plus: U.S. Reading Festival canceled. Flip Phillips [ tickets ] obit. "I'm getting the band back together."

Bruce Springsteen [ tickets ] played a surprise 30-minute set at the Clearwater Festival in Asbury Park, N.J., on Saturday (8/18), according to published reports. Songs included "Blinded by the Light" and "My City in Ruins," the latter of which he reportedly debuted during an Asbury Park set last year.

RollingStone.com reported that, "Multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett has left Wilco [ tickets ] to work on a solo project he plans to release next year."

Click here to read more about Wilco's current situation.

Organizers of the U.S. Reading Festival, originally scheduled for Sept. 8 in Camden, N.J., have canceled the event. According to a press release, "We have run out of time in attempting to add further major established acts to the show."

Jazz saxophonist Flip Phillips died on Friday (8/17) at age 86, Verve Records announced.

From an email that was forwarded to us, in which a currently defunct L.A.-area band learns to their amazement that people they've never met have actually heard their music:

Okay, I'm getting the band back together. Brian's got our songs up on MP3.com. He just received our first "fan letter" a girl (Claire) asking to be put on our mailing list. I'm going to do a newsletter and send it to only her. Remember how I said "Transformers" was a sure-fire internet hit? Well, hit being a relative term, my prediction proves true. Below are the statistics for downloads in previous months.

AUGUST PAGE HITS - 19 (so far)
AUGUST PLAYS - 13 (so far)
1 - BX-9
12 - Transformers
0 - We Love You Too
0 - White Trash Serenade
-------------------------
JULY PAGE HITS - 51
JULY PLAYS - 45
7 - BX-9
32 - Transformers
2 - We Love You Too
4 - White Trash Serenade
-------------------------
JUNE PAGE HITS - 33
JUNE PLAYS - 29
3 - BX-9
15 - Transformers
5 - We Love You Too
6 - White Trash Serenade
(we were on an internet radio station in June!! I think that's where we got the $1.36)

Yeah, we've earned $1.36 so far. Anyway, here's my plan. I'm going to talk to Brian about polishing up the vocals to "We Love You Too" and 'White Trash Serenade" and then I'm going to put an ad on LAmusicians.com with the URL to our songs included. That way, anyone wanting in will know exactly what they're getting in for. What do you think?