MGMT: CONGRATULATIONS
Columbia records recently tipped us off to some exciting news from one of our favorite bands, MGMT. According to Sony Music, the bands much anticipated new album, Congratulations, will be available in the US and Canada on Tuesday, April 13.
One of 2010’s most eagerly anticipated new releases, Congratulations is the successor to MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular, the 2008 debut album which established the band’s potential as a visionary force in pop music. Congratulations is a collection of nine individual musical tours de force sequenced to flow with sonic and thematic coherence: “It’s Working,” “Song for Dan Treacy,” “Someone’s Missing,” “Flash Delirium,” “I Found a Whistle,” “Siberian Breaks,” “Brian Eno,” “Lady Dada’s Nightmare,” and “Congratulations.”
Produced by MGMT and Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, E.A.R., Spectrum), Congratulations was recorded throughout 2009 in upstate New York, Malibu, and Brooklyn and features Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, MGMT’s core duo, performing with Matt Asti (bass, backing vocals), Will Berman (drums, backing vocals), and James Richardson (guitar, backing vocals), the band’s live line-up.
Congratulations offered MGMT the opportunity to work with a couple of their musical idols and influences including album co-producer Sonic Boom (Pete Kember) and Royal Trux front-woman Jennifer Herrema, who contributed guest vocals. “We’ve been lucky enough to meet and work with some of our all-time musical heroes,” Andrew says, marveling at MGMT’s good collaborative karma. “It’s so great to be around such amazing and unusual musical minds.”
Ben and Andrew first met the mythic Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, E.A.R., Spectrum) at a Spectrum show in London in February 2009 and wound up onstage jamming with the band on “Suicide,” a vintage Spacemen 3 track paying homage to another light in MGMT’s musical pantheon.
MGMT has become an international festival favorite with performances at South By Southwest, Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo in the states and the Glastonbury extravaganza in the UK. The band has toured with Beck, Yeasayer and Of Montreal, among others, while becoming a headline concert attraction in its own right. MGMT is confirmed to appear at the 2010 Coachella and Bamboozle festivals.
With Congratulations, MGMT unlock a new musical world whirling in its own space/time grid infused with hints of music from the past five decades. Soulful and complex, Congratulations is a surprising and delightful quantum step forward in MGMT’s ongoing pop revolution.
Congratulations will be available for pre-order on the band’s website: whoismgmt.com
For more from the band visit Spin.com: http://www.spin.com/articles/exclusive-mgmt-unveil-new-album
