Tyler Thackray is a former dreadlocked metalhead, and current Android developer who builds and then destroys violins in his spare time. There's a point in it, as the New Yorker states: "The notion that you can torture—or to be tortured by—a violin in the first place arises from our sense that the instrument is somehow alive, responsive, perhaps even agential... with a social life that intersects with other instruments, people, histories. So much of playing an instrument is having your existence dictated by its demands, to the extent that your body and your instrument come to seem inseparable... These are not instruments that anyone will miss, and @violintorture is ferrying them into a hitherto inconceivable afterlife".

The former American president, and the current cool guy has shared his annual summer list featuring music "I’ve been listening to lately". There are some household names like Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, as well as some lesser-known like Jazmine Sullivan, Arooj Aftab, Sza, Michael Kiwanuka...

A fun little post by the Tone Glow blog about each of their writers anonymously “gifting” each other an album they like and then writing their thoughts on what they receive. None of the writers knew who would receive their album, and none knew who their gift was from. It's 23 albums of experimental-meets-fun music.

"The Songs in the Key of Death podcast looks at the historic true crimes that inspired a selection of murder ballads. It combines music, true crime, history, and edge-of-your-seat storytelling". The latest episode goes into the Lawson family murders. "On Christmas Day 1929, Charlie Lawson committed the chilling act of murdering his wife and children. What’s darker is the reason why, according to some true crime authors. But are they right, and what do we know today about the rare phenomenon of familicide?".

"Millions of listeners now subscribe to lo-fi hip-hop playlists to relax, study, chill, and sleep. Its popularity has spawned a DIY business opportunity. Companies like Lofi Girl (formerly ChilledCow) have carved out their own lane, launched their own record labels, built an independent brand of merch, products, playlists, and more" - Trapital says presenting Music Ally's piece about the chill-hop genre.

Music historian Katherine Schofield writes a short essay for the Grin, marrying her knowledge of Indian classical music and art, about how each swara or Indian note, seven in all, interrelate to cries of animals. Sur is a musical sound made up of swaras.

They rehearsed after school let out for the week on Friday nights, inspiring them to call the band On a Friday, but when they got signed, the label suggested they change their name. The band members all loved the obscure Talking Heads song, so the Radiohead were born. It gets worse on Rolling Stone's list of 25 worst band names - The Polka Tulk Blues Band is a lousy name for any band, let alone the one which will come up with heavy metal. Geezer Butler seeing crowd of people lined up to see the Boris Karloff film 'Black Sabbath' saved the day.

"When we talk about the sexism of murder ballads, 'Omie Wise' jumps to the forefront as one of the most prominent examples" - the Songs in the Key of Death podcast says announcing their latest episode, about the 19-century murder story. "Whether the true story involves a woman who was drowned because she became inconvenient or because she stood up to a no-good man, they both end the same way — with Naomi Wise dead, and many tales that got it wrong".

Vintage dealer and a dedicated metal fan Harry Cantwell has - using his sense of history, style, and a deep love for skulls - picked up his top 10 metal shirts of all time for GQ. One of the T-shirts is from a joint Venom/Metallica 1984 tour: “I chose this shirt as an example of [one] that really captures a place and time, to show how much history you can convey with a T-shirt. It’s just a really interesting convergence of metal history that encapsulates a small period of time that's really, really important: the passing of the torch British early ’80s British [bands] over to thrash".

Sun Ra liked "the new", whether it be instruments, words, genres - The New Yorker points out in a profile about the innovator. He gave instruments new names, like the “space-dimension mellophone", the “cosmic tone organ" and the “sunharp", whereas his band the Arkestra weren't musicians, they were "tone scientists". Sun Ra himself was an exploratory soul - “the impossible attracts me, because everything possible has been done and the world didn’t change". This spring, the Chicago gallery and publisher Corbett vs. Dempsey reproduced a series of Sun Ra poetry booklets: 'Jazz by Sun Ra',' 'Jazz in Silhouette', and 'The Immeasurable Equation'.