Noise du Jour: “Kids” By MGMT
Posted by Ross Rosenberg
Depending on your musical proclivities you may either love or loathe MGMT and their pretentious, indie, keyboard stylings. I have seemed to avoid just enough hype in order to enjoy them, having been exposed to them by one of my employers. Either that or I am simply not indie enough. This is always a possibility.
They took their time releasing a video for the ubiquitous single, “Kids”, and the results are interesting. It has been pointed out that the child being accosted by putrescent, otherworldly beings and people with degloved faces seems to be distressed in a way that may not be entirely due to his acting chops. I can say that I do not disagree and that, were I grabbed by taloned monster hands as a neonate, I too may have been agitated. Still, that is a situation best left to child services and, really, it’s none of my business. Stranger, perhaps, is the silver leotards and spaceman/tribal face paint. Neither is as egregious as attributing a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche to Mark Twain. Maybe it’s some sort of inside joke, the origins of which I am not privy to, or perhaps it’s a mistake. Either way it’s unconscionable.
Update: In my rush to find an embeddable version of this I failed to notice that I picked a video that cut off the last minute or so. This is why it pays to watch the video all the way through, kids! This new version shows it in its entirety. The link below, to MGMT’s official YouTube account with non-embeddable version, remains unchanged. Thanks, chiablo.
MGMT – Kids – Official Video [YouTube]
Categories: Monsters, Noise du Jour, Small Children
Posted at 3:23 pm on June 9, 2009
13 Comments -
Getting a kid to cry is like stealing a lollipop from a baby.
I don’t think he was exposed to half these things, anyway you need to have been indoctrined with the right cultural framework to find these things scary. I don’t think anyone is born afraid of a faceless police officer, that is placing way to heavy a burden on our genetics/memetics.
The misattributed quote is more to do with those MGMT boys abusing drugs in the worst possible way before they do anything even mildly creative. It’s drug humor, that’s all.
This is an excerpt from the press-release that came with the video you posted:
“[...] “Kids” has proven to be some kind of monster with a life of its own, both an albatross and a plate of mac and cheese with fake bacon (Annie’s), and the process of creating this video was nearly as convoluted and veiny as the general style of this here letter of introduction. As Jerry Garcia once rudely remarked about the eventual and unavoidable filling in (with sand) of the historic United States Grand Canyon, “What a long strange rip it’s been.” Without further ado, we give you:
“KIDS””
Comment by fartknocker — June 9, 2009 @ 5:32 pm
Clever editing could create the repelling scenes of this video while the baby being subjected to nothing more horrid than an ugly stagehand or deprivation of his favorite toy.
Upon viewing it, a friends says ‘Hey, that’s what childhood is, weren’t you afraid all the time as a toddler?’ Not having the benefit of such long memory, can only say that there are moments I’ve felt like that, but age didn’t had anyhting to do with it.
And the ending sucks.
Comment by Optical — June 9, 2009 @ 5:45 pm
Wait…I can get PAID to scare infants? Why did no one tell me this?
Comment by Qais Fulton — June 9, 2009 @ 5:53 pm
Holy cow… I randomly heard this on the radio and fell in love with it, but I could never remember enough of the lyrics to find the song online anywhere.
Thank you Ectomo, for reading my mind and putting together the scattered pieces.
Comment by chiablo — June 9, 2009 @ 6:50 pm
Possibly then, youre just not ‘indie’ enough, MGMT are one of the best things to come out of last year, the most disturbing thing i found about that video though, is the wonder of what was actually making that kid cry, and, of course how they got away with it…
That and the video not reaching the end of the song, I HATE when people cut the ends off tracks……
Comment by Scythern — June 9, 2009 @ 8:04 pm
Cool video for a great song, scaring infants FTW!
And the song cuts out like a minute early..
Comment by Chicken008 — June 9, 2009 @ 11:27 pm
Here’s a much much higher quality versino of the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R53bXHMSkk
Comment by chiablo — June 10, 2009 @ 2:28 am
You’re a busy guy. Lot of things on your plate. Way too busy to watch music videos to the end.
Comment by malpertuis — June 10, 2009 @ 12:02 pm
Wow, I just gotta say what parent would be fine with horrifying their child in such a manner. That and that it was a perverse joy to witness the act taking place.
Comment by SamuraiOfSleep — June 10, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
It’s good to see a dog properly outfitted against the mind-control satellites.
Comment by The Dark — June 10, 2009 @ 1:43 pm
Thats not Twain, thats fucking Nietzsche.
Comment by William — June 11, 2009 @ 1:55 pm
Actually, it was originally part of a monologue given by Jim in Huck Finn. Nietzsche stole it later. True story!
Comment by Old Chub — June 14, 2009 @ 8:14 pm
This explains every airplane ride I’ve ever been on.
Comment by Aelix E. — June 24, 2009 @ 8:31 am