My favorite line on EVERYTHING IS LOVE, for purposes of this newsletter, is BEYONCÉ's "If I gave two f***s about streaming numbers/Would have put LEMONADE up on SPOTIFY." I fully understand that it's becoming a little weirder with each passing day for artists to withhold their work from what's quickly becoming the only place for the average fan to hear it on demand (by which I don't specifically mean Spotify, but rather any kind of streaming restriction). I stream, too, and I get frustrated, too. I have ranted about the inherent evil of retail exclusives, in both the streaming or physical world. But I will direct my anger, every time, at the retailer or streaming service that solicits that explicit content. If the artist makes her own choice, for any reason from not giving two f***s up to and including having an ownership stake in a particular service, then that's the artist's choice, and I would no sooner question that than I'd give Beyoncé and JAY-Z editing notes on the "APES***" video (which is astonishing, by the way, and which puts the idea of getting to sit so close to the action at a NETS game that Jay-Z "can trip a referee" in perspective; now he gets to make videos within tripping distance of the VENUS DE MILO). We're going to remember June 2018 for a long time. It's already blessed us with new KANYE, NAS and JAY & BEY albums, with DRAKE still to come and who knows what else, it's only the 18th. Some of these albums have come with massive advance hype, tweetstorms and strange appearances on daytime TV. Some have come with nary a peep. Some are available on Spotify. Some are not. At some point or another, pretty much all of them have been criticized for either over-hype, under-hype, over-distribution or under-distribution. But who's to say one way is automatically wrong and one way automatically right? Why can't over-eager, unhinged, nonstop bluster be good for one artist (but no trying to defend slavery, please; let's draw that line as an absolute) and quiet, studied cool be good for another? Why can't blanketing the world from DEEZER to the DIAMOND CROSS RANCH be a good strategy sometimes and barely distributing your album at all be good some other time? If the artist doesn't give two f***s, why should you? Is it better to overprice your house or underprice it? Which will get the better offer? Which is the better house? Is "SUMMER" the best pop album opener of 2018? Is "HEARD ABOUT US" more arrogant than Kanye's entire catalog? What does it cost to book the Louvre for a video shoot?... Plus also too: How long should an album be? There's one line of digital thinking that says artists should bombard you with singles and EPs, and another that says albums should always be, like, 25 or 30 tracks. With their purposefully brief takes on the full-length album form, neither Kanye nor Nas nor Jay and Bey seems to give two f***s about any of that, which may be my favorite thing about this particular June... STEVE ALBINI, WORLD SERIES OF POKER bracelet winner... Another AMOEBA getting into the weed business... "If you are easily frightened by loud noises," get out... If you're a Spotify executive, have you gotten out?... RIP NICK KNOX, GENNADY ROZHDESTVENSKY, MATT 'GUITAR' MURPHY and YVETTE HORNER.