Forming a band is no joke. One must find just the right lineup, write enough songs for a demo and then hunt down a label before finally establishing a good name. The two boys of MGMT, on the other hand, didn't even intend to start out as a musical act at all, yet the Grammy nominated duo went from college dorm to chart domination in just a few years.

MGMT: Accidental Artists

Forming a band is no joke. One must find just the right lineup, write enough songs for a demo and then hunt down a label before finally establishing a good name. The two boys of MGMT, on the other hand, didn't even intend to start out as a musical act at all, yet the Grammy nominated duo went from college dorm to chart domination in just a few years.

MGMT, from Management

Like many other modern bands, the members met at school. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Vanwyngarden were art students at the prestigious Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut when they met in 2002. They quickly became friends, thanks in part to being just several dorm rooms away from each other.

They weren't, Goldwasser explained, trying to form a band, or much of anything. At first, it was just two guys who were sharing music they liked and making a few tracks on the side. The two dabbled in various genres including electronica and noise rock, and were soon performing as an avant garde act around the campus known as The Management.

In 2005 - graduation year for both of them - they went on a successful tour to promote their first release, the Time to Pretend EP under NYU-based indie Cantora Records. By that time, they had also changed the name of the act to MGMT, pronounced as individual letters, since the Management name already belonged to another band. By the next year, they had signed on to major label Columbia Records.

MGMT Gets Spectacular

Their debut with a major label, Oracular Spectacular, came out in 2007 and featured new members: guitarist Hank Sullivant, bassist Matthew Asti and drummer James Richardson. A string of tours and live performances took the five-piece group around the world to help promote their debut. By March 2008, however, Sullivant left the group to work on Kuroma, his own band. He was replaced by Richardson, whose drumsticks were then picked up by Will Berman.

A larger, more mainstream audience had begun paying attention around that time. The Justice remix of Electric Feel won the group its first Grammy in 2009, and several nods from the Grammies and other award commissions followed in 2010.

The group spent a season in Malibu in 2009, and afterwards resurfaced saying that they'd finished recording material for a new album. Congratulations, which might not be accompanied by any single releases, is due out in April 2010.

Did You Know That...

• ...rapper Jay-Z was initially rumored to have planned including the band in his 2009 album, The Blueprint 3. MGMT, however, did not show up on the album.
• ...Paul McCartney is a fan? The Beatle and Member of the British Empire had the band open for him at a 2009 concert in Boston.

• Unlimited Music Access
• Music File Sharing
• Country Based Radio Channels
• Easy, Fast and Safe!
• 100% Free!