It’s San Francisco in 1966 and we’re lying in the long grass overlooking the bay realising that life might never get better than this. Same year, different location. We’re walking down St. Mark’s Place in New York towards the Dom, where the Velvet Underground are performing this very evening. Post-punk London: pop possibilities, psychedelic outcomes, unsteady futures. Connecticut 2004, a collegiate idyll and meeting point for Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser whose primordial wigouts are released under the name MGMT.

Lysergic mgmt diethylamide: this music is for those who know their Orange Sunshine from their Windowpane. Drenched in pop as much as psychedelia, they don’t need a map and compass to find the tunes. MGMT formed at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and after some indie activity soon caught the attention of Columbia who have so far released the first two albums, the aptly-named Oracular Spectacular and Congratulations. There have been Grammy nominations (and even a Grammy win for Justice’s remix of ‘’Electric Feel’), though these are mere fripperies in the face of Owsley Stanley and his pals.

Although their sound has morphed considerably over the first two LPs, their attitude has not. In ‘Song For Dan Treacy’, they show their affection for a certain type of British songwriter (Treacy’s band TV Personalities are included here), while Congratulations’ producer Peter Kember is a former member of the Spacemen 3, the best psychedelic band ever to come from Rugby – who also figure on this very compilation with the delightful ‘Lord Can You Hear Me’.

They are firstly fans of other people’s records, those MGMT boys. You can tell by the impressive depth of their selections and by how sympathetic this music sounds when blended together. We can’t overlook the tremendous contributions of the English psych aristocracy hereabouts. There is the Droolian himself Julian Cope whose song, ‘Laughing Boy’, is taken from his finest hour Fried. Then there’s the unbearably cultish Felt, featuring the wonderful Lawrence Hayward, with ‘Red Indians’ and Vini Reilly (aka Durutti Column) with the slinky ‘For Belgian Friends’. If Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers and the Singing Policeman had been present, the eccentrics of Great Britain Society would have had a quorum.

But that is not all. Oh no. That is not all… There’s the other side of the pond, too. The Grace Slick-led Great Society’s ‘Love You Girl’ and Suicide’s Martin Rev who weighs in with the magnificently batty ‘Sparks’ from 2000’s Strangeworld. But then, just when you think you’ve get them all figured they go and throw rockabilly hero Charlie Feathers into the ring. To top it all, there’s also their reading of Bauhaus’ uncharacteristically beautiful ‘All We Ever Wanted Was Everything’ for our now traditional Late night Tales cover version. TKO MGMT.

Gently remove your I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet army uniform. Take a sip of green tea, lie back on the chaise longue and wait for the magic carpet to arrive. Let’s take a trip.

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MGMT - All We Ever Wanted Was Everything [Bauhaus Cover] (Late Night Tales: MGMT)

Produced by: Babah Fly 
Written/Performed by: Babah Fly & Kalyn(Wheelchair Sports Camp)
Trumpet: Joshua Trinidad (Wheelchair Sports Camp)
Mixed by: Kalyn 
Lyrics:
Chorus-
The Movements too big to stop y'all
(you're just annoying oranges)
The Movements too large to quit y'all
Too big to stop
Too Large to quit 
verse1 (Kalyn)
giggity rippity rap 
tipipity tap rhythm 
from italy back 
infiti fact 
finicky
mentally stacked with entity that
readily rack 
editing crap steadily 
riveting rad  
no gimmicky gats 
humility’s crippling cats 
oh  mobility ability kill or be cashed 
agility civilly see liberty lack
millipedes feelin me literally i’m little league ya
   auxiliary blast soliloquy laughs
fertility’s maxed finna be swimmingly fast 
military mad gag ads riddle me that
no stance on a second chance that hillary has 
  flippity flap Artillery acts
mo jiggity than that 
no one in my vicinity’s wiggity wack
lickity split Utility tax
zippity do dah day
whittling away stay willingly apt 
snippity snap activity acrobat 
on rickety bridge brag on swag
from trippy to trap 
visibility bad 
humidity nah
dab on everything i have my facility’s fab
(chorus x2)
Verse 2 (Babah Fly)
Politics, tricks
thats just a waist of time
aim with talent touch many
thats how we shine
design with trails we blaze and build curriculums
instruments in new found-ate
next millennium
plain and simple striking mentals on this instrumental
mental block blasting thru
coincidental tapping you
asking true relevance
elements of our sentaments
settle all our differences
settle in the infinite
mettle in singularity
clarity for that soul flow
all for the passion 
soul lasting past the physical
earth situation critical
literally it's monumental 
free thought suppress
don't mess with stress thats the manifest
say it with your chest or rest in peace
increase the fever for just living
blessing given sight arisen
break out the prison of the mind
and bind of time
finding jewels and tools and signs 
we used to shine
know the bind breaking 
for elitist money making
shaken and they hoarding
we breaking their distortion
distorted fake economy
conning me and you
I ain't repeating history
we bringing something new
no mystery in the movement 
the movement scowers the vultures
elevating cities and bringing that permaculture  
too long the song sung 
how the broke is getting tortured
we bringing something rational
or we taking over
cuz
(Chorus x2)


 

"Annoying Oranges" by Wheelchair Sports Camp and Babah Fly

WATER RAPIDS

THE PLAGUE

Written by: Jamila Woods 
Produced by:  Carter Lang and Peter Cottontale
Additional Vocals by: Lorine Chia
Mixed by: Mike Kolar c/o Closed Sessions 
Mastered by: Mike Kolar c/o Closed Sessions 
Distributed by: Closed Sessions


HEAVN

Lonely (feat. Lorine Chia)

Another Way by Gunner Jules

Reckoning EP, released on December 15 2017.

Recorded in one take, composed, engineered, mixed, and produced by Melody McKiver. Mastered by Grey Market Mastering in 2016.

Niswi

Wilfred Buck Tells The Story Of Star Woman

A field recording of grey tree frogs taken at dusk from an abandoned school road that borders a large wooded pond in the boreal forest outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario in June 2019.  Some spring peepers.  Recorded with a m/s side setup using Sennheiser 8040 and Sennheiser 40. Formatted to mp3.

Evening Chorus of Gray Treefrogs

Cricket Cave