Celebs contribute to Nashville flood relief; Elton John banned in Egypt; R.I.P. Plan-It-X Records

Flood relief efforts in Nashville are getting a helping hand from Taylor Swift, Ke$ha, Kenny Chesney and others. (Jeff Gentner/Getty Images)

By Ally Schweitzer

- The music industry is pitching in to help Tennesseans recover from the record-breaking rainfall that flooded Nashville last weekend. To help fund disaster relief efforts in Music City, Taylor Swift will donate $500,000, Ke$ha, who is from Nashville, will play a benefit show June 16th, Kenny Chesney made a video about the flood damage to his 39 acres of property and the Country Music Association will contribute half the proceeds from the CMA Music Festival to relief efforts.

- Following comments he made about Jesus and being gay in the Middle East, Elton John has been banned from playing a private concert in Egypt. The singer told Parade Magazine in February that Jesus was a "super-intelligent gay man" and gay women in the Middle East were "as good as dead." Mounir al-Wasimi, chief of Egypt's Musician Union, responded that Egypt could not permit a concert by "a homosexual who wants to ban religions, claimed that the prophet Issa (Jesus) was gay and calls for Middle Eastern countries to allow gays to have sexual freedom."

- Bid adieu to Midwestern punk label Plan-It-X Records, who shepherded folk-punk band Against Me! to semi-fame and singlehandedly cornered the crunchy punk rock market for half a generation. Since its establishment in 1994, the micro label has stuck to their strict mantra "If it ain't cheap, it ain't punk," selling releases from the Bananas, Japanther, This Bike as a Pipe Bomb, Washington D.C. band The Max Levine Ensemble and dozens of others for five bucks or less. Farewell, Plan-It-X -- we know we'll be seeing your band's stickers on bikes locked outside the Black Cat for years to come.