Interview

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Depending on who you ask, MGMT is either the new messiah of pop music or a couple of extraordinarily handsome charlatans who have managed to dupe the entire listening world into loving them. The duo has been described at different turns as Nu Rave, psychedelic dance music for hippies, hallucinatory space rock, and a tired throwback to New York City's hipster-electroclash years-all of which might be a little bit true. But there's no denying one thing: Brooklyn-based Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Vanwyngarden, who are both 25, have an uncanny knack for producing pop music that sounds as if it were filtered through a kaleidoscope. The group signed to Columbia Records in 2006 on the strength of their mostly self--produced Time to Pretend EP (2005), and, after holing up in a Brooklyn loft to write new songs, released Oracular Spectacular (Columbia), their debut full-length album, earlier this year. They were just as shocked as everyone else when the record began to take on a life of its own. Due to the infectious nature of the singles "Time to Pretend" and "Electric Feel"-which marry Prince-like funk with a synthy, Brit-pop party vibe-the band went from playing small clubs in the States to opening for Radiohead in the U.K., a country where the twosome has already been granted bona fide rock-star status. The band will round out 2008 with festival dates and -headlining shows around the world before finally putting an end to nearly 18 months of touring. Despite the pair's penchant for tripped-out visuals (the "Time to Pretend" video features a shirtless Goldwasser and Vanwyngarden engaged in Day-Glo pagan rituals on a beach and riding on the backs of giant kittens) and a propensity for wearing capes, feathers, and headbands, rest assured: they are not hippies. In addition to being photogenic (Vanwyngarden has the baby face and long locks; Goldwasser, the scruff and the curls), they've turned into a formidable live act, with both members sharing vocal and instrumental duties. They also share a single phone in this interview, passing it off to each other. Calling from a hotel room somewhere in Scandinavia, the fledgling stars still sound as in awe of their recent success as the rest of us.

T. COLE RACHEL: I know you guys are in -Europe doing the festival circuit right now. Does it feel like you've been on the road forever?

BEN GOLDWASSER: Yeah. We haven't had that much of a break at all. It's been pretty crazy, but it's all been really good.

TCR: How does it feel to be blowing up? I'm seeing and hearing you everywhere right now.

BG: It's pretty weird. Every time we come back to a city after we haven't played there for a little while, we're in a bigger club. We don't really expose ourselves to a ton of popular culture or the news. We don't really know how much people are talking about us or about any other band. We just kind of keep doing what we do.

TCR: Are you surprised by the way Oracular Spectacular has taken off?

BG: Really surprised. We weren't really trying to write hit songs or get recognition from other people. We were doing it mostly for ourselves, just for fun. To have it considered not just as an indie album but as a pop album is really surprising.