HILife Cover Story: MGMT
July 11, 2009 by Gary C.W. Chun
Filed under Featured, Latest News
Cool sounds
Courtesy Columbia Records
IN CONCERTMGMT with local openers the Jump Offs Where: Pipeline Cafe, 805 Pokukaina St. |
For the duo first known as the Management now shortened to MGMT they haven’t done bad for themselves, considering they started out as a couple of art students at Wesleyan University fooling around with music.
Combining outsider art sensibilities with their baroque, psychedelic songs (with a bit of early David Bowie glam and Chic dance soul sounds), Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden have been riding on the critical and popular success of their 2007 major-label debut, “Oracular Spectacular.” Three memorable singles have been broken out from the album: the hip-blase archness of “Time to Pretend,” the retro-soul of “Electric Feel” and the album’s latest track, “Kids.”
(The latter is supported by a great, bizarre video that includes scary monsters, a crying toddler and an ultrahip mom coolly played by the wonderful psych-folk harpist and singer Joanna Newsom.)
It’s been quite the ride for Goldwasser and VanWyngarden, who make their Hawaii debut next week at Pipeline Cafe with local up-and-comers the Jump Offs opening (see sidebar). And speaking of opening acts, MGMT will be doing just that for a certain Mr. McCartney early next month in Boston.
“That’s pretty crazy,” VanWyngarden said by phone June 29 from his home base of Brooklyn, N.Y. “It’s almost too much to stomach, playing in Fenway Park and opening for Paul McCartney. I guess in his attempt to hear some new music, McCartney heard our singles and chose us to open for his Boston concerts.”
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