Chairlift Couldn't Care Less About Winning an MTV VMA

If you're not already a fan of Chairlift, chances are you know the band's song 'Bruises' from a 2008 iPod commercial. But this Sunday, the Brooklyn-via-Colorado indie band will return to TV for a much different reason. Chairlift's video for 'Evident Utensil,' the bouncy single from the band's debut 'Does You Inspire You,' has been nominated for Breakthrough Video at this year's MTV Video Music Awards.

Spinner sat down with singer Caroline Polacheck before Chairlift's Atlanta gig Wednesday night, and the singer and art school graduate -- she just got her diploma last week -- discussed how the nomination might not be all it seems. "MTV is in a really interesting spot right now. I see it as the face of the mainstream," she tells Spinner while eating her pre-show dinner. "The idea of what was mainstream was so prevalent in the '90s -- there was an actual mainstream to rebel against. But then everyone started going with the rebels and that became the mainstream. So today it's not clear cut what is industry and what is underground."

Polachek highlighted how, though the VMA's are broadcast on MTV, very few videos are even played on the station, a far cry from the MTV of the '90s, and especially the '80s. That shift carries most obviously in Chairlift's nominated category. "We're nominated for Breakthrough Video and we're in there with bands like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bat for Lashes, Passion Pit -- bands you'd never ever see on MTV or MTV2," she says. "We're not Lady Gaga, we're not Beyonce, so we're in the underdog category, which feels pretty strange. We're basically the elected underdogs of the mainstream. It's a strange spot to be in."

Things might get stranger if Chairlift take home the prize, as enthusiasm isn't always easy to fake -- these are musicians, not actors. Or, as Polacheck puts it, "I couldn't give a f--- whether or not we win this thing."