Brandon Sloter
Brand New are No. 1 in the Billboard 200 chart this week with new album Science Fiction. Released via their own Procrastinate! Music Traitors label, the album is the first independently distributed album to top the U.S. charts in 2017.
Billboard notes that the album shifted 58,000 album equivalent units. 55,000 of those came through traditional album sales with streams accounting for the rest. The rock band takes the place of last week's No. 1, Kesha's Rainbow, on the top of the Billboard chart.
The group surprised fans with the new album on August 17, their first release in almost a decade. The campaign began with a mysterious rollout that involved unmarked CD-Rs and the coordinates to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. It's their first full-length since 2009's Daisy, and was produced by their longtime collaborator Mike Sapone,