Bruce Springsteen has announced via his website that when he and his E Street Band set up shop this coming weekend at Madsion Square Garden, they’ll be playing two more albums in their entirety:  1973’s The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle on Saturday the 7th, and 1980’s epic The River on Sunday the 8th. The Boss has been revisiting full albums an event this tour, having already performed Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and Born in the USA cover to cover. If anyone has an extra ticket to Sunday’s show, please feel free to leave your contact info in the comments section. We pay in beer and hugs.

According to Billboard, Springsteen fans may have to wait a while to see the Boss and his E-Street Band after their current North American tour wraps up this November. Springsteen told European press members earlier this year that his next project will not include E-Street Band Members, leading some to begin suspecting that this year may be the band’s last together. Guitarist Steve Van Zandt insists this has always been the case: “You never know, do ya? It could be the last show, could be the last tour. You never know. We do every show like it’s our last show, anyway. But don’t wait around; if you’re waiting to come see us, come now. This is a good time to see us.” Pretty sure there’s never a bad time to see these dudes, but if you’re worried, remember that they’ve got plenty of dates to go, including the five final shows at Giants Stadium and two nights (Chicago & Nashville) dedicated solely to the beauty that is Born to Run. You still have time.

Fasten your seat belts, Chicago: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform Born to Run, arguably the most epic, anthem-packed Springsteen album ever, in its entirety at United Center on September 20. Yes, minds and eardrums will be blown at what promises to be an event of tremendous proportions. It is rumored that Bruce and the Band will play other similarly-themed, full-album events in the fall, specifically during the band’s five-night stand at New York’s Giants Stadium in September and October (one album every night). Those remain nothing more than rumors, but the prospect of such an epic event is certainly exciting.

On October 29 and 30 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, a veritable cornucopia of rock royalty will descend for a two night concert series celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Over the course of the two-night stand, members of the Hall of Fame will perform onstage with guests, effectively documenting the evolution of various musical styles. Crosby, Stills and Nash will perform with California-based artists, Metallica will headline the hard rock portion of the concerts, and Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin will perform with Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra as part of a soul revue.

Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, U2, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, and Simon and Garfunkel are also expected to perform in what the event’s executive producer and Rolling Stone founder, Jann Wenner, calls “a celebration of the artists and their music.” Joel Gallen, the induction ceremonies’ producers, will direct the shows, with a highlight version scheduled to be aired on HBO. Proceeds go to establishing an endowment for the Hall of Fame; AMEX cardholders will be able to purchase tickets today, while sales open to the general public on August 3.

To further commemorate the Hall of Fame’s anniversary, a book, titled The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The First 25 Years will be released via Collins Design in September. A nine-disc DVD collection will be released in August by Time Life, featuring highlights from past induction ceremonies and rare footage. (via RS)

The Boss is slated to put the E Street hammer down on the UK’s Glastonbury festival tomorrow night and many in England are apparently wondering how they managed to get him there. We’d venture to say it probably involved a check with many zeros on it, but the Guardian posits that his willingness to appear may have been bolstered by some old-fashioned flattery courtesy of fellow Telecaster player and all ’round badass Joe Strummer.

Conan played these clips of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at Bonnaroo on The Tonight Show last night, and we have to say that the endings of both parts (pt 2 after the jump) are troubling in very different ways.

We’ve been scrambling to keep you up-to-date as Glastonbury’s slowly leaked megaconfirmation after megaconfirmation in the past few months. But today’s full lineup announcement is something to behold, the headlining package of Neil Young, the Boss and a reunited Blur now propped up by a roster so behemoth and iron-clad, it’s equal parts intimidating and enticing. Also playing: Bloc Party, Lady Gaga, Jarvis Cocker, Regina Spektor, Maximo Park, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Lily Allen, Tom Jones, Pete Doherty, Q-Tip, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Streets, Ray Davies and and and and…

There will be mud.

The Boss himself announced last night that he is slated to play Giants Stadium before its demolishment later this year. The venue, where the New York Giants and the New York Jets play home games, is set to be torn down after the 2009 football season with the new Meadowlands Stadium opening early next year.

Bruce Springsteen played neighboring Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. Thursday when he made the announcement himself from stage. He and backing E Street Band will be back in the fall for their Working on a Dream tour to be the final major musical act to play the stadium. Tickets for the show go on sale June 1 for the September 30, October 2, and October 3 dates.

Does anyone out there know if Giant Stadium is a Ticketmaster venue?

Ticketmaster continues its ultimate sashay of douchebaggery with Bruce Springsteen once more, as the ticket conglomerate oversold the musician’s Washington, D.C. show next week through its resale sister site TicketsNow. To try and save face, the company is trying to call people to offer refunds as well as alternate pairs of tickets to the May 18 concert, most of which are located much further away from the stage than the original ones. How did they think a 1970s phone tree-style system is going to be successful?

This isn’t the first time The Boss has had some issues with Ticketmaster; when the current leg of his tour to support Working On A Dream was first on sale earlier this year, fans who attempted to buy specific tickets on Ticketmaster were given a “purchase unavailable” screen. The system failed to offer alternative face-value tickets still available for the show, and instead rerouted fans to TicketsNow, where a pair of coveted tickets for the Springsteen tour can reach double or triple the amount. According to the Associated Press, “Springsteen’s camp and fans alike were understandably miffed, and accused Ticketmaster of deception and conflict of interest.”

According to HitFix, Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff issued an “open letter of apology to Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and the entire Springsteen Tour Team… to make sure there is no misunderstanding in the future, we also publicly state that we will never again link to TicketsNow in a manner that can possibly create any confusion during a high-demand on-sale. Specifically, we will not present an option to go to TicketsNow from Ticketmaster without the consent of the artist and the venue.”

They better not, lest The Boss whips out that fancy handkerchief for some serious show-down time.

In March, the editors over at Nerve posted their picks for the Forty Sexiest Frontwomen in Rock History, and after receiving a bit of flack for their picks, the editors have struck again; only this time (more importantly) with the Forty Sexiest Frontmen in Rock History.

Unlike most ‘hottest whatever in rock’ lists, Nerve has managed to avoid sticking to the ties of classic cliches, keeping Sting away from the number one position, and instead making the tantric Police frontman stay put at number 26. Sure, Sting is sexy, but we don’t think he’s the sexiest frontman that has ever walked on a stage, but we have to say we think he is far sexier than Bono, (can we please think back to the Joshua Tree-era when he had a mullet?), who landed at 24. We are calling Nerve out on their Bono pick as a major league strike.

Also on the list, Red Hot Chili Pepper’s frontman, Anthony Kiedis at number 21, Jeff Buckley and Kurt Cobain helped round out the top 15, while Bruce Springsteen landed himself at lucky number 7 on the Sexy Man list. We will keep any bias we might feel towards Bruce out of the way, only to say that still after the days of his prime, the New Jersey boy is still looking quite nice (though he’s old enough to be some of our fathers).

Finally, to top off the list the Nerve editors chose Morrissey as their number three, David Bowie as their number two and Prince as their ultimate hot man. Personally, we would have much rather seen Mr. Glenn Danzig at number one (opinions of the writer do not reflect those of The Tripwire) than a man who has referred to himself as a symbol. At least they didn’t throw Michael Jackson onto the list.

To see the full list, click here.

They list as their influences The Beach Boys, The Boss and just plain ol’ New Jersey. And Real Estate are definitely a beach rock band — but it’s a style that begs to reinvent the genre rather than hearken to its heyday. Or the Jersey Shores. Whichever.

Real Estate is Matt Mondanile, Martin Courtney, Etienne Duguay and Alex Bleeker. They just released their debut 7″ “Suburban Beverage” on February 1. (You can pick one up at a show — they play Pianos in NYC April 11 and Public Assembly in Brooklyn on May 7 — or order one from Underwater Peoples). The white 7″ vinyl comes with a CD of the tracks.

In a recent interview with Stereogum, Courtney said that as for “Suburban Beverage”, “the songs on that were recorded mostly by me with Matt before the band really coalesced.” They also told Stereogum that they’re working on a second 7″ to be released on City Center. They’re recording it themselves, and they don’t have any ideas a on possible release date yet.

We’ll be interested to see what this new recording produces, since we were pretty impressed by what they’ve done so far. Check it out for yourself — we’ve got “Suburban Beverage” for you below.

Real Estate – “Suburban Beverage”

A while back, when we found out that Apple would finally be removing digitial rights management (DRM) protections from its tracks, we were clearly pretty stoked. But there’s always a catch, and this time it’s a price hike on the most popular iTunes downloads — insiders say the increase to $1.29 will go into effect April 7.

The date for the change-over to variable pricing has not officially been announced, but industry executives say that Apple has been notifying the labels that it would happen on that date.

Some see the increase as another blow to a struggling industry, wondering if consumers will be willing to fork over more than $1 for a single song. But on the ever-present other hand you have the fact that in the new pricing scheme, users will be able to download older songs at .69 cents and the previous standard, .99 cents.

Interestingly, not just brand new tracks will receive the $1.29 price stamp. The cost of a particular song will depend on the artist’s popularity. Brand-new tracks from lesser-known artists could receive a lower price while a hugely popular classic track, like Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run”, could go for top dollar. Or top dollar-twenty-nine. It is important to note, though, that most of the 10 million songs in the iTunes catalog are expected to remain at .99 cents.

So you’ll have to pay $1.29 for Lady GaGa. But if you’re like us, chances are there a lot of artists you listen to that aren’t so high on the international popularity chart. And if that means we get to download those songs for .69 cents? DRM-free? Count us in.

The Hangin’ Out On E Street series on BruceSpringsteen.net features artists from all ends of the genre spectrum chatting about The Boss and covering his tunes. This week, they got Birdmonster on the couch to put their spin on Springsteen.

Birdmonster chose to play “The Promised Land”, a track from 1978’s Darkness On The Edge of Town. Though they told the interviewer they don’t do many covers, they did do “Born To Run” for a friend’s wedding, and had a really good time at it, too. You can check out their contributions to the Hangin’ Out On E Street series below, and see other artists’ takes here.

Birdmonster Talks Bruce

Birdmonster – “The Promised Land”

Dedicated to those songs that I can’t stop playing, humming, or thinking about; the 4+ minutes you fall head-over-heels in love with. Past instances have included The Groovie Ghoulies’ “I’m Doin’ Fine,” Electric Six’s “Improper Dancing,” and Tender Box’s “Spectacular Spider-Man Theme.”

I don’t buy music every week, so when I go shopping I often pick up more than one album at a time. This is great and stupid, because while the one-stop shopping is an economic use of my time, I end up unfairly comparing two unrelated, dissimilar albums. If I’d purchased The Velvet Underground’s first album on its own without the accompanying purchase of Van Halen II, I have a higher opinion of it today. When I bought the pair — for whatever reason — I couldn’t get into the trippy stylings of the Velvets because I was head over kicked heels for VH II. Since then I have grown and adapted from my initial impression, realizing it was unfair: Not only is Velvet decidedly overrated and more than a little dated, but the run of the final three songs of VH II (”D.O.A.,” “Women in Love” and “Beautiful Girls”) are better than anything Lou Reed could pretend to care about writing. Velvet Underground can’t touch VH II’s ass-less chaps.

This comparison trend of mine was tested again when I received the dual gift of the Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible along with The Faces‘ A Nod Is As Good as a Wink… To a Blind Horse, and if I’d been placing bets, I would have put it all down on the boozy bar rock of Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. Chuck Berry covers, dirty riffs, sexism… Wink is like a Stones cover album and should have swept me off my feet. I promised myself I’d listen to both albums all the way through once before allowing myself the privilege (or the handicap) of repeated listens. Wink won the first listen of the pair (which was chosen at random — I try to do these things fair since I understand my own psychosis better anyone).

But then I moved on to Neon Bible, which started with “Black Mirror”, and I forgot all about rooster hair cuts.

“Black Mirror” — in fact much of Neon Bible — is a fantastic musical creation forged from the qualities I find annoying in bands I don’t usually enjoy. The overt sincerity of U2, the airy musicality of the Talking Heads, the sing-it-to-Saturn of Bruce Springsteen, the symphonic back-up of Coldplay. Maybe it’s a ratio thing: I can’t get past these annoying bits with these bands because their music seems to offer little else. If things were more evened out, maybe I could actually manage to get through Achtung Baby. But somehow when these qualities join together in this Arcade Fire configuration, it sounds like the kind of noise that could consume the world.

At the risk of outing myself as a hack, “Black Mirror” is a classic example of an album launcher. Some Track One’s start an album only to get out of the way, and others announce the album’s presence and tell everyone to get on board fast. “Black Mirror” possesses an unrelenting drive, feeling at once out of control — like a stagecoach headed by rocket elephants — yet fully aware of where it’s heading. It may be aiming for a cliff, but it knew that from the start. The Arcade Fire have a major Bowie thing happening with most of their work, and that would be a hindrance if they didn’t wear it so well. One review of “Black Mirror” compared it to a reworking of the “Suffragette City” riff, but that misses the point. The song may cosmetically sound a little like “Suffragette”, but the culmination of all those textures brings intensity, depth, darkness and hope along with them. If anything, it feels like “Heroes”. Bittersweet, heartsick and romantic.

On the rare occasion I don’t repeat “Black Mirror” and actually allow another song the daunting task of following up, I half expect to hear Radiohead’s “The National Anthem”. This would theoretically fit the mood, but where Kid A is an experiment in anti-music, “Black Mirror” is about music-music. It’s as pro-music as you can get. Kid A is clinical and shattered, Neon Bible is lush and voluptuous. Radiohead tends to write music to comment on music itself, but there’s no barrier separating you from the emotions and excitement of The Arcade Fire. Neon Bible gives a million of these kinds of emotional payoffs, but “Black Mirror” demonstrates them in the kind of way that tells you everything you’d ever want to know about the band, or hope to find.

Tension runs through the entire song, and it’s never released, only eased. The singing, instruments and song entirely build up to a cliff before “falling” into the chorus once again. Each verse is a remount back up that hill. The best example of this comes right in the middle. We build and build with the lyrics, and that familiar piano lick trickles in late enough to remind us it’s there and to keep us climbing. Then the lyric doesn’t lead directly into the chorus, but takes us to the “That curse is never broken” section, and it doesn’t get broken for many measures after. Win Butler suddenly breaks into a French version of the titular chorus, deftly giving the song a plateau but still no free-fall into the dark waters beneath. The backing vocals rise to the forefront after the full orchestra takes us through the chorus once again. “The kiss is never broken,” and neither is this rhythm. Butler talks to his mirror as everything seems to crescendo until we finally hit the water and gasp for air.

Individually as pieces, the music isn’t complicated at all. It’s a simple rhythm guitar lick, straight-forward drums, bass line, piano lick. That’s where the true power of the song originates: it’s not inventing new wheels to play with. It’s using all the wheels we already knew were available in a way we could only hope to achieve. The placement of these elements shows mastery. “Black Mirror” is one of those songs that is so good and so consuming and so powerful and so magnificent that you can’t imagine a single person in the free world who wouldn’t enjoy it. This is the curse of music loving — of course there’s someone out there who won’t like it, and even worse there are some who will simply dismiss it as, “Yeah… that’s alright.” I can understand not liking something completely, but when a song like this demands the kind of respect and attention it so obviously does, a mere dismissal like that would result in glove-to-face slaps in a more gentile era.

“Black Mirror” marks a year’s worth of Greatest Song at This Moment articles, and I’m thrilled beyond words that I can continue to enjoy this song without having to uphold my self-imposed moratorium on each artist I consume. If anyone wonders about the thesis of this project (i.e. “Trying to answer WHY these songs are so great at these moments”), I have no better answer concerning “Black Mirror” than I would for Van Halen II. The answer is: They’re the best.

Watch the “Black Mirror” video.

The rumors about Neil Young playing Glastonbury were finally confirmed earlier this week. Now it’s been announced that Young’s former band mates Dave Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash will be playing as well, leading us to speculate if a CSNY reunion might take place on stage at this year’s Glasto.

The band’s web site lists a show date of Saturday, June 27, but Glastonbury has not officially announced Young’s performance date as of yet. As NME pointed out, Young is listed as one of the headliners of the event and since Bruce Springsteen is already headlining on Saturday, it makes a reunion unlikely (at least for promotional purposes). The festival’s third headliner will be Blur, making for a very strange combination of old and older.

It’ll be interesting to see if songs like “Ohio” will resonate with the largely British crowd. We also wonder if they’ll pull out some old CSNY hits like “Teach Your Children.” We find it’s sure to get the party started. All four members last got together back in 2006 to play the Freedom of Speech tour in the U.S.

When Glastonbury organizer Michael Eavis announced that Neil Young would be playing the fest this year, he said, “Neil Young to play this year is a dream come true for me personally. He is one of my all-time favourites and we have always wanted him to play.”

This year’s festival takes place in Pilton, Somerset, June 24-28.

It’s a bit like running through razor blades then diving into a swimming pool full of rubbing alcohol when a band takes on groups like The Cure, Bloc Party, Jane’s Addiction, New Order and Franz Ferdinand: the chances of catastrophe and painful death are magnified by 47 million.

Many acts have tried to ape their heroes and have failed miserably (see Bauhaus doppelgangers She Wants Revenge). The Killers have attempted to mug U2, Springsteen and Joy Division for their sound and the results have, for the most part, been more lukewarm than killer. The one-time touted second coming of rock, The Strokes, attempted to borrow from the Television and Lou Reed songbooks and quicker than you can say “Marquee Moon” the band went the way of the dodo bird.

But sometimes, when the clouds part, the seas grow calm and beasts large and small live together in harmony, a band that covets their influences and shapes said influences into something all their own comes along. That band in this case is Kansas City, Missouri’s, Queens Club.

QC first began gathering attention through their expansive live shows and a strong push from Kansas City alternative rock radio station 96.5 The Buzz, specifically the Sunday evening local music showcase Homegrown Buzz. Early last year the newly formed band (Tyler Bottles – bass, Jake Ryan – drums/ programming, Daniel Eaton – vocals/guitars and Andrew Nichols – guitars/vocals/programming) became a local sensation with their debut single “Nightmarer” and word of mouth was so strong that late last year they did a showcase for the record label Tooth and Nail.

Though no deal is set as of yet, Tyler Bottles told me that they are optimistic. “We’re really hoping to get signed, every band that makes music wants to have their music heard. But if we don’t, we’ll release it ourselves and see what happens.”

The album, so far untitled, is a perfect storm of Euro dance rock, indie sophistication and a sprinkling of punk rock’s filth and fury snottiness (see the pummeling track “I’m American”); all aspects of the Queens Club dynamic fit together smoothly like cogs in a well oiled machine. It’s almost frightening to me that a band that’s only been together a little over a year can kick out a debut this tight, well written and infectious. Yes, the clouds have parted, dogs are living peacefully with their feline friends and the rock Gods have smiled on this Midwestern band. Take my advice: When they come to your town, go and see them in the club because soon enough, they’ll be selling out stadiums.

Listen to Queen’s Club here.

It looks like Bruce Springsteen is making his way through the festival circuit this spring and summer. It was rumored just last week that Mr. America himself might possibly be headlining Bonnaroo Festival, but now Bruce will be making his way over to the U.K. for the Glastonbury Festival, where he will be the Saturday night headliner as well.

While we’re a little curious as to how “Born In the U.S.A.” will pan out over on the other side of the pond, the sold out music festival — which will take place on June 26-28 — and the its organizers are very excited to have Springsteen grace their stage. “I’m so pleased that Bruce Springsteen has agreed to come to Worthy Farm for the first time,” said festival chief Michael Eavis. “He’s one of the all-time rock legends and I’m confident that this will be one of our best shows ever.”

Just last week, Emily Eavis, who helps run the festival, dismissed rumors that The Rolling Stones and U2 would be headlining the festival, but said “I’m knocked out that we’ve managed to get Bruce to play. It’s the icing on the cake of this year’s bill, which I’m sure will take everyone’s breath away when we announce the full details.”

So far, only a hand full of acts along with Bruce have been confirmed for the festival, including Bon Iver, Lilly Allen, and Franz Ferdinand. Among other artists rumored to play are Neil Young,Blur, Coldplay, and Oasis.

With Coachella just a month and a half away fans have been swarming the event’s message boards, posting their discontent about The Killers headlining Saturday night. Generally speaking, Coachella enlists acts of epic proportions to headline the event, so rumors have been circulating that the less-than-epic Las Vegas rockers are just holding Saturday night’s spot until a bigger name is released to surprise fans.

Who could it possibly be? According to The Daily Swarm, rumors have been flying rampant about a possible David Bowie performance, or even Bruce Springsteen and Metallica. We’re thinking the possibilities of Mr. Springsteen playing are slim, as he’s headlining Bonnaroo this year. We sure wouldn’t mind hearing Metallica headline, and a Bowie performance would be beyond epic.

Even if Coachella doesn’t announce a new headliner for Saturday night, if some fans get their way, you can look forward to some hilarious entertainment on the Conservative Talk Radio Stage. Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O’Reilly are among the few conservative radio personalities sought out by fans on the message board.

It already seemed like just about nobody was happy about the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger, except Ticketmaster and Live Nation. But now the newly formed Live Nation Entertainment Inc. is facing a lawsuit filed by its shareholders, who ain’t too happy, either.

As the The Daily Swarm tipped us off to, basically the shareholders think that Ticketmaster had a case of teenage girl self esteem and sold itself for too little to Live Nation. Ticketmaster shareholders say the executives “exploited the temporary downturn in the company’s share price, off almost 40 percent in the last three months, and secured benefits for themselves outside of the deal,” basically screwing the shareholders. If we may use legal terms.

In the deal, Ticketmaster shareholders get 1.38 shares of Live Nation Entertainment stock for every share of Ticketmaster they own. They want a Los Angeles state court judge to block the deal, which is still pending — as we told you last week, the merger is being reviewed as a possible illegal monopoly by the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

This is just more proof that you shouldn’t piss off Bruce Springsteen. And where is Eddie Vedder during all of this?

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.

The question has been asked time and time again: is it possible to create truly smart, imaginative works when you’re happy?

Bruce Springsteen’s status as the voice of an unquiet generation has been documented — both by critics and by his own PR team — to the point of over-saturation, but this sense of unrest is so inherent in his work that it’s hard not to consider it as part of the man himself. Periods of darkness in Springsteen’s life and surroundings lead to his best works, from the creative struggles that plagued him after his burgeoning success (Darkness on the Edge of Town) to his drive to tell the stories of the isolated American (Nebraska) to his early experience with marriage and the failure thereof (Tunnel of Love).

Even in later years, after he became a man with a family, a fortune, and a long history of fame, Springsteen strived to maintain some sense of the working man. On The Ghost of Tom Joad and The Rising, he relied on social and historical context to build relevant and genuine (if sometimes saccharine) portraits of American struggle, heartbreak, and hope. Devils and Dust, a quiet attempt at a modern, multicultural patchwork of stories a la Tom Joad and Nebraska, had its missteps, but for the most part revealed the folk-obssesed songwriter we all assumed that he would age into.

Then came Magic, which kicked off strong with the charged wake-up call of “Radio Nowhere,” bucking the quiet folk with the full energy of the E Street Band. Still, it lost that spark with relative ease, fading into mid-tempo numbers with sometimes-strong hooks but a lack of a real, connecting spark. His newest, Working On a Dream, continues in this measure. The album’s eleven tracks touch on a patchwork of themes and a sense that Springsteen is trying to bring together all of his selves: the family man, the folk storyteller, and the spiritual hopeful.

At the same time, there’s something missing here. This is apparent from the album’s opening track, the Western-tinged “Outlaw Pete”. “Pete” tells the kind of story Springsteen fans have come to adore: a man born into his own sense of badness, struggling to escape but ultimately, cruelly failing. The feel of the song is difficult to describe; it seems contrived in its rugged demeanor. There’s a sense that Springsteen has begun to parody himself — but hasn’t he earned that right?

Elsewhere, radio-friendly tracks embrace the fact that Springsteen’s audience consists, largely, of people more like himself than the tormented character portraits of his past. “My Lucky Day” is a catchy ode to love as the light that shines in dark times, choosing to forgo complicated lyrics in favor of Adult Alternative simplicity. The album’s first single, title track “Working On a Dream”, relies on a mix of broad themes (hope, love, middle-class struggle) to power its metaphor of the American dream as a ladder. “My hands are rough from working on a dream,” he sings, and on one level, it works; on another, there is little suggestion as to what powers the narrator’s troubles.

As with Magic, the middle of Working on a Dream is murky, undefined territory. Conceptually,”Queen of the Supermarket” makes sense: it’s a snapshot in time, meant to bring a sense of possibility to an ordinary moment. Unfortunately, the moment here takes place in a grocery store, where a man’s hopes and dreams are contained in the form of a store worker he has a crush on. The result is difficult to listen to and at times a bit creepy. “Surprise, Surprise” fails in a similar fashion: both songs are a touch too repetitive, and both attempt to paint pictures of everyday scenes (in “Surprise”, it’s a birthday) but don’t delve deeply enough for those scenes to actually seem remarkable in any way.

It’s where his sense of political disillusion and spiritual faith combine that Springsteen’s better songs come to light. “What Love Can Do”, recorded at the tail end of the Magic sessions, is a traditional “you and me against the world” anthem set against the backdrop of dissatisfied America in a not-yet-post-Bush world. “Life Itself” was born from this same time period, a dark and melodic tribute to the easily addictive nature of troubled souls. Bizarrely, the album takes these themes and then tries to rework them in multiple forms (as evidenced in “This Life” and “Kingdom of Days”). “Good Eye” does more or less the same, although it puts that theme on a blues-soaked pedestal for emphasis.

By this point, the record is awkward in its repetition, which is broken only by the simple and traditional feel of “Tomorrow Never Knows”. Still, Springsteen is loathe to end on such a note; the album’s two best tracks come at its very end. “The Last Carnival” is the kind of character portrait the rest of the record is sadly lacking, marked both by the strangeness of its setting and the familiarity of its emotion. Its only downturn is the out-of-nowhere gospel chorus ending. “The Wrestler”, the album’s most-publicized song (and not an original album track), gives us the best of Springsteen’s heartfelt intentions. It’s a soft, quiet tale of a broken man, and the only one on the album where the sense of struggle doesn’t feel forced or out of place. “My only faith’s in the broken bones and bruises I display,” he sings, encapsulating the bulk of his body of work in just one line.

Working on a Dream is by no means a bad record; in many ways, it’s what we have come to expect from Springsteen’s current incarnation. It is the product of a songwriter who is no longer just struggling with the disconnect between his character’s struggles and his own fame. He’s also a man facing the natural decline of his career in the time of the collapse of the industry that made him famous in the first place. Bound not only to contractual obligations, but to those of a collective perception of what his success should mean, he has found himself amidst a mess of expectations. Critics still hold his records to the standards he set so early in his career, while the battle against declining sales numbers is being fought with Walmart exclusive deals and Superbowl appearances, mirroring similar efforts by other top-tier veteran acts. There’s a very real sense in which Springsteen isn’t allowed to age into one of the folk heroes he cherishes. His albums have to serve as vehicles for his massive touring franchise, and that requires a level of public attention that requires immensive (and inventive) effort all on its own.

All of these conflicting factors have gone into the making of Working on a Dream, so it’s no surprise that the album never reaches a certain depth and seems at times like a confused version of Springsteen’s past work. The simple truth is that at base, he is a man with little to complain about. Springsteen’s life has treated him well, and the end result may be that his songs just don’t sound as good when he hasn’t got a demon chasing him. Still, one has to look at the pressures that surround him as a unique public figure and wonder: out of these creative and professional stresses, will some new demons finally emerge?

The Vegas odds of Bruce Springsteen playing “Born In The USA” during his Superbowl half-time performance were 2-1. It was also tabbed as the most popular choice by bookies to either start or close his set, but the Boss would not have it. Since the budget for the Superbowl is usually pretty modest, we knew bringing Courtney Cox on stage for a reunion was a long-shot, but we thought for sure it would be the high-point of the night. The Boss wasn’t having it.

Turns out the Boss was more interested in hawking his new wares and sliding his crotch into cameras. So we decided with this week’s installment of Flashback vids, we’d go back to a simpler time. When a fresh faced Courtney Cox (and fresh faced Bruce Springsteen too, check out how young he looks) just happened to be upfront and center at an E Street Band concert, making videographic history. Oh, and Superbowl half-time producers, you missed the boat on this one.

Bruce Springsteen – “Dancing In The Dark”

Here you have it, less than a week after Coachella’s line-up was finally released, this year’s Bonnaroo line-up has been announced. Mr. Super Bowl himself, Bruce Springsteen and his E Street band, alongside recently reunited jam-band-legends Phish, will be headlining the giant four-day music festival down in good ole Manchester, Tennessee on June 11-14.  

This year’s festival will celebrate Bonnaroo’s eighth consecutive year running, and will include over 120 bands; and what a solid — if not exhausting — selection of bands it is. TV on the Radio, Wilco, The Beastie Boys, Animal Collective, Bon Iver, Andrew Bird, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Crystal Castles and Grizzly Bear are among the swarm of artists we are excited to see take the stage at the massive music fest. 

Phish will be playing twice during the festival, which will certainly be a special treat for fans who have been waiting since 2004 for their reunion to happen. And for fans who can’t attend the monstrosity of a festival in the heart of Tennessee, they can watch it on FUSE, who will be exclusively airing live coverage of the event through both its television station and websites. 

Bonnaroo organizers are also switching some things up this year, as the expensive four-day tickets will be available on a payment plan for those who are suffering from joblessness, but still need to see their favorite musical acts at a four-day fiasco of sweat, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. Tickets for Bonnaroo go on sale this Friday, February 7 at 12 noon EST. Below is the list of confirmed artists, which came with the promise of more to be announced in the coming weeks.

2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival confirmed artists
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Phish (2 Shows)
Beastie Boys
Nine Inch Nails
David Byrne
Wilco
Al Green
Snoop Dogg
Elvis Costello Solo
Erykah Badu
Paul Oakenfold
Ben Harper and Relentless7
The Mars Volta
TV on the Radio
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Gov’t Mule
Andrew Bird
Merle Haggard
MGMT
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The Decemberists
Girl Talk
Bon Iver
Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabate
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Galactic
The Del McCoury Band
of Montreal
Allen Toussaint
Coheed and Cambria
Booker T & the DBTs
David Grisman Quintet
Lucinda Williams
Animal Collective
Gomez
Neko Case
Down
Jenny Lewis
Santogold
Robert Earl Keen
Citizen Cope
Femi Kuti and the Positive Force
The Ting Tings
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Kaki King
Grizzly Bear
King Sunny Adé
Okkervil River
St. Vincent
Zac Brown Band
Raphael Saadiq
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Crystal Castles
Tift Merritt
Brett Dennen
Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue
Toubab Krewe
People Under the Stairs
Alejandro Escovedo
Vieux Farka Touré
Elvis Perkins In Dearland
Cherryholmes
Yeasayer
Todd Snider
Chairlift
Portugal. The Man.
The SteelDrivers
Midnite
The Knux
The Low Anthem
Delta Spirit
A.A. Bondy
The Lovell Sisters
Alberta Cross

He campaigned for the guy who actually won the presidency, he just won a Golden Globe and he’s about to play the Super Bowl halftime show. Things couldn’t get much better for The Boss (well, save that whole Oscar debacle), so he’s taking all his good karma on the road for a world tour that kicks off April 1.

You can listen to Working on a Dream, Bruce and the E Street Band’s recently released album, streaming here, and of course you can see him in full technicolor, live from Tampa, Fla., this Sunday. If you still need more after that, this is where we’re pretty sure you’ll be able to find him in a few months — most tickets go on sale the first week of February, and you can all the info here.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band North American tour dates
04.01.09 – San Jose, Calif. (HP Pavilion at San Jose)
04.03.09 – Glendale, Calif. (Jobing.com Center)
04.05.09 – Austin, Texas (Frank Erwin Center)
04.07.09 – Tulsa, Okla. (BOK Center)
04.08.09 – Houston, Texas (Toyota Center)
04.10.09 – Denver, Colo. (Pepsi Arena)
04.15.09 – Los Angeles, Calif. (LA Memorial Sports Arena)
04.21.09 – Boston, Mass. (TD Banknorth Garden)
04.22.09 – Boston, Mass. (TD Banknorth Garden)
04.24.09 – Hartford, Conn. (XL Center)
04.26.09 – Atlanta, Ga. (Philips Arena)
04.28.09 – Philadelphia, Penn. (Wachovia Spectrum)
04.29.09 – Philadelphia, Penn. (Wachovia Spectrum)
05.02.09 – Greensboro, NC (Greensboro Coliseum)
05.04.09 – Hempstead, NY (Nassau Veterans Mem. Col.)
05.05.09 – Charlottesville, Va. (John Paul Jones Arena)
05.07.09 – Toronto, ONT (Air Canada Centre)
05.08.09 – University Park, Penn. (Bryce Jordan Center)
05.11.09 – St. Paul, Minn. (Xcel Energy Center)
05.12.09 – Chicago, Ill. (United Center)
05.14.09 – Albany, NY (Times Union Center)
05.15.09 – Hershey, Penn. (Hersheypark Stadium)
05.18.09 – Washington, D.C. (Verizon Center)
05.19.09 – Pittsburgh, Penn. (Mellon Arena)
05.21.09 – E. Rutherford, NJ (Izod Center)
05.23.09 – E. Rutherford, NJ (Izod Center)

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band world tour dates
05.30.09 – Landgraaf, Holland (Pink Pop Festival)
06.02.09 – Tampere, Finland (Ratinan Stadion)
06.04.09 – Stockholm, Sweden (Stockholm Stadium)
06.05.09 – Stockholm, Sweden (Stockholm Stadium)
06.07.09 – Stockholm, Sweden (Stockholm Stadium)
06.09.09 – Bergen, Norway (Koengen)
06.10.09 – Bergen, Norway (Koengen)
07.02.09 – Munich, Germany (Olympiastadion)
07.03.09 – Frankfurt, Germany (Commerzbank Arena)
07.05.09 – Vienna, Austria (Ernst Happel Stadion)
07.08.09 – Herning, Denmark (Herning MCH)
07.11.09 – Dublin, Ireland (RDS)
07.16.09 – Carhaix, France (Festival des Vielles Charrues)
07.19.09 – Rome, Italy (Stadio Olimpico)
07.21.09 – Turino, Italy (Olimpico di Torino)
07.23.09 – Udine, Italy (Stadio Friuli)
07.26.09 – Bilbao, Spain (San Mames Stadium)
07.28.09 – Benidorm, Spain (Estadio Municipal de Foietes)
07.30.09 – Sevilla, Spain (La Cartuja Olympic Stadium)
08.01.09 – Valladolid, Spain (Estadio Jose Zorrilla)
08.02.09 – Santiago, Spain (Monte Del Gozo)

In the ever confusing world of Oscar nominations, Golden Globe winner for Best Original Song “The Wrestler” by Bruce Springsteen was left completely off the list of potential Academy Award nominees. That being said, there were only three nominees listed as opposed to the customary five, so maybe there will be more forthcoming? Meanwhile, in bigger news, M.I.A. is getting attention for a song not named “Paper Planes”.

“O…Saya”, M.I.A.’s collaboration with composer A.R. Rahman from Slumdog Millionaire, received a nomination, one of two songs from the movie to get the nod. “Jai Ho”, another A.R. Rahman song featuring Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, and Mahalaxmi Iyer and Peter Gabriel’s Wall-E track “Down to Earth” round out the field. Rahman also picked up a nomination for Best Original Score for his Slumdog music, making the feel-good movie the hands-on favorite to bring home at least one music-category Oscar.

But many are wondering why the Boss was snubbed — especially on the heels of his GG’s win. With only three nominees, some are questioning if there are more to come, but for now, the the official Oscar website only lists the three. Also ignored was Academy favorite Clint Eastwood for “Gran Torino”.

In an odd twist of irony, the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack was released on M.I.A.’s Interscope imprint, N.E.E.T. Bruce Springsteen has won an Oscar for “Streets Of Philadelphia” from the movie Philadelphia in 1993 and lost in 1995 for his title track to the movie Dead Man Walking. The 81st Annual Academy Awards will be handed out in a televised ceremony on February 22.