King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s new album is smashing the US charts
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have long ruled the cosmos with their proggy- psychedelic rock finery.
Back on earth, they’re impacting the United States, too.
The prolific Melbourne outfit’s latest Fishing For Fishies is making a big splash across a handful of U.S. sales charts, led by a No. 1 on Billboard’s Tastemaker Albums Chart, on which the set trumps Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, Josh Ritter’s Fever Breaks and Pink’s Hurts 2B Human.
The Flightless Records release also opens at No. 2 on the Heatseekers Albums and Vinyl Albums Charts, No. 10 on the Independent Albums Chart, and cracks the top 40 of the Alternative Albums (No. 22) and Top Album Sales charts (No. 34). Also, the LP enters Top Rock Albums at No. 43.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, “Fishing For Fishies”
Not bad, but the job is far from done.
Fishies doesn’t yet appear on the Billboard 200, the national albums chart which is led this week by Pink’s latest as an altogether different type of Aussie act locks down No. 2, Hillsong United’s People.
In their career to date, King Gizzard has nudged the Billboard 200 on two occasions, with Murder of the Universe peaking at No. 106 in 2017 and Flying Microtonal Banana hitting No. 170 in the same year (and taking out the vinyl chart crown).
Universal and Banana were, of course, part of King Gizzard’s interstellar purple patch during which they released five albums in a single year, delivering on an absurdly ambitious promise.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, “Cyboogie”
Earlier this week, Fishing For Fishies, the band’s 14th studio album, entered the ARIA Albums Chart at No. 4 for their sixth top 10. In the U.K., Fishies started its chart journey at No. 89.
The Gizz Effect will go global this year. And the new record should stick around the charts for months to come, with King Gizzard set to embark on another major international tour which kicks off with an Australian leg, opening June 27 at Melbourne’s Forum. They’re booked for Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival in late July, and an extensive run follows through North America, the U.K. and Europe.
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.