MGMT played a pretty rough episode of Saturday Night Live this weekend. Host Gabourey Sidibe stumbled over a lot of her lines, though she at least understood what humor was, what she was saying, etc. (making January Jones still the worst host in recent memory). MGMT did “Flash Delirium” and “Brian Eno,” and while Andrew VanWyngarden kept his eyes closed for most of their performances, guitarist James Richardson did crazy eyes whenever the camera panned over to him. Star-making appearance for him. Other highlights from the episode: Sidibe’s epic cherry-spitting battle with Andy Samberg, and John Mulaney’s first Weekend Update appearance. MGMT below, the comedy highlights (but maybe MGMT was a comedy highlight?) at Videogum.
“Flash Delirium”
“Brian Eno”
Congratulations is out now via Sony/Columbia.
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Oh MGMT.
Yikes.
Yes a “Being Human” gif! werttrew you never fail to impress.
I second that! Being Human is the best. Also, I feel that gif is like the antithesis of the James Franco pie gif. All of that said, I actually thought MGMT did well. While the songs aren’t necessarily my cup of tea, they demonstrated that they have the chops to pull it off. This performance actually made me appreciate the album a bit more.
i dont believe in god or the bible. its a bunch of garbage
it’s not bad. I enjoyed it
Anyone else think this was absolutely wretched? I mean, I was really stoned when I saw it, so its entirely possible I was just freaked out by mr. crazy eyes.
It was pretty awful. I am not a fan of MGMT, nor am I a hater. But after these performances, I wonder why anyone likes them. “Congrats! You discovered the Beach Boys! CULTURE”
Hey monsters! Let’s just take over Stereogum today! We’ll have free reign to do what we want!
This guy knows what I’m talking about:
you probably listen to awful music on the radio. and its not how well they strum the guitars and sing the notes its about energy and rocking out like true artists there music amazing bye the way listen to the words! there amazing musicians people need to grow up and have real taste in music.
They looked so full of themselves…..
Your face looks so full of douchebags
greatest reply of all time.
i love you, blogmaster.
i give the guys some credit for the conecpt of abandoning the sugary elementary synth pop that made them famous. i do (it’s not like the last album was incredible anyway, although “time to pretend” is catchy as hell, pretty fun, and the video rocked.). it sounds like they tried really hard to redefine what their sound is, what they are all about. this new album is a bit of a middle finger to sophmore album expectations.
it’s just too bad the new album blows, though. these performances were bleh
I love the album I don’t think it’s really a drastic change from the second half of OS. It’s actually more of a REFINING the sound that second half had. Personally, I thought they killed those performances. I didn’t think Brian Eno would sound so great live but I loved what they’ve done here.
- said this chicken I know.
whatever you think of the album, this was a really good performance. their live show has taken a step up.
It’s almost too easy to backlash these guys after the success of their first album and the obvious departure from the radio tunes of the second album. That aside, I think the new album is great. It’s as interesting and rewarding to listen to as anything released recently. It’s hard to re-create that sound live, but I think they still do a fine job. I’m a fan.
you don’t sound sure of yourself. at all.
Wow. The jam at the end of Brian Eno has to be one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen. Props for doing something that crazy on network television,.
I liked this too! Brian Eno was awesome, Flash D’s was a little slow and not too great. They’re not full of themselves at all, every recent interview with them portrays them in a really down to earth way, and a lot of what they say is smart and well thought. I’m more of a fan after this album that the first
biggest thing out of coachella when talking about MGMT was that they are playing their new material slower than the LP cuts, and i felt it on Flash as well.
I just want to give Andrew VanWyngarden a comb or hairbrush.
^ or some talent?
I miss their post-apocalyptic themes
Thought it was good performance. I cant lie, watching mgmt anywhere always makes me wonder what kind of drugs they might be on.
I like it. I’m warming up to the new album some.
I wondered how many stories it would take til I felt compelled to register with the new ‘Gum in order to comment. So this was a ‘rough’ episode of SNL? I would like to see a smooth one, cuz there ain’t. And MGMT was hands down the most interesting performance of this season. Who’d you nominate? Bieber? Buble? Shakira? Tings? Peas? Ke$ha? Please. Give me shambolic MGMT any day.
Bieber
Hmm. I really liked it. Andrew did keep his eyes closed the whole time, but I thought they (MGMT as a whole) gave more energy then they did at Coachella. I am slowly warming up to their new album. I will always have a place for them in my heart. Check out my Coachella pics here on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliekbeats/sets/72157623793453107/ There’s some good one’s of MGMT. I will admit, they were a bit lack luster in performance, especially infront of the crowd they were performing for, but Andrew’s outfit was amazing.
MGMT SUCKS ASS! THEY SUCK and have NO TALENT!
Am I hip now?
Cause obviously hating on amazing musicians is the cool thing to do and obviously give me mad respect yo.
Seriously if you don’t like MGMT you have no idea what music is.
Funny how so many bands today are being called copycats of bands 20 or more years ago.
I said it on the DW post and I’ll say it here as well. within a 30 year era you are going to have bands that sound the same and instead of bands “copying” off older bands, how about you get a little bit of musical knowledge behind you and learn what the fuck inspiration means.
So say what you want about them and keep trying to be the coolest kid in your high school by hating on them, but their going to sell and inspire a shit ton albums and people then your band ever will.
You’re right this band has no talent at all, that’s probably why Paul McCartney wanted to record and do shows with them right?
I mean what the fuck does Paul McCartney know about music??
Seriously though next time you try to stand out from the crowd and insult a band, know what the fuck you are talking about.
Thanks for your time kids
Logan you are insane. MGMT really does suck. In fact if you think Congratulations is good you probably have a very limited recorded collection. Also Paul Mcartney has been making awful records for decades. In fact even Wings kind of sucked.
Here is a list of artist that have released albums just this year that are 10 times better than MGMT. you should listen to all of these, because I’m sure you haven’ heard them. And then be happy hat you are finally listening to good music, and also a little bit sad that you’ve wasted so much time listening to shitty music.
Ariel Pink
Caribou
LCD Soundsystem
Owen Pallet
Liars
High Places
Fang Island
Four Tet
Beach House
YAWN
Toro Y Moi
These New Puritans
Liturgy
Xiu Xiu
Yellow Swans
Enjoy
hahaha that list besides Beach House just proved that you’re into music for its underground image and not what it’s really about.
so what if Paul McCartneys last few albums weren’t that great, he’s still apart of one of if not the best musical groups of all time and has a lot more musical knowledge then any of us ever will so it’s safe to say he knows what the fuck hes talking about.
oh and “In fact” MGMT are the ones selling more records,making more tv appearances, and are featured in almost every issue of Rolling Stone since Oracular Spectacular debuted over those shitty noise genre bands you’re listening to.
so say what you want and have your own opinion about them but there’s obviously enough evidence to back up my statement that they’re a great band.
all they have against them is a couple noise and image obsessed hipsters saying that they suck
hahahaah
“Seriously if you don’t like MGMT you have no idea what music is.”
hot tip: if you want people to take you seriously (and i’m guessing that you do since you apparently have objective knowledge of good and bad in a universal sense / have transcended the bumbling idiocy of the “normal music fan” / have descended from on high to furnish us with your knowledge) you might want to avoid saying things like that.
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MGMT are the current faggot hipster idols, no? Here’s a tip listen to good music not this terrible derivative bullshit.
Miss your old avatar. Don’t know whether to take you seriously now. Feel like your comments won’t be as funny now, although they seem to be consistent with the previous ones. Never change.
I don’t understand where does all the MGMT hate come from. Honestly I’m not totally fond of them, but there are some songs on their latest record that are good. Their first record was nice.
I’m not saying that everybody should like them but they deserve some respect. They are good musicians and they actually can write some good music.
Having them in iTunes top 10 selling albums is better than having Ke$ha or the BEP.
Just my opinion.
I’m not really concerned with underground image really. Those artist I named ren’t even really underground. Its not like I was name dropping Graham Lambkin or something. I actually like Drake, and Lady Gaga quite a bit. I really just like good songs. And besides for Someones Missing there weren’t any on MGMT’s new album. Rollingstone is an awful awful magazine. Not sure why you would bring them up. And based upon Paul Mccartney’s decision to champion MGMT, I would say that his knowledge and taste in music is more than questionable.
“I’m not really concerned with underground image really but I’m going to name a really underground band anyway to show you that if I was this is the band I would name and know”. Hahaha
Look its obvious I’m not going to convince you that MGMT is a good band just like you’re not going to convince me that they’re a bad band. I’m really sorry for whatever MGMT did to you to make you hate them so much. Maybe they gave birth to you and through you in a dumpster who knows? Also sorry you hate one of the greatest rock magazines of all time. Seems like you hate anything mainstream unless you’re trying to prove a point.
Fact of the matter is that all you have to back up your statement that they suck is your own word.
I have sales, articles, tv appearances, and thousands of fans to back mine up.
Be my guest and keep hating them it’s your loss not theirs.
So I’m done with this back and fourth internet arguing especially when I have enough behind me to back my word up.
Have a great day
Sorry Logan, but the phrase “Seriously if you don’t like (band) you have no idea what music is.” is the motto of the fanboy street-teamer douchebag. I’m positive that it’s perfectly possible to know good music while not being a fan of MGMT. Just because people reply to your comments doesn’t mean they take you seriously either, dumb posts tend to get plenty of responses too.
That being said, I was a bigger fan of MGMT before the new album. I don’t think its bad, but not very good either. They’ve just come off as arrogant recently, and I’m really starting to dislike their hardcore fans. The band and their fans all claim that if you don’t like the new album, it’s because you only listend to Kids and Time to Pretend and you wanted another Oracular with nothing but dance-pop. Or that you hate them for going mainstream.
I admire them wanting to take a different direction, but I just don’t think the new direction worked. And their decision to not make awesome singles or not play their most famous song at Coachella makes it seem like they’re trying to be less accessible on purpose, to the point where it affects their music. It’s kinda like the opposite of selling out, instead of changing your music to appeal to as many people as possible, you change it to appeal to less. Both changes are still to the detriment of the music.
Oh and sales, tv appearances and magazines don’t mean shit. If they did Ke$ha would be making some of the best music right now. And Rolling Stone hasn’t been relevant for YEARS.
I recently read an interview with the two main guys from mgmt on, what I believe was pitchfork, and they addressed this whole non-conformist kick they are on. Apparently, the two bonded in school over bands that alienated and showed total disregard for their audiences.. They name dropped “suicide” for one. They went on to say how in early performances they would stop mid-song and run around stage just to get a reaction. Now, I am in no way condoning that type of crap, in fact I find it to be one of the higher forms of douchery, all I’m trying to say is that in response to them trying to be less accessible, I believe that is exactly what they are doing. Personally, I believe it is the backlash from an underground band unexpectedly blowing up. They sold out before they built up street cred. So now they have to prove themselves and as seen on snl, they are not doing it very gracefully.
I find almost as if they are faking their trippiness. It doesnt seem real. If they really were that trippy their first album wouldnt have been what it was. They sound like a wannabe Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. Their new album is better than the last but its no classic
Some of the hate going around might be due to the fact that MGMT is being embraced by the mainstream now. Think about it… After that SNL appearance tons of tweens are now downloading Congratulations from iTunes. I for one don’t hate on them because as someone mentioned earlier, they had the balls and decided to take a left-turn on this new album. I wasn’t that into the album at first but it has since grown on me. I’m sure this same exact thing happened back in late-70s when Bowie took a musical-departure when he started working with coincidently enough… Brian Eno.
I see what you’re saying. However, I’ve disliked MGMT from the get-go. This album is just another layer of frosting on the bullshit cake as far as I’m concerned.
yeah logans a fucking idiot… their first cd was blessed with really good production.. at least on the few tracks that made it to every little girls cd player. This cd is a much better representation of what they’re capable of honestly creating by themselves.. and it is shittttyy.. if you still like them you’re either a dumb girl or a dumb fag.
hahahaa and for the dork who is saying people are beginning to dislike them because of going “mainstream” hahahahahaah stfu….. theyve been mainstream and have only drifted further from this… teenagers and children will have no respect for the snl performance.. fact.. if the band started all over from square one and made this their first release.. they would have the same fan base as… ween probably
downgrading just means your insecure, spit it out buzz
yep, ween.. i hate people who think what they listen to makes them cool
Don’t hate on Ween. They’re better than you.
nah na you got me all wrong, i like ween. and used to like ween a lot. I just cant think of a better comparison. mgmt actually performs these really well and will prob continue to get better at writing.. songs are just a little weak right now. and you don’t know me mayn, i got jams
MGMT is just to weird guys that like weird music. This album was not easy to take in but after endless repeat. I’m really loving it. This album has some amazing pop songs like i found a whistle, and someones missing. You have to look at it with fresh ears or it will just be a disappointment.
I love psychedelic music and MGMT is the band i always dreamed of with their merging of pop and the drug induced world of psychedelics.