Ongoing History Daily: The MGMT attitude problem

When MGMT released their Oracular Spectacular album in 2008, they had no idea that it was going to be such a big hit. In fact, they now insist that the record consists of songs that they thought were “stupid,” which is why the Congratulations album is so different.

But if you look back into their history, you’ll see that they’ve always been contrary. Even before they signed any record contract, they’d try to annoy as many people as they could with each show. Like what? Well, like playing 20-minute versions of the Ghostbusters theme, just to see how much the audience could take. Or the time that they played a Bob Dylan record from the stage while they just sat there. And let’s not forget that their debut EP was called We (Don’t) Care.

MGMT difficult and weird? All the signs were already there.