Season 38 of NBC standby Saturday Night Live will finish with a musical flourish after a three-week hiatus.  This Saturday (4), guest host Zach Galifianakis will be joined by Of Monsters and Men.  A week later (11), SNL alum Kristen Wiig hosts musical guests Vampire Weekend.  And the season finale (18) will feature A-Lister Ben Affleck, fresh off his Best Picture win for Argo, handling the hosting chores with fellow A-Lister Kanye West serving as the musical guest.

It’s been a phenomenal 18 months for Of Monsters and Men.  The Icelandic natives’ album My Head Is An Animal had its U.S. release in April 2012 and their label, Republic, is still working it at radio with yet another single, “King and Lionheart,” still to come.  BNB Editor Daniel Kohn included OMAM among his top five festival sets of 2012 for their performance at last August’s Outside Lands.  In his review, Kohn wrote: “These are the moments in the life of a band when you realize they’ve made it. This was Of Monsters and Men’s moment and they capitalized on it.” 

The SNL slot is the last national TV appearance the six-piece band is doing for a while.  However, they’ll continue to support My Head Is An Animal with U.S. concert dates through mid-June with a mix of headlining gigs and festivals before heading to Europe for more of the same through the summer.

For those eagerly awaiting a new album from the folk-pop band, Republic Records told BNB that the band was committed to perform for their new fans and had thus delayed recording a follow-up.