Showing posts with label MGMT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MGMT. Show all posts

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

FLASH ah-ah, Saviours of the Universe! It's MGMT...

Jaz got a sneak peak of MGMT's forthcoming second release Congratulations, which - following their splendiferously technicoloured Oracular Spectacular -  is one of the most anticipated albums of this year. If you were hoping for more of the same with album number two you're in for a bit of a shock.

Kicking off with what sounds like the backdrop for a Middle-Eastern market place, new track Flash Delirium is still psychedelic except with more of a Beach Boys surf rock air - think Help Me Rhonda on acid... at an ELO concert. With one song on the album titled Brian Eno, it's safe to say that the New York duo have set their sights on out-experimenting the electro-ambient rock superproducer in terms of innovation. On creating the album which hits the UK on 12th April, Andrew Vanwyngarden has said: "It's so great to be around such amazing and unusual musical minds". Among other catalysts, we're sure...

Transcend space and time and join MGMT on a psychedelic spiral odyssey... Alternatively download the track for free at  www.whoismgmt.com

Or if you're running low on iPod space you could just stare at this for a few minutes for similar sensational vibrations...

http://i43.tinypic.com/2e6ahzt.jpg


Jaz x

Thursday, 4 March 2010

Compare The Rabbit Dot Com

Do you often find yourself mistaking some bands for certain others due to their ridiculously near-identical silly names? Have you been getting your Black Kids mixed up with your Black Lips, crossing your Howling Bells with your Broken Bells or swapping your MGMT for your N.E.R.D? If so, you are not alone. Jaz has become so infuriated by a particularly bad case of Multiple Bandname Disorder recently that we've felt it necessary to safeguard society from what's fast becoming a global epidemic: Bunny Flu.

"I in true Glaswegian fashion made the error of shooting my mouth off about a homegrown beardy Scottish collective called Frightened Rabbit only to stand bruised and bashful as six stylishly clad Brooklynites took centre stage under the nom de plume White Rabbits. Seriously, what the buck teeth is that all about?"

That's right. The suffix Rabbit is due to overcome the ampersand and quite possible the 'The' as most popular requirement for rockgroup christenings. To help you correctly distinguish between White Rabbits and Frightened Rabbit, Jaz has written a full rant-fueled guide over on Who's Jack: http://www.whosjack.org/?p=4543

Also useful are the following visual aids:-

Exhibit A: White Rabbits with Percussion Gun from second album It's Frightening...



Exhibit B: Frightened Rabbit with Swim Until You Can't See Land from third album (just released on Monday) The Winter Of Mixed Drinks...



Be safe...

Jaz x

Friday, 19 February 2010

Just Say Yes...

Just say yes. Not to Snore Patrol, to Yeasayer. Jaz went backwards to go forwards on Wednesday night. Confused? So were we. Oran Mor, an old converted church in the heart of Glasgow University land, is difficult to navigate at the best of times with several floors, windy staircases and probably the odd secret passageway here and there. Brooklyn threesome Yeasayer, however, were there in earnest... somewhere.

Unprepared for a reconnaissance mission and without night vision goggles, Jaz feels about in the pitch black guided only by the dirge of 'Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel' (their words) in soundcheck. Eventually spotting the target, Jaz refuses to accommodate the "neat" suggestion of performing an interview travelling up and down inside an elevator for an hour due to past claustrophobic trauma of reliving Speed while trapped in a school lift for 45 minutes. As lead singer Chris Keating comments on Jaz's Scottish tones and informs that several formative years listening to rap resulted in his Method Man accent, Jaz gets ready for an evening of pseudo-geek hilarity.



Described by some journalists as the thinking man's pop band, bassist Ira Wolf Tuton (his middle name really is Wolf and he's not in Twilight) spends an hour theorising, analysing and criticising pretty much everything. But if you're looking for an explanation as to their name don't bother.



"If I had to do it again I'd probably pick AAAA and a bunch of exclamation marks. We're at the bottom of every list."


Playing a set to several hundred students who all look like they've walked straight out an MGMT/Empire Of The Sun video, Yeasayer's nonsensically infectious electro-psychedelic-indie-dance (to use my own ridiculous concoction) creates a hedonistic utopia of one-ness in the room. That is never more apparent than when a young war-painted jumping jack decides to share their stage and throw his own shapes. Why not?


For the full interview which is at once intellectual, irritating and downright amusing visit Q online: http://news.qthemusic.com/2010/02/interview_a_brief_history_of_t.html

Become a facebook fan to check out more pics: http://tinyurl.com/yhxcbhr

Yeasayer's new pop-fectious single O.N.E. has more Conga fever than you can shake a stick at:





Jaz x

Sunday, 7 February 2010

New To Q Sessions: A 5 Day Marathon


This was supposed to be recorded in real time. Unfortunately Jaz had to live in a bedsit with no internet access during the following events. Better late than never...

Five nights out on the trot, 14 artists, one venue: this is my quest. Mount Kilimanjaro isn’t in sight, Comic Relief haven’t been on the blower mistaking me for Gary Barlow’s cousin and I’m not yet experiencing the dizzy heights à la Cheryl Cole. No, I work under the auspices of no associated charity (aside from my own not-so-recession-proof ETTA: Employ The Tea-girl Already). I’m 23 and having a premature life crisis – staying in on Saturday nights with cocoa, mourning the completion of The X Factor and averaging a bedtime of 10.30. Reviving my inner jumping bean, however, isn’t the only motivation for my self-set New To Q Sessions-orientated challenge. I have an affliction worthy of many a philanthropist’s shrapnel. Whatever “It” is, I need to be on it. Treggings, Glee, the latest yoga/pilates hybrid – I must ride the wave of now. As I take up residence for the first night at Notting Hill’s Tabernacle where I shall worship at the altar of the latest signing I stop myself before sneering at the sea of Lyle Scotts with their side-gelled coifs. I am you (gender aside), and, I wonder, is your short-term memory as crippled as mine?

So there’s been the years of pre-exam crash revision, the relocations to three cities with complex transport systems, the constant conveyor belt of new faces/names met along the way and the brain cells bludgeoned familiarising myself with scores of office floors while slaving away at various internships… all pale in comparison to the damage caused by my bout of fingeronpulse-itus. In these www times filled by a constant release of “Next Big Thing”s who become passé the instant they’re announced as such, the briefest of cultural heart palpitations are undetectable and neurological breakdown is induced by the dreaded inquisition, “What’s on your iPod’s shuffle this week?”. Seriously: Marina & The Machine, Friendly Boots, The Big Black Kids, Broken Drums, Pixie Geldott… please make it stop! What does it even mean to be ‘new’ in music? Who qualifies for an NME cover? Next time I host a vintage throwback party, I’ll be toasting Daisy Lowe, remembering heady days of yore with all the classics from MGM.I.A. and those New York veterans Vampire Weekend, while screening Slumdog Millionaire and downing shots of wheatgrass. Florence, your dog’s had its day; time to get on your broomstick and fly away. La Roux, throw out your lemons, you can crack a smile now while nobody’s looking. I propose an indie social suicide pact. Until then, I shall squeeze the latest roster of up-and-comers into my shrinking skull.

Jaz x