Connecticut
MGMT
All-Time Best Band: The Carpenters
All-Time Best Solo Artist: Liz Phair
Best New Band: MGMT
We were really, really close to splitting this honor between the Carpenters and, obvious contenders for Connecticut’s finest, Hatebreed. After all, “Close to You”? “We’ve Only Just Begun”? Fucking “Superstar”? They’re all pop songs of the gods — but no one ever lost a tooth to any of them. Glory’s gauges, however, are wonky indeed. Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut; check out one of Karen’s many drum solos available online and, suddenly, your criteria for what is “hardcore” might not be so . . . hardcore. | Allow our disclaimer that Liz Phair was our pick well before any of this belated fellating of Exile in Guyville commenced. She may have sabotaged our faith in her future projects when she turned into Avril’s mom, but those first few albums just keep making up for it. | Middletown-formed MGMT (now Brooklyn’s darlings of the millisecond) make a soon-to-be-everywhere brand of campy throwback boogie that will doubtless help scores of party-challenged adolescents cope with living in Patheticut.
Video: The Carpenters
Video: Liz Phair
Listen: The Carpenters, "Superstar"
Listen: Liz Phair, "Never Said"
Listen: MGMT, "Kids"
