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The debut album from West Palm Beach-based ’90s throwback rockers Surfer Blood blends Weezer hooks and Pavement slacker jams with distorted guitars and post-punk choruses. Rolling Stone assistant editor Kevin O’Donnell notes the group is young enough to have been in diapers with indie rock exploded in the 1990s, but you’d never know that from listening to Astrocoast, which was cut in a Florida college dorm room. Standout track “Swim” mixes tight crunchy riffs with heavily reverbed vocals that sort of sound like Brian Wilson fronting a garage band. The band’s LP isn’t out for a few weeks, but you can hear more from them on their MySpace.

Read all of Rolling Stone’s album reviews here.

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Considering it was a racy song about threesomes, Britney Spears fans were mostly disappointed when the relatively tame video for “3″ was unveiled in late October. Director Diane Martel has apparently heard your pleas, as a new Director’s Cut of “3″ leaked out yesterday. The new version doesn’t sport any new scenes of ménages or anything that would get the post-Lambert AMAs viewers complaining to the FCC. Instead this cut offers up a slightly more NSFW edit of Martel’s dance-heavy vid that seems to find a better cadence with the music, as opposed to the original version, which was essentially filmed and edited in the matter of days to coincide with The Singles Collection release. Watch the director’s cut above and the original version below:

Related Stories:

• Britney Spears Trades Plot for Simple, Sexy Dancing in “3″ Video
• Britney Spears: The Complete Video Guide

“I only have one beef with ["Empire State of Mind"]. There’s not enough about the suburbs in it,” Stephen Colbert told Alicia Keys when The Element of Freedom singer guested on last night’s episode of The Colbert Report. Rather than wait patiently for “Empire State of Mind III” to give credit to the outlying New York areas, Colbert joined Keys during her performance of “Empire” to rap and pay tribute to the upper middle class suburbanites.

“Shoppin’ mall is close, my community is gated/My shorties are all private school educated,” Colbert raps during his surprise feature. “Home theater system, 60-inch plasma/Clean suburban air, much better for my asthma.” Colbert goes on to profess his love for Times Square — a tourist trap that city dwellers themselves will admit they go out of their way to avoid — as well as sing harmony with Keys on the song’s closing coda.

While Colbert has a long way to go before matching the lyrical talents of Jay-Z, the host has overtaken Shy Ronnie as the best rapper to appear on a comedy series in the past two weeks. “This song is the greatest hit, it’s gonna take over ‘New York, New York,’ you can take that thing and throw it in the trash,” Colbert tells Keys during the interview segment, when we learn that The Element of Freedom is in fact “sheep” and not gold.

Related Stories:

• Stephen Colbert on Deconstructing the News, Religion and the Colbert Nation
• Video: Alicia Keys Performs “You Don’t Know My Name” At World AIDS Day Benefit Concert
• Jay-Z, Alicia Keys Tour New York in “Empire State of Mind” Video

[Video: yardie4lifever2

Who: The leather-jacket-clad blonde shredding beside Michael Jackson in This Is It is the Australian guitarist and singer Orianthi Panagaris. The 24-year-old started getting buzz when footage from rehearsals leaked following Jackson’s death in June, but she got her first big break Down Under when she opened for Steve Vai in 2000.

Sounds Like: Orianthi’s Howard Benson-produced major-label debut Believe features Kelly Clarkson-style pop-rockers like first single “According to You” alongside riff-fests like her instrumental collaboration with Vai, “Highly Strung.” “We set out to make a record that had a guitar solo on every song,” she says, “but I don’t think it gets in the way of the songs.”

Vital Stats:

• Orianthi picked up the acoustic guitar at six, and switched from classical to electric at 11 after catching a Santana concert. “I was the only kid reading guitar magazines at the back of the classroom,” she says. When she eventually jammed onstage with Santana at 18, “I couldn’t feel my legs I was so nervous. I remember him telling me to play from my heart and other people will feel it, and to keep that childlike enthusiasm for playing.”

• When she was a teen, Orianthi assembled a cover band (their Top 40 set list included Michelle Branch, Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue tunes) and began playing two nights a week at Aussie pubs. “I would put guitar solos in the songs, even though they weren’t there,” she explains. “At gigs, I would get up and jam, and someone would say ‘16-year-old guitar player Orianthi!’ and the guy at the door would kick me out.”

• Orianthi was the youngest member of Michael Jackson’s This Is It band, and she says she was impressed by how MJ took a strong interest in all the guitar parts. “He would hear things he wanted to be added to the songs live, things that were in the record that weren’t turned up loud enough. He was super-encouraging and awesome.” A post-script to “Black or White” that fans never got to see was called “Aftermath,” she says, “That’s when they were going to have all these speakers falling and pyro going off and I would walk off amongst the rubble and start playing.”

Get It Now: Watch Orianthi demonstrate a few of her favorite riffs from Stevie Ray Vaughan, plus show off how she put together her “Highly Strung” with Vai in our exclusive video interview.

Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream locked up the Number One spot for a third consecutive week, adding another 582,000 copies to her history-making and record-breaking debut, according to Nielsen SoundScan. For the third straight week, Andrea Bocelli’s My Christmas had to settle for Number Two behind Boyle, selling 400,000 copies this week. Glee’s quick rise to popularity helped the show soundtrack’s second volume debuted at Three with 173,000 copies. Taylor Swift’s Fearless — which is on the cusp of going five times platinum — and Carrie Underwood’s Play On rounded out the Top Five.

Debuts: Only one more new album managed to infiltrate the Top 10, with Gucci Mane’s The State vs. Radric Davis entering at 10. Roughly 68,000 parrotheads checked into Jimmy Buffett’s Buffett Hotel to give the album a Number 16 debut. Other notables include 30 Seconds to Mars’ This Is War at 18 and Snoop Dogg’s Malice in Wonderland at 21 with 59,000. Timbaland’s Shock Value 2 showed up at 32 and Clipse’s Til the Casket Drop dropped in at 41.

Last Week’s Heroes: Boyle has proven to be an unstoppable force on the charts as the former Britain’s Got Talent runner-up continues outsell American Idols and everyone else. If you thought Lady Gaga was a phenomenon, consider that both I Dreamed a Dream and The Fame are primed to reach double platinum by next Wednesday, with Boyle accomplishing in four weeks what it took Gaga to do in 60 weeks. And I Dreamed a Dream shows no signs of slowing down as sales were actually up 10 percent over last week. With nine more days until Christmas, there’s a good chance Boyle could usurp both Swift’s Fearless and Michael Jackson’s Number Ones as the top-selling album in 2009.

Out on the road for their long-running reunion tour, STP utilized the same songwriting process that resulted in albums like Core and Purple. “For the most part, Robert and Dean [DeLeo] write the instrumental riffs and then amongst the three of us we arrange the songs and then I write all the melodies and the lyrics,” Weiland revealed. The frontman wouldn’t spill any potential song titles, but did say that after focusing on the group’s greatest hits on their last trek, he’ll be eager to break out the new tracks when the band returns to the road for another huge tour in 2010.

Scott Weiland backstage and up close: exclusive photos.

While spring 2010 is the target date for the Pilots’ sixth album, there is one hurdle. As RS recently noted, the band is still embroiled in a legal battle with their old label Atlantic Records, who claim that STP’s contract calls for at least one more album, plus two more if Atlantic wants them. The Stone Temple Pilots instead believe they are now free agents after trying to use California laws to terminate a contract written under New York law.

Related Stories:

• Stone Temple Pilots Postpone Tour Dates to Finish New Album
• Scott Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots Plot New Album for 2010
• Weiland Recovers From Seizure, Plots Stone Temple Pilots Tour

Look back at Michael Jackson’s life and career in photos.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, the Jackson family has legally opposed Branca and McClain’s standing as executors of MJ’s estate, which includes Michael’s mother Katherine, his children and select charities among its beneficiaries. The AP also reports that the Jackson estate is facing upwards of 10 lawsuits, like director John Landis’ claim over royalties from the “Thriller” video, that have resulted in the co-executors accruing a large debt as the administrators’ legal team has spent countless hours in litigation.

“Unlike the typical estate, the operation of Michael Jackson’s estate is more akin to the operation of a multimillion dollar business enterprise,” the adminstrators’ attorney Jeryll S. Cohen said in the court filing. With This Is It grossing over $250 million worldwide in its recently completed theatrical run and the documentary’s DVD due out January 26th, plus the King of Pop’s vaults of unreleased music just waiting to be unearthed, the Jackson estate will likely topple Elvis Presley’s in terms of earnings. A decision regarding how much Branca and McClain should receive from the estate will be made at a court hearing on January 4th.

Related Stories:

• Michael Jackson Funeral Cost $1 Million; Objections Against Estate Executors Dropped
• Katherine Jackson Hires New Lawyer for Battle Over Estate
• Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” DVD Out Jan. 26th, Packed With Extras

• In September, RS reported on the birth of Broken Bells — the collaboration between Danger Mouse and the Shins’ James Mercer. The duo have now confirmed their debut album will be released on March 9th, Pitchfork reports. Starting December 21st, first single “The High Road” will be available on the band’s Website.

• Pavement and Big Boi are booked to headline Norway’s Oya Festival, which will be held August 10-14th, 2010, according to NME.
• The House of Representatives voted 409-0 in favor of honoring the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. Michigan Democrat John Conyers sponsored the resolution, the AP reports.
• Comcast is teaming with Stand Up to Cancer to offer an on-demand video channel featuring clips by Alicia Keys, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band and more artists. The videos are available through March 14th.

Hanson
Apr. 26 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theater (Middle of Nowhere)
Apr. 27 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theater (This Time Around)
Apr. 28 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theater (Underneath)
Apr. 29 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theater (The Walk)
Apr. 30 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theater (New album)
May 1 – East Rutherford, NJ @ The Bamboozle

Yeasayer
Feb. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Natural History Museum
Feb. 8 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Feb. 9 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Apr. 3 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Apr. 4 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
Apr. 5 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
Apr. 6 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
Apr. 7 – Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone Cafe
Apr. 8 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theatre
Apr. 9 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues
Apr. 10 – Austin, TX @ The Parish
Apr. 11 – Austin, TX @ The Parish
Apr. 14 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
Apr. 15 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
Apr. 17 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Apr. 19 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Apr. 20 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Apr. 21 – Vancouer, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
Apr. 23 – Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue
Apr. 24 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre
Apr. 25 – Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room
Apr. 26 – St Louis, MO @ Gargoyle Club
Apr. 27 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre
Apr. 28 – Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
Apr. 29 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
Apr. 30 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
May 1 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
May 2 – Montreal, PQ @ La Sala Rossa
May 3 – Boston, MA @ Paradise
May 4 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
May 5 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Trocadero

Midlake
Jan. 5 – Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon
Jan. 6 – Tallahassee, FL @ Engine Room
Jan. 7 – Orlando, FL @ The Social
Jan. 8 – St. Augustine, FL @ Café Eleven
Jan. 9 – Mt. Pleasant, SC @ Village Tavern
Jan. 10 – Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle
Jan. 11 – Memphis, TN @ Hi-Tone Café
Jan. 12 – Little Rock, AR @ Rev Room
Mar. 1 – Tucson, AZ @ Plush
Mar. 2 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
Mar. 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
Mar. 4 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Mar. 5 – Arcata, CA @ Van Duzer Theatre
Mar. 6 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Mar. 7 – Bellingham, WA @ The Nightlight
Mar. 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
Mar. 10 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room
Mar. 11 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
Mar. 12 – Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Saloon