Reading between the lines of JONATHAN BERNSTEIN's piece for THE GUARDIAN on the NRA's attempts to align itself with country music, one gets the sense that a lot of artists and organizations in NASHVILLE don't have an issue with guns so much as they have an issue with the NRA. And a lot of between-the-lines reading is required here, as not a lot of people returned BERNSTEIN's calls. But it's a worthwhile read on how the gun lobby is trying to use music -- and artists like THOMAS RHETT and FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE -- to soft-sell its politics… Note to NRA: Sometimes the best way to sell an idea is not to sell it at all. Do you need to be involved when this exists?... Reading directly into DANIEL DYLAN WRAY's RBMA DAILY profile of surviving members of the APOLLO STARS, the official rock band of the CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY's SEA ORG in the 1970s, we learn that L. RON HUBBARD had broad musical taste but was an inept producer. In case you were wondering… Major artist pulls b-sides and bonus tracks from streaming sites. Streaming sites are left with pillaged playlists. This is a small but good example of an area where subscription services' interests and artists' rights are directly in conflict in a way that probably hurts consumers more than its hurts either the artists or the services. Which is to say, someone should solve this, but I can't figure out a compelling reason why they would... KATHLEEN BATTLE returns to the MET... ROUGH TRADE launches magazine (!!!), and now I am having happy flashbacks of this.