The Daily Helmsman article:
http://www.dailyhelmsman.com/news/mgmt-brings-ballsy-album-to-orpheum-1.3123335
Knowing old drumline friends has benefits.
When pressed for an "advance event story" in my media writing class I, of course, wanted to write about a concert. After checking Pollstar.com I decided MGMT playing at the Orpheum theatre would be pretty sweet to write about. During class as we were, one-by-one, sharing what event we were to cover I smugly stated, "Well...MGMT is playing the Orpheum", to which many oohs and "Really!?"s ping-ponged across the table. Gus had found something interesting! Gus felt like a badass swiveling in that fun little computer chair. Boom. I just dropped an awesome bomb.
The only problem was that I needed a "super source" and getting to talk to anyone close to MGMT would be difficult. I felt like I had a trump card- I knew Andrew VanWyngarden's step-brother Roman from my years on White Station DRUMLINE and so I figured while I politely asked if there was any humanly possible way he could connect me to the band or someone near them I called the venue. However, the best quote I was able to get out of Orpheum......management...was basically
"It's going to be a good show!" :/
Which I guess worked for the rough draft... but then it suddenly hit me(with the help of my professor Mrs.Denney)- instead of trying to get in touch with rock stars on the move why not USE THE VALUABLE SOURCE I ALREADY HAD. Roman's an awesome like-minded dude and musician. It'd be great to catch up and have him help me.
So I ventured towards Mid-town, not a stone's throw from my girlfriend's house, and chatted with Roman for a good while. After I interviewed him he turned to me and said,
"Wanna jam?" To which of course I wanted to jam and we headed to his attic so I could slam some drums to Jimi Hendrix covers and the chords to "The Girl From Ipanema" to name a few. It was a tiring jam as my roommate/guitarplayer buddy had been out of town for a month and my drum-stamina was down, but a rad one at that. Lotta how-many-different-ways-can-I-hit-this-cymbal-to-get-weird-sounds moments. Super fun.
Anyway, as we retired the jam sesh and my old drumline friend escorted me downstairs for much-needed water (running your mouth interviewing and playing drums for a good hour makes you really , really parched), who should come home but Bruce VanWyngarden, Andrew from MGMT's dad. So. Roman appropriately put me on the spot (very glad he did that..) and mentioned I could interview Mr.Bruce VanWyngarden. Which was...intimidating!
Not only was this someone who I looked up to musically's father but...The freaking editor to the Memphis Flyer, and here I am this derpy little maybe-journalist maybe-english major I don't know asking him questions I hadn't prepared!
Luckily he was personable and Roman's uncle, a self-proclaimed former cartoonist to the Helmsman(U of M's student-paper), kept the tone super light; as uncles have this magic important ability to do. I had cake(!) and drove home sweaty; half from jamming and half from nervousness (and half from being in college and having to skip showers sometimes to do homework). I had this overwhelming feeling that something important and awesome happened but also that I did not deserve it. What follows is (basically) the printed story, FROM THE HELMSMAN, that I procrastinated and felt uber-pressure to finish for weeks. A great weight has been lifted, and I feel super accomplished:
http://www.dailyhelmsman.com/news/mgmt-brings-ballsy-album-to-orpheum-1.3123335
Knowing old drumline friends has benefits.
When pressed for an "advance event story" in my media writing class I, of course, wanted to write about a concert. After checking Pollstar.com I decided MGMT playing at the Orpheum theatre would be pretty sweet to write about. During class as we were, one-by-one, sharing what event we were to cover I smugly stated, "Well...MGMT is playing the Orpheum", to which many oohs and "Really!?"s ping-ponged across the table. Gus had found something interesting! Gus felt like a badass swiveling in that fun little computer chair. Boom. I just dropped an awesome bomb.
The only problem was that I needed a "super source" and getting to talk to anyone close to MGMT would be difficult. I felt like I had a trump card- I knew Andrew VanWyngarden's step-brother Roman from my years on White Station DRUMLINE and so I figured while I politely asked if there was any humanly possible way he could connect me to the band or someone near them I called the venue. However, the best quote I was able to get out of Orpheum......management...was basically
"It's going to be a good show!" :/
Which I guess worked for the rough draft... but then it suddenly hit me(with the help of my professor Mrs.Denney)- instead of trying to get in touch with rock stars on the move why not USE THE VALUABLE SOURCE I ALREADY HAD. Roman's an awesome like-minded dude and musician. It'd be great to catch up and have him help me.
So I ventured towards Mid-town, not a stone's throw from my girlfriend's house, and chatted with Roman for a good while. After I interviewed him he turned to me and said,
"Wanna jam?" To which of course I wanted to jam and we headed to his attic so I could slam some drums to Jimi Hendrix covers and the chords to "The Girl From Ipanema" to name a few. It was a tiring jam as my roommate/guitarplayer buddy had been out of town for a month and my drum-stamina was down, but a rad one at that. Lotta how-many-different-ways-can-I-hit-this-cymbal-to-get-weird-sounds moments. Super fun.
Anyway, as we retired the jam sesh and my old drumline friend escorted me downstairs for much-needed water (running your mouth interviewing and playing drums for a good hour makes you really , really parched), who should come home but Bruce VanWyngarden, Andrew from MGMT's dad. So. Roman appropriately put me on the spot (very glad he did that..) and mentioned I could interview Mr.Bruce VanWyngarden. Which was...intimidating!
Not only was this someone who I looked up to musically's father but...The freaking editor to the Memphis Flyer, and here I am this derpy little maybe-journalist maybe-english major I don't know asking him questions I hadn't prepared!
Luckily he was personable and Roman's uncle, a self-proclaimed former cartoonist to the Helmsman(U of M's student-paper), kept the tone super light; as uncles have this magic important ability to do. I had cake(!) and drove home sweaty; half from jamming and half from nervousness (and half from being in college and having to skip showers sometimes to do homework). I had this overwhelming feeling that something important and awesome happened but also that I did not deserve it. What follows is (basically) the printed story, FROM THE HELMSMAN, that I procrastinated and felt uber-pressure to finish for weeks. A great weight has been lifted, and I feel super accomplished:
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MGMT is now auspiciously close to joining the assorted list of popular artists who have graced the stage of the Orpheum Theatre Memphis.
MGMT is now auspiciously close to joining the assorted list of popular artists who have graced the stage of the Orpheum Theatre Memphis.
The indie rockers, featuring Memphis hometowner Andrew VanWynGarden, play the Orpheum this Saturday, Nov.23 with like-minded band Kuroma.
Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are still available and range in price from $34 to $45.
“The price of The Orpheum and the fact that it’s a seated venue will attract people who actually want to hear the music,” said Bruce VanWyngarden, father to MGMT frontman Andrew Van Wyngarden, and editor of the Memphis Flyer. “At a music festival the first 10 to 15 rows are really into it, but there’s always those guys with their hats turned backwards; drinking in the back, waiting to hear Kids.”
“Kids,” refers to MGMT’s breakout single to 2008’s Oracular Spectacular, that reached #9 on the Billboard charts at its peak, and launched the band’s popular music career. In April 2010, they released Congratulations, a far less-poppy, more instrumentally driven, psychedelic-rock project.
For the current tour the group is a little more focused on promoting their new material; their self-titled junior album that was released in September, according to Roman Darker, Andrew VanWyngarden’s step-brother and fellow Memphian musician.
“I think it’s a really ballsy album,” Darker says, “I don’t think it sounds like anything else out there.” VanWyngarden Sr. agreed about the record’s 10 new tracks.
“You can’t expect to pop it in and start dancing around,” he said, “You have to let the lyrics emerge and give it a chance.”
Which means that the MGMT release and the concert setting are expected to compliment each other tremendously.
“The Orpheum is a venue where everyone has to sit and pay attention,” VanWyngarden said. “The new album is music you have to pay attention to.”
Bruce VanWyngarden has certainly paid close attention to his son’s career and knew exactly how to describe the individuals MGMT chose to open for them on this tour.
“Kuroma is basically MGMT-lite,” he said. “It has four members of MGMT in it.”
Darker also shed light on Kuroma, including why precisely guitarist Hank Sullivant filled in VanWyngarden’s live instrumental parts during the aftermath of a kitty-caused shoulder dislocation.
“Andrew had trained his new cat to climb up on his shoulders, and while he was playing with it; he sneezed, frightened the thing, and it wound up dislocating his shoulder,” Darker said. “Instead of cancelling the tour, Hank played guitar for MGMT on Jimmy Fallon and all those late night talk shows.”
For the upcoming performance Andrew Van Wyngarden will have completely recovered from his catastrophic dislocation and, axe in hand, is sure to awe the Orpheum audience in true psychedelic MGMT-fashion. This will be the band’s first performance in Memphis since 2011’s Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival.
For tickets:
MGMT's Facebook page:
Kuroma:
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