Last week I put that dusty old print journalism degree from Hofstra University to damn fine use by reporting, via late-night Facebook rant, that the new PASSION PIT record won't be out until next year. So what're the rest of the Pit dudes to do when Michael Angelakos is out in Los Angeles (maybe, who the hell knows?) calmly writing/recording/producing the much-anticipated sequel to Manners?

Looks like we'll have to wait until 2012 for the new PASSION PIT record. Last night Michael Angelakos took to Facebook, engaging with fans in a status update thread that started with him "looking forward to some sort of mass abandonment" of the social networking site. More than 50 posts later, Angelakos gave some rare insight to his band's new record, Passion Pit's first since May 2009's Manners

I'm definitely the last person on the planet to be commenting on the BEASTIE BOYS, but these two items both achieved a first in my personal playbook -- neither made me want to rip my ears off, dip then in a shot glass filled with Cholula, and shove them down my throat, and I actually watched/listened to each clip all the way through.

UPDATE: Tweets just in, from Michael Angelakos @mangelakos : The track I did for AMEX has nothing at all to do with Christmas but, hey, if you'd like it to be, happy holidays... It's also solely for American Express. I made it for their use only. Won't be on the album, which will not sound like that either, FYI.

We smell a future collaboration.

The dudes in Nickelback have to be impressed by the unofficial side-stage sing-along provided by Passion Pit and Yes Giantess this past weekend in Japan. Boston's dance-pop elite were joined by 3OH!3 off the Marine Stage for a rousing shout-it-out, first-in-the-air rendition of arena-rock mehahit "How You Remind Me."

Billy Corgan has spoken -- well, Tweeted -- and earlier today gave the all-important seal of approval for Passion Pit's sparkling synthpop waterfall cover of the Smashing Pumpkins' classic "Tonight, Tonight."

Listen to the track here on Perez Hilton's fantastically-mislabeled blog post.

Wrote Corgan:

@billy I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Passion Pit's version of my song 'Tonight, Tonight'.

For the last two days, we've given away pairs of tickets to see PASSION PIT live at Royale (presented by Bowery Boston and American Express) - and a shout-out to Sean Stewart, who won yesterday's contest with some sweet anagrams (like "pop it's a sin"). Today, we've got a pair of tickets plus a meet and greet with the band to give to a fan.

So, you may recall that yesterday we asked you to guess how many words wound up in our big interview with Michael Angelakos. Surely most of you just copied+pasted the text into a Word document and found out that way, but whatever. Anyway, today we'd like you to get a little more creative. Go to our page on Facebook and post your favorite Passion Pit anagram (anagrams, for those who don't know, are words or phrases that are created by re-arranging the letters from a different word or phrase).

This Saturday, Bowery Boston and Zync team up to bring a sneak-attack show starring PASSION PIT at the new Royale (a relatively small place to see these guys nowadays). Tickets are going fast. We have a pair waiting for the first person who can guess the word count of that epic interview we did with Michael Angelakos last year and post it on our Facebook site

No sooner had PHOENIX wandered off the red carpet, they were handed a Grammy during the pre-televised portion of the ceremony. Click above to see the red carpet video from MySpace music.

Also: Megadeth lost to Judas Priest. Bummer. If you're looking for an extra-awesome Grammys Twitter fix, check out our newly-released celebrity music feed, where you will get instant updates like these quips:

PASSION PIT REMIX LADY GAGA + BEYONCE's "TELEPHONE." For those of you who think that Passion Pit is a passing college fad, well, this probably won't change your outlook. But it's another brick in the wall for those of us who are anticipating a full-on top-40 pop assault from the Pit. We're teasing, but only a little bit, because we have some undivulgable inside dope about who is shopping for Michael Angelakos's beats these days.

The lead up to the recent Miracle On Tremont show at the Orpheum found us chasing pop stars around Boston, blindsiding them with stupid questions and cornering ‘em for their precious insights. Two of our hometown Passion bros dropped truth on “homo-erotic frat boy” fans, Phoenix chalked their success up to a serious list of studio snafus and the drummer in Spoon regurgitated PR dribble about a “dirty” new album.