The numbers are in. My very unscientific hypothesis from last week was correct. Kanye West crushed 50 Cent in the battle of hip-hop heavyweights. According to Nielsen's SoundScan, Kanye's Graduation sold 957,000 copies, the biggest first week total of 2007. 50 Cent's Curtis on the other hand only sold 691,000 copies. While 50's nearly 700,000 copies sold is the second biggest total for week one sales, it is still a considerable drop-off from his two......

Artist: Bitter:Sweet Album: The Remix Game Label: Quango Release Date: September 4th, 2007 I had only ever really listened to the title track to Bitter:Sweet's The Mating Game before I got my hands on this CD of the remixed album. I definitely thought that was a great track by itself but this collection of tunes ended up amazing me. The Mating Game was put out by LA's own Quango Music Group in Spring of......

Come see the punk rock legend/shirtless wonder! Yahoo! Music and the Capitol Music Group are hosting a taping today in West LA for the "Nissan Live Sets." The first 200 fans to email them at Invite@YahooLiveSets.com will get to go for FREE. They'll email you back if you're chosen, and you can bring a plus one. Taping starts at 7p. You will need to be at the still undisclosed location at 5p. Otherwise, you......

Air - Pocket Symphony (Astralwerks) Albert Hammond, Jr. - Yours to Keep [US] (New Line) Antibalas - Security (Anti) Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (Merge) !!! - Myth Takes [Bonus Disc] (Warp) Joss Stone - Tell Me ‘Bout It [SINGLE] (Virgin) KMFDM - Nihil [Bonus Track] (Metropolis) Mary Chapin Carpenter - Calling (Zoe) My Brighest Diamond - Tear It Down (Asthmatic Kitty) Ry Cooder - My Name Is Buddy (Nonesuch) Son Volt - Search......

This might be a good week to give your piggybank the ol' smasheroo and excavate your couch cushions for awol monies. The CD player NEEDS your donations. Don't delay. Rush out now in a buying frenzy. Here's a glanceable list of new noteables and rightous reissues being handed down today. Ten octzillion more after the jump... Arbouretum - Rites Of Uncovering (Thrill Jockey) The Bird & The Bee - Bird And The Bee (Blue......

Shiny Toy Guns are busy. The are rockstars by night, sure, but by day, they are embedded in the online community and blogosphere communicating with fans through MySpace (some argue their street cred here helped catapult them into a record deal with the Universal Music Group), Pure Volume and eMusic. This electronica/indie/dance band is a light show, a jump up and down with your friends, magic in the making type of experience. LAist had......

- African-American LAFD firefighter Tennie Pierce (no relation) awarded $2.7 million in a racial harassment suit that was settled yesterday. A Captain bought dog food, a second firefighter mixed in into Pierce's spaghetti, and another Captain knew what Pierce was about to eat but didn't warn him. - LA Times - Unrelated: Fire Captain allegedly tortured Eagle Rock woman before he strangled her, making the murder eligible for the death penalty - LA Times......

Vegas billionaire Wynn accidentally pokes hole in world's most expensive painting - Reuters Jennifer Aniston plans on buying a $15 million Beverly Hills one-story house - People Canadian Parliment member fired for blogging - Globe & Mail Pitchfork gives the Weekly Detour Fest an overwhelming "meh" - Pitchfork Tagger "DWP" still on the loose - LosAnjealous Father of the boy who Madonna adopted tells critics to STFU - AP Universal Music Group sues video-sharing......

"Artie Lange's Beer League" soundtrack (Lakeshore) A Shoreline Dream - Avoiding the Consequences (LateNight WeekNight) Clay Aiken - A Thousand Different Ways (RCA) Joseph Arthur - Nuclear Daydream (digipak; Megaforce) Black Crowes - Freak 'N' Roll ... Into the Fog (two CDs; Eagle) Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - Thug Stories (Koch) Canada - This Cursed House (digipak; Quite Scientific) Kenny Chesney - Live (BNA) Chingy - Hoodstar (Capitol) Damnation - Resist (Metal Mind) Chris Difford -......

Grim news about a Southern California staple: Chris Morris, a 103.1 dj, says in the Hollywood Reporter that the nation's largest free-standing record store chain, Tower Records, is in huge financial debt and may not last another year: The amount of money that Tower owes evidently is staggering. One confidential source familiar with Tower's balance sheet put the company's debt to Warner Music Group's distributor WEA Corp. at $20 million. The same source said......

Santa Monica-based MySpace.com announced its plans to create its own label dubbed "MySpace Records" that will be manufactured by Universal Music Group's Interscope Records and distributed by Universal's indie Fontana Distribution. Earlier this year, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. purchased MySpace's parent company, Intermix Media for approximately $580 million. MySpace Records will debut on November 15 with the release of "MySpace Records: Volume I." This compilation will be priced at $9.98 and will contain tracks......

According to the press release we've recently dug up from the Grammy Foundation, Warner Music Group chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. will deliver the keynote address at the 7th Annual Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) Luncheon & Scholarship Presentation on Feb. 11, 2005, at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. The event begins at 11 a.m. and will feature live performances by special guest artists, in addition to the scholarship presentations. Wonder......