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Exclusive online stream of a classic “Nebraska” song
The name Bill Carter is likely familiar to people in the Austin music scene and those music fans who obsessively read liner notes. He has worked with everyone from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Johnny Depp (the latter in his ‘90s band P). He’s finally breaking out nationally, with his aptly titled debut solo album, “Unknown,” and now this – a brief reunion with Depp for a rocking cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper,” a haunting, desperate song from “Nebraska.” You won't find it on Carter's album, but it'll give you a taste of his musical sensibilities.
Click here to hear “State Trooper” and go here to check out “Unknown.” It’s about time.
And if you think you don't know Carter's work, check out this song he wrote for Vaughan. Oh yeah, that guy.
New DVD/CD release finds the band at its 1995 peak
Drummer Bud Gaugh was thrilled to sit down last year and see that such great Sublime footage existed. So the plan was to get it out as soon as possible - and it's here. "3 Ring Circus: Live at the Palace – October 21, 1995" is in stores now and you can get the sound, the video or both.Hard to believe that it will be 25 years on July 4 that the Long Beach trio - Gaugh, singer/guitarist Bradley Nowell and bassist Eric Wilson - played their first gig. A quarter century later Sublime still blasts through dorm rooms and radio, something that Gaugh still can't quite wrap his head around.
"Just a big thank-you to the fans. That's the reason why this is here," he said. "I was at a car show this weekend with my kids, all incognito, hat, glasses, growing the beard out, but still getting the tug on the shirt and someone saying 'Hey man, I love your band.'"
The road has been rocky; the death of Nowell just before huge stardom with 1996's "Sublime" effectively ended the band until an ill-conceived recent plan to re-form with a new singer got off the ground (Gaugh has since quit that band and labeled it a mistake).
The new DVD was pulled together from old video, a soundboard mono tape, audience recordings and more to make a remarkably sharp document of one of the band's best shows. Gaugh spoke about how it happened.
Musician's fledgling career fueled by social media, new single
There's a reason Olivia Somerlyn's official website is mostly just links to various social media. She's on them all the time, responding to virtually every fan comment about her on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and more. Even the negative comments.Why does she do that? Because the 18-year-old singer -- about to embark on a tour Friday with Big Time Rush -- is just about the most unfailingly polite person in the world.
After an EP in late 2010, Somerlyn is back. Her new single, "Better With You," is out through iTunes today, with an EP due later in the year. The San Francisco singer/songwriter/pianist just won a "Fresh Artist" award from TeenNick and promotes organizations to empower girls and help pets.
It is a whole new world in the three years since she put out her debut, reflected in her rampant use of social media. She answered a few questions during rehearsals for the Summer Break Tour.
Andrew WK to attempt world record 24-hour drum solo

Starting evening of Wednesday, June 19 and playing through the majority of Thursday, the self-proclaimed "Party King" will hit the skins in what he hopes is the longest drum session held in a retail store. The stunt is part of Viacom's O Music Awards 24-hour live-stream special, beaming from the Oakley flagship store in Times Square and part of "Live Music Day."The massive solo will starting at 7 p.m. EST with Roots bandleader and drummerQuestlove set to sit in -- one of dozens of guest drummers who will join Andrew W.K. to play along and cheer him on.
In what's become an O tradition, previous record-setters include The Flaming Lips, who set the world record for most multi-city shows played in 24 hours, and Chiddy of Chiddy Bang setting the record for the longest ever freestyle rap.
To prepare for this percussive feat of endurance, Andrew W.K. says he's been practicing air drumming with weights instead of sticks. "I want to feel like it's harder than it is," he tells The Hollywood Reporter. "I'd rather be over-prepared."
Though he would not reveal any of the guest drummers who will join him, he said the excitement over meeting some of these players -- never mind jamming with them -- should help give him any needed energy boosts. "Some of these I would consider the greatest drummers in the world," he says. "People that I've admired for years and years."
Asked whether any stimulants might help the feat, be it caffeine or something more illicit, the singer repeats his mantra of over a decade: he's high on life.
Says Andrew W.K.: "Substances -- they all have their values and should be respected and appreciated and used as one chooses to do so. But ... it's more a mindset. And a sense of urgency that's actually increased the older I've gotten. For whatever reason, the way that things have been arranged here by the gods is that you get this amount of time to exist in this form, and you don't know how much time -- it could end at any moment. So you really want to make the most of it. It's wanting not to be lazy. And,more importantly, to take advantage of every single second you have, be grateful for it and celebrate it. That's the party mindset: to celebrate being alive."
Andrew W.K. is nominated in the O Awards' Must Follow Artist on Twitter category. He holds another record for song with the most mentions of the word "party."
Animal Collective jams with Michael Winslow of 'Police Academy'
DVDs and more in stores on Tuesday

When music fans talk about band tragedy it's usually the dual suicides in Badfinger, the death of Duane Allman or Kurt Cobain's demise. Sublime was dealt a hand every bit as bad; the ska-punkers were up and coming, they'd recorded the best album of their career, superstardom loomed - and singer/guitarist Brad Nowell died of an accidental heroin overdose two months before its 1996 release.
With the passage of time band members prefer to look on the happier times, and here's a chance to do that. A classic concert from the Palace in Hollywood taped on Oct. 21, 1995. The recently discovered footage is surprisingly excellent, both in quality and in the performance (we'll have a full interview with drummer Bud Gaugh with the DVD release tomorrow). They're also giving fans a preview tonight - for $1.99, you can stream the entire show through the band's website or Facebook page. The time is 6 p.m. Pacific/9 p.m. Eastern, sharp. Partnering with Milyoni, it'll also give fans to chat in real time as they watch the show.
Spotify fans open up the vaults over the weekend

It was an experiment for Spotify to see how closely their fans were paying attention. The free music service was lacking one of the biggest catalogs in classic rock - Pink Floyd. So they came up with a challenge that the members of Floyd apparently liked: Stream the song "Wish You Were Here" one million times and we'll open up the floodgates.
The challenge was announced Friday and before the weekend was over they'd far surpassed it. So Spotify users can now hear the entire Floyd catalog through the service. And that includes the bonus tracks from some of the recent "Immersion" reissues of classic Pink Floyd albums. So you can hear "Dark Side of the Moon" performed in its entirety in 1973, with"Money" turning into a nearly nine-minute bluesy conversation between Roger Waters' bass and Dave Gilmour's guitar (with light touches from keyboardist Richard Wright and drummer Nick Mason). Or the alternate take of "Have a Cigar" with Waters' and Gilmour's original co-lead vocals (which was later replaced by Roy Harper on the original release).
You can hear it here.
This may be the best thing to come out of the Kim/Kanye debacle

Oh, if only it were real.
It isn't, but someone was lying in wait to play the funniest Internet practical joke in a while.
You'll remember that Kanye West infamously interrupted Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, grabbing the mic and saying Beyonce deserved the win.
Apparently some Swift fan watched and waited as West and Kim Kardashian's baby was about to be born. The moment finally came Sunday, and someone posted this fake Tweet.
It immediately made thousands of Facebook and other social-media users happy, but a quick check of Swift's account shows that this is just a damn funny forgery. The fake Tweet appeared on this Tumblr page and quickly took off.Listen to Sir Paul's new EDM-style song "Out of Sight"

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