Yesterday was a weird day for Pearl Jam fanatics. The Seattle band premiered some brand new songs on Conan O’Brien’s inaugural show as host of NBC’s storied Tonight Show, but even bigger news comes via an exclusive from Billboard.

Already longtime friends with director Cameron Crowe (Singles, dudes!), the fivesome reportedly shot some footage of new songs last week at Seattle’s Showbox for a Target commercial, a corporate happening that more staunch Jamily members might scoff at given the band’s well-document ethos. But the commercial is only one small part of Pearl Jam’s release plans (the chain will be the “big box” retailer) for their eighth full-length, an album that will be their first outside of major label contract obligations. Rumors regarding that release have flown pretty wildly in the past few weeks, the title Backspacer having surfaced in addition to an early Fall release. IT’S ALL HAPPENING.

Green Day has become one of those ‘timeless’ bands that people either love to hate or love to… love. For us here at the Tripwire, our opinion falls somewhere in between (how’s that for not taking responsibility?). Well, the time has come for Billie Joe, Mike and Tre to release yet another studio album, but this time around the band is reverting back to a more intimate setting for their album release, having a party at the modestly sized Bowery Ballroom on May 18.

21st Century Breakdown will be Green Day’s eighth studio album, and we have to imagine that after all the success the band has encountered over the last decade, they must be tired of playing massive arena and stadium tours, so reverting back to a small venue like the Bowery Ballroom makes some sense. According to Billboard, the band has been playing some smaller gigs this past week in San Francisco as well at the DNA Lounge, where they have been previewing 21st Century Breakdown in its entirety for fans. 

The new album is set for release on May 15, and we’re hoping that Green Day’s choice to go embrace the smaller things in life these days, will be reflected in the content of the record as well. (We’ve had our fingers crossed for over a decade, so why stop now?)

With all the recent buzz about a possible merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, we found Billboard Magazine’s annual listing of the top earners in music even more intriguing than usual. It seems the majority of those millions come directly from touring and ticket sales, leaving us wondering just what’s at stake for artists and fans in this possible merger?

Billboard’s annual Moneymakers List ranks the top 20 earning artists. The numbers represent album sales, concert ticket sales, ringtone sales and digital track sales, but it’s not an even spread. The top five MoneyMakers are also the five acts that earned the most on tour, and — because not supporting albums — in the exact same order of touring revenue earned. In the top ten, a total of eight were also top earners on tour; each of the 20 artists or bands on the full list toured in some capacity in 2008, and for the majority, touring generated the most revenue. Conversely, the artist who sold the most singles — Lil Wayne — and the artist who sold the most records — Taylor Swift — came in 12th and 16th on the list respectively.

Billboard’s MoneyMakers Top Five
01. Madonna – $242,176,466
02. Bon Jovi – $157,177,766
03. Bruce Springsteen – $156,327,964
04. The Police – $109,976,894
05. Celine Dion – $99,171,237

Knowing all this, it’s not surprising that the Justice Department is investigating the possible merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation to determine if the combination would create an unfair (and illegal) monopoly in the market. Ticketmaster is the world’s dominant ticket seller, and Live Nation is the world’s top concert promoter.

So basically, not only would one big company control the ticket prices, fees and procedures for just about every major and semi-major concert you attend, they’d also be raking in their share of the profits of those top-earners. The top five alone add up to more than $7 billion. And that figure could get even higher for a company that controls enough of the industry to set the market standard on ticket prices. You know if Bruce Springsteen — one of the people who stands to benefit from the merger — called the Ticketmaster redirection of his tickets “a pure conflict of interest,” then it’s probably not good for those of us who stand to lose money from the deal.

In an open letter to his fans, Springsteen went further: “The one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan … would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing.”

We know times are hard, and merging builds stability, but excuse us if we have trouble feeling sorry for an organization that took its share of more than $7 billion last year. Competition keeps prices low and music fans happy. Hopefully the Justice Department will agree.