Thursday, January 1, 2015

"Electric Feel" (MGMT)

So every time I've seen an interview with Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden (a.k.a. MGMT), they have been stoned out of their minds.  Initially, I thought it was an act.  You know, "time to pretend" and whatnot.  But evidence suggests they really do love some pharmaceuticals.
(Here's a homework assignment: Google "MGMT interview," and try to find a single video clip where they aren't FaceTiming with Jesus.  I double-dog dare you.)
I'm not one to wag fingers.  I believe everyone has the right to live his/her life however he/she pleases.
But, Benj.  Anj.  Come on!  Did you guys not learn anything from VH-1 Behind the Music, growing up in the 90s?  We all saw the shows.  The moral of every single episode—from Mötley Crüe to The Partridge Family—was that hard drugs will fuck you up.  Period.  You will wake up pantsless in the middle of a Lane Bryant in suburban L.A., face down in a pool of your own sick, screaming, "You can't arrest me!  I'm Danny Partridge, dammit!"  (Or whatever the sordid details were of Bonaduce's story...)  You mark my words.
All that to say, I love the song "Electric Feel" from the 2007 album Oracular Spectacular It's strange, spacey, deeply funky, and hellaciously catchy.  The first time I heard the song, streaming on a coworker's computer, my immediate reaction was, "Whoa.  When did the ghost of Frank Zappa produce a song for The Bee Gees?"  (It was, in fact, produced by Dave Fridmann, the man behind the console on most Flaming Lips records of the past 20 years.)
And, yes, I've come to realize over the years that the lyrics are an ode to tripping on some sort of psychedelics, and not about an actual female.  But I still can't get enough of that preternatural falsetto hook: I said ooh girl...
I guess addiction comes in many forms.



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