Artist Spotlight: MGMT “Being Famous Was Never the Goal”

When newest music sensation MGMT received a nomination for “Best New Artist” at this year’s Grammys, no one was more shocked than the band members themselves: Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser.  The New York Natives met as freshmen at Wesleyan University and enjoyed playing at small parties and unpaid gigs. Fast-forward a few years and the band has earned renowned titles like Rolling Stone’s “Top 10 Artist to Watch”, Spin.com’s “Artist of the Day”, and Rolling Stone’s 18th “Best album of the decade”.  The twosome released their first album, Oracular Spectacular, in February of 2008 with Sony Records and have since enjoyed rising fame, with psychedelic tracks “Kids” and “Electric Feel” ranking higher than ever on the Billboard charts.

Although the band has only released two full-length albums to date, the fame they have received as a result of their envelope-pushing electronic style and passion-filled lyrics is overwhelming for the band itself, and the rest of the world.  VanWyngarden and Goldwasser are multi-instrumentalists, playing everything from guitar to synths and have since enlisted newest members Matthew Asti (bass), James Richardson (guitar, backing vocals), and Will Berman (drums) who helped write and perform on the band’s newest album, Congratulations, released this past April.

Over the past year, the neo-psychedelic group has nabbed spots as headliners on acclaimed music festivals like San Francisco’s Treasure Island, Indio, CA’s Coachella, and the upcoming Lollapalooza held in Grant Park, IL. As the band continues to tour North America and Europe for the next several months, with 57 scheduled performances including a concert at Los Angeles’ intimate Greek Theatre on July 16th, 2010, one thing is for certain: MGMT isn’t going anywhere for a VERY long time. Be sure to check out the band’s newest music video for “Flash Delirium” off of their newest album, Congratulations above!