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Music News: There's a record player that plays Oreos

Oreo Music Box.
Oreo Music Box.Nabisco
  Play Now [8:39]

by Jay Gabler

December 10, 2018

Above, listen to an episode of The Current's daily Music News podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. You can also sign up for a daily Music News e-mail and join our Facebook group.


For that music-lover who has everything, and is also a cookie-lover, you can now buy a $19.99 "record player" that plays...Oreos. You put a cookie on the little turntable and move the arm over the middle, and the cookie turns while you hear a little song. How does it work? Unclear, but the song changes if you take a bite out of the cookie. Take another bite, and it changes again. You can even record your own message to play. (Consequence of Sound)

Deadly stampede at rap concert in Italy

A stampede at a rap concert in Italy on Saturday morning left six dead and 53 injured. Adding to the tragedy: five of the deceased were teenagers, and one was a 39-year-old mother who brought her eight-year-old daughter to the show. The club was reportedly full way over capacity for the show by rapper Sfera Ebbasta, and when someone sprayed an irritant akin to pepper spray just before the show, a panic led to a deadly crush. Ebbasta says he's "deeply pained" by the incident, and authorities promise an investigation into how so many tickets were sold for such a small space. (Billboard)

Fleetwood Mac lawsuit resolved

Lindsey Buckingham says that he's resolved a lawsuit filed against his former bandmates in Fleetwood Mac over their decision to fire him from the band and head out on tour without him. "I'm happy enough with it," Buckingham told CBS This Morning, declining to comment further on the terms of the agreement. (Pitchfork)

Aretha Franklin documentary lands distribution deal

Amazing Grace, the 1972 concert documentary starring Aretha Franklin that's only recently been screened for the public, has a distribution deal for wide theatrical release. The movie is playing at limited theaters in New York and Los Angeles this year to qualify for Oscar consideration, and will likely be released nationwide early in 2019. (Billboard)

Neil Young beefs with sponsor of Hyde Park concert

Classic rock fans were excited a couple of weeks ago when organizers announced a July 2019 show in London's Hyde Park featuring Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Tickets are now on sale, but now Neil Young says the show was announced before details had been properly finalized...in particular, he's unhappy about the fact that the show is sponsored by Barclays.

Barclays is an investment bank that Young calls a "fossil fuel funding entity"; it's faced criticism from environmentalists for funding oil pipeline infrastructure. In a post on his website, Young says "I believe in science. I worry about the climate crisis and am deeply concerned about its massive global ramifications and my beautiful grandchildren's future...There's no doubt about it. It's been a massive f--k up!"

The show is still on, but Young says there will need to be some changes (notably, a change of sponsor) before the concert happens. "We are quite confident that nothing like this will ever happen again," Young writes to his Archives subscribers, apologizing that they didn't get access to tickets before the general public.

He also quoted lyrics from his anti-corporate 1988 song "This Note's For You." (Rolling Stone)

Viral clip: First trailer for Fyre Festival documentary

Get ready for your new true-crime subgenre: the Fyre Festival post-mortem. The disastrous spring 2017 music festival is the subject of a forthcoming documentary on Netflix and a separate documentary series on Hulu. Based on the first trailer for the Netflix doc, which comes out on Jan. 18, the iconic sad sandwich will be the genre's breakout star. (The Fader)


Songs sampled in podcast
Jahzzar: "Comedie" (CC BY 4.0)
BoxCat Games: "Against the Wall" (CC BY 3.0)
Aretha Franklin: "How I Got Over"
Oreo record player clip from Today
Jesse Spillane: "Ruffling Feathers" (CC BY SA 4.0-02)
Neil Young: "This Note's For You"
VICE Studios - "FYRE" documentary clip
BoxCat Games - "Mt Fox Shop" (CC BY 3.0)