1. Glee Cast "Journey To Regionals"

Sales this week: 151,976
Debut

I just got off the phone with Irving Azoff.  Despite the raging success of "Glee", he decided to keep Journey off the road this summer.  You can’t overwork your acts, you can’t go out every year.  Or, you can ask yourself the question, do you want to burn it out or go for longevity?  Remember grade school, where you learned about farmers letting their land go fallow?  Same deal in rock and roll.  Work the same venues every year with the same crop and you end up in trouble.  Only in this case, it’s not the land that dries up, but your audience.

When "Any Way You Want It" was first a hit it was easily dismissed by the cognoscenti, put down as a lightweight romp.  But compared to today’s pop confections, "Any Way You Want It’ looks like Beethoven.

As for "Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’"…  Isn’t that what we all want?

"Glee" is not a band, but a TV show.  Which builds, fades and is done.  Hell, just look at "American Idol".  There’s no such thing as too much music in the marketplace, especially when none of it gets radio airplay.  Yes, these "Glee" albums are made for home play.  On your iPod, in your car.  Listening makes you feel exuberant…and there’s nothing wrong with that!

And there’s a hard core Journey fan base that’s never stopped believin’.  They’ve been waiting for the reunion show.  If Dave can get back with Van Halen, if Felix could play with the Rascals, Steve Perry and Neal Schon can make up and go on the road.  To play stadiums.  It could happen.  Steve called me a couple of months back and sounded as upbeat and thrilled about his music as ever.

Furthermore, this proves that if you’ve done great work that made it once, you’re only one step away from a renaissance.  But you can’t push it, it’s got to happen by accident, serendipitously.  A royalty check should be sent to David Chase for each and every song downloaded.  And make no mistake, "Glee" sales drive Journey sales.  And if Chase could put their music in the greatest TV series ever, who are we to pooh-pooh it!


8. Lady Antebellum "Need You Now"

Sales this week: 38,865
Percentage change: -5
Weeks on: 20
Cume: 2,252,103

"Reachin’ for the phone ’cause I can’t fight it anymore"

Every time your cell rings you look at the number.  You come home and check the answering machine.  Aren’t they going to call?

"And I wonder if I ever cross your mind"

You do.  It’s just that the person doing the breaking up is already gone by the time he or she tells their partner. They’ve struggled in their mind and made a decision.  No matter what you say, it can’s make them stay.  You’re grasping, they’re being stoic, keeping their distance.  But they think about you all the time too.  They might even come back and have sex.  But then they’ll be gone again.

"It’s a quarter after one, I’m all alone and I need you now?
Said I wouldn’t call, but I lost all control and I need you now"

You do this once, maybe twice, three times is pushing it, four or more and your friends have probably abandoned you, sick of hearing about your ex.

You eventually get over it.  But once you’ve had your heart broken, you never forget it.

I know better songs on this topic than "Need You Now".  But none of them are recent.  The rappers constantly say they need no one.  The melisma sisters are belting so loud that there’s no intimacy.  Whereas Lady Antebellum is soothing.

Sure, the music is ear-pleasing.  But this song doesn’t sell without the lyrics.  And the album doesn’t sell without the hit.

22. Carrie Underwood "Play On"

Sales this week: 16,188
Percentage change: +5
Weeks on: 32
Cume: 1,591,477

Biggest star in country music, Entertainer of the Year, multiple hit albums deep, and tickets are under sixty bucks, tiered at $57, $47 and $37.

You’ve got to leave money on the table if you want longevity.  You’ve got to make the audience believe you’re in it together, that you’re not ripping them off, that they’re not paying to see the peep show.

Country knows it’s about careers. The rest of the business can learn from Nashville.  Hell, there’s no rap or pop music Fan Fair, I don’t see Ke$ha signing autographs for fifteen hours like Taylor Swift…then again, she doesn’t have as many fans, because Ms. Swift sings from her heart, real life, she’s not making train-wreck music which says nothing so much as LOOK AT ME!

80. "Sex and the City 2"

Sales this week: 5,855
Percentage change: -50
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 39,365

Remember when movie soundtracks could sell even when the movies were stiff?

90. Mumford & Sons "Sigh No More"

Sales this week: 4,853
Percentage change: 0
Weeks on: 17
Cume: 65,355

From: Bob Ezrin
Subject: Mumford and Sons

If you’re a Laura Marling fan you need to check out her boyfriend’s band.  I first heard them on XM radio on BBC Radio 1 where they stuck out like a palm tree in a desert.  It was so refreshing to hear a real, un-autotuned voice singing a real, unprogrammed song.  I bought the album immediately and think it may be the second most inventive thing I’ve heard all year after the Drake album.  

She’s wonderful too by the way as were Jonah and the Whale who I went to see in a little club in London 2 years ago.  The whole folk scene in the UK is incredibly fertile and full of art and intelligence.  They’re all worth checking out.  And they give me great hope for the future of the artform.  

Finally – just listened to the new Drake album.  Holy shit!  What an amazing record.  This is THE most inventive thing I’ve heard this year and for many years and may be the best complete "hiphop" album I’ve ever heard, though calling it "hiphop" only describes one of its many facets.  This guy is hiphop’s Barack Obama…the new star, absolutely brilliant with the most compelling voice, articulate and inventive, a product of two worlds with a uniquely broad world view, honest to a fault, self-critical but egotistical, overthinking everything, seeing all the sides all at the same time, split in almost every way but strangely grounded in the face of virtually overnight superstardom…and seemingly headed for a number of falls that he virtually predicts here.  What a ride!  I think you’ll love this.  

But then again…………..

Enjoy.  B

192. Dave Matthews Band "Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King"

Sales this week: 2,630
Percentage change: +9
Weeks on: 2 (re-entry)
Cume: 1,090,031

And the hit single is..?

One could argue that "You and Me" was a hit.  Certainly Coran Capshaw would.  But it had very little penetration of the public consciousness, and it was released over a year ago.

Furthermore, "Big Whiskey" is not Dave’s best work.  Many disagree with me, but they’re all fans, so what is their opinion worth…  EVERYTHING!

It only matters what your fans think.  Not what I think.  Certainly not what the "New York Times" and the rest of the mainstream media think.  I always wonder why papers send their usual suspect reviewer to the show.  It only matters what the FAN thinks!  I don’t care if Jon Pareles or Randy Lewis liked it, I wonder what the person who bought every album and goes every year thought…and there’s a BIG DIFFERENCE!

Yes, Dave’s been on the road every summer.  But he gets away with it because you never know what you’ll get. Each show is a unique party.  Know the acts with the set list laminated to the pass?  That’s not DMB.  The music breathes, it’s alive.  It’s not the version on the album, but something totally new.

And now Dave says he’s gonna take a summer off.  And as a reward to fans, he’s not saying he’s gonna play the hits, but the obscurities, the album tracks!  And believe me, fans know the album cuts.

I want to hear "The Dreaming Tree".  Then again, that’s not that obscure…  I’ve got three live versions on my computer.  Yes, with Dave the definitive version isn’t the one on the studio album, could be the take from the Gorge or SPAC or…

If you want to make money from the road, you’ve got to live on the road.  It can’t be a grind, an endless repetition of your greatest hits, it’s got to be fun, like playing baseball, going from park to park, every night different, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

And believe me, the audience doesn’t mind the mistakes, they want the thrill of watching you walk the high wire.

Recorded music sales are abysmal.  Everyone’s focus is on the road.  If you want to see how it’s done, look at Dave.