Monsters of Folk ARE NOT working on a new album

Big news this morning was that the Monsters of Folk are working on a new album. NME.com reported it after reading about it on Conor Oberst's supposed Twitter account.

(UPDATE, 1:32 p.m.: NME has taken down the story, but it still appears elsewhere. The twitter account is also gone. Wonder if any cease and desists were issued today...)

Well, the story is not true and the account is not Mr. Oberst. That's what you get when you don't check your facts.

"That account is not Conor and that article from the NME is incorrect," Conor and the Monsters' publicist told me today in an e-mail.

The sad thing is that at least 6 places are running with the story (according to a Google news search) and the fake Twitter account has more than 7,500 followers.

So, 7,500 people (in addition to all the people that read those news stories) are being duped. The fake Twitter also makes reference to Conor cutting himself, cocaine, song meanings, answers to fans questions and a lot of attempts at "lyrics," which come off as pretty pale attempts at matching Mr. Oberst's songwriting ability. Anyway, whoever the person behind it all is, they're treading on pretty treacherous ground, I would say.

(Credit is due to Tim McMahan and his blog, where I first heard about the Monsters of Folk thing being a fake.)

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UPDATE 2, 3:11 p.m.

As mentioned before, NME took their article down. And Spinner published a story apologizing for running with the story without checking.

It should be mentioned that all of the fellas in Monsters of Folk are currently pretty busy. M. Ward is working on the new She & Him record with Zooey Deschanel that's coming out soon. Jim James just started a record label, Removador, and is doing stuff with My Morning Jacket.

In addition, one would assume that Oberst and Mike Mogis are going to be working on the new Bright Eyes record for sometime this year, supposedly the last one they'll ever do as Bright Eyes.