A Doll's House #3 - The MGMT Issue

3 The MGMT Issue

Congratulations!

That our salutation is the

name of the sophomore album

from the MGMT-boys might be

well-known by now, but that is

not the only thing we can offer

you with our fanzine #3. You

are in fact in for even more

treats, dear reader, as we very

proudly can present you with

loads of visual goodness to

be enjoyed with the sounds of

Congratulations.

When we handpicked nine

talented photographers and

illustrators to interpret one

song each from the fantastic

new album, we could not have

asked for nine more varied,

amazing and truly original

pieces of music

interpretations. The result is

the exhibition Interpretations

of Congratulations,

and you can enjoy the pictures

in full in this digital issue of

A Doll’s House.

Apart from the visual work,

we can also offer some

wisdom (in)directly from the

mouths of Ben Goldwasser

and Andrew VanWyngarden,

an interview with Low Brow

pioneer and artist behind the

Congratulations album art,

Anthony Ausgang, and a guide

to the eclectic fashionistas of

the music industry.

To say it (nearly) with the

poster boy for the psychedelic

60’s, Timothy Leary:

Turn on, tune in, ENJOY!

Best wishes,

Hilde & Astri

A Doll’s House is

Hilde Holta-Lysell - Editor

Astri Barbala - Feature Editor

Esra Røise - Editorial design

Jan Schjetne - Graphic design

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTOR

Henriette K. Johansen

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Canon

Freudian Kicks

Sony Music Entertainment

Contributing artists

Anja Stang pudder.org

Esra Røise esraroise.com

Saga Sigurdardottir

theneverendingstory.blogspot.com

Hilde Holta-Lysell

adollshouse.no/hilde

Tove Sivertsen

tovesivertsen.com

Silje Feiring

Danielle DeWitt

cargocollective.com/EHFO

Louise Damgaard

louisedamgaard.com

Julie Pike juliepike.no

adollshouse.no

COSMIC DANCERS, 08

by Astri Davies-Barbala

Out of the mouths of MGMT, 13

by Henriette K. Johansen

It’s Working, 20

by Danielle DeWitt

Song For Dan Treacy, 24

by Louise Damgaard

Someone's Missing, 28

by Silje Feiring

Flash Delirium, 32

by Hilde Holta-Lysell

CONT

36, I Found A Whistle

by Esra Røise

40, Siberian Breaks

by Tove Sivertsen

44, Brian Eno

by Anja Stang

50, Lady Dada's Nightmare

by Saga Sigurdardottir

54, Congratulations

by Julie Pike

58, ART ACCORDING TO AUSGANG


ENTS

Cosmic

New wave hippies,

psychedelic indie, glamour

gypsies – many names have

surrounded these hot young

things that make the music

business a more stylish

place to be in 2010.

Mixing 60’s hippie chic

with some 70’s glittery

flamboyancy and a dash of

80‘s post-punk weirdness,

we present to you five

artists who are hailed for

their eclectic fashion sense

as well as for their music.


micdancers

Cosmicdancers

MGMTMove over Lady Gaga, these

young men don’t need no

telephones on their heads to

show you weird but wonderful

dressing. It sure is a huge

achievement itself to have

made multi-coloured tie-dye

dresses and headbands hip

for the male population, but

Ben and Andrew’s passionate

affair with the fashion world

don’t stop here. In fact, the

Brooklyn-boys have had the

fashion world drooling over

them since the first images of

them emerged 3 years ago.

Par example: Gucci’s creative

director, Frida Giannini,

dedicated an entire menswear

collection to the band in 2008;

they’ve lent their faces to

a Converse campaign; and

the trendy twosome are now

grazing the cover of the May

issue of style bible BlackBook.

Not bad for a band that started

out as an art-college joke.

Bat for Lashes Singer-songwriter Natasha

Khan’s hauntingly beautiful

indie-folk-electronica is for

many fashion insiders totally

overshadowed by her amazing,

experimental sense of style. This

30-year-old can look just as

mesmerizing in ripped denim as

in sequinned 20‘s flapper dresses

or full-on peacock costumes.

Khan is one of very few who can

sport hairy armpits and blue

stick-on stars on her forehead as

fashion statements, something

the late Alexander McQueen must

have thought impressive too, as

he chose to collaborate with her

on a few pieces for his McQ label.

Undoubtedly a style icon for

the future.

Patrick Wolf “Do I follow the star or the gypsy

king?“ the 27-year-old multi-

instrumentalist sings on “The

Gypsy King” from his 2005 album

Wind in the Wires.

Judging by the London-native’s

somewhat schizophrenic dressing,

one can conclude that he seems to

have chosen to follow both gypsy

and (several) star(s).

His mishmash style mix of preppy,

disco, street wear and boho chic

works, however, and was without

doubt one of the reasons why he

was hand-picked by Christopher

Bailey to appear alongside

Agyness Dean for a Burberry

campaign in 2007.

Empire of the Sun At first glance, you can be forgiven

for thinking this band to be two

fanatic Star Wars-geeks on very

strong psychedelic drugs. But

there is more to Aussie lads Luke

Steele and Nick Little than their

love of dressing like futuristic

space magicians.

They actually make really cool

electro-pop music, as presented on

2008’s Walking on a Dream,

an album which has proved

hugely popular amongst

fashion week DJs.

We predict that it won’t be long

until designers are sending models

dressed as cosmic crusaders out on

the catwalk, too.

Goldfrapp Alison Goldfrapp is 44 this year

- who would have thought? - and

probably cannot be classified as

a “hot young thing” anymore.

However, this style-chameleon

deserves a lot of praise for

the fact that she’s constantly

revamping and transforming

her image, which has inspired

fashionistas and musicians alike.

Never one to rely on fashion

fads, Ms Goldfrapp has managed

to stay “alternative” while still

enjoying commercial success,

with styles ranging from tree-

hugging hippie (with 2008’s

Seventh Tree) to sexy retro-diva

(with 2003’s Black Cherry) and

futuristic cool electro-babe (with

2000’s debut album Felt Mountain

and this year’s Head First). In

other words, a true queen of

eclectic style.

Out of the

mouths

of

Why talk to them in person

when they’ve already said it all?

Through the magnificent Internet

and works of other people we

serve you a copy-paste-meeting

with Andrew VanWyngarden

and partner-in-

rhyme Ben Goldwasser.

Here’s an A(ndrew) B(en)

C(ongratulations) of what

the MGMT have to say.

by Henriette K. Johansen

Out of the mouths of

Art B We wanna pay attention to

visual details and stuff, but i

don’t think we’re really that arty.

A We like art, but we don’t really

know too much about it.

B Our biggest moment was when

we realized we could play with

stuffed animals for two hours. We

were so happy.

www.press2play.tv/rekommenderat/26/

Mgmt-vi-fIck-alla-att-lamna-konserten-2

Dreams & Wishes - We want to play a show

exclusively for dogs at some

point. We aren’t a joke band,

but we think it would be really

amazing if there was a stadium

full of dogs...

caughtinthecrossfIre.com/music/

interviews/5490

A I think, overall, it’s less

pseudo-mystical-weird-vaguely-

sorcerer lyrics and more to do

with real things, whether that´s

relationships or friends what

we´ve met or drugs or whatever”

A I don’t think this album will be

as popular as the first album, I

don´t see how it could, so all the

music that is coming from us is

honest and from the soul. Also

we´re older, and it´s harder to

write songs about electric eels

now, for better for worse!

ADOLLSHOUSE.NO/MGMT-IN-NME.JPG

‘Congratulations’ - Our first album wasn’t

sincere. This one is.

strikegently.com/?p=42663

A We´re excited because a lot of

people will see it as a pat on the

back to ourselves and really it´s

a bit more sinister and sarcastic

than that. But the music I don´t

think is as sinister or ironic.

DRUGS A We realized when we smoke pot

we’re more relaxed, we got into

the music a little more and just

kind of laidback.

So we started smoking pot

before we play.

- So do you have pot on your

raider?

A We do, but it doesn’t

always come through.

- What do you do then?

B We ask around.

youtube.com/watch?v=vB5IRg_1WEQ

IndIe- We don’t wanna be an indie-

band, because you realize then

you would maybe not be able to

get a castle and do weird rituals

on an indie-label, you know.

- Cause that’s like one of our

ultimate goals. To have a big

castle or a ranch or something.

Like Led Zeppelin.

- We want people to be a little

bit confused when they listen to

our music, we don’t want it to be

easy to get, but we want it to be

accessible to everybody, we don’t

wanna exclude anybody and say

you’re not cool enough to

listen to MGMT.

grandcrew.com/editorial/mgmt-interview-

brain-magazine-video-new-york

INSPIRATION- We idolize a lot of musicians

from the 70’s, from that time

when there were people on major

labels who were doing crazy,

weird things. Like David Bowie,

who was just totally out of his

mind, doing all this crazy stuff,

FASHION B We like dressing up in weird

clothes. I’m not really sure what

we have could be called a fashion

sense.

ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=19038

B We love being associated with

fashion people and models. Was

that believable?


interviews/5490

being really creative with a lot

of people listening to his music.

youtube.com/watch?v=nmlidya91rs

A We’ve always been attracted to

what we call “creepball music“,

which is just really strange music.

Some people would call it bad,

but we call it good.

A I guess we like it if it’s pretty,

but really strange. We like

Chrome, Spiritualized and

Spacemen.

B We are also inspired by the

fans who bring us lots of free

drugs at the shows.


interviews/5490

Music (general) B It makes life less boring.

A It gives you happiness.

B Music is a kind of silly business.

Making sounds and people go

like “wooow”. A lot of times

when i was feeling down and out,

music really picked me up of the

ground. And that’s important.

A Music can move you. Both

emotionally and physically. (…)

I think I was obsessed with Neil

Young for a year. His still my

favourite artist, but I think I was

obsessed with him for a year.

Last.fm at Lollapalooza 4. February 2008

Music (THEIR OWN) B We’re in the idea of affecting

people with our music.

youtube.com/watch?v=nmlidya91rs

A We want to make music that a

20-year-old kid could interpret

as a call for revolution, but not

blatant revolution.

accessinterviews.com/interviews/view/927

B Our goal was to sell out as

quickly as possible. We thought it

would never really happen and

then it kinda did!


interviews/5490

Lyrics A I wanna, like, make up, like,

weird stories and talk about

aliens and smoking crack in the

subway.

grandcrew.com/editorial/mgmt-interview-

brain-magazine-video-new-york

B I think there’s elements of the

past, present and future. We get

down with a lot of shitty sounds.

popwreckoning.com/2008/10/30/interview-

with-mgmt/

A If I worked in a record

store, I’d put it in the ‘Rock/

Pop’ section.

SHOWS - We used to perform at naked

parties. We both dressed up like

hippies once and, at that show,

we were both on mushrooms, and

we had this huge battle with these

spray-painted tree branches. We

had a little tent on stage once,

and sat inside it smoking pot with

six people watching us.

citylife.co.uk/music/news/948_mgmt___hip_

hippies_of_dancefloor

THEMSELVES B: I don’t think that we’re…

We’re not hipsters.

A: Yeah, we’re not.

popwreckoning.com/2008/10/30/interview-

with-mgmt/

- Are you hot?

B Yes.

youtube.com/watch?v=Qt5t-__nopc

‘Oracular Spectacular‘ B We literally just wrote

whatever came to us.


interviews/5490

- Then another show...We

got into the series of wearing

jumpsuits and drinking a lot of

red wine. We were exploring these

tunnels underneath the dorms

that were really far and I don’t

think kids were supposed to be in

there. We found this little room

that was like a bomb shelter and

it had supplies from the 60’s, like

crackers and this giant barrel.

We tried to eat the crackers, but

they were disgusting.


interviews/5490

Out of the mouths of

To celebrate the launch

of the new MGMT

album ‘Congratulations’

we asked 9 artists to

interprete one song each

from the new album.

On the following pages are

the results. Enjoy!

by DANIELLE DEWITT

Artist and illustrator

Future plans

Move to Norway, get married,

and open a restaurant!

I think MGMT

... is DELICIOUS!

by Louise Damgaard

Photographer, image maker,

magazine collector

Future plans

Live, breath, love, explore - LIFE!

I think MGMT

... makes me wanna dance

by SILJE FEIRING

Graphic designer

Future plans

Live longer, create more...

I think MGMT

... are psychedelic,

strange, but interesting.

by Hilde Holta-Lysell

Mother, photographer,

feminist fatale, editor of

A Doll’s House

Future plans

Take over the world with the

world’s best fanzine

I think MGMT

... are HOT and should play

at the Slottsfjell festival this

summer! I also hope they

appreciate our celebration of

their new album and that

I one day will be able to

photograph them.

credits:Stylist: Anja Stang

Hair/makeup: Agnes Marie Guldbrandsen

Model: Hege Golf

Cinematographer: Morten Magnus

Dress: Nina Jarebrink

Collar: Miu Miu

by Esra Røise

Illustrator, cake fanatic

and shoe collector

Future plans

More fun times

I think MGMT

... should continue wearing

short-shorts like they

did when they played Hove

two years ago

by Tove Sivertsen

Photographer, dreamer

Future plans

Too many plans, too little time

I think MGMT

... should play in the

woods on Tromøya again

by Anja Stang

Fashion journalist & stylist,

summer lover, mother-to-be

Future plans

To pop out the world’s most

beautiful, bright and

brilliant baby in June

I think MGMT

... rock & definitely

deserve this tribute!

by Saga Sigurdardottir

photographer, student,

fashion-lover, blogger

Future plans

Be happy!

I think MGMT

... are hotboys!

Fashion: Nasir Mazhar

by Julie Pike

Photographer

Future plans

Learn how to do gardening,

well basic stuff that is.

I think MGMT

... should ask me to

take their next photo ;)

credits:Styling + make up:

Kjersti andreassen

(kjerstiandreassen.com)

Model: Vik

Art according to

AUSGANG

Art according to

A pioneer of the Low Brow

art movement and the man

behind the Congratulations

cover art, Anthony Ausgang

talks cats, art and drawing

on pizza boxes for MGMT.

Words and interview


AUSGANG

Art according to

AUSGANGBorn to a Dutch mother and

a Welsh father in Trinidad

and Tobago in 1959, Anthony

Ausgang was early exposed to the

subjects he later would cover in

his paintings. As a result of his

father’s custom car enthusiasm

and his mother’s interest in

operas and art museums, young

Anthony would soon incorporate

both ”high” and ”low” culture

into his artworks.

The Low Brow movement arose

in Los Angeles in the late 1970’s,

with its origins in various

subcultures such as punk rock,

the underground comix world

and hot rod and surf culture.

As one of the original Low Brow

artists, Ausgang’s surrealistic

and colourful narratives often

feature cartoon cats partaking

in one of said subcultures, and

the surfing cat(s) on the cover of

Congratulations is no exception.

Ausgang met MGMT through the

album’s producer, Pete ”Sonic

Boom” Kember, who has used

several Ausgang paintings on

E.A.R. releases in the past.

He’s heading to Italy in

September, where two new

paintings will be on display at

two different shows, respectively

the Urban Superstar Festival

at the MADRE Contemporary

Art Museum in Naples and

the Antonio Colombo Gallery

in Milan. Between working

on getting paintings done and

building custom electric guitars,

Ausgang took a moment to reflect

on cats, art and MGMT.

What is this weird thing you

have for cats? Judging from

your work, it seems like you’re

pretty besotted by these feline

creatures.

Other than calling their pet’s

name and a few commands, most

humans have lifelong non-verbal

relationships with their pets;

even so, people tend to consider

their pets only slightly less than

human. In my paintings I prefer

to use animals for this reason;

also, I’m tired of the use of the

human figure in art. I chose

cats because their history has

paralleled that of human race

for thousands of years; they have

suffered alongside of us and

also because of us. So cats make

pretty good replacements for

humans in figurative art.

Why do you think MGMT chose

you to do the cover art for their

new album?

Andrew likes cats so right

there I was doing something he

understood! But more important

was the fact that I got along with

the band and didn’t put on any

pressure to get something out

of them; at their level of fame

I think it’s not easy for them to

find people who can just chill

out and act naturally around

them. I went up a few times to the

mansion in Malibu where they

were recording and did drawings

on some pieces of paper and pizza

boxes that were just scattered

around. I forgot about them

completely until Josh Cheuse,

the art director at Sony, sent

me scans of them and said that

he wanted some similar things.

I guess the fact that I had hung

out with MGMT in Malibu sort

of involved me in a very tiny way

in the whole process that led to

Congratulations.

Do you have any

favourite tracks?

I like them all, but my fave is

”Song For Dan Treacy” because

it made me find out more about

him. Not many songs send me to

Wikipedia to study up a subject.

What other music

do you listen to?

I listen to all sorts of music but

when I work in my studio it’s

mostly heavy dub and ambient.

Those kinds of music make

time disappear which is very

helpful because I start to go mad

after five or six hours painting.

Sometimes I psychotically listen to

the same CD over and over again

until the music vanishes and

weird sounds begin to come out

of the speakers. I collect bootleg

recordings of the Rolling Stones

from 1969 to 1975 and sometimes

the low fidelity of the analogue

recordings is quite beautiful,

almost as good as perfect digital

sound.

You have been connected to

both so-called ”high art” as

well as always being true to the

Low Brow movement. In which

environment do you feel most

comfortable?

Neither, I prefer the company

of musicians to visual artists.

For me there is still a mystery

in how a group of people can

create an organized sound that

is able to transfix a crowd. I

don’t feel that sort of wonder at

visual art anymore; I’ve seen

and learned too much. There is a

lot of meaningless visual art out

there that somehow gets touted as

being important contributions to

contemporary culture; in reality

it’s just weak masturbation.

Is Low Brow art going to

become more included in the

world of fine art, you think?

Low Brow art goes completely

against the ”Conceptual Art”

favoured by the fine art world,

and for that reason is excluded

from most museums. Still, there

are a few artists like Robert

Williams and Robert Crumb

that have managed to get

official recognition from the art

power brokers. As with most art

movements, there will be a few

artists who get museum shows

but most Low Brow artists will

continue to sell to collectors who

like the work for what it is and

don’t buy it as an investment.

The origins of Low Brow

Art are in the 1960s and 70s

youth culture movements like

Kustom Kulture, surfing and

skateboarding. The young “New

Brow” artists of today have

entirely different influences;

video and computer games and

graffiti are their starting point.

I have always tried to keep up

with contemporary culture; that

is why the audience has mostly

approved the cover art I did for

“Congratulations”.

Where can we find you in 10

years time?

Sleeping with my girlfriend on the

beach of my own private island

with about five thousand cats…

A DOLLS HOUSE

A Doll's House #3 - The MGMT Issue

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