I suppose it's a pointer to the average age of people commenting at this blog that in the Inspirals-inpired thread about artists who take the name in vain of their heroes or heroes's work (as the Carpets did, ach, with "Bitches Brew" - the effrontery! the gall!), that nobody mentioned MGMT, who on a single album, 2010's Congratulations, have a song titled "Brian Eno" and another titled "Song for Dan Treacy".
Eno and Television Personalities are are quite good pointers to their aesthetic, if you also factored in Todd Rundgren, Ariel Pink, Flaming Lips...
So they are Anglophiles but also Anglophile-philes, if you get me.
And maybe some Hot Chip is in there.
Here's the Eno tribute.
So tired, soul searching
I followed the sounds to a cathedral
Imagine my surprise to find that
They were produced by Brian Eno
Past the gates, quite stark
The roses trimmed and the windows dark
I see the walls through a limestone crack
Not red, not blue, not yellow but black
And all the spaces left for you
If the sky was synthesized you'd probably know
He taught me many things
The wisdom of oblique stratagems
The prophet of a sapphire soul
Presented through creative freedoms
And everything I say is true
'Cause if I was telling lies it'd probably show
I can tell that he's kind of smiling
But what does he know?
We're always one step behind him
He's Brian Eno, Brian Eno
When I was stuck he'd make me memorize elaborate curses
Tinctures and formulas to ditch the chorus and flip the verses
My whole foundation came unglued
When I tried to humanize by ambient light
Dipping swords in metaphors, yeah
But what does he know?
We're always one step behind him
He's Brian Eno, Brian Eno
He promised pretty worlds
And all the silence I could dream of
Brian Peter, George St. John
Le Baptiste De La Salle Eno
Well, all alone by the oldest stone
Where the shade trees grow
The creature by the water
Feature with a ghostly glow
Yeah, he's making sure that time's preserved well
We reap what we sow
We're always one step behind him
He's Brian Eno
Yeah, I can tell that he's doing well, yeah
But what does he know?
I'm always one step behind him
He's Brian Eno
Yeah, dipping swords in metaphors, yeah
But what does he know?
I'd like to see him plant a forest 'cause I don't know
Brian Eno
I can tell that he's kind of smiling
But what does he know?
I will always be a step behind him
He's Brian Eno
Yeah, he's making sure that time's preserved well
We reap what we sow
I'm always one step behind him
'Cause I don't know Brian Eno
And here's the Dan Treacy one
He spends his time or maybe half of his time
Or part of the time wandering
'Round the creeks and cobble stones
Of Hackney lanes
With a tear in his eye
As the children walk by, he's thinking of a song
Then stops to paint a picture of a frown
Walking around
Dan Treacy's smile, leaves you trying
To decide who's the victim, what's the crime?
No rest for the mind
That's seen it all before
And I don't know where he lives
But he's a myth of a man
And Texas Bob the cameraman
Is off to fix his seat before the show
Yeah, but where did he go?
To know when your time's up
You flip the glass and watch the hours quickening
Oh, oh, oh
In the back of the station
Fluorescent lights about to quit their flickering
Well, he speaks his mind
He says, "What is crime?"
Dan Treacy's eyes
Stop in the middle of the park
When the underground is dark
He's a poet, he's a lark
He starts thinking about a place that no one knows
And when the creeks run dry, he stays frozen in time
Strange lights in the sky start blinking
I can see the car outside but he's listening
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
He's listening
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
He's listening
Ah, ah, ah, ah
And he's making up his mind
He made his mind up
To get things done and overcome
He made his mind up
Yeah, he's gonna let it go
He made his mind up
In the park and at the station
He made his mind up
Yeah, he's gonna get it done
He made his mind up
Yeah, he's gonna get it done
He made his mind up
Yeah, he's gonna let it go
No matter the time, oh no
When the creeps run by, oh, no
He's making his mind up, oh, oh, oh
Yeah, he's gonna get it done, oh, oh
Yeah, when the creeks run dry, oh, oh
Said yeah, he's gonna listen to his soul
Said yeah, when the creeps walk by
"Come here, boy, look me in the eye"
Bow to the heart, back to the beat of Dan Treacy
I suppose it is the next logical extension of the TVP's own efforts like "I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives"
But it also reminds me of the Mighty Boosh...
But yes I'm guessing nobody here listens to MGMT.... I only noticed these songs because a student did a presentation on the group and it reminded me how much I liked the radio hits and had always meant to check out the albums properly.
Nick S in comments points to the original EP version of "Time To Pretend" - more DIY fuzzy
Looking at the presentation, which includes these videos I'd never seen for the hits off the debut, the sort of DIY retro phantasmagoria look of the promos and the sound and the Maus-y / mousy Angloid vocals did remind me of Ariel Pink. None of the students could see the connection but then I found that another favorite tune, "When You Die" was actually a (pre-disgrace) collab with AP, which would explain the dark lyrics maybe. It's another cool video involving trippy animation and Alex Karpovsky, the actor who plays Ray in Girls.
MGMT are one of those groups I could never pick out from a police lineup. Like Phoenix or Foster the People (whose "Pumped Up Kicks" very much struck me as a cleaned-up radio-ready rip on Ariel P - bouncy catchy retro-y tune, twisted lyrics about a school shooter). Or the Swedish chaps who do "Young Folks" - Peter Bjorn and John.
Tempting to shove MGMT into the category of Clever Dick Pop just for the production obsession and the retro synth penchant, but I think there is some real feeling in there hiding behind the layered-ness.
They do seem unAmerican - I sort of imagined them being much more popular in France. In fact, Switzerland seems to have a thing for them judging by their chart placings - it was the only place "When You Die" was a proper hit.
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An earlier post on "bands from nowhere" aka faceless rockno bollocks
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update
Here's clever sod Momus with a newish song called "Life With Eno" off an album called Quietism
Off the map
Insofar as there is one
A film soundtrack by Eno
Plays in my ears
Events in Thick Fog
Is what it’s called
No singing
Just a pleasant sense of being lost
As the fog of the real world
Starts to swirl
And Eno, I imagine him
As friendly
Like a guide for the blind
Showing the dead
The catacombs beneath the Panama Canal
At the airport
There’s a Chinese supermarket
And a briefcase synthesiser
Eno now unfolds
To play us sounds he’s made
From birds
I believe
He just wants his music
To sound like animals and birds
Fair enough
Every day is a good day
When nothing’s planned
I sink into my bath
In our hotel
And drown in these events
In thick fog
