The first full-length from New Zealanders and HBO stars Flight of the Conchords debuted this week at #3 on the Soundscan charts, the highest debut for a comedy album ever, surpassing Dane Cook’s 2005 release Retaliation. Congrats to our friends over at Sub Pop for stacking some more cheddar. As usual, I slept on Flight of the Conchords for awhile (I can’t afford HBO, man) but finally took the time to check out some of the clips of YouTube and now I realize why people go ape shit over these Kiwi bastards: they’ll seriously make you laugh your balls off.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich hints that the band could follow Radiohead for an eventual digital release. With only one more album to go on their Warner Brothers Records deal Metallica looks like they’ll be leaving the major label game.

From Cnet:

“We want to be as free (as) players as possible,” Ulrich told Rolling Stone during the band’s Northern California appearance for Record Store Day. “We’ve been observing Radiohead and Trent Reznor and in 27 years or however long it takes for the next record, we’ll be looking forward to everything in terms of possibilities with the Internet.”

No, he’s not endorsing peer-to-peer sites, but there’s no mistaking what Ulrich meant. The group is considering whether to follow the lead of Radiohead and Reznor, leader of the band Nine Inch Nails. Those acts sent shock waves throughout the music industry over the past six months by distributing albums over the Web without the aid of a record company. They also offered digital versions of the albums for free.

It’s been 13 years coming, but Connor Oberst will finally be releasing another solo album. The Bright Eyes front man teamed up with long time friend/engineer Andy LeMaster in Tepoztlán, Morelos, México (a mysterious city known for Aztec Magic among other strange phenomenons) to record the self-titled release, set to hit stores August 5th 2008, according to Merge Records…

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The highly touted boys from Brighton are back with their sophomore release, Konk, that hit stores earlier this week, but some are questioning whether the pre-release hype matches the merit. The Kook’s debut release Inside In/Inside Out was exceedingly well received, but reviews for Konk have been mixed. Betty Clarke of The Guardian gave the record 4 out 5 stars saying, “The woolliness of their debut has been replaced with a determined pop sound that dips into hard-edged rock,” but New Music Express was less than optimistic, and rather disappointed:

“What’s clear is that they’ve lost the songwriterly knack they originally wielded with abandon and replaced it with clichés and a foggy palimpsest of what they once had. We recommend they search high and low for that spark of brightness in time for album three.” NME.com

I haven’t picked up the record yet, but if the single is any indication it looks like I’m in store for a watered down version of Inside In/Inside Out. To be honest, when I first heard “Always Where I Need To Be” I thought I was still listening to The Kooks first album. Check out thise video below and decide for yourself.

The Kooks- “Always Where I Need To Be”

Back on March 7th we tipped you off to a small taste of Death Cab’s newest single, and now you can hear the whole thing! Check out the music video below for their startling lengthy single “I Will Possess Your Heart.” It clocks in at about eight and a half minutes, but be patient. It pays off at about 4:41.

Death Cab For Cutie “I Will Possess Your Heart”