Pitchfork

Oh, inverted record industry is more like it. Confirming rampant web-speculation, Billboard announced this morning that 118,000 people saw fit to change their lives this past week, snapping up enough copies of Wincing the Night Away (Sub Pop) to vaunt the Shins' third LP to the number two spot on the Billboard 200.

This marks the highest chart placing ever for Sub Pop, whose previous chart high (at least in the SoundScan era) was the Afghan Whigs' Black Love, which hit #79 in 1996, according to Billboard.com. (Wasn't that a co-release with Elektra though? Does that really count?)

Wincing also trumps the first-week sales of previous Shins discs Oh, Inverted World (no rank; about 1,200) and Chutes Too Narrow (#86; about 15,600) by a million zillion miles. Oh went on to sell nearly 480,000 copies, while Chutes is pushing 420,000 as of last week, according to a Sub Pop rep. All of this may or may not have something to do with a psycho-social disorder known as Garden State.

Only pretty-boy rap&b foursome Pretty Ricky bested the Shins last week, selling 132,000 copies of their new album Late Night Special. But we're fairly sure Natalie Portman doesn't give two shits about them.

According to Billboard, Wincing also topped the Top Independent Albums, Top Digital Albums, Top Internet Albums, and Top Tastemakers charts. (No, we don't know what the difference between a "Digital" album and an "Internet" album is. Or what a "tastemaker" album is. UPDATE: THANKS TO A READER, WE HAVE LEARNED THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "DIGITAL" AND "INTERNET" ALBUMS. THE FORMER IS AN ALBUM BOUGHT VIA DOWNLOAD STORES LIKE ITUNES AND EMUSIC. THE LATTER IS PHYSICAL CDS PURCHASED VIA ONLINE RETAILERS LIKE AMAZON AND INSOUND.) "Phantom Limb" is in the top 20 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart as well.

As previously reported, the Shins hit the road (in stretch-Bentleys, no doubt) with Viva Voce this February.

And, in other news, have you scoped the newly revamped Sub Pop website yet? Fetching!

Straight wincin':

02-08 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
02-09 Milwaukee, WI - Eagles Ballroom *
02-10 Chicago, IL - Congress Theater *
02-11 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant *
02-12 Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall *
02-13 Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall *
02-15 Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium *
02-16 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue *
02-17 Boise, ID - Egyptian Theatre *
02-19 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom *
02-20 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theater *
02-21 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *
02-25 London, England - The Astoria
04-14 Los Angeles, CA - Gibson Amphitheatre (KCRW: A Sounds Eclectic Evening 6)

* with Viva Voce