With The Wanted back on US soil ahead of their self-titled debut (American) album’s release on April 24, the lads have been hopping around doing the promo rounds. The quintet busted out their current Top 10 smash “Glad You Came” when they trekked down to San Diego’s Slacker Radio recently — only this time they offered up an acoustic version. Max, Jay, Siva, Tom and Nathan also crooned a cover of Goo Goo Dolls’ City Of Angels soundtrack hit “Iris”, which they had been performing live during their US club tour in January and February. Head below to see if they do the ’90s classic justice.

Apparently Snow Patrol’s “Run” isn’t the only surprise cover version we’ll be hearing from Leona Lewis. In the interim between her fall single “Collide” and her upcoming third album (due out in March 2012), the UK songbird will release Hurt: The EP this Friday (December 9) — in the UK, at least — according to Amazon UK. Included on it are the following covers: Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”, Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” and Counting Crows’ “Colorblind”. Who knew Leona had such eclectic taste?

It’s been a spell since we heard from the Goo Goo Dolls — in fact, just long enough to hear “Iris” again without grumbling that it’s been played to death and we never, ever want to hear it again. So we’re fine with Taylor Swift reminding us that the City Of Angels smash is “one of the best songs ever written” (her words) by joining the Dolls’ frontman Johnny Rzeznik on stage at Madison Square Garden to conclude her star-studded Speak Now tour’s domestic leg. (Even if she was only nine when the 90′s ditty was released.) The AMA winner also reminded us what a vibrant performer she is, seeing the States off in style before she heads abroad in 2012.

A week after she unseated Eminem from the #1 position on Billboard‘s Top 200 Albums chart, upcoming SNL performer Katy Perry suffers a 54% drop in sales with Teenage Dream and gets bumped down by Disturbed’s Asylum. See what all went down this week with the Top 10 of the main album roundup after the jump.

Billboard notes that Asylum is Chicago act Disturbed’s fourth consecutive #1 album, making them only the third rock band in the history of the Top 200 chart to achieve that feat. But Katy Perry isn’t alone—Fantasia, who debuted at #2 last week with Back To Me, also takes a tumble (to #5).

Four other new LPs crack the Top 10 in the form of the 35th Now compilation (#2), Lyfe Jennings’ I Still Believe (#6), the Goo Goo Dolls’ Something For The Rest Of Us (#7) and Heart’s 13th studio album Red Velvet Car (#10).

Hard to believe Seattle sister act Heart last visited the Top 10 in 1990 with Brigade (#3), an LP that produced this classic light rock jam:

The Top 10 of Billboard’s Top 200 Albums:

1. Disturbed, Asylum *new*
2. Various, Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 35 *new*
3. Eminem, Recovery
4. Katy Perry, Teenage Dream
5. Fantasia, Back To Me
6. Lyfe Jennings, I Still Believe *new*
7. The Goo Goo Dolls, Something For The Rest Of Us *new*
8. Justin Bieber, My World 2.0
9. Various, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam
10. Heart, Red Velvet Car *new*

As part of book giant Borders’ slashing of its DVD and CD sections, the store here in Athens, Ga., is selling its CD and DVD inventory at 50% off. The standard pre-liquidation price for a CD? $18.99. So at 50% off, most of the remaining inventory was still as much as it would have been at Best Buy, Target, or Wal-Mart. In fact, in most cases the prices were exactly twice what they were at the Big Boxers, particularly in the DVD/Blu-Ray section. I decided to document the dregs of Borders’ music collection to see what people weren’t buying, much like I did last year during the Circuit City fire sale. All of the releases documented after the jump had at least four copies for sale.

The shelves are picked over. If all of the Borders are on the same timetable, you better hustle. I did see that awesome Forever Changes two-disc collection for 10 bucks.

This is endemic of what I saw. The Killers, Bavarian Tradition, and a 2009 Grammy Nominees CD, all lying on top of Igor on Blu-Ray. I don’t know why, but this is one of the saddest things I have ever seen.

The Airborne Toxic Event and Loudon Wainwright III: together again for the first time. These guys were all over the place, never where they were supposed to be. Not a bad deal on TATE, if you’re into that sorta thing.

There was plenty of Sinatra to be found, all of it originally overpriced. These are great records, sure, but they had Super Savers in there for $16.99!

Maybe someone at Borders was a big Andre Rieu fan. There were at least 30 of his CDs all told. Looks like a nice enough guy. He’s really going for on the cover of New Year’s in Vienna.

Not to pick on Mindi Abair, but she joined Andre Rieu as the most un-bought artist at Borders. There was another stack there, next to a whole bunch of Michael Franks and Earl Klugh. Who did Borders’ stocking? The Weather Channel? My dad?

You could get “snowed under” in Snow Patrol CDs (haw haw), probably because this CD+DVD combo was priced at $21.99 originally.

Nothing against Atmosphere, but there was absolutely no reason for Borders to have ordered eight copies of this in our current music-selling climate. You can always order more. You can’t order less.

I’d like to think that Saul Williams was here en masse because everybody had already downloaded it, but I’m not so sure of that. Borders’ selection was overall more interesting than Circuit City‘s, if a little more mystifying.

Ingrid Michaelson was well-represented. “As heard on Grey’s Anatomy” doesn’t mean what it used to, but this thing was priced to sell and didn’t. It looks like a 90s cut-out bin record, like it should be laying next to Ednaswap and Echobelly.

I have this and have never listened to it. What am I afraid of? Oh, yeah…it sounding like the artwork.

Delta Spirit was out in force. I don’t have any good puns for this.

Wow! I wonder why this never sold? As a music consumer, I can think of no more inspiring words in the year 2009 than “Goo Goo Dolls, Vol. 2.”

The theme song is on this. ‘Nuff said.

There was lots of John Legend on display; maybe people heard him sing at the Academy Awards.

Now this is just a shame. Who doesn’t love “Lido Shuffle”?

Plain White T’s: One of those bands that seems more popular in theory.

I know Switchfoot and Nickel Creek are popular, but seven copies of the collaboration between members of those bands is probably overestimating demand just a bit.

Turn away, Maura! Turn away!

These Melissa Etheridges were like this when I got there.

No love for My Love by Celine Dion.

This Atreyu package would be a good deal if I liked them at all.

Some around these parts will feel no small amount of schadenfreude at this picture.

These things were everywhere, a symbol bit of music industry detritus.

Just plain odd. Somebody must have a really bad back. It shows you how much they cared about the aesthetics of the music section.

Howie Day: the loneliest featured CD ever.

Who thought this was a good idea?

This is my version of hell.

Oh, no, wait. This is.

Overall, in most cases, it’s not hard to see why what’s not selling is not selling. A lot of times it what the pricing, but a lot of it had to do with target markets. This is a Borders in Athens we’re talking about—the chamber of commerce practically hands you cardigans, ironic mustaches, and plastic-framed glasses when you move here, so it’s no wonder Dream Theater DVDs aren’t moving out the door.

There might be stranger news to emerge today, but somehow I doubt it: Bassist Robby Takac of the Goo Goo Dolls has been named to the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Medallie College. The relationship between Takac and the college didn’t end at graduation; in 2005, the college awarded Takac with the Alumni Community Service Award for his work in “enhancing the Western New York community through his Music is Art Foundation.” However, the press release informed me of something I was not aware of.

Takac’s band has been “recognized as one of the best alternative rock bands in existence.” I’m sure Medallie is thrilled to honor its hometown hero, but let’s not go overboard, ok? [Medaille College]

So Barry Obama’s big benefit shindig coming up next week in California features musical endorsements from Ne-Yo (yay!), the Goo Goo Dolls (uh), Nicole Scherzinger (ack), and will.i.am (dear lord no). Meanwhile, Hilary Clinton has recently ditched Celine Dion’s “You And I” (holy shit) as her campaign song in favor of Big Head Todd And The Monsters’ “Blue Sky” (could be worse, right?). Forgetting their opinions about, like, stuff salient to running a country, this does not particularly fill us with hope for the future. (Even the Republicans are showing better taste this time out; for instance, did you know Mitt Romney’s campaign tune is “I Get Around”^*?) So we put it to you, a year or so early, to decide who you would vote for based solely on these less than stellar musical track records.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Obama ’08 [Official Site; HT DHMBIB]
“You And I” No More? [Political Radar via the Daily Swarm]

^* Possibly wishful thinking on the part of your reporter.

Ed. note: Once again, Idolator intern Kate Richardson scours the video sites, looking for the best fan-made music videos. In this installment, she looks at two clips that travel into space with Battlestar Galactica:

I want to preface this week’s post by saying that I have never seen Battlestar Galactica, and am therefore at a severe disadvantage when it comes to making making jokes and references. If you are a big fan, feel free to write some for me and leave them in the comments. It’s this new interactive concept for the lazy and uninformed that I am piloting. Anyway, from what I ascertain, BSG is set in space. It’s like Star Trek, but less popular? Something like that. There’s a doomed romance and lots of serious intergalactic warfare. Serious enough to bust out the Goo Goo Dolls? You bet! Also, Simon & Garfunkel.

Song: “Iris” by The Goo Goo Dolls
Concept: Battlestar Galactica as City of Angels.
When the world finally implodes on itself, due in large part to the Hannah Montana tour and extinction of polar bears, the only remaining vestiges of life will be a TV and a radio playing a VH1 “Celebreality” program and “Iris,” respectively. Seriously, this song will never die. Someone will always find it apropos for something, even if, as in this case, it’s space planes. Apparently this is a tribute to “Vipers and Viper pilots.” There’s nary a love story in sight, which is sort of endearing, really, and makes the concept somewhat novel. But despite this glimmer of hope, it’s still a horribly boring song and the Vipers, however bad-ass they might be, are about as equally boring to look at for almost four minutes. I sincerely hope this video isn’t indicative of the entire color scheme of BSG. It’s like staring into a bag of machine parts.
Best music-to-image sync-up moment: None.
Silliest music-to-image sync-up moment: I really can’t find one.

Song: “I Am a Rock” by Simon & Garfunkel
Concept: Battlestar Galactica as surreal nightmare.
Now this is a horse of a different color. Seriously, what inspired this epic act of audio/visual incongruity? According to the video description, Commander Adama is “like the ‘rock’ or foundation that holds the fleet together.” Bingo! It’s all clear now! Cue the Simon & Garfunkel! Their delicate harmonies and folksy sensibility are perfect for that bloody fight scene. Everything about this video is severely disorienting and vaguely–if not explicitly–disturbing. It’s very violence-oriented, which makes the Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack all the more bewildering. But at least it’s entertaining in its aggressive insanity.
Best music-to-image sync-up moment: One minute in, as Adama beats the living shit out of some guy while Simon & Garfunkel sing “I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain. It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain.”
Silliest music-to-image sync-up moment: Almost anything, really. I’ll go with the shooting scene halfway in.

Verdict: It’s no contest: the Simon & Garfunkel video is by far more entertaining, and just about as weird as any tribute video can strive to be, making it the (insert Battlestar Galactica reference here) winner of this week’s match-up.

The Next Great American Band, the American Idol spinoff that will somehow put 10 bands through the Idol paces, will have Sheila E. in the Paula Abdul role, Johnny Rzeznik in the Randy Jackson role, and an Australian guy whose nickname is–I am not kidding–”Dicko” in the, um, “dicko” role. Finding someone with a crazy accent was a nice touch, guys. [USA Today]

Tonight, the Goo Goo Dolls play the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.; the concert will be aired live on television, but not on an MTV-affiliated channel:

The Goo Goo Dolls are making their QVC debut next Tuesday night to sell a specially packaged bonus material DVD and CD set three weeks before it hits stores.

The shopping network will broadcast a special behind-the-scenes interview and concert with the band live from the music venue Nightclub 9:30 in Washington, D.C.

We’re not fans of the Goos’ increasingly wan love-rock, but this is a smart move by the band. QVC exposure has been good for artists with large fanbases who may have moved on from actively finding out about new albums–last year, Barry Manilow sold 43,000 copies of The Greatest Sounds Of The Sixties during an hour-long segment on the shopping network. The question, then, is this:If more bands start clamoring for QVC airtime, will a music-only spinoff channel–with blocks hosted by Mark McGrath and Steve Harwell, natch–rise up to give VH1 Classic a run for its hits-of-yesteryear money?

Goo Goo Dolls Make QVC Debut [Showbuzz]