LET’S GO GET STONE

What better way to celebrate Memorial Day weekend than by kicking back with a few brews, smoking some animal flesh on the barbeque and digging on Stone Temple Pilots’ first new album in nine years?

If one-day sales figures from those fine record retailers who haven’t chucked it all for swampland on the Gulf of Mexico are any indication, approximately 65-70k of Americans will do just that, snapping up enough copies of the Pilots’ Atlantic Records album to make it #1 on next Tuesday’s HITS sales chart. The self-titled release is the band’s first since 2001’s Shangri-La Dee Da.

Columbia’s Glee: The Music, Vol. 3 Showstoppers rides the coattails of last night’s Lady Gaga tribute to remain in the mix for a possible run at the top spot, depending on whether it can sustain that momentum through the weekend.

Awaiting the onslaught of high visibility releases in June, starting with next Tuesday’s Jack Johnson album on Brushfire, the next highest chart debut will be registered by Watertower/Fontana’s Sex and the City 2 album at 25-30k.

Sidewalk/Curb’s Hank Williams III album is up next at 15-18k, as is Sony Latin's Marc Anthony, both followed by a wide range of albums in the 10-15k range, including Island/IDJ’s Rihanna, Roadrunner metal standby Soulfly and Widespread Records’ veteran jam band Widespread Panic.

The market was flat vs. last week, down 19% vs. same week last year and still down 10% year to date. And you thought BP had problems with an oil spill.