Sound Rug

MGMT is far too original to go mainstream, although pop success is theirs to have judging by the success of their first album ‘Oracular Spectacular’. Their sophomore album, ‘Congratulations’, which is officially out today, is far from the indie pop sound that put them on the map. As a warning to their fans, 26-yr-old, Andrew Van Wyngarden says this about ‘Congratulations’:

“It’s definitely going to shock people. We dropped any sort of irony that was on the first record, and Congratulations feels true to who we really are,”

The NY psych-pop duo wanted to change their sound to avoid floating down the main stream and have refused offers with big touring acts to stay true to their originality.

 “We’ve recently been offered support slots with a ton of big bands. Really huge, enormous, big bands – Like Lady GaGa and U2 and Coldplay and Foo Fighters. And we turned them all down. We really didn’t want to do any of that. I think on some level ‘Congratulations’ is a reaction to the success of the first one. I mean, of course we were happy and felt lucky that stuff happened, but it wasn’t really what we were shooting for. I think a lot of people misinterpreted and misunderstood what we were about.”, says Andrew.

You can listen to ‘Congratulations’ in it’s entirety, on their website, which they offered so that their fans could hear the music from them rather than a leaked copy on the inets (hear the whole thing now.) They kicked-off their North American tour at The Fillmore in San Francisco, CA, last night, which will include Coachella, Bamboozle, and Lollapalooza fests. Their European tour begins in the fall and will end mid December in Lisbon.

MGMT:

04-07 Sydney, Australia – Metro Theatre
04-12 San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
04-13 San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
04-17 Indio, California – Coachella
04-29 Toronto, Ontario – The Mod Club
04-30 Durham, NH – University of New Hampshire
05-02 East Rutherford, NJ – Bamboozle
05-28 San Luis Obispo, CA – Avila Beach Bowl
05-29 Santa Cruz, CA – Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
05-31 George, WA – Sasquatch Festival
06-01 Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
06-02 Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
06-04 Salt Lake City, UT – In the Venue
06-06 Austin, TX – Stubbs
06-07 Houston, TX – House of Blues
06-08 Dallas, TX – House of Blues
06-11 Morrison, CO – Red Rocks
06-13 Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theatre
06-14 Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue
06-15 Columbus, OH – LC Pavilion
06-16 Detroit, MI – Fillmore
06-18 Chicago, IL – Rivera Theatre
06-20 Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theatre
08-08 Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza
09-16 Dublin, Ireland – Olympia
09-20 Glasgow, Scotland – Barrowland Ballroom
09-23 Birmingham, England – 02 Academy
09-24 Bournemouth, England – 02 Academy
09-26 Manchester, England – Manchester Apollo
09-29 London, England – Brixton Academy
09-30 London, England – Brixton Academy
10-03 Brussels, Belgium – AB Café / Resto
10-04 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso
10-07 Paris, France – Bataclan
10-08 Paris, France – Bataclan
11-29 Dusseldorf, Germany – Stahlwerk
11-30 Hamburg, Germany – Docks
12-02 Oslo, Norway – Sentrum Scene
12-03 Stockholm, Sweden – Berns
12-04 Copenhagen, Denmark – Vega
12-06 Berlin, Germany – Columbiahalle
12-07 Munich, Germany – Tonhalle
12-08 Vienna, Austria – Gasometer
12-10 Prague, Czech Republic – Archa Theatre
12-12 Milan, Italy – Alcatraz
12-13 Zurich, Switzerland – Maag Hall
12-14 Lyon, France – Le Transbordeur
12-16 Barcelona, Spain – Razzmatazz
12-17 Madrid, Spain – La Riviera
12-18 Lisbon, Portugal – Campo Pequeno

source: Pitchfork

photo: public promo image for ‘Congratulations’