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MGMT: From pranksters to prank-stars
The New York music scene is notorious for casting aside its latest indie-pop darlings almost as soon as they’ve been embraced, but MGMT might just make it past the fifteen-minute mark. It all comes down to having the right attitude and the maverick duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser have it in spades. From their prankish lyrics to their quasi-mystical music videos, MGMT refuse to take themselves too seriously. “We were trying to be obnoxious,” VanWyngarden confesses in a band bio, “and somehow people got into it.” But MGMT is more than just an in-joke. Their debut album Oracular Spectacular – an unlikely blend of electronica, classic rock, disco and psychedelia – is at once heady, uplifting and downright catchy. MGMT formed in 2002 while VanWyngarden and Goldwasser were studying music and indulging in the excesses of student life at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Their early performances were raucous, short-lived affairs which saw the duo manipulating pre-recorded electronic loops on their laptops. “We would write a new song for each show and our shows would be 15 minutes long,” says VanWyngarden, describing early gigs as obnoxious and noisy. But while playing the Ghost Busters theme song over and over again to a dorm full of alcohol-fuelled revellers may have been all well and good during their college years, MGMT had bigger ambitions. “We were this unknown band, but we talked a lot about selling out as soon as possible,” VanWyngarden quipped in an interview with Rolling Stone. The in-joke became a reality when MGMT moved to New York and scored a major label record deal with Columbia in 2006. A year later, the duo were hailed as the next big thing by the likes of Rolling Stone and Spin. Thankfully, MGMT didn’t lose their sense of humour along the way. When asked about possible producers for their debut album, they proffered a list which included Prince, Barack Obama, and 'Not Sheryl Crow’. MGMT eventually settled on Dave Fridmann, best known for his off-kilter production on a handful of acclaimed Flaming Lips records. Fridmann’s presence on Oracular Spectacular is unmistakable, as is the duo’s college-hangover obnoxiousness, which comes to the fore in the sarcastic mock-rock-myth lyrics to ‘Time to Pretend’ (“Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives / I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and f--k with the stars”). Critiques of celebrity culture in the spotlight-obsessed era of Paris Hilton and Big Brother have rarely elicited so much knowing laughter while hitting this hard. MGMT’s major label record deal could have made the rock excesses of ‘Time to Pretend’ a sordid reality for the duo. Thankfully, they decided to use the opportunity to develop their sound instead. “We wanted to represent ourselves a little more and play the kind of music we would want to listen to,” VanWyngarden told the music blog Stereo Warning. The resulting camped-up eclecticism on Oracular Spectacular pays homage to many of the duo’s influences, from the shoe-gaze pop of Spacemen 3 to the glam-rock stomp of T-Rex and David Bowie. It’s almost like a mutant Scissor Sisters record, all swirling psychedelia and relentlessly pulsating synths. And it works – Oracular Spectacular charted in the top ten in several countries. MGMT is currently on a gruelling promotional tour which includes a headlining performance at Denmark’s acclaimed Roskilde Festival alongside Radiohead. But what does the future hold for the duo from Connecticut? “I think we’re going to be around for a while,” VanWyngarden told Stereo Warning. “I hope so.” Let’s hope so too, because music this entertaining doesn’t come around often. Oracular Spectacular is out now on Sony/BMG Read more about MGMT here: [please make these links live and target = new] MGMT bio - http://www.whoismgmt.com/bio.html Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17323914/artist_to_watch_mgmt Stereo Warning http://www.stereowarning.com/2008/05/mgmt_interview_with_ben_and_andrew.html 
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