The album just name’s itself. The album cover comes from a photo taken with Rivers Cuomo and Jorge Garcia, but clearly the decision was made to crop the photo and let it be thy name.  And simply enough it’s called ‘Hurley’ - you gotta love it.
‘Hurley’ is due out Sept. 14 via indie label, Epitaph Records.

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’

They consider themselves a brand, the Black Eyed Peas band leader will.i.am says about the group. They’re the pushers of products like Coors, Levi’s, Honda, Apple, Verizon, Pepsi in exchange for video budgets, underwritten tours, and exposure. On their current tour, BlackBerry delivers text messages sent from audience members, that are seen on two huge stage screens, as will.i.am performs them via freestyle rap.

 ”I consider us a brand. A brand always has stylized decks, from colors to fonts. Here’s our demographic. Here’s the reach. Here’s the potential. Here’s how the consumer will benefit from the collaboration.”

If will.i.am wasn’t in music, “He’d be the best ad executive on Madison Avenue,” says Randy Phillips, president and CEO of the concert promoter AEG Live, who says he plans to have will.i.am deliver a seminar to AEG’s global marketing team. “I’ve never seen anyone more astute at dealing with sponsors’ and companies’ needs and understanding their brands.”  Fresh off of a tech meeting stint with about 20 Silicon Valley companies, will.i.am injected “Google” into a song and sent shout-outs to the fellow geeks in the audience–”All the technology lovers make some noise!”

It used to be record sales that drove success to a band, but Black Eyed Peas has made their music about corporate connections and brand recognition. Just last month, they held a concert in Times Square to promote Samsung’s new line of 3-D televisions that led to a link-up with James Cameron, who was also there to endorse the 3-D televisions. Talks of a feature film collaboration are in now in the works.

image: Pepsi/Getty Images

source: WSJ

As Cramer sat down, Jon was very cordial. He asked, “How did it come to this?”.

As the interview itself began, Stewart became more serious, and focused. He pulled out video, from 2006, in which Cramer was practically condoning, and encouraging, the behavior that brought the nation into the financial meltdown. He proceeded to tear into Mr. Cramer like we wish reporters would do of people that actually matter, and he didn’t let up until the end of the interview. While he didn’t attack Mr. Cramer personally, he made it very obvious how he felt about CNBC’s brand of journalism.

Personally, I applaud Jon Stewart, and his ability to point out the wrong in both right, and left wing politics. I also believe he could hang easily with anyone, in any press corp, anywhere.

In case you missed TV this week amongst the hustle and bustle of the Thanksgiving holiday, Beyonce was out there performing.  She was GMA and The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week and gave all the “Single Ladies” a little advice.

She’ll be ready and prime for her upcoming American tour.

Good work Daddy Spears.

Do you think the people that came out to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade understood the value of a live Rickrolling?  This is where No matter, we thought it was funny.  Those Americans are all about the laughs.

See for yourself.

A once American Idol contestant, Paula Godspeed on Season 5, was found dead outside of the L.A. home of Paula Abdul, near Sherman Oaks.  Celeb website, TMZ reported that the 2006 contestant was discovered in her parked car yesterday.  Her death is believed to be a “possible suicide”, although the Los Angeles county coroner’s office has not, yet released official information.

The woman’s parents were aware of her obsession with American Idol judge, Paula Abdul and told police that she may be at Paula’s house, when she went missing.

Paula Abdul had been aware of the obsession for “several years”, Entertainment Tonight reported, and is said to be “shocked and saddened” by her death.

source

Last week, there were rumors that Dell was planning a music player to rival the iPod to reinvigorate its consumer products, but those rumors have since been quelled . On Monday, the Dell blog states clearly that a music player will not be part of their long-term plans to reach consumers.

“As we said a few months ago, our strategy focuses on content offerings and delivery platforms that mix Zing software, remote access and pre-configured media bundles across all of our devices, including licensing agreements with entertainment distributors,” said the post. “It has never been about a music player.”

So for now, don’t expect Dell to jump into the music game.  Apple still has that market and will probably dominate the music market with their slick music products for years to come.

Last week the world lost one of the greatest singers that ever lived, Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac.  She was 86 years old when she passed away on November 1, 2008. Yma was famous for her boundless vocal range.

This week, the world lost another singing legend, South African Miriam Makeba, who had been banned from her own country for more than 30 years until Nelson Mandela’s personal urging to return back to Africa. Makeba, known as, “Mama Afrika”, died on stage Sunday night, during her concert in Italy at age 76.

Get the full story here on BBC.