MGMT Hang With Beck, Get Hip to 'Gossip Girl'

Posted on Oct 2nd 2008 4:00PM by Jolie Lash
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Weeks after spending most of their summer on the festival circuit, New York City's MGMT jumped on tour supporting Beck earlier this fall. The trek has taken the duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser across the country, including to the Hollywood Bowl, where they played the famous venue for the first time, last month.

"That venue is unbelievable," VanWyngarden raved to Spinner. "It's probably the coolest venue I've ever been to."

The gents said they took it all in when they played the historic Hollywood Hills-nestled arena, getting history from longtime staff members and checking out the backstage photos -- including ones of Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees -- but they also got a little closer to the family of their headliner.

"I met [Beck's] son at the Hollywood Bowl," VanWyngarden said when Spinner asked about gig attendance from the family of the 'Odelay' singer. "He's really shy."

And as the tour has traveled across the U.S., it's given MGMT a chance to get to know the artist they spent their own early days compared to. "When we first started getting press attention, a lot of people lumped us in and were like, 'Oh! These guys sound like Beck,'" Goldwasser noted. "I don't really think we sound like Beck, but I think we have a lot of common influences. And honestly, if we sat down and had a conversation with Beck about music, we would probably get excited about a lot of the same things. It's cool that we actually get to spend this time on tour with him."

One thing the band isn't spending time on while on tour is watching TV and films. While the group have landed cuts from their 'Oracular Spectacular' album on the '21' soundtrack and various teen shows, the boys only recently realized what one of their sonic placements meant.

"Ben and I are kind of out of touch with popular culture so we kind of agree to all these things not really realizing 'Gossip Girl' was, like, a huge show," VanWyngarden laughed. "Slowly we're realizing what it meant and it's funny."

MGMT will spend the rest of the year on the road, but have big promises for the follow up to 'Oracular.' "We are about to write probably one of the best albums of all time," VanWyngarden said with a hint of a smile. "It's going to be so much better than our first album."

"Something ground breaking is going to come from the MGMT camp in a few months," Goldwasser added.