My children like to go through my CD racks and pull out the albums that interest them. By interest, I mean whatever album art catches their eye. The four faces on the soundtrack to the 1995 movie "Kids" gets them every time. This time, I didn't put it away though and instead threw the disc in the stereo.
Since Netflix doesn't even have "Kids" to rent on DVD, let alone stream, which is really piss poor, I couldn't immediately meet the urge to watch what is easily a favorite movie. And no, it's not a favorite simply because it offended and scared the hell out of so many parents and downright old people. "Kids" is entertaining. Though it was nothing like my real life at any point, I find it at least a little believable that it's a little like somebody's life.
The soundtrack, like so many others of the mid and late 90s, is exquisite. Two tracks from Daniel Johnston, two slow-burning and understated but no less significant ones from Sebadoh and Slint, and the handful of tracks from a then-unknown Folk Implosion, Lou Barlow's not really post-Sebadoh until it was post-Sebadoh groove-heavy hip hop influenced not-a-rock band.
The big hit was, and is, "Natural One," which is simple and sneaky and undeniable in bassline and beat. Barlow is calm, or stoned, in his delivery. Like a teenager about smack to the shit out of somebody with the wrong side of a skateboard. Or at least like a different teenager carelessly spreading his AIDS throughout his filth-mongering drunken hoard.
"Nothing Gonna Stop," the third track on the album, is no less steady or hauntingly perfect than "Natural One." The Folk Implosion, as good as they were on the albums after the "Kids" soundtrack, were never as good as on these two tracks. Forgive me for basking in the 90s, but you're not gonna try to tell me this song doesn't feel like perfect teenaged bliss, are you?
The soundtrack to "Kids" is out of print, but you can buy it from Amazon, as well as lots of other Folk Implosion stuff. Do that here.
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