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On Wednesday night a heavyweight lineup of marquee acts will cram New York's Madison Square Garden for a relief concert to benefit areas devastated by October's Superstorm Sandy. Billed as "12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief," the event will feature performances by the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, the Who, Roger Waters, Eddie Vedder, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel and Eric Clapton. As previously reported , Paul McCartney is expected to perform alongside Dave Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic -- surviving members of pioneering grunge band Nirvana.

The quirky violist known as Ljova, an ingratiating fixture on the New York new music scene, has just released a recording called "Melting River. " You can purchase and download it for as little as $2 on the artist-friendly website Bandcamp as either an inferior MP3 file or an HD-resolution FLAC file. Ljova says that there will be no physical release. "Unless we can find sponsorship for a vinyl release," he writes in an email, "the days of physical CDs are over. :)" The days of CDs aren't quite over - thousands of new ones come out every month.

CAIRO - Egypt awoke to widening protests Friday from a resurgent opposition testing a president who refuses to rein in his power while he presses for an unpopular constitution drafted by an Islamist-dominated assembly. President Mohamed Morsi is defending his expanded authority and the proposed constitution as necessary to hold parliamentary elections and advance Egypt's political transition. But opposition groups accuse him and the Muslim Brotherhood of pushing an authoritarian agenda that has failed to inspire an Arab world undergoing great change.

Eleven years ago today, George Harrison died at the age of 58 in Los Angeles. And exactly one year after that some of the late Beatle's closest friends -- including Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Harrison's surviving bandmates -- gathered for an all-star tribute at London's Royal Albert Hall. To mark the 10th anniversary of the "Concert for George," YouTube is streaming David Leland's documentary on the event for 24 hours. (Watch it below.) Highlights from the film -- which intersperses performances from the concert with interviews and bits of rehearsal footage -- include Paul McCartney's ukulele-fied "Something," Clapton's hard-edged "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and a scorching rendition of "Isn't It a Pity" by Billy Preston.

Want to hear Mick Jagger talk about the Beatles? Tony Bennett laud the genius of Louis Armstrong? B.B. King express his blues over the future of the blues? Audio interviews with those and dozens more of the biggest names in rock, pop, jazz, blues, country and R&B are now streaming free at the Library of Congress website , opening access to hundreds of hours of recordings collected by veteran music industry executive Joe Smith. As reported  in June, Smith donated his collection of audio interviews with many of the most celebrated figures in 20 th century pop music.

With Thanksgiving behind us, it's official -- the holiday season has begun. And that means it's now fully appropriate to break out the Christmas music, something we at Pop & Hiss can admit we began inappropriately doing a few weeks ago. Check out Randy Lewis' recent roundup of this year's new offerings -- including albums from Cee Lo Green, Scotty McCreery and the rather zombie-eyed coupling of Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta -- ...

Alicia Keys will take fans on a guided tour through her forthcoming album, “Girl on Fire,” a week before its release by way of a live video session for a Google+ Hangout that also will be streamed on Keys' YouTube channel . The Grammy-winning singer and songwriter said those who tune in will “hear all the songs on the record [and] I'll be able to share my creative process and also tell you some of the very special and important meanings behind some of the songs….

The American Music Awards hit the air starting at 8 p.m. Sunday on ABC, but you can get an early fix of your music faves here, starting at 2 p.m PST when the AMAs red carpet opens in downtown L.A. PHOTOS: American Music Awards 2012: Red carpet arrivals It's the 40th anniversary of the fan-based awards, which were started by Dick Clark. In honor of Clark, who passed away in April, Stevie Wonder will perform a tribute. Among those scheduled to perform at L.A. Live's Nokia Theatre are Usher, Ke$ha, No Doubt, Kelly Clarkson, The Wanted, Ludacris, Swizz Beats featuring Chris Brown, and of course Justin Bieber, who's been tweeting about the AMAs for days now, much to his fans' delight.

Solar eclipse lovers--set your alarms for Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. PST. A total solar eclipse is coming, and although it is unlikely you'll be able to see it in person, you can watch it live on your computer or smartphone--as long as you remember to look. The eclipse will begin late Tuesday morning California time. The "path of totality," or the part of the earth from where the eclipse can be seen, is 108 miles wide and will cover 9,000 miles over a three-hour period. But it will be almost entirely over the Pacific Ocean.

It's all come down to this: "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" world-premiere arrivals in a live stream starting at 4:30 p.m. PST. The fifth and final "Twilight" movie's launch, in downtown L.A. where Twi-hards have once again been camping for days, will feature Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson together again in public, with Taylor Lautner and the rest of the gang also in the spotlight for the last time as a cast. It'll be the last time fans gather as one for a "Twilight" premiere as well.