Get An Exclusive Mars Volta Track

Solve the Mars Volta Puzzle to reveal the cover for their new album "The Bedlam In Goliath" which comes out on Jan. 29th and receive an exclusive Mars Volta track.

Solve the PUZZLE

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Sweet Caroline...Kennedy?

Courtesy of Idolator

At this point, "Sweet Caroline" is probably intractably associated with the Boston Red Sox (two World Series wins = they finally supplanted that scene in Beautiful Girls that forever added the "ba-ba-baaaa" to its chorus), and the wave of publicity afforded by the team's latest World Series win has prompted Neil Diamond to reveal his muse for the track: a 10-year-old Caroline Kennedy, whose hand was apparently touching hand and reaching out with .. a pony. Wait, what?

Diamond was a "young, broke songwriter" when a photo of the president's daughter in a news magazine caught his eye.

"It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony," Diamond recalled. "It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there."

Years later, holed up in a hotel in Memphis, he would write the words and music in less an hour.

"It was a No. 1 record and probably is the biggest, most important song of my career, and I have to thank her for the inspiration," he said. "I'm happy to have gotten it off my chest and to have expressed it to Caroline. I thought she might be embarrassed, but she seemed to be struck by it and really, really happy."

The enduring hit recently reappeared on the singles chart, thanks in part to the Boston Red Sox. "Sweet Caroline" is played at every home game.

"I think they consider it good luck," Diamond said, adding that the Red Sox have become his favorite baseball team.
Hooray, she was touched. (Ha ha, get it?) Happy endings all around! Actually, a really happy ending for me would result from the revelation that the Red Sox are now Diamond's favorite team: Maybe this means "Caroline" will no longer get played during the eighth inning of Mets games. Sloppy seconds are so unappealing, am I right? Gander On!

If Only It Were True!

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DJ Khaled Gets Every Rapper In The Known Universe To Stand In Front Of A Green Screen.

He already had half of these guys on the remix but check out all the cameos. Even KRS One and Bushwick Bill showed up. Khaled must have some serious beats!
Gander On!

Now The Ghostwriters Are On Strike

Ghostwriters On Strike from jeff on Vimeo. Gander On!

Donda West Dies At 58.

Courtesy of MTV

Donda West, the mother of Kanye West and former chairwoman of Chicago State University's English department, passed away Saturday, according to a spokesman for the family. She was 58.

According to multiple sources, West was in Los Angeles and her death may have been the result of complications from a surgical procedure; Patricia Green, Dr. West's publicist, told CNN on Monday (November 12) that the surgery was cosmetic but did not provide further details.

Although widely known as the mother of Kanye, Dr. West was a noted scholar and an active college professor for 31 years; she left the profession in 2004 to assist with Kanye's career, according to her biography on the Web site of the Kanye West Foundation, an educational nonprofit of which she was chair. She was also chief executive of West Brands, the parent company of her son's businesses.

She began her teaching career in the early 1970s at Brown College in Atlanta and began working at Chicago State University in 1980, according to the site; she was also a Fulbright Scholar, among other awards. Dr. West raised Kanye in the Chicago area along with her husband, from whom she separated when Kanye was 3.

She also recently published a book dedicated to her son titled "Raising Kanye: Life Lessons From the Mother of a Hip-Hop Star." The book and subsequent interviews have left little question about the source of Kanye's outspoken nature.

The importance and influence Dr. West had in her son's life is profound. When Kanye appeared on MTV News' "You Hear It First" in 2003, one of his first rhymes was about his mother — he dropped to his knees during the performance to get his point across. Those rhymes later turned up in a full-blown dedication to her, Late Registration's "Hey Mama."

"Hey Mama, I wanna scream so loud for you/ 'Cause I'm so proud of you/ Let me tell you what I'm about to do ... I appreciate what you allowed for me, I just want you to be proud of me."

Kanye has dropped references to his mom on all of his albums.

Kanye's love for his mom was undoubtedly reciprocated tenfold, not only did Dr. West act as in part as a co-manager, she was also his biggest cheerleader, appearing at many events throughout his career. At the Video Music Awards in September, she was in Kanye's suite at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, joining in the party and wearing the white shades celebrating his show. She also attended his 30th birthday party in New York last summer and his appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

A spokesman for Kanye West released this brief statement when contacted by MTV News.

"The family respectfully asks for privacy during this time of grief." Gander On!

Eagles Wal-Mart Exclusive, Not So Exclusive.

Courtesy of Rolling Stone

When the Eagles announced that they would exclusively sell their new double album Long Road Out of Eden for an entire year at Wal-Mart (and their own Web site), fans across the nation — especially those in Wal-Mart-less
towns like New York City and Los Angeles — wondered how they’d get
their hands on copy without journeying to the retail giant. But then we
heard whispers that people were finding the new “exclusive” album at
small mom-and-pop record stores and, remarkably, big chains like Virgin
Megastore. We investigated these claims and discovered that the CDs are indeed being sold outside of Wal-Mart. Not only that, it didn’t
take speakeasy tactics to secure a copy; some stores were boasting the
album by the dozen in front display cases, where new releases are
usually showcased (see above, a shot from a New York City VirginMegastore boasting a price sticker of $18.99). “We’re aware of that — I’ve heard that some stores here are selling imports,” Billboard charts editor Geoff Mayfield
tells Rolling Stone. “Someone told me it was the third-best seller for
Virgin.” Gander On for the rest.

We called eight Virgin Megastores
in five different states, and discovered seven had Long Road in stock,
although none of them had the album prominently listed in their
in-store inventory directories. Of the Virgins carrying the album, most
started selling it today, one week after the album’s release, while two
said they started selling theCDs on October 30th, the same day as the “exclusive” Wal
-Mart on-sale date, with one store even “selling out” their fairly
large stock. The fact that the albums were selling out came as a
surprise, considering the CD at Virgin came with price tags ranging
from $18.99 to $24.99. While it is a double CD, the price is strikingly
higher thanWal -Mart’s tag of $11.88. When we asked one clerk why the
album was so expensive at Virgin, and whether the discs might be
imports, he whispered into the phone that he “thinks they were hard to
get.” A small record store in Nebraska told us they were re-selling
discs that were purchased atWal-Mart. The question now is, how did Virgin Megastore get their hands on the album, and did these sales contribute to the Eagles’ Billboard chart-topping 711,000 copies? Mayfield says, “SoundScan was [also] aware that this was happening. They audited the data to weed out double sales.” A comment from Virgin Megastore wasn’t available by press time. Gander On!

New Music Video - Baby Shambles - "You Talk"

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Radiohead Box Set Just In Time For Christmas...On A USB Drive?

Courtesy of Wired

Hoping to capitalize on the hubbub surrounding Radiohead's digital/box set release of In Rainbows, the band's old label, EMI, announced today that it is accepting pre-orders for a collection of all 6 albums Radiohead recorded for its Parlophone imprint: Pablo Honey, The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail To The Thief, plus the live album I Might Be Wrong. The collection will be available on December 10 to those who pre-order.

Unlike the digital version of In Rainbows, this box set has several high fixed prices depending on which format you choose: downloadable MP3 (320 Kbps, $70), a CD box set ( 7 discs, $80), or a 4GB USB drive (WAV files and artwork, $160). It's odd that the CD box set costs half as much as the USB version, despite containing the exact same musical data.

Radiohead fans might pony up $80 to give someone else the CD box set as a holiday gift, but any serious fan of the band already owns these albums. Who's going to buy a $160 USB keychain with a bunch of files they already own on it, no matter what it looks like? Gander On!

Some Remix and Cover Love For Tegan & Sara

Late last week we were sent a link to Dutch DJ Tiesto's remix of Tegan and Sarah's "Back In Your Head." You can give it a listen on Tiesto's Myspace page but unfortunately we haven't been able to find it anywhere else. We were however able to find a couple great Tegan and Sara covers. One from The Broken West and the other from your favorite tour canceling friends The White Stripes. Check the links below for the goodness.

The Broken West - "Back In Your Head"

White Stripes - "Walking With A Ghost"

Gander On!