Weekender: the way that we talk, the way that we walk

CHART OF DARKNESS: As if to spite our wondering last week, and indeed all the hype about downloads taking over, Gnarls Barkley's Crazy not only stays atop the singles chart but does so by selling 120,000 physical copies out of a remarkable 193,000, beating number two, the anaemic U2/Mary J collaboration that now beats the original One by five places, by well over 160,000. An oddly static week sees top ten climbers spurred on by Morrissey's usual second week sales collapse and a lot of records going back up at the lower end, the Zutons having the highest new entry at 9, their top ten debut. Franz Ferdinand latch onto the occasional album track/new song double A-side ploy and take The Fallen/L Wells to 14, the weather turned against Mish Mash at 16, Belle & Sebastian are at 25 - we were woken up on Saturday by Stuart Murdoch being given a jovial interview by Eamonn Holmes and his idiot sidekick, which surely must finally convince him to go back to the enigmatic days of old - the Charlatans make a re-emergence on a new label of some description at 28, D4L fail to go the MVP route with the stupidly titled Laffy Taffy - look, just learn that nobody likes a rap song title not in proper English - at 29, Keyshia Cole comprehensively fails to follow up the hype at 48, Sigur Ros' climb continues at 57 and Wigwam disappoint the cognescenti (hello!) at 60. There's some new ruling involving downloads in the album chart but we don't understand it and nothing would have stopped Ringleader Of The Tormentors becoming Morrissey's third number one. Pink is at 3 and the Flaming Lips do very well at 6 (a top ten debut, in fact), with the Stereophonics' overdue by common knowledge of their type live album at 13. Neil Sedaka's latest best of makes an odd climb into the top 20 - that'll be the iTunes types, then - while the Vines' winning days really have gone, Vision Valley entering at 71.

FREE MUSIC: One of a massive set of tracks from Sweden's Labrador Records brought to wider attention by a guest post over at Take Your Medicine, all suffused with the timely spirit of C86 and its adherents, we know nothing about this other than we admire its spirit, like a less easily irked Young Soul Rebels Dexys - Corduroy United - Daddy's Boy

HEY YOU GET OFFA MYSPACE: We thought Oxford instrumental behemoth The Rock Of Travolta, who supposed Radiohead at their massive South Park gig, had split up. There was a good reason for this. They had. They have now got back together with two new members, including an intriguing cellist, and still sound like Mogwai, Tortoise and Shellac in an industrial crusher.

VISUAL REPRESENTATION: Yesterday we pledged never to shoehorn in cheap references to the Kaiser Chiefs having once been a workaday New Rock Revolution outfit called Parva. Well, it's not shoehorning to directly mention them, so here's the video to 2002 single Hessles. Ricky does still have a nose piercing - study the Every Day I Love You Less And Less video carefully - and oddly it's drummer Nick that comes off worst 'I look slightly different!'-wise.

FALLING OFF A BLOG: We've never been tempted to follow everyone else into the world of podcasts - no mike, put off voice projection after listening to a guest radio spot we did a couple of years ago - but that doesn't mean we can't appreciate others. Indie Interviews, for instance, with a back catalogue of chats with the likes of the Decemberists, LCD Soundsystem, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, the Polyphonic Spree (Tim, luckily), Vashti Bunyan, Tapes 'N Tapes, Voxtrot and Explosions in the Sky.

EVERYBODY GET RANDOM: In the week that Pete Gofton turned up in the NME as A&R representative of Brille records (The Knife, Good Shoes, Envelopes, Whirlwind Heat), which is fair enough as a way of making a living but doesn't make the wait for the second J Xaverre album any more standable, Kenickie06 has been set up on Myspace as a campaign to get his former band to reunite. We can't see it happening, given Lauren's media interests, Emmy-Kate's magazine editing and Marie's...erm...is she still at Hall Or Nothing? Anyway, it's the thought that counts, and that Ainslie off the first series of Fame Academy has left a message makes it so much the stronger.

IN OTHER NEWS: Given their blog links to us, it's the least we can do to mention Vanity Project fanzine.