Hot Chip, The Modern-Day Devo, Scores Their First Top 10 Hit

Swedish DJ Basshunter promised to wear a Borat-esque green “mankini” if “Now You’re Gone” went No. 1 for four weeks on the UK singles chart. Well, he has done it. Not sure if the ensemble shows off his best asset. Speaking of which, after those sex photos hit the web, Basshunter says he’s been fielding requests to do actual porn. “I’m not interested!” he tells The Mirror. “I’m not shy though and I wouldn’t have a problem doing it.” Quite clearly not.

The best chart news this week is Hot Chip‘s “Ready For the Floor” climbing to No. 6 this week. They are a great band, a modern-day Devo, and it’s their first Top 10 hit. Congrats, boys: it’s long overdue. Also entering the top 10 are One Night Only, a super-cute boy band reminiscent of a soft-rock McFly, and David Jordan, a Prince lookalike who comes in at No. 10 with “Sun Goes Down,” which sounds a bit like an R&B jig.

1. Basshunter – Now You’re Gone
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2. Adele – Chasing Pavements
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3. Nickelback – Rockstar
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4. Kelly Rowland – Work
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5. Rihanna – Don’t Stop the Music
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6. Hot Chip – Ready For the Floor
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7. Britney Spears – Piece of Me
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8. Lupe Fiasco ft. Matthew Santos -Superstar
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9. One Night Only – Just For Tonight
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10. David Jordan – Sun Goes Down
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In other news:

• Amy Winehouse briefly left rehab to obtain a visa from the U.S. Embassy. “The appointment at the U.S. Embassy was made some time ago and was part of process for obtaining a visa,” says her spokesman. “Amy was accompanied by a nurse as the appointment was under supervision. She has not left rehab and remains under the care of the clinic.” (BBC)
• The Sun has a photo of Amy Winehouse leaving rehab.
• Mark Ronson tells the story behind Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” to MTV.com: “We were walking down the street and she’s telling me a story about her family or something coming over to [her home], to kind of talk some sense into her. And she was like, ‘They tried to make me go to rehab, and I told them no, no, no,’ and she put her hand up. I guess, as a friend, I should have been like, ‘Oh my God, that must have been hard for you.’ But as a producer, I was just like, ‘That sounds hooky – you should go back to the studio and we should turn that into a song.’”
• Mark Ronson and Barry Manilow, together at last. Obviously, someone attempted a Vaseline-smeared lens effect on Barry’s face in this photo.(Popjustice)
• Robbie Williams looks great with a beard. And I don’t mean Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. I kid, I kid!(Daily Mail)
• The Spice Girls have cut their tour short, citing “family and personal commitments.” The Mirror says the two Mels wanted out.

  According to The Mirror, Girls Aloud singer Nadine Coyle is now dating model and Kylie dancer Jamie Karitzis (click here for his portfolio – I think he looks a wee bit better than Jesse Metcalfe).

• Kylie Minogue is back with Olivier Martinez, say sources.(The Sun)
• The Guardian‘s Laura Barton wades into the Adele vs. Duffy. Duffy is totally uninteresting to me – so Adele wins by default.
• The Guardian‘s Jude Rogers chats with 18-year-old British singer-songwriter Laura Marling. Rogers says, “In a music scene teeming with talented young women, Marling stands apart as quite possibly Britain’s most promising singer-songwriter. She’s not a soul-influenced ingenue like Adele or Duffy, nor a pop performer in the style of Lily Allen or Kate Nash (with whom she has toured), but an accomplished performer in the folk vein. In fact, she manages to make folk feel modern. Her bold, dark songs recall Joni Mitchell or Neil Young, yet remain her own.”
• Alison Goldfrapp says the vamp character she embodied on the last two albums began to eclipse her music.”I felt slightly uncomfortable that people wanted me to be that oversexual image all the time. I was slightly naive in that I didn’t think people would take it that seriously or be so interested in what I was like offstage.”(Telegraph)
• Lulu: still scary after all these years.(Telegraph)
• NME has video of Johnny Marr jamming with The Cribs.
• Without Justin Hawkins, The Darkness lives on as Stone Gods.(NME)
• A Paul Weller-less Jam will release new material under the name From The Jam.(NME)
• Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and a busty Helena Bonham Carter were winning at the Evening Standard Film Awards. Greenwood’s score for There Will Be Blood was snubbed by the Oscars because some of it hadn’t been specifically composed for the movie.(Daily Mail)
• OK, Radiohead. Mary freakin’ J. Blige. Cat Power. Robyn Hitchcock. Feist! All of them showed up to celebrate the 200th episode of Later with Jools Holland.(Stereogum)
• Check out photos from the Beatles-themed Hard Day’s Night Hotel in Liverpool.