On the heels of owning Madison Square Garden and then a two-mile strip of Chicago called Lolla, Arcade Fire’s world-beating two-week coronation is complete, or at least, confirmed by Billboard: The Suburbs, that possibly overlong but certainly emphatic, ornate, and yes, “epic”ally inclined LP has taken the #1 slot on the album sales charts, clocking in at 156K sold. Some context: Neon Bible debuted at #2 with 92K. As the Voice points out da ‘Burbs outsold M.I.A., LCD, and the National combined; as everyone has hailed, it’s a release for N.C. indie Merge Records. So! We may not go platinum on this one, tumble 200% next week, but at least we really earned that slot on the Daily Show this Thursday! There’s your moment of zen, for a moment at least. Good job everyone!
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Merge Records is based in North Carolina not South Carolina.
haha that is true i agree
Why is the last part of this post so weirdly sarcastic, negative, and condescending?
Regardless, good for Arcade Fire!
yeah wtf. why would this tumble?
It’s because Arcade Fire isn’t metal enough for Stereogum.
I’m sure the band is celebrating with Vampire Weekend over this one, drinking horchata on a sailboat, or something.
I think the writer meant that it’s good that an indie upstart took the reins from garbage pop music for now, but that the music consuming mass audience is sure to push them out of the way soon enough, so we might as well bask in the sweet, warm glow of good music being at the top while we can. Or Something.
haha trying to make it a hit by going over bored there
Great for AF. Finally a band that I like is #1.
What’s up with the first person plural pronoun in this post? “We” didn’t do anything but go out buy a good record and “you” didn’t do anything but use their popularity to get pageviews. Sorry to be a dick, but kind of feel like you’re (and, by proxy, Stereogum) taking credit for them charting no. 1.
Unless you’re being ironic and I missed it. In which case I apologize.
P.S. Their show at the Ryman on Monday was great.
Fantastic sales for a fantastic record. I can only hope this means that over the past week some 14 year old kids, somewhere out there, threw out their Ke$ha posters and picked up a guitar.
This is an amazing record, I’m really glad to see a great band at #1. It’s been a long time, right? Also, this is such a big victory for Merge. I live in Chapel Hill, and a lot of that revenue is going to go right back towards great music, both local and otherwise. They work their asses off at Merge, and it’s the kind of label that takes chances for the sake of good art. Truly good news.
If you like the new Arcade Fire album, you should for sure check out Stonoway’s new album “Beachcomber’s Windowsill.” It’s ridiculous!
Here’s a link to their video “Watching Birds” from the new album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWQzwU_imT0