Days after praising Alphabeat for making the music world a little more flat by releasing new single, “Vacation,” near-simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic, Garbage confounds my quest for geographic equality.

A couple of weeks ago, Garbage made a global splash with “Blood For Poppies,” from Not Your Kind Of People, their first studio album in seven years. Now the returning alt-rock heroes are touting a different track, “Battle In Me,” as their UK single. What the huh?

“Battle In Me” is, of course, top-notch, sounding like a harder-charging “Only Happy When It Rains.”

Here in the U.S., it’s still all about “Blood For Poppies.” After Garbage gave the song away gratis for a week, the single’s now up on download services for purchase, with a music video filmed and coming soon. Should we expect a video for “Battle In Me” too?

Garbage isn’t the only band handling first-single matters with a split strategy. Keane are previewing their forthcoming album, Strangeland, in the U.S. via “Silenced By The Night,” with “Disconnected” picked for UK introductory honors. (Listen to “Disconected” here.)

Ah, progress. Always one step forward, two steps back.

Garbage – Not Your Kind Of People is out 5/15 on the band’s STUNVOLUME label (pre-order via iTunes, Amazon).

Purchase Garbage – “Blood For Poppies” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.