Nova announcer and Video Hits host Dylan Lewis loves MGMT so much that he wears their shoelaces, drew with crayons while listening to their songs, and wrote this…
OK. So you may not know this but I LOVE MGMT!
When their ‘Oracular Spectacular’ album came out in 2007 I was so excited. I hadn’t fallen in love with a new band for such a long time, so it was grouse to be a new fan of something again! Got the t-shirt. Went to see them live and loved it. Got the shoelaces. Got the poster. I hadn’t done that kind of fan stuff since I found The Beastie Boys 20 years ago!!
The big singles (‘Kids’, ‘Time to Pretend’ and ‘Electric Feel’) drew me in at first and I didn’t really listen to the other songs on the album. Those big singles took the whole world by storm. To me, they were ancient and new at the same time. The lyrics were clever and funny. The band took me back to my old feral rave days at early Earthcore parties when there were only a handful of partying hippies there in the middle of the forest. Aaaa – the good old days! But after a while the other songs on the album (the ‘creepers’) became just as wonderful and got just as many spins as the catchy radio faves.
Their new album, ‘Congratulations’ has a similar vibe to those ‘creepers’ in that you really need to give it a few spins before the magic starts to be revealed. It’s a really psychedelic, surfy album – but there are other clever ska, punk and worldy flavours in there too. On my first listen I was given a pad and some crayons and told to draw what I felt as I was listening. Apparently this was how the band wanted the first listeners to experience the music! Funny hippies. My crappy child-like pics can be viewed below.
I love ‘Congratulations’. And clearly I still love MGMT so it was a little nerve-racking to meet the guys recently at the Sydney Nova studio for a 20min interview. I wanted to serve them a seafood feast in a hot-air balloon for the interview but that was impractical. Booo. Stupid practicality. I had researched for days prior to my interview and my heart was racing so fast before the chat. But once we got into it, it went really well. The lads were shy but responsive. I got autographs (proof is in my exciting 90 second video here!) and then I saw them perform their new stuff (as well as their old faves) at their concert in Sydney that night. You can listen to my chat below too.
Looking forward to seeing them (hopefully) later this year when they return to Oz.
Happy Dylan. Happy days.
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