Slash and co. from GnR with a new band PLUS the lead singer of one of the biggest rock groups of the 90s.
There's no reason why VR *shouldnt* have sold well.
I agree with that...I was using it in the sense of a more-than-established band with a (like it or not) big-name lead singer...
Members of STP (using the name to boot) could be the equivalent to Scott in the VR example, and while LP isn't GNR, they also aren't poor-album-selling garage band.
Would Audioslave be better comparison?
I just thought STP w/ CB would have fared better, especially being that OOT was such a rock radio hit.
EP's don't sell, especially these days. There's just not a whole lot to digest in 5 songs, so people don't see the point in going out and buying a copy. Only big hit rock EP I can recall is Alice In Chains' Jar of Flies, but that had 7 songs/was released in the band's prime/had one of their biggest hits ever on it.
If they'd released a full album it would have sold more.
I normally agree with a lot of what you say, but I really do think the strength of the songs and anticipation has more to do with it. There was not much anticipation for Chester and STP--not nearly as much as there was for LP's collaborative EP with Jay-Z. Jar of Flies was the hotly anticipated follow-up to Dirt, which exploded AiC, and it also contained two big hits. One of the songs (albeit technically a single), is an instrumental, so there are really only 6 traditional songs on it, one of which is kind of a novelty swing song. But it was highly anticipated and had high quality songs, including a huge hit.
By contrast, Sap was not as anticipated and didn't have near the hits or quality songs, and sold a lot less.
STPw/CB's EP was not that anticipated--hell, it even had STP fans split--and the songs are average, probably not singles on a stronger release.