MGMT tune played by iPhone orchestra

Here are The Mentalists using iPhones and iPod Touches to cover "Kids" by MGMT. (Thanks, Gabe "TuneUp" Adiv!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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pomegranate

Kids by MGMT: Great, though veeeery overplayed by now
iPhones: Great, but we already knew that.

But for me the combination of the two with a band of trendy pretty girls amounts to an awesome nexus of douchebaggery.
Don

mgmt. those guys are great.
we shot this with them and Kyle Gass from Tenacious D this summer. Improvised song about a zombie invasion, of course.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6f1j0_mgmt-song-about-the-impending-zombi_music

not great. but we had fun. sorry for the goony host- the client stopped hosting the piece.
superduper27

Once I got past the novelty of it all (pretty girls and iPhones) I realized how amazingly horrible that was. Especially when you consider that for each other 300 dollar iPhone they couldve actually bought and replaced them with infinitely more powerful entry level synthesizers, but then theyd be a group of pretty girls with no excuse for sucking so badly.
copic

geez a few of you are over analyzing this way too much! They are a few girls having a bit of fun for gods sake. You seem to be hating on them because they’re girls and pretty??

They do play other instruments too, not just phones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5SQrQiRxMI&feature=channel
TheNipponese

Well, it finally happened. Rock and roll is dead. Thanks iPhone.
Blaine

I saw this earlier.

The longer I watched it the more I was shocked by the fact that I didn’t hate it. It kinda grew on me.
cycle23

If these were 4 Tim and Eric regulars, it would be funnier.
gadfly

Hmm. First, this functions with some effectiveness as an ad for the apps used. I’ve been paying some attention to music creation apps and I don’t remember having heard of one or two of them before.

Second, the boring, almost lifeless, stage personae of the girls in the video highlights one of the strengths of good ol’ analog instrumentation – imagine trying to do a Pete Townshend windmill strum on your phone… guitars, drums, and even keyboards and turntables make much more effective stage props, and theatrics are an important part of a good live musical performance (numerous counterexamples notwithstanding).
tinnitus

Got to hand it to the girls – they have obviously worked very hard on this production. I liked it, kind of cool :) – as they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
kaosmonkey

Gadfly

you’re right about the props. And a keytar would be hella cool.
Jack

I think it’s definitely more novelty than anything else, but will say it’s a pretty cool demo of iPhone/iPod Touch apps.

@#16 POSTED BY THENIPPONESE

Well, it finally happened. Rock and roll is dead.

Errr… At least they are attempting to create something. If anything has killed rock and roll it has got to be Guitar Hero… Nothing makes me cringe more than that…

But pair up these neat apps with karaoke and I think there is a winner “thing” out there.
StudioRobot

This is really fun! My first thought was “gosh! what laughable rhythmic skills!”

BUT

As a very tight guitar player/drummer who has recently been plunging into the world of MPCish trigger pads, i can say that tapping out beats can be WAY challenging when you are used to having your arms crossed on a real kit or a guitar strapped to your chest/knees.
bbonyx

After all the above is said (and for the most part agreed with) I just wanted to note that MGMT is making me very happy these days.

I had their songs bouncing in my head for a couple of weeks, unidentified, after hearing them in various clubs, etc. Luckily a DJ friend was able to identify them with a few clues.

Electric Feel is even better than Kids.
Stephen

I don’t think it’s exactly a novelty. It’s more like a version 0.1 of something that someone is going to find a way to turn into something more in the future. The Leaf Trombone demo in the iPhone 3.0 SDK demo was similar in that way.
Anonymous

very nathan barley.
gd23

I like it – great demo of the start of a simple accessible everyday electronica, (most) everyone carries a phone. MGMT good. Some of the Mentalists stuff is quite catchy too http://www.myspace.com/thementalists
Jack

@#18 POSTED BY STEPHEN:
Well, if you follow that the music industry model of business is dying and then add to the fact that technology is allowing for people to be creative in ways they never have been before and performance seems to be the future of music…

Karaoke was big and is still big.
Guitar Hero expands on that concept.
Now this?

Hmmm….
Ernunnos

I’m in favor of anything that gets more MGMT out there.
Ian70

People actually trying to perform music live?? Even with arguably-crippling instruments like those, you have to admit they have balls for performing live. Most new music whores don’t -ever- perform live.

As such, whether it sounds like ass or not, you have to admit: these chicks have got balls. And that makes them sexy.
atomicelroy

how trite!
they only make about 6 mistakes playing.
a new music low!
junked

To the readers who are fans of the recent ukulele love on here, and those who like a good MGMT cover i present you this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTOu9F5vWHY

{To the BoingBoing leaders: I originally posted this anonymously, then decided that was silly and registered. Sorry if this offends}
adamnvillani

The first couple of times I heard “Kids” I remember thinking, “Hey, this sounds really cool” until the vocals started, whereupon I was promptly compelled to turn the station.

On this version, the vocals manage to be irritating in an entirely new way.

Also, yes, tapping out rhythms on a little pad like that has got to be more difficult than putting your body into it.
hbl

Why does this whole thing have the metallic taste of a crass marketing gimmick? Or even worse, a novelty “me-too” stunt to get their names mentioned in the same line as an apple product.

Made me think for a moment there that it might actually be cool for someone to develop a 303/808 iphone app. And then I wondered what the point would be.
Trilby

Yeah, it’s well weapon.
Raj77

Extremely Nathan Barley, yes.
J France

Irritating sounding, but pretty awesome. Part of me dies thinking about all the cool synths that might get overlooked by younger folk getting into electronic music because of this sort of emulation, but hopefully that won’t happen.

Erunnos: I thought they were everywhere, already.

There was a period in time when everytime I went into a specific petrol chain they were playing Kids. And I do mean literally every time – and they all play a mainstream, dumb-as-fuck commercial FM station.

And endless car stereos pumping Electric Feel beyond their intended capacity. They’re huge where I’m at.