MGMT, "Kids"

I've been thinking about a lot more new music lately than usual, and have been struggling for two days to figure out what I want to say about MGMT's "Kids," my favorite single of 2009 so far. The song dates to last year - I've never claimed to be a trendspotter - but only this month has moved into the Hot 100, in some part because of its wonderful homemade fan video. More precisely, the YouTube description of the video was just as helpful as the video itself to my appreciation of the song:

Just to set the story straight: the facepainted kids in the video are a boy and girl from Los Angeles, two friends of mine, names Raf and Abby. MGMT was not involved in the making of this video, however, they became involved down the line. The story goes like this:

December 2007: Rushing to make a due date for a USC Music Video class, I ask my friends Raf and Abby to appear in my video. I like the way they bounce off of each other despite completely different personality types, and think they both have interesting faces. Raf didn't want to shave so I didn't push him. We shot in one night, I cut overnight, turn it in and call it the worst thing I've done so far.

January 2008: On a whim one night while visiting home in Austin, Texas, I throw the video on Youtube just for kicks.

April 2008: Ray Tintori, who has directed 3 official videos for MGMT, finds my fan video online and invites myself and my two actors to come to New York to appear in MGMTs next official video for Electric Feel.

May 2008: We go to New York and have a great time on the set with the band and all their friends.

I'm rather hypnotized by Raf and Abby and their polarities. Throughout the video, Raf, with his sorrowful mascara'd eyes, is a pained mask of thoughtful concern, while Abby comes off as arrestingly carefree and hopeful - particularly at the 1:14 mark when she lip-synchs, "We like to watch you laughing."

As a statement from a younger generation, that's a heartwarming line, in ways I (as an almost middle-ager who doesn't always laugh enough) can scarcely articulate. It makes me think of the brighter souls I've seen among the twentysomethings: a former roommate of mine and his friends in San Francisco whose communal ways have been a lift to my spirit on recent trips there; a friend here in NYC whose declared mission is "to give all my love to everyone around me." These kids with heart are a world away from previous glimpses I've had of their generation: the young men who "broke shit" at Woodstock '99, the young women so devoid of self-worth that they willingly disrobed and humiliated themselves all through the '00s for Joe Francis, for YouTube, for Asher fucking Roth, for whoever had a camera at the ready. MGMT's "Kids" presents not just a different kind of soundtrack but a different kind of life. Perhaps these kids are raising themselves and each other, with reassuring sympathies like "Decisions to decisions are made and not fought / But I thought this wouldn't hurt a lot / I guess not" (the most straightforward line in an otherwise spare and impressionistic lyric). Whatever the case, they're coming out all right.

And perhaps "Control yourself, take only what you need" is the best advice anyone of any age could be giving right now in this, the year of the new austerity. Either way, there's a dual concern and joy to "Kids" that I'd likely have missed had it not been for Jon Salmon, Abby Fuller and Rafael Pulido. Thank you for making me smile and think.