Radiohead No. 1; U.S. Tour Stops

Radiohead sold 122,000 units to take the number 1 spot on the Billboard album chart. I was one of them; I paid $7.99 at the Best Buy in my neighborhood. That's one way to encourage people to pay for an album that was previously available for free. The band have also announced their U.S. tour stops:

Atlanta
Boston
Charlotte, N.C.
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Houston
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Miami
Montreal
New York
Philadelphia
San Diego
San Francisco
Santa Barbara, Calif.
Seattle
St. Louis
Tampa, Fla.
Toronto
Vancouver
Washington, D.C.

via Billboard

Arcade Fire's Neon Bible in at No. 2

Album sales really are a joke now, huh? Not one album sold more than 100,00 copies. How many people live in the United States, 300 million? And this includes digital sales. Anyway, Neon Bible, hits the charts at Number 2 with 92,000 units. Both very respectable totals for the band considering their Funeral peak was 131. Unfortunately, and much as I suspected, they didn't quite reach The Shins status. [Read more]

A Weekend in the City Debuts at No. 12

A respectable first week of sales for Bloc Party's second album but unfortunately, nowhere near the success of the Shins' Wincing but considerably better than Silent Alarm.

From Billboard:

Hipster favorite Bloc Party sees its second album, "A Weekend in the City," debut at No. 12 on The Billboard 200 with 48,000 units. It also plants the flag at No. 3 on Top Tastemakers and Top Rock Albums. The U.K. band's last effort, "Silent Alarm," topped out at No. 114 in 2005. It spent 16 weeks on the chart, and has sold 291,000. That set was supported by the hit single "Banquet," which has sold 106,000 downloads and reached No. 34 on the Alternative/Modern Rock chart. The new album's single, "I Still Remember," climbs 35-32 on the Alternative/Modern Rock chart in its fourth week on the tally. Only five monitored radio stations aired the song more than 20 times last week -- KUCD Honolulu; KJEE Santa Barbara, Calif.; WEQX Albany, N.Y.; XTRA San Diego; and KNXX Baton Rouge, La.

While You Were Eating: Music News

Hope everyone enjoyed a nice holiday. Some news of note:

* Silversun Pickups continue to prove that Pitchfork hate cannot bring them down. 7 PLUG Award nominations and an opening slot on the recent Wolfmother tour later, the band will further expand their reach during Snow Patrol's spring tour and as announced today, a spot on Friday night's Late Show with David Letterman.

* Popmatters has an interview with Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio.

* Interpol is back in the studio for what is rumored to be their major label debut.

* Editors, also in the studio, have revealed some details on their second album. More here.

* It's amazing how much money the Stones and U2 gross on these tours.

* Tool's new single, "The Pot" is Number 1 on Billboard's Singles Chart for Mainstream Rock Tracks, a first for the band.