Fall Out Boy hits No.1 with ‘Infinity’

FALL OUT BOY, the rock quartet that hails from the suburbs of Chicago and nicked its name from “The Simpsons,” had the No. 1 album in the country this week with “Infinity on High,” which sold 260,000 copies its first week in stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

It was a narrow victory for the pop-punk band. Last week’s No. 1 album, Norah Jones’ “Not Too Late,” sold 235,000 more copies to finish at No. 2 and bring its two-week total to 642,000.

Fall Out Boy, which shares its name with the sidekick of Bart Simpson’s fave superhero, Radioactive Man, caught the eye of fans on the Warped Tour and then cut through to major commercial success with the hit “Sugar, We’re Going Down” and the multi-platinum album “From Under the Cork Tree,” which cracked the Top 10 in 2005.

The reach of “High School Musical,” the hit of 2006, continues as another alumni tries to graduate to a solo career. Ashley Tisdale, the New Jersey native who portrayed cloying Sharpay Evans in the hit Disney Channel movie, debuts at No. 5 this week with her first solo album, “Headstrong,” which sold 64,000 copies.

Tisdale made a bit of music history last year when “What I’ve Been Looking For” and “Bop to the Top,” two songs she sang in “High School Musical,” made her the first female artist to ever debut with two songs simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100.

At No. 8 this week is Jason Michael Carroll, a North Carolina country singer whose first major-label collection, “Waitin’ in the Country,” sold 58,000 copies during its first week on shelves. Carroll has a poignant hit in “Alyssa Lies,” about a man who learns that his daughter’s playmate has been lying to cover up the abuse she suffers at home.

“Weekend in the City,” the new CD from Bloc Party, debuts at No. 12 with 48,000 copies sold. It’s the second studio album from the post-punk London band, which plays the Wiltern LG on March 19 and 20.

geoff.boucher@latimes.com