southeast

The Bataclan gig is now up on Spotify:

 

https://www.spotify.com/fr/blog/archives/2010/10/19/mgmt-vod/

 

Edit: Really enjoying this. Is it me or are they just getting better and better live, really quickly now? Best live version of It's Working I've heard yet. They seem to ooze confidence in delivering the songs now.

Yes, they are really good. Didn't Andrew say on that radio interview yesterday that they are really happy with their shows now & that it wasn't like that few months ago? So you're right! I like the way they are working on their sound - I really liked James playing guitar and Andrew's singing on that radio livestream.

I like the look on his face here. Mostly he looks away or smiles shyly, but here he's looking straight in the camera and he seems to be saying: "Come on, baby, light my fire!"

A cute short video

And Ben time

"Walk like an Egyptian" was the first thing that came into my mind.

I like the fact that Andrews name is something like "garden" and Ben's is like "golden water". You know garden and water go together so well.... Yeah, right, go on laughing, I just had a glass of prosecco so...

"Cooking" Pfff. Silly men!

EDIT: Feast your ears/eyes everybody! http://www.kcrw.com/media-player/mediaPlayer2.html?type=video&id=mb101018mgmt

Ok, I did a quick translation:

Ben Goldwasser, one half of the psycho pop duo MGMT, responds to the questionnaire of Sunday Vogue.

What do you wear on Sundays? Pajama pants and a cotton sweatshirt that I keep on all day long if I don't have to leave my house.

What do you eat on Sundays? Toast, pancakes or bagels with salmon.

What do you watch on TV on Sundays? I never watch TV.

What do you drink on Sundays? Coffee ... My answers are the most usual in the world, right?

Who do you see on Sundays? My girlfriend.

What is your guilty pleasure on Sunday? I do not have one, unless not dressing all day counts for one.

What is your best memory of a Sunday? Memories that go back to school, we went out late Saturday night and we would meet on Sunday for a brunch: because of our hangover we did said the funniest and most inconsistent things in the world.

How does your perfect Sunday look like? Not having any responsibilities and not having laudry to do and a good weather.

Next to whom would you want to wake up on a Sunday? A giant teddy.

It's out of topic, but:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/17/glastonbury-2012-london-olympics

So no psychadelic Andrew 2012 in Glastonbury...

And something for the "Ben fans" among us (which means us all )

It's in French. If you need a translation I can try one:

http://www.vogue.fr/culture/agenda/articles/le-dimanche-de-mgmt/5711

MGMT 2008: Did you watch this one? Wow

http://www.kcrw.com/media-player/mediaPlayer2.html?type=video&id=mb080917mgmt

As you probably saw on Twitter, I had a FANTASTIC time last night. My god, they blow me away every time. The horrible wait was completely worth it to be front row and so close to them. I will be writing a full report again with all the super exciting details, but that won't be for another few days here. I'm gonna have to do all my writing in the middle of the night since my days are getting so busy.

 

Just a few show notes, they played Indie Rokkers and 4th Dimensional Transition! But no Siberian Breaks. The Handshake was beyond words incredible and they added something to the end of it...something I'd never heard before. Neither the music nor the words were familiar. New material or a cover? I dunno, it was awesome though. They went way over their set time, but nobody minded. I counted, they played 15 songs. That is LONG for a festival set.

 

Setlist (from what I remember)

 

Destrokk

Weekend Wars

Flash Delirium

Electric Feel

The Youth

Of Moons, Birds and Monsters

[song for Dan Treacy

Indie Rokkers

It's Working

4th Dimensional Transition

Time to Pretend

The Handshake] the order on these songs is probably not right. I don't exactly remember

Congratulations

Kids

Brian Eno

 

They all looked like they had so much fun. And Ben talked! He talked to the audience. First time I'd seen that happen. They all were smiling a lot and goofing around with each other. Their energy was so big that it totally rubbed off on the audience. It was such a great show.

 

And of course after the show we had to try to meet them. Which we did. Got to talk briefly with Andrew and Will. Would've loved to talk to James after seeing him three times before and after the show, but he got mobbed every single time. I wanted to talk to Matt because I never thanked him for last time, but he didn't come out and I was bummed. At least I got to wave goodbye to them as the van drove away.

Thanks for the report! Noooooo, I am not jealous at all.

It sounds great: Ben talked! What did he say? Are you sure it wasn't playback?

Ohhh, that's really very interesting about The Handshake, trying new material out? I love it that they were full of energy and not tired after touring Europe... Or perhaps they were enjoying the smokeout festival...

Great setlist, even without Siberian Breaks. They have so many great songs to choose from, don't they? I would even be interested to hear Lady Dada live even if it's not my favorite song on the album They sure would make something quite interesting out of it on stage.

About the mobbing - I really hope they don't stop meeting fans after gigs because of that. It must be unpleasant for them at some point...

EDIT: Did you read this one: a good review with lots of pics: http://bit.ly/9kukiJ

I'm guessing we've all seen this by now (if we use Tumblr):

 

 

I think it's my favourite gif ever in the history of gifs .

In fact I haven't seen it, thanks!

At first I was like ?????

But then:

66 55 red battleships

40 earthlike planets

3 holes 2 tits

1 fork in its side

zero tears in their eyes....

How cool.

Pity we can't use it here on MFC, pple will go mad looking at it

Mandrew....

 

Drinking tea! That's so rock and roll, boys

They sure had the other stuff removed before the picture was taken, look at those full bags on the floor....

They are good boys now

Interesting interview

http://www.thevine.com.au/music/interviews/mgmt-_-interview20101014.aspx

Thank you!

And I know I am repeating my own words but: the media should go to hell! Every time I read interviews about it, I hate to hear how they've been handling Congratulations.

This is to prove that I have been a long term MGMT fan, one of the first ones

 

No need to clean up the place for me, Gata, I know what you all are up to

 

.. I'll try to remember to drop in more often

What, Empire of the Sun? Pah. (I love "Walking on a dream" )

Yes, you're welcome!

Wow I only read your posts now and I am proud of being a serious fan who's already expressed my passion and appreciation for MGMT's music before noticing the warning.

 

 

You know what? I think tickets for Barcelone are on sale AGAIN!!!!! I almost screamed when I saw that last night! MIRACLES

 

But I may go to Lisbon now. I don't know, gonna buy tix within these two days though. In case I've purchased my tix and I cannot come in the end, would any of you lovely ladies here considering buying it from me???

 

Yay, cool for those tics. I hope you get the ones you want!

I am afraid I can only go to a gig in Munich, so I can't help you with buying them from you, sorry!

Haha, I've just posted to suzie on that other thread that I'm going to quickly edit out all the fangirlish bits from my posts here, before she sees them !!

 

Ok, let the serious discussion begin .

 

Andrew is pretty. Sorry, I mean, pretty good at remembering lyrics I'm sure he messed up on Congratulations though in Manchester . I will have to go to Youtube to verify that though!

 

Just saw the gif - hehe, I must say I am not really sorry that Ben shaved those whiskers.

Girls, we should quickly start a "serious music discussion" on this thread, since me and Rachel try to get new members and have bragged about not drooling over the guys on this thread.

So.....ehmmmm.....do you know what really fascinates me? The fact that Andrew always remembers the lyrics to the songs & never forgets them at gigs even though they are really difficult to memorize since no rhymes and stuff. I mean, I know he writes them, but hey, Mika does this as well.... I still don't know most of them, have to learn a few by heart so I can sing along (quietly!) at the gig in December.

Btw. as far as I could see there is a new message on Spotify about the gig - I am not quite sure if I understood it, since my French is bad, but I think you could watch the gig from tonight on - will try it later.

I like them both, I don't really have a favourite. I guess I like them in different ways . I guess I overstate the case for Ben sometimes because it annoys me that a lot of casual MGMT fans are just Andrew fangurls, whereas I personally do find Ben very attractive too, just in a different way

 

I always have the feeling I'd probably get along better with Ben than Andrew, if I knew them.

I know, me too! Because Andrew is a weirdo

Noooo, because he's more the frontman/hippie/rockstar/somewhat dreamy poet who writes all those lovely but strange lyrics. Ben is more the type of guy who a girl could bring home to her parents, if you know what I mean.

But, hey who knows that really, we Bulgarians have a saying: "Beware! The calm water is always the deepest." Perhaps it's just the other way around...

Omg Andrew's dad twits

Did someone hack his account

I know! What's he going on about? Who is Favre?

I googled him and he seems to be a famous football player? http://www.officialbrettfavre.com/home/

But I don't get those tweets either. Apparently some kind of US joke we foreigners don't understand...

I had a great MGMT dream last night. I was in a Water Park with them all, and I went in this big whirlpool thing with Andrew. We were riding around really fast on this inflatable dolphin I was lying on the dolphin and Andrew was lying on top of me on my back

 

:roftl:I think I'd better stop there. It was very nice though.

I liked your dream But why Andrew and not Ben? I thought Ben is your fave...

I read quickly and automatically ignore all the irrelevant and disrupting posts, you know

So now we know at last: YOU are the OTR (Mika's Official Thread Reader)! You know, the one who reads threads all the time and writes those summaries for him to read in the evening, so he knows what's going on on MFC. Right?

Why not?

Yeah, don't they count?

Isn't he already doing most of that?

 

Well, the quality and quantity of his merch could really be better. He could be more creative here. I would buy a red striped t-shirt like his f.e., it's unisex so it really would be a good idea. Apparently the "Rolling Stones" have some good ideas for merchies - learn from the best.

I dunno if he writes stuff for TV and what is the average age of his fanbase.

Of course there is a difference if a musician makes heaps of money OR is famous. Or both. There are lots of obscure musicians who are very wealthy but somehow totaly unknown to the masses. Don't ask me how this works. So he can be wealthy doing things even we don't know about (is this possible???), I don't know that. But it is sure he could be way more popular and those sales numbers would really help here. Cause even some stupid journalists can't ignore popstars they don't really care about but who have a big fanbase.

A really interesting & understandable article from The Economist on how the music industry makes money. Didn't know where else to post this.

 

http://econ.st/bixwDf

So, summary is, if Mika wants to get really rich & well known he should:

1. increase tickets prizes, cause pple are willing to pay

2. make more (AND BETTER) merch

3. have an own clothing label

4. write jingles & melodies for TV

5. get more 40+ esp. 60+ fans cause they have the money & buy pop albums

6. spend half the year touring through Japan

7. sell CDs in supermarkets.....

Yes I do I still remember the beginning of the Vlog !

And someone else told me he also played Flash Delirium in Spain and Italy.

 

Girls I have great news

I hope it is true.

YES! I saw this too (hehe I suppose we're all following the same Twitter fan account, aren't we?)! I was told it's true!

And also Will said somewhere that they already have new material, are going to work on it Jan-Feb and they don't need to take a break, cause they are never sick and tired of doing what they are doing now...

Aren't we lucky, lucky fans?

A really interesting & understandable article from The Economist on how the music industry makes money. Didn't know where else to post this.

http://econ.st/bixwDf

Just curious Laura: What are you trying to do here with such a remark?

Causing another heated debate, perhaps?

I think it's funny! Of course they are pro, 'cause it means more divorces and this means more money.... I am surrounded by lawyers in the family...

But hey, no matter why they are pro, it's still a good thing, isn't it? I am a practical person, so I think as long as someone's pro, no matter why, that's good.

I somehow missed the decision about the thread - is there going to be a new one opened for the new Mika column so pple can go on discussing these scary topics on this one? Didn't understand what was the agreement on that?

I'm so annoyed..I am sure the gig from last night is available on spotify to rewatch for another month, but when I go to the spotify blog, all I get is a blank box where a video should be. I'm having this same problem quite often with other videos/links/pics in Internet Explorer . And I can't use Firefox because that just totally crashes on me.

 

Has anyone used Google Chrome??

 

I can live without seeing last night's concert, but still, it's so frustrating knowing it's there (well, Spotify France say it's there??) and not being able to access it.

 

I know

 

It must be gutting for them to know that they made a great album, which many true fans do adore, but which just hasn't connected with the masses. However, they must have known that this might happen. They MUST have? They knew it was a less commercial album.

 

I really wish I had told Andrew how much I love Congratulations (I'm repeating myself again, sorry). I know that if I was in his position, it would mean a lot to me to just hear a few fans tell me that to my face now and again . Perhaps I am fantasising here () but I like to think that when he handed me back the lyric sheet from Congrats that I'd asked him to sign and he looked straight into my eyes and smiled that he was acknowledging the fact I own the album. Yeah I know, it's a stretch, but it makes me happy LOL.

Same here! And yesterday I could watch it...

Could it be that we must sign in first? I didn't sign in, because I went on Spotify few days ago and read it's still not available for Germany. So I didn't plan to watch yesterday evening, but then I gave it a try in the last minute and it worked! Perhaps they must upload it yet? I dunno, I am very bad at those technical things... I am sure someone will upload it on the forum! Just give them a few days....

I know, it's really frustrating, isn't it? This happened to me at my Mika gig, because I didn't prepare at all for the M&G cause I didn't really think I would meet Mika in person (and I didn't want to prepare myself in order not to be dissappointed if nothing happens) so as it happened I was like: and I just managed to hold out my cover for him to sign and a Thank you, but nothing more. I could so kick my own ass afterwards for not thinking of anything to say to him.... So I swore it'll never happen again! I am going to prepare my little speech for the guys and if I didn't meet them, well ...

I am sure Andrew acknowledged the fact that you have the album. He said this in an interview I saw again today: "The pple who understand our music are pple who listen to whole albums...." But if you really want to ease your mind, why not write to Mr. VW senior a short note? He's so nice, I am sure he won't mind hearing this (thousand times better than those stupid "Can I marry your son?" messages ) and passing it to the boys?

The gig was brilliant.It felt like I was there .Thanks to Spotify for its existence and to James talking to the crowd and being so entertaining

I really loved the arrangement of the instruments(James playing the keyboard at the end of 'Kids ') but hey they didn't play Indie Rokkers this time !

One of my favorite parts !I believe it was from the begging of Brian Eno , Kids sounded unusually beautiful , the crowd were cheerful during The Handshake . For Siberian Breaks I have no words how it sounded last night and Congrats gave me the tears.

+1

The only moment that really saddened me was when Andrew asked: "How many pple have heard of our album "Congratulations"? and as few screamed he was like: Yay! and put his fist in the air. I was really sad, because it felt like he is/they are still unsure that pple come because of that to gigs and like they are still playing only to a "Kids" audience... Grrrrrr, it makes me mad, because this really isn't true and I don't want them to get insecure about their music. But perhaps this is only me overinterpreting again

I just died watching the live stream. They were amazing....

At the end I cried as they played "I found a whistle". How do they do this? They only play their songs without any show and still it's so emotional...

Very good crowd tonight! Some girl sang on to all the lyrics of The Handshake... It was just brilliant...

 

by the way, nice new siggie SE

He's just too cool to wash his socks.... What a good looking guy.

 

When Karen and I met Andrew afterwards we also thought his speaking voice was quite high pitched. And yes, he comes across as a little bit shy. Don't know how to really explain this but he has a lovely aura about him..very 'soft' for want of a better word . He kind of projects lovely soft vibes.

 

Ben's so fascinating to watch on stage though!! I had a great view of him, and spent a lot of my time watching him. He didn't speak except for when he was commenting on the infamous beer-throwing-at-Will-incident (which can be heard clearly at the end of this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS3GxhMwvbw). But after nearly every song he would walk to the edge of the stage and have a little chat with the roadie who sets up his equipment (aside: he was cute ) and I couldn't decide if he was having technical problems or just having a chat . He smiled a lot anyway and seemed to be drinking beer during the set. Did I mention I love Ben?

Could it be that Andrew is like that because he's a Southern guy? You know, the pple from the Southern States are relaxed and "soft" on the outside like that and they take their time for things. But they can also get really emotional if something is important to them. I like that a lot if someone's cool on the surface and hot inside.

Really, you love him? It has never ever crossed my mind till now! I like Ben a lot too! Always have the feeling I could feel at ease with him but not so much with Andrew, so I can't decide who I like more. They are so different, I can't really compare them. But in his own way Ben is as charming as Andrew.

Btw. do MGMT have any live DVDs? I haven't found any so far.

And do they have merch at concerts? I would love a MGMT T-shirt!

And if some of you still want to watch that live stream gig from Brussels - here's a link to the thread on the forum where some pple are working on a upload: http://mgmtforum.com/index.php?topic=7579.0

Ouch! What?

I am sorry about the dog.

EDIT: Oh, I am sorry! I just wanted to lighten up the mood on the thread. I am going to hide on the MGMT thread again.

I hope so too, queuing in the winter is no fun at all.

Maybe they'll keep about the same setlist when they see it works for them and the crowd too...

 

Haha, well Ben didn't say a lot indeed. Only 'thanks' or something.

Oh, I really hope they don't stop performing and become like The Beatles, who couldn't play their songs live because they were too complicated.

 

Have you seen them live before, or is this going to be the first time (like me)?

No, it would be the first time, I just discovered their music this spring, so I was soooo happy to see they are doing a gig in Munich 6 months later.

But I have watched lots of vids on UTube and the live stream from Brussels was great. Oh, there also is an video of an old gig in Paris, on Arte. They perform Metanoia there. Amazing. I'll try to find & post the link here.

EDIT: Here's the link! Enjoy: http://www.arte.tv/fr/Videos-sur-ARTE-TV/2151166,CmC=2316348.html

Anyways, I hope to get a good place in the audience, but I don't think I'll ever get as good look on Andrew's face live as watching those vids.