Buy the album on Amazon – Vinyl | MP3 | CD

Pepper Rabbit, the New Orleans-born but Los Angeles-based duo that consists of Xander Singh and Luc Laurent, are a dreamy yet cerebral outfit.  Their sound and image is almost avant-garde, and their last record and debut LP, “Beauregard,” was a lo-fi, multi-instrumentalist wonder, far exceeding any and all expectations one could have for a debut.  At first glance, they seem an unlikely duo, which isn’t surprising, since they met by chance, upon an introduction by a mutual friend. But their music is so well-crafted and finely-honed that it seems they’ve been together for decades.

Their latest, “Red Velvet Snow Ball,” further expands on the surreal-yet-accessible sound “Beauregard” brought and packs it with kicks–vocal, synth, electric and otherwise.  “Tiny Fingers” kicks the album off with a tinny, swaying, floaty sound that leads comfortably into the punchier, 80’s-infused “The Ballad Of Alessandro Moreschi,”  a slightly more percussive, more anthemic song.

“Red Velvet Snow Ball” seems to only pick up momentum as it progresses (a snowball, indeed), and tracks three and four, “Dance Card” and “In Search Of Simon Birch” are increasingly ambitious, with the latter bringing vocals not unlike those of Fleet Foxes: dreamy, pastoral, sweeping.  Track five, “Murder Room” and its follower, “Family Planning,” unfortunately lead away from the organic feel of “Simon Birch,” but they’re nevertheless enjoyable tracks, reminiscent of something that might have been on Passion Pit’s “Manners.”

But these are just slight missteps, and “The Annexation Of Puerto Rico,” packed with echoing vocals and driving percussion bits, comes in just in time to pick up the album for its final tracks.  “Allison” and “Rose Mary Stretch” punchily lead into the closing track, “Lake House,” which deserves to be blasted on a sunny day and danced to unabashedly.

In every song, Pepper Rabbit slightly resemble their contemporaries.  The soft crooning at the beginning of “In Search Of Simon Birch” calls to mind an early Ben Gibbard, singing the opening of the acoustic version “405.” (Which seems a completely appropriate parallel for the LA-based Pepper Rabbit.)  Echoes of Phoenix and MGMT, especially tracks from “Congratulations,” are present in synth and electric sounds and floaty-yet-punchy vocals.  But these similarities don’t peg Pepper Rabbit as off-knockers, but rather as completely with their time. Their sound is at once fresh and familiar, and “Red Velvet Snow Ball,” only their sophomore LP, will hopefully be only one of many fantastically-crafted albums from this duo.

Connect with Pepper Rabbit: Facebook | Twitter | MySpace | Website | Last.fm

All I’m going to say about this is that I have no idea what the fuck is going on.  If you can figure it out, please let me know.

Listen to their previous singles below.

MGMT – “Flash Delirium”
MGMT – “Congratulations”

(via WeListenForYou)

No seriously, someone tell me what the fridge was going on there.

Have you seen this video yet?  It’s pretty freaky, with talking throats and shit, but before you watch the making of, watch the whole thing in its original form first.

MGMT are playing Letterman tonight but they’re also doing a live webcast of the entire gig, a 45 minute set “encompassing songs from both albums”.  Their second album “Congratulations” was released last month to completely polarising reviews, many either hating it or loving it.  A lot of those who said they hated it were basing it off of their love for the first album, and a lot of the ones who said they loved it were basing it off of their dislike for the first album.

You’ll just have to give it a listen for yourself and decide.

You can watch the whole set below live from 8pm EST and in the meantime listen to the songs “Congratulations” and “Flash Delirium” and watch the video for the latter.

Buy “Congratulations”

• eMusic: Sign up for free and get your first 25 songs absolutely free. Tracks start at just $0.50, half the price of iTunes.
• Insound: LP |  CD
• Amazon: CD | LP

MGMT – “Flash Delirium”
MGMT – “Congratulations”

Credit where credit’s due, the only reason I got this is thanks to Twitter, WeListenForYou, TheMusicNinja, and PrettyMuchAmazing.

It’s a pretty weird (good) video, for a somewhat mediocre song, at least until the last quarter of it when it really kicks in. Flash Delirium is out now as a free download and you can pre-order MGMT’s second album due out on April 13th.

Pre-order “Congratulations” – Amazon

[Update] For some unknown reason Spinner have removed all known traces of the stream, however I got my hands on the MP3, so check it out below.

MGMT are set to release their much anticipated second album “Congratulations” in the next couple of months and the guys over at Spinner have an exclusive first listen of the song “Flash Delirium”. Check it out below and let me know what you think.

Also, thanks to WeAllWantSomeone you can hear the title track “Congratulations” too.

[Update] Ok, so after listening to it repeatedly, I really really like it.  It starts of quietly and ends epicly (new word).  Now I can’t wait for the album to drop.

(via MGMT)

MGMT have just announced that from today U.S. residents can preorder “Congratulations”  from their store with three options available.  It’ll be available from April 13th:

1. Standard CD – $11
2. Limited Edition CD – $13 - Scratch off front cover with custom metal coin, 32 page booklet of photos and lyrics
3. Vinyl LP – $25 - 12″ Double LP pressed on 180 Gram Vinyl, Limited Edition Scratch Off Cover, Digital Download Card Included

Each version also has the option of adding a limited edition lithograph for $4 that will be numbered and only available through the preorder phase.

Still no artwork though.

(via MGMT)

Those rascalian (I could’ve sworn that was a proper word), electro Gypsy-wannabes from the future MGMT have revealed the details for their second album “Congratulations”, the followup to 2007′s almost album of the year “Oracular Spectacular”. It has a release date of April 13th and their site has a countdown to it, currently at 62:23:17:11.  Also on their site is a link to “Preorder” that states “Check back this week for an exclusive MGMT pre-order offer!”, so we may have some album artwork on the way too.

Band member Andrew Vanwyngarden spoke to Spin about the new album after they waterboarded him until he gave up the information they were looking for: The tracklisting for “Congratulations”:

“It’s Working”
“Song for Dan Treacy”
“Someone’s Missing”
“Flash Delirium”
“I Found a Whistle”
“Siberian Breaks”
“Brian Eno”
“Lady Dada’s Nightmare”
“Congratulations”

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

Congratulations‘ nine songs are “sequenced to flow with sonic and thematic coherence.” And according to Vanwyngarden, the album moves from “Lady Dada’s Nightmare,” a “very nightmare-ish sounding” instrumental track inspired by the “Poker Face” pop star, to “Congratulations,” a song written about fame and the “worldwide economic crisis.” Through it all, he said, there’s one unifying influence: surfing, a sport he picked up while recording in Malibu.

“There’s a surfing thread throughout the record,” he explained, citing another new song, called “It’s Working.” “When you’re surfing, there’s a specific break you’re paddling to. And when the waves are really good you say, ‘It’s working.’ The song kind of has a surf-y vibe. It’s like surfing on ecstasy!”

(via Spin)