MGMT has released the ridiculous sci-fi trailer for their upcoming self-titled album. This effort is the band's third record and the most experimental to date, leaning more toward dark and trippy sounds than upbeat, electro-pop dance hits.
MGMT Album Trailer from The Avant/Garde Diaries on Vimeo.
The album's trailer plays off the experimental-space feel the band has more or less gone with on this album. It begins with an aerial shot that overlooks a foggy mountain range in the jungle, then zooms into lead vocalist/guitar players Andrew Van Wyngarden's bohemian home just as he is waking up. He heads hazily into he bathroom to pee and brush his teeth. Looking past the mirror, he notices a recycling bin turned over. Ominous music begins to play. His home is being monitored on a spy camera, but he is unaware. He lifts up the recycling bin, and a possum appears, fiercly growling at him.
The video then flashes into a New York City recording studio. VanWyngarden enters the studio and apologizes for being late. "Sorry I'm late," he says. "I got attacked by a possum."
The band then begins to play a trippy song reminiscent of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" mixed with Empire of the Sun's intergallactic vibe.
They stop playing because they hear a "buzzy, clicky kind of thing." The video cuts to the NSA Headquarters in Forte Meade, Maryland and shows two agents watching the band on surveillance cameras. However, the sound the band is hearing is not the NSA's bug, which means it must be something else. The sound appears to be coming from a speaker, so the band rips the speaker apart and beings to pull something out.
"What the sh**t!?" says an NSA member.
It is a bug that looks like a cross between a beetle and scorpion; a red light is beaming from its head.
One NSA member tells the other, "That's not one of ours."
The band decides it is time to leave the studio, and heads on a D.C.-bound bus.
"The reptoids have heard the new MGMT album," the NSA agent proclaims. "They know how good it is."
Little do the NSA agents know that they, too, are being watched by aliens.
As the band heads out of the city, a young girl turns around in the seat in front of them. But, her green, glowing eyes suggest she is no human. The aliens have arrived.
The video pretty accurately illustrates the headspace the band was in after recording the album.
VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone that the recording process for MGMT's third effort made him go a bit crazy; nonetheless, he stuck with the goal of making the album experimental.
"I don't even know if it's music we would want to listen to," VanWyngarden told them. "It's just what's coming out of us. We didn't make a single compromise."
The trailer features a few songs that are on the album's tracklist, such as "Cool Song No. 2," "Mystery Disease," "I Love You Too, Death," "Introspection," "Your Life is a Lie," and "A Good Saddness."
"MGMT" is due out September 17, via Columbia Records, but is available for pre-order now.
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