Glass Animals

Now that all of my highly anticipated albums have been released, it’s time to get back into the boring posts about sports, music and entertainment…kidding! Of course my first regular post in a while is about music though. Over the summer I’ve discovered a few new musical interests from friends and from working festivals so I wanted to let you know what I’ve been listening to besides all the new albums.

The first is a band I’ve known about for a year or two but never listened to that much. I saw and heard them perform at the Panorama Music Festival in NYC over the summer and several of my friends were into them. I decided I needed to give them a chance.

Oxford (UK) indie rock band Glass Animals formed in 2010 while members Dave Bayley (lead vocals, guitar) , Drew Macfarlane (guitar), Edmund Irwin-Singer (bass), and Joe Seaward (drums) were in university. The group were friends since they were 13 but had not played music together until the time that Bayley approached the group with a few demos and they decided to form the band.

They initially thought forming a band would be just for fun, but it became serious really fast. They played their first show in April 2010 and released their first EP Leaflings in May of 2012. After catching the ear of Adele’s producer, Paul Epworth, Glass Animals were signed to his label. The band released their second EP which was self-titled in November of 2013 and followed up by releasing three more singles. Those singles, “Pools”, “Gooey”, and “Hazey”, along with the singles “Black Mambo” and “Cocoa Hooves” were all featured on their debut album Zaba, which was released in June 2014. The album gave the band success, which increased their Spotify listener totals, allowed them to tour worldwide with plenty sold out shows through 2015, and earned them spots performing on late night television in America. Glass Animals’ second album How to Be a Human Being was released a little over a year ago in August 2016 with the singles “Life Itself” and “Youth” being released in the lead up. Their sophomore album was met with mix reviews, but the band has been touring in promotion of it ever since its release.

Glass Animals style of music is indie rock mixed with psychedelic pop, art pop, and trip hop. Their sound almost reminds me of alt-J mixed with Tame Impala. They can sound kind of trippy at times so it’s much different than your standard indie rock band.

I feel like I may have listened to Glass Animals before this summer, but at the time I wasn’t feeling what I heard. I think it was the suggestions and peer pressure from my friends this summer that really got me to give them another chance. For me, they’re kind of an acquired taste, but now I really like them. Surprisingly, I prefer the singles off their second album even though they earned their fans mostly from their first album. How to Be a Human Being has a greater rock feel than Zaba, which I think eased me into their sound. Now I can’t stop listening to them.

If you haven’t heard of these guys yet or have been reluctant to listen to them, give them a chance. You might just find a new band you like. I can attest to it. I think I’d even love another chance to see Glass Animals perform again. They put on a great show from what I did see and their music is filled with pretty sweet peanut butter vibes.

MGMT

Last weekend I went to visit my friend who lives outside of Baltimore, MD. The weekend trip initially was supposed to serve the purpose of attending a volunteer orientation for the Sweetlife Festival, which I’ll be attending and volunteering at next weekend, but the orientation got moved. I decided to make the trip anyway and have a fun weekend with my friend by hanging out and taking a day trip to Washington, D.C. on Saturday. This blog post isn’t a journal by any means so I don’t plan on telling you about all the things I did which included deciding whether Baked & Wired or Georgetown Cupcakes had the best DC Cupcakes or attending my little cousin’s tee ball game. What is really important is that I made an epic discovery on Friday night after our dinner in the city in Fells Point.

After being in Fells Point on two other occasions to go to bars, I found out they have a pretty well known record store in the area. I passed by the store before, but I didn’t have time to look inside. During this trip to Fells, I made it a point to go to the record store called The Sound Garden. The store was much better than expected on so many different levels. One of the best discoveries of the night was the cheapness of their vinyl. The selection was pretty solid too. It featured a great blend of new and used records. Most vinyl were $20 and under making it difficult to pass up the opportunity to purchase an album. I looked through much of the new vinyl and decided to purchase an album by a band whose music I’ve liked since 2008, MGMT.

MGMT was formed by Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser in 2002 while the two were freshman at Middletown, CT college, Wesleyan University. They originally called themselves The Management and released a demo called Climbing to New Lows under this name. Then, the group changed their name to MGMT (the abbreviation for Management) since The Management was in use by another band. To settle the confusion in case you were wondering, the band’s name is pronounced M-G-M-T though.

After graduating in 2005, MGMT toured in support of their Time to Pretend EP opening for Of Montreal. The EP was released on August 30, 2005. In 2006, they signed to Columbia Records and began recording their debut album. The album, Oracular Spectacular, was released digitally in October 2007 and physically on January 22, 2008. Since its release, the album has sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Rolling Stone named it to their 2012 list of the Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time coming in at 494. The album has also gone Silver, Gold, and Platinum in many countries, including Gold in the U.S., Platinum in the U.K. and 2x Platinum in Ireland. The album even earned the band a Grammy nomination in 2010 for Best New Artist and the single “Kids” earned them a nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

The band’s second album Congratulations was released on April 13, 2010. Their third and most recent album, MGMT, was released three years later in September 2013. In the midst of their three albums the band toured and played many major festivals worldwide including performances at, Coachella, Firefly, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Glastonbury. They’ve opened for acts such as Radiohead, Beck, and Paul McCartney, performed on a number of television shows, and even headlined a show at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO. Word on the street is that the band will be making a come back at some point this year after taking a break in 2015. Whether their return will be with more performances or a new album is yet to be known.

MGMT plays an indie psychedelic pop rock style of music. You could actually combine each of those styles any way you like and it would describe MGMT’s music. Their use of synth is apparent in most of their songs as is that trippy feeling associated with psychedelic style music.

I first heard MGMT sometime during the summer of 2008. Keep in mind, at this time my favorite music genres were pop-punk, punk, alternative, and alternative rock. I hadn’t transformed to an indie hipster yet. Their song “Time to Pretend” was used during the intro of a movie I really enjoyed during that time, 21. Despite my music interests at that time, I really enjoyed the song. I didn’t download it until a few months later though. About 2 years after hearing MGMT for the first time, my friends and I tried to do a cover of the song “Kids” so I downloaded that song as well. I then heard the song “Electric Feel”  somewhere along the way and the Erol Alkan remix of “Congratulations” which was featured the video game, MLB The Show 11. The group also collaborated with Kid Cudi on his song “Pursuit of Happiness”, which I used to listen to around the spring of 2011. On Friday night, I realized that I never actually listened to Oracular Spectacular despite knowing a handful of songs from it. I figured it was probably a great album to own on vinyl, especially with the great price, so I bought it. I figured correct. The album is stellar. MGMT is stellar. I’m disappointed I passed on seeing them 4 years ago when they played a show at a festival near me. Then again, I’d probably appreciate seeing them more now than I would have then. If they do tour again soon, I’ll have to get to a show. You might want to do the same. In case you do, here are some song recommendations:

1. Time to Pretend
2. Kids
3. Electric Feel
4. Congratulations (check out the regular version and the Erol Alkan remix)
5. Weekend Wars
6. The Youth
7. Pieces of What
8. Indie Rokkers