt and Quintard with hybrid analog/digital capacities, while boasting a fully integrated Dolby Atmos system as well as technology to handle pre-mixing for film and television. With its 25-foot ceilings, Studio One has a 100 square meter control room and 320 square meter live room that conserves what Quintard describes as the ‘heritage of the quirky sound’ of the iconic drum room pioneered by Loussier.
Quintard says, “The combination of Brad’s vision for Miraval and our common passion for taking the time to make simple but beautiful things has resulted in something that is one-of-a-kind. We are so excited for musicians of all types to be a part of what we’ve created.”
Pitt and Jolie signed a long-term lease for Château Miraval in 2008 before buying it in 2012 for an estimated $60 million, as People notes. Pitt and Jolie divorced in 2019, and now, they each own a 50-percent share of the estate (which is now worth a total of about $160 million), per Page Six.
Miraval Studios has launched some social media pages (here’s Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube), so check those out to keep updated on the status of the studio.
Last night, for the second time in her career, Billie Eilish brought her talents to Saturday Night Live. The last time she appeared, back in 2019, she defied gravity with a performance of “Bad Guy.” This time around, the singer signed on as both musical guest and host. In one sketch, the singer and cast member Heidi Gardner joined forces to update the story of Jesus’ birth.
The sketch was entitled “Hip-Hop Nativity,” and it found the two recruiting a group of actors to play many of the characters from the biblical story. They taught them how to twerk, strut, and pole dance. The actors initially raises issues over the biblical update, but they eventually went along with it. The closing bit also jokingly revealed that Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda will direct a full-length film version of Billie and Gardner’s updated nativity story.
In addition to the “Hip-Hop Nativity” skit, Billie also performed “Happier Than Ever” and “Male Fantasy” on SNL. The former made for an epic performance while the latter was a bit darker and relaxed.
In non-Eilish SNL news, the episode also featured Kate McKinnon returning as Dr. Fauci while Weekend Update skewered Jussie Smollett and the torching of the Fox News Christmas tree.
You can watch Billie’s Hip-Hop Nativity sketch in the video above.
RuPaul fans are looking forward to the new year, as the 14th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race is set to premiere on January 7, 2022 on VH1. Today, the show unveiled its guest judges and there’s a lot of musical firepower on the roster.
Appearing on the show next season (as TVLine notes) are Lizzo, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, and Sarah McLachlan, as well as Taraji P. Henson, Andra Day, Loni Love, Christine Chiu, Ava Max, Nicole Byer, Ts Madison, Alec Mapa, Dove Cameron, and Dulce Sloan. Some of them also appear in a new teaser video for the upcoming season.
Fans of both Lizzo and Drag Race know that the artist and the show have a strong preexisting relationship. She was a guest judge on the show in 2018 and told Rolling Stone of the experience, “To work with RuPaul is a dream. It was a bucket list [item]. I’m very fortunate to have been in the same room as RuPaul. You learn so much just by watching the way RuPaul operates. Apparently there are some petitions for me to be a permanent judge [laughs].” In 2019, she also recruited a bunch of drag queens from the show for a new “Juice” video.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The world of celebrity weed exists independently from the weed world at large. For the most part, these brands, as well as their namesakes, have little to do with cannabis culture or the cannabis they’re selling. Many celeb weed brands (especially those that popped up right after legalization) are little more than exercises in marketing — where flashy campaigns and absurd profit margins eclipse any intention of delivering a good product.
But there’s a catch with the celebrity weed industry that makes it trickier to navigate for the rich and famous than other celeb-branded spaces. Weed is a subculture with a distinct cool factor. Interlopers can be spotted from a mile away. Just because a celebrity puts out a brand, doesn’t mean smokers are going to like it. Even if they’re fans. These days, celeb brands are actually given more scrutiny than normal weed brands.
Why? Partly because there are so many of them now. But also because as cannabis culture is devoured by the mainstream, stoners have grown wary of business Chads and celebrity vultures swooping down to cash in on our magical plant and the subculture it’s created. There’s very much a sense of “where were you when we were getting high?”
If the celebrity in question was not in the trenches, using their platform to advocate for cannabis use with the stoners they’re now trying to sell weed to, the brand has a major problem and is likely going to get ridiculed within the community. It’s also the brands from non-stoner celebrities that tend to have the worst weed.
While great celebrity brands are heavily involved with the cultivation and selection of the strains they implement, others rely on white labeling — where cannabis is bought in bulk then re-branded (you also see this in plenty of celebrity booze brands too). The result is a totally polarizing sub-genre of the cannabis industry with some fire-ass weed, a lot of mids, and a handful of expensive trash.
Here’s a list to help you suss out the good, the bad, and the almost-un-smokeable of celebrity weed brands out there.
Cookies by Berner
Cookies Instagram
The Brand:
While it seems almost redundant to write anything about Cookies as they’re possibly the most visible brand in the weed world, it’s easy to forget that not only is Cookies a celebrity brand, it’s the most successful one of all time. Founded by Bay-area rapper Berner in 2012, Cookies has ballooned into its own empire– complete with a hype-beast subculture of avid fans.
Bottom Line:
With over 30 retail outlets in eight states and two countries, Cookies maintains their reign with proprietary genetics like their eponymous Girl Scout Cookies strain, as well as working with some of the best farms and growers in the world, like their recent collaboration with the Humboldt legacy brand Ridgeline Farms.
Insane by B-Real
Insane Instagram
The Brand:
Insane by Cypress Hill artist B-Real is a perfect example of a celeb weed brand that checks all the boxes. Great weed? Check. Bonafide stoner owner? Check. Insane in the membrane? You betcha.
Bottom Line:
B-Real is one of the most legit businessmen in legal weed today. He’s the owner of the Dr. Greenthumb dispensary chain and now the cannabis company Insane. Each carefully curated and extremely potent strain is a reflection of B Real’s lifelong commitment to loving, smoking, and creating great cannabis.
Mind Your Head by Mickey Heart
Mind Your Head Website
The Brand:
Mind Your Head is a magical preroll brand from the legendary Mickey Hart, drummer for the most stoned band of all time, The Grateful Dead. With two offerings, Magic Minis (mini prerolls) and Space Tickets (blunt-like prerolls infused with ice-water hash), this brand from a true OG is sure to steal your face.
Bottom Line:
Though it’s not clear where the weed comes from for these prerolls, Mickey Hart can do no wrong in the eyes of the stoner community. That passes the vibe check with kaleidoscopic colors.
Forbidden Flowers by Bella Thorne and Glass House Farms
Forbidden Flowers Instagram
The Brand:
Forbidden Flowers is an example of a different type of celeb weed brand, the collab. It’s often that celebrities (with little connection to the cannabis industry) will team up with an already existing brand to put out their line. In my opinion, this is a more reputable route to take than the straight corporate white label. At least the celeb is coordinating with people who care/know about weed in some capacity.
Bottom Line:
While Bella Thorne definitely smokes weed, this is a brand that feels more branded in her likeness than something she has a ton to do with. Glass House is a good weed brand, though, so at least the flower is worth smoking. And I like the glittery packaging.
Houseplant by Seth Rogen
Houseplant Instagram
The Brand:
Now for one of the most polarizing brands in celebrity cannabis today, Seth Rogen’s Houseplant. A bit of an enigma, Houseplant has garnered significant criticism for a brand coming from such a well-liked and extremely stoned celebrity. I think this is in part due to the fact that the cannabis community expected much more from one of our own.
The Bottom Line:
Houseplant flower is beautifully branded, totally expensive, and grown by THC Design, a popular Los Angeles cannabis brand known for high THC indoor flower with insane bud structure. Unlike Forbidden Flowers, whose Glass House collab is front and center in their marketing, Houseplant tried to keep their THC Design connection a secret, which didn’t particularly sit well when it came out. For example, Houseplant’s Pancake Ice strain is basically just rebranded Crescendo by THC Design, the #1 selling flower in California last year. Come on, Seth. You can do better than that.
Tyson Ranch by Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson Instagram
The Brand:
Now for one of the most confusing brands in the celeb weed world, Tyson Ranch. When Mike Tyson launched Tyson Holistic Holdings in 2016, he had big plans. Aside from cannabis and edibles, the brand would include the first cannabis resort of sorts, a 418-acre ranch in the desert that would include a festival venue and the world’s longest lazy river, among other things.
The Bottom Line:
Despite countless feature articles that claim to take you “Inside Mike Tyson’s Cannabis Ranch,” the photos are all drawings, and everything exists as a hypothetical. The reality is that, five years later, there is no ranch — only mediocre weed and subpar gummies. I love Mike Tyson and hope he realizes this bat shit idea as only he could. But so far, no dice.
Peaches by Justin Bieber
Palms Premium Instagram
The Brand:
As we near the end of this list, things are only getting worse. Next up in Dante’s descent into the inferno of celebrity mids is Peaches by Justin Bieber. Everything about this brand is annoying to me as a lifelong stoner. One, Justin Bieber has one of the largest platforms in the world and has never once used his voice to advocate for cannabis use. Suddenly entering the arena now that it’s socially acceptable seems like a cash grab from a dude who has plenty of cash.
Bottom Line:
The weed sucks. Grown by Palms Premium, it will get you high, but it doesn’t taste like anything or particularly smell like anything either, two major signs that the weed isn’t good, and clearly grown in some kind of industrial juggernaut that harvests 20 times a week and douses everything with chemicals.
Even if you get your peaches out in Georgia, I suggest you get your weed elsewhere.
Monogram by Jay-Z
Monogram Instagram
The Brand:
Monogram by Jay-Z is far and away my least favorite celebrity cannabis brand. While the packaging is gorgeous and the celebrity founder has extensive cannabis chops, the flower is terrible and absurdly expensive. Like…. $60 for a “hand-rolled” joint expensive. Even for the highest quality flower infused with kief or live resin, $60 would still be very expensive for a blunt. Instead of top-shelf flower, this joint is filled with shwaggy dried-out weed that honestly just makes you feel weird because it’s been so juiced for THC.
And that’s their flagship product.
The Bottom Line:
Their version of an eighth (four grams) is $70. This price point is usually reserved for some of the best weed on the market, not total mids from who knows where. The fact that the founder is a literal billionaire who came from nothing makes it all the ickier. He should know better and does.
This totally exploitive pricing system on shitty weed is nothing short of a bummer.
Jimmy Fallon has worked with Ariana Grande and Megan Thee Stallion a bunch before. Grande has appeared on The Tonight Show plenty of times, and Meg previously linked up with Fallon to re-work “Hot Girl Summer” into “Hot Girl Fall.” While those collaborations were mostly Tonight Show bits with no life outside of the program, now Fallon has teamed up with those two on an actually commercially released single, “It Was A… (Masked Christmas).”
The track is led by punchy drums and a simple but catchy keyboard melody, and Fallon sings on the hook, “It was a masked Christmas, we stayed in the house / We covered our nose and covered our mouth / But it’s Christmas time / We’ll be in line for a booster.”
The song is Fallon’s first official single since 2014’s “Ew!” with Will.i.am, which managed to peak at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it Fallon’s only charting single so far. Meanwhile, his most recent album is 2012’s Blow Your Pants Off, which consists of songs first performed on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.
Watch the “It Was A… (Masked Christmas)” video above.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
In last week’s episode of Succession, Kendall wanted the playlist for his 40th birthday party to be “all bangers all the time.” Did he succeed? You can judge for yourself, as HBO has released “Kendall’s Birthday Mix” on Spotify. There’s no Billy Joel, but there is the Chemical Brothers, LCD Soundsystem, Alison Wonderland, and KRS-One.
Assuming Succession takes place in 2021, Kendall would have been born in 1981, meaning his formative music-listening years would be in the mid- to late-1990s. There is absolutely no chance that he didn’t agonize the night before the party over whether to include “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65 on the playlist. He made the right call to leave it off — even if the episode ended with him feeling blue, da ba dee da ba di, after — spoilers, but you’ve probably seen the episode already — not being able to find his kids’ birthday present in the rabbit wrapping paper. Everything’s great.
You can listen to the playlist below:
And here’s the tracklist:
1. “White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)” by Grandmaster Flash and Grandmaster Melle Mel
2. “Man of the Year” by ScHoolboy Q
3. “Fotomat” by St. Maximus
4. “Go” by Geek Boy
5. “Here Comes the Warm Dreads” by Lee “Scratch” Perry and Brian Eno
6. “The Club” by Keith Goodey and Julian Napolitano
7. “NY Lipps (Kawazaki Dub)” by Soulwax
8. “Big Conspiracy” by J Hus and iceè tgm
9. “MC’s Act Like They Don’t Know” by KRS-One
10. “Radio Babylon” by Meat Beat Manifesto
11. “Troublemaker” by St. Maximus
12. “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down” by LCD Soundsystem
13. “Don’t Glaze Me” by Dizzee Rascal
14. “Hey Boy Hey Girl” by the Chemical Brothers
15. “Lost Dimension” by Magic Castles
16. “Anything” by Alison Wonderland and Valentino Khan
Seth Rogen digs weed. Let me take that back. Seth Rogen absolutely loves weed. He recently lit up with Conan O’Brien on the last episode of the host’s TBS late-night show. Rogen’s got his own weed company and is rolling in success, along with rolling in joints. For those reasons, it’s not at all hard to believe that Seth was high while recently appearing in the front row of Adele’s CBS TV concert special, “Adele One Night Only.”
There were a few surprises during the course of that special, apparently. Adele helped one gentleman pull off a surprise proposal that night, and as it turns out, Rogen was very surprised to be front row at an Adele show while the thing was being taped for TV. Here’s how he boisterously explained (to Jimmy Fallon) how this happened. Let’s just say that weed wasn’t the reason, but it still came up in conversation:
“I was in the front row of the Adele concert. And that is as surprising to me as anyone because I had no idea I was attending the taping of an Adele television special at all. I got an invitation, ‘Do you want to go to a small Adele concert?’ is what I remember absorbing. And I go to my wife Lauren, ‘You want to go to this small Adele concert?’ ‘Great, sounds fun’ … So, if I’m being honest, I hate to burst everyone’s bubble, I smoke weed, Jimmy.”
Rogen continued while adding that he “smoked a ton of weed” that night, and then, when he and his wife (Lauren) arrived at she show, “we see camera cranes.” That was when he realized that this was probably going to be on a TV show, but he reasoned, “Maybe it’s not that big a television special.” That’s when he saw Oprah at the show, and then Rogen thought maybe he could “just sit in the back.” However, that’s not what the powers in be had in mind for him, despite not being “equipped mentally to deal with doing this right now, really.” The situation progressed to where “I sit down, there’s like a camera literally just pointed at my face.”
Sounds surreal. And as one might expect, Rogen rolled with it. He stars as Santa Claus in Santa Inc. (which is currently streaming on HBO Max), and you can watch him at the aforementioned Adele concert in the below video from Entertainment Tonight.
Earlier this year, Trevor Noah took the reigns as host of the Grammy Awards, and the Recording Academy was so pleased with the job he did that they’re bringing him back to host the 2022 ceremony, too.
Making the announcement, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. says (as Deadline notes), “Trevor was amazing as our host for the 63rd Grammy Awards with praise from the music community, music fans and critics. We’re so excited to welcome Trevor back to the Grammys stage and feel fortunate to once again have him hosting what we believe will be an unforgettable evening.”
George Cheeks — President and CEO of CBS and Chief Content Officer, News & Sports of Paramount+ — also noted, “Trevor brought his trademark talent and versatility to last March’s Grammys, and we can’t wait for him to host the event on CBS and Paramount+ again this year.”
Noah shared the news with a video of a baby in a pool rhythmically and adorably moving its shoulders, followed by Noah doing the same. The video’s TikTok robot voice narration says, “When you get to tell the world you’re hosting the Grammys again this year.”
Issa Rae’s trademark television show Insecure has grown to be one the country’s most-watched shows through its four and a half seasons. In recent years, Insecure took home the award for Outstanding Comedy Series at 2021’s NAACP Image Awards. The show also earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series last year. In addition to its storyline and its characters, the soundtrack for Insecure is also another aspect viewers love about the show. Now in its fifth and final season, Issa Rae unveils the tracklist for this season’s soundtrack and it looks like a good one.
The soundtrack for the fifth season of Insecure features familiar names like Saweetie, They., Jesse Boykins III, Ambre, Duckwrth, Thundercat, Mereba, and Teamarr. Elsewhere, ESTA, Mack Keane, Akeem Ali, 27Delly, Jorge Amadeus, B.K. Habermehl, Nnena, Josh Levi, Mikhala Jené, Amindi, 27Delly, Kiah Victoria, and Ace Henderson can also be found on the soundtrack. The full project arrives this Friday, December 3.
“Music has always been an essential part of every project I do and working with emerging talent is a personal passion,” Rae said about the upcoming tracklist to Variety. “Raedio allows me to continue that work within the music industry and audio entertainment space. The Atlantic Records team are innovators in terms of shifting and shaping culture. I’m excited to join forces with them to discover new artists.”
You can view the full tracklist for Insecure: Music From The HBO Original Series, Season 5 below.
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