So today is Wednesday and in the record industry, major or minor, it means one thing: record sales figures. Soundscan reports fall into administrative offices around the country and they either confirm or deny the public's faith in the label and their bands. So here's where we stood today:

Our Top 10 is still dominated by artists that you would expect and almost certainly controlled by albums you don't own. But what about further down? What about the bands we write about and the bands that buzz-out blogs and sell out dark, downtown venues?

The Interpol record, Our Love To Admire struggled in the 50s and has moved just over 100,000 units in its first three weeks on the chart. This cannot be what Capitol records had in mind when it was shelling out blank-check style money that some sources say totaled in the multi-millions. With little hope for a second single beyond "Heinrich Maneuver," the album could be dead in the water and may end up selling around quarter-million albums. Which, if they hit that target exactly, at about 12 bucks per album would generate 3,000,000 dollars in revenue or roughly break even. Let's put it this way, little bands signing to major labels can either go really well (Decemberists, Death Cab) or really badly. Mostly, Interpol has been a Carlos D.isappointment.

The Spoon album Ga^5 for all it's good press and overall quality, hung on to the mid-50s as well. In a third full-week, it has sold more than 70,000 copies. Merge can hardly be disgusted with this result and sales for the album should dwarf all previous Britt Daniel projects (Gimmie Fiction ended up around 100,000 for the entire run). Not only that but Merge can generally start clearing profit after selling 25,000 albums. Something that major labels can't claim in a meaningful way until sales are north of ten-times that amount.

Still, it seems that everyone is talking about Spoon and the talking may not matter. Ga^5 will definitely be in Rolling Stone, Spin, Blender and even the hate-able Pitchforkmedia as one of the best albums of the year. And it is. It is one of the best records of the year.

Then explain to me why even the effervescent, if forgettable, Colbie Caillat out-sells them? And why she’ll keep doing it? She may end up in the half-million range when all is said and done. Maybe more. Her record isn't bad either, but it’s not jumping up any slam-dunk, year-end, got-to-get-this-shit-now lists. We’re dealing with a credible band in Spoon and what is maybe their master-work (Gaaaaaaaaaaaaa) and it’s about to get dogged by a chick with no previous records and an audible musical-debt to early Jason Mraz.

So Merge makes money and Spoon makes a very good living and Universal gets paid and Colbie Caillat gets her cute little voice on the iTunes “Free Single of the Week.” No one is really losing here. It just seems like a weird state of affairs. That which is critically acclaimed (and not in an annoying way) is worth empirically less than a digestible, little girl with a spelling-bee last name. So why does it seem frustrating or inequitable?

This is a country where Rascal Flatts sold more than 4 million records. Wake up and smell the irony.

Labels: irony, record sales, you will know us by the trail of underperforming albums