Artist to Watch: MGMT

Below is an excerpt of an article that originally appeared in RS 1040 from November 29, 2007. This issue and the rest of the Rolling Stone archives are available via Rolling Stone Plus, Rolling Stone's premium subscription plan. If you are already a subscriber, you can click here to see the full story. Not a member? Click here to learn more about Rolling Stone Plus.

Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser get a kick out of being irreverent pranksters. While studying music at Wesleyan University in Middleton, Connecticut, the pair formed the electronic-rock group MGMT (pronounced "management") and played at the college's notorious "clothing optional" dorm. The set list? The Ghost Busters theme song, performed ad nauseam. But whenever VanWyngarden or Goldwasser weren't on a stage, the two wrote more-traditional songs together, with the aim of signing to a major label. "We were this unknown band, but we talked a lot about selling out as soon as possible," says VanWyngarden. Still, when Columbia Records came courting them last year, MGMT couldn't bring themselves to take the process seriously. "We were really sarcastic when we met them," VanWyngarden recalls. "They asked us for a list of dream producers, so we made one: Prince, Barack Obama, Nigel Godrich and 'Not Sheryl Crow.'"

Eventually MGMT settled on Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann for their debut, Oracular Spectacular. (The disc officially comes out in January but is available on iTunes now.)

VanWyngarden and Goldwasser spike their pop songs with plenty of grit: "Kids" is a noisy New Order-style synth jam, the acoustic psych-rocker "Weekend Wars" cribs from the Rolling Stones, and "The Handshake" is a funked-up avant-rock composition that doesn't have traditional choruses or verses. "We redid a lot of our songs that sounded too polished," says Goldwasser. "Dave ended up running the tracks through this thing that crushed them and made them sound really gross again. They're a lot better now."

Despite major-label backing, MGMT have kept some indie cred: They've toured a few times with Of Montreal, and the art-rock group's frontman, Kevin Barnes, is working with VanWyngarden on a side project called Blik Fang. "They don't get hung up on having this anti-corporate punk-rock attitude," says Barnes. "And I think it's a good thing."

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Song Stories

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette | 1973

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."

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