A SECOND CONSECUTIVE BROWN-OUT ON THE CHARTS

Following up RCA R&B bruiser Chris Brown’s #1 debut yesterday, look for a very different act with the same name—Atlantic country-rockers Zac Brown Band’s Uncaged—to bow in the top spot on next week’s tally, with a total that looks headed for between 210-225k.

That number beats the group’s last studio album, You Get What You Give, which came out in Sept. 2010 with 154k in sales, by more than 45%. This is the band’s third album for Atlantic after two independent releases.

The week’s big story is controversial Def Jam/IDJ avant-R&B crooner Frank Ocean, a member of the L.A.-based hip-hop collective Odd Future, who will open with a very impressive 110-125k as an iTunes exclusive for his major label bow, Channel Orange. Ocean surprised everyone by Tweeting the album would be made available after his network TV debut Monday night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon singing “Bad Religion” from the release. With an appearance on Jay Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne album—that’s him introducing the disc’s “No Church in the Wild”—as well as a best-selling mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, Ocean is burning up the blogosphere.

He has also been making news by blogging on Tumblr that his first infatuation as a 19-year-old was with a man and using the gender "he" on several of the new disc's love songs.

Ocean’s tour begins in Seattle this Friday (7/13) and hits L.A.'s Wiltern next Tuesday (7/17) in what is sure to be the show of the year.

Meanwhile, back to the digits.

Album sales were up 1% vs. last week, up 9% vs. same week last year and down 3% year to date.

Track sales were up 2% vs. last week, up 11% vs. same week last year and up 6% year to date.

TEA sales were up 1% vs. last week, up 9% vs. same week last year and flat year to date.