When we commented a week ago on the New Moon OST falling short to Michael Buble in the Billboard charts, commenter/reader Chris Molanphy pointed out a detail we had been quick to overlook “You’re leaving out an important detail, ” he said. “The ‘New Moon’ OST did that number in *three days* of sales, because they had to move the release up from Tuesday to the previous Friday. So that 115K is up against Bublé’s full seven days of sales.” And while we were incredulous upon reading that three days could create the spread, Mr. Molanphy was right on the money. Billboard is reporting that after a second—and this time full—week of sales, the soundtrack sits pretty atop the charts, having sold 153,000 copies since we last spoke. That’s a 33% uptick in sales from week one and 16,000 more units moved than that of Tim McGraw’s tenth studio album Southern Voice, which also hit shelves last week. Never doubt a Twi-hard.

Photo: Nikki Turner

Band of Skulls will grace this country’s shores once again, touching down in Los Angeles on November 6 to perform at the Twilight Saga: New Moon cast event at the Hollywood and Highland Center. The event is open to the public and will feature performances from several of the bands included on the New Moon soundtrack, including Death Cab for Cutie, Anya Marina, and Sea Wolf in addition to Band of Skulls.

Following their epic performance for Twi-hards, the band will then mosey over to the Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 15, followed by a tour of the US with Metric.

We can safely say we wrote about the band before vampire enthusiasts knew they existed. Get psyched about their tour by reading our profile here.

Tour dates are as follows:
11.06.09 Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood & Highland Center
11.15.09 Brooklyn, NY @ Williamsburg Music Hall
11.16.09 Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom *
11.17.09 Portland, ME @ Portland City Music Hall *
11.18.09 Hartford, CT @ Webster Theatre *
11.19.09 Providence, RI @ Lupos *
11.20.09 Boston, MA @ House of Blues *
11.21.09 Albany, NY @ Northern Lights *
11.23.09 Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live *
11.24.09 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Smalls Theatre *
11.25.09 Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory *
11.27.09 Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre *
11.28.09 Atlanta, GA @ Centerstage *
11.30.09 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live *
12.01.09 Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa *
12.02.09 Dallas, TX @ Palladium *
12.11.09 Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour

* with Metric

Twi-hards, rejoice: the soundtrack for the latest film in the Twilight series, New Moon, will be released this Friday, as “overwhelming and unprecedented demand” prompted the release date to be pushed up by four days. The album will be hitting stores more than a month before the film is released on November 20, so the Twilight faithful can comfort themselves with the musical musings of Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke, Muse, the Killers, OK Go, Grizzly Bear, Lykke Li, Bon Iver, St. Vincent, Sea Wolf, and the Editors, among others, until their cinematic dreams become reality.

MTV has the full scoop on the most recent Twilight developments, of course, and is featuring an interview with OK Go and Lykke Li about their involvement with the soundtrack; check them out here and here. Stream the video for Death Cab for Cutie’s contribution to the soundtrack, titled “Meet Me on the Equinox,” here.

It must be tiring to be snarky all the time, coming home for vacation and your parents never knowing when you’re being ironic or why you think meatloaf was so last summer. So why not call a spade a spade from time to time.

Here’s the deal. The tracklist to the much-hyped new Twilight movie was released. And it sounds… really good. And why not. It’s a friggin’ pop culture phenomenon. If Phoenix or someone would have played the Harry Potter prom we would have been cool with that (although it would have given “Too Young” a bit of a new teen-angst feel). And hey, nothing else in this world has brought about a Bon Iver, St. Vincent collaboration yet. So screw it. Down is up. East is west. Blah blahblah. This soundtrack is going to be kind of awesome. The end. Vampires vampires vampires.

Twilight: New Moon Soundtrack:

01 Death Cab for Cutie: “Meet Me on the Equinox”
02 Band of Skulls: “Friends”
03 Thom Yorke: “Hearing Damage”
04 Lykke Li: “Possibility”
05 The Killers: “A White Demon Love Song”
06 Anya Marina: “Satellite Heart”
07 Muse: “I Belong to You (New Moon Remix)”
08 Bon Iver and St. Vincent: “Rosyln”
09 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: “Done All Wrong”
10 Hurricane Bells: “Monsters”
11 Sea Wolf: “The Violet Hour”
12 OK Go: “Shooting the Moon”
13 Grizzly Bear: “Slow Life” [ft. Beach House's Victoria Legrand]
14 Editors: “No Sound But the Wind”
15 Alexandre Desplat: “New Moon (The Meadow)”

(Via: P4K)

Indeed, the vows happened, somewhere near Seattle. Little else is known about the details. But in our own indie-rock fantasm we imagine lots of beautiful people in pastel suits and horn-rimmed glasses swooning as Ben sings “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” to her and she replies with a somewhat out of context version of “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here” and he says “Because we’re married now, silly” and everyone chuckles and eats vegan cake. The end. No word yet on what M. Ward thinks this will do to the implied sexual tension on the next She & Him album. (Via: SPIN)