I'm in neither the mood nor the position to moralize about rock lyrics, no matter how misanthropic or misogynistic they may be, and no matter how funny, unfunny or inappropriate the joke is. I've been around the block a few times and, no matter what it is, I've heard worse. But for Lucifer's sake, dearest members of the metal community, what the f***? As far as I know, I had never seen or heard the word pornogrind until less than 24 hours ago. I now know that it's been around for at least a decade and it has plenty of defenders, not all of them incels. Neither making it nor listening to it makes you a bad person; it certainly doesn't make you a mass murderer. But if someone wants to argue that hours and hours of listening to it might desensitize you to some horrifying thoughts, or that maybe not everybody at the PORNFIELDZ OF ILLINOISE GRINDFEST festival will get the joke, or even understand it's a joke, then that's a conversation I'd be more than willing to entertain. Or if someone simply wants to suggest that misogyny isn't funny, then yes, I will co-sign. It isn't. As the members of the small and apparently tight-knit pornogrind community are defending their art against some unwelcome and unexpected publicity, this might also be a good time for them to engage in at least a little self-examination about those lyrics and those jokes... LANA DEL REY recorded and Instagrammed her reaction to the weekend's two mass shootings Monday afternoon. "I'm still looking for my own version of America / One without the gun," she sings to the accompaniment of JACK ANTONOFF's guitar. I'm not in the business of telling artists what to write and record, and, as I may have said before, I think pop music is already doing a good job of reflecting and responding to the politics of 2019. But that all said, I wouldn't mind more like this simple, direct plea... KHALID, who went to high school in El Paso, is planning a benefit for victims of Saturday's terrorist attack in that city... The hip-hop community was somewhere between shocked and mortified that NF beat out CHANCE THE RAPPER for #1 in this week's BILLBOARD 200. It's actually the second #1 album for the Michigan rapper who came up through the Christian rap scene but rejects the Christian rap label (and who collaborated early on with FLAME, the Christian rapper now famous for successfully suing KATY PERRY for plagiarism)... TENCENT in negotiations with VIVENDI to buy a piece of UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP... Things that go to 11, including an early '70s GIBSON LES PAUL guitar.