Norah Jones, MGMT's Ben Goldwasser and Yeasayer's Ira Wolf Tuton all appear in new film, 'Wah Do Dem', directed by Sam Fleischner and Ben Chace. The story follows a recently dumped skateboarder who travels to Jamaica.

Yeasayer and MGMT both feature on the film's soundtrack, too, alongside Santigold and Bones And Suckers. You can see it when it's released on DVD on 26 Oct.

Still hard at work writing songs for their second album, Friendly Fires' Edd Gibson says the band are hoping to learn a few lessons from MGMT's recent comeback.

He told The Daily Record: "I really hope we are not going to do what MGMT did.Whatever it is they have done, we want to steer well clear of it.I don't understand why they would make such a leap, go from great pop songs to just any old acoustic music played in anyone's bedroom".

In a addition to not changing their sound too much, the band have also kept their recording set up much the same as before, with frontman Ed Macfarlane continuing to produce new recordings in his garage. Gibson explained: "As we speak we are in Ed's garage, where we did the first album, trying to write new songs.We haven't moved on to some lavish studio, we're back where it all began. It's nice we are still doing it that way, we're our own bosses.I'm in the garden, there are birds tweeting, it's really nice. I don't think we are ready for the high gloss studios yet.We haven't really changed anything dramatically apart from the gear that we are using".

He added that the band have currently completed four new songs for the album, and will air at least one of them live this summer.

I finally watched 'Up' this weekend, which might explain the upbeat selections featuring in this week's Five Day Forecast. Or maybe this week is just a particularly celebratory one. Something to certainly look forward to is Record Store Day on Saturday, which dresses the gloomy stats on the dwindling number of independent record shops remaining in the UK in party hats and forces them to do a little dance. That's the way I like my gloom.

01: Record Store Day. The internet's nice and all, but there's something about flicking through the racks of a record shop that the digital world hasn't yet managed to replicate. This Saturday the fourth annual Record Store Day will celebrate that fact with all sorts of exclusive releases and in-store performances at independent record shops throughout the land (and indeed the world). Our local shop, Rough Trade East, has a whole load of great stuff going on, including performances from Ash, Laurie Anderson, Caribou and more. You'll also be able to buy a new Blur single, more on which later in today's Daily.

02: CMU promo survey. The way music is serviced to journalists is changing. Where once writers were buried under mountains of CDs, labels are more keen to lower costs, create less waste and most of all plug potential leaks by sending out new music digitally. Sony Music recently announced that they will no longer send out promo CDs, and only offer streaming audio. But how well does this work and what do journalists think of this new way of doing things? How about you find out when we announce the results of a recent survey of 100 music journalists on all things promo this week?

03: Awards frenzy. The music industry is not without its fair share of awards, and this week there will be events relating to a couple of the more frowny-faced on offer. First up, tonight some of the biggest names in classical music will gather at London's Mayfair Hotel to hear the nominations for the eleventh Classical BRIT awards. Then on Thursday this year's Music Week Awards will be dished out at the Park Lane Hilton, including a lifetime achievement gong for Universal Music International chief Lucian Grainge.

04: Exciting new releases. What new delights could you be feeding your stereo this week? Well, for fans of Latin accordion music (and why wouldn't you be?) the fantastic Analog Africa label steps out of its comfort zone to release 'Mambo Loco', a compilation of music by Colombian musician Anibal Velasquez. Meanwhile, Japandroids are ready with 'Art Czars', the first of a series of five single releases, and Cancer Bats' new album 'Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones' hits the shelves, as does MGMT's opinion-dividing 'Congratulations'.

05: Thrilling gigs. There are oh so many gigs happening this week. Gary Numan is playing The Scala in London tonight, while just up the road Band Of Horses will be noodling away in Koko. Ellie Goulding, Mos Def, Russian Circles and Rolo Tomassi will all be playing various shows around the country and new digital music service Mflow will be holding its launch party at Ronnie Scott's on Wednesday, with performances from Lauren Pritchard and Pete Lawrie. And, who knows, maybe Whitney Houston will actually get her European tour underway in Birmingham on Wednesday. Stranger things have happened.

Hey, this week sounds like fun. You may don the party hat, which should have been sellotaped to the top of your CMU Daily, right now.

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU Daily

MGMT will be over in the UK and Ireland in September as part of their upcoming world tour, which is already under way.

The band will, obviously, be working to promote their second, opinion-dividing album, 'Congratulations', which they say was influenced by a mixture of confusion and brevity. Andrew VanWyngarden told Xfm: "We finished touring in December 2008 and at the end of January 2009 we started writing and recording. We really didn't give ourselves much time. That's why a lot of the songs are more... not cynical... we didn't know what had happened to us and that's what comes through in a lot of the songs".

Tour dates:

16 Sep: Dublin, Olympia
20 Sep: Glasgow, Barrowlands
23 Sep: Birmingham, Academy
24 Sep: Bournemouth, Academy
26 Sep: Manchester, Apollo
29 Sep: London, Brixton Academy
30 Sep: London, Brixton Academy

MGMT have made their second album, 'Congratulations', available to stream for free on their website after it leaked last week. The album will be available to buy in downloadable and physical form on 12 Apr.

Announcing the stream, the band said: "Hey everybody, the album leaked, and we wanted you to be able to hear it from us. We wanted to offer it as a free download but that didn't make sense to anyone but us".

Listen here: www.whoismgmt.com

MGMT have apparently apologised for 'Flash Delerium', which was made available as a free download last week and is the first song to be released from the duo's second album, 'Congratulations', after the response to it was not entirely positive.

Ben Goldwasser told Spinner: "When we first wrote that song, we were laughing so hard. Andrew [VanWyngarden] just reminded me of that - that we thought it was the funniest thing we'd ever heard. And then we got used to it, it started to sound more normal. It's not a single, but we thought it was a good way to entice people to listen to the whole record. I'm sure there are plenty of people who think it's completely weird and not what they were expecting. I'm sorry".

Speaking of MGMT, they want to pick you up in their car, but you have to find them: www.whereismgmt.co.uk

Those crazy MGMT boys have gone and released a free MP3 of a track from their new album, called 'Flash Delirium'. You don't even have to give them your email address to get it. How very old fashioned. And while it would be nice to tell you that the track has the immediate impact of 'Time To Pretend' but with everything stepped up a level, that would be a lie. It's early days, though. Maybe it's a grower.
 
The album, 'Congratulations', was produced by Spacemen 3's Sonic Boom, aka Peter Kember, and the group's core duo of Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser were joined for the recording by their live backing band, Matt Asti (bass), Will Berman (drums) and James Richardson (guitar).
 
Download 'Fragile Delirium' here: www.whoismgmt.com

MGMT have announced that they will play Heaven on 18 Mar. That's it, really. Oh, and it's Heaven in London, not the sky, if you were wondering. The duo's new album will be out on 12 Apr. Did we tell you that before? Well, we definitely have now. Never let it be said that we aren't thoroughly informative.

MGMT will release their second album, 'Congratulations', in the US on 13 Apr, Spin has revealed. Which means it's likely to hit UK shelves on 12 Apr.

As previously reported, the album was produced by former Spacemen 3 man Peter Kember, with the music performed by the duo, Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, and their live band, guitarist James Richardson, bassist Matt Asti and drummer Will Berman. Royal Trux frontwoman Jennifer Herrema also provides guest vocals on at least one track.

Here's the tracklist, list fans:

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

MGMT's Andrew VanWyngarden has said that the groovy duo's new album 'Congratulations' has been partially influenced by Lady Gaga and Kanye West, though don't panic, not musically.

No, the concept of fame and the pursuit of it is the theme that's been running through the MGMT duo's minds as they work on their second long player, hence them thinking of Gaga and West. Speaking to Spin.com, VanWyngarden admitted that he and bandmate Ben Goldwasser started living the life they were trying to mock with debut album 'Oracular Spectacular'.

He said: "We were a group of guys in their mid-20s touring around the world and of course we are going to party. But after a while we all learned that you can't just keep doing that over and over, and the new record addresses those issues".

On fame and the new album he continued: "On some of the new songs, I found myself thinking about Lady Gaga or Kanye West, and what their ultimate goal is. This sounds cheesy, but for us it's really just about the music and getting people to hear what we have to say. I'm sure it's about the music for those people, too... but fame... it's an interesting career".

Currently touring the US with Lady Gaga, Kid Cudi has announced that he will release a new single, 'The Pursuit Of Happiness', on 25 Jan. The track features vocals from MGMT and was produced by Ratatat.

Cudi has promised to keep the collaborations coming on his second album, which he is currently working on in between tour dates and filming his first TV show, 'How To Make It In New York', which will air on HBO next year.

MGMT's second album, 'Congratulations', the follow-up to 2007's 'Oracular Spectacular', will have a dark edge, the band's Andrew Van Wyngarden told The San Francisco Examiner last week.

Of the album's title track, he said: "The song 'Congratulations' itself is pretty dark. It's us trying to deal with all the craziness that's been going on since our last album took off. Sometimes it just doesn't feel natural".

He also said that the album, produced by Spacemen 3's Peter Kember, featured guest vocals from Royal Trux's Jennifer Herrema.

He also spoke a little about the duo's previously reported legal battle with the French government, after President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party used their song 'Kids' in a video without permission. VanWyngarden said: "What made us decide to act was the fact that France was trying to pass this strict anti-piracy legislation at the same time that would punish illegal downloaders. It was pretty blatant of them to do that, so we tried to make a point of taking action".

'Congratulations' is due for release in March 2010.

MGMT have released a new video for their quite-old-now track 'Kids' (actually, I'm not sure they ever made one when it was originally released as a single), which of course featured on the band's 'Oracular Spectacular' album. The video looks like a bad 80s horror movie and features a small child being made to cry. What more could you want? Here it is.

MGMT say they've reached a settlement with France's UMP, the political party of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who the band claimed were infringing copyright by using their track 'Kids' at political events and on the party's website. The duo pointed out the alleged infringement was ironic given that it's the UMP party who are in the process of pushing through stricter copyright laws in France.

A UMP spokesman initially responded by saying that the party's use of the song was covered by a licence from French collecting society SACEM, though added that they'd be double checking to see if the band were fairly compensated for the use of the song. Though for MGMT it wasn't so much a money thing, they just didn't want the French political types using their music.

Anyway, I'm not sure what went on behind the scenes, but it seems the UMP have decided to make a payment of some sort to the band for their use of 'Kids', which suggests the use of the track wasn't fully covered by their SACEM licence. The band have said they'll donate the payment to artist rights organisations.

In a posting on their website last week, the duo wrote: "About two months ago it was brought to our attention (through the MGMT message board) that the UMP French political party was using our song 'Kids' at rallies and posting videos of these rallies on their official website. Normally MGMT steers clear of mixing music and politics, but the fact that the UMP used our song without permission while simultaneously pushing anti-piracy legislation seemed a little wack".

They continued: "We believe that access to music benefits both the musicians and the fans, and has undoubtedly helped spread our music around the globe, while also expanding our personal musical collections. We didn't want to be 'typical Americans' and sue, despite the amazing monetary benefit and chinchilla coats and Navigators it would bring. Instead we're using the settlement fee the UMP presented and donating it to artists rights organizations. Thank you France for the wonderful food. C'est bon. MGMT".