Random music news for Thursday, April 18, 2019

It’s almost Easter. Take down the damn Christmas lights. Meanwhile, the rest of us will investigate music news for April 18, 2019.

1. How’s this for a metal Game of Thrones jam session? And what about these special Game of Thrones guitars? For this price, they’d better contain both Valerian steel and dragon glass. (Via Tom)
2. The new Ontario budget cut the amount of money flowing to the Ontario Music Fund (OMF) in half. Bad idea.
3. The K-pop phenomenon is reaching deep into American youth culture. Let’s take a look at why.
4. Director Danny Boyle is going to make a movie about Creation Records boss Alan McGee with the script coming from Trainspotting‘s Irving Welsh. There will no doubt be plenty of drug stories. Oh, and stuff about Oasis.
5. Fred Durst is directing a movie starring John Travolta. You read that correctly.
6. A book has been written about Insane Clown Posse and Juggalos. This should be interesting.
7. Speaking of new books, this one is an oral history of Russian punk from Soviet times to today.
8. If you’re in a black metal band, you might want to skip playing in Singapore.
9. Fancy Mastodon’s cover of “Stairway to Heaven?”
10. Are you thinking of deleting your Facebook account? You’re certainly not alone.
11. Scary: Beyonce’s emergency C-section.
12. This is the 25th anniversary of Toronto’s NXNE Festival. Here’s a preview of 2019.
13. Britney Spears’ mom is apparently really worried about her daughter’s mental state.
14. Hey, it’s the 30th anniversary of the Pixies masterpiece Doolittle.
15. The battle between neighbours Jimmy Page and Robbie Williams has entered yet another new and ugly phase.
16. If you’re concerned about music-related hearing loss, read this.
17. CD sales continue to decline. But you can still buy high-end CD players.