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Thread started 04/01/13 9:34am

RodeoSchro

No one does April Fools like Backstreets, LOL

Backstreets is the .org of the Bruce Springsteen community. Every 4/1, they replace the normal news page with a page chock full of made-up items. These are HILARIOUS!

http://backstreets.com/news.html

Here are a couple samples from the site. There are plenty more!

MARCH 31: THE HIGHWAY TO HELL IS ALIVE TONIGHT
AC/DC's Johnson, Angus Young help close out Australian tour
For the final night in Australia, Springsteen went out with a bang like T.N.T., as special guests Brian Johnson and Angus Young from AC/DC brought their bad boy boogie to the E Street stage. The first hint that Bruce had something special up his sleeve came during "Wrecking Ball" with a rare nod to stage proppery, as an enormous black paper-mache orb began to swing on its chain as it dropped slowly from the lighting rig. Then the first stage pyrotechnics since the Super Bowl kaboomed as Johnson and Young emerged, to deafening roars from the Aussie crowd. Eyeing Angus in his classic schoolboy uniform, Bruce joked about having flashbacks to St. Rose of Lima before calling out: "Is there anybody alive out there?... We salute you!!"

The collaboration had a rocky start, with a "Thundercrack"/"Thunderstruck" mash-up never quite coming together (and a brief snafu as Nils and Angus spun around each other, their guitar cords twirled up and entangled). Using a bit of "The Jack" to introduce "Jack of All Trades" worked better, however, and following that up with "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" was a masterstroke. Spotlight on Professor Roy Bittan with a rare turn at the mic: "neckties... contracts... high voltage!" Though Johnson and Young left the stage for the remainder of the set, of course they were back in the encore, for the doubleshot everyone had been anticipating since the Brisbane soundcheck: "Whole Lotta Rosie" into "Rosalita."

By this point, Angus was of course half-undressed, and as he bared his ass to the Springsteen faithful, Bruce sang a few lines from The Capris' "There's a Moon Out Tonight" (Garry and Max picked it up quickly for a few bars). "And that, ladies and gentlemen," hollered Springsteen, "is the very first bare-ass-naked moon that has ever shone from the E Street stage!... Not that Stevie hasn't considered it upon occasion... I mean arse! Bare arse!" Midway through one of the "Rosies," thanking his AC/DC guests, Springsteen also turned to thank Tom Morello for serving throughout the Australia run; at that moment, however, Morello's melted brains were being scraped off the stage with a spatula.

***************************************************

SPRINGSTEEN SET TO RELEASE LIVE PERFORMANCES VIA FILE SHARING
"Bit by bit," says Landau, Bruce will release more complete shows

Bootleggers, open your BitTorrent clients! Bruce Springsteen has given Columbia Records the green light to release live concerts using file sharing technology, and will use his own website, brucespringsteen.net, to seed the inaugural performance. "No one knows what it will be just yet," said manager Jon Landau. "But his own live tapes are about the only thing Bruce listens to, and we have an enormous cache of both two-track and 24-track shows from every tour. Remember the Nebraska tape he carried around? Now the music is stored on a memory stick. How far we've come in our ongoing conversation."

Landau said that he and Springsteen have been waiting for a solution that would expedite the process of getting more unreleased material in circulation, and quickly. "The BitTorrent protocol is the simplest, most direct method we've found," said Landau, "since after creating a descriptor file, a user just has to make the files themselves available through a BitTorrent node acting as a seed, after which those with the torrent descriptor file can give it to their own BitTorrent nodes, acting as peers. The files being distributed are divided into segments called pieces, and as each peer receives a new piece of a file (protected by a cryptographic hash contained in the torrent descriptor), it becomes a source (of that piece) for other peers. Pieces are typically downloaded non-sequentially and are rearranged into the correct order by the BitTorrent client, and pretty soon, voila, you've got your music!"

This past December, Landau said he sent Bruce a note about file sharing, along with four songs: "Born in the U.S.A." "Seeds," "The River," and "War," saying he thought "we might have something here." After weeks of silence, Bruce responded, telling Landau "you sold me that horse in November of '85, remember?"

But recently, Landau said, "Bruce has warmed up to the idea of having a decentralized, fan-controlled element in the mix, and extending that to our official release schedule makes sense." Last month on a flight to Australia, Springsteen led a tutorial for both management and the band on the finer points of the technology, like the merits of FLAC over mp3 and the importance of keeping your client open once you've completed a download. "You think finishing something like Born to Run was tough? Try getting stuck at, like, 98.3% or something," Springsteen reportedly said in his remarks. "That'll drive you really nuts."

"Bruce actually calls whenever my share ratio gets below, say, point eight" Landau said. "The last time that happened, I'd downloaded the second night at Winterland, thinking it was a board. Turns out no else one wanted it."

Live performances aren't the only recordings being on the table; Landau also revealed that another 26 versions of "Chevrolet Deluxe" have recently been unearthed — he describes them as "revelatory" — and are being considered. While pricing and other details remain to be worked out, a trial run should begin sometime around Memorial Day.

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Reply #1 posted 04/01/13 2:32pm

Ace

Yeah, they usually do some great ones. When I saw the pic with AC/DC, I thought it was real! I think it took me until "Thundercrack"/"Thunderstruck mash-up" to wake up. lol

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