Most phony Internet rumours tend to be of the dramatic variety - Kanye West's death hoax, for example, or Van Morrison's alleged new son with his manager. This morning's hoax, however, was of a rather more innocuous variety.
Reports began flying this morning that Monsters of Folk - the supergroup featuring indie rock icons Jim James, Conor Oberst, M. Ward and Mike Mogis - had begun work on their second album. The source of the news was the Twitter account @oberstconnor, on which a person alleging to be Oberst had posted a message stating: "Monsters of Folk writing new material, can't wait for you to not have to anymore."
The news was reposted by many Twitter users, and various media outlets soon picked up the story. Omaha journalist Kevin Coffey, however, blew the whistle on the report, writing on his Twitter, "Just so everyone knows, @oberstconor is NOT actually Conor Oberst. How do I know? His publicist told me so."
What's more, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band have a real Twitter account, although it hasn't been updated for months. Meanwhile, the fake account has now been deleted.
Even though this morning's rumour was a hoax, it's possible that Monsters of Folk actually are working on a new album. After all, Jim James revealed last month that it was "likely" that the group would begin work on their second album soon.
Reports began flying this morning that Monsters of Folk - the supergroup featuring indie rock icons Jim James, Conor Oberst, M. Ward and Mike Mogis - had begun work on their second album. The source of the news was the Twitter account @oberstconnor, on which a person alleging to be Oberst had posted a message stating: "Monsters of Folk writing new material, can't wait for you to not have to anymore."
The news was reposted by many Twitter users, and various media outlets soon picked up the story. Omaha journalist Kevin Coffey, however, blew the whistle on the report, writing on his Twitter, "Just so everyone knows, @oberstconor is NOT actually Conor Oberst. How do I know? His publicist told me so."
What's more, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band have a real Twitter account, although it hasn't been updated for months. Meanwhile, the fake account has now been deleted.
Even though this morning's rumour was a hoax, it's possible that Monsters of Folk actually are working on a new album. After all, Jim James revealed last month that it was "likely" that the group would begin work on their second album soon.
