The London punk-rap duo Bob Vylan used their set at UK music festival Glastonbury to loudly protest Israel’s genocidal military campaign in Gaza, including a “death to the IDF” chant. Afterwards, Glastonbury released a statement equating the chant with antisemitism, saying the festival organizers were “appalled” and that Bob Vylan had “very much crossed a line.” The BBC, which livestreamed the performance, released its own statement describing the chant as “utterly unacceptable.” The US government rescinded Bob Vylan’s visas ahead of a scheduled fall American tour that seemingly isn’t going to happen, and booking agency UTA dropped the duo.

Perhaps you, too, have had the displeasure of stumbling across the Velvet Sundown on Spotify or social media. The psych-rock “band” made headlines last month after they’d amassed hundreds of thousands of streams on the platform, despite existing for only a few weeks. They currently have 750,000 Spotify listeners. The only problem is that they don’t actually exist. Their press “photos” are comically unnatural-looking, their Spotify bio is a boilerplate nothing burger, and the music is just as bland as you’d expect. They have social media accounts where they’ve noticeably pushed back against AI accusations: “They said we’re not real. Maybe you aren’t either.” Now, a spokesperson for the Velvet Sundown has confirmed to Rolling Stone that they are, in fact, not real.

This Saturday, Ozzy Osbourne will perform what’s being billed as his final concert. Ostensibly, that means it’ll also be the last time all four members of Black Sabbath’s classic lineup will take the stage together. Their buddies in Judas Priest are currently on tour, so I don’t think they’ll be able to make it to the gig, though they’ve been walking out to the recording of Black Sabbath’s anti-war anthem “War Pigs” at their shows a lot as of late. Now, to celebrate the occasion of Ozzy’s final show, Judas Priest have shared a proper cover of the 1970 heavy metal classic. They sound good! Check it out below.

Last Saturday night Zach Bryan played his first-ever UK festival headline show at BST Hyde Park in London. (Due to “overwhelming demand,” he played the fest the following night too). The British setting provided a good opportunity for the singer-songwriter to perform an unreleased song called “Streets Of London” live for the first time. “If I mess this up, you guys can boo us off stage,” he warned the crowd before playing the tune, which is a grandiose mid-tempo number about feeling homesick for Oklahoma while on a trip to London.

Sometimes the best way to deal with the anxiety of aging is by writing a song about it. That’s what Pickle Darling did with “Human Bean Instruction Manual,” an endearing, conflicted indie-pop gem that follows last month’s “Massive Everything.”

Caroline Polachek recently shared “On The Beach,” her contribution to the soundtrack for Death Stranding 2, the latest from the renowned video game designer Hideo Kojima. To celebrate the game’s launch, the Japanese auteur’s production company Kojima Productions did a world tour called the World Strand Tour across 12 cities, with each stop featuring some special guests and events. At the London stop Monday night, Polachek performed “On The Beach” live for the first time. It was a simple setup, but Polachek certainly doesn’t need much assistance for a good performance.

The members of Nuovo Testamento come from LA and Bologna, and some of them have roots in punk and hardcore bands. Together, however, they make joyously cheese dance bangers — big tunes built on Euro-pop and hi-NRG and Italo disco. Later this month, they’ll follow their 2023 debut Love Lines with their new EP Trouble, and they’ll also play LA’s hardcore-centric Sound And Fury fest. I sadly will not be there at Sound And Fury, but I cannot wait to hear how this music goes over with that crowd.

BTS are on the comeback trail. In 2022, the galactically popular K-pop boy band announced it was going on hiatus so its seven members could fulfill their mandatory service with the South Korean military. Now it’s time to get back to that other ARMY. BTS announced today in a Weverse livestream that the group will return in 2026 with a new album and tour.

In a world of polite, professional eulogies, Chrissie Hynde is bringing passion and brutal honesty. The Pretenders leader took to social media to mourn composer Lalo Schifrin, who passed away last week, and she also used it as an opportunity to rant about modern day composers.

Last week, just a few days after the 25th anniversary of Deftones’ White Pony, West Coast rap legend Xzibit sang the album’s praises in his episode of Amoeba Music’s video series What’s In My Bag? In the time since that video went live, Deftones had to drop off last weekend’s Glastonbury lineup at the last minute due to illness; Skepta replaced them. But the band was back in action Sunday night at Crystal Palace Park, where — as Xzibit will be happy to learn — video screens teased some upcoming “private music.”