Japanese Breakfast and Magdalena Bay teamed up to cover MGMT‘s ‘Time To Pretend’ – check out the footage below.
- READ MORE: Japanese Breakfast – ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)’ review: a work of art
The moment took place on Saturday night (October 4), during Japanese Breakfast’s set at Austin City Limits. It comes in support of their fourth and latest album, ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)’.
To close their performance, Michelle Zauner pretended to dial a giant, fake phone to call Magdalena Bay’s Mica Tenenbaum – who had played at the festival earlier in the day – to the stage.
They went on to perform a cover of MGMT’s hit song ‘Time To Pretend’. Fans have since been reacting on social media, with one calling the collab “the best moment of the day”, and another adding, “this would heal me”.
Check it out below.
@liiivvvv_ best moment of the day 🪩🪭 #japanesebreakfast #magdalenabay #austincitylimits #aclfestival
Earlier this summer, Japanese Breakfast caught up with NME at Glastonbury 2025. Zauner talked about finally making it to the legendary festival, after she was forced to cancel her 2023 set due to “travel delays”.
“It was a major bucket list [moment] two years ago,” she recalled. “And in the history of Japanese Breakfast, it’s also the only show that we’ve ever not been able to play because of something that we’ve done.
“[Playing today] was hard won. Our bus broke down in Sweden a couple [of] days ago and we still don’t have a working bus. It’s a really intense, hard time for our band and crew, but we did it and it felt really hard won.”
You can revisit the video interview in full above.
Back in August, the band were joined on stage by Beck at a live show in the US.
In a four-star review of her latest album, NME wrote: “True to the literary whimsy of its title, ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)’ sounds like living inside a classical piece of art, every detail an elaborate brushstroke.”
Meanwhile, Magdalena Bay are currently working on a film for their latest album ‘Imaginal Disk’.
The acclaimed album was also crowned NME‘s fifth best album of 2024, with Alex Rigotti writing: “Cue ‘Imaginal Disk’, which blends smooth rock, psychedelia and disco to give one of the funkiest examinations of the human condition. Straddling the line between considered craftsmanship and straight-up bangers, ‘Imaginal Disk’ is sophistipop at its finest.”
They’ve also announced a 2026 UK and European tour that kicks off in Birmingham’s O2 Academy on February 2. They will then head to Cardiff, Dublin, Glasgow and Manchester, before a huge show at London’s O2 Academy Brixton.
They set off around Europe from there, playing in eight countries and rounding it off in Stockholm on February 26. Tickets for the shows are on sale now, you will be able to find yours here.
