The Chart Show: Beck's No.1 'Wow' woos voters
by Mark Wheat
July 28, 2016
Wow! Beck won the top spot by a photo finish, holding off three big inductees to our Hall of Fame: Courtney for the sixth time, plus Radiohead and Chance The Rapper for the very first time.
Beck finally announced more details about his new album coming in October via Rolling Stone, including the fact that he re-recruited Greg Kurstin to produce it. Greg played with Beck during his Sea Change days and has since gone on to become the go-to producer for Adele and Sia, among others.
Submit your Chart Show ballot this week for a chance to win tickets to Ray LaMontagne's show at the State Theatre on Thursday, Aug. 4!
Nice to see Haley Bonar getting support on our chart for her new sound and good press pieces. I get to introduce her Sunday in rockin' Rochester when she opens for Lucius, her only local show of the season!
Even though there are three big names aligned in the new collaboration at No.7 this week, case/lang/veirs got bumped from Colbert last week for an even bigger name: Trump!
You'll be able to see them out at the Minnesota Zoo on Aug. 10.
Glass Animals is one of my new faves on the chart this week and our buds at NPR picked another from How to Be a Human Being as one of theirs.
Red Hot Chili Peppers bounced back up ahead of their appearance as co-headliners with Radiohead at Lollapalooza in Chicago this weekend, the 25th anniversary of the festival!
Margaret Glaspy jumps up six places as we go deeper into her Emotions and Math for our Album of the Week. At 27, says David Safar, she has achieved something rare: songs that are "deeply personal that are universally relatable."
The Avett Brothers are the highest new entry this week at No.16. They must love playing at Red Rocks in Colorado – they have three shows there this week starting tomorrow. There's a great photo of them playing there on the flash page of their beautifully produced website.
The War On Drugs are back, too, care of the Grateful Dead. The only time these covers might get played live is at Eaux Claires.
Catfish and the Bottlemen are brand new at No.18. Renowned as a frenetic live band, they went straight to No.1 in the U.K. last month with the new album The Ride. They just posted new video for another song we're playing, "Twice."
Phantogram, after collaborating with Big Boi, are back on their own with a smashing new single at No.19 this week. They have a show in Chicago this weekend around Lollapalooza but don't start touring in earnest until Sept. 29 at Las Vegas' "Brooklyn Bowl" (!??!), leaving it until Oct. 16 to visit First Avenue.
Meanwhile, there's some big names in the basement this week, Mumfords are back with a track from their one-off Jerusalem mini-album collaboration with Baaba Maal, which might not be performed live often but was in South Africa.