Front Line Assembly chart success

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As a fan of Canadian industrial band Front Line Assembly, I resigned myself to being in the minority. Unlike breakout acts of the genre like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry, FLA (as fans call them) never reached the heady heights of mass market success.

Indeed, they've had more success over the years with their side project Delerium, especially a track they did with Sarah McLachlan called "Silence" which seemed to ignite both acts' careers in the UK back in the early 2000s.

Having said that, it was with surprise, bewilderment and joy that I discovered Front Line Assembly not only have a new single out, but that it's charted in the US. Not one of the usual "scraped in at #198 on the Hot 200" that people mutter under their breath.

Oh no, ladies and gentlemen, the new single "Shifting Through The Lens" has reached the heady heights of #13 on the influential Billboard singles chart.

As lead Assembler Bill Lieb told website Side-Line, "We are really happy about the buzz and all the good feedback. This is the first time in many years that we have a release on the Billboard charts."

My hat is off the Bill Lieb and co. So much so that I spent a chunk of today revisiting my favourite FLA album, "Caustic Grip".

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Crap filtered into charts

So, this week sees the American Billboard singles chart being infiltrated by downloads for the first time. The Hot 100, up until this point, was comprised of 80% airplay and 20% sales. Of course, hardly any of the Hot 100 was available commercially, so most of it was airplay.

For those who don't listen to the radio, the Hot 100 became less and less relevant to their everyday lives, myself included (having not lived near an American station in 10 years).

People who want low quality, DRM infected files for 99c a shot can now have their say in how the Hot 100 is comprised. Of course, the details haven't been made all that clear.

I'm just wondering, for instance, that if I buy 15,000 copies of "Wild Boys" by Duran Duran whether they can have it finally go to Number One or is there some sort of release stipulation about what can appear in the charts.

Btw, if it IS possible... let's do it!

Link: Hot 50

With the BBC reporting misleading claims, it would seem the CD single is even more doomed than ever. They're stating that "The last week of December 2004 saw download sales of 312,000 compared with 282,000 physical singles, according to the British Phonographic Industry."

Now when you consider that the average single has between 2 and 3 tracks, and a few have 4 or 5, those figured become a little less download-favourable, with download singles actually tallying around 156,000 2-trackers, or 104,000 3-trackers actually bought.

You can always find yourself lucky as well and buy a CD single that'll be worth a fortune in a few years time (just look for The Bravery's first single on Ebay. Wow! You won't find downloads going for $50 anytime soon).

Link: BBC News

Number Two for Mozza

Mozza was held off top spot in the chart wars this week by a band called Keane. Dunno if they're named after the Man U ruffian or not. More to the point I don't care.

Congrats to the Pope of Mope, though. Looks like all the slogging around the chat shows paid off. This week, it's America's turn as Mozza does a residency on the Craig Kilborn show every night this week (keep an eye on BitTorrent sites, if you don't live in North America!!)

In similar news, "Irish Heart, English Blood" fell out of the top 3 and landed at number 18 this week. If you still haven't got this single, hunt down the North American release as it collects all the tracks on ONE CD (i.e. all the b-sides together on one disc) ... see elsewhere for my ranting about the hacked state of the UK single industry.

AND.. if you haven't lately, check out The Smiths' "Strangeways, Here We Come". For a swansong, this album can't be beat. Might be a bit more mainstream than their previous three albums, but there are so many excellent gems on here - both lyrically and musically. You also get to hear an extended piano "solo" from Mozza. Now that IS a bargain!