MGMT — Andrew’s doppelgänger and new Congratulations single

On my way back from the dentist the other day (for the best teeth cleaning evah), I swore I heard a MGMT song on the radio (although they explicitly refused to release any singles, so I’m not sure what I really heard), except it sounded like they merged with Sea and Cake and the Velvet Underground and was all surf-y instead of spacey, mellow and smooth. (Kinda reminded me of pretty pretty “Blew Away” by James Iha/Smashing Pumpkins b-side, too). I mean, the voice was still unmistakably Andrew VanWyngarden’s nasally whine (with that echo), but it was set to a sweet, soft, jangly-guitar-centric ballad. At first I was like, “yikes”, but then I was like “mmm”.

Since Chris likes MGMT, I made a mental note to research further; what I found was more entertaining than I could have imagined. Crazy interviews, nary a sober one, hilarity ensues. Oh, and at certain angles, Andrew kinda looks like Kenichi Matsuyama to me, so that’s what the below photo is about. And yes, Andrew cut his hair.

MGMT’s new album Congratulations is due out in early April, fingers crossed, as the band has purposely pushed back the release date to ensure quality. They admitted that their style has changed, although “it’s still got this weird MGMT-kind of strangeness to it. It’s not too rock ‘n roll, it’s more like weird… pop.” They’ve also cited influence from Captain Beefheart, the Zombies, Love, Thomas Leer, and Julian Cope. Nice.

Half of the album sounds like beachy-garage and half of it is inspired by “Russian animation weird synth background music: if there was a Russian version of Rugrats the cartoon and there was an episode where they went to the beach and went surfing, this would probably be the music for it”.

“There’s one song called ‘Siberian Breaks’, and it’s about 12 minutes long. It’s kind of like eight different songs strung together into one, and the general theme is about surfing in the Arctic Circle by Russia,” Andrew quipped. “It’s definitely going to shock people. We dropped any sort of irony that was on the first record, and Congratulations feels true to who we really are. The honesty of it; it’s very plaintive. In a weird way, it’s like a soul record.” “It’s gonna be good… it’s gonna be soulful and not… introspective”.

Regardless, they’re making their music their own way, and that’s why we love ‘em.

**UPDATE** Coincidentally, shortly after I posted this article, a mysterious clock appeared on the MGMT official site, most likely marking the release date: countdown to April 13th. *hint hint nudge nudge wink wink*

MGMT — Congratulations (live in Brooklyn)

Awesome randomness

Andrew’s a good sport about it

Ben likes Doom Gen

Andrew likes waxing gibbous phases and roseate spoonbills

Praying Mantis nom nom

MGMT go to the zoo

AOL Interface awkwardness

Dance like a hippie, MGMT style

About the Author

Kris Kobayashi-Nelson will listen to anything once. Her favorites include Trip Hop, oldschool Jazz (Sonny Rollins), electronica (Drum n Bass, Dubstep, Glitch), Indie, Experimental, Funk, Punk, Folk, Classical (Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Chopin)… footfalls through November leaves, zipper pulls in the dryer, or ice clinking in a Summer glass… music is all around us!