“MGK? Like Machine Gun Kelly?”
“No, no,” I’d reply with a chuckle. “Mk.gee, like Mick-ghee, the clarified butter.”
From the tip of 2023 till about November of 2024, this was a dialog that will ensue instantly after somebody requested me what music I used to be having fun with. When promotional copies of Mk.gee’s February 2024 LP, Two-Star & The Dream Police, started circulating someday in the direction of the tip of the yr prior, whispers started breezing by means of group chats and Instagram DMs amongst journalists and critics.
This was one thing particular, one thing too bizarre for mainstream pop music, too amorphous to suit into the normal indie rock panorama. The man behind Mk.gee, Mike Gordon (no, not the one from Phish), had turn out to be a little bit of a darling in alt-pop landscapes, each due to his solo work and because the lead guitarist in Dijon’s stay band. Gordon was an integral a part of the Completely course of, an album that led Dijon, Gordon, and an impressively-tight band to turn out to be tour openers for Bon Iver. Earl Sweatshirt was a fan, and only a few weeks in the past, I even heard “The Costume” in a Starbucks in Farmingdale, Lengthy Island.
By the point Two-Star had been introduced, Dijon was a licensed family identify, and his bandmate/R&R labelmate/shut collaborator was up subsequent. However not even Mk.gee, I feel, may predict simply how far this assortment of scrappy Miami Vice-in-broad-daylight-post-bender songs would take him.
I’m probably not forging new territory by suggesting I used to be early on Mk.gee. In spite of everything, he was the topic of a profile on Pigeons & Planes in 2018, however not even Gordon had any concept that he could be gearing up for top-ish billing at this previous weekend’s Governor‘s Ball (solely Tyler, The Creator and Benson Boone have been listed above him for Friday’s lineup). In that story, Gordon defined how he by no means had any intention of writing his personal songs. His transfer to LA from New Jersey was with the intent of changing into a studio musician. He mentioned, “That was why I first got here to L.A. I had no intention of getting actually into manufacturing and singing on my stuff, and enjoying it stay. I grew up as a guitarist, so generally I get this smack within the face like, ‘Holy shit, I’m singing.’ I by no means thought I’d be singing on all this shit 5 years in the past.”
Not solely had that songwriting led to The New York Times calling him “An Unlikely Guitar God” who’s chasing “the Promise of Pop,” however 4 days after the election, he discovered himself in Studio 8H because the musical visitor on Saturday Night time Reside alongside host Invoice Burr. It was validating that one of the promotional clips for the present discovered Burr and solid member Sarah Squirm determining the best way to say Mk.gee whereas a sort-of-uncomfortable trying Gordon stood by and helped spell out the pronunciation.
Mk.gee took his efficiency in typical stride, utilizing the chance to debut a brand new music, “ROCKMAN,” alongside a Two-Star favourite, “Alesis.” After the efficiency, life simply kind of went on for Gordon. Because the Mk.gee Subreddit pointed out, you wouldn’t have even identified the present went down in case you have been getting your data from his Instagram web page. No_Mess5105 wrote: “Usually, when happening SNL, the artist posts about it on Instagram, however with him after his efficiency, he shared nothing… which was bizarre to me. Possibly one thing occurred behind closed doorways, or he’s very aloof with regard to making an attempt to get his music extra mainstream.”
This basic laissez-faire angle to his rising standing within the fashionable music panorama begs a query: how does somebody so ambivalent in the direction of fame find yourself headlining one of many summer season’s premiere festivals? How does he promote out reveals and court docket followers like Lil Yachty, who flew into his latest New Jersey present and took to IG tales to submit a photograph of him subsequent to the songwriter. Yachty wrote: “@mk.gee true expertise probably the greatest stay reveals i’ve been to.” It’s value noting that within the picture, Gordon is nearly smiling.
I don’t assume there’s any grand code to crack with regard to how the final yr has seen Mk.gee go from facet participant and underrated songwriter to some of the fashionable experimental pop artists round. Two-Star & The Dream Police is only a actually nice album, and generally not even a radically quiet artist intent on eschewing the algorithm can get in the way in which of natural, real stardom.
So far as I can inform, Gordon has carried out little or no to assist enhance his profession apart from saying sure to the alternatives offered to him. His standing has earned him a fame from followers and fellow musicians alike. OG guitar God Eric Clapton compared him to Prince in an interview. He mentioned to the YouTuber The Actual Music Observer: “The similar after I first noticed Prince, it was like we’re secure. Simply to understand it’s there’s sufficient. There’s this factor with Mk.gee and Dijon – Completely. It’s a movie. I couldn’t consider it. [Innovation is] taking place. It’s nonetheless happening.”
Mk.gee has put his head down and is focusing totally on the music. It’s romantic and enchanting on this period of hyper-awareness. Is there a much bigger star that we all know much less about? Is there anybody else capable of carry out on SNL or headline Gov Ball that isn’t a continuing presence on TikTok?
In that New York Instances interview, Mk.gee made it clear that his shyness shouldn’t be mistaken for humility. He desires to be nice, he simply desires to realize this standing on his personal phrases. “I made the most effective report ever,” he mentioned to author Joe Coscarelli. “No person in various music is allowed to be assured and be like, ‘No, that is the most effective factor on this planet.’ When you make various music, you’re supposed to do that, and in case you make pop music, you’re imagined to be like this.” What Mk.gee has made clear for a brand new technology of musicians is you don’t must be something in any respect… so long as the songs are generationally nice.
