Tuesday, March 30, 2010

What's up with MGMT and surfing?




A couple years ago I posted a link to the MGMT video for "Time to Pretend," which featured the lead singer surfing on green screen ala Frankie Avalon (with decent drop-knee style). I think we can all agree that was a pretty great album. Now that the newest release by these debauched Brooklynites has officially leaked, like a surfboard with an unknown gash in the glass, it raises the proverbial eyebrows again to see all kinds of surf imagery in the mix. The album cover has a crazy Sonic-the-Hedgehog-like fox, throwing double shakas under the curl of a menacing wave shaped like his own head. Trippy.

In a recent interview with Spin, MGMT member Andrew Vanwyngarden talked story about the new album: “There’s a surfing thread throughout the record,” he said. “When you’re surfing, there’s a specific break you’re paddling to. And when the waves are really good you say, ‘It’s working.’ The song ["It's Working"] kind of has a surf-y vibe. It’s like surfing on ecstasy!”

Surfing on ecstasy? Seems like a lot of bands are taking to the wild waves with their influences lately. I've asked this before, but is this a coincidence? Are we headed to an era of Gidget-esque surf worship similar to the '60s? Are we already in the middle of it? Does it even matter?

As I write this, the album is playing in the background and it's totally tubular.

Check it for yourself. You can stream the whole new MGMT album, Congratulations, at NPR.org's First Listen.

12 comments:

Julia said...

Vanwyngarden is dating a surfer girl, Fabiola Gatti, that may explain a few things..

Chum said...

Good information. I did the research, and she is very "fabiola." Kind of a combo of fabulous and voila!

http://www.musicblob.it/wp-content/fabs2.jpg

oregon surf hippy said...

honestly who dosent surf these days? the management is on to nothing new had some of my best surfs frying my balls off back when jerry was still alive.

Chum said...

True. And it crossed my mind yesterday that if I was remotely wealthy from a music career and I had just discovered "The Stoke" I'd be surfing every chance I got. And making music about it too.

Kono said...

The best album of the year has nothing about surfing but it does have Civil War reference's... Titus Andronicus' The Monitor.

siberianbreaks said...

Andrew Vanwyngarden is a surfer now? You know, dating a surf chick doesn't automatically make you a surfer. I'd like to see him surf. Wonder how good he is.

xlpharmacy said...

The clip receive a lot of critics because people liked on that times real stuff, but take something like that real was impossible.

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