MGMT to Sue French President

A hilarious bit of MGMT news - France's conservative UMP party, led by President Nicolas Sarkozy, illegally used "Kids" in two online videos and at campaign events. And MGMT is suing their asses for compensation. From NME:

Sarkozy has admitted using the song at the UMP party's national congress, but claims the lack of permission was a mistake and offered the band one euro as a gesture, reports BBC News.

The duo rejected the offer and are now seeking compensation. Their lawyer, Isabelle Wekstein, said, "This offer is disrespectful of the rights of artists and authors. It is insulting. We are dealing with acts of counterfeiting, an infringement of intellectual property."

A fee of 53 Euros (£47) had initially been paid to gain use of the song, but Wekstein said that the sum was not enough to cover repeated plays of the song in the online videos.

According to Prefix, ideological opposition to the conservative organization is also a motivating factor. This is additionally funny because the UMP is strongly in favor of copyright laws, and is currently pushing a law calling for tougher penalties for infractions.

If anyone can find these campaign videos online, we will post them. In the meantime here is a video of MGMT on French television, apparently explaining the meaning of Thanksgiving:

[via You Ain't No Picasso]

Prefix Mag: French Political Party Steals "Kids"
BBC: MGMT to sue Sarkozy for Music Use
NME: MGMT Suing Nicolas Sarkozy Over 'Kids'
Pitchfork: MGMT Grapple with the President of France

[Thanks to Sayre Sundberg '11 for sending this in like, a week ago]

NME on Wesleyan: a "Nest of Noise"

The latest periodical to cover Wesleyan as a hotbed of entertainment talent is British music magazine NME, which devoted a two-page spread this week to investigating our "nest of noise" which "has spawned artists such as MGMT, Amazing Baby and Santogold - and there's a lot more to follow."

It was clear that NME had a thing for this school and its products (for good reason), but damn, way to blow up Wesleyan's uniquely hip legacy!

From all that's visible from the linked page, there's a picturesque photo of North College, a map indicating the distance between Middletown and New York City, a quote from Ben Goldwasser of MGMT about Wesleyan's instrumental place in the chronology of his life, some pictures of Wes-graduated acts, and an inset about British schools which have supposedly reached a comparable level cool.

If anybody's got their hands on a copy of this week's issue and can send us a scan (is NME even distributed here?), it'd be much appreciated.

[edit, 10/24 11:30 am] The Wes homepage put up a full-page scan of the article, read the whole thing here.

It's pretty effusive about the Wesleyan students' creative potential, though some details are somewhat inaccurate - "The place is strewn with flyers advertising bands, films, plays and other artistic endeavours cooked up by bored students trying to entertain themselves in this largely rural part of the world." Um, right.

Media relations director David Pesci calls Wes a "crucible of creativity", where live music permeates the air in warmer months, and due credit is given to past professors of experimental music and ethnomusicology for building up the Music Department.

Santogold and members of MGMT recount their college experiences, and shout-outs are given to recent/current campus favorites Red Wire Black Wire, Bear Hands, and Bottle up and Go as examples of the wide range of musical styles formed here. Overall, not bad publicity at all.

NME: A Different Class
Full Article PDF

The Management: before MGMT

Sarah Leonard '09 points out that NME has an article up about the evolution of MGMT's song "Kids," including various remixes and covers. She notes that this "wouldn't be that unusual, as NME is obsessed with MGMT, but check out the end of the article - there's a video of the band playing 'Kids' in 2002 or 2003 in what appears to be the upstairs room at Eclectic. Proof positive that awkward underclassmen can go on to great things."

Check out the video:

They look maybe just a little different a la 2002/3 than they do now. Note the contrast; Sarah's description seems apt:

Bear Hands, Boy Crisis, Bottle Up and Go

Friday night Wes alum rock show. This is the place to be if you want a Friday night rock show:

BEAR HANDS
About to tour the UK, voted top 100 bands of 2008 by AP mag.

BOY CRISIS
"(one of twenty five) bands making america cool again" -NME.
About to tour Iceland.

BOTTLE UP AND GO
Old stand bys, you guys know what's up.

Date: Friday, October 10
Time: 10 pm
Place: Eclectic, free

Boy Crisisitis in Britain

Campus favorite Boy Crisis, featuring recent alumni Owen Roberts '07 (drums), Alex Kestner '06 (keyboard), Victor Vasquez '06 (vocals) and Lee Pender '07 (guitar), and Tal Rozen '06 (vocals/bass), seems to be on the verge of breaking out.

British music magazine NME featured them on its list of "25 Bands Making America Cool Again" (because British scenesters apparently stopped thinking we were cool or something), along with the likes of Vampire Weekend, MGMT, TV on the Radio, the Cool Kids, the Hold Steady, and some other notable acts which may or not have been at Wes in the past two years.

They're also featured as the Band of the Day in The Guardian last week, in which they are recognized as former students at "Connecticut's Wesleyan Art College", and earn inevitable comparisons to that other Brooklyn-via-Wesleyan electronic band:

...the music they had begun to make was both ingenious and irresistible: late-70s punk-funk with a tough veneer and a mid-80s gloss, like Duran Duran if they'd come from the Bowery not Birmingham, or Palladium if they'd managed to get their debut album remixed by Justice before they got dropped...

You will be hearing a lot about Boy Crisis over the next few months because they are the subject of hysterical hype and rampant A&R buzz, because they make music based on a shared love of Prince, Talking Heads, Chic, Pet Shop Boys and Zapp – and for once it actually sounds like it – and because they are the hottest electronic pop group to emerge from America since, ooh, MGMT at least. Only, as that list of influences suggests, they're more funktronic than psychedelic...

Check out the MySpace for Boy Crisis tracks/info. Here's an Eclectic show from last spring:



Links:
MySpace: Boy Crisis
NME: 25 Bands Making America Cool Again
The Guardian: New Band of the Day No. 357

[via Aural Wes, Stereogum, Lineout]

Santogold: NYTimes Critics' Choice

NYTimes music critic Jon Pareles put Santogold's self-titled debut on the front page of today's Arts section, and with all the hype surrounding the album already, the rest of the music-reviewing media can't be too far behind:

Santogold’s debut album makes some boasts that ought to come true. In her brightly glinting voice, Santi White declares, “I’m a creator/Thrill is to make it up/The rules I break got me a place up on the radar.”

Ms. White sings, yelps, hiccups, raps and toasts Jamaican-style on “Santogold,” which bounces among genres like a well-flipped pinball. There are two takes of “You’ll Find a Way”: a pop-rock band version that starts with the backbeat and floating guitar of the Police before it gets all riled up, and a distorted, chopped-up electro track that’s barely the same song. Those are only two of her guises.

Full review: Critics' Choice: New CDs from Santogold, etc.

Santogold describes her album in an interview with NME.com: