Carly Pearce always knew she’d be here. The CMA-, ACM-, CMT-, and Grammy Award-winning artist was sure of it—as a kid, then as a teenager, and even when things weren’t going so well as a young adult. She knew she would be a country music star, and that truth has continued to be her driving force—through heartbreak, divorce, unglamorous working conditions, and all of life’s other ups and downs.
Read MoreJimmer Fredette was a comet in college. He won the National Player of the Year in 2011 and was the leading scorer in the NCAA as a senior for BYU. He wowed in the NCAA tournament, often taking on opponents one-on-five, and drew comparisons to Stephen Curry for his sharp shooting.
But Fredette’s pro career didn’t pan out as he, and his many fans, hoped. Instead of becoming a multi-time NBA All-Star like Curry, he struggled to find his footing after being drafted 10th overall in 2011, playing for Sacramento for two-and-a-half seasons and then bouncing around the league before playing in Greece and China. But the 35-year-old has found a new calling as the face of USA’s men’s 3x3 basketball team. He will make his Olympic debut when the Americans begin their campaign against Germany on Tuesday.
We caught up with Fredette to talk all things 3x3, and his hopes as a first-time Olympian.
Read MoreFor almost the entire history of basketball, the No 1 thing that would help a person succeed was height. From Wilt Chamberlain to Shaquille O’Neal, the taller a player, the better. While size still matters, thanks to the talent of the 6ft 2in guard Stephen Curry, shooting is prized as much as any other attribute. The four-time NBA champion and two-time MVP is bringing his shooting ability to the Olympics.
Ever since Curry became a sensation thanks to his three-point marksmanship – he is the NBA’s all-time leader in three-pointers and attempts and a career 42.6% from beyond the arc despite myriad difficult shots – kids from New York City to Oakland have been taking their basketballs away from the rim and out behind the three-point line to shoot like Steph. But is it possible for anyone to emulate? If you ask Basketball Hall of Famer and former WNBA Coach of the Year Michael Cooper there are ways to try.
Read MoreFor the past 40-plus years, the Downey, California-born “Weird Al” Yankovic has been bringing laughter to music listeners through his signature parody songs and polka medleys. From Michael Jackson riffs like “Eat It” and “Fat” to Madonna parodies such as “Like a Surgeon,” and the famous Coolio parody, “Amish Paradise,” “Weird Al” knows how to strike a nerve and perk an ear. In so doing, he’s earned a handful of Grammy Awards and sold more than 12 million albums.
Today (July 19), Yankovic has released his latest musical number, “Polkamania!,” a medley of the biggest pop songs of the 2020s, including “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X, “Hello” by Adele, “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus, “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift, “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo, and “Bad Guy” from Billie Eilish, among others. We caught up with the songwriter and performer to ask him about his longevity, sounds of the decades, his approach to making music, and what he loves about humor, itself.
Read MoreWhen playing for Team USA in the Olympics, it can feel like a no-win situation for a professional basketball player. Though it was invented by Canadian James Naismith, the sport has become the quintessential American global game. The United States men’s team has won the dominant share of gold medals in the competition, taking home the top prize 16 times, silver once in 1972 and bronze twice in 1988 and 2004. But ever since America brought the pros in to play in 1992, beginning with star-studded Dream Team, it has been more pressurized. If Team USA wins, it’s expected. If they lose, it’s a failure. That is the same for the women’s side, too, though they’ve been even more dominant than the men through the decades.
Read MoreFor Spike Slawson, frontman and lead singer of the San Francisco-born punk rock group Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, a live show is akin to an obstacle course. Slawson and the group don’t much care for easy-breezy despite their stage prowess. Instead, they appreciate a degree of difficulty. A challenge. That’s where the fun, the reward, and even the humor reside, both for the musicians and the audience—whether they know it at first or not. In many ways, this is the basis for the band’s new live album, ¡Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Blow It… at Madison’s Quinceañera.
Read MoreAt the start of the year, Alexandre Sarr was playing in Australia’s NBL, where the average salary is around $100,000. Reed Sheppard was playing in college where, NIL deals aside, he earned nothing. Now, after going No 2 and No 3 overall in June’s draft, they are millionaires. Sarr is guaranteed $23m from his rookie contract with the Washington Wizards, while Sheppard will have to make do with $20m from his deal with the Houston Rockets (both contracts could end up paying the duo north of $45m each). It’s not just the top picks who suddenly have access to wealth either. Nine players in the second-round of this year’s draft – guys who may not ever have a meaningful career in the NBA – have signed multimillion dollar contracts with their teams.
Read MoreWhen it comes to Gary Clark Jr.’s style as a musician, some have said the 40-year-old Austin, Texas-born guitar player is schizophrenic. But he thinks of his versatility in a less-dramatic and more generation-appropriate manner.
Clark Jr. released his latest LP, JPEG RAW, in March, and is on an extensive U.S. tour that will place his eclecticism on full display. Clark Jr. thinks of himself as “an iPod Shuffle.” The musical devices were all the rage in the Aughts, before the age of the do-it-all iPhone. They allowed the ear to be awash in sounds with the push of a button. Whereas listeners once had to rely on radio or individual vinyl records, the postage stamp-sized Shuffles offered space for hundreds of tracks of any type. Clark Jr. has built off a similar penchant for sonic diversity—indeed, he embodies it.
Read MoreBeginning in the 1980s, Mike Burkett—a.k.a. Fat Mike—has been pouring his energy into punk rock. He co-founded the beloved band NOFX in 1983 and the San Francisco-based record label Fat Wreck Chords in 1990. Ever since, he’s been signing bands, playing shows, writing books, creating documentaries, and he even started a company that makes panties for straight men. Most recently, in 2023, he co-created the Las Vegas-based Punk Rock Museum. Earlier this year, Vegas decreed April 1 to be Punk Rock Day (what Mike calls a “punk proc,” short for punk proclamation). It all comes together to mark the culmination of a life dedicated to the music he says saved his life.
Read MoreBilly Mac remembers being in the broadcast booth in 2019 when Félix Hernández pitched his final game for the Seattle Mariners. Hernández, a Cy Young Award-winner and six-time All-Star who also threw a perfect game, came up in the big leagues with the team in 2005. But over the course of his 15-year career in the Pacific northwest, he was often the lone bright spot for a franchise that at one time had a 21-year playoff drought (a streak that finally fell in 2022). From his first All-Star season in 2009 until his final one in 2015, Hernández boasted a stunning 2.83 ERA, winning 104 games and losing only 65. Yet, he never once made a postseason pitch. But for Mac, a fact like that is all too familiar for the team he’s rooted now for decades – a team that was established in 1977 and remains the only active MLB franchise to never make a World Series.
Read MoreThunderpussy lead guitarist Whitney Petty prayed for this. A handful of years ago she was at rock bottom, depressed and creatively lost.
Her Seattle-born all-woman classic rock-inspired band left the major label it had signed to and her relationship with Molly Sides, the group’s Grace Slick-like lead singer, had frayed.
But Petty found solace in new surroundings. She moved to Guatemala, met local musicians and indulged in a new spiritual side. The result is the band’s exultant new sophomore album, West.
Read MoreIn the 1970s, the NBA was sputtering. Playoff games were on tape-delay. Many of the league’s teams were in debt, baseball was still firmly America’s game and lesser-known small market franchises were winning titles. But then an influx of talent changed the entire operation. The 1979-80 NBA season saw rookies Magic Johnson and Larry Bird explode on to the scene with the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, respectively. But even then, the two were known quantities and so, too, was their budding rivalry. It all began in college the year prior. The 1979 NCAA title game featured Johnson’s Michigan State team defeating Bird’s Indiana State in what is still the most-watched basketball game ever in the US. It was a matchup that featured Magic’s flash and charisma against Bird’s quiet genius. Two skilled passers making their teams better. Fast-forward 45 years and history is repeating itself, this time with the WNBA’s Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. Just ask Magic himself.
Read MoreNathaniel Rateliff is still curious after all these years. The singer/songwriter who made his bones in Denver and is now a globally famous artist, is still on the hunt for good songs—even if he is at something of a strange crossroads.
In one way, Rateliff has never been more successful. Ever since 2015 when “S.O.B.,” the single with his band The Night Sweats became a phenomenon, he’s been growing his footprint. He’s played Saturday Night Live, earned praise from Robert Plant and placed songs in major movies and HBO television shows. He’s played late-night TV and toured the world.
But at 45, Rateliff is still evolving. He’s dealing with his relationship to drinking, he’s coping with the realities of death and divorce, and confronting the pressures of stardom. And these are all the subjects of the new Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats LP South of Here, out Friday (June 28).
Read MoreParisalexa, co-writer of the newest K-Pop hit “Supernova” from the group aespa, doesn’t like to fly. But when the Los Angeles-via-Seattle songwriter/performer was invited on a trip to South Korea to collaborate on music, she took the chance. “A 15-hour flight across the world didn’t seem super exciting to me,” she says, “especially with people I didn’t necessarily know super well.”
Read MoreEach year during the June NBA Draft, new players enter the league’s ranks. Decades ago, many were college seniors, coming into the pros in their early 20s after graduation. More recently, though, that trend changed and often new entrants are only in their late teens.
Here below, we wanted to take a look at the youngest players ever to be drafted into the NBA by each of the 30 franchises.
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