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The Matrix Resurrections Ending Explained: How Exactly Did Neo and Trinity Return to Do Kung Fu?
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections.] The Matrix movies are, well, dense — a veritable gumbo of artistic influences and philosophical musings on the nature of identity couched in dingy cyberpunk and some of the slickest, most revolutionary action Hollywood had to offer at the turn of the millennium. It’s the same series that paired high-kicking setpieces and epic-length freeway chases alongside Keanu Reeves standing in a room with a bearded Colonel Sanders lookalike to talk about the preprogrammed choices we’re given throughout our lives. It’s no surprise, then, that The Matrix Resurrections, Lana Wachowski‘s bold, messy, ambitious, romantic return to the series for the first time in almost twenty years, is just as complicated and unwieldy. Not only...
The Best Music Projects of 2021
Getting through the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic is a cause for celebration itself. As music experienced a brief resurgence with festivals and smaller tours, artists like Isaiah Rashad, J. Cole, Lorde, Tyler, the Creator and Vince Staples also made their triumphant return with their well-received albums The House Is Burning, The Off-Season, Solar Power, CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, and Vince Staples. It would be a tragedy if we failed to highlight the hot debate of Kanye West‘s DONDA versus Drake‘s Certified Lover Boy, which were released within five days of each other and became the world’s talking point for months afterward. 2021 also greeted us with diverse releases from both growing and all-time favorites, including pgLang star Baby Keem with The Melodic Blue, Little...
5 of the Best Songs In 2021 By Transgender and Queer Artists
One positive element that the pandemic has provided the music industry has been the emergence and support of queer and transgender artists. The industry has predominantly been operated by men and there has been a serious inequality in pay, but now we’re seeing more LGBTQIA+ people and women being promoted and making executive decisions at major music companies. Among the artists that turned the industry on its head and skyrocketed their careers this year are Kim Petras, Shawnee Kish, and Quinn Christopherson. As we close out 2021, these artists and songs continue to shape-shift music and lead us into the next era of sound. Kim Petras – “Coconuts” Like a number of trends and songs in 2021, Kim Petras’ “Coconuts” took off on TikTok after sh...
The Matrix Resurrections and Brass Against: Why the Song Choice for the Final Scene Is So Damn Cool
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections, specifically the ending.] The Matrix Resurrections is a movie that’s distinctly aware of what came before, not only including actual footage from all three of the prior films, but offering up direct homages to the most iconic moments. And that’s especially found in the music choice made for the final sequence, which encapsulates the fourth film’s relationship to the original — a direct callback that also represents the new normal presented by director Lana Wachowski. If you need a reminder of how the original Matrix ends, it’s a relatively simple coda: With the wild action of Neo’s (Keanu Reeves) battle with Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) now over, Neo places a polite phone call to the A.I. monitoring the Matrix in w...
The Matrix Resurrections Review: A Wild, Meta, Sometimes Muddled, Occasionally Transcendent Love Story
The Pitch: Here’s the problem with reviewing The Matrix Resurrections: At this point, we basically have to accept that the franchise peaked with the first installment. This isn’t meant as an insult, but an honest statement of fact– this is what happens when a film is a masterpiece. If 1999’s The Matrix is a nearly perfect movie, almost transcendent at some points with how it blended genre and technology in service of its storytelling, then yeah, it may be impossible to top it. What makes Resurrections such a fascinating viewing experience, though, is the fact that the movie knows this. And, rather than try to shift the narrative to some different angle on the original, director Lana Wachowski, who co-wrote the script with David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon, decides to take on that problem...
The Dark Legacy of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’
I have as much affinity for the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” as the next Gen-Xer. I know I’m not alone in the nostalgic resonance of the echoing, opening chimes, which will forever harken back to the rush of the first view of the video, the slow-motion assembly of some of our favorite artists—Sting, Bono, George Michael, Boy George, Phil Collins, and more—all coming together under the name of Band Aid, just in this precious first moment, for a greater cause. It was 1984. We were told we, the listener, had the power to help the starving people of Ethiopia. All we had to do was purchase “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The single went straight to No. 1 in the U.K., where it stayed for five weeks. Band Aid sparked 1985’s Live Aid, the most successful fundraising concerts ever (there were...
Meet the Team Reviving Philly’s EDM Scene
It’s a quiet November night when Kai Wachi makes the second-to-last stop of his “Muscleville” tour in the City of Brotherly Love. Thanksgiving weekend sends Philadelphians home to the burbs for a tryptophan coma, the Eagles game enjoyed from sunken couches through half-shut eyes. One might expect this show to be a sleeper, but there’s a ghostly air blowing off the Delaware that says a storm is coming. The venue teems with headbangers as the Boise-born bass music producer takes the stage. Herein lies the intersection of wook and meathead. A pashmina-clad crowd sings, “electrify every cell, ‘cause I don’t wanna flatline” while visuals of skulls and flowers pulse from psychedelic swirls. Wachi’s signature, vicious blend of dubstep and metal drives the life-death motif unfolding. A...
In Photos: Bands Featuring Sons of Metallica’s Hetflied, Ulrich, and Trujillo Team Up for San Francisco Gig
As part of Metallica’s “San Francisco Takeover” to mark their 40th anniversary, a handful of club gigs were announced to surround the metal titans’ massive shows at the Chase Center. One of those shows included three bands — OTTTO, Taipei Houston, and Bastardane — with each featuring at least one son of a Metallica member. The gig took place Saturday night (December 18th) at The Chapel, with Bastardane taking the stage first. Based out of Savannah, Georgia, the group features drummer Castor Hetfield, son of Metallica frontman James Hetfield. The trio had a sound that was just as much thrash metal influenced as it was hard rock, and put on an impressive set. Next up were Taipei Houston, a two-piece whose members Myles (drummer) and Layne (singer-bassist) are the sons of Lars Ulrich. Althoug...
6 Questions for David Chaum of XX Network
We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes! This week, our 6 Questions go to David Chaum, one of the earliest blockchain researchers and a world-renowned cryptographer and privacy advocate. He is the founder of Elixxir, Praxxis and the XX network, which encompass his decades of research and contributions in the field of cryptography and privacy. David Chaum is the creator and founder of XX network, the first consumer-scale, quantum-ready online platform that enables value to be communicated and exchanged without revealing so-called “metadata.” David is a pioneer in cryptography and privacy-preserving technologies, and is widely recognized as the inventor of electronic ca...
Paul Rudd’s Best Saturday Night Live Sketches (So Far)
Paul Rudd joins the Five-Timers Club this Saturday as host of Saturday Night Live, and he’s sure to add some new fan-favorite skits to his resume. Still, the fact is that he appeared in enough all-time-great sketches during his previous four appearances that it’s tough to narrow down a list of his greatest hits. While Rudd’s greatest comedic achievement remains his decades-long tradition of setting up the wrong clip for Conan O’Brien, his versatility as a character actor, combined with classic leading man good looks and the apparent willingness to do literally anything presented to him by the writers, has made him one of the best modern SNL hosts. Below are eight of his best SNL sketches, arranged chronologically — a list that by Sunday morning we’re sure will end up being much longer. — L...
Rap Song of the Week: Boldy James Gets Ice Cold on “Hot Water Tank”
Our recurring new music feature Rap Song of the Week breaks down the hip-hop tracks you need to hear every Friday. Check out the full playlist here. This week, Boldy James and The Alchemist close out the year strong with the ICECOLDBISHOP-assisted “Hot Water Tank.” Boldy James is known for his prodigious output: Last year alone, he dropped four projects. In 2021, he slowed down the pace a bit, solely releasing his Alchemist team-up Bo Jackson, one of the best albums of the year. Today, the Detroit rapper upped his volume by releasing Super Tecmo Bo, a nine-track project combining a handful of new songs with bonus tracks previously only available on the Bo Jackson vinyl deluxe edition. One of the standouts is “Hot Water Tank” featuring underground LA rapper ICECOLDBISHOP, who brin...
Song of the Week: Best Coast and The Linda Lindas Collaborate on the Vibrant “Leading”
We’re taking a break from our Annual Report to highlight the Song of the Week. In this feature, we talk 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, Best Coast is back with a little help from rising stars The Linda Lindas. Pop culture right now seems dominated by a certain amount of sentimentality. Rebooting and revamping have become the norm, and people are starting to push back on the oversaturation. Best Coast probably weren’t intending to jump into that exact discourse with their latest, “Leading,” but the opening line is a relatable statement nonetheless: “Nostalgia’s overrated, or maybe it’s just complicate...
