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Monday, January 14, 2008

There Will Be Sweat

Will you join the MGMT malevolution at The Echo?

According to their origin story, Brooklyn-based MGMT was born when Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, two students at Wesleyan University, played a set of the "Ghost Busters" theme song on repeat at their campus's clothing-optional dorm. Which sort sounds like something that would go down in a bad movie starring Seann William Scott, and may or may not be true (the word "prankster" constantly crops up in the press they've gotten).


"We weren't trying to start a band," Goldwasser explains."We were just hanging out, showing each other music that we liked." Extended elaborate joke or not (Cantora Record's Web site directs fans to call 901-355-6371 if they want to know if the boys can play real instruments) this duo rocks, especially on trippy tracks like "Time to Pretend" and "Weekend Wars" off their full-length debut, Oracular Spectacular.

The sound is old school, at times invoking everyone from New Order to the Rolling Stones, but has an unpolished charm that keeps it feeling fresh and unique. "Dave [Fridmann] ended up running the tracks through this thing that crushed them and made them sound really gross again," Goldwasser told Rolling Stone. "They're a lot better now." Again, it's hard to tell if he's joking, which is kind of half the fun.

MGMT is headlining at The Echo on Saturday, January 26th (they just got off of a tour with Of Montreal), and we're giving one winner a pair of tickets to see the show, and copies of the album to five runners-up. To enter for your chance to check out this buzz band, send us an email here with the correct answer to the following:

After college, Goldwasser moved to upstate New York to pursue what career?

Good luck!

- Caroline Stanley

Similar Topics:contest, live shows, music


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