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Westworld’s Daniel Wu on Episode 6’s Big Reveals and His Special Bond With Thandiwe Newton
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Westworld, Season 4 Episode 6, “Fidelity.”] Daniel Wu is no stranger to strange genre tales — the veteran actor has been working constantly over the past few decades on a mix of Hong Kong and American productions, notably starring in the bonkers AMC martial arts drama Into the Badlands for three seasons. Thus, he was more than ready to take on a significant role in Season 4 of Westworld, playing Jay, the leader of a group of human “outliers” who are scrambling for survival in a world now controlled by the robotic “hosts.” As Wu explains to Consequence via Zoom, there was no question of him turning down the job, when Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy asked him about it after the two of them worked together on her directorial debut, the 2021 fi...
Westworld Composer on Giving the Opening Title Music an “Edgy” Cover For Season 4, Episode 6: Exclusive
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Westworld, Season 4 Episode 6, “Fidelity.” To read about the music of Episode 5, click here.] Unlike past weeks, where Westworld composer Ramin Djawadi has surprised us with covers of Frank Ocean and Nine Inch Nails, Episode 6 of Season 4 contained no such surprises on the musical front. Except, of course, for the fact that he ended up covering… himself. First, though, “Fidelity” did contain some big surprises on a narrative level, though, including the end of the line for freedom fighter Jay (Daniel Wu) — the human version, at least. And we also got to see the full extent of Hale (Tessa Thompson)’s manipulation of Caleb (Aaron Paul), as he not only confronts his new reality as a host, but the fact that he has been copied dozens of times ...
The Life and Legacy of Tony Sly: No Use for a Name Singer Honored by Friends and Family a Decade Later
Fiona Sly remembers her dad’s playfulness the most. “He was extremely funny… extremely funny,” she says with a smile and some weight. “I miss having his humor.”Her father, Tony Sly, was the mellifluous voice of the Californian punk-rock band No Use for a Name. On July 31, it will be 10 years since the world lost an amazing singer-songwriter and a loving father and husband. “July 31 was incredibly devastating because we grew up together, and he was all I ever knew,” Sly’s wife, Brigitte, says. “It sounds cheesy but it’s true. I don’t think I knew real love and happiness until I met that man.” Brigitte still recalls first meeting her future husband at a local pizza joint when she was only 12. She wipes her eyes and smiles. “He was such a beautiful person,” she says. “Just knowing him — or he...
Arcade Fire Kick Off Tour with Heart and Soul at Montreal’s Osheaga Festival: Review
Arcade Fire pick and choose their moments very carefully. It’s fitting that the Montreal band decided to release their first album in five years, the ambitious and heartfelt WE, in a pandemic-affected universe, urging us to relish in the fact that we are still, in fact, alive. It’s even more fitting that Arcade Fire began their extensive WE tour in Montreal, the band’s birthplace, at Osheaga Festival, which is celebrating its first year back since 2019. However, Arcade Fire’s appearance at Osheaga on Friday night (July 29th) was a stroke of good and bad luck: originally scheduled to headline were Foo Fighters, who cancelled all their tour dates after the untimely death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. But nabbing Arcade Fire as a replacement headliner is an excellent booking, and their pres...
Must-Hear Indie Artist of the Month: Lava La Rue
The Project Lava La Rue’s new EP, High Fidelity, is out now via Marathon. The Origin Growing up, Lava La Rue was always playing in bands. “When I was 13, I wanted to be in an all-girl version of The Clash. Very West London, ska-punk inspired. The intersection of Caribbean culture and British punk.” But as they grew older, the costliness of rehearsal space drew the young creative to freestyling “because you just need a microphone.” At college in London, La Rue met the group of artists who would soon change their life. “I think people assume we met at some really established music school but it wasn’t like that at all, it was a bit rundown. The music equipment was falling apart,” La Rue explains, but the lack of proper equipment didn’t stop the group of friends, who would soon call themselve...
Ask Dr. Mike: Embracing Our Authentic Mental Health
Spinning out of the Going There with Dr. Mike podcast presented by Consequence and Sound Mind Live, the monthly “Ask Dr. Mike” column is here to answer listeners’ questions. As we wrap up BIPOC Mental Health Month, Dr. Mike discusses how we can improve our mental health by embracing our authentic selves. Sometimes it can feel like we are trapped in a mental health paradox. On the one hand, there is so much happening in the world that can cause us to suffer emotionally: pandemic, climate change, political strife, economic suffering and inflation. Some who had never experienced depression or anxiety have begun feeling an overwhelming sense of loneliness and dread, while those already grappling with mental half have found their struggles exacerbated. On the other hand, whe...
Marcia Gay Harden on Depicting the “Universal Heartbreak” of Netflix’s Uncoupled
Marcia Gay Harden feels like one of the hardest-working actors out there; since winning her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Pollack (she was also nominated for Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River) she’s made countless appearances across film and television, often appearing in multiple episode guest-starring roles across shows including The Morning Show, Damages, The Newsroom, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, How to Get Away With Murder, and more. So it’s not a huge surprise to see her appear in Uncoupled, the new Darren Star (Sex and the City) comedy now streaming on Netflix, though it is a pleasure. The series focuses on how Michael (Neil Patrick Harris), a 40-something residential real estate agent in New York, copes with the sudden end of a 17-year relationship; Harden appears as C...
Kate Bush’s 10 Best Songs
This article originally ran in 2014 and has been updated in celebration of Kate Bush’s birthday on July 30th. Top Songs is a feature in which we definitively handpick the very best songs in an artist or band’s catalog. Sounds simple, right? Oh, if only. Considering the formidable back catalog of someone as musically gifted as Kate Bush, the inevitable dilemma is what to leave out of any top 10. With 10 studio albums and 33 singles to ponder, it’s a particularly tough ask. Advertisement Despite Bush’s status as a national treasure in the UK and considerable success around the world, her career has never really taken off in the US — until this year’s “Running Up That Hill” explosion, that is. Indeed, Bush’s genius is finally getting the recognition it deserves in the States (though this list...
Song of the Week: Beyoncé Is in a Galaxy of Her Own on “ALIEN SUPERSTAR”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Queen Bey takes us on a journey into outer space with “ALIEN SUPERSTAR.” Beyoncé‘s new album Renaissance is an entire listening experience. The songs flow into one another with such precise care that leaving one and entering another is sometimes unnoticeable, making it the kind of record best absorbed as a whole. This also makes it difficult to single out any one track as a standout among gems, but with “ALIEN SUPERSTAR,” Queen Bey reminds us exactly who she is. “I’m one of one, I’m number one, I’m the onl...
Meet George Johnson: The Angriest Songwriter in Washington, D.C.
It was a sweltering day in Washington, D.C., and George Johnson was running late for an appointment at the James Madison Memorial Building, the massive, bright-white marble box that is part of the Library of Congress. Inside, a high-priced lawyer for Pandora, impatient to move on with a 2016 hearing to set royalty rates for webcasting recorded music, suggested that the three-judge Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) simply call the next expert witness. But the judges decided to wait just a little longer. Finally, an hour after his scheduled time, Johnson, now 55, burst into the room, drenched in sweat and wearing a “Still Pissed at Yoko” T-shirt. (He was out of suits, and his Metro had stalled.) “It looked like he’d just run a marathon,” remembers Chris Harrison, then vp of business affairs for ...
Paper Girls Is Prime Video’s Paper-Thin Attempt to Make Their Own Stranger Things: Review
The Pitch: It’s Hell Day 1988 — the waning hours of Halloween Night, and four girls are out on their paper route in a sleepy Cleveland suburb. There’s Mac (Sofia Rosinsky), the chain-smoking rebel whose haircut and leather jacket are giving 1991 Edward Furlong; KJ (Fina Strazza), the young Jewish girl from a well-off family; Tiffany (Camryn Jones), an adopted Black girl and certifiable tech nerd; and Erin (Riley Lai Nelet), the shy daughter of Chinese immigrants who just moved to town. They don’t know each other very well, but they’ll have to band together after the sky turns purple and they’re suddenly shot into the far-flung future of… 2019. Turns out they’re caught in the middle of a war between feuding factions of time travelers — the orthodox “Old Watch” and the rebellious STF, o...
Pantera’s 10 Best Songs
The story of Pantera is bound to the modernization of heavy metal in the 1990s, but the band’s origins began long before that. Formed by guitar virtuoso “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul, Pantera began as a rather rudimentary ’80s metal band: big hair, glam riffs, and unfortunate album titles such as Metal Magic and Projects in the Jungle. Bassist Rex Brown was along for the ride from nearly the beginning, but things shifted when vocalist Phillip H. Anselmo joined the band after they had already released three under-the-radar albums. While Anselmo was on board for 1988’s Power Metal, It would be the seminal 1990 album Cowboys from Hell that truly marked the arrival of the Pantera that is now recognized as one of the best heavy metal bands of all time. Perhaps th...
