Kids grow up so fast these days. Seems like only yesterday that MGMT, the psychedelic band playing Les Schwab Amphitheater on Saturday (see “If you go”), came at us straight outta Wesleyan University.

The band then was Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden, who would later be joined by Will Berman, Matthew Asti and James Richardson after the first album, 2007’s “Oracular Spectacular.” And spectacular it was, containing the highly original synthtastic earworm “Time to Pretend,” which playfully ruminated upon the life cycle of the rock star.

Or maybe it was a career guide. Either way, it pretty much went like this: Step 1. Make some music. 2. Make some money. 3. Move to a big city. 4. Maybe do some drugs. 5. Meet and marry models. 6. Impregnate models. 7. Divorce models. 8. Repeat Step 5. 9. Choke on one’s own vomit.

As career advice, it’s wanting, sure, but as send-up of rock star ambitions, it made a point. It also had a cool hook.

With two more strong singles — “Electric Feel” and “Kids” — “Oracular Spectacular” was a bona fide hit. Everyone gobbled it up like so much miley in Molly Cyrus’ bathroom, or whatever.

The follow-up record, “Congratulations,” followed three years later, in 2010. It was hardly a single-filled hit, but it charted well both here and abroad. Critics were mostly kind, and the influential music website Pitchfork even gave it a 6.8 out of 10, which for Pitchfork is like getting a kiss on the lips from the best-looking snob at school.

Nevertheless, I had to look up Wikipedia’s page for “Congratulations” because I couldn’t recall one song from the record. The first single, “Flash Delirium,” peaked at Nos. 81 and 87 on the charts in Japan and Canada, respectively. Then there was the 12-minute tune called “Siberian Breaks.” The third single was the poppy “It’s Working.”

The videos to these songs fall somewhere between art-school experiments and the low budget, slapdash videos played back in the early days of MTV.

But what has MGMT been up to lately? Well, they have a new record coming out in September, and a fine, promising video in “Your Life is a Lie,” which features a split-second cameo by Henry Winkler and is the weirdest song to come down the pop-music pike since … since …

Dang. I don’t know. Has there ever been a song like this one? “Here’s the deal, open your eyes, your life is a lie,” go the lyrics, the clonk of a cowbell punctuating each line. It’s two minutes of awesome subversiveness, with more cowbell than everyone’s favorite “Saturday Night Live” sketch.

Those who head to the Schwab on Saturday will presumably get even more tastes of “MGMT,” the new, obviously self-titled album set to drop Sept. 17.

I think MGMT might be brilliant. Yes, they look a bit like they got lost on their way to or from Burning Man, but maybe that’s part of the trick. Maybe the first record’s pop charm was just the Trojan Horse that allowed MGMT to slip past the guards at the gates of mainstream music, and that has enabled them keep the mainstream a little less bland.

I’ll probably stick to “Time to Pretend” as far as my iPod is concerned, but it’s still a relief to know there are bands out there eschewing the slick commercial gloss that permeates everything (and by everything, I mean pop radio), making the music that they want.

Say what you will about some of MGMT’s choices, but at least their stuff doesn’t sound like it was cloned from Pharrell’s latest guest spot or spat out of AutoTune.

Oh sure, there are lots of bands like that, at least 437 such acts in Oregon alone. We all grok that. But are their songs played on the radio? Do they have the guile to do what they do and still get high scores from those Pitchfork snobs? Did they just play “Your Life is a Lie” last week on “Late Show with David Letterman” — with, it should be noted, a giant cowbell on the stage?

Didn’t think so.

Hey, MGMT! You’re OK!

And just because I can’t resist: More cowbell.

If you go

What: MGMT, with Black Bananas and Kuroma

When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, gates open 5 p.m.

Where: Les Schwab Amphitheater, 344 S.W. Shevlin Hixon Drive, Bend

Cost: $35 plus fees, available at The Ticket Mill (541-318-5457) in Bend or the website below

Contact: www.bendconcerts.com