Modest Mouse tops the charts the hard way

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Modest Mouse's ascension to the top of the current Billboard 200 albums chart provides a reminder that in a challenging environment that prompts labels to blaze new marketing trails, a familiar route still works.

Find a promising rock band, let it cultivate a grass-roots following, then build an audience with an album that sells for an extended period of time.

That path worked for Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots in the early '90s and for Radiohead and Matchbox Twenty in the mid- to late '90s. More recent successes include My Chemical Romance, the Killers and Fall Out Boy.

In the case of Modest Mouse, it was third album "Good News for People Who Love Bad News" that set the stage for the new release's start of 129,000 copies.

"Good News" (2004) spent 57 weeks on the chart, a span that accounted for about 88% of the 1.5 million copies it has sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It peaked at No. 18 three weeks after entering the list, selling 44,000 in its biggest frame.

Modest Mouse's discography dates back to an indie album in 1996. Two Epic titles before "Good News" spent a combined three weeks on the big chart.

In a year when no week has met or beaten the album sales of the comparable 2006 frame, some pundits might find the title of the band's first No. 1 set profound: "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank." It sold 128,565 copies in the week ended March 25, a modest sum for a chart-topper. Or maybe it's proof that old truths remain relevant, even in choppy waters.

Reuters/Billboard

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