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Forget running. Apparently, Bruce Frederick Springsteen was born to sell. Fans looking to get some truly rare Boss records now can, thanks to a New York auction house that has put up for bid confidential medical documents detailing the Hall of Fame rocker’s birth. Lelands.com, an online auctioneer specializing in Americana and sports memorabilia, has put up for sale nine “historically important” records chronicling Springsteen’s pre-glory diaper days dating back to his September 23, 1949 birth at Monmouth Memorial Hospital in Long Branch, New Jersey. As revealed by a sample of images posted on Lelands’ Website, the records kept by… Read more »

Sometimes, Washington is as hot as Bangkok. OK, I stole that line, but it was baking hot at RFK Stadium Saturday for the HFStival, the annual, all-day, relentlessly eclectic rock extravaganza put on by local radio station WHFS-FM (99.1). An estimated crowd of 60,000 blazed under a pre-summer sun, moseying in and out of the stadium from parking-lot attractions that included a forest of beer trucks, giant inflatable corporate logos, two more bandstands – one for national acts, the other for local acts such as Washington Social Club and Jimmie’s Chicken Shack – and, for the truly adventurous, a Ferris… Read more »

The Backstreet Boys were congregating backstage at Saturday’s Wango Tango On-Air festival when a herd of security guards nearly tumbled them. “They were like, ‘Move out of the way, get up against the wall,’” Nick Carter recalled later, smiling and likely embellishing a bit. “And then William Hung came through.” “Who?” Kevin Richardson asked. “Well Hung?” Joke or not, on a bill that included Janet Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Jessica Simpson and a dozen other acts, William Hung was the headliner. After 14 hours of pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B and everything in between, the “American Idol” reject, dressed in a paisley… Read more »

When speaking this month to a representative from Soundscan, the company that provides much of the data for the Billboard Top 200 Chart, I learned things that would contradict reported statements by the RIAA. Mainly that US labels have had a significant reduction in sales over the past three years. Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, responded personally, put his rebuttals on the record and in the process exposed intriguing insight into the way the RIAA calculates “losses.” Soundscan is a service owned by Nielsen, the company that computes TV ratings. Soundscan uses the barcodes on CDs to register sales… Read more »

After keeping a low profile since the 1999 release of “The Fragile,” Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor has finally begun revealing details about his next album. “Bleed Through” is due later this year via Interscope and will find Reznor “touring extensively” in support of it, according to NIN’s official Web site (http://www.nin.com). “One of the ‘rules’ of this record has been to orchestrate using only monophonic voices. No chords. Anywhere,” Reznor says. “Most of the synthesis has been done with a rather elaborate (and ever-growing) modular rig and recorded live.” The set will feature a combination of live and… Read more »

A year after Apple Computer Inc. launched its iTunes Music Service, the online music industry is selling songs by the millions – and that may not bode well for the major record labels. Online services account for just a fraction of overall music sales, but they’re growing rapidly. And the new choices they give consumers threaten to remix the recording industry’s traditional revenue streams, pumping up the volume of singles and subscriptions and turning down album sales. Customers at three of the leading online services – iTunes, Musicmatch Inc.’s Musicmatch Downloads and RealNetworks Inc.’s Rhapsody – buy about 10 times… Read more »

If anybody can get Internet music downloads right, it should be Sony Corp. The company has years of experience selling records, consumer electronics and personal computers – and it’s had plenty of time to study earlier digital-music ventures. So how could the Connect music store, unveiled on Tuesday, have turned out so badly? It gets a few things right, but by forgetting that customers want to feel like they actually own their music, it repeats – or exceeds – the mistakes of other music stores. Let’s start with compliments: Sony does more than any other service to bring down the… Read more »

While being well-prepared is almost always advised for a young band in the studio, spontaneous strokes of creativity are usually the moments the musicians remember best. Of the 13 songs that comprise Yellowcard’s latest album, Ocean Avenue, the band had a dozen of them hashed out beforehand. But while knee-deep in recording, the group stumbled across the riff that became the foundation for “Only One,” which is slated to be the album’s third single. “We discovered a riff for it by accident,” singer Ryan Key said. “We were testing something else out and just tracked it right away. We then… Read more »

Hanson’s third studio album, Underneathdebuted at #1 on Billboard’s independent sales chart today. Released on their own, self-funded 3CG Records last Tuesday, the album debuted at #25 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart today, making it one of the most successful self-released albums of all time. The success of Underneath puts Hanson inrare company with the very few other artists such as Prince and Ani DiFranco who have scored Top 25 chart positions on previous self-released titles. In an effort to gain more creative control of their music and a more direct relationship with their fans, Hanson formed 3CG Records last… Read more »

People sometimes say Britney is the new Madonna, but then who’s going to be the new Britney? Ms. Spears had a hand in deciding that for herself recently, when she helped cast “Brave New Girl,” an ABC Family film adapted from the book she wrote with her mom. The story, adapted from Lynne and Britney Spears’ book “A Mother’s Gift,” is based on the singer’s life but is fictionalized a bit so that it becomes more about the relationship between the mother and daughter than the rise of Spears’ star. In the film, the Britney character, named Holly, wants to… Read more »