My personal opinion of MGMT has been very low for quite awhile, stemming from a pretty bad show I saw them play in 2005 before anybody had heard of them. It was that show, and their subsequent rise to fame in the last couple years that really upset me, especially as they were riding on the coattails of old songs they “re-released” as a “debut” album. Still, I won’t deny that songs like “Kids” and “Electric Feel” and “Time to Pretend” are really catchy, and I expected the band to make a bunch of similar-sounding songs for their sophmore record. When that second album “Congratulations” came out and it was filled with anti-pop psychedelic insanity, my opnion of the band changed dramatically. For once, being signed to a major record label, they made something uncompromising and difficult. Good for them. So I do like their latest album, and it’s one of the reasons why I’m featuring the band on today’s Live Friday. They stopped by the WXPN studios about a week ago and played a couple tunes, including the 12.5 minute “Siberian Breaks”, which is a whole mountain to climb unto itself. (P.S. – I apologize, but hosting/bandwith issues prevent me from uploading that song directly, so you’ll need to follow the link to zShare if you want to download the 18MB file…the other two tracks are simple Right click, Save As) Anyways, the band sounds pretty good, almost the complete antithesis of how they were 5 years back, though it helps there are some more members to help flesh out the sound just right. You can also stream the interview with the band by clicking the link below. They talk a little about why they didn’t just write a bunch of hits for the new album, and a number of other things they’ve learned while rising to the eschelons of indie stardom.
MGMT, Live on WXPN 10-15-10:
MGMT – It’s Working (Live on WXPN)
MGMT – Congratulations (Live on WXPN)
MGMT – Siberian Breaks (Live on WXPN) [zShare; follow link]
