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The Chart Show: Lots of strangers helped The Raconteurs get to the top!

The Raconteurs (L-R): Jack Lawrence, Jack White, Patrick Keeler, Brendan Benson
The Raconteurs (L-R): Jack Lawrence, Jack White, Patrick Keeler, Brendan BensonDavid James Swanson

by Mark Wheat

August 01, 2019

Nine weeks ago The Raconteurs came into the chart at #11 and have bounced around the lower reaches of the Top Ten ever since, but this week all of a sudden they leap frog the dynamic duo of Lizzo and Billie to #1! Last week Jack White from the band, stopped by QOTSA's Josh Homme's radio show and at the weekend Josh returned the favor by joining the band on stage in L.A. for a rendition of 'Blue Veins' from their debut.

Billie Eilish is inducted for the second time to our Chart Hall of Fame while Lizzo is in for the 5th, ending with 6 weeks in total at the top, the same as her last hit 'Cuz I Love You', which is the song she kicked off her Tiny Desk with.

Today is the last day of National Ice Cream Month and if you want to celebrate it in true Chart topping style stop by Izzy's for a cone full of Dessa's Existential Crunch! She's perched at five this week ready to battle for the top spot after Lizzo and Billie Eilish leave the party! She's also readying another new ice cream flavor to be released at the MN State Fair.

If you didn't get tickets for the two sold out Tame Impala (#7) shows at Surly this week, and you're not going to Chicago for their big headlining gig at Lollapalooza this weekend, then check out this interesting take on their live show in Toronto last weekend. The writer points out that Kevin Parker still doesn't seem comfortable with the status that he has.

The Mercury Music Prize shortlist was announced this week and the young Dublin band Fontaines D.C. up to 9 this week are on it! Not only that, but The Guardian thinks they have a good chance of winning!

Seth Avett of the band of brothers celebrated his birthday yesterday and climbed 5 places with a new song that celebrates High Steppin' as a dance style, and the brilliant new video was choreographed by an Ohio transplant to the band's NC home.

The eleventh studio album from Wilco is due October 4 and is called Ode To Joy. The first track released is the highest new entry at 12 and suggests that Jeff Tweedy, the songwriter of the group, is in a happy frame of mind, "Love Is Everywhere (Beware)". That warning in the brackets, as the Brits like to call parentheses, is because in the past Jeff has been inspired by trauma, sadness and despair. "I guess the song is a sort of warning to myself that YES, love IS EVERYWHERE, but also BEWARE... I can't let that feeling absolve me of my duty to create more!"

Cold War Kids are back at sixteen with one of the two new tracks already released from the forthcoming new album, New Age Norms. It's clever how some of their lyrics and titles seem to be cliches in the making! They're on tour in the fall.

Also no stranger to our chart Thom Yorke creeps in at nineteen with a track from his new ANIMA album which is also a film by Paul Thomas Anderson. Thom is building a pretty nice movie resume right now, like Ed Norton's new film coming in November.

Called the best pop act of their generation by the venerable Guardian last month Hot Chip slip into twenty with a track from A Bathful of Ecstasy their new album which we just had as our AOW. If you think dreamy escapist pop is NOT what we should be doing Hot Chip agree, "It's the opposite of what we should be doing!" they told the paper, looking slightly uncomfortable in their cloths too!

Submit your Chart Show ballot this week for a chance to win tickets to attend Summer Beer Dabbler at CHS Field on August 17, 2019.