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Notes: 1 / 1 year ago
New Music Tuesday’s: MGMT
If I keep this up, I might need to change this to New Music Wednesday. Of course, along a similar vein, I need to start writing some posts that are unrelated to music. I realize that writing begets writing and that if I want to be better at this gig that I just need to write more. So although this has nothing to do with music or todays blog, I guess I’m saying that I will try to blog more from now on. (I’ll write more on that issue later)
I think I was first introduced to MGMT when I was interning at Epic in Michigan. I’m fairly sure the song “Kids” was a big hit on the XM radio stations. Honestly, I can’t quite remember. But what I do remember is that I was a huge fan.
What’s not to love about that song?
But as for anything else MGMT had done… I was clueless. Although since I have been known to use the interweb on occasion I’ve seen countless ads on various websites for MGMT’s new album Congratulations that debuted on April 13, 2010. I have to find new music somewhere right? And I already knew that I was a fan of at least one of their songs.
Fortunately Playlist.com was kind enough to have a feature on these guys, which meant their new album could be listened to in its entirety without pesky purchasing or illegal downloading (which is not illegal in Canada… but that’s another issue.)
After doing some digging (read: went over to wikipedia) I discovered that MGMT used to be known as The Management, but I guess that name was already taken so they eventually settled for MGMT. MGMT of course is pronounced as em-gee-em-tee.
Furthermore, MGMT formed when Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden were at Wesleyan University. Naturally this interested me since I am a recent graduate of Bethany Bible College, a college of the Wesleyan Church. I knew that Wesleyan University is not affiliated with us though, and did some digging (read click the link in wikipedia). Welseyan University was initially started in 1831 as an all-men college for the Methodist Episcopal Church, but became a secular university in 1937 when it severed that last of its ties with the church. Interesting.
Either way, Goldwasser and VanWyngarden met at Wesleyan University and formed MGMT. At the time they were simply trying to show each other some of the music they liked. After experimenting with some various sounds they finally settled on their current sound, a blend of synthpop and psychedelic rock.
Their new album Congratulations is short; only 9 songs total. Of course,\ one of those is Siberian Breaks, a song 12 minutes long that actually sounds like 3 songs. So in a way you could say the album is 11 tracks long. Slightly better. The total run time is just under 45 minutes long. Also not horribly short for an album, but it’s not The Wall either.
The thing I appreciate about this album is that it is actually a marriage of music and lyrics. It seems like most modern music goes to one camp or the other. Either the music is catchy, in which case it is lyrically lacking. Or there is what I call the Kelly Clarkson effect, where you can easily hear every word she sings, but the music is completely indiscernible. For all I know, they take a single guitar with a heavy distortion and play the exact same chord the entire way through each and every one of her songs.
MGMT on the other hand, is a refreshingly retro band with a mix of 70’s disco, progressive rock and “Transylvanian Scooby-Doo” as my wife calls it. There is more than one song that Amanda claims could easily be played in the background of a modern day Scooby-Doo chase scene.
So, in conclusion… here is my favorite song off the album: Brian Eno.
Notes
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