A while back, I got interested in MGMT. They programmed an episode of Rage, and included their own video for “Electric Feel” – both tribal and beautiful. So now they’ve come out with “Kids”, featuring a one minute prologue followed by five nightmarish minutes of a child tormented by monsters.
It’s interesting, if you like their sort of music (which, according to Wikipedia, can be classed as “Indie Rock”, “Synthpop” “Dance-punk” and “Psychedelic Pop”, suggesting they’ve got no idea what it is either). The director is also apparently part of the team who made Where The Wild Things Are:
I take Joanna Newsom’s appearance as the inattentive mother of this child to be a tacit endorsement of MGMT’s efforts. It also goes to show that a lot of the time I have to wonder what “the deal” is with music videos. The ones that grab my attention probably don’t actually “mean” anything, but they engage the eyes and, if I enjoy the music, I look into it further. My way of life isn’t exactly conducive to stumbling across videos, but they can strike in the most unexpected of places and ways.
What I’m trying to say here is that when I heard Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat” at a law firm’s reception, my life was changed. No, really. (Not really). It would perhaps be more accurate to say that I still remember the first time I consciously came upon Scissor Sisters, and that was one of many pebbles that started an avalanche that irrevocably changed the way I live today.
The works of Lady Gaga could possibly justify a PhD thesis by this point, and I might get to them later. For now I should make it clear that the child in the video is crying, but he was totally cool with the monsters. Apparently they’re tears of fatigue or something, so I guess baby labour camps are tough work.
