boner4mgmt: part four, 2006-2008 + bonus.

Welcome back to BONER4MGMT. If you're just joining us, you can catch up by checking out the last three posts about 2003, 2004, and 2005. I decided to combine the following three years into one post for two simple reasons. First, between 2006 to 2008, I slowly watched the band MGMT grow into something I never expected when I first heard them five years ago as The Management. Between tracks from Oracular Spectacular, Immuzikation's mash-ups with Daft Punk & LCD Soundsystem, remixes by Justice & MMMathais & Leif & J-La & Tronik Youth & Jorge Elbrecht & Amplive, and their own remixes of The Black Kids & Chairlift, the band maintains a consistent presence in the upper ranks of Hype Machine's Most Blogged & Most Searched Artists. Which leads me to my second reason, being that I'd like to take a break from contributing to the over-saturation of MGMT on the interwebs. I'd like to focus on bands, musicians, and DJs who actually need some extra attention. Other blogs will give you your MGMT fix, and I'm pretty sure this post will be a substantial contribution to the world of your MGMT obsession...

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Various versions of "Kids" have been posted on other blogs, but I've realized that no one has ever included all versions in one post. This post is purely for educational purposes, because studying MGMT is probably more interesting than studying the metaphysics of objectivity. Probably.

[[dl: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - Kids (YSI)]]
(original version, circa 2003)

As indicated in my first edition of BONER4MGMT, this was the first song I ever heard by The Management. Yes, back then they were The Management. This version is synthier, lazier, and dominated four years of my life. It's basically what you'd expect from two kids who started a band in their dorm room, only substantially more awesome. I still prefer this over any version. Well, actually I prefer this one...

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[[dl: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - Kids (Afterschool Dance Megamix) (YSI)]]
(circa 2003)

Generally, I prefer songs that are shorter. But the extra minute of the "Afterschool Dance Megamix", mostly an instrumental break, provided a great point in the song to stop singing along and start moving deliciously before delicious movement was cool.

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[[dl: MGMT - Kids (YSI)]]
(Time To Pretend EP, 2005)

I remember a conversation I had with my friend Collin a little over a year and a half ago. We had a minor quarrel over which version of "Kids" was the best---the original or the version on the Time To Pretend EP. You can probably guess which side I was on, solely by looking above. Collin argued that the EP's version was superior because MGMT sounded "like they're going places." When he said this, I don't think he knew how prophetic his words would be. At the point of this conversation, I believe MGMT had just been signed to Columbia Records (after Steve Lillywhite and Three Six Mafia (!!??) flipped a shit upon hearing their demo). This version was released by Cantora Records in 2005, back when the only band they represented was MGMT.

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[[dl: MGMT - Kids (YSI)]]
(Oracular Spectacular, 2007)

The sounds on Oracular Spectacular are bigger than anything previously recorded by MGMT, which is to be expected from a major label debut, eh? This shit is drastic like when Tyra Banks decides to cut off all of some girl's hair on ANTM and that girl cries like a motherfucker, only with less crying.

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Also, compare both versions of "Time To Pretend":

[[dl: MGMT - Time To Pretend (YSI)]]
(Time To Pretend EP, 2005)

[[dl: MGMT - Time To Pretend (YSI)]]
(Oracular Spectacular, 2007)

This is the sound of a band that is going places, a band that is continuing to grow. Quite frankly, it makes me uncomfortable. I remember making a mix CD for a party with my friends back at home. I put on "Kids", hoping that they'd lap it up as much as anyone at Wesleyan, but instead their reaction was more along the lines of, "What the fuck is this?" Flash forward eight years, and MGMT are playing on the season finale of Gossip Girl. Blair Waldorf totally wouldn't even listen to The Management, though I bet she might listen to MGMT. But that's not my issue! I don't care if they "sold out". I don't care if they're "over-hyped". I don't care if they just "sound okay and look kute". It sounds childish, but I have difficulty sharing the band with the world. They were like my own little secret. Before, it was just typical to say that you liked MGMT if you went to Wesleyan University. Now, it's just generally typical to say you like MGMT. ::sigh::

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Obnoxious rants aside, many of you have requested more unreleased/rare songs from MGMT. Considering that I don't imagine dropping these songs onto the internet will necessarily harm the band, I don't feel unethical sharing them.

[[dl: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - Love Always Remains (YSI)]]
(We (Don't) Care EP, circa 2003)

Other than "Kids", the only other song that survived from the era of The Management to the era of MGMT is "Love Always Remains". It appears on the Time To Pretend EP, but unlike "Kids" it did not make it onto Oracular Spectacular. The EP's version has a fuller sound than this one, so...um, buy the EP!

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[[dl: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - Everything Is Happening So Fast (YSI)]]
(We (Don't) Care EP, circa 2003)

This song, along with the EP's two title tracks and "Just Becuz", was not fortunate enough to survive into the era of MGMT. It's admittedly not my favorite tune, but I do have a soft spot for that bouncy cartoonish feel.

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[[dl: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - Honey Bunny (YSI)]]

(Bootlegs Muthafuckas, circa 2003)

I never got into "Honey Bunny", but after listening to it the past couple of days, I found myself tapping my foot and singing the lyrics in a public bathroom today..."Fucking weasel you've lost your touch, Skinny as hell but it's not enough, Life is a mineshaft of love, But don't dig too deep." I really hope no one heard me singing that.

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[[dl: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - Portia Sloan (YSI)]]

(Bootlegs Muthafuckas, circa 2003)

I still don't get into this song, but I think it's a good indication of the weird thoughts that go through the minds of dear ol' Andrew and Ben. If four-winged dinosaurs are your thing, maybe you can get down to this?

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THE END, MUTHAFUCKAS.
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- BUY IT - SITE IT - SPACE IT - HYPE IT - WIK IT -

boner4mgmt: part three, 2005.

HIPSTER RUNOFF has proven to me that it's "a blog worth blogging about" with the recent post "Bands that Sound Okay and Look Cute are destined for big things". And since I must be an "uninteresting person who likes to be into alt music", I am going to continue perpetuating the MGMT hype with the third installment of my series BONER4MGMT. We began in 2003 when "Kids" first hit my ears, moving on to 2004's dance parties and interpretative movements. And so begins 2005.

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In the spring of 2005, I enrolled in a class called Hazardous Earth: Stuff That Will Kill You. It was the sort of science class with a funny name that Wesleyan created for people who don't really care about science. There were two sections of the class, and when we presented our final posters I recall attending the session for the other section due to a conflict. I lugged my whack-ass poster about Santorini to the science center, sat through a bunch of boring presentations, and then two guys got up with nothing but an iPod and speakers. One of these guys was Andrew VanWyngarden of The Management.

[[dl: ANDREW VANWYNGARDEN (OF MGMT) & ETHAN LEINWAND - Supervolcano (YSI)]]

Our professor loved the song so much that he played it for my section of the class. I loved the song so much that I was determined to make it a dance-party hit, taking action by including it in an epic end-of-the-year post on the blog I wrote for at the time. And it worked to some degree! As I was jamming at the house party of an individual who will be labeled as "Adam", the song somehow found it's way onto the playlist. As it played, Andrew VanWyngarden entered the party. In my head, he gave me a look. I don't recall if this was a look of acknowledgment or a dirty look. Maybe he didn't look at me at all.

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As a final music thesis project, The Management performed in Wesleyan University's Memorial Chapel. While I'm not sure why I missed this show, I did manage to catch them another time. My friends and I arrived together, but parted our separate ways for most of the party. As soon as "Kids" started playing, it was as if we Kitty-Pride'd ourselves through the crowd to form a circle. Then we jumped a lot and were very excited.

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Some time in 2005, The Management changed their name to MGMT. According to sources, the Time To Pretend EP was released on January 1, 2005. This is pretty much inaccurate as far as I remember. The band toured with Of Montreal summer and fall of 2005, and the debut of the music video for "Boogie Down" came in early November. A little less than a month after the debut of "Boogie Down", the video for "Destrokk" showed up.

[[dl: MGMT - Destrokk (YSI)]]

Around the time that the band started touring with Of Montreal, I desperately tried to pitch "Kids" to a number of blogs including You Ain't No Picasso. Just sayin'. Despite the fact that "Kids" is dominating on blogs these days, it apparently wasn't good enough back then!

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- BUY IT - SITE IT - SPACE IT - HYPE IT - WIK IT -

boner4mgmt: part two, 2004.

For those just joining us, I am recounting my history with MGMT. At this point, we are at 2004. The band is still called The Management. To catch up, check part one here.

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In my first year of college, I often misheard statements in the way the "telephone" game works. This became a problem in some instances, such as the time I was convinced that my student assembly rival slept with the entirety of Yale's swim team. As a supplement to this girl's awfulness, I would often bring up this "fact" when ranting to friends. And after recounting this rumor to the person who I thought told me it, I discovered that the person who apparently slept with the entirety of Yale's swim team was allegedly Jenna Bush.*

This sort of thing also happened while I was pledging a certain co-ed literary society. One of the members of this society was named Ben, and he wrote for a notable geektastic website. I'm almost positive that someone told me that this "Ben" character was also a member of The Management. I got really excited about being in the same society as one of the guys who made "Kids", and I don't remember if I was disappointed or embarrassed to discover that this "Ben" wasn't Ben Goldwasser. I knew this guy's last name, but I didn't know that the "Ben" in The Management was named Ben Goldwasser. To make matters worse, The Management were heavily affiliated with the rival co-ed society across the street.

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In fall 2004, my newly sophomore self was introduced to the folks in a wonderful apartment known as "B2". This apartment would become a second home for me, a land of theme parties, a couch to sleep on, and most importantly...dance parties. There was a sign stating that B2's living-room was a "No 'Hey Ya!' Zone", but jams like "Toxic" and "Kids" blared through the speakers on any given Saturday night.

I have a visual in my head of two friends doing an interpretative dance to "Kids". It was to the lyric "A baby is born...crying out for attention". One friend acted as the baby. The other one was a vagina birthing him. It was a very deep and interesting interpretative dance, and I hope that anyone reading this gets it. The dance went on for six minutes and seven seconds, because anyone who was anyone knew that the Afterschool Dance Megamix of "Kids" was the only version to play at a dance party.

One of the lovely ladies of B2, Katey, once pondered with me which song had the potential to be the next "Kids" on campus. We may have even concocted devious plots to infiltrate the dance party scene and make this song the next hit by The Management. Unfortunately, we never agreed on which song would be our hit. I rooted hard for "Just Becuz", but she pushed even harder for "We Care". Or was it "We Don't Care"? My memory on this matter is foggy.

[[dl: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - We Care (YSI)]]
[[dl: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - We Don't Care (YSI)]]

So 2004 certainly isn't the most exciting year. Stay tuned for 2005, which marks my first time seeing the band live, a science project gone awesome, and the introduction of "MGMT".

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- BUY IT - SITE IT - SPACE IT - HYPE IT - WIK IT -

* In hopes that Daddy Bush won't claim war on this blog, I want to say now that there's no way this rumor was true. I mean, the whole swim team? At YALE? Seriously? This could never have happened, as there's no way that the majority of them weren't gay.

boner4mgmt: part one, 2003.

I originally intended for this to be a huge post dedicated to my eternal, undying love of MGMT. I've now decided to break it up into a daily series (by year) starting with 2003. I realize that MGMT are a big deal right now, but this series isn't a ploy to get hits to this blog. It's precisely because of MGMT being a big deal that I've realized this long history we have together, despite the fact that I've never had a conversation with either of the original members. So bear with me through this unnecessary introduction, as I chronicle my life with The Management. Er...I mean, MGMT.

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Prior to attending college, I was on AIM talking to another prospective student. It was the standard pre-college chit-chat. What dorm do you want to live in? OMG, let's party so much together when we get to school! Were you early decision too?...What kind of music do you like?

I paused. This is the sort of question that trips you up as a teenager. You want to stay true to yourself, while also citing some artist who makes you seem really cool. And you don't want to be that tool who says something like, "Hehe, ne-thing but country!!" Or you're just me. And you simply say..."I'm really into emo." Lame. And then the person you're talking to says, "Oh, like Modest Mouse?" If she could see your face upon asking this, you'd probably be blushing because your favorite albums at this point are by Dashboard Confessional and Something Corporate. You have no idea who she's talking about, but play it cool by saying, "Oh, I've never heard of them. Can you send me one of their songs?"

Oh my god, I’ve gotta gotta gotta gotta move on
Where do you move when what you’re moving from
Is yourself?

Her away message would occasionally read this way, a lyric from "Neverending Math Equation". Knowing the reference made you feel like you were in the know. But you had so much more to learn...

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Within the first couple of weeks of college, I found myself sitting in a girl named Janine's room. We were already friends in the sense that we lived in the same dorm and once encountered a rollerblading asexual together. It was in her room that I would first hear the word "hipster", a word that five years later would ironically be used by outsiders to label my existence. It was in her room that I would first hear the sounds of Ben Gibbard's voice, and do interpretative dances to "Such Great Heights". And it was in her room that I would first hear The Management.

[[dl: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - Kids (original version) (YSI)]]

The moment the song hit my ears, I was in love. It was unlike anything I heard before, which may not be saying much given how ignorant my ears were at that point. My memory of that day is a little hazey, but in my head I scurried back to my room and immediately acquired any recordings by this mysterious campus band. I then proceeded to have my first ever private one-man dance-party with "Kids", the first of many.

And then there was "We Care", "We Don't Care", "Hot Love Drama", "Money To Burn", and most importantly--"Just Becuz". While it never seemed to be the preferred song of most connoisseurs of The Management, I latched onto this song. The entire school may have been united in loving "Kids", and whether it makes sense or not..."Just Becuz" was my own personal "Kids".

[[dl: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - Just Becuz (YSI)]]

The rest of my 2003 experience with The Management would include consistently misquoting the lyrics to "Kids" while drunk at parties. Kissedaguy.com style!

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BONER TRACK: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - Hot Love Drama (YSI)
DOUBLE BONER TRACK: THE MANAGEMENT (MGMT) - Money To Burn (YSI)

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- BUY IT - SITE IT - SPACE IT - HYPE IT - WIK IT -