The Flaming Lips next album is apparently going to be a double album which will be released sometime this year (I’ve seen dates as early as September and as late as December, but no official release date has been set to my knowledge.) It’s title is going to be Embryonic (although I’m not sure if that title is set in stone?)

Three “teaser” tracks are now available for people who buy tickets for the Lips upcoming tour (and for people who find them in other ways, but I can’t offer any details on that as I don’t want Warner Bros on my ass.)

These tracks are “Convinced of the Hex,” “The Impulse,” & “Silver Trembling Hands.”

As someone who was somewhat disappointed with 2006’s At War with the Mystics (particularly the sound of the album) I haven’t been looking forward to this new Lips album all that much considering that I think of them one of my all time favorite bands as their output from ‘90 through ‘02 is truly outstanding (I highly recommend all of their albums from this period.)

But these three new tracks have got me excited as they seem to a new direction for the band. They don’t really sound like any Lips songs to date. In particular I like “Convinced of the Hex” and “Silver Trembling Hands” but “The Impulse” has also been growing on me.

It seems like with these new songs they are not resting on what they’ve already done (which is what At War with the Mystics sounded like to me for the most part) but instead pushing forward into new territory. And I think the Lips are always at their best when they are trying something new (see Zaireeka, The Soft Bulletin, & Yoshimi…)

The new songs seem more wildly psychedelic, more focused on the groove (rather than on the song,) more organic, and more experimental than the stuff they’ve done on their last couple of albums. There seems to be a krautrock influence but overall it’s hard to pinpoint any specific type of music and say “they are doing this.” Instead it sounds like they’ve put a whole bunch of influences into a blender and they’ve managed to come up with something original.

I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album.

Below I’ve included each of the nine Michael Jackson albums (and two Jackson 5 albums) that were among the top 100 sellers in the US last week and it’s rank. Amazingly he had the top three selling albums in the United State simultaneously. I don’t know when the last time that happened was (if it ever has?)

Five of his six studio albums reached the top 100 (with four of them in the top 34.) The only that did not was his most recent album, 2001’s Invincible but it did make it to #20 on the “Pop Catalog” charts (only albums which have been excluded from the Billboard 200.) MJ had 13 of the 20 on that list (the 11 below plus another Jackson 5 greatest hits disc and Invincible.) He also had the top 9 slots.

#1 Number Ones

#2 The Essential Michael Jackson

#3 Thriller

#15 Off the Wall

#25 Jackson 5 - The Ultimate Collection

#27 Bad

#34 Dangerous

#39 Greatest Hits: HIStory Vol. 1

#41 The Ultimate Collection

#67 Jackson 5 - The Best of the Jackson 5

#85 HIStory: Past, Present, & Future Book 1

This impressive showing is even more impressive when you consider that a lot of stores only had limited copies on hand (which is why a great many of these sales were digital downloads) and that this rush of album sales only happened after Jackson’s death on Thursday (The album charts are Monday through Sunday.)

Note: The Billboard “comprehensive album chart” is actually the real chart of best selling albums because the Billboard 200 album removes any albums from the list that are older than 18 months (and have fallen out of the top 100 at some point.) Because of this I will avoid looking at the Billboard 200 chart as it’s clearly designed to promote new music instead of getting across the actual information on best selling albums.

For example, The Black Eyed Peas’ The E.N.D. is listed as the #1 album on the Billboard 200 but it was actually the 4th best selling of the week (after the top three Michael Jackson albums.)

Apparently this is the first time ever that the #1 album on the Billboard 200 wasn’t actually the top selling album that week since this rule to exclude older albums was first introduced in 1991. I think having the #1 album actually being the 4th best selling album of the week makes clear the stupidity of this rule. The UK album charts have no such rule and Number Ones reached #1 there.

The Beatles hold quite a couple pretty impressive US album sales records:

Most #1 Albums: 19.

Second place is Elvis Presley & Jay Z tied at 10.

Most Total Weeks At #1: 132.

Second place is Elvis Presley at 67.

—

I also think they are the all time leader in total albums sold in the US and I think they also hold the record for most “diamond” albums (that’s 10 million units shipped in the US) but I can’t seem to find confirmation of either these factoids. It’s surprising how hard it is to find this kind of information.

This is a cool series of Michael Jackson video clips which I think are arranged in chronological order. They were mixed together by Peanut Butter Wolf. It’s like a DJ set but with video as well as sound.

This is the YouTube description: “This Michael Jackson video tribute mix was recorded live from the DJ mixer during PB Wolf’s VJ set @ the Echoplex in Los Angeles. It was prepared and performed a few hours after hearing the news of his passing on 6/25/09 and is in NO WAY COMPREHENSIVE of all of Michael’s brilliant work.”

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I’ve just learned something new from this article on Michael Jackson’s huge album sales in the US. “Pop Catalog” albums (albums that had fallen off the charts and were released more than 18 months ago) are not eligible for the top albums chart. Why not? I don’t know. Seems pretty stupid to me.

From this story it looks like Michael Jackson would have actually had the top three slots on the album charts if these older albums were eligible. They are predicting that three of his albums sold around 100,000 copies for the week (Monday through Sunday) Number Ones, The Essential Michael Jackson, & Thriller. On the other hand The Black Eyed Peas’ latest album is likely to get the #1 slot on the album charts with less than 100,000 copies sold.

This is apparently the first time ever that a pop catalog album will have sold more than the #1 album on the regular charts. If it weren’t for this absurdly stupid rule prohibiting pop catalog albums from the regular charts, Jackson would be at #1.

***UPDATE***

MJ did indeed end up with the three biggest selling albums of the week in the US (Number Ones, The Essential Michael Jackson, & Thriller) all of which outsold the latest The Black Eyed Peas album which is officially the #1 Billboard album because they don’t allow older albums on the chart.

Click Here to read the Billboard article which goes into detail on the many sales records Jackson set.

Much has been said about the incredible abilities Michael Jackson had as a singer and a dancer but much less as said about his skills as a songwriter. In fact I think few people think of him as a songwriter. But the fact is he wrote many of his most well known hit songs himself.

Top Twenty Hits (US or UK) That Michael Jackson Wrote:

Off the Wall (1979)

Only 1 of the 10 Off the Wall tracks was written by Jackson but that one song became Jackson’s first #1 hit in the US as an adult.

“Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough” #1 in the US & #3 in the UK.

Thriller (1982)

Four of Thriller’s nine songs were written by Jackson and they were all hits.

“The Girl Is Mine” #2 in the US & #8 in the UK.
“Billy Jean” #1 in the US & UK.
“Beat It” #1 in the US & #3 in the UK.
“Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” #5 in the US & #8 in the UK.

We Are The World (1985)

“We Are The World” #1 in the US & UK. (co-written with Lionel Richie.)

Bad (1987)

Eight of the 10 songs on Bad were written by Jackson and seven of those eight songs were hits. “Leave Me Alone” was only on the CD version of the album (making it 9 of 11.) “Man in the Mirror” & “Just Good Friends” are the only songs on the album Jackson did not write.

“I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” #1 in the US & UK.
“Bad” #1 in the US & #3 in the UK.
“The Way You Make Me Feel” #1 in the US & #3 in the UK.
“Dirty Diana” #1 in the US & #4 in the UK.
“Another Part of Me” #11 in the US & #15 in the UK.
“Smooth Criminal” #7 in the US & #8 in the UK.
“Leave Me Alone” #2 in the UK.
“Liberian Girl” #13 in the UK.

Dangerous (1991)

Many of the songs on Dangerous include shared songwriting credits, in particular with Teddy Riley. Jackson has a songwriting credit on 12 of the 14 songs on the album. “Why You Wanna Trip On Me” & “Gone Too Soon” are the only exceptions.

“Black or White” #1 in the US & UK.
“Remember the Time” #3 in the US & UK.
“In the Closet” #6 in the US & #8 in the UK.
“Jam” #26 in the US & #13 in the UK.
“Who Is It” #14 in the US & #10 in the UK.
“Heal the World” #27 in the US & #2 in the UK.
“Give In to Me” #2 in the UK.
“Will You Be There” #7 in the US & #9 in the UK.

HIStory (1995)

Jackson wrote 12 of the 15 new songs. Two of the songs he didn’t write were covers (”Smile” & “Come Together”) and the other one was the hit “You Are Not Alone” which was written by R. Kelly.

“Scream”/”Childhood” #5 in the US & #3 in the UK.
“Earth Song” #1 in the UK.
“They Don’t Care About Us” #30 in the US & #4 in the UK.
“Stranger in Moscow” #91 in the US & #4 in the UK.

Blood on the Dance Floor (1997)

This album included only five new songs (the other eight tracks were remixes of songs from the HIStory album.) Jackson has a songwriting credit on all five of the new songs (and seven out of eight of the remixes.)

“Blood on the Dance Floor” #41 in the US & #1 in the UK.
“HIStory”/”Ghosts” #5 in the UK.

Invincible (2001)

Jackson has a songwriting credit on 14 of the 16 songs. The exceptions are “Cry” which was written by R. Kelly & “Butterflies” which was written by Marsha Ambrosius of Floetry.

“You Rock My World” #10 in the US & #2 in the UK.

Somehow when writing my last entry about Jackson topping the Last.FM charts I forgot to check out the UK album charts (which are released much quicker than the US album charts) and sure enough Michael Jackson came in at #1 for the week with one of his “greatest hits” collections, Number Ones.

In all five of the top 20 albums for the week were Michael Jackson albums which is really impressive when you figure that the Jackson post death album buying frenzy only had three of the seven days to work (Friday through Sunday.)

#1 Number Ones
#7 Thriller
#14 King of Pop
#17 Off the Wall
#20 The Essential Michael Jackson

Just as impressive was the re-emergence of Jackson’s singles onto the top UK singles charts. 43 of the top 200 singles in the UK were Michael Jackson songs with “Man in the Mirror” being the highest charting at #11. “Thriller” came in at #23, “Billie Jean” at #25, “Smooth Criminal” at #28, “Beat It” at #30, and “Earth Song” at #38.

Each Monday Last.FM has a new chart of the most played artists for the previous week (Monday through Sunday.) Last week Michael Jackson was #67 which isn’t too bad for someone hadn’t released any new music in almost 10 years.

This week Jackson climbed up 66 spots all the way up to #1 with over 136K listeners and over 2 million plays. He also dominated the most played tracks chart with the top 6 songs being “Billy Jean,” “Beat It,” “Thriller,” “Smooth Criminal,” “Bad,” and “Black or White.” #7 is Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” before MJ comes in with two more tracks: “The Way You Make Me Feel” & “Man in the Mirror.”

Usually the top artists charts don’t move very much and for a long time Radiohead, Coldplay, & The Beatles have been in the top three slots (in one order or another.) This week they are #2, #3, and #4 respectively.

The Last.FM Charts

#1 Michael Jackson 136,300 Listeners & 2,043,275 Plays.
#2 Radiohead 104,685 Listeners & 1,035,703 Plays.
#3 Coldplay 103,824 Listeners & 782,966 Plays.
#4 The Beatles 94,735 Listeners & 1,083,782 Plays.

As you can the rankings are determined by the numbers of listeners and not the total number of plays. There’s a few good reasons for this: #1 The number of listeners gives you a much better idea of how many actual people are listening to this artist (obviously.) #2 Different artists have songs of different lengths. Those with longer songs (Think Pink Floyd) would be hurt by judging popularity by the amount of songs played and conversely those with shorter songs (Think Guided By Voices) would be helped. #3 The number of songs played can be much more easily manipulated by fans.

Billboard Charts?

With Jackson dominating the Last.FM charts, the bestselling albums list at Amazon.com, and the most purchased albums at the ITunes store - the big question I have now is will any of his albums pop into the Billboard top 200 albums and if so, where? I’ll be very curious to see the Billboard charts for last week when they come out.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the biggest selling of all time so it’s no surprise that it’s pretty easy to find covers of each it’s nine songs on YouTube. I’m including one (particularly groovy) cover of each song below:

#1 “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” by Kids Incorporated

#2 “Baby Be Mine” by The Engagements (jazz.)

Read the rest

Wilco - Wilco on June 30

I’m not that excited about this album as I think Wilco has been getting progressively less interesting since 2001’s brilliant Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (which I still think is among the best albums of the decade.) That being said, I’m sure to give it a chance and I hope it surprises me.

Magnolia Electric Co. - Josephine on July 21

I’m not an expert on this band, but I’ve liked what I’ve heard.

Circulatory System - Signal Morning on August 4

The first Circulatory System album since their self titled 2001 debut. I highly recommend checking this out if the following description intrigues you: Beatles/Beach Boys inspired psychedelic (as hell) lofi catchy pop. Many members from The Olivia Tremor Control (both of their albums are brilliant) are in this band.

The Beatles - Entire catalog remastered on September 9

The entire Beatles catalog is being re-released in remastered form on 9/9/9. This includes all of their albums that were originally released in mono (that’s the first 10) available in a mono box set.

Pearl Jam - Backspacer on September 22

Their first new album since 2006’s self titled release. It will be the 9th studio album of their career.

Air - Love 2 on October 6

Like Wilco, Air has been getting less interesting over the course of this decade, but i am hopeful they’ll regain their old form at some point and I’ll definitely give it a chance.

The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

The release date isn’t set yet but it’s expected out sometime this year. It’s rumored to be a double album. I thought 2006’s At War with the Mystics was a bit of a disappointment (and it’s already aging badly) but considering their track record from 1990 through 2002 (I think all of their albums during this period are great) I’m still very much looking forward to their new one.

Michael Jackson - ?

There have been rumors of a new Michael Jackson album coming out since 2007. It was rumored to be titled 7EVEN but as of now there’s no set title that I know of. I do not think his death will necessarily delay the release of a new album and actually I wouldn’t be surprised if it expedited it considering the massive interest in him following the unexpected news on June 25th.

The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You

Release date not set but rumored to be sometime in September. This will be the band’s major label debut but they’ve already released a large amount of material. I’ve recently been listening to them quite a bit and I think they are very good.