This is how rumors get started

This seemed like a fitting story to report from PDX...

Just last week, the White Stripes (busy working on a new album)announced a tour, starting at San Diego's Street Scene summer festival. So said Billboard and the DJs on 91X, among many others. Two days later, everyone realized that the dates were from 2005. Whoops.

But with the news seemingly everywhere at once, how do these rumors get started? This week, we got a glimpse. Word is Corin Tucker, of now-defunct Sleater-Kinney, is working on a solo album. So the rumor goes. And here's how it started:

A Sleater-Kinney fan on Livejournal, a blogging Web site, posted an instant message conversation she had with a person she didn't know. This person (who knows who he is) says Corin is working on a solo album. He says he ran into her at an instrument shop in Old Town.

That post then shows up on one of the top S-K fan sites, described as a rumor but tantalizing nonetheless.

A link to the fan site then shows up on Largehearted Boy, one of the more popular music blogs. (feel like high school yet?) With it's Drudge-style list of music stories from newspapers/magazines/blogs each day, the site is far from a meager blog, getting thousands of hits a day.

So is it true? SubPop, S-K's old label, says it has no knowledge, but Corin did play four new songs (plus a cover of "Son of a Preacher Man") at an art show last weekend.

And that's how it begins. Let the rumors go wild! The fact that so many of us want it to happen so badly will only fuel it.