Sunday July 27 (2pm)
It's been too long since we've had a good, weird pop band like Brooklyn's MGMT. Founded by Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser in a prankish mood, the group leaps between extremes — gigantic earnestness and eccentric nonsense; psychedelic overdrive and wounded prisms — leaving you wondering whether it's the product of geniuses or goofballs. That they might be both is what makes them so exciting. Garlanded with a Columbia Records contract, the band's debut, Oracular Spectacular, packages glam-inflected mega-pop in producer Dave Fridmann's typically lush, stretchable sonic architecture. The band hits today's pool party alongside psych-noiseniks Black Moth Super Rainbow and hyperactive UK dance-rockers the Ting Tings.
– Max Goldberg