With October hosting major music functions in its 31 days – Austin City Limits, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and the illustrious CMJ – San Francisco’s Treasure Island Music Festival nestles comfortably in between, boasting prestigious acts to grace the island shores as well as maintaining a crowd size that’s not overwhelming or annoying. Good weather afforded people the opportunity to dress up for the occasion and sample the special brownies the guy in the AT&T ballpark parking lot was offering.

Our highlights and lowlights included:

- Witnessing The Streets’ Mike Skinner being adorable: after he opened with “Let’s Push Things Forward,” he reminisced about his last SF experience that left him bruised— a jump off the balcony at The Fillmore. He then proclaimed to the audience below him “I’m gonna jump into the crowd and make love to you all” before punctuating his set with more words of adoration for the city by the bay.

- Missing Passion Pit as a result of waiting to take a shuttle to the island, which we also contemplated swimming to as a result of the delay. When someone started blasted “Sleepyhead” in the parking lot where we were congregating, it was met with “Yeah guys, let’s listen to the band we’re missing as we stand in line. Real smart. Idiot.”

- DJ Krush providing a most excellent soundtrack as we rode the Ferris wheel.

- Having dinner on a pirate ship.

- Girl Talk being all over the place: crowd-surfing during Dan Deacon’s set, jumping around on stage during his own, and then air pelvic thrusting timed to fireworks at the end of his dancetastic set.

- MSTRKRFT still is just two dudes with a laptop.

- MGMT playing “Oracular Spectacular” from start to finish, which is a good idea if the nostalgia factor is there. But having all your singles in the first half of your album – especially the dance-centric ones – guarantees that your audience takes off midway through your show.

- Afterparty with Dan Deacon, who is so rad I just want to hug him all the time.

It’s a strange world when your ex-love’s sister serves you liquor unexpectedly in the beer tent (why, how did you know I needed a beverage for this conversation?). But in all seriousness, at the end of the day when the guy in the penguin suit apologized to me for whacking my ear during Girl Talk’s set, I was glad to be in the company of some fun – and strange – folks. The Treasure Island Festival is fast becoming my favorite out of all the exravangaznas we have to offer, and it’s for good reason: we all just want to have a good time.

The Streets:

Girl Talk:

MSTRKRFT:

MGMT:

Afterparty with Dan Deacon:

Hey look! It’s the hobbit that puts out Apples in Stereo records.

Y’all, isn’t music awesome? We think so too. And, apparently, so do the producers of Nickelodeon’s Yo Gabba Gabba, the playpen friendly kid’s show that’s always featured alt celebs like Mark Mothersbaugh, who knows a thing or two about Rugrats (wink, wink), and Biz Markie as special guests. Knowing that, it should come as no surprise that the show, which has featured a bevy of inscrutable indie acts, should release a compilation. Lots of kid friendly acts get in on the mix, including I’m From Barcelona and Of Montreal, both of whom really express their inner child on a regular basis. While it’s nice to see new music from the Shins and Money Mark, I can’t help but think that the best track on this record is sure to be the Yo Gabba Gabba contribution “Party in My Tummy,” which has serious adult remix potential.

Yo Gabba Gabba! Music Is Awesome!:

01 Yo Gabba Gabba! Theme
02 Party in My Tummy
03 The Shins: “It’s Okay, Try Again”
04 I Like to Dance
05 Money Mark: “Robo Dancing”
06 Get the Sillies Out
07 Biz Markie: “Biz’s Beat of the Day #1″
08 Chromeo: “Nice ‘N’ Clean”
09 Try It, You’ll Like It
10 The Roots: “Lovely, Love My Family”
11 Don’t Be Afraid
12 I’m From Barcelona: “Just Because It’s Different Doesn’t Mean Scary”
13 Bubbles
14 Of Montreal: “Brush Brush Brush”
15 Nice & Easy
16 The Little Ones: “Hey, Won’t Somebody Come and Play”
17 Weird Science: “Go Crazy Remix”
18 Yo Dazzlers: “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
19 Mark Kozelek: “Bedtime Lullaby”
20 Goodbye Song
21 Yo Gabba Gabba! Closing Theme

MGMT teaching “Art is Everywhere” on Yo Gabba Gabba.

Swedish indie-pop duos may not scream street cred, but then again Kanye West has turned a lot of non-traditional concepts into everyday parts of the hip-hop blogosphere (See: Mr. Hudson, uncomfortable looking chairs.) Not so long ago, it was West’s blog that debuted PB and J’s single “Nothing To Worry About.” And if we measure Ye’s excitement on a scale direcetly linked to his Caps-lock usage, he certainly liked what he heard. Then the duo were sampled on the biggest mixtape of the past year when Drake included “Let’s Call It Off” on So Far Gone. And now Mick Boogie has curated a mixtape entitled Re-Living Thing reworking all of their recent album Living Thing with the help of a legitimately interesting mix of old and new school rappers (Wale, Gza, Bun B, Fashawn) and producers (DJ Jazzy Jeff, Cookin’ Soul, Apple Juice Kid, The Kickdrums). The music molds the genres together oddly well, making the association seem almost natural. So odds tell us Jay-Z should eb attending their next Brooklyn concert, schedule permitting. Check out Re-Living Thing here. (Via: Nah Right)

After covering The Velvet Underground & Nico with a group of musical collaborators including Devendra Banhart and members of MGMT for the first iteration of his Record Club, Beck has opted to focus his second effort on Songs of Leonard Cohen and has posted his cover of “Suzanne” on his Record Club’s website. Collaborators include Devendra and MGMT again, along with members of Wolfmother and Little Joy.

The website describes the Record Club project as “an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day.” Relying on spontaneity (nothing is rehearsed or arranged beforehand), the group selects an album “to be reinterpreted and used as a framework.” A track is posted to the Record Club website once every week, and the recordings tend to be rough renditions, especially since they are frequently the first takes of the day. “There is no intention to ‘add to’ the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens,” the site claims.

Check out the cover of “Suzanne” here, and be sure to check the Record Club’s website over the next few weeks for more covers from Songs of Leonard Cohen.

You may think “Electric Feel” doesn’t feel like a sports anthem (although I bet they had it cued up at the Grizzly Bear pool party show if Jay-Z stepped in the dodgeball pit). But we’ve secretly always thought it was the perfect accompaniment to those lime-green throwbacks the Hawks wear from time to time. Sure, they could play basketball if they must, but if the game comes to a sudden halt when MGMT comes on and an all-out rave breaks out at Philips Arena.

So we were right there with NBA2K10 when they decided to put MGMT on their soundtrack/game along with Miike Snow, Ratatat, Illinois and some exclusive hip-hop tracks from Izza Kizza and Donnie Bravo. Check the full tracklist here.

On a sidenote, there’s a special feature in the game where you can play as (among other rappers) Kanye West, and his song (”Amazing”) is featured in the game. This means in theory Yeezy could be playing a video game as himself at center court of Madison Square Garden with his own song in the background, which has to be some sort of daydream come true for him.

(Via: 2KSports)

Psychedelic pop duo MGMT have been running in lofty circles recently. Despite news this summer that the two would be featured in a collaboration with Jay-Z on the former’s Blueprint 3, this week’s leak of that record proved otherwise. Still, NME is reporting today that MGMT will be appearing on another hotly-anticipated hip hop record, that of Kanye West protegé Kid Cudi. The song is entitled “Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare),” a collabo that will also include electro-onomatopoeia duo Ratatat. This is some pretty hip shit. Like, REALLY hip. That Kid Cudi is like the coconut water of rappers right now. Or wait, maybe that’s Drake. Either way, witness further the hipster-hop coalescence.

Hater Mondays: September will see the release of The Indie Rock Coloring Book, a compendium of illustrations by Andy J. Miller based on the oeuvre and aura of his favorite indie rock bands, including a “fill in Rilo Kiley’s hair” page and a “psychedelic” MGMT “playground”. We cannot front too hard because any proceeds the book collects will go to the Yellow Bird Project, which works with indie rockers to raise money for various charities. But the arrival of this illustrated tome forced us to delve into the psyche of such conceits—whose clear geneses reside in twee—which cherish an infantilized notion of “childlike splendor” and abhors the concept of “acting appropriately according to one’s birth year in relation to the present.” True, perhaps there are some extremely advanced children of coloring book age who will enjoy recreating the movie projector on The New Pornographers’ Twin Cinema album cover in crayon. More likely, we envision a gaggle of 24-year-old boy-men in rust-colored turtleneck sweaters using Utrecht-purchased colored pencil packs to fill in a Broken Social Scene maze (possibly while listening to ancient Beat Happening records). Caveat Emptor, amigos! Carpe Diem! This is not the new primitivism! Benjamin Button was a work of fiction! LIVE YOUR LIVES!

Adding to the hype already surrounding Jay-Z’s upcoming The Blueprint 3, Reuters broke the news that indie talents MGMT are also slated to appear on Hova’s latest album, joining Rihanna, Drake, Mr. Hudson, and Kid Cudi on the star-studded LP. Also providing assistance are Kanye, No ID, and Timbaland, all of whom are helming the boards to produce tracks. The Blueprint 3 will be released on September 11 via Roc Nation/Atlantic.

First, they played the Velvet Underground in that movie on the Factory with Sienna Miller that nobody saw. Now, to demonstrate how absolutely cutting edge they are, Weezer have decided to simultaneously cover MGMT’s “Kids” and Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface.” Another sign of the apocalypse, and yet another of the many signs of Weezer’s complete slide into absolute irrelevance. Confidential to Rivers Cuomo: rapping “I am bluffin’ with my muffin” may cause your audience’s ears to bleed. Just a heads up.

07.16 Honolulu, HI @ Pipeline Café
07.21 Auckland, New Zealand @ The Powerstation
07.22 Auckland, New Zealand @ The Powerstation
07.23 Auckland, New Zealand @ The Powerstation
08.02 Jersey City, NJ @ All Points West Festival
08.05 Boston, MA @ Fenway Park
08.06 Boston, MA @ Fenway Park
08.15 Hamburg Wilhelmsburg, Germany @ Dockville 2009
08.22 Staffordshire, England @ V Festival, Weston Park
08.23 Chelmsford, England @ V Festival, Hylands Park
08.25 Ibiza, Spain @ Ibiza Rocks Hotel
08.28 Eriksdal Badet, Stockholm, Sweden @ Popaganda Festival
08.30 Paris, France @ Rock En Seine // Domaine National de Saint-Cloud
09.02 Tel Aviv, Israel @ Bitan 1
09.04 Stradbally, Ireland @ Electric Picnic // Stradbally Hall
09.05 Warsaw, Poland @ Orange Festival
09.08 Athens, Greece @ Electron Festival
09.11 Isle of Wight @ Bestival

The Flaming Lips are releasing their 12th studio monstrosity later this year and according to a SPIN report, Embryonic features some extra-special guests: MGMT and Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Frontnut Coyne sent some sounds and ideas via e-mail and telephone and in what we’re sure was a flash of glittered genius, something gnarly was born. That something will be sandwiched somewhere amid the many layers of psychedelia Embryonic—a double album which Coyne claims is similar to the Lips’ masterstroke the Soft Bulletin—promises.

—Meryl Natow

Not that long ago, MGMT were just two of the many sort of dirty-looking, kind of hippie-vibing kids in Brooklyn. On August 5th and 6th they will opening for Paul McCartney at Boston’s Fenway Park. McCartney recently declared his admiration for the duo’s music and suggested they might collaborate on “some more dancey stuff,” so now that they will most certainly be hanging backstage, expect that pairing to actually happen and for MGMT to become the richest sort of dirty-looking, kind of hippie-vibing kids in all the world. Let that be a lesson to you, Williamsburg: Don’t change a thing.

Beck has announced that he is embarking on a new project entitled Record Club, and it’s a pretty exclusive club. Every week Beck will have an unrehearsed, one-day session with another artist (such as MGMT, Devendra Banhart, or Jamie Lidell) and record a classic album to be posted on his website. First up on the list of classics to be tackled is The Velvet Underground & Nico, and his version of “Sunday Morning” has already been released as a bonus 7″. This project brought to you, for free, courtesy of the internet. (via Rolling Stone)

They released their latest EP last month, and we have been on a Suckers-love streak since our interview with them a few weeks ago, so we figured, why not stream their latest video for their new single “Easy Chair” for you?

With an ethereal blend of experimental sounds and pop-song progressions, it might be hard to deny that Suckers are a product-protege of Yeasayer’s Anand Wilder’s production skills. The Brooklyn foursome use a multitude of similar sounds — mainly from their use of multiple instrumentation as a technique to create a swarm of experimental sound — but the band still encompasses a vibe unique to them, taking on a more synthetic pop sound, which can be heard throughout their new EP. Along with Suckers’ having a seemingly obvious influence in their sound from Yeasayer, the band seems to be using a similar route of psychedelic visuals to accompany their surrealistic sounds as well, as seen within the video for “Easy Chair”. It might look like one of those iTunes visualizer tracks, but the concept is there and we have to say we like it. 

With the new EP out, Suckers will be heading out on the road this summer, and will even be opening for MGMT at Prospect Park this summer as part of Celebrate Brooklyn.

Suckers – “Easy Chair”

Blogs, online forums and fans alike were abuzz about Brooklyn’s four-piece, Suckers, long before the release of their self-titled EP on I Am Sound Records earlier this month. Much of this was based on the strength of their live shows — though these were were mostly limited to New York — and an old four-track demo that closely resembles the new EP. That even a brief exposure to their music enables you to grasp their fresh aesthetic has probably been their greatest advantage.

You will immediately recognize Quinn Walker’s voice as something special, and hear nothing that feels like the results of following conventions or fulfilling expectations. The drums aren’t afraid of spare use, and when played assertively in unison with an additional floor tom, tambourine and shakers, the effect feels like a finished thought. Even Quinn’s voice is often used as if it were another instrument, frequently coupled with Austin Fisher’s lower-range vocals, and sometimes used for rhythmic effects. None of it, however, feels experimental or inaccessible. Despite all its quirks, the music rides a natural, harmonious flow.

On the day their four-track self-titled EP came out, I visited the band at Austin Fisher’s apartment in South Williamsburg for some tea and a leisurely chat. Present were all four members: Quinn Walker, Austin Fisher, Pan and Brian Aiken.

Your band name makes me think you don’t want to take yourselves too seriously, and some of that is reflected in your song titles and lyrics as well. Is that an important aspect of the band?
P: It’s pretty important. Can’t take yourself too seriously, it could end up being really cheesy.

AF: When people take themselves really seriously, it just becomes funny and overstrained.

QW: I think we name things according to the sounds we make while we’re trying to come up with them, too. Oh, that sounded like “Shuffle!”

P: And none of us are super serious people. It comes out of our personalities, I guess.

AF: In terms of lyrics, it’s just whatever fits the mood of the song. It’s not a conscious decision to be anything.

QW: I apply a lot of my poems.

P: He’s like Jim Morrison.

QW: I’ve books of poetry I bring to the practice space and let them choose what they’d like to play as a song.

Do you ever have to pull back when it feels like it’s getting too serious?
P: Nothing ever gets too serious.

AF: It’s kind of intuitive.

P: We’ve gotten a little too silly.

QW: I think the lack of seriousness is more like blatant honesty, which I like and agree with.

Why is Cameron Hull on the cover of the EP?
P: We’ve been friends with him for a long time and we think it’s a silly picture.

AF: And he’s sitting in an apartment where all four of us have lived. Not that you can see the apartment at all.

You just like the aesthetic of the photo?
QW: Yeah. It’s supposed to be a beagle mask that I made for him but it keeps getting mistaken for a mouse or a cat.

Does the EP packaging come with lyrics?
Brian: No. We probably just didn’t want an extra page in there.

Are you comfortable with people reading your lyrics, or are they more of a rhythmic element you want them to just listen to?
QW: I feel comfortable with people reading lyrics.

AF: I kind of like it when lyrics aren’t printed on stuff ’cause then it requires your own interpretation. Like, any of the Rolling Stones lyrics, I don’t know what he’s saying half the time. It keeps it interesting.

P: You have to spoon-feed everything to everybody all the time. It’s nice for people to make their own decisions.

BA: Hm, interesting.

AF: [To Brian] Are you doing the interview now?

P: It’s like David Lynch doesn’t like to talk about any of his his movies ’cause they’re there for you to consume. That’s it. Take it. Watch it. What else do you need?

Was self-releasing ever an option or did teaming up with a label seem like a natural choice?
P: It was a natural choice because we’re not capable of doing it ourselves. Just because we’re too busy making music to focus on all the other business stuff. As soon as we got Brooke and Kenny as our managers, everything started to happen. It was like “Whoa, they’re doing a bunch of things that none of us ever wanted to do before.” So it was a big help.

Do you think self-releasing is sustainable?
P: More power to you, if you can do it. You have to be a business man to do that kind of thing, though. As musicians, it’s a lot easier when we can just focus on making music.

AF: It seems like when someone self-releases and they get popular enough, it becomes too much of a hassle and they at least get a distributor. Or, the opposite, when someone really big like Radiohead does it. It’s a lot of work. Shipping CDs and stuff like that.

BA: Making flyers.

P: Well I make flyers, but…

BA: Oh yeah. I was just thinking, when I was in high school bands and spending all this time making flyers and posting them on telephone poles. It was just like beating a dead horse.

Do you spend much time on MySpace?
P: I do the MySpace. I don’t spend a lot of time surfing around and networking, I just answer all the messages and things like that.

AF: I never look on it.

QW: I just check two or three days’ worth of emails on Austin’s computer when I have a chance while I’m here.

BA: I’ll tag a couple of groupies now and then.

QW: That’s a sexual reference, Brian. It’s true. That’s the highlight of this interview so far.

What kind of a role do you think a record label should play?
QW: I just want freedom to do what we want to do artistically, no matter what. Nothing else about it really bothers me that much. Doesn’t matter who it is, as long as they’re gonna work hard, show their support, and make good things happen.

AF: Yeah I guess the business model isn’t too important. I don’t think it’s gotten any worse for bands or the listeners now that the music industry is changing. It’s just kind of the same. Or even better, maybe.

QW: Probably better. The record label doesn’t really play a totalitarian role anymore. They’re so worried about making it themselves that they have to give artists more leeway in order to get them on their side and have them work with them. We’re not yet familiar with the whole thing though.

P: I’m still getting used to what the label does and what the publicists do.

You had Anand Wilder from Yeasayer produce the EP, but you had the foundation of it already down in the four-song demo that’s been floating around. How do you feel about self-producing or co-producing in the future?
QW: We definitely always like to co-produce.

P: Yeah, I’d say we co-produced the EP as well.

QW: The demo was all just us, and I recorded it on this crappy little machine I used to use for all of my solo albums. Anand used that as a guideline because he really liked it. He wanted to incorporate some of that and just make everything sound a lot better for these recordings.

P: I think we’re kind of producers in our own respects, but I’m looking forward to working with different producers in the future. It’s nice to have an outside perspective and somebody to oversee a whole project. If it’s all four of us trying to produce an EP, things might get messy.

QW: But if Anand ever sends me “Which Wire character are you?” quiz request on Facebook again, I’m never working with him. I hate those quizzes, they just pile up.

BA: It’s such a hassle for you. Life’s tough.

QW: I have to check all my email within a span of 30 minutes. It clogs up the airwaves. I already know who my Celebrity Boyfriend would be. Tom Arnold.

AF: John Goodman.

QW: John Goodman and Tom Arnold vie for my attention.

Apart from “Horn Song”, the tracklist of the EP is the same as the demo. What was it about these four songs on the EP?
QW: ‘Cause that’s what our manager Brooke Baxter told us.

P: They’re probably the catchiest.

AF: They’re also our set staples and it’s good to get them recorded, produced well, put them out there, so that we can be happy with how they sound and move on.

BA: Also, it takes a long time to develop songwriting as four people, and at the time of the recording we were still developing our collective songwriting process. I feel like those four were the most finished songs at the time. These guys wrote them before I came in.

P: Except for “Beach Queen.” We almost didn’t do “Easy Chairs.” That was a last minute decision.

QW: What were we thinking of doing instead?

P: We were thinking of doing a new one but nothing was up to par.

Those four make a good introduction.
P: Yeah and they’re all different enough from one another. They cover our sound pretty well at this point.

AF: We did all the basic tracks in one day. Then we did overdubs in two additional days. We really did it fast.

QW: We squeezed everything together.

Do you like that fast process?
AF: No. It’d be nice to have some time when we record the next thing. We basically did it live. I don’t think it’s necessarily how we did it when we were doing our own recordings. We’d rather use the studio more.

QW: Yeah, I really like the sound design aspect of the studio, which we didn’t have time for. You don’t want to hear the same live band on the album. I feel like the CD should be a lot different from the live performance. More over the top. Just make it as interesting as possible, do things the way you wanted to, things you can do in the studio but not on the stage.

P: We’d definitely like to use the studio as another instrument.

Brian, you’ve said that when you first joined the band, you were responding with regular rock beats, but you soon learned to think differently. Do you feel well-versed in the Suckers vocabulary of music now?
BA: Yeah, I do. When I joined, these guys already had a pretty established and developed sound. I was coming in from Connecticut and I wasn’t really familiar with all the music they were, so I would instinctively feel really regular rock beats. These guys were like, “No, play this whacky beat only on the floor tom.” It just seemed like trying to be quirky and innovative, but now that I’ve spent more time, I find this style not only artistic and innovative, but also something I can really emote with. Now I relate to it and intuitively make my parts sound like Suckers.

P: We’ve definitely gelled a lot better over the past year and a half.

QW: It’s natural, we don’t really have to direct each other.

Suckers has a distinctly strong foundation in vocals and percussion. How do you feel about bands where the singer is just okay or the drummer is just okay?
QW: Good drumming is really essential.

AF: I say get the drums right. When you start playing that regular rock beat, it makes all the bands sound the same.

P: If you have an interesting drummer, it definitely changes the way you sound. A really amazing singer is key, too. I guess it depends on how you use it.

BA: But you can’t have a bad drummer. Otherwise your band just has no spine. I know so many really good drummers, but they’ve been trained like black labradors to just play what they’re told, which makes the band sound generic. Whenever you have that call-guy musician, he’s just filling a part, whereas you really need to blend in and contribute something original to the sound.

QW: But Captain Beefheart songs are a good example of what good singing can do. There’s a lot of straightforward drumming in the later Captain Beefheart songs, but the way he sings them makes them sound totally unique.

AF: TV on the Radio’s first EP sounds amazing to me. That’s my favorite one, and there’s barely any drums.

QW: They’ve kind of gone back to that now.

You have some songs where there’s no clear lead singer, but there are some, like “Horn Song,” where one of you definitely takes the lead. In this case, Austin does. I’m just curious how some of these songs develop.
AF: I wrote that separately and brought it in, before Brian even came in. I think that was the first song we ever played with him, that he clicked with us on.

QW: Then we just formed around Austin’s stripped-down version.

AF: Now we just work more together. Improvising, and writing bits that we come up with, but sometimes one of us will bring in something with a rough structure and we’ll fill it in. For a lot of the songs we do now, the leader singer depends on who comes up with a melody. We switch a lot, too. The verse will be sung by someone and the chorus by the other.

Has there been an instance where one of you came up with a melody but thought the other would be a better fit?
QW: There’s certain stuff that I come up with that I think I’d rather have somebody else sing.

AF: It depends on whose vocal range it works on, too.

Quinn has a wealth of recorded material lying around, about 15 CDs. Sometimes you guys play “Save Your Love for Me,” which is an old Quinn Walker song. Has it been adopted by the band?
QW: Now it’s more of a band song, but it was a single of mine as a solo artist on Voodoo Eros. I’m trying to get away from re-doing anything I’d done prior to the band. New songs I write by myself can just become band songs now, but I’m not interested in re-doing songs written and recorded before the band. I just want to leave that as is.

BA: That song’s changed a lot of character, though, from him to us. The form’s changed, and the beginning’s all soft now. It’s not quite a different song, but it almost is.

QW: We used to rework my old songs when we first started out. There are a lot of those renewed songs.

AF: It’s harder to do that sometimes because it means you have to rearrange something that’s already been arranged, whereas when you start fresh, everyone can just bring in their own thing, and it’s more natural and more fun.

QW: We come up with like three new songs during practice anyway, so there’s not really any time to include the older stuff anymore.

BA: The thing is, when you write a song by yourself, you have the whole song there, whereas when you have four people, there are four opinions every step of the way. It’s slower, but it’s more interesting.

Usually bands start out by booking themselves and touring heavily, but for Suckers it’s been the opposite. You’ve barely toured but you’re already playing huge sold out shows. Is that something that can only happen in a place like Brooklyn?
QW: I hate booking shows.

AF: It’s definitely easier for that to happen in Brooklyn. I mean, we used to book our own shows around New York but we never toured because we never had any money, and nobody knew who we were, so it didn’t make much sense. Definitely, the advantage of living in New York is that everything is concentrated here. If you get a little bit of attention here, it gets magnified really quickly.

QW: Especially since we’re probably competing with more bands here than in any other place in the world. So if you’re getting some attention, you really stand out.

And there’s no traveling costs involved if you’re just playing in New York.
QW: Except, we have to use car services. It’s nice when there’s a friend in town with a truck or a van.

All of the reviews I’ve read of you have been favorable so far. Are you almost disappointed that you don’t have any negative reviews to read yet?
AF: We just watched a negative review. It was Brooklyn Paper’s “Smash or Trash”, and the older gentleman trashed us, and the younger gentleman was a fan.

QW: It was hilarious. I don’t consider them gentlemen.

BA: I want to see that.

That doesn’t sound like a real negative review though. Not like if you were trashed by Pitchfork.
P: Yeah, one guy was just like, “Arghh I don’t like this!” And one guy was just like, “Hey this is great!” And one guy was like, “I don’t have an opinion!”

QW: I got jaded by the whole thing with my solo album. At first you’re like, wow, this is so exciting, people are reviewing my album and talking about stuff. Then after a couple of weeks I decided I don’t need to read that stuff anymore. I was definitely more fond of the negative press because it was funnier. There was this one amazing write-up for my solo album on the Baltimore City Paper that had this whole spiel about how I’m an unconventional motivational speaker through my music, and that that’s what my aim really was. Like Tom Cruise in Magnolia.

Is everyone still working at their day jobs?
P: Those of us that have day jobs are still working.

QW: I’m still a male prostitute. At night.

Austin, what do you do at the Met?
AF: I work in the media department, on this project called the Timeline of Art History. I’ve been working in museums and the arts since I graduated from college. I don’t know how I did it.

And Pan, how did you become a clothing designer?
P: When I moved here, I went to film school. Right after that I needed a job ’cause I was broke. I found a screen-printing place that was hiring. I used to work as a screen-printer in Connecticut. He hired me and I worked there for a year and a half, and through that company I met a ton of street wear brands. I started doing design on my own. I quit my job there and now I’m a designer at Mishka. I design t-shirt graphics, and I cut and sew things like jackets, bags, pants.

So who doesn’t have a job?
BA: That’s me right now. I used to do data entry. It may have been a blessing that I got fired.

What about Quinn?
QW: I bartend at some places, and I do carpentry and painting when I can. Sell things. Prostitute myself. Actually I just got a request online for all of my early CDs, so that’ll make me some money. I just played solo in Montreal and got paid well for it. I live off things like that. Or pay people back with it.

BA: Yeah, that’s right.

P: The two people without a job have to pay each other back every week.

BA: Yeah we lend money to each other.

QW: I make enough to get by usually. The only thing I spend money on is booze, cigarettes and food. And rent. We’re gonna go into the cougar masseuse biz. We’re gonna call ourselves Predators of the Predators.

How did the tradition of face make up come about?
BA: Quinn peer-pressured me into it.

QW: I’ve actually been into make up since I was a baby. I’ve been dressing up since then. My parents thought I was really strange. I’d dress up in costumes and put underwear on my head, put my mom’s lipstick around my eyes. I want to take on a different personality on stage. I get into character. When you’re performing in front of people, you get into character no matter what, whether you’re wearing make up or not. The make up just speeds the process up.

BA: I do it ’cause Andrew from MGMT does it.

QW: I don’t even think Andrew does that. Brian’s just saying that because he idolizes Andrew.

P: We just keep getting MGMT comparisons. Especially with our clothes and our artwork.

AF: That’s why I’m trying to push us into the farmer style.

QW: We’re definitely treated like the little brother of Yeasayer, MGMT, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, that kind of thing. All of the bands I really love.

Arcade Fire comparison seems kind of far-fetched.
P: Yeah, it’s just that people first hear “It Gets Your Body Movin’” and they hear the build-up. And they think, Oh they have a build-up in their song, they must sound like Arcade Fire.

I guess it’s also that none of these bands you’re being compared to have the regular indie-rock sound, so you’re all being lumped together.
QW: Yeah. We all get pigeon-holed with friends too. We get compared to Chairlift just because we’re friends with them. Amazing Baby gets pigeon-holed with MGMT just because they’re friends with them. It’s bound to happen no matter what.

AF: I guess it doesn’t help that we’re playing with MGMT pretty soon. But we are friends with them, so.

There is always a faint feeling of apprehension at the thought of Radiohead covers — lets face it, not many people can deliver a performance quite like Thom Yorke. But Macy Gray’s cover of “Creep” at the Los Angeles premiere of the music documentary The Heart is a Drum Machine, wasn’t all that bad.

The r&b songstress was backed by Matt Sorum, former member of Guns N’ Roses, on drums, and Billy Morrison of The Cult on guitar at the event, which took place at the Nike Ricardo Montalban Theater in Hollywood. Along with Gray’s performance, Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction also played, covering The Rolling Stones‘ “Sympathy for the Devil”, and Juliette Lewis also performed. The event was part of the LA Weekend series of culture events.

The performances were done in celebration of The Heart is a Drum Machine’s release, which looks at the reality of music as a unique human expression. The film has a hoard of musical guests who discuss the idea behind the distinct musical/human relationship, including Wayne Coyne of Flaming Lips, Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT and John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

A friend of The Tripwire who goes under the production credit of Music Is Magic recently sent us a mix of songs he mashed-up. Included in the mix were a bevy of indie staples we prescribe to, including Gang Gang Dance, M83, Black Dice, Burial and MGMT among others. But the track “Gupdegup” mixes arguably three of our favorite summer jams together to make what we are deeming the perfect track to escape the city to.

By combining Dan Friel’s already catchy as hell “Ghost Town (Part 1)” with a live take of Animal Collective’s “Taste” and using Steel An’ Skin’s “Reggae Is Here Once Again” and “Afro Punk Reggae Dub” for the rhythm, we dare you to listen to this song without feeling happy and bobbin’ your head. Just wait until about 50 seconds in when the melody from the Friel track kicks in and try not to smile. It’s impossible.

Music Is Magic – “Gupdegup” (Dan Friel, Animal Collective, Steel An’ Skin Mix)

Back in February we told you about the beef between MGMT and the French government for unapproved use of the band’s song “Kids” as part of a political campaign. Today, in a statement posted on their website, MGMT has come an out-of-court settlement with the French government and will donate the money to “artists rights organizations.” So don’t expect to see MGMT rollin’ around in Navigators and chinchilla coats yet.

Rather than reacting in a “typical American” fashion, MGMT decided that an out-of-court settlement with Nicolas Sarkozy and his pals would be more beneficial to everyone. Talking to Triple J, Ben Goldwasser defended the bands actions. “We didn’t sue them which is what a lot of people were saying. We ended up settling with them and we’re working right now on trying to find some sort of charity that we can donate the money to that we agreed on, to help other musicians that might be involved in some sort of legal battle that they can’t fight on their own.” [See MGMT's official statement below]

Though the band did believe the French government was being hypocritical — pushing strong anti-piracy regulations, while illegally using music themselves — the band also believed that music should be enjoyed by all, and that the use of their song in France helped generate the spread of their music around the globe.

As well as letting the bad taste between the band and the French subside, they are also recording new material for their upcoming album. MGMT told Triple J that they are recording in the Catskill region of New York, as well as California, in hopes of achieving different perspectives in their sound.

“That was part of our idea that we were going to be locking ourselves up in the middle of winter, all cold and depressed,” said Goldwasser. “And then move somewhere where we’ll be out on the beach and enjoying ourselves in the sunny weather, try to get some different influences. Some of the songs are definitely a little more introspective and then there’s definitely some more surfy, beachy stuff going on.”

Official band statement
About two months ago it was brought to our attention (through the MGMT message board) that the UMP French political party was using our song “Kids” at rallies and posting videos of these rallies on their official website. Normally MGMT steers clear of mixing music and politics, but the fact that the UMP used our song without permission while simultaneously pushing anti-piracy legislation seemed a little wack. We believe that access to music benefits both the musicians and the fans, and has undoubtedly helped spread our music around the globe, while also expanding our personal musical collections. We didn’t want to be “typical Americans” and sue, despite the amazing monetary benefit and chinchilla coats and Navigators it would bring. Instead we’re using the settlement fee the UMP presented and donating it to artists rights organizations. Thank you France for the wonderful food. C’est bon. -MGMT

Celebrate Brooklyn’s Green Gala is a bit too costly for the chump change in our pockets, but really, who needs cocktails and a fancy dinner when David Byrne is playing for free? (Well, there’s a $3 suggested donation, but we are willing to throw down some spare pocket change in exchange for some amazing music in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.) Byrne will be kicking off the Celebrate Brooklyn Festival after the gala event, on Monday, June 8.

Byrne will be the first to perform for the summer series at the Prospect Park Bandshell. MGMT, Animal Collective and Jackson Browne will also be playing at the Park this summer, and the line up for the rest of the shows for the summer arts festival will be announced in a few weeks. Unfortunately, MGMT and Animal Collective are not performing for free like Byrne, and tickets of the MGMT performance have already sold out.

Celebrate Brooklyn was started in 1979 in hopes of revitalizing Prospect Park, and has been dubbed one of the longest-running free outdoor festivals in New York City. If for some reason you can’t make it to Byrne’s freebie performance in the park, you can try to catch him on the rest of his tour dates, but we’re hoping for this special event we’ll see Byrne decked out in a new fancy tutu.

Just when we were wondering what Justice was going to remix next, we got our answer — and a quite surprising one at that. The French remixing-master duo will be pairing up with U2 to remix the No Line On The Horizon single, “Get On Your Boots”.

Sure it might sound like an odd couple to be joining forces for an electronic remix, but both Justice’s publicist and a newsletter from the groups record label confirmed the pairing. We’re curious how the Edge’s guitar riffs in “Get on Your Boots” is going to match up to the electric touch of Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay. They’ve done wonders with Franz Ferdinand, MGMT, and Justin Timberlake tracks, so this should be and ear full to say the least, and really, we’re more concerned about Bono’s ego exploding if the track becomes a success.

For now, U2 is heading out on tour in support of their new album, but maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll get to see Bono and the gang team up with Justice for a few shows along the way. Now that would be something worth watching.

After the momentous success of last year, All Points West is back for another go at the festival scene, and even though we won’t be seeing Radiohead back on the stage for another round of jaw dropping performances this year, the line up is pretty stacked, having Coldplay, Tool and The Beastie Boys headlining the three day event at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. 

The festival will take place on July 31-August 2, and along with the three headliners, MGMT, Fleet Foxes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gogol Bordello, Crystal Castles, and Echo & The Bunnymen are all part of the loaded line up. The festival is also taking a Coachella-like turn this year, axing the Queen of the Valley stage, and instead creating a tent to house comedy, DJs, and electronic acts, as reported by Brooklyn Vegan. 

If you went to the festival last year, you might remember the woes of traveling to and from the park, but don’t cringe too soon. This year the festival heads have tried to revamp the transportation system, to ensure more frequent ferry rides from Manhattan, and free Light Rail travel from Jersey-side travelers. One other major improvement has been made to the festival as well — the beer garden area will have shorter lines, more beer and will have views of the stage, so what more could you ask for? 

Tickets for All Points West go on sale on April 3rd, and further information about the festival will continue to be updated at the All Points website.

All Points West Music & Arts Festival line-up
Friday, July 31
Beastie Boys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, The National, Fleet Foxes, MSTRKRFT, Q-Tip, The Pharcyde, Organized Konfusion, The Knux, Ra Ra Riot, Seasick Steve, Telepathe, Shearwater, Heartless Bastards, Flying Lotus, College Humor Live, Arj Barker, Eugene Mirman and Bo Burnham.

Saturday, August 1
Tool, My Bloody Valentine, Gogol Bordello, Arctic Monkeys, Neko Case, The Ting Tings, Yelle, Crystal Castles, St. Vincent, Tokyo Police Club, The Cool Kids, Kool Keith, Cage the Elephant, Chairlift, White Rabbits, Electric Touch, The Postelles, Black Gold, College Humor Live, Tim & Eric, Judah Friedlander and Jim Jeffries.

Sunday, August 2 
Coldplay, Echo & The Bunnymen, MGMT, The Black Keys, Elbow, Silversun Pickups, Mogwai, We Are Scientists, Ghostland Observatory, The Gaslight Anthem, Etienne De Crecy, Lykke Li, Akron/Family, Steel Train, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, College Humor Live, Janeane Garofalo, Michael Showalter and Todd Barry.

The funny thing about Hopewell is that they have been sorely overlooked by those who like the psychedelic, dreamy pop being made by bands like Animal Collective, Dungen or to a lesser degree, Dirty Projectors, mainly because they brewed their cred in upstate New York versus Manhattan or Brooklyn. But that might change with the release of Good Good Desperation in May.

Hopewell was founded by Jason Russo, of Hopewell Junction who, at 19, joined Mercury Rev for a world tour before setting out on his own with a band named after his hometown. As their press release states, they do claim to be “purveyors of the new psych-rock scene,” boasting a resume that has seen them open for My Bloody Valentine on their recent reunion tour, work in the past with producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT), record a Peel Session live at Abbey Road Studio, and playing Reading and Leeds Festivals.

With Good Good Desperation — out May 5 on Tee Pee Records — Hopewell’s journey continues down their own noisy path. In between tours and throughout 2008 they set out to make a record that more captured their live sound. It was during this time that Jonathan Donahue invited the band to play a 30-minute segment of music on his WDST Woodstock radio program in upstate New York. For this show the group composed a structured improvisational piece, a composition loosely dubbed “The Opus”, which would become the progenitor for many of the songs on the album to come. Immersed in heavy doses of bands like This Heat, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music and early tribal Jane’s Addiction, Hopewell booked time in Brooklyn studios Seizures Palace and Seaside Lounge (Akron/Family, Psychic Ills). The result of which is Good Good Desperation.

Hopewell will also be releasing the 7-inch single version of the single “Good Good Good Desperation” (yes, there is an extra “good”) today on Tee Pee Records, and will be celebrating with a record release show this Friday at Glasslands in Brooklyn and further down in TX at SxSW.

Good Good Desperation track list
Side A
01. Preamble (pt II)
02. Island
03. Good Good Good Desperation
04. Worried Mind
05. Realms of Gold
Side B
01. 10,000 Black Masses (pt I)
02. Stranger
03. Seen the Light
04. Over the Mountain
05. Bury Me Standing

Hopewell tour dates
03.13.09 – Brooklyn, NY (Glasslands)
03.18.09 – SXSW Tee Pee Records Day Party (Skoot Inn)
03.20.09 – SXSW Day Party (Spiderhouse)
03.20.09 – SXSW Day Party (Guero’s)
03.21.09 – SXSW Live Music Capitol Day Party
03.21.09 – SXSW Showcase (Beauty Bar)

MGMT announced today they’re going to be doing some giving back in Brooklyn this summer, and you, the lucky fan, get to benefit from their good will! They’ll be playing a show in Prospect Park to benefit the Celebrate Brooklyn Performing Arts Festival.

The show will be July 1, with tickets going on sale this Friday [March 13] at noon. They’re $30 each, and can be obtained a few different ways. You can take your chances with Ticketmaster by calling 800-745-3000; you can go to the Mercury Lounge box office at 217 E. Houston St. (between Ludlow and Essex); or you can head to the Music Hall of Williamsburg box office at 66 N. 6th St. (between Kent and Wythe).

Celebrate Brooklyn! is one of New York’s longest-running free, outdoor performing arts festivals.

If you want people to listen to your music, and your chops aren’t cutting it, just do what The Mentalists did — pull out your iPhone and shamelessly market yourself covering some other cool band’s song instead. Yeah, we couldn’t believe it either, so that’s why we’re showing you the Mentalists covering MGMT’s “Kids”.

The ability to utilize Apple’s ingenious iPhone music applications might not make The Mentalists look like the most musically-able foursome to pop out of England, but it sure is one hell of a marketing tactic, which probably has tech-geeks everywhere squirming in their seats with joy.

The all-girl-group made use of the Ocarina, Retro Synth, miniSynth and DigiDrummer Lite apps to cover the electrically poppy “Kids”, but don’t worry the vocals were all them. The cover starts off hopeful, but the usually head-bopping hit begins to gets draggy towards the middle, leaving you wondering if the applause at the end of the live performance was just another pre-programed iPhone app.

We’re going to give the ladies props for being creative, and if anything, amusing us with their skilled finger tapping on their touch screen Apple brand iPhones. We know we certainly couldn’t pull it off. Regardless, it’s a pretty cool video, and we’re thinking there’s a new Apple commercial written all over this.

The Mentalists – “Kids” (MGMT Cover On iPhones)

The French government has a reputation for their strong anti-piracy stance in regards to illegal downloading of music and movies via the internet, but it looks like the government has gotten itself into a small mess of hypocritical trouble for using MGMT’s song, “Kids” without permission.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is guilty of using “Kids” at two meetings and on the internet without the permission of the American band. As the The Daily Swarm pointed out, this kind of thing seems to be happening a lot with politicians lately, but unlike most, Sarkozy and pals are remorseful for their actions, and want to pay up for their mistakes. MGMT, on the other hand, doesn’t want to budge.

According to You Aint No Picasso, the group has sued the UMP because of their differing principles, and does not want to accept the compensation offered to them for their illegal use of their material.

We’re not sure if MGMT is being too harsh on the guilty party or not, but a statement released by the UMP read, “UMP is very attached to the respect of the royalties. And the protection of works of the artists is something of paramount. Compensations had to be envisaged. This is completely normal. The music used in the meetings was it within the framework of the SACEM and thus by paying rights to the SACEM. We are looking at so that there is a right compensation for the group. We respect the right of the authors above all, for this reason we wish to manage an agreement.”

When Playboy’s March issue hits newsstands on Friday, the guys of MGMT will be able to take their rightful place in the silk-pajama’d hall of fame — they’re among a handful of artists chosen to participate in this year’s Rock the Rabbit campaign for the magazine’s annual sex and music edition.

Playboy launched Rock the Rabbit in 2007, each year handpicking a group of musicians (both up-and-comers and legends) to take a stab at redesigning the infamous and iconic bunny-eared logo. They get to offer up any sort of artistic interpretation of the bunny they’d like, and the artwork is featured on limited edition tee shirts, which you can buy here. A portion of the proceeds go to charity.

MGMT is one of a select few of the participating bands actually appearing on the glossy pages of the world’s most infamous men’s magazine. They were photographed (the photo above) by legendary rock photographer MIck Rock for the spread. Pun totally intended. MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden had this to say about the band’s work of art:

The inspiration for the design came from our love for Playboy and new yorker styled cartoons. We’re very into cartoons, the rest of our merchandise line is in fact a series of original cartoon characters designed by our friend Dan from our descriptions of the characters.

You can get more exclusive Rock the Rabbit content online, including artist interviews, mp3s and behind-the-scenes video footage. Since the campaign started, the magazine has featured artists like Iggy Pop, The Flaming Lips, Ghostland Observatory, The Killers, Hot Chip and more.

Coldplay might have topped the BRITs nominations list with four nods, but our choice for best week ever goes to blues man Seasick Steve. He not only became the oldest artist ever nominated for a BRIT award this week, but also announced he’s getting ready to work with Jack White.

Seasick Steve made the announcement at the BRITs nomination party. Of course, he also admitted that prior to being nominated he’d actually never heard of the BRITs. At 67 years old he takes the cake for oldest ever nominee, shortlisted in the Best International Male category. Poor Steve is up against Beck, Kanye West, Jay-Z and Neil Diamond. But apparently he tests well with the British, and has for a while now — he won the 2007 MOJO award for best breakthrough act — so we have our fingers crossed.

Other than Steve, Coldplay pulled a Grammy repeat, scoring four nominations. They tied with soul songstress Duffy (whose album beat them out for best-seller in the UK in 2008) at the top of the heap, with Adele, Elbow and Scouting for Girls close behind at three nods each.

Radiohead, Girls Aloud, Estelle and the Ting Tings grabbed two noms each, with Radiohead and the Ting Tings competing against Coldplay and Elbow for best British album.

The nominees for both the best international group and best international album awards are AC/DC, Fleet Foxes, the Killers, Kings of Leon and MGMT. The best international female category (the counterpart to Seasick Steve’s nomination bunch) features Beyonce, Gabriella Cilmi, Katy Perry, Pink and Santogold.

The BRITs are also bringing back the award for best producer, last given at the ceremony in 1998. The nominees — Bernard Butler, Brian Eno and Steve Mac — will find out their fate a little sooner than everyone else, as the award will be presented at the Music Producers Guild Awards on Feb. 12.

The rest of them will be handed out on February 18 in London. The only artist who can count on taking home a trophy is Florence and the Machine, who is the winner of the 2009 Critics’ Choice award, chosen annually by a media panel. Well, her and the Pet Shop Boys, who will be recognized in the outstanding contribution to music category. You can check out the full list of nominations here.

U2, the Pet Shop Boys, Kings Of Leon, Duffy and Girls Aloud will perform at the awards ceremony.

In a year we are predicting big things for the former Whigs and MGMT guitarist, we kick off 2009 with the latest single from our October On The Cover feature artist, Kuroma.

Kuroma – “In New York, Everything Is Tropical”

Browsing through all the inevitable year-end best-of lists and seeing MGMT hanging out at the top of so many of them makes me feel like a bit of a toolbag for putting “Time to Pretend” at the top of my singles list. But this song is everything that a good pop song should be: It is musically innovative while at the same time being easy to listen to and even something you can sing along with. So what if it’s a trend, I can’t help it. I like MGMT. Everyone else seems to, so it can’t be all that wrong.

MGMT – “Time To Pretend”