“Time to Pretend,” the debut single from MGMT, is proving prophetic. The catchy synth-driven tune tells the story of a pair of rock stars who “make some music, make some money, find some models for wives.”
Not three years out of Wesleyan University, MGMT – the duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser – have already checked music and money off their to-do list. How far off can nuptials with a Gisele be?
Like Cake’s dissection of rock ridiculousness (“Rock ’N’ Roll Lifestyle”) MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” mocks rock cliches from heroin-shooting to celebrity hookups to vomit-choking.
Now the MGMT guys, who play a sold-out Great Scott in Allston on Tuesday with up-and-comers Yeasayer, only have to avoid having the joke turn on them as they plunge toward stardom.
“We wrote the song long before we had any attention from the label or any attention for the band,” said Goldwasser from a San Francisco tour stop. “We wrote the song our senior year in college based on a conversation about how big we could get if we sold-out hard-core and then f—– it all up. But we never had any intentions of selling out. Now it seems that we have.”
Formerly the Management, MGMT recorded an EP of psychedelic new wave pop in 2005, but was practically on hiatus by 2006. Both VanWyngarden and Goldwasser were doing odd jobs, jamming sporadically and weighing their options.
“I’d probably be applying to grad school right now if Columbia hadn’t come along,” said Goldwasser.
Columbia, the major label behind Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen (and Cake), began leaving messages on their machine.
“When we finally realized it wasn’t a prank, we were like, ‘Why the f—are these guys calling us?’ ” said Goldwasser. “We took an antagonistic attitude because we heard of bands that get record deals only to get shelved or dropped after a year. It took us a while to realize the people at the label were good people with good intentions.”
U2 and Dave Matthews producer Steve Lillywhite handpicked the band for a six-figure, four-record deal with Columbia. Then the label hooked them up with Flaming Lips-producer Dave Fridmann. In January they released “Oracular Spectacular,” an impish, eccentric experiment of new wave and psych-rock.
But it’s the blog buzz that’s turned them into underground stars.
“We never wanted to be a band that people make a big deal about just to make a big deal about,” said Goldwasser. “We’ve seen it happen with so many other bands and a year later nobody cares about them. We’ve told Columbia that we wanted to let things run their course naturally.”
Considering that MGMT’s current course is rapidly upward, that means avoiding the same rock star excess “Time to Pretend” laughs at.
“I can see how rock stars get bad habits on the road,” Goldwasser said. “I’ve stopped drinking beer for the most part and I try to eat a salad at least every few meals. I don’t know, it’s really hard.”
