Yesterday Amazon.co.uk published 30-second samples of all the songs on the new album, but as of right now they seem to have disappeared again. Possibly because within hours the samples had spread to places like YouTube and and Megaupload. Or because they weren't supposed be published in the first place.

But the cat is out of the bag and thousands of fans got to listen to the snippets. They were able to hear that the description that was recently posted on this page wasn't too far from the truth. A mix of classic E Street Band and some interesting experimenting. To these ears it sounded like it may be slightly less melodic and bombastic than Magic, but still nothing like the rather tuneless and understated Devils & Dust (I know, I know, "Long Time Comin'" is a splendid tune). However, drawing any major conclusions based on very short samples would be a mistake. Especially since the best of Bruce's music has always been the songs that didn't open up until after several listens. Heck, if I'd started out by only hearing 30-second clips of the Darkness album, I'm not sure I would have become the fan I am today. So whether you thought the Working on a Dream clips sounded promising or the opposite, just forget about them when you pop the CD in the player for the first time on January 27 (or push the Play button on your iPod).It'll be a much better experience for it.

They seem to pop up every single year. The rumors. The rumors that Bruce will perform at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK. They were strong last year, but weren't based on reality. This year they are even stronger, and according to at least one British TV channel it's just a matter of days before it will be officially announced that Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band will headline the 2009 version of one of the largest music festivals in the world.

Several things speak for it this time. 1) Bruce performed at a similar type of event when he closed the Magic Tour with a show at the Harley Davidson festival. He may have enjoyed it. 2) He and the E Street Band never played the big European festivals like just about every other major acts have done. Bruce may feel that if it's ever going to happen and if he's ever going to be able to say that he and the band "did it all", it has to be now. 3) In recent years Bruce seems to have loosened up about a lot of things. Just a few years ago it would have been unthinkable to see him play at the Superbowl. It would have been unthinkable to see him endorse a presidential candidate. It would have been unthinkable to see him play with a 16-piece folk orchestra. So maybe the unthinkability about him playing festivals will also soon be just a distant memory.

If it happens, one of the big questions is who will be in the E Street Band lineup. The speculations about Max Weinberg's future are running wild. What is certain is that in February Conan O'Brien's talkshow will move to Los Angeles and become the new Tonight Show replacing Jay Leno. It also seems certain that Max Weinberg will be part of the new Tonight Show. But whereas Max Weinberg has always been able to take long stretches of time off from the Late Night with Conan O'Brien to tour with Bruce, the question is if the same thing will be possible when he's part of the much more prominent Tonight Show. Especially during its first few months with a new host. Will Bruce instead only schedule shows on Max's nights off? Or will another unthinkable thing happen? Bruce will hire a new drummer.

Whatever happens, it looks like the new tour won't start until sometime in March. The European tour that was supposed to begin in early February has been postponed till later in the year and the tour will instead most likely open in the US.

The below picture that is allegedly showing the cover art for the Working on a Dream album has appeared on the official Bruce site, brucespringsteen.net. It doesn't say specifically that it's the cover art, but under normal circumstances you would assume so. But really, could this really be it? It has prompted a collective "you have got to be kidding me!" on various message boards, andI must admit that even though I  can find something positive in almost anything Bruce does, and  even though Bruce hasn't had a truly great and memorable (to casual music fans) album cover since Born in the USA, this will take the price as the ugliest thing to come out of Thrill Hill in... like... forever. Apart from the typeface, it's pretty much a disaster. Is it a children's album? Is it a Christmas album? It's certainly doesn't signal "new monster album by legendary rock 'n' roll boss Bruce fooking Springsteen" like it should. There are at least 10 bootleg cover artists out there who could have done a much better job. So hopefully this is not the real thing, and if it is, hopefully it doesn't say anything about the actual music

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In the last several days no less than three songs from the Working on a Dream album have been made available to the public. Two of them as both audio and video. First, the title track is available via iTunes for free through December 9. Also, a video of the song can be seen on some Swiss news magazine website. Next, one of the bonus tracks, "The Wrestler" (which at the moment looks like it will be the only bonus track) is featured in the trailer of the movie of the same name. The trailer can be seen here, and if you watch the whole thing all the way through, it is followed by a complete and uninterrupted playback of the stark ballad. Finally, "My Lucky Day" can be seen as a video on Amazon.com. Like the "Working on a Dream" video it was recorded at Brendan O'Brien's studio in Atlanta during the recording of the album. If you live in the US you can even purchase an mp3 of the "Lucky Day" song for only $0.99. Why the rest of the world doesn't have this opportunity is probably something you have to be a copyright lawyer to understand. All I know is that this a bullet-proof way to create lots of new music pirates out of people who don't even want to be music pirates. When does the music industry realize we live in a globalized world?

An anonymous person has sent us a song-by-song description of the Working on a Dream album. How he got to listen to the album or if he's even trustworthy, I will leave for each of you individually to judge. But it sounds plausible, and I have personally no reason to think it's not true. There are probably lots of tentative copies out there with Sony executives, marketing people, and others. Time will tell how much truth there is to this, but here goes:

Track list:
1. Outlaw Pete
-The E street band do Pete Seeger. A rollocking tune about badass Pete lots of harmonica, lots of organ.
2. My Lucky Day
- as heard on Amazon a mid tempo rocker like Lonesome Day, again strong organ presence.
3. Working On a Dream
- Title track we have all heard.
4. Queen of the Supermarket
-Probably the most enticing title on the album is a ode to a Supermarket worker? Or Dweller? Glockenspiel opening. Certainly no ‘For You’ or ‘Sandy’, but still heavy on the feelings.
5. What Love Can Do
- Very Byrds like, Max on fire on this track lots of twelve string guitars it reminded me of ‘twelve mile high’ in parts
6. This Life
- Big band sound, lots of organ. Imagine a fast Secret Garden with the big man pulling out a sax solo at the end. A grower I am sure.
7. Good Eye
- Brilliant blues harmonica microphone number. Very similar to the stage versions of ‘Reason to Believe’ & ‘NJ Devil’, the most innovative track on the album. This is Bruce pushing the boundaries not cruising. More like this please Bruce.
8. Tomorrow Never Knows
- Light country tinged skip along with Soozie contributing Violin. Starts with a steel guitar intro, you can imagine this done solo ala ‘Waiting on a Sunny Day’ – acoustic.
9. Life Itself
- Slow burning rock. With backtracked guitar, very reminiscent of ‘The Fuse’.
10. Kingdom of Days
-Big wall of sound, very reminiscent of recent Brendan O’Brien produced tracks. This records ‘Girls in their Summer Clothes’.
11. Surprise, Surprise
- 60s pop, very pop and up track, kind of throwaway.
12. The Last Carnival- Standout track. Is this a ode to Danny? It starts with an accordion intro, lots of end of days reminiscing and very dreamy end of summer felling. Suddenly stops then a choir comes in before fading to end.

Overall very patchy, you get the feeling Bruce and the band are cruising. Easy to see why some of theses tracks where left off ‘Magic’, yet where Bruce does innovate and push we get standouts such as Outlaw Pete, Good Eye & Last Carnival. Might not be Tunnel of Love or Darkness but certainly no Human Town either some of these songs will reawaken when done live or when stripped of the Brendan O Brien wall of sound.

As of today you can listen to streaming audio of the song "Workin' on a Dream" on at least two music sites: Q1043 and something called iheartmusic.com. The latter unfortunately is only available from within the US. Reactions to the song are as always mixed, but there's no doubt fans are a tad more skeptical this time around than was the case when "Radio Nowhere" was first heard in the fall of 2007. At the same time, a poster on the Backstreets message board, BTX, has caused controversy by claiming to have heard the full album and revealing detailed information about some of the songs. Whether the information is trustworthy is up to each of us individually to decide, but it does sound plausible. Read a summary here.

Almost exactly one year after Danny's last official show with the E Street Band, Greasy Lake has now offiically launched an auction for the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund. Thereby we hope not only to raise money for a very worthwhile cause, but also to keep Danny's memory alive among his fans.

The main auction item is a unique, brand new, and absolutely gorgeous collection of 18 of Bruce's official albums, signed by the entire 2008 version of the E Street Band, including Bruce himself. Except for one, all the CDs are part of the much sought-after limited Japanese vinyl replica edition series that were released a few years ago and that has since become a real goodie for Springsteen collectors. Owning the entire series, signed by Bruce and the E Street Band, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will be very hard to duplicate, and it has only become possible thanks to a very generous anonymous donor.

Due to this collection's uniqueness the bidding must start at $1,000. It's a lot of money, but the 18 albums themselves may be worth more than that even without the autographs.

For those of you who just don't have that kind of money sitting around, there are four other auctions with more modest items, but still well worth having:

Magic Tour programme signed by Little Steven
Photo of the E Street Band signed by Max Weinberg and Garry Tallent
Greetings From Asbury Park CD and Steel Mill Retro CD, both signed by Vini Lopez
Magic CD signed by Bruce Springsteen

All of these items may be yours for less than $100, but don't forget all the money will go to a good cause, so don't hold back!

To make things as easy as possible and get as much exposure as possible, all the auctions take place on eBay. They will all last for 10 days starting right about now. As soon as the winners have been found and payments made, all the money will be transferred to the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund, including an amount corresponding to the eBay fees.

Go make your bid!

The new Bruce Springsteen studio album that has been much rumored and talked about lately, is now official. In a press release from Shorefire Media released a few hours ago, the album was announced for January 27. It's called Workin' on a Dream and contains 12 songs plus two bonus songs: "The Wrestler" (from the recent movie of the same name) and "A Night with the Jersey Devil" (the surprise Halloween attack from a few weeks ago). The rest of the track list looks like this:

1. Outlaw Pete
2. My Lucky Day
3. Working On a Dream
4. Queen of the Supermarket
5. What Love Can Do
6. This Life
7. Good Eye
8. Tomorrow Never Knows
9. Life Itself
10. Kingdom of Days
11. Surprise, Surprise
12. The Last Carnival

Read the complete press release.

...a food bank, that is. In another "first" for him (I think), he appears in an ad campaign for other than his own music. The ad has been paid for by the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. With the demand going up and donations going down, they have pulled out the big guns and managed to persuade Bruce to lend his image to the cause. Not that a whole lot of persuasion probably was necessary. Bruce has supported the food bank since the Born in the USA days, donating tons of money to it and sometimes even volunteering his time. You can see the ad here.

The rumors of a new Bruce album are now officially no longer rumors. A new album is indeed coming out and the first single will be premiered this next Sunday on NBC during halftime of the Sunday night football game between the Cowboys and the Redskins. The song will be the same one that Bruce performed about a week ago in Cleveland in honor of Barack Obama called "Workin' on a Dream". Should be interesting to see what an E Street Band arrangement will do to change the minds of those many fans (including myself) who felt the song sounded like an unfinished diddy that we might never hear again.