I may be one of only a handful who actually like MGMT’s Congratulations oodles more than Oracular Spectacular, though I feel fairly confident that even the harshest of critics will enjoy Air’s remix of “It’s Working.”  In this case, France’s friendliest electronica duo strip the song down, focusing on bass and beats. The result is a more atmospheric MGMT, with almost none of the sunny excitement of the original song.

That’s not to say Air’s MGMT remix is dark, just more serious – though the end of the song soars. For those who wanted to like Congratulations, but just couldn’t bring themselves to, perhaps this will let you find some middle ground. You can download MGMT – It’s Working (Air Remix) over at RCRD LBL.

MGMT – It’s Working (Air Remix)

Back with this week’s Millah Mix –this time it’s a sampling of some sweet cover songs I’ve been rocking out to recently. Covers like Robyn’s excellent live version of Alicia Keys‘ “Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart” that emerged last week, a great folksy rendition of MGMT’s “Kids” that’s made the rounds on the interwebz, The Morning Benders‘ solid take on the indestructible pop gem that is Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”, plus a recent addition to the increasingly intriguing Beck’s Record Club (this time featuring St. Vincent, Liars and, my favorite psychedelic pop group, Os Mutantes).

And if those don’t peak yr interest, there’s also Miley Cyrus butchering taking on one of the greatest most popular songs in music history: Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”. Yes, that one.

Now let’s get to it.
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Don’t ever put MGMT in a box –figuratively or literally. Also, ice cream is delicious and colors are fun.

Off last year’s excellent Seek Magic, I’m pretty sure this Memory Tapes clip for “Bicycle” is comprised of visuals from that creepy boat ride scene in Willy Wonka –though, a lot less creepy.

Speaking of creepy, last, but certainly not least, we have The Flaming Lips video for “The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine”. Chock full of monkeys and shrouded people torturing a young woman, this one is, well, in a word, interesting. In a 4-letter abbreviation, NSFW. Head on over to Stereogum to watch, but be forewarned.

Check out previous posts on MGMT here.

UPDATED AGAIN AGAIN – Link is back! – “Alps” removed per request by Ratatat/XL Recordings. Replaced with LazerProof!

Memorial Day is upon us. Finally, it’s like, really Summer. Let’s celebrate the warmer weather and our fleeting freedom from the daily grind with some excellent new music. So call your friends, fire up the grill and pop open a cold one, cause this is the May 2010 Millah Mix. It’s rocking some brand new tracks from Robyn (you should be shocked if she wasn’t included), Usher, Sleigh Bells (amazing album –you must get it!), MGMT, and yes, even Katy Perry –who is making her second Millah Mix appearance in just as many weeks (if you recall, she did an awesome cover of the aforementioned MGMT’s “Electric Feel”). Oh yeah, and there’s also a brand spankin’ new Menomena track, as well as some new Ratatat, off their yet-to-be-released LP4 delightful LazerProof.

I dunno about you, but I always go really pop-y during the Summer. Honestly, it’s when radio gets the best and most ridiculous songs. Which is why this month’s mix is peppered with a few (more) radio-friendly tracks than ever before (coughKaty Perrycough). At any rate, I hope you enjoy it!

Download, listen and let me know what you think after the jump.
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Back again with this month’s themed mix (as opposed to each month’s straight-up-awesome new music mixes): more cover songs! This time around the picks are a bit more random. Sometimes it’s a create band, sometimes it’s a great song –sometimes it’s both. And, as I mentioned with the last covers mix, this is by no means my definitive cover songs mix. Though, I gotta say, this mix is great. Fantastic, even. Oh, and it’s longer, both in time (70+ minutes!) and number of tracks (21!). Seriously, this is the Longest.Millah Mix.Ever.

Download, listen and let me know what you think after the jump.
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MGMT may have lost a heated battle to Vampire Weekend in TRT’s March Music Madness tourney, but pretty safe to say the guys aren’t sitting back licking their wounds. MGMT will The psych-pop duo have just announced plans to take their show global this summer in support of their yet-to-be-released (April 13th) sophomore album Congratulations! The tour is quite extensive and will kick off the night before the album hits stores by playing San Francisco’s Fillmore on April 12th.  MGMT will also make stops at the Coachella, Bamboozle, and Lollapalooza fests. And when they get done with North America, they’ll spend their fall and winter touring Europe.  We’ve got all their dates below. Also, you can listen to Congratulations in its entirety at Pitchfork.

MGMT Tour Dates:

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
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Lollapalooza 2010 is sure to have a little something for everyone this year with confirmed headliners in Green Day, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Phoenix and recently reunited Soundgarden. The massive festival will include over 124 performers over a 3 day period (Aug 6th-8th) at Grand Park in Chicago, Illinois.

Other acts include Erykah Badu, Raphael Saadiq, Grizzly Bear, MGMT, Hot Chip, Chromeo, The New Pornographers, Spoon, Matt & Kim, Hockey and more. There are some veteran acts that will return to the stage during the festival including Devo, Social Distortion, Mavis Staples, Cypress Hill, and Blues Traveler (they count as “veteran” no?)

I’m not much of a festival fan – but the current lineup leans towards a more rock-centric focus, so it should be interesting to see how people respond to the likes of Lady Gaga. Not to mention, how the fan bases get along in the crowd. I mean, Gaga’s “little monsters” vs. Soundgarden faithful and Green Day moshers? Check out the full line up at the official Lollapalooza site or after the cut.

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First Week Results
First Round: No. 1 vs. No. 8
First Round: No. 2 vs. No. 7
First Round: No. 3 vs. No. 6
First Round: No. 4 vs. No. 5

So far, the grassroots indie campaigns have represented well with three of the No. 8 seeds surviving to the Elite Eight, and all four No. 7s awaiting Monday’s action with hopes of doing the same.

Top-seeded Jay-Z was the only music giant to make it out of the first round, speaking volumes about the fan bases of Tony Lucca, Broken Social Scene and Matthew Mayfield.

Let’s just hope the site doesn’t crash on Tuesday. (more…)

Although I’m the first to complain about losing that precious hour of sleep for DST, I really do love Spring with it’s hopeful themes of rebirth and renewal –not to mention chocolate bunnies and colored eggs (oh wait, that’s just Easter). At any rate, I present to you: Ghostface Millah Mix, Volume 4 – Spring Awesomeness! Still going for that Side A/Side B album kinda feel: Side A is more melancholic (Winter melting away…) and Side B is more uptempo & hopeful (Spring is here!) –with everything being recently released or dropping soon.

Oh, and p.s. the Gonjasufi and MGMT albums are great. If you like their respective tracks on this mix, I highly recommend you pickup the full-lengths.

Download link after the jump. Give it a listen and let me know what you think in the comments.

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Welcome to the Sweet 16! We’ve narrowed the field to 16 and your favorites are ready to take on their opponents in the second round of TRT’s March Music Madness. So far, the results have been pretty staggering with many of the higher seeds advancing while the big name mainstream stars have been kicked to the side. We’re interested to see if Round 1 darlings Matt Mayfield, Ashley Arrison (Cinderella), and Tony Lucca will continue to crush the competition. Or will Jay-Z, the only No. 1 seed still standing, help the mainstream monsters maintain their dignity?

Yesterday’s results
(5) Passion Pit def. (4) Alkaline Trio
(4) Vampire Weekend def. (5) MGMT
(4) Ke$ha def. (5) Cursive
(4) Jason Derulo def. (5) Of Montreal

Sweet 16 Match-Ups:

(8) Broken Social Scene vs. (5) Passion Pit
(1) Jay-Z vs. (4) Vampire Weekend
(8) Tony Lucca vs. (4) Ke$ha
(8) Matt Mayfield vs. (4) Jason Derulo

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