Grizzly Bear Repeats At #1

It's not unusual for Canadian bands to have dominate #1 albums on this top 50 chart, given the growth in the homegrown scene since the early '90s and the desire for campus radio stations to meet their Canadian content targets of between 33 to 40 per cent.

Less common are examples of "import" bands (like Animal Collective in February) remaining at the top of the charts for multiple weeks. 

This week it's Grizzly Bear, a relatively unknown New York band, who have taken Canadian campus radio by storm, and for good reason. Veckatimest is a brilliant CD and could be the best record of 2009 come the appearance of those top ten lists in six months.

Clues' self-titled album moves back up a position to sit at #2 and is followed by former #1, Pink Mountaintops' Outside Love, at #3 and Think About Life's Family, which tumbles two places to #4.

Joel Plaskett's Three rises two positions to #5 to hang around the top of the charts in its 12th week. This achievement gives Three a possibility of besting the 20 week barrier a couple of months from now.

The Chart Sizzler Award goes to the highest debut of the week. This week, that award goes to Sunset Rubdown's Dragonslayer, which enters the chart at a lofty #6.

Dragonslayer landed in the top three on five different charts in Canada this week. The album topped the charts at both CFUR (Northern BC) and CKXU (Lethbridge), #2 at CFRU (Guelph) and CJAM (Windsor) and #3 at CHMR (Memorial).

The Lovely Feathers' Fantasy Of The Lot jumps 14 places to land at #7 and Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix rises eight spots to #8. Metric's Fantasies, another former #1, slides down three positions to #9, while Japandroids' Post-Nothing rises four spots to #10.

Following Sunset Rubdown's strong example, there are a number of other new entries landing high on the chart this week. Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca debuts at #11 and followed by a trio of new entries: Tiga's Ciao! at #13, Eels' Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire at #14 and Sonic Youth's The Eternal debuting at #15. Knowing Sonic Youth's past Chart success, it won't be much of a surprise if The Eternal hits #1 in a couple of weeks.

The split 7" by The Evaporators and Andrew W.K. debuts at #19, easily the highest vinyl release debut in the history of the weekly top 50 chart (early 1995 onward).

Interestingly, two of the specialty chart #1s debut within two places of each other. Mr. Something Something's Shine Your Face, which takes over the World/Folk top 10's #1, enters the top 50 chart at #31. Gypsophilia's Sa-Ba-Da-Ow!, which repeats as the #1 album on the Jazz/Blues top 10, enters this chart at #33.

Not wanting to leave the other three specialty charts, Grand Analog's Metropolis Is Burning rises three spots to land at #1 on the Hip Hop chart. Mastodon's Crack The Skye continues to dominate the Metal/Punk top ten remaining at #1 again, while MSTRKRFT's Fist Of God recaptures the top spot on the Electronic chart by moving up two places.

There are a couple of notable debuts on the specialty charts, as Graves Of Valor's Salarian Gate arrives on the Metal/Punk chart at #3, while Oumou Sangare's Seya arrives on the World/Folk top 10 at #3 this week.