Passion Pit

From a Valentine's gift to Manners

Michael Angelakos, born on May 19, 1987 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, wrote the first Passion Pit songs at Emerson College as a belated Valentine's Day gift for his girlfriend, first performed alone on a laptop, and these became the Chunk of Change EP (September 16, 2008, Frenchkiss). The band formed in 2007 in Cambridge, with Ian Hultquist, Ayad Al Adhamy, Jeff Apruzzese and Nate Donmoyer, and won Best New Local Act in the WFNX and Boston Phoenix poll. Manners (May 2009, produced by Chris Zane, recorded in November and December 2008 at Gigantic in New York, with PS22 Chorus overdubs on January 16, 2009) reached 51 in the US and 55 in the UK, went Gold, and drew an 8.1 from Pitchfork's Ian Cohen and five stars from the Guardian's Paul MacInnes. They played Glastonbury in 2009, toured with Muse in September 2010 and were Act of the Year at the 2009 Boston Music Awards.

Gossamer (July 2012) reached 4 on the Billboard 200 with 37,000 first week and went Gold; Pitchfork's Cohen called it an overwhelming album about being overwhelmed. They played Saturday Night Live on October 13, 2012 and sold out Madison Square Garden on February 8, 2013. Hultquist announced his departure in October 2014, Kindred followed on April 21, 2015 (23 on the Billboard 200), and Tremendous Sea of Love, produced by Angelakos, went up on YouTube on March 24, 2017 and officially on July 28 on Wishart Group Recordings. A Manners tenth anniversary tour of 18 North American dates ran from April 30 to May 25, 2019, and Frenchkiss reissued Manners on vinyl on June 21, 2024. Setlist.fm lists roughly 570 setlists and shows through October 2026.