Nuclear Blast have signed Success Will Write Apocalypse Across The Sky.
The grindcore band, who formed in 2006, includes Aaron Haines and Ian Sturgill of Bodies In The Gears Of The Apparatus with Dehumanized’s John Collett Jr on vocals, Leprosy’s Mike Petrak on drums and Jesse Jolly of Crimson Massacre on bass.
They released their debut EP Subhuman Empire this year and look set for a big 2008.
30/12/07
Live shots by Justine Trickett
New York’s pysch-indie youngsters MGMT are being hotly-tipped for 2008, and it’s no surprise as their debut album Oracular Spectacular produced by the helping hand of David Fridmann should stop you in your tracks.
They kindly flew into the Crossfire office on a magic carpet fuelled by last night’s booze and had a chat with Zac about dogs and smelly fruit.
Welcome to London fellas…
Hello!
So, we have two members of the band here, Andrew VanWyngarden who sings, plays guitar and writes songs and we also have songwriter Ben Goldwasser who also plays the keyboards, pretty gnarly too…
[Ben] Hey…
So, virgins to London, you’ve just got off of a plane, spill the beans….
[Andrew] We had a great first day. We got scammed trying to buy hash and then we went out in Notting Hill and went to Tesco Disco, which is a small carpeted room underneath the Tesco supermarket. They had free spicy cheese doodles and that was a lot of fun. Last night we played a show at The Social which was pretty cool.
And that was your first ever gig in the UK?
Yeah, our first ever gig…
So, did you enjoy it Ben?
[Ben] Yeah, a lot more people knew about us, more than we expected, which was nice. It was nice that people were there to see us. The sound turned out pretty good considering the place was pretty small. We spent a long time trying to figure out how to get all of our stuff on the stage.
You managed to fit it all thought didn’t you?
Yeah, we managed; we have a massive keyboard though.
Are you aspiring to take over the stage with your keyboard collection?
[Ben] Yeah, I want to take up at least half the stage. When we start playing bigger stages then I will think of more things to take up space. Maybe I could play a couple of notes on each one during the whole show?
[Andrew] Yeah, that’s a good idea
Can you ever imagine yourself like KISS being zoomed out into the audience with your keyboard?
[Ben] That would be great. What about being like David Lee Roth on a surfboard out into the crowd?
That would be sick
[Andrew] It’s like the ultimate goal of any musician
[Ben] A hover craft would be pretty cool…
Any more wishes?
[Andrew] Yeah, we want to play a show exclusively for dogs at some point. We aren’t a joke band, but we think it would be really amazing if there was a stadium full of dogs…
I am sure Battersea Dogs Home could hook you up next time you come in. There are a lot of dogs in there. It’s like jail; they don’t get much entertainment stuck behind those bars, so they might be pretty stoked if the yanks turn up with a full band, 40 keyboards and a bag of Baker’s…
[Ben] Dogs love Baker’s!
Do they love Baker’s in America as well?!
Oh yeah!
My dog loves Baker’s, but anyway, let’s talk about how you put the band together. Obviously you two are the main members, would you say that’s correct?
[Andrew] Yeah, I mean, we are the founding members and songwriters
[Ben] CEO of MGMT incorporated
How did it all come together, what is your musical background and where are you guys from?
[Ben] Well, I’m from upstate New York, about 5 hours from New York City. I didn’t go down to the city that much growing up although we live there now. Andrew is from Memphis, home of the blues
[Andrew] Birth place of rock and roll as well….
[Ben] And we met at University in 2001, started the band in December 2002 and started writing songs in my dorm room on a laptop. We would sit and make up these weird little electronic loops, play them live and do silly things over the noise. We didn’t sing at that point. Then at some point we decided to start writing pop songs, kind of as a joke, so the whole thing wasn’t that serious to start off, it’s still not
[Andrew] They weren’t joke songs necessarily…
[Ben] No, just the idea of pop was a joke to begin with. The whole ‘Management’ thing was to do with the whole corporate idea. Our goal was to sell out as quickly as possible. We thought it would never really happen and then it kinda did!
[Andrew] Go on…
[Ben] What do you want me to say?
[Andrew] We should talk about a couple of our shows from school….
[Ben] Yeah, we should! We played a show at school where we had a giant inflatable snow man and we covered that Nine Inch
Nails song
[Andrew] ‘Closer’
[Ben] We did a 15 minute version of that while they inflated a snow man [laughs]
[Laughs] It sounds like a teenage movie…
[Ben] It was, that’s what we were going for..
[Laughs]
[Andrew] Then another show…we got into the series of wearing jump suits and drinking a lot of red wine. We were exploring these tunnels underneath the dorms that were really far and I don’t think kids were supposed to be in there. We found this little room that was like a bomb shelter and it had supplies from the 60’s like crackers and this giant barrel. We tried to eat the crackers, but they were disgusting.
[Ben] They were the worst crackers I’ve ever had!
[Andrew] But we took the barrels and we played some shows were we would stand on top of the barrels and try and push each other off. I mean, that was just insane! People were going crazy at that show…
[Ben] Then we had another show where we played at this kind of county fair type thing called ‘The Daffodil Festival’ and we were warming up before the set, at this time we had put together a 6 piece band. Anyway, while we were warming up this group of cheer leaders go by and I guess they had just won a cheer leading competition and they saw us playing and I guess they liked it because they came back for our show and started doing their routine in front of us while we were playing.
You can’t buy that stuff….
[Andrew] No, you can’t. That’s how we got famous and that’s why we are in London.
So it’s all down to the cheer leaders?
[Andrew] Yeah, that’s how everything happens..
In a quest to find dogs…
[Andrew] Yeah, the cheerleaders happen to be the daughters of these famous dog breeders from London, so, that’s why we came over here, it’s incredible.
That’s amazing; no one would believe that y’know? So farfetched….
[Ben] You can’t make that stuff up…
I hear you used to cover the Ghostbusters theme tune?
Yeah, we did. I think we did it once that was like out first show. I had a Digitech whammy that had built in drum sounds, we had the drum sounds on loop. Ben had his Roland XP80 and we played a talent show and we were on last. We carried on playing, we wanted everyone to leave to our music. It worked, we played for like an hour.
Hang on, you played the Ghostbusters theme tune for an hour?
[Andrew] Yeah, an hour. I mean, it went places, it was a pretty psychedelic version of it, but the drum loop was going the whole time and I just laid on the floor and closed my eyes and muttered stuff into the microphone, Ben held down a synth line pretty well.
[Ben] The one that was stolen from Huey Lewis..
What have you guys listened to throughout the years that has inspired you to create the mess that is MGMT? (It’s a beautiful mess, by the way!)
[Andrew] What a great compliment, thank you. We’ve always been attracted to what we call creep balls music, which is just really strange music. Some people would call it bad, but we call it good.
[Ben] It’s really gross music..
[Andrew] We like gross music, examples Ben…
[Ben] Erm, Psychic TV maybe?
[Andrew] I guess we like it if it’s pretty, but really strange. We like Chrome, Spiritualized and Spacemen 3. A lot of British music too. The oldies, the goodies!
Do you like stuff like Loop? Is that the sort of era?
[Andrew] Yeah, for sure stonery, psychey….
Is Dead Meadow the kind of band you would like to play with if you went out on tour?
[Andrew] Yeah, that would be amazing. I wonder if they would want to play with us though. They are really nice guys. We hung out with them in Berlin one time.
So, ‘Oracular Spectacular’…there is a lot of meat in there. There is a different flavour for everyone, a bit of everything. How do you take every ingredient and end up with the pâté that comes out?
[Ben] A lot of times when we write songs we have had some kind of influence or a style that we really want to put into our music. Like, we’ll say let’s have that part sound like this and that part sound like that and then we piece it all together. We didn’t plan anything, it was more of a song by song thing. We tend to be inspired a lot by artists that switch genres each album. Each song is different. ‘Legendary Pink Dots‘ are like that. When we were writing the album they were a big influence. We literally just wrote whatever came to us. There is a weird combination on the album because it has a couple of older tracks on it which were originally electronic with a more dancey feel. ‘Electric Feel‘ was one of the first songs we wrote, well the first actual song with lyrics.
It is definitely one of the stand out songs on the album. You recorded with David Fridman right? He has worked with The Flaming Lips who are one of the most spectacular bands on the planet. How much of his influence was his production skills on the end result of your album?
[Ben] When we started writing we didn’t know that he was going to produce us. I mean, we had randomly put him on this list of dream producer’s who we would like to work with and we ended up talking to him on the phone and we hit it off really well. We love his production work. I mean, we didn’t want to work with him because we wanted to sound like the Flaming Lips, it was more that we felt like he understood us on a personal level and he really got out music. We were pretty sure after talking to him that he would make it the album we wanted it to be.
So, did David mix your record as well or did you get someone else in to do it?
[Andrew] Dave mixed it and he did a lot of the mastering. A lot of the album sounds over compressed, like really mashed. There’s times when there is full mixed distortion, which is crazy, it sounds awesome. He ran the whole thing through crappy 90’s compressors. There are so many bands that are over compressed so they sound loud for the radio. I hope our album sounds loud, but not bad.
[Ben] Loud loud not bad loud…
[Andrew] Hopefully there is still dynamics.
Have you had any random faces come out of the wood work and say ‘I’m a fan of MGMT’ yet?
[Ben] Famous people?
Yeah, dead people, famous people . They’re all the same.
[Andrew] No dead people….
[Ben] The Kings Of Leon….apparently the drummer likes us? A lot of model’s and fashion people are getting into the album which is pretty sweet.
Why is that do you think?
[Ben] I don’t really know how it started, but keep it coming!
[Andrew] There is nothing wrong with it. We love being associated with fashion people and models. Was that believable? [laughs]
[Ben] We are also inspired by the fans who bring us lots of free drugs at the shows.
Does this actually happen, I’ve heard this rumour?
[Andrew] It actually does happen a lot. When we were on tour in Montreal this last few weeks, like San Diego, LA…they would be very nice and just give us stuff. It was trimming season…
Trimming season? Explain that, if you were talking to an English person they would probably think you were talking about having a ‘personal hedge trim’ if you know what I mean?
[Andrew] Basically it’s the harvest season, people help with the crops and it filters through down California to San Francisco and they gave us some really nice presents!
Do you like presents, are you into people bringing you presents when you play?
[Ben] Yeah, it’s sort of this tradition..
Do you give presents back to the audience? For example, the original drummer of Pavement used to make toast for people in the crowd.
[Andrew] Toast?! Erm, well we have given cookies. There was one show when we cut open this fruit called a Dorian, it’s the king of all fruits. It’s the smelliest fruit in the world. It’s kinda like bacon and onions mixed with rotting flesh. In fact, it’s garlic rotting flesh.
I want one..
You don’t want it, trust us. It is actually restricted to cut them open on some airplanes because the smell is so strong. We cut one open at one of our shows and people passed it around. We sacrificed it with a machete and invited our friends on stage while we sampled it and played ‘Blowing In The Wind‘ by Bob Dylan on an ipod and everybody went around and said what the fruit tasted like….everyone else left because it was the worst smell. So all in all, I guess we don’t give any good gift to our audience.
[Andrew] Although, cookies are pretty cool and so are set lists. Oh, I threw drum sticks at someone last night which I now regret..
Is she now in hospital?
Well, it did hit her in the head. It was a joke! I always wanted to do it like you see other bands doing and hit some poor girl in the head, but hey, that’s just what’s it’s like. It’s rock and roll.
[Ben] Yeah, it’s R and R.
What are your two favorite tracks off the record…one each…
[Ben] I think my favorite track from the album is probably ‘The Youth’
[Andrew] Mine would have to be ‘4th Dimensional Transitional’ because it is the least appreciated. It’s almost as if no one acknowledges that it exists. We decided that the song is four dimensional and some people can only see three dimensions
Next year obviously you guys are going to be coming back to release the album and after that are you thinking of world domination on a major scale?
[Andrew] We would love to go to South America or Mexico. I think I want to live in Mexico…
The presents would be rad..
Yeah, cactus stuff. We still have that mentality where we wanna wear fur coats and always be making the music we want to make and being good dudes. No one likes assholes. It’s annoying when people turn into assholes, we never want to be like that.
Well, it all sounds amazing and it’s been great having you in here…where do people find you?
[Andrew] Check out www.myspace.com/mgmt If you guys haven’t heard of Myspace you should check it out. It’s a social networking site and it is cool shit…
I’ve er..heard about it [laughs] Thanks for coming in boys..
[Both] – No worries, bye!
Check out the wonderful album ‘Oracular Spectacular’ released in February/March on Columbia Records here in the UK and www.whoismgmt.com for the full experience.
We made these three videos for the band in our neighbourhood when they came by for this interview. Enjoy their first trip to Portobello Rd in Ladbroke Grove.
I just woke up and whacked on some psychedelic garage records and found this little beauty. The Fuzztones did their thing after the initial wave of the 60’s original scene had covered all bases but they went on to find success in many countries reviving those classic sounds. Search for ‘Songs We Taught The Fuzztones‘ if you want a great compilation to hand or click here for instant stream of another track..
It’s December and the year is nearly over, but before 2008 brings new releases, I’ve reviewed some latest AA approved records and the last of 2007. So have a look below and check out the beats!
RECORD OF THE MONTH
DOOMTREE – False Hopes
(Doomtree Records)
www.doomtree.net
Let’s open the scene:
Abjekt says: I’m doing a Doomtree buzzer, shall I just suck cock for the entire thing?
Moose says: Yes, completely.
So, with Moose’s backing, welcome to the wonderful world of Abjekt Loves Doomtree. The Minneapolis crew have been tearing the underground of hip hop various levels of new arseholes for a while and with a crew record expected in 2008, they very kindly put out a crew False Hopes, comprising tunes that weren’t quite up to scratch for the album.
After hearing the record, it’s clear to me that Doomtree have just wiped the floor with 99% of music with their scraps. If this is anything to go by, their crew album is going to blow brains faster than a Bangkok ladyboy with Guinness World Records on his mind.
“You’re mad coz you don’t make moves, you’re sad coz you can’t break through, you’re bad and now you hate Doomtree, knives on fire motherfucker, make room” they tell us, and who are we to argue? Take cover, Doomtree are here.
OHMEGA WATTS – Watt’s Happening
(Ubiquity)
www.ubiquityrecords.com
What is always important when listening to good hip hop? Elementary my dear Watson, it’s the drums. If your drums don’t pop, the song might as well stop. If your beats don’t bang, you lose your hunger pang. And if that percussion ain’t fly, then why do you try? So the first thing you get to notice about Ohmega Watts‘ music is that his drums are ALWAYS on point, with absolutely no exception.
His previous album The Find was a great example of this with chilled out tracks galore and it was always going to be hard to follow such a good record. However, with Watts Happening, the producerslashrapper has made an even better record, utilising his vast repertoire of sounds and skills to bring a near perfect album to your ears.
One stand out track is Roc The Bells featuring his crew Lightheaded [Othello and Braille] and shows that he can mix it up with some bangers amongst his chilled out vibes. With a catchy hook, some fierce rapping and those oh so important drums, Ohmega is proving himself to be one of the best producers around.
The brilliant use of drums continues on The Platypus Strut, the intro of which is a sublime growing layer of percussion before launching into [dare I say it?] Ronson-esque horns. And with other guests such as Surreal, Jneiro Jarel and Sugar Pie DeSanto, you know you’re in for an absolute treat.
SHAPE OF BROAD MINDS – Craft Of The Lost Art
(Lex)
www.lexrecords.com
Jneiro Jarel has clearly been taking lessons from Madlib. This is no bad thing, with Madlib being one of the most highly regarded producer in hip hop and Craft Of The Lost Art could easily be a creation belonging to the great man himself.
As it is, Jneiro Jarel and his alter-ego Dr Who Dat? [I wonder if the good Doctor knows Quasimoto?] have brought together his friends Jawwaad, Roque Wun and Panama Black to bring about the album which also features guest spots from Count Bass D and MF Doom amongst others.
The sound is very Stones Throw and this is certain to appeal all those who dig that label, of which I am one. Whilst it does get slightly samey after a while, with the album clocking in at 23 tracks, it is still a good chilled sound to kick back to. The one track that stands out however, is the anomaly in the album – Opr8tr – which features a xylophone beat with some silky smooth vocals on the incredibly addictive chorus.
It’s time to broaden your mind and cop this, without a doubt.
FLYING LOTUS – Reset EP
(Warp)
www.warprecords.com
Growing up as one of the Coltrane family can’t have been easy. Everyone is going to mention it, everyone is going to expect genius and that’s going to put a whole heap of pressure on a budding musician. Luckily, Flying Lotus is someone who doesn’t care about pressure and set about making a quality EP to ready the world for his full album next year.
Tea Leaf Dancers comes straight in with it’s fluid beat, getting the amibence down immediately for the Sunday night feel of the vocals to impress upon your temples in understated fashion. Spicy Sammich shows another side of the producer with its gloomy electro-like stance and Massage Situation flips is again with a plodding beat.
This may only be a 6 track EP, but Flying Lotus has shown a great deal of promise and looks set to invade your ear-space again next year – I can’t wait!
2600 RECORDINGS – Home Entertainment
(2600 Recordings)
www.2600recordings.com
Norwich isn’t the first place you’d think of when asked about hip hop, but 2600 Recordings are certainly doing their bit to make sure you know exactly what the Norwich based label is worth after hearing this CD.
Kicking off in fine zoned-out mood is the Ambulance Chasers track GHC which gets your head floating before melting into SirHowy‘s I Remember Cocoon Union. You get a nice mix of stuff too with Buddy Peace‘s more fuzzy approach and Mr Cooper, who was recently picked out by Sage Francis delivering the best track on the album, reminiscent of another Francis favourite Reanimator. The drums play out over a great piano loop before throwing in a hotch potch of tiny details for you to pick up on.
With 2600 Recordings bringing this much talent to the fore, it’s certainly time to take notice if you haven’t already.
PREFUSE 73 – Preparations
(Warp)
www.warprecords.com
Prefuse 73 is most certainly an acquired taste. This is a man that produces some of the most beautiful melodies around and then, just as you’re getting into it, provides his trademark glitch and you lose your pattern which is something you have to get used to.
What is always evident with Prefuse though is that he knows exactly how to put music together. It might be a very busy sound, like getting lost in a market in some hot foreign country or it might be a laid back beat, but whatever it is he chooses to explore, he does it with so much depth and perception, that you can’t help but admire the man.
His new album, Preparations, is a continuation of all the things I loved about One Word Extinguisher and Security Screenings – his use of live instrumentation on this album however gives it an edge and texture that perhaps wasn’t on the previous albums. With help from Claudia and Alejandra Deheza and John Stanier, Prefuse has managed to deliver on an enormous scale.
If you can get tuned into his mindset, you’re in for an absolute treat.
BIG DADA – Well Deep
(Big Dada)
www.bigdada.com
Let’s make this simple – Big Dada isn’t just a record label, it’s an institution. It’s 10th birthday is upon us and to celebrate it, the label has put out Well Deep, a CD/DVD set that celebrates everything the label has done since its inception.
The audio part of package comes across 2 CDs with a choice selection of tracks which showcase just how powerful and varied the music signed to the label is. All the bangers are there, from Witness (1 Hope) by Roots Manuva to TTC‘s Dans Le Club, from Diplo‘s Diplo Rhythm through Spank Rock‘s Sweet Talk, Wiley‘s 50/50 and Ty‘s Closer to Wherever We Go by New Flesh.
It’s an unstoppable tour de force, just as the label has proven itself to be over the years. If you don’t know much about Big Dada then you’re missing out. Get this, support the people behind this great array of music and enjoy yourself.
For the DVD review, click here.
THE QEMISTS – Drop Audio [Single]
(Ninja Tune)
www.ninjatune.net
“Surrender or run” says the press release for this single and it’s not hard to see why. The Qemists are back with another chunky slice of DnB with their new single Drop Audio, which features the lyrical prowess of MC I.D.
The booming bass builds up before breaking down into a fuzzy melody which runs the gauntlet through the airwaves and ends up grabbing you by the collar and slapping your face before winking at you and walking off smiling.
This is exactly the sort of thing you’d dig if you’re into Pendulum. Can’t say much more than that really.
PENDULUM – Granite [Single]
(Warners)
www.pendulum.com
Pendulum are back and this time they’re on Warner Bros. ready to take their definitive style of rock-infused Drum and Bass to the masses. The debut single from their upcoming album is Granite and it is exactly the type of track you’d expect from the Australian born group.
A spooky intro leads into some fast paced drums and a short, sharp guitar lick before the big boom of the full track comes in. It’s not long before the vocals come in and they do take a bit of getting used to, but once this song is over, you’ll be singing it over and over in your head.
With a UK tour currently taking place with a full band, they are sure to be wowing people up and down the country showcasing their new stuff. This single is bound to be a winner, even if you’re not a DnB fan.
Just before I leave you, I want to share some lego train bombing with you. It’s short but it’s fucking dope:
Ok, that’s your lot. I’ve had a brilliant year for music and 2008 promises to be just as good with albums from Atmosphere, POS, Kid Sister, The Cool Kids, Reanimator & Prolyphic and much more promised. I hope you all had a great Christmas and a great time seeing 2008 in. See you in the New Year!
Peace,
Abjekt.
Jason Bonham has quashed rumours of a Led Zep tour.
The band reunited at the O2 earlier this month and rumours of a subsequent tour have been doing the rounds. However, Bonham has said that new dates would be “greedy”. Speaking on replacing his late father behind the kit, he said:
“I had to work at it, really prove that I could do it and not just say, ‘Hey, I’m John Bonham’s son. I should be doing it. I put a lot of work into it… listening to all the different live versions I had. You’ve got to earn this, ’cause there’s a million drummers out there that would love to cut your throat right now and take over.”
Muse have applauded Radiohead’s release In Rainbows.
Dominic Howard, Muse’s drummer praised Radiohead for their daring and stated that the move could well spell big trouble for labels saying:
“They’re (Radiohead) unsigned which means they are in a different position to us, so they can do whatever the hell they want it’s cool they did…It’s a great time for music and a great time for bands, but not for the record companies.”
eS will release Danny Garcia’s second pro shoe in February 2008.
With simple designing and colourways and Danny’s ideas going into the shoe, this should be another belting footglove.
I spent all my nights wishing upon a star for some snow. I closed my eyes real tight and forced the wish out into the sky. This carried on for nights and nights until one day I woke up and looked out of my window to see the entire garden covered in snow, so I ran into the garden and started building my snowman.
Everything was going brilliantly until I realized the carrot I wanted to use for his nose was out of my financial reach because the bastard thieving supermarkets are charging me triple price just because it’s organic. Of course it’s organic you mugs, it’s a VEGETABLE!
Ranting and raving in the garden, I had plenty to say to whoever would listen and carried on berating the world until my snowman was nothing more than a puddle that was soaking through my slippers. What is the importance of this introduction? Well, standing out in the bloody cold wind, I was able to withstand the sub-freezing temperatures thanks in no small part to the Matix jacket I was wearing.
Ok, so the snow might not have been real, but the temperature was and having a nice big hooded jacket with heat-trapping lining meant that I wasn’t as blue as a smurf before reaching the end of my street. The hood means the back of my head was kept warm as well as looking the part bopping down the road.
Matix have proved time and again that they know how to stitch together some banging clothes and this jacket it no exception. There’s not likely to be tropical scenes in the UK for a good few months yet, so cover yourself with this and boycott those organic carrots once and for all!
Abjekt
Lupe Fiasco has teamed up with Element Skateboards.
The rapper is asking fans to design a deck based on his new album ‘The Cool’. Winners will get copies of the deck as well as “other top secret things”. If you’re interested in taking part, head on over to the link at the bottom of the news piece and get your inspiration flowing.
Klaxons have set themselves a target to get songs for their second album finished by.
The band, who are expecting to follow up Myths Of The Near Future next year, said they will give fans a clue of how the new album will sound when they play the O2 Arena on February 28th. Simon Taylor of the band said:
“It’s going to be big, and hopefully we’re going to be able to play some new tracks for the first time – stuff we haven’t even written yet…Timing-wise, it could be right. Which people will be ecstatic about, because we’ve been playing the same set for so long!”