MGMT are back with their self-titled third studio album – MGMT – set to be released on September 17. The successor to 2008’s Oracular Spectacular and 2010’s Congratulations, MGMT finds Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser continuing to push themselves to expand the boundaries of modern pop music.
Returning to Tarbox Road Studios to work with longtime collaborator Dave Fridmann (Co-producer and mixer of Oracular Spectacular and Congratulations, The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala), Andrew and Ben experimented with various in-studio writing processes, allowing the music to tell them where it wanted to go. The result is a diverse and powerful collection of 10 songs (including a cover of “Introspection” by 1960’s psych band Faine Jade) that directly mirrors the duo’s encompassing surrealist view of the everyday (see below for full track listing).
In preparation for the highly anticipated release of MGMT, the band have begun assembling a variety of unique visual elements to accompany and illuminate the new music via “the Optimizer”. Produced by MGMT live show video instrumentalist Alejandro Crawford, “the Optimizer” provides listeners of the album with a simultaneously aural & optical listening experience featuring video & CGI work by Andrew Benson, Emilio Gomariz, Geoffrey Lillemon, and Chris Timms. “the Optimizer” is part of an enhanced album package available on all commercial formats.
“Your Life Is A Lie” will be the first music video released and finds MGMT again working with Tom Kuntz, director of the band’s 2010 mini-epic “Congratulations” who has also received wide acclaim for his groundbreaking commercial and short film work. Up-and-coming indie director Sam Fleischner will be creating a clip for “Alien Days”, and a video for the serpentine “Cool Song No. 2” is also in the works, both to be shot this summer.
The full track listing for MGMT is as follows:
Alien Days
Cool Song No. 2
Mystery Disease
Introspection
Your Life Is a Lie
A Good Sadness
Astro-Mancy
I Love You Too, Death
Plenty Of Girls In the Sea
An Orphan Of Fortune
North American Tour Dates:
July 3 Milwaukee, WI Summerfest/BMO Harris Bank
July 5-7 Kelowna, CA Keloha Music & Arts Festival
July 9 Quebec, ON Festival D’Ete International De Quebec
July 12 Lansing, MI Common Ground Music Festival
July 13 Cincinnati, OH Bunbury Music Festival
August 24 Monterey, CA Monterey County Fairgrounds
August 25 Los Angeles, CA FYF Festival
August 26 Las Vegas, NV The Pool at The Cosmopolitan
August 29 Davis, CA Mondavi Center
August 31 Bend, OR Les Schwab Amphitheatre
September 1 Troutdale, OR Edgefield Amphitheatre
September 2 Seattle, WA Bumbershoot Festival
September 4 Boise, ID Knitting Factory
September 5 Salt Lake City, UT Twilight Concert Series
September 6 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium
European Tour Dates (Guards supporting):
September 26 Cologne, Germany Live Music Hall
September 27 Brussels, Belgium AB
September 29 Stockholm, Sweden Cirkus
September 30 Oslo, Norway SentrumScene
October 1 Copenhagen, Denmark Vega Main Hall
October 3 Berlin, Germany Astra Kulturhaus
October 4 Vienna, Austria Gasometer
October 5 Munich, Germany Kesselhaus
October 6 Zurich, Switzerland Komplex 457
October 8 Paris, France Olympia
October 9 Hamburg, Germany Docks
October 10 Utrecht, Netherlands Vredenburg Leidsche
October 12 Glasgow, UK 02 ABC
October 13 Wolverhampton, UK Civic Hall
October 14 Manchester, UK O2 Apollo Manchester
October 16 London, UK Forum
October 19 Dublin, Ireland Olympia Theatre
[youtube id=”uG2Pgd6Tm7Q” width=”630″ height=”350″]
