MGMT Cast Joanna Newsom, Kid, Monsters in "Kids" Video

Psych-pop duo MGMT have finally unveiled the video for their Oracular Spectacular track "Kids" nearly 10 months after it was released as a single. The 2008 Artist To Watch and last year's Hot Band Everyone Wants To Be In have assembled a true labor of love: a six-minute video starring Joanna Newsom as a mom who totes around a toddler who sees monsters worthy of GWAR's percussion section everywhere he looks. (The band insists no children — and presumably no monsters or harpists — were injured during the shoot.)

"This is the first song we ever wrote, on a cold day in February way back in 2003. The idea for the video was born about a year ago, at a mock-Italian cafe on Ninth Avenue in bustling Manhattan," the band write on their official Website, adding that Ray Tintori directed the clip. " 'Kids' has proven to be some kind of monster with a life of its own, both as 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."

MGMT will be seen in the flesh this summer when take the stage at both the Bonnaroo and All Points West festivals.

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »

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