The Wake

Type “Matt and Kim” into Google, and an ultrasound picture taken in June of 2005 of Kim’s then-unborn baby pops up, next to an image of Matt drenched in what looks like blood. Type “Matt and Kim” into YouTube, and a possible explanation appears. (For the “blood,” not the baby.) In the video for “Yea Yeah,” the third song on their self-titled, 10-track album, keyboardist/singer Matt and drummer Kim wear white shirts in an all white kitchen. As Matt relays a chorus of “Yea yeahs,” Kim bounces to the infectious beat, and tomatoes, spaghetti, pizza, bananas, ketchup, and other edibles pop up in small boxes below. After they appear, each food is launched at one of the pair, until both are dripping in spaghetti sauce and condiments. And later, attacked by friends dressed in fruit and taco suits, respectively.

This grade school cafeteria food-fight-style attitude pervades the duo’s self-titled disc. And who doesn’t miss recess? With the average song just over two minutes long, even your third-grade self’s attention span wouldn’t be tested. And lyrics like “I play center field for the home team/You might not see me from the nosebleeds/I’ll stand on top of the dugout and shout out,” evoke memories of Little League games long past (“Lightspeed”). Back on YouTube, a slightly darker video for “5K” shows Matt and Kim, again in white tops, playing a house-show-cum-teen-horror-flick scene. When Matt’s arm grows to Jolly Green Giant lengths, Kim helpfully lops it off, blood flies, and the Brooklynites are once more splayed in red.