If LCD Soundsystem is the Sound of Silver, then MGMT strikes solid gold. Essentially the duo of former art students Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden, MGMT's disco-glam combines the Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever with David Bowie's futuristic vision and lyricism, creating stylized indie-rock for a new generation of movers and shakers. The group's first full-length, Oracular Spectacular (Red Ink/Columbia), was perhaps 2007's most overlooked major-label release, a tantalizing hit parade of scaled-back electroclash, rich harmonies and huge synth-pop beats.
Equally inspired by Brian Eno and David Byrne's landmark collaboration My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Brooklyn's Yeasayer takes a more kaleidoscopic approach to pop music, utilizing everything from Middle Eastern guitar and droning sitars to '60s psychedelia and Afrobeat rhythms. As world-weary as it is worldly influenced, the quartet's dense and dreamy debut, All Hour Cymbals (We Are Free), resembles a mystical collaboration between Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear. Strap on your dancing shoes and break out the elastic headband — this party's going to rage all night.