Mon, 2010-04-12 07:20 | by Carles
Since the NYTimes is the ultimate blog aggregator, they were forced to cover the hit buzzband MGMT, who will soon release their leaked album Congratulations. I am not sure if they had some sort of agenda with this article, but I think it was sort of just a 'mailed in' profile piece about young people in a band maturing. Maybe the metaphorical equivalent of 'moving from Brooklyn to Manhattan' to 'grow up & get serious about life'
I think the article brands the two MGMT bros as being 'mavericks' who only care about being artists, and not pleasing the masses. They are aware that they 'peaked' in college when writing "KIDS":
“It’s like the only songs we have that have really been noticed on widespread levels are songs that we wrote in college,” he fretted.
Mr. VanWyngarden piled on. “We should really be listening to, like, the masses,” he said, “instead of making an album that no one is going to like.”
The NYTimes also asked an MTV Vice President for his opinion, because he probs knows a lot abt music + the music industry + buzzbands. Prob chills at tons of industry parties and hands business cards 2 buzzbands:
“There was an incredible amount of curiosity for this album,” said Joe Cuello, a vice president at MTV. “We were all waiting for the prerelease from the label and sat down and listened to the whole thing in my office when we got it.” Their response was that the record was “challenging,” said Mr. Cuello, who oversees music licensing for MTV shows. “They’re certainly asking for something from their audience, an investment and a perspective that doesn’t fit the marketplace completely.”
They talked about how the album wasn't critically accepted, so they had to re-brand the whole album as a "grower" and try to make it seem like this was really MGMT's artistic vision:
But the response has recently shifted as more people have heard the album, and as the label’s marketing campaign, which urges listeners to take it as a whole and spend some time with it, has sunk in. “Congratulations” is now categorized as a grower, earning praise for its bravery if not always its artistry. (Mr. Cuello said that after considering it, he was a fan.) Whether it will sell is another question.
“Different’s not bad,” said Steve Barnett, the chairman of Columbia Records. Asked if the album was commercial, Mr. Barnett said: “Listen, I think Andrew and Ben are very smart, creative guys, and I think they understand the right path that MGMT should take, and from our perspective we’re happy to support that. Sometimes I think we have to sit down and talk to them about consequences — if you do this this way, this is going to happen — and we’ve had that conversation. And at the end of the day I think their approach is really refreshing, where art leads, and commerce follows.”
Wonder if some1's head is gonna 'roll' at Columbia Records if this album flops hard.
Really enjoyed this paragraph where they tried to describe the essence/personal brands of the MGMT bros utilizing architecture + fashion:
Though the duo spent their early 20s living as any young transplants to Brooklyn do — giving and going to loft parties and goofing off, amping it up when they became successful, cavorting with groupies and acting debaucherous — now they seem rather sedate. Mr. Goldwasser recently moved from an apartment with roommates in Bushwick, Brooklyn, to a one-bedroom in Lower Manhattan with his girlfriend so that her commute to dental school in New Jersey could be shorter. Mr. VanWyngarden is a furniture and design buff, and his apartment is expensively and eclectically decorated, with a zebra-skin rug and point-of-conversation art (some of it scavenged from the street). Across from the vintage brown leather sofa in the living room is a wooden sleigh bed covered with throw pillows. Beside surfing books are copies of the magazine Art in America and the I Ching. In a plaid shirt and Doc Martens (Mr. VanWyngarden) and a gray hoodie and jeans (Mr. Goldwasser), neither would pass for rock stars. They barely pass for hipsters. They seem more like bookstore employees, and not even the judgmental kind.
The journalist probably asked them the entry level question 'r u hipsters' so that he could produce this quotable, made to get 'tons of hipster blog headlines':
“We’re like yuppie Brooklyners,” Mr. Goldwasser said. Mr. VanWyngarden listed his nonhipster credentials: “I don’t blog. I don’t have an iPhone. I’ve never done cocaine.”
So many great blurbs. Here is the part where they talk about how they snubbed tons of mainstream artists who wanted to work with them. Does this make u respect them more?
At the height of their popularity, they said, they were inundated with requests to work with major artists but declined. “We said no to Coldplay, U2, Lady Gaga, Pink, Radiohead, Stone Temple Pilots,” Mr. VanWyngarden said. “It’s not a judgment on them. We didn’t feel comfortable opening up for them.”
They did agree to a collaboration with Jay-Z for his album “The Blueprint 3.”
“We talked to him on speaker phone, and he’s like: ‘I want you to do whatever you guys want. Do your MGMT thing,’ ” Mr. Goldwasser said. “I think he was eating crackers or something.”
They eschewed the beats that Jay-Z’s camp sent over and made their own, a “vampire-pipe-organ, chromatically descending, really weird beat,” Mr. Goldwasser said. Jay-Z, they said, responded by asking them only to sing on the track’s chorus. They passed.
Does this make u say, "wow. they told Jay-Z to go fuck himself. Gotta give em props for saying screw u." I feel like I kinda do, only because I think that rappers are just looking to hijack anything that is mildly cool just to build their personal brands. Not really into rappers.
Did u read this article?
Did it help u to relate to the band?
Do u feel like u 'get' MGMT now?
Are they just two bros trying to grow up and be in a buzzband at the same time?
Are the MGMT bros playing some sort of Joaquin Phoenix type of practical joke, and the Columbia Records PR department is just trying to 'cover up the biggest mess' in the history of mainstream indie record releases?
Were the bros "off message" during this interview (and pissing off their PR team to be rebellious etc) or does their Sony/PR team just have no idea how ________ they sound?
Did MGMT create a 'cult classic' or will this album just be forgotten?
Did MGMT create the greatest record of all time?
Is MGMT the ultimate indie band?
Do u feel pissed that MGMT had the forum, the funding and the technical ability to create one of the most important albums of all time, but treated it like it was some sort of joke, totally afraid of 'taking on the beast'? Maybe this is why Animal Collective is 'unconditionally loved' even if they make something that is too weird/unapproachable.
Ben Goldwasser
Alternative CelebrityThe other bro in MGMT who wrote "KIDS.mp3."
Lists: Members of MGMT, backing band members, Jewish
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Andrew VanWyngarden
Andrew VanWyngarden is the lead singer of the Managements [via MGMT].
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